Platón y Aristóteles. Dos ontologías en confrontación

La finalidad del presente escrito consiste en plantear dos tesis respecto de la naturaleza de la metafísica y de su objeto en el marco del pensamiento de Aristóteles, los cuales suponen y certifican a la vez la irreductibilidad de las ontologías platónica y aristotélica. A través de tal planteamiento se tratará de dejar claro que la sustancia aristotélica no es una noción operacional o puramente taxonómica, sino que posee un contenido ontológico propio e invariable, y que en dicho contenido radica la diferencia específica de la ontología aristotélica respecto de la platónica.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Types of Predication in Aristotle (Posterior Analytics I 22)

Predication is a complex entity in Aristotelian thought. The aim of the present essay is to account for this complexity, making explicit the diverse forms it assumes. To this end, we turn to a crucial chapter of the Posterior Analytics (1 22), where, in the most complete and developed manner within the corpus, Aristotle proceeds to systematize this topic. From the analysis, it will become apparent that predication can assume, generically, five forms: 1) the predication of essence (to autôi einai katêgoresthai), that is of the genus and the specific differentia; 2) essential predication (to autôi einai katêgoresthai), that is either of the genus or of the differentiae (or their genera); 3) the predication of accidents per se; 4) the predication of simple accidents (hôs sumbebêkota katêgoresthai); 5) accidental predication (kata sumbebêkos katêgoresthai). However, only types 2-4 are forms of strict predication (haplôs ). In effect, the “predication” of essence is not a genuine predication, but a formula for identity, constituting, technically, the statement of the essence of the subject (or its definition). On the other hand, accidental “predication” can only be conceived of as such equivocally, since it results from a linguistic accident through which the ontological subject of the attribution suffers a displacement to the syntactic position of the predicate, which is not, by nature, its own. In neither case does the phrase bring about any legitimate predication. The study concludes with a discussion of Aristotle’s thesis according to which no substance can be a predicate, which is implied by its notion of accidental predication, a thesis which has been – and in our opinion wrongly so – challenged in modern times.Predication is a complex entity in Aristotelian thought. The aim of the present essay is to account for this complexity, making explicit the diverse forms it assumes. To this end, we turn to a crucial chapter of the Posterior Analytics (1 22), where, in the most complete and developed manner within the corpus, Aristotle proceeds to systematize this topic. From the analysis, it will become apparent that predication can assume, generically, five forms: 1) the predication of essence (to autôi einai katêgoresthai), that is of the genus and the specific differentia; 2) essential predication (to autôi einai katêgoresthai), that is either of the genus or of the differentiae (or their genera); 3) the predication of accidents per se; 4) the predication of simple accidents (hôs sumbebêkota katêgoresthai); 5) accidental predication (kata sumbebêkos katêgoresthai). However, only types 2-4 are forms of strict predication (haplôs ). In effect, the “predication” of essence is not a genuine predication, but a formula for identity, constituting, technically, the statement of the essence of the subject (or its definition). On the other hand, accidental “predication” can only be conceived of as such equivocally, since it results from a linguistic accident through which the ontological subject of the attribution suffers a displacement to the syntactic position of the predicate, which is not, by nature, its own. In neither case does the phrase bring about any legitimate predication. The study concludes with a discussion of Aristotle’s thesis according to which no substance can be a predicate, which is implied by its notion of accidental predication, a thesis which has been – and in our opinion wrongly so – challenged in modern times

Aspasian Infidelities. On Aspasius’ Philosophical Background (EN I)

The discussion on Aspasius’ philosophical background has benefited in recent years from a wide consensus. According to this consensus, Aspasius should be regarded as a Peripatetic, or even as an “orthodox Peripatetic” (Barnes’ phrase). It is true that Aspasius’ commentary is generally in tune with Aristotle. It is true that he shows an extensive knowledge of Aristotelian research pertinent for the discussions and that he uses Aristotelian concepts, principles, and doctrines with ease as if they were his own, thus denoting an old assimila- tion of those materials and a long accommodation to them. In a word, it is true that Aspasius is an Aristotelian. He is, however, as I will try to show in this paper, an Aristotelian strongly influenced by Stoicism. I will do so by selecting those points from Aspasius’ commentary on book I of the Nicomachean Ethics where the Stoic influence is most flagrantly evident, namely in his interpretation of art (τέχνη), his conception of continence and incontinence and, especially, his interpretation of the relation between happiness, virtue, and external goods in Aristotle.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chatbot development to assist patients in health care services

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia InformáticaDados de alta qualidade sobre tratamentos médicos e de informação técnica tornaram-se acessíveis, criando novas oportunidades de E-Saúde para a recuperação de um paciente. A implementação da aprendizagem automática nestas soluções provou ser essencial e eficaz na elaboração de aplicações para o utilizador para aliviar a sobrecarga do sector de saúde. Atualmente, muitas interações com os utentes são realizadas via telefonemas e mensagens de texto. Os agentes de conversação podem responder a estas questões, fomentando uma rápida interação com os pacientes. O objetivo fundamental desta dissertação é prestar apoio aos pacientes, fornecendo uma fonte de informação fidedigna que lhes permita instruir-se e esclarecer dúvidas sobre os procedimentos e repercussões dos seus problemas de saúde. Este propósito foi concretizado não apenas através de uma plataforma Web intuitiva e acessível, composta por perguntas frequentes, mas também integrando um agente de conversação inteligente para responder a questões. Para este fim, cientificamente, foi necessário conduzir a investigação, implementação e viabilidade dos agentes de conversação no domínio fechado para os cuidados de saúde. Constitui um importante contributo para a comunidade de desenvolvimento de chatbots, na qual se reúnem as últimas inovações e descobertas, bem os desafios actuais da aprendizagem automática, contribuindo para a consciencialização desta área.High-quality data on medical treatments and facility-level information has become accessible, creating new eHealth opportunities for the recuperation of a patient. Machine learning implementation in these solutions has been proven to be essential and effective in building user-centred applications to relieves the burden on the healthcare sector. Nowadays, many patient interactions are handled through healthcare services via phone calls and text message exchange. Conversation agents can provide answers to these queries, promoting fast patient interaction. The underlying aim of this dissertation is to assist patients by providing a reliable source of information to educate themselves and clarify any doubts about procedures and implications of their health issue. This purpose was achieved not only through an intuitive and accessible web platform, with frequently asked questions, but also by integrating an intelligent chatting agent to answer questions. To this end, scientifically, it was necessary to conduct the research, implementation and feasibility of closed-domain conversation agents for healthcare. It is a valuable input for the chatbot development community, which assembles the latest innovations and findings, as well as the current challenges of machine learning, contributing to the awareness of this field

Study spaces at ISEG : enhancing individual study in the library

Mestrado Bolonha em ManagementThe aim of this project is to understand the challenges that academic libraries are going through in this new digital era, where their main purpose is changing, from a place to store books to a more human centered space for people to gather, work and study. Particularly, it aims to understand how the current ISEG library can evolve and become a more relevant space for ISEG students for the times to come. Through a literature review, this project aims to understand how libraries around the world have been adapting, what philosophy they have been following to redesign their spaces to become more relevant and useful for their communities, and what conclusions have already been found for the renovation of libraries and study spaces to the current reality. A quantitative questionnaire was also used to gather more information for the project, allowing a deeper understanding of the current situation of ISEG's study spaces and its library. Through an online questionnaire, with 76 participants, it was possible to collect information on the study habits of ISEG students, understand their current needs in relation to the existing study spaces, and identify what are the needs for new services and resources. The analysis of these results confirmed that the library study spaces need to be updated, the library spaces at ISEG are used mainly to study and work, and not to access books or information, which reinforces the need to renovate these spaces, converting them into spaces more dedicated to study and work. At the end, potential solutions for the current ISEG spaces are presented, suggesting the best ways to adapt the ISEG library, based on all the information collected in literature and as well as based on the student’s opinions gather from the project questionnaire.O objetivo deste projeto é compreender os desafios que as bibliotecas académicas estão a enfrentar nesta nova era digital, onde o seu principal objetivo está a mudar, de um lugar feito para armazenar livros para um espaço mais centrado nas pessoas, onde estas se podem reunir, trabalhar e estudar. Este projeto pretende também compreender como a atual biblioteca do ISEG pode evoluir e tornar-se num espaço mais atrativo e relevante para os estudantes do ISEG para os tempos futuros. Através da revisão bibliográfica, este projeto pretende compreender como as bibliotecas ao redor do mundo têm vindo a adaptar-se, que filosofia têm seguido para redesenhar os seus espaços de modo a tornarem-se mais relevantes e úteis para as suas comunidades e que conclusões já foram encontradas sobre a renovação das bibliotecas e dos seus espaços de estudo para a atualidade. Foi também utilizado um questionário quantitativo para recolher mais informações para este projeto, permitindo uma compreensão mais profunda da situação atual dos espaços de estudo do ISEG e da sua biblioteca. Através de um questionário online, que contou com 76 participantes, foi possível recolher informações sobre os hábitos de estudo dos alunos do ISEG, compreender as suas necessidades atuais em relação aos espaços de estudo existentes e identificar quais são as necessidades de novos serviços e recursos. A análise destes resultados confirmou que os espaços de estudo da biblioteca precisam de ser atualizados, que são utilizados principalmente para estudar e trabalhar, e não para a consulta de livros ou informação, o que reforça a necessidade de renovar estes espaços, convertendo-os em espaços mais dedicados ao estudo e ao trabalho. No final, são apresentadas possíveis soluções para os atuais espaços do ISEG, sugerindo as melhores formas de adaptar a biblioteca do ISEG, com base em toda a informação recolhida na literatura e também com base nas opiniões dos estudantes recolhidas a partir do questionário do projeto.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

(In)Preparação dos docentes face a novos desafios pedagógicos

O ensino superior em Portugal segue uma prática pedagógica conservadora, repetitiva. Cada nova geração de professores herda de seus professores a forma de ensinar, que persiste desde a ancestralidade do ensino superior. Numa perspectiva mecânica e descontextualizada, considera-se que a função do professor é ensinar. De acordo com esta visão simplista, os conhecimentos são colocados à disposição do aluno de forma transmissiva, muitas vezes desacompanhada de enquadramento prático e experimental. Assim, o professor baseia-se em diapositivos e, eventualmente, em exercícios práticos para que o aluno possa, apreender os conceitos, as relações e a prática do conhecimento adquirido. Esta postura acrítica faz com que esta prática perdure, não sendo equacionadas alternativas quer por comodidade, quer por desconhecimento, associado à lacuna de formação pedagógica, em particular, nas áreas técnicas. Este trabalho discute a perceção das dificuldades e limitações dos docentes relacionadas com a construção de uma prática pedagógica não convencional, que recorre a conceitos de jogos para incrementar a motivação dos alunos. Esta surge na unidade curricular de Gestão de Sistemas e de Redes do curso de Engenharia Informática do Instituto Politécnico de Bragança e procura substituir o sistema de avaliação tradicional por uma mecânica de níveis e pontuação associada. Adicionalmente, também inclui jogos educativos (role-playing games, jogos de cartas, jogos de tabuleiro) nas experiências de aprendizagem, dando a possibilidade de os alunos optarem pelo caminho mais adequado à sua própria forma de aprender.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Head posture detection for measuring preschoolers concentration

Several decades of research clearly demonstrate that high-quality, developmentally appropriate, early childhood programs, produce short and long-term positive effects on children’s cognitive and social development. Research with the Leuven Involvement Scale has shown that the levels of children’s involvement are a predictor of quality of learning. An involved child gets extremely fascinated and absorbed by the activity he is performing. There are several indicators that can be used to assess children involvement, such as concentration, energy, com- plexity and creativity, facial expression and posture, persistence, precision, reaction time, language and satisfaction. Some of these indicators require that the teacher pay attention to posture, measure and record the time that the child is facing a specific activity. Head posture usually indicates the focus of attention, since it coincides with the gaze direction, the direction and focus of a person’s eyes. This task is complex and requires several observations, on many children, distributed through the day. Usually, this is performed with a video recorder to help the teacher to evaluate the observation. The work described in this paper focus on how modern image processing technology can provide a valu- able aid to kindergarten teachers, helping them in the task of registering observations. In this context, head posture is automatically detected and measured, and time is recorded. Although easy for a human to interpret the orientation and movement of the human head, it is a challenge to computers. Of course there is always subjectivity in this kind of observation, but we hope that this tool can contribute to help teachers to make informed and critical judgments about the quality of teaching and learning they offer

Preschool observation supported by smartphone applications

In the field of early childhood education, some benchmarks to evaluate the quality of contexts has been developed. One of these benchmarks, developed in the scope of the Effective Early Learning Project, uses the Child Tracking Observation Schedule. The observer records his perception about the concentration, persistence, motivation, energy, satisfaction, complexity and creativity, reaction time and language, trying to establish how the child really feels and experiences the overall learning process. This is a complex process that requires several observations of different children, through the daily routine. The observation results are, essentially, translated in a paper based table, summarizing the human perception in a condensed form. Many details persist only in the memory of the observer, although they are typically lost and it is not possible to pass them to another observer, to discuss results as well as to train new observers. The flexibility of smartphones is well known by the general population, allowing their users to make phone calls, check e-mail, get directions, take photographs and many other operations. Our proposal, discussed in this paper, is to use smartphones to assist kindergarten teachers in quality control observa- tions. A custom made application, to allow observers to register observation details in the smartphone, is described. This application also allows them to record other type of material, such as video, photos and sound, thus making a complete record of each observation. This record will be used for assessment of the observation as well as to train new observers

Novos públicos no Ensino Superior: perceções e expectativas dos docentes

As políticas educativas em Portugal têm incentivado a integração de novos públicos no ensino superior, criando novas oportunidades pelo alargamento da oferta formativa, através de Cursos de Especialização Tecnológica [CET]. Os CET foram criados como forma de colmatar as elevadas taxas de abandono escolar ao nível do ensino secundário, potenciando a entrada dos jovens no mercado de trabalho. A criação destes cursos expressa a ideia de democratização do acesso ao ensino superior para os jovens que, não tendo concluído com sucesso o ensino secundário, tenham a oportunidade de se integrar na vida académica ou profissional através da obtenção de um diploma desta natureza. A preocupação com a qualidade do ensino superior tem incentivado os docentes a investirem na sua formação levando-os a obter graus académicos elevados. Nesta perspetiva, questiona-se a forma como estes docentes podem contribuir para a qualidade formativa destes novos públicos. Tendo em consideração este enquadramento, o presente estudo centra-se na problemática da integração dos alunos dos CET, analisando o perfil dos docentes, as suas expectativas e o seu grau de satisfação pedagógica. A recolha de dados foi realizada através de inquéritos aplicados aos docentes, procurando relevar diferenças a nível de desempenho pedagógico e científico, métodos de ensino e aprendizagem, motivação e alternativas de avaliação. A percentagem de horas de contato bem como a tipologia de aulas é substancialmente diferente das licenciaturas e mestrado, justificando uma análise pormenorizada das diferenças e da forma como a formação é instanciada