Corruption in public administration is a serious problem that negatively affects society and the functioning of the State. It is essential to address this issue effectively to promote transparency, integrity and trust in government institutions. This research aims to review the existing literature on the evaluation of corruption and its effects on the effectiveness of public administration. Three research questions were posed following the PICO methodology (1) What is the effect of corruption on the population's trust in government institutions?, (2) (...) What mechanisms to prevent and combat corruption in public administration have been implemented in different countries?, (3) What is the impact of corruption on government efficiency? The investigations were carried out using the Scopus database and Web of Science for which inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to identification, screening and including 40 relevant articles. The results elucidate citizens' perception of corruption in public administration, as well as the sources that cause this scourge. In addition, the key findings of the review are presented, including the mechanisms to prevent and combat corruption implemented in different contexts. It is concluded that to combat corruption requires a joint effort from society, the government and entities in order to promote transparency and strengthen institutions, which in turn will contribute to building a more just and trustworthy society. (shrink)

Gender issues are still under debate in Latin American societies, especially in the educational sphere; for this reason, the objective of the research was to know the experiences of high school teachers regarding gender issues in the classroom and during their university education. The research was qualitative, phenomenological and 22 teachers participated voluntarily. Unanimity was not found in the use of terms related to gender; most of the participants have been adapting their didactic strategies to give the same opportunities to (...) all their students; in addition, the role of the family in the formation of adolescents and in the construction of stereotypes is recognized. Finally, a lack in gender issues was evidenced in the educational proposal of teacher training centers. According to the above, there is still a long way to go in terms of gender issues in education and teacher training. (shrink)

This book provides a historical and theoretical analysis of the Ayotzinapa social movement from the perspective of Latin American philosophy. The author addresses questions such as how a social movement is born, how (and if) the distinct social movement organizations should be defined, and what (if any) should be the extent of these organizations.

Childhood obesity, linked to a sedentary lifestyle and an unbalanced diet, is one of the main problems in today’s Western societies. In this sense, the aim of the study was to analyze students’ perceived satisfaction in physical education classes with learning strategies and engagement in learning and critical thinking as determinants of healthy lifestyle habits. The study involved 2,439 high school students aged 12–18 years (M= 14.66,SD= 1.78). Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the predictive relationships between the study (...) variables. The results showed that teaching, teaching mastery, and cognitive development are precursors to deep thinking on the part of students, indicators of the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits. These results reflect the importance of the methodology adopted by the teacher in order to positively influence the students’ habits. (shrink)

Latin America is one of the most unequal continents in the world. This inequality translates into marked limitations in the possibilities of having a decent life for a high percentage of the population. Within the groups that are affected, women are undoubtedly even more so, because, in addition to shared economic and social inequalities with other vulnerable groups, they face discrimination based on gender. In Latin America, political protest has been undertaken by women who wish to denounce and abate the (...) injustices of which they are victims. These struggles have been analyzed by different thinkers. For the most part, feminist theories deal with the struggle of women against the oppressive behavior of patriarchy from the State or society. Others highlight the ability of women to contribute to social changes from socially accepted roles such as mothers, daughters, wives. These approaches ignore the difficulties experienced by female activists within the political mobilization. In this essay then we seek to document, analyze, and theorize about the patriarchal practices suffered by women activists - qua women- within the social organizations in Ciudad Juárez, as well as the forms of resistance they have opposed. (shrink)

IntroductionCognitive impairment is a highly prevalent non-motor feature of Parkinson’s disease. A better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology may help in identifying therapeutic targets to prevent or treat dementia. This study sought to identify metabolic alterations in the prefrontal cortex, a key region for cognitive functioning that has been implicated in cognitive dysfunction in PD.MethodsProton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy was used to investigate metabolic changes in the PFC of a cohort of cognitively normal individuals without PD, as well as PD participants (...) with either normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia. Ratios to Creatine resonance were obtained for glutamate, glutamine and glutamate combined, N-acetylaspartate, myoinositol, and total choline, and correlated with cognitive scores across multiple domains administered to the PD participants only.ResultsWhen individuals retain cognitive capabilities, the presence of Parkinson’s disease does not create metabolic disturbances in the PFC. However, when cognitive symptoms are present, PFC Glu/Cre ratios decrease with significant differences between the PD-NC and PPD groups. In addition, Glu/Cre ratios and memory scores were marginally associated, but not after Bonferroni correction.ConclusionThese preliminary findings indicate that fluctuations in prefrontal glutamate may constitute a biomarker for the progression of cognitive impairments in PD. We caution for larger MRS investigations of carefully defined PD groups. (shrink)

Roger Penrose is known for his proposals, in collaboration with Stuart Hameroff, for quantum action in the brain. These proposals, which are still recent, have a prior, less known basis, which will be studied in the following work. First, the paper situates the framework from which a mathematical physicist like Penrose proposes to speak about consciousness. Then it shows how he understands the possible relationships between computation and consciousness and what criticism from other authors he endorses, to conclude by (...) explaining how he understands this relationship between consciousness and computation. Then, it focuses on the concept of non-locality so essential to his understanding of consciousness. With some examples, such as impossible objects or aperiodic tiling, the study addresses the concept of non-locality as Penrose understands it, and then shows how far he intends to arrive with that concept of non-locality. At all times the approach will be more philosophical than physical. (shrink)

The place of eros in Christian theology has always been a contested one, not least because it is positioned as being at odds with agape, the kind of love that embodies gospel ethics. Matthew 25:31–46 calls us to “feed the hungry,” “quench the thirsty,” “shelter the homeless,” “clothe the naked,” and “visit the imprisoned” as emblematic examples of agapic love. This essay shows how a queer act, specifically that of a woman breastfeeding a starving man as depicted in the tradition (...) of Caritas Romana, can fulfill the ethical demands in Matthew's pericope. It demonstrates how the action first narrated by Valerius Maximus and then represented by Paul Peter Rubens beautifully fulfills the Matthean agapic demands, and concludes that queer practices have the potential to fulfill the gospel demands, situating the erotic at the core of the agapic. (shrink)

This paper presents an analysis and critique of Roger Penrose’s epistemological, methodological, and ontological positions. The analysis is relevant not only because Penrose is an influential scientist, but also because of the particular traits of his thought. These traits are directly connected with his background and approach to science: ontological and epistemological realism, mathematical Platonism, emphasis on the continuities of science, epistemological inclusiveness and essential openness of science, the role of common sense, emphasis on the connection between science, ethics, (...) and philosophy. The paper articulates Penrose’s position and criticizes some of its possible shortcomings. It contributes to the perception of science as an open activity, as illustrated in Penrose’s particular approach, and provides an interesting case-study that can contribute to understanding how epistemological and ontological positions are connected with particular scientific practices. (shrink)

Cette contribution utilise le potentiel heuristique du concept de mystique – qui encourt à lui seul le risque de poser plus de problèmes qu’il n’en résout – pour porter un regard enrichissant sur l’expérience et la croyance pentecôtiste. À partir d’un examen des contributions récentes dans le domaine de la théologie pentecôtiste, nous chercherons à montrer les modifications que le concept encourt lorsqu’il est appliqué au pentecôtisme, et que cette application l’ouvre à des trajectoires communautaires, apocalyptiques et missionnaires.

Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure centres around a Swedish family vacationing at a ski resort in the Alps. The film depicts how the family breaks down after the father leaves his wife and children behind while fleeing from a possible avalanche. This breakdown is reflected in the film’s use of framing. In the opening scenes, the viewer is presented with a series of family portraits. After the averted disaster, the family is no longer shown as a coherent whole. Framing in (...) Force Majeure is thus as a technical as well as a thematic matter related to the film’s exploration of the nuclear family. Framing is also connected to the comedic characterization of the family that the film depicts. Rather than identifying with them, the viewer is invited to critically reflect upon their self-image and their actions. The focus of this essay is therefore the concept of framing in connection with the film’s theme of family and certain comedic conventions. Force Majeure is symmetrically structured and the narrative progression adheres to a traditional plot-pattern moving from the disruption of order to the restoration of order. Yet, the film also flaunts its structure and makes the viewer aware of the clichés of conventional storytelling as these clichés and conventions are reproduced in the lives of the main characters. (shrink)

This volume brings together contributions from distinguished scholars in the history of philosophy, focusing on points of interaction between discrete historical contexts, religions, and cultures found within the premodern period. The contributions connect thinkers from antiquity through the Middle Ages and include philosophers from the three major monotheistic faiths-Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. By emphasizing premodern philosophy's shared textual roots in antiquity, particularly the writings of Plato and Aristotle, the volume highlights points of cross-pollination between different schools, cultures, and moments in (...) premodern thought. Approaching the complex history of the premodern world in an accessible way, the editors organize the volume so as to underscore the difficulties the premodern period poses for scholars, while accentuating the fascinating interplay between the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions. The contributors cover many topics ranging from the aims of Aristotle's cosmos, the adoption of Aristotle's Organon by al-Farabi, and the origins of the Plotiniana Arabica to the role of Ibn Gabirol's Fons vitae in the Latin West, the ways in which Islamic philosophy shaped thirteenth-century Latin conceptions of light, Roger Bacon's adaptation of Avicenna for use in his moral philosophy, and beyond. The volume's focus on "source-based contextualism" demonstrates an appreciation for the rich diversity of thought found in the premodern period, while revealing methodological challenges raised by the historical study of premodern philosophy. Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions is a stimulating resource for scholars and advanced students working in the history of premodern philosophy. (shrink)

Roger Penrose formuló en 1989 un argumento contra la IA. Dicho argumento concluye que la explicación científico-matemática de la realidad es más amplia que la meramente computacional, porque existen ciertos aspectos de la realidad no-computables. Este artículo analiza dicho argumento y la discusión al respecto, para concluir que el tipo de argumento que quiere desarrollar Penrose está viciado de raíz, lo que impide llegar a las conclusiones deseadas. A la vez se sostiene la validez filosófica de sus conclusiones y (...) se apunta a la idea de no-localidad como consistente al hablar sobre la conciencia. (shrink)

Nietzsche é considerado figura de vital importância na crítica a certa “inflação do sentido” verificada no pensamento ocidental, tanto no que diz respeito à tradição filosófica quanto no que concerne ao Cristianismo. Esse caráter tirânico do sentido fortaleceu sua crítica que, em geral, conclui que todo sentido deriva do fenômeno, que é a representação subjetiva e interpretativa do mundo. Mesmo que não tenha sido a intenção de Nietzsche, suas reflexões ensejaram novos parâmetros para a compreensão da religião em bases não (...) metafísicas. Por outro lado, temos o escritor Jorge Luis Borges, que parece aquiescer à crítica nietzschiana da assimetria entre mundo e linguagem. O escritor argentino relativiza a relação direta entre linguagem e mundo, o que coloca os limites da metáfora em um lugar de importância significativa. Além de uma aproximação criativa entre o filósofo alemão e o escritor argentino, destacamos a percepção borgeana da realocação de conteúdos metafísicos envelhecidos para o universo ficcional e criativo da literatura fantástica. Nesse sentido, a partir das teorias da linguagem, devedoras que são dessa tradição que remonta a Nietzsche, o presente artigo propõe uma compreensão da religião a partir do conto A Escrita do Deus, de Borges. (shrink)

Platon observe nos smartphones, croise nos migrants, découvre les attentats terroristes, scrute nos dirigeants politiques. Roger-Pol Droit lui fait rencontrer Teddy Riner, Bob Dylan, Thomas Pesquet, l'emmène à la COP 21, au MacDo, à Pôle Emploi, au Mémorial de la Shoah, l'incite à visionner House of Cards, à écouter Emmanuel Macron et Donald Trump. Entre autres. Pour jouer? Evidemment. Mais pas seulement. Cette promenade dans notre actualité du père fondateur de la philosophie permet de découvrir des traits essentiels de (...) sa pensée, en expérimentant des écarts entre nous et lui, en testant ce qu'il comprendrait aisément, ou pas du tout. Finalement, ce périple montre ce que Platon nous indique d'essentiel, que nous ne verrions pas sans lui. Rédigé sous la forme de trois carnets écrits au jour le jour, dans une langue accessible et élégante, ce livre se révèle peu à peu bien autre chose qu'un divertissement. L'air de rien, il développe une méditation vivante, personnelle et profonde sur les usages de la philosophie, ses impasses et ses zones d'ombre, sa nécessité et ses bienfaits. (shrink)

Deux personnages, Artodore et Technodule, discutent au sujet de l’art de masse à partir de la thèse d’Adorno selon lequel l’art aurait, au xx e siècle, était petit à petit privé de son caractère artistique, lui faisant perdre sa mission émancipatrice. C’est l’occasion de demander ce qu’est une œuvre d’art et, plus exactement, quel est son mode d’existence, et s’il lui est propre. Des questions d’ontologie et de métaphysique de l’art sont soulevées. Technodule a manifestement lu des philosophes analytiques de (...) l’art, mais pas Artodore, qui semble féru d’herméneutique. Mais leur discussion peut-elle mener quelque part? Technodule défend finalement la thèse que ce qui caractérise l’art aujourd’hui est moins sa « désartification », que sa « déculturation ». Un art sans culture? (shrink)

A l'occasion de son 25eme anniversaire, le Groupement Belge des Banques d'Epargne a publie un ouvrage de base sur les aspects historiques, juridiques et economiques du monde des banques d'epargne belges. Emmanuel Levinas etait prie d'ecrire une introduction philosophique sur l'argent et l'epargne. Il a accepte volontiers, toutefois en soulignant des le debut et a plusieurs reprises qu'il y avait reflechi trop peu et qu'il eprouvait des difficultes en employant les notions valeur de l'argent/valeur de l'epargne. Il en a resulte (...) que cette etude, ne pouvant pas etre achevee a temps, ne faisait finalement pas partie de l'ouvrage de base. C'est l'entretien preparatoire, dirige par monsieur M. Lambrechts et dont il a envoye a l'avance a E. Levinas une preparation basee sur des textes d'E. Levinas, d'Aristote, de P. Veyne et de P. Claudel, qui est reproduit ici. Lors de la celebration solennelle au Palais des Congres a Bruxelles le 11 decembre 1986, c'est Emmanuel Levinas lui-meme qui a prononce le discours academique. Le texte de ce discours, qui n'a jamais ete publie jusqu'a aujourd'hui, est egalement reproduit dans cette publication. C'est d'ailleurs ce texte que Levinas a retravaille au debut de 1987 et qui est devenu sa contribution definitive sous le titre Socialite et argent. (shrink)

Embellir le regard et, par lui, la nature, c'est la fonction de l'art. L'histoire du nu est celle du regard que les hommes ont porté sur la nudité, la chronique somptueuse de leur délectation. Mais l'art ne se borne pas à fonder la beauté naturelle. Il modèle les moeurs. Il donne forme et norme aux comportements. La sexualité est soumise à ses modes. Une enquête sur le nu dans les paysages.

Une certaine relecture de Descartes est à l'origine de ce livre. En témoignent, par exemple, la place de l'animal dans la philosophie de l'homme, le rôle de l'image dans la pensée, l'interprétation du malin génie. On s'arrête trop souvent à l'idée de dualisme quand on parle de l'âme et du corps à propos de Descartes, mais c'est oublier l'interaction de l'âme et du corps qui caractérise pour lui l'homme vrai.

Critiquer Kant? C'est remettre son oeuvre majeure, la Critique de la raison pure, face à son intention initiale, et lui appliquer le projet critique qu'elle expose. C'est en approfondir la compréhension en la resituant dans son contexte philosophique, et en se forçant de pénétrer son argumentation. C'est surtout analyser, avec Kant, la nature et les possibilités de la connaissance humaine, en cherchant, à travers les thèses qu'il développe, ce qui rejoint notre expérience. C'est faire de son oeuvre une lecture proprement (...) philosophique, au service d'une meilleure compréhension des rapports entre notre esprit et ce qu'il cherche à connaître. Ainsi, qu'on arrive ou non aux mêmes conclusions, on aura philosophé avec Kant, et progressé grâce à lui. (shrink)

St. Thomas Aquinas preaches in his sermon Puer Iesus, "Just as your father begot you bodily, your teacher begot you spiritually." St. Thomas himself has been blessed with prodigious fecundity through the centuries for his teaching in the Holy Spirit. Always, he leads us to think of the Blessed Trinity and all things from God's own view. With new insights into St. Thomas's spiritual teaching in its sources, context, breadth, wisdom, and influences, Thomas Aquinas as Spiritual Teacher presents chapters inspired (...) by an international conference cosponsored by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University and the Thomistic Institute of the Dominican House of Studies. The volume, like its conference, honors Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, for his dedication to the spiritual teaching of St. Thomas in several decades of service to the Church and the academy. Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, contributed the volume's foreword. Contributors to this book include: Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP; Romanus Cessario, OP; Therese Scarpelli Cory; Michael A. Dauphinais; Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP; Bishop Daniel E. Flores; Wojciech Giertych, OP; Andrew Hofer, OP; Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ; Dominic Legge, OP; Steven A. Long; Roger W. Nutt; Michael Root; Daria Spezzano; Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap.; and Thomas Joseph White, OP-- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

This short article is a commentary to ‘Vulnerability in Research Ethics: A way forward’ from Margaret Meek Lange, Wendy Rogers and Susan Dodds. In their article they describe and accept my criticisms of the subpopulation approach to vulnerability and my analysis of vulnerability based on layers, but they suggest going beyond it using a taxonomy to classify layers of vulnerabilty. I argue that a) we do not need a taxonomy to classify vulnerabilities, b) the authors do not provide an adequate (...) or successful taxonomy, and c) they are unable to link their taxonomy to specific obligations. Thus I propose avoiding an approach that requires taxonomies, and suggest instead using some characteristics of layers of vulnerability. (shrink)

The Uniqueness Thesis (U), according to Richard Feldman and Roger White, says that for a given set of evidence E and a proposition P, only one doxastic attitude about P is rational given E. Luis Rosa has recently provided two counterexamples against U which are supposed to show that even if there is a sense in which choosing between two doxastic attitudes is arbitrary, both options are equally and maximally rational. Both counterexamples work by exploiting the idea that (...) ‘ought implies can’ and trying to spell out situations in which some inferences are beyond the capabilities of some reasoners. I argue that on a descriptive account of doxastic rationality, questions of whether ‘epistemic ought implies can’ can be bracketed and that at least one of the inferential moves that Rosa describes in his cases is irrational. I further argue that a descriptive account of doxastic rationality is the appropriate notion of rationality that is to be considered when evaluating U. If my argument for a descriptive account of rationality is successful, then we have reason to revise our use of the term rationality to fit this descriptive understanding. (shrink)

Cette lettre de Marcel Mauss à Roger Caillois a été publiée pour la première fois par Marcel Fournier dans les Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 1990, Vol. 84, No 1, p. 87. Elle constitue un témoignage mineur, mais pas sans intérêt, des débats concernant le rythme qui ont cours entre Mauss et ses élèves dans les années 1930 – ainsi que des dérives qu'il occasionne chez certains d'entre eux. Lorsque Mauss lui envoie cette lettre, Caillois vient de (...) publier chez Gallimard Le Mythe et l'Homme. Il - Anthropologie – Nouvel article. (shrink)

L’intérêt que la revue Clio. Femmes, histoire, sociétés porte à l’histoire de l’éducation des filles justifie à lui seul la lecture du numéro spécial d’Histoire de l’éducation qui lui est consacré. L’hommage à l’historienne Françoise Mayeur qui ouvre le recueil est le fil d’Ariane des textes rassemblés. Après cet avant-propos et l’inventaire des travaux sur le sujet, les coordonnateurs du numéro ont opté pour un classement chronologique des thèmes étudiés. On recommandera d’abord à tout cherc...

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Path of No Path: Contemporary Studies in Pure Land Buddhism Honoring Roger CorlessJeff WilsonPath of No Path: Contemporary Studies in Pure Land Buddhism Honoring Roger Corless. Edited by Richard K. Payne. Berkeley, CA: Institute of Buddhist Studies and Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2009. 290 pp.Roger Corless (1938–2007)—Catholic devotee, Tibetan Buddhist meditator, Pure Land interpreter, and renowned professor of religious studies—was a frequent (...) contributor to the dialogue between Christians and Buddhists in the West, including through the auspices of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. Although he passed away in 2007, his spirit continues to enrich this historic encounter, including through several major posthumous works. Path of No Path is the first of three such works planned for release by the Institute of Buddhist Studies, a seminary and graduate studies institution associated with Jōdo Shinshū, the largest form of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. Originally intended as a festschrift, the book unfortunately had to become a memorial volume. In addition to some laudatory material reflecting on Corless’s life, it contains articles by ten scholars focusing on the Pure Land tradition of Buddhism, broken into three categories of practice, transmission, and interpretation. Many contributors, such as Ruben Habito and Al Bloom, will be familiar to readers of Buddhist-Christian Studies.Edited anthologies are always a mixed bag, but happily Path of No Path holds together well and offers many interesting essays for scholars interested in this field, although at times the connection to Corless’s own work seems a bit forced. Alternately, we might view those essays with relatively tenuous connections to Corless’s work as representing the sort of playfulness that Corless famously displayed in his writings and speaking appearances. A good example of this is the first essay, by Harvey [End Page 225] Aronson, on Vajrasattva meditation. Vajrasattva, a major figure in Vajrayāna Buddhism, is not traditionally associated with the Pure Land tradition. Yet Aronson begins by putting a Jōdo Shinshū framework around his subsequent article, which deals with meditative visualizations as healing techniques. Like Corless frequently did, Aronson looks for connections between seemingly disparate cultures and religions. In the process, he offers some insightful comments on how Asian and Western practitioners approach healing within a Buddhist context. For example, he finds that the Westerners are far more heavily psychological in their orientation, and tend to react negatively to situations of obligation and responsibility to others that are comfortable to Asian participants.The second essay’s relationship to Corless is much more organic, as it deals with Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, a subject that he published important works on. This essay, by Charles Orzech, analyzes the Rites for Contemplation of and Offerings to Amitāyus Tathāgata (Wuliangshou rulai guanxing gongyang yigui), an esoteric text based in part on the famous Scripture on Contemplation of the Buddha of Limitless Life (Fo shuo guan wuliangshoufo ling). Orzech skillfully demonstrates how the Rites reframed the Scripture on Contemplation in a tantric context, contributing to the ongoing esotericization of Chinese Buddhism in the Tang period (618–907).James Sanford’s contribution also relates to both tantric and Pure Land forms of Buddhism. Sanford offers a translation of and commentary on the Guide to the Eighty Thousand Dharma Principles (Hōri hachiman chō). This is a short apocryphal text purporting to reveal secret teachings passed on from Jōdo Shinshū founder Shinran (1173–1263) to his grandson Nyoshin. These secret Jōdo Shinshū lineages are an important historical phenomenon that have not been given nearly enough attention, in part because they are actively disapproved of by the orthodox, nonesoteric schools of Jōdo Shinshū (and indeed orthodox Shinshū has at times persecuted these minority traditions). Sanford’s introduction, translation, and commentary therefore provide a major service to scholars of Japanese religion.Gordon Bermant’s entry is short but nonetheless contains some pithy observations on the role of “practice” in American Jōdo Shinshū, a subject that Corless himself wrote about numerous times. Traditionally Jōdo Shinshū is often understood not to include any sort of formal practice—religious practices, in fact, are seen as evidence of egoism or lack... (shrink)

This article addresses some Late Scholastic accounts (Suárez, Abra de Raçonis, Gamaches, Ysambert, Arriaga), of the “problem of transduction” in angels, as a possible source for the genesis of early modern occasionalism, particularly La Forge’s and Cordemoy’s. Indeed, if the “problem of transduction” is a structural issue of all the Aristotelian gnoseology, the impossibility of interaction between immaterial and material substance concerns, more generally, all spiritual substances, posing the issue about the principle of "transduction" already at the level of (...) angels, entirely immaterial creatures, unable to any relationship with the bodies. In order to answer to this peculiar version of the 'problem of transduction' Late Scholastic elaborate doctrines that are direct antecedents of occasionalist ones, and which likely directly influenced early modern occasionalism. To follow this investigative path, I will intersect three complementary argumentative lines. First, I will focus on Late Scholastic angelology, to point out how the need to solve the 'problem of transduction' in this peculiar context pushes the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Schools to a proto-occasionalist conception of angelic innatism. Secondly, I will identify in the debate on the angelic locutio of the key places for the elaboration of a model that sees God as the only efficient cause and the only guarantor of the mind's communications and contents. Thirdly, I will stress how the Late Scholastic angelological debates could be an important source for early modern dualism and the seventeenth-century occasionalism, notably for La Forge and Cordemoy. -/- . (shrink)

Roger Williams est l’un des créateurs de la tradition constitutionnelle américaine. Il fournit les bases d’une politique fondée sur un égal respect des consciences et l’équité religieuse qui résonnent jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Derrière son importante réussite politique, il y a une pensée aussi riche sur ces questions que celle de John Locke et nettement plus pénétrante quant à la psychologie de la victime et de son tortionnaire. Elle tourne autour d’une idée sur laquelle Williams se concentre avec un zèle obsessionnel (...) : la notion du prix et de la dignité de la conscience individuelle de l’homme. Il aide à voir pourquoi la persécution est si tentante et quelles attitudes émotionnelles pourraient être exigées pour lui résister. En développant en outre un compte rendu élaboré des compétences convenables aux autorités civiles et religieuses, il anticipe la position la plus célèbre de Locke. Il n’est pas extravagant d’y voir une esquisse de la notion de John Rawls d’une société civile impliquant un ensemble de principes moraux à propos desquels des gens avec des « doctrines complètes » peuvent se rejoindre dans un « consensus qui se chevauche ». (shrink)

En los primeros años del siglo XIV se planteó la polémica entre los franciscanos “espirituales” y el papa Juan XXII. El emperador alemán Luis de Baviera intervino en la confrontación a favor de los franciscanos y en contra del Papa. En la novela El nombre de la Rosa de Umberto Eco, se escenifica el conflicto entre el Franciscano Guillermo, que representa a Guillermo de Ockham y el inquisidor dominico Bernardo de Guí. En sus páginas se cita la filosofía de (...) Aristóteles, Tomás de Aquino Buenaventura de Bagnoregio, Marsilio de Padua y el propio Guillermo de Ockham. La filosofía política y el conocimiento científico de la época: Alberto Magno y Roger Bacon entre otros completan el panorama del citado siglo XIV. Todo ello demuestra una labor educativa incuestionable del libro de Umberto Eco. (shrink)

An Aristotelian philosophy of nature offers an alternative to reduction for the conception of the inter-theoretical relationships between molecular chemistry and quantum mechanics. A basic ingredient for such an approach is an ontology of fundamental causal powers, and this work aims to develop such an ontology by drawing on quantum-chemical entities, particularly, the electron density. This notion is central to the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules, a theory of molecular structure developed by Richard F. W. Bader, which describes molecules (...) and atoms in terms precisely of the electron density. Then, by identifying a philosophical tension in Bader’s discourse about the nature of electron density, the work will analyze this central notion in terms of the categorical/dispositional distinction regarding properties. The central idea is that electron density can be conceived as categorical and dispositional at once, and this very characterization can avoid Bader’s philosophical tension. (shrink)