In this paper, I offer two counterexamples to the so-called ‘Uniqueness Thesis.’ As one of these examples rely on the thesis that it is possible for a justified belief to be based on an inconsistent body of evidence, I also offer reasons for this further thesis. On the assumption that doxastic justification entails propositional justification, the counterexamples seem to work.

The representational nature of human cognition and thought in general has been a source of controversies. This is particularly so in the context of studies of unconscious cognition, in which representations tend to be ontologically and structurally segregated with regard to their conscious status. However, it appears evolutionarily and developmentally unwarranted to posit such segregations, as,otherwise, artifact structures and ontologies must be concocted to explain them from the viewpoint of the human cognitive architecture. Here, from a by-and-large Classical cognitivist viewpoint, (...) I show why this segregation is wrong, and elaborate on the need to postulate an ontological and structural continuity between unconscious and conscious representations. Specifically, I hypothesize that this continuity is to be found in the symbolic-based interplay between the syntax and the semantics of thought, and I propose a model of human information processing characterized by the integration of syntactic and semantic representations. (shrink)

In this paper I deal with epistemological issues that stem from the hypothesis that reasoning is not only a means of transmitting knowledge from premise-beliefs to conclusion-beliefs, but also a primary source of knowledge in its own right. The idea is that one can gain new knowledge on the basis of suppositional reasoning. After making some preliminary distinctions, I argue that there are no good reasons to think that purported examples of knowledge grounded on pure reasoning are just examples of (...) premise-based inferences in disguise. Next, I establish what kinds of true propositions can to a first approximation be known on the basis of pure reasoning. Finally, I argue that beliefs that are competently formed on the basis of suppositional reasoning satisfy both externalist and internalist criteria of justification. (shrink)

The main contribution of this paper is first of all to explain some notions that Heidegger adopts from Aristotle as well as Saint Agustin with a view to the elaboration of his analytic of Dasein. It also tries to show the ambivalent characteristic of the relationship between the German philosophe..

Este ensaio tratará da singularidade da Filosofia Africana no Brasil como um discurso em “pretuguês”. Para ilustrar esse discurso, partimos da narrativa akan de Kwaku Ananse e expomos como as diferentes temáticas compõem uma teia tal como uma troca de argumentações entre as dimensões da história, da política e da cultura. Essa composição é suscitada pela diáspora africana, interpretada aqui como um elemento provocador de uma percepção outra de filosofia e de um projeto de humanidade. Por fim, este ensaio apresenta (...) como o discurso filosófico em pretuguês faz da Filosofia Africana uma experiência pluriversal e repleta de diversas vozes. (shrink)

En este artículo comenzamos exponiendo los problemas éticos que pueden surgir en los xenotrasplantes desde distintas perspectivas normativas. Tras esto, elaboramos una breve retrospectiva histórica acerca de los xenotrasplantes. Después, recogemos los principales datos científicos, algunos estudios sobre la opinión pública, el marco legal y las respuestas de diferentes comités éticos acerca de los xenotrasplantes. Finalmente, defenderemos la impermisibilidad de los xenotrasplantes desde una perspectiva principialista que incluye a animales no humanos.

This paper proposes to reconstruct Boaventura de Sousa Santos' conception of "epistemologies of the south" both (a) as a critical theory aiming at denouncing the impoverishment of the epistemic field entailed by the normative imposition of a certain model of knowledge (what we call "the monoculture of reason"), and (b) as a long-term political project of a harmonic coexistence of different epistemologies ("an ecology of knowledges").

This paper follows Derrida’s criticism, in The Voice and the Phenomenon, of Husserl ‘s conception of meaning as ideality and identity. The french author contests the ideality and supratemporality·of meaning, its separation from the meaning conferring act, and defends the inclusion of the following indicative dimensions of the last in the former: 1) the sensible element of the linguistic sign (namely in the ideal form of the word, that is in the expression) 2) the manifestation and communication of the experience (...) or act (in the conscience as such) 3) the sensible and empirical content of experience, be it sensational, perceptive, imaginative or potentially and mediatelly intended (in the meaning itself). He questions, moreover, having asserted its temporal condition, which also derives, nevertheless, from some assertions by Husserl, the possibility of constitution of a «strict» and «true» identity, stating that intuitive presence is unable to form both the total covering between the intended and the fulfilling meaning, and the abstract ideality that would be function of the possibility of an infinite repetition, instead of conditioned by a “finite-infinite” one. Finally, he explains better the relation between the sensible face of sign and the ideality of meaning, the former’s place and role within the differentiation and repetition process. He notes that it is an ‘originary’ lack in thinking and meaning itself that claims for the linguistic sign (‘supplement of origin’), “in succession” for its ideal form and its sensible oral and written elements, without ever reaching any completion (‘ supplementarity’, ‘differe(a)nce’). We also attend the derridean hypothesis of writing as the consummation of the link between ideality and death, the last one being considered as having a special relation to sensibility and difference. (shrink)

The goal of this article is to discuss several critical positions published recently in academic journals on the book The order of ‘Capital’, which aim is to lay the foundations for a republican reading of Marx’s major work. The core of the argument focuses against any attempt to derive normative proposals from scientific discoveries. From here, clarifying some key concepts and positions of the republican tradition is a necessary condition in order to show the close solidarity between Marx and Kant (...) about the formal and institutional conditions of any possible theory of justice. (shrink)

More often than not, theories of belief and of belief ascription restrict themselves to conscious beliefs, thus obliterating a vast part of our mental life and offering extremely incomplete, unrealistic theories. Indeed, conscious beliefs are the exception, not the rule, as far as human doxastic states are concerned, and a naturalistic, realistic theory of knowledge that aspires to completeness has to take unconscious beliefs into consideration. This paper is the elaboration of such a theory of belief.

The present article review some implications of the second order research in Social Sciences. Through the concepts of ambivalence, otherness and paradox, challenges that the new paradigm demands to the social researcher are discussed.

Este artículo reseña: Oscar PÉREZ DE LA FUENTE, Odio, minorías y libertad de expresión.

El artículo propone una serie de mecanismos sociales que operan en acontecimientos políticos en las redes sociales de Internet. Dichos mecanismos son: el contagio social, las cascadas de información y la información desregulada. Con estos elementos y valiéndose de un buen número de hechos contemporáneos que le han dando interés al fenómeno político de las redes sociales, se analiza el impacto de las mismas bajo parámetros claros que sirvan para dar explicaciones desde las ciencias sociales.

Dentro de la sociología francesa actual, Gilles Lipovetsky se ha convertido de forma paulatina en uno de los sociólogos con mayor proyección internacional, con sus finos análisis sobre las sociedades postmodernas. En este artículo se plantea una revisión crítica de las principales líneas argumentativas que expone el autor francés. El objetivo es el de reflexionar sobre las limitaciones de su aproximación a los conceptos de postmodernidad, hipermodernidad, y consumo.

In this interview with ESPACIOS Magazine (CINDES in Ecuador), in which the author gives the first announcement of his new publication, he offers his critical opinion as to the future of Brazil and of Latin America in general, in the face of liberal reforms that capitalist society is implementi..