Search

The current paper contains a comparative reading of the Phaedrus and the Cratylus. Some of their central topics are here contrasted in order to highlight the characteristic traits of Platonic thought present in both dialogues. The description of dialectic in the Phaedrus fits well with a Socratic definition in the Cratylus which clearly specifies that names are tools at the service of the dialectician. This evidence leads us to the conclusion that --besides being the main mechanism to control and judge rhetoric-- dialectical technic appears in the dialogues as the only correcting procedure that makes it possible to verify any sort of proposition and bring speeches and depictions of reality closer to the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present the position of two philosophers associated with the hermeneutic tradition, Gianni Vattimo and Charles Taylor, about the status of scientific knowledge in our contemporary world. Through a brief exposition of the fundamental features of their respective ontologies and epistemologies, I seek to offer a critical comparison. In the conclusion, I defend the superiority of Taylor's formulation, inasmuch it allows to put in question the primacy of the natural science model without abandoning a realist conception of the world and of the category of truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the notion of interculturality through the epistemic asymmetries between indigenous and school knowledge. The analysis considers a critical perspective of the concept of interculturality and an indigenous epistemic-pedagogical approach for the development of intercultural educational knowledge, based on social and cultural aspects. We argue that the school system denies the epistemic rationalities supported by the indigenous knowledge system and hinders intercultural articulation when only the own cultural aspects are emphasized. Finally, we conclude that the challenge for critical interculturality, in indigenous context, is structural-epistemological. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies and work on complexity are increasing all over the world. However, there is not one study that explicitly considers the political implications of understanding and explanations of non-linear complex phenomena. This paper explores the most important political consequences of the sciences of complexity and intends to fill a gap in the literature. I shall claim that the political implications of complexity do include policies but they encompass mainly politics in the largest and strongest sense of the word. This argument is supported by three main ideas: firstly, the sciences of complexity are introduced and several derivations are sketched out; secondly, the political implications are considered and; thirdly, the inner relationships between scientific and political revolutions are highlighted. Finally, several conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an approach to Karl R. Popper's philosophical and epistemological proposition (philosophy of science), as a theoretical framework to analyze the links between literary and visual creativity. Popper's methodological proposal is briefly reviewed, as well as the way his epistemological categories are linked to the creative process, enriching it as a cognitive instrument. Then the scope of this instrument as a tool for proving and predicting validity, is explored by applying it to a particular case: the creative process that led to the creation of 18 original visual works that attempt to reflect the original sounds of vowels and consonants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]