The Corpus of English Philosophy Texts (CEPhiT) is part of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing (CC) following CETA (Corpus of English Texts on Astronomy). In accordance with the rest of the Corpus, CEPhiT has been compiled for the description of philosophical texts written in English in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The sampling method employed requires the collection of extracts of 10,000 words. This method has been followed in CETA and CEPhiT, with samples from 40 different authors in (...) the latter, both from Europe and North America. Text selection is based on some extralinguistic criteria, such as year of publication, sex, geographical provenance and text-types/genres. The corpus contains samples belonging to six different genre categories. This taxonomy, as well as some other extralinguistic information, can be used to search the corpus. CEPhiT, like CETA, is released on CD-Rom with Coruña Corpus Tool (CCT), purpose-designed software by IrLab. (shrink)

Todo el curso gravita sobre la función reproductiva de la trompa. La trompa, en fin de cuentas, es un oviducto. Ya bastante habrán dicho de todo ello Michel Idoate y Fernando de la Fuente. Yo lo que quiero hacer en mi charla es llamar la atención sobre los aspectos éticos de unos pocos hechos básicos: que, de ordinario, la fecundación tiene lugar en la ampolla tubárica y que aquí y en el istmo transcurren las primeras horas y los primeros días (...) del desarrollo embrionario. Estos hechos, tan conocidos, tienen implicaciones ético-médicas muy importantes. La principal de ellas, se refiere a quien sea el embrión humano que se engendra en la trompa y en ella habita cuatro o cinco días. Pero, no menos importante, es la que se refiere a cuáles son las relaciones éticas que han de establecerse entre el médico y la mujer en cuya trompa flota un embrión. (shrink)

This article explores Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation thesis and examines the arguments against his work, particularly from certain moral philosophers in the late 1970s and 1980s who seriously engaged with his ideas. This article argues that due to the straightforward, minimalist nature of Singer’s preference utilitarianism, his arguments have remained highly defensible and persuasive. By advancing sentience, above characteristics like intelligence or rationality, as a sufficient criterion for possessing interests, Singer provides a justifiable principle for morally considering animal interests equal (...) to those of humans. Numerous moral philosophers have challenged Singer, but they have struggled to seriously counter his core principle and to resolve the argument of ‘marginal cases’—that is, why do infants and intellectually disabled humans have moral status and animals do not. Ultimately, Singer broadly challenged prevailing anthropocentric views of animals and, in some instances, persuaded some of his most intransigent opponents. (shrink)

The most common definition of belief is taken from analytical philosophy, which understands it as a proposition that is considered as true. Such a broad definition is ambiguous for some fields of empirical research, like psychology, which deals with the mental state of the believer when holding the belief. This article aims to reach an operationalization of beliefs to pinpoint their distinctive features with respect to similar concepts. We summarize the most influential interpretations of belief in psychology and psychiatry, which (...) are mainly based on Immanuel Kant and analytical philosophy. We also expose the problem that arises from putting the mental states of beliefs, knowledge, opinions and preferences in the same bag. Our proposal is that a belief is: a proposition that is taken to be true; and which the subject is willing to hold even if irrefutable evidence were hypothetically argued against it. We introduce a narrower interpretation to reliably discriminate the mental state of believing, which is intended to be applied to empirical psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, sociology and related sciences. (shrink)

This article has two parts. The first one compares the ontological and epistemological implications of two main philosophical stances on how reality relates to appearance. I call the first group the “plane of superficiality,” where reality and appearance are the same; there is no gap between what a thing is and how it manifests itself. I call the second group “volume of representation,” in which reality is beyond appearances; there is an insurmountable gap between the thing and its phenomena. The (...) second part of the article focuses on Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) as the second group’s contemporary position. Within the OOO epistemological model of “knowledge without truth,” Harman’s schema of the observer’s participation in the object’s knowledge production is questioned. Alternatively, based on the notion proposed here of “flat representativity” in which each appearance is equally valuable to represent different aspects of the object, I argue for the full spectrum of the sensual as the basis for “knowledge without truth.” In particular, the aesthetic method, excluded from Harman’s concerns about knowledge, is suggested as another contribution to the episteme. (shrink)

The Author describes briefly how, through the confluence of trie new medical specialties of Reproductive Medicine and Molecular Genetics, a wide avenue has been opened to the genetic diagnosis and therapy of the preimplantation embryo. Today, the human embryo in its early stages has become the object of medical experimentation. In the next future, we will see the advent of new techniques for microsurgical manipulation and gene therapy Embryo-fetal Medicine will grow actively. The Author, after briefly analyzing the origin, and (...) criticizing the meaning, of the term preembryo, condueles, on the basis of unbiased observation of the continuum of human life, that only an attitude of respect for life and the determination to extend to the early human embryo the benefits of (gene)therapy are consistent with the deepest medical-deontological traditions. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new approach to the modal operators of necessity and possibility. This approach is based on the existence of two negations in certain lattices that we call bi-Heyting algebras. Modal operators are obtained by iterating certain combinations of these negations and going to the limit. Examples of these operators are given by means of graphs.

Among the various contemporary schools of moral thinking, consequence-based ethics, as opposed to rule-based, seems to have a good acceptance among professionals such as software engineers. But naïve consequentialism is intellectually too weak to serve as a practical guide in the profession. Besides, the complexity of software systems makes it very hard to know in advance the consequences that will derive from professional activities in the production of software. Therefore, following the spirit of well-known codes of ethics such as the (...) ACM/IEEE’s, we advocate for a more solid position in the ethical education of software engineers, which we call ‘moderate deontologism’, that takes into account both rules and consequences to assess the goodness of actions, and at the same time pays an adequate consideration to the absolute values of human dignity. In order to educate responsible professionals, however, this position should be complemented with a pedagogical approach to virtue ethics. (shrink)

Wind turbines have been used by many groups of humans for many centuries. Wind turbines have allowed groups of humans to perform many different tasks in the past. However, only a century and a half ago, they began to be used to convert the energy captured from wind into electric energy. Moreover, only approximately twenty-five years ago, we started to introduce on a massive scale the energy generated from wind turbines into the electric networks of most developed countries in the (...) world for regular consumption. According to 2017 statistics, approximately 12 percent of the electric energy consumed in the EU is produced by wind turbines. Despite the fact that wind turbines generally appear quite similar externally—i.e., a three-blade structure, a nacelle, a tower, etc.—if we carefully examine the electric technology used within them, we find quite a wide range of technologies for energy conversion, which is a key issue in wind turbine technology. Hence, this paper adopts a dialectic perspective towards analyzing and understanding why several electric technologies coexist in wind turbine technology. We explain the specific factors that have influenced different wind turbine manufacturers to adopt different electric technologies across the last twenty-five years. We show how their actions and the technological directions that have followed have been mutually codetermined, resulting in a technological evolution that has produced today’s wind turbine variety. (shrink)

Upon his controversial and successful publication of Words of a Believer, Lamennais became one of the most influential thinkers in Europe and America. Lamennais’s other works, such as Modern Slavery, have received surprisingly less attention, considering that with it he made a re-description of the concept people and consequently of democracy. Lamennais’s presentation of the antagonism between liberty and tyranny, between a few oppressors and the majority of the oppressed turned him into a key reference for the democratic, republican, and (...) socialist political cultures. We can then speak of a “Lamennais moment” as opposed to the “Guizot moment,” which offered conflicting world views. This article combines an analysis of the translations and circulation of Modern Slavery in Spain and Latin America with the study of the new meanings of the concept people. (shrink)

The hypothesis of a theoretical unity between On Sophistical Refutations and Prior Analytics presents a major challenge to scholars attempting to unify the criteria of analysis. This paper examines this problem and proposes a middle ground between the perspectives of Woods and Boger to address this crucial question: If a unitary and coherent theory of deduction exists, why does not the technical apparatus of syllogistic modes for analyzing fallacies appear in SE? This paper makes useful contributions to the discussion on (...) the internal unity of Aristotle's logical writings on around categorical syllogistics and the doctrine of sophistical refutations. (shrink)

The publication of scientific papers has become increasingly problematic in the last decades. Even if we agree that a renewed model is needed for peer-reviewed scientific publication, we think the problem does not essentially lie in professional publishing—with economic incentives—but in the publish-or-perish culture that dominates the lives of researchers and academics.

ObjectivesThe aims of this research were to compare the levels of physical activity of eHealth users and non-users, to determine the effects of these technologies on motivations, and to establish the relationship that could exist between psychological constructs and physical activity behaviors.MethodsThis cross-sectional study involved 569 adults who responded to an online questionnaire during confinement in France. The questions assessed demographics, usage of eHealth for exercise and physical activity, and behavioral levels. The questionnaire also measured the constructs of Social Cognitive (...) Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and automaticity facets toward eHealth for exercise and physical activity.ResultsParticipants who were users of eHealth for exercise and physical activity presented significantly higher levels of vigorous physical activity and total physical activity per week than non-users. The chi-square test showed significant interactions between psychological constructs toward eHealth and physical activity levels. Self-efficacy was significantly and negatively correlated with walking time per week. Concerning the automaticity facets, efficiency was positive and significantly correlated with vigorous physical activity levels per week. Then, regressions analyses showed that self-efficacy and automaticity efficiency explained 5% of the variance of walking minutes per week and vigorous physical activity per week, respectively.ConclusionThis study has shown that people during confinement looked for ways to stay active through eHealth. However, we must put any technological solution into perspective. The eHealth offers possibilities to stay active, however its benefits and the psychological mechanisms affected by it remains to be demonstrated: eHealth could be adapted to each person and context. (shrink)

Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra offers a fresh philosophical account of properties. How is it that two different things (such as two red roses) can share the same property (redness)? According to resemblance nominalism, things have their properties in virtue of resembling other things. This unfashionable view is championed with clarity and rigor.

La libertad, para Spinoza, consiste en la autodeterminación, siendo causa de las propias acciones, siguiendo la necesidad de su naturaleza. Este artículo abordará este tema en cuatro movimientos. Los dos primeros investigarán cómo los especialistas habrían interpretado la libertad de Spinoza en términos positivos y negativos, respectivamente. El tercero investigará una interpretación que afirma que la libertad, en Spinoza, debe ser necesariamente positiva y negativa al mismo tiempo. El cuarto apartado consistirá en una interpretación de la libertad del propio Spinoza, (...) demostrando que debe concebirse de manera positiva. (shrink)

Se presenta el concepto del Cristo cósmico en el teólogo Leonardo Boff, como realidad que trasciende a los seres humanos, sus adscripciones religiosas, incluso la soteriología. Se aborda, particularmente, la consecuencia de esta idea en la superación del antropocentrismo y en una espiritualidad que considera la importancia de la relación entre Cristo y el universo. El artículo es, además, una lectura crítica desde la tradición reformacional como alternativa a las principales teologías evangélicas de los últimos siglos, que desde el escolasticismo (...) protestante, carecen de una reflexión cosmológica consistente. This article presents Leonardo Boff´s theological concept of cosmic Christ as a reality which transcends human being and their religious and soteriological views. The consequences of this concept in the overcoming of anthropocentrism and a spirituality which considers the importance of relation between Christ and the universe are particularly regarded. Moreover, this article offers a critic view from the reformational tradition as an alternative to the main alternatives among the evangelical theology of the last centuries, especially the scholastic Protestantism which according to the author does not have a consistence cosmic thought. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo propone una reflexión acerca de una colección de ukiyo-e del Archivo Central Andrés Bello de la Universidad de Chile. La anchura del problema es extendida en dos constelaciones exploratorias: por una parte, indagar lo controvertible, aparentemente, de interrogar el objeto japonés desde las lógicas disciplinares occidentales, es decir, por medio de la dicotomía Occidente-Oriente. De otra parte, caracterizar cómo esta tensión inicial fue desatendida o invertida, como un paradigma de lo social en el ukiyo-e y, con ello, (...) el principio de asociatividad de las imágenes en el espacio del museo.: This article proposes a reflection about a collection of ukiyo-e from the Archivo Central Andrés Bello of the Universidad Chile. The breadth of the problem is extended on two exploratory constellations: on the one hand, to inquire the controversy, apparently, to interrogate the Japanese object from Western disciplinary logics, that means, through the West-East dichotomy. On the other hand, to characterize how this initial tension was neglected or inverted, as a social paradigm on ukiyo-e, and with it, the principle of associativity of the images in the space of the museum. (shrink)

El origen de la escritura china sigue siendo a día de hoy una cuestión que no deja de despertar gran interés. Con el presente trabajo pretendemos exponer ciertos aspectos de dicha escritura, centrando la investigación en sus orígenes y prestando una especial atención a las explicaciones mitológicas que se han dado al respecto. Se exponen cuatro personajes destacados de la mitología china en torno a los cuales se han centrado los mitos sobre el inicio de esta escritura milenaria.

El artículo intenta leer el poema parmenídeo en contra vía de la interpretación tradicional que ve en eléata al filósofo del ser, negador del devenir. Esta dicotomía tradicional opone la vía de la verdad y la vía de la opinión y descalifica el proemio como mero exordio poético, místico y religioso, sin ninguna importancia para el poema en sí. Se establece así la separación radical entre ser y devenir, ser y aparecer y el pensar sólo se ocupa del ser en (...) tanto unidad, inmovilidad, lejos del movimiento. La reflexión intenta hermenéuticamente polemizar con esta perspectiva mostrando la unidad del poema desde el proemio mismo. Este, lejos de ser una formalidad lírica, es el pórtico de entrada al templo del poema. Como en un pórtico sacral, el proemio es la escalinata que establece la unidad del poema, derribando la dicotomía destructiva. Desde el proemio copulan ser–devenir, ser–pensar, ser–aparecer en una unidad que hace del tó eón como physis una totalidad envolvente que concilia la contrariedad en una compensación armoniosa como concordia de los contrarios. (shrink)

This article deals with a modern disease of academic science that consists of an enormous increase in the number of scientific publications without a corresponding advance of knowledge. Findings are sliced as thin as salami and submitted to different journals to produce more papers. If we consider academic papers as a kind of scientific ‘currency’ that is backed by gold bullion in the central bank of ‘true’ science, then we are witnessing an article-inflation phenomenon, a scientometric bubble that is most (...) harmful for science and promotes an unethical and antiscientific culture among researchers. The main problem behind the scenes is that the impact factor is used as a proxy for quality. Therefore, not only for convenience, but also based on ethical principles of scientific research, we adhere to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment when it emphasizes “the need to eliminate the use of journal-based metrics in funding, appointment and promotion considerations; and the need to assess research on its own merits rather on the journal in which the research is published”. Our message is mainly addressed to the funding agencies and universities that award tenures or grants and manage research programmes, especially in developing countries. The message is also addressed to well-established scientists who have the power to change things when they participate in committees for grants and jobs. (shrink)

Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereya provides a new English translation of G. W. Leibniz's Discourse on Metaphysics, complete with a critical introduction and a comprehensive philosophical commentary. In this fundamental work, Leibniz sets out a metaphysics for Christianity and provides answers to the central metaphysical questions.

In this article, we aim at presenting a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the mathematical and theoretical relation between all the aspects of Ptolemaic planetary models and their counterparts which are built according to Kepler’s first two laws. Our article also analyzes the predictive differences which arise from comparing Ptolemaic and these ideal Keplerian models, making clear distinctions between those differences which must be attributed to the structural variations between the models, and those which are due to the specific parameters (...) Ptolemy determined in the Almagest. We expect that our work will be a contribution for a better understanding not only of the Ptolemaic theories for planetary longitudes through a clearer perception of the way in which Keplerian features are present—or absent—in Ptolemy’s models, but also for a more balanced judgement of different aspects of the contribution of the first two laws of Kepler to the modern astronomical revolution. (shrink)

In the paper [8], the first author developped a topos- theoretic approach to reference and modality. (See also [5]). This approach leads naturally to modal operators on locales (or spaces without points). The aim of this paper is to develop the theory of such modal operators in the context of the theory of locales, to axiomatize the propositional modal logics arising in this context and to study completeness and decidability of the resulting systems.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has hit almost all countries around the globe, seriously affecting the welfare of populations. Spain is especially hard-hit. In this context, the purpose of the present study is to analyze social, demographic, and economic correlates of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the population residing in Spain.MethodThe sample of this cross-sectional study was comprised of 801 participants aged 18 or older and residing in Spain. Data collection was carried out during March and April 2020. Data of (...) mental health and well-being indicators, and those of a wide number of social, demographic, and economic variables were recorded. Linear regression models were built to value associations between mental health and social, demographic, and economic indicators.ResultsMental health morbidity was higher in women, younger people, individuals with medium studies, people with fewer children, singles, students, and unemployed individuals. Positive affect was higher among women, people with a high level of studies, those not co-living with dependent seniors, the self-employed, the employed, and those working outside home. Negative affect was negatively associated with age and number of children and was higher among women, people with basic studies, singles, individuals co-living with dependent seniors, homemakers, and students.ConclusionThe most vulnerable populations were found to be women, younger people, people with basic or medium studies, students and individuals with no remunerated activities, single populations, and those co-living with dependent seniors as well as those with a reduced number of children. (shrink)