El suicidio se ha convertido en una acuciante problemática social y de salud pública a nivel mundial. Particularmente en Argentina, en los últimos 25 años la mortalidad por suicidio se triplicó en la población joven y este tipo de defunciones se ha constituido en la segunda causa de muerte en la franja de 10 a 19 años. A partir de los datos que brinda la Encuesta Mundial de Salud Escolar, proyecto de la OMS, implementada en Argentina en 2012, se realiza (...) un abordaje respecto a la ideación y planificación de suicidio, así como a factores asociados al fenómeno en estudiantes entre 13 y 15 años. A partir de modelos de regresión logística, se analiza el efecto de factores de riesgo y factores protectores. Se observa que la exposición a factores de riesgo o a factores protectores efectivamente aumenta, en el caso de los primeros, o disminuye —en el caso de los segundos— el riesgo de experimentar un intento de suicidio. Además, cuando se analiza el término de relación condicional, se observa que el impacto de cada uno de ellos es diferente entre los varones y mujeres, siendo estas últimas, en general, las más vulnerables. Asimismo, que el efecto combinado de distintos factores puede potenciar el riesgo de experimentar un intento de suicidio. (shrink)

In this note we shall argue that Milne’s new effort does not refute Truthmaker Maximalism. According to Truthmaker Maximalism, every truth has a truthmaker. Milne has attempted to refute it using the following self-referential sentence M: This sentence has no truthmaker. Essential to his refutation is that M is like the Gödel sentence and unlike the Liar, and one way in which Milne supports this assimilation is through the claim that his proof is essentially object-level and not semantic. In Section (...) 2, we shall argue that Milne is still begging the question against Truthmaker Maximalism. In Section 3, we shall argue that even assimilating M to the Liar does not force the truthmaker maximalist to maintain the ‘dull option’ that M does not express a proposition. There are other options open and, though they imply revising the logic in Milne’s reasoning, this is not one of the possible revisions he considers. In Section 4, we shall suggest that Milne’s proof requires an implicit appeal to semantic principles and notions. In Section 5, we shall point out that there are two important dissimilarities between M and the Gödel sentence. Section 6 is a brief summary and conclusion. (shrink)

Of all the different types of public buildings, hospitals are the biggest energy consumers. Cooling systems for air conditioning and healthcare uses are particularly energy intensive. Forecasting hospital thermal-cooling demand is a remarkable and innovative method capable of improving the overall energy efficiency of an entire cooling system. Predictive models allow users to forecast the activity of water-cooled generators and adapt power generation to the real demand expected for the day ahead, while avoiding inefficient subcooling. In addition, the maintenance costs (...) related to unnecessary starts and stops and power-generator breakdowns occurring over the long term can be reduced. This study is based on the operations of a real hospital facility and details the steps taken to develop an optimal and efficient model based on a genetic methodology that searches for low-complexity models through feature selection, parameter tuning and parsimonious model selection. The methodology, called GAparsimony, has been tested with neural networks, support vector machines and gradient boosting techniques. Finally, a weighted combination of the three best models was created. The new operational method employed herein can be replicated in similar buildings with similar water-cooled generators. (shrink)

The most common definition of belief is taken from analytical philosophy, which understands it as a proposition that is considered as true. Such a broad definition is ambiguous for some fields of empirical research, like psychology, which deals with the mental state of the believer when holding the belief. This article aims to reach an operationalization of beliefs to pinpoint their distinctive features with respect to similar concepts. We summarize the most influential interpretations of belief in psychology and psychiatry, which (...) are mainly based on Immanuel Kant and analytical philosophy. We also expose the problem that arises from putting the mental states of beliefs, knowledge, opinions and preferences in the same bag. Our proposal is that a belief is: a proposition that is taken to be true; and which the subject is willing to hold even if irrefutable evidence were hypothetically argued against it. We introduce a narrower interpretation to reliably discriminate the mental state of believing, which is intended to be applied to empirical psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, sociology and related sciences. (shrink)

The expressivist account of knowledge attributions, while claiming that these attributions are nonfactual, also typically holds that they retain a factual component. This factual component involves the attribution of a belief. The aim of this work is to show that considerations analogous to those motivating an expressivist account of knowledge attributions can be applied to belief attributions. As a consequence, we claim that expressivists should not treat the so-called factual component as such. The phenomenon we focus on to claim that (...) belief attributions are non-factual is that of normative doxastic disagreement. We show through several examples that this kind of disagreement is analogous to that of the epistemic kind. The result will be a doxastic expressivism. Finally, we answer some objections that our doxastic expressivism could seem to face. (shrink)

Individual, family, economic, and other forms of people suffering impact organizations. Suffering in the workplace is probably a more common occurrence than expected in everyday life, and opposite to health and employee wellbeing. According to the World Health Organization, 300 million people worldwide struggle with depression and close to 800.000 people die due to suicide every year. The European Survey on Working Conditions in the European Union gathers the most varied aspects of working conditions, such as the duration of the (...) working day, relationships between collaborators in organizations, or healthy work habits. Among the results of that survey it is noteworthy that almost half of the close to twenty-two thousand workers surveyed in the 27 member countries stated that they felt uneasiness due to the conditions of their work. (shrink)

Background. The study of entrepreneurial activity has undergone intense development in recent decades. Traditionally this topic has been addressed from three approaches: economic, sociological and psychological. In the study of enterprising personality, two fundamental perspectives stand out: the use of general personality traits, like the Big Five, and the use of more specific traits related to entrepreneurial spirit, such as self-efficacy, autonomy, innovation, optimism, and others. The objective of this study is to provide validity evidence for a new instrument for (...) measuring eight specific dimensions of entrepreneurial personality (BEPE). Method. The sample was composed of 1,170 adults from the general population (59.9% women). The average age was 42.34 years with a standard deviation of 12.96. Of the sample, 13% were self-employed. Internal factorial structure and reliability of BEPE were examined. The relationships with other variables and the discriminative capacity of the BEPE between different groups of workers were analyzed. Results. First order factor analyses show the essential unidimensionality of each of the eight proposed sub-scales, with factorial weights ranging between 0.341 and 0.825. A second-order factor analysis was carried out, obtaining a general dimension of entrepreneurial personality. With regards to reliability, the eight BEPE sub-scales gave high alpha coefficient values, between 0.825 and 0.899, as did the total battery (0.97). BEPE sub-scales show a high canonical correlation with the Big Five personality factors (.795), and with the sub-scales of the Measure of Entrepreneurial Talents and Abilities questionnaire (.815). Conclusions. The BEPE questionnaire for the evaluation of the eight fundamental specific dimensions of the entrepreneurial personality presents adequate psychometric properties. Its relationships with other measures of personality traits are in line with what is expected. Therefore, the BEPE is a new measurement instrument that can be used with confidence both in the applied field and in research. (shrink)

The expressivist account of knowledge attributions, while claiming that these attributions are nonfactual, also typically holds that they retain a factual component. This factual component involves the attribution of a belief. The aim of this work is to show that considerations analogous to those motivating an expressivist account of knowledge attributions can be applied to belief attributions. As a consequence, we claim that expressivists should not treat the so-called factual component as such. The phenomenon we focus on to claim that (...) belief attributions are non-factual is that of normative doxastic disagreement. We show through several examples that this kind of disagreement is analogous to that of the epistemic kind. The result will be a doxastic expressivism. Finally, we answer some objections that our doxastic expressivism could seem to face. (shrink)

This paper examines whether a firm’s financial performance is associated with superior environmental, social and governance scores in emerging markets of multinationals in Latin America. The study addresses the current research gap on this issue; it develops hypotheses and tests them by applying linear regressions with a data panel drawn from the Thomson Reuters Eikon™ database to analyse data on 104 multinationals from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru between 2011 and 2015. The results suggest that the relationship between the (...) ESG score and FP is significantly statistically negative. Furthermore, in examining environmental, social and governance separately to accurately determine each variable’s relationship to multilatinas’ FP, the results reveal a negative relationship. Finally, the empirical analysis provides evidence for a moderating effect of financial slack and geographic international diversification on the relationship between ESG dimensions and firms’ FP. This study furthers understanding of the relationship between ESG dimensions and FP for the Latin American business context. (shrink)

El presente artículo indaga si ¿es el sujeto un ser autónomo en la deliberación política o sonlos pensamientos, las posturas y las formas de la organización política mediadas por las distintas herramientas comunicacionales a las que se ve expuesto quienes lo determinan? Así, analiza larelación que existe entre mass media y política, con la capacidad deliberativa del individuo altomar decisiones en el contexto político, a partir de Chomsky y Han. La metodología es cualitativa con diseño documental, el instrumento son fichas (...) bibliográficas aplicadas a fuentes primarias y secundarias. Se usan bases de datos con el algoritmo: “Neoliberalismo, psicopolítica, big data, medios de comunicación de masas y democracia”. Se analizan 13 libros y 20 artículos. Se identifican las nuevas formas y herramientas de organización política y la relación entre política y medios de comunicación. Se concluye que: 1) el neoliberalismo direcciona la idea de libre mercado hacia el individuo mismo, 2) es necesaria una ciudadanía crítica que tenga un rol más activo en lademocracia, 3) se identifica a la psicopolítica como una nueva forma de organización política, 4) lanueva herramienta de la política es el big data, 5) se evidencia que la relación entre política y massmedia está vinculada con los grupos de poder y 6) la emocionalización de la comunicación políticadisminuye la autonomía individual. (shrink)

This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge’s science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems. The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge’s contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of technology, moral philosophy, social and political (...) philosophy, medical philosophy, and education. The contributors include scholars from 16 countries. Bunge combines ontological realism with epistemological fallibilism. He believes that science provides the best and most warranted knowledge of the natural and social world, and that such knowledge is the only sound basis for moral decision making and social and political reform. Bunge argues for the unity of knowledge. In his eyes, science and philosophy constitute a fruitful and necessary partnership. Readers will discover the wisdom of this approach and will gain insight into the utility of cross-disciplinary scholarship. This anthology will appeal to researchers, students, and teachers in philosophy of science, social science, and liberal education programmes. 1. Introduction Section I. An Academic Vocation Section II. Philosophy Section III. Physics and Philosophy of Physics Section IV. Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind Section V. Sociology and Social Theory Section VI. Ethics and Political Philosophy Section VII. Biology and Philosophy of Biology Section VIII. Mathematics Section IX. Education Section X. Varia Section XI. Bibliography. (shrink)

La inmunización en adultos es una estrategia de salud pública que se ha desarrollado e impulsado en los últimos años como consecuencia del envejecimiento poblacional. El aumento de la proporción de personas adultas en la población y la manifiesta preocupación por promover un envejecimiento saludable de la población plantean la premura de aportar evidencia científica sobre los factores que se asocian a la vacunación de adultos. La prevalencia de inmunizaciones en adultos está por debajo de las metas planteadas por el (...) Ministerio de Salud, por ello se propone como objetivo explorar e identificar los factores asociados a la vacunación de adultos en Argentina, teniendo en cuenta las recomendaciones del calendario nacional de inmunizaciones. Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo, exploratorio y correlacional, cuya fuente de datos es la Encuesta Nacional de Factores de Riesgo de 2013. En la metodología se desarrollan modelos logísticos individuales usando como variables explicativas sexo, nivel de instrucción, cobertura de salud, situación conyugal y si accedió a información sobre vacunas de adultos en algún medio masivo de comunicación. La unidad de análisis son las personas mayores de 18 años y se analizan las subpoblaciones objetivo de las siguientes vacunas: doble bacteriana o triple acelular del adulto, influenza y neumococo. Como contribución puede mencionarse que los resultados indican que haber visto o escuchado información sobre vacunas de adultos resultó el factor que más aumenta las probabilidades de estar inmunizados de los adultos argentinos. (shrink)

Últimamente, y en especial a partir del enfoque de capacidades y funcionamientos de Amartya Sen, se han cuestionado las mediciones de pobreza donde se tiene en cuenta sólo una dimensión del bienestar, como es el ingreso, y se ha dado creciente importancia a la medición de la pobreza desde una perspectiva multidimensional. La propuesta de medida de pobreza de tiempo e ingreso LIMTIP toma el trabajo no remunerado invisibilizado como punto de partida para establecer un umbral de requerimientos de tiempo. (...) Si el ingreso del hogar alcanza para compensar el valor de estos déficits de tiempo, entonces serán pobres de tiempo pero no de ingreso ajustado. Si el ingreso no alcanza para comprar sustitutos de este déficit de tiempo, entonces las personas y los hogares en que habitan serán pobres de tiempo e ingresos. La medida de pobreza de ingreso y tiempo LIMTIP corrige medidas de pobreza absoluta a las que estamos acostumbrados para hacerlas más fieles a sus supuestos. Este trabajo incorpora la dimensión temporal a la medición de pobreza utilizando la metodología LIMTIP sobre datos de la Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo y Voluntariado realizada en la ciudad de Rosario en 2010. (shrink)

Our work aimed to study the relationships between different dimensions of school climate, moral disengagement, empathy, and bullying behaviors (perpetration and victimization). The study sample consisted of 629 students (304 boys and 325 girls) aged 12–14 years (M= 12.55,SD= 0.67). Results showed how different dimensions of school climate predicted moral disengagement, empathy, and victimization, and these, in turn, predicted bullying perpetration. The results show the need to generate favorable educational environments to reduce the levels of moral disengagement and victimization and (...) to increase empathy in students as a strategy to prevent negative consequences related to bullying. (shrink)

Assessing physical fitness has emerged as a proxy of the health status of children and adolescents and therefore as relevant from a public health point of view. DAFIS is a project included in Plan Galicia Saudable of the regional government of Galicia. DAFIS consists of an on-line software devoted to record the results of a standard physical fitness protocol carried out as a part of the physical education curriculum. The aims of this study were: to obtain normative values of physical (...) fitness of the Galician school population evaluated in the DAFIS project, and to identify a reduced number of components and tests able to capture a significant amount of the variability in the physical fitness of children and adolescents. From an initial sample of 27784 records, 15287 cases were considered after filtering. Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape were used for obtaining percentile curves and tables for each sex. Furthermore, a principal components analysis was performed, selecting the number of components by applying the Kaiser’s rule and selecting a subset of variables considering the correlation between each variable and the components. Percentile curves and normative values are reported for each test and sex. Physical fitness was better in boys than in girls throughout age groups, except for flexibility that was consistently higher in girls. Two main components were detected throughout age groups: the first one representing body composition and partially cardiorespiratory fitness and the second one muscular fitness. For boys and girls, waist to height ratio had the highest correlations with the first component in four out of six age groups. The highest correlation with the second component, was most frequently observed for the handgrip test both in boys and girls. This study provides evidence about the utility of school community actions like DAFIS aimed to track the health-related fitness of children and adolescents. The results suggest that fat mass distribution and muscular performance concentrate a high proportion physical fitness variance. (shrink)

La nueva concepción de la Ley en la Constitución venezolana de 1999 The new conception of law in the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution González R., Javier La justicia, ¿Una virtud necesaria? The justice, A necessary virtue? Guarisma Mérida, Aidalíz Derechos humanos, interculturalidad y racionalidad de resistencia Human rights and rationality of resistance Herrera Flores, Joaquín El estado de apertura y la esencia del lenguaje The state of disclosure and the essence of language Hocevar, Drina El problema de la libertad The (...) problem of freedom Jáuregui, Ramón M. De la violencia a la retórica en la construcción de la civilidad From violence to rhetoric in civility construction Pino de Casanova, Malin ¿Historia universal o local? Una cuestión de especial trascendencia en el campo de la jurisprudencia Universal or local history? A matter of special transcendence in the field of jurisprudence Puy Muñoz, Francisco Contra la democracia Against democracy López Corredoira, Martín Un punto de vista práctico sobre el derecho A practical point of view about law Otero Parga, Milagros El derecho en Antígona ¿Natural o positivo? Law in Antigone. Natural or positive law? Parodi Remón, Carlos Por la democracia For democracy Suzzarini, Andrés La ciencia según Hegel Science according Hegel Vásquez, Eduardo Responsabilidad civil y responsabilidad moral. Hacia una responsabilidad civil más objetiva Civil responsibility and moral responsibility. Towards a more objective civil responsibility Vielma Mendoza, Yoleida Recensiones Finnis, John: El autor y su obra Reseñado por: Hoèevar, Mayda Aguayo, Enrique: Introducción al pensamiento jurídico-filosófico de Eduardo García Máynez Reseñado por: González R., Javier. (shrink)

La nueva concepción de la Ley en la Constitución venezolana de 1999 The new conception of law in the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution González R., Javier La justicia, ¿Una virtud necesaria? The justice, A necessary virtue? Guarisma Mérida, Aidalíz Derechos humanos, interculturalidad y racionalidad de resistencia Human rights and rationality of resistance Herrera Flores, Joaquín El estado de apertura y la esencia del lenguaje The state of disclosure and the essence of language Hocevar, Drina El problema de la libertad The (...) problem of freedom Jáuregui, Ramón M. De la violencia a la retórica en la construcción de la civilidad From violence to rhetoric in civility construction Pino de Casanova, Malin ¿Historia universal o local? Una cuestión de especial trascendencia en el campo de la jurisprudencia Universal or local history? A matter of special transcendence in the field of jurisprudence Puy Muñoz, Francisco Contra la democracia Against democracy López Corredoira, Martín Un punto de vista práctico sobre el derecho A practical point of view about law Otero Parga, Milagros El derecho en Antígona ¿Natural o positivo? Law in Antigone. Natural or positive law? Parodi Remón, Carlos Por la democracia For democracy Suzzarini, Andrés La ciencia según Hegel Science according Hegel Vásquez, Eduardo Responsabilidad civil y responsabilidad moral. Hacia una responsabilidad civil más objetiva Civil responsibility and moral responsibility. (shrink)

Alonso, Ángel Castigo y derecho sin libre albedrío ni responsabilidad Punishment and law without free will and no responsibility López Corredoira, Martín De los metarrelatos a la "muerte de los intelectuales". Una mirada al "Humanismo impenitente" desde la reconstrucción neonietzscheana postmoderna From meta - reports to the "demise of intellectuals". A view of "impenitent humanism" from post-modern neo-Nietzschean deconstruction Mora García, José Pascual Kant y el método de trascender en la filosofía de Karl Jaspers Kant and the transcendental method in (...) the Karl Jaspers philosophy Portuondo Pajón, Gladys L. La creatio ex Nihilo y sus implicaciones fenomenológicas en Levitas La creatio ex Nihilo and it's phenomenology implications in Levinas Ramírez, Gustavo ¿Qué significa meditar? What does it mean to meditate? Ramis Muscato, Pompeyo Sobre la violencia: Orígenes y antídoto Regarding violence: Origens and antidotes Vasquez, Eduardo Interdisciplinares Louis Kahn: Filosofía, arte y arquitectura Louis Kahn: Philosophy, arte and architecture Arellano Spinetti, Leonardo La oligarquía venezolana en el siglo XXI: Del estereotipo al anacronismo The Venezuelan oligarchy in the XXI century: From the stereotype to the anachronism Varela Manrique, Luz Coromoto Traducciones El arte de pensar Maurois, André Friedrich Nietzsche. 1844-1900. (shrink)

Objeto o sujeto de derechos Nature: Object or subject of rights Cartay, Belkis Acerca de la racionalidad científica: Feyerabend y los límites de la argumentación Scientific rationality, Feyerabend and the limits of the argument Castrejón, Gilberto El embrión es vida humana The embryo is human life Chacín, Ronald Ética y política: Las consecuencias prácticas de la modernización en la óptica de una acción comunicativa Ethics and politics: Practical consequences of modernization from the viewpoint of a comunicative act De La Vega, (...) Marta La libertad de expresión: De la doctrina a la ley The freedom of expresion: From doctrine to law Belandria, Margarita y González, Javier Globalización y "Glocalización" frente al debate postmoderno Globalization and "Glocalizacion" in the post-moderne debate Mora García, José Pascual El Derecho en "El Alcalde de Zalamea" Law in "The Mayor of Zalamea" Parodi Remón, Carlos Interdisciplinares La palabra y su universo de sentido Word and its universe of sense Espar, Teresa Procesos existenciales en el ritmo de la poesía Existential processes in the thythm of poetry Hocevar, Drina Traducciones Karl Löwith "Mi vida en Alemania antes y después de 1933" Vasquez, Eduardo. (shrink)

El articulo explora una alternativa distinta sobre la posible comprensión kantiana de los derechos humanos a la que se muestra en un par de contribuciones recientes por parte de Jürgen Habermas y Otfried Höffe. Se intenta mostrar que la manera como estos teóricos defienden la eventual aportación de Kant a los derechos humanos, sustentada en su apriorística y trascendental doctrina moral, no resiste el análisis si de lo que se trata es defender la cualidad humana de los derechos humanos y (...) su universalidad. En su lugar, y teniendo como base el concepto del “fenómeno de los derechos humanos” defendido por el filósofo y jurista argentino Eduardo Rabossi, se busca mostrar que la posición histórica y antropológica, no trascendental, que Kant sostiene en torno a la relación entre revolución y progreso moral en uno de sus textos sobre El conflicto de las facultades se ajusta más persuasivamente a lo que estos derechos representan. (shrink)

1. The Bundle Theory I shall discuss is a theory about the nature of substances or concrete particulars, like apples, chairs, atoms, stars and people. The point of the Bundle Theory is to avoid undesirable entities like substrata that allegedly constitute particulars. The version of the Bundle Theory I shall discuss takes particulars to be entirely constituted by the universals they instantiate.' Thus particulars are said to be just bundles of universals. Together with the claim that it is necessary that (...) particulars have constituents, the fundamental claim of the Bundle Theory is: (BT) Necessarily, for every particular x and every entity y, y constitutes x if and only ify is a universal and x instantiates y. 2 The standard and supposedly devastating objection to the Bundle Theory is that it entails or is committed to a false version of the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles (Armstrong 1978: 91, Loux 1998: 107), namely: (Pll) Necessarily, for all particulars x and y and every universal z, if z is instantiated by x if and only if z is instantiated byy, then x is numerically identical with y. The most famous counterexample to the Identity of Indiscernibles is that put forward by Max Black, consisting of a world where there are only two iron spheres two miles apart from each other, having the same diameter, temperature, colour, shape, size, etc (Black 1952: 156). Let us from now on think of the properties of the spheres in this world as universals. The possibility of this world, which I shall hereafter refer to as 'Black's world', makes (Pll) false.' And according to common philosophical opinion this means that the Bundle Theory is false.. (shrink)

Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra presents an original study of the place and role of the Identity of Indiscernibles in Leibniz's philosophy. The Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles rules out numerically distinct but perfectly similar things; Leibniz derived it from more basic principles and used it to establish important philosophical theses. Rodriguez-Pereyra aims to establish what Leibniz meant by the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles, what his arguments for and from it were, and to assess those arguments and Leibniz's claims (...) about the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles. He argues that Leibniz had a very strong version of the principle, according to which no possibilia are intrinsically perfectly similar, where this excludes things that differ in magnitude alone. The book discusses Leibniz's arguments for the Identity of Indiscernibles in the Meditation on the Principle of the Individual, the Discourse on Metaphysics, Notationes Generales, Primary Truths, the letter to Casati of 1689, the correspondence with Clarke, as well as the use of the Identity of Indiscernibles in Leibniz's arguments against the Cartesian conception of the material world, atoms, absolute space and time, the Lockean conception of the mind as a tabula rasa, and freedom of indifference. Rodriguez-Pereyra argues that the Identity of Indiscernibles was a central but inessential principle of Leibniz's philosophy. (shrink)

¿El agua recuerda? ¿Cómo es posible visualizar y sanar su memoria? En el año 2013 el artista Eduardo Navarro presentó su obra Tratamiento homeopático del Río de la Plata en el Parque de la Memoria - Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado, como parte de la exhibición Aquella mañana fue como si recuperara, si no la felicidad, sí la energía, una energía que se parecía mucho al humor, un humor que se parecía mucho a la memoria, bajo (...) la curaduría de Inés Katzenstein y Javier Villa. En palabras del artista, el proyecto se inspiró en la teoría del científico japonés Masaru Emoto, quien sostiene que las diversas formas de cristalización del agua se deben a las energías y afectos a las que ésta se expone. (shrink)

Contemporary biological research has suggested that some host–microbiome multispecies systems (referred to as “holobionts”) can in certain circumstances evolve as unique biological individual, thus being a unit of selection in evolution. If this is so, then it is arguably the case that some biological adaptations have evolved at the level of the multispecies system, what we call hologenomic adaptations. However, no research has yet been devoted to investigating their nature, or how these adaptations can be distinguished from adaptations at the (...) species-level (genomic adaptations). In this paper, we cover this gap by investigating the nature of hologenomic adaptations. By drawing on the case of the evolution of sanguivory diet in vampire bats, we argue that a trait constitutes a hologenomic adaptation when its evolution can only be explained if the holobiont is considered the biological individual that manifests this adaptation, while the bacterial taxa that bear the trait are only opportunistic beneficiaries of it. We then use the philosophical notions of emergence and inter-identity to explain the nature of this form of individuality and argue why it is special of holobionts. Overall, our paper illustrates how the use of philosophical concepts can illuminate scientific discussions, in the trend of what has recently been called metaphysics of biology. (shrink)

Bourrat and Griffiths :33, 2018) have recently argued that most of the evidence presented by holobiont defenders to support the thesis that holobionts are evolutionary individuals is not to the point and is not even adequate to discriminate multispecies evolutionary individuals from other multispecies assemblages that would not be considered evolutionary individuals by most holobiont defenders. They further argue that an adequate criterion to distinguish the two categories is fitness alignment, presenting the notion of fitness boundedness as a criterion that (...) allows divorcing true multispecies evolutionary individuals from other multispecies assemblages and provides an adequate criterion to single out genuine evolutionary multispecies assemblages. A consequence of their criterion is that holobionts, as conventionally defined by hologenome defenders, are not evolutionary individuals except in very rare cases, and for very specific host-symbiont associations. This paper is a critical response to Bourrat and Griffiths’ arguments and a defence of the arguments presented by holobiont defenders. Drawing upon the case of the hologenomic basis of the evolution of sanguivory in vampire bats, I argue that Bourrat and Griffiths overlook some aspects of the biological nature of the microbiome that justifies the thesis that holobionts are evolutionarily different to other multispecies assemblages. I argue that the hologenome theory of evolution should not define the hologenome as a collection of genomes, but as the sum of the host genome plus some traits of the microbiome which together constitute an evolutionary individual, a conception I refer to as the stability of traits conception of the hologenome. Based on that conception I argue that the evidence presented by holobiont defenders is to the point, and supports the thesis that holobionts are evolutionary individuals. In this sense, the paper offers an account of the holobiont that aims to foster a dialogue between hologenome advocates and hologenome critics. (shrink)

The hologenome concept of evolution is a hypothesis about the evolution of animals and plants. It asserts that the evolution of animals and plants was partially triggered by their interactions with their symbiotic microbiomes. In that vein, the hologenome concept posits that the holobiont (animal host + symbionts of the microbiome) is a unit of selection. -/- The hologenome concept has been severely criticized on the basis that selection on holobionts would only be possible if there were a tight transgenerational (...) host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection. As our current evidence suggests that this is not the case for most of the symbiont species that compose the microbiome of animals and plants, the opportunity for holobiont selection is very low in relation to the opportunity for selection on each of the species that compose the host microbiome. Therefore, holobiont selection will always be disrupted ‘from below’, by selection on each of the species that compose the microbiome. -/- This thesis constitutes a conceptual effort to defend philosophically the hologenome concept. I argue that the criticism according to which holobiont selection requires tight transgenerational host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection is grounded on a metaphysical view of the world according to which the biological hierarchy needs to be nested, such that each new level of selection includes every entity from below. Applied to hologenomes, it entails that the hologenome is a collection of genomes, and selection of hologenomes is assumed to entail cospeciation of the host with the species that constitute its microbiome. -/- Against that interpretation, I propose the ‘stability of traits’ account, according to which hologenome evolution is the result of the action of natural selection in a non-nested hierarchical world. In that vein, hologenome evolution does not entail cospeciation, and thus it does not require tight transgenerational host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection. By embracing a multilevel selection perspective, I argue that hologenome evolution results from the simultaneous action of natural selection on each of the lineages that compose the microbiome, and on the assemblage composed by the host genome plus the functional traits of its microbiome. Hologenome selection occurs when the evolution of the traits of the microbiome result from their effects on the fitness of the host, and it can take the form of multilevel selection 1, or multilevel selection 2. In both cases, hologenome selection entails the evolution of microbiome traits, as well as evolution of the host genome, rather than cospeciation of lineages. (shrink)

According to one of Leibniz's theories of contingency a proposition is contingent if and only if it cannot be proved in a finite number of steps. It has been argued that this faces the Problem of Lucky Proof , namely that we could begin by analysing the concept ‘Peter’ by saying that ‘Peter is a denier of Christ and …’, thereby having proved the proposition ‘Peter denies Christ’ in a finite number of steps. It also faces a more general but (...) related problem that we dub the Problem of Guaranteed Proof . We argue that Leibniz has an answer to these problems since for him one has not proved that ‘Peter denies Christ’ unless one has also proved that ‘Peter’ is a consistent concept, an impossible task since it requires the full decomposition of the infinite concept ‘Peter’. We defend this view from objections found in the literature and maintain that for Leibniz all truths about created individual beings are contingent. (shrink)

_The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere_, co-edited by Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does, or should, religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, (...) thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics. (shrink)