I examine the role that mathematics plays in understanding and modelling finance, especially stock markets, and how philosophy affects it. To this end, I explore how mathematics penetrates finance via physics, constructing a ‘financial physics’, and I outline the philosophical backgrounds of this process, in particular the ‘philosophy of equilibrium’ and that of critical points or ‘out-of-equilibrium’. I discuss the main characteristics and a few weaknesses of these mathematizations of financial systems, notably econometrics and econophysics, and I compare the two (...) ways, top-down and bottom-up, of building mathematical approaches to finance. The top-down approach is the most used and the most conservative. I argue that it guarantees a mathematical account, but it is less effective than the more difficult bottom-up approach, which is more appropriate and which may end up without a mathematical account of financial phenomena. I then consider two important issues raised by a mathematical approach to finance, that is, the performative and the reversing side of mathematics, and an ethics of mathematics. In the first case I argue that mathematics not only can be a performative device, but it also enables ‘reversing’ dynamics, that is, a mathematical model may become not a representational tool, but a device of social engineering—a mathematical way of investigating what are the initial conditions and processes needed to obtain an intended result. In the second case I argue that this specific relation between mathematical modelling and prediction raises an ethical question in finance, namely, a responsible construction and use of the mathematical models provided by a financial physics. (shrink)

The view from inside maintains that not only to study and understand, but also to profit from financial markets, it is necessary to get as much knowledge as possible about their internal ‘structure’ and machinery. This view maintains that in order to solve the problems posed by finance, or at least a large part of them, we need first of all a qualitative analysis. Rules, laws, institutions, regulators, the behavior and the psychology of traders and investors are the key elements (...) to the understanding of finance, and stock markets in particular. Accordingly, data and their mathematical analysis are not the crucial elements, since data are the output of a certain underlying structure of markets and their actors. The underlying structure is the ultimate object of the inquiry. This chapter examines how the view from inside raises, and deals with, critical issues such as markets failure, information disclosure, and regulation, the notion of data, performativity, and the study of micro-structures. (shrink)

The results of Cubitt et al. on the spectral gap problem add a new chapter to the issue of undecidability in physics, as they show that it is impossible to decide whether the Hamiltonian of a quantum many-body system is gapped or gapless. This implies, amongst other things, that a reductionist viewpoint would be untenable. In this paper, we examine their proof and a few philosophical implications, in particular ones regarding models and limitative results. In more detail, we examine the (...) way these theorems model many-body quantum systems, and we question what, if anything, is the physical counterpart of the models used by Cubitt et al. We argue that these models are non-representational and that, even if they are so artificial that it is hard to imagine a physical system arising from them, they nonetheless offer an opportunity to learn about the world and the relation between mathematics and reality. On this basis, we draw the conclusion that their results do not undermine the reductionist viewpoint in a strong sense but leave the question open in a weak sense. (shrink)

We continue the work initiated in Herzig and Lorini (J Logic Lang Inform, in press) whose aim is to provide a minimalistic logical framework combining the expressiveness of dynamic logic in which actions are first-class citizens in the object language, with the expressiveness of logics of agency such as STIT and logics of group capabilities such as CL and ATL. We present a logic called ( Deterministic Dynamic logic of Agency ) which supports reasoning about actions and joint actions of (...) agents and coalitions, and agentive and coalitional capabilities. In it is supposed that, once all agents have selected a joint action, the effect of this joint action is deterministic. In order to assess we prove that it embeds Coalition Logic. We then extend with modal operators for agents’ preferences, and show that the resulting logic is sufficiently expressive to capture the game-theoretic concepts of best response and Nash equilibrium. (shrink)

In this paper we discuss Priest’s account of change and motion, contrasting it with its more orthodox rival, the Russellian account. The paper is divided in two parts. In first one we take a stance that is more sympathetic to the Russellian view, arguing that Priest’s arguments against it are inconclusive. In the second part, instead, we take a more sympathetic attitude towards Priest’s objections. We argue, however, that if these objections pose insurmountable difficulties to the Russellian account, then they (...) pose the same difficulties also to Priest’s favoured Hegelian account, and for the same reasons. (shrink)

reasoning is a risk-aversion strategy: it aims at minimizing as much as possible the possibility of doing mistakes, but in order to reach this goal it pays a cost, that is the fact that the novel epistemic gain it offers is small or negligible.

I argue that the construction of representation theorems is a powerful tool for creating novel objects and theories in mathematics, as the construction of a new representation introduces new pieces of information in a very specific way that enables a solution for a problem and a proof of a new theorem. In more detail I show how the work behind the proof of a representation theorem transforms a mathematical problem in a way that makes it tractable and introduces information into (...) it that it did not contain at the beginning of the process. (shrink)

This thesis is presented from a historical life history, the conscious world of an academic whose thoughts were not dogmatic nor censured, neither within or without the university. It was a dialogue with others who never hesitated to judge him as critical and heuristic. The only way to be authenti..

RESUMEN Este trabajo busca hacer un aporte a la discusión actual en teoría política, específicamente, a las categorías a través de las cuales se indaga la democracia. Con este fin, se propone una crítica a la noción de “identidad política”, la cual avanza por dos caminos: el principal retoma la crítica de Adorno a la lógica identificante y a la relación sujeto-objeto que ella entraña. Sobre esta base se problematiza esa relación sujeto-sujeto que es el lazo político. Como una suerte (...) de excursus de este camino principal, se avanzará en una crítica inmanente del uso que de dicha noción se realiza en una de las filosofías políticas hoy preponderantes: la teoría postfundacionalista. Para ello se realizará una lectura interna de la propuesta de Chantal Mouffe, en tanto representante de dicha teoría, cuya labor se concentra en la indagación de la lógica democrática, tarea en la cual el concepto de identidad juega un papel clave. Por ambas vías se apunta a señalar que la categoría de identidad política contiene la tendencia a cancelar el pluralismo y, con éste, la democracia. Frente a ello se postula una manera distinta de problematizar el lazo político, a través de la noción de mímesis. ABSTRACT This work seeks to make some contribution to the current discussion in political theory, specifically, to the categories through which democracy is studied. With this goal in mind, a critique of the notion of “political identity” is proposed, which proceeds in two ways: the main one takes up Adorno’s criticism of the identifying logic and the subject-object relationship that it entails. On this basis, the subject-subject relationship that is the political link is problematized. As a sort of excursus of this main path, we will proceed to an immanent critique about how this notion is used by one of the main political philosophy lines nowadays: the Post-Foundational Theory. To this purpose, an internal reading of the proposal of Chantal Mouffe is made, because she is a representative of that theory, whose work is focused on the investigation of democratic logics, and gives to the concept of identity a key role. In both ways, it is pointed out that the category of political identity contains the tendency to cancel pluralism and, with it, democracy. Against this, a different way of problematizing the political link is postulated, through the notion of mimesis. (shrink)

We present a modal logic called (logic of intention and attempt) in which we can reason about intention dynamics and intentional action execution. By exploiting the expressive power of , we provide a formal analysis of the relation between intention and action and highlight the pivotal role of attempt in action execution. Besides, we deal with the problems of instrumental reasoning and intention persistence.

The way scientific discovery has been conceptualized has changed drastically in the last few decades: its relation to logic, inference, methods, and evolution has been deeply reloaded. The ‘philosophical matrix’ moulded by logical empiricism and analytical tradition has been challenged by the ‘friends of discovery’, who opened up the way to a rational investigation of discovery. This has produced not only new theories of discovery, but also new ways of practicing it in a rational and more systematic way. Ampliative rules, (...) methods, heuristic procedures and even a logic of discovery have been investigated, extracted, reconstructed and refined. The outcome is a ‘scientific discovery revolution’: not only a new way of looking at discovery, but also a construction of tools that can guide us to discover something new. This is a very important contribution of philosophy of science to science, as it puts the former in a position not only to interpret what scientists do, but also to provide and improve tools that they can employ in their activity. (shrink)

I present a variant of with time, called, interpreted in standard Kripke semantics. On the syntactic level, is nothing but the extension of atemporal individual by: the future tense and past tense operators, and the operator of group agency for the grand coalition. A sound and complete axiomatisation for is given. Moreover, it is shown that supports reasoning about interesting normative concepts such as the concepts of achievement obligation and commitment.

At this time when the development of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence are changing the world around us, philosophers and scientists, first of all, must converge to analyze the present and predict the ethical-social consequences and biological dangers associated with new “living entities” that are not the result of the natural evolutionary process. As synthetic/artificial life forms (xenobots, robots, transgenic organisms, etc.) become more and more abundant and sophisticated, it seems first of all necessary to bring some order to all (...) this new biodiversity, establishing what is alive and what is not, and analyzing the consequences of this incessant creative activity. Here I intend to organize all these human-made entities and clarify their status as living beings or artificial elements, leaving the door open to an uncertain future in which we will be able to see how “the artificial” and “the natural” could merge to originate something different from everything known. Accordingly, I propose the creation of a new domain, Lithbea, which includes all synthetic and artificial entities within a new kingdom called Humade (derived from human-made). I have also included viruses in a new realm, the Viral kingdom, because they were excluded from the classical three-domain tree of life despite playing a fundamental role in the evolution of biodiversity on Earth. Finally, I make a brief comment on the unpredictability of the unknown, the implications of this new landscape of biodiversity, and the uncertain future of all these advances. (shrink)

One set of arguments on judicial review states that this is a necessary consequence of understanding rights as limits to democracy. This paper brings some nuances to this argument, arguing that the answer to the problem of judicial review should rely not only on rights‐based arguments, but also on institutional arguments. In order to do so, the first part will present the idea that links rights as trumps to judicial review. In the second part, the article will show it is (...) possible to split the conception of rights as limits into two questions, one regarding what the state should or should not do and the other regarding who should be the one to give content to this set of decisions. The third part will show that all rights‐based arguments fail because they cannot deal with the fact of disagreement. The last part will show that rights still have a part to play in the discussion on judicial review, though without the final word. (shrink)

This article investigates three things: (1) what development might be, (2) how development and ethics might be related, and (3) what an ethics of development might look like. First, I show how if we move away from an essentialist metaphysics of being to a possibilist-functionalist metaphysics of becoming in our understanding of development, we can reconceptualize ethics as self-directed ontogeny. Thus, ethics turns out to be a part of development. Secondly, I sketch out the possibility of an ethics of development, (...) showing how it should be based on three desiderata: (1) sustainability, promoting the long-term existence of the maximum human and non-human biodiversity, (2) democracy, promoting human-human relationships that are bidirectional and, to the extent possible, non-imposing, and (3) non-ethnocentrism, promoting true modernity; a modernity not predicated on a non-existent abstract universality but on concrete syncretism. The ultimate aim of this ethics of development is the optimization of individual and collective subjectivity and agency across time. (shrink)

El presente artículo aborda las connotaciones y los fundamentos de la paráfrasis cum canere vellem en Serv. Ecl. 6. 3. El análisis del sentido del verbo volo en este contexto y la confrontación del pasaje con Serv. Ecl. 6. 5 revelan que Servio interpreta la frase cum canerem reges et proelia como referencia a un temprano empeño de Virgilio en componer poesía épica, del que pronto desistió. Esta interpretación está condicionada por la idea de que la secuencia cronológica Églogas - (...) Geórgicas - Eneida tiene un correlato jerárquico, idea que se funda en noticias biográficas y en la teoría de la tripertita varietas. This paper focuses on the connotations and grounds of the paraphrase cum canere vellem in Serv. Ecl. 6. 3. The analysis of the sense of verb volo within this context, as well as the confrontation between that passage and Serv. Ecl. 6. 5, show that Servius interprets the clause cum canerem reges et proelia as a reference to Virgil's early endeavor to compose an epic poem, from which he shortly desisted. This interpretation is conditioned by the idea that the chronological sequence Eclogues - Georgics - Aeneid has a hierarchical correlate, an idea which is founded on biographical information and the theory of tripertita varietas. (shrink)

La primera parte del presente estudio (J.M. Panea) aborda el pensamiento de Giambattista Vico en torno a conceptos como utopía, historia y deber; y muestra cómo Vico nos abre a una concepción trágica de la acción. La segunda parte (F.H. Llano) pretende realizar, desde un marco iusfilosófico, un análisis introspectivo que ponga de manifiesto los principales hitos y fundamentos del pensamiento jurídico viquiano, destacando en particular aquellos aspectos que, por su incidencia en la actual Teoría del Derecho, presentan un mayor (...) interés científico. (shrink)

Human identity is a complex process linked to the subject and his environment, both constantly evolving. Personality is developed and changed throughout lifetime, but it has a core that remains constant. Thus a person can secure his continuity; he recognizes himself and is recognized by the others as time goes by. In fact, we are all the same, even after experiencing changes and years later. The constitution of the other and the self are – from the phenomenological point of view (...) – two components of the same process, which is the origin of the subjectivity of self and the objectivity of me. These are conditions for the identity’s construction, a continuous process that takes place throughout time. Human tendency to the community emerges with priority from the above definition. That deep desire of being part of a social group interprets others as constituent of the identity of the self. “Having an identity” actually means not only a set of characteristics noticed by ourselves after actions done or the “image” of us, but also to be recognized by the rest of society. Therefore, community turns out in the ultimate horizon that responds to an individual’s recognition need. The recognition of self by me is linked to the issue of the recognition of self through the other until mutual recognition as reciprocal act is reached. Hence, “gift” becomes an emblem of mutual recognition, highlighting the relational and inter-subjective structure of the person. The identity development goes through the mutual recognition experience and gift. Somebody who gives himself recognizes the others and simultaneously, participates in his constitution and his self-understanding. (shrink)

In this paper I try to test the philosophical relevance of the rational action theories. To take this attempt seriously, in my view, implies to discuss two critical points – one of logical nature, and one of empirical nature – in the rational action theories. These points are the intransitivity of the relation «being better than» and the preference reversal phenomenon. Finally, I suggest that the discussion of these critical points can induce a renewed interest towards the pluralism as formulated (...) by Isaiah Berlin in the last 20th century. (shrink)

La poeta Gloria Dünkler nació en Pucón, Chile, en 1977. Sus padres se dedicaban a la artesanía, la pesca y la música en la región de la Araucanía. Ella estudió Pedagogía en la Universidad de la Frontera y Bibliotecología y Documentación en la Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana. Actualmente trabaja en la Biblioteca Central de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Chile. Su obra editada está compuesta por Quillaco seducido (Edición de autor, 2003), Füchse von Llafenko (Ediciones Tácitas, 2009), Spandau (...) (Ediciones Tácitas, 2012), Yatagán (Ediciones Tácitas, 2015) y Castrato (Ediciones Tácitas, 2020). Además, poemas suyos fueron incluidos en las antologías Mujeres en la poesía chilena actual (Semejanza, 2000), Desde todo el silencio (Los puños de la paloma, 2008), Comer con la mirada (Desde la gente, 2008) y Doce en punto (UNAM, 2012). La obra de Dünkler ha alcanzado amplio reconocimiento en su país, donde obtuvo tres importantes premios: el de la Academia Chilena de Letras (2009), el Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago (2012) y el Premio Pablo Neruda de Poesía Joven (2015). Su obra ha sido traducida al alemán, al polaco y al catalán. (shrink)