This paper argues that, while there is a difference between personal and sub-personal explanation, claims of autonomy should be treated with scepticism. It distinguishes between horizontal and vertical explanatory relations that might hold between facts at the personal and facts at the sub-personal level. Noting that many philosophers are prepared to accept vertical explanatory relations between the two levels, I argue for the stronger claim that, in the case of at least three central personal level phenomena, the demands of explanatory (...) adequacy require postulating horizontal explanatory relations. (shrink)

Psychiatric treatment and diagnosis rests upon a richer conception of normativity than, for example, cognitive neuropsychology. This paper explores the role that considerations of rationality can play in defining this richer conception of normativity. It distinguishes two types of rationality and considers how each type can break down in different ways in delusional psychiatric disorders.

Escrito originalmente en catalán alrededor de 1397-1398, _La inconsistencia de los dogmas cristianos_ (_Sefer Biṭṭul Iqqarei Ha-Noṣrim_) de Ḥasdai Crescas es una obra polemística que cuestiona el dogma cristiano utilizando argumentos filosóficos y lógicos, y no citas de la Biblia. En sus páginas, Crescas demuestra un profundo conocimiento de la teología y el dogma cristiano. Esta obra, como la totalidad de la obra cresquiana, es inseparable del contexto histórico del que brota: las persecuciones de 1391 y su corolario de conversiones (...) masivas y de fundamentalismo misional cristiano. Nuestro propósito en este artículo es abordar su estudio indagando en la interpretación crítica de la doctrina cristiana del pecado original que Crescas realiza, su conexión con el ideario del propio autor, así como con el contexto del que la obra brota. (shrink)

According to Hempel, all scientific explanations and predictions which are produced exclusively with deterministic laws must be deductive, in the sense that the explanandum or the prediction must be a logical consequence of the laws and the initial conditions in the explanans. This deducibility thesis has been attacked from several quarters. Some time ago Canfield and Lehrer presented a “refutation” of DT as applied to predictions, in which they tried to prove that “if the deductive reconstruction [DT for predictions] were (...) an adequate reconstruction, then scientific prediction would be impossible”. Their argument seems to have been uncontested except for an inconclusive rejoinder by Beard. Moreover, Stegmüller has recently argued that “it may turn out that all or at least most of the so-called deductive-nomological explanations are in truth inductive and not deductive arguments, in view of the difficulty which has been pointed out by Canfield and Lehrer”. It seems it would be worth investigating whether Canfield and Lehrer's argument is, indeed, correct. (shrink)

This is a critical discussion of selected chapters of the first volume of Scott Soames's _Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century. It is argued that this volume falls short of the minimal standards of scholarship appropriate to a work that advertises itself as a history, and, further, that Soames's frequent heuristic simplifications and distortions, since they are only sporadically identified as such, are more likely to confuse than to enlighten the student. These points are illustrated by reference to Soames's discussions (...) of Russell's logical system and the place of the theory of descriptions in his ontological development. It is then argued that Soames's interpretation of the point of G. E. Moore's famous 'proof' of an external world, while not straightforwardly undermined by the textual evidence, is nonetheless questionable, and plausibly overlooks what is novel in Moore's discussion. This, it is argued, in his attempt to offer a common sense 'refutation of idealism', rather than (as is more commonly supposed) an antiskeptical argument 'from differential certainty'. (shrink)

Recent work on Descartes has drastically revised the traditional conception of Descartes as a paradigmatic rationalist and foundationalist. The traditional picture, familar from histories of philosophy and introductory lectures, is of a solitary meditator dedicated to the pursuit of certainty in a unified science via a rigourous process of logical deduction from indubitable first principles. But the Descartes that has emerged from recent studies strikes a more subtle balance between metaphysics, physics, epistemology and the philosophy of science. There is much (...) to be praised in this revaluation, but a dangerous amount of over-compensation has gone on, particularly in the reinterpretation of the role of sceptical doubt in Descartes' thought. This reinterpretion plays down the epistemological reasons for worrying about scepticism, suggesting that Cartesian physics is what ultimately drives the introduction of scepticism in the First Meditation. (shrink)

This chapter provides an argument that intentional ascent requires semantic ascent, on the grounds that intentional ascent requires the ability “to hold a thought in mind” in a way that can only be done if the thought is linguistically vehicled. It tries to explain that there is an important class of thoughts that is in principle unavailable to nonlinguistic creatures. It also explores how language can function as a cognitive tool. Many of these functions do not actually require a full-fledged (...) language. If language is to have a distinctive, unique, and essential cognitive function, so that the difference between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition is qualitative rather than merely quantitative, then it should be investigated further. The chapter takes into account many aspects of language where language functions as a cognitive tool: memory augmentation; environmental simplification; coordination; transcending path-dependent learning; control loops; and data manipulation and representation. (shrink)

Este trabajo consiste en una aproximación a las razones de la democracia y al papel de la opinión pública en la misma. Contiene también un ensayo conceptual analítico que pretende dar cuenta suficientemente de los elementos definitorios de esos dos conceptos centrales del discurso político y jurídico. Democracia y opinión pública no son realidades identificables de manera indiscutible y no siempre cuando se habla de ellas se hace un uso homogéneo de los términos y de su sentido político. Este trabajo (...) pretende dar respuesta, aunque sea con carácter no definitivo, a algunos de los interrogantes que derivan de las distintas propuestas sobre la democracia y sobre la opinión pública que se han ofrecido por el pensamiento político moderno y contemporáneo. (shrink)

The scope of this article is to present the Church Paulista in the 19th century, attentive to the needs of his time. She sought effective means to announce Jesus Christ. Formed the clergy to acting pastorally with the populations. On the challenges and marked by a desire to improve, Don Lino Deodato Rodrigues de Carvalho , outlined goals for evangelizing the Diocese. The São Paulo Church breathed the aspirations of society. The moment was of transformations and the Church sought to (...) ensure the eternal values. Changes of the time, but not the time of changes. Inserted in society the Church of São Paulo, under the episcopal priests formed look so well prepared on doctrine and discipline watchdogs ensure an increasingly face-to-face Dialogue. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

SUMARIO Artículos ¿Por qué democracia? Referencia a los derechos humanos y a la ciudadanía. Why democracy? Reference to human rights and citizenship. Bozo de Carmona, Ana Julia Libertad de expresión y "libertad cómica". Free speech and "comical liberty".Calvo González, José La justicia según J. Finnis. Justice according to John Finnis. Hocevar G., Mayda G. El lenguaje sagrado y su escritura. The sacred language and its writing. Lizaola, Julieta Del carácter coactivo de la μετηνεστασζ en Tucídides. On cornening to compelling nature (...) of Thucydides' μετηνεστασζ. Meabe, Joaquín E. Apuntes para una filosofía crítica de la historia regional. Notes for a critical philosophy concern to the regional history. Mora García, José Pascual Competencia política partidista en los textos de Simón Bolívar . The defender political competition in the Simon Bolivar’s writings . Ortiz Palanques, Marco Fundamentación socio-jurídica de los procesos normativos. Social and juridical reasoning about the normatives changes. Pavó Acosta, Rolando Filosofía y psicopatología en Karl Jaspers: los entramados de la existencia. Philosophy and psychopathology in Karl Jaspers: the studworks of the existence. Portuondo Pajón, Gladys L. La doctrina platónica del alma en la «república». The platonic doctrine of the soul in the «republic» dialogue. Suzzarini, Andrés Una aproximación a la concepción romana del derecho. An estimate study to the roman concept of law. Terán Pimentel, Milagros Interdisciplinares Lo dionisíaco y lo apolíneo en Don Juan Tenorio. The dionysiac and the apolline in Don Juan Tenorio. Pérez Lo Presti, Alirio. (shrink)

This book engages the perspective of public reason and the position of religious believers through a mutual confrontation of Rawlsian political liberalism and Gandhian ideas. By teasing out concords and discords between Rawls and Gandhi, Jeff Shawn Jose innovatively advances the debate about the role of religion in the public sphere.

Brian Garrett has criticized my diagnosis of the paradox of self-consciousness. In reply, I focus on the classification of 'I'-thoughts, and show how the notion of immunity to error through misidentification can be used to characterize 'I'-thoughts, even though an important class of 'I'-thoughts (those whose expression involves what Wittgenstein called the use of 'I' as object) are not themselves immune to error through misidentification. 'I'-thoughts which are susceptible to error through misidentification are dependent upon those which are not. The (...) dependence here has to do with how a thinker understands what would defeat such thoughts. (shrink)

Les traités Physique et Métaphysique d’Aristote exposent la thèse de Parménide selon deux approches différentes, voire contradictoires. Je soutiens que Parménide est, dans le premier, présenté en partisan de l’immutabilité, tandis que dans le second il est présenté comme tenant du relativisme. Cette différence répond dialectiquement aux fins de la discussion de chaque traité. Je soutiens que la thèse du monisme, à savoir ‘‘toutes les choses sont une’’, comprise, d’une part, d’un point de vue ontologique et, d’autre part, d’un point (...) de vue épistémologique permet à Aristote de brosser des images assez distinctes de Parménide. (shrink)

Resumo: No início do capítulo XIII do Leviatã, Hobbes apresentou o princípio da igualdade original de poder entre homens como um princípio básico de seu sistema político, do qual todas as teses subseqüentes deveriam ser estritamente deduzidas como teoremas. Surpreendentemente, porém, quando Hobbes mais tarde chega à dedução da 9ª Lei de Natureza, ele parece estar tentando demonstrar o próprio princípio da igualdade a partir do qual todas as leis da natureza, inclusive a 9ª, devem ter sido supostamente derivadas. Meu (...) objetivo neste artigo é oferecer uma explicação para esta aparente circularidade, e meu ponto de partida é que devemos distinguir o papel do princípio da igualdade no capítulo XIII, que trata do estado de natureza, do contexto em que opera a 9ª Lei, que é o da sociedade civil. Mas embora esta distinção de contextos nos permita chegar, em cada caso, a diferentes medidas de desigualdade, vou argumentar que essa diferença situa-se inteiramente na métrica, e que a topologia básica da desigualdade na distribuição do poder original permanece a mesma em ambos os casos. Como resultado, vou propor que, ao contrário da opinião costumeira, a posição de Hobbes não difere essencialmente da de Aristóteles, quanto a serem os homens naturalmente desiguais quanto a suas capacidades mentais, embora as conseqüências políticas que cada filósofo extrai desta tese sejam radicalmente diferentes. Nesse sentido, para Hobbes, a 9ª Lei é o meio pelo qual esta desigualdade pode ser minimizada retoricamente para fins de estabilidade política.Palavras-chave: Hobbes - Desigualdade - Estado de natureza.: In the beginning of Chapter XIII of his Leviathan, Hobbes presented the principle of the original equality in power among men as a basic tenet of his political system, from which all the subsequent thesis were to be strictly deduced as theorems. Surprisingly, however, when Hobbes later arrives at deduction of the 9th Law of Nature, he seems to be trying to demonstrate the very principle of equality from which all laws of nature, including the 9th, should be purportedly derived. My aim in this paper is to offer an explanation of this apparent circularity, and my point is that we must distinguish the role of the principle of equality in the Chapter XIII, which deals with the state of nature, from the context in which the 9th Law operates, which is that of the civil society. However, although this distinction of contexts allows us to arrive at very different measures of inequality in each case, I will argue that this difference lays entirely in the metrics, and the basic topology of the inequality in the original distribution of power remains the same in both cases. As a result I will propose that, contrarily to the usual opinion, Hobbes's position doesn't differ essentially from Aristotle's as to men being naturally unequal as regards their mental abilities, though the political consequences that each philosopher extracts from this thesis are radically different. In this sense, for Hobbes, the 9th Law is the means by which this inequality can be rhetorically minimized for the purposes of political stability. (shrink)

Este estudo reflete sobre fundamentos epistemológicos da ciência da informação. Segue métodos compatíveis com a reflexão epistemológica, baseia-se numa pesquisa bibliográfica de autores e temáticas relevantes à construção do argumento. Analisa os trabalhos recuperados mediante a interpretação crítica de suas teses. A hipótese que mobiliza a discussão é a de que a teoria objetiva do conhecimento, da qual resulta a noção de ‘mundo 3’ de Karl Popper, tem consequências relevantes para uma concepção epistemológica da informação e, consequentemente, da ciência da (...) informação. Apresenta uma interpretação do ‘mundo 3’, em sintonia com os fundamentos da ciência da informação, com base no exame das evidências encontradas nas obras do próprio Popper. Trabalhos de autores da ciência da informação que se referem às teorias de Popper são discutidos, a fim de fundamentar a linha interpretativa do argumento. Conclui-se por uma identificação entre o ‘mundo 3’ de Popper e a cultura humana. Disto resulta a noção de um processo evolutivo da informação, no qual a ciência da informação desempenha um papel relevante. Nesta imagem, a ciência da informação teria a função de moldar o ambiente, substituindo a informação desordenada pela informação cultivada e criada para interesses produtivos humanos. (shrink)

In 2003, Ruth Zimmerling wrote an article titled Globalization and democracy: a framework for discussion, which was an outcome of the second annual meeting of the Tampere Club. The aim of that article was to offer “a systematic overview over ideas and assumptions about the relationship between globalization and democracy”. As many other of her works, this was conceived as a contribution to bring some clarity and systematization to a discussion that back then in 2003 was already fashionable and overwhelmingly (...) omnipresent. (shrink)

O presente texto tem por objetivo discutir os caminhos da sensibilidade ética no pensamento de Emmanuel Levinas. Nesse itinerário são destacados três momentos do pensamento de Levinas, nos quais a sensibilidade realiza uma verdadeira transmutação ética: primeiramente, destaca-se a obra Totalidade e Infinito, onde a sensibilidade é descrita como gozo e fruição; em seguida, aborda-se o texto Linguagem e Proximidade, no qual a sensibilidade é concebida como contato e proximidade; finalmente, discute-se a obra De otro modo que ser o más (...) Allá de La esencia, na qual a sensibilidade é descrita em termos de exposição e vulnerabilidade ao Outro. (shrink)

Este ensayo aborda el estudio filosófico de la pintura de Diego Velázquez, desde la perspectiva de una hermenéutica de sus pinturas que, comparándolas con otras creaciones poiéticas y con la creación noética , nos aproxime a la creación poética velazqueña y nos acerque al pensamiento de Velázquez sobre mundo, hombre y Dios.This paper is concerned with the philosophical aspects of Diego Velasquez’s painting. From an hermeneutic approach it can be assessed that when his paintings are compared with other artistic creation (...) such as music, philosophy or poetry Velasquez’s generic thought on the world, man and God may be placed in its proper perspective. (shrink)