(1999). Information self‐organization and consciousness—towards a holoinformational theory of consciousness. World Futures: Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 309-327.

. Introductory Remarks THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY The problems of reduction in biology are currently of considerable theoretical interest and practical ...

Should the philosophy of biology deal with organismic, or with molecular aspects , or with both ? We are, of course, not the first to appreciate the ...

The moral enhancement of human beings is a constant theme in the history of humanity. Today, faced with the threats of a new, globalised world, concern over this matter is more pressing. For this reason, the use of biotechnology to make human beings more moral has been considered. However, this approach is dangerous and very controversial. The purpose of this article is to argue that the use of another new technology, AI, would be preferable to achieve this goal. Whilst several (...) proposals have been made on how to use AI for moral enhancement, we present an alternative that we argue to be superior to other proposals that have been developed. (shrink)

This article discusses some of the claims of the earlier and later versions of the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) and addresses some of the criticism that has been leveled against it. It is argued that much of this criticism arises from common misconceptions as to the real claims made by the theory. However, CTM is still in need of further exploration and empirical support. In this connection, we identify some areas where research is still needed and supply our own (...) developments. We argue for a more complex classification of metaphor types, which takes into account various complementary taxonomic perspectives, including the nature of source and target and the genericity and complexity of the metaphoric operation. We also explore metaphor in relation to cognitive prominence and conceptual interaction issues. Finally, we deal with the problem of constraints on metaphor and make a proposal for three complementary kinds of constraint. (shrink)

Bravo, F. La dialéctica en Teilhard de Chardin.--Carías, R. El conocimiento de Dios en Max Scheler.--Cappelletti, A. J. El fuego y el logos en la filosofía de Heráclito.--Li Carrillo, V. Estructuralismo y antihumanismo.--Rosales, A. Martín Heidegger y la crisis de la filosofía transcendental.--Rosales, A. La crítica de Heidegger al idealismo moderno.--Rosales, A. El giro del pensamiento de Heidegger.

Can Artificial Intelligence be more effective than human instruction for the moral enhancement of people? The author argues that it only would be if the use of this technology were aimed at increasing the individual's capacity to reflectively decide for themselves, rather than at directly influencing behaviour. To support this, it is shown how a disregard for personal autonomy, in particular, invalidates the main proposals for applying new technologies, both biomedical and AI-based, to moral enhancement. As an alternative to these (...) proposals, this article proposes a virtual assistant that, through dialogue, neutrality and virtual reality technologies, can teach users to make better moral decisions on their own. The author concludes that, as long as certain precautions are taken in its design, such an assistant could do this better than a human instructor adopting the same educational methodology. (shrink)

The meaning of the word homology has changed. From being a comparative concept in pre-Darwinian times, it became a historical concept, strictly signifying a common evolutionary origin for either anatomical structures or genes. This historical understanding of homology is not useful in classification; therefore I propose a return to its pre-Darwinian meaning.

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the complexity in ironic echoic mention from the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics. It builds on the scenario-based approach to irony where ironic meaning is treat...

According to relevance theory, irony comprehension invariably entails the identification of some opinion or thought and the identification of the speaker’s dissociative attitude. In this paper, it is argued that it is also essential for hearers to identify not only that propositional attitude, but also the affective attitude that the speaker holds towards the source of this echo so that an optimallyrelevant interpretive outcomeis achieved. This notion comprises feelings and emotions of a non-propositional quality which affect the propositional effects obtained (...) in ironical communication. The paper further argues for the need to incorporate non-propositional effects into the traditional propositional object of pragmatic research. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Journal of Aesthetic Education 40.1 (2006) 35-53 [Access article in PDF] "Truth Is What Works": Francisco J. Varela on Cognitive Science, Buddhism, the Inseparability of Subject and Object, and the Exaggerations of Constructivism—A Conversation Francisco J. Varela Bernhard Poerksen Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft Universität Hamburg Francisco J. Varela (1946-2001) studied biology in Santiago de Chile, obtained his doctorate 1970 at Harvard University with a (...) dissertation on the insect eye, and worked there for some time in the laboratory of Torsten Wiesel, the later Nobel Laureate for medicine. From his scientific beginnings as a researcher in biology, he not only studied and practiced biology but, resisting the dominating mainstream, pursued a research program that ignored and broke down traditional disciplinary boundaries. This research program is best characterized as experimental epistemology, a concept introduced by the neuropsychiatrist and cybernetician Warren S. McCulloch. Francisco J. Varela's great aspiration was to examine and answer the philosophical ur-question of cognition with scientific precision and with the help of the best possible theoretical framework. [End Page 35]Having obtained his doctorate, he went back to Chile to work as a professor of biology together with Humberto R. Maturana. He contributed to the writing of the theory of autopoiesis, which was to cause a furor in the world of science as a universally applicable explanatory model. After the overthrow of Allende and the installation of the dictatorship by the putsch general Pinochet, Francisco J. Varela first escaped to Costa Rica, then became a professor at the American University of Colorado and University of New York, and finally returned in 1980 to the University of Chile in Santiago for five years. Temporary positions as guest professor for neurobiology, philosophy, and cognitive science in Germany, Switzerland, and France led him to Paris in the end, where he worked as research director of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique until his death on May 28, 2001.In his research work embracing cognitive science, evolutionary theory, and immunology, Francisco J. Varela, constantly inspired by his fundamental interest in the key questions of epistemology, gave the epistemological debate a new orientation. In his thinking he refuses to accept the strict separation of subject and object, of knower and known, which as a rule unites realists and constructivists alike. Francisco J. Varela rejects the fundamental dualism dividing mind and world, which had shaped Western philosophy from its earliest beginnings. He does not subscribe to the idea that human individuals can invent their own realities—blindly and arbitrarily, and without experiencing any resistance from the external world and all other things given. He equally distances himself, however, from the diametrically opposite position that overstates the eigenpower of the world of objects. The external world and all other things given cannot determine what happens in an organism. Varela's claim is that individual and world create each other. The Computational Model of the Mind Poerksen: The ancient key questions of philosophy are at the center of modern cognitive science. What is the essence of the mind? Do our conceptions represent a given world, which is independent from our minds? What is the formative power of external objects over our perceptions? How does cognition function? The search for an adequate answer and an improved understanding of the human mind has led many cognitive scientists to entertain the assumption that the brain is actually a kind of computer. Memory is taken to be a store. Thinking and perceiving are understood as data processing in the sense that an independent external world is computationally transformed into symbols and represented in the organism in this manner. You are very critical of this view. Why?Varela: If the brain is considered as a kind of computer, then cognitive research is limited to discovering certain self-sufficient shapes—the symbols—together with the rules [End Page 36] governing them—the programs. But this search for symbols and programs will never be profitable because it... (shrink)

Esta coletânea é uma homenagem aos 70 anos do professor Emmanuel Carneiro Leão. Reúne artigos de seus alunos, amigos e admiradores que foram atraídos pela abrangência e rigor de seu pensamento. A diversidade de temáticas, abordagens e premissas destes ensaios refletem bem a generosidade do espírito de Emmanuel Carneiro.

We state and comment our recent results on the incompleteness of elementary real analysis and their relevance for the axiomatized sciences.

Current mathematical models are notoriously unreliable in describing the time evolution of unexpected social phenomena, from financial crashes to revolution. Can such events be forecast? Can we compute probabilities about them? Can we model them? This book investigates and attempts to answer these questions through GOdel's two incompleteness theorems, and in doing so demonstrates how influential GOdel is in modern logical and mathematical thinking. Many mathematical models are applied to economics and social theory, while GOdel's theorems are able to predict (...) their limitations for more accurate analysis and understanding of national and international events. This unique discussion is written for graduate level mathematicians applying their research to the social sciences, including economics, social studies and philosophy, and also for formal logicians and philosophers of science. (shrink)

Este artículo reflexiona sobre formas de acceder a la realidad social a través del uso de metodologías de investigación online que tienen características híbridas. Primero se dan algunas claves para la construcción y ejecución de grupos de discusión en un contexto online. Una de las características centrales de esta técnica es su composición híbrida, moviéndose entre lo que sería un grupo de discusión y un grupo focal. El paso de la mediación a la conducción marca fuertemente la transición de una (...) fase de grupos de discusión a una fase de grupo focal. Segundo, se reflexiona sobre Facebook y algunos posibles usos que se le puede dar a esta red social digital con la finalidad de llevar a cabo de mejor manera técnicas de investigación aplicadas al contexto online. En este sentido, se reflexiona sobre el avatar o perfil de Facebook en dos direcciones: para efectos de la composición muestral de un grupo de discusión online y como material que ayuda al análisis de las posiciones discursivas que tienen los sujetos estudiados. (shrink)

_Dialectic and Dialogue_ seeks to define the method and the aims of Plato's dialectic in both the "inconclusive" dialogues and the dialogues that describe and practice a method of hypothesis. Departing from most treatments of Plato, Gonzalez argues that the philosophical knowledge at which dialectic aims is nonpropositional, practical, and reflexive. The result is a reassessment of how Plato understood the nature of philosophy.

The interest in crossmodal correspondences, including those involving sounds and involving tastes, has experienced rapid growth in recent years. However, the mechanisms underlying these correspondences are not well understood. In the present study (N = 302), we used an associative learning paradigm, based on previous literature using simple sounds with no consensual taste associations (i.e., square and triangle wave sounds at 200 Hz) and taste words (i.e., sweet and bitter), to test the influence of two potential mechanisms in establishing sound–taste (...) correspondences and investigate whether either learning mechanism could give rise to new and long‐lasting associations. Specifically, we examined an emotional mediation account (i.e., using sad and happy emoji facial expressions) and a transitive path (i.e., sound‐taste correspondence being mediated by color, using red and black colored squares). The results revealed that the associative learning paradigm mapping the triangle wave tone with a happy emoji facial expression induced a novel crossmodal correspondence between this sound and the word sweet. Importantly, we found that this novel association was still present two months after the experimental learning paradigm. None of the other mappings, emotional or transitive, gave rise to any significant associations between sound and taste. These findings provide evidence that new crossmodal correspondences between sounds and tastes can be created by leveraging the affective connection between both dimensions, helping elucidate the mechanisms underlying these associations. Moreover, these findings reveal that these associations can last for several weeks after the experimental session through which they were induced. (shrink)

Erick J. Ramirez, Miles Elliott and Per‑Erik Milam (2021) have recently claimed that using Virtual Reality (VR) as an educational nudge to promote empathy is unethical. These authors argue that the influence exerted on the participant through virtual simulation is based on the deception of making them believe that they are someone else when this is impossible. This makes the use of VR for empathy enhancement a manipulative strategy in itself. In this article, we show that Ramirez et al.’s ethical (...) rejection of empathy enhancement through VR is based on confusion. First, we show that this misunderstanding stems from the conception of empathy-enhancing simulations solely as failed attempts at “being someone else,” along with ignoring the crucial difference between the psychological perspective-taking processes of imagine-other and imagine-self. Then, having overcome that misconception, we argue that the ethical misgivings about the use of VR to promote empathy should disappear and that these projects have greater potential for behavioural change than purely sympathy-focused interventions. (shrink)

A obra de Ronald Dworkin é extensa e passou por quase 50 anos. Dessa forma, para entender seu significado e sua relevância é necessário debater de forma responsável seus principais conceitos para que enganos de interpretação sejam evitados. Nesse contexto, o objetivo principal deste artigo é explicar claramente os conceitos de perspectiva do participante, conceito interpretativo e dimensões da interpretação. Por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, a conclusão é que propor uma teoria da perspectiva do participante é uma ideia de Herbert (...) Hart que Dworkin radicalizou em suas consequências. Nela, é defendida da tese de que não é possível realizar uma teoria jurídica sem se comprometer com a prática institucional estudada. Conceito interpretativo, em seguida, explica que o significado de conceitos jurídicos é resultado de um debater em torno de seu significado a partir da melhor luz. Isso se opõe ao conceito de direito como simples fato, em que as respostas disponíveis estão no passado institucional. Por fim, a interpretação possui duas dimensões, uma relacionada a seus fundamentos e outra a sua força. Dessa forma, é possível dizer que ambas estão entrelaçadas e que há uma conexão direta entre direito e política. Dworkin se mantém fiel a esses conceitos durante toda a sua obra. (shrink)

This collection of specially commissioned essays puts top scholars head to head to debate the central issues in the lively and fast growing field of philosophy ...

This paper considers, firstly, to what extent the administration of oxytocin can augment the capacity of empathy in human beings; and secondly, whether or not such practice ought to be allowed. In relation to the latter, the author develops an argument in favour of this intervention by virtue of its consistency with the belief that, if a therapeutic treatment is to be considered acceptable, it is essential that it maximizes the well-being of those affected and that it does not compromise (...) the autonomy of the patient. Having rejected several objections related to the nature of this intervention, the author finally questions its morality on the basis of a concern with its universalizability. (shrink)

Machines and Biology have been, since antiquity, closely related. From the zoological figures present in astronomical simulacra, through renaissance mechanical imitations of animals, through Decartes' wind pipe nerves, to present day discussions on the computer and the brain, runs a continuous thread. In fact, the very name of mechanism for an attitude of inquiry throughout the history of Biology reveals this at a philosophical level. More often than not, mechanism is mentioned in opposition to vitalism, as an assertion of the (...) validity of the objectivity principle in biology: there are no purposes in animal nature; its apparent purposefulness is similar to the purposefulness of machines. Yet, the fact that one picks machines as a set of objects comparable to living systems, deserves a closer look. What in machines makes it possible to establish such a connection? (shrink)

Language and speech depend on a relatively well defined neural circuitry, located predominantly in the left hemisphere. In this article, I discuss the origin of the speech circuit in early humans, as an expansion of an auditory-vocal articulatory network that took place after the last common ancestor with the chimpanzee. I will attempt to converge this perspective with aspects of the Mirror System Hypothesis, particularly those related to the emergence of a meaningful grammar in human communication. Basically, the strengthening of (...) auditory-vocal connectivity via the arcuate fasciculus and related tracts generated an expansion of working memory capacity for vocalizations, that was key for learning complex utterances. This process was concomitant with the development of a robust interface with visual working memory, both in the dorsal and ventral streams of auditory and visual processing. This enabled the bidirectional translation of sequential codes into hierarchical visual representations, through the development of a multimodal interface between both systems. (shrink)

The Spanish Jesuit Francisco Suarez was an eminent philosopher and theologian whose _Disputationes Metaphysicae_ was first published in Spain in 1597 and was widely studied throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. The _Disputationes Metaphysicae_ had a great influence on the development of early modern philosophy and on such well-known figures as Descartes and Leibniz. This is the first time that Disputations 17, 18, and 19 have been translated into English. The _Metaphysical Disputations_ provide an excellent philosophical introduction to the (...) medieval Aristotelian discussion of efficient causality. The work constitutes a synthesis of monumental proportions: problematic issues are lucidly delineated and the various arguments are laid out in depth. Disputations 17, 18, and 19 deal explicitly with such issues as the nature of causality, the types of efficient causes, the prerequisites for causal action, causal contingency, human free choice, and chance. (shrink)

Resumo No Manifesto surrealista, de 1924, Breton explicita o produto da atividade surrealista como uma “luz de imagem”, gerado pela aproximação involuntária de duas realidades distantes. Essa estrutura dupla da imagem surrealista tem um caráter disruptivo, que rompe com a nossa percepção da realidade cotidiana. Com isso, abre-se a possibilidade de um espaço para a crítica social e histórica, bem como para uma intervenção estético-política justamente em uma sociedade na qual as formas tradicionais de crítica parecem estar neutralizadas. Essa experiência (...) surrealista e esse espaço aberto por ela Walter Benjamin caracteriza respectivamente com a fórmula “iluminação profana” e “espaço de imagem”. Ambos apresentam uma grande semelhança com alguns pontos e consequências, em seus conceitos, tanto de “imagem do pensamento”, como de “imagem dialética”, sobretudo na medida em que esses conceitos também são formulados em meio à crise cultural da sociedade europeia, nos 1920, e buscam uma saída revolucionária para a mesma. Trata-se de investigar aqui, por meio de uma análise comparativa dessas concepções de imagem, até onde vai a influência e a relevância do surrealismo para o pensamento figurativo-dialético de Benjamin e para sua compreensão da história.In the Surrealistic manifest from 1924, Andre Breton explains the product of surrealistic action as a “light of image” resulting from an arbitrary approach of two distant realities. This double structure of surrealistic image has a disrupting character that breaks our common perception of reality. Thus can open a space for social and historical criticism as well as for an aesthetical-political intervention in a society where traditional forms of criticism seem to be neutralized. Walter Benjamin defines this surrealistic experience and its opened space respectively with the expressions “profane illumination” and “image space”. Both have similarities with Benjamin’s ideas of “thought image” and “dialectical image”, especially because they were elaborated amidst the cultural european crisis in the 1920ies looking to find a revolutionary way out of it. Through a comparative analysis of these notions of image, this paper proposes to investigate the influence and the relevance of surrealism for Benjamin’s dialectical-figural way of thinking and his comprehension of history. (shrink)

En el momento de mayores precisiones sobre la sustancia primera, Metafísica VII es un libro complejo que nuclea numerosos problemas metafísicos y lógicos de la tradición aristotélica. Aparecen allí, por ejemplo, el problema de la unidad de la metafísica, el hilemorfismo, el problema de la ousía primera, el problema del contenido de la definición, etc. En especial, los capítulos 7 a 9 tienen pasajes misteriosos donde se desvía el foco de la discusión que venía dándose en el libro, en tanto (...) abordan los tipos de generación. Asimismo, el análisis hilemórfico de la generación natural que ahí aparece es central para comprender la génesis humana en Aristóteles y la tradición que lo sigue. Ahora bien, en el Comentario a la Metafísica de Tomás de Aquino todo lo antes mencionado toma dimensión y se resignifica a cuento de las discusiones escolásticas. La propuesta de este trabajo tiene dos partes. La primera aspira a leer el análisis de la generación natural en dichos capítulos de la obra aristotélica: con el objetivo de determinar: (i) las notas propias de la doctrina hilemórfica allí presentada; (ii) sus implicancias (a) para con el problema de compatibilizar la noción de ousía de las Categorías y la Metafísica y, (b) para con el problema del contenido de la definición. En segundo término, se analizarán las lectiones 6-8 del Comentario tomista para determinar la reconstrucción que Tomás hace de lo anterior y el impacto que aquello tiene sobre sus doctrinas. (shrink)

El presente artículo se centra en Baldr, una de las figuras clave para entender la mitología germánica. En nuestro estudio damos un breve repaso por las fuentes literarias, toponímicas y arqueológicas que se refieren a esta divinidad, para pasar a continuación a esbozar una interpretación del papel del dios que muere en el corpus de esta mitología.

An introduction to ecology, focusing on a single very common wild plant and its qualities which affect a variety of animals that come in contact with it.