In this research, a sliding mode regulator with sine mapping is suggested for the stabilization of electricity generators being affected by magnet interaction nonlinearities and generator nonlinearities. To reach this goal, our suggested regulator has the following contributions: it starts from the sliding mode regulator with the modifications that the saturation mapping is used to reach a smoother performance instead of the signum mapping, and the sine mapping is applied to reach an upper bound in the proportional gain error, it (...) is used to reach some chosen constant behaviors for the angle position, angle speed, and current in the electricity generators, and its stabilization is ensured based on the Lyapunov approach. We show the simulation of the suggested regulator in two electricity generators. (shrink)

Se exponen precisiones en torno al concepto de cultura científica sobre la base de numerosos referentes actuales y a partir de las diferencias en su tratamiento, en el que generalmente se asume como categoría que es vinculada a las grandes masas y que, por su oficio, deben portar los individuos que se relacionan directa o indirectamente con la construcción del conocimiento científico y los resultados o salidas derivados de estos. También se propone el concepto de cultura científico investigativa que parte (...) de una intencionalidad como regularidad del pensamiento científico en el modo de actuación del sujeto consciente y desarrollador de esa categoría esencial, núcleo de capacidades transformadoras que median el pensamiento científico y la toma de decisiones en función de las demandas sociales. On the basis of current references about of scientific culture concept, the authors detailed the differences in the treatment in which it is generally assumed as a category that is linked to the masses and which, due to their profession, must have the individuals that are directly or indirectly related to the construction of scientific knowledge and the results or outputs derived from them. In addition, the concept of scientific research culture is proposed, from intentionality as a regularity of scientific thinking in the action mode of the conscious individual and developer of that essential category, a nucleus of transformative capacities that mediate scientific thinking and decision making in function of social demands. (shrink)

Los Estados Unidos fueron vistos desde comienzos de la revolución independentista como un aliado natural de la Nueva Granada por su doble condición americana y republicana. Esta persistente idea explica que, ante diversas agresiones de Francia y Gran Bretaña, Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera buscara comprometer a los norteamericanos durante su primer gobierno con una posición más decidida y solidaria. Ello se consiguió mediante la ardua negociación, suscripción y ratificación de un tratado binacional y a través de la firma de un (...) contrato para construir un camino carretero y un ferrocarril interoceánicos en Panamá. Esta situación de “cuasi alianza”, sellada en el momento mismo en que se descubrían las minas de oro californianas, fue interrumpida en 1856 cuando un motín en el Istmo dio pie al gobierno de Washington a formular pretensiones expansionistas. Tras un corto paréntesis antiyanqui en el que participaron por igual conservadores y liberales, las aventuras colonizadoras de las potencias europeas en el continente permitieron a este último partido renovar la fe en la asociación republicana. (shrink)

Tomando en cuenta el carácter de esbozo de los símiles del sol, la línea y la caverna, así como su coincidencia con la estructura de la República en su conjunto, el autor discute la naturaleza de la diánoia y sus objetos. Así pretende mostrar que la sección de República IV en que se discute la estructura del alma, procede dianoéticamente, esto es, de la misma manera del método hipotético-deductivo de las matemáticas. En ese sentido muestra que esa investigación toma como (...) hipótesis y, por lo tanto, como principio, el principio de no-contradicción. Concluye, entonces, que los entes matemáticos no son los únicos objetos propios de la diánoia y, más bien, al igual que las “partes” del alma, son de naturaleza puramente conceptual. Asimismo, sostiene que la relación entre los objetos de la diánoia y la pístis es la de una dialéctica de original e imagen, lo cual se ve muy bien representado por la igualdad y desigualdad de los segmentos intermedios de la línea. En definitiva, esa misma relación se puede apreciar entre las virtudes cívicas y éticas, tanto como entre los dos tipos de entes correspondientes a los dos niveles de las respectivas disciplinas matemáticas. (shrink)

El presente trabajo pretende establecer una “lógica” en la exposición y análisis de las formas deficientes de gobierno en fa República VIII-X, más no en el sentido del “historicismo”, respecto del cual toma una clara y crítica distancia. Con ese propósito busca primero establecer el lugar que ocupa esa exposición en el conjunto de la obra y luego, abordar la cuestión del criterio y del fundamento que permite distinguirlas de la pólis ideal -la única que constituye una unidad- y ordenarlas (...) en una jerarquía que pone de manifiesto una cada vez mayor multiplicidad hasta establecer a la tiranía como el extremo apuesto de la polis justa y buena. En contraste con recientes publicaciones (Blössner), el autor sostiene que Platón formula y aplica explícitamente ese criterio aunque no precisamente en el comienzo inmediato de los libros VIII-IX. (shrink)

This study deals with the transformations of a number of topics of Aristotelian political philosophy provoked by their crossing with the Augustinian interpretation of Christian doctrine, promoted by Thomas Aquinas in his Treatise on the Kingdom. The following is a review of the place of the universality of politics in Aquinas’s text, which in Aristotle’s philosophy was linked to political naturalism and that in Thomist reception seems to tend towards a supernatural and divine scenario. In order to evaluate this conjecture (...) we will refer to the causes and ends attributed by Thomas to the dominion of man over man, trying to recognize the place occupied by political virtue in this approach. The proposed hypothesis is that Thomas’s characterization of the political model of the kingdom implies a bifurcation in the end to which the political community aims, all of which would propitiate the de-universalization of politics itself. (shrink)

Este artigo busca compreender a figura da Mãe de Jesus na América Latina, como Mãe da Igreja e dos cristãos, modelo de discípula e de uma evangelização libertadora. Toma como ponto de referência para suas reflexões as Conferências Episcopais Latino-Americanas do Rio de Janeiro, Medellín, Puebla, Santo Domingo e Aparecida.

The health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed limitations in health systems worldwide, making it necessary to establish a bioethical framework that provides tools to drive health professionals’ decision-making amid scarce health resources. Bioethical models such as principlism, utilitarianism, and personalism seek to focus clinical decisions on respect for people’s rights and dignity, thus protecting the medical practice. Personalism provides a person-centered approach to respect for human dignity during health emergencies to avoid giving material meaning to the individual. Decision (...) criteria are required to face bioethical conflicts in clinical practice, reducing the legal, emotional, and ethical burden of decision-making in pandemic situations. (shrink)

Este artículo discute y analiza la formación del carácter crítico e intelectual en Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot. A partir de fuentes diversas y, en parte, inexploradas, se reconstruye el proceso de formación y ejercicio de su actividad crítica entre 1950 y 1965. Se tienen en cuenta tanto las relaciones con otros intelectuales como la influencia de los diversos contextos en los cuales se dieron dichas relaciones. Así, su participación en Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, su correspondencia con Alfonso Reyes y con Nils Hedberg, (...) su actividad diplomática, su trabajo editorial y de traducción y, finalmente, su práctica docente, se estudian con objeto de tener un marco comprensivo. La obra crítica de Gutiérrez Girardot dista de estar comprendida y, de hecho, se precisa todavía de un exhaustivo trabajo de reconstrucción y análisis. This paper discusses and analyses the critical and intellectual nature of the work of Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot. It reproduces the process of construction and exercise of his critical activity (1950-1965), based on different sources some of them not yet very studied. The paper takes into account his relationships with other intellectuals and the influence of its different contexts. Thus, in order to get a comprehensive framework, it studies his participation in Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, his correspondence with Alfonso Reyes and Nils Hedberg, his diplomatic activity, his work as editor and translator and finally his teaching experience. The critical work of Gutiérrez Girardot is far from being completely interpreted and this makes necessary an exhaustive work of reconstruction and analysis. (shrink)

El artículo de Alejandro Pidal y Mon sobre "La doctrina científica de santo Tomás" en el primer número de la Revista ofrece la oportunidad de volver a la intuición de fondo del aprecio por el maestro dominico. Es cierto que santo Tomás se coloca en la estela de los grandes maestros de la razón. En su afán por reivindicar el valor de la razón humana otorga a la doctrina sagrada el calificativo de ciencia. Pero es preciso, ya desde el comienzo, (...) advertir que aquí habla de la doctrina sagrada, no de los métodos. Con su tesis sobre el carácter científico de la sagrada doctrina pretende reivindicar el valor de la misma en el ámbito del saber. Pero en sus métodos mantiene que, entre las referencias, la primera es la Sagrada Escritura, aunque sin renunciar, por supuesto, a otras argumentaciones como probables. Por eso, reducir la teología una ciencia de conclusiones no es lo más característico de la doctrina de santo Tomás.Alejandro Pidal y Pon’s article on "St Thomas scientific doctrine" in the first issue of the magazine gives us the opportunity of returning to the basic intuition of the esteem for the Dominican master. It is true that St Thomas followed the steps of the reason great masters. Trying to claim responsibility for the value of the human reason, he labels the sacred doctrine as science. But it is necessary from the beginning to tell that here he is talking of the sacred doctrine, not of the methods. With his thesis of the scientific character of the sacred doctrine, he tries to claim its value in the ground of knowing. But in his methods, he holds that, among his references, the Sacred Scripture is the first, without renouncing of course to other arguments as probable. So, reducing Theology to a science of conclusions is not St Thomas’ most characteristic. (shrink)

Reactualizando una disciplina relativamente descuidada en nuestro medio como lo es la Filosofía del Derecho, el libro La violencia del derecho y la nuda vida estudia la compleja relación entre la violencia jurídica y la vida, e indaga por las condiciones a las que se puede reducir la vida humana cuando el ejercicio del poder se vale del control de la vida misma. En este marco general, el libro desarrolla la ruta trazada por Walter Benjamin en su famoso ensayo Para (...) una crítica de la violencia (1921), al establecer la indisoluble imbricación entre derecho y violencia en la que la segunda le ofrece a la primera su fundamentación. Con este presupuesto, el libro se orienta en primer lugar a desmentir la opinión corriente según la cual el derecho es justicia, para movilizar en su lugar otro fundamento según el cual el derecho es fuerza, poder o violencia, nociones que a efectos de la argumentación resultan sinónimas. En apoyo de esta tesis, la autora reconstruye dos tradiciones de la Filosofía del Derecho como son las doctrinas del derecho natural principalmente en San Agustín y en Santo Tomás de Aquino, y la tradición del derecho positivo cuyo origen losó co se remonta a las obras de Pascal, Hobbes y Spinoza. (shrink)

By analysing three works of fiction set in Havana, Fresa y Chocolate by Tomas Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabi, Retour à Ithaque by Laurent Cantet and Viva by Paddy Breathnach, we propose to study the Cuban capital as a sick body, as an architecturally, economically, politically and socially dilapidated organism. Its citizens struggle to survive, lacking basic necessities and trapped under a claustrophobic political and social surveillance, which the film directors convey through the use of a variety (...) of aesthetic devices. There is a form of symbiosis between Havana and its inhabitants. The characters are confined in a labyrinth of alleys, stairs and narrow corridors, enveloped in a nocturnal atmosphere. The constricted arteries through which they move show that the body of Havana lacks oxygen. Its inhabitants need to find spaces to breathe and to express their authentic selves, to regenerate. This space is to be found behind Havana’s façades, behind its closed doors and even on a roof-top terrace. These private spaces reveal the dual nature of the city and its people, and constitute pockets of liberty as well as places of catharsis. The external façade presents a socially acceptable figure while covering and protecting the authentic self. The private spaces provide the physical and mental oxygen that the soul of Havana needs to survive. It is here that individual liberties flourish, allowing rights to be asserted, and art to be both preserved and created. The premise of a spiritual transformation begins to take form. (shrink)

Kafka's work has exercised immense influence on cinema and his reflections on diminished human agency in modernity and the dominance of oppressive institutions that perpetuate individual or social alienation and political repression have been the subject of debates by philosophers such as Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Alexander Kluge. Informed by a world-systems approach and taking a cue from Jorge Luis Borges’ point that Kafka has modified our conception of the future, and André Bazin's suggestion that (...) literary concepts, characters and styles can exceed “novels from which they emanate”, I understand the Kafkaesque as an elastic term that can refer to diverse films that might share thematic preoccupations, but also aesthetic and formal differences. In this article, I explore the politics of humour in Kafkaesque cinema with reference to the following films: The Overcoat ( Шинель, 1926, Gregor Koznitzev and Leo Trauberg), The Shop on Main Street ( Obchod na korze, 1965, Ján Kadár), and Death of a Bureaucrat ( La muerte de un burócrata, 1966, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea). I draw attention to the dialectics of humour and the connection between the Kafkaesque and slapstick so as to show how humour is deployed as a means of political critique. (shrink)

In an essay recently published in this journal (“Is Safety in Danger?”), Fernando Broncano-Berrocal defends the safety condition on knowledge from a counterexample proposed by Tomas Bogardus (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2012). In this paper, we will define the safety condition, briefly explain the proposed counterexample, and outline Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the safety condition. We will then raise four objections to Broncano-Berrocal’s defense, four implausible implications of his central claim. In the end, we conclude that Broncano-Berrocal’s defense of the (...) safety condition is unsuccessful, and that the safety condition on knowledge should be rejected. (shrink)

Many philosophers believe that our ordinary English words man and woman are “gender terms,” and gender is distinct from biological sex. That is, they believe womanhood and manhood are not defined even partly by biological sex. This sex/gender distinction is one of the most influential ideas of the twentieth century on the broader culture, both popular and academic. Less well known are the reasons to think it’s true. My interest in this paper is to show that, upon investigation, the arguments (...) for the sex/gender distinction have feet of clay. In fact, they all fail. We will survey the literature and tour arguments in favor of the sex/gender distinction, and then we’ll critically evaluate those arguments. We’ll consider the argument from resisting biological determinism, the argument from biologically intersex people and vagueness, the argument from the normativity of gender, and some arguments from thought experiments. We’ll see that these arguments are not up to the task of supporting the sex/gender distinction; they simply don’t work. So, philosophers should either develop stronger arguments for the sex/gender distinction, or cultivate a variety of feminism that’s consistent with the traditional, biologically-based definitions of woman and man. (shrink)

Modalists think that knowledge requires forming your belief in a “modally stable” way: using a method that wouldn't easily go wrong, or using a method that wouldn't have given you this belief had it been false. Recent Modalist projects from Justin Clarke-Doane and Dan Baras defend a principle they call “Modal Security,” roughly: if evidence undermines your belief, then it must give you a reason to doubt the safety or sensitivity of your belief. Another recent Modalist project from Carlotta Pavese (...) and Bob Beddor defends “Modal Virtue Epistemology”: knowledge is a belief that is maximally modally robust across “normal” worlds. We'll offer new objections to these recent Modalist projects. We will then argue for a rival view, Explanationism: knowing something is believing it because it's true. We will show how Explanationism offers a better account of undermining defeaters than Modalism, and a better account of knowledge. (shrink)

Feminism has long grappled with its own demarcation problem—exactly what is it to be a woman?—and the rise of trans-inclusive feminism has made this problem more urgent. I will first consider Sally Haslanger’s “social and hierarchical” account of woman, resulting from “Ameliorative Inquiry”: she balances ordinary use of the term against the instrumental value of novel definitions in advancing the cause of feminism. Then, I will turn to Katharine Jenkins’ charge that Haslanger’s view suffers from an “Inclusion Problem”: it fails (...) to class many trans women as women. Jenkins offers a novel norm-relevancy account of woman to avoid the Inclusion Problem. Unfortunately, Jenkins’ account has serious internal problems, i.e. problems by Jenkins’ own lights: it is unintelligible, or it suffers from an Inclusion Problem of its own. After that, I will develop novel arguments for the conclusion that the project of Ameliorative Inquiry is both incoherent and also impossible to complete—at least, impossible to complete in a trans-inclusive way. Trans-inclusive feminism, therefore, would do well to move beyond Ameliorative Inquiry. Insofar as that’s not possible, trans-inclusive feminism inherits the incoherence of Ameliorative Inquiry. (shrink)

Following the influential thought experiments by Hilary Putnam and others, philosophers of language have for the most part adopted semantic externalism concerning natural kind terms. In this article, we present results from three experiments on the reference of natural kind terms. Our results confirm some standard externalist assumptions, but are in conflict with others: Ordinary speakers take both appearance and underlying nature to be central in their categorization judgments. Moreover, our results indicate that speakers’ categorization judgments are gradual, and proportional (...) to the degree of similarity between new samples and familiar, “standard” samples. These findings pose problems for traditional theories, both externalist and internalist. (shrink)

Jean Paul Sarte, Franz Kafka i Milan Kundera: tres mirades diferents sobre la realitat, tres percepcions del món que participen d'un mateix rerafons filosòfic, d'una mateixa sensibilitat: l'absurd. Tres obres que neixen, creixen i maduren sota l'eclipsi de Déu, en l'atmosfera de la buidor més penetrant i la negació radical del sentit. L'ésser és estantís, feble, pura representació, i la vida humana una comèdia tragicòmica que comença per casualitat i s'acaba també per pura casualitat. Però l'home ha de viure, i (...) si el món no té sentit, caldrà forjar-lo amb les pròpies mans, caldrà projectar una idea per la qual valgui la pena viure i morir (Kierkegaard). Tres iniciatives, tres expectatives, que es configuren sota l'escola de l'absurd i la mort de Déu (Nietzsche). Davant d'aquesta concepció del món marcada pel desencís i l'angoixa hi ha la metafísica de la plenitud de l'ésser (sant Tomàs d'Aquino), que descriu l'univers com un dinamisme perfectiu que té una direccionalitat pròpia, una causa primera i un fi darrer. La lògica del sentit versus la lògica de la buidor. (shrink)

What is a woman? The definition of this central concept of feminism has lately become especially controversial and politically charged. “Ameliorative Inquirists” have rolled up their sleeves to reengineer our ordinary concept of womanhood, with a goal of including in the definition all and only those who identify as women, both “cis” and “trans.” This has proven to be a formidable challenge. Every proposal so far has failed to draw the boundaries of womanhood in a way acceptable to the Ameliorative (...) Inquirists, since not all those who identify as women count as women on these proposals, and some who count as women on these proposals don’t identify as women. This is the Trans Inclusion Problem. Is there any solution? Can there be? Recently, Katharine Jenkins, pointing to the work of Mari Mikkola, suggests that the Trans Inclusion Problem can be “deflated” rather than solved. We will investigate this proposal, and show that, unfortunately, Jenkins is mistaken: Mikkola’s project will not help us answer the Trans Inclusion Problem. After that, we’ll look at Robin Dembroff’s suggestion that we “imitate” the linguistic practices of trans inclusive and queer communities, and we will evaluate whether this would help us solve the Trans Inclusion Problem. Unfortunately, this strategy also fails to solve the problem. By the end, we’ll have a better appreciation of the challenges faced by Ameliorative Inquirists in their project of redefining “woman,” and clearer view of why the Trans Inclusion Problem cannot, in fact, be solved. That’s primarily because, no matter what it means to be a woman, it’s one thing to be a woman, and another thing to identify as a woman. (shrink)

El artículo presenta algunas razones por las que Agustín no menciona ningún scriptorium en esa obra, pese a estar escribiendo a una comunidad monástica. La clave de la respuesta se toma de op. mon. 37.

Jean Paul Sarte, Franz Kafka i Milan Kundera: tres mirades diferents sobre la realitat, tres percepcions del món que participen d'un mateix rerafons filosòfic, d'una mateixa sensibilitat: l'absurd. Tres obres que neixen, creixen i maduren sota l'eclipsi de Déu, en l'atmosfera de la buidor més penetrant i la negació radical del sentit. L'ésser és estantís, feble, pura representació, i la vida humana una comèdia tragicòmica que comença per casualitat i s'acaba també per pura casualitat. Però l'home ha de viure, i (...) si el món no té sentit, caldrà forjar-lo amb les pròpies mans, caldrà projectar una idea per la qual valgui la pena viure i morir (Kierkegaard). Tres iniciatives, tres expectatives, que es configuren sota l'escola de l'absurd i la mort de Déu (Nietzsche). Davant d'aquesta concepció del món marcada pel desencís i l'angoixa hi ha la metafísica de la plenitud de l'ésser (sant Tomàs d'Aquino), que descriu l'univers com un dinamisme perfectiu que té una direccionalitat pròpia, una causa primera i un fi darrer. La lògica del sentit versus la lògica de la buidor. (shrink)

There is much to admire in John Pittard’s recent book on the epistemology of disagreement. But here we develop one concern about the role that rational insight plays in his project. Pittard develops and defends a view on which a party to peer disagreement can show substantial partiality to his own view, so long as he enjoys even moderate rational insight into the truth of his view or the cogency of his reasoning for his view. Pittard argues that this may (...) happen in ordinary cases of religious disagreement—cases in which it’s a live skeptical possibility that one is misdescribing his insight, or not having insight at all—and therefore one need not be strongly conciliatory even in the face of peer disagreement. Yet Pittard agrees that one should be strongly conciliatory in cases of disagreement involving, e.g., visual perception and dim rational insight, since the sort of fallible, corrigible evidence involved in such cases may be counterbalanced by symmetrical evidence on the part of one’s disagreeing peer. We worry that there’s an inconsistency here. If it’s unreasonable to show partiality to one’s visual experience (or dim rational insight) in cases like “Horse Race” and “Restaurant Check,” it’s likewise unreasonable to show partiality in religious disagreements to one’s moderate rational insight, fallible and corrigible as it is. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente trabajo es mostrar que las conexiones cognoscitivas y ontológicas entre Benjamin y Zambrano, más que simples similitudes y diferencias, se fundamentan en el ejercicio mismo de su acción expresiva. Junto a la imagen que brinca en la escritura, ambos pensadores citan viejas formas poéticas, permitiéndoles actualizar figuraciones filosóficas, políticas y teológicas para configurar una experiencia del pensar en obra.

In this paper, I’ll look at the implications of Richard Foley’s epistemology for two different kinds of religious disagreement. First, there are those occasions onwhich a stranger testifies to me that she holds disagreeing religious beliefs. Typically, I’m dismissive of such religious disagreement, and I bet you are too. Richard Foley gives reasons to think that we need not be at all conciliatory in the face of stranger disagreement, but I’ll explain why his reasons are insufficient. After that, I’ll look (...) at those types of religious disagreement that occur between epistemic peers. Foley has argued for a conciliatory position. I worry that his position leads to what some in the literature have called “spinelessness.” I also worry that his view is self-defeating, and vulnerable to some apparent counterexamples. I’ll end the paper by sketching my own, non-Foleyan, solution to those problems. (shrink)

In contrast with the development of big theories in the context of social sciences, there is nowadays an increasing interest in the construction of simulation models for complex phenomena. Those simulation models suggest a certain image of social sciences as a kind of, let us say, "patchwork". In that image, an increase in understanding about the phenomena modeled is obtained through a certain sort of aggregation. There is not an application of sound, established theories to all the phenomena of a (...) certain kind, but an aggregation of the structures supposed, and of the results obtained, when particular systems are modeled. The recent case of the "El Farol Bar" problem, and the models built in order to face this problem, are a good example of this. We will analyze that case, trying to make clear what would be implied by the image above mentioned. Special attention will be paid to the need to take seriously the notion of a bounded rationality, linked to the special circumstances generating each decision problem, and to the existence of an irreducible pluralism of models. (shrink)

The paper critically examines C.A.J. Coady's analysis of testimony, concentrating on his interpretation of the views of David Hume. The author tries to show that not only is Coady's interpretation of Hume inadequate, but that Hume's conception of testimony is in fact superior to that of Coady. Coady sees Hume as the originator of the individualistic, first-person, view of testimony, according to which the reports of other people must be confirmed on the basis of an individualistically interpreted perception. Coady argues (...) against the first-person view that it undermines the very possibility of communication. Drawing on the ideas of Davidson and Wittgenstein, he argues that a good many beliefs must be true for the communication to be possible. The author provides evidence that Hume was a third-person theorist himself, even if he did not think that the truth of the majority of beliefs must be presupposed. Moreover, Wittgenstein and perhaps Davidson are also Humean in their belief that it suffices for beliefs to be generally correct rather than true. (shrink)

Alvin Weinberg’s classic and much debated two articles in Minerva, “Criteria for Scientific Choice” (1963) and “Criteria for Scientific Choice II – The Two Cultures” (1964), represent two of the first and most important attempts to create a meta-discourse about priority setting in science policy, and many of the points advanced remain relevant. The goal of this paper is to elaborate on the relevance of some of Weinberg’s original arguments to priority setting today. We have singled out four issues for (...) attention: The tension between scientific and institutional choice, the assumptions behind the triad of scientific, technological and social merit, the elusive ‘externality from size’ argument for funding promoted by Weinberg, and finally the problems involved in the idea of basic science as an ‘overhead cost’ for applied science, and applied science as an ‘overhead’ on a sectoral mission. These four issues will be elaborated from a policy perspective and connected to present day challenges for science and technology policy. (shrink)

In the recent literature on the nature of knowledge, a rivalry has emerged between modalism and explanationism. According to modalism, knowledge requires that our beliefs track the truth across some appropriate set of possible worlds. Modalists tend to focus on two modal conditions: sensitivity and safety. According to explanationism, knowledge requires only that beliefs bear the right sort of explanatory relation to the truth. In slogan form: knowledge is believing something because it’s true. In this paper, we aim to vindicate (...) explanationism from some recent objections offered by Gualtiero Piccinini, Dario Mortini, and Kenneth Boyce and Andrew Moon. Together, these authors present five purported counterexamples to the sufficiency of the explanationist analysis for knowledge. In addition, Mortini devises a clever argument that explanationism entails the violation of a plausible closure principle on knowledge. We will argue that explanationism is innocent of all these charges against it, and we hope that the strength of the defense we offer of explanationism is evidence in its favor, and a reason to investigate explanationism further as the long-elusive truth about the nature of knowledge. (shrink)

Most philosophers, including all materialists I know of, believe that I am a complex thing?a thing with parts?and that my mental life is (or is a result of) the interaction of these parts. These philosophers often believe that I am a body or a brain, and my mental life is (or is a product of) brain activity. In this paper, I develop and defend a novel argument against this view. The argument turns on certainty, that highest epistemic status that a (...) precious few of our beliefs enjoy. For example, on the basis of introspection, I am certain that I am not in fierce pain right now. But if I am a complex thing like a body or a brain, then introspection might be a causal series of events extended in time. And any such process could go awry. So, if introspection is such a process, then I could gain good evidence that the introspective process has gone awry and that I am, contrary to appearances, feeling fierce pain right now. Therefore, the view that I am a complex thing like a body or a brain forces open the possibility that I cannot be certain that I am not feeling fierce pain right now. Since that is clearly not an open possibility, it follows that I am not a complex thing. I conclude by responding to three objections. (shrink)

The article introduces a thematic issue of the journal Theory of Science that attempts to revive the category of "philosophi- cal toys" - objects and instruments designed for experimental scientific research that simultaneously played crucial role in the creation of the modern visual culture. It claims that to fully understand their nature and the kind of experience philosophical toys induce, it is necessary to situate their origins in eighteenth-century experimental science and aesthetics and proposes to approach them as perceptual and (...) cognitive extensions. (shrink)

I begin by retracing an argument from Aristotle for final causes in science. Then, I advance this ancient thought, and defend an argument for a stronger conclusion: that no scientific explanation can succeed, if Naturalism is true. The argument goes like this: (1) Any scientific explanation can be successful only if it crucially involves a natural regularity. Next, I argue that (2) any explanation can be successful only if it crucially involves no element that calls out for explanation but lacks (...) one. From (1) and (2) it follows that (3) a scientific explanation can be successful only if it crucially involves a natural regularity, and this regularity does not call out for explanation while lacking one. I then argue that (4) if Naturalism is true, then all natural regularities call out for explanation but lack them. From (3) and (4) it follows that (5) if Naturalism is true, then no scientific explanation can be successful. If you believe that scientific explanation can be (indeed, often has been) successful, as I do, then this is a reason to reject Naturalism. (shrink)

The most prominent Czech philosopher, Karel Kosík, makes a few hints to the Vienna Circle, Otto Neurath and "positivism" in his important book, DIALECTICS OF THE CONCRETE (1963). I mine these few remarks for a better understanding of the conflicts, as well as connections, between the social progressivism of the Vienna Circle and the later Marxist humanism.