We formulate the following hypothesis: Life's origin may have occurred during the lower Archaean at a time when the environmental temperature was higher than it is at present. Preliminary consequences of this hypothesis are studied from the point of view of molecular evolution. We restrict our attention to implications regarding the genetic code. We conclude that alternative assignment of termination codons may be understood in terms of: (a) the elevated temperatures to which the progenote may initially have been exposed; and (...) (b) the subsequent response of its genome to the opportunity provided by the eventual loss of hyperthermal genetic expression during a thermal transition (TT) period, which was triggered off by the evolution of the dynamic Earth. (shrink)

This paper seeks to highlight the methodological contributions developed by Michel Foucault in regard to a critical history. We propose a tour through various passages of the thinker´s work, with the aim of bashing the main elements that allegedly make up his method. From this exercise we maintain that, in order to record the existence of a Foucauldian method, it is necessary to reproblematize this notion beyond the displacements around the well-known three moments of his work -archeological/genealogical/ethical-, reorienting the look (...) towards the critical tension possible to peer around the unique place that occupies the question of history in his work. The novelty of our proposal is to point out that, beyond the well-known substantial contributions foreshadowed around Foucault's conceptual rig, his work must be understood as an eminently practical historical-philosophical methodology, aimed at disarticulating the canonical principles that legitimize knowledge produced by the historiographic method, thus opening a region of indiscernibility and rarity in historical practice that, we maintain, can be thought of in the vicinity of a parahistory. In sum, we propose the thesis that the displacement in Foucault's work takes on a singular power from the introduction of a strategic artifice ― anonymous ―, aimed at forcing a fold of history on itself, showing how historiographical plots actively tax to sustain and legitimize the regimes of knowledge, power and truth present in them. (shrink)

Delusions are deeply evidence-resistant. Patients with delusions are unmoved by evidence that is in direct conflict with the delusion, often responding to such evidence by offering obvious, and strange, confabulations. As a consequence, the standard view is that delusions are not evidence-responsive. This claim has been used as a key argumentative wedge in debates on the nature of delusions. Some have taken delusions to be beliefs and argued that this implies that belief is not constitutively evidence-responsive. Others hold fixed the (...) evidenceresponsiveness of belief and take this to show that delusions cannot be beliefs. Against this common assumption, I appeal to a large range of empirical evidence to argue that delusions are evidence-responsive in the sense that subjects have the capacity to respond to evidence on their delusion in rationally permissible ways. The extreme evidence-resistance of delusions is a consequence of powerful masking factors on these capacities, such as strange perceptual experiences, motivational factors, and cognitive biases. This view makes room for holding both that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive and that delusions are beliefs, and it has important implications for the study and treatment of delusions. (shrink)

Review of Flores-Júnior, O. La vie facile. Une lecture du cynisme ancien, Paris, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin. (2021).

In this paper, we argue that there are epistemic norms on evidence-gathering and consider consequences for how to understand epistemic normativity. Though the view that there are such norms seems intuitive, it has found surprisingly little defense. Rather, many philosophers have argued that norms on evidence-gathering can only be practical or moral. On a prominent evidentialist version of this position, epistemic norms only apply to responding to the evidence one already has. Here we challenge the orthodoxy. First, we argue that (...) there is no significant normative difference between responding to evidence you have and gathering more evidence. Second, we argue that our practices of epistemically criticizing agents for their poor evidence-gathering indicate the existence of epistemic norms on evidence-gathering. Finally, we show that our thesis has important implications for recent debates about the relationship between epistemic norms and inquiry. (shrink)

Resistance towards non-Muslim leaders emerged when the case of blasphemy against Islam was brought against Basuki Tjahya Purnama, known as Ahok, as the governor of DKI Jakarta at that time (DKI Jakarta is mostly inhabited by Muslims). The case of blasphemy committed by Ahok has triggered the resistance of Muslims towards non-Muslim candidates for the regional leader election. This study uses a cross-sectional design conducted by interviewing 1121 Muslim youths who participated in regional head elections in North Sumatra. Multivariate analysis (...) in this study used a logistic regression test with JAPS 16 software. The results of this study indicate that Muslim youth in North Sumatra province have high resistance to non-Muslim candidates for regional heads (governor and mayor). Hifz Al-Din [maintaining religion] (p < 0.001; Exp [β] = 2.505) is seen to affect the resistance of Muslim youth to non-Muslim governor candidates; Hifz Al-Din (p < 0.001; Exp [β] = 2.053) is seen to affect the resistance of Muslim youth to non-Muslim mayoral candidates; Hifz Al-Ummah [developing national integration] (p = 0.001; [β] = 2.194) is seen to have influenced the resistance of Muslim youth to non-Muslim governor candidates; Hifz Al-Ummah (p = 0.011; Exp [β] = 1.800) affects the resistance of Muslim youth to non-Muslim mayoral candidates. Muslim youth have high resistance to non-Muslim leaders when participating in elections. Muslim youth are afraid that prospective non-Muslim leaders will make various policies that will make it difficult for Muslims to carry out various kinds of worship performed by Muslims. CONTRIBUTION: This study is expected to provide information for non-Muslim leader candidates about the fear of Muslim youth against non-Muslim candidates for the regional leader election, especially regarding the policies to carry out worship for Muslims and to maintain the unity of the Ummah. (shrink)

What is philosophy? Why does it matter? How have philosophy and its relation to religion and science changed from the ancient to the medieval and modern periods and beyond? What are the central philosophical ideas, from Socrates to Nietzsche? Reexamining Love of Wisdom addresses these questions. It offers a new perspective by organizing the material under the theme of philosophical desire and shows the timeless importance of philosophy understood as the love of wisdom. Flores provides an historical introduction to (...) philosophy suitable for college students that is a resource for more advanced students or scholars interested in the history and nature of philosophy. -- back cover. (shrink)

Laudato si’, with its articulation of a familial ecology reflecting Francis’s Latin American context, expands the subject of solidarity in Catholic social teaching and thought. Yet, this ecological vision of family fails to attend to the problem of gender subordination latent in Catholic social teaching, including in its approaches to ecology. A vision of solidarity that eradicates gender and ecological subordination must elaborate a familial ecology characterized by both mercy and equality.

Esta investigación, se efectuó en un aula del centro de desarrollo integral de la familia (DIF) en el municipio de Durango, México. En este lugar, se capacitan personas para el trabajo artesanal; ahí fueron seleccionadas 13 madres adolescentes con un rango de edad que fluctúa entre los 15 y 23 años de edad, todas ellas víctimas de maltrato infantil. En este grupo de personas se implementó la propuesta filosófico-pedagógica denominada “Filosofía para Niños y Adolescentes” del filósofo norteamericano Matthew Lipman. El (...) principal objetivo fue conformar una “comunidad de indagación”, donde, a través del dialogo razonado las participantes desarrollaron habilidades cognitivas, posibilitándolas a departir de manera ética y moral sobre sus experiencias de vida dentro de un entorno democrático. Los resultados obtenidos se dan a conocer a través de las revelaciones expresadas por las participantes durante los diálogos filosóficos, además, fueron registradas las habilidades cognitivas detectadas durante 20 sesiones. Los resultados fueron contrastados con las teorías para demostrar el cambio cognitivo de las participantes en las comunidades de diálogo. También se registraron ciertos hallazgos inesperados en otras áreas académicas que favorecen el pensamiento ético y moral. (shrink)

This article is an edited transcript of the roundtable entitled “What is Philo-Performance?” that took place in Paris on 28 June 2014, within the framework of the “Theatre, Performance, Philosophy International Conference: Crossings and Transfers in Anglo-American Thought”. The conference was organized by Julien Alliot, Flore Garcin-Marrou, Liza Kharoubi and Anna Street from the LAPS, a French research group on performance philosophy.

Through a commentary of a poem by Crates of Thebes, transmitted by Julian (Or. VII, Against Heracleios the Cynic, 9, 213a-214a and Or. XI [VI], Against the ignorant cynics, 17, 199c-200b), this article aims to show that the cynic philosophers borrowed from the animal behavior not only the paradigm of a kata phusin way of life, but also counter-examples of the kinds of attitude men should avoid.

Beliefs can be resistant to evidence. Nonetheless, the orthodox view in epistemology analyzes beliefs as evidence-responsive attitudes. I address this tension by deploying analytical tools on capacities and masking to show that the cognitive science of evidence-resistance supports rather than undermines the orthodox view. In doing so, I argue for the claim that belief requires the capacity for evidence-responsiveness. More precisely, if a subject believes that p, then they have the capacity to rationally respond to evidence bearing on p. Because (...) capacities for evidence-responsiveness are fallible and may be masked, beliefs can be held in the face of counter-evidence. Indeed, I will argue that our best science of belief supports the claim that evidence-resistant beliefs result from masks on evidence-responsiveness capacities. This account of belief not only allows for resistance to evidence, but provides us with a framework for describing and explaining actual cases of evidence-resistance. (shrink)

In this paper I draw on Einstein's distinction between “principle” and “constructive” theories to isolate two levels of physical theory that can be found in both classical and (special) relativistic physics. I then argue that when we focus on theoretical explanations in physics, i.e. explanations of physical laws, the two leading views on explanation, Salmon's “bottom-up” view and Kitcher's “top-down” view, accurately describe theoretical explanations for a given level of theory. I arrive at this conclusion through an analysis of explanations (...) of mass—energy equivalence in special relativity. (shrink)

El artículo hace un análisis literario y teológico de "Cento Virgilianus", dilucida quién es su autor, desvela los contenidos bíblicos de la obra y sus referencias virgilianas, al tiempo que analiza cómo se hilvanan en el texto todos estos datos.

El pensamiento ético y bioético es una de las áreas de conocimiento recurrentes en el ejercicio reflexivo del profesional de la salud en Cuba; sin embargo, se detectan insuficiencias relacionadas con imprecisiones y falta de claridad en el pensamiento ético-moral por parte de este personal, según se observa en materiales evaluados para su publicación, en los ejercicios para el proceso de obtención de categorías docentes y en la presentación de las evaluaciones de posgrados. El artículo tiene el objetivo de argumentar (...) precisiones teórico- metodológicas para la elaboración de trabajos en ética y bioética. The ethical and bioethical thought is one of the recurrent areas of knowledge in the reflexive exercise of health professionals in Cuba. However, according to the observations of evaluated materials for their publication, in the exercises for the process of obtaining educational categories and in the presentation of postgraduate evaluations, inadequacies related with imprecision and lack of clarity are detected in the ethical-moral thought on the part of health professionals. The article has the objective of arguing theoretical- methodological precisions for the elaboration of works in ethics and bioethics. (shrink)

En “Acerca de la pregunta: ¿qué significa ilustrar?” de 1784, Mendelssohn sostiene que la ilustración que está conectada con la vocación esencial (wesentlich Bestimmung) del ser humano en tanto que ser humano puede entrar en conflicto no solo con la moralidad –las vocaciones extra-esenciales (außerwesentlichen Bestimmungen)– sino también con la vocación esencial del ciudadano, esto es, como miembro de un Estado. En estos casos, afirma Mendelssohn, es necesario cierto cuidado y precaución, cierta prudencia (Klugheit), en el uso de la ilustración. (...) El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el significado de esta apelación a la prudencia, por parte de Mendelssohn, como símbolo de una Ilustración que, en su compromiso radical con la humanidad, propone una aguda indagación sobre la “situacionalidad” de la razón y su poder emancipador, en la compleja interacción entre teoría y práctica. (shrink)

A principios del siglo XVII, Johannes Kepler estudió el ojo humano como instrumento óptico. Décadas más tarde, René Descartes propuso un experimento para aproximarse al ojo como si fuese un objeto separado por completo del cuerpo. Tomado como analogía de la cámara oscura, el ojo exterior ayudaría a entender la visión humana, a explicar la refracción de la luz y a modelar mejores instrumentos ópticos. Ese ojo exterior ampliaría asimismo la observación y exploración estética de la luz. El ojo objetualizado, (...) desprendido del cuerpo humano, se convertía en materia de estudio a disposición de un observador todavía completamente corporeizado. En este extrañamiento, el ojo técnico y el ojo orgánico se observan y modelan el uno al otro. (shrink)

We reply to a comment by Hargrave and Smith on a paper in which we use Ostrom’s design principles to develop theory about stakeholder governance. We agree with most of the issues that Hargrave and Smith raise, but disagree with their statement that the systems view of stakeholder governance that they advocate stands in contrast to our approach. The two approaches are complementary.

Miguel A. De La Torre rejects hope as the ethical basis for a politically effective and truly liberative form of solidarity. Kelly Brown Douglas, on the other hand, articulates a critical retrieval of hope emphasizing the interpretive relationship between the cross, the lynching tree, and the resurrection. Reading De La Torre and Douglas’s works through Natalie Carnes’s theological aesthetics suggests that their respective works can be engaged as “iconoclasms of fidelity,” or the salutary breaking of idolatrous images toward recovering faithful (...) ones. Examining #SprayTheirNames murals that were created in response to state violence against Black people in the United States, I argue that Carnes’s aesthetics framework holds the violence of the crucifixion and promise of resurrection in visual tension, thus decrying violent oppression while offering a beautiful and dangerous memory that catalyzes hope-filled movement in defense of Black lives. (shrink)

In a time of globalization, Political Philosophy for the Global Age provides a theoretical basis for the convergence of human values in terms of legitimate conceptions of time, language, and notions of self. Sánchez Flores reviews what she considers to be the most important positions in the current debate on political theory (liberalism, communitarianism, feminism, and postcolonialism) and also proposes her own original contribution. Sánchez Flores’s unique approach is a critique of a type of morality formulated solely on (...) the basis of the Judeo-Christian view of reality. It is a theoretical construct that becomes an invitation to explore other notions of human morality and an inquiry into the need to produce a political philosophy that universalizes an ethics of caring and responsibility as well as provides a locus where diverse human cultures can meet. (shrink)

Two aspects of the chromatin repeat length (r t) are discussed: (i) Why is r t, longer for slowly dividing cells than in rapidly dividing cells?, and (ii) Why is the temporal evolution of r ta decreasing function of time (t) in mammalian cortical neurons, whereas it is an increasing function of t for granule cells around the time of birth? These questions are discussed in terms of a hypothesis which assumes a correlation between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) packaging, transcription, and (...) replication. (shrink)

Larry Shiner iniciadas a principios del siglo XVIII tienen, en el pensamiento filosófico, una tradición un tanto más antigua pues, aun cuando no existía una pregunta explícita sobre qué es el arte, había, ya desde Platón, una profunda reflexión respecto a la creación artística, así como sobre el papel que el artista y su obra desempeñaban dentro de su sociedad, papel que para el filósofo adquiría un carácter negativo cuando se ocupaba de la imitación de las formas o ideas verdaderas; (...) es decir, cuando se trataba del arte imitativo, ya que al ser el mundo una copia de dichas ideas y, a su vez, ser esta copia la representada por el artista en su obra, esta última sería, entonces, la copia de una copia, la representación de algo que ya de por sí no es verdadero. (shrink)

En distintos estudios que se ocupan del eufemismo se ha puesto de relieve la función que desempeñan las expresiones eufemísticas en el discurso político como herramientas de las que se sirve el emisor para ocultarle al destinatario aquellos aspectos desagradables o inoportunos que podrían dañar su imagen. Este artículo se fundamenta en una teoría pragmático-cognitiva del eufemismo y explica los efectos que produce en la mente de los hablantes un conjunto de expresiones eufemísticas empleadas en el discurso político español durante (...) los últimos años. En concreto, se propone la existencia de tres fenómenos que influyen en la representación mental de la realidad que construye el intérprete: el encuadre léxico, la obstrucción del acceso al referente y la estigmatización de conceptos. (shrink)

En un estudio interpretativo-narrativo realizado en la UNMdP en el marco del Doctorado en Humanidades y Artes con mención en Cs. De la Educación de la UNR se estudió mediante el enfoque biográfico-narrativo en articulación con la etnografía educativa la dimensión ética de la enseñanza de profesoras consideradas memorables por sus estudiantes. La categoría “enseñanza memorable” emerge de una resignificación y resentidización de los hallazgos investigativos de dicho estudio. Las dimensiones de “memorabilidad” de la enseñanza se plasman en las siguientes (...) macrocategorías: enseñanza logopática, enseñanza apasionada, enseñanza como compromiso existencial y enseñanza terapéutica. A su vez cada macrocategoría alberga diversas categorías que muestran aspectos plenos de sentido para la comprensión de lo que las profesoras creen, sienten, piensan y hacen cuando enseñan. Si bien presentamos de modo muy sintético estos hallazgos, los mismos permiten un acercamiento a la comprensión del entramado de significados y sentidos alojados en prácticas de enseñanza que dejan huella en la subjetividad de los estudiantes. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This essay presents the chief reasons for making a distinction between propositional and doxastic justification and, also, points out two things: no theory of propositional justification implies a theory of doxastic justification; infinitism is, essentially, a theory of propositional justification. Additionally, this paper tries to shed some light on the three conjointly sufficient conditions for a proper infinitist view of propositional justification.

In this article the author aims to assess Wilfrid J. Waluchow’s more recent book, by depicting its main aim, namely to provide a better understanding of judicial review in a constitutional democracy via the “living tree” metaphor; by disapproving an unwarranted claim, purposely to reduce the metaphor to the common law (bottom-up) methodology; and by re-developing his alternative, specifically to identify the community’s constitutional political morality, with a friendly amendment, which is already explicit —or at least somehow implicit— on it, (...) i.e. not only by judges but also by legislators, including framers, amenders or reformers, and other legal officials, including lawyers and citizens, which at the end will grant him the point.Resumen:En este artículo el autor intenta evaluar el libro más reciente de Wilfrid J. Waluchow, al caracterizar su objetivo principal, a saber: proporcionar una mejor explicación del control judicial de la constitucionalidad en una democracia constitucional mediante la metáfora del “árbol viviente”; al cuestionar un argumento, precisamente el que reduce dicha metáfora a la metodología (de abajo hacia arriba) del common law; y, al re-desarrollar una alternativa, específicamente al identificar la moralidad política constitucional de la comunidad, a partir de una enmienda amigable, misma que ya está explícita —o hasta cierto punto implícita— en ella, i. e. no sólo por los juzgadores sino también por los legisladores, incluidos los constituyentes originarios y revisores o reformadores, y otros operadores jurídicos, incluidos abogados y ciudadanos, lo cual al final de cuentas le dará el punto. (shrink)

¿Es Kant un sexista? La discusión contemporánea sobre el sexismo kantiano recorre todas las áreas del corpus desde la epistemología, metafísica, estética, ética hasta la filosofía política. En la presente investigación me concentraré en la discusión ética y política, en particular en el estatus moral de la mujer. Argumentaré que inclusive en la lectura más caritativa de Kant el estatus moral de la mujer es inferior al del hombre. Para desarrollar el punto anterior tomaré como hilo conductor el concepto de (...) carácter. Este concepto presenta dos ventajas. Por un lado, condensa ciertas preocupaciones morales como la relación entre sensibilidad y razón. Por otro lado, y en relación con el punto anterior, el carácter moral se expresa diferente en el carácter femenino y en el carácter masculino. En el primero se expresa el sentimiento, mientras que en el segundo se expresa la racionalidad. Dada la primacia de la racionalidad sobre sentimiento, el carácter moral masculino tiene ciertas ventajas sobre el femenino. (shrink)

Callosidad cerebral -- Odiseo y Dédalo -- Tántalo, Sísifo e Ixión -- Tiresias, Calígula y Edipo -- El jugador, Sansón y Butes -- Sócrates y Merlín -- La caña Pesante.

Although higher education understands the need to develop critical thinkers, it has not lived up to the task consistently. Students are graduating deficient in these skills, unprepared to think critically once in the workforce. Limited development of cognitive processing skills leads to less effective leaders. Various definitions of critical thinking are examined to develop a general construct to guide the discussion as critical thinking is linked to constructivism, leadership, and education. Most pedagogy is content-based built on deep knowledge. Successful critical (...) thinking pedagogy is moving away from this paradigm, teaching students to think complexly. Some of the challenges faced by higher education moving to a critical thinking curricula are discussed, and recommendations are offered for improving outcomes. (shrink)

The orthodox view in epistemology is that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive. I offer a novel argument for a version of this view, one that appeals to capacities to rationally respond to evidence. I do so by developing the Sellarsian idea that the concept of belief functions to mark the space of reasons in a non-intellectualist and naturalistic direction. The resulting view does justice to the role of belief in social interactions, joint deliberation, and rational persuasion, while including evidence-resistant beliefs and (...) animal beliefs as genuine beliefs. It has a range of further benefits: it helps us account for epistemic normativity, paves the way for better psychological models of belief revision, distinguishes beliefs from imaginings and mere acceptances, and helps us avoid noxious simplistic takes on human irrationality. (shrink)

Epistemic agents interact with evidence in different ways. This can cause trouble for mutual understanding and for our ability to rationally engage with others. Indeed, it can compromise democratic practices of deliberation. This paper explains these differences by appeal to a new notion: epistemic styles. Epistemic styles are ways of interacting with evidence that express unified sets of epistemic values, preferences, goals, and interests. The paper introduces the notion of epistemic styles and develops a systematic account of their nature. It (...) then discusses the implications of epistemic styles for central questions in epistemology, in particular, for issues surrounding rational engagement and for the debate between virtue epistemologists and epistemic situationists. (shrink)