UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 27-53 ( www.a360grados.net )
Armonía Dialógica: tonk, Teoría Constructiva de Tipos y Reglas para Jugadores Anónimos
Juan Redmond, Shahid Rahman
Abstract: En la bibliografía reciente sobre lógica dialógica se estudia el caso de tonk y el concepto antirrealista de armonía. Ahora bien, desde la publicación de esos textos la teoría dialógica ha sido vinculada con la Teoría Constructiva de Tipos (CTT) la cual posee sus propios medios para responder a tonk. El objetivo principal del presente artículo es mostrar que, desde la perspectiva dialógica, la armonía de las reglas de la CTT es consecuencia de un nivel más fundamental de significado en el que las reglas se formulan independientemente del jugador que las aplica.
Keywords: significado, pragmática, inferencia, juegos, constructivismo, lógica dialógica, tipos
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.13949
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UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 55-72 ( www.a360grados.net )
Kant and Natural Kind Terms
Luca Forgione
Abstract: As is well known, the linguistic/philosophical reflection on natural kind terms has undergone a remarkable development in the early seventies with Putnam and Kripke’s essentialist approaches (cf. §3), touching upon different aspects (metaphysical and epistemological in particular) of Kant’s slant. Preliminarily, however, it might be useful to review some of the theoretical stages in Locke and Leibniz’s approaches on natural kind terms in the light of contemporary reflections (cf. § 2), to eventually pinpoint Kant’s contribution and see how some commentators have placed it within the theory of direct reference (cf. §4). Starting with textual evidence even from the logical corpus (cf. §§5-6), in the present essay I will attempt to discuss some of the arguments dismissing Kant’s adherence to this view. These assume that in his approach to the semantics of natural kind terms, Kant appears to be still holding on to a nominalist/conceptualist position, though he seems to be well aware of a few key issues for the theorists of direct reference (§§7-8).
Keywords: Kant; theory of natural kind terms; direct reference theory; indexicality; Leibniz
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.14436
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UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 73-89 ( www.a360grados.net )
Consciousness and Theory of Mind: a Common Theory?
Miguel Ángel Sebastián
Abstract: Many philosophers and scientists have argued that the difference between phenomenally conscious states and other kind of states lies in the implicit self-awareness that conscious states have. Higher-Order Representationalist (HOR) theories, attempt to explain such a self-awareness by means of a higher-order representation. Consciousness relies on our capacity to represent our own mental states, consciousness depends on our Theory of Mind. Such an ability can, at least conceptually, be decomposed into another two: mindreading and metacognition.
In this paper I will argue that consciousness cannot depend on mindreading. The tenability of HOR theories depends, therefore, on the relation between mindreading and metacognition. I analyze several views on such a relation and argue that none of them seem to be a plausible option for HOR theories.
Keywords: Consciousness, Self-awareness, Higher-Order Theories, Theory of Mind, Mindreading, Metacognition.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.14091
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UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 91-105 ( www.a360grados.net )
Bacterial species pluralism in the light of medicine and endosymbiosis
Javier Suárez
Abstract: This paper aims to offer a new argument in defence bacterial species pluralism. To do so, I shall first present the particular issues derived from the conflict between the non-theoretical understanding of species as units of classification and the theoretical comprehension of them as units of evolution. Secondly, I shall justify the necessity of the concept of species for the bacterial world, and show how medicine and endosymbiotic evolutionary theory make use of different concepts of bacterial species due to their distinctive purposes. Finally, I shall show how my argument provides a new source of defence for bacterial pluralism.
Keywords: bacterial species; endosymbiotic theory; pluralism; species concept; unit of classification; unit of evolution
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.13242
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UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 107-123 ( www.a360grados.net )
Unification and Confirmation
Ilkka Niiniluoto
Abstract: According to the traditional requirement, formulated by William Whewell in his account of the “consilience of inductions” in 1840, a scientific hypothesis should have unifying power in the sense that it explains and predicts several mutually independent phenomena. Variants of this notion of consilience or unification include deductive, inductive, and approximate systematization. Inference from surprising phenomena to their theoretical explanations was called abduction by Charles Peirce. As a unifying theory is independently testable by new kinds of phenomena, it should also receive confirmation from its empirical success. The study of the prospects of probabilistic Bayesianism to motivate this kind of criterion for abductive confirmation is shown to lead to two quite distinct conceptions of unification.
Keywords: abduction, approximation, consilience, confirmation, systematization, testability, unification
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.13084
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UPV/EHU. Theoria, 2016, Vol. 31/1, pp. 125-134 ( www.a360grados.net )
Difference making, explanatory relevance, and mechanistic models.
Dingmar van Eck, Raoul Gervais
Abstract: In this paper we consider mechanistic explanations for biologic malfunctions. Drawing on Lipton’s (1993) work on difference making, we offer three reasons why one should distinguish i) mechanistic features that only make a difference to the malfunction one aims to explain, from ii) features that make a difference to both the malfunction and normal functioning. Recognition of the distinction is important for a) repair purposes, b) mechanism discovery, and c) understanding. This analysis extends current mechanistic thinking, which fails to appreciate the distinction. We illustrate our contribution with a case on sleeping disorders as arising from disruptions of circadian rhythms.
Keywords: mechanistic explanation; difference making; explanatory relevance; malfunction explanation
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1387/theoria.13282
