Sydney Shoemaker has been arguing for more than a decade for an account of the mind–body problem in which the notion of realization takes centre stage. His aim is to provide a notion of realization that is consistent with the multiple realizability of mental properties or events, and which explains: how the physical grounds the mental; and why the causal work of mental events is not screened off by that of physical events. Shoemaker's proposal consists of individuating properties in terms (...) of causal powers, and defining realization as a relation of inclusion between sets of causal powers. Thus, as the causal powers that define a mental property are a subset of the causal powers that characterize a physical property, it can be said that physical properties realize mental properties. In this paper we examine the physicalist credentials of Shoemaker's mind–body theory in relation to three important issues: the direction of the relation of dependence that the theory is committed to; the possibility of mental properties existing without being anchored by physical properties; and the compatibility of the theory with the causal closure of the physical world. We argue that Shoemaker's theory is problematic in all three respects. After that we consider whether the theory should count as a mind–body theory at all, given that it seems to be committed to a distorted view of mental properties. (shrink)

El cordobés Damián de Castro, gran exponente de la platería rococó española en la centuria dieciochesca, realizó junto a otros artífices diferentes piezas para el cardenal Delgado y Venegas, arzobispo hispalense entre 1776 y 1781. Hoy muchas de estas piezas las podemos contemplar en las vitrinas de nuestro museo catedralicio, sin embargo la existencia en su tiempo de diferentes piezas similares produjo cierta confusión en su posterior identificación. En este nuevo trabajo intentaremos desentrañar las dudas sobre dos de las más (...) vistosas piezas del tesoro de nuestro templo mayor: las dos bandejas de plata sobredorada que, ejecutadas en un exuberante y depurado rococó, deslumbran al visitante con sus fúlgidos destellos y atrevido diseño. (shrink)

This paper presents a reflection on subjectivity in the context of consumer society, discussing two alternative approaches: on the one hand, the iden- tification between subject and commodity, traceable, among others, to Bauman, and, on the other hand, Žižek’s interpretation of subjectivity as an emerging surplus of the conflict within the symbolic order. The result- ing exchange between these alternatives shows the constitutive relations of the subject of consumption in the dimension of desire, in the margin of freedom, and in (...) the role of reflexivity. Finally, the understanding of the relationship between the subject and the material world is proposed as a constructive performativity of subjectivity. (shrink)

En este artículo reconstruyo y analizo las respuestas de los escépticos académicos a la objeción de apraxia. Esta objeción afirma que el escepticismo es una doctrina imposible de practicar puesto que sus tesis conducen a la apraxia, esta es, un estado de privación o imposibilidad de acción. Las respuestas a la objeción se dividen en dos clases. La primera prueba que el asentimiento no es una condición necesaria para realizar acciones, por lo que la recomendación escéptica de suspender global y (...) permanentemente el asentimiento no conduciría a la apraxia. La segunda prueba que es posible deliberar y orientar racionalmente nuestras acciones sin impresiones aprehensivas, por lo que la tesis escéptica de que no existen impresiones aprehensivas tampoco conduciría a la apraxia. Tras unas breves consideraciones generales, en la primera parte de este artículo presento las respuestas de Arcesilao y en la segunda parte las repuestas de Carnéades. (shrink)

El artículo ingresa en la ontología del acontecer y recorre cuatro momentos. En primer lugar, distingue la visión del mundo en general, propia de la llamada “metafísica” de la visión del ser como acontecer, y busca un diálogo entre la perspectiva del ser en la metafísica y ontología de Hans-Georg Gadamer. En segundo lugar, analiza la estructura del acontecer o el modo como se despliega el movimiento del sentido, para determinar la lógica de la pregunta como estructura del acontecer. En (...) tercer lugar, entabla un diálogo entre la idea de acontecer y la categoría de finitud, para evidenciar que, cuando se piensa en una ontología del acontecer, esta remite a la determinaciónde la finitud. Y, finalmente, plantea algunas líneas de desarrollo para profundizar en esta investigación. (shrink)

Grounded in achievement goal theory and self-determination theory, the aim of this study was to analyze the motivational determinants of precompetitive anxiety in the sports context, considering the horizontal motivational sequence: adaptive social factors, competence need, types of motivation, and consequences. This study was also conducted in order to analyze the mediating role of the need for competition and motivational regulations on social factors and consequences. The sample consisted of 217 athletes of both sexes engaged in elite sport, who answered (...) a series of questionnaires to measure study variables to develop an analysis of the structural equation model. The results showed that both the task-involving climate and autonomy support were associated with competence need, and competence need was associated with autonomous motivation in a positive way and with controlled motivation and amotivation in a negative way. On the other hand, autonomous motivation was positively associated with self-confidence, while amotivation was positively related to somatic and cognitive anxiety before a competition. Furthermore, there was a total mediation of competence need and autonomous motivation between task climate and self-confidence. In conclusion, these social factors favor self-confidence, and besides, these climates disfavor anxiety before a sport competition. (shrink)

Compuesto por capítulos de diferentes especialistas en los estudios literarios que laboran en universidades de México, Europa y Estados Unidos, el libro Literatura aplicada en el siglo XXI: ideas y prácticas es el resultado de una invitación y de un esfuerzo para reflexionar sobre las posibilidades epistémicas del fenómeno literario como creación, recreación y programación. Parte de cuestionarse si el binomio clásico de estudiar/aprender ha perdido su sentido en la era de la tecnificación cibernética, es decir, de la inteligencia artificial (...) y de la paulatina robotización del mundo. Puesto que los algoritmos ya leen y escriben automáticamente, y son capaces de combinaciones y hasta de generar narrativas, nos pareció necesaria una mayor sensibilización de la palabra consciente. Una reflexión de la educación poética para diferenciarnos de las máquinas y también para entender su funcionamiento, así como reestablecer la reflexión o diálogo de los creadores con los críticos, y de los promotores de lectura con los teóricos de la lectura. Tal restablecimiento debería ser el desafío de los estudios literarios (universitariamente entendidos) en lo que resta del siglo XXI. De esta forma, los ensayos aquí reunidos hacen referencia a autores y obras del siglo XX y aun de otras centurias, pero con la intención de reflexionar sobre su aplicación en lo que va del presente siglo. (shrink)

This article examines a specific case of lying, at the same time judicial and mediatic, promoted from the highest levels of political power, the Leon Trotsky case, from the perspective of the work done by the International Commission of Investigation chaired by the American philosopher John Dewey. After a general justification and contextualization of the subject, and a historical account of the events that surrounded the “Moscow Trials” and the constitution of the Dewey Commission, some of the reasons why the (...) commission concluded that such processes had been judicial assemblies are reported. It closes with a reference to the way Dewey later denounced the media falsification of these events through the book Mission to Moscow. (shrink)

En los albores de la modernidad, tras la ruptura de la unidad del pensamientomedieval, los diferentes ámbitos del saber humano comenzaron aexperimentar un proceso de racionalización (secularización) que devino ensu separación. Particularmente, el Leviatán de Thomas Hobbes constituyeuno de los primeros esfuerzos por separar la religión de la política. En estetrabajo me ocupo precisamente de analizar esta relación. Más que exponerla estructura interna del contrato hobbesiano, lo que me interesa demostrares que en el Leviatán el propósito político de justificar la (...) autoridad de unEstado mediante un acuerdo entre sujetos libres e iguales está puesto alservicio de la consecución de un propósito religioso: la institución en latierra del reino de Dios. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss, on behalf of the materialist, a consideration against the modal or conceivability argument against materialism which was first voiced in the third lecture of Naming and Necessity. This consideration is based on intertheoretic identities, statements in which both terms flanking the identity sign are theoretical. I argue that the defender of the conceivability argument has trouble to account for the appearance of contingency in those types of necessary identities. In fact, intertheoretic identities pose a formidable (...) dilemma for the defender of the modal argument and actually force the antimaterialist to say more about the semantics of theoretical terms than is implicit in standard discussions of the argument. I myself consider several options in this regard, the upshot being, however, that none of the alternative semantics for theoretical terms available to the antimaterialist is good enough to achieve the twofold aim which her modal argument requires, namely, to account for the a posteriori necessity of identities of this sort and, at the same time, to preserve her antimaterialist argument. Finally, in the last part of the paper, I argue that my defense of materialism can withstand some worries coming from David Chalmers’ recent views on a priori scrutability. (shrink)

The evident remoteness between the religious postulates and the secular activity has led us to spiritual disorder and the oblivion of the authentic needs and aspirations of the human being. The current mentality and practice, towards what is considered merely useful or verifiable, has led us to this antinomy of polarized extremes, either towards an anthropocentrism that survives in a paradoxical happiness, disproportionate in the search for the strictly tangible, or towards an economic or ecological discourse that forgets the ontological (...) idea, and the authentic value and meaning of the human being. From a positive and normative analysis, this study aims to emphasize the importance of the so-called 'Integral Training’, taught by some university centers, as a promoter of the psychological and spiritual well-being, as well as the attitudes of sustainable entrepreneurship, in an ethical way and responsible. (shrink)

An argument is offered which purports to show that Davidson's argument for Physical Monism is inconsistent with the thesis of Anomalism of the Mental.

Este artículo corto reflexiona sobre la interesante relación que Michel Foucault plantea entre las formaciones de saber y las prácticas o dispositivos de poder, a través del caso particular de la clínica y la práctica médica. En efecto, este caso aporta elementos de relación en el propósito de hacer del hombre tanto un objeto de estudio como una variable para controlar. Es particular que el caso de la medicina aporte un concepto central para dilucidar la relación entre saber y poder, (...) a saber, el concepto de mirada, si bien ha de reconocerse la transformación del mismo conforme al modo de aplicación. (shrink)

Antifragility is a property from which systems are able to resist stress and furthermore benefit from it. Even though antifragile dynamics is found in various real-world complex systems where multiple subsystems interact with each other, the attribute has not been quantitatively explored yet in those complex systems which can be regarded as multilayer networks. Here we study how the multilayer structure affects the antifragility of the whole system. By comparing single-layer and multilayer Boolean networks based on our recently proposed antifragility (...) measure, we found that the multilayer structure facilitated the production of antifragile systems. Our measure and findings will be useful for various applications such as exploring properties of biological systems with multilayer structures and creating more antifragile engineered systems. (shrink)

Physicalism is usually understood as the claim that every empirical entity is or is determined by physical entities. The claim is however imprecise until it is clarified what are the physical entities in question. A sceptical argument in the form of a dilemma tries to show that this problem of formulation of physicalism cannot be adequately met. If we understand physical entities as the entities introduced by current physics, the resulting claim becomes most probably false. If we instead understand physical (...) entities as those entities introduced by some future ideal physics, the claim then becomes indeterminate in content. Both horns seem equally bad. In the first part of the paper, I survey the strengths and weaknesses of different proposed solutions to this problem of formulation. In the second part, I lay out a new formulation of physicalism, partly based on a mereological principle, which overcomes the dilemma, and argue that it is a correct formulation of physicalism to the extent that it rules out clear antiphysicalist scenarios and is compatible with clear physicalist scenarios. (shrink)

In a series of influential articles (Kim 1989b, 1992b, 1993a and 1998), Jaegwon Kim has developed a strong argument against nonreductive physicalism as a plausible solution to mental causation. The argument is commonly called the ’causal exclusion argument’, and it has become, over the years, one of the most serious threats to the nonreductivist point of view. In the first part of this paper I offer a careful reconstruction and detailed discussion of the exclusion argument. In the second part I (...) show why some important objections to it actually fail. (shrink)

Human beings are killing the planet and themselves in the process. Cecile Pineda asks a simple question: Why? An urgent reframing of current ecological thinking, Apology to a Whale addresses what the intersection of relative linguistics and archeology reveals about the present world's power relations, and what the extraordinary communication of plants and animals can teach us. This masterpiece of creative nonfiction is a wild ride on the frontiers of archeo-linguistics in search of the greatest killer on Earth--us.

Este artículo vuelve sobre el clásico y complejo concepto de alienación y se propone contribuir a elaborarlo para la filosofía social actual. La idea es ir articulando las propuestas sobre la alienación que han elaborado Rahel Jaeggi y Axel Honneth, desarrolladas a partir de un filósofo presuntamente ajeno a la teoría crítica, a saber, Martín Heidegger, e irnos desligando de estos autores a medida que vamos perfilando el concepto. Pretendemos ofrecer un análisis estructural del concepto que permita identificar ciertos rasgos (...) básicos que después sirvan para elaborar un diagnóstico de las patologías sociales en el mundo contemporáneo. (shrink)

It has been suggested in the literature about actions that one can honour the philosophical intuition lying behind Davidson’s argument for the Anscombe Thesis (the claim that by-sentences --sentcnccs used to report actions of the general form: ‘A X-ed by V-ing’-- involve two descriptions of the same action) without accepting the argument’s conclusion. The suggestion in question is to interpret by-sentences as referring to two synchronous but different actions of the same agent. I argue that this suggestion, together with two (...) plausible semantic principles about the naming of events and a reasonable metaphysical principle about the constitution of events, leads to certain ontological commitments which are hardly acccptable. My conclusion is then that in order to deny the Anscambe Thesis what must be done is to show that Davidson’s intuition is wrong. (shrink)

Most philosophers of mind nowadays espouse two metaphysical views: Nonreductive Physicalism and the causal efficacy of the mental. Throughout this work I will refer to the conjunction of both claims as the Causal Autonomy of the Mental. Nevertheless, this position is threatened by a number of difficulties which are far more serious than one would imagine given the broad consensus that it has generated during the last decades. This paper purports to offer a careful examination of some of these difficulties (...) and show the considerable efforts that one has to undertake in order to try to overcome them. The difficulties examined will concern only metaphysical problems common to all special science properties but not specific of mental properties. So, in proposing a functionalist version of Nonreductive Physicalism in what follows, I will not attempt to answer to well known objections such as the absent qualia argument and the like. This should not be interpreted as a limitation! in the scope of this work. On the contrary, in dealing with more general objections we will try to evaluate a position which entails (under common assumptions) the Causal Autonomy of the Mental, namely: Nonreductive Physicalism plus the causal efficacy of special science properties. (shrink)

El primer propósito de este artículo es considerar el fenómeno del pensamiento en Hannah Arendt. El segundo propósito es establecer en qué sentido, según esta autora, la actividad del pensamiento puede ser una condición contra la maldad. Como en su determinación del pensar Hannah Arendt se vuelve polémicamente contra todo intento por ver el pensar ya como un ejercicio intelectual, ya como una actividad puramente mental, ya como la fundación o prosecución de tradiciones de pensamiento, ya como el monopolio de (...) unos pocos, ya como la elaboración de doctrinas o sistemas…, el texto muestra subrepticiamente esta confrontación constante de Arendt con la tradición filosófica. Tal confrontación con la tradición filosófica tiene lugar al hilo de una conversación permanente con Sócrates, en cuyos diálogos advirtió Hannah Arendt un ejemplo inequívoco de la actividad del pensamiento. (shrink)

En la versión del sistema de la Enciclopedia de las ciencias filosóficas, el propio Hegel establece un entronque entre la Fenomenología del espíritu y su filosofía posterior. Este artículo examina una vez más esta conexión. Si uno de los aspectos característicos de la Fenomenología consiste en que ella no se identifica plenamente con la reflexión filosófica sistemática ni representa un puro tratado sobre la experiencia humana, sino que se elabora a horcajadas entre estos dos extremos, lo que se hace evidente (...) en la “Fenomenología” de la Enciclopedia es que allí la obra parece alejarse de la exposición del camino de la experiencia de la conciencia natural. Esto obedece a que la “Fenomenología” de la Enciclopedia ya no parece establecer una conexión tan clara entre filosofía y experiencia o, en otra formulación, no parece asumir que los planteamientos filosóficos ganen su verdad mediante su encarnación en la praxis humana. Al hilo de la pregunta por la relación entre la Fenomenología del espíritu y la Enciclopedia de las ciencias filosóficas, este artículo considera la idea de filosofía presente en ambas obras, así como la enigmática relación entre experiencia y filosofía. (shrink)

Commentators of Hobbes’ Political Theory are divided between those who argue that the state of nature is caused by competition and distrust and those who affirm that it is caused by the fight for glory. In his work Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition, Jean Hampton analyzes the arguments presented in favor of both accounts, and proposes –against the aforementioned accounts– that conflict in the state of nature is the result of an error in reasoning that leads men to undervalue (...) the future benefits of cooperative work. The article describes the account developed by Hampton and establishes the differences it has in relation to the rationality and passions accounts of conflict. (shrink)

En este artículo exploro el compatibilismo, el punto de vista según el cual la tesis del hiato o hueco explicativo entre lo fenoménico y lo físico es compatible con una metafísica fisicista. Defiendo que el argumento del dualismo de propiedades es un argumento incompatibilista más fuerte que el argumento de Jackson-Chalmers o el de Kripke y exploro críticamente algunos intentos recientes de replicar al mismo. La conclusión a la que llego es que una posición compatibilista capaz de dar una respuesta (...) adecuada al argumento del dualismo de propiedades sigue todavía pendiente de articulación. In this paper I explore compatibilism, the view that the claim that there is an explanatory gap between the phenomenal and the physical is compatible with an overall physicalist metaphysics. I argue that the property dualism argument is an incompatibilist argument which is stronger than the Jackson-Chalmers argument or Kripke's argument and I critically explore some recent attempts in the literature to deal with it. The conclusion is that a compatibilist view, one able to cope with the property dualism argument, is still pending. (shrink)

Theorists of political obligation have long devoted special attention to civil disobedience, establishing its pride of place as an object of philosophical analysis, and as one of a short li...

Una de las cuestiones que más ha interesado a los historiadores modernos y contemporáneos del escepticismo antiguo es aquella que concierne a las diferencias entre las dos corrientes escépticas tradicionales, denominadas académica y pirrónica. Este interés está completamente justificado pues se trata, en realidad, de una cuestión clásica planteada por los antiguos, tal como nos informa Aulo Gelio en las Noches Áticas: “Es una cuestión antigua, considerada por muchos escritores griegos, en cuánto difieren los filósofos pirrónicos de los académicos. Pues (...) ambos son llamados escépticos, suspensivos, aporéticos, ya que ambos nada afirman y juzgan que nada se aprehende”. (shrink)

In a paper published in 1998, Ricardo Salles argues that the Stoic theory of action cannot account for practical knowledge, i.e., knowledge about what action is appropriate to be carried out in certain circumstances. The aim of this paper is to propose a solution to this problem. For this aim, I argue that the Stoics developed a perceptual theory of moral knowledge. According to this theory, the moral properties instantiated in objects, people, and actions are known through perception. After explaining (...) this theory, I argue that it allows us to show that the Stoics deemed perception as a source of practical knowledge. (shrink)

El ensayo es un análisis crítico de la tesis libertaria que ofrece una justificaciónde la violencia. A lo largo del texto sostengo la tesis de que ni moralni lógicamente el argumento libertario, que justifica el terror y la violencia,es válido y, mucho menos, persuasivo. En contra de él, defiendo una concepciónde la libertad basada en la tolerancia de creencias, desprovista decontenidos doctrinarios o cosmovisivos.

El elemento primario de lo social es vivir en un ethos, implicados con el mundo, con los otros y con nosotros mismos. En diálogo con Hegel, este artículo muestra el aspecto crítico social de dicho planteamiento. La vida ética no es obediencia ciega a un destino ni quedarse en un círculo vicioso en el que solo se repiten costumbres, sino que contiene un grado de reconocimiento y apropiación que permite ver y alterar estas determinaciones cuando ya no hacen inteligible el (...) mundo, cuando no son racionales. Estas posiciones son elaboradas confrontando las lecturas que Habermas y Honneth adelantaron de Hegel. (shrink)