One author stands out for his contributions to the evolving field of organizations and management: James March. He was the co-author of the two books that were particularly influential in initiating the field which is now broadly recognized as behavioural theories of organizations: A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, written with Richard Cyert, and Organisations, written with Herbert Simon. This article outlines part of the evolution of March’s framework that he has developed in order to understand human action in often-complex (...) situations. It also includes some notes on Richard Cyert’s contributions. March’s framework became clear and was shaped by his background at the interdisciplinary environment at Carnegie Mellon in the 1950s and 60s. The non-rational and adaptive aspects of human decision-making and behaviour have figured more prominently in March’s work as time has gone on. (shrink)

: The work of Herbert A. Simon has drawn increasing attention from modern scholars who argue that Simon's work changed during the Cold War. This is due to the fact that Simon seemingly changed the substance of his research in the 1950s. This paper argues that Simon did not change in any significant way, but was lead by his interest in decision making and rationality into areas of economics, political science, sociology, psychology, organization theory, and computer science. He used elements (...) of different disciplines to address his overall interest and there is therefore a considerable continuity in Simon's work. This paper also provides part of a background for the recent increase of interest in Simon's ideas by providing some details of the RAND Corporation and the Ford Foundation's support of scientific research through the post war years in general, and their connections to the behavioral science research at Carnegie Mellon University in particular. (shrink)

Bajo el rótulo de "contractualismo" se agrupan diversas teorías que sostienen que la obligatoriedad de las normas descansa en el consentimiento de quienes están vinculados por ellas. No obstante, esta caracterización general obvia diferencias cruciales entre las distintas teorías contractualistas. Se analizan diversas tipologías para iluminar dichas diferencias y alcanzar una caracterización más exacta del contractualismo. Se concluye que la distinción entre consentimiento hipotético e ideal, al que recurren algunas versiones, torna imposible la formulación de una definición unívoca de contractualismo. (...) "Contractualism" refers to the diverse theories that maintain that the obligatory nature of norms rests on the consent of those bound by them. However, this general characterization overlooks crucial differences among the different contractualist theories. The article analyzes diverse typologies in order to highlight these differences and reach a more precise characterization of contractualism. It concludes that the distinction between hypothetical and ideal consent made by some of these versions makes it impossible to formulate a univocal definition of contractualism. Sob o título de "contratualismo", agrupam-se diversas teorias que sustentam que a obrigatoriedade das normas descansa no consentimento dos que estão vinculados por elas. Contudo, essa caracterização geral torna óbvias diferenças cruciais entre as diferentes teorias contratualistas. Analisam-se diversas tipologias para iluminar essas diferenças e alcançar uma caracterização mais exata do contratualismo. Conclui-se que a diferença entre consentimento hipotético e ideal, à qual recorrem algumas versões, torna impossível a formulação de uma definição unívoca de contratualismo. (shrink)

Bajo el rótulo de “contractualismo” se agrupan diversas teorías que sostienen que la obligatoriedad de las normas descansa en el consentimiento de quienes están vinculados por ellas. No obstante, esta caracterización general obvia diferencias cruciales entre las distintas teorías contractualistas. Se analizan diversas tipologías para iluminar dichas diferencias y alcanzar una caracterización más exacta del contractualismo. Se concluye que la distinción entre consentimiento hipotético e ideal, al que recurren algunas versiones, torna imposible la formulación de una definición unívoca de contractualismo.

Cet article se propose d’étudier comment, dans le monde grec antique, les femmes étaient nommées et comment s’articulait la différence des sexes en fonction du contexte d’apparition de leur nom. Il s’appuie sur la documentation épigraphique et plus particulièrement sur les décrets honorifiques – des textes gravés sur pierre souvent affichés dans l’espace public – qui honoraient une personne pour ses actions en faveur de la cité. Les femmes étaient honorées dans ces documents notamment lorsqu’elles exerçaient une charge religieuse, comme (...) celle de prêtresse. Cette étude, en partant d’un décret athénien honorant une prêtresse du nom de Timokritè, se demande où se joue le genre, en s’intéressant à la manière dont les prêtresses étaient désignées et en observant ce que la façon de les nommer indiquait sur leur statut et leur fonction. Il s’agit de montrer comment certaines femmes, en tant que prêtresses, occupaient grâce à leur statut de citoyennes des fonctions politiques de magistrates. (shrink)

This paper explores the laborious and intimate work of turning bodies of research animals into models of human patients. Based on ethnographic research in the interdisciplinary Danish research centre NEOMUNE, we investigate collaboration across species and disciplines, in research aiming at improving survival for preterm infants. NEOMUNE experimental studies on piglets evolved as a platform on which both basic and clinical scientists exercised professional authority. Guided by the field of multi-species research, we explore the social and material agency of research (...) animals in the production of human health. Drawing on Anna Tsing’s concept of “collaborative survival”, we show that sharing the responsibility of the life and death of up to twenty-five preterm piglets fostered not only a collegial solidarity between basic and clinical scientists, but also a transformative cross-fertilization across species and disciplines—a productive “contamination”—facilitating the day-to-day survival of piglets, the academic survival of scientists and the promise of survival of preterm infants. Contamination spurred intertwined identity shifts that increased the porosity between the pig laboratory and the neonatal intensive care unit. Of particular significance was the ability of the research piglets to flexibly become animal-infant-patient hybrids in need of a united effort from basic and clinical researchers. However, ‘hybrid pigs’ also entailed a threat to the demarcation between humans and animals that consolidates the use of animals in biomedical research, and efforts were continuously done to keep contamination within spatial limits. We conclude that contamination facilitates transformative encounters, yet needs spatial containment to materialize bench-to-bedside translation. (shrink)

This article discusses ‘brainstorm’ interaction in a multimodal perspective. It shows how an innovation workshop facilitator is ‘doing facilitation’ by not only organizing group activities and managing turn-taking, but also drawing each group member out to participate actively and contribute to the group process. Institutional goals are transformed to individual conversational participation. Participants are helped to express their thoughts and engage in a social process of clarifying, developing and refining ideas. In the process the facilitator is socializing the participants into (...) a particular participation framework, letting them collaborate in shaping a local community of practice. The facilitator is separating phases of activities to afford decoupling actions, creating specific local sequential environments for participants to produce particular kinds of talk, thus engaging a group of participants in a social process of collaborative idea development. The article will show how multimodal orientation to a range of semiotic resources is used to manage topical talk, elicit talk from a particular person, manage speaker transition, secure progression and shifts, perform shift in participant identity and elicit talk performing particular social actions, explanations and accounts. A process is shaped in which collaboratively produced underspecified ideas are turned into ‘noticings’ in order to create slots for them to be explained and accounted for so that individual cognitive processes are made available for treatment in a social process of idea development, and selection of ideas is prioritized over discussion/rejection. (shrink)

Cowboy Bebop, a popular anime series set in the year 2071 onboard the spaceship Bebop, chronicles the bohemian adventures of a group of bounty hunters. This paper presents how the imaginary characters and their voices are conventionalized to fit hegemonic norms. The social semiotic of desire depicted in Cowboy Bebop caters to a general heterosexual market in which hero and babe characters represent the anime archetypes of heterosexual normativity. Scripted speech used in the anime functions as a role language which (...) indexes common ideological attributes associated with a character’s demeanor. This study focuses on how ideas, including heterosexual normativity and culture-specific practices, are reproduced in media texts in order to negotiate the intertextual distances that link the characters and audience. (shrink)

The paper contributes to previous studies of identity as locally and interactionally produced by pointing to some of the multimodal resources employed by participants to achieving, challenge and manage the professional identity of ‘leader’ in different workplace settings. We examine professional identity work in sequential environments where it provides a resource for handling the resistance to improvement displayed by another participant. We show how leader identity work gets embedded within a four-part structure of: identifying a problem, proposing improvements, misaligning with (...) others’ proposals, and managing the misalignment. The paper is based on video ethnographic fieldwork and recordings of face-to-face institutional interaction at two different institutional settings in Denmark. The study provides insight about the role of identity work in the interactional achievement of institutional procedures. (shrink)

Patient-derived xenografts are currently promoted as new translational models in precision oncology. PDXs are immunodeficient mice with human tumors that are used as surrogate models to represent specific types of cancer. By accounting for the genetic heterogeneity of cancer tumors, PDXs are hoped to provide more clinically relevant results in preclinical research. Further, in the function of so-called “mouse avatars”, PDXs are hoped to allow for patient-specific drug testing in real-time. This paper examines the circulation of knowledge and bodily material (...) across the species boundary of human and personalized mouse model, historically as well as in contemporary practices. PDXs raise interesting questions about the relation between animal model and human patient, and about the capacity of hybrid or interspecies models to close existing translational gaps. We highlight that the translational potential of PDXs not only depends on representational matching of model and target, but also on temporal alignment between model development and practical uses. Aside from the importance of ensuring temporal stability of human tumors in a murine body, the mouse avatar concept rests on the possibility of aligning the temporal horizons of the clinic and the lab. We examine strategies to address temporal challenges, including cryopreservation and biobanking, as well as attempts to speed up translation through modification and use of faster developing organisms. We discuss how featured model virtues change with precision oncology, and contend that temporality is a model feature that deserves more philosophical attention. (shrink)

RESUMEN: El presente trabajo examina Anarquía, Estado y utopía de Robert Nozick a la luz de los mitos y ficciones sobre los cuales se construye. En este sentido, se sostendrá que es posible identificar dos mitos principales: el estado de naturaleza lockeano, cuyo principio se deja resumir en la máxima volenti non fit iniuria; y la meta-utopía libertaria, que se deja explicar como una aplicación de la teoría evolutiva de Hayek y de la epistemología de Popper a la construcción de (...) una utopía. Se sostendrá además que existe una continuidad entre ambos mitos y que dicha continuidad viene dada por una intuición moral que Nozick formula al principio de la obra y que sirve también de inspiración al mito libertario: que la vida solo puede tener sentido cuando se deja a cada persona vivir la suya del modo en que estime conveniente. Dicha intuición, se concluirá, se traduce en el campo de la política y del derecho en el principio de que cada persona es dueña de sí misma y que, por consiguiente, esta forma particular de propiedad constituye el secreto hilo conductor de toda la obra. ABSTRACT: This paper examines Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia in the light of the myths and fictions upon which it is built. I hold that it is possible to identify two main myths: the Lockean state of nature, whose principle can be summarized by the maxim volenti non fit injuria, and the libertarian meta-utopia, that can be explained as an application of Hayek evolutive theory and of Popper's epistemology in order to construct an utopia. I also claim that there is a continuity between both myths, and that this continuity is granted by a moral intuition that Nozick presents at the beginning of this work, and that also inspires the libertarian myth: that life can only have sense when each person is allowed to live her own in the way she deems convenient. I will conclude that this intuition finds an expression, in the field of politics and law, in the principle that each person owns herself and, hence, that this peculiar form of ownership is the secret thread of the whole book. (shrink)

El presente trabajo explora la posibilidad de obtener y defender una concepción particular de los derechos sociales a partir de la teoría del título válido de Robert Nozick. Se sostendrá que dicha teoría ofrece varios caminos hacia un Estado más que mínimo. Aquí nos detendremos en uno de ellos, que se desarrolla a partir del concepto de “voluntariedad”. Para ello, después de impugnar el concepto estrecho de voluntariedad adoptado normalmente por los filósofos libertarios, se introduce la noción de “acto mixto” (...) de Aristóteles, que refleja las condiciones bajo las cuales los agentes de hecho contratan. Se sostendrá que la celebración de acuerdos con voluntad mixta plantea una serie de problemas a la teoría del título válido, problemas que sólo pueden ser remediados introduciendo pautas distributivas. Estas pautas deberían conducir a un Estado subsidiario y a combinar la teoría de Nozick con criterios suficientaristas de distribución en favor de los necesitados. (shrink)

Cet article se propose d’étudier comment, dans le monde grec antique, les femmes étaient nommées et comment s’articulait la différence des sexes en fonction du contexte d’apparition de leur nom. Il s’appuie sur la documentation épigraphique et plus particulièrement sur les décrets honorifiques – des textes gravés sur pierre souvent affichés dans l’espace public – qui honoraient une personne pour ses actions en faveur de la cité. Les femmes étaient honorées dans ces documents notamment lorsqu’elles exerçaient une charge religieuse, comme (...) celle de prêtresse. Cette étude, en partant d’un décret athénien honorant une prêtresse du nom de Timokritè, se demande où se joue le genre, en s’intéressant à la manière dont les prêtresses étaient désignées et en observant ce que la façon de les nommer indiquait sur leur statut et leur fonction. Il s’agit de montrer comment certaines femmes, en tant que prêtresses, occupaient grâce à leur statut de citoyennes des fonctions politiques de magistrates. (shrink)

By framing Aristotle’s dialectic in the broader context of scientific inquiry and demonstration, this paper is aimed at showing of what use the “reputable opinions” can be for grasping the principles of sciences, as declared in Topics I.2. It argues that such a use cannot imply ‒ at any stage of inquiry ‒ a replacement of the logic and intrinsic goals of demonstration by those proper to dialectic. However, it also defends a substantive (but still modest) contribution of dialectic ‒ (...) beyond its well-attested methodological role in discarding contradictory opinions and its (possible though not germane to the context of Topics I.2) application to proving the principle of non-contradiction by means of refutation. This contribution consists in providing the preliminary accounts of facts in order to have scientific inquiry started, as required in Posterior Analytics II.8. To better appreciate how the proposed location of dialectic in a pre-demonstrative stage of inquiry is operational, the paper finally examines Physics IV.1-5. (shrink)

La tercera propuesta para definir qué es la epistēmē, que se encuentra al final del Teeteto platónico, fue clásicamente insumida en el elenco de los pioneros de la tesis según la cual el conocimiento debe entenderse como creencia verdadera justificada. Sin embargo, la situación filosófica de este diálogo es más compleja. Me propongo examinar aquí la manera en que Platón presenta a través de la doctrina del sueño –una teoría que exhibe manifiestas similitudes con el atomismo lógico– una discusión acerca (...) de distintas alternativas relativas a la justificación, como estrategia interpretativa para ponderar de qué manera pueden resultar las ideas piezas indispensables de la epistēmē. Creo que ello nos conduce tanto a reexaminar seriamente la teoría del conocimiento y la metafísica tradicionalmente adscrita a Platón, a partir de conceptos como los de parte y todo, como también a valorar mejor la posición platónica acerca de cuestiones epistemológicas y semánticas. (shrink)

En el presente artículo me ocupo de la discusión acerca de cuán exigentes son nuestras obligaciones de contribuir con dinero y tiempo a las agencias humanitarias que asisten a personas en situación de pobreza extrema en el mundo. Defiendo una posición intermedia, moderada, frente a la posición extrema formulada por Peter Singer y frente a la posición según la cual nuestras obligaciones son mínimas. La objeción principal contra esas dos posiciones es que, cuando analizan la situación en que los potenciales (...) donantes se encuentran frente a las personas en situación de pobreza extrema, omiten el carácter iterativo que es propio de esa situación. La posición moderada, en cambio, tiene en cuenta ese carácter, gracias a que entiende a nuestras obligaciones hacia los pobres globales como obligaciones imperfectas. In this article I engage in the debate about the demandingness of our duties to contribute with money and time to humanitarian agencies that assist people who live in extreme poverty around the world. I defend an intermediate, moderate, view against Peter Singer's extreme view, and also against the view according to which our duties are minimal. The main objection regarding those two views is that, when they analyze the situation in which potential donors are vis-à-vis people who live in extreme poverty, they miss its distinctive iterative character. The moderate view, on the contrary, pays heed to that character, thanks to its account of our duties towards the global poor as imperfect duties. (shrink)

En este artículo se discute la relación entre silogismo y demostración con respecto al concepto aristotélico del conocimiento científico formulado en los Analíticos segundos. La argumentación sigue tres líneas principales: (i) se ofrecen razones para rechazar la relegación de la sistematización silogística a la instancia postrera de justificación y exposición didáctica del conocimiento previamente adquirido. Como respuesta alternativa, (ii) se muestra que una explicación aristotélica necesita la silogística en virtud del papel que desempeña la causa como término medio silogístico. En (...) consecuencia, debería estar en condiciones de (iii) sostener que no resulta factible establecer firmemente los principios propios como premisas explicativas sin construir silogismos. This article focuses on the relation between syllogism and demonstration, as related to Aristotle's concept of scientific knowledge in his Posterior Analytics. Three main lines of argumentation are followed: (i) reasons are given to reject that syllogistic systematization plays a unique role as a skill for justification and didactic proof of a body of knowledge previously acquired. Alternatively, (ii) it is showed that an Aristotelian explanation requires syllogistic as to the role of cause as middle syllogistic term. Thus, it should be feasible (iii) to sustain that it is not possible to firmly establish proper principles as explanative premises without constructing syllogisms. (shrink)

Aristotle’s main thesis in Metaphysics Z.17, which takes substance to be a principle and a cause of some sort (1041a9–10, 1041b7–9, b30–31), is of a piece with the assumption that hylomorphic compounds are unified wholes (1041b11–12) – an assumption that proves critical to settling an important controversy about the form-matter relationship in that chapter, i. e. whether matter and form are mutually indistinguishable or rather just accidentally the same. By rejecting these interpretive options, this paper argues that form and matter (...) are bound together by an essential link which, nevertheless, is able to preserve both (i) the different explanatory roles that each of those principles play vis-à-vis specific substances and (ii) the compound’s proper unity. (shrink)

Me propongo ofrecer una interpretación unificada de la metodología aristotélica y mostrar que ella se integra en un empirismo híbrido en el cual se combina la doble naturaleza de los phainomena , hechos observacionales y creencias comunes. Polemizaré con la lectura coherentista de la prueba dialéctica de consistencia que se expresa en EN VII 1, y trataré de aclarar qué uso hace Aristóteles de aquella doble fuente de sus investigaciones en algunos textos de ciencia natural ( Ph . IV 4).

En _Metaph_. Z17, Aristóteles toma un nuevo punto de partida (1041a6) en su discusión sobre la sustancia: la forma sustancial es principio y causa (1041a6-10, 1041b8), mientras que la mate­ria es un elemento (1041b31) de las sustancias mate­riales. Además, un compromiso de Aristóteles, quizá no totalmente acla­rado en Z17, es que las sustancias materiales son todos unificados (1041b11-12). Éstas son dos tesis centrales de Z17, cuya aparente ausencia en el resu­men de H1 (1042a3-23) ha despertado dudas entre los co­menta­do­res acerca (...) del mismo proyecto de H; un libro que es visto comúnmente como un mero ma­nojo de notas so­bre temas de Z. En cuanto a la con­tribución positiva de H, los comentadores destacan poco más que la in­troducción del vocabu­lario modal de potencia y acto, en el cual se habría traducido la distinción de Z entre ma­teria y forma; y encuentran recién en la solución que H6 (1045a23-25, 1045b18-19) ofrece al pro­blema de la unidad la genuina con­tribución que hace el entero libro H. Como conse­cuencia de esta lectura, H1-5 que­dan a la sombra de H6 y resultan escasamente atendi­dos. En contra de la tendencia todavía predominante a no considerar H1-5 en sí mismos, en este artículo in­tentaré mostrar que esos capítulos desarrollan un pro­grama que prepara adecuada­mente la conclu­sión de H6. H2-3 son la pri­mera gran estación en ese progra­ma; allí Aristóteles justifica la priori­dad de la forma; posteriormente, en H4-5 hace algo similar con la uni­dad de los compues­tos materiales. De tal manera, tra­taré de mostrar que H1-5 constituyen una pieza cen­tral en el acaba­miento de la teoría sobre la sustancia material ini­ciada en Z17. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza los determinantes sociales de la salud y, de forma particular, el género en su dimensión de determinante estructural de la misma. El análisis comprende la manera en que el género influye en la construcción de los distintos determinantes sociales de la salud y cómo afecta la materialización del derecho humano a la salud de la mujer. Asimismo, este trabajo da cuenta de la relación existente entre el binomio género/salud y el objetivo internacional de avanzar hacia un desarrollo (...) sustentable, subrayando la imposibilidad de dicho avance sin mejorar la salud de la mujer alrededor del mundo. (shrink)

La interpretación de la metodología científica de Aristóteles, desarrollada en las últimas décadas, introdujo algunas modificaciones importantes en la imagen fundacionista-axiomática que tradicionalmente se le había adjudicado a la epistemología del estagirita. Sin embargo, tales modificaciones cond..

Ce livre montre, à travers l'étude de la notion de virtù, que Machiavel a développé une approche originale des choses politiques qui consiste à penser les conditions de possibilité de la liberté sans nier la contingence du monde et la méchanceté potentielle de l'être humain.

The main concern of this paper is the problem of method in De Caelo, which has been recently invigorated by the supposition of Aristotle’s acceptance of two standards of justification. Whereas the φυσικῶς argument comes close to demonstrative knowledge, the εὐλόγως argument relies on more general assumptions and allegedly points towards argumentative justification. With a view to better understanding how empirical criteria for theories, teleological principles, and the resolution of difficulties are laid down to provide as much causal explanations as (...) possible, we take side here in the debate about the very purpose of Aristotle’s using of justification by argument in scientific contexts. Our main claim is that although only reasonable proofs can be worked out in empirically underdetermined domains, this in no way amounts to endorsing an alternative to the norms of inquiry Aristotle upholds in natural science. (shrink)

I attempt to sketch important aspects of Plato’s political theory related to his concept of rationality in the Republic. I will discuss two issues on this matter. First, I will explain how the knowledge of the idea of the good contributes to the State, placing in this context Plato’s view on the ..

I reconstruct Aristotle's epistemology and scientific methodology avoiding some problems which, in my opinion, are attributed to them from inadequate interpretations in terms of foundationalism or coherentism. On the contrary, I credit Aristotle with a hybrid concept of empiricism in which our knowledge is made possible through the integration of two different but cooperative factors: observations and beliefs. By clarifying the implications of Aristotle's concept of experience and the basis for the elaboration of scientific knowledge, I try to give an (...) alternative account of Aristotle's vindication of a positive use of dialectic in science, as well as to show that an integration between dialectical examination of beliefs and scientific analysis of facts is possible and it also gives a plausible methodological image of Aristotle's theory. According to my proposal, some opinions play a conceptual role in the empirical basis of knowledge. But, for Aristotle, this does not amount to any more than a kind of knowledge of the facts, not being equivalent to a scientific knowledge of the causes. Finally, I try to show that within this complex epistemological framework Aristotle's use of induction could also be given an adequate explanation. (shrink)