Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

I argue in this paper that Gorgias’ Helen is a coherent epideictic speech with a strong didactic element. This didactic element refers to the fact that, by using antilogic and making the weaker argument the stronger, Gorgias conducts the audience’s opinion from one perspective to another. The coherence of the speech comes from the fact that Gorgias employs a commonsensical pattern of argumentation in the first two arguments to prepare the reader for the digressions on logos and love. Even though he never states it explicitly, Gorgias holds the endoxic idea that no one is responsible for an action com-mitted under coercion. I argue that the reasoning structure of the digressions depends on the two previous arguments, i.e., that Gorgias transforms logos and love into a sort of violence. To conclude, I show that Helen is both a coherent and a didactic speech that imparts an antilogical education to the audience.

Within the framework of the assemblage theory formulated by Manuel De Landa, in this article, we develop the following points: the definition of the concept of assemblage, the explanation of its historical character and the problematization of this theory from its relation with epistemology, ethics, and ontology. In addition, we show briefly how this flat ontology is linked to political philosophy and, again, to epistemol-ogy. Problematizing the assemblage theory, whose philosophical source is in Deleuze and Guattari’s work, allows us to recognize the scope of an ontology that postulates the existence of a world composed of historical and heterogeneous multiplicities. To conclude, we clarify the concept of matter underlying this philosophy    

Book review

The discovery-justification distinction stands as a pivotal issue within 20th-century philosophy of science. It subtly underpins many foundational topics and concepts pertinent to our comprehension of knowledge. Thomas Kuhn's contributions are indispensable in this regard, with his critiques playing a pivotal role in shaping both his initial model of scientific progress and its subsequent revisions. Kuhn addressed this dichotomy head-on in the first of his Thalheimer Lectures, presented in 1984. In this paper, we revisit Pablo Melogno's (2019) examination of Kuhn's engagement with this theme. Concurring with Melogno, our analysis extends his interpretation by exploring Larry Laudan's objections to certain research programs focused on a logic of discovery. We further scrutinize specific assumptions about discovery heuristics that have been misinterpreted within Laudan's methodological framework, particularly the one stemming from Herbert Simon's pioneering work. By synthesizing these perspectives, we aim to set up a preliminary framework for a more refined understanding of how history and philosophy of science inform the epistemic practices of agents operating with bounded rationality.

In this paper we show how the film Der Himmel über Berlin (Wenders, 1987) allows for a phenomenological reflection on the bonds of human beings with the world. We submit the hypothesis that the thinking of Byung-Chul Han, functions as a philosophical lens through which such a reading may be advanced. This paper has three sections: the first sees Damiel, one of the film’s main characters, as a vehicle to describe the light-ness of the world and the angst resulting from not being able to bond with the weight of existence. The second presents Peter Falk as the main trigger that causes Damiel to decide to enter the world of mortals and live a life exiled from eternity. Finally, we pres-ent Marion, Damiel’s romantic interest, as the main motivation for Damiel to renounce being an angel, as she fulfills the role of an Eros capable of triggering in the individual the vital strength to cause the subject to enter into a bond with the world.

In this paper, we discuss Ned Hall’s critique of David Lewis’s counterfactual theory of causation, particularly due to its alleged inability to account for cases of double prevention. To do so, we focus on Pablo Melogno’s response to Hall, where he claims that Hall’s proposed tension between the concept of dependence and the locality thesis in cases of double prevention results in essential details being omitted to complete the causal chain in the examples used by Hall. Here we propose to take a step further in the defense of the counterfactual theory advanced by Melogno. We will review the examples proposed by Hall, the modifications complexified by Melogno and the corollaries that follow them. We will propose some relevant conceptual extensions to the ideas of the three authors

This paper analyses J. Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy from the point of view of conflict. Leaving aside the external criticisms that object to the validity claims of this political theory, it is argued that, along with the search for consensus, conflict is also constitutive of this theoretical approach to democracy. This relationship (between consensus and conflict) in deliberative democracy is justified by taking into account not only the reconstructive procedure of the pragmatic presuppositions of argumentative discourse that are inherent to decision making processes, but also by making explicit the democratic implications of its theoretical approach to institutional organisation, and the consequent interaction between the formal and informal spaces of politics in the rule of law. The explanation and analysis of this connection, which the Frankfurt philosopher does not recognise, contributes to the theoretical expansion of deliberative democracy without thereby nullifying its conceptual status.