Angel Garcia

Contemporary literature distinguishes two ways to defend the claim that cognition is a matter of representations: one, cognition involves representation-hungry tasks; two, cognition involves a complex form of informational covariation between subcomponents of a system with an adaptive function. Each of these conceptions involves a different notion of representation, and promotes a particular view of the architecture of cognition. But despite the differences, each of them aims to support the claim that cognition is a matter of representations on architectural constraints. The objective of this article is twofold: one, it is argued that architectural constraints do not entail either of those two ways to defend the claim that cognition is a matter of representations; two, it is claimed that both notions of representation share an objectionable common element – namely, the idea of a model that grounds the representational reading– that must be abandoned, in favor of a more economical explanation in terms of causal relations, in order to get a clear view of cognition.

En el Título VI de su Thesaurus Indicus, Diego de Avendaño expone su opinión ética sobre los Corregidores de Indios, y su obligación de no hacer negocios en los que estuvieran involucrados los indígenas. Entre otros, el del cultivo y comercio de la coca. Se recogen en este trabajo los datos que sobre dichos cultivo y comercio nos aportan los cronistas y se analiza la opinión que, desde el punto de vista ético, nos da el jesuita sobre ello.Palabras llave: Diego de Avendaño; Thesaurus Indicus; ética colonial; Corregidores de Indios; coca.In the VI title of his Thesaurus Indicus, Diego de Avendaño shows his ethical opinion of the Spanish Magistrates in charge of the Indians, and their obligation of not doing business that would involve Indians, like the harvesting and trading of coca leaves. This article examines the information about that cropping and trading which is given to us by chroniclers and writers of colonial times, and the opinion that this Jesuit gives us from an ethical point of view.Palabras llave: Diego de Avendaño; Thesaurus Indicus; colonial ethics; Corregidores de Indios coca.

Durante la Edad Media y, más aún, la Edad Moderna, se justificó la esclavitud apelando a la autoridad de Aristóteles. Posiblemente la esclavitud propiamente tal, que considera al esclavo como mera mercancía, sea un invento griego. Lo sea o no, Aristóteles vendría a tratar de justificar su existencia. A partir de él, sus argumentos se utilizaron por filósofos y teólogos de todas las tendencias. Se pretende demostrar aquí que, por encima de estos argumentos tradicionales, los típicos conceptos griegos y aristotélicos de polis y democracia resultarían irrealizables sin el de la esclavitud.Palabras llave: Aristóteles; esclavitud; polis.During the Middle Ages, and even more in Modern Age, slavery was justified appealing to the authority of Aristotle. Slavery as such, in which slaves are considered mere merchandise, is possibly a Greek invention. Be it or not, Aristotle would justify its existence. Beginning with him, his arguments were used by philosophers and theologians of all tendencies. This article wants to demonstrate that, upon all these traditional arguments, those typical Greek and Aristotelian concepts such as polis and democracy, would be unworkable without that of slavery.Palabras llave: Aristotle; slavery; polis.

El presente trabajo, escrito en ocasión del centenario de García Bacca, pretende poner de manifiesto la dimensión pedagógica del Maestro. Y ello, a propósito de su trabajo como estudioso de la Filosofía Colonial Venezolana, tema frecuentemente obviado cuando se valora el trabajo de este filósofo.Palabras llave: García Bacca; Filosofía Colonial Venezolana; Pedagogía filosófica.This paper, written on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of García Bacca, proposes an exposition of the pedagogical dimension of this teacher, in relation to his works as a scholar in Venezuelan Colonial Philosophy, a theme frequently avoided when the work of this philosopher is evaluated.Palabras llave: García Bacca; Venezuelan Colonial Philosophy; philosophical pedagogy.

Este artículo es un estudio comparativo de la manera en que Aristóteles y Alexis de Tocqueville conciben a la familia dentro del contexto de la democracia antigua y moderna, respectivamente. Se elabora un recorrido por la institución de la familia y el matrimonio en Grecia y Roma, y sus vinculaciones con las ideas políticas de esas civilizaciones. Igualmente, se contrasta el entendimiento antiguo de la democracia con el de Tocqueville, y se analiza la vinculación que éste estableció entre el hogar y la esfera pública en las democracias modernas.Palabras llave: Aristóteles; Alexis de Tocqueville; democracia antigua; democracia moderna; familia.This article is a comparative study of the way Aristotle and Alexis de Tocqueville conceive the institution of the family within the context of ancient and modern democracy, respectively. A survey through the institution of family and marriage in Greece and Rome is made, and their links with the political ideas of those civilizations. In the same manner, the article contrasts the ancient understanding of democracy with Tocqueville’s, and it analyzes the link that Tocqueville established between the domestic home and the public sphere in modern democracies.Palabras llave: Aristotle; Alexis de Tocqueville; ancient democracy; modern democracy; family.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the nature of nonconceptual, as opposed to conceptual, states and their content, by exploring the suggestion that the distinction between the conceptual and the nonconceptual be mapped onto the distinction between the linguistic and the nonlinguistic. This approach gives special relevance to our intuitions about the cognitive relationship between small children and adults, especially regarding the acquisition of concepts, in the course of normal cognitive development. Assuming that there is a developmental challenge to be met, the paper considers both the conceptualist and nonconceptualist strategies used to meet it; and concludes that conceptualism is a more satisfying option

The objective of this paper is to discuss the nature of nonconceptual, as opposed to conceptual, states and their content, by exploring the suggestion that the distinction between the conceptual and the nonconceptual be mapped onto the distinction between the linguistic and the nonlinguistic. This approach gives special relevance to our intuitions about the cognitive relationship between small children and adults, especially regarding the acquisition of concepts, in the course of normal cognitive development. Assuming that there is a developmental challenge to be met, the paper considers both the conceptualist and nonconceptualist strategies used to meet it; and concludes that conceptualism is a more satisfying option.

An obstacle for the attribution of self-consciousness to animals is that they lack the linguistic ability to use the first-person pronoun. To overcome the obstacle, current tests rely on the availability of behavioural measures of self-consciousness in the absence of language. However, this is not sufficient, for unless a distinction is drawn between epistemic and expressive varieties of self-consciousness, further puzzles threaten the validity of the research. This paper defends the distinction and shows how to re-evaluate current research into animal self-consciousness in its light, so as to improve conceptual clarity in this area.