Many philosophers have been appointed to top-level political positions during Chile's modern history. What makes Chilean philosophers unique in the context of Latin America and beyond, is that they have developed a sophisticated rationale for both their participation and withdrawal from politics. All along, philosophers have grappled with fundamental problems such as the role of religion and politics in society. They have also played a fundamental role in defining the nature and aims of higher education. The philosophers' production constitutes a (...) substantial, albeit largely unknown, portion of the intellectual history of Chile and Latin America. This book describes in detail the evolution of philosophical work in Chile, and pays close attention to the relationship between philosophical activity and contemporary social and political events. Various Chilean philosophical sources are discussed for the first time in the literature on Chilean ideas. The work of such intellectuals as Andres Bello, Valentin Letelier, Enrique Molina, Jorge Millas, Juan Rivano, Juan de Dios Vial Larrain, and many others is examined in relation to the principal political and educational issues of their time. The book also develops a distinction between the two main currents of Chilean philosophy, namely, a "professionalist" current that seeks the independence of the field from social and political involvements, and a "critical" current that seeks to relate philosophical activity to national realities. (shrink)

We present two results which shed some more light on the deep connection between ZFA and the standard ZF set theory: First of all we refine a result of Forti and Honsell in order to prove that the universe of ZFA can also be obtained as the least fixed point of a continuous operator and not only as the greatest fixed point of the powerset operator. Next we show that it is possible to define a new absolute Gödel operation in (...) addition to the standard ones in order to obtain the “constructible” model of ZFA as the least fixed point of the continuous operator of Gödel closure with respect to the standard and the new Gödel operations. (shrink)

Resumen: El supuesto de la constitución del yo a partir de la relación intersubjetiva que surge con el reconocimiento del otro hace emerger el problema del fundamento ontológico del yo. Por una parte, el yo no puede existir de manera aislada, pero por otra, subordinar su constitución a la relación con el otro puede debilitar el yo al hacerlo dependiente, para su constitución, en algo distinto de él. Hacer que la constitución del yo dependa de la relación intersubjetiva plantea la (...) cuestión del inicio: ¿Qué son, antes de relacionarse, aquellos que entran en relación? ¿Si el yo se reconoce a sí mismo reconociendo a otro, qué es aquello que reconoce? Estas preguntas apuntan a la búsqueda de un fundamento ontológico o metafísico para la antropología fenomenológica: el uno no puede depender del otro y a su vez este del primero. La antropología filosófica de Paul Ricoeur, con su énfasis en la corporalidad e historicidad del hombre, además de su diálogo con Aristóteles, ofrece respuesta a estas preguntas. Ricoeur estudia al hombre desde dentro, pero no olvida aquello propio del hombre que hace que el ser humano pueda ser reconocido y capaz de reconocer.: The proposition of the constitution of the self as starting from the intersubjective relationship that emerges from the recognition of the other, presents the problem of the ontological foundation of the self. On one hand, the self cannot exist in isolation, but on the other, making its constitution subordinate to the relation with the other can debilitate the self as it is made dependent, for its constitution, on something different from the self. If the constitution of the self is dependent on the intersubjective relation the question of its origin arises: What are those who enter a relation before relating? If the self only recognizes itself recognizing another, what is it that it recognizes? These questions are directed towards the search for an ontological or metaphysical foundation for the study of phenomenological anthropology. The self cannot depend on the other, and this one, in turn, on the self. Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical anthropology, with its emphasis on the corporeal and historical nature of man, and its dialogue with Aristotle, offers answers to these questions. Ricoeur studies man from his inner life but does not forget that which makes it possible for a human being to recognize and to be recognized. (shrink)

Resumen En su recepción del Concilio Vaticano II la Iglesia latinoamericana -focalizada en el problema de la pobreza-, tomó distancia de la teología del desarrollo planteada en Gaudium et spes y de la antropología subyacente, sea soslayando este concepto como expresión de la ideología “desarrollista”, sea neutralizando su relevancia a través de la expansión indefinida de su significado, y en todos los casos subordinándolo a la idea y el objetivo de la liberación. Pero su visión unilateral de la pobreza, que (...) interpreta como consecuencia virtualmente exclusiva de las “estructuras de pecado”, lleva inevitablemente a una visión maniquea de la vida social entendida en términos de antagonismo de clases, y empuja por su propia lógica a la acción revolucionaria. Al mismo tiempo, pasa por alto el desafío decisivo para derrotar la pobreza, que no es únicamente la mejor distribución de la riqueza sino también y ante todo su creación. En esto consiste el desarrollo económico, fenómeno moderno pero posibilitado por la capacidad de iniciativa e invención característica del ser humano como imagen de Dios. Mientras los caminos de liberación preconizados por la teología de la liberación y la teología del pueblo han fracasado de modo inapelable, el sistema económico, político y cultural que Michael Novak denominara “capitalismo democrático” es el único que ha demostrado y sigue demostrando capacidad efectiva para liberar las energías creadoras de la sociedad, permitiendo a los pobres prosperar y convertirse en artífices de su propio destino.After the Second Vanean Council, the theology of “development” presented by Gaudium et spes was overlooked in the Latín American Church in favor of the concept of "Uberalion”. Under-lying this option lay a unilateral vision of povery, conceived exclusively as the outcome of the “structures o/sin”. This diagnosis fostered class struggle and revolutionary action, while providing no clue as to how to overcome poverty through the creation of wealth. A more adequate approach should seek for institutional arrangements that provide conditions for both Beration and development. The social system of “democratic capitalism” is the only one capable of generating true economic development, making it possible for its citizens to display their creative energy and become protagonists of their own destiny. (shrink)

La autora presenta el concepto de “Línea de Dignidad” como el marco que focaliza las discusiones sobre sustentabilidad socioambiental entre la sociedad civil del Norte y del Sur, buscando conciliar los objetivos de la sustentabilidad ambiental con los objetivos distributivos de la equidad social y la democracia participativa. La autora traza la historia del concepto y sigue luego el trabajo conceptual del Programa Cono Sur, postulando finalmente la necesidad de la dimensión ética que exige construir sustentabilidad Norte-Sur.

For constructive empiricism, being observable or unobservable is defining for deciding about the empirical adequacy and epistemic value of theory components. The classification of microscopic images has been particularly debated. van Fraassen initially classified microscope images as unobservable and then as mere images, like rainbows. Afterwards, he claimed it is not irrational to maintain neutrality about their classification and left them in some kind of limbo between being images of something real or being mere images. Here, I provide an argument (...) to classify microscopic images of cells as copy-qualified images. The argument is described in general terms to sustain that any unobservable entity that is derived from observable self-dividing entities and looks similar to the observable entity when detected under the microscope, corresponds to a copy-qualified image of something real. Because of the existence in nature of large observable cells that fulfil these properties, I conclude that microscopic images of cells are images of something real. This determines their empirical adequacy and epistemic value, making them hard-core and stable components of biological theories. The argument described provides a strategy to develop a more grained classification of what is observable and unobservable with the consequent implications for theory development. (shrink)

The central idea of the paper is that human thinking consists in a movement through which a person socially interacts with herself. Consequently, thinking does not offer the experience of a private refuge in the intimacy of the individual thinker's self-knowing, but a field where multiple points of view interact by contesting, distancing, approaching, agreeing or disagreeing, one to another. Classical (Isocrates, 1929/1968) and contemporary (Billig, 1987) rhetorical approaches to thinking stress that both “inner” and “social” discourse are addressed to (...) someone else, are determined by the anticipation of this audience, and both are interested in persuading it. In doing so, the discursive, rhetoric, and dialogic aspects of thinking become tied to argumentation. The paper tries to show, following the dialogical notion of discourse of Bakhtin (1986) and Vološinov (1929/1986) that, since every act of thinking consists in the raising of a point of view addressing another one and oriented by a particular interest, every stream of thought involves a rhetorical activity. A distinction between rhetoric and argumentation is proposed. On this basis, the rhetorical nature of thinking is discussed beyond argumentative discourse. Overall, this discussion contributes to a rhetorical approach to dialogism. (shrink)

This is an excerpt from the contentThe reasons that drive individuals to develop new technologies and to disseminate them in new products and processes, and the capacity to develop original solutions to technological problems, can be analysed with the concepts typical of individual and social cognitive psychology. Various aspects of cognitive activity address innovation. In particular, the capacity to grasp the latent questions and needs of the market that lies behind the possibility to identify opportunities for new products or services; (...) the means of generating solutions that can respond effectively to the realisation of these new opportunities; problem solving processes in the identification of new procedures that underpin process inventions and new manufacturing techniques; the risk of innovative behaviour and the contexts that can favour a greater or lesser propensity to develop innovative solutions. The best historical example of the two stages of the identification of the problem/opportunity and the generation of. (shrink)

Cybernetics is a science characterized by the utopian search for new relationships between different areas of knowledge. After the Second World War, the best-known references in Western academia were Norbert Wiener’s approaches to this new discipline. However, there is another little-known hemisphere of this development that remains understudied and we claim is key for its history which refers to the pioneering work of scientists, engineers and cultural practitioners in Latin America, as well as the materialization of specific experiences that lead (...) us to reflect on the role that some regional milestones could have had in the global context. This volume of AI & Society covers points of view that were structured in the various most emblematic stages of these trajectories with the participation of agents that went beyond the assimilation and interpretation of external models, transforming themselves into fundamental and pioneering experiences, among others, the work of Mexican scientist Arturo Rosenblueth, or the impact of the concept of Autopoiesis. Through this article we introduce the outcome of the research—presented in great length in the contributions of this volume—on some of the main stages and trends that constituted the evolution of cybernetics in Latin America. The particular contributions of the authors in this issue have helped to reconstituting these contexts while developing a continuous horizon which also explores future practices. (shrink)

El Tomus es un documento de reconocido valor doctrinal. La respuesta del Patriarca se ubica después de la Fórmula de Unión y antes del concilio de Calcedonia. En este trabajo se explora su posible influencia en la decisión que siguió. Para esto, compara su contenido con algunos documentos precedentes y con el concilio del año 451. Asimismo, examina el vocabulario técnico que emplea, buscando su grado de coincidencia con los significados anteriores y posteriores de los mismos términos. Luego confronta sus (...) afirmaciones cristológicas con las que se encuentra en los mismos documentos antes mencionados. Finalmente, resume las consecuencias salvíficas que Proclo destaca con motivo de la economía de la encarnación. (shrink)

We show that the Proper Forcing Axiom implies the Singular Cardinal Hypothesis. The proof uses the reflection principle MRP introduced by Moore in [11].

Model organisms are at the centre of progress in biology but attributing them an excessive representational power and concentrating on a limited group of them, although efficient for research, can have negative consequences, mainly of epistemic nature. Here, I argue that model organisms are exploratory models with a perspectival modelling function, and that a deflated representational power is needed for their proper use. In support of this argument, I will analyse developmental biology as a case study. Firstly, I show that (...) model organisms in developmental biology are not selected because of their representational capabilities, but mainly based on practical criteria. Secondly, I defend that the epistemic organization of developmental biology around questions fosters exploration and perspectival modelling and I propose that developmental biology is a ‘model organism situated knowledge’. Lastly, I use the study of the mechanisms of cell fate acquisition during early embryonic development in _C. elegans_ and mice as a case study to illustrate how a plurality of model organisms allows exploration and perspectival modelling. The use of model organisms for exploration and perspectival modelling, with a limited representational power, should allow more adequate inferences about human embryonic development and encourage the introduction of more model organisms for a comprehensive navigation of the space of possibilities. (shrink)

We analyze the notion of guessing model, a way to assign combinatorial properties to arbitrary regular cardinals. Guessing models can be used, in combination with inaccessibility, to characterize various large cardinal axioms, ranging from supercompactness to rank-to-rank embeddings. The majority of these large cardinal properties can be defined in terms of suitable elementary embeddings j:Vγ→Vλ. One key observation is that such embeddings are uniquely determined by the image structures j[Vγ]≺Vλ. These structures will be the prototypes guessing models. We shall show, (...) using guessing models M, how to prove for the ordinal κM=jM) many of the combinatorial properties that we can prove for the cardinal j) using the structure j[Vγ]≺Vj. κM will always be a regular cardinal, but consistently can be a successor and guessing models M with κM=ℵ2 exist assuming the proper forcing axiom. By means of these models we shall introduce a new structural property of models of PFA: the existence of a “Laver function” f:ℵ2→Hℵ2 sharing the same features of the usual Laver functions f:κ→Hκ provided by a supercompact cardinal κ. Further applications of our analysis will be proofs of the singular cardinal hypothesis and of the failure of the square principle assuming the existence of guessing models. In particular the failure of square shows that the existence of guessing models is a very strong assumption in terms of large cardinal strength. (shrink)

Millán-Puelles and Maritain suitably delimited the fields of ethics and art, doing what justice; self-determination of art and dignity of man demanded. Nevertheless, our reverence for the autonomy of art and dignity of man should neither lead us to declare the latter innocent nor to free it from all responsibility. This is what George Steiner strongly states. The followers of absolute freedom seem not to realize the deep impact the work of art exercises upon the reader. Censorship is far more (...) complex and intricate than champions of absolute freedom believe. At any rate, such a responsibility is no concern of the State but rather of the social community, specially the family and what has been called "the tribe". The art critic must assume his responsibility not only on what refers to aesthetic aspects; he must do so on what refers to the concept of man that springs from the work of art he analizes. (shrink)

Mainstream psychology has assumed a notion of the self that seems to rest on a substantialist notion of the psyche that became predominant despite important critical theories about the self. Although cultural psychology has recognized the diverse, dialogical, historical, narrative and performative nature of self, as opposed to the idea of self as entity, it is not clear how it accounts for the phenomenological experience of self as a unified image. In this paper, we offer a theoretical contribution to developing (...) the implications of a genetic approach to self in cultural psychology, taking into account an otherwise overlooked dimension: art and aesthetics. We draw on the work of classical authors relevant to cultural psychology, who, although geopolitically and theoretically diverse, are concerted in understanding human psychological life as part of a living process of becoming: James, Mead, Dewey, Vygotsky, Bakhtin and Vološinov. Overall, the hypothesis developed throughout the paper is that self is produced within psychological individuation as an effect of the aesthetic activity involved in everyday discursive life. We deepen the ideas that self is not an entity but a process of open becoming, and that cultural life entails a radical experience of alterity; but we recognize the psychological importance of the sense of unity and closure generated in this process. We argue that self entails not only the process of becoming, but also an aesthetical effect of unity in becoming. Self as an aesthetic effect emphasizes the self as a discursive and technical process of production, involving a product that, despite not being a finished entity, is felt as unitary and as mine by virtue of a specific transformation of experience. We thus propose to define self, on one level, as an epistemological category that points to the paradoxes of identity and agency in psychological individuation; and, on a different level, as a twofold operation that makes possible the subjective experience of a constitutive effort as much as a transient but experienced identity or agency. (shrink)

The article aims to demonstrate that the nudge theory suffers from three main weaknesses stemming from its theoretical dependence on behavioural economics. The first two weaknesses endanger the paternalistic goal, whereas the third does not justify the libertarian attribute. The first weakness lies in the incomplete realistic characterisation of behavioural economics theory that is the central theoretical pillar of Nudge theory. The second weakness is even more relevant. The normative model of behavioural economics is neoclassical rationality. It can be applied (...) to choices in conditions of risk, when it is possible to forecast the probability of the outcomes of one’s choices. On the contrary the real life problems are inside a complex and uncertain environment. In an uncertain environment the neoclassical algorithms are no longer valid, in that they postulate the knowledge of the probability of the outputs. Thus errors and bias, as observed in behavioural economics, are not such in many instances, but they are instead adaptive and therefore rational responses to the context of decision-making. Therefore nudge theory that pursues the normative paternalistic objective of neutralising the bias and judgement errors discovered by behavioural economics and putting paternalistically the citizen on the right track, is in fact proceeding in the wrong direction. The last weakness concerns an assumption of Nudge theory about the duality of mind. System 1 represents the intuitive mind, while System 2 corresponds to the analytical one. System 1 tends to make decisions quickly and unconsciously, while System 2 follows a slow and conscious process. Biases and judgement errors are mainly generated by System 1. However, System 2 may later intervene to correct them. From this premise, the Nudge theory affirms its libertarian character. In this paper I will argue that the dualism of the mind would not entail the reversibility of some nudges, particularly of default states. In this way the fundamental pillar is weakened to justify the libertarian character of the nudge theory. (shrink)

Algunos autores como Hans Boersma critican la doctrina tomista sobre la visión beatífica porque consideran que en ella la mediación cristológica es totalmente irrelevante, sea cuando hace referencia al medio como al objeto de la visión de Dios que los santos tienen en la gloria. La postura de Boersma ha dado lugar a un debate que, sin embargo, se ha centrado sobre todo en la Suma de Teología. Sin embargo, en el último tiempo se ha redescubierto la riqueza que contienen (...) los comentarios bíblicos del Aquinate. Por eso, el objeto del presente artículo es considerar el rol de Cristo glorioso y del Espíritu Santo en la visión beatífica del cristiano según estos comentarios, para así iluminar el debate contemporáneo. (shrink)