This article sets out to throw light on the intellectual and scientific activities of a group of Spanish humanists associated with the diplomat, aristocrat, and writer Diego Hurtado de Mendoza in the course of his fifteen years in Venice, Trent, and Rome, focusing on two aspects that have been neglected to date. These are (a) the integration of practices connected with the study of nature (herborizing expeditions and the production of herbaria) with the work of collating, translating, and commenting on (...) classical texts dealing with natural history and materia medica; and (b) the insertion of these scientific activities in Italy by the Spanish subjects of the Emperor Charles V within the broader context of a specific cultural policy. This policy would later be fleshed out in the scientific project of the Spanish Crown under Philip II, inseparable as it was from the monarch’s political and religious policy. (shrink)

La doxa irreflexiva y comúnmente aceptada por la sociedad y por la universidad sostiene que la filosofía practicada en las Facultades es una actividad socialmente inútil. Esta creencia tranquiliza a la sociedad y proporciona a los profesionales de la filosofía las marcas de distinción de las que extraen su prestigio simbólico, pero oculta una realidad inadvertida: las múltiples conexiones informales y extraacadémicas que se producen entre filosofía y sociedad, y que han alimentado el nacimiento de territorios literario-intelectuales híbridos pero con (...) una fuerte implantación práctica. Las reformas que ha de sufrir en los próximos años el espacio educativo superior español exigen cada vez con más insistencia la adaptación de la universidad a las necesidades de la sociedad y, por tanto, la toma en consideración de esa conexión inadvertida. Si, en virtud de los viejos prejuicios corporativos, la filosofía profesional no acepta la labor de control crítico de esa periferia informal, es posible que tampoco pueda dirigir reflexivamente su proceso de transformación de acuerdo con los requerimientos de una sociedad democrática. (shrink)

A partir de los supuestos del individualismo metodológico, el ‘homo economicus’ y la modelización de la política como intercambio, Buchanan desarrolla las bases contractuales y constitucionales para la toma de decisiones colectivas. Para él, el conocimiento es intelectual y subjetivo. El proceso, y no el estadio final, es la realidad, y sobre él debe centrarse el economista. Asimismo es fundamental para él su confianza en la existencia de posibilidades de intercambio entre los individuos en la esfera pública, que se plasman (...) en el consenso y finalmente en el contractualismo constitucionalista. Buchanan desarrolla así una teoría positiva de la política. (shrink)

La utilización de las nociones de “conservador” y “progresista” en las ciencias sociales (y en la opinión pública) ha llegado a configurar dos ideologías políticas. En este número se tratan, a partir de Kant, diversos sentidos de tales nociones en el contexto actual: la perspectiva de la Economía constitucional de Buchanan, la concepción de la sociedad abierta de Popper, la teoría de la justicia de Rawls y la concepción filosófica de la vida social y política de Ortega y Gasset.

¿Cuál es el sentido del aparente renacimiento del comunismo en la filosofía continental? ¿Hemos de tomarlo en serio, o se trata de una simple moda en el terreno del pensamiento? Esta breve nota señala las viejas y poderosas raíces de esta nueva fascinación y propone una comparación irónica entre los “nuevos filósofos franceses” de la década de 1980 y estos “viejos filósofos franceses” que hoy convergen en el neocomunismo.

The will to escape from the so called Metaphysics of Presence has become a topic in contemporary philosophy. However, this topic is often related to the primacy, in ancient thought, of the actual being, and the correlative evaluation of the potential as an imperfect way of existence. In this text we first analyze the traditional interpretation of the foundations of this primacy in Aristotle’s philosophy, that exhibits a theological form. According to this we explore, in the second part of the (...) article, how the efforts of modern thinkers to build an ontological discourse free from this primacy have produced, in some cases, a kind of Umkehrung resulting in a Metaphysics of Absence that preserves the theological form and results in a primacy of the potential, that is specifically consistent with the Imperium of the Virtual, very illustrative of nowadays conceptions of time, language, power and being. Finally, we essay to offer another interpretation of the primacy of the actual in Aristotle’s Ethics and Metaphysics, which could identify a political philosophy capable to avoid the infertile alternative Presence/Absence in ontology. (shrink)

Putnam's Model- Theoretic Argument has been generally held as invalid. In this work, attention is addressed to two broad facts understated by critics and commentators: (i) there are, at least, two different model-theoretic arguments. One is directed against realism and the other is directed to naturalistic semantics. The general rejection affects the former, but it is open to discussion if it affects the latter; (ii) on the other hand, the model-theoretic argument construed as a reductio argument has not - prima (...) facia - ontological consequences, but only restrains our methodology to deal with the intentional realm. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Este artigo se centra na noçáo de responsabilidade, onde pretendemos oferecer uma visáo estruturada da obra jonasiana, que permita dar conta de sua análise de por que a transformaçáo realizada na açáo tecnológica termina por náo reconhecer mais valores e metas além daquelas que ela mesma produz. Assim, a (...) vulnerabilidade da natureza aparece num contexto niilista, quer dizer, desprovida de qualquer limite ontológico e axiológico. A ética proposta por Hans Jonas está fundamentada sobre a concepçáo teleológica da natureza, entendida como um valor que interpela a responsabilidade do homem para que ele se torne responsável pela sua preservaçáo. Este novo conceito de responsabilidade já náo se fundamenta apenas no nexo causal que vincula o sujeito a suas ações, mas sim, no ser valioso e vulnerável do qual surge uma exigência ética que nos compele a sermos responsável por ele. (shrink)

This work presents a causal conception of metaphysical modality in which a state of affairs is metaphysically possible if and only if it can be caused (in the past, the present or the future) by current entities. The conception is contrasted with what is called the "combinatorial" conception of modality, in which everything can coexist with anything else. This work explains how the notion of 'causality' should be construed in the causal theory, what difference exists between modalities thus defined from (...) nomological modality, how accessibility relations between possible worlds should be interpreted, and what is the relation between the causal conception and the necessity of origin. (shrink)

The increasing presence of women, especially university women, in risky alcohol consumption such as Binge Drinking, which is associated with gender-specific biopsychosocial problems, makes it necessary to analyze the variables underlying BD in order to adjust possible interventions more in line with their reality. The motives and expectancies of this pattern of consumption, as well as the consequences derived from it, are some of the variables that are shown to have the greatest weight in the prediction of BD. In the (...) present study we analyze, on the one hand, the performance of these variables among college women with alcohol use, and on the other hand, which of these variables allow us to classify BD. A total of 501 female university consumers of alcohol were assessed. Specifically, they completed a self-report of alcohol consumption, the Expectancy Questionnaire, the Drinking Motives Questionnaire and the Alcohol Consumption Consequences Evaluation. BD female students scored significantly higher on these instruments, except for compliance motives. The logistic regression analysis carried out to estimate the probability of performing BD using the social and conformity motives, the ACCE and positive expectancies correctly estimated have a 3.55-fold increase in the probability of having BD, compared to women classified as low risk by the ACCE. On the other hand, women classified as moderate risk by the ACCE have a 4.77-fold increase in the probability of having BD. In the case of social motives and positive expectancies, their increase multiplies by 1.165 and 1.024, respectively, the probability of having BD. The results of this study highlight the importance of adapting preventive measures to the consequences experienced by BD university students, especially in relation to the social motives and positive expectancies that modulate decision-making when engaging in this pattern of consumption. (shrink)

Hegel no escribió nada específico sobre educación; sin embargo, dispersos en su obra se encuentran ideas y comentarios acerca de la educación o incluso de la pedagogía de su tiempo. Algunos de sus comentarios están conectados con el concepto clave de "formación" (Bildung). Hegel entiende el camino de la conciencia, de la experiencia sensible al saber absoluto, como un tipo de formación. Este camino impone ciertas restricciones de carácter pedagógico. Si atendemos a estas restricciones, tenemos a un pensador conservador sólido, (...) profundamente adverso a la pedagogía ilustrada. (shrink)

Pintar, escribir, pensar... ¿cabe hallar la medida común de esas tres tareas? ¿Compensar la radical incompatibilidad de lo Visto, lo Escrito, lo Pensado?

La voluntad de escapar de la llamada Metafísica de la Presenciase ha convertido en un tópico de la filosofía contemporánea. Sin embargo, tal tópico se relaciona a menudo con el primado de lo actual en el pensamiento antiguo, y con la correspondiente consideración de lo potencial como un modo imperfecto de la existencia. En el presente texto comenzamos por analizar la interpretación tradicional del fundamento de dicho primado en la filosofía de Aristóteles, que presenta una forma teológica. De acuerdo con (...) lo anterior, exploramos en la segunda parte del artículo el modo en que los intentos, por parte del pensamiento moderno, tendentes a erigir un discurso ontológico liberado del primado de la actualidad, han conducido, en algunos casos, a una suerte de Umkehrungque desemboca en una Metafísica de la Ausenciaque conserva la forma teológica y que defiende el primado de lo potencial, lo que resulta especialmente coherente con el Imperiumde lo Virtual característico de las concepciones actuales del tiempo, el lenguaje y el ser y el poder. Finalmente, tratamos de presentar otra interpretación del primado de lo actual en la ética y la metafísica de Aristóteles, que podría caracterizar una filosofía. (shrink)

Se ha sostenido tradicionalmente que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas son análogos. Pero, ¿qué es la analogía? Varios filósofos han pensado que la analogía debe ser considerada como una forma de ambigüedad. Argumentamos aquí que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas no son ambiguos o vagos. Siguiendo algunas sugerencias de McDaniel, proponemos una concepción de la analogía donde el fenómeno semántico está asociado con el carácter más o menos natural de la propiedad o (...) propiedades que instancian las entidades que satisfacen el predicado análogo. Un predicado "θ" es análogo si y sólo si, la propiedad Θ, que algo instancia, si y sólo si es θ, es menos natural que cualquier propiedad Ξ tal que todo lo que instancie Ξ, instancia Θ. Además, se requiere que las entidades de las cuales el término análogo es predicado deban ser ontológica o epistémicamente dependientes unas de otras. || It has been traditionally sustained that predicates attributed to God and to the creatures are analogical predicates. But, what is analogy? Several philosophers have thought that analogy should be taken as a form of ambiguity. Here we argue that predicates attributed to God and to creatures are neither ambiguous nor vague. Following some suggestions given by McDaniel, we propose a view of analogy in which the semantic phenomenon is associated with the more or less natural character of the property or properties that the entities that satisfy the analogous predicate instantiate. A predicate "θ" is analogous if and only if the property Θ, which something instantiates, if and only if it is θ, is less natural that any property Ξ so that anything that instantiates Ξ, instantiates Θ. Furthermore, it is required that the entities of which the analogous term is predicated should be either ontologically or epistemically dependent on each other. (shrink)

Traditionally, it has been supposed that the central object of Biology are ‘organisms’. The expression “organism” is relatively recent in the use that it has nowadays –it was introduced by the authors of the German Idealism– but corresponds to a very traditional notion. An ‘organism’ is a substance composed by a plurality of materials organized by the same substance that acts upon itself to persist in time, in order to a finality that is the organism itself. To make intelligible an (...) organism seems indispensable its order to an end. This teleological perspective, nevertheless, is unacceptable for the reductivist perspective of Biology, prevalent since the triumph of what has been called the “Modern Synthesis” the first half of last century. It has been proposed, for that reason, to substitute the traditional idea of ‘organism’ by that of ‘Darwinian individual’ (cf. Godfrey-Smith, 2009), that could offer a more adequate perspective of the object of Biology. The object of this science could not be organisms, but individuals that can enter the Darwinian evolutionary drift. In this work it is explained why a hiatus persists between organisms teleologically oriented and a Darwinian individual. The Darwinian perspective leaves aside the central character of the object of Biology: life. (shrink)

Resumen: Husserl propone dos descripciones fenomenológicas diferentes de los universales: la primera en Investigaciones lógicas y la segunda en Experiencia y juicio. En este trabajo se presentan y discuten estas dos descripciones fenomenológicas. Resulta que la perspectiva de Experiencia y juicio parece tener que ver con un acceso hermenéutico a los universales, mediado por un lenguaje y una tradición cultural, mientras que la perspectiva de Investigaciones lógicas parece estar centrada en un fenómeno pre-lingüístico más originario. Este segundo fenómeno de los (...) universales parece ser más fundamental. En ambas perspectivas, sin embargo, los universales son dados en nuestras experiencias ordinarias. Entonces, uno debería aceptar universales en principio –dada la evidencia fenomenológica– a menos que otras razones de orden teórico recomienden lo contrario. (shrink)

Suppose that it is metaphysically possible that the mereological fusion of all contingent states of affairs has a cause. Whatever the nature of the state of affairs that causes such mereological fusion, it should be metaphysically necessary because, otherwise, it could be part of the mereological fusion it causes. It is possible, then, that there is at least one necessary state of affairs. This state of affairs is a causal relatum, so it must include at least one concrete necessary object. (...) But if something is possibly necessary, then it is necessary because it is not metaphysically contingent whether something is necessary or doesn't. Then, it results that it is metaphysically necessary that there is, at least, a concrete necessary object. This work presents and discusses this argument. (shrink)

Douglas Ehring (2011) has proposed a conception of natural classes of tropes to fulfill the roles usually attributed to universals. Natural classes of tropes can avoid the difficulties that affect the classic theory of tropes – as claimed by D. C. Williams and Keith Campbell – where tropes are simple and, by themselves, are particulars and have an intrinsic nature. Natural classes of tropes are also preferable to primitive resemblance classes of tropes, because they can explain the characteristics of the (...) relation of resemblance and can also ground an internal relation of resemblance between tropes. It is contended here that the conception proposed works very differently whether tropes are conceived as modifier tropes or as module tropes. In the first case, tropes cannot be grouped directly in natural classes, because tropes have no intrinsic character. They ground the character possessed by their bearer, but they themselves have none. So, the character attributed to a trope due to its belonging to a natural class is dependent, on its turn, on the natural classes or the resemblance classes into which the objects that bear those tropes enter. In the second case, tropes do have a character. Then, they can enter ‘directly’ into natural classes. The problem in this case, though, is that tropes seem to have many different characters and seem vulnerable to the traditional problems of the ‘imperfect community’ and the ‘company’ that affect resemblance nominalism. Keywords: properties, tropes, natural classes, resemblance classes, problem of the imperfect community, problem of the company. (shrink)

un estado de cosas es una estructura no-mereológica compuesta por universales, objetos y tiempos. En principio, un estado de cosas no está fundado en sus componentes, pues tales componentes podrían existir, pero no el estado de cosas que componen. La introducción de otras relaciones de 'instanciación' no mejoran la situación, si tales relaciones son universales. Un estado de cosas, sin embargo, sí está fundado en un universal, uno o varios objetos, un tiempo y un tropo que, esencialmente, es la instanciación (...) de tal universal en tal objeto, o en tales objetos, en tal tiempo. Si los estados de cosas están fundados en sus constituyentes, entonces hay una razón para admitir tropos. Finalmente, se discuten varias razones por los que los estados de cosas deben estar fundados. a state of affairs is a non-mereological structure composed by universals, objects and times. In principle, a state of affairs is not grounded in its components, for those components could exist, but not the state of affairs that they compose. The introduction of other relations of 'instantiation' doesn't improve the situation, if those relations are universal. A state of affairs, though, is grounded on a universal, object or objects, time and a trope that, essentially, is the instantiation of that universal in that object, or in those objects, in that time. If states of affairs are grounded in their constituents, then there is reason to admit tropes. Finally, several reasons by which states of affairs should be grounded are discussed. (shrink)

Claims about reduction or emergence appear in cases in which there are different levels of facts that have between them some kind of ontological connection by which one of them is ‘made up’ from the other. In the case of reduction, it is supposed that the reduced level of facts is ‘nothing over’ the reducing level of facts. In the case of emergence, on the other hand, it is supposed that the emergent level is something ‘new’ with respect to the (...) emergence base. In both reduction and emergence some kind of ontological priority of one level with respect to the other is involved, as well as some kind of explanatory asymmetry between them. In recent years a lot of work has been devoted to different notions of ontological priority, like grounding and dependence, that might be useful for the clarification of the more traditional questions about the nature of reduction and emergence. This work presents and discusses various attempts to make that clarification. Keywords: reduction, emergence, grounding, dependence, levels of reality. (shrink)