As the result of the complexity inherent in nature, mathematical models employed in ecology are often governed by a large number of variables. For instance, in the study of population dynamics we often deal with models for structured populations in which individuals are classified regarding their age, size, activity or location, and this structuring of the population leads to high dimensional systems. In many instances, the dynamics of the system is controlled by processes whose time scales are very different from (...) each other. Aggregation techniques take advantage of this situation to build a low dimensional reduced system from which behavior we can approximate the dynamics of the complex original system.In this work we extend aggregation techniques to the case of time dependent discrete population models with two time scales where both the fast and the slow processes are allowed to change at their own characteristic time scale, generalizing the results of previous studies. We propose a non-autonomous model with two time scales, construct an aggregated model and give relationship between the variables governing the original and the reduced systems. We also explore how the properties of strong and weak ergodicity, regarding the capacity of the system to forget initial conditions, of the original system can be studied in terms of the reduced system. (shrink)

Este trabajo estudia el concepto de “lo sublime” en la cultura barroca, con el objetivo de demostrar que, aunque no fue teorizado sistemáticamente hasta el siglo XVIII, este cobró durante el siglo XVII una centralidad y, sobre todo, un significado filosófico semejantes a los que se impondrían posteriormente y que, según veremos, está estrechamente ligado con el concepto de “nihilismo”.

La confrontation de la philosophie et de la cuisine permet de découvrir la nature de chacune de ces pratiques et ce qui tend à les opposer. La philosophie par vocation se tient éloignée de la vie mortelle. Attachée à la vie mortelle, la cuisine fait de la nécessité de se nourrir un plaisir quotidiennement renouvelé et qui tient une place centrale dans la vie ordinaire de la plupart des hommes. Voilà pourquoi la philosophie ignore la cuisine et méprise le plaisir (...) de manger. (shrink)

Cognitive research on metaphoric concepts of time has focused on differences between moving Ego and moving time models, but even more basic is the contrast between Ego‐ and temporal‐reference‐point models. Dynamic models appear to be quasi‐universal cross‐culturally, as does the generalization that in Ego‐reference‐point models, FUTURE IS IN FRONT OF EGO and PAST IS IN BACK OF EGO. The Aymara language instead has a major static model of time wherein FUTURE IS BEHIND EGO and PAST IS IN FRONT OF EGO; (...) linguistic and gestural data give strong confirmation of this unusual culture‐specific cognitive pattern. Gestural data provide crucial information unavailable to purely linguistic analysis, suggesting that when investigating conceptual systems both forms of expression should be analyzed complementarily. Important issues in embodied cognition are raised: how fully shared are bodily grounded motivations for universal cognitive patterns, what makes a rare pattern emerge, and what are the cultural entailments of such patterns? (shrink)

This paper studies the role of literature and rethorics as a tool of philosophical practice within the classical tradition of «spiritual exercises». The aim of this study is to propose new ways of thinking the relations among philosophy and literature as formative or psicagogic disciplines, as well as for stand up for the role of philosophy and literature in our society.

This paper studies how Europe conceived America, not only as a place inhabited by monsters, but also as a monstrous space in itself, as soon as its mere appearance meant an alteration of the previous ontological order. By way of illustration we analyze how the Europeans imagined projected on America each of the different theratologic currents that dominated during the 16TH and 17TH centuries.

The Gongsun Longzi is often considered the only extant work of the Classical Chinese “School of Names”, an early intellectual tradition mainly concerned with logic and the philosophy of language. The Gongsun Longzi is a heterogeneous collection of five chapters that include short treatises and largely fictive dialogues between an anonymous persuader and his opponent, which typically revolve around a paradoxical claim. Its value as a testimony to Early Chinese philosophy, however, is somewhat controversial due to the intricate textual history (...) of the text and our limited knowledge about its intellectual backgrounds. This volume gathers contributions by leading specialists in the fields of Classical Chinese philosophy, philology, logic, and linguistics. Besides an overview of the scholarly literature on the topic and a detailed account of the reception of the text throughout time, it presents fresh insights into philological and philosophical problems raised by the Gongsun Longzi and other closely-related texts equally attributed to the “School of Names”. (shrink)

A recent issue of Topics in Cognitive Science featured 11 thoughtful commentaries responding to our article “What happened to cognitive science?” (Núñez et al., 2019). Here, we identify several themes that arose in those commentaries and respond to each. Crucial to understanding our original article is the fundamental distinction between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary endeavors: Cognitive science began (and has stayed) as multidisciplinary but has failed to move on to form a cohesive interdisciplinary field. We clarify and elaborate our original argument (...) and reiterate the importance of a data‐driven evaluation of the current status of the field, which exhibits a marked disciplinary imbalance, a lack of a coherent conceptual core, and a striking absence of a consistent curriculum in the institutions that grant degrees in this domain. Half a century after the creation of cognitive science, it may now be a good time to revisit goals and visions for how to best approach the ever‐fascinating scientific study of the mind(s). (shrink)

In this paper two systems of AGM-like Paraconsistent Belief Revision are overviewed, both defined over Logics of Formal Inconsistency (LFIs) due to the possibility of defining a formal consistency operator within these logics. The AGM° system is strongly based on this operator and internalize the notion of formal consistency in the explicit constructions and postulates. Alternatively, the AGMp system uses the AGM-compliance of LFIs and thus assumes a wider notion of paraconsistency - not necessarily related to the notion of formal (...) consistency. (shrink)

This paper deals with the deuteros plous, literally ‘the second voyage’, proverbially ‘the next best way’, discussed in Plato’s Phaedo, the key passage being Phd. 99e4-100a3. I argue that (a) the ‘flight into the logoi’ can have two different interpretations, a standard one and a non-standard one. The issue is whether at 99e-100a Socrates means that both the student of erga and the student of logoi consider images (‘the standard interpretation’), or the student of logoi does not consider images but (...) that “consistency should suffice for truth” (‘the non-standard interpretation’); (b) the non-standard one implies the problem of the hypothesis, a problem analogous to the problem of the elenchus; (c) there is a structural analogy between Descartes’ ontological argument for the existence of God in his 5th Meditation and the final proof for the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo. (shrink)

This is a review of: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl. Die Möglichkeit des Guten. Ethik im 21. Jahrhundert, München. C. H. Beck 2006.

Se ofrece a continuación una versión española de cuatro de las vidas árabes de Aristóteles.

_ Source: _Volume 46, Issue 3, pp 405 - 425 This article focuses on Heidegger’s reflection on death in Being and Time, on the question of whether death can be mine, on what the connection between death and mineness can tell us about schizophrenia, and on the relation between Heidegger’s talk of death and mineness and Derrida’s talk of mourning and mineness.

Although there are exceptions, most researchers on collective memory have neglected the idea that collective mnemonics involve embodied aspects and practices. And though the corpus of Collective Memory Studies (CMS) has helped us better understand how social groups relate to time, especially to the past, it has taken little notice of how embodied social actors collectively relate to time. In contrast, expanding upon the French School and the French sociological tradition, I argue for an approach that, on the one hand, (...) connects mental schemata to bodily schemata to social frameworks. And on the other hand, I speak of how embodied social actors collectively relate to common pasts and presents; and of how embodiment can thus provide a structure of possibilities for individuals and groups, as well as shared compasses and orientations that help people move toward certain futures while foreclosing others. (shrink)

Neste artigo considero e rejeito uma leitura não-cognitivista do sentimentalismo moral de Hume (segundo a qual ele identifica convicções morais com impressões de um tipo particular) bem como uma leitura disposicionalista (segundo a qual Hume concebe convicções morais como crenças causais a respeito do poder de traços de caráter de produzir certos sentimentos em espectadores apropriados). Sustento que as falhas dessas leituras mostram que Hume é mais bem compreendido como um teórico do erro, de acordo com quem embora convicções morais (...) sejam crenças elas jamais são verdadeiras. Em contraste com teorias do erro contemporâneas, contudo, a tese de Hume não se baseia em uma alegação metafísica para efeito de que não há propriedades morais. Antes, ele sustenta que ideias morais não são ideias de qualidades que possam ser corretamente predicadas de ações ou traços de caráter, mas ideias de sentimentos e que, portanto, crenças morais incorporam sistematicamente um erro categorial. AbstractIn this paper I consider and reject a noncognitivist reading of Hume’ s moral sentimentalism (according to which he identifies moral convictions with impressions of particular kind) as well as a dispositional reading (according to which Hume takes moral convictions to be causal beliefs about the power of character traits to produce certain feelings in suitable spectators). I argue that the shortcomings of these views show that Hume is best understood as an error theorist, according to whom although moral convictions are beliefs they are never true. In contrast with contemporary error theories, however, Hume’s view is not grounded on a metaphysical claim to the effect that there are no moral properties. He holds instead that moral ideas are not at all ideas of qualities that could be truthfully predicated of actions or character traits but rather ideas of feelings and, therefore, that moral beliefs systematically incorporate a category error. (shrink)

Non-naturalists about the normative face the problem of providing a metaphysical explanation for the supervenience of the normative on the natural. Recently, Gideon Rosen has argued that non-naturalists can side-step this problem by rejecting strong supervenience and the view that normative truths are metaphysically necessary. Rosen proposes to take normative truths to be normatively necessary, where normative necessity is different from and irreducible to metaphysical necessity. I argue that if Rosen is right, that creates a deeper problem for robust ethical (...) realism (the view that there are mind-independent, non-natural moral facts). According to robust ethical realism, it is a normative fact that persons are an especially valuable kind of being. But if Rosen is right, that is a metaphysically contingent fact. The existence of persons is also contingent. According to robust ethical realism, then, there is a striking match between what the normative facts happen to be and the kinds of beings that happen to exist. Persons could have failed to exist and they could have failed to be valuable, but it just so happens to be a fact about the natural world that they exist and a normative fact that they have value. Given that this match is accidental, it amounts to a miraculous coincidence. To the extent that commitment to unexplained coincidences counts against a view, robust ethical realism faces a problem. (shrink)

This paper proposes a sender-receiver model to explain two large-scale patterns observed in natural languages: Zipf’s inverse power law relating the frequency of word use and word rank, and the negative correlation between the frequency of word use and rate of lexical change. Computer simulations show that the model recreates Zipf’s inverse power law and the negative correlation between signal frequency and rate of change, provided that agents balance the rates with which they invent new signals and forget old ones. (...) Results are robust across a wide range of parameter values and structural assumptions, such as different forgetting rules and forgetting rates. Analysis of the model further suggests that Zipf’s law relating word frequency and rank arises because of language-external factors and that frequent signals change less because frequent signals are less subject to drift than rare ones. The paper concludes with some brief considerations on model-based and data-driven approaches in philosophy. (shrink)

Cuando santo Tomás habla del modo de conocer a Dios, señala que la manera más adecuada es el de la analogía, y dentro de las analogías, la metafórica es la que más sintoniza la desproporción entre la criatura y el creador. Por su parte, Ricoeur nos habla del papel que el simbolismo desempeña en la constitución y captación misma de la realidad, donde toda metáfora, gracias a su expresión en el lenguaje, se presta a múltiples interpretaciones. Este lenguaje simbólico se (...) abre a la inescrutable inmensidad de Dios y a la limitación de las expresiones que lo representan. Por esto pensamos que las metáforas son el modo de conocer más adecuado, aunque insuficiente, en la condición de “homo viator”. (shrink)

O presente artigo pretende demonstrar como a obra de Maquiavel elenca aspectos pertinentes sobre a relação entre religião e Estado, e como estes podem ser analisados através do ponto de vista da teoria política moderna. Suas contribuições relacionadas ao estudo da função política da religião, entendida como item essencial na manutenção, reconhecimento e solidez do Estado, levantam indagações indispensáveis para pensar a influência de determinados preceitos confessionais, relacionados ao poder eclesiástico, na formulação de uma moral política voltada para a obediência (...) dos ditames de natureza religiosa, e que auxiliam no desenvolvimento de uma vírtu coletiva, elemento, segundo o autor, indispensável para o Estado. O artigo ainda procura explorar questões relacionadas ao método empregado por Maquiavel, e a sua busca pela “verdade efetiva das coisas”. Através desta preocupação, o autor elucida as questões religiosas pela capacidade que as mesmas possuem em influenciar a vida coletiva, influência que abrange as decisões dos cidadãos no que concerne aos temas políticos, garantindo a disciplina e, consequentemente, o fortalecimento do Estado. Assim, o autor de Florença reconhece a incumbência da doutrina religiosa e sua eficiência ao motivar o vivere civile. Palavras-chave: Estado. Religião. Maquiavel. Política. (shrink)

This contribution begins by analysing the argument against conceptualism in the Parmenides and then extends it to “the not-being” (to mê on) in the Sophist, or that which “is what is not” (258c2-3). It concludes with the puzzle that, in this case, the being of “the not-being” also has “understanding (nous), life (zôê) and soul (psychê)” (249a9). The main new points are (1) if “the not-being” has understanding (nous), “the not-being” –according to the ontological argument of the Parmenides – also (...) has thought (noêma), which has a second “not-being” as its object and (2) the question of wether Plato would have interpreted Fragment 3 of Parmenides, to gar auto estin noein te kai einai, not only in the sense that thinking implies being, but also in the sense that being implies thinking. (shrink)

Este artigo propõe a discussão da educação escolar tomando como ponto de partida a burocracia, a racionalidade e o conceito de desencantamento do mundo proposto por Max Weber. Por fim, discutimos os impactos para a subjetividade dos principais envolvidos no processo educacional – professor e aluno – para sinalizar possíveis movimentos que tornem mais dinâmica as relações humanas na educação institucionalizada.

El propósito del presente artículo es el de profundizar en la interpretación de la lectura zambraniana en torno a eventos de su tiempo como la guerra civil española y el posterior exilio republicano, explicitando la discontinuidades y desniveles etiológicos que subyacen a su obra filosófica. Tal y como han desarrollado diferentes exégetas de su pensamiento, las reflexiones de María Zambrano han transitado desde el plano histórico a la articulación de una lectura de los acontecimientos desde un entramado metafísico y teológico. (...) A lo largo de este artículo nos focalizaremos en las claves histórico-conceptuales de dicha transición discursiva y proyectaremos sobre aquella las diferentes distinciones metodológicas elaboradas desde la teoría del trauma de Dominick LaCapra y, en particular, de su noción de “trauma estructural”. Desde esta perspectiva, arrojaremos luz en torno al trasfondo y a las implicaciones de la interpretación zambraniana de acontecimientos históricos desde un prisma metafísico. (shrink)

Abstractabstract:This article engages in the contemporary discussion on utopia by exploring Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez’s philosophy. The fall of the Berlin Wall has led to debates about the “end of history” and to doubts about the possibility of achieving the ideals and values embedded within the Marxist utopia. To deal with this challenge, contemporary scholars have revisited Marxist tradition to recover the hope stemming from utopia. However, these readings have not taken into consideration Sánchez Vázquez’s contribution to this topic. With a (...) view to addressing this omission, this article analyzes philosophical assumptions underlying Sánchez Vázquez’s approach. By exploring his Philosophy of Praxis and by highlighting its anthropological assumptions, this study demonstrates the extent to which his works provide theoretical underpinnings and resources for contesting contemporary discourses on the “end of history” and for recovering utopia after the fall of the Berlin Wall. (shrink)

Este artículo plantea la posibilidad de hallar un surgimiento de la literatura autobiográfica en la obra de Michel Foucault a partir del momento en que este filósofo deja de interesarse por la literatura como un espacio autorreferencial para adentrarse en la historia de criminales, locos, anormales, vidas minúsculas e infames, cuyos relatos se encuentran comprometidos dentro de diferentes prácticas discursivas promovidas por mecanismos de poder. En este sentido, los diarios de Pierre Rivière, Herculine Barbine o Alexina B. y del anónimo (...) inglés de _My secret life_, no sólo cuestionarán la voluntad de saber sobre el crimen y la sexualidad que comenzaba a surgir en términos médicos, psiquiátricos y legales a fines del siglo XVIII y comienzos del XIX, sino que también pondrán en tela de juicio la institucionalidad literaria a partir de una especie de genealogía de la literatura autobiográfica, nacida, en su generalidad, dentro de prácticas confesionales. De este modo, Foucault demuestra un interés previo por la autobiografía antes de que esta práctica de escritura sea situada dentro de una ética y estética de sí. (shrink)

(1993). Integrating cooperation and conflict: Comments on Raymond Boudon's paper. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 29-31.

The numberless unprecedented situations attached today to the concept of transnational diaspora arise the debate of whether or not this phenomenon signals a new era. Our own contention is that it does represent a factor of new kinds of heterogenization of both the societal reality and of the diasporas themselves, as worldwide entities. It is in this dialectic perspective that we describe transnational diasporas as causes of discontinuity in our world and point out to the qualitative change in the social (...) fabrics that they represent. Among other aspects, dual or threefold homeness that is bound to the transnational condition signifies for diasporans a slipping away from the totalistic character of the commitment and view of the nation that the nation-state requires of its citizens. When viewed in its multiplicity, the cohabitation under the same societal roof of a priori alien socio-cultural entities yields a configuration that is not uniform in every setting, but which still responds in its essentials to the new reality experienced by many a contemporary society.To illustrate this approach, this paper compares four well-known contemporary transnational diasporas—namely, the Muslim, African, Hispanic and Chinese. (shrink)