El presente texto busca reflexionar en torno al mundo de las prácticas del cuerpo y su vínculo con cierto tipo de culturas juveniles que poseen como forma de vida la alteración corporal, y donde en la actualidad se puede observar –en nuestro país– una explosión de la experimentación con el tatuaje y con el piercing, y de manera más incipiente –pero también significativa– con los implantes, las escarificaciones, los branding, las expansiones y la variante de las suspensiones humanas; práctica sobre (...) la cual el artículo profundiza intentando dar cuenta del contexto social y cultural donde surge la suspensión humana; los procesos de apropiación que experimenta esta práctica a partir de la irrupción de culturas juveniles en las sociedades contemporáneas; los significados y procedimientos asociados a este ritual; y los nexos entre política, estética y modificación corporal. (shrink)

Buscamos neste artigo realizar uma análise sobre os termos normalidade, anormalidade, corporalidade central e periférica através do filme “Pieles” do diretor espanhol Eduardo Casanova. Para realizar este trabalho utilizamos a metodologia bibliográfica e análise fílmica. Destarte, apresentamos a descrição sobre o filme e algumas personagens, desenvolvemos uma discussão teórica e fechamos com análises sobre o filme e as considerações finais. Concluímos que não são as diferenças corpóreas, sejam elas anomalias ou mutações congênitas que definem os lugares e funções desses corpos (...) diferentes na sociedade, mas sim os padrões, normas e convenções construídas histórico-socialmente. (shrink)

Para la investigación que conllevó al presente artículo se utilizó el método hermenéutico analógico. Con base en los pasos primordiales de análisis e interpretación se acudió al lenguaje narrativo literario y a su relación inmediata con otros tipos de lenguaje: visual, audiovisual, de imagen, televisivo y mixto. Se estudiaron textos escritos, hablados y actuados. Se efectuó un recorrido narrativo, textual, argumentativo siendo fiel a los planteamientos del autor, al medio y al lector, y se acudió a los textos que presentan (...) un mensaje polisémico. Los interrogantes apuntaron a ¿qué quiere decir el autor con el texto referido a la piel? Y, en particular, ¿qué le significa o resignifica el texto analizado a la temática del proyecto? Así, la estructura clásica discursiva se enmarca desde un preludio con un horizonte epistemológico del mito y su relación con la piel hasta un posludio haciendo eco a la virtus hermenéutica que plantea e implementa Beucheot y que implica una interpretación “adecuada” y ceñida a la “verdad” del texto: la piel, el órgano más grande y complejo del ser humano supone una trascendencia biológica y anatómica determinante, la cual debe ser entendida, analizada e interpretada desde diversos contextos estéticos, éticos y narrativos. (shrink)

El objetivo de este ensayo es resaltar los movimientos singulares basados ​​en la investigación de la vida cotidiana y presentar otras formas de “sentir, percibir, imaginar, pensar” en/de/con (el) mundo. Optamos por conversaciones con los autores para resaltar que los movimientos de formación se dan en las redes que componen las diferentes vidas cotidianas, no en el sujeto, ni en el objeto, sino en las relaciones en el devenir.

El blanco y el negro son más que colores, son claves de un contraste simbólico en islas que montaron su estructura social –desde los tiempos coloniales– sobre la esclavitud que racializó las relaciones sociales y generó con ellas modos diversos de discriminación que llegan hasta nuestros días. Uno de los importantes aportes del negro a las artes plásticas del Caribe, es su color, un signo visual en el universo de las tensiones raciales, nacidas en el seno mismo de la sociedad (...) moderno–colonial. Este trabajo se propone distinguir esa trayectoria de significaciones visuales, a través de una selección de obras que emplean el blanco y el negro a partir del soporte físico del cuerpo con todas sus capacidades expresivas. Uno de los textos más significativos del siglo XX sobre la cuestión, Piel negra, máscaras blancas (1952) de Frantz Fanon, será asumido como un recurso de interpretación crítica para el estudio de la selección de obras y autores del Caribe insular que se inscriben en los conflictos de la racialización e inferiorización de las corporalidades, para explorar formas de un humanismo decolonizador, devolver el hombre a su lugar, resituar su “yo” y revalorizar su sitio en la historia. (shrink)

El pensamiento de E. Levinas, inserto en la corriente de la filosofía dialógica, ha dado un lugar prioritario a la cuestión antropológica del “otro”. Cabría preguntarse cuál es, sin embargo, el papel de la realidad social en el marco de su reflexión. La sociedad aparece en la obra de Levinas como un “tercero” al que se le asignan unas características propias, entre las que la aspiración a la justicia se erige un referente fundamental. El concepto mismo de justicia, en el (...) que se entrecruzan, a juicio del autor, raíces bíblicas y elementos del pensamiento filosófico occidental, adquiere una triple componente: social, política y económica, que no pierde de vista el principio vertebrador del otro, quien se ofrece vitalmente, de un modo vulnerable, demandando, de este modo, una acogida responsable. (shrink)

El arte fuera de sí : veintiséis fragmentos sobre la paradoja de la representación y una pregunta sobre el tema del aura -- La irrepetible aparición de la distancia : una defensa política del aura -- El marco incompleto -- Nandí verá -- Prácticas de frontera : consideraciones sobre la ética de la imagen contemporánea -- Palabras y poros en la piel : Ticio Escobar en diálogo con Kevin Power.

El propósito de Levinas coincide con el intento moderno de recuperación de la verdad y del sentido aunque en una dirección y contenidos distintos. Si en Hegel la Aufhebung tendía a la Totalidad y lo Mismo , para Husserl será esencial la apertura de Mundo que tiene lugar ya en la experiencia de conciencia del ego trascendental, mientras que Heidegger, por su parte, primará la pregunta por el Ser. El intento de Levinas, en cambio, no será recomponer la relación entre (...) el yo, por un lado, y el mundo, lo absoluto, las cosas o el ser, por el otro, sino la recuperación de la relación entre yo-y-otro. No es un simple cambio en la dirección o en el contenido del sentido de la reflexión filosófica, sino un intento serio de encontrar una nueva significación, «otra manera que ser» que no termine siendo otro proyecto más de integración y síntesis. Lo que propone Levinas es una auténtica salida para la que traza el itinerario que va del ser al otro, recurriendo sencillamente a la experiencia que cotidianamente se nos impone a cada uno de nosotros con un peso incontestable, a saber: la presencia de las diferencias, de lo asimétrico, en definitiva, la manifestación del otro en tanto que otro. Es esta experiencia heterónoma ordinaria, esta vivencia diaria de la alteridad como dato primordial del fenómeno de la intersubjetividad el ámbito que ha intentado explorar nuestro autor. ¿Acaso es esta responsabilidad así sentida conjugable con una experiencia filosófica universal? ¿La responsabilidad puede llevarse hasta el límite de la substitución por el otro, hasta la de-posición del Yo sin identidad? ¿Qué tipo de relación puede darse con algo absolutamente asimétrico, exterior, previo e irreductible? ¿De dónde viene esa asignación apremiante de responsabilidad que llega hasta arrojarme en la obsesión y el asedio? ¿Cómo puede ser éticamente plausible un mandato tan traumatizante y violento que termina por convertir al sujeto en rehén, sustituido ya por los otros? ¿Es posible conciliar la libertad y la autónoma decisión del sujeto con una consideración de la subjetividad como «heme aquí», absoluta pasividad expuesta a los otros y vulnerabilidad de una piel que se ofrece al ultraje y la herida?. En definitiva: ¿es la subjetividad algo de lo que partimos o a lo que llegamos? (shrink)

El siguiente texto pretende plantear las bases del pensamiento filosófico de Heráclito en su infinita lucha de opuestos en un cambio eterno, del acontecimiento estoico y del clinamen de Epicuro, articuladas en lógica de sentido de Deleuze, como base de los planteamientos en la última de etapa de enseñanza de Jaques Lacan. Los puentes teóricos trazados entre Lacan y Deleuze se han perdido en análisis históricos de sus encuentros y desencuentros, en el sentido que marcan hacía lo real y por (...) supuesto en el Edipo como máquina de subjetividad. Sin embargo, considero, hasta el momento no se ha planteado una articulación de sus teorías, porque se han desconocido las bases filosóficas lacanianas. El planteamiento que se realiza en el texto permite una forma novedosa de comprender la identificación al fin del análisis, como una identificación a lo permanente en la impermanencia, poniendo como lo más profundo e intimido de la subjetividad, la piel, el borde, lo falso de la imagen. (shrink)

Los autores que dialogan en el número 27 de Ístmica con sus respectivos cuentos; el guatemalteco Francisco Alejandro Méndez y el costarricense Iván Molina Jiménez, han encontrado maneras subrepticias y transtemporales de erizarnos la piel a través de la narrativa que nos ofrecen en esta edición. Méndez (1964), es periodista, crítico literario, catedrático universitario y reconocido escritor del istmo, quien obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Literatura de Guatemala en el 2017. Ha publicado los siguientes libros de novela y cuento: (...) Graga y otros cuentos (Editorial Serviprensa Centroamericana, Guatemala, 1991), Manual para desaparecer (Arco Iris, El Salvador, 1997), Sobrevivir para contarlo (Praxis, México, 1999), Crónicas suburbanas (Editorial X, Guatemala, 2001), Ruleta rusa (Fondo de cultura económico, México-Guatemala, 2001), Completamente Inmaculada (Perro azul, San José de Costa Rica, 2002), Reinventario de ficciones. Catálogo marginal de bestias, crímenes y peatones (La Tatuana, Guatemala, 2006), Les ombres du jaguar et autres nouvelles (Éditions Equilibrio, París, 2009), Juego de muñecas. Un caso más para Wenceslao Pérez Chanán, (Editorial FLACSO, Guatemala, 2012) y Triple Play, (Germinal, Costa Rica, 2013).Como investigador, también ha publicado los siguientes ensayos de crítica literaria: América Central en el ojo de sus críticos (Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala, 2005), Hacia un nuevo canon de la vanguardia en América Central (Ed. Cultura, Guatemala, 2006) y Diccionario de Autores yCríticos de Guatemala (La Tatuana, Guatemala, 2010).Por su parte, Molina (1961), es historiador y escritor de ciencia ficción costarricense, autor, coautor o editor de numerosos estudios sobre historia de CostaRica, en particular, y de Centroamérica, en general. Es catedrático de la Escuela de Historia e investigador del Centro de Investigación en Identidad y CulturaLatinoamericanas (CIICLA) de la Universidad de Costa Rica. Ha obtenido el Premio Nacional de Historia (1991), el Premio de la Academia de Geografía eHistoria (1991), el Premio Áncora del periódico La Nación (1992), el Premio al Investigador en Ciencias Sociales (2015) y el Premio Luis Ferrero de Investigación Cultural (2016). Entre sus investigaciones más recientes figuran: La educación en Costa Rica de la época colonial al presente (EUNA, Costa Rica, 2016) y Príncipes de las remotidades. Carlos Luis Fallas y los escritores proletarios costarricenses (EUNED, Costa Rica, 2016). En el género de la ciencia ficción hapublicado varios libros de cuentos cortos y algunos de sus relatos han sido incluidos en recopilaciones y revistas publicadas en México, Colombia, Perú, España, Argentina, Estados Unidos y Cuba. Su más reciente libro de ciencia ficción es Las fugitivas de Abidos (La Jirafa y Yo, Costa Rica, 2017).En los cuentos de ambos autores que presentamos en esta edición, confluyen la creación de una atmósfera de suspenso, que puede originar desde aparentes alucinaciones hasta revivir temores atávicos. En este encuentro convergen monstruos reales y ficticios -aunque nos cueste diferenciarlos-, así como las neurosis del siglo XXI y las leyendas del siglo XIX, que aliviadas unas por el psicoanálisis y alimentadas otras, por los primeros experimentos de “ingeniería genética”, consiguen sembrarnos una interrogante sobre la (in)distinción de lo real en nuestro entorno. (shrink)

Los pensamientos comunitaristas, así como algunas formas de individualismo, intentan en verdad solucionar una cuestión teórica que no es pertinente: se preguntan por cual es la correcta fundamentación del conjunto social, a fin sin duda de obtener sus implicaciones practicas, pero desdeñan conocer cuales sean los modos por los que individualidad y comunidad mutuamente se producen, tanto en la empiria, cuanto en la realidad simbólica. Para no colocar entonces el discurso en un plano que creo equivocado comenzare por hacer una (...) afirmación rotunda: el individuo genuino es un cuerpo, un cuerpo limitado por una piel, y cuantas otras cosas posean los nombres e incluso los atributos de la individualidad, participan de ella de un modo metafórico. Creo conveniente afirmar esto antes de entrar en el asunto "comunidad y privacidad: nosotros o yo", porque lo que me propongo es lisa y humildemente hacer un conjunto de reflexiones sobre la individualidad y sus aspectos contradictorios (inducidos por las categorías de igualdad y diferencia), en el tiempo presente. (shrink)

En este trabajo se presentan criterios que permiten estimar parámetros de desinfección mediante el uso de luz ultravioleta UV-C de onda corta, en agua, aire y superficies. Se indican métodos para evaluar la dosificación en función de la potencia de la lámpara empleada. Este tipo de estrategia permiten resultados de hasta 99.9% de desinfección, inactivando diferentes tipos de microorganismos. Estas referencias sirven de base para el diseño de dispositivos de utilidad en la presente emergencia por COVID-19, cuyo origen, al ser (...) viral, es susceptible al mismo método de desinfección debido al proceso de dimerización del ADN, donde el daño producido en la estructura celular, afecta la capacidad de reproducción y de funcionalidad. Palabras Clave: luz UV-C o germicida, desinfección UV, dimerización del ADN. Referencias [1]R. Wallace, M. Ouellette and J. Jean, "Effect of UV‐C light or hydrogen peroxide wipes on the inactivation of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile spores and norovirus surrogate", Journal of Applied Microbiology, vol. 127, no. 2, pp. 586-597, 2019. [2]J. Vargas, "Efecto de la radiación gamma sobre las características físico - químicas, sensoriales y microbiológicas en páprika en polvo ", Revista ECIPeru, pp. 68-71, 2019. [3]M. Ángeles García y P. Fernández, "Luz ultravioleta e inmunidad", Piel, vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 367-368, 2016. [4]W. Pachuau y R. Tiwari, " Deep Ultraviolet Light Emitting Diodes: Physics, Performance, and Applications", ECS Meetings, 2014. [5]W. Kowalski, Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Handbook, 5th ed. Berlin: Springer Berlin, 2014, pp. 1-13. [6]W. Kowalski, Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Handbook, 5th ed. Berlin: Springer Berlin, 2014, pp. 17-47. [7]"Germicidal Ultraviolet ", Media.ies.org, 2020. [En línea]. Disponible en: https://media.ies.org/docs/standards/IES%20CR-2-20-V1a-20200507.pdf. [Último acceso: 16 de junio de 2020]. [8]J. Bolton y C. Cotton, The ultraviolet disinfection handbook, 3rd ed. Denver, Colo.: American Water Works Association, 2008, pp. 13-33. [9]W. Kowalski, Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Handbook, 5th ed. Berlin: Springer Berlin, 2014, pp. 8-9. [10]P. Aguirre, J. García y R. Mujeriego Sahuquillo, "Desinfección con cloro y luz UV en un proceso convencional de regeneración de agua", Ingeniería del agua, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 75, 2004. (shrink)

Resumen El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar los testimonios materiales en contexto etrusco de una deidad femenina tocada con la piel de cabra e identificada con la Juno Sospita latina. Ante todo, se examinarán las escenas narrativas o con un carácter más complejo para tratar de desentrañar el contexto mítico en el que se inserta esta divinidad. Su iconografía destaca por una relación estrecha con Heracles/hercle en representaciones en las que prima el enfrentamiento con el héroe. A través (...) del análisis comparativo de los distintos testimonios disponibles, es posible vislumbrar la existencia de un relato o leyenda que vincula a estos personajes, pero cuya intención es subrayar la reconciliación entre ambos. Esta finalidad cuenta con paralelos en otras imágenes protagonizadas por la diosa Uni/juno y el héroe en ambiente etrusco, como es el caso de las escenas de amamantamiento. (shrink)

Una de las principales causas de que el visón europeo, Mustela lutreola, esté en peligro de extinción es la industria peletera. Por un lado, durante los siglos XIX y XX, la caza por su piel causó un grave declive en la especie. Por otro lado, a partir de la década de 1920, la peletería fue substituyendo la caza por la cría en cautividad, y Europa se llenó de granjas de visón americano, Neovison vison; los ejemplares fugados de ellas están (...) colonizando el continente y se han convertido en una amenaza para el visón europeo. Actualmente, algunos países comienzan a prohibir estas granjas, que en cambio aumentan en España. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar este caso concreto como un ejemplo de que nuestros gustos estéticos pueden resultar dañinos e incluso letales para otras especies y la naturaleza en general. (shrink)

In this paper, it is argued that metaphysics, conceived as an inquiry into the ultimate nature of mind-independent reality, is a rationally indispensable intellectual discipline, with the a priori science of formal ontology at its heart. It is maintained that formal ontology, properly understood, is not a mere exercise in conceptual analysis, because its primary objective is a normative one, being nothing less than the attempt to grasp adequately the essences of things, both actual and possible, with a view to (...) understanding as far as we can the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. Accordingly, it is urged, the deliverances of formal ontology have a modal and epistemic status akin to those of other a priori sciences, such as mathematics and logic, rather than constituting rivals to the claims of the empirical sciences, such as physics. (shrink)

This engaging volume explores and defends the claim that misanthropy is a justified attitude towards humankind in the light of how human beings both compare with and treat animals. Reflection on differences between humans and animals helps to confirm the misanthropic verdict, while reflection on the moral and other failings manifest in our treatment of animals illuminates what is wrong with this treatment. Human failings, it is argued, are too entrenched to permit optimism about the future of animals, but ways (...) are proposed in which individual people may accommodate to the truth of misanthropy through cultivating mindful, humble and compassionate relationships to animals. Drawing on both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions David E. Cooper offers an original and challenging approach to the complex field of animal ethics. (shrink)

Philosophers constantly discuss Responsibility. Yet in every discussion of which I am aware, a rather obvious point is ignored. The obvious point is that responsibility is ascribed to collectives, as well as to individual persons. Blaming attitudes are held towards collectives as well as towards individuals. Responsibility is often ascribed to nations, towns, clubs, groups, teams, and married couples. ‘Germany was responsible for the Second World War’; ‘The club as a whole is to blame for being relegated’. Such statements are (...) not rare. (shrink)

Cet article est un nouvel examen des objections soulevées par Leibniz dans la controverse avec Clarke contre la théorie absolutiste de l'espace et du temps. Or la plupart de ces objections sont fondées sur le principe de raison suffisante; mais Leibniz utilise aussi le principe de l'identité des indiscernables, qu'il prétend déduire du principe de raison suffisante . Ce qui m'intéresse c'est que Leibniz présente parfois deux versions de la même objection: l'une reposant uniquement sur le principe de raison suffisante, (...) l'autre uniquement sur le principe de l'identité des indiscernables. Se pose alors la question suivante: Leibniz aurait-il pu soulever toutes les objections qu'il voulait contre la théorie absolutiste, en utilisant seulement le principe de l'identité des indiscernables? Il me semble qu'il aurait certainement pu le faire. Et de plus, je crois que si Leibniz avait suivi cette voie, son raisonnement contre la théorie absolutiste aurait été beaucoup plus convaincant. Ainsi donc, je me propose de mener l'attaque de Leibniz contre la théorie absolutiste, en isolant, reformulant, et exposant systématiquement sept arguments dont il se servait ou dont il aurait pu se servir, qui sont tous fondés sur le principe de l'identité des indiscernables. (shrink)

The behavior of individuals currently living will generally have long-term consequences that affect the well-being of those who will come to live in the future. Intergenerational interdependencies of this nature raise difficult moral issues because only the current generation is in a position to decide on actions that will determine the nature of the world in which future generations will live. Although most are willing to attach some weight to the interests of future generations, many would argue that it is (...) not necessary to treat these interests as equivalent to those of the current generation. A common approach in this context is to use a system of discounting to evaluate future benefits and harms. This paper assesses the logic of discounting drawing on the writings of economists and philosophers. Much of the economic literature concerns the choice of an appropriate social discount rate. The social discount rate can be taken to reflect beliefs about the rights of future generations, a subject that has been extensively debated in the phioosophic literature. The writings of both economists and philosophers concerned with the weight to attach to the interests of future generations are reviewed and evaluated in this paper and the implications for environmental policy are discussed. (shrink)

I argue that to be compelled to do routine work is to be gravely harmed. Indeed, that pink - collar work is a more serious harm to women than rape. My purpose is to urge politically active feminists and feminist organizations to arrange their priorities accordingly and devote most of their resources to working for the elimination of sex segregation in employment.

Both articles in the November‐December 2021 issue of the Hastings Center Report reflect bioethics’ growing interest in questions of justice, or more generally, questions of how collective interests constrain individual interests. Hugh Desmond argues that human enhancement should be reconsidered in light of developments in the field of human evolution. Contemporary understandings in this area lead, he argues, to a new way of thinking about the ethics of enhancement—an approach that replaces personal autonomy with group benefit as the primary criterion (...) for deciding what enhancements are acceptable. In the second article, Johannes Kniess considers the many attempts within bioethics to draw on John Rawls's work to discuss health care access and social determinants of health, and he comes across as moderately optimistic that Rawls's theory of justice has ongoing relevance. (shrink)

Individual differences on a variety of framing and conjunction problems were examined in light of Slovic and Tversky's (1974) understanding/acceptance principle-that more reflective and skilled reasoners are more likely to affirm the axioms that define normative reasoning and to endorse the task construals of informed experts. The predictions derived from the principle were confirmed for the much discussed framing effect in the Disease Problem and for the conjunction fallacy on the Linda Problem. Subjects of higher cognitive ability were disproportionately likely (...) to avoid each fallacy. Other framing problems produced much more modest levels of empirical support. It is conjectured that the varying patterns of individual differences are best explained by two-process theories of reasoning (e.g. Evans, 1984, 1996; Sloman, 1996) conjoined with the assumption that the two processes differentially reflect interactional and analytic intelligence. (shrink)

E. J. Lowe; Are the natural numbers individuals or sorts?, Analysis, Volume 53, Issue 3, 1 July 1993, Pages 142–146, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/53.3.142.

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 453-473, April 2022.

Objects which philosophers have traditionally categorized as abstract are standardly referred to by complex noun phrases of certain canonical forms, such as ‘the set of Fs’, ‘the number of Fs’, ‘the proposition that P’, and ‘the property of being F’. It is no accident that such noun phrases are well-suited to appear in ‘Fregean’ identity-criteria, or ‘abstraction’ principles, for which Frege’s criterion of identity for cardinal numbers provides the paradigm. Notoriously, such principlesare apt to create paradoxes, and the most intuitively (...) plausible ‘Fregean’ identity-criterion for properties is afflicted by this problem. In this case, it may be possible to overcome the difficulty by modifying the criterion in a way which requires an independent account of the existence-conditions of properties, but it appears that such a strategy demands acceptance of the doctrine of immanent realism—the view that a property exists only if it is exemplified by some object. (shrink)

This paper locates its genesis in a small town called Vitebsk in Belorussia which experienced a flowering of creativity and artistic energy that led to significant modernist experimentation in the years 1917–1921. Marc Chagall, returning from the October Revolution took up the position of art commissioner and developed an academy of art that became the laboratory for Russian modernism. Chagall’s Academy, Bakhtin’s Circle, and Malevich’s experiments, artistic group UNOVIS—all in fierce dialogue with one another—made the town of Vitebsk into an (...) artistic crucible in the early twentieth century. We argue that this creative collective transformed creative energies of Russian drama, music, theatre, art, and philosophy in a distinctive contribution to modernism, structuralism and formalism that contributed richly to the social understanding of creativity itself that is so evident across Mikhail Bakhtin’s subsequent body of work, and elsewhere across the world. This paper argues that a consideration of such interplay has much potential for twenty-first century educational philosophy. (shrink)

I venture to call the attention of classical scholars to two legends about Roman Emperors gleaned amid the arid waste of theological nonsense which passed for literature among the Copts, in the hope that they may have better luck than I have had in tracing them to some classical source. The first is taken from MS. Par. Copte 131, fol. 40, a single leaf of what seems to be a geographical and historical encyclopaedia.1 The writer who is treating in a (...) very discursive way of Ethiopia, states that Nero or Domitian—a strange pair to run in double harness—caused an island in the Red Sea to be watered with oil. The description of that island is mixed up with a mention of the original divisions of the Indians—a term which as usual in early days embraces both Indians and Ethiopians,—and their subsequent changes; and as that too may be of interest to students of ancient geography, I will translate the passage in full. (shrink)

The emergence of Latin monks, and then the spread of the monastic orders of the Catholic Church in Rus-Ukraine occurred in the conditions of political-religious transformations of the nineteenth century. Acceptance of baptism from Byzantium did not mean separation from Rome. The Eastern and Western churches were still in unity at that time. The Pope remained the formal head of all Christianity. In 988, as the Nikon Chronicle attests, the ambassadors from Rome and the relics of the saints were brought (...) to the Prince of Kiev during his march to Korsun. It was about the relics of St. Clement, the Pope, found by Cyril and Methodius in the same Korsun on his return from a missionary journey to Khazaria. Two years earlier, according to a chronicle, Vladimir had received ambassadors from Rome who had invited him to adopt Christianity in Latin. There are reports that Vladimir also sent ambassadors to Rome. (shrink)

Clinical diagnostic medicine is an experimental science based on observation, hypothesis making, and testing. It is an use dynamic process that involves observation and summary, diagnostic conjectures, testing, review, observation and summary, new or revised conjectures, i.e. it is an iterative process. It can then be said that diagnostic hypotheses are also ‘observation-laden’. My aim is to enlarge on the strategies of medical diagnosis as these are meshed in training and clinical experience—that is, to describe the patterns of reasoning used (...) by experienced clinicians under different diagnostic circumstances and how these patterns of inquiry allow further insight into the evaluation and treatment of patients. I do not aim to present a theory and illustrate it with examples; I wish rather am to let a realistic example, similar to actual clinical scenarios, direct the exposition. To this end, I introduce an account of medical diagnosis—briefly comparing and contrasting it to other accounts—in order to focus on discussing the process of diagnosis through a detailed clinical case. (shrink)

This is the first full-length survey of current work which examines the compatibility of microeconomics and macroeconomics. Its particular distinction is that it makes accessible, to non-specialists, those extensive modern refinements of general equilibrium theory which are linked to macroeconomics and monetary theory. Part I traces the development and interlocking nature of two scientific research prgrams, macroeconomics and neo-Walrasian analysis. The five chapters in this part examine general equilibrium theory, Keynes' contribution, the 'neoclassical synthesis', and the Clower–Leijonhufvud contributions to questions (...) of systemic coordination. The four chapters of Part II place recent work on the micro-foundations of macroeconomics within a taxonomic scheme of Walrasian equilibrium, Walrasian disequilibrium, Edgeworthian equilibrium, and Edgeworthian disequilibrium. Part III, a single chapter, provides an overview of the subject and ventures some conclusions. (shrink)

Contemporary privacy theories and European discussions about data protection employ the notion of ‘personal information’ to designate their areas of concern. The notion of personal information is demarcated from non-personal information—or just information—indicating that we are dealing with a specific kind of information. However, within privacy scholarship the notion of personal information appears undertheorized, rendering the concept somewhat unclear. We argue that in an age of datafication, protection of personal information and privacy is crucial, making the understanding of what is (...) meant by ‘personal information’ more important than ever. To contribute to this aim, we analyse the conception of personal information and its nature, including the distinction between personal and non-personal information from a philosophy of language perspective. Through analyses of aboutness and relative aboutness we point to challenges related to the demarcation between personal and non-personal information, which may in practice lead to all information being personal. (shrink)

E. H. Gombrich’s bestselling history of the world for young readers tells the story of mankind from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb, focusing not on small detail but on the sweep of human experience, the extent of human achievement, and the depth of its frailty. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history. In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to (...) the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. (shrink)

Context: Phenomenology and the enactive approach pose a unique challenge to dream research: during sleep one seems to be relatively disconnected from both world and body. Movement and perception, prerequisites for sensorimotor subjectivity, are restricted; the dreamer’s experience is turned inwards. In cognitive neurosciences, on the other hand, the generally accepted approach holds that dream formation is a direct result of neural activations in the absence of perception, and dreaming is often equated with “delusions.” Problem: Can enactivism and phenomenology account (...) for the variety of dream experiences? What kinds of experiential and empirical approaches are required in order to probe into dreaming subjectivity? Investigating qualities of perception, sensation, and embodiment in dreams, as well as the relationship between the dream-world and waking-world requires a step away from a delusional or altered-state framework of dream formation and a step toward an enactive integrative approach. Method: In this article, we will focus on the “depth” of dream experiences, i.e., what is possible in the dream state. Our article is divided into two parts: a theoretical framework for approaching dreaming from an enactive cognition standpoint; and discussion of the role and strategies for experimentation on dreaming. Based on phenomenology and theories of enactivism, we will argue for the primacy of subjectivity and imagination in the formation of lived experience. Results: We propose that neurophenomenology of dreaming is a nascent discipline that requires rethinking the relative role of third-, first- and second-person methodologies, and that a paradigm shift is required in order to investigate dreaming as a phenomenon on a continuum of conscious phenomena as opposed to a break from or an alteration of consciousness. Implications: Dream science, as part of the larger enterprise of consciousness and subjectivity studies, can be included in the enactive framework. This implies that dream experiences are neither passively lived nor functionally disconnected from dreamers’ world and body. We propose the basis and some concrete strategies for an empirical enactive neurophenomenology of dreaming. We conclude that investigating dream experiences can illuminate qualities of subjective perception and relation to the world, and thus challenge the traditional subject-object juxtaposition. Constructivist content: This article argues for an interdisciplinary enactive cognitive science approach to dream studies. (shrink)

This paper assesses several prominent recent attacks on the view that epistemic justification is conceptually prior to knowledge. I argue that this view—call it the Received View (RV)—emerges from these attacks unscathed. I start with Timothy Williamson’s two strongest arguments for the claim that all evidence is knowledge (E>K), which impugns RV when combined with the claim that justification depends on evidence. One of Williamson’s arguments assumes a false epistemic closure principle; the other misses some alternative (to E>K) explanations of (...) a putative fact about the evidence a particular subject has. Next, I neutralize each of Jonathan Sutton’s three recent arguments to the conclusion that any justified belief constitutes knowledge. Finally, I consider a recent analysis of justification due to Alexander Bird, according to which justified belief is possible knowledge. I argue that Bird’s analysis delivers neither a sufficient nor (more importantly) a necessary condition for justification. [Word count: 149]. (shrink)

It is a thankless task to have to reply to Professor Murray Krieger’s “Retrospective.” Qui s’excuse, s’accuse, and since I cannot ask my readers to embark on their own retrospective of my writings and test them for consistency, I have little chance of restoring my reputation in their eyes. Hence I would have been happier to leave Professor Krieger to his agonizing, if he did not present himself the “spokesman” for a significant body of theorists who appear to have acclaimed (...) my book on Art and Illusion without ever having read it. The followers of this school of criticism—of which Professor Krieger is a prominent member—had apparently convinced themselves that the book lent support to an aesthetics in which the notions of reality and of nature had no place. They thought that I had subverted the old idea of mimesis and that all that remained were different systems of conventional signs which were made to stand for an unknowable reality. True, professor Krieger admits that I never endorsed such an interpretation of my views, and he even concedes that there are passages in Art and Illusion which contradict such an out-and-out relativism, but he wants to convince his readers that these contradictions lead precisely to the ambiguities he now proposes to analyse.If he were right that the book encourages such a misreading, all I could do would be to express my regrets for having failed to make myself sufficiently clear. Luckily I can draw comfort from the fact that unlike these literary critics, the leading archaeologist of this country, Professor Stuart Piggott, had no difficulty at all in discerning my meaning and profiting from my arguments. In his Walter Neurath Memorial Lecture of 1978, entitled Antiquity Depicted: Aspects of Archaeological Illustration, the author did me the honour of taking a statement from my book as his starting point. It is the passage at the end of part I in which I recapitulate the content of the first two chapters:What matters to us is that the correct portrait, like the useful map, is an end product on a long road through schema and correction. It is not a faithful record of a visual experience but the faithful construction of a relational mode.Neither the subjectivity of vision nor the sway of conventions need lead us to deny that such a model can be constructed to any required degree of accuracy. What is decisive here is clearly the word “required.” The form of a representation cannot be divorced from its purpose and the requirements of the society in which the given visual language gains currency.1 1. E. H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1956 , p. 90. E. H. Gombrich was director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition at the University of London from 1959 to 1976. His many influential works include The Story of Art, Art and Illusion, Meditations on a Hobby Horse, The Sense of Order, Ideals and Idols, The Image and the Eye, and, most recently, Tributes. His previous contributions to Critical Inquiry include “The Museum: Past, Present and Future and “Standards of Truth: The Arrested Image and the Moving Eye”. (shrink)