El libro Aurelio Arturo y la poesía colombiana del siglo xx. Espacio y subjetividad en el contexto de la modernidad tardía despliega ante el lector una sucesión de marcos de análisis de la poesía colombiana del siglo xx. A manera de eje transversal, distintas piezas poéticas de la obra del poeta colombiano Aurelio Arturo (1906-1974) son tomadas como referente literario a partir del cual distinguir los principales tópicos de la poesía colombiana en el siglo xx. Dicho así, la reflexión se (...) concentra en una concepción canónica de la poesía colombiana, con remisión a la personalidad y la obra de autores como Rafael Maya, José Eustasio Rivera, el grupo Piedra y Cielo, Eduardo Carranza, el grupo Mito, Jorge Gaitán Durán, el grupo Nadaísmo, Jaime Jaramillo Agudelo, José Manuel Arango, Héctor Rojas Erazo, Andrés Holguín y Álvaro Mutis. (shrink)

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) y Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) mantuvieron una doble controversia científica sobre la inclusión de la selección sexual como principio alterno de selección y sobre la aceptación de principios metafísicos para explicar algunas de las complejidades de la cultura presentes en la evolución del ser humano. En primer lugar, enfatizaré la dimensión metodológica de los argumentos para abordar la selección sexual con algunas ramificaciones de la controversia en el siglo XX. En segundo lugar, señalaré la dimensión axiológica constatando (...) el papel que juegan en la discusión de teorías científicas las opiniones, valoraciones y prejuicios de los investigadores. (shrink)

En varias oportunidades, el filósofo francés Maurice Merleau-Ponty plantea que hay una "carne del lenguaje" que se puede entender como la comprensión paradójica de sí y del otro en el seno mismo del lenguaje; esta "carne" está en relación con el desarrollo de la vida humana y da testimonio del cambio en los individuos que, observándose a sí mismos, quieren ser individuos nuevos a cada momento. Siguiendo a Merleau-Ponty, el presente ensayo se propone reconocer la condición del ser reinventado continuamente (...) por la expresión del lenguaje. On several occasions, the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty says there is a "flesh of language" that can be understood as a paradoxical understanding of self and the other within the same language. This "flesh" is related to the development of human life and bears witness to the change in individuals, observing themselves, who want to be new individuals each time. Following Merleau-Ponty, this essay proposes to recognize the condi-tion of being continually reinvented by the expression of language. (shrink)

En el marco de la teoría de la intencionalidad de John Searle, se plantea cómo las emociones y los estados de ánimo pueden analizarse en cuanto estados mentales in­tencionales, en la medida en que se considere la intencionalidad no solo como una relación de “acerquidad” (aboutness) entre un estado mental del sujeto y los objetos o eventos del mundo. Se critica la teoría de Searle y se muestra que los estados mentales están corporizados y situados. Para una mente encarnada y (...) situada, las emociones y los estados de ánimo no son meras reacciones mecánicas de un cuerpo objetivado, sino que exhiben rasgos no necesariamente conscientes de intencionalidad con respecto a problemas existenciales concretos. Se muestra la necesidad que tiene la filosofía de considerar cuestiones empíricas provenientes de varias ciencias particulares, así como la necesidad de la psiquiatría de abordar cuestiones conceptuales vinculadas con el problema de la intencionalidad, que constituye uno de los problemas centrales de la filosofía de la mente. El beneficio de este encuentro interdisciplinar será una mejor comprensión de la mente humana. (shrink)

CONTENIDO: Lo mental natural - Buscando un lugar a lo mental - Cuerpo y comprensión mental en una emoción llamada temor - Que sea, sí, el dolor es un estado mental - Alucinaciones: lo mental y lo aparente - Ponderaciones del Yo - Un papel para el yo en la filosofía de la mente - ¡Urgente el yo a la deriva¡ - Del yo a los memes, claves para la comprensión de la replicación - versiones en el proyecto de la (...) inteligencia artificial - "matriz", inteligencia artificial con o sin barrera - Modelar el cerebro, un sobrevuelo al conexionismo. (shrink)

La reflexión antigua y fundamental acerca del nombre involucra el doble compromiso de abordar el mythos y el logos. Entre Heráclito y Platón, los presupuestos filosóficos sobre el nombre confrontarán la búsqueda de una transparencia y una convencionalidad entre los nombres y las cosas. Primero, la oscuridad atribuida a Heráclito no margina el tratamiento del nombre como oráculo que revela y oculta al mismo tiempo. Y segundo, la dialéctica socrática por su parte, niega, pero también concede la naturalidad y arbitrariedad (...) del nombre, el único instrumento real para designar y distinguir. Desde múltiples perspectivas el presente artículo examina estas propuestas y da razones para incluir propiedades de los nombres distintas a sus referentes; razones que toda teoría genuinamente semántica debe incorporar. (shrink)

A partir de la divergencia de M. Foucault con Th. Hobbes con respecto a la guerra como principio y fundamento del poder, se muestra la importancia de esa diferencia conceptual para los análisis políticos contemporáneos. Foucault sostiene que, en las sociedades modernas de Occidente, la comunidad política, y más precisamente la política misma, ha sido el terreno de la guerra librada por otros medios. Por extensión, esta tesis significa invertir el principio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que la guerra es (...) la continuación de la política por otros medios. On the basis of the difference between M. Foucault and Th. Hobbes regarding war as a principle and foundation of power, the article shows the importance of this conceptual difference for contemporary political analyses. Foucault argues that in modern Western societies, the political community and, more specifically, politics itself, has been the space of a war waged by other means. By extension, this thesis entails the inversion of von Clausewitz's principle, namely, that war is the continuation of politics by other means. A partir da divergência de M. Foucault com Th. Hobbes sobre a guerra como princípio e fundamento do poder, mostra-se a importância dessa diferença conceitual para as análises políticas contemporâneas. Foucault sustenta que, nas sociedades modernas do Ocidente, a comunidade política, e mais precisamente a política em si, tem sido o terreno da guerra travada por outros meios. Por extensão, esta tese significa inverter o princípio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que a guerra é a continuação da política por outros meios. (shrink)

El pensamiento existencial ha sido determinante en su crítica a la abstracciónde los sistemas idealistas. Contribuyendo al desarrollo filosófico de lafenomenología, dicho pensamiento ha planteado de manera radicalmentenueva el problema de la existencia. Conviene por tanto preguntarsenuevamente por el destino del existencialismo, corriente que ha conocidouna gran moda después de la Segunda guerra mundial y que ha marcadomás de dos generaciones de intelectuales. En lo más fuerte de la ola, elexistencialismo representaba toda la filosofía, al punto que varios escritoresencontraron en (...) el pensamiento de la existencia nuevas formas de escritura,como lo testimonian los libros de Jean–Paul Sartre y de Maurice Merleau–Ponty. En esta óptica, el presente artículo trata sobre los temas ligados a laherencia y a la recepción del pensamiento existencial en dos autores biendiferentes como Sastre y Merleau–Ponty. (shrink)

El proyecto de investigación “Del canon a las márgenes: revisión crítica de la poesía en Colombia, siglo xx” dio pie a la invitación para reunir en este número distintas reflexiones sobre la literatura en las márgenes. En cada caso el propósito principal consistió en identificar y documentar manifestaciones poéticas del ámbito iberoamericano que puedan ser interpretadas como omplementarias o alternativas a los hitos y autores tenidos como canónicos. En otras palabras, dar cuenta de las transformaciones de la poesía; valga decir: (...) formas, expresiones y contenidos deliberantes, diversos, mediáticos, interculturales, etcétera, desprendiéndolas de la concepción restrictiva del canon para afirmarlas a cambio en las voces que, desde las identidades culturales, las posiciones autónomas o marginales, sustentan visiones y versiones alternativas del ser y el hacer humano. (shrink)

Fiel a sus términos, en la palabra «paisaje», Maurice Merleau-Ponty intentadescribir la disposición de elementos en los que se instala la reflexión sartriana,evitando atribuir a la continuidad o a la réplica los argumentos que discuteSartre en relación con la existencia. Difícilmente una palabra conseguiríaseñalar la diferencia que establece Sartre en su reflexión sobre la existencia,lo que exige integrarlo en la composición de un paisaje más amplio, próximoa otros dos pensadores: Søren Kierkegaard y Martin Heidegger; proximidadque no se encuentra, ciertamente, exenta (...) de contraste. Siendo aún posible lapregunta por la existencia, cada uno de los filósofos nombrados es apenasun referente que conducirá a la noción definitiva desarrollada por Merleau-Ponty, a saber: la «encarnación» del ser en el mundo. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es volver la mirada a un oficio intelectual y a un producto literario del que se podría decir que no ha enfrentado aún los desafíos que plantea la crítica literaria. El culto y el cultivo del haikú en escritores colombianos reclama hoy horizontes de comprensión propiamente literarios, ya que ante todo son, como cualquier otra expresión literaria, palabra, lenguaje, comunicación y sentido; hay en ellos campos semánticos y visiones de mundo, como hay epistemología, fenomenología e (...) ideología. Poder involucrar todo este andamiaje de reflexión y análisis no desapropiará el haikú de los escritores colombianos de su vínculo con la experiencia sensible e intuitiva recogida de la tradición japonesa. (shrink)

Esta conversación tuvo lugar durante una visita de varios días de Pablo Posada Varela a la casa de Marc Richir en Haut-Vaucluse en junio de 2012. He aquí tres extractos (de extensión variable) de una conversación del 8 de junio, y algunos otros fechados el 10 de junio.

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social justice? Pablo Gilabert offers a systematic defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of justice. In Human Dignity and Human Rights (OUP 2019), he advanced an account of human dignity for the context of human rights discourse, which (...) covers the most urgent, basic claims of dignity. This book extends the dignitarian approach to more ambitious claims of maximal dignity of the kind encoded in democratic socialist conceptions of social justice. In particular, this book focuses on the just organization of working practices. It recasts in a dignitarian format the critique of capitalist society as involving exploitation, alienation, and domination of workers, and revamps a neglected but inspiring socialist principle. In its dignitarian interpretation, the Abilities/Needs Principle (‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!’) yields reasonable and feasible requirements on social cooperation geared to empowering each human being to lead a flourishing life. While Human Dignity and Human Rights offered the first systematic philosophical account of human dignity in human rights discourse, Human Dignity and Social Justice presents the first systematic application of the dignitarian framework to the core ideals of democratic socialism. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate a semantics for first-order logic originally proposed by R. van Rooij to account for the idea that vague predicates are tolerant, that is, for the principle that if x is P, then y should be P whenever y is similar enough to x. The semantics, which makes use of indifference relations to model similarity, rests on the interaction of three notions of truth: the classical notion, and two dual notions simultaneously defined in terms of it, (...) which we call tolerant truth and strict truth. We characterize the space of consequence relations definable in terms of those and discuss the kind of solution this gives to the sorites paradox. We discuss some applications of the framework to the pragmatics and psycholinguistics of vague predicates, in particular regarding judgments about borderline cases. (shrink)

This paper presents and defends a way to add a transparent truth predicate to classical logic, such that and A are everywhere intersubstitutable, where all T-biconditionals hold, and where truth can be made compositional. A key feature of our framework, called STTT (for Strict-Tolerant Transparent Truth), is that it supports a non-transitive relation of consequence. At the same time, it can be seen that the only failures of transitivity STTT allows for arise in paradoxical cases.

Substructural approaches to paradoxes have attracted much attention from the philosophical community in the last decade. In this paper we focus on two substructural logics, named ST and TS, along with two structural cousins, LP and K3. It is well known that LP and K3 are duals in the sense that an inference is valid in one logic just in case the contrapositive is valid in the other logic. As a consequence of this duality, theories based on either logic are (...) tightly connected since many of the arguments for and objections against one theory reappear in the other theory in dual form. The target of the paper is making explicit in exactly what way, if any, ST and TS are dual to one another. The connection will allow us to gain a more fine-grained understanding of these logics and of the theories based on them. In particular, we will obtain new insights on two questions concerning ST which are being intensively discussed in the current literature: whether ST preserves classical logic and whether it is LP in sheep’s clothing. Explaining in what way ST and TS are duals requires comparing these logics at a metainferential level. We provide to this end a uniform proof theory to decide on valid metainferences for each of the four logics. This proof procedure allows us to show in a very simple way how different properties of inferences (unsatisfiability, supersatisfiability and antivalidity) that behave in very different ways for each logic can be captured in terms of the validity of a metainference. (shrink)

The idea of dignity is pervasive in political discourse. It is central to human rights theory and practice, and it features regularly in conceptions of social justice as well as in the social movements they seek to understand or orient. However, dignity talk has been criticized for leading to problematic exclusion. Critics challenge it for undermining our recognition of the rights of non-human animals and of many human individuals (such as children, the elderly, and people with disabilities). I argue that, (...) on a plausible articulation of it, the idea of dignity does not lead to these exclusions and that it in fact helps defend an appropriately inclusive moral and political treatment of all individuals. Difficult issues about equality and diversity indeed arise, but a dignitarian approach can provide good answers to them or at least help make them clearer and more tractable. (shrink)

To what degree can language be acquired from linguistic input alone? This question has vexed scholars for millennia and is still a major focus of debate in the cognitive science of language. The complexity of human language has hampered progress because studies of language–especially those involving computational modeling–have only been able to deal with small fragments of our linguistic skills. We suggest that the most recent generation of Large Language Models (LLMs) might finally provide the computational tools to determine empirically (...) how much of the human language ability can be acquired from linguistic experience. LLMs are sophisticated deep learning architectures trained on vast amounts of natural language data, enabling them to perform an impressive range of linguistic tasks. We argue that, despite their clear semantic and pragmatic limitations, LLMs have already demonstrated that human-like grammatical language can be acquired without the need for a built-in grammar. Thus, while there is still much to learn about how humans acquire and use language, LLMs provide full-fledged computational models for cognitive scientists to empirically evaluate just how far statistical learning might take us in explaining the full complexity of human language. (shrink)

What should our theorizing about social justice aim at? Many political philosophers think that a crucial goal is to identify a perfectly just society. Amartya Sen disagrees. In The Idea of Justice, he argues that the proper goal of an inquiry about justice is to undertake comparative assessments of feasible social scenarios in order to identify reforms that involve justice-enhancement, or injustice-reduction, even if the results fall short of perfect justice. Sen calls this the “comparative approach” to the theory of (...) justice. He urges its adoption on the basis of a sustained critique of the former approach, which he calls “transcendental.” In this paper I pursue two tasks, one critical and the other constructive. First, I argue that Sen’s account of the contrast between the transcendental and the comparative approaches is not convincing, and second, I suggest what I take to be a broader and more plausible account of comparative assessments of justice. The core claim is that political philosophers should not shy away from the pursuit of ambitious theories of justice (including, for example, ideal theories of perfect justice), although they should engage in careful consideration of issues of political feasibility bearing on their practical implementation. (shrink)

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is human dignity, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights? -/- This book offers a sophisticated and comprehensive defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of human rights. First, it clarifies the network of concepts associated with dignity. Paramount within this network is a core notion of human dignity as (...) an inherent, non-instrumental, egalitarian, and high-priority normative status of human persons. People have this status in virtue of their valuable human capacities rather than as a result of their national origin and other conventional features. Second, it shows how human dignity gives rise to an inspiring ideal of solidaristic empowerment, which calls us to support people's pursuit of a flourishing life by affirming both negative duties not to block or destroy, and positive duties to protect and facilitate, the development and exercise of the valuable capacities at the basis of their dignity. The most urgent of these duties are correlative to human rights. Third, this book illustrates how the proposed dignitarian approach allows us to articulate the content, justification, and feasible implementation of specific human rights, including contested ones, such as the rights to democratic political participation and to decent labour conditions. Finally, this book's dignitarian approach helps illuminate the arc of humanist justice, identifying both the difference and the continuity between the basic requirements of human rights and more expansive requirements of social justice such as those defended by liberal egalitarians and democratic socialists. -/- Human dignity is indeed the moral heart of human rights. Understanding it enables us to defend human rights as the urgent ethical and political project that puts humanity first. (shrink)

The topic of alienation has fallen out of fashion in social and political philosophy. It used to be salient, especially in socialist thought and in debates about labor practices in capitalism. Although the lack of identification of people with their working lives—their alienation as workers—remains practically important, normative engagement with it has been set back by at least four objections. They concern the problems of essentialist views, a mishandling of the distinction between the good and the right, the danger of (...) paternalistic impositions, and the significance of democratic authorization. This paper recasts the critique of alienation in a way that vindicates its importance for social and political philosophy and rebuts these objections. First, it provides an analytic framework to understand alienation—distinguishing its various conceptual, explanatory, and normative dimensions. Second, it accounts for the normative aspect of the critique of alienation by articulating it in terms of prudential and moral ideas of positive freedom regarding human flourishing and solidaristic empowerment. Finally, the normative account is developed further, and sharpened to respond to the four objections, through the introduction of the Dignitarian Approach—the view that we have reason to organize social life in such a way that we respond appropriately to the valuable features of individual human beings that give rise to their dignity. (shrink)

This paper offers an exploration of the socialist principle “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.” The Abilities/Needs Principle is arguably the ethical heart of socialism but, surprisingly, has received almost no attention by political philosophers. I propose an interpretation of the principle and argue that it involves appealing ideas of solidarity, fair reciprocity, recognition of individual differences, and meaningful work. The paper proceeds as follows. First, I analyze Marx’s formulation of the Abilities/Needs Principle. Second, (...) I identify the principle’s initial plausibility, but show that it faces serious problems that cannot be addressed without developing a fresh interpretation of it. Third, I provide an interpretation of the principle that highlights demands concerning opportunities for self-realization in work, positive duties of solidarity, sensitivity to individual differences, and mechanisms of fair reciprocity. Fourth, I discuss a possible institutional implementation of the Abilities/Needs Principle. Finally, I identify some normative puzzles about the transition from capitalism to socialism, and suggest how the Abilities/Needs Principle might gain motivational traction by mobilizing the powerful idea of human dignity. (shrink)

This paper offers an account of human dignity based on a discussion of Kant's moral and political philosophy and then shows its relevance for articulating and developing in a fresh way some normative dimensions of Marx’s critique of capitalism as involving exploitation, domination, and alienation, and the view of socialism as involving a combination of freedom and solidarity. What is advanced here is not Kant’s own conception of dignity, but an account that partly builds on that conception and partly criticizes (...) it. The same is the case with the account of socialism in relation to Marx’s work. As articulated, Kantian dignity and Marxian socialism turn out to be quite appealing and mutually supportive. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction On Law and Morality Legal Rights and Legal Principles Law and Legal Systems Deontic Logic and Legal Philosophy Philosophical Doctrines in Latin America Conclusion References.

Do we have positive duties to help others in need or are our moral duties only negative, focused on not harming them? If these positive duties exist, are they strong and strict demands or are they weak and discretionary? Can we say that at least some positive duties of assistance are also duties of justice worthy of institutionalization and coercive enforcement by legal institutions? Can the scope of some of such duties be cosmopolitan or should all of them be circumscribed (...) to what we owe to our compatriots? This paper addresses these questions from a Kantian perspective, and argues that Kant’s practical philosophy provides sufficient resources to develop and defend the claim that there are basic positive duties of justice, some of which have a global scope. (shrink)

This paper explores the connections between human rights, human dignity, and power. The idea of human dignity is omnipresent in human rights discourse, but its meaning and point is not always clear. It is standardly used in two ways, to refer to a normative status of persons that makes their treatment in terms of human rights a proper response, and a social condition of persons in which their human rights are fulfilled. This paper pursues three tasks. First, it provides an (...) analysis of the content and an interpretation of the role of the idea of human dignity in current human rights discourse. The interpretation includes a pluralist view of human interests and dignity that avoids a narrow focus on rational agency. Second, this paper characterizes the two aspects of human dignity in terms of capabilities. Certain general human capabilities are among the facts that ground status-dignity, and the presence of certain more specific capabilities constitutes condition-dignity. Finally, this paper explores how the pursuit of human rights and human dignity links to distributions and uses of power. Since capabilities are a form of power, and human rights are in part aimed at respecting and promoting capabilities, human rights involve empowerment. Exploring the connections between human rights, capabilities, and empowerment provides resources to defend controversial human rights such as the right to democratic political participation, and to respond to worries about the feasibility of their fulfillment. This paper also argues that empowerment must be coupled with solidaristic concern in order to respond to unavoidable facts of social dependency and vulnerability. (shrink)

This paper explores the relations between self-esteem and competition. Self-esteem is a very important good and competition is a widespread phenomenon. They are commonly linked, as people often seek self-esteem through success in competition. Although competition in fact generates valuable consequences and can to some extent foster self-esteem, empirical research suggests that competition has a strong tendency to undermine self-esteem. To be sure, competition is not the source of all problematic deficits in self-esteem, and it can arise for, or undercut (...) goods other than self-esteem. But the relation between competition and access to self-esteem is still significant, and it is worth asking how we might foster a desirable distribution of the latter in the face of difficulties created by the former. That is the question addressed in this paper. The approach I propose neither recommends self-denial nor the uncritical celebration of the rat race. It charts instead a solidaristic path to support the social conditions of the self-esteem of each individual. The paper proceeds as follows. I start, in section 2, by clarifying key concepts involved in the discussion. In section 3, I identify ten mechanisms that support individuals’ self-esteem and impose limits on competition. I focus, in particular, on the challenges faced by people in their practices of work. In section 4, I outline prudential and moral arguments to justify the use of the proposed mechanisms. Section 5 concludes with remarks on the role of social criticism in the processes of change implementing the mechanisms. (shrink)