Nineteenth-century investigations of the deep sea provide a case study for black box science. Naturalists were forced to theorize about a space for which they had no direct sensory observations. This study traces the emergence of bathymetry and deep-sea biology and then analyzes how men of science dealt with the uncertainty associated with their black box practices. I argue that these investigators created multiple types of black boxes based on their uncertainties and that these black boxes did not operate equivalently. (...) Consequently, scholars should be aware of the different categories of black boxes when they describe scientific practices. (shrink)

We study some operations that may be defined using the minimum operator in the context of a Heyting algebra. Our motivation comes from the fact that 1) already known compatible operations, such as the successor by Kuznetsov, the minimum dense by Smetanich and the operation G by Gabbay may be defined in this way, though almost never explicitly noted in the literature; 2) defining operations in this way is equivalent, from a logical point of view, to two clauses, one corresponding (...) to an introduction rule and the other to an elimination rule, thus providing a manageable way to deal with these operations. Our main result is negative: all operations that arise turn out to be Heyting terms or the mentioned already known operations or operations interdefinable with them. However, it should be noted that some of the operations that arise may exist even if the known operations do not. We also study the extension of Priestley duality to Heyting algebras enriched with the new operations. (shrink)

Resumo: Este estudo objetiva retomar o diálogo efetuado entre a tradição da ontologia hermenêutica heideggeriana e a psicanálise freudiana, a fim de discutir se ele ainda tem lugar na atualidade e, em caso positivo, problematizar como ele tem sido construído. Apesar de existirem muitos argumentos que questionam a possibilidade de articulação entre esses dois campos, eles não encerram consensualmente essa discussão e exigem ser atualizados. No cenário mais recente, algumas pesquisas têm acenado para o estabelecimento de pontos de conexões entre (...) elas, sem, contudo, desconsiderarem a especificidade dos campos teóricos em questão. Essa forma de interlocução parece o grande desafio aos pesquisadores na atualidade.: This study aims to retake the dialogue made between the tradition of the heideggerian hermeneutic ontology and freudian psychoanalysis, in order to discuss whether it still has a place in the actuality and, if so, to problematize how it has been constructed. Despite having a lot of arguments which question the possibility of articulation between both fields, they don't enclose consensually this debate and require an updating. In the last scenario, some researches go towards the establishment of connection points among them, without, however, disregarding the specificity of the theoretical fields in question. This way of interlocution seems the great challenge of the researchers nowadays. (shrink)

La evolución política latinoamericana, particularmente en el cono sur –Uruguay, Chile y Argentina- en los últimos 50 años ha experimentado cambios significativos, desde los tiempos en que los formalismos democráticos eran puestos a prueba por crisis económicas y sociales que desembocaban en crisis políticas, las que por lo general terminaban “resolviéndose” por la vía militar. Agotada esta instancia, los países han tendido a retomar los cauces democráticos. Hoy nos encontramos inmersos en la oleada transicional hacia la democracia. En este artículo (...) se aborda la evolución de un país, la República Oriental del Uruguay, en razón a las particulares características que ha asumido y cuyo rasgo más visible es el ascenso a la cúspide del poder político, la Presidencia de la República, de quien hace menos de 50 años fuera guerrillero, por la vía electoral. (shrink)

El presente artículo trata de mostrar que la filosofía de Ortega contiene elementos modernos más allá de lo que el propio autor declaraba. Así, frente a la Modernidad de cuño matematizante iniciada por Descartes, el filósofo español asimiló ideas propias de otra Modernidad encabezada por Velázquez y Cervantes. Así, la investigación mostrará, en primer lugar, la crítica de Ortega a la filosofía cartesiana; después, la interpretación orteguiana de la pintura velazquina y qué aspectos filosóficos de ésta asimila; y, finalmente, cómo (...) los planteamientos pictóricos del autor de Las Meninas son coherentes, desde el punto de vista de Ortega, con las propuestas de Cervantes en el Quijote. De esta manera, quedará probado que Ortega y Gasset es impreciso al calificarse como “nada moderno”, en la medida en que sólo es una variante del pensamiento moderno la que niega, adoptando en su filosofía ideas extraídas de sus interpretaciones del pensamiento y el arte españoles del Siglo de Oro español. (shrink)

Despite the recent attention given to moral character in moral psychology and moral philosophy, there is little evidence on how the folk concept of character is structured. Virtue ethics literature...

We argue that it is fundamentally impossible to recover information about quantum superpositions when a quantum system has interacted with a sufficiently large number of degrees of freedom of the environment. This is due to the fact that gravity imposes fundamental limitations on how accurate measurements can be. This leads to the notion of undecidability: there is no way to tell, due to fundamental limitations, if a quantum system evolved unitarily or suffered wavefunction collapse. This in turn provides a solution (...) to the problem of outcomes in quantum measurement by providing a sharp criterion for defining when an event has taken place. We analyze in detail in examples two situations in which in principle one could recover information about quantum coherence: (a) “revivals” of coherence in the interaction of a system with the measurement apparatus and the environment and (b) the measurement of global observables of the system plus apparatus plus environment. We show in the examples that the fundamental limitations due to gravity and quantum mechanics in measurement prevent both revivals from occurring and the measurement of global observables. It can therefore be argued that the emerging picture provides a complete resolution to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. (shrink)

There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on readers’ Presidential candidate preferences via an experimental web-survey administered to a cross-sectional American sample. Results showed no main effect of exposure to DFN on participants’ candidate evaluations or vote choice. However, (...) the perceived believability of DFN about the Democratic candidate negatively mediated evaluations of that candidate—especially amongst far-right ideologues. These results suggest that DFN may at worst reinforce the partisan dispositions of mostly politically conservative Internet users, but does not cause or induce conversions in these dispositions. Overall, this study contributes novel experimental evidence, indicating that the potential electoral impact of DFN, although concerning, is strongly conditional on a reciprocal interaction between message receptibility and a pre-existing right-wing ideological orientation. The said impact is, therefore, likely narrow in scope. (shrink)

O presente artigo analisa o crescimento das instituições escolares salesianas no Antigo Sul de Mato Grosso no final do século XIX e início do XX e o ideal de um processo civilizador educacional, empreendido pela Igreja Católica, protagonizado pela congregação salesiana a qual atuou para assegurar prerrogativa educacionais ao passo que o Estado brasileiro laicizava-se. Essa análise terá como suporte bibliográfico a obra de Riolando Azzi (1982) que em sua obra Os salesianos no Brasil à luz da História, destaca o (...) papel exercido pelo Manual Civilizador dos salesianos. Como aporte teórico, destacamos a obra de Norbert Elias (1994), O processo civilizador. (shrink)

This paper focuses on an understudied aspect of Hobbes's natural philosophy: his approach to the domain of life. I concentrate on the role assigned by Hobbes to the heart, which occupies a central role in both his account of human physiology and of the origin of animal locomotion. With this, I have three goals in mind. First, I aim to offer a cross-section of Hobbes's effort to provide a mechanistic picture of human life. Second, I aim to contextualize Hobbes's views (...) in the seventeenth-century debates on human physiology and animal locomotion. In particular, I will compare Hobbes's views with the theories put forth by Harvey, Descartes, the Galenic, and Peripatetic traditions. Also, I will show that Hobbes was receptive to advances within contemporary English physiology and chemistry. Third, by means of a comparison with Descartes, I advance some hypothesis to explain why Hobbes indentified the heart, and not the brain (as was increasingly com... (shrink)

“ZurKritik der Gewalt”, publicado em agosto de 1921, nos ArchivfurSozialwissenschaftundSozialpolitik, tratará da tentativa de demarcação de uma violência exterior ou para além do direito: uma“violência pura”,que romperia a dialética da violência mítica que instauraria e conservaria a ordem jurídica. Este artigo pretende estabelecer algumas problematizações sobre esse conceito na filosofia de Walter Benjamin e de alguns intérpretes contemporâneos,buscando conjugar o conceito de reine Gewalt com as reflexões benjaminianas sobre o tempo e a história.

Trata-se de abordar a concepção dworkiniana de dignidade humana a partir de sua obra Domínio da Vida. O intuito deste texto é delimitar conceitualmente sua concepção de dignidade humana para, posteriormente, analisar a importância dessa concepção para a solução de problemas de ordem prática, tais como o aborto e a eutanásia.

El autor, en el contexto del debate sobre la relación entre la justicia constitucional y el proceso democrático, argumenta a favor de considerar al control jurisdiccional de constitucionalidad como un requisito necesario, pero no suficiente, para la existencia de un Estado democrático de derecho. Tras analizar las posturas y argumentos generales de ese debate, así como aspectos singulares del modo en que se viene desarrollando en Latinoamérica, abogará por un modelo de democracia débil, en el que una serie de derechos, (...) fundamentalmente civiles y políticos, estén atrincherados constitucionalmente y sean considerados precondiciones del proceso democrático. Por este último motivo, estos dos tipos de derechos podrían estar protegidos por la justicia constitucional, incluso frente al legislador mayoritario, sin merma de la dimensión democrática del sistema político. Respecto de los derechos sociales, dada su dimensión distributiva y su relación con el bienestar y las necesidades de la población, su garantía no debería de quedar exclusivamente en manos de los jueces, ya que difícilmente pueden ser considerados precondiciones de la democracia: esto no significa, afirma el autor, que no hayan de ser constitucionalizados ni tampoco que en su garantía por parte de los parlamentarios no participe, de algún modo, la justicia constitucional. (shrink)

Contentions about the origin of early modern empiricism have been floating about at least since the 1980s, where its exclusive “Britishness” was initially question, and the name of Gassendi was provocatively put forward as the putative “founder” of the current to the detriment of Francis Bacon. Recent scholarship has shown that early modern empiricism did not derive from philosophical speculation exclusively but had multiple sources and “foundations.” Yet, from a historical viewpoint, the question whether Bacon’s method had any influence on (...) the origin and development of Gassendi’s version of empiricism still carries significance, for its answer may open up different views on how the relation between British and “continental” empiricisms shall be framed. In this paper, I deal with Gassendi’s reception of Bacon. On the basis of a deep examination of Gassendi’s corpus, I contend that there is no trace of a consistent influence of Bacon on Gassendi’s empiricism before 1650s; although I show that an indirect influence can be found through the mediation of Peiresc, I put forward the hypothesis that it was more the empirical attitude characterizing Peiresc’s intellectual figure, rather than his interest in Baconianism, to be relevant, along with Epicurus’ philosophy, for Gassendi’s early empiricism. I then analyze Gassendi’s treatment of Bacon’s logic in Gassendi’s Syntagma philosophicum. I show that despite Gassendi’s sympathy for Bacon’s project, his own logic lays on fundamentally different assumptions. Despite this, I argue for Gassendi’s reception of Bacon’s theory of the idols in Syntagma philosophicum. On this basis, I conclude by restating the untenability of “national” accounts of the rise of empiricism, and the importance of highlighting instead the sharing of ideas between its actors. (shrink)

With its origin-centric value proposition, the specialty coffee industry seeks to educate consumers about the value of the origin of coffee and how the relationship with farmers ensures quality and makes coffee a premium product. While the industry has widely used stories and visual cues to communicate this added value, research studying whether and how these efforts influence consumers' experiences is scarce. Through three experiments, we explored the effect of images that evoke the terroir of coffee on the perception of (...) premiumness. Our results revealed that online images that resembled the broad origin of coffee could influence premiumness expectations of coffee. Similarly, a virtual reality environment that depicted this broad origin could enhance the perception of coffee premiumness for non-expert consumers and the enjoyment of the experience for coffee professionals. Importantly, we found that congruence between the coffee and the virtual reality atmospheres mediated how much non-experts enjoyed the experience. VR atmospheres also influenced expectations of sweetness and acidity for non-experts. These findings serve as a steppingstone for further exploration of the effects of congruence between visual cues and product/brand attributes on premiumness expectations and perception, and more generally on consumer experience. From a practical standpoint, this study provides insights into key aspects for the development of immersive virtual product experiences. (shrink)

This article aims to provide a brief overview of mental causation problem and its current proposed solutions. Indeed, mental causation turns out as one of the most difficult philosophical conundrums in contemporary philosophy of mind. In the first two sections, we offer an outline of the problem and the philosophical debate about it, and show that mental causation problem is pivotal within the contemporary philosophy of mind. In the third section, we focus on the most popular models of mental causation, (...) namely Kim's and Davidson's accounts, also discussing the objections raised against them. In the final section, we take into consideration some recent proposals poised to solve the mental causation problem, including powerism. Given the logical and metaphysical plausibility of almost all these different options, our conclusion is that mental causation is still an open problem and it is far from being resolved. (shrink)

We make a first attempt to axiomatically formulate the Montevideo interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this interpretation environmental decoherence is supplemented with loss of coherence due to the use of realistic clocks to measure time to solve the measurement problem. The resulting formulation is framed entirely in terms of quantum objects without having to invoke the existence of measurable classical quantities like the time in ordinary quantum mechanics. The formulation eliminates any privileged role to the measurement process giving an objective (...) definition of when an event occurs in a system. (shrink)

This paper deals with the transnationalism of racial anthropological frameworks and its role in the understanding of human difference during India’s decolonization and nation-building. With attention to the circulation of scientific objects, I focus on the practices and articulations of Irawati Karve, an Indian anthropologist with a transnational scientific trajectory and nationalistic political engagements. I argue that Karve’s adaptation of an internationally validated German racial approach to study caste, ethnic and religious groups contributed to the further racialization of these categories (...) as well as to the racialization of nationalistic projects in Maharashtra and India. I conclude with a reflection on the transnationalization of the coloniality of racialization. (shrink)

En la filosofía de J. Rancière es posible poner en evidencia una voluntad recurrente por afirmar y verificar la «igualdad de las inteligencias» que pasa, inicialmente, por el campo de la educación en su investigación sobre los postulados de J. Jacotot, un singular pedagogo francés del siglo XIX, y que desemboca en la política en su vínculo con la estética. En este artículo nos vamos a centrar en sus primeros trabajos, sobre todo, en su libro El maestro ignorante, para plantear (...) de qué manera puede hablarse de una «emancipación estética» en su filosofía para, luego, pasar a dilucidar las relaciones que este filósofo contemporáneo establece entre el arte, la estética y la política.Palabras clave: J. Rancière, Teorías de la emancipación, Estética y política, Educación estética, Políticas estéticas, Arte crítico o político. (shrink)

: In today’s political philosophy framework, it is commonplace to associate Adam Smith with akind of theory that ignores human dispositions and considers only the self-interested perspective ofindividuals. Although this view has been widely supported in different fields – viz Philosophy andEconomy, we consider this a biased interpretation. Using the Cambridge School orientation, we explainthe importance of historical background in reading Smith’s work to argue that Smith’s writings should beinterpreted within the Scottish Enlightenment context. From this contextual approach, it is (...) possible tosustain an integrated reading of Smith’s books The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and An Inquiryinto the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations (WN). This reading leads to a more faithfulinterpretation of Smith’s idea that the agent in society is morally engaged in socio-economic relations.Once this hypothesis is confirmed, we will defend a systematic analysis of Smith’s philosophy arguingthat Smith’s philosophy is a holistic system, in what we call a tripartite theory. (shrink)

Populist representation is the process by which a body or set of bodies become the signifier of a powerful act of political transgression of the social order. We call this specific type of representative linkage ‘synecdochal representation’. In it, the leader’s body performs three key functions: it mirrors certain popular traits that are characterized as ‘low’, it displays marks of exceptionality, and it appropriates symbols of institutional power. These tasks are performed through particular ways of acting, dressing, talking, eating, and (...) the like, in public. Social media has become a key locus for bodily self-presentation because it is used to create the appearance of intimacy and spontaneity through the distribution of ‘candid’ pictures and videos. This paper will analyze how the self-presentation of populist and non-populist leaders are established through Twitter, what images they choose to disseminate, and how they are re-signified by the audience. To do so, we will focus on the two Latin American politicians: Cristina Fernández (with a populist style) and Mauricio Macri (with a technocratic one). (shrink)

A partir da conjectura de que a história e atuação de escritoras feministas negras é uma maneira de tensionar as relações sociais para resolver problemas oriundos da colonização, este estudo parte do pressuposto de que a inserção, teorização dos papéis e contribuições dessas autoras na educação corrobora para desconstrução de narrativas éticas e estéticas pautadas no viés eurocêntrico. Objetiva-se destacar a potencialidade do pensamento feminista negro, utilizando a categoria da interseccionalidade, para incluir possibilidades pedagógicas de fomento ao debate de raça/etnia, (...) classe e gênero, no âmbito educacional e combate ao racismo estrutural, sexismo e cultura patriarcal, advindos da colonialidade. Para tanto, parte-se de uma abordagem metodológica feminista, bibliográfica e qualitativa e se constitui em um diálogo ancorado em autoras estrangeiras e brasileiras, sobretudo negras e decoloniais no qual constata-se que o pensamento feminista negro pode colaborar para a construção de uma educação antirracista e antissexista para promover a decolonialidade do saber. (shrink)

O artigo procura mostrar como alguns dos principais motivos da filosofia de Adorno, tais como a crítica ao sistema e ao pensamento discursivo, a superação do conceito pelo próprio conceito, o resgate do não-idêntico e a configuração do nome, constituem a “constelação de música e palavra”, característica da já clássica apologia adorniana da forma ensaio, da qual também resultam suas debilidades.

O artigo apresenta a defesa kantiana da validade universal dos juízos estéticos, a crítica de Bourdieu ao “gosto puro” e as aporias de sua posição em face da diferença transcendental entre a análise sociológica e a análise filosófica.

O artigo mostra a importância da expansão de periódicos no Brasil no contexto da independência, formando redes de comunicação, e os significados que a palavra impressa ganhou nesse momento inicial de formação de um espaço público no qual as discussões políticas tomavam as ruas. O foco são as diversas teias narrativas que podem ser vistas nos próprios periódicos e que revelam suas filiações ideológicas e as significações que atribuem aos seus posicionamentos políticos e à palavra impressa. Do ponto de vista (...) metodológico, percorremos os textos dos jornais para também interpretar as razões de proliferação dos impressos, percebendo nos pormenores indiciais dos escritos os múltiplos sentidos atribuídos à ação de fazer circular publicações. Portanto, o foco central do texto são as teias comunicacionais que emergem, procurando interpretar contextos com base na centralidade do comunicacional. (shrink)

After reconstructing some features of the Scholastic treatment of contingency in natural philosophy, this paper draws a comparison between Descartes’ treatments of the issue of the laws of nature in Le Monde and in the Principles of Philosophy. On the basis of this comparison, it argues that elements of the Scholastic understanding of contingency as due to the impediment provided by matter are still present in the former. While in the Principles Descartes appears to equate contingency with an epistemological limitation (...) in our understanding of the complexity of natural phenomena, in conclusion I argue that some elements of his previous approach to the issue remains in his treatment of curvilinear motion. (shrink)