Conceivability and Modal Knowledge

Christopher Hill contends that the metaphysical modalities can be reductively explained in terms of the subjunctive conditional and that this reductive explanation yields two tests for determining the metaphysical modality of a proposition. He goes on to argue that his reductive account of the metaphysical modalities in conjunction with his account of modal knowledge underwrites the further conclusion that conceivability does not provide a reliable test for metaphysical possibility. I argue (1) that Hill’s reductive explanation of the metaphysical modalities in terms of the subjunctive conditional does not yield a reductive explanation of knowledge of metaphysical modality in terms of knowledge of subjunctive conditionals, and (2) that his account of modal knowledge is at odds with his contention that conceivability does not provide epistemic access to metaphysical possibility

The Coherence of Empiricism

Rationalists often argue that empiricism is incoherent and conclude, on that basis, that some knowledge is a priori. I contend that such arguments against empiricism cannot be parlayed into an argument in support of the a priori since rationalism is open to the same arguments. I go on to offer an alternative strategy. The leading idea is that, instead of offering a priori arguments against empiricism, rationalists should marshal empirical support for their position

Essence and Explanation

In Necessary Beings, Bob Hale addresses two questions: What is the source of necessity? What is the source of our knowledge of it? He offers novel responses to them in terms of the metaphysical notion of nature or, more familiarly, essence. In this paper, I address Hale’s response to the first question. My assessment is negative. I argue that his essentialist explanation of the source of necessity suffers from three significant shortcomings. First, Hale’s leading example of an essentialist explanation merely asserts that the nature of an entity explains some necessity, but leaves unexplained how it does so. Second, his essentialist explanation of particular necessities introduces new necessities that remain unexplained. Third, Hale’s version of essentialism presupposes a controversial metaphysical theory of properties, for which he offers no defense

Pensamiento y arte post-dictadura : la desertización cultural

Fil: Casullo, Nicolás. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina.Durante los primeros años de la redemocratización, se instaló una fuerte tensión memorialista en la\ncultura argentina. Las derrotas políticas, la tragedia terrorista, el anquilosamiento de la izquierda y la\nfalta de imaginación general impidieron que intelectuales y artistas interpretaran la magnitud del giro\nque daría el país en los '90. Esa década impregnaría al campo cultural con una cierta barbarización y\nun antiintelectualismo caníbal contra la crítica y las formas más sofisticadas de pensamiento. La\nintervención del menemismo puede sintetizarse en megalibrerías, masivos espectáculos públicos y\nvisitas de estrellas del pensamiento mundial. Durante diciembre de 2001, el amplio campo de la cultura\nnacional terminaría por enfrentarse al espejo de su falta de ética, valores, identidad e inteligencia. Y\nsaldría del trance enriquecido y reconectado con su capacidad de resistencia

Los celos en las relaciones románticas : yo te amo, yo tampoco

Fil: Casullo, María Martina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina.Los celos constituyen una de las pasiones ancladas en lo más profundo de la subjetividad humana.\nSon sentimientos o emociones que surgen como un afán exagerado de poseer a alguien en forma\nexclusiva, cuya base es la infidelidad, real o imaginada, de la persona a quien se ama. Sentir celos es\nun fenómeno bastante corriente en la sociedad actual y no refleja siempre la existencia de un\nproblema psicopatológico

Desarrollo y construcción de las puntuaciones de prevalencia del Inventario Millon de Estilos de Personalidad (MIPS) para la población adulta de la ciudad de Buenos Aries

Many researchers have assessed individual differences using empirically-derived instruments alone. The lack of theoretically-derived instruments in the field of normal personality led T. Millon to develop the MlPS (Millon Index of Personality Styles, 1994). The MIPS is based on an ecological-evolutionary theory which proposes an explanation of the development of normal and abnormal personality styles. From the technical point of view, the questionnaire includes prevalence scores instead of other common transformation scores (T scores and percentiles). Prevalence score are based only on comparisons between persons who possess the particular psychological trait, that is to say they do not take into account the entire population in order to derive transformed test scores. Goals: To provide guidelines for constructing plavalence score based on data from the Argentinian population, and to provide cut off scores to make the MIPS a useful assessment tool. Subjects: The sample comprised 450 males artd 489 females aged between 18 and 65, stratified for age and educational level in accordance with National Census data. Results: Enhancing, Modifying and Individuating were the predominant pairs of Motivational aims section. Extraversion, Feeling and Systematizing were the most prevalent cognitive modes. The more adaptive pairs of interpersonal behaviors were the more prevalent. Style response pattern was similar to those reported in normative samples from the US populotion.Existen en la actualidad pocos modelos teóricos que expliquen que la personalidad es más que un agregado de factores obtenidos por procedimientos empiricos. Millon (1994) intenta dar cuenta de que la persorlalidad es mucho más que los rasgos conductuales que tienen las personas. Estas manifestaciones canductuales están ligadas a las aspiraciones y metas y al particular estilo de percibir y procesar la información, elementos que tomados en conjunto dan como resultado una configuración dinámica de estilos de persorlalidad. No hay demasiadas investigaciones que den cuenta de cómo se distribuyen los estilos de personalidad en poblaciones latinas. El objetivo de este estudio es establecer las prevalencias de los rasgos psicológicos que componen los estilos de personalidad para población general adulta residente en la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Se administró el inventario MlPS (Millon Index of Personality Styles, 1994) a 939 participantes adultos entre 18 y 65 años, estratificados, según los datos del censo nacional, por edades y nivel educativo (n = 450 varones y n = 489 mujeres). Se encontraron diferencias en las prevaleracias de los rasgos psicológicos que componen los estilos de persorlalidad para varones y para mujeres en tanto metas motivacionales, modos cogrtitivos y conductas interpersonales