Robert Junqueira

O artigo propõe uma leitura filosófico-política do Criacionismo de Leonardo Coimbra (1883–1936), a sua tese de 1912 e obra central da filosofia portuguesa da primeira metade do século XX. O autor examina os conceitos nucleares do sistema criacionista — mónadas, comunicação amorosa, Pessoa Integral e socialismo integral — articulando-os com uma reflexão sobre o papel da filosofia na constituição da realidade, em contraponto ao reducionismo científico. A leitura segue de perto as páginas de «Deus e as Mónadas», evidenciando como o progresso universal sustenta a liberdade das consciências e orienta a Criação para uma sociabilidade cósmica.

Este documento é um desenho diretriz de aula para a Unidade Curricular de Ética da Inteligência Artificial, desenvolvido a pedido da Professora Doutora Irene Portela, no âmbito do Mestrado de Inteligência Artificial Aplicada da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Universidade Politécnica do Cávado e do Ave. Originalmente ministrada em inglês por Robert Junqueira a 20 de maio de 2026, em Barcelos, a aula organiza a responsabilidade dentro de cadeias de decisão com IA através de três atividades práticas: a construção de casos concretos em torno de viés, privacidade, explicabilidade e automação; a elaboração de backlogs éticos com tarefas verificáveis, responsáveis, critérios de aceitação e bloqueadores; e o mapeamento da origem do risco e da inteligibilidade das decisões para diferentes destinatários.

This essay examines the European Union's regulatory response to the rise of artificial intelligence, centring on the AI Act as a landmark piece of legislation. Drawing on historical parallels—notably from Roman law—Junqueira argues that the challenges of attributing responsibility for AI-driven harm are not unprecedented, and that legal orders have traditionally addressed comparable problems through incremental, rather than abrupt, normative developments. The essay analyses the AI Act's architecture of responsibility, which distributes duties across a network of roles (providers, deployers, importers, distributors) and attaches obligations to objective risk categories and use cases rather than to subjective intent. It highlights the Act's deliberate exclusion of systems used exclusively for military, defence, or national security purposes, whilst noting the dynamic character of this exclusion when systems are repurposed. The author situates the AI Act within the EU's broader constitutional identity and its aspiration to act as a normative power, arguing that the regulation reflects a commitment to democratic values, the rule of law, and fundamental rights. The essay further contends that the regulation of AI must be underpinned by a robust moral scaffolding that preserves the exclusively human nature of responsibility, particularly in judicial decision-making, where the irreducible singularity of human deliberation resists reduction to algorithmic pattern-matching. The text concludes by calling on the research community to develop principled doctrinal responses that prevent the EU's regulatory openness to moderation from becoming an unfruitful first step.

This interview explores the transformative impact of military drone technology on global security, warfare, and ethical responsibility. Robert Junqueira argues that while drones represent disruptive technological advancement with devastating potential—from precision strikes to autonomous swarms—the core challenge remains fundamentally human. He critiques the notion of "autonomous" drones, insisting that these systems are programmed devices embodying human volition, and that responsibility for their actions must remain exclusively with humans. The discussion addresses how AI-enabled drones are reshaping military strategy and international relations while examining the social, political, and philosophical implications of attributing agency to machines rather than their human operators.

The literature is abundant with definitions of semiotics. First and foremost, semiotics has to do with signs. Charles S. Peirce (†1914) is often referred to as the founder of contemporary semiotics. Peirce provided the community of inquiry with a very convincing explanation of what a sign is. Peirce’s definition of the sign bears a striking resemblance to that proposed in the 1606 volume of the CJC, the Coimbra Jesuit Course, authored by Sebastião do Couto (†1639). Can it be the case that Peirce drew from the writings of Couto to arrive at his conception of the sign? Our ultimate purpose here is to provide an adequate answer to such a question. The first part takes a closer look at the state of the question. To this end, an overall picture of the case and an insight into the Peirce-CJC relation in the context of the scholarly literature are provided. The second part deals with the CJC and Peirce’s doctrinæ signorum, the latter’s references to the CJC, and the corresponding background. It has been evidenced that the impact of the CJC on Peirce reaches far beyond the definition of the sign, for Peirce relied on the CJC also to work out what is the knowledge that befits abstraction, the locus of logic amidst art and science, the definition of fallacies, the ways in which predication occurs, how to approach logical quantities, as well as how to interpret Nominalism, Scotism, and Thomism, along with the relatedness between them all. In retrospect, looking back at the work that was accomplished here and all it is rooted in, what we bring from Coimbra is a laconic expression of a renewed understanding of the Peirce-CJC relation. As we stare intently out of the rear window, we can tell that the community of inquiry has only just begun the quest of understanding the significance and niceties of the Peirce-CJC relation.

We intend to justify studying Murakami and his works philosophically and challenge the belief that only philosophers or traditional philosophical objects qualify for philosophical studies. Philosophy, in its capacity as an ever-evolving field of science, is free to critically control the objectification of whatever happens to be dealt with in the field of Murakami Studies and to reassess and develop any of its methods and objects within the framework of this interdisciplinary field that provides room for philosophical inquiry. To suggest how Philosophy could become involved in Murakami Studies, we paid some attention to the Semiotics of Poinsot. Since Poinsot and Murakami were never before linked, this brings a new relationship to life and sets the stage for future breakthroughs.

This is where one will find a Martian giving a speech on education. The creature’s words are wholly based on those of the Portuguese philosopher Leonardo Coimbra (1883-1936), so we named the Martian after him. The idea of turning Leonardo Coimbra into a Martian comes from the critical remarks of Homem Cristo (1860-1943), who predicted that the language of the first would be found by humans once on Mars, as we find out in Leonardo Coimbra’s Obras Completas, vol. VIII (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2014), pp. 200-1. Although it is the result of an inquiry into Leonardo Coimbra, this publication is pointedly a creative (or Creationist, in the philosophical sense) interpretation of the author’s approach to education. All the same, we have been faithful to Leonardo’s philosophy of education, so whoever pays attention to the Martian will be exposed to some aspects of the Leonardian ethos.

The point of this paper is to show that the understanding Solovyov penned and voiced about humanity close to the end of his life suggests that he regarded human rights as sacred. First of all, we provided a rough sense of who Solovyov was as a person, for he is a bit of a stranger to the majority of the audience, including scholars, in the Western hemisphere. Afterwards, we carried out what we have already said we intended to do here, drawing on a public lecture that Solovyov gave at Saint Petersburg Imperial University to mark the 100th anniversary of Auguste Comte’s birth. Our perception is that Solovyov clearly thought of human rights from a faith-based angle and believed them to be sacred, and that all of his insights and those inspired by them are remarkably conducive to reflecting on human rights at the present time, whatever the religious background of each one of us.

Written in August 2021. Our research pays attention to the problem of the coverage of the realm of semiotic beings. This problem is raised by the meeting between the contemporary account of the human animal as a semiotic animal and the possible advent of a technological singularity, meaning a living technological being aware of semiosis. Apart from highlighting the prospective emergence of a complex phenomenon leading to evolutionary pressures on humans, we also pointed to a positive direction towards the development of a cooperative relationship between the latter and a sustainable form of technological life: the furtherance of semiotics. To this end, we started by providing a few historical and philosophical references to help us better understand the problem at stake. Next, we described the way in which beings gain semiotic access to reality, the distinction between the realm of semiotic beings and of machines, and the infinite character of the study of semiotics. Finally, we concluded that the realm of semiotic beings is still, despite technological advances, exclusively human.

Deely's chief orientation, in his Medieval Philosophy field days, was to frame the field's thematic concern in light of the gestation of semiotic awareness. He argued that semiotic awareness was expressed fully for the first time in history by Poinsot, although he said that the process of gestation only resulted in a community-binding Way after the arrival of the Semiotics of Peirce. Between Poinsot and Peirce, a period of darkness preceded a full dawn. In this paper, we provide an introductory picture of Deely's understanding of Medieval Philosophy and strive to convey a preview of the angle adopted by the semiotician.

Text offered to the general public to initiate a broad discussion on the topic of death during the second session of the 1st Cycle of Meetings "2B2P — Beiras Brewing Philosophy in the pub" (2023/08/06 - 2023/08/20), organized by the União das Freguesias de Covas e Vila Nova de Oliveirinha, the restaurant Cork & Fork, and the Institute for Philosophical Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra and Rabdoud University's Foundation for Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Relations. Universidade de Coimbra Instituto de Estudos Filosóficos, Portugal

Charles S. Peirce (†1914) is often referred to as the founder of contemporary semiotics. Peirce provided the community of inquiry with a very convincing explanation of what a sign is. Peirce's definition of the sign bears a striking resemblance to that proposed in the 1606 volume of the CJC, the Coimbra Jesuit Course, authored by Sebastião do Couto (†1639). The community of inquiry holds the belief that Peirce drew from the writings of Couto to arrive at his triadic conception of the sign. Could it be that the effect of the CJC on Peirce is restricted to the definition of the sign? What can anyone say so far on the Peirce-CJC relation? Our ultimate purpose here is to provide a contribution to settling such doubts.

Num primeiro momento, por forma a dar palco ao espetáculo dos números e ocasionar a realidade de um módico exemplo daquilo que pode ser um exercício de compilação de dados, ensaiamos uma análise de benchmarking. Num segundo momento, aquilo que se pretendeu foi fixar a memória do Instituto que nos recebeu (doravante referido como IEF) e resgatar episódios relativos à sua constituição; isto, devemo-lo sobretudo a António Manuel Martins. Como resultado, veio a lume uma lacónica narração que permitirá uma leitura sobre os antecedentes e a génese do IEF. Finalmente, antes de expor o tecido de uma secção de desfecho, um Quadro FOFA foi desenhado, retratando o Coro SWOT que conduzimos e que pode ser escutado em anexo.

This paper has been presented at the Charles S. Peirce Society’s 10-Minute Thesis Initiative: “His Glassy Essence in Relation” on February 18, 2023, where papers were also presented by Professor Doctor António Manuel Martins and Professor Doctor Mohammad Shafiei, respectively affiliated to the Coimbra Institute for Philosophical Studies and Shahid Beheshti University. The edition “His Glassy Essence in Relation” of the Charles S. Peirce Society’s 10-Minute Thesis Initiative has been jointly organized by Aaron Wilson, António Manuel Martins, Mohammad Shafiei, Richard Kenneth Atkins, and Robert Junqueira. The second, the third, and the last all presented papers, while the first one presided over the proceedings. The second to last was responsible for creating the bridge that enabled it all to take place. The 10-Minute Thesis Initiative is an ongoing cycle of the Charles S. Peirce Society. This edition in particular benefited from the collaboration of the Coimbra Institute for Philosophical Studies and the Shahid Beheshti University. This text has been published in PhicaRe (Philosophy & Care Repository) of the Institute for Philosophical Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra. How to cite (Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition): Junqueira, Robert. “Peirce and the Coimbra Jesuit Course: A Bond Far More Pervasive Than Commonly Believed.” In PhicaRe (Philosophy & Care Repository), 1–12. Coimbra: Institute for Philosophical Studies, 2023. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7607786.