Jaime Nubiola

Todas las reflexiones acerca del signo –convencionalismo-naturalismo, realismo- nominalismo, empirismo-racionalismo, concepción diádica-concepción triádica- se articulan en torno a las relaciones entre signo, pensamiento y realidad. Aunque todos coinciden en que un signo es "aliquid stat pro aliquo", esta antigua definición de carácter muy general adquiere implicaciones muy distintas según los presupuestos de cada autor y, todavía hoy, carecemos de un consenso en la definición de "signo".

The relations between the Scottish School of Common Sense and the Catalan philosophy of Martí d'Eixalà and Llorens i Barba are well known. But the links between that Catalan tradition and the thought of Eugenio d'Ors (1881-1954) have not been studied. The study of the texts from d'Ors and of the cultural context of his philosophical development gives strong support to the suggestion that the germinal role that Scottish philosophy had during the XIX century in the so-called School of Barcelona was taken over in the first decades of the XX century by a special blend of pragmatism and vitalism coming from Paris.

The main purpose of this article is to show how the language is conceived in the encyclical Fides et ratio, especially taking into account its relationship with truth. It is also attempted to present an analitical study of the text concerning language: the different references to it and the consideration of the modern sciences of language; how truth is linked to language and signification, and how human language though linguistic communication can surely renew and enhance the rational expressin of Christian faith

Los filósofos han construido la filosofía a partir de la reflexión sobre el hombre y su realidad circundante más inmediata. Al menos en la época presente, la filosofía en cuanto reflexión sobre el ser, debe partir —en mi opinión— de la consideración atenta de los artefactos que constituyen casi en su totalidad —con excepción de los seres humanos y de algunos pocos animales y plantas que hay en nuestro ámbito habitual— el mundo efectivo en el que nos encontramos: la pluma con la que escribo, el papel, la mesa, la silla, los libros, los cigarrillos, la habitación y todo el edificio en el que estoy, incluso las palabras que estoy garabateando, la lámpara que me ilumina, quizás también la luz eléctrica que despide la bombilla: ¿no son todas esas cosas artefactos? Me permito aventurar de antemano que esas cosas, los artefactos, son los elementos relevantes para el filósofo de nuestros días: la noción de artefacto —que tiene una vetusta tradición— puede proporcionar un modelo racional explicativo válido para afrontar viejas y nuevas cuestiones de la metafísica y del lenguaje.

We show how Peirce's architectonics folds on itself and finds local consequences that correspond to the major global hypotheses of the system. In particular, we study how the pragmaticist maxim can be technically represented in Peirce's existential graphs, well-suited to reveal an underlying continuity in logical operations, and can provide suggestive philosophical analogies. Further, using the existential graphs, we formalize — and prove one direction of — a “local proof of pragmaticism,” trying thus to explain the prominent place that existential graphs can play in the architectonics of pragmaticism, as Peirce persistently advocated. Finally, we present a web of “continuous iterations” of some key Peircean concepts that supports a “lattice of partial proofs” of pragmaticism

La obra de Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), considerado por muchos como un filósofo del siglo XIX para el siglo XXI, constituye una verdadera mina de aportaciones originales para entender el complejo y cambiante mundo que nos rodea. Gracias a un permanente empeño de colaboración, los autores de este libro han podido observar el conjunto de una situación dada alrededor de Peirce, concentrándose específicamente en el vaivén comunicativo producido alrededor de la díada Peirce-Mundo Hispánico. En la primera parte se contiene la información disponible sobre el viaje de Peirce a España en 1870, y sus anotaciones sobre España y los españoles dispersas en sus escritos. La segunda parte provee una amplia perspectiva sobre “todo lo que el mundo hispánico ha dicho sobre Peirce” entre los años 1883 y 2000. El trabajo de revisión de la bibliografía consiste en un catálogo razonado de la producción hispánica sobre Peirce y un estudio crítico previo donde se delinean los aportes fundamentales, las carencias y las líneas de tensión de esa producción.

La invitación a colaborar en la prensa diaria con artículos que abordaran el fondo de la actualidad fue para Jaime Nubiola un verdadero desafío. Después de haber defendido durante años, en sus clases y fuera de ellas, la articulación del pensamiento con la vida, aquella invitación le abría la posibilidad de intentar hacer realidad ese ideal para una audiencia mucho más amplia. Así, con la mejor tradición de la filosofía hispánica, se propuso abordar en sus colaboraciones en la prensa temas vitales de la actualidad, diciendo cosas que llamaran la atención quizá por su forma y que por su profunda verdad invitaran a cada uno a seguir pensando por su cuenta. Algunos de los textos compilados son circunstanciales, porque toman pie de noticias del momento o de la realidad española, pero la reflexión que contienen trasciende de ordinario la actualidad para abordar asuntos de interés permanente: el valor del pluralismo, la verdad, creatividad, la articulación de pensamiento y vida, de razón y corazón, etc. En todos ellos se muestra una manera de hacer filosofía en sintonía con el pragmatismo clásico y contemporáneo. El volumen se completa con dos textos más extensos que pueden proporcionar al lector las coordenadas más generales de la manera de pensar del autor y también la razón última del título: sin libertad no hay pensamiento y sin pensamiento no hay libertad.

The aim of this paper is to describe Dewey’s reception in the Spanish-speaking countries that constitute the Hispanic world. Without any doubt, it can be said that in the past century Spain and the countries of South America have been a world apart, lagging far behind the mainstream Western world. It includes a number of names and facts about the early translation of Dewey’s works in Spain, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Argentina in the first half of the century and a brief explanation of the decline of Dewey in the second half. To a great extent, Dewey’s conception of education was immersed in the international movement of reform that started at the turn of the century and would eventually slowly but surely, renovate the structure of the educational system throughout the entire century, including that of South America. But it is equally clear that the Spanish-speaking countries have displayed a general ignorance of Dewey and, by extension, of American pragmatism during most of the century. In spite of mutual incomprehension, a deep affinity between Dewey’s pragmatism and Hispanic philosophy is suggested in this paper, anticipating that the gradual process of democratization of Spain and the Hispanic countries of South America may be in some sense related to the rediscovery of Dewey and to the application of his key ideas in education. After decades of neglect of Dewey and of his contribution, there is a strong feeling not only that his conception of things is important to understand the last century but that Dewey – along with Peirce and other American classical pragmatists – may very well prove to be a key thinker for the XXIst century also in the Hispanic world. Along this vein, the recent resurgence of pragmatism can be understood not as the latest academic fashion but the occasion to start to close the gap between the two worlds.

We find before us an excellent edition of the book which the influential American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-82) published in December of 1860, four months before the outbreak of the American Civil War. The central question which Emerson poses in this volume concerns the conduct of life, that is, of how to live. The titles of the nine essays, which compose the book, illustrate the themes tackled: “Fate,” “Power,” “Wealth”, “Culture,” “Behavior,” “Worship”, “Considerations by the Way,” “Beauty” and “Illusions.” As Callaway suggests, Emerson’s is not a philosophy in the sense of contemporary technicalities, “the basic tendency of his thought is a metaphysical idealism in which the soul and intuition or inspiration are central.” (p. xvi). As an essentially religious thinker, profoundly preoccupied with the human soul and with the development of human potentialities, he has always firmly opposed to slavery: one cannot refuse to others human beings the development of their distinctively human potentialities (p. xxvii).

As suggested in the subtitle, A New Philosophical Reading, the editor aspires in his Introduction and his notes to “facilitate a deeper understanding and a critical evaluation (...) of this crucial and difficult philosophical work” (p. ix). This was the last important book which James published during his lifetime. With it James aims at a critical evaluation of Hegelian monism and an exploration of the philosophical and theological alternatives. “Our world of some one hundred years on”—the editor says (p. ix)—“is much the better for James’ contribution, and understanding William James on pluralism deeply contributes even now to America’s self-understanding.”

In this reply to Professor Hookway’s lecture the comments are focused, first, on the topic of what dichotomies really are, since it is an illuminating way of understanding pragmatism in general and Putnam’s pragmatism in particular. Dichotomies are artifacts that we devise with some useful purpose in mind, but when inflated into absolute dichotomies they become metaphysical bogeys as it is illustrated by the twentieth century distinction between fact and value. Secondly, a brief comment on the so-called “thick” ethical concepts and artifact terms is presented, and finally it is added a word on John L. Austin, whose approach to dichotomies is aligned with pragmatism and Putnam.