ObjectiveThis study aims to analyze sociohistorically how the normative patterns of hegemonic masculinity produced impacts on men’s health/mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA qualitative study from a socio-historical perspective was conducted with 50 men based on an online survey. A semistructured form was applied. The data were analyzed by the Collective Subject Discourse method, interpreted in the light of the context of epidemic disease and hegemonic masculinity.ResultsThe experience of the pandemic exposed the normative patterns of masculinities from (...) the consummation of acts representative of the pandemic context, which incited men to deny the existence of COVID-19 disease and to delay the understanding and adoption of measures to protect and control COVID-19. As a repercussion, men presented conflicts in the regulation of emotions; presented emotional suppression; were more reactive; felt threatened regarding the loss of the role of family provider, virility; and revealed a sense of invulnerability, added to the weakening of self-care.ConclusionThe discourse revealed that the men’s behaviors are consistent with the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, but express signs of recognition that this behavior causes harm to themselves and their health. (shrink)

En este trabajo se discute qué puede aportar la filosofía a la comprensión del dolor. Para ello, en la sección, apuntamos que la pregunta por el dolor tiene su origen en una experiencia personal. En, analizamos que, para conocer el dolor tenemos que tomar en consideración experiencias subjetivas. Razón por la cual la naturaleza del dolor es esquiva y tenemos que repensar constantemente su significado; al igual que los retos que deben afrontar la ciencia y la filosofía del dolor. Nuestra (...) conclusión sobre esta cuestión, es que la pregunta por el dolor requiere dos esfuerzos sociales: empatía y colaboración. La dimensión humana del dolor es inevitable y, por tanto, una la filosofía del dolor es necesaria. (shrink)

The influence of Thomas More on Spanish utopian intellectuals and social reformers extends well into the eighteenth century. This article undertakes a detailed survey and an updating of the textual parallelisms connecting Utopia with the foundation of the New Settlements of Andalusia in 1767. It also presents a socio-historical perspective, which evinces a line of continuity connecting the New Settlements with an early Spanish Christian (Catholic) utopian tradition and practice, as seen in the earlier promoters of settlement programs in Spanish (...) America. This last point is well illustrated by a series of biographical parallelisms between Thomas More and Pablo de Olavide, the Superintendent of the New Settlements. (shrink)

In this paper, we will deal with some aspects concerning the representations of urban space as they are made in some selected passages from the book XV of Isidore of Seville‟s Etymologiae. In this book, Isidore exposes the main words which he employs for describing the urban space. From a grammar-based scrutiny in which we can find four principles of definition – etymology, analogy, gloss, and difference –, Isidore presents the appropriate nuances of the uerba which describe and, at the (...) same time, signifies the res of urban space: ciuitas, urbs, etc. (shrink)

In this paper we propose an approach to multi-source belief revision where the trust or credibility assigned to informant agents can be revised. In our proposal, the credibility of each informant represented as a strict partial order among informant agents, will be maintained in a repository called credibility base. Upon arrival of new information concerning the credibility of its peers, an agent will be capable of revising this strict partial order, changing the trust assigned to its peers accordingly. Our goal (...) is to formalize a set of change operators over the credibility base: expansion, contraction, prioritized, and non-prioritized revision. These operators will provide the capability of dynamically modifying the credibility of informants considering the reliability of the information. This dynamics will reflect a new perception of trust assigned to the informant, or extend the set of informants by admitting the addition of new informant agents. (shrink)

As the range of potential uses for Artificial Intelligence, in particular machine learning, has increased, so has awareness of the associated ethical issues. This increased awareness has led to the realisation that existing legislation and regulation provides insufficient protection to individuals, groups, society, and the environment from AI harms. In response to this realisation, there has been a proliferation of principle-based ethics codes, guidelines and frameworks. However, it has become increasingly clear that a significant gap exists between the theory of (...) AI ethics principles and the practical design of AI systems. In previous work, we analysed whether it is possible to close this gap between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of AI ethics through the use of tools and methods designed to help AI developers, engineers, and designers translate principles into practice. We concluded that this method of closure is currently ineffective as almost all existing translational tools and methods are either too flexible or too strict. This raised the question: if, even with technical guidance, AI ethics is challenging to embed in the process of algorithmic design, is the entire pro-ethical design endeavour rendered futile? And, if no, then how can AI ethics be made useful for AI practitioners? This is the question we seek to address here by exploring why principles and technical translational tools are still needed even if they are limited, and how these limitations can be potentially overcome by providing theoretical grounding of a concept that has been termed ‘Ethics as a Service.’. (shrink)

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the number of bots online, varying from Web crawlers for search engines, to chatbots for online customer service, spambots on social media, and content-editing bots in online collaboration communities. The online world has turned into an ecosystem of bots. However, our knowledge of how these automated agents are interacting with each other is rather poor. Bots are predictable automatons that do not have the capacity for emotions, meaning-making, creativity, and sociality (...) and it is hence natural to expect interactions between bots to be relatively predictable and uneventful. In this article, we analyze the interactions between bots that edit articles on Wikipedia. We track the extent to which bots undid each other’s edits over the period 2001–2010, model how pairs of bots interact over time, and identify different types of interaction trajectories. We find that, although Wikipedia bots are intended to support the encyclopedia, they often undo each other’s edits and these sterile “fights” may sometimes continue for years. Unlike humans on Wikipedia, bots’ interactions tend to occur over longer periods of time and to be more reciprocated. Yet, just like humans, bots in different cultural environments may behave differently. Our research suggests that even relatively “dumb” bots may give rise to complex interactions, and this carries important implications for Artificial Intelligence research. Understanding what affects bot-bot interactions is crucial for managing social media well, providing adequate cyber-security, and designing well functioning autonomous vehicles. (shrink)

By mid-2019 there were more than 80 AI ethics guides available in the public domain. Despite this, 2020 saw numerous news stories break related to ethically questionable uses of AI. In part, this is because AI ethics theory remains highly abstract, and of limited practical applicability to those actually responsible for designing algorithms and AI systems. Our previous research sought to start closing this gap between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of AI ethics through the creation of a searchable typology (...) of tools and methods designed to translate between the five most common AI ethics principles and implementable design practices. Whilst a useful starting point, that research rested on the assumption that _all_ AI practitioners are aware of the ethical implications of AI, understand their importance, and are actively seeking to respond to them. In reality, it is unclear whether this is the case. It is this limitation that we seek to overcome here by conducting a mixed-methods qualitative analysis to answer the following four questions: what do AI practitioners understand about the need to translate ethical principles into practice? What motivates AI practitioners to embed ethical principles into design practices? What barriers do AI practitioners face when attempting to translate ethical principles into practice? And finally, what assistance do AI practitioners want and need when translating ethical principles into practice? (shrink)

This paper proposes the use of an argumentation framework with recursive attacks to address a trust model in a collaborative open multi-agent system. Our approach is focused on scenarios where agents share information about the credibility (informational trust) they have assigned to their peers. We will represent informants’ credibility through credibility objects which will include not only trust information but also the informant source. This leads to a recursive setting where the reliability of certain credibility information depends on the credibility (...) of other pieces of information that should be subject to the same analysis. Credibility objects are maintained in a credibility base which can have information in conflict. In this scenario, we will formally show that our proposal will produce a partially ordered credibility relation; such relation contains the information that can be justified by an argumentation process. (shrink)

In this paper we introduce a formalism for single-agent decision making that is based on Dynamic Argumentation Frameworks. The formalism can be used to justify a choice, which is based on the current situation the agent is involved. Taking advantage of the inference mechanism of the argumentation formalism, it is possible to consider preference relations, and conflicts among the available alternatives for that reasoning. With this formalization, given a particular set of evidence, the justified conclusions supported by warranted arguments will (...) be used by the agent’s decision rules to determine which alternatives will be selected. We also present an algorithm that implements a choice function based on our formalization. Finally, we complete our presentation by introducing formal results that relate the proposed framework with approaches of classical decision theory. (shrink)

This work formalizes an informant-based structured argumentation approach in a multi-agent setting, where the knowledge base of an agent may include information provided by other agents, and each piece of knowledge comes attached with its informant. In that way, arguments are associated with the set of informants corresponding to the information they are built upon. Our approach proposes an informant-based notion of argument strength, where the strength of an argument is determined by the credibility of its informant agents. Moreover, we (...) consider that the strength of an argument is not absolute, but it is relative to the resolution of the conflicts the argument is involved in. In other words, the strength of an argument may vary from one context to another, as it will be determined by comparison to its attacking arguments (respectively, the arguments it attacks). Finally, we equip agents with the means to express reasons for or against the consideration of any piece of information provided by a given informant agent. Consequently, we allow agents to argue about the arguments’ strength through the construction of arguments that challenge (respectively, defeat) or are in favour of their informant agents. (shrink)

I discuss an aspect of the relation between accounts of de se thought and the phenomenon of immunity to error through misidentification. I will argue that a deflationary account of the latter—the Simple Account, due to Evans —will not do; a more robust one based on an account of de se thoughts is required. I will then sketch such an alternative account, based on a more general view on singular thoughts, and show how it can deal with the problems I (...) raise for the Simple Account. (shrink)

There is a largely unrecognized ambiguity concerning the nature of a trope. Disambiguation throws into relief two fundamentally different conceptions of a trope and provides two ways to understand and develop each metaphysical theory that put tropes to use. In this paper I consider the relative merits that result from differences concerning a trope’s ability to ground the character of ordinary objects. I argue that on each conception of a trope, there are unique implications and challenges concerning character-grounding.

In this paper I explore Michael Loux’s important distinction between “tropes” and “tropers”. First, I argue that the distinction throws into relief an ambiguity and discrepancy in the literature, revealing two fundamentally different versions of trope theory. Second, I argue that the distinction brings into focus unique challenges facing each of the resulting trope theories, thus calling into question an alleged advantage of trope theory—that by uniquely occupying the middle ground between its rivals, trope theory is able to recover and (...) preserve the insights of these views. Ultimately, the distinction suggests that trope theory is a divided house. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo realizar un análisis teórico del concepto filosófico de resistencia, a través de algunas expresiones propias de los pueblos originarios. Se exponen los elementos que conforman tanto una resistencia reactiva como una alterna. Con la finalidad de ilustrar el alcance analítico se exploran dos situaciones: por una parte, se examina la resistencia llevada a cabo por los movimientos de defensa comunitaria articulados por la CRAC-PC y por el EZLN, explicitando la dimensión reactiva que la constituye. Por (...) otra parte, se estudia el impacto que la cultura-tradición tiene en la eficacia de los ejercicios de defensa comunitarios. Se argumentará que el “éxito” de la defensa comunitaria no descansa sólo en el hecho de disputar por la fuerza el monopolio de la violencia a los grupos del crimen organizado o del Estado (resistencia reactiva), sino que remite a una matriz cultural (o resistencia alterna) en que la comunidad es concebida como valiosa y como principio para co-constituir el orden social. En función de lo anterior será posible mostrar el valor que la autonomía cumple en el ejercicio de toda resistencia. Con base en ello, se implicarán algunas tesis generales en cuanto a la realización y comprensión de ésta. (shrink)

Information and communication technology occupies a central place in the modern world, with society becoming increasingly dependent on it every day. It is therefore unsurprising that it has become a growing subject area in contemporary philosophy, which relies heavily on informational concepts. _The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information_ is an outstanding reference source to the key topics and debates in this exciting subject and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international (...) contributors the _Handbook_ is divided into four parts: basic ideas quantitative and formal aspects natural and physical aspects human and semantic aspects. Within these sections central issues are examined, including probability, the logic of information, informational metaphysics, the philosophy of data and evidence, and the epistemic value of information. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy, computer science and communication studies. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Comments and Replies Conclusion Acknowledgments References.

El pensamiento de Groys permite abordar la crítica del neoliberalismo desde una perspectiva ajena a la cuestión moderna del sujeto. El filósofo propone como alternativa a la subjetividad neoliberal: la concepción del individuo como una desfuncionalizada obra de arte. Esta alternativa se completa con la recuperación de la principal propuesta del pensamiento cosmista: la transformación de la tecnología museística en biopolítica, para que el individuo de nuestro tiempo sea objeto de permanentes cuidados. Finalmente, se analizan la potencia y límites de (...) la «museificación» para pensar en una eficaz alternativa democrática al neoliberalismo. (shrink)

This paper contributes to the current debate on the nature of semantic information by offering a semantic argument in favour of the veridical thesis according to which p counts as information only if p is true. In the course of the analysis, the paper reviews some basic principles and requirements for any theory of semantic information.

El presente artículo sostiene la siguiente hipótesis: la inmensa mayoría de las conceptualizaciones teóricas con las que, a inicios del siglo XXI, se intenta dar cuenta de la subjetividad contemporánea son explícita o subrepticiamente reelaboraciones del concepto de superhombre. De ciborgs a posthumanos, pasando por una amplia y variada gama de sujetos contemporáneos, se puede apreciar que el concepto de Übermensch aporta las claves fundamentales con las cuales deconstruir el concepto de identidad fija que pone en juego el universalismo abstracto. (...) Siguiendo la teorización de Nietzsche, estas nuevas posiciones teóricas proponen una forma particular y concreta de vida como alternativa a las dicotomías y trasmundos con que la metafísica construyó a los sujetos del pasado. Sin embargo, estas propuestas han pasado por alto algo fundamental. Para demostrarlo, proponemos una relectura de Nietzsche y de dichos conceptos con el objetivo de plantear una nueva manera de pensar sobre la vida. (shrink)

In this paper I consider the possibility of a kind of a priori cognition that serves the purposes of metaphysics, given that metaphysics involves the search for modal knowledge. Necessary or, better, modal knowledge is a priori; so metaphysical knowledge is likewise a priori. Here I argue that intuition is the route to modal knowledge in metaphysics, and I insist that conceivability or knowledge of conceptual truths does not lead towards the modal realm of metaphysics.

The prelims comprise: Introduction Semantic Information The Mathematical Theory of Communication Some Philosophical Approaches to Semantic Information Conclusion Acknowledgments Some Web Resources.

El artículo revisa las aportaciones más trascendentes que Jordi Ferrer ha hecho a la tradición racionalista de la prueba jurídica y evalúa críticamente el limitado papel que, desde su óptica, le corresponde desempeñar a la epistemología en la discusión general sobre los estándares de prueba apropiados para las distintas ramas del derecho. Más específicamente, se analiza la irrelevancia que Ferrer parece atribuir a dicha disciplina –o el silencio que debe guardar–, respecto del establecimiento del estándar de prueba deseable en materia (...) penal. Se concede que, en efecto, le corresponde al pueblo tomar la decisión de qué estándar implementar. No obstante, se sostiene, ello no impide que la epistemología incida en el proceso de formación de dicha decisión mediante la realización de observaciones, el ofrecimiento de argumentos y la propuesta de metodologías adecuadas, con miras a que aquella se tome en un contexto mejor informado y sea lo más racional posible. Se ilustra esta posición haciendo referencia al proyecto de epistemología jurídica de Larry Laudan. (shrink)

The post-Westphalian Nation State developed by becoming more and more an Information Society. However, in so doing, it progressively made itself less and less the main information agent, because what made the Nation State possible and then predominant, as a historical driving force in human politics, namely ICTs, is also what is now making it less central, in the social, political and economic life of humanity across the world. ICTs fluidify the topology of politics. They do not merely enable but (...) actually promote (through management and empowerment) the agile, temporary and timely aggregation, disaggregation and re-aggregation of distributed groups around shared interests across old, rigid boundaries represented by social classes, political parties, ethnicity, language barriers, physical barriers, and so forth. This is generating a new tension between the Nation State, still understood as a major organisational institution, yet no longer monolithic but increasingly morphing into a multiagent system itself, and a variety of equally powerful, indeed sometimes even more politically influential and powerful, non-Statal organisations. Geo-politics is now global and increasingly non-territorial, but the Nation State still defines its identity and political legitimacy in terms of a sovereign territorial unit, as a Country. Such tension calls for a serious exercise in conceptual re-engineering: how should the new informational multiagent systems (MASs) be designed in such a way as to take full advantage of the socio-political progress made so far, while being able to deal successfully with the new global challenges (from the environment to the financial markets) that are undermining the legacy of that very progress? In the lecture, I shall defend an answer to this question in terms of a design of political MAS based on principles borrowed from information ethics. (shrink)

This article has a double objective that aims to situate, theoretically and empirically, children's cartography as a research methodology. In a first movement, we will situate children's cartography in its epistemological and philosophical bases, having as inspiration the cartographic conceptions of the philosophy of Deleuze & Guattari and his commentators. The introduction of cartography with children shifts our research perspectives to include dimensions that were once imperceptible or relegated to a plane of lesser value: it maps, not just what children (...) see, but what they say, and chronicles the coexistence of children and the world in ways not previously available to adult-organized research vehicles. We illustrate by chronicling two cartographic experiences carried out with children and young people from Portugal and Brazil, and finish with a reflection on how researchers might configure mapping experiences that act to open the worlds of adults and children to each other. (shrink)

El artículo ofrece una amplia exposición y defensa del «construccionismo», tanto como un enfoque metafilosófico, como una metodología filosófica, con referencias a la tradición filosófica que la ha inspirado, la llamada tradición del «conocimiento del fabricante». La tesis principal defendida es que la «tradición del conocimiento del usuario» propuesta por Platón debería ser complementada, si no reemplazada, por un enfoque construccionista de los problemas filosóficos en general y del conocimiento en particular. En pocas palabras, un agente epistémico sabe algo cuando (...) ese agente es capaz de construir ese algo e insertar la información obtenida en la red correcta de relaciones que lo explican. O, en términos aún más intuitivos, un agente se califica como un agente epistémico no cuando es un usuario pasivo de cierta información sino cuando es un productor crítico de ella. Su pericia epistémica aumenta en relación con el alcance y profundidad de las preguntas que es capaz de formular y responder sobre un tema particular. El conocimiento del fabricante es el conocimiento de la ontología del artefacto semántico y ésta es una lección epistemológica fundamental que podemos aprender de las disciplinas poiéticas como la informática y la economía. De modo que el construccionismo desvía el foco del conocimiento mimético, pasivo y declarativo de que algo es así, para concentrarse más en el conocimiento poiético, interactivo y práctico de algo que es el caso, esto es, de los artefactos semánticos. Una vez aplicado a la interpretación de la filosofía misma, el construccionismo sugiere agregar la ingeniería conceptual al análisis conceptual como un método fundamental. (shrink)

The endocannabinoid system is the target of the main psychoactive component of the plant Cannabis sativa, the Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This system is composed by the cannabinoid receptors, the endogenous ligands, and the enzymes involved in their metabolic processes, which works both centrally and peripherally to regulate a plethora of physiological functions. This review aims at explaining how the site‐specific actions of the endocannabinoid system impact on memory and feeding behavior through the cannabinoid receptors 1 (CB1R). Centrally, CB1R is widely distributed (...) in many brain regions, different cell types (e.g. neuronal or glial cells) and intracellular compartments (e.g. mitochondria). Interestingly, cellular and molecular effects are differentially mediated by CB1R according to their cell‐type localization (e.g. glutamatergic or GABAergic neurons). Thus, understanding the cellular and subcellular function of CB1R will provide new insights and aid the design of new compounds in cannabinoid‐based medicine.Also watch the Video Abstract. (shrink)

At the beginning, the poetry was considered as the genesis of the arabic art, and after then the prose of adab, both of them appeared with the idea of the "beauty science". This idea would be projected on the music. On the other hand, the greek heritage of the classic arabic philosophy legacy was reflected during the first manuscripts of the arabic philosophers and musical theoreticians as al-Kindf and al-Farabf, as a result appeared a new conception of the "beauty" and (...) "aesthetic". By this way, taking as a point of reference the greek classical world, the new parameters would appear as an result of this own reality and idiosyncrasy. Their poetry and musical legacy, joined to the philosopher and religious mind would complete the work of the "aesthetic musical art". The study of the arabic middle music prove that the harmony in the poetry, lingüistic and rhitmycal contents, go in parallel with the melodic content until it reached a harmonic relation and in definitive cosmic, and as a result an "aesthetic ideal". This ideal was based on "beauty" and the "aesthetic emotion" produced by the art and all that as reflet to the harmonic until the corp and the spirit and oriented to the spherical work and to the divinity. (shrink)

Este trabajo se propone en primer lugar explicitar el rol fundamental que la reflexión de Merleau-Ponty otorga a los otros sujetos corporales como copartícipes en mi percepción del mundo. Avanzando más allá de esta figura primaria de la alteridad relativa a una comunidad intercorporal anónima, las secciones segunda y tercera pretenderán reconocer el lugar que corresponde en esta filosofía a otras figuras fundadas y derivadas, tales como la del conflicto y la alternancia de los roles del sujeto y el sujeto (...) objetivado y, por último, la de un posible vínculo de reconocimiento recíproco entre sujetos personales, únicos y singulares. In the first place, this paper intends to elucidate the fundamental role that Merleau-Ponty's reflection grants to other corporeal subjects as copartners in my perception of the world. Moving beyond this primary figure of alterity, that of an intercorporeal anonymous community, the second and third sections will aim to recognize the place that this philosophy grants to other founded and secondary figures, such as the conflict and alternation of the roles of the subject and the objectified subject, and finally, a possible relationship of reciprocal recognition between personal, unique and singular subjects. (shrink)