Inicio/Agustín Galán Machío

Categoría: ingles

  • Unthinkable World

    This paper explores the universe through the lens of the philosophy of ignorance. It offers a social and cultural introspection grounded in the history of philosophy and science, drawing on the contributions of some of humanity’s greatest thinkers. Unlike other animals, human beings are acutely aware of their profound ignorance regarding the meaning of their… →

  • The Ultimate Piece of the Universe

    The Ultimate Piece of the Universe explores the underlying metaphysics of modern physics by weaving together literary imagination and scientific inquiry—bringing Jorge Luis Borges into dialogue with Albert Einstein, and Walt Whitman with Richard Dawkins. This unending quest for the universe’s missing piece leads us along a path where Stephen Hawking and his colleagues probe… →

  • Phenomenological Agnoiology: A theory of ignorance

    The term agnoiology, conceived as a General Theory of Ignorance, was coined by James Frederick Ferrier in Institutes of Metaphysic: The Theory of Knowing and Being (1854), a work to which we also owe the term epistemology. In what is commonly described as postmodernity, ignorance has once again become a central concern. It is therefore… →

  • Ignorant Modernity

    Are we moderns more ignorant than the ancients? In some respects, yes; in others, no. This essay on ignorant modernity addresses precisely that paradox: the transformation of the domains of ignorance and of the very concept of ignorance itself—one that is not inherently negative, nor reducible to a mere lack of education. Much of contemporary… →

  • Agnotology: Sociology of Ignorance, ignorance of Sociology

    This paper examines ignorance as a socially constructed phenomenon—within the framework of agnotology—and explores the epistemic limits of sociology in apprehending the structure and functioning of society. Ignorance is shown to be deeply subjective and socially complex. Building on M. J. Smithson’s referential definition of agnotology, the paper develops a methodological proposal for the empirical… →

  • The Theory of difference: The eternal return of differences

    The secret of life is that it has no single secret, but an infinity of them—each irreducibly different. The conjecture of an eternal return of differences draws on contemporary scientific visions of the cosmos, which reveal a universe in which everything is connected to everything else through an inextricable indeterminacy governed by “chance.” Chance, in… →

  • Subjectology: Sociology of Social Subjects

    The study of the subject, or subjectology, is fundamental across various disciplines including sociology, political science, and psychology. It focuses on individuals as social beings and collective entities like societies. Subjectology redefines the social sciences by centering on the subject rather than society as an abstract concept. →

  • Ignorance and metaphysics at the limits of Quantum Physics and infinitesimal calculus

    Ignorance is not confined to religion or metaphysics; it is a pervasive feature of science itself, frequently likened to a bottomless pit. At the very core of Leibniz’s infinitesimal calculus lies a profound ignorance concerning the ultimate limits of reality—an encounter with a concept that is at once nonexistent and yet indispensable to our understanding… →

  • The Meaning of Sense

    It is necessary to ask whether the very notion of “sense” possesses any intrinsic meaning at all. As Emil Cioran once observed: “To wake up startled, wondering whether the word ‘sense’ has any meaning, and then to be astonished that one cannot fall back asleep.” →

  • The ‘common sense’ and the meaning of ‘meaning’

    Until now, we have persistently asked about the meaning of history and the role played by religious beliefs and ideologies in shaping it, within a world marked by constant change and evolution. With postmodernity, however, new intellectual and emotional frameworks for understanding the world, society, and even the meaning of life itself have emerged. Today… →

  • The epistemology of Artificial Intelligence: An interview with six chatbots Artificial ignorance

    This article examines the epistemological framework that emerges from an analysis of responses to a questionnaire administered to six publicly available AI chatbots, focusing on how these systems generate, justify, and structure knowledge in their interactions with users. →

  • The Death of the ‘Subject of History’

    The article examines the conceptual distinction between the historical subject and agency (or social agency), and reflects on the gradual disappearance of unified historical subjects, replaced instead by a constellation of social movements that fragment political life in contemporary democracies. →

  • Ignoramus: Philosophical aphorisms and agnoiologisms

    This book offers a systematic exploration of the limits of our philosophical and scientific understanding. Through a curated series of aphorisms and reflections, it maps the shifting boundaries between knowledge and ignorance. →

  • Difference and Ignorance : The Eternal Return of Diversity 

    The secret of life is that it has no single secret—only an infinity of them, each irreducibly different. →

  • Being and Ignorance: Philosophical Theories of ignorance (II)  

    This book examines whether it is possible to conceptualize “objective” being in a way that transcends the subject–object dichotomy, and whether ignorance might be understood not primarily as a feature of consciousness, but as something expressed in the behavior or dynamics of being itself. →