Per non aver cercato nel cristianesimo il suo essere reale, ma una ristretta ideologia, si è tutto compromesso; si è imprigionato il dogma vivente nelle bende che lo fanno assomigliare a un morto, riducendo i teologi a guardiani di museo, e gli storici simili ad archeologi alla ricerca del più antico reperto. Si è condannata, così, la storia a diventare un'allegoria; e a un chiodo dipinto sul muro si appenderà sempre una catena dipinta». Siamo nel 1904, dalle parole di Maurice (...) Blondel emerge la preoccupazione per le forti tensioni che dividono il cattolicesimo. Per i più le bende della dottrina mummificata non devono essere sciolte, ma al massimo impegnarsi a ristrutturare il sepolcro. Egli cercherà una soluzione tra esegesi e teologia, per conciliare storia e dogma, che nella loro divaricazione riflettono la ricorrente tentazione di strappare il Verbo dalla carne. Dopo una severa analisi critica delle due principali teorie antagoniste, storicismo ed estrinsecismo, che in diverso modo convergono nel separare natura e soprannatura, indicherà una sintesi, una mediazione, attraverso il principio della Tradizione, proposto non come collegamento solo teorico alle radici, non «una catena dipinta», ma come fonte di progresso, pulsante vita. Il cristianesimo, allora, potrà manifestarsi «come metafisica in atto, tensione unitiva tra Dio e l'umanità, e non come religione di pergamene e scribi». Un testo che pur venendo dal passato, guadagna nel presente la sua evidente attualità. (shrink)

Artefacts do not always do what they are supposed to, due to a variety of reasons, including manufacturing problems, poor maintenance, and normal wear-and-tear. Since software is an artefact, it should be subject to malfunctioning in the same sense in which other artefacts can malfunction. Yet, whether software is on a par with other artefacts when it comes to malfunctioning crucially depends on the abstraction used in the analysis. We distinguish between “negative” and “positive” notions of malfunction. A negative malfunction, (...) or dysfunction, occurs when an artefact token either does not or cannot do what it is supposed to. A positive malfunction, or misfunction, occurs when an artefact token may do what is supposed to but, at least occasionally, it also yields some unintended and undesirable effects. We argue that software, understood as type, may misfunction in some limited sense, but cannot dysfunction. Accordingly, one should distinguish software from other technical artefacts, in view of their design that makes dysfunction impossible for the former, while possible for the latter. (shrink)

There is wide support in logic, philosophy, and psychology for the hypothesis that the probability of the indicative conditional of natural language, P(if A then B), is the conditional probability of B given A, P(B|A). We identify a conditional which is such that P(if A then B)=P(B|A) with de Finetti's conditional event, B|A. An objection to making this identification in the past was that it appeared unclear how to form compounds and iterations of conditional events. In this paper, we illustrate (...) how to overcome this objection with a probabilistic analysis, based on coherence, of these compounds and iterations. We interpret the compounds and iterations as conditional random quantities which, given some logical dependencies, may reduce to conditional events. We show how the inference to B|A from A and B can be extended to compounds and iterations of both conditional events and biconditional events. Moreover, we determine the respective uncertainty propagation rules. Finally, we make some comments on extending our analysis to counterfactuals. (shrink)

We analyze selected iterated conditionals in the framework of conditional random quantities. We point out that it is instructive to examine Lewis's triviality result, which shows the conditions a conditional must satisfy for its probability to be the conditional probability. In our approach, however, we avoid triviality because the import-export principle is invalid. We then analyze an example of reasoning under partial knowledge where, given a conditional if A then Cas information, the probability of A should intuitively increase. We explain (...) this intuition by making some implicit background information explicit. We consider several (generalized) iterated conditionals, which allow us to formalize different kinds of latent information. We verify that for these iterated conditionals the prevision is greater than or equal to the probability of A. We also investigate the lower and upper bounds of the Affirmation of the Consequent inference. We conclude our study with some remarks on the supposed "independence" of two conditionals, and we interpret this property as uncorrelation between two random quantities. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

In _Historia animalium_ VIII 1.588a18 ff., Aristotle describes the cognitive powers of non-human animals as sketches of human cognitive powers. According to the wording he chooses here, the cognitive powers of non-human animals are “traces” or “footprints” (ἴχνη, 588a19) of human ones. In this paper I explore the conceptual framework that lays behind this image, in order to show that it is much more than a rhetorical figure, and that Aristotle’s wording encompasses a whole articulated theory, whose details are set (...) out in _De anima_ and the _Parva naturalia_. Moreover, I try to clarify some technicalities of the scientific model he devises in order to explain certain features of the sensory-perceptual part of the soul (with particular attention to the perception of the so-called “common” and “incidental” sensory items) that bear a real analogy to the functions of reason and intellect, and that can consequently be considered their precursors. (shrink)

A interpretação da filosofia de Nāgārjuna como um niilismo metafísico radical é comum tanto entre os autores antigos quanto nos estudos budológicos contemporâneos. Uma primeira leitura da doutrina da vacuidade proposta por esse autor, com efeito, parece levar à conclusão de que nada existe em última análise e, portanto, a realidade em si seria equivalente a um puro não-ser. Uma tal metafísica do nada, entretanto, seria duplamente problemática: primeiramente, ela parece sofrer de graves incovenientes lógico-conceituais; em segundo lugar, ela colocaria (...) Nāgārjuna fora da ortodoxia budista, por ser o niilismo uma doutrina explicitamente reprovada pelo Buda histórico. Uma leitura mais atenta e completa dos textos a nossa disposição, entretanto, nos leva a concluir que a filosofia do fundador da escola Madhyamaka não pode ser considerado como um niilismo metafísico, mas sim, ao invés disso, como uma tentativa de evitar e de eliminar qualquer metafísica, tanto afirmativa quanto negativa, em total acordo com o programa filosófico – já presente no ensinamento do Buda – do “caminho do meio”, equidistante das categorias do ser e do não-ser. (shrink)

Dans la mythologie grecque, Prométhée - le 'prévoyant' - déroba le feu aux dieux et le transmit aux hommes. Zeus, courroucé par ce transfert technologique, condamna Prométhée à un châtiment itéré à l'identique, à l'infini, algorithmique. Le problème que pose l'ancien mythe est celui des limites de la connaissance. En termes modernes, jusqu'à quel point pouvons-nous transformer la nature sans une connaissance des conséquences de nos actions sur elle? Cette question nous pousse à analyser les limites des sciences : à (...) une techno-science devenue toujours plus invasive, la science répond en se donnant à elle-même des limites"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The present study analyses the typology and structure of Chinese Aid to Latin America and the Caribbean, considering the features of this kind of South-South Cooperation within the context of China’s aid policy and strategic aims in this region. The results of the study reveal the different patterns in the structure of Chinese aid to the LAC sub-regions. These patterns indicate that the most significant funds are focused on development and commercial projects in South America; that grants prevail in the (...) case of the Caribbean; and representational aid, which does not need major resources, is associated with Central America. As Wan states, this shows that China’s aid has a strategic role at a global level. (shrink)

The contribution of Big Data to social science is not limited to data availability but includes the introduction of analytical approaches that have been developed in computer science, and in particular in machine learning. This brings about a new ‘culture’ of statistical modelling that bears considerable potential for the social scientist. This argument is illustrated with a brief discussion of model-based recursive partitioning which can bridge the theory and data-driven approach. Such a method is an example of how this new (...) approach can help revise models that work for the full dataset: it can be used for evaluating different models, a traditional weakness of the ‘traditional’ statistical approach used in social science. (shrink)

Philosophical Investigations, Volume 45, Issue 4, Page 512-527, October 2022.

The ArgumentIn this article we throw more light on Einstein's position as a pacifist and democrat during World War I than was possible up to now. This results from a systematical search for and evaluation of published and unpublished documents. Among others, it was possible to give evidence of Einstein's radicalization and to clear up the circumstances of his public appearance during the troublesome days of the Revolution in November 1918. Einstein's role in the Bund Neues Vaterland and other pacifist (...) organizations and his interaction with other pacifists in Germany and abroad is exposed in detail and interpreted. In contrast to the generally accepted view, we give a reappraisal of Einstein's activity and show that his pacifism was always of a humanitarian nature. He only rarely applied social and political categories to the happenings during the war. Due to his main focus on physics Einstein's pacifism remained one more of creed than of deed. (shrink)

Bobbio é um mestre e um clássico da filosofia do direito e da política contemporâneas e seus estudos abordam, principalmente, a mediação e o diálogo. No momento em que, no Brasil e na América Latina, estão se acirrando as intolerâncias e as intransigências ideológicas, a lição de Bobbio está na retomada do que há de melhor na tradição iluminista e racionalista ocidental, contra os fundamentalismos, fanatismos e outras formas de extremismo.

In this chapter I will discuss some of the arguments presented inUnfit for the Future, where the authors stress the necessity of moral enhancement to prevent a global catastrophe. Persson and Savulescu promote a reductionistic view of moral intuitions suggesting that oxytocin, serotonin, and genetic treatments could save humanity from the perils of contemporary liberalism, weapons of mass destruction, and uncontrolled pollution. I will contend that although we need a moral enhancement it cannot be a brute manipulation of our biology (...) but something where human plasticity is seen as paramount. Following the lesson of Dewey's instrumentalism, I advocate a non-reductionistic, pluralistic view where neuroscientific data may be used to develop a more effective moral pedagogy. In my opinion, this prospect is currently much more feasible (and less risky) than a hypothetical mass psycho-civilisation created using drugs and electrodes. (shrink)