Resumen de la tesis doctoral La consistencia del yo en el pensamiento de Ortega y Gasset, presentada en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, el 28 de noviembre de 1991, por José La.saga Medina, bajo la dirección de D. Julio Bayón Cerdán.

Este trabajo se centra en cómo en la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII con motivo de la reforma de los estudios teológicos tanto en los Seminarios –necesaria para la mejora de la formación de uno de los principales agentes del propugnado y urgente cambio religioso– como en las Universidades –en las que se quería sustituir la influencia jesuítica por otra más de acorde con las ideas regalistas– se impulsó la creación de las cátedras De locis theologicis, muchas (...) de las cuales debían seguir el tratado de Melchor Cano y otras seguir a otros tratadistas, pero teniendo presente en sus explicaciones la docta obra de Melchor Cano. También se estudiará en la reforma del Plan de Estudios de la Orden de Frailes Predicadores, así como el rechazo que de todo ello tuvo el importante ilustrado valenciano Gregorio Mayans y Ciscar. The work is about how in the Spain of the second half of the 18th century owing to the theological studies reform as much in Seminaries-necessary to the education improvement of one of the main agents of the proposed and urgent religious change-as in Universities-in which it was wanted to substitute the Jesuitical influence for another more appropriate to the regalist ideas– the creation of the Locis theologicis chairs, many of which had to follow Melchor Cano’s treatise, and other chairs had to follow other authors, was promoted; but bearing in mind in their explanations Melchior Cano’s erudite work. Such treatise will also be studied in the reform of the Order of Preacher’ curriculum, as well as the rejection of all that by the important learned Gregorio Mayans y Ciscar, native of Valencia. (shrink)

This paper is a critical and comparative legal historical study, which offers a global vision of the U.S. Legal System, according to the religious factor impact and its complex dimensions (e.g. religious liberty, Church-State relations, welfare state & solidarity). The principal goal is the deconstruction of the fake official History, elaborated after the Second World War (e.g. inferences, impostures, fallacies). At the same time, it shows the social development (and the kind of commitment in each period), and how it happens (...) the consolidation of the system thanks to the regulation. In this way, it is possible to pay attention to the American experimental evolution (not lineal or exceptional –as many U.S.hand-books pretend): from colonial Blue Laws (or Sunday regulation), up to the current regulation on freedom of religion and non-discrimination. Also, this paper offers a systematic set of diverse legal sources (e.g. Executive orders & rules, Legislative statutes, Judicial cases & resolutions). Another goal of this paper is the evaluation of the allegedly paradoxical policies and regulations in this field, during the last two Administrations (Clinton and W. Bush); both of them, from extreme views (linked at the end), they used incorrectly the religious factor, and they confused the institutions. The result seems to be a landed in the Postmodernity (less realistic and more speech based). (shrink)

This is a critical-hermeneutical and historical-comparative study on Political Economy, Economic History and Social Thought, applied to the American utopias in the 19th century and its role in the colonisation of the United States (US) west. This review is based on a heterodox economic approach, used in the disciplines of Religion and Economics. It gives a general view of religious and ideological utopias, as cooperative enterprises of intentional life in farms and workshop, making a comparative analysis of efficiency and sustainability. (...) This study attempts to explain the colonial paradox of American utopias because the last established, with more inversion, they were the first to fall. This study shapes the development of the western territories, from the Quaker’s Holy Experiment framework and its support for the utopias experiments in the expansion to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Contribution: This review offers a descriptive and explanatory study on the colonisation of the US west, under the hermeneutical turn from heterodox economic approaches, to deal with some current contradictions and anachronism in the mainstream view. Also, there is a systematisation of the American utopias, divided into religious and ideological experiments, with a comparison. (shrink)

El ensayo consta de tres partes: en la primera, se establece una breve genealogía de la afinidad entre el nacimiento de la Filosofía de la historia y la noción de Progreso. En la segunda, se extraen algunas consecuencias políticas del hecho de que la idea de Progreso se tradujera como pura aceleración del tiempo histórico. Finalmente, se problematiza la idea de la muerte del Tiempo en tanto efecto postmoderno de la aceleración del Progreso. Y se realiza una crítica a las (...) prácticas políticas que, tras la postmodernidad, volvieron a destacar las relaciones entre experiencia histórica y eficacia racional, sustituyendo los ideales emancipatorios ilustrados por meros ideales securitarios. Volviendo a poner sobre la mesa la idea de Futuro tan sólo como amenaza que hay que controlar. (shrink)

El ensayo consta de tres partes: primera, un breve estudio histórico del surgimiento de las políticas radicales, con especial atención al papel político desempeñado en Europa a lo largo del siglo XVI por las revoluciones sociales inspiradas en el cristianismo reformado. Segunda, una lectura crítica de la secularización como paradigma de modernización que transformó a los dioses movilizadores del radicalismo político. Incluye un comentario del debate entre Karl Löwith y Hans Blumenberg en torno al surgimiento de una concepción moderna de (...) la temporalidad histórica y a la relación entre progreso y escatología. Y una tercera, un apunte filosófico sobre el desplazamiento semántico del término «extremismo» como síntoma del olvido posmoderno de lo político. Finalmente, el análisis histórico de las relaciones entre extremismos y desencantamiento se centra en la importancia que adquiere la ficción como figura del poder político. (shrink)

Sigmund Freud fue uno de los protagonistas de aquella Viena fin de siglo que simboliza no sólo el Finis Austriae sino una fecunda crisis de la condición moderna. Las relaciones entre la subjetividad y el lenguaje centran en gran medida la problemática filosófica de la época. Este ensayo intenta reconstruir el contexto cultural en que prosperó el psicoanálisis freudiano estableciendo un diálogo entre sus principales tesis y la visión de algunos de los más destacados intérpretes del apocalipsis habsbúrgico: principalmente, Hugo (...) von Hofmannsthal, Hermann Broch, Karl Kraus y Robert Musil. La significación de Freud es analizada dentro del cuadro literario de una Viena que situó al yo y al lenguaje en el vórtice de una catástrofe cuyas consecuencias filosóficas son rastreadas aquí a través de algunos de los textos y documentos más representativos de aquel período. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza cuál es el puesto de León Tolstói en la Modernidad a través de un diálogo con una serie de autores que representan una alternativa al discurso hegemónico en torno a la constitución de la conciencia moderna. Los autores elegidos son representativos de un gran arco temporal que va del siglo XVI hasta el XX: Thomas Müntzer, Jean Paul y Carlo Michelstaedter. La hipótesis del artículo defiende que la Modernidad política quedó fuertemente marcada por formas inéditas de experiencia (...) religiosa que ayudaron a extender por todo el continente una nueva idea de la consumación del tiempo histórico. El argumento principal de este ensayo se dirige a demostrar que la obra de Tolstói participa de un cierto tono apocalíptico que resulta muy sintomático de las fracturas políticas de la modernidad así como de las crisis de la conciencia histórica. (shrink)

Este texto pretende acercarse a la figura de Moisés tal como se elabora en el relato “La ley” de Thomas Mann (1943), y la ópera “Moisés y Aarón” de Arnold Schönberg (1932). En el caso de Schönberg, la recuperación del legislador judío resulta en un esfuerzo por responder a la crisis de la república de Weimar desde su exilio berlinés. Thomas Mann, por su parte, vuelve tras el mito de Moisés desde su exilio estadounidense, como respuesta a la dictadura nacionalsocialista. (...) El ensayo se plantea por qué en situaciones históricas de una gravedad tan crítica el arte decide volver a narrar el mito mosaico. Especialmente nos interesa estudiar la actualidad que le conceden tanto Mann como Schönberg al problema y el método de la imposición del monoteísmo a través de la fuerza moralizadora de la Ley, en competición con el pluralismo de dioses, imágenes y normas del pueblo. Intentaremos mostrar cómo ambos artistas intentan responder a un problema de gran calado ético en la época: cuáles son las violencias necesarias para y cuáles las violencias evitadas por la búsqueda política de un ethos común para un pueblo oprimido. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende poner de manifiesto cómo el espacio de las prácticas de ocio cultural es una construcción política. Para ello, escoge como categoría central al público, en tanto formación comunitaria por medio de la cual cada sociedad institucionaliza de forma dinámica las prácticas de ocio asociadas a la oferta artística. En diálogo con pensadores como Adorno, Baudrillard, Warburg o Benjamin, se describen las dimensiones espaciales y temporales en que se desarrollan los vínculos comunitarios, específicos de la institución del “público” (...) en el sector cultural. Para ello, el ensayo intenta identificar cuáles son las estrategias comunicativas que están produciendo esos espacios de presencia y esos tiempos de experiencia para las prácticas del ocio cultural en las sociedades del consumismo avanzado. Las he llamado retóricas de la convergencia y retóricas de la persuasión. (shrink)

El presente ensayo es una interpretación de la novela de Robert Musil “El hombre sin atributos” a partir de fuentes filosóficas. Se trata de una obra que ha producido algunas metáforas decisivas para comprender las crisis de la identidad social en el horizonte de la última modernidad europea. Muchos de los conceptos clave que ayudaron a crear la leyenda de la modernidad empiezan a erosionarse de modo irreversible: se descomponen las aspiraciones nacionales, el sujeto pierde su núcleo sustancial y la (...) cultura es un carrusel de esperanzas abortadas incapaces de responder a ninguna idea rectora. Y, sin embargo, en el paisaje de esta Europa tardomoderna en que se han agotado las pasadas ilusiones surge la idea de que el “hombre sin atributos” es también el “hombre de las posibilidades”. (shrink)

Starting from certain intuitions—which I would like to suppose are well founded—I shall try to discover if it is possible to speak of the visual arts characteristic of the American continent throughout the centuries.“L'intention de 1'œuvre d'art n'est pas 1'œuvre d'art.” (Henri Focillon, La Vie des Formes).

This article explains the History (past reality), the Historiology (the theories and methods to study the past), and the Historiography (the academic literature) about Cross-Cultural Studies in the U.S.A., from traditional and native subjects (i.e. American Studies), until the current version. It pays attention to religion, as a relevant factor in the evolution of U.S. culture and its model of social relations. En este artículo se explica la Historia (la realidad pasada), la Historiología (las teorías y métodos con los que (...) se estudia dicho pasado), y la Historiografía (la literatura académica al respecto) de los estudios interculturales en los EE.UU., desde las primeras disciplinas tradicionales y nativistas (e.g. Estudios Estadounidenses), hasta los actuales estudios interculturales. Se presta especial atención al factor religioso, pues ha sido muy influyente en el devenir de la cultura estadounidense y en sus relaciones sociales. (shrink)

In this article, we question to what extent origin-food labels, namely Geographical Indications and Slow Food Presidia, may effectively account for cultural biodiversity. Building on Foucault’s discourse theory, we question how the Slow Food movement and GI promoters have developed their own discourse and practice on CB, how these discourses contrast, and how they inform projects. Focusing on the practices to cultivate the microbiological life of three origin labeled cheeses, we have revealed the gap between these institutional discourses and what (...) happens on the ground. We argue that how actors’ relationships in the marketplace unfold, from public authorities to the collectives of producers to consumers, may threaten the effects that these experiences of alternative food productions may have in the defense of biodiversity, causing, for instance, the loss of diversity of the invisible microbial ecosystems of artisan raw milk cheese. However, we conclude that, despite limitations, the mediatized institutional narrative on CB can amplify the political voice of local actors by fostering community and social relationships between the farmers. (shrink)

In this article, I defend the idea that Kant’s interest in an emergent science in the 18th century as the Embriology (especially in the concept of epigenesis) allows to deepen in a soft naturalization of Kant’s trancendental idealism, as well as to justify the validity of a priori knowledge.

Inauguration speech at chair number 18 of the Brasilian Academy of Philosophy.

This article analises the philosophical principles of the interpretation made by Hans-Georg Gadamer about the phenomenon called “historic-comprehension”. In order to this objective,it is proposed a critical dialogue between the gadamerian hermeneutic and Hegel´s philosophy. First, the author ..

Although logical consistency is desirable in scientific research, standard statistical hypothesis tests are typically logically inconsistent. To address this issue, previous work introduced agnostic hypothesis tests and proved that they can be logically consistent while retaining statistical optimality properties. This article characterizes the credal modalities in agnostic hypothesis tests and uses the hexagon of oppositions to explain the logical relations between these modalities. Geometric solids that are composed of hexagons of oppositions illustrate the conditions for these modalities to be logically (...) consistent. Prisms composed of hexagons of oppositions show how the credal modalities obtained from two agnostic tests vary according to their threshold values. Nested hexagons of oppositions summarize logical relations between the credal modalities in these tests and prove new relations. (shrink)

This article considers distinct ways of understanding the world, referred to in psychology as Functions of Consciousness or as Cognitive Modes, having as the scope of interest epistemology and natural sciences. Inspired by C.G. Jung's Simile of the Spectrum, we consider three basic cognitive modes associated to: (R) embodied instinct, experience, and action; (G) reality perception and learning; and (B) concept abstraction, rational thinking, and language. RGB stand for the primary colors: red, green, and blue. Accordingly, a conceptual map between (...) cognitive modes and primary and secondary colors is built based on the physics and physiology of color perception and epistemological characteristics of the aforementioned cognitive modes, leading to logical relations structured as an Hexagon of Opposition. Finally, this model of cognitive modes is applied to the analysis and interpretation of some important episodes in the historical development of physics and technology. (shrink)

This paper has three main objectives: (a) Discuss the formal analogy between some important symmetry-invariance arguments used in physics, probability and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on Noether’s theorem in physics, the maximum entropy principle in probability theory, and de Finetti-type theorems in Bayesian statistics; (b) Discuss the epistemological and ontological implications of these theorems, as they are interpreted in physics and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on the positivist (in physics) or subjective (in statistics) interpretations vs. objective interpretations that (...) are suggested by symmetry and invariance arguments; (c) Introduce the cognitive constructivism epistemological framework as a solution that overcomes the realism-subjectivism dilemma and its pitfalls. The work of the physicist and philosopher Max Born will be particularly important in our discussion. (shrink)

Comments presented at the 35th International Seminar on the -- New Institutional Economics -- Empirical Methods for the Law; Syracuse, 2018.

The main goal of this article is to use the epistemological framework of a specific version of Cognitive Constructivism to address Piaget’s central problem of knowledge construction, namely, the re-equilibration of cognitive structures. The distinctive objective character of this constructivist framework is supported by formal inference methods of Bayesian statistics, and is based on Heinz von Foerster’s fundamental metaphor of objects as tokens for eigen-solutions. This epistemological perspective is illustrated using some episodes in the history of chemistry concerning the definition (...) or identification of chemical elements. Some of von Foerster’s epistemological imperatives provide general guidelines of development and argumentation. (shrink)

This paper introduces pragmatic hypotheses and relates this concept to the spiral of scientific evolution. Previous works determined a characterization of logically consistent statistical hypothesis tests and showed that the modal operators obtained from this test can be represented in the hexagon of oppositions. However, despite the importance of precise hypothesis in science, they cannot be accepted by logically consistent tests. Here, we show that this dilemma can be overcome by the use of pragmatic versions of precise hypotheses. These pragmatic (...) versions allow a level of imprecision in the hypothesis that is small relative to other experimental conditions. The introduction of pragmatic hypotheses allows the evolution of scientific theories based on statistical hypothesis testing to be interpreted using the narratological structure of hexagonal spirals, as defined by Pierre Gallais. (shrink)

This article discusses some continuous limit cases of Susan Haack’s crossword puzzle metaphor for the coherent development and foundation of science. The main objective of this discussion is to build a bridge between Haack’s foundherentism and the epistemological framework of objective cognitive constructivism, including its key metaphor of objects as tokens for eigen-solutions. The historical development of chemical affinity tables is used to illustrate our arguments.

This article explores the metaphor of Science as provider of sharp images of our environment, using the epistemological framework of Objective Cognitive Constructivism. These sharp images are conveyed by precise scientific hypotheses that, in turn, are encoded by mathematical equations. Furthermore, this article describes how such knowledge is pro-duced by a cyclic and recursive development, perfection and reinforcement process, leading to the emergence of eigen-solutions characterized by the four essential properties of precision, stability, separability and composability. Finally, this article discusses (...) the role played by ontology and metaphysics in the scientific production process, and in which sense the resulting knowledge can be considered objective. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss some issues concerning magical thinking—forms of thought and association mechanisms characteristic of early stages of mental development. We also examine good reasons for having an ambivalent attitude concerning the later permanence in life of these archaic forms of association, and the coexistence of such intuitive but informal thinking with logical and rigorous reasoning. At the one hand, magical thinking seems to serve the creative mind, working as a natural vehicle for new ideas and innovative insights, (...) and giving form to heuristic arguments. At the other hand, it is inherently difficult to control, lacking effective mechanisms needed for rigorous manipulation. Our discussion is illustrated with many examples from the Hebrew Bible, and some final examples from modern science. (shrink)

In this paper epistemological, ontological and sociological questions concerning the statistical significance of sharp hypotheses in scientific research are investigated within the framework provided by Cognitive Constructivism and the FBST (Full Bayesian Significance Test). The constructivist framework is contrasted with the traditional epistemological settings for orthodox Bayesian and frequentist statistics provided by Decision Theory and Falsificationism.