Texts, articles and reviews with the label: 'philosophy'.
Recent
Recent findings from Paleoanthropology and philosophical implications.
summaryInitial intervention of Professor Jordana who exposes the "status quaestionis" of the most recent paleoanthropological data . Commentary on some philosophical questions by Professor Murillo, and interventions on interpretation of the data and questions of method.
Authors: Rafael Jordana and José Ignacio Murillo.
St. Thomas, a synthetic understanding of reality
summarySt. Thomas Aquinas found in Aristotelian thought the confirmation of his own synthetic vision of reality, founded on a dynamic understanding of beings, with a natural finality that embraces all its facets. It is the basis of the philosophia perennis.
Author: José Manuel Giménez Amaya and José Ángel Lombo.
Hidden theology in the new naturalisms
summaryThe current currents of scientistic naturalism are characterized by their denial of theism. Since they do not base their denial on science, they must be analyzed from the point of view of natural theology, which makes it possible to arrive at their core according to their theological positions.
Author: Alfredo Marcos
Science, reason and faith in Blaise Pascal
summaryPascal was a genius, sincere and constant search engine of the truth. He was passionate about the scientific novelties of his time. He had a deep religious conversion, which he wanted to transmit and which resulted in The Thoughts. His vindication of "the reasons of the heart" is classic.
Author: Juan Luis Lorda
Argument of design and fifth way of St. Thomas: similarities and differences.
summaryThe review of the modern argument of design to demonstrate the existence of God sample great differences with the fifth way of St. Thomas. They start from the order of nature, but their idea of finality and causality is different and they arrive at different results.
Author: Alberto Barbés
Causal finitism: a hypothesis with implications for science, reason and faith.
summaryThe Kalam cosmological argument claims to arrive at the existence of God from the beginning of the universe. A recent argument in its support, causal finitism, is presented: nothing can be preceded by an infinite issue of causes.
Author: Enric F. Gel
Physics and awe in the face of nature
summaryReflection on the role of astonishment in the face of nature as a bridge between the physicist's work and philosophical reflection on the natural world, which has in physics a description of the world from which to start.
Author: Javier Sánchez Cañizares
Reasonable certainty in science and philosophy
summaryMathematics and experimental science are based on postulates that cannot be justified by themselves. Their acceptance implies the adoption of philosophical postulates. Some of these postulates, which lead to the possibility of a reasonable certainty in science, are shown.
Author: Fernando Sols
Cover-up and truth. Some diagnostic features of today's society
summary roundtable about the book Encubrimiento y verdad: algunos rasgos diagnósticos de la sociedad actual. It analyses the concealment of truth that begins in modernity and continues in postmodernity, in a dynamic that has to do with a game of power in action.
Author: Jorge Martín Montoya and José Manuel Giménez Amaya
Psychology and Christianity: A goal-Model of the Person
summary: This seminar presents an integrated Catholic Christian goal-Model of the Person: a view that is informed by Christian faith and by reason and the psychological sciences. This better understanding of the person will enhance theory, research and practice in mental health.
Author: Paul C. Vitz
The future of human being: neuroscientific and philosophical perspectives
summaryThe vision of humanity's future is currently shaped by science and technology. This is not only a contemporary conditioning of our thinking, but a deeper limitation to our correct understanding of what it means to be human.
Author: Saša Horvat
Frontiers between physics, metaphysics and theology
summaryThe advance of science narrows the field of faith explanations. Even if the boundaries between scientific and faith explanation yield to science, new questions can be seen behind the latest scientific explanations, which can only be answered from metaphysics or from faith.
Author: Grzegorz P. Karwasz.
summarySummarises the book Origins of Man. It starts from the biological understanding of the human being, to look for the origin of culture and other peculiarities: affectivity, conscience and freedom. The naturalistic vision of man is not able to explain the origin of these facets.
Author: Francisco Rodríguez Valls
summary summary : history of the history of ideas on the relationship between God and the world: Thales, Aristotle, Christian contribution and synthesis of St. Thomas, and current approaches with a scientistic and naturalistic background. Solutions to the aporias of current reflection are proposed, following Zizinski.
Author: Enrique Moros.
The great enigma. Atheists and believers facing the uncertainty of the afterlife.
summaryThe relationship between the book of revelation and the book of nature depends on the picture of the world, which is obtained through science and philosophy. Today it seems that science establishes the most reliable way. What approaches does this scientific image favour and how does it explain the silence of God?
Author: Javier Monserrat
Hasn't the notion of the soul become obsolete?
summaryBasic questions concerning the concept of the soul: how it explains the peculiarities of living beings - structure, development, movement - and their unity, the peculiarities of the human soul and the enrichment of this concept in the Christian tradition.
Author: Santiago Collado
Is the scientific revolution over?
summaryThe meaning of the scientific revolution, three images of nature, organicism and mechanicism, the systemic perspective, scientific truth, the scope of the scientific perspective.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Why do we have to accept evolution?
summaryWhenever science provides solutions to certain issues, a plethora of questions immediately arise. The biological theory of evolution uncovered a "Pandora's box" that requires other knowledge to be completed.
Author: Antonio Pardo
Can philosophy be a natural science? On the project naturalisation of reason
summaryNaturalised epistemology is currently widespread: the project of substituting philosophy for the natural sciences. It claims that we humans have a single reason that works well in the natural sciences. The rest of the sciences must be a continuum with them. Is it possible to fulfil this goal?
Author: Enrique Moros
Are the sciences really autonomous?
summaryAn exposition of the reasons why scientists reject interdisciplinary approaches involving philosophy and theology.
Author: José Ignacio Murillo
Is everything subject? Is materialism the only possible interpretation?
summary: Study of the problems posed by the concept of subject: initial insufficiency due to circularity in the definition, extension of its study to philosophy, description of the materialist and spiritualist monisms, and recognition of the duality of material and non-material facets of reality.
Author: Santiago Collado
Prof. Artigas' contributions to epistemology and philosophy of science
Author: Don Evandro Agazzi
Aquinas on Intelligent Extra-Terrestrial Life
summaryAquinas took an interest in the question of whether there were intelligent material beings other than humans in the universe, both as a philosopher and as a theologian. As a philosopher he sought to understand the order of the universe and this entails ascertaining what beings are in the universe. As a theologian he sought knowledge of created beings insofar as it leads to a greater understanding, admiration, and love of the creator, and also insofar as it frees one from superstitious beliefs which pose an obstacle to faith in God. Although Aquinas was unable to approach the question of the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life from the scientific perspective of our day, he does raise some generally overlooked philosophical questions regarding the status of such beings. His theological reflections are helpful for addressing the frequently voiced claim that the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life would spell the end of Christianity. Aquinas's position is that it is possible that ETs of a certain sort exist, but improbable that they do. I will begin by considering Aquinas's philosophical positions on the possibility of ET life, and then will take up his theological views thereon, closing with his arguments regarding the probability of ET life.
Author: Marie I. George (St. John's University, Jamaica, New York)
Articulating science and theology: presuppositions and implications of science
summaryIn this article we study the presuppositions of science that allow a theoretical connection with theology: consistency of the natural world that allows its systematic study, the ordered nature of the world and the contingency of the natural world, which refers to causes superior to nature itself.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryIt describes how reflection is linked to the human condition, the current influences that affect it negatively, the basic attitudes that need to be cultivated to foster it, contemporary challenges and the importance of not losing the capacity for wonder.
Author: Jutta Burgraff
Science and faith before the court of reason
summaryThe roots of the presumed opposition between science and reason that began in the modern era and between science and faith that is observed at the same time are explained.
Author: Santiago Collado González
Science and faith. Ideas for an impact
Author: Ignacio Sols
summaryThe work is described as a work of maturity, in which the themes of the main debates between science and religion are presented. Brief biographical sketch of the author.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryIt is possible to achieve an integration of the scientific and the metaphysical perspective. They are different approaches. However, it is possible to integrate them, as long as their diversity is respected and the perspective required by each problem subject is adopted. This article examines the methodological gap, border issues, partial overlaps and how integration should be effected.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Current Cosmology, Philosophy and Religion
summary: Article on the expansion of the universe and the history of explanations: the stable universe, the big-bang, the pulsating universe, the self-creation of the universe (with its attempt to expel the creator) and final reflections on method in science, philosophy and religion and its possibilities.
Author: Carlos Alberto Marmelada Sebastián
From Neuroscience to Neuroethics. Scientific narrative and philosophical reflection.
summaryReview of José Manuel Giménez Amaya and Sergio Sánchez-Migallón. From Neuroscience to Neuroethics. Scientific narrative and philosophical reflection. Eunsa. Pamplona (2010). 183 pp. The work reflects on new scientific developments in Neuroscience and Neuroethics, looking at the limits of experimental sciences and the current need for interdisciplinary approaches.
Author: José Ignacio Murillo
Recent developments in evolution and their implications for faith and theology
summaryCurrent state of evolutionary theories: The origin of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of species, the origin of man, the evolutionary worldview. Philosophical-theological reflections: Divine action in the world, human uniqueness. The first part briefly comments on the current state of evolutionary theories, and the second part examines the relationship between these theories and Christianity.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Dialogue between science and faith in the face of the philosophical questions of physics today.
summaryThe phenomenon of the gulf between the two cultures (scientific and religious) has deepened as a consequence of the growing anti-intellectual atmosphere in today's culture. In the radical versions of today's postmodernism, both the Christian worldview and the heritage of the Enlightenment, in which the fundamental theses of modern science were formed, are criticised. This has fundamentally changed the climate of dialogue between science and Christian thought. In the past, Christianity was repeatedly criticised from the perspective of the natural sciences; today, both Christianity and the natural sciences are subject to criticism, carried out in the name of the search for a new scientific paradigm, of radical social slogans, or in the name of a cultural pluralism that is understood in a peculiar way and in which the authority of reason is disrupted. In the present work, the aim is to examine recent developments in physics from this point of view, and to consider their consequences for the Christian worldview.
Author: Msgr. Józef Zycinski
Author: His Excellency Mr. Ángel J. Gómez Montoro
God and science. Jean Guitton in dialogue with scientists
summaryIn a recent book that has already been published on Spanish, Jean Guitton, of the French Academy, argues that the achievements of current science lead towards God. Professor Mariano Artigas analyses Guitton's suggestions, which are based on ideas widely discussed by scientists and philosophers today.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summary: Overview of contemporary cosmologies in various authors: Caroll, Collins, Craig, Dembski, Hellen, Peters, Polkinghorne, Stoeger, Swinburne, Worthing.
Author: Enrique Moros
summaryThe crisis of truth, the meaning of science: the search for truth, scientific truth, science at the service of truth, faith financial aid to science, functionalism and pragmatism, relativism, scientism, scientific rationality, metaphysical knowledge and Christian faith.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Science-faith dialogue to build a culture of respect for human beings, human dignity and freedom
summaryThe work of synthesis of the sciences to obtain a global vision of the world, and the synthesis with philosophy and religion to build a culture of respect for mankind.
Author: speech of the Holy Father Benedict XVI
The great challenge of the (Catholic) university
Author: Sergio Sánchez-Migallón and José Manuel Giménez Amaya
Libertarianism in the face of experiments "subject Libet". 
summary: Benjamin Libet's experiments on the temporal sequence in the electrophysiology of certain voluntary acts have produced a discussion in philosophy and neuroscience. Many authors have seen in them a convincing test against the existence of free actions. More recent experiments, carried out with fMRI or deep electrodes, seem to lead to the same conclusion. However, the argumentation followed by their defenders has received important criticism.
Author: José Manuel Muñoz Ortega
The intelligent organism: misunderstandings about a paradox
summaryReflections on materialism and its inconsistency based on the thesis of some neuroscientists who pretend to include thought in their scientific field.
Author: José Ignacio Murillo
The Origin of Life and the Evolution of Species: Science and Interpretations
summaryThe scientific study of the beginnings of the world has in recent historical times raised the biological questions of the origin of life and the evolution of species (understood as the passage from one species to another by generation). In addition to the purely scientific problems they raise (such as the difficulty of establishing solid hypotheses), these studies are often interpreted beyond their possibilities; this article examines some of these interpretations, such as the solidity of our knowledge, chance in evolutionary processes, the struggle in nature, or the global vision of nature.
Author: Antonio Pardo
summaryThe theory of the big bang, the 'big explosion' that would have originated our world, was initially proposal by Georges Lemaître, physicist and catholic priest, who arrived at this model thanks to a realistic philosophy and a combination of theoretical reasoning and astronomical observations.
Author: Eduardo Riaza Molina
The Vatican and evolution. The reception of Darwinism on the file of the Table of Contents
summaryThe opening of file of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1988, has given access to the existing documentation on the first reaction of the Vatican authorities to the theory of evolution. This article presents the research initiated by Mariano Artigas in 1999 to determine the attitude of the Congregation of the Index towards Catholic authors who defended the compatibility between evolution and Christian doctrine, and its main results. Despite the fact that Catholic theology severely criticised evolutionism, the authorities of the Holy See maintained a certain prudence, which avoided a frontal meeting between evolution and Catholic doctrine.
Author: Rafael A. Martínez
E. Mach and P. Duhem: The Philosophical Significance of the History of Science
summaryErnst Mach (1838-1916) and Pierre Duhem (1861-1916) can be considered as parallel figures. Both lived at the same time, died in the same year, were prominent physicists, conducted research on the history of science, and related that work to their ideas on the philosophy of science. As if this were not enough, both asserted that scientific theories are neither true nor false. It is not surprising, therefore, that their names are commonly associated in the epistemological literature and that they are presented as prominent representatives of conventionalism. However, there are important differences between them. Mach's ideas are closely related to an evolutionary and empiricist perspective, where science represents a useful tool for survival and there is no place for metaphysics; Mach's influence was naturally prolonged in the neo-positivism of the Vienna Circle. In contrast, Duhem harmonised his epistemology with a realist philosophical perspective, emphasised in his historical research the importance of Christianity in the birth of modern science, and affirmed the coherence between science, philosophy and Christianity.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Understanding freedom better: an interdisciplinary approach between Neuroscience and Philosophy
summaryThe author presents some philosophical assumptions that are influencing the neuroscientific study of freedom, as well as certain problems that arise from Neuroscience itself in its global understanding of brain functioning, of the neural networks themselves and of the neurobiological integration of attention, important phenomena for an adequate neurobiological understanding of freedom. He criticises a purely reductionist view of free will. He comments on the modern concept of freedom and the need for interdisciplinarity to address these issues. sample a subtle persistence of dualism in some of the approaches that study freedom and recovers the concept of life in the understanding of human activity.
Author: José Manuel Giménez Amaya
Interview with Professor Evandro Agazzi
summary: Interview that gathers some of the ideas of the seminar that Professor Agazzi gave in Pamplona on May 5, 2004.
Author: Santiago Collado
Scientific spirit and religious faith according to Manuel García Morente
summaryReflections by García Morente on the reaction of the scientist's rejection of faith: the argument of scientific progress, which would make religion unnecessary. Reflection on the philosophy of history and the unity of vital experience.
Author: Sergio Sánchez-Migallón
Hawking and God: physics gives what it gives
summary: Article commenting on the summary of Hawking's ideas published in The Times about the book "The Great design". The idea of multiverse is free and does not imply problems to faith or to the existence of God.
Author: Santiago Collado González
The scientific search for order: miracles without an author?
summaryArticle that examines the recent discoveries in self-organisation processes of the subject, and discovers its philosophical and teleological aspect, very different from the merely materialistic one that is usually given to it. (Unpublished article from 1991).
Author: Mariano Artigas
The Search for Truth: Philosophy and Science in Carlos Vaz Ferreira
summaryTools for grasping reality: the instrumental character of the sciences and the clarifying role of philosophy. 2. Philosophy and sciences as levels of knowledge: the human knowledge as a sea. 3. The continuity of science and philosophy: science as a floating iceberg. 4. The search for truth: science and philosophy as aspects of human knowledge.
Author: Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe
Author: José Ángel Lombo and José Manuel Giménez Amaya
summaryArticle on the relationship between neurophysiology and consciousness.
Author: Amadeo Muntané Sánchez
Quantum cosmology and the origin of the universe. Physics and creation
summaryCommentary on the article Cosmología cuántica y creación del universo, published by Jonathan J. Halliwell in Investigación y Ciencia (nº 185, February 1992, pp. 12-20), in which he clarifies the concept of self-creation of the subject held by some current physicists.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryThis article examines some problems related to the notion of emergence when trying to explain the mind with it. Some paradoxes of this notion are also shown and a certain return to Aristotelianism is proposed in order to face these problems. The difficulty of establishing the limits between philosophy and science is mentioned, as well as the connection of this problem with those related to emergence.
Author: Santiago Collado González
Evolution, between science, reason and faith
Author: Juan Luis Lorda
Evolution today. Evolutionism: the fact and its implications.
summaryA popular commentary on the content of Ayala's book. It has the virtuality of exposing current theories although it is somewhat blunt in its scientific optimism, and leaves some important philosophical questions barely sketched out.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryThe three essays collected here correspond to the interventions of their authors at a workshop, organised by the Institute of Anthropology and Ethics and the research group "Science, Reason and Faith" (CRYF), at the University of Navarra on 19 February 2013*. This activity was part of the Year of Faith, announced by the Catholic Church in October 2012 and which will be closed in November 2013.
Author: Luis Romera, Leonardo Rodríguez Duplá and Ignacio López Goñi
"Genetics is not incompatible with human freedom".
summaryInterview with José Ignacio Murillo in Ambos mundos on freedom, genetic determinism, environmental influence and neuroethics.
Author: Daniel Capó
summaryCommentary on the "Sokal joke" that makes explicit how questions of physics and other sciences are not a mere convention between physicists with no more support than sociological support.
Author: Carlos Pérez García
Metadisciplinarity. Science, philosophy and theology
summary: Un riferimento iniziale a "Fides et ratio", la consapevolezza della frammentazione del sapere, la soluzione dell'interdisciplinarità, dall'interdisciplinarità alle questioni metadisciplinari, la sapienza metafisica ed antropologica, il contributo della teologia all'unità del sapere.
Author: Prof. Lluís Clavell
Rationality in science and theology
summaryIs there any rational connection between science and theology? Theology used to be understood as the queen of the sciences. With the awakening of positivist attacks on the meaning of religious language and the positivist conviction that science is the model of all rationality, the claims of theology have been muted. Many theologians and believers have accepted with relief the olive branch offered by some scientists who suggest that every discipline is about completely different aspects of life. This article responds to the radical separation of objects and methods between the two disciplines.
Author: Roger Trigg
summaryAn interdisciplinary approach from philosophy and neuroscience.
Author: José Ángel Lombo y José Manuel Giménez Amaya
Life in the Universe: What do we know about the past and future of the world?
summaryReview by Mariano Artigas in Aceprensa (Service 197/94, 14 December 1994) of the extraordinary 150th anniversary issue of Scientific American magazine; origin of the universe, evolution, extraterrestrial intelligence, and comments on the problems of method: it often falls into a naturalism that is not very nuanced.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Lesson 2015: Can we talk about God in the context of contemporary science?
summaryScience, by its method, cannot directly study God as an object. However, the activity of the scientist has some fields which, although they are not scientific, are open to God: references to the absolute, the contingency of the physical, the intelligibility of the world and its dialogical otherness.
Author: Prof. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti
summaryAristotelian physics, reflection in search of truth, led to metaphysics. Modern science has separated from it. Science must be the empirical foundation of philosophical reflection on reality, a path outlined by Artigas.
Author: Prof. Juan Arana Cañedo-Argüelles
summaryI propose to analyse the place of God in our relationship with nature. My reflections are articulated in three parts: in the first I will analyse some aspects of the problem at present, in the second I will present some personal proposals that refer to the bridge that communicates the sciences and natural theology, and in the third I will allude to some particular characteristics of this bridge.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The divine and the human in Stephen Hawking's universe
summaryCommentary on the work Francisco J. Soler Gil. The divine and the human in Stephen Hawking's universe: clarifies the philosophical questions present in Hawking's theses, their implications for natural theology, and his concept of time.
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
The concept of nature between science and theology. The need for epistemological mediation.
summaryVorrei in queste pagine riflettere su alcune questioni epistemologiche riguardo all'uso del concetto di natura nel dialogo scienza-teologia. I will consider in particular what is the epistemological content and value of the concept of nature in scientific and theological research. The question is articulated in three points: 1. What methodological role does the concept of nature play in science and theology? 2. What particular concept of nature is in Degree able to assume these roles? 3. Sarà la nozione di natura risultante, una nozione ammissibile dalla scienza (oltre che dalla filosofia e dalla teologia), e in particolare, risulta una realtà conoscibile?
Author: Rafael Martínez
Intelligence and intentionality
summaryThis article explores the difficulties of approaching the problem of intelligence independently of any intentional consideration. To do so, first, I examine three classical interpretations of the concept of the mental in order to show their main shortcomings. goal . Secondly, I argue how an adequate phenomenological analysis of perception is an optimal means of understanding the intentional property. Thirdly and finally, I present some interpretative clues about the existence of information in Nature. All this serves to offer, at summary, a better proposal of basic criteria for the recognition of intelligent beings.
Author: Luis E. Echarte
Mariano Artigas (1938-2006) in memoriam
summaryObituary article on Mariano Artigas covering his academic training, ordination and the beginning of his priestly work, his time as a teacher in Pamplona and his intellectual contribution.
Author: Santiago Collado González
Mind and brain in contemporary neuroscience.
An approach to its interdisciplinary study
summaryThe impressive development of neuroscience in recent decades has highlighted its need to turn to multidisciplinarity to address the challenges it faces. Among these challenges are those that relate to questions that are decisive for the understanding of mankind. This article argues that in order to address them effectively, cooperation between the sciences needs to be extended beyond the realm of experimental disciplines. As an illustration of this thesis, after an introduction on the importance of neuroscience in our times, one of the most relevant aspects for the understanding of the role played by the brain in human life and behaviour is addressed: the problem of consciousness. The exposition is structured by pointing out the framework in which this problem is posed, and then summarily explaining how Neuroscience and Philosophy have dealt with it. Finally, some suggestions are presented for the fruitful development of an interdisciplinary study that allows each of the sciences involved to make its own contribution.
Author: José M. Giménez-Amaya and José I. Murillo
My vision of the multidisciplinarity
summarydissertation in the seminar of the group of programs of study Peirceanos of the University of Navarra. Pamplona, May 17, 2001.
Author: Mariano Artigas
A lot of science gives back to God
summaryDescription of the elegance of the physical explanation of the universe, at the microscopic and macroscopic level, with its aspects of solidity and indeterminacy at different levels, and explanation of the internal and external limits of science....
Author: Fernando Sols
Neuroscience and freedom. An interdisciplinary approach
summaryFor many neuroscientists and philosophers of mind, the phenomenon of freedom can be fully explained by neuroscience. This paper attempts to show that a careful study of the situation and perspectives of Neuroscience reveals to what extent this thesis is problematic.
Author: José M. Giménez-Amaya and José I. Murillo
On Attempts to Salvage Paley's Argument from Design
summaryMy intention in this paper is to investigate some of the arguments for and against Paley, paying special attention to arguments proffered by those who claim to be basically in agreement with him, but whom I think are unsuccessful in their efforts to resuscitate him. I do not intend to do a thorough textual analysis of Paley, but a more general analysis of his key arguments. Also, I have no pretensions to be offering here more than an investigatory treatment of a difficult subject.
Author: Marie I. George (St. John's University, Jamaica, New York).
summaryMichael Cook's review of the book Oracles of Science, by Karl Giberson and Mariano Artigas.
Author: Michael Cook
summaryA work in which, after three technical chapters by Daniel Turbón, Mariano Artigas explains the issues in relation to faith and religion.
Author: Mariano Artigas and Daniel Turbón
Russell G. Wilcox presents discussion paper at the University of Navarra
summary summary from Russell G. Wilcox's lecture: consideration of the precepts of Natural Law is necessary to preserve the integrity of the system of human action as a whole.
Author: Russell G. Wilcox
Science and Philosophy: A Love-Hate Relationship
summaryIn this paper I review the problematic relationship between science and philosophy; in particular, I will address the question of whether science needs philosophy, and I will offer some positive (if incomplete) perspectives that should be helpful in developing a synergetic relationship between the two. I will review three lines of reasoning often employed in arguing that philosophy is useless for science: a) philosophy's death diagnosis ('philosophy is dead') and what follows from it; b) the historic-agnostic argument/challenge "show me examples where philosophy has been useful for science, for I don't know of any"; c) the division of property argument (or: philosophy and science have different subject matters, therefore philosophy is useless for science). These arguments will be countered with three contentions to the effect that the natural sciences need philosophy. I will: a) point to the fallacy of anti-philosophicalism (or: 'in order to deny the need for philosophy, one must do philosophy') and examine the role of paradigms and presuppositions (or: why science can't live without philosophy); b) point out why the historical argument fails (in an example from quantum mechanics, alive and kicking); c) briefly sketch some domains of intersection of science and philosophy and how the two can have mutual synergy. I will conclude with some implications of this synergetic relationship between science and philosophy for the liberal arts and sciences.
Author: Sebastian de Haro
Sciencie and Religion in Dialogue
summaryCompilation of a series of lectures on science and religion given by the various authors in China, funded by the Templeton Foundation.
Author: José Manuel Fidalgo
Science, Reason and Faith in the Third Millenium
summaryScientific realism, science, reason and faith, reflective capacity, science and truth, modalities of truth, truth and belief, the unity of knowledge, science and wisdom, scientism, the assumptions of science and the impact of its progress, three conclusive reflections.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Author: Enrique Moros
Assumptions and implications of scientific progress
summaryThe methods and results of experimental science play a very important role in shaping contemporary culture. They are sometimes used to support naturalistic doctrines that dispense with divine action because they consider it impossible or useless in the light of scientific progress. In the reflections that follow I suggest that the analysis goal of that progress rather leads to the opposite conclusion. More specifically, I argue that the analysis of the assumptions and implications of scientific progress leads to a perspective that is fully consistent with the affirmation of a personal creator God, with the recognition of the spiritual dimensions of the human person, and with the existence of ethical values related to the objective search for truth and service to humanity.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryThe beginning of the theory of evolution, the Darwin/Wallace theory of evolution, discussion around Darwin's theory, the principles of genetics, synthetic theory, molecular biology and genetics, some scientific questions debated around the theory of evolution, selectionism versus neutralism, punctuationism versus gradualism, notion of species, importance of natural selection in evolution, more we know, more debates, philosophical reflection and theory of evolution, theory of evolution and evolutionism, evolution and finality, bibliography.
Author: Santiago Collado González
The anthropic principle: science, philosophy or guesswork?
summary: Historic origin of the Anthropic principle and modern development of the basic idea.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The Ethical Roots of Karl Popper's Epistemology
summaryEpistemology and metaphysics. The origins of Popper's epistemology, the 1919 experiences, the circumstances, the crisis, the consequences. The meaning and scope of fallibilism, fallibilism and conjecturalism, fallibilism and skepticism, the reasons for fallibilism, critical rationalism. A realist epistemology, some qualifications of fallibilism, the ethical meaning of fallibilism, faith in reason, realism: metaphysical and epistemological.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryExplanation of the compatibility of the idea of the Intelligent Design movement with Christian faith and Darwinism.
Author: Michael Cook
The Mind of the Universe
The Presuppositions and Implications of Science as a Bridge between Science and Religion
summaryThe impact of secular humanism on our understanding of human affairs, and the desacralization of contemporary culture can be considered as two sides of the same coin. Apparently they are closely related to the progress of empirical science. I am going to consider these topics under the perspective of the impact of scientific progress on them. In its beginnings, the new science was seen as a road from nature to its Maker, promoting natural theology. Later on, however, it was interpreted as favouring a "disenchantment" of the world. I will comment on some proposals of "reenchanting" the world, and will refer to my own proposal, which has recently been published in my last book, The Mind of the Universe, published last April 2000 by the Templeton Foundation Press.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The Mind of the Universe
Understanding Science and Religion
summaryThe paper examines the work of "disenchantment" of the world by modern science and the need to "re-enchant" the world, within a context of rationality. The bridges to achieve this result lie in the self-organisation of the subject as a reflection of the divine action that imprints a teleology on reality, the singularity of man that produces science and the recognition of the intelligibility of reality.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summary sample human love has characteristics that cannot be reduced to love that has biological utility; this love refers to the recognition of the intrinsic value of the human being, of his dignity, and can only be explained with spiritual categories.
Author: Marciano Escutia
Three levels of interaction between science and philosophy
summaryThe epistemological level, the ontological level, the anthropological level.
Author: Mariano Artigas
Time, consciousness and freedom: considerations on the experiments of B. Libet and collaborators.
summaryThis article is about the experiment by Libet and his colleagues on conscious decisions and others inspired by it. The discussion concentrates especially on two themes. Firstly, on the relation between consciousness and time. And, secondly, on the idea of freedom that is presupposed in these experiments.
Author: José Ignacio Murillo and José Manuel Giménez-Amaya
Time Reborn. From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe
summary: Review of Smolin Lee, Time Reborn. From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe. The work reviews physical theories and relates them to a philosophical reflection on the validity of science.
Author: Javier Sánchez Cañizares