Hay algunas personas libres que tienen algo semejante a una brújula, por eso en tiempos oscuros necesitamos lo que Albert Camus ofrece: un ejemplo vivo (no una lista de respuestas) de integridad, compasión y buen juicio. Tuvo que elegir (quizá como todos) entre el absurdo y la rebeldía, y después entre una actitud cotidiana de miedo o confianza. Finalmente, Camus nos dice que la naturaleza del ser humano y la belleza del mundo deben equilibrar las ambiciones históricas.

El presente estudio se ocupa de las relaciones entre la forma y el fondo del discurso filosófico; más exactamente, de las implicaciones y consecuencias del texto fragmentario, tanto en sentido teórico como práctico. De manera concreta, el comentario de Lichtenberg, Nietzsche y Adorno permite rastrear en autores de una misma tradición cultural ciertos elementos de continuidad a través de perspectivas históricas y enfoques diferentes. Puede decirse que en este conjunto el pensamiento en forma fragmentaria sirve para una crítica general de (...) la modernidad desde posiciones distintas, pero también complementarias. Por último, se ofrece un boceto de lo que puede ser una teoría compleja del fragmento. (shrink)

El ensayo contrasta dos grandes posturas ante el fenómeno omnipresente de la técnica, en estricta relación con las concepciones profundas de lo racional y lo natural que le subyacen. Ortega por un lado, y Adorno, Horkheimer y Marcuse por otro, son excelentes ejemplos de visiones muy diferentes pero complementarias, que además conjugan aspectos antropológicos, históricos y políticos de gran importancia para ofrecer una panorámica global en este campo, sin reduccionismo alguno, y ayudar así a repensar nuestro presente.

Necesitamos nuevas narraciones para entender un poco más nuestro caótico y muy complejo mundo. En este caso es útil recordar algunos modelos históricos de las relaciones generales entre naturaleza y vida, que están en la base de la biopolítica: a) el tradicional, basado en la ley natural y en los valores de la vida; b) el técnico, basado en la voluntad de poder y en los valores de la libertad; c) el alternativo, basado en la cooperación ecológica entre todos los (...) seres vivos y en ambas clases de valores. Para sobrevivir en esta crisis de civilización hace falta mucho coraje y solidaridad frente a la indiferencia que mata. (shrink)

La crisis global de nuestra civilización y la mezcla cultural propia de nuestro tiempo empujan a la convergencia de diferentes vías de comprensión en un mundo confuso. Filosofía y literatura no son lo mismo, por supuesto, pero se alían en ese propósito porque ambas aportan significado y continuidad frente a la fragmentación de la experiencia. La narración es el punto de intersección entre ambas y por eso resulta muy útil cuando necesitamos iluminar la complejidad de la vida a través de (...) su curso histórico. (shrink)

nowadays it is necessary to understand the Character and Destiny topic from the point of view of emotions because we can integrate some philosophical and neurobiological perspectives better than ever. in this paper the result is deliberately ambiguous for life and for anthropology and Ethics, far away from the usual notions (subject, consciousness, free will, determinism…) and opened, on the contrary, to a multiform discussion in relation to different elements and circumstances.

El presente trabajo se ocupa de las implicaciones filosóficas de la Homeopatía, lo que supone introducir sus principios básicos y algunos datos históricos de interés, para replantear ¿al hilo de su enfoque terapéutico- algunas cuestiones perennes del pensamiento: las relaciones entre ser humano y naturaleza, entre lo universal y lo particular, el holismo y la interdependencia ecológica en sentido lato, la variedad de equilibrios en aras de una visión integral de la salud... El auge social (y crecientemente institucional) de estas (...) prácticas demanda un examen teórico y práctico sin prejuicios, con la intención de servir a un humanismo enriquecido. (shrink)

Spinoza afirma na proposição 31 da Ética III que por natureza todos os sujeitos desejam que os demais vivam conforme seu ingenium. A partir dessa proposição o presente artigo procura refletir sobre os povos indígenas que vivem em contexto urbano na cidade de Blumenau/Santa Catarina. Para a análise, são utilizas as impressões de uma pesquisa ação--participante realizada com mulheres indígenas que migraram para a cidade há mais de cinco anos. No texto é observado que a legislação do Estatuto do Índio (...) é uma das formas que mantém a sobreposição do ingenium branco sobre o indígena. A partir da análise é afirmado que a sobreposição de um ingenium sobre o outro é uma forma de violência afetiva que reproduz a colonização na atualidade. (shrink)

Hoy día es necesario entender la vida en sentido global y eso significa considerar varias dimensiones del tema al mismo tiempo: la ecológica y la biológica, pero también la técnica y la simbólica, pues vivimos –como es bien sabido– en un gran “mundo red”. La interdependencia es la clave, especialmente cuando naturaleza y cultura interactúan e integran el nuevo ecosistema del planeta Tierra como nunca antes lo hicieron, todo lo cual incluye muchos desafíos y riesgos también.Nowadays is necessary to understand (...) Life in a global way and that means toconsider several dimensions of the topic at the same time: the ecological and the biological ones, but also the technical and symbolic ones, because we are just living –as it is well known– in a great “net-world”. The interdependence is the key, above all when Nature and Culture interact and integrate the new ecosystem of the planet Earth as never they did before, and all that includes many challenges and risks too. (shrink)

Tomando como punto de partida la idea de Arendt sobre la banalización del mal -asumido de manera irreflexiva e indiferente en ciertos contextos-, pretendo mostrar algunos mecanismos de la época actual que contribuyen a que el mal sea considerado como algo trivial e inevitable. En particular, existen ciertos automatismos sociales que fomentan el fatalismo o la inconsciencia, lo que a su vez converge en dos realidades transversales que exacerban el daño: la creciente desigualdad y la crisis ambiental.

Vivimos en el Antropoceno, tomado en sentido amplio, donde lo geológico y lo histórico convergen porque la acción humana lo hace posible. El cambio climático y la explotación global de recursos naturales y de las estructuras capitalistas conducen al género humano hacia el colapso de la civilización tal como la conocemos. Hay algunas relaciones importantes entre Antropoceno y colapso que muestran a la vez el poder y la impotencia de la humanidad.

The origins of teacher training programs in Chile have not been addressed in depth apart from Vivanco’s studies. Even though these studies explore the development of these programs in Chile from a chronological perspective, there are no qualitative studies that consider senior academics’ narrations. This qualitative study reconstructs the trajectory of teacher training programs in Chile from a series of interviews with 25 academics in charge of these programs. Results were analyzed in three different periods: 1960-1973, 1973-1990, and 1990 to (...) 2019. Results, discussed in a political and academic context, reveal that these teacher training programs have evolved in a sociopolitical context, generating a series of tensions that substantially impact these training programs. The study finishes with the statement of a series of questions aimed at reflecting upon the state of the art in Chile’s training programs. (shrink)

The use of “levels of abstraction” in philosophical analysis (levelism) has recently come under attack. In this paper, I argue that a refined version of epistemological levelism should be retained as a fundamental method, called the method of levels of abstraction. After a brief introduction, in section “Some Definitions and Preliminary Examples” the nature and applicability of the epistemological method of levels of abstraction is clarified. In section “A Classic Application of the Method ofion”, the philosophical fruitfulness of the new (...) method is shown by using Kant’s classic discussion of the “antinomies of pure reason” as an example. In section “The Philosophy of the Method of Abstraction”, the method is further specified and supported by distinguishing it from three other forms of “levelism”: (i) levels of organisation; (ii) levels of explanation and (iii) conceptual schemes. In that context, the problems of relativism and antirealism are also briefly addressed. The conclusion discusses some of the work that lies ahead, two potential limitations of the method and some results that have already been obtained by applying the method to some long-standing philosophical problems. (shrink)

The phenomenon of distributed knowledge is well-known in epistemic logic. In this paper, a similar phenomenon in ethics, somewhat neglected so far, is investigated, namely distributed morality. The article explains the nature of distributed morality, as a feature of moral agency, and explores the implications of its occurrence in advanced information societies. In the course of the analysis, the concept of infraethics is introduced, in order to refer to the ensemble of moral enablers, which, although morally neutral per se, can (...) significantly facilitate or hinder both positive and negative moral behaviours. (shrink)

Between 2006 and 2011, humanity accumulated 1,600 EB of data. As a result of this growth, there is now more data produced than available storage. This article explores the problem of “Big Data,” arguing for an epistemological approach as a possible solution to this ever-increasing challenge.

This book offers a synthesis of investigations on the ethics, governance and policies affecting the design, development and deployment of artificial intelligence. Each chapter can be read independently, but the overall structure of the book provides a complementary and detailed understanding of some of the most pressing issues brought about by AI and digital innovation. Given its modular nature, it is a text suitable for readers who wish to gain a reliable orientation about the ethics of AI and for experts (...) who wish to know more about specific areas of the current debate. (shrink)

This chapter discusses some conceptual undercurrents, which flow beneath the surface of the literature on information and computer ethics (ICE). It focuses on the potential impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on our lives. Because of their 'data superconductivity', ICTs are well known for being among the most influential factors that affect the ontological friction in the infosphere. As a full expression of techne, the information society has already posed fundamental ethical problems, whose complexity and global dimensions are rapidly (...) evolving. The task is to formulate an ethical framework that can treat the infosphere as a new environment worth the moral attention and care of the human inforgs inhabiting it. We have begun to see ourselves as connected informational organisms (inforgs), not through some fanciful transformation in our body, but, more seriously and realistically, through the re-ontologization of our environment and of ourselves. (shrink)

There is a wealth of resources— ideas, insights, discoveries, inventions, traditions, cultures, languages, arts, religions, sciences, narratives, stories, poems, customs and norms, music and songs, games and personal experiences, and advertisements—that we produce, curate, consume, transmit, and inherit as humans. This wealth, which I define as semantic capital, gives meaning to, and makes sense of, our own existence and the world surrounding us. It defines who we are and enables humans to develop an individual and social life. This paper discusses (...) the shift from analog to digital semantic capital, and the extent to which this might affect the semanticisation of our identities, our lives and our realities. -/- . (shrink)

The subject is Sextus Empiricus, one the chief sources of information on ancient philosophy and one of the most influential authors in the history of skepticism. Sextus' works have had an extraordinary influence on western philosophy, and this book provides the first exhaustive and detailed study of their recovery, transmission, and intellectual influence through Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This study deals with Sextus' biography, as well as the history of the availability and reception of his works. (...) It also contains an extensive bibliographical section, including editions, translations, and commentaries. (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.

Can knowledge provide its own justification? This sceptical challenge - known as the problem of the criterion - is one of the major issues in the history of epistemology, and this volume provides its first comprehensive study, in a span of time that goes from Sextus Empiricus to Quine. After an essential introduction to the notions of knowledge and of philosophy of knowledge, the book provides a detailed reconstruction of the history of the problem. There follows a conceptual analysis of (...) its logical features, and a comparative examination of a phenomenology of solutions that have been suggested in the course of the history of philosophy in order to overcome it, from Descartes to Popper. In this context, an indirect approach to the problem of the criterion is defended as the most successful strategy against the sceptical challenge. (shrink)

The paper provides an axiological analysis of the concepts of respect for information and of information dignity from the vantage point provided by Information Ethics and the conceptual paradigm of object-oriented analysis (OOA). The general perspective adopted is that of an ontocentric approach to the philosophy of information ethics, according to which the latter is an expansion of environmental ethics towards a less biologically biased concept of a ‘centre of ethical worth’. The paper attempts to answer the following question: what (...) is the lowest possible common set of attributes which characterises something as intrinsically valuable and an object of respect, and without which something would rightly be considered intrinsically worthless or even positively unworthy and therefore rightly disrespectable in itself? The thesis developed and defended in the paper is that the minimal condition of possibility of an object’s least intrinsic worthiness can be identified with its abstract nature as an information entity. Thus, all entities, interpreted as clusters of information, have a minimal moral worth qua information objects (i.e. qua information), that deserves to be respected. The principles elaborated in the course of the analysis are those of ‘reflective respect’ (A’s respect towards all members of A’s class motivated by A’s respect towards A not qua individual, but qua instantiation of a class of entities), ‘ontic uniformity’ (A’s recognition of A’s membership to the class of information entities) and ‘ontic solidarity’ (A’s recognition of any information entity’s dignity). (shrink)

This introduction presents the project of a one-day meeting on the future of philosophical research, hosted by the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London, on 13 January 2012. The meeting brought together several distinguished philosophers and scholars in their roles as journal editors and publishing experts, in order to clarify and discuss the future of philosophical research. This symposium in Metaphilosophy collects a selection of the papers presented at the meeting and some invited articles.

I argue that, according to Descartes, even mathematics is not immune from doubt and absolutely reliable, and hence fails to grant the ultimate justification of science. Descartes offers two arguments and a corollary to support this view. They are sufficient to show that the mathematical atheist cannot justifiably claim to have absolutely certain knowledge even of simple mathematical truths. Philosophical reflection itself turns out to be the only alternative means to provide knowledge with a stable foundation.

El text d’Ian Ground la traducció del qual transcrivim a continuació va ser llegit a l’acte de presentación del seu llibre ¿Arte o chorrada? (València, Publicacions de la Universitat de València / Col•lecció Estètica & Crítica, 2008) el dia 9 de juny de 2008 a l’Aula Magna de l’edifici del Carrer La Nau de la Universitat de València, amb la presència, a més d’Ian Ground, de Romà de la Calle (en qualitat de Director de la col•lecció Estètica & Crítica) i (...) de mi mateix, Salvador Rubio (en qualitat de traductor, editor i autor de la introducció del llibre). El text va ser llegit en anglés pel seu autor, alternat, paràgraf per paràgraf, amb la lectura de la traducció castellana. Hem preferit que el text traduit aparega ací en castellà, exactament igual al que va ser llegit a l’esmentat acte de presentació. La reflexió que ens proposa Ian Ground, en cara que específicament concebuda per a aquest acte, no necessita cap presentació i pot ser llegida perfectament com un text autònom. Tanmateix, em permet precedir-la amb unes quantes observacions que no pretenen sustituir les meues paraules a l’acte (on, naturalment, els agraïments eren els protagonistes) ni tampoc la introducció del llibre ja publicada, i a la qual es pot remetre directament el lector d’aquest article. (shrink)

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have transformed education by making information available to learners like never before. However, ICT’s are less successful in making information accessible, and even less so in making it usable. This paper argues that, while availability and accessibility are issues on the side of the providers, the usability and comprehension of accessible information are, in the final analysis, issues that involve the education of ICT users. For this reason, the paper concludes that the demand for e-ducators will (...) become ever more critical. -/- . (shrink)