The theological and political milieu of the conquest and evangelisation of the Americas is usually interpreted through the Dominican-Thomist lens of the School of Salamanca, presenting an intellectual arena dominated by the Dominican arguments about dominion and natural law and largely detached from the simultaneous debates unfolding across Europe. This article enriches this narrative by foregrounding the contributions of sixteenth-century Franciscan theologians and missionaries, whose focus on the sacrament of baptism raised pressing questions about its ecclesiological and soteriological implications. It (...) highlights, in particular, the role of medieval scholastic arguments, especially those of the Franciscan John Duns Scotus, in shaping Franciscan thought amid the sixteenth-century reconfiguration of the Catholic world. By tracing these debates, from Jean Focher's defence of forced baptism in Mexico to Andrés de Vega polemics against Cardinal Cajetan at Trent, the article offers a fresh perspective on the political and theological dynamics of early modern global Catholicism and broadens Dominican-centred accounts of early Counter-Reformation. (shrink)

Human Evolution provides a comprehensive overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from fields as diverse as physical anthropology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, archaeology, psychology and philosophy. The book starts with chapters on evolution, population genetics, systematics, and the methods for constructing evolutionary trees. These are followed by a comprehensive review of the fossil history of human evolution since our divergence from the apes. Subsequent chapters cover more recent data, both fossil and molecular, relating to the evolution of (...) modern humans. A final section describes the evolution of culture, language, art, and morality.The authors are leading experts in two complementary fields of scholarship, physical anthropology and molecular evolution. Throughout the book they successfully integrate their expertise in evolutionary theory, phylogenetics, genomics, cultural evolution, language, aesthetics and morality to produce a cutting edge textbook, copiously illustrated and with an extensive and up-to-date bibliography. It will be suitable for both senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking courses on human evolution within departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and philosophy. The book will also appeal to a more general audience seeking a readable, up-to-date and inclusive treatment of human origins and evolution. (shrink)

The earth, the abode of the only form of intelligent life in the universe of which we are aware, is a minor member of a system of nine planets, 40 or so moons and about 100 billion asteroids orbiting around the Sun, an average-size member of the 100-billion-star community making up our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is the third planet to the Sun, which it orbits, following an almost circular elliptical path maintaining an average distance of 1.5×108 km, with (...) the longest and the shortest radii now being 1.53×108 km and 1.47×10 km respectively (Fig. 1). This orbit is subject to changes in its “eccentricity” (i.e., in how much it deviates from a circle) with periods of 105 and 4×10 years5 years (Fig. 2A). In addition, the elliptical orbit itself slowly rotates as shown in Fig. 2B, in what we call the precession. (shrink)

The universe, of which our domicile the planet Earth forms but a minuscule part, has an architecture that changes and has been changing in time. In other words, it has a history of evolution. Lack of experimental evidence denies us the knowledge of what the universe was like “at the time of its origin,” as discussed by Hubert Reeves in the preceding chapter. Neither do we know much about its geometry, simply because our observatories are concentrated, for all practical purposes, (...) vanishingly close to a single point in an immensity whose size can only be measured by the billions of years required by light to go from one extremity to another! (shrink)

With the discovery of Australopithecus, the concepts of bipedalism, the emergence of the open savannas, and the separation of pongids and hominids (bipedal-savanna-cladogeny; the BSC model) were integrated in an attempt to interpret the keys to the emergence of man. However, palæoclimatology, palaeoecology, and the morphology of A. ramidus and A. afarensis show that early hominids were better adapted to the tropical forest. Consequently, the BSC model is no longer valid, even though the relationship between open savannas and bipedalism can (...) still be invoked to explain cladogeny between Paranthropus and Homo. That the BSC model is still thriving could be due to preconceived ideas as to what constitutes a human being — ideas that are projected into the past to explain our origins. (shrink)

The use of the computer metaphor has led to the proposal of mind architecture (Pylyshyn 1984; Newell 1990) as a model of the organization of the mind. The dualist computational model, however, has, since the earliest days of psychological functionalism, required that the concepts mind architecture and brain architecture be remote from each other. The development of both connectionism and neurocomputational science, has sought to dispense with this dualism and provide general models of consciousness – a uniform cognitive architecture –, (...) which is in general reductionist, but which retains the computer metaphor. This paper examines, in the first place, the concepts of mind architecture and brain architecture, in order to evaluate the syntheses which have recently been offered. It then moves on to show how modifications which have been made to classical functionalist mind architectures, with the aim of making them compatible with brain architectures, are unable to resolve some of the most serious problems of functionalism. Some suggestions are given as to why it is not possible to relate mind structures and brain structures by using neurocomputational approaches, and finally the question is raised of the validity of reductionism in a theory which sets out to unite mind and brain architectures. (shrink)

Human Evolution provides a comprehensive overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from fields as diverse as physical anthropology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, archaeology, psychology and philosophy. The book starts with chapters on evolution, population genetics, systematics, and the methods for constructing evolutionary trees. These are followed by a comprehensive review of the fossil history of human evolution since our divergence from the apes. Subsequent chapters cover more recent data, both fossil and molecular, relating to the evolution of (...) modern humans. A final section describes the evolution of culture, language, art, and morality. The authors are leading experts in two complementary fields of scholarship, physical anthropology and molecular evolution. Throughout the book they successfully integrate their expertise in evolutionary theory, phylogenetics, genomics, cultural evolution, language, aesthetics and morality to produce a cutting edge textbook, copiously illustrated and with an extensive and up-to-date bibliography. It will be suitable for both senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking courses on human evolution within departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and philosophy. The book will also appeal to a more general audience seeking a readable, up-to-date and inclusive treatment of human origins and evolution. (shrink)

En el primer capítulo de su libro Duchesneau aborda la cuestión de lo que es una especie, algo de difícil solución porque el de especie es un concepto de una potencia heurística inmensa y, a la vez, está lleno de agujeros que se hacen patentes en cuanto se pretende hilar fino para definirlo. Las alternativas entre la especie como grupo reproductivo -la "especie biológica"- y como secuencia evolutiva -la "especie filogenética"-, con sus respectivas precisiones internas, están bien planteadas por el (...) autor. También lo está la más reciente "especie ecológica", de talante adaptacionista. Duchesneau no pretende argumentar en favor de uno u otro concepto, sino indicar que existen, y de su postura aséptica se deduce que, probablemente, es imposible reducir ninguno de esos conceptos al otro. Pero esa conclusión tropieza de inmediato con el asunto que aborda Duchesneau en el epígrafe siguiente de su libro: la taxonomía. Porque en algo coinciden al menos quienes emplean especies biológicas, filogenéticas y ecológicas: en darles un nombre. No es raro, pues, que la sistemática sea en estos momentos una de las disciplinas que tenga más interrogantes por resolver. (shrink)

Proposals regarding the foundations of ethics range from two opposing positions: emotivist and rationalist. An alternative to this contrast can be achieved by reviving Aristotle's theory of virtue, developing it through current scientific advances. This paper examines this possibility by first examining the approaches of the "new wave" of Aristotle and, in a second section, considering the contributions that neuroscience can offer to the study of moral behavior through proposals such as those put forward by Patricia Churchland and her notion (...) of "self-control.". (shrink)

Hace treinta años apareció un libro que estaba destinado a tener un gran impacto: Descartes’ Error. Su autor era Antonio Damasio (1994) y, tras su aparición en inglés, se sucedieron tanto las críticas, positivas en su mayor parte, como las traducciones que incluyeron la de lengua castellana. Cuatro años después, en 1999, la revista Enrahonar publicó un número especial dedicado al filósofo francés, festejando con algo de retraso el haberse cumplido cuatrocientos años desde su nacimiento en 1596. En el homenaje (...) de Enrahonar apareció un artículo que repasaba la lectura de Descartes por parte de Damasio. Volvamos ahora, aprovechando parte de lo escrito desde entonces, sobre las claves que nos proporcionan las neurociencias hoy día acerca de la relación entre mente y cerebro que comenzó a sopesar Descartes. (shrink)

La pregunta acerca de qué es un humano tiene una respuesta trivial: cualquier individuo perteneciente a la especie Homo sapiens. Pero si nos interrogamos por el sentido de lo que es un ser humano, cuáles son los rasgos distintivos respecto de otras especies, cómo evolucionaron y por qué, en qué medida los antecesores nuestros disponían de ellos y dónde y cuándo vivieron esos ancestros, entonces entramos en un terreno de difícil recorrido. En los últimos siete millones de años existieron varias (...) especies a las que cabe llamar «humanas» o, por lo menos, «homínidas». Es éste un repaso breve y muy sintético de lo que supuso tal panorama diverso y dinámico que conduciría, a la postre, a los humanos actuales. Nuestras propias características adquieren una nueva luz cuando se contemplan a lo largo del proceso de su filogénesis. (shrink)

Kur’ân-ı Kerim, Allah’u Teâlâ tarafından Peygamber Efendimiz aracılığı ile insanlığa iletilmiş olan bir hidayet kaynağıdır. Okunmasıyla ibadet edilen Kur’ân-ı Kerim’in insanlar tarafından anlaşılması onun tefsiri ile mümkündür. Bununla birlikte Kırâat İlmi de Kur’ân’ın anlaşılması için bilinmesi gereken ve âyetlerin tefsirinde kullanılması gereken önemli ilimlerden birisidir. Kur’ân-ı Kerim kelimelerindeki telaffuz değişikliklerini konu edinen kırâat ilminin tefsir ilmi ile irtibatlı olduğu aşikârdır. Bundan dolayı Kur’ân-ı Kerim’i açıklayan tefsir kitapları ve tefsir âlimleri, kırâatlerden destek almışlar ve âyetlere mana verirken farklı kırâatleri göz önünde (...) bulundurarak anlam zenginliğini sağlamışlardır. Sahih olan kırâatlerin yanında sahih olmayan kırâatler de âyetlerin anlaşılmasında yardımcı olarak kullanılmıştır. Kur’ân kelimelerinde söz konusu olan bu değişiklikler tefsir eserlerinde farklı şekillerde ele alınmış ve incelenmiştir. Kur’ân’ın anlaşılması için kaleme alınan tefsirlerden birisi olan Celâleyn Tefsiri de; kısa, öz, anlaşılır ve çokça istifade edilen bir eserdir. Celâleyn tefsiri aynı zamanda âyetler anlaşılmaya çalışırken kırâatlerin de incelendiği, farklı şekillerde ele alındığı önemli bir tefsir eseridir. Bu ve benzeri nedenlerden dolayı Celâleyn tefsirinin kırâatler açısından incelenmesi, kırâat ve tefsir ilimleri açısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Celâleyn Tefsirinde kırâatlerin nasıl kullanıldığı, kırâatlere değinilirken onların nasıl zikredildiği, hangi yönler ile kırâatlere yaklaşıldığı gibi konular değerlendirilmeye çalışılacaktır. (shrink)

Cet article montre comment Ricœur a constitué une théorie de la causalité adaptée à sa philosophie pratique. D’abord, on étudie la définition alternative de la causalité qu’élabore Ricœur pour les sciences historiques, caractérisée par la conditionnalité, la processualité et la singularité. Ensuite, on souligne l’effort de justification objective de cette nouvelle catégorie causale par une démarche logico-transcendantale, qui lie les conditions de possibilité d’une connaissance objective de l’action non pas à une subjectivité fondatrice, mais à des dimensions du discours. D’un (...) point de vue épistémologique, la causalité fait l’objet d’un jugement d’imputation singulier, qui joue un rôle intermédiaire entre l’explication structurale et l’explication narrative. D’un point de vue métaphysique, elle permet d’établir un gradient d’abstraction dans l’événementialité, puisqu’elle sert tout particulièrement à expliquer non pas des événement génériques ou virtuels, mais singuliers et propres, qui sont, de ce fait, inscrits dans un contexte riche ; elle dessine ainsi la forme d’un monde d’événements non impersonnels et non atomiques. (shrink)

In this article, I show how Ricœur elaborated the theory of causality that his practical philosophy required. The investigation proceeds in two steps. First, I study the alternative definition (“non-humean”) of causality that Ricœur shapes for the historical sciences, which is characterized by conditionality, processuality and singularity. Then I insist on Ricœur’s effort to justify objectively this new causal category in a logico-transcendental way, by linking the conditions of possibility of an objective knowledge of action not to a funding subjectivity, (...) but to the very dimensions of discourse (semantical, pragmatical, narrative). From an epistemological point of view, causality is a judgement of singular imputation, which plays an intermediary role between structural (“nomological”) explanation and narrative explanation in the historical sciences. From a metaphysical point of view, it allows to differentiate levels of abstraction within eventalism, since it can be specifically used to explain events that are not generic or virtual, but singulars and proper, and that are, for this reason, profoundly linked to a rich context; it therefore sketches a world of non-impersonal and non-atomistic events. (shrink)

Resumé: Walter Benjamin est de plus en plus présent dans les départements de communication aujourd'hui, et parfois même utilisé dans le discours des communicants eux-mêmes. Pourtant, quelque chose en lui résiste à cette instrumentalisation: c'est que, dans son œuvre, le langage ne sert pas à communiquer un sens prédéfini, mais à exprimer cela même qui est refusé au mot. Le philosophe allemand va jusqu'à liquider la posture révolutionnaire de l'artiste encore pris dans l'idéologie de la communication: il ne s'agit (...) ni de remplacer le contenu, ni de rénover la forme, mais, objectif apparemment modeste mais radicalement plus ambitieux, de changer la technique.: Walter Benjamin is ever more present in today's departments of communication studies, and sometimes even used in the communicants' discourses themselves. But there is something in him which resists this instrumentalization. Indeed, in his work, language does not offer itself to the communication of a predefined sense, but instead expresses what remains inaccessible to the word. The German philosopher succeed in liquidating the revolutionary posture of the artist still caught in the ideology of communication. This is neither a matter of substituting the content, nor of renovating the form, but - an apparently modest but radically more ambitious objective - of changing the technique. (shrink)