We explore a notion of pseudofinite dimension, introduced by Hrushovski and Wagner, on an infinite ultraproduct of finite structures. Certain conditions on pseudofinite dimension are identified that guarantee simplicity or supersimplicity of the underlying theory, and that a drop in pseudofinite dimension is equivalent to forking. Under a suitable assumption, a measure-theoretic condition is shown to be equivalent to local stability. Many examples are explored, including vector spaces over finite fields viewed as 2-sorted finite structures, and homocyclic groups. Connections are (...) made to products of sets in finite groups, in particular to word maps, and a generalization of Tao's Algebraic Regularity Lemma is noted. (shrink)

The idea that democracy is under threat, after being largely dormant for at least 40 years, is looming increasingly large in public discourse. Complex systems theory offers a range of powerful new tools to analyse the stability of social institutions in general, and democracy in particular. What makes a democracy stable? And which processes potentially lead to instability of a democratic system? This paper offers a complex systems perspective on this question, informed by areas of the mathematical, natural, and social (...) sciences. We explain the meaning of the term 'stability' in different disciplines and discuss how laws, rules, and regulations, but also norms, conventions, and expectations are decisive for the stability of a social institution such as democracy. (shrink)

Political scientists have conventionally assumed that achieving democracy is a one-way ratchet. Only very recently has the question of “democratic backsliding” attracted any research attention. We argue that democratic instability is best understood with tools from complexity science. The explanatory power of complexity science arises from several features of complex systems. Their relevance in the context of democracy is discussed. Several policy recommendations are offered to help stabilize current systems of representative democracy.

This book is a formidably compelling source of insights for those who are interested in subjects ranging from moral philosophy, social justice, hermeneutics and education. It reconciles traditional theories of ethics by re-framing them through hypertextual techniques, bringing together contrasting and contradictory ethical views.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Secret Inside MeDiana GarciaGrowing up, our Chicano household was loud and boisterous. There were eight of us in one small house with one small bathroom. All five of us girls shared one bedroom so there was not much privacy, if any. Watching my sisters go through their puberty was isolating—I was never on the receiving end of the secret whispers and knowing looks I saw my mother exchange (...) with my sisters when they started menstruating. It made me feel “different” and excluded from that mother–daughter connection. My only comfort was that my sister, who was one year younger, had not started her period either, and we shared our fears that we were different from our other sisters.In 1979, when I was a senior in high school, I approached my mother and assertively told her that I had made the decision to seek out a doctor as soon as I turned eighteen years old because I felt I needed to get answers for myself and my sister. I was positive that something was not right. From the time I was about twelve years old, I would question my mom about why I hadn’t started my period. She always shooed me away saying that I was a late bloomer and that every girl starts at different ages, some at nine, some at fourteen years old. However, I always knew something was not right. I just knew.My mother was annoyed, but she said, “Alright mija, I’ve just been worried because you are a virgin and I don’t think I want anyone probing you down there.”I remember telling her something like, “Mom, at this point, if that is what needs to happen for me to find out, then so be it. But can you come with me to the doctor? Please?” [End Page 92]She said, “I know; I’m worried, too and yes, I’ll go with you.” My mom and I hugged, and I could feel the worry and tension in our hug. I was not sure if it was coming from me or her.The day of my gynecology appointment finally came. I had been looking forward to it for so long. This was my first experience as an adult other than having that grownup feeling the day I graduated from high school. The nurse told me to undress and to put on the paper gown and then left the room. I told my mother to stay sitting in her chair, that I did not want her to leave me for a second. The young doctor entered the room and introduced himself to us and asked me to sit on the examining table as he asked, “So, what is the reason for this visit?” I told him, “I want to know why I haven’t started my period. I feel like something is very wrong with me.”He had me lay back and put my feet in the stirrups, instructing me to relax. I reached my hand out to my mother and she stood and came by my side and held my hand tightly.He squeezed some gel on his gloved hand and again asked me to relax and to just let my knees drop back. His fingers with the cold gel probed and after a few seconds of probing he looked up and said,“What the heck?! There’s no cervix?”My mother and I looked at each other in confusion and then he said, “There’s nothing!”He then stood up and said, “Please get dressed and the nurse will show you to my office.” He exited the room, leaving us to look at each other with tears in our eyes, stunned at his outbursts.I will never forget his reaction or his words.A sympathetic nurse led us into the doctor’s office and we sat down.He looked at me and said, “You need to have surgery immediately or you will die of cancer.”I turned to look at my mother and we both started tearing up. I asked, “Why? What do you mean? I have cancer?”He said, “No you don’t. Not right now... (shrink)

Building relationships is crucial for satisfaction and success, especially when entering new social contexts. In the present paper, we investigate whether attempting to improve others’ feelings helps people to make connections in new networks. In Study 1, a social network study following new networks of people for a twelve-week period indicated that use of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies predicted growth in popularity, as indicated by other network members’ reports of spending time with the person, in work and non-work interactions. (...) In Study 2, linguistic analysis of the tweets from over 8000 Twitter users from formation of their accounts revealed that use of IER predicted greater popularity in terms of the number of followers gained. However, not all types of IER had positive effects. Behavioral IER strategies (which use behavior to reassure or comfort in order to regulate affect) were associated with greater popularity, while cognitive strategies (which change a person’s thoughts about his or her situation or feelings in order to regulate affect) were negatively associated with popularity. Our findings have implications for our understanding of how new relationships are formed, highlighting the important the role played by intentional emotion regulatory processes. (shrink)

The author of this paper is currently working on a pilot project with school children and individuals who are in their final years of their prison sentence. The project should offer a pragmatic alternative to the way humanism has established and defined our mode of expressions. Such modes effect our ways of deliberation and judgement when it comes to ethical issues. This paper will act both as a critique and provide, at the same time, a positive alternative to those who (...) are still being coerced into confessing an act they committed in a language in which they do not only not recognise themselves but risk, moreover, not being understood. The likelihood of this occurring stems from a fundamental disconnect, namely the fact that their way of communicating does not chime in with the expectations of the knowledgeable others whose formal speech registers betray deeply-ingrained oppressive humanist modes of discourse and ideologies which, having long been normalized are, to the former’s detriment, regrettably and routinely overlooked. The aim of this paper is to introduce my project in order to show the reader that many of the postmodern critiques of narrative and agent formation can be overcome by a cybernetic system of a new mode of writing, by means of which the intentions of the agent are fragmented and reconstructed immediately by a secondary, non-human agent – the software. I shall be making a case that this software will become vital to mediate human storytelling through non- human generation creating an enhanced understanding for both reader and writer. (shrink)

El texto que presentamos recoge las principales conclusiones que han derivado de los estudios sobre la Colección de documentos árabes del Archivo Histórico Provincial de Granada. Compuesta principalmente por documentos de carácter jurídico, el análisis del contenido de cada uno de ellos en relación con la materialidad del soporte y las tintas así como la coincidencia en el diseño y planificación de la página revelan el uso de idénticos protocolos de ejecución. Esta investigación nos está permitiendo, además, establecer coincidencias relevantes (...) relacionadas con los procesos de elaboración del papel entre los últimos años de permanencia de los árabes en la Península Ibérica y los primeros tras la incorporación del territorio a la Corona de Castilla y, sobre todo, con el modo de ejecutar el documento de archivo en sus formas externa e interna. (shrink)

El texto que presentamos recoge las principales conclusiones que han derivado de los estudios sobre la Colección de documentos árabes del Archivo Histórico Provincial de Granada. Compuesta principalmente por documentos de carácter jurídico, el análisis del contenido de cada uno de ellos en relación con la materialidad del soporte y las tintas así como la coincidencia en el diseño y planificación de la página revelan el uso de idénticos protocolos de ejecución. Esta investigación nos está permitiendo, además, establecer coincidencias relevantes (...) relacionadas con los procesos de elaboración del papel entre los últimos años de permanencia de los árabes en la Península Ibérica y los primeros tras la incorporación del territorio a la Corona de Castilla y, sobre todo, con el modo de ejecutar el documento de archivo en sus formas externa e interna. (shrink)

A pesquisa expõe o instituto Democracia e o exercício da cidadania, nas formas de participação popular, como o observatório social, e a importância deste para a lisura dos procedimentos de licenciamentos urbanos-ambientais, fundado na sustentabilidade. Justifica-se pela necessidade acadêmica de reavivar a democracia e seus objetivos, enfatizando que os observatórios sociais podem ser efetivos na fiscalização da legislação ambiental para garantir direitos socioambientais nas políticas públicas. Elegeu-se o método dedutivo, a técnica bibliográfica. Conclui-se que o exercício da democracia pela cidadania (...) nos observatórios sociais, sob o princípio da sustentabilidade, faz valer a vontade popular na tomada de decisões. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta dos objetivos principales, ambos relacionados con los planteamientos de la corriente transhumanista. El primero consiste en realizar una aproximación al aspecto tecnológico del transhumanismo, en concreto a su estado actual en cuanto a los avances en el ámbito de la ingeniería cibernética. Tras una introducción al concepto de transhumanismo, se expondrán algunos proyectos actuales que buscan desde la reparación de daños hasta el mejoramiento humano. Como ejemplo de la implementación de la tecnología con el objetivo de amplificar (...) los sentidos, se presenta el concepto de cíborg. El segundo objetivo se centrará en presentar las cuestiones de carácter bioético que los avances en ingeniería cibernética plantean y que irán surgiendo a lo largo del artículo con el fin de ver cómo estos avances realmente pueden ponerse al servicio de la naturaleza humana y de su desarrollo integral. (shrink)

In this article, we will concentrate on the two true norm definitions that have existed throughout the history of the Deontic Logic: that offered by Professor Kalinowski and that proposed by the semantics of possible worlds. The former is based on Tarski’s definition of the true proposition, but it has the drawback of depending on a concrete, philosophical theory concerning the nature of norms. The latter, widely accepted nowadays, presents difficulties which we will analyse, using as a reference, K. Solt’s (...) critique. Despite its limitations, it offers the indisputable advantage of being independant of any concrete, philosophical option, and indicates, in our opinion, the correct way of proceeding. (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende realizar una reflexión sobre la diferenciación entre lo justo y la justicia, a partir de los enfoques interaccional e institucional. Se sustenta teóricamente en dos cuestiones fundamentales, en un primer momento, procura mostrar la imposibilidad de definir la justicia, al considerarla como una noción simple y por lo tanto no definible ni realizable; y en un segundo momento, procura dejar sembrada la diferencia conceptual de la justicia desde la filosofía moral y el enfoque interaccional y la (...) filosofía política y el enfoque interinstitucional, para lograrlo se toman los principales elementos de la moral platónica, de la moral aristotélica y del utilitarismo clásico; asimismo del pensamiento político de John Locke y John Rawls principalmente, para finalmente concluir que la justicia ha de considerarse como una virtud política. (shrink)

En el texto se llevan a cabo una serie de reflexiones en relación a la formación ética en las universidades para desde ahí edificar mejores ciudadanos. La relevancia de los estudios teóricos en la temática ética es crucial para apuntalar la comprensión de la ética y la ciudadanía en la vida práctica: sólo así podremos cambiar algo de este mundo. Además, la complejidad de nuestra realidad requiere de un pensar crítico para poder desbrozar tales complejidades, ayudándonos a comprender mejor nuestra (...) realidad y circunstancia. Sólo así podremos convertirnos en seres responsables de lo que nos toca hacer en nuestro mundo. La exigencia de un pensar ético crítico no puede dejarse de lado dado que será el único herramental que nos posibilite proyectarnos al futuro en la construcción de una mejor humanidad. The responsibility of educators in Mexico today: theoretical knowledge as the underpinnings of ethical and civic practice.This text holds a series of reflections on ethical education in universities to build a better citizenship. The relevance of the theoretical literature on the subject is essential to underpin an understanding of ethics and citizenship in practical life; only then can we change something in this world. Moreover, the complexity of our reality requires critical thinking to clear such complexities, helping us better understand our situation and circumstance. Only then can we become responsible human beings for what we must do in our world. The need for critical ethical thinking cannot be ignored, as it will be the only tool that will enable us to project ourselves into the future construction of a better humanity. (shrink)

Violence constitutes an important element of reflection for political philosophy. Two proposed theories of violence are discussed here. One takes violence to be the condition of politics. This is Carl Schmitt’s proposal. He says that politics is always conflictive: political space is a battle cam..

We introduce the concept of o-asymptotic classes of finite structures, melding ideas coming from 1-dimensional asymptotic classes and o-minimality. Along with several examples and non-examples of these classes, we present some classification theory results of their infinite ultraproducts: Every infinite ultraproduct of structures in an o-asymptotic class is superrosy of U^þ-rank 1, and NTP2 (in fact, inp-minimal).

En este artículo, intentamos demostrar en qué medida la teoria platónica de lo escrito –cuyas reglas se encuentran, principalmente, en la parte conclusiva del Fedro y en el excursus filosófico de la Carta VII– sea instrumento fundamental para la comprensión de la estructura compositiva del Teeteto. Siendo esto así, reconstruimos, en perspectiva prosopográfica y en armonía con aquellas reglas –según las cuales el mensaje filosófico debe adecuarse a la capacidad de aprehensión del deuteragonista– los perfiles de los personajes centrales del (...) Teeteto, determinando sus funciones teatrograficas en el interior del diálogo. Palabras clave: República; Teeteto; Prosografía; Drama; InterpretaciónIn this paper we attempt to show to what extent the Platonic theory of the written –which rules are, mainly, in the conclusive part of Phaedrus and the philosophical excursus of Letter VII– is a fundamental tool to understand Theaetetus’s structure. This being so, we reconstruct, in a prosopographic perspective, and in harmony with those rules –according to which the philosophical message must fit the deuteragonist’s apprehension ability– the profiles of Theaetetus’s central characters, determining their theatreographic functions in the dialogue. Keywords: Republic; Theaetetus; Prosopography; Drama; Interpretation. (shrink)

El artículo nos presenta una de las formas de acercamiento y puerta de visualización de la cultura japonesa conociendo sus métodos y costumbres. Uno de nuestros objetivos es dar a conocer cómo el Shinto interviene de manera fehaciente y práctica dentro del costumbrismo y cultura en la sociedad japonesa, y cómo este ha trascendido desde sus más remotos orígenes hasta la actualidad más contemporánea en dicha sociedad y cómo se ha extrapolado a otras culturas para alcanzar el conocimiento más profundo (...) sobre las mismas. Nuestro artículo muestra de cómo una religión puede seguirse o adaptarse para quedarse fuera de los límites que son marcados por una sociedad con grandes arraigos en la mitología que los conforman. (shrink)

Background: Research suggests that humans have the tendency to increase the valence of events when these are imagined to happen in the future, but to decrease the valence when the same events are imagined to happen in the past. This line of research, however, has mostly been conducted by asking participants to value imagined, yet probable, events. Our aim was to re-examine this time-valence asymmetry using real-life data: a Reuter’s news and a Facebook status updates corpus. Method: We organized the (...) Reuter news (120,000,000 words) and the Facebook status updates data (41,056,346 words) into contexts grouped in chronological order (i.e., past, present, and future) using verbs and years as time markers. These contexts were used to estimate the valence of each article and status update, respectively, in relation to the time markers using natural language processing tools (i.e., the Latent Semantic Analysis algorithm). Results: Our results using verbs, in both text corpus, showed that valence for the future was significantly higher compared to the past (future > past). Similarly, in the Reuter year condition, valence increased approximately linear from 1994 to 1999 for texts written 1996-7. In the Facebook year condition, the valence of the future was also significantly higher than past valence. Conclusion: Generally, the analyses of the Reuters data indicated that the past is devaluated relative to both the present and the future, while the analyses of the Facebook data indicated that both the past and the present are devaluated against the future. On this basis, we suggest that people strive to communicate the promotion of a bright future and the prevention of a dark future, which in turn leads to a temporal-valence asymmetrical phenomenon (valence = pastshrink)

Resulta extraño que tanto en las Investigaciones filosóficas como en la mayoría de los trabajos posteriores al Tractatus Logico-philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein no mencione explícitamente a la ética ni trate cuestiones relativas a ella. Teniendo esto en cuenta, en este texto quisiera ocuparme del lugar de las cuestiones éticas en la “nueva forma de orientar el pensamiento” desarrollada por Wittgenstein a lo largo de sus trabajos posteriores al Tractatus. El objetivo que orientará este texto será esbozar una concepción de la ética (...) en el pensamiento tardío de Wittgenstein, quien, a pesar de dedicar muy pocas líneas a estas cuestiones después del Tractatus, brinda elementos para desarrollar lo que podría ser una concepción ética en el marco de su pensamiento tardío. Con este fin, en primer lugar, caracterizaré a partir de la Conferencia sobre ética algunos aspectos centrales que deberían estar presentes en una concepción de ética en Wittgenstein. En segundo lugar, presentaré la nueva forma de pensar de Wittgenstein, que encuentra en las Investigaciones filosóficas su expresión más elaborada. En la última sección del texto intentaré articular de manera coherente con el pensamiento tardío de Wittgenstein los diferentes aspectos respecto a lo ético, que espero destaquen a lo largo de este escrito. (shrink)

The case focuses on the decision by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance in 2006 to remove Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. from its investment portfolio because of theretailer's "serious and systematic" abuses of human and labor rights. Discussion of the decision-making process that led to the divestiture, and the impact that Wal-Mart has had on various realms – social, economic, industry, and the supply chain, among others – are included in the case.

Psychopathy continues to be a challenge in forensic contexts, and evidence of its association with destructive behaviors, such as aggressive antisocial behaviors, is extensive. However, the potential role of intelligence as moderator of the well-established association between psychopathy and aggressive antisocial behaviors has largely been neglected, despite intelligence having been independently related to both concepts. Increased knowledge of whether intelligence is relevant to this association is needed because of its possible implications on the assessment and treatment of individuals with psychopathic (...) traits and aggressive antisocial behaviors. This study aimed to investigate the association between psychopathic traits, aggressive antisocial behaviors, and intelligence in young violent offenders and to test whether intelligence moderates the relationship between psychopathic traits and aggressive antisocial behaviors. Participants were 269 male violent offenders aged 18 to 25 years, assessed on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the Life History of Aggression (LHA), and the General Ability Index from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 3rd edition. Associations were tested with Spearman’s rho and moderation analysis was performed through ordinary least squares regressions. The PCL-R four-facet structure was used for the analyses. We found a positive association between psychopathic traits and aggressive antisocial behaviors, and a small, negative association between the Affective PCL-R facet and intelligence. In the moderation analyses, a small yet statistically significant moderation effect of intelligence on the association between the Interpersonal facet and LHA total scores was demonstrated. However, the amount of variance in the LHA total score explained by the model was very small; 2.9%. We suggest that intelligence, however important for rehabilitation strategies and everyday functioning, is not necessarily pertinent to understanding aggressive antisocial behaviors in young offenders with psychopathic traits. (shrink)