Se proponen tres ejemplos históricos para mostrar cómo la religión, en la forma del cristianismo católico, ha promovido el avance de la filosofía moral o la filosofía social. Frente a posiciones que entienden que la religión tiene como función principal la conservación del status quo de una sociedad en particular (Marx o Durkheim) estos casos notables muestran que más bien es al contrario: las motivaciones religiosas han provocado cambios en la forma de pensar que inevitablemente implican cambios en el modo (...) de vida (Weber). Elegimos tres autores ligados por la época y el espacio (Siglo de oro español) y la religión (cristianismo católico). Juan Luis Vives propuso desde la filosofía cristiana que inspira todo su trabajo una asistencia regular y organizada a los pobres, que andando el tiempo se convertiría en la asistencia social contemporánea. Francisco de Vitoria, reflexionando sobre las causas de la guerra justa, los títulos de conquista o esclavitud, sentó las bases del derecho internacional al margen de la imposición violenta. Juan de Mariana hizo una reflexión política limitando tanto el poder del emperador que incluso sugirió la posibilidad del tiranicidio en caso de necesidad. Estos tres autores nos muestran que, aunque la religión continúa jugando un papel importante en la transmisión del estado de cosas, también ejerce una influencia que permite la evolución en las costumbres y, en consecuencia, en la reflexión ética. (shrink)

An emotion-based lengthening effect on the perception of durations of emotional pictures has been assumed to result from an arousal-based mechanism, involving the activation of an internal clock system. The aim of this study was to systematically examine the arousal effect on time perception when different discrete emotions were considered. The participants were asked to verbally estimate the duration of emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). The pictures varied either in arousal level, i.e., high/low-arousal, for the same (...) discrete emotion (disgust or sadness) or in the depicted emotion, e.g., disgust/fear for pictures matched for arousal (high-arousal). The results systematically revealed a lengthening effect on the perception of the duration of the emotional compared to the neutral pictures and indicated that the magnitude of this effect increased with arousal level. Nevertheless, variations in time perception were observed for one and the same arousal level, with the duration of disgust-inducing pictures (e.g., body mutilation) being judged longer than that of fear-inducing pictures (e.g., snake). These results suggest that arousal is a fundamental mechanism mediating the effect of emotion on time perception. However, the effect cannot be reduced to arousal, since the impact of the content of pictures also plays a critical role. (shrink)

In this paper I present an interpretation of Deleuze's concept of the virtual. I argue that this concept is best understood in relation to the problematic of individuation or differentiation, which Deleuze inherits from Duns Scotus. After analysing Scotus' critique of Aristotelian or hylomorphic approaches to the problem of individuation, I turn to Deleuze's account of differentiation and his interpretation of the calculus in chapter 4 of Difference and Repetition. The paper seeks thereby to explicate Deleuze's dialectics or theory of (...) Ideas, his approach to the principle of sufficient reason, and the concept of the virtual itself. (shrink)

This article investigates the concept of the ground truth as both an epistemic and technical figure of knowledge that is central to discussions of machine vision and media techniques of visuality. While ground truth refers to a set of remote sensing practices, it has a longer history in operational photography, such as aerial reconnaissance. Building on a discussion of this history, this article argues that ground truth has shifted from a reference to the physical, geographical ground to the surface of (...) the images echoing earlier points raised by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy that there is a ground of the image that is central to the task of analysis beyond representational practices. Furthermore, building on the practices of pattern recognition, composite imaging, and different interpretational techniques, we discuss contemporary practices of machine learning that mobilizes geographical earth observation datasets for experimental purposes, including tests such as “fake geography” as well as artistic practices, to show how ground truth is operationalized in such contexts of AI and visual arts. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is analyzing to which extent the multiverse hypothesis provides a real explanation of the peculiarities of the laws and constants in our universe. First we argue in favor of the thesis that all multiverses except Tegmark’s “mathematical multiverse” are too small to explain the fine tuning, so that they merely shift the problem up one level. But the “mathematical multiverse" is surely too large. To prove this assessment, we have performed a number of experiments with (...) cellular automata of complex behavior, which can be considered as universes in the mathematical multiverse. The analogy between what happens in some automata (in particular Conway’s “Game of Life") and the real world is very strong. But if the results of our experiments can be extrapolated to our universe, we should expect to inhabit—in the context of the multiverse—a world in which at least some of the laws and constants of nature should show a certain time dependence. Actually, the probability of our existence in a world such as ours would be mathematically equal to zero. In consequence, the results presented in this paper can be considered as an inkling that the hypothesis of the multiverse, whatever its type, does not offer an adequate explanation for the peculiarities of the physical laws in our world. (shrink)

Blockchain is a pioneering technology that allows the creation of innovative information exchange ecosystems thanks to unique properties, such as immutability, distribution and transparency. By combining this technology with the emergent internet of things (IoT), many innovative business models can be created. The main objective of this work is to present the design and an initial implementation of a decentralized rental system that takes advantage of smart contracts developed on a public blockchain, combined with the potential of the IoT and (...) its intimate relationship with cyber-physical systems. The logic to be implemented in the blockchain is applied in this paper by using the Ethereum programming language, so that the developed application covers the entire car rental process offered in traditional web applications, but adding more autonomy, functionalities and ease of use for both lessees and lessors. Following Ethereum application development guidelines, all business logic is located in the smart contracts implemented in the network, where they can be used to control the car rental system. While this is a work in progress, the results obtained in the first proof of concept have been very promising. (shrink)

This essay will first present a vignette of Luxemburg’s life and work, referring to classic and recent biographies. Following that, section 3 examines concepts of the state and nation in Hegel, Marx, Engels, and Lenin. The subject of section 4 is Luxemburg’s substantial work of political economy, The Accumulation of Capital. It is a most significant achievement, analyzing the contradictions of the capitalist state and its role in driving imperialist expansion and colonialism. Section 5 traces how Luxemburg’s political economy in (...) Accumulation underwrites her interventions in the heated debates over Polish independence. And section 6 concludes with remarks on Luxemburg’s significance for philosophy and political thought. (shrink)

In this essay I will explore the important connection between conformism as an adaptive psychological strategy, and the emergence of the phenomenon of ethnicity. My argument will be that it makes sense that nature made us conformists. And once humans acquired this adaptive strategy, I will argue further, the development of ethnic organization was inevitable. Understanding the adaptive origins of conformism, as we shall see, is perhaps the most useful way to shed light on what ethnicity is—at least when examined (...) from the functional point of view, which is to say from the point of view of the adaptive problems that ethnicity solves. I shall begin with a few words about our final destination. (shrink)

We continue the work of Blok and Jónsson by developing the theory of structural closure operators and introducing the notion of a representation between them. Similarities and equivalences of Blok-Jónsson turn out to be bijective representations and bijective structural representations, respectively. We obtain a characterization for representations induced by a transformer. In order to obtain a similar characterization for structural representations we introduce the notions of a graduation and a graded variable of an M-set. We show that several deductive systems, (...) Gentzen systems among them, are graded M-sets having graded variables, and describe the graded variables in each case. In the last section we show that, for a sentential logic, having an algebraic semantics is equivalent to being representable in an equational consequence. This motivates the extension of the notion of having an algebraic semantics for Gentzen systems, hypersequents systems, etc. We prove that if a closure operator is representable by a transformer, then every extension of it is also representable by the same transformer. As a consequence we obtain that if one of these systems has an algebraic semantics, then so does any of its extensions with the same defining equations. (shrink)

My paper will analyze Cassirer’s logic of the cultural sciences as it developed in close engagement with work on logic, psychology, biology, and linguistics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper focuses on Chajim Steinthal, who sees the “expressive form” of language as a natural function of human engagement with the environment, developing independently of logic. When read in the context of his engagement with Steinthal, the biologist Uexküll, and the neuroscientist Kurt Goldstein, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (...) reimagines the role of logic and language in the construction of the cultural world. This provides a reading of what Cassirer means by the logic of the cultural sciences, and what he means by culture itself. My reading highlights the tension, which I argue stems from Steinthal’s earlier work, between the assertion that phenomena including linguistic expression, living beings, and consciousness develop independently of a unifying logic, and Cassirer’s assertion that we live in a common, objective human world. (shrink)

In this paper, building on recent and longstanding work (Warren 2001, Friedman 2013, Glezer 2018), I investigate how the account of the essences or natures of material substances in the Metaphysical Foundations is related to Kant’s demand for the completeness of the system of nature. We must ascribe causal powers to material substances for the properties of those substances to be observable and knowable. But defining those causal powers requires admitting laws of nature, taken as axioms or principles of natural (...) science, which govern anything that can be constructed mathematically or “given as an object of experience” (MAN, 4:474–75). Presenting a complete system of nature requires adumbrating the properties of material substances that can be objects of experience. But it is not possible to show how those properties are involved in explanations of the phenomena without involving the laws that govern interactions between material substances. For Kant, or so I will argue, it is not possible to account for the natures of things, or for the features of laws of nature, independently of each other. The paper will substantiate the Finitist Account (FA) of Kant on laws. The Finitist Account has it that modal judgments about the possible proofs that can be made, or interactions that can be explained, are (1) based on concrete intuitive reasoning and motivated by the desire to avoid appeal to the actual infinite, (2) grounded in finite decision procedures, which are (3) based on reliable systems of axioms or rules of inference. (shrink)

A course in professional ethics for civil engineers was taught for the first time in Spain during the academic year 2007/08. In this paper a survey on the satisfaction and expectation of the course is presented. Surprisingly the students sought moral and ethical principles for their own ordinary lives as well as for their profession. Students were concerned about the law, but in their actions they were more concerned with their conscience, aware that it can be separate from the law.

We present a systematic study of join-extensions and join-completions of partially ordered algebras, which naturally leads to a refined and simplified treatment of fundamental results and constructions in the theory of ordered structures ranging from properties of the Dedekind–MacNeille completion to the proof of the finite embeddability property for a number of varieties of lattice-ordered algebras.

ABSTRACT In this paper we study consequence relations on the set of many sided sequents over a propositional language. We deal with the consequence relations axiomatized by the sequent calculi defined in [2] and associated with arbitrary finite algebras. These consequence relations are examples of what we call Gentzen systems. We define a semantics for these systems and prove a Strong Completeness Theorem, which is an extension of the Completeness Theorem for provable sequents stated in [2]. For the special case (...) of the finite linear MV-algebras, the Strong Completeness Theorem was proved in [10], as a consequence of McNaughton's Theorem. The main tool to prove this result for arbitrary algebras is the deduction-detachment theorem for Gentzen systems. (shrink)

Cette étude propose une analyse des différences et similitudes linguistiques dans la presse écrite traditionnelle et les médias participatifs en ligne afin d’évaluer dans quelle mesure la production et la diffusion en ligne peuvent modifier nos usages linguistiques. Les analyses effectuées se basent sur un large corpus (8 millions de mots) qui représente des modes d’expression et des degrés de subjectivité a priori différents.

Scientific pluralism has gained supporters in philosophy of science during the last decades, since it seems to accurately account for the plural and varied development of science. Arguments in defense of robust, non-merely epistemic pluralistic positions can be found in several contemporary philosophical works. According to these positions, to hold pluralism does not suppose to assume an epistemic position regarding truth and a non-realistic view on scientific theories. Monism can be thought as the “natural” opponent of scientific pluralism. In this (...) paper, we will evaluate the alleged rivalry between the two positions, paying special attention to those riskier, ontologically more robust, pluralistic proposals. We will argue that these strongest versions of pluralism fail to offer an alternative to monism: they either changes the topic or hold a weak skepticism that Hegel develops in the Phenomenology of the Spirit. (shrink)

Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar la relevancia de la máthesis para la concepción de la mimesis aristotélica. A partir de las observaciones de la Poética, delimitaré las características del aprendizaje tomando como eje su objeto, modalidad y consecuencias. Para ello analizaré, en primer lugar, el objeto sobre el que recae el aprendizaje mimético, esto es, los hombres que actúan. Luego examinaré la modalidad de presentación de sus acciones para que sea posible el aprendizaje, prestando especial atención al (...) papel que desempeña el error trágico o hamartía. Finalmente, resaltaré los aspectos por los que, a mi entender, la mímesis tiene consecuencias éticas y políticas relevantes en el marco del proyecto educativo de Aristóteles, y que permiten pasar de una consideración de la mímesis en el plano individual a una consideración sobre su función en el ámbito político.: The aim of this paper is to show the relevance of mathesis for the Aristotelian concept of mimesis. From the framework of Poetics, i try to demarcate the characteristics of learning, taking into account its object, modality, and consequences. In order to do this, I will analyze, first, the object of mimetic learning, that is, men who act. Then, I will examine the modality of presentation of their actions that make learning possible, paying special attention to the role played by tragic mistake or hamartía. Finally, I will highlight the aspects on account of which, in my opinion, mimesis has relevant ethical and political consequences in the framework of Aristotle's educational project, and which allow passing from a consideration of mimesis on an individual level to a political level. (shrink)

En este artículo se presentan los resultados del análisis discursivo realizado sobre las producciones verbales elaboradas por Directivos de Responsabilidad Social (DIRSE) para explicar qué son y cómo se organizan sus políticas socialmente responsables. Concretamente, se disecciona el modo en que la élite empresarial española construye las coordenadas narrativas de su relato sobre la responsabilidad social corporativa o empresarial, haciendo especial hincapié en el conjunto de significaciones y maniobras discursivas que las configuran. Para ello, se ha dividido el documento en (...) cuatro epígrafes. En el primero se introduce al lector en la perspectiva adoptada en esta investigación. En el segundo epígrafe se exponen las principales cuestiones de orden metodológico y en el tercero se presentan los resultados. Finalmente, el documento se cierra con una síntesis las conclusiones alcanzadas.In this paper we present the results of the discourse analysis of verbal productions made by Managers of Social Responsibility (dirse by its Spanish acronym) to explain what they are and how their socially responsible policies are organized. More specifically, we examine the way that Spanish business elite builds the narrative coordinates of its discourse about corporate social responsibility, with particular emphasis on the set of meanings and discourse manoeuvres that shapes them. In order to do so, we have divided this paper into four sections. In the first one, the reader is introduced to the approach taken for this research. In the second section we reflect the main methodological issues, while the last two sections present respectively the results and conclusions of our analysis. (shrink)

I argue that (1) the accusation that psychological methods are too diverse conflates “reliability” with “validity”; (2) one must not choose methods by the results they produce – what matters is whether a method acceptably models the real-world situation one is trying to understand; (3) one must also distinguish methodological failings from differences that arise from the pursuit of different theoretical questions.

Es indudable que el inconsciente colectivo estudiado por Jung y su escuela psicoanalítica, nos ha demostrado fehacientemente que las conductas observadas y aprendidas en la infancia tanto en la familia como en la sociedad, se reproducen de manera muy similar en las generaciones jóvenes.

El artículo ofrece una reflexión personal sobre los principios de la bioética. El tiempo de los derechos exige su positivización: es un riesgo y una oportunidad. El autor analiza la situación actual y señala la fragilidad de los principios por su indeterminación. Muestra el proceso de positivización y concluye que los principios deben ser positivizados y las reglas formuladas de acuerdo con los principios. Como en los juegos de suma cero si las reglas ganan, los principios pierden. Parece que los (...) principios son víctimas de su éxito. Sin embargo, el triunfo de los principios, su transformación en reglas no anula, sino que refuerza los principios. (shrink)

El 40 aniversario de la Pacem in Terris de Juan XXIII muestra su continuidad con Kant y Rawls. Los tres proclaman no a la guerra; se oponen al clash of civilisations; afirman que la paz exige el Estado de Derecho y de derechos, el respeto a los derechos humanos y fundamentales de las personas y de los pueblos y el sometimiento a las Naciones Unidas. Mientras que para Kant el imperativo ético conlleva la erradicación de la guerra, también para Rawls (...) el orden internacional supone la eliminación de la guerra y el triunfo del Derecho; para Juan XXIII el reconocimiento y el respeto universal a los derechos humanos y/o fundamentales es condición y a la vez presupuesto y efecto de la paz que también exige la igualdad y la garantía de las necesidades primarias. (shrink)

This work is devoted to clear how the foundation of modern thought takes place as a reinforced reiteration of metaphysics which is provoked by a defensive fold of reason against the assault of transrational. We begin showing the way this asault is experimented by Descartes in a decisive moment of his life and how reagently replies to him. The article continues showing how physics and metaphysics are being moved in Descartes on the wake of a try to build seawalls against (...) the incessant return of what has been repressed. (shrink)

This paper presents a preliminary and tentative formulation of a novel empirical generalization governing the relationship between grammar and cognition across a variety of independent domains. Its point of departure is an abstract distinction between two kinds of cognitive structures: symmetric and asymmetric. While in principle any feature whatsoever has the potential for introducing asymmetry, this paper focuses on one specific feature, namely thematic-role assignment. Our main empirical finding concerns the role of language, or, more specifically, grammar, in effecting and (...) maintaining the distinction between symmetric and asymmetric cognitive structures. Specifically, whereas symmetric structures devoid of thematic-role assignment more commonly occur in a non-grammatical and usually also non-verbal medium, asymmetric structures involving thematic-role assignment are more likely to be associated with a grammatical medium. Our work draws together three independent strands of empirical research associated with three diverse phenomenological domains: compositional semantics, metaphors and schematological hybrids. These three domains instantiate conceptual combinations, bringing together two or more subordinate entities into a single superordinate entity. For compositional semantics this consists of a juxtaposition of constituent signs to form a single more complex sign; for metaphors this entails the bringing together of two different concepts in order to produce a comparison; while for schematological hybrids this involves the combination of different entities to form a single new hybrid entity. Our empirical results reveal a remarkable parallelism between the above three domains. Within each domain, symmetric structures tend to be associated with a non-verbal or otherwise non-grammatical medium, while asymmetric structures are more frequently associated with a grammatical medium. Thus, within each domain, grammar introduces asymmetry. More specifically, we find that in all three domains, the asymmetry in question is one that involves the assignment of thematic roles. To capture this effect, we posit two distinct levels, or tiers, of cognition: non-grammatical cognition, more commonly associated with symmetric structures, and grammatical cognition more conducive to asymmetric structures. Within each of the three phenomenological domains, we find the distinction between non-grammatical and grammatical cognition to be manifest in three independent realms, phylogeny, ontogeny, and the architecture of human cognition. (shrink)