Using Cartesian Doubt To Build a Sequencing-Based View of Microbiology

The technological leap of DNA sequencing generated a tension between modern metagenomics and historical microbiology. We are forcibly harmonizing the output of a modern tool with centuries of experimental knowledge derived from culture-based microbiology.

Los límites del pensar: Hegel en diálogo con Kant

From the perspective of Cartesian doubt (on the validity of sensory experience in the acquisition of scientific philosophical knowledge), this article explores the concept of the limitations of reasoning through the use of the Kantian words 'boundary' (Grenze) and 'barrier' (Schranke) in his Critique of Pure Reason. Hegel's critical dialogue with Kant is presented focusing on the limitation that the latter imposed on reason for the acquisition of the true knowledge of philosophical/metaphysical objects. For this purpose, the Hegelian position is presented from its discussion on the second chapter (point B. Finitude) of the first section of the The Doctrine of Being (1832) and references are made to conceptual elements of the Phenomenology of Spirit.

Institutioni Scholasticae Minime Accommodata

This contribution reconstructs the controversy between Gerard de Neufville (1590-1648) and Johann Clauberg about the comparative merits of Bacon and Descartes in the university classroom. This controversy had a crucial pragmatic dimension, evaluating the question of how Baconian and Cartesian philosophical projects could meet the pedagogical needs of the university as an educational institution. The exchange between de Neufville and Clauberg shows that textbooks of natural philosophy contain important discussions of pedagogical practice. De Neufville fears that a revolution of natural philosophy along Baconian lines may well take centuries. But professors still need something to teach to students. Therefore, he envisions a Baconian philosophia nov-antiqua that reintroduces certain aspects of Aristotelian science into a broadly Baconian empirical investigation of nature. Clauberg’s criticism of his teacher focuses on two perceived weaknesses. First, Baconian doubt renders natural philosophy unteachable; while Cartesian doubt does not, because it can be dissolved comparatively quickly. Second, de Neufville’s evolutionary approach may inadvertently convey false doctrines to students, thereby preventing their epistemic progress. The only defence against unexamined opinions is the suspension of judgment. Besides that, he argues, de Neufville’s pragmatic worries are unfounded: Cartesians are successful professionals in theology, medicine, and in the university itself.

The price of certainty: How the politics of pandemic data demand an ethics of care

The Covid-19 pandemic broke on a world whose grip on epistemic trust was already in disarray. The first months of the pandemic saw many governments publicly performing reliance on epidemiological and modelling expertise in order to signal that data would be the basis for justifying whatever population-level measures of control were judged necessary. But comprehensive data has not become available, and instead scientists, policymakers and the public find themselves in a situation where policy inputs determine the data available and vice versa. This essay asks how we can live with what Amoore has termed ‘post-Cartesian doubt’ in situations of existential risk, and what kind of approach to science and data can answer the moral and human demands of a situation such as the Covid-19 pandemic. I suggest that science and policy could be able to control the pandemic better by addressing the sources of uncertainty and missing data not as gaps in the information landscape, but as individuals who are likely to be members of less-visible and less powerful groups including low-wage workers, the elderly, migrants, prisoners and others. This would shift both data use and policy toward an ethics of care, an embodied approach which asks what people need and how they behave in relation to each other, rather than how to manage population-level behaviour. This approach, I argue, is more appropriate for pandemic response than a utilitarian calculation of how many people each country should expect to lose as a result of the disease.

Voluntarism

Voluntarism is a theory of action. It traces our actions less to our intellects and natural inclinations than to simple will or free choice. Applied to thinking about God’s actions, voluntarism led late medieval philosophers to see the world’s causal and moral orders as finally rooted in God’s sheer free choice, and to take God’s commands as the source of moral obligation. Medieval voluntarism helped pave the way for empiricism, Cartesian doubt about the senses, legal positivism and Reformation theology.