Starting from the identification and characterization of three literary forms that coexist throughout Parmenides’ Poem, all of them plainly different from each other, it is proposed and demonstrated that such a variety of forms mirrors the delimitation of the different ways of thought and language elaborated by Parmenidic philosophy, in which at least two types of nature of knowledge must be recognized: the logical and the cosmological. The first, marked by a formally logical-argumentative speech which is given the name of (...) truth (aletheia) and whose way of thinking is exclusively noetic; the second, of a theoretical-descriptive nature, dedicated to the consideration of the movement proper to cosmic phenomena, whose devenir demands an equally mobile way of thinking (phronein). (shrink)

Over recent years, various semantics have been proposed for dealing with updates in the setting of logic programs. The availability of different semantics naturally raises the question of which are most adequate to model updates. A systematic approach to face this question is to identify general principles against which such semantics could be evaluated. In this paper we motivate and introduce a new such principle the refined extension principle. Such principle is complied with by the stable model semantics for (single) (...) logic programs. It turns out that none of the existing semantics for logic program updates, even though generalisations of the stable model semantics, comply with this principle. For this reason, we define a refinement of the dynamic stable model semantics for Dynamic Logic Programs that complies with the principle. (shrink)

Pesquisar sobre uma temática de tamanha envergadura e polissemia como a interdisciplinaridade não é uma tarefa simples, ainda mais quando ela está se constituindo em um campo de conhecimento próprio. Sendo assim, tocar no assunto exige cautela e rigorosidade intelectual, visto que a interdisciplinaridade não se resume apenas a uma ponte entre saberes como comumente é acatada. Não é uma questão de deslocamento, mas de vinculação, de atitude, de um olhar cruzado entre o que se sabe e o que sepode (...) aprender com outros sujeitos e outros saberes; em sua gênese, podemos explicitar que a interdisciplinaridade “busca uma nova forma de compreensão a respeito do conhecimento e sua produção”. (shrink)

Contemporary understanding of the mechanisms of disease increasingly points to examples of “genetic diseases” with an infectious component and of “infectious diseases” with a genetic component. Such blurred boundaries generate ethical, legal, and social issues and highlight historical contexts that must be examined when incorporating host genomic information into the prevention, outbreak control, and treatment of infectious diseases.

COSTA, Alexandre da. Fundamentos da bioética: estudo sobre o pensamento de Hugo Tristram Engelhardt Jr. FERREIRA, Amauri Carlos. O imaginário religioso e modos de vida urbana: experiência e memória da Juventude Católica em Belo Horizonte – MG, anos 80. GONÇALVES, Davidson Sepini. O Panóptico de Jeremy Bentham: por uma leitura utilitarista. GÓIS, Aurino José. Parque Municipal de Belo Horizonte: público, apropriações e significados. FARIA, Paulo Antônio Couto. Teologia no limiar da filosofia: a modernidade e o encontro fé e razão (...) na obra de Henrique Cláudio de Lima Vaz. (shrink)

A origem da Antropologia de Kantiana aponta para a coerência do projeto de filosofia deste autor: a proposição de padrões para a resolução de problemas humanos segundo uma finalidade prática da experiência social. Assim, este artigo tem como pano de fundo a ideia que apesar de Kant iniciar a sua filosofia crítica buscando as condições de possibilidade de cientificidade da metafísica, ele flexionou seu projeto, após 1793, em vista do principal objeto de qualquer teoria filosófica moderna, o homem, sendo a (...) antropologia sua ciência. Com isso, exporei que a antropologia não surgiu da psicologia empírica, apesar de ter dela se servido em seu início por falta de um melhor manual de teoria empírica; isso significa que apesar da noção de sujeito ser essencial na filosofia crítica, ela não satisfaz as finalidades humanas, que se vinculam à espécie, em geral. Finalmente, mostrarei que a geografia física é o marco inicial da antropologia kantiana, devido o fato de ser um conhecimento do mundo físico e humano, cuja importância deste último tornou inevitável sua independência, em vista da fundação da ciência do homem. Este artigo também ajuda lateralmente a compreender certo esquecimento da antropologia kantiana por parte da antropologia social e cultural, que se consolidou no século XIX. (shrink)

É legítimo nos perguntarmos sobre o estatuto próprio da filosofia em sua generalidade? Penso que não. No entanto, creio ainda ser legítimo nestes nosso tempo ultramoderno nos questionarmos acerca do espírito de nossa era ou ao menos de uma filosofia específica que nos diga muito a respeito de nós mesmos e de nosso período histórico. Afunilando mais este mote pergunto: qual o espírito da filosofia kantiana? Kant, como todos sabem, é o responsável pela virada teórica na filosofia moderna, re-significando-a de (...) modo a separar o que ele chama de dogmas e conhecimento, daquilo que é mero pensamento. Desse modo, proponho uma investigação acerca do espírito da filosofia kantiana, a partir de uma grande pista dada pelo próprio autor para tal, a saber, o conceito de filosofia, contido em sua Lógica de 1800. Com isso, pretendo mostrar que a filosofia kantiana em seu espírito não está dissociada da vida cotidiana. (shrink)

A literatura é uma das expressões artísticas mais significativas na história das civilizações, porque o homem constrói o mundo real e imaginário. Ao analisarmos o ensino da literatura, nota-se o quanto o trabalho com essa arte, em sala de aula tem demonstrado um tanto quanto ineficaz, haja vista falta de cultura literária por parte dos estudantes. Nesse contexto, é visto na Literatura de Cordel uma fonte alternativa de trabalho com a prática literária, pois esta carrega importantes marcas e traços de (...) nossa história e cultura popular. O capítulo propõe uma intervenção pedagógica em turmas de 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental, a partir da utilização da Literatura de Cordel, fundamentada pela metodologia da Sequência Básica sugerida por Cosson (2021). Por meio de ações organizadas e sistematizadas somos capazes de proporcionar o acesso a outras leituras contribuindo para a formação do futuro leitor.Palavras chaves: Leitura. Literatura de Cordel. Letramento Literário. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende mostrar a gênese e a conquista do conceito de filosofia cosmopolita de Kant ao longo do seu período pré-crítico. Esse conceito foi erigido por meio das pesquisas de Kant tanto sobre o que significava filosofar na Antiguidade quanto sobre a pretensão de encontrar um método que resolvesse o problema da cientificidade da metafísica. Defende-se que tal conceito é o principal elemento que dota sua filosofia de organicidade, de maneira a conceder coerência lógica ao longo de toda a (...) reflexão crítica: da Crítica da razão pura até o Opus Postumum, Kant conserva os conteúdos e a forma de tal conceito, na medida em que este interessa a todos os humanos, pois visa à consecução de fins racionais aplicados à resolução dos problemas humanos. A investigação, portanto, divide-se em três tópicos: (I) a reflexão das décadas de 1740 e 1750; (II) o problema do método em fi losofi a próprio à década de 1760; e, finalmente, (III) a formulação do conceito de filosofia cosmopolita ao longo da década de 1770, formulação que subjaz à costura dos fundamentos do projeto crítico. (shrink)

Pensamos que apesar de Kant inaugurar sua filosofia crítica tratando das condições de possibilidade formais para resolução de problemas (filosofia crítica), ele avança na década de 1790 em direção a estabelecer a antropologia como finalidade da sua filosofia. Considerando isso, o objetivo deste escrito é mostrar que a recepção da filosofia kantiana nos séculos XIX e XX foi logicista e formalista, ressaltando bem mais sua base transcendental que pragmática (em sentido kantiano). Desse modo, o retorno a Kant, promovido pelo Neokantismo, (...) contribuiu para o esquecimento e não tematização da centralidade da sua antropologia, pois se voltou às condições de possibilidade para a consolidação das ciências na segunda metade do século XIX e legou ao kantismo do século XX modelos interpretativos de viés logicista a analítico, deixando de lado qualquer reflexão profunda sobre a parte empírica de sua filosofia, posto considerá-la impura. Também pontuaremos que a própria ciência etnográfica desconsidera qualquer herança de Kant em sua constituição. No final, provaremos estatisticamente, por meio da análise do centenário histórico da revista Kant Studien que houve um baixíssimo volume de textos sobre temas pragmáticos. A antropologia de Kant foi esquecida pela fortuna crítica, quando deveria ter sido posta como central. (shrink)

In September 2018, a controversial judicial sentence concerning sexual violence caused a public outcry in Portugal. The court decision invoked the alleged environment of mutual seduction, the use of much alcohol consumption, and the lack of serious injuries to justify the suspended penalty. Stemming from the idea that understandings of what journalism is and what it should be are profoundly ideological and that notions of what it means to be and to behave like a woman and as a man have (...) been developed based on shifting realities within generalised patriarchal structures, this article intends to critically analyse the news media coverage of the controversial judicial sentence on this rape case in Portugal exploring the implications objective-based journalism entails for gender equality. As such, it will identify the shortcomings of objectivity and its leeway when covering sexual violence exploring how objective-based journalism provides room to negotiate practices, norms, identities, and meanings concerning sexual violence, particularly rape and rape myths, and questioning whether a margin of maneuvre is enough to deconstruct patriarchal assumptions of feminity, masculinity and sexuality. (shrink)

O processo de resposta do Teste Pictórico de Memória (TEPIC-M) classifica seus itens em três categorias sequenciais (céu, terra e água). Assim, aventou-se a hipótese que pessoas com uma familiaridade diária com o mar (Aracaju-grupo A) lembrariam mais desses itens quando comparadas com pessoas sem es..

Explorando a crítica do “tríplice amálgama” que José Chasin desenvolve em Marx: estatuto ontológico e resolução metodológica, texto de 1995, este artigo procura retomar, em um procedimento expansivo, os textos indicados pelo marxista brasileiro, a fim de verificar a gênese teórica de sua posição crítica. Para tanto, revisita os textos de Kaustky, Lênin e, sobretudo Engels, demonstrando que, na busca por precisar o estatuto da cientificidade marxiana, Chasin fornece as pistas para encontrarmos não apenas a originalidade de Marx, mas a (...) autenticidade do próprio filósofo de Barmen. Neste percurso, não apenas o problema do método, como ainda a reanálise da política, o lugar da determinação econômica e a definição da ideologia encerram o quadrado engelsiano. (shrink)

The repercussions of the echoes of the Council of Trent , the Counter Reform movement, and the repercussions they had on the artistic production in the Catholic world. The pedagogical-didactic intents behind its composition are grounded on the belief that art could be an effective tool for reconverting of the faithful and for indoctrination in the values of the Catholic faith. Considering that, this paper aims at presenting the way allegory became an important tool for the interpretation and construction of (...) religious discourse, as we can see in the History of the Elected Pilgrim and his Brother Precito. The book is an allegorical narrative that presents the history of two pilgrim brothers born in Egypt from where they set out with the intention of making a fortune . In this way, the book presents continuity with the medieval pattern that highlights the journey, especially the path for salvation. The readiness of allegory to transmit abstract concepts through concrete visualizations allied to a form of indirect expression made it a powerful, didactic, apologetic, and entertaining tool for that time. (shrink)

Debates about bodily ownership and psychological ownership have typically proceeded independently of each other. This paper explores the relation between them, with particular reference to how each is illuminated by psychopathology. I propose a general framework for studying ownership that is applicable both to bodily ownership and psychological ownership. The framework proposes studying ownership by starting with explicit judgments of ownership and then exploring the bases for those judgments. Section 3 discusses John Campbell’s account of ψ-ownership in the light of (...) that general framework, emphasizing in particular his fractionation of ψ-ownership into two dissociable components. Section 4 briefly presents an account of φ-ownership that I have developed in more detail elsewhere. Section 5 explores the suggestion, originating with Alexandre Billon, that there needs to be an integrated account of φ-ownership and ψ-ownership because depersonalization disorders typically involve breakdowns of both φ-ownership and ψ-ownership. The argument from depersonalization is not compelling, but Section 6 proposes a different way of reaching the same conclusion. Section 7 shows how reflecting on agency and practical reasoning offers a common thread between the models of φ-ownership and ψ-ownership discussed earlier in the paper. (shrink)

O texto pretende dar-nos conta da evolução do liberalismo em Portugal centrando-se no confronto histórico entre duas concepções de ordenação da sociedade. Um confronto entre dois modelos-tipo de liberalismo – “francês” ou racionalista e “inglês” ou clássico – que, embora atravesse a história europeia, teve particular eco em Portugal.É a partir deste contraste, antecipado por Alexandre Herculano, que se procura compreender o por quê de durante quase dois séculos o nosso liberalismo ter sido vítima fácil da luta entre dois (...) pólos autoritários e centralistas, dado que quase todos – apesar das diferenças entre reaccionários e progressistas, conservadores e socialistas – concordavam no uso do poder do Estado como determinante principal das suas políticas. Trata-se, afinal, de uma outra forma de nos interrogarmos sobre se terá havido “pensamento liberal” ou mesmo “revolução liberal” em Portugal. (shrink)

Nas últimas décadas, discussões sobre interculturalidade efetivaram-se no cenário intelectual latino-americano, relacionando os temas mais diversos a partir de diferentes interlocutores e pensadores. Muitos desses fizeram emergir a realidade latino-americana denunciando o parasitismo colonial (Manoel Bonfim), anunciando que a Nuestra America pode libertar-se da dominação Ibérica (José Marti) quando os princípios universais como a justiça, o reconhecimento do outro e a comunicação forem porta-vozes de mudanças (Raul Fornet-Betancourt; Ricardo Salas). A educação possui papel fundamental nesse processo (Catherine Walsh; Fidel Tubino). (...) Por isso, neste artigo fruto de aulas, leituras, pesquisas e dedicação ao curso oferecido pela PUC Minas, na disciplina: Educação, Interculturalidade e Espiritualidade, temos como objetivo identificar os principais pressupostos para se pensar e desenvolver uma educação escolar, de víeis Intercultural Latino-Americana, a partir de uma metodologia qualitativa, documental e pesquisa bibliográfica desenvolvida com base em material publicado como livros, artigos periódicos e entrevistas. De que maneira este diálogo e pressupostos contribuem para a educação escolar? Nestes tempos, em que se discute novos paradigmas para educação escolar, acredita-se que a interculturalidade crítica coopera para desvelar os projetos hegemônicos. (shrink)

Eudoro de Sousa apreende a manifestação como um processo sacrificial, pelo qual um Deus intuído como Excessividade Caótica se auto-contém, metamorfoseando-se na estrutura triangular de deuses, homens e mundos. Toda a ontofania é assim teocríptica e mesmo teomáquica, sendo a Morte de Deus que vivifica o processo teo-antropo-cosmogónico, o que Eudoro reconhece como o cerne darevelação e protagonização mítico-ritual planetária. É no vértice humano do triângulo teo-antropo-cosmogónico que mais fulgura a "imagem e semelhança" do Abismo divino, sendo tal desmesura que (...) constitui o homem na tensão entre o despojamento de deuses, mundos e de si mesmo, desvelando a "subjectividade irredutível" que eternamente o inscreve no Absoluto, e a recusa da gratuidade da Vida divina, trocando a original ociosidade lúdica pelo operoso "a fazer", intelectual e manual, da historicidade, na construção dum mundo apenas humano cujo reverso é a destruição do universo das relações primordiais, ou da inserção humananele. Aqui se funda uma incisiva hermenêutica crítica da contemporaneidade. Tendo como referência os pré-socráticos-com destaque para Heraclito-, Platão, o neoplatonismo, Schelling, Álvaro de Campos e Heidegger, e procedendo sobretudo a uma hermenêutica dos mitos e ritos da Origem, Eudoro não deixa de se inserir originalmente na mais significativa corrente do pensamento português contemporâneo, aquela que se constitui de Antero a José Marinho. (shrink)

The issue of internalism and externalism in historiography of science was intensely debated two decades ago. The conclusions of such debate on the ‘context of science’ appear to be a reinstatement of the positivist view of the ‘content of science’ as comprising only ideas and concepts uninfluenced by extra-scientific factors. The description of the roles of politics, economy, and socio-cultural factors in science was limited only within the ‘context of science’. This article seeks to resituate the ‘content of science’ debate (...) within the historical accounts of the Scientific Revolution to illustrate that their resort to historicism indicates that such content does not emerge from the void. It argues that, though some historicist accounts like Alexandre Koyré’s reinstate the positivist argument on the nature of the ‘content of science’, such historicist internalism greatly differs from positivist internalism, largely due to its acceptance of metaphysics in science. Therefore, as long as historicism is relied on to describe the content of science, a clear-cut distinction of the historicist internalism and externalism will be difficult to establish. (shrink)

In a previous article on cosmological arguments, I have put forward a few examples of complete infinite and circular explanations, and argued that complete non-wellfounded explanations such as these might explain the present state of the world better than their well-founded theistic counterparts (Billon, 2021). Although my aim was broader, the examples I gave there implied merely causal explanations. In this article, I would like to do three things: • Specify some general informative conditions for complete and incomplete non-wellfounded causal (...) explanations that can be used to assess candidate explanations and to generate new examples of complete non-wellfounded explanations. • Show that these conditions, which concern chains of causal explanations, easily generalize to chains of metaphysical, grounding explanations and even to chains involving other “determination relations” such as supervenience. • Apply these general conditions to the recent debates against the existence of nonwellfounded chains of grounds and show, with a couple of precise examples, that the latter can be complete, and that just like in the case of causal explanations, non-wellfoundedness can in fact be an aset rather than a liability. (shrink)

Martin Buber is considered one of the 20th centuryes greatest thinkers and his contributions to philosophy, theology and education are testimony to this. His thought is founded on the idea that people are capable of two kinds of relations, namely I-Thou and I-It, emphasising the centrality of dialogue in all spheres of human life. For this reason, Buber is considered by many to be the philosopher of dialogue par excellence. After Buberes death the appreciation of his considerable legacy to the (...) various disciplines in which he had worked became rather muted, but was never completely forgotten. There is now a renewed and growing interest in Buberes thought, especially in his philosophy of education. This book brings together aspects of Buberes philosophy and educational practice, and explains their significance for peace dialogue and for conflict resolution, both between individuals and communities. Buber's philosophy of dialogue and views on education are pivotal in demonstrating the personal and social benefits of dialogical education as well as the dangers of non-dialogical education. The book will be valuable reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students interested in Martin Buber, education, peace dialogue and conflict resolution. (shrink)

Dedekind’s methodology, in his classic booklet on the foundations of arithmetic, has been the topic of some debate. While some authors make it closely analogue to Hilbert’s early axiomatics, others emphasize its idiosyncratic features, most importantly the fact that no axioms are stated and its careful deductive structure apparently rests on definitions alone. In particular, the so-called Dedekind “axioms” of arithmetic are presented by him as “characteristic conditions” in the _definition_ of the complex concept of a _simply infinite_ system. Making (...) sense of Dedekind’s method may be dependent on an analysis of the classical model of deductive science, as presented by authors from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Studying the modern reconstructions of Euclidean geometry, we show that they did not presuppose deductive independence of the axioms from the definitions. Authors like Wolff elaborated a mathematics _based on definitions_, and the Wolffian model of deductive science shows significant coincidences with Dedekind’s method, despite the great differences in content and approach. Wolff had a conception of definitions as _genetic_, which bears some similarities with Kant’s idea of synthetic definitions: they are understood as positing the content of mathematical concepts and introducing thought objects (_Gedankendinge_) that are the objects of mathematics. The emphasis on the spontaneity of the understanding, which can be found in this philosophical tradition, can also be fruitfully related with Dedekind’s idea of the “free creation” of mathematical objects. (shrink)

This is a commentary on Andrea Lavazza and Murilo Vilaça's article "Human Extinction and AI: What We Can Learn from the Ultimate Threat" (Lavazza & Vilaça, 2024). I discuss the potential concern that their proposal to create artificial successors to "insure" against the tragedy of human extinction might mean being too quick to accept that catastrophic prospect as inevitable, rather than single-mindedly focusing on avoiding it. I also consider the question of the value that we might reasonably assign to such (...) a future of artificial successors under the assumption that they do not enjoy phenomenal consciousness. (shrink)

In this paper, we show that it is not a conceptual truth about laws of nature that they are immutable (though we are happy to leave it as an open empirical question whether they do actually change once in a while). In order to do so, we survey three popular accounts of lawhood—(Armstrong-style) necessitarianism, (Bird-style) dispositionalism and (Lewis-style) ‘best system analysis’—and expose the extent, as well as the philosophical cost, of the amendments that should be enforced in order to leave (...) room for the possibility of changing laws. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to identify the elements that can be implemented to achieve an ethical infrastructure, in small and medium enterprises. The ethical infrastructure is considered as a set of formal and informal systems, leadership, climate and culture, related to ethical issues. The research was carried out through interviews and focus groups with managers from 28 companies in Madrid, all signatories to the Global Compact. The identified key elements in SMEs are leadership, informal managerial and formal communication. (...) This study also explores different factors that influence the effectiveness, implementation, and sustainability of the ethical infrastructure in SMEs, discovering some factors that can act as both accelerators and barriers such as pressure from customers. Additional findings regarding the concepts of ethics and corporate social responsibility in SMEs, dilemmas and characteristics of the culture and climate are also presented. (shrink)

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)

Evolutionary game theory and public goods games offer an important framework to understand cooperation during pandemics. From this perspective, the COVID-19 situation can be conceptualized as a dilemma where people who neglect safety precautions act as free riders, because they get to enjoy the benefits of decreased health risk from others’ compliance with policies despite not contributing to or even undermining public safety themselves. At the same time, humans appear to carry a suite of evolved psychological mechanisms aimed at curbing (...) free riding in order to ensure the continued provision of public goods, which can be leveraged to develop more effective measures to promote compliance with regulations. We also highlight factors beyond free riding that reduce compliance rates, such as the emergence of conspiratorial thinking, which seriously undermine the effectiveness of measures to suppress free riding. Together, the current paper outlines the social dynamics that occur in public goods dilemmas involving the spread of infectious disease, highlights the utility and limits of evolutionary game-theoretic approaches for COVID-19 management, and suggests novel directions based on emerging challenges to cooperation. (shrink)

This study examines the linguistic construal and cognitive representation of time and viewpoint in the genre of news narratives. We present a model of mental spaces that involves a News Space in which the deictic center is construed of the news actors at the time the newsworthy events took place, and a Reality Space in which the deictic here-and-now center of journalist and reader is construed. This model explains how the dynamic representation of narrative news discourse, characterized by shifts in (...) time and viewpoint, is steered by linguistic devices. An analysis of Dutch news narratives shows that temporal adverbs such as yesterdayand shifts from present tense to past tense may signal a moveforwardin narrative time, to a viewpoint in the future relative to the narrative now-point, rather thanbackward. These atypical time shifts can be accounted for by presupposing an Intermediate Space located at a point in time between the News Space and the Reality Space where the progression of narrative time comes to a halt and experiences are rather relived than reported. The salience of the Intermediate Space may be signaled by quotative conditionals reflecting the viewpoints of implicitly quoted sources. These results clarify how tense and temporal deixis steer the linguistic construal of time and viewpoint in news narratives, demonstrating that time and viewpoint are closely linked in the cognitive representation of these narratives. (shrink)

Part II: Suppes and the mature theory. Representation and uniqueness.

In this theoretical contribution, we interpret the notion of professional development in the light of concepts coming from cognitive development. This brings us to consider teacher training as not only having to allow the elaboration of skills, but also as having to encourage the development of new cognitive structures. We explore the theoretical concepts in relation with certain processes revealed by the reflexive texts of the students. Finally, we propose ways that could foster certain dimensions of global professional development in (...) learners, among which self-regulated learning, the focus on certain concerns and taking into account certain types of information. (shrink)

The architecture of brain, consciousness, and behavioral processes is shown to be formally similar in that all three may be conceived and depicted as Petri net patterned processes structured by a series of elements occurring or becoming active in stochastic succession, in parallel, with different rhythms of temporal iteration, and with a distinct qualitative manifestation in the spatiotemporal domain. A patterned process theory is derived from the isomorphic features of the models and contrasted with connectionist, dynamic system notions. This empirically (...) derived formulation is considered to be optimally compatible with the dual aspect theory in that the foundation of the diverse aspects would be a highly structured and dynamic process, the psychophysical neutral “ground” of mind and matter posed (but not properly determined) by dual aspect and neutral monist theories. It is methodologically sound to approach each one of these processes with specific tools and to establish concurrences in real time between them at the organismic level of analysis. Such intra‐level and inter‐perspective correlations could eventually constitute psychophysical bridge‐laws. A mature psychology of consciousness is necessary to situate and verify the bridges required by a genuine mind‐body science. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to identify what I take to be the main conceptual problem in Lewis’ semantics for counterfactuals when the Limit Assumption is not satisfied, what I call the Discrimination Problem , and to present and discuss a modification of Lewis’ semantics that aims at solving DP. First, I outline Lewis’ semantics, highlighting the aspects that will be relevant for our discussion. Second, I present DP and discuss it with a heuristic example. Third, I present the (...) new proposal and comment some formal consequences and the objections they give rise to. Fourth, I present an allegedly equivalent version of the proposal and discuss the difference between counterfactuals and strict conditionals. Finally, I defend that the two proposals are different and argue for the first one as the best way of capturing two intuitions that seem in conflict when the LA is not satisfied. I conclude with a dilemma: either the proposal here defended works or LA is inescapable. Thus, if the proposal doe.. (shrink)

Many controversies within philosophy of science have been attempted to be explained in terms of the metaphilosophical prescription/description distinction over the goal of philosophy of science. The aim of this paper is to show that the controversy between Popper and Kuhn about the ir/rationality of Normal Science cannot be fully explained in these terms, not even if we also take the truth/problem-solving distinction over the goal of science into account. It is argued that, to gain full understanding of this controversy, (...) it is necessary to take into account their differences regarding a topic apparently not involved in it, namely the structure of scientific theories. The conclusion is that both Popper and Kuhn were descriptive/prescriptive at the same time in their attempt to make the rules of scientific practice explicit, yet Kuhn did it better because he had a richer and more accurate idea of what scientific theories are. Although this work is mainly a piece of history of philosophy of science, it also aims at shedding some light on epistemological issues. If the conclusion is sound, it also shows how structural aspects of scientific theories may be relevant to the epistemology of science.Keywords: Falsificationism; Normal science; Rationality; Theories; Thomas Kuhn; Karl Popper. (shrink)