El artículo analiza e interpreta las posturas expresadas en una mesa de discusión de 1967 en la que participaron Leopoldo Zea, Luis Villoro, Alejandro Rossi, Abelardo Villegas y José Luis Balcárcel, así como el debate posterior, respecto a cuestiones como la relación entre filosofía e ideología, entre filosofía y reflexión sobre las propias circunstancias, y entre filosofía y profesionalismo, con base en las participaciones y los textos de estos filósofos. Además de organizar las ideas que generaron la mesa (...) y el posterior debate, el autor desarrolla su propio punto de vista en lo que corresponde a los temas tratados. La relevancia del artículo reside en la vigencia de dichas cuestiones y de los argumentos en torno a ellas, en las claves hermenéuticas que aporta para una mejor comprensión de la obra de Zea y de Villoro, y en la reflexión que suscita respecto a la naturaleza del diálogo filosófico y de las comunidades filosóficas. (shrink)

This survey of metaphysics covers the historical or classical aspects of the subject as well as those currently in the post-Wittgensteinian limelight--principally materialism, platonism, essentialism, and anti-realism. Benardete sees contemporary metaphysical preoccupations as more or less thinly disguised revisitings of those of the past, and explains how metaphysics and mathematical logic are interrelated and how metaphysical studies can illuminate both scinece and the humanities.

The author challenges the view that birth cannot be a morally relevant fact in the process of development from zygote to child. He reviews specific arguments against giving any moral significance to the fact of birth. Drawing on recent work in developmental psychology, he contends that the lives of neonates can have a level of self-consciousness that confers moral significance but can only be possessed after birth. He shows that the position he has argued for provides a framework within which (...) the move from the moral validity of aborting sentient fetuses to the moral validity of infanticide might be resisted. He concludes that arguments suggesting that birth can be morally significant support the view that the acquisition of moral significance is a gradual and multilayered phenomenon. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to defend, contra Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini (F&PP), that the theory of natural selection (NS) is a perfectly bona fide empirical unified explanatory theory. F&PP claim there is nothing non-truistic, counterfactual-supporting, of an “adaptive” character and common to different explanations of trait evolution. In his debate with Fodor, and in other works, Sober defends NS but claims that, compared with classical mechanics (CM) and other standard theories, NS is peculiar in that its explanatory models are (...) a priori (a trait shared with few other theories). We argue that NS provides perfectly bona fide adaptive explanations of phenotype evolution, unified by a common natural-selection guiding principle. First, we introduce the debate and reply to F&PP’s main argument against NS. Then, by reviewing different examples and analyzing Fisher’s model in detail, we show that NS explanations of phenotypic evolution share a General Natural Selection Principle. Third, by elaborating an analogy with CM, we argue against F&PP’s claim that such a principle would be a mere truism and thus explanatorily useless, and against Sober’s thesis that NS models/explanations have a priori components that are not present in CM and other common empirical theories. Irrespective of differences in other respects, the NS guiding principle has the same epistemic status as other guiding principles in other highly unified theories such as CM. We argue that only by pointing to the guiding principle-driven nature that it shares with CM and other highly unified theories, something no-one has done yet in this debate, one can definitively show that NS is not defective in F&PP’s sense: in the respects relevant to the debate, Natural Selection is as defective and as epistemically peculiar as Classical Mechanics and other never questioned theories. (shrink)

To the sceptic's contention that I don't know that I have hands because I don't know that there is an external world, the Moorean replies that I know that there is an external world because I know that I have hands. Crispin Wright has argued that the Moorean move is illegitimate, and has tried to block it by limiting the applicability of the principle of the transmission of knowledge by inference—the principle that recognising the validity of an inference from known (...) premises generates knowledge of the conclusion. I argue that, in the presence of some plausible assumptions, blocking the Moorean move does not require limiting the applicability of the transmission principle. Then I argue against Jim Pryor's contention that the Moorean argument transmits evidential support from its premises to its conclusion. (shrink)

Essays on Spanish-American philosophy, particularly Mexican. Part 2 includes selections from the works of José Vasconcelos, Antonio Caso, Samuel Ramos, Adolfo Menéndez Samara, Oswaldo Robes, Alfonso Reyes, Justino Fernández, Edmundo O'Gorman, J.D. García Bacca, Eduardo Nicol, José Medina Echevarría and Juan Larrea.

We argue that there is no general theory of explanation that spans the sciences, mathematics, and ethics, etc. More specifically, there is no good reason to believe that substantive and domain-invariant constraints on explanatory information exist. Using Nickel (Noûs 44(2):305–328, 2010 ) as an exemplar of the contrary, generalist position, we first show that Nickel’s arguments rest on several ambiguities, and then show that even when these ambiguities are charitably corrected, Nickel’s defense of general theories of explanation is inadequate along (...) several different dimensions. Specifically, we argue that Nickel’s argument has three fatal flaws. First, he has not provided any compelling illustrations of domain-invariant constraints on explanation. Second, in order to fend off the most vehement skeptics of domain-invariant theories of explanation, Nickel must beg all of the important questions. Third, Nickel’s examples of explanations from different domains with common explanatory structure rely on incorrect formulations of the explanations under consideration, circular justifications, and/or a mischaracterization of the position Nickel intends to critique. Given that the best and most elaborate defense of the generalist position fails in so many ways, we conclude that the standard practice in philosophy (and in philosophy of science in particular), which is to develop theories of explanation that are tailored to specific domains, still is justified. For those who want to buy into a more ambitious project: beware of the costs! (shrink)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion.

Advaita Vedanta is the most refined philosophical pearl of Hinduism. It is reserved for seekers of Truth who want to know their own essence and aspire to liberation, or mokṣa. It suggests following the path of knowledge, called jñāna-yoga, which is more an existential view than a theory, philosophy, doctrine, or deductive logical knowledge. It teaches self-inquiry: "Who am I?" This question is an expression of the highest and noblest rebellion. It restores our dignity and accepts us as the only (...) authority on who we are. Jñāna is knowing ourselves as Brahman and realizing our reality as the transcendental Self, beyond time and space. In this book, Prabhuji presents the principles of Vedanta that will help seekers take their first steps on this path. Rather than offering information, explanations, and answers, he inspires us to inquire, doubt, and investigate our own essence. He tells us that every effort to achieve enlightenment is superfluous because we already are what we aspire to be. We simply need to turn our attention to consciousness itself and be the Self. (shrink)

This compilation offers us the rare opportunity to come in contact with the spontaneous words of an enlightened master. With refreshing insight, Prabhuji reveals a unique message of selfinquiry and evolution. For Prabhuji, yoga is "a path that begins and ends in you, from what you believe yourself to be to what you really are." The transcribed lectures included in this book encompass teachings from various paths of the ancient wisdom of yoga and invite the readers to study, contemplate, and (...) integrate the different aspects of the human experience in order to rediscover their authentic nature. The deep observations of the author, explained with great eloquence and clarity, can help each one to see what is, as it is. (shrink)

Mientras que las ciencias físicas han desvelado en la modernidad gran número de problemas, las ciencias sociales y humanas siguen enfrentándose al "monstruo de lo social"; sin lograr resolver los enigmas que suscita la vida colectiva. Los conflictos sociales, políticos y culturales no sólo no han sido paliados sino que a veces se han vuelto aún más opacos. Esta paradoja que conduce al desaliento, interroga directamente a disciplinas como la antropología social y cultural. La antropología crítica como saber en permanente (...) transformación se ha convertido de esta manera en un gozne indispensable de la sociedad plural y democrática. (shrink)

1. Luces y sombras de la ciudad -- 2. Los jalones de la libertad.

The politics of nativism directed at Catholic immigrants in 19th-century America offer a fruitful comparative perspective through which to analyze the discourse and the politics of Islam in contemporary Europe. Anti-Catholic nativism constituted a peculiar North American version of the larger and more generalized phenomenon of anti-immigrant populist xenophobic politics which one finds in many countries and in different historical contexts. What is usually designated as Islamo-phobia in contemporary Europe, however, manifests striking resemblances with the original phenomenon of American nativism (...) that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. In both cases one finds the fusion of anti-immigrant xenophobic attitudes, perennial inter-religious prejudices, and an ideological construct setting a particular religious-civilizational complex in essential opposition to Western modernity. Although an anti-Muslim discourse emerged also in the United States after 11 September, it had primarily a geo-political dimension connected with the ‘war on terror’ and with American global imperial policies. But it lacked the domestic anti-immigrant populist as well as the modern secularist anti-Muslim dimensions. This explains why xenophobic anti-Muslim nativism has been much weaker in the United States than in Europe. (shrink)

O artigo se apóia na filosofia da história da Walter Benjamin para denunciar a barbárie que se aloja na base da sociedade ocidental e promove a exclusão e o esquecimento das vítimas. Indica o papel político da memória na construção da democracia e no resgate da dignidade humana, reconhecida a partir da alteridade evidenciada no sofrimento, seguindo mais de perto a experiência das ditaduras latinoamericanas, em especial, a da ditadura militar brasileira. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Justiça das vítimas. Memória política. História e (...) narração. Dignidade da pessoa humana. Ditadura Militar. Walter Benjamin. (shrink)

O marxismo tem recebido atestado de óbito de autores renomados. MAs o fim de uma ideologia oficial, simbolizada dramaticamente pela queda do muro de Berlim, esgotaria a capacidade dos textos de Marx para compreender aspectos decisivos da nossa contemporaneidade? Se O capital pretendeu criticar o processo de produção capitalista, continuando no plano teórico o movimento de contestação efetivado pelo proletariado, já não teria agora a dimensão clássica das grandes obras filosóficas do passado?Mas então, se esse texto se tornou clássico, conjunto (...) de idéias com as quais convivemos sem ter como aderir a elas por inteiro, é preciso iluminar os tópicos que ainda podem nos servir de ponto de partida. NÃo se trata de distinguir nele o vivo e o morto, mas de pensar seu núcleo mais vivo - precisamente, sua crítica da racionalidade com que o capital se apresenta. CErta herança marxista procura reler Marx do ponto de vista de sua posteridade, acentuando aquela traição que o reanima. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 On February 12, 1440 Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) concludes in his birthplace of Kues drafting the first major systematic formulation of his thinking: De docta ignorantia . The main category of his metaphysics in this context, i.e. the maximum , is analyzed and interpreted by him on three considerations: the maximum in an absolute sense, as contracted and finally as absolute and contracted, at the same time. In the context of the First Book, (...) which presents the singular methodology of the docta ignorantia , considers the maximum in itself in light of the paradoxical concept of coincidentia oppositorum in the absolute. In the final chapters of this first book tackles the critical of the theological discourse and thus, the problem of the ineffable name of maximum et minimum absolutum . Hence the purpose of this work is the further on cusan’s evaluation of language problem as it shows through treatment of the theological discourses and divine names that emerge from them, in light of the way of docta ignorantia. (shrink)

This volume comprises nine lively and insightful essays by leading scholars on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, focusing mainly on his early work.

Despite the importance of network analysis in biological practice, dominant models of scientific explanation do not account satisfactorily for how this family of explanations gain their explanatory power in every specific application. This insufficiency is particularly salient in the study of the ecology of the microbiome. Drawing on Coyte et al. (2015) study of the ecology of the microbiome, Deulofeu et al. (2021) argue that these explanations are neither mechanistic, nor purely mathematical, yet they are substantially empirical. Building on their (...) criticisms, in the present work we make a step further elucidating this kind of explanations with a general analytical framework according to which scientific explanations are ampliative, specialized embeddings (ASE), which has recently been successfully applied to other biological subfields. We use ASE to reconstruct in detail the Coyte et al.’s case study and on its basis, we claim that network explanations of the ecology of the microbiome, and other similar explanations in ecology, gain their epistemological force in virtue of their capacity to embed biological phenomena in non-accidental generalizations that are simultaneously ampliative and specialized. (shrink)

In Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, one can find a number of remarks that could be seen as antithetical to classic philosophical analysis. There are passages seemingly rejecting the ideas of concept decomposition, regression to first principles, and semantic substitution. The criticism, I argue, is aimed not at analysis in particular, but rather at some idealizations that pervade a certain picture of philosophy. This picture can be contrasted with Wittgenstein’s pragmatist view of explanations of meaning which, I believe, can inform a (...) different attitude towards philosophical method that aligns well with a vision of philosophy as conversation. If we think of philosophy as engaging in the development and exchange of explanations of meaning, we can see how various methods can coexist insofar as they are useful, and as long as the urge to sublimate them beyond our practices can be avoided. (shrink)

Este artigo busca apresentar as fenomenologias de Husserl e de Heidegger não como dois caminhos isolados na construção do que ulteriormente representou a tradição fenomenológica, mas, ao contrário, identificando pontos de intersecção entre estes dois autores. Para isso recorre ao texto Mein Weg in die Phänomenologie, de Heidegger, publicado em 1963, no qual o já septuagenário filósofo recorre ao seu itinerário pessoal junto à fenomenologia e ao quanto a obra e, posteriormente, a figura de Husserl se mostrariam marcantes na elaboração (...) de seu pensamento – desde suas iniciais intuições como estudante de teologia, passando pelos primeiros anos como professor universitário e culminando na publicação de Sein und Zeit. O reconhecimento deste itinerário exige, porquanto, que a obra de Heidegger seja enxergada em sua relação com a fenomenologia husserliana, donde não apenas recebera o método necessário para a instauração de uma ontologia fundamental, mas a radicalidade inerente à própria atividade filosofante, isto é, o direcionamento às coisas mesmas e, por ele, à essência do pensamento, à coisa do pensar. (shrink)

The films of Lars von Trier offer unique opportunities for thinking deeply about how Philosophy and Cinema speak to one another. The book addresses von Trier’s films in order of their release. The earlier chapters discuss his Golden Heart trilogy and USA: Land of Opportunities series by addressing issues of potential misogyny, ethical critique, and racial justice. The later chapters focus on his Depression Trilogy and address the undermining of gender binaries, the psychoanalytic meaning of the sacrifice of children and (...) depression, and philosophical questions provoked by the depiction of the end of the world. Taken together, the volume explores the topics of Philosophical Psychology, Social Theory, Political Theory, Theories of the Self, Philosophy of Race, and Feminist Thought, and opens a conversation about von Trier’s important work. (shrink)