O problema da relação mente-corpo e a consciência como sua manifestação

Pós-graduação em Filosofia - FFC

O legado de Descartes

The criticism of Cartesian philosophy is correlated on four pillars: the fragmentation of knowledge, the separation between mind and body, the impossibility of the reductionist method for explanation of natural phenomena, and in the superiority of the reason as the only valid form of knowledge. These last two pillars, as many environmentalists claim, contributed decisively to the devaluation of the res extensa over the res cogitans. To check this we used as a theoretical framework the following texts: Discourse on Method, Rules for Conduct of the Spirit and Metaphysical Meditations. By reading these works it was found that the first two pillars (the fragmentation of knowledge and the separation between mind and body) there are no theoretical basis in texts. The failure of the reductionist method to explain the ecological and atomic phenomena and the overcoming of reason as the only valid form of knowledge are supported in their philosophy.

The Development of Science Education Research in Brazil and Contributions from the History and Philosophy of Science

Over the last 50 years a new research area, science education research, has arisen and undergone singular development worldwide. In the specific case of Brazil, research in science education first appeared systematically 40 years ago, as a consequence of an overall renovation in the field of science education. This evolution was also related to the political events taking place in the country. We will use the theoretical work of Rene Kaes on the development of groups and institutions as a basis for our discussion of the most important aspects that have helped the area of science education research develop into an institution and kept it operating as such. The growth of this area of research can be divided into three phases: The first was related to its beginning and early configurations; the second consisted of a process of consolidation of this institution; and the third consists of more recent developments, characterised by a multiplicity of research lines and corresponding challenges to be faced. In particular, we will analyse the special contributions to this study gleaned from the field known as the history and philosophy of science.

The informational turn in Philosophy: any novelty in the study of Mind?

The concept of information is analyzed starting from Adams' hypothesis in The Informational Turn in Philosophy, according to which there has been a far-reaching turn in Philosophy following the publication of Turing's article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Adams maintains that new guidelines are being indicated in philosophical research, having the concept of "information" as the basis for treatment of classical problems, such as the relationships between mind-body, perception-action, and the nature of knowledge, amongst others. Partially agreeing with Adams, we believe, however, that his hypothesis faces difficulties, the most fundamental of which concerns the different meanings given to the concept of information. We argue that even though the concept of information underlying the mechanicist proposal of Turing, according to which "to think is to compute", is indeed being employed in Philosophy, this is not because of its mechanistic nature, but mainly due to the representationist presupposition dominant in this area. From this point of view, the informational turn in philosophy would not provide any great novelty, given that since the earliest days philosophical approaches to the nature of mind have always been mainly representationist. The novelty would not lie specifically in the Turing thesis, but in reflections on the nature of information, especially ecological information, and its relation to action.

The Rechtslehre doctrine and Kant's philosophy of history

The text is divided in two phases. In the first phase, consisting of three parts, the main concepts of Kant's Doctrine of Right are considered in a comprehensive approach related to: the issue of the relations between natural right and positive right, problem closely connected to that of the relations between natural state and civil state, private right and public right; to the doctrine of property and its connection with political right. on treating the right in its several types, we intend to appoint the practical reasoning as a background of the Doctrine. In the second phase, concerning its last section, the consideration on the presence of the practical reasoning into the right is placed before some specificities of Kant's phylosophy of history, with the intent of establishing the possible relation between Rechtslehre and that philosophy.

Schwinger and Pegg-Barnett approaches and a relationship between angular and Cartesian quantum descriptions: II. Phase spaces

Following the discussion-in state-space language-presented in a preceding paper, we work on the passage from the phase-space description of a degree of freedom described by a finite number of states (without classical counterpart) to one described by an infinite (and continuously labelled) number of states. With this it is possible to relate an original Schwinger idea to the Pegg-Barnett approach to the phase problem. In phase-space language, this discussion shows that one can obtain the Weyl-Wigner formalism, for both Cartesian and angular coordinates, as limiting elements of the discrete phase-space formalism.

The Dirac-Hestenes equation for spherical symmetric potentials in the spherical and Cartesian gauges

In this paper, using the apparatus of the Clifford bundle formalism, we show how straightforwardly solve in Minkowski space-time the Dirac-Hestenes equation - which is an appropriate representative in the Clifford bundle of differential forms of the usual Dirac equation - by separation of variables for the case of a potential having spherical symmetry in the Cartesian and spherical gauges. We show that, contrary to what is expected at a first sight, the solution of the Dirac-Hestenes equation in both gauges has exactly the same mathematical difficulty. © World Scientific Publishing Company.

Um estudo acerca dos estados mentais: o debate internalismo versus externalismo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Uma investigação sobre o problema mente-corpo segundo o ponto de vista de John Searle

Pós-graduação em Filosofia - FFC

A influência da matemática nas regras para a direção do espírito e em o discurso do método

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O papel das representações mentais na percepção-ação: uma perspectiva crítica

Pós-graduação em Filosofia - FFC

Humanization of health care: a reflexive theoretical essay based on the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Realismo, Nominalismo e Cartesianismo: Sentido e natureza das idéias como representações do mundo

The approach about the ideas, understood as metal representations, has practically bookmarked the whole Philosophy History, since the ancient Greece to the contemporary period. A lot of interpretations have been given to the meaning and to the nature of the ideas by many schools, among them lots of Realism slopes. This paper aims to present, from a historical and epistemological fragment, some theoretical perpectives, with emphasis in the realistic, nominalist and Cartesian proposals in relation to the formation and nature of the ideas.

Os primeiros trabalhos de Merleau-Ponty: convergência filosófica e diplopia metodológica

The discussion of different themes revealed in the initial works of Merleau-Ponty, which are especially relevant in debates on the foundations of psychology, demands a closer look at the strategically complicity, from a psychological viewpoint, between The Structure of Behavior and the Phenomenology of perception. That context constitutes the background for this article. Based on the prerogative of this complicity, the goal is to present a reading that highlights primordial issues to outline the philosophical intention of that author. Despite the use of distinct methodological perspectives, both are part of one single work project. They fit into the discussion of Cartesian antinomies in philosophy and depart from the delimitation of the same problem, i.e. that of perception, as a point of integration between the two fundamental orders of Descartes’ thinking: the soul and the body.

Pedagogical practices carried out during an in-service teachers education project: approaching history and philosophy of science to physics teaching

We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled “The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers’ pedagogical practice”, lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students’ alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].