Scientific-technological innovation (particularly in the field of transgenic foods and cloning), scientific journalism and public opinion all share a complex relationship. The rupture of internal consensus among the scientific community, the role played by scientific journalists as "mediators" and the differentiation between what can be referred to as the "informed public" or "epistemological leaders" and the rest of the population were the starting point for our research on the impact of news related to biotechnological advances. In this paper we will (...) show the principal characteristics of the discourse on this type of news among what we can call the "informed public". From there, we will establish a set of strategies for improving the level of scientific-technological alphabetisation in our complex societies. (shrink)

Este trabajo pretende ser una contribución a algo que, yo creo, falta por reconocer a lo largo del texto kantiano, a saber, la interconexión entre los diferentes principios del entendimiento en orden al establecimiento de las características necesarias que debe cumplir todo objeto de la experiencia, el cual depende no sólo de la magnitud extensiva e intensiva (principios matemáticos), sino también del papel que juegan las categorías de relación y modalidad (principios dinámicos). Dividiré la exposición en tres partes. En la (...) primera, analizaré las condiciones que debe cumplir todo principio del entendimiento puro, o lo que es lo mismo, sus características. En la segunda, examinaré los argumentos centrales deLos axiomas de la intuición quantum y quantitas.En tercer lugar, intentaré esclarecer la paradójica cuestión que encierra anticipar la experiencia en su lado empírico, esto es, en la dimensión material del fenómeno, a saber, la naturaleza de la magnitud extensiva, la doctrina de la continuidad y los conceptos de quantum y quantitas. En tercer lugar, intentaré esclarecer la paradójica cuestión que encierra anticipar la experiencia en su lado empírico, esto es, en la dimensión material del fenómeno. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic brings up unprecedented challenges. Healthcare practitioners find themselves in an extraordinary, wartime-like situation and are obliged to apply triage on a daily basis. In this context, routine procedures prove insufficient and the redefinition of ethical practice guidelines becomes a necessity – leading not only to a shift in procedures, but also reshaping the very value of human life. This, in turn, triggers an axiological crisis, which exacerbates the tension between paradigms of sanctity and quality of life and (...) the conflicting principles of egalitarianism and utilitarianism. Triage should not be limited to healthcare practice only: the concept can be extended to a macro-level where policymakers decide whether to prioritize human lives over livelihoods and economic health, impacting healthcare system capacity. The complexity of the challenges arising from the pandemic uncovers the urgent need to seek solutions from an integrated approach. In this paper, we offer a transdisciplinary view: we first define technical aspects of triage from the perspective of a healthcare professional. In the second part, we further analyze the problem of medical prioritization in the light of doctrinal findings related to the value of human life, and we show how and to what extent this philosophical debate is reflected in the emerging ethical guidelines in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Finally, we broaden the concept of triage, adding the “macro-economic” ingredient in our analysis and we present the results for selected European countries with special emphasis on the case of Poland. (shrink)

Under the influence of naturalistic approaches, contemporary philosophy of science tends to characterize scientific objectivity not by virtue of the individualistic following of rules or satisfying epistemic utilities, but as a property arising from the organisational features of groups. This paper presents a critical review of one such proposal, that of Helen Longino, probing some of its main features against the debate between Pasteur and Pouchet in mid-nineteenth-century France regarding the spontaneous generation of life. After considering some weaknesses and strengths, (...) it is argued that Longino’s social epistemology is only able to generate normativity by implicitly assuming a classic procedural notion of epistemic acceptability. The paper also aims to use this historical case to shed light on the complex, multidimensional nature of the dynamics of actual science, arguing both against purely epistemic and exclusively social approaches in a satisfactory meta-scientific explanation of controversies. (shrink)

AI research is being challenged with ensuring that autonomous agents learn to behave ethically, namely in alignment with moral values. Here, we propose a novel way of tackling the value alignment problem as a two-step process. The first step consists on formalising moral values and value aligned behaviour based on philosophical foundations. Our formalisation is compatible with the framework of (Multi-Objective) Reinforcement Learning, to ease the handling of an agent’s individual and ethical objectives. The second step consists in designing an (...) environment wherein an agent learns to behave ethically while pursuing its individual objective. We leverage on our theoretical results to introduce an algorithm that automates our two-step approach. In the cases where value-aligned behaviour is possible, our algorithm produces a learning environment for the agent wherein it will learn a value-aligned behaviour. (shrink)

One of the objectives in the field of artificial intelligence for some decades has been the development of artificial agents capable of coexisting in harmony with people and other systems. The computing research community has made efforts to design artificial agents capable of doing tasks the way people do, tasks requiring cognitive mechanisms such as planning, decision-making, and learning. The application domains of such software agents are evident nowadays. Humans are experiencing the inclusion of artificial agents in their environment as (...) unmanned vehicles, intelligent houses, and humanoid robots capable of caring for people. In this context, research in the field of machine ethics has become more than a hot topic. Machine ethics focuses on developing ethical mechanisms for artificial agents to be capable of engaging in moral behavior. However, there are still crucial challenges in the development of truly Artificial Moral Agents. This paper aims to show the current status of Artificial Moral Agents by analyzing models proposed over the past two decades. As a result of this review, a taxonomy to classify Artificial Moral Agents according to the strategies and criteria used to deal with ethical problems is proposed. The presented review aims to illustrate (1) the complexity of designing and developing ethical mechanisms for this type of agent, and (2) that there is a long way to go (from a technological perspective) before this type of artificial agent can replace human judgment in difficult, surprising or ambiguous moral situations. (shrink)

Después de 40 años tras la revolución kuhniana en filosofía de la ciencia es clara la necesidad de un estudio interdisciplinar de la ciencia. Pero no se ve que sea posible el que la filosofía tenga algo que decir en tal marco interdisciplinar de análisis empírico. La tendencia general a la naturalización parece dejar fuera de juego a una disciplina, la filosofía, cuyo tradicional estilo normativo es muy difícil de asimilar. Con todo, la polémica continúa. En estas páginas se recoge, (...) entre algunos otros problemas, el enfrentamiento contemporáneo entre el racionalismo filosófico y el relativismo en la comprensión de la naturaleza de la ciencia. (shrink)

It is in the Tractatus 6.31’s that Wittgenstein, according to our view, draws a fruitful discussion framework for raising the contemporary debate on scientific realism. We argue that Wittgenstein outlines here a two-sided approach to the logical status of the most general scientific propositions; an approach inconsistent both with a realist interpretation of the nature of scientific knowledge and with a conventionalist one. After briefly commenting on the historical context underlying Wittgenstein’s approach, and tentatively considering a possible extension of the (...) Tractarian approach (to idealized generalisations describing classes of physical systems), we defend that Wittgenstein’s sketchy approach has not been successfully extended and developed in the philosophy of science until the last decades. Such an achievement, weconclude, has been possible after the rejection of the propositional view of scientific knowledge underlying the very Wittgensteinian approach. (shrink)

The current study has mapped the impact of changes in different climatic parameters on the productivity of major crops cultivated in India like cereal, pulses, and oilseed crops. The vulnerability of crops to different climatic conditions like exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive indicators along with its different components and agribusiness has been studied. The study uses data collected over the past six decades from 1960 to 2020. Analytical tools such as the Tobit regression model and Principal Component Analysis were used for (...) the investigation which has shown that among climatic parameters, an increase in temperature along with huge variations in rainfall and consistent increase in CO2 emissions have had a negative impact by reducing crop productivity, particularly cereals and oilseed. Among various factors, adaptive factors such as cropping intensity, agricultural machinery, and livestock density in combination with sensitivity factors such as average operational land holding size and productivity of cereals, and exposure indicators like Kharif temperature, heavy rainfall, and rate of change in maximum and minimum Rabi temperature have contributed significantly in increasing crop vulnerability. The agribusiness model needs to be more inclusive. It should pay attention to small and remote farmers, and provide them with inclusive finance that can facilitate the adoption of climate-smart financial innovations, serve the underserved segments, and help them reach the target of a sustainable and inclusive agribusiness model. Though the social, technological, and economic initiatives can enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers, political measures still have a major role to play in providing a healthy climate for agriculture in India through tailored adaptive approaches like the adoption of craft climate adaptation program, dilating the irrigation coverage and location-centric management options. Hence, multidisciplinary and holistic approaches are worth emphasizing for evaluating the future impacts of change in climate on Indian agriculture. (shrink)

Introduction: Resilience is a multidimensional and dynamic construct associated with positive growth and the capacity to transform stressful and negative factors into opportunities of personal development and self-improvement when faced with difficult experiences. The resilience process of each individual integrates multiple analysis levels, which range from genetic-environmental interactions to a complex process of adaptation between the individual and his/her family, friends, co-workers, society, and culture.Objective: To determine whether resilience improves in students of occupational therapy when exposed for the first time (...) to practice placement education.Methodology: Quasi-experimental, prospective, observational, multi-center study with a sample composed of students from the Degree of Occupational Therapy of the public universities of Málaga and Castilla-La Mancha. Two weeks prior to the beginning of the practice education period, the participants completed a questionnaire that included sociodemographic data and the area of their internships. They were also given the Spanish version of the Connor-Davidson's resilience scale. All these instruments were also completed 1 week after the end of the clinical practice.Results: There were statistically significant differences between the variables that make up resilience and the different internship areas. On the other hand, there was a significant improvement of global resilience after the clinical practice period, in both women and men, when the internship area was not considered.Conclusions: The results show that resilient students are more optimistic and work to improve a situation beyond doing simply what is expected of them, knowing how to control their feelings. This is beneficial for students in practice education, since, during these, they face difficult situations that require a resilient pattern, which helps reduce stress and the burnout syndrome. (shrink)

La evolución del rol del profesor en las aulas en las dos últimas décadas se ha destacado por la preocupación de cumplir con las grandes exigencias de las instituciones educativas: adquirir habilidades digitales que les permita alcanzar un nivel “óptimo” de conocimiento en el uso de los recursos tecnológicos informáticos e incorporar estos recursos en sus actividades en el aula. No obstante, aún no se encuentra la fórmula para que los profesores modifiquen el modelo de enseñanza (transmisor-receptor) vigente en las (...) escuelas y en el salón de clase. Sin embargo, aunque las actividades que se realizan en el aula se encierran en una aparente caja negra, en este trabajo se presentan modelos tecno-pedagógicos que han implementado profesores de educación superior en el aula y que propone un nuevo rol del profesor, el docente innovador. Un profesor que combina el curriculum, contenidos, didácticas, actitudes, habilidades digitales, y estilos de aprendizaje para innovar en su método didáctico y que da cuenta de su habilidad didáctica, su conocimiento y preparación profesional así como de una cultura digital que va más allá de saber usar los dispositivos digitales y que conjunta los saberes humanos y tecnológicos en un modelo tecno-pedagógica para construir nuevos entornos de aprendizaje y modelos de enseñanza. (shrink)

The growing fiscal pressure created for the Monarchy during the Seventeenth Century crashed with the opposition of the privileged groups. The clergy was not prepared to give up an immunity that was considering secular. For this reason, they only consented to pay after obtained the papal permit; in this way safeguarded their jurisdiction. However, the ecclesiastics will enploy many ways to escape of the public taxes. T11e defraudation was one of them. A document of 1668 shows what type of defraudations (...) employed the Murcia's clergymen to be remitted of the payments. (shrink)

[EN]In recent decades, problems related to the accessibility and sustainability of science have increased, both in terms of the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge and its generation. Policymakers, academics, and, increasingly, citizens themselves have developed various approaches to this issue. Among them, citizen science is distinguished by making possible the generation of scientific knowledge by anyone with an interest in doing so. However, participation alone does not guarantee knowledge generation, which represents an epistemological challenge for citizen science. Simultaneously, economic and (...) socio-institutional difficulties in science governance and maintenance have grown. To solve those problems, several market elements have been introduced, a solution rejected by those who consider science as a public good that states must guarantee. Alternatively, research and work on the commons are growing worldwide, the concept being extended from natural resources to knowledge resources. In this chapter, we propose science as a commons, underlining the essential role of citizen science. Difficulties also apply to citizen science itself, but the increasing development of a multitude of projects based on cooperation favours the conditions required for its sustainability and quality. Our philosophical proposal is based on empirical knowledge about citizen science coupled with socio-economic concepts, according to a sociopolitical epistemology. (shrink)

En 1981 dio a conocer Axelrod el planteamiento y los resultados de un torneo entre programas de computadora mediante el cual intentó fijar cuál es la mejor estrategia para jugar al Dilema del Prisionero iterado. Cada programa codificó una estrategia. La estrategia ganadora, según Axelrod, fue la conocida como Tit for Tat, codificada por el programa presentado por Anatol Rapoport.El trabajo de Axelrod es experimental. Por tanto, ha de ser posible su repetición por cualquiera. Este ensayo es un estudio de (...) algunos aspectos de dicho experimento. En primer lugar, de los conceptos de «torneo tipo liga» y «ganador de un torneo tipo liga». En segundo lugar, de los resultados de someter a análisis la tabla 2 de Axelrod. (shrink)

The Air Quality Index (AQI) shows the state of air pollution in a unique and more understandable way. This work aims to forecast the AQI in Algeciras (Spain) 8 hours in advance. The AQI is calculated indirectly through the predicted concentrations of five pollutants (O3, NO2, CO, SO2 and PM10) to achieve this goal. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), sequence-to-sequence long short-term memory networks (LSTMs) and a newly proposed method combing a rolling window with the latter (LSTMNA) are employed as the (...) forecasting techniques. Besides, two input approaches are evaluated: using only the data from the own time series of the pollutant in the first case or adding exogenous variables in the second one. Several window sizes are employed (24, 28 and 72 hours) with ANNs and LSTMNAs. Additionally, several feature ranking methods are applied in the exogenous approach to select the most relevant lagged variables to feed the models. Results show how the proposed exogenous approach increases the performance of the prediction models. Besides, the newly proposed method LSTMNA provides the best performances in most of the cases evaluated. Hence, it constitutes an exciting alternative to standard LSTMs and ANNs to predict pollutants concentrations and, consequently, the AQI. (shrink)

Primo Levi has emerged as one of the most incisive and humanly candid intellects among those writers who experienced the Holocaust and survived to tell about it. His classically concise, sober and lean style is reflective of a mind that insists on being guided by reason and civility. To express himself in a rational, clear and composed manner signified for Levi a moral victory over the Shoá and gave and additional dimension of validity to his own survival. Leviʼs insistence on (...) the writer as witness and communicator, like the definition of the artist as builder of alternative worlds, retains some coherent vision of the social order and mandated relationship between history and art. In his finals years, his sense of despair and disillusion is also reflected by his increasing references to the black holes, and image he uses metaphorically to express the dark void of recent history and the charge of no-meaning and death in human life. (shrink)

Jean Améry, superviviente de la Shoá, experimentará durante dos décadas la clausura de la palabra, como consecuencia traumática de la violencia y la tortura padecidas. Desde mediados de los años sesenta hasta su muerte, Améry se ocupará ensayística y literariamente de la destrucción infligida a él. Su empresa narrativa será el esfuerzo titánico por subvertir el “topos de inaplicabilidad”, asociado con el recuerdo del dolor extremo, determinante para su condición de víctima, mediante la palabra. una palabra capaz de devolverle –siempre (...) de modo parcial y subsidiario– la condición de sujeto. Sin embargo, la experiencia del dolor será inaprehensible, subsumida por el tiempo en la etérea forma de una abstracción. La memoria se revela a Améry como incapaz frente a la substancia del dolor, tan solo asequible a recurrentes escenas de penosa claridad para la visión. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente artículo es indagar en una problemática concreta vinculada a la traducción cuatrocentista de Pedro de Toledo de la Guía de Perplejos. Los prólogos y epílogos del traductor a los tres libros del Mostrador e enseñador de los turbados, las glosas insertadas por mano de escribano en el texto son la expresión de una idea de ciencia y de conocimiento gestada en el contexto humanista del siglo XV castellano; también, de un mundo de prejuicios y de ignorancia, (...) de saberes velados, perdidos o premeditadamente olvidados. En un tiempo de crisis y de transformación de la sociedad hispana, estas glosas y comentarios, la traducción en su conjunto, son el reflejo de un mundo de paradojas culturales, de aspiración al conocimiento y de limitaciones humanas. (shrink)

Desde finales del siglo XVIII, la progresiva integración de los judíos europeos en el Estado moderno, como resultado de un proceso de emancipación política, social y religiosa, cambiará al judaísmo para siempre. La Ilustración será un momento decisivo en este proceso que, para el judaísmo, implicará no sólo la salida del gueto y la igualdad política, sino una experiencia de dispersión y de pérdida. En el presente artículo vamos a recorrer esta experiencia focalizando nuestro interés en la genética de este (...) proceso y, más en concreto, en cómo se desarrolló en el judaísmo alemán, dada su importancia histórica, su carácter paradigmático y la trascendencia de las transformaciones en él operadas. Asimismo, abordaremos en la segunda parte de nuestro trabajo la idea de identidad negativa, como residuo y consecuencia de la historia del siglo XX, mostrando sus vínculos con los propios orígenes ilustrados de la cuestión. (shrink)

En este artículo se ofrece una visión de conjunto de la obra de Ibn Daud con el propósito de reflejar las consecuencias, limitaciones e incongruencias de su peculiar racionalismo filosófico, afanado en la defensa de la tradición religiosa judía. Aceptando la idea de que su filosofía y su historiografía constituyen una unidad, marcada esta por un propósito apologético, analizaremos las relaciones entre la libertad individual, la praxis moral y el devenir de la historia. La indagación sobre la libertad humana y (...) el sentido de la historia es indiscernible, en la obra de Ibn Daud, el primero de los peripatéticos judíos, si no se atiende al papel que el autor confiere a la voluntad divina en la determinación de las mismas y a los límites que establece entre lo fiducial y lo racional. (shrink)

El presente artículo realiza una lectura de la Visión Deleytable de Alfonso de la Torre cuyo objetivo es poner de manifi esto los distintos planos intelectuales que en ella se superponen. Entre ellos destaca la presencia de una forma de racionalidad “más allá de los límites de lo racional”, que es analizada críticamente desde un diálogo comparativo de la obra con el pensamiento de las dos autoridades fundamentales cuya referencia exige: Maimónides, de cuya Guía de perplejos es en gran medida (...) deudora; Santo Tomás de Aquino, cuya articulación de las relaciones fe-razón ignora de modo premeditado o substituye. (shrink)

In this hermeneutical approach to Kabbalah and the Zohar, from the double perspective of the history of ideas and the reading of texts that emerged in a given time and context, this article investigates the historical and temporal components of cabalistic mysticism. The medieval Kabbalah, itself an experience of the numinous marked by the ahistorical, is not completely alien to historical experiences. This is the search for a compression of the bonds that unite the emergence of the mystic and the (...) historical time lived in the heart of Spanish medieval Judaism. (shrink)

Una marcada singularidad se halla asociada al judaísmo desde sus orígenes. Pueblo configurado por lo histórico, sin embargo, la propia historia judía acoge en su seno unas fuerzas que desdibujan la continuidad y restan substancia a la mecánica sucesión temporal de la cronología. Junto a la historia, el tiempo y la cronología, encontramos la irrupción y el desbordamiento de estados temporales alternativos, vivencias paradójicas de la propia existencia colectiva en el tiempo. La Edad Media y la península Ibérica verán manifestarse (...) todas ellas en una asombrosa ceremonia del desbordamiento del espíritu humano. (shrink)

Este trabajo consiste en una reconstrucción de los motivos de reflexión en ese ámbito privilegiado de la experiencia filosófica al que de la mano de Habermas, vamos a denominar pensamiento postmetafísico, como superación mediadora de la eterna disputa entre el pensar metafísico y el pensar antimetafísico. En él desarrollaremos aquellas categorías empírico-trascendentales que van a constituir las condiciones de posibilidad de esta nueva experiencia filosófica, a saber, racionalidad procedimental, razón sin trascendencia, razón comunicativa, giro lingüístico y deflación de lo extracotidiano.

The thesis that I wish to discuss in this paper is the next: Human Sciences (Cultural Sciences according to Dilthey, Historic-Hermeneutic sciences according to Habermas) are possible as far as the method that should make all of them possible can be epistemologically justified, this method is the hermeneutic understanding of meaning, whose central point is, in fact, the hermeneutic circle. The matter is to try to justify epistemologically the hermeneutic as understanding the meaning of the own and the other ones (...) life experiences within reflexivity and reciprocity that impregnates the structure of ordinary language. In the dialogue Habermas to Dilthey, in Knowledge and Human Interests appear many arguments to this foundation. Our text will make special emphasis in the next items: distinction between natural sciences and cultural sciences, hermeneutic understanding of meaning, ordinary language and reflexivity, specificity of the hermeneutic circle, science an vital context, and, finally, we are going to make an account of the Habermas interpretation of the Dilthey start point in bases to the relationships between Historic-hermeneutic sciences and the practice interest of the knowledge. (shrink)

Knowledge and true relations represent the principal task of Theory of Knowledge. This paper argues about various solutions to the justification of knowledge, given by William James, Richard Rorty and Jürgen Habermas. For classic Pragmatism Knowledge and Truth converge with the idea of a guideline, direction and orientation with an effective value for men. The Newpragmatism represented by Rorty tries out the way of the widest possible widening of justification contexts, taking as last referent the features of a western liberal (...) culture. Habermas pleads for a strong idealization in his discussion with Rorty up to the ideal speech situation. (shrink)

La tesis que deseo discutir en este trabajo es la siguiente: las ciencias humanas (ciencias del espíritu según Dilthey, ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas según Habermas) son posibles en la medida en que pueda ser epistemológicamente justificado el método que las hace posibles, a saber, la comprensión hermenéutica del sentido cuyo núcleo central lo constituye el círculo hermenéutico. Se trata, pues, de justificar epistemológicamente la hermenéutica como comprensión del sentido de las vivencias propias y ajenas, para lo cual es preciso analizar la reflexividad (...) y reciprocidad que impregna la estructura del lenguaje ordinario. En el diálogo que Habermas establece con Dilthey en Conocimiento e interés aparecen los suficientes argumentos para dicha fundamentación. Nuestro texto hará especial hincapié en los siguientes tópicos: distinción entre ciencias de la naturaleza y ciencias del espíritu, comprensión hermenéutica del sentido, lenguaje ordinario y reflexividad, especificidad del círculo hermenéutico, ciencia y contexto vital, y, finalmente, haremos un balance de la interpretación habermasiana de Dilthey a partir de las relaciones entre ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas e interés práctico del conocimiento. (shrink)