ArtefaCToS. Revista de estudios sobre la ciencia y la tecnología

Observability and Abstraction: Two Challenges for the Adoption of Scientific Realism in Philosophy of Social Sciences

Álvaro Armijo Torres — 2023-11-24

Traditionally, scientific realism (the view that sciences’ success depends on the truth of their contents), implies the distinction between observable and unobservable entities. However, when we see the social sciences, it seems to be that this distinction is untenable. Does it mean that scientific realism is unsustainable for social sciences? In this paper, I defend the idea that scientific realism is a possible approach in philosophy of social sciences, but in a different way than the traditional account. When we analyze social sciences, we see that scientific realism can dispense with the observable/unobservable distinction, and in turn, we need to focus the debate on relation to the assumptions behind generation of explanations, especially in the case of causal explanations. The main implication of this view is that, in the case of social sciences, the support of scientific realism is not at the level of ontological commitments, but instead in the methodological commitments that guide research design.

Without Science No Marine Commons: Legal Bases that Promote Marine Scientific Research in the Area

José Luis Jaimes Sánchez — 2023-11-24

The Area, as a common heritage of humanity, is a commons system. This conception establishes the relationship of humanity with the seabed. The proliferation of marine activities has facilitated access to resources, but this does not imply progress towards precise knowledge of the structure and limitations of this system. Based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and from the ostromnian perspective on common pool resources, the article analyzes some legal aspects that affect the institutional design of activities in the Area, specifically in the development of marine scientific research. The study shows that, in the same way that the International Seabed Authority promotes the work to regulate exploitation activities for the coming decades, it is necessary to develop, with the same emphasis and care, a regulatory framework that promotes scientific research under the parameters of the marine commons.

A Veronian Approach to the Phenomenon of the Expansion of Pseudoscientific Discourses in Times of Technological Revolution

Marcelo José García Farjat — 2023-11-24

The main objective of this proposal is to identify and characterize the new conditions of mediatization in times of technological revolution that enable the current propagation of pseudoscientific beliefs and discourses. For this purpose, the concept of mediatization offered by the Argentine semiotician Eliseo Verón is taken as a reference axis. Without falling into a technological determinism, one cannot help but notice the current conditions that this techno-media environment entails in terms of access, circulation and consumption of pseudosciences. Taking advantage of the communicative potential inherent in the new technical devices that populate our daily life, its promoters find in the present techno-communicational infrastructure, an ideal way for the propagation and popularization of pseudosciences in a framework that recognizes the advance of relativistic discourses and postmodernists who seek to discredit and delegitimize science and its extensive and expressive achievements.

Transhumanism and Prenatal Genetic Modification: a Case of Totalitarian Eugenics?

Santiago Cobo — 2023-11-24

Nick Bostrom, pioneer of transhumanism as a philosophical movement, stipulates two assumptions within its human improvement project: (1) that it is a liberal project (i.e., that it does not coerce human beings) and (2) that it is a neutral project (i.e., free of political, economic, and ideological interests). In this paper I will show that (1) and (2) are false. In that sense, I will argue that transhumanism is, in its ideals, a project of eugenics or "liberal" human improvement. However, in its realization and in some of its arguments, it becomes a "totalitarian" eugenics or enhancement project. This is so because the transhumanist project contains an element of totalitarian eugenics: coercion. In order to make this clear, I put forward three arguments and expose a case of human enhancement endorsed by transhumanists from the synthetic biology approach: prenatal ethical gene modification. This case is important because it shows how an external agent makes decisions (coerces) on another. For this reason, I propose the creation of a bioethics committee whose main objective is to analyze the arguments and motivations of parents to modify their child(ren) in the embryonic stage, giving space to an exercise of deliberative democracy among different actors of society.

Modernity, Technology and Region. Telephony and its Imprint in South-Central Cuba (1882-1930)

Vero Edilio Rodríguez Orrego — 2023-11-24

This article addresses the historical connections between modernity and technology from a regional perspective. Specifically, it aims to explain the technical, organizational and cultural aspects that distinguished the introduction and expansion of telephony as an expression of the deployment of modernity in Cienfuegos, a Cuban region in the transition between the end of Spanish colonial rule and the first decades of the republican period. First, it analyzes the genesis and transfer of telephony within the influence of American modernity on Cuba and the historical links of dependence towards the North American country, which turned it into an expeditious transmitter of technological innovations and other achievements to the Island. Then, the technical and organizational aspects of the deployment of telephony in the regional context of Cienfuegos are presented in stages. Finally, there is an approach to the cultural aspect and the social meanings generated by this technological practice in the region, associated to the economic-commercial activity, social hierarchization, intra-regional integration, communication and its use as a tool of political control that limited the national sovereignty under the management of the American Cuban Telephone Company.

A Dynamic View of Hypothesis Generation in Abduction

Juan Redmond — 2023-11-24

This paper explores our proposal’s conceptual depth and implications for the hypothesis generation as conditional. To do so, we will contrast it mainly with reading passages from one of the paradigmatic presentations of hypothesis generation: the work of C.S. Peirce. Indeed, in his work, the notion of hypothesis gains a relevant place from a logical point of view. In particular, we will focus on (i) showing that “hypothesis” in Peirce can hardly be identified with just a section of the rule that subsumes the surprising case and (ii) we will show that the proposed hypotheses generation as conditionals allows for a complementary and enlightening reading of his idea of abduction.

Importance of Scientific Dissemination of Natural Risks in Geoparks, Proposal for Las Loras Geopark (Palencia, Spain)

Laura Tascón González — 2023-11-24

Scientific dissemination in the field of natural risks is conceived as the engine for society to make appropriate decisions that minimize the damage that disasters can cause, facing the future in the best way. Its implementation encourages the development of a sense of responsibility in the face of environmental problems, increasing the empowerment of society, the probability of surviving and responding to natural phenomena, the resilience of the community and the mitigation of its vulnerability. For the dissemination of new knowledge in the field of disasters, the use of the UNESCO World Geoparks as a scenario and specifically the Geopark Las Loras is proposed. This Geopark could serve as a tool for the transmission and consolidation of information on natural phenomena, the analysis of risks associated with them and to establish a relationship between the community, the territory and the geological, landscape, cultural and historical heritage that we must keep.