Against the assumption that legal and normative systems are coextensive with geopolitical units and national spaces, the article advocates for the need to study how different legal and normative semiospheres, within the same geopolitical unit and national space, often give rise to ‘normolects’ that are transversal to socio-economic classes, ethnicities, and cultural lifestyles. The concept of legal and normative ‘imaginaries’ is useful to come to terms with the legal and normative semiotic ideology of such normolects, including their non-verbal dimension and (...) legal-normative semiotic ideologies. More generally, the article prompts legal scholars, and particularly semioticians of law, not to focus exclusively on inter-cultural awareness in legal-normative language but to concentrate also on intra-cultural awareness. As a case study, the article analyses a drawing through which the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visualized and advertised for a bill of reform of the Italian judicial system by his Minister of Justice, Angelino Alfano. The semiotic analysis of this visual artifact casts new light on the controversial political and judicial figure of Mr Berlusconi. The drawing is read as a visual embodiment of the conflict between two different legal and normative ideologies within the present-day Italian political and judicial arena. The paradoxes that underpin this iconography of law and mar a rational confrontation of legal-normative arguments in contemporary Italy are uncovered. (shrink)

This article examines how Italian commercial broadcast news on Mediaset’s three terrestrial channels has covered the transition to digital terrestrial television. Mediaset is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country and is owned by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. By drawing on critical discourse analysis of broadcast news, it is argued that linguistic elements such as pronouns, choice of words, and metaphors, together with tendentious editing and framing of interviews, were part of a strategy of positive representation of (...) the broadcaster’s interests in the transition and negative representation of media policies opposing such interests. In particular, the analysis brings to the surface the ideological usage of interviews. Interviews in this case did not function as an act of control over the powerful, but as a way to illuminate the broadcaster’s strategic interests while obfuscating the reasons behind attempts to regulate the transition to digital television and open the market to competition. The data attest that the way in which news programs covered the digital transition exposes the connections between media content, media ownership, and governmental institutions. Indeed, all three news programs, TG5, TG4, and Studio Aperto, despite their different target audience and the reputation of one of them as the most objective and authoritative newscast on Italian commercial television, echoed each other in unified support of the sort of interests and media legislation that best fitted the corporation, especially at times when those interests were threatened. The corpus consists of 13 newscasts grouped in two clusters aired in 2006 and 2009. The main participants in the story were Mediaset’s president, often interviewed as the ‘expert’ on the TV industry, the communications minister for the center-left Prodi government, and the communications undersecretary for the center-right Berlusconi government. Citizens and consumer groups were never given the opportunity to voice their positions or be an active part of the narration. (shrink)

Silvio Berlusconi constitue un phénomène original, et même un cas unique, puisqu'il est le seul chef d'entreprise du secteur des médias qui accède, à deux reprises, aux fonctions de Premier ministre dans une grande démocratie. L'arrivée au pouvoir du dirigeant de la grande entreprise de la communication répond à la crise de la représentation politique et inaugure dans l'Europe latine, une «néo-politique». Comme toute figure symbolique, l'image de Berlusconi est ambivalente et ne peut laisser indifférente. Si (...) class='Hi'>Berlusconi suscite tant de réactions d'adhésion ou de rejet, c'est parce qu'il inscrit toute son activité publique dans l'espace de l'image, de la séduction et de l'émotion, plus que dans le champ rationnel et traditionnel de la représentation politique. Il sait être l'ordonnateur du débat public en le dramatisant autour de clivages simplistes, notamment pour ou contre l'État, pour ou contre l'impôt... Il promeut ainsi une politique faite de passions et de croyances, comme dans une fiction télévisuelle. Le phénomène ne relève pas pour autant du populisme, voire du « télépopulisme ».Silvio Berlusconi represents an original phenomenon, or even a unique case, in that he is the only company manager from the world of media who twice rose to the office of Prime Minister in a major democracy. The coming to power of the manager of this large media firm is an answer to the crisis of political representation; it ushers in a "neo-policy" in Latin Europe. Like any symbolical figure, Berlusconi's image is ambivalent and cannot leave indifferent. If Berlusconi gives rise to so many reactions of support or rejection, that is because he places his whole public activity in the field of image, seduction and emotion rather than in the rational and traditional field of political representation. He knows how to organize public debate by dramatizing it around simplistic divides, such as for or against State, for or against taxes... Thus he promotes politics built on passions ans beliefs, as in a television fiction. For all that, the phenomenon does not fall into populism, nor even into "telepopulism". (shrink)

I periferien af demokratiets ånd eksisterer den stærke leder, der ønsker at blive be- tragtet som legitim varetager af folkesuverænitetens vilje, der ligger til grund for demokratiet. Inspireret af Max Webers teori om karismatisk lederskab, undersø- ger denne artikel, hvordan den stærke leder kan betragtes som demokratisk legi- tim, såfremt folket overbevises af lederens karisma. Artiklen analyserer, hvordan karismatiske ledere stjæler det politiske rampelys ved at engagere dem selv, deres privatliv og deres personlighed i deres politiske virke, og dermed politiserer (...) det menneskelige. Artiklen fokuserer på de italienske politikere, Silvio Berlusconi og Matteo Salvini og betragter dem som arketyper. Berlusconi er karismatisk, idet han er ekstraordinær og etablerer en vertikal magtstruktur mellem sig selv og sine væl- gere, mens Salvinis relation til vælgerne er horisontal, da han på karismatisk vis udstiller sig selv om bemærkelsesværdig almindelig. Endelig argumenterer artiklen for, at karismatisk lederskab er et nyttigt begreb til at belyse, hvordan underhold- ning og personliggørelse indvirker på moderne politik. (shrink)

In 2006, acclaimed Italian film director Nanni Moretti released Il caimano [“the Caiman”], a surreal depiction of Silvio Berlusconi’s career as controversial businessman and politician. In one of the last sequences, an indicted Berlusconi leaves the courthouse of Milan, while his supporters besiege its premises and set them on fire. Admired for his capacity of prophetically foreseeing the developments of Italian society, Nanni Moretti’s apocalyptic vision was confirmed by reality on March 11, 2013, when a group of (...) deputes and senators from PDL, Silvio Berlusconi’s political party, ‘besieged’ the courthouse of Milan in order to interfere with the new trials the political leader was involved in: an affair of prostitution of minors, known as “the Ruby case”, and the alleged corruption of a senator. Since when Silvio Berlusconi has been the center of the Italian both political and juridical arena, and with the increasing representation of his trials in Italian and international media, the courthouses of such trials, and particularly that of Milan, have turned more and more into the theater of a socio-political showdown, in which what matters though is not only what takes place in the Court, but also, and perhaps even more, what happens in the area surrounding its premises. Here pro- and -anti Berlusconi partisans have gathered daily in order to manifest their stand to both the citizenry and the media; here media professionals have been stationed 24/7, waiting for the next scandal; and here a dramatic battle line between the political power and the juridical one inexorably materializes with all the violent evidence of its proxemics. The essay analyzes through semiotics a series of verbal and especially visual texts representing the courthouses of Silvio Berlusconi’s trials, with the goal of understanding what this imagery reveals of the current trends of Italian socio-political and juridical arena. More broadly, the essay compares this case study with other instances of courthouses besieged by crowds, so as to semiotically seize the delicate equilibrium of the judiciary proxemics between totalitarian and populist ideologies of law. (shrink)

This quote from Silvio Berlusconi is part of the speech he held on April 18, 1994 during the celebrations for AC Milan’s third consecutive scudetto under his management. Suppose we take this claim seriously: what is the logic at play when soccer is linked to other spheres of life? In particular, in what ways is a team a metaphor for its patrons?

After the 1980s, the political communication and the mise en scène of politicians have become increasingly hybrid, mixing political representation with entertainment. Politicians like Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo, and even Barack Obama bring their bodies to the center of mass media political representation. They use their bodies not simply as a medium of communication but also as a source of entertainment for their audience. Before Silvio Berlusconi decided to enter politics, the former Brazilian President, Fernando Alfonso (...) Collor de Mello, showed us already in 1989, and in a very emblematic way, how the combination of politics and entertainment functions as one of the main tendencies of political communication. The analysis of his mise en scène brings this practice to the light and shows us a new phenomenon of mass media: the third body of the politician. (shrink)

The Italian Republic was created at the close of World War II by the political forces that had taken part in the Resistance, with an explicitly anti-fascist ideological foundation. However, the official commitment to anti-fascism and democracy was belied by the continuing role of neo-fascist parties and organizations in the political system. This role was firstly as a potential alternative source of support for the ruling Christian Democrats, and secondly as the key element of a hidden network ready to use (...) violent and undemocratic means to condition the normal political process. This network moved into action at the height of the “strategy of tension” (1969–80). Analysis of this period leads us to reassess the nature of postwar Italian democracy. In the “Second Republic” (post-1994) Silvio Berlusconi has promoted a revisionist approach to Fascism and the Resistance as part of his own strategy to maintain himself in power, while also espousing a plebiscitarian conception of democracy that presents certain analogies with the methods and style of the Fascist regime. (shrink)

Since the 1980s, Vattimo’s “Weak Thought” has been an emendation of his previous revolutionary and dialectical reading of Nietzsche. Marxist terrorism in Europe exposed the indissoluble link between dialectics and violence, and consequently Vattimo’s revision was a rejection of any reconstructive effort for a new political and social order. But in the age of Silvio Berlusconi, Vattimo rediscovered the joy of political commitment. Ecce Comu was a call to pursue “a project of human emancipation” founded “on the search (...) for equality.” More recently, Of Reality and Hermeneutic Communism are a rejection of neoliberal philosophies and constitute a jump back to the 1970s. Vattimo aims once again to change the world and reality, a reality that other philosophies (Ferraris’s New Realism) simply contemplate as a pure fact. Vattimo defends the “revolutionary” meaning of hermeneutics against realism’s conservative tendencies and develops a project close to Gramsci’s “philosophy of praxis.”. (shrink)

We show that (contrary to the parallel case of intuitionistic logic, see [7], [4]) there does not exist a translation fromS42 (the propositional modal systemS4 enriched with propositional quantifiers) intoS4 that preserves provability and reduces to identity for Boolean connectives and.

O presente artigo tenciona apresentar algumas considerações sobre a atual conjuntura política e social do Brasil, enfatizando uma perspectiva que leva em conta a centralidade das periferias metropolitanas na vida social do país. A presença e influência do cristianismo evangélico - em ascensão demográfica, cultural e política -, bem como de novos padrões de sociabilidade constituídos e irradiados a partir da dinâmica social decorrente dos conflitos violentos entre as forças policiais e militares e facções do crime organizado são considerados vetores (...) explicativos indispensáveis na compreensão da realidade social contemporânea do país e são lidos desde a experiência etnográfica do autor enquanto professor no Complexo do Chapadão, na periferia do Rio de Janeiro. (shrink)

Sufficient syntactic conditions for canonicity in intermediate and intuitionistic modal logics are given. We present a new technique which does not require semantic first-order reduction and which is constructive in the sense that it works in an intuitionistic metatheory through a model without points which is classically isomorphic to the usual canonical model.

A Constituição dos Atenienses é uma pequena obra acerca da politeia de Atenas e das condições que permitem que a democracia permaneça em Atenas como forma de gerenciar a vida da polis. Esta obra representa um problema filológico e historiográfico, porque, embora esteja no corpus das obras de Xenofonte, ela é considerada obra de outro autor, conhecido como Pseudo-Xenofonte ou “Velho Oligarca”. Trata-se de um pamphlet de orientação oligárquica que apresenta Atenas como um mundo ao contrário, em que os piores (...) comandam e os melhores são como escravizados pela multidão ignorante. (shrink)

We investigate finitarity of unification types in locally finite varieties of Heyting algebras, giving both positive and negative results. We make essential use of finite dualities within a conceptualization for E-unification theory 733–752) relying on the algebraic notion of a projective object.

Este artigo descreve e comenta a criação, por parte de Allan Kardec, de um complexo arcabouço de divulgação de sua produção no novo campo de estudos a que denominou “Espiritismo”, ou “ciência espírita”. Embora não fazendo parte do mundo acadêmico, no sentido institucional do termo, o pesquisador francês efetivamente se aproximou, no desenvolvimento dessa interface com o público, daquilo que à época começava a se tornar padrão nas áreas mais maduras da ciência. Criou uma sociedade de estudos, a Sociedade Parisiense (...) de Estudos Espíritas, em que fatos, hipóteses e métodos eram apresentados e discutidos, antes de eventualmente serem incorporados em textos e divulgados mais amplamente. Para essa divulgação, conjugou a publicação de livros temáticos a uma revista de assuntos espíritas gerais, a Revista Espírita, para veicular ensaios e resultados preliminares, servindo também de via de mão dupla para a interação com assinantes e correspondentes, interessados em contribuir com a elaboração da teoria espírita. Dado, porém, que o Espiritismo não era, nem pretendia ser, uma disciplina científica inserida no meio acadêmico oficial, existem diversas diferenças entre essas duas instituições espíritas e suas análogas na academia. Estas diferenças são aqui apontadas, explicadas e justificadas, como aspectos típicos do programa kardequiano. (shrink)

A. M. Pitts in [Pi] proved that HA op fp is a bi-Heyting category satisfying the Lawrence condition. We show that the embedding $\Phi: HA^\mathrm{op}_\mathrm{fp} \longrightarrow Sh(\mathbf{P_0,J_0})$ into the topos of sheaves, (P 0 is the category of finite rooted posets and open maps, J 0 the canonical topology on P 0 ) given by $H \longmapsto HA(H,\mathscr{D}(-)): \mathbf{P_0} \longrightarrow \text{Set}$ preserves the structure mentioned above, finite coproducts, and subobject classifier, it is also conservative. This whole structure on HA op (...) fp can be derived from that of Sh(P 0 ,J 0 ) via the embedding Φ. We also show that the equivalence relations in HA op fp are not effective in general. On the way to these results we establish a new kind of duality between HA op fp and a category of sheaves equipped with certain structure defined in terms of Ehrenfeucht games. Our methods are model-theoretic and combinatorial as opposed to proof-theoretic as in [Pi]. (shrink)

The logicD-J of the weak exluded middle with constant domains is proved to be incomplete with respect to Kripke semantics, by introducing models in presheaves on an arbitrary category. Additional incompleteness results are obtained for the modal systems with nested domains extendingQ-S4.1.

We show that the variety of Heyting algebras has finitary unification type. We also show that the subvariety obtained by adding it De Morgan law is the biggest variety of Heyting algebras having unitary unification type. Proofs make essential use of suitable characterizations (both from the semantic and the syntactic side) of finitely presented projective algebras.

We characterize (both from a syntactic and an algebraic point of view) the normal K4-logics for which unification is filtering. We also give a sufficient semantic criterion for existence of most general unifiers, covering natural extensions of K4.2⁺ (i.e., of the modal system obtained from K4 by adding to it, as a further axiom schemata, the modal translation of the weak excluded middle principle).

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2008v12n1p49 The aim of this article is to offer a rejoinder to an argument against scientific realism put forward by van Fraassen, based on theoretical considerations regarding microphysics. At a certain stage of his general attack to scientific realism, van Fraassen argues, in contrast to what realists typically hold, that empirical regularities should sometimes be regarded as “brute facts”, which do not ask for explanation in terms of deeper, unobservable mechanisms. The argument from microphysics formulated by van Fraassen is based (...) on the claim that in microphysics the demand for explanation leads to a demand for the so-called hidden-variable theories, which “runs contrary to at least one major school of thought in twentieth-century physics”. It is shown here that this argument does not represent an insurmountable obstacle to scientific realism, not even when a series of important theoretical and experimental results against hidden-variable theories — and not merely a conflict with a certain school of thought—is taken into account. (shrink)

Both in the Treatise of Human Nature and in the Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Hume defends that “there is no chance in the world”, and that “what the vulgar call chance is nothing but a secret and conceal’d cause”. This view plays a crucial role in Hume’s influential analysis of free will and moral responsibility. It functions also as a central presupposition in his discussion of miracles. However, Hume himself argued convincingly that the “maxim of causality”, according to which “whatever (...) begins to exist, must have a cause of existence” cannot be established a priori, by either intuition or demonstration. He concludes, then, that such “opinion must necessarily arise from observation and experience”. In the present article I analyse this latter statement, showing, first, what was Hume detailed proposal for funding the principle of causality on experience. Given the apparent weakness of this proposal, I then speculate on what kind of firmer empirical foundation could, instead, have been given, in Hume’s time, to the principle of causality, namely, the indirect support offered by Newtonian mechanics. Finally, I show how this theoretical link between experience and the principle, and also Hume’s straightforward, inductive argument, were undermined by the inception of quantum physics, at the beginning of the 20th century. (shrink)

This article argues that we cannot separate theology on the one hand and politics, law and economy on the other when trying to understand how to deal with religious and cultural diversity. Through an historical examination of the formation of the right to religious liberty in the West, it shows that the European secular state is still deeply indebted with its theological presuppositions. This conclusion explains why systems of religiously based personal regimes are much less widespread in Europe than in (...) other parts of the world. It also suggests that the best way to manage cultural and religious diversity in Europe consists in strengthening the pluralistic components of the European legal systems, as already shown by recent reforms in the field of family and commercial law. (shrink)

O debate em torno do ensino de Filosofia no Brasil, especialmente na educação média, não é novo. Estudos esparsos e pontuais, embora em número bastante reduzido, podem ser encontrados ao longo da história da educaçãono país, notadamente no século XX, depois da criação da Universidade de São Paulo e de seu Departamento de Filosofia. É, porém, no final da década de 1970 e, sobretudo, durante a década de 1980, que a discussão ganha vulto, mediante a articulação dos Departamentos de Filosofia (...) das universidades brasileiras em torno de uma mobilização para exigir do governo militar a “volta” da disciplina aos currículos da educação média, então denominada segundo grau. Como sabemos, a reforma educacional levada a cabo pelo regime militar por meio da Lei no 5.692/71 tirou do segundo grau essa disciplina, a qual deixou de figurar tanto na chamada “parte comum” quanto na “parte diversificada” dos currículos desse nível de ensino. (shrink)

O Argumento da Terra Gêmea Moral (ATGM) é o desafio semântico central para o Realismo Moral Naturalista (RMN). À fim de evitar tal problema, os defensores do RMN têm articulado uma série de réplicas ao ATGM. Neste artigo, abordo algumas dessas réplicas e defendo a tese de que elas não refutam o ATGM. Considero duas propostas em específico: o Argumento da Tradução, de D. Copp, e o Argumento do Fim da Investigação Moral, de A. Viggiano. Apresento essas objeções, mostro em (...) que sentido pretendem responder ao ATGM e argumento que cada uma delas é vulnerável a vários problemas. Concluo que os ataques de Copp e Viggiano ao ATGM devem ser recusados e que o desafio semântico ao RMN persiste. (shrink)

Este texto reflete sobre o memoricídio, consequente à presunção racial branca, como vestígio de operações para o genocídio dos corpos e das mentes negras a partir da Peleja de Inácio da Catingueira contra Romano. Sob o jogo discursivo da humilhação, já se encontrava a vontade brutal de destruição de qualquer traço, perspectiva, visão remanescente de saberes e culturas africanas ou descendentes, fossem de cunho material, simbólico, reflexivo, imagético, expressivo, na língua, no corpo. No embate, Inácio, negro, escravizado, já rebaixado sob (...) a égide do sistema escravocrata, embate-se contra a tentativa presunçosa de aniquilamento perpetrada por seu oponente. (shrink)

En este artículo, discuto la metodología filosófica frente a los límites del sentido y de la racionalidad. Empiezo con la concepción según la cual el filósofo debería resignarse a exhibir el sinsentido de otros filósofos, pero finalmente tendría que callarse, ya que su propio discurso necesariamente sobrepasa los límites de la racionalidad. En seguida, propongo una metodología interpretativa para la filosofía en un intento de caracterizar mejor estos límites y evitar el silencio que inviabilizaría todo el discurso filosófico. Finalmente, busco (...) reconciliar la metodología filosófica interpretativa con la irracionalidad interna del filósofo apelando a una división de su mente entre el sentido común y una segunda agencia que está destinada a sobrepasarlo. Dicha esquizofrenia de la filosofía sería la única manera de entender su tarea recurrente de trazar de manera segura los límites de nuestra comprensión cotidiana del mundo. (shrink)

We prove a generalization of the hyper-game theorem by using an abstract version of inductively generated formal topology. As applications we show proofs for Cantor theorem, uncountability of the set of functions from N to N and Gödel theorem which use no diagonal argument.

We show that some common varieties of modal K4-algebras have finitary unification type, thus providing effective best solutions for equations in free algebras. Applications to admissible inference rules are immediate.

Die Entwicklung der Rationalität ist eine Erfolgsgeschichte. Denn die Rationalität war und ist der Motor der abendländischen Kultur und der Grund dafür, dass sie in der Neuzeit allen anderen Weltkulturen machtpolitisch überlegen ist. Zwischen dem 8. und 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. formierte sich das logische Denken gleich auf mehreren Feldern: Durch die Erfindung der philosophischen Wissenschaft, die Geometrisierung des Raumes und der Schlachtordnung, die Berechnung der Zeit, durch die Geldwirtschaft und die neuen Organisationsformen des Politischen wurde Rationalität zum Synonym für (...) Fortschritt. Auch die Begriffe Freiheit und Demokratie gehören in diesen Zusammenhang. Silvio Vietta zeichnet diese Erfolgsgeschichte nach, beschreibt aber auch ihre Gefahren und Kurzschlüsse. In der Konsequenz entwickelt er eine : ndere9 aisthetisch rückgebundene und reflexive Rationalität, die uns aus den gegenwärtigen Krisen herausführen könnte. (shrink)

Das Buch stellt Nietzsches und Levinas' Destruktionen des griechisch-europäauml;ischen Denkens und der in ihm eingeschlossenen Moral einander gegenüuuml;ber. Dabei werden Anlässe ihrer Kritik und ihre Ausnahmestellung im philosophischen Diskurs herausgearbeitet. Im Anschluss werden Nietzsches und Levinas' Alternativen zu den allgemeinen moralischen Werten verglichen und ihre Vereinbarkeit und Unvereinbarkeit geklärt. Beide Alternativen führen auf eine prinzipiell unbegrenzte Verantwortung des Einzelnen hinaus, die mit Textbeispielen Dostojewskijs unterlegt wird.

By using some classical reasoning we show that any countably presented formal topology, namely, a formal topology with a countable axiom set, is spatial.

The pandemic period has placed the organizations in a state of great tension. It has generated a situation of confusion, lack of rules, and production-related criticalities that have called into question the very existence of many productive realities. This article aims to highlight the dimensions of care and ethics put in place by HR managers in COVID-19. The objective that animated the authors have focused on the HRM level of medium and large companies in Italy to highlight the protective actions (...) toward people and the organization in the period COVID 19, highlighting what were the ethical values and actions of care put in place. In this article, we wanted to give voice to managers who had management tasks in their organizations by asking them to tell us how they dealt with the challenges imposed by the emergency. In the research, we start from a way of understanding workplaces understood as a “process of ongoing social relationship” within which the HR function is dedicated to the care of the quality of relationships. HR managers have to manage a complex role of mediating between the interests of people and employers by trying to find good mediations. (shrink)

The role played by continuous morphisms in propositional modal logic is investigated: it turns out that they are strictly related to filtrations and to suitable variants of the notion of a free algebra. We also employ continuous morphisms in incremental constructions of (standard) finitely generated free ????4-algebras.

This article suggests developing the concept of spiritual ecology into that of balanced spiritual ecosystems. Philosophies, theologies, education systems, political parties, and gender-based and ethnic identity politics need to be critiqued both from within and without so that they can finally contribute to the creation, maintenance and flourishing of balanced spiritual ecosystems.Contribution: Spiritual ecology is a concept on which converge different worldviews. This article recommends using balanced spiritual ecosystems, instead. The new concept could provoke further reflection on how our -ontologies (...) and communities co-exist and whether they do it organically and spiritually. This article befits HTS’s interest in ‘theology and nature’. (shrink)

By means of models in toposes of C-sets (where C is a small category), necessary conditions are found for the minimum quantified extension of a propositional (intermediate, modal) logic to be complete with respect to Kripke semantics; in particular, many well-known systems turn out to be incomplete.

Ao defender, nos Princípios matemáticos de filosofia natural, a existência de uma força de gravitação universal, Newton desencadeou uma onda de dúvidas e objeções filosóficas. Suas próprias declarações sobre a natureza da gravitação não são facilmente interpretáveis como formando um conjunto consistente de opiniões. Por um lado, logo após fornecer as três definições de "quantidades de forças centrípetas" (Defs. 6-8), Newton observa que está tratando tais forças "matematicamente", sem se pronunciar sobre sua realidade física. Mas, por outro lado, no Escólio (...) Geral inserido no final da segunda edição do livro, Newton diz que foi capaz de "explicar" vários fenômenos de movimento por meio da força de gravidade - que ele mostrou ser um tipo de força centrípeta -, embora não tivesse ainda conseguido explicar a causa dessa força. Uma interpretação plausível dessas últimas afirmações é que Newton acreditava que pôde inferir, a partir dos fenômenos, a existência da força de gravidade, enquanto agente causal real de certos movimentos, mas que ainda não havia tido sucesso em descobrir a causa dessa causa. O objetivo principal do presente artigo não é aprofundar a análise histórica das declarações de Newton, mas examinar como essa questão se insere no debate mais geral sobre o estatuto epistemológico das hipóteses científicas que transcendem a experiência imediata. Segundo a posição defendida, entre muitos outros, por John Locke, tais hipóteses devem ser interpretadas como tentativas legítimas de descrever aspectos inobserváveis da realidade. Em contraste com isso, no caso específico das hipóteses sobre forças - de gravitação ou quaisquer outras -, George Berkeley argumentou vigorosamente a favor de sua interpretação como meros artifícios teóricos úteis às "demonstrações matemáticas" na ciência da mecânica. Ao longo da análise das vantagens e desvantagens filosóficas dessas posições opostas, indica-se aqui que, embora a interpretação realista pareça fazer mais justiça ao desenvolvimento real da física após os Princípios matemáticos, a interpretação instrumentalista de Berkeley tem o mérito filosófico inegável de representar uma adesão mais firme ao empirismo, que é, de um modo ou de outro, valorizado por ambas as partes envolvidas na disputa sobre a natureza da gravitação. Newton's defence, in the Principia, of the existence of a universal force of gravity immediately gave rise to a wave of philosophical doubts and objections. His own remarks on the nature of gravitation are not easily amenable of a consistent, uniform interpretation. This paper begins by reviewing briefly these remarks. Its primary objective is, however, to examine how this important scientific issue contributed to demarcate two main epistemological positions on the status of scientific hypotheses transcending immediate experience. In Newton's time, two exponents of these positions were, respectively, Locke and Berkeley. Intriguingly, Newton fuelled both the Berkeleyan, instrumentalist interpretation, and the Lockean, realist interpretation. On the one hand, immediately after offering the definitions of "quantities of centripetal forces" (Definitions 6-8), he warned that he was treating these forces "mathematically", without pronouncing on its physical status. This remark lends support to Berkeley's anti-realist interpretation of forces, as Berkeley himself was keen to point out. But in the General Scholium, at the end of the book, Newton declared that he could "explain" certain important phenomena of motion by the force of gravity, although he had not yet been able to explain the cause of this force, adding, famously, that he would "feign no hypotheses" about this issue. A natural, realist interpretation of this statement is that Newton believed that he could infer, from the phenomena, the existence of gravity, as a real, causal physical agent, but that he had not yet succeeded in discovering the cause of this cause. In discussing the shortcomings and advantages of these opposing views, we indicate that although the realist interpretation appears to do more justice to the actual development of physics after the Principia, Berkeley's interpretation has the philosophical merit of representing a firmer adherence to empiricism, a position valued, in one way or another, by all parties involved in the dispute on the nature of gravitation. (shrink)

Under some assumptions on an equational theory S , we give a necessary and sufficient condition so that S admits a model completion. These assumptions are often met by the equational theories arising from logic. They say that the dual of the category of finitely presented S-algebras has some categorical stucture. The results of this paper combined with those of [7] show that all the 8 theories of amalgamable varieties of Heyting algebras [12] admit a model completion. Further applications to (...) varieties of modal algebras are given in [8]. (shrink)