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La Sociedad de Estudios Kantianos en Lengua Española (SEKLE) invita a participar en el Congreso Internacional que tendrá lugar en Santiago de Compostela del 15 al 19 de julio del 2024. El VI Congreso Internacional de la SEKLE celebra no solo el encuentro bienal de esta Sociedad de Estudios Kantianos sino también el tricentenario del nacimiento de Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). El lema Caminos del pensar, evoca metafóricamente tanto el Camino de Santiago y la bella ciudad anfitriona, como los múltiples caminos abiertos por el pensar kantiano a tres siglos de su nacimiento. Consideramos la historia evolutiva de su pensamiento, que, desde nuestro punto de vista, no recorre uno, sino varios caminos, lo que también vale para su historia efectual. Etimológicamente la palabra 'camino' o 'caminos' sugiere el problema del método o de los métodos del pensamiento de Kant y existe en nuestro pensador incluso “un camino que todavía no ha sido nunca hollado” (KrV, A 98), a saber, el de la Deducción trascendental de las categorías. Muchos son los caminos, tanto nacionales como internacionales, que pueden traer a las investigadoras y a los investigadores kantianos a Santiago de Compostela, con ocasión del tricentenario de su nacimiento. Además de los temas mencionados, son bienvenidas las contribuciones sobre cualquier otro aspecto del pensamiento de Kant. Los idiomas del congreso son: español, alemán, portugués, inglés, italiano, francés y gallego. La modalidad será híbrida.

. Musicians have engaged in visual self-representation at least since the Renaissance and have continued the tradition to modern times with contemporary practices including selfies and generative technology and AI art. The practitioners include so-called classical composers (Schoenberg is a well-known case) and performers (Caruso, for instance), but also pop singers and musicians (Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith, among others). The media used varies from oil on canvas to drawings on paper, from traditional photography to digital media. In some instances, there are grave, pompous self-representations, but caricatures also abound (e.g., Donizetti). There are also some miscategorized self-portraits (i.e., portraits misattributed to their subject) and many more purposely fake or mocking self-portraits including contemporary Roman musician and comic Federico Maria Sardelli, which would indicate that the category of “self-portrait” adds value and prestige to any visual artifact. Furthermore, many visual artists, especially during the Renaissance, present themselves as faux musicians, possibly as a sign of nobility or education. Slowly but surely, women have also claimed a space in the realm of musicians’ self-portraits since many of them, belonging to the higher echelons of society, were both visual artists and active musicians (Maria Antonio of Bavaria, Ducreaux and Schröter, among others). In some instances, the musician is truly obsessed with his or her own image to the point that, in addition to visual self-representation, he or she also provides written autobiographies and even musical self-portraits in sound (Spohr and Schoenberg, for instance). In the end, any attempt to create a taxonomy of “musicians’ self-portraits” amounts to a serious interrogation of the usual categories of “self-portrait,” “musician,” and “artist” and to the staging of a vulnerable, doubtful self that wants to be reasserted. Keywords. Self-portraits, Oil on canvas, Drafts on paper, Photography, Selfies, Digital and AI art.

La Sociedad de Estudios Kantianos en Lengua Española (SEKLE) invita a participar en el Congreso Internacional que tendrá lugar en Santiago de Compostela del 15 al 19 de julio del 2024. El VI Congreso Internacional de la SEKLE celebra no solo el encuentro bienal de esta Sociedad de Estudios Kantianos sino también el tricentenario del nacimiento de Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). El lema Caminos del pensar, evoca metafóricamente tanto el Camino de Santiago y la bella ciudad anfitriona, como los múltiples caminos abiertos por el pensar kantiano a tres siglos de su nacimiento. Consideramos la historia evolutiva de su pensamiento, que, desde nuestro punto de vista, no recorre uno, sino varios caminos, lo que también vale para su historia efectual. Etimológicamente la palabra 'camino' o 'caminos' sugiere el problema del método o de los métodos del pensamiento de Kant y existe en nuestro pensador incluso “un camino que todavía no ha sido nunca hollado” (KrV, A 98), a saber, el de la Deducción trascendental de las categorías. Muchos son los caminos, tanto nacionales como internacionales, que pueden traer a las investigadoras y a los investigadores kantianos a Santiago de Compostela, en ocasión del tricentenario de su nacimiento. Además de los temas mencionados, son bienvenidas las contribuciones sobre cualquier otro aspecto del pensamiento de Kant. Los idiomas del congreso son: español, alemán, portugués, inglés, italiano, francés y gallego.

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Este artículo presenta los resultados obtenidos a través del uso de herramientas informáticas (Provalis Research), también conocidas como CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software), para el análisis de los escritos de Peirce, las bases estadísticas de una cronología para su último periodo intelectual y la justificación de una posible periodización del Pragmaticismo, además de la descripción de ciertos descubrimientos realizados en nuestro trabajo de archivo sobre los documentos y manuscritos originales de Peirce. Este trabajo es una parte de nuestra investigación en la Universidad de Quebec en Montreal (UQAM) y la Biblioteca Houghton de la Universidad de Harvard.

Kazimierz Twardowski’s article „On clear and unclear philosophical style” (O jasnym niejasnym stylu filozoficznym) is considered as one of his manifests of the Lvov-Warsaw School: clarity of expressing thoughts was one of methodological determinants of this school. Because of some passages in this article, Twardowski is often considered as a philosopher who believed that we may only think in words. In the article, Twardowski’s views on the relation between language and speech are analyzed through the prism of the less known Twardowski’s writings with application of some theoretical distinctions.

En primer término, se aborda la relación asimétrica de humanidades y ciencias en las instituciones contemporáneas de conocimiento sugiriendo la inconveniencia de acentuar la diferencia entre unas y otras, en la medida en que ambos órdenes epistémicos están sometidos hoy a los mismos condicionamientos estructurales. El efecto que estos tienen sobre las humanidades es analizado a través de dos aspectos críticos. En segundo término, se discute la significación epistémica de la ocurrencia como principio común de ciencias y humanidades apelando a la obra de Georg Christoph Lichtenberg a manera de caso ejemplar. En esta, experimentalismo y ensayo, singularidades, ficción y variación dan cuenta de un mismo brote epistémico en humanidades (y literatura) y ciencias.

This paper concerns the general characteristics of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow and the Memoirs of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow. Moreover, in the context of the global development of the theory of differential equations we present in this paper the articles of Alojzy Jan Stodółkiewicz (1856-1934), Władysław Zajączkowski (1837-1898), Jan Rajewski (1857-1906), Wawrzyniec Żmurko (1824-1889) and Edward Władysław Skiba (1843-1911) on differential equations, which were published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow.

This paper concerns the general characteristics of the Natural Science Society in Paris and the Memoirs of the Natural Science Society in Paris. Moreover, in the context of the development of the theory of differential equations in the world, we present in this paper the articles of Y. Villarceau (1813), W. Zajączkowski (1837–1898) and W. Folkierski (1842–1904) on differential equations, which were published in Memoirs of the Natural Science Society in Paris.

The ideals and practices of self-improvement aimed at achieving a sense of self-realization of our lives have permeated popular culture since the mid-20th century, largely due to the work of American humanistic psychologists. This paper delves into the popularization of these notions, arguing that they partially stem from a particular American appropriation of the German neurologist and psychiatrist Kurt Goldstein’s concept of self-actualization. First, the paper examines Goldstein’s encounter with American psychology, tracing his early interest in psychotherapy, the stages of his forced migration to America, and the reception of his work within American psychology. Second, it offers an analysis of the interpretations and applications of Goldstein’s holistic approach and its concept of self-actualization by humanistic practitioners, notably Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation and Carl Rogers’s client-centered approach to psychotherapy. Finally, the paper closes with a critical discussion of the distinction between Goldstein’s approach, which emphasizes the creative process of a “coming to terms” between organism and environment, and humanistic psychotherapy, which underscores individual responsibility.

In the last decades the specialists in Descartes’ philosophy have focused on the question whether the nature of the methodical doubt raised in the first meditation must be considered as a systematically rigorous worry or, on the contrary, it corresponds to a trick that performs an instrumental value inside of the approach provided by the author. The hope is that the answer to that question may clarify the process that guides the ‘Meditations’. The interpreters who hold that the methodical doubt is feigned as well as those who think that it must be considered rigorously appeal to a conceptual distinction noted by Descartes itself to validate their respective proposals, namely: the distinction between metaphysical and moral certainty. The present paper proposes that the more suitable interpretation is the one maintained by those who consider the methodical doubt, in certain degree, as genuinely rigorous. To justify our adhesion the paper will evaluate the explanatory capacity of both interpretations, as regars to the progressive order contemplated in the first meditation as well as to the approximation to other philosophical problems contemplated in the ‘Meditations’.

This paper examines the constructivist turn in political representation from the perspective of Nadia Urbinati’s diarchic model of democracy. To properly assess the significance of Urbinati’s work, it is necessary to situate diarchy within constructivism. While constructivism aims to create new representation spaces for the excluded and marginalized, this endeavour faces challenges in allegations of elitism and manipulation. This paper compares democracy as diarchy with two prominent constructivist approaches, Saward’s claim-making, and Laclau’s hegemonic representation, and it suggests that both fail to address these allegations because they see procedures as external to democratic will formation. This paper concludes that Urbinati’s understanding of how procedures are inherent to democracy provides a valuable synthesis of proceduralism and constructivism, thus providing a novel way of thinking about democratic legitimacy within the constructivist turn.

According to several scholars, the first explicit formulations of the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC) can be found in Plato's works, e. g. in the Republic and the Sophist. The paper defends that, in these two dialogues, the context for that is the discussion of possible consequences of Parmenides' Poem, in which Plato seems to have seen a proto-version of the PNC: it is not possible what is not to be (DK28 B7). In that proto-version, the PNC would present itself as an exhaustive disjunction: either it is, and cannot not be, or it is not, and cannot be; and tertium non datur (DK28 B2, B8, passim). The paper shows the problematic corollaries thereof pointed to by Plato in the Republic and the Sophist, as well as it analyses the solutions that he had presented in each dialogue for those problems, namely, his own versions of the PNC.

This paper explores the prosaic deductive style developed by Melissus and Zeno. It first emphasizes the authors’ use of a systematic and reduced vocabulary solely dedicated to a priori deduction. In a second time, the paper delves into the systematic role of reductio ad absurdum in their reasoning and distinguishes several kinds of reductio employed by the authors. Through this analysis, the study shows how Melissus and Zeno not only developed and systematized certain aspects of Parmenides’ style but also introduced original features that significantly influenced the philosophical writing style.

This paper delves into the evolution of materialism from its origins with Democritus to its development by Karl Marx. It begins with Democritus' atomism, which proposed that everything is made up of indivisible atoms, laying the groundwork for a materialist worldview. The study then explores how Epicurus expanded on these ideas, focusing on sensory experience and the pursuit of a tranquil life. Moving into the Enlightenment, the paper examines the mechanistic materialism of thinkers like Hobbes and La Mettrie, who viewed humans as complex machines governed by physical laws. Finally, it addresses Marx's dialectical and historical materialism, which combined materialist philosophy with Hegelian dialectics to explain the influence of material conditions and economic structures on society and history. This analysis highlights the enduring significance of materialist thought in understanding social and historical processes.

This paper discusses the 17th-century Latin translation of Proclus’ Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, preserved in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España, MS 9871, produced by the Spaniard Vicente Mariner. The author examines the historical context, sources, and motivations behind Mariner’s translation, his intellectual profile, and the potential reasons for translating a mathematical text given his background in literature. Via a comparison of Mariner’s text with the original Greek, this paper delves into Mariner’s translation choices and linguistic nuances to highlight the challenges he faced while translating it. Transcriptions of the collated passage both from Grynaeus’ 1533 editio princeps of Proclus’ text and Mariner’s manuscript are provided in the Appendix. Overall, this paper attempts to shed light on Mariner’s contribution to the Latin reception of Proclus’ work in the early modern period.

The epistemological problem of scientific confirmation is about determining or comparing the degree of confirmation of scientific hypotheses (i.e., the level of epistemical value we can give them) with respect to empirical evidence. This problem is mainly discussed from an inductivist and probabilistic point of view, particularly by the means of Bayesian theories of confirmation. In this paper we suggest that Popper’s theory of corroboration should be considered as an alternative theory of scientific confirmation, which would reject both induction and probabilities. More specifically, in opposition to some interpretations of Popper, this paper will support the idea that Popper’s concept of corroboration can be understood as a form of confirmation. We will try to establish what could be the rules of this kind of Popperian theory of confirmation. We hope to be able to compare Bayesian and Popperian approaches to the problem of scientific confirmation, and highlight their different methodological contributions to scientific research.

This article explores the intersection of 19th-century philosophy with historical events, spotlighting Nietzsche, Bentham, Kierkegaard, and Schopenhauer and their distinct perspectives on suffering as a positive element, reflective of the era's cultural and historical nuances. The first part of the paper is a summary of the 19th century and its noteworthy events. The second part argues that suffering is a constant element of human existence by highlighting conceptual similarities between all four philosophers when they describe the challenges that humans must face. The third part of the paper analyzes the relationship between suffering and self-knowledge. The fourth and last part of the paper explores the mechanism of suffering as an epiphenomenon.

This paper constitutes an encompassing account of the Madonna of Orsanmichele in all its historical instances. As source of the first miracle ever recorded in the city-state of Florence, in 1292, the Orsanmichele Madonna generated a cult that lasted centuries. Considering the extravagant artistic commissions on the site of the granary-turned-church, Orsanmichele became a place of religious worship, and, more importantly, grown into being equated with the political and spiritual identity of Florence. The panel by Bernando Daddi and the tabernacle designed by Andrea Orcagna have generated, I argue, a parallel cult – one revering the exquisite artistic draughtsman ship of the painting and that of its monumental shrine. In this paper I aim to present the dialogue between the Marian cult located at Orsanmichele, starting in the thirteenth century, and the artistic patronage prompted by the popularity of the miracle-making image of the Virgin. My study represents a critical re-visitation of the prominent book by Megan Holmes, The Miraculous Image in Renaissance Florence, published in 2013.

This paper aims to map the terrain of religion and politics in modern and contemporary Morocco. Seeing the chronological and intellectual diversity within Moroccan religious thought and politics, this paper proposes three major historical periods to facilitate approaching the topic: the pre-/ colonial, the colonial, and postcolonial times. The first pre/-colonial period is hybrid; it coincides with the rise of the first generation of the Moroccan Nahda renewal, before the colonial period, although it lived into the colonial period and played important roles in it for liberation. I mark this with the “Islamic” label, since Islam was the only common identity marker for any project of renewal in an intellectually “homogeneous” society. As to the colonial period, this Islamic identity became stronger since the colonial administration tried to weaken this identity and the social fabric and its related institutions, be they religious brotherhoods, religious endowments, or Sufi orders; at a certain moment in 1930, the colonial administration played on linguistic differences to divide and rule, and in another occasion, in 1953-1955, it tried to dethrone the nationalist Sultan and replace him with a docile one. Here, again, the “Islamic” identity marker of society and politics was further emphasized as a force of unity, thus the label of Nationalist Islam in this stage, despite the variety of currents within the nationalist movement. As to the postcolonial period, it is a phase in which the modern debates over the format of the nation state, the place of religion in politics, democracy, liberalism, socialism, and secularization become part of Moroccan thought and politics. Thus, three major labels are used to describe the variety of political Islams in society: the Ultra-Orthodox Islam, the Orthodox Islam, and Critical Islam. And since they all share Islam as an identity but interpret it differently, I borrow the term from Asef Bayat to call this period the “post-Islamist” period, since the actors with the Islamic label are multiple, and no one single trend or project manages to win to enforce its Islamist interpretation on society and political stakeholders. More importantly, this diversity of interpretations is what saves the “Islamic” from rigidity and turns it into its fluidity of pre-modern times, i.e. to the “Islamic” as a lived spirituality and moral compass, as a theocentric way of life, in a forthcoming post- Islamist society, a secular world and neoliberal economies.

This paper critically examines the socio-political dynamics affecting Muslims in Europe, focusing on the significant barriers that hinder their active participation in party politics. A central argument is that the internalized secular worldview has led to widespread political disengagement. This issue is further compounded by the first generation of Muslims in Europe, who developed and entrenched a minority mindset, along with certain ulema who promote socio-political passivity and quietism, severely limiting more complex and effective political engagement. To counter this situation, the paper emphasizes the urgent need for Muslims to move beyond status quo or reactionary approaches, such as supporting mainstream parties or resorting to political abstention, both of which only superficially address their concerns. Instead, it advocates establishing independent political entities rooted in Islamic principles that strive for more profound systemic change. Such an approach would empower Muslims to form strategic alliances, challenge the status quo, and tackle broader societal issues, ultimately advancing the interests of both their communities and European society as a whole.

In my paper, I contend that it is necessary to rely on a categorial reading of Hegel’s notions of identity and difference in order to properly understand their non-hierarchical relationship in Hegelian dialectics. Many commentators reduce their speculative nature to a merely instrumental use of the terms in analyzing Hegel’s work. In this way, identity and difference are only formally employed and thus ontologically obscured, leaving room for subsequent shortcomings and hierarchizations. I maintain throughout the paper that the best way to elucidate the hierarchical question and prevent dialectical thought from such errors is by inquiring into Hegel’s speculative configuration of onto-logical categories. If anything, Hegel replaces the primacy of identity over difference with an internal linkage that determines the structure of these notions, thus granting their immanent relatedness. For him, the relationship between categories is necessarily a movement. The constitution of identity and difference, as determinations of reflexion of essence in Hegel’s Science of Logic, proves that they are equiprimordial and co-structural, hence preventing any possible hierarchy.

This paper introduces and addresses fresh perspectives in the engagement between Hegel and his postmodern critics and detractors. The first part of the paper examines some of the central discussions on postmodernity, specifically in the works of Lyotard and Habermas, and how they, in different ways, reengage Hegel. The second part focuses on Vattimo’s deployment of the concept of the postmodern credo as a way of returning to Hegel’s own interrogation of modern belief. The paper shows that the common thread linking the modernity of Hegel with the “postmodern moment” remains belief, and in particular, belief in belief itself. The final part provides a brief introduction to all the contributions in this issue.

This paper analyses Gilles Deleuze’s political philosophy in relation to the Hegelian concept of the State. To do this, we identify three interpretations of the term “State” in Deleuze’s work: 1) as the reference point defining the three forms of socius presented in Anti-Oedipus (primitive territorial, barbarian despotic, and civilized capitalist); 2) as a defining trait of the despotic socius form; and 3) as the internalization of this form (Urstaat). Deleuze emerges as a harsh critic of the State in each of these interpretations. However, the subsequent part of the paper reveals that this critique does not advocate for societal fragmentation. By comparing Deleuze’s political philosophy with Hegel’s, we demonstrate that the forms of socius in Deleuze’s system occupy the conceptual place of the State in Hegel’s framework. Through an exploration of the role of differential calculus in the ontology of both philosophers, we establish the groundwork for a philosophical examination of the dominant social relation in the modern world (which is capitalism and not the State) and the prerequisites for a novel political socius.

The 14th-century Dominican theologian and philosopher Durand of Saint-Pourçain was among the intellectuals who took part in the medieval debate on virginity, especially on the relationship between virginity and marriage. This paper discusses a question of his Sentences Commentary (Super Sent., II, d. 20, q. 2), in which Durand poses the question of “whether or not there would have been a loss of virginity in marriage” (utrum in actu matrimoniali fuisset amissio virginitatis) both in statu innocentiae and in statu post peccatum. This paper shows how Durand’s solution to the problem is in opposition to Augustine’s and Thomas Aquinas’s views, based on formal and material aspects of virginity.

By examining debates on the Anthropocene era ignited by new materialist and posthumanist scholarship, this paper aims to discern how these perspectives can reframe the human-nature nexus. It also considers how various “developmentalist” approaches might assume the role traditionally held by the concept of human nature. The first section highlights concerns raised by posthumanist and neomaterialist scholars about the marginalized status of “nature”, life, and biology within dominant constructivist viewpoints. A central argument posits that notions like “denaturalization” and biopolitics amplify societal dominance over nature, pushing social theory towards an anthropocentric and potentially biologically indeterminate stance. Contrasting this, the second section delves into modern interpretations of the planet in social theory, inspired by the emergence of the Anthropocene. This lens reveals a dynamic, co-constitutive relationship, tilting less towards the unilateral commands of “nature” and more towards understanding the evolution of human life and societal structures within Earth’s expansive temporal and spatial realms. The third section further unpacks these developmental ideas by juxtaposing the theories of Bruno Latour and Tim Ingold. The paper contends that both approaches endeavor to illuminate the complex processes underpinning the evolution of life forms, underscoring the significance of culture. In conclusion, the intricate postnatural landscape of the Anthropocene necessitates a more integrated human-nature relationship. This calls for not only discarding dehumanizing facets of human nature, but also fostering a renewed sensibility - a deeper form of humanizing that acknowledges and celebrates our shared existence with other species and entities.

In this paper, I analyze and compare Maria Kronfeldner’s and Tim Ingold’s views on the conceptual relationship between nature and culture. I show that despite the differences, their views remain close, particularly in terms of their integrative potential. The ultimate purpose of this examination is to lay the groundwork for further research on the problem of conceptual integration between sociocultural anthropology and evolutionary psychology. The paper comprises four main sections. First, I briefly explore the history of Darwinism to show how nature and culture were conceptualized within this framework. Second, I deal with Kronfeldner’s separationist stance and Ingold’s holistic perspective on the nature/ culture conceptual relationship. Third, I discuss the implications of their views on the choice of research heuristics in the sciences that study human nature and cultures. While I interpret Ingold as supporting methodological integration, Kronfelder argues for a version of integrative pluralism. Lastly, I provide an outlook for further discussions on conceptual integration and integrative pluralism.

This paper spells out the ways in which we need to be pluralists about “human nature”. It discusses a conceptual pluralism about the concept of “human nature”, stemming from post-essentialist ontology and the semantic complexity of the term “nature”; a descriptive pluralism about the “descriptive nature” of human beings, which is a pluralism regarding our self-understanding as human beings that stems from the long list of typical features of, and relations between, human beings; a natural kind term pluralism, which is a pluralism that concerns the choices we have in deciding how to apply the kind term “human”; and an explanatory pluralism that results from the causal complexity of life. Because of the complexity of being human, which gives rise to these pluralisms, being human is, the paper claims, a kaleidoscopic affair, and one far from concerning the life sciences only.

In this paper, I consider the materiality of experience as stemming from a temporal process of sense-formation (Sinnbildung), whose essence is not just formally configured, but also materially organized. In order to understand this process of sense-formation, I first examine the materiality that is intrinsic to the intentional sense and its relationship with the sensible materiality of experience brought forth by the project of hyletic phenomenology. In the second part of the paper, I propose to overcome the tension between a materiality of sense and a materiality of sensibility by reflecting on the specific materiality that is created in our experience through the dynamism of imaginative modifications. Allowing us to switch between different temporal and spatial horizons, imaginative projections and reveries reveal a hidden “reverse” side of our perceptive field, that we access only when we let go of objectifying acts and established significance. In the last part of the paper, I turn toward bodily gestures, in which I see an expression of experience that resists objectification and straightforward symbolization, attesting for the complex social inscription of our bodily existence. I end the paper with an inquiry into the specific materiality of gestures, understanding them as vanishing archives offered to the future.

The study interprets two novels by Kafka (Metamorphosis and Disciplinary Camp), and shows that one of the motives both novels share is the “ahypnotic experience”, i.e., the state in which the character of the story is frightened by sleep, since in sleep he loses control over himself, and is given up to the forces which rid him of of his human form (Metamorphosis). Based on the analysis of the apparatus of torture, interpreted here as “apparatus for producing justice”, the paper argues that for Kafka, the law means not freedom, but inhumanity (Disciplinary Camp). The following part of the paper explains that a similar process is uncovered in Donnarumma’s Amygdala art installation, and poses the question as to whether the increasing autonomy of modern technology intensifies Kafka’s fears of dehumanisation of the world. The final part of the paper offers an alternative conclusion to the problem building on Nietzsche’s understanding of the sense of the sublime.

This paper discusses the concept of information formulated by Michael (Michał) Heller. Heller—a philosopher, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and theologian—provided a complex image of information and its role in nature, which is rarely found in studies of information. Heller posited that the laws of nature may be interpreted as information, or as providing information, presenting this as a complementary view to scientific structuralism (not discussed in this paper). According to Heller, the informational content of a structure in nature is inversely proportional to that structure’s degree of freedom. The more constrained or complex a structure is, and the less likely it is to exist, the more information it contains. In Heller’s view, the concept of information in Shannon’s Theory of Communication (ToC) is inadequate for expressing the notion of information beyond a numerical measure of a signal structure. Information in Heller’s research closely aligns with the concepts of Jacquette’s and Perzanowski’s combinatorial ontology (concepts not discussed in this paper) and the general theory of information (GTI) of Mark Burgin, although Heller did not explicitly make these connections.

Mathematics, as Eugene Wigner noted, is unreasonably effective in physics. The argument of this paper is that the disproportionate attention that philosophers have paid to discrete structures such as the natural numbers, for which a nominalist construction may be possible, has deprived us of the best argument for Platonism, which lies in continuous structures—in fields and their derived algebras, such as Clifford algebras. The argument that Wigner was making is best made with respect to such structures—in a loose sense, with respect to geometry rather than arithmetic. The purpose of the present paper is to make this connection between mathematical realism and geometrical entities. It thus constitutes an argument against formalism, for which mathematics is merely a game with humanly set rules; and nominalism, in which whatever mathematics is used is eliminable in the final analysis, by often insufficiently specified means. The hope is that light may be cast on the stubborn mysteries of the nature of quantum mechanics and its mathematical formulation, with particular reference to spinor representations—as they have been developed by Andrej Trautman. Thus, according to our argument, quantum mechanics (QM) may appear more natural, as we have better reasons to take spinor structures as irreducibly real, a view consonant with the work of Trautman and Penrose in particular.

This paper delves into AI development’s historical and philosophical dimensions while highlighting the symbiotic relationship between philosophy and AI from a technological perspective: philosophy furnishes foundational concepts, and AI supplies practical tools. The paper posits neurosymbolic AI as a solution to present challenges, sparking discussions encompassing both technical and philosophical considerations. Advocating a multidisciplinary approach calls for merging empirical AI insights with philosophy and cognition science to enrich our comprehension of intelligence and propel AI forward.

In this paper, I attempt to explore a recent hypothesis about what the main mss. are for establishing the text of Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea (henceforth EN). This hypothesis was recently advanced on the basis of evidence coming from EN I-II. In exploring this hypothesis, I confine myself to the text of EN X.6-9 [=Bywater X.6-8], and, as a result, I propose a new text for EN X.6-9 [=Bywater X.6-8] based on a fresh collation of nine mss—four of which were not taken into account in previous editions of the EN—and based on readings that can be gathered from the Arabic translation of the EN that was preserved in the Fez ms. The text proposed in this paper is accompanied by textual notes that justify my decisions regarding some difficult passages.

This paper presents and discusses Henri Poincaré’s view on the logical non-derivability of imperatives from indicatives. Firstly, his point of view is compared with David Hume’s. Then Poincaré’s thesis is shown to have been implicitly or explicitly essential to attempts to build a logic of imperatives (norms) as a special linguistic category as well as a deontic logic. The paper shows deontic logic enables us to formulate general principles concerning the logical separability of deonticals (sentences with deontic operators) and non-deontic sentences. Finally, the paper includes remarks on the reception of Poincaré’s discussed ideas in later logical and philosophical literature with the second issue illustrated by legal philosophy.

The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the problem of cost generated by the performance of a duty to rescue. The authors consider three distinct views of this problem by confronting a scenario in which one party decides to rescue another, where providing such assistance seems to involve an infringement upon the property rights of the third party. For example, A rescues drowning B but in the process of doing so A apparently trespasses upon C’s land. The question that the authors pose is: Assuming that there is a duty to rescue, who should be charged with the cost of what seems to be an infringement upon the third party’s property rights? The paper analyses the following possibilities: the cost should be borne by (a) the victim of the emer- gency, (b) the rescuer, (c) the third party whose rights seem to have been encroached upon. Even though the authors begin with a pronouncedly libertarian assumption about the third party’s absolute property rights, in the course of the discussion they come to the conclusion that it is exactly this assumption that should be further probed and ultimately relaxed in order to reach the most plausible solution to the present dilemma.

In his 2013 monograph on Structure and Method in Aristotle’s Meteorologica, Malcolm Wilson has shown both that Aristotle conceived of meteorological phenomena as analogous to the bodily processes of animals, and that for the Stagirite the sublunar world should not be seen as a single body, but rather as composed of many different individuals. However, Wilson did not articulate the relationship between these two theories—that is, he did not answer the following question: how is it possible for the Earth to behave like an animal if it is not a single body? This paper argues that the answer to this question lies in the Aristotelian statement about the different paschein of the Earth and animals. In fact, in the chapter of Meteorology dedicated to climatic changes (1.14), Aristotle, after comparing such changes to the maturing and ageing of living organisms, states that ‘only, in the case of the bodies of plants and animals being affected does not occur in each part separately, but it is necessary for the being to mature and decay all at once, whereas in the case of the Earth this occurs in each part separately, due to cooling and warming’ (351a.28-31). In his commentary, Alexander of Aphrodisias reiterates that the difference between the changes of the Earth and those of living organisms concern the way in which these different subjects undergo affections (pathê). The concept of paschein/pathos is thus fundamental to understanding how Aristotle conceives of biological analogies, which play a key role in his meteorology: as the affections of maturing and corruption show, parallels with organic processes can be found in meteorological phenomena, but always at the level of the individual parts of the Earth. Although the sublunary world can be understood in organic terms, this world is not a ‘cosmic animal’, but rather a multiplicity of ‘regional animals’. To corroborate this thesis, this paper addresses several related questions, including: the mechanics ofenvironmental changes according to Aristotle; the differences between the regions of the Earth; the lexicon used in Meteorology to refer to the transformations of the Earth; the personal notes that Alexander adds to Aristotle’s discussion. Finally, the first modern translation of the relevant section of Alexander’s commentary is also provided here.

The paper focuses on the intellectual aspects of Bohumil Hrabal’s work and also on the concept of worldview. The starting point is Josef Zumr’s article “The Intellectual Inspiration of Bohumil Hrabal” (1989); the approaches of Jan Patočka (1942) and Jan Mukařovský (1947) are also mentioned. In his article Zumr presents Hrabal’s worldview as a mosaic of constitutive and affirmative influences. He formulates a thesis on the post-war continuity of the avant-garde, of which Hrabal’s work is a part. In this paper, Zumr’s interpretation is subjected to partial revision: it is not only about ideological influences, but also about their individual creative transformation. Hrabal has lost the optimism of the avant-garde, his work testifies to the turn of an epoch and combines humour with melancholy and historical scepticism.

The paper explores the possibility of creating a positive vision of post-capitalist society and economy, a blue-print for future society with reminiscence to the existing valuable drafts such as Marx and Engels’s Communist Manifesto. Also, it focuses on shortcomings of that blue-print that became evident through the experiences of 20th-century real socialisms. Following Canadian Marxist Michael Lebowitz, the paper elaborates on how the vision of socialism for the 21st century should place central emphasis on the importance of changing the social relations of production. The central problem is located in the “vanguard relations of production”, the central power and hierarchical authority in the hand of the party vanguard. The paper stresses the importance of the communist party as central to the articulation of the interests of the proletarian class as a whole, a class whose central interest is the overthrow of capitalism. However, the project of overthrowing capitalism must include the recognition of the practical comprehension of the importance of the democratic protagonism. Workers cannot be subordinated as passive observers of the system change. A change in social circumstances should simultaneously mean a change in the actors themselves - the socialist protagonists.

In his theoretical efforts, Lenin made two excursions into philosophy - first in the book Materialism and Empirio-criticism and then in Philosophical Notebooks. There are obvious differences between these two works, which are reflected in the attitude towards Hegel (first rejection and then enthusiasm and acceptance of Hegel’s dialectical method), but also significant similarities. The paper points out that what links Lenin’s two books is the concept of theoretical formation. We derive the term theoretical formation from Lenin’s concept of socio-economic formation: in every society, a large number of modes of production coexist, which are overdetermined by one mode as dominant. Society is thus not a complete and rounded form, but a contradictory overdeterimned formation. The main thesis of the paper is that Lenin applies the concept of over determined formation to the reading of philosophy. Philosophical discourse is never whole but is split between two irreconcilable tendencies - materialism and idealism. Philosophical work is nothing but a struggle for the theoretical dominance of one tendency over another. This struggle between philosophical tendencies is, as Louis Althusser points out, an extension of the class struggle in theory and takes place both in the entire history of philosophy and within each individual philosophical text. The philosophical text is thus a contradictory formation of unequal and combined development.

The title question of the paper has its empirical origin in the form of an individual’s existential experience arising from the personal use of a computer, which we attempt to describe in the first section. The rest of the entire paper can be understood as a philosophical essay answering the question posed. First the connection between the main problem of the article and its “premonition” by mankind, which was expressed in the form of ancient myths and legends, is briefly suggested. After shortly discussing the problems that early considerations of AI focused on, i.e. whether machines can think at all, we move on to reformulate our title question, about the possibility of outsmarting AI. This outsmarting will be understood by us in a rather limited way as to prevent a machine from completing its implemented task. To achieve this objective, after softly clarifying the basic terms, an analogy is built between the “outsmarting” of a machine by a human (the target domain) and the playing of a mathematical game between two players (the base domain), where this outsmarting is assigned a “winning strategy” in the certain game. This mathematical model is formed by games similar to Banach-Mazur games. The strict theorems of such games are then proved and applied to the target of the analogy. We then draw conclusions and look for counter-examples to our findings. The answer to the title question posed is negative, and it is not clear how far it should be taken seriously.

In this paper, we focus on the analysis of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s concept of “coherent extrapolated volition” (CEV) as a response to the need for a post-conventional, persuasive morality that meets the criteria of active trust in the sense of Anthony Giddens, which could be used in the case of autonomous machines. Based on the analysis of the results of the Moral Machine project, we formulate some guidelines for transformation of the idea of a coherent extrapolated volition into the concept of a coherent, extrapolated and clustered volition. The argumentation used in the paper is intended to show that the idea of CEV transformed into its clustered version can be used to build a technically and socially efficient decision-making pattern database for autonomous machines.

This paper provides an account of the evolution of the notion of comparatio in the main dialectical works of Valla, Agricola, and Vives. It highlights the elements of continuity and discontinuity and sheds light on the original contributions of Vives’s treatment. In Valla, Agricola and Vives, the notion of comparatio characterizes: a) the locus of the relation to another in the inventio method; b) the cognitive act through which one can grasp the relationships of similarity and difference between concepts; c) the epistemic method for weighing the degree of plausibility of probable arguments. The paper also shows how Vives enhances the role of comparatio within dialectical art. Firstly, he attributes a pre-eminent position to the locus of the comparatio by virtue of the transversality of its application to all the other loci. Secondly, he identifies the explanation of the key concept of syllogism in the act of compering two sentences with a third. Finally, he finds the essence of the disputatio in the method of comparing equally probable contradictory arguments. This can rightly be considered an innovative element of the Vivesian dialectical treatment with respect to the most advanced European humanist movement of the first decades of the sixteenth century.

This paper analyzes Paul of Venice’s theory of measurement of natural properties and changes. The main sections of the paper correspond to Paul’s analysis of the three types of accidental changes (local motion: section II; augmentation: section III; alteration and qualities: section IV), for which the Augustinian philosopher sought to provide rules of measurement. It appears that Paul achieved an original synthesis borrowing from both Parisian (Albert of Saxony in particular) and Oxfordian sources (especially Richard Swineshead). It is also argued that, on top of this theoretical synthesis, Paul managed to elaborate a quite original theory of intensive properties that marks him out not only from the nominalist framework of his Parisian sources but also from the usual realist treatments of the problem. Finally, it is shown that, to a certain extent, Paul undertook to apply the mathematical and logical tools inherited from the Calculatores tradition to empirical problems of natural philosophy, leading to reevaluate his role in the evolution of scientific thought in early 15th-century Italy (section V).

This paper provides a philosophical analysis and a new edition of an anonymous Epitome (Compendium) of John Dumbleton’s solution to the semantic paradoxes (insolubilia). The first part of this paper briefly presents Dumbleton’s cassationist solution to the semantic paradoxes, which the English philosopher proposes in his Summa Logicae, written in the 1330s–40s. The second part investigates the solution to various types of insolubles proposed by the anonymous author of the Epitome. The third part provides a new critical edition of the Latin text – a first edition was edited by Bottin in 1978 – and an English translation.

The present case study raises a series of historiographical and archival issues brought up by an investigation we devoted to the patrimonialization of the personal papers of Jean Leray (1906-1998). We first intend to reconstruct Jean Leray’s scientific persona as portrayed in biographical notes about him, especially those published after his death. These systematically put forward Leray’s own recollections of his captivity during World War II. We then establish that the way Leray’s papers were sorted is contemporary with these eulogies and that it was carried out under the close supervision of the mathematician and Academician Paul Malliavin. In doing so, we formulate some hypotheses on the principles that led him to deposit only a few fragments of Leray’s papers in three distinct mathematical libraries. Finally, we place Leray’s account of his captivity in the context of the relationships that certain members of the Académie des sciences, namely Gaston Julia and Henri Villat, had with the university while in captivity at Oflag XVII-A during the Occupation of France (1940-1944).