Ricardo Silvestre

Federal University of Campina Grande
  •  366
    The concept of god in the Bhavagad-Gītā: A panentheistic account
    with Alan Herbert
    In Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Alan C. Herbert & Benedikt Paul Göcke (eds.), Vaiṣṇava concepts of god: philosophical perspectives, Routledge. 2024.
    In this chapter, Ricardo Silvestre and Alan Herbert offer a reconstruction of the Gītā’s concept of God with a focus on the relationship between God and the world. They try to explain the claim that the Gītā is panentheistic. This is done with the help of some key notions of contemporary metaphysics (such as ontological dependence and fundamentality) along with the Indic notion of prakṛti, considered as a metaphysical primitive denoting the intimate relationship that exists between matter and co…Read more
  • Introduction
    with C. Herbert Alan and P. Göcke Benedikt
    In Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Alan C. Herbert & Benedikt Paul Göcke (eds.), Vaiṣṇava concepts of god: philosophical perspectives, Routledge. 2024.
  •  139
    This book analyses the concepts of God in Vaisnavism, which is commonly referred to as one of the great Hindu monotheistic traditions. Addressing the question of what attributes God possesses according to particular textual sources and traditions in Vaisnavism, the book analyses Vaisnava traditions and texts in order to locate them within a global philosophical framework. The book is divided into two sections. The first one, God in Vaisnava Texts, deals with concepts of God found in the canonica…Read more
  •  2
    In this article, I address some higher-order issues involving the concept of God that arise within a pluralistic context: the problem of conceptual unity, the problem of unicity of extension and the problem of homogeneity/heterogeneity. My proposal to solve these questions involves a special hybrid theory of concepts, called the theory of ideal concepts. I argue that when associated with a pluralistic vision of concepts, and formalized within a possible world structure, such theory provides a sa…Read more
  •  6
    Meu propósito aqui é jogar alguma luz sobre duas perguntas: “Em que sentido a lógica éfilosófica?” e “O que é lógica filosófica?”. Tomo essas duas questões como sendo coextensivas: umaresposta à uma delas é também (ou pode ser facilmente transformada em) uma resposta à outra.Tentarei trabalhar a partir de três perspectivas: uma perspectiva conceitual, uma descritiva e umaprescritiva. Sendo mais específico, tentarei responder às seguintes perguntas: (i) Em que sentido alógica pode ser tomada como…Read more
  •  42
    The Logic of the Concept of God
    In Vestrucci Andrea (ed.), Beyond Babel: Religion and Linguistic Pluralism, Springer Verlag. 2023.
  •  298
    Panentheism has seen a revival over the past two decades in the philosophical literature. This has partially triggered an interest in Indian models of God, which have traditionally been seen as panentheistic. On the other hand, panentheism has been often associated with panpsychism, an old ontological view that sees consciousness as fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world and which has also enjoyed a renaissance in recent decades. Depending on where one places fundamentality (whether on …Read more
  •  125
    In this article, I present a defense of conceptual plausibility, understood as an epistemic way to qualify concepts that situates them between the merely possible and the actual. To show that there is such a thing as conceptual plausibility, I rely on what seems to lie at the heart of many uses of the phrase “plausible concept”: explanatory fruitfulness. To make an effective case for the claim that conceptual plausibility is of philosophical interest, I present an argument based on the debate ov…Read more
  •  237
    On the Representation of the Concept of God
    Philosophia 50 (2): 731-755. 2022.
    While the failure of the so-called classical theory of concepts - according to which definitions are the proper way to characterize concepts - is a consensus, metaphysical philosophy of religion still deals with the concept of God in a predominantly definitional way. It thus seems fair to ask: Does this failure imply that a definitional characterization of the concept of God is equally untenable? The first purpose of this paper is to answer this question. I focus on the representational side of …Read more
  •  141
    Sobre a Formalização Lógica de Mudança de Teorias e Anomalias Científicas
    ARGUMENTOS - Revista de Filosofia 1 (17): 72-91. 2017.
    Neste trabalho, é apresentada uma investigação do que poderia ser chamado de formalização lógica do processo de mudança de teorias devido a anomalias. Por anomalia entende-se um fato observado que faz parte do escopo explanatório de uma teoria, mas que vai de encontro à previsão da mesma. Uma abordagem clássica para restaurar o poder explicativo de uma teoria ameaçada por uma anomalia é a postulação de hipóteses novas e provisórias que, em conjunto com as demais hipótese…Read more
  •  149
    This paper aims at examining the issue of the role of supreme being theology in non-Abrahamic traditions. According to the dominant view in contemporary philosophy of religion, the philo-sophical project of inferring divine properties from the concept of God as a maximally perfect being, usually called supreme being theology, is an exclusivity of the Abrahamic traditions. In attempting to question this view, I investigate the developments of two key-concepts of Vedāntatradition –the concepts of …Read more
  •  228
    On The Logical Formalization of Ansem's Ontological Argument
    Revista Brasileira de Filosofia da Religião 2 (1). 2015.
    he general theme of this paper is the issue of formalization in philosophy; in a more specific way, it deals with the issue of formalization of arguments in analytic philosophy of religion. One argument in particular – Anselm’s Proslogion II ontological argument – and one specific attempt to formalize it – Robert Adams’ formalization found in his paper “The Logical Structure of Anselm’s Arguments”, published in The Philosophical Review in 1971 – are taken as study cases. The purpose of the paper…Read more
  •  7
    The Concept of God: Special Issue of the Journal of Applied Logics (edited book)
    College Publications. 2019.
    This special issue of the Journal of Applied Logics deals with the logical aspects of the concept of God. It contains the following articles: Logic and the Concept of God, by Stanisław Krajewski and Ricardo Silvestre; Mathematical Models in Theology. A Buber-inspired Model of God and its Application to “Shema Israel”, by Stanisław Krajewski; Gödel’s God-like Essence, by Talia Leven; A Logical Solution to the Paradox of the Stone, by Héctor Hernández Ortiz and Victor Cantero; No New Solutions to …Read more
  •  12
    Is it possible to combine different logics into a coherent system with the goal of applying it to specific problems so that it sheds some light on foundational aspects of those logics? These are two of the most basic issues of combining logics. Paranormal modal logic is a combination of paraconsistent logic and modal logic. In this paper, I propose two further combinatory developments, focusing on each one of these two issues. On the foundational side, I combine paranormal modal logic with norma…Read more
  •  383
    A Formal-Logical Approach to the Concept of God
    Manuscrito. Revista Internacional de Filosofia 44 (4): 224-260. 2021.
    In this paper I try to answer four basic questions: (1) How the concept of God is to be represented? (2) Are there any logical principles governing it? (3) If so, what kind of logic lies behind them? (4) Can there be a logic of the concept of God? I address them by presenting a formal-logical account to the concept of God. I take it as a methodological desideratum that this should be done within the simplest existing logical formalism. I start with first-order logic (FOL) with identity, and th…Read more
  •  296
    A Estrutura do Yoga na Bhagavad-Gita
    Numen 1 (20): 28-46. 2017.
    O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o conceito de yoga da Bhagavad-gītā. Cinco concepções de yoga encontradas no texto são descritas: yoga enquanto disciplina ou prática, yoga enquanto disciplina qualificada, yoga enquanto estado mental de equanimidade e renúncia, yoga enquanto estado de união e yoga enquanto poder místico. As relações existentes entre essas concepções são explicitadas e o que podemos chamar de a estrutura do yoga na Bhagavad-gītā é pormenorizada.
  •  1548
    Logic and the Concept of God
    Journal of Applied Logics 6 (6): 999-1005. 2019.
    This paper introduces the special issue on the Concept of God of the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and the Concept of God, by Stanisław Krajewski and Ricardo Silvestre; Mathematical Models in Theology. A Buber-inspired Model of God and its Application to “Shema Israel”, by Stanisław Krajewski; Gödel’s God-like Essence, by Talia Leven; A Logical Solution to the Paradox of the Stone, by Héctor Hernández Ortiz and Victor Cantero; …Read more
  •  1007
    Um Curso de Lógica
    Vozes. 2011.
    Este livro se propõe a ser uma introdução fácil e acessível, porém rigorosa e tecnicamente precisa, à lógica. Prioridade é dada à clareza e lucidez na explicação das definições e teoremas, bem como à aplicação prática da lógica na análise de argumentos. O livro foi concebido de forma a permitir sua utilização por qualquer pessoa interessada em aprender lógica, independentemente de sua área de atuação ou bagagem teórica prévia. Em especial, ele deve ser útil a estudantes e professores de filosofi…Read more
  •  987
    This is the book of abstracts of the 19th Brazilian Logic Conferences. The Brazilian Logic Conferences (EBL) is one of the most traditional logic conferences in South America. Organized by the Brazilian Logic Society (SBL), its main goal is to promote the dissemination of research in logic in a broad sense. It has been occurring since 1979, congregating logicians of different fields — mostly philosophy, mathematics and computer science — and with different backgrounds — from undergraduate studen…Read more
  •  11
    This special issue of Logica Universalis (Springer) deals with the relations between logic and religion, broadly conceived. It contains the following articles: Logic and Religion, by Jean-Yves Beziau and Ricardo Silvestre; Thinking Negation in Early Hinduism and Classical Indian Philosophy, by Purushottama Bilimoria; Karma Theory, Determinism, Fatalism and Freedom of Will, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; From Logic in Islam to Islamic Logic, by Musa Akrami; Leibniz’s Ontological Proof of the Existen…Read more
  •  124
    Ao mesmo tempo que o malogro da assim chamada teoria clássica dos conceitos - de acordo com a qual definições são a maneira apropriada de caracterizar conceitos - é um consenso, a filosofia metafísica da religião parece ainda lidar com o conceito de Deus de forma predominantemente definicional. Podemos então nos perguntar: Seria esse malogro suficiente para inviabilizar uma caracterização definicional do conceito de Deus? Meu propósito central neste artigo é responder essa pergunta. Adoto uma ên…Read more
  • Philosophical Logic = Philosophy + Logic?
    In J.-Y. Beziau, J.-P. Desclés, A. Moktefi & A. Pascau (eds.), Logic-in-Question (Workshop at the Sorbonne 2011-2019). pp. 299-327. 2021.
    My purpose in this paper is to shed some light on two questions: In what sense is logic philosophical? And what is philosophical logic? I take these two questions as co-extensive: an answer to one of them is also (or can easily be converted into) an answer to the other. I approach the problem from three perspectives: a conceptual, a descriptive and a prescriptive perspective. In other words, I try to answer the following questions: (i) In what sense can logic be taken as philosophical? (ii) In w…Read more
  •  184
    Paraconsistent Logic as Model Building
    South American Journal of Logic 1 (4): 195-217. 2018.
    The terms “model” and “model-building” have been used to characterize the field of formal philosophy, to evaluate philosophy’s and philosophical logic’s progress and to define philosophical logic itself. A model is an idealization, in the sense of being a deliberate simplification of something relatively complex in which several important aspects are left aside, but also in the sense of being a view too perfect or excellent, not found in reality, of this thing. Paraconsistent logic is a branch o…Read more
  •  363
    Formal Approaches to the Ontological Argument
    Journal of Applied Logics 5 (7): 1433-1440. 2018.
    This paper introduces the special issue on Formal Approaches to the Ontological Argument of the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). The issue contains the following articles: Formal Approaches to the Ontological Argument, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre and Jean-Yves Béziau; A Brief Critical Introduction to the Ontological Argument and its Formalization: Anselm, Gaunilo, Descartes, Leibniz and Kant, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; A Mechanically Assisted Examination of Begging the Question…Read more
  •  22
    This volume deals with the relation between faith and reason, and brings the latest developments of modern logic into the scene. Faith and rationality are two perennial key concepts in the history of ideas. Philosophers and theologians have struggled to bring into harmony these otherwise conflicting concepts. Despite the diversity of approaches about what rationality effectively means, logic remains the cannon of objective and rational thought. The chapters in this volume analyze several issues …Read more
  •  254
    Some Thoughts on the Logical Aspects of the Problem of Evil
    In Ricardo Sousa Silvestre, Benedikt Paul Göcke, Jean-Yves Béziau & Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.), Beyond Faith and Rationality: Essays on Logic, Religion and Philosophy, Springer. pp. 121-135. 2020.
    My purpose in this chapter is to take seriously the idea that problem of evil is an incompatibility between the proposition that the world was created and is ruled by an omnipotent, omniscient and unlimitedly good being and one that says that there is evil and suffering in our world. Besides being in accordance with much of the literature on the problem of evil, this idea takes the problem at face value, that is to say, it sees it as a logical and incompatibility problem. More important than tha…Read more
  •  8
    O propósito deste livro é preencher a lacuna existente no mercado editorial brasileiro no que diz respeito a obras de cunho acadêmico sobre hinduísmo e filosofia indiana. Essa lacuna se reflete, dentre outras, na inexistência de publicações em português que pretendam ir além do mero aspecto introdutório deste que é um dos maiores clássicos da literatura religiosa indiana e mundial: a Bhagavad-gita; também se reflete na inexistência de literatura especializada sobre as várias tradições indianas q…Read more
  • Induction, conceived as the class of rational non-truth preserving inferences, has been a perennial problem in philosophy. Aside from the problem of justification of induction, a less debated issue is the problem of properly describing inductive inferences. The purpose of this book is to conceptually investigate this descriptive problem of induction from the standpoint of the nonmonotonic logical tradition raised inside the field of Artificial Intelligence in the last thirty years. As we try to …Read more