The Somatic Mutation Theory has been challenged on its fundamentals by the Tissue Organization Field Theory of Carcinogenesis. However, a recent publication has questioned whether TOFT could be a valid alternative theory of carcinogenesis to that presented by SMT. Herein we critically review arguments supporting the irreducible opposition between the two theoretical approaches by highlighting differences regarding the philosophical, methodological and experimental approaches on which they respectively rely. We conclude that SMT has not explained carcinogenesis due to severe epistemological and (...) empirical shortcomings, while TOFT is gaining momentum. The main issue is actually to submit SMT to rigorous testing. This concern includes the imperatives to seek evidence for disproving one’s hypothesis, and to consider the whole, and not just selective evidence. (shrink)

It is well known anecdotally that, for many people in dementia, the appreciation of music outlasts other faculties. Could the residual musicality constitute a 'musical self', an enduring fragment of the person that the sufferer used to be? The question, as far we know, has not been raised before. Towards formulating the hypothesis, this article examines some of the available research and theorizing concerning the self and the neurology of music and dementia. A unified neurocognitive 'musical self' system seems plausible, (...) though at present the evidence is sketchy. Social-relational aspects of both selfhood and musical experience are also considered, and a case history is presented so as to highlight their importance for understanding the complex relationship between music, dementia, and selfhood. (shrink)

In this classic exposition of Marxist thought, Raya Dunayevskaya, with clarity and great insight, traces the development and explains the essential features of Marx's analysis of history. Using as her point of departure the Industrial and French Revolutions, the European upheavals of 1848, the American Civil War, and the Paris Commune of 1871, Dunayevskaya shows how Marx, inspired by these events, adapted Hegel's philosophy to analyze the course of history as a dialectical process that moves "from practice to theory." (...) The essence of Marx's philosophy, as Dunayevskaya points out, is the human struggle for freedom, which entails the gradual emergence of a proletarian revolutionary consciousness and the discovery through conflict of the means for realizing complete human freedom. But freedom for Marx meant freedom not only from capitalist economic exploitation but also from all political restraints. Continuing her historical analysis, Dunayevskaya reveals how completely Marx's original conception of freedom was perverted through its adaptations by Stalin in Russia and Mao in China, and the subsequent erection of totalitarian states. The exploitation of the masses persisted under these regimes in the form of a new "state capitalism." Yet despite the profound derailment of Marxist political philosophy in the twentieth century, Dunayevskaya points to developments such as the Hungarian revolt of 1956, and the Civil Rights struggles in the United States as signs that the indomitable quest for freedom on the part of the downtrodden cannot be forever repressed. The Hegelian dialectic of events propelled by the spirit of the masses thus moves on inexorably with the hope for the future achievement of political, economic, and social freedom and equality for all. (shrink)

The philosophic moment of Marx : Marx's transformation of the Hegelian dialectic -- Preface to the Iranian edition of Marx's humanist essays -- The theory of alienation : Marx's debt to Hegel -- The todayness of Marx's humanism -- A 1981 view of Marx's 1841 dialectic -- The inseparability of Marx's economics, humanism, and dialectic -- Capitalist development and Marx's capital, 1863-1883 -- Today's epigones who try to truncate Marx's capital -- Letter to Herbert Marcuse on automation -- Marx's grundrisse (...) and the dialectic in life and in thought -- Capitalist production/alienated labor -- Marx's critique of culture -- Post-Marx marxism and the battle of ideas -- Post-Marx marxism as a category -- Hobsbawm and Rubel on the Marx centenary, but where is Marx? -- Marx's philosophy of revolution vs. non-marxist scholar-careerists in "marxism" -- Paul Mattick : economism vs. Marx's humanism -- Bertell Ollman : pitting "human nature" against Marx's humanism -- The dialectic of labor in Marx and "critical thought" -- Gramsci's "philosophy of praxis" -- Rosdolsky's methodology and Lange's revisionism -- Adorno, Kosik, and the movement from practice -- Marx as philosopher of revolution in permanence-reading Marx for today -- Section A: Marxist-humanism -- Introduction to philosophic notes -- The emergence of a new movement from practice that is itself a form of theory -- New stage of production, new stage of cognition, new kind of organization -- The dialectic of absolute idea as new beginning -- Section B: Black liberation and internationalism -- Abolitionism and the American roots of marxism -- Marx and the two-way road between the U.S. and Africa -- Black intellectuals in dilemma -- Women's liberation and the dialectics of revolution -- Marx's "new humanism" and the dialectics of women's liberation in "primitive" and modern societies -- Marx's and Engels' studies contrasted : relationship of philosophy and revolution to women's liberation -- Letter to adrienne rich on women's liberation, gay liberation, and the dialectic -- Dialectics of organization and philosophy -- Spontaneity, organization, philosophy (dialectics) -- Philosopher of permanent revolution and organization man -- A post-World War II view of Marx's humanism, 1843-1883 : marxist humanism, 1950s-1980s -- Appendices -- Bibliography -- Index. (shrink)

The use of conventional manufacturing methods is mainly limited by the size of the production run and the geometrical complexity of the component, and as a result we are occasionally forced to use processes and tools that increase the final cost of the element being produced. Additive manufacturing techniques provide major competitive advantages due to the fact that they adapt to the geometrical complexity and customised design of the part to be manufactured. The following may also be achieved according to (...) field of application: lighter weight products, multimaterial products, ergonomic products, efficient short production runs, fewer assembly errors and, therefore, lower associated costs, lower tool investment costs, a combination of different manufacturing processes, an optimised use of materials, and a more sustainable manufacturing process. Additive manufacturing is seen as being one of the major revolutionary industrial processes of the next few years. Additive manufacturing has several alternatives ranging from simple RepRap machines to complex fused metal deposition systems. This paper will expand upon the structural design of the machines, their history, classification, the alternatives existing today, materials used and their characteristics, the technology limitations, and also the prospects that are opening up for different technologies both in the professional field of innovation and the academic field of research. It is important to say that the choice of technology is directly dependent on the particular application being planned: first the application and then the technology. (shrink)

In this study, we examine the influence of senior leadership on firms’ corporate social responsibility. We integrate upper echelons research that has investigated either the influence of the CEO or the top management team on CSR. We contend that functional experience complementarity between CEOs and TMTs in formulating and implementing CSR strategy may underlie differentiated strategies in CSR. We find that when CEOs who have predominant experience in output functions are complemented by TMTs with a lower proportion of members who (...) have experience in output functions, there is a pronounced effect on the community, product, and diversity dimensions of CSR. In turn, when output-oriented CEOs are complemented by output-oriented TMTs, we observe an effect on the employee relations dimension of CSR. Interestingly, we find no influence of CEO-TMT complementarity on the environment dimension of CSR. In general, our empirical results support the relevance of the interaction between CEOs and their TMTs in defining their firms’ CSR profile. (shrink)

Die Schlusssatze von Darwins Entstehung der Arten formulieren ein Prinzip, das weit uber die Biologie hinaus einflussreich wurde: "Es ist wahrlich eine grossartige Ansicht, dass der Schopfer den Keim allen Lebens, das uns umgibt, nur wenigen oder nur einer einzigen Form eingehaucht habe, und dass... aus so einfachem Anfang sich eine endlose Reihe immer schonerer und vollkommenerer Wesen entwickelt hat und noch fort entwickelt." Die Autoren dieses Bandes beschaftigen sich mit dem Evolutionsgedanken im Christentum und Islam, gehen dem Zusammenhang von (...) Religion und der Entwicklung des Bewusstseins nach und setzen sich mit dem Prinzip Evolution in Philosophie und Religionstheorie auseinander. (shrink)

El presente libro es un trabajo de investigación conjunto del Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Navarra y el Instituto K. J. Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham. Se trata de un estudio centrado en cinco filósofos que abarcan el período que va del siglo VIII hasta el siglo XVI; los filósofos estudiados pertenecen a la Escuela Vedanta cuyo objetivo principal es analizar la naturaleza del Ser Absoluto y sus relaciones con el universo increado de seres materiales y espirituales. La obra (...) pretende mostrar una parte de esa búsqueda de la verdad, a nivel teórico y práctico, que ha caracterizado la filosofía en el subcontinente indio. (shrink)

Background:Moral distress occurs when constraints prevent healthcare providers from acting in accordance with their core moral values to provide good patient care. The experience of moral distress in nurses might be magnified during the current Covid-19 pandemic.Objective:To explore causes of moral distress in nurses caring for Covid-19 patients and identify strategies to enhance their moral resiliency.Research design:A qualitative study using a qualitative content analysis of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. We purposively sampled 31 nurses caring for Covid-19 patients in (...) the acute care units within large academic medical systems in Maryland and New York City during April to June 2020.Ethical considerations:We obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.Results:We identified themes and sub-themes representative of major causes of moral distress in nurses caring Covid-19 patients. These included (a) lack of knowledge and uncertainty regarding how to treat a new illness; (b) being overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the Covid-19 illness; (c) fear of exposure to the virus leading to suboptimal care; (d) adopting a team model of nursing care that caused intra-professional tensions and miscommunications; (e) policies to reduce viral transmission (visitation policy and PPE policy) that prevented nurses to assume their caring role; (f) practicing within crisis standards of care; and (g) dealing with medical resource scarcity. Participants discussed their coping mechanisms and suggested future strategies.Discussion/Conclusion:Our study affirms new causes of moral distress related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Institutions need to develop a supportive ethical climate that can restore nurses’ moral resiliency. Such a climate should include non-hierarchical interdisciplinary spaces where all providers can meet together as moral peers to discuss their experiences. (shrink)

Research papers on fundamentals of Hindu philosophy and doctrines in Vedic literature.

First published in 1917 and 1918, with a second edition in 1946, this is the first English translation of Santi Romano's classic work, L'ordinamento giuridico. The main focus of The Legal Order is the notion of institution, which Romano considers to be both the core and distinguishing feature of law. After criticising accounts of the nature of law centred on notions of rule, coercion or authority, he offers a compelling conception, not merely of law as an institution, but of the (...) institution as 'the first, original and essential manifestation of law'. Romano advances a definition of a legal institution as any group who share rules within a bounded context: for example, a family, a firm, a factory, a prison, an association, a church, an illegal organisation, a state, the community of states, and so on. Therefore, this understanding of legal institutionalism at the same time provides a ground-breaking theory of legal pluralism whereby 'there are as many legal orders as institutions'. The acme of a jurisprudential current long overlooked in the Anglophone environment, The Legal Order not only proposes what Carl Schmitt described as a 'very significant theory', but, more importantly, it offers precious insights for a thorough rethinking of the relationship between law and society in today's world. (shrink)

This article aims to measure both the economic and social value of Tecnocampus, a Science and Technology Park in its region of influence. Our results show that the impact of Tecnocampus has a socioeconomic cost–benefit ratio of 2.39. Measuring the impact of this multifaceted centre requires a diverse approach. Although the methods used are not new, the combination of them presents a novel approach to measure the impact of an institution of this nature. We have measured the economic value with (...) the Input–Output model, including the Social Accounting Matrix. On the other hand, for social value calculations, we have used cost–benefit analysis adding measurements of firm localisation to estimate externality effects. Our main results present an economic value of more than 0.054% of the Catalan GDP, whereas the employment impact represents almost 0.37% of total employment in the region. The total economic multiplier of Tecnocampus activity is estimated to be 1.89. Social value generates an additional 0.50 euros to the multiplier according with our analysis. This additional social value represents an increase of productivity estimated in 20 million euros of operational income for Catalan firms and the creation of seven additional firms in the Maresme region as a result of knowledge spillovers. The social value also includes reduction of over-education caused by a better matching between graduates and enterprises, a more direct application of research, and an increase in consumer surplus. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our findings to promote investments in this kind of infrastructures. (shrink)

Transhumanism is a scientific and philosophical movement that proposes to overcome, through new technologies, the restrictions imposed on us by our biological condition. Some transhumanists assume that the struggle against natural limits could lead to a radical change in our body or even to its replacement. Other authors, such as Nicholas Agar, propose a moderate enhancement that does not exceed the framework of what we understand to be human. In this article, I will offer a plausible interpretation of the project (...) of human enhancement from a Thomistic perspective. To carry out my analysis, I will focus on three fundamental metaphysical and anthropological questions: How do advocates of radical enhancement understand the relationship between limits, imperfections and evils in human nature? How is this relationship understood from moderate positions? And Is any of these proposals compatible with Aquinas’ anthropology? I will conclude that the identification of limits with imperfections and evils assumed by radical positions is incompatible with Aquinas’ anthropology. Nevertheless, this does not entail that any bio-modification is unacceptable. Aquinas’ peculiar metaphysics, together with its anthropology in which the natural, the supernatural and the preternatural realms intertwine, can offer an interesting framework to assess the human enhancement project. (shrink)

Tu duca, tu signore, e tu maestro». Con estas palabras se inicia una relación educativa entre Virgilio y Dante que manifiesta de manera concreta una visión sobre el maestro de permanente validez y actualidad. El viaje de Dante permite descubrir en la Divina Comedia la existencia de unos principios universales que fundamentan la acción del maestro. No obstante, dichos principios no son del todo originales, sino que permiten evidenciar la influencia que Tomás de Aquino ha ejercido en Dante. El Aquinate (...) no solo es mencionado en el Paraíso en los cantos X al XIV, sino que los principios pedagógicos tomistas, especialmente los contenidos en la Suma de Teología, informan la relación concreta entre los dos poetas. En este estudio intentaremos explicitar la visión del maestro propuesta por Dante, a la vez que se buscará mostrar que Tomás de Aquino es la fuente principal de la que Dante se nutre para labrar esa específica relación entre maestro y discípulo. (shrink)

Resumen El estudio del empleo de la palabra adelphos en el Nuevo Testamento en las últimas décadas ha tendido a un consenso donde se favorece la perspectiva literal en la cual se asocia a Jesús de Galilea “hermanos” carnales, según los testimonios de los textos griegos. Sin embargo, desde otra perspectiva como la antropología del parentesco y la historia social parental, los datos que atestigua el Nuevo Testamento no son unívocos y se interpelan a la luz de la estructura familiar (...) exogámica extendida -aspecto crucial- para señalar que los textos aportan datos e información, pero no son en sí la respuesta. A lo cual, se abre una perspectiva más rica en matices y aspectos del parentesco de Jesús y los lazos parentales en Galilea del siglo I d.C.The critical historical study of adelphos in recent decades has tended to a consensus thatfavors theperspective in which Jesus of Galilee is recogniged as “carnal brothers”, according to the testimonies of the Greek texts. However, from the parental anthropology and the social- parental history, the data attested by the new testament are not univocal and are addressed in the light of the extended exogamousfamily structure, a crucial aspect, to point out that the texts provide data and information, but they are not the answer in itself. To which, a richerperspective opens in nuances and aspects of the kinship of Jesus and the parental ties in Galilee of the 1st century AD. (shrink)

El presente artículo se propone cotejar dos lecturas antimodernas de Platón y la tradición platónica, la de Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) y la de Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) que resultan a la vez complementarias e inversas. Estas apropiaciones, que abren y cierran el siglo XIX, expresan el auge y el declive del “platonismo romántico”. De Maistre recurre intensamente a los diálogos de Platón, a los que cita, comenta, traduce y reescribe, así como a diversos textos del neoplatonismo antiguo y de la (...) tradición platónica moderna. Por su parte los textos de Huysmans, en particular _À rebours_ (1884), la novela más representativa de la sensibilidad decadente, expresa la crisis de ese platonismo romántico, tal como se advierte en cuestiones tales como el nihilismo, el recurso a la figura del simulacro y el replanteo del tópico del andrógino. El platonismo y su crisis interrogan la temporalidad histórica, desde la aceleración revolucionaria hasta la decadencia finisecular. (shrink)

In developed countries, companies are now substantially reliant on the skills and abilities of their leaders to tackle a variety of complex issues. There is a growing consensus that leadership development training and assessment methods should adopt more holistic methodologies, including those associated with the emotional and neuroendocrine aspects of learning. Recent research into the assessment of leadership competencies has proposed the use of objective methods and measurements based on neuroscience. One of the challenges to be faced in the development (...) of a performance-based methodology to measure leadership skills is how to generate real-life situations with triggers that allow us to study management competencies under controlled laboratory conditions. A way to address this question is to take advantage of virtual environments to recreate real-life situations that might arise in performance-based assessments. We propose virtual reality (VR) as a very promising tool to observe various leadership related behavioral patterns during dynamic, complex and realistic situations. By seamlessly embedding assessment methods into virtual learning environments, VR can provide objective assessment methods with high ecological validity. VR also holds unlimited opportunities for leadership training providing subjects with intelligent tutoring systems that adapts situations in real time according to the observed behaviors. (shrink)

Different cell lineages growing in microgravity undergo a spontaneous transition leading to the emergence of two distinct phenotypes. By returning these populations in a normal gravitational field, the two phenotypes collapse, recovering their original configuration. In this review, we hypothesize that, once the gravitational constraint is removed, the system freely explores its phenotypic space, while, when in a gravitational field, cells are “constrained” to adopt only one favored configuration. We suggest that the genome allows for a wide range of “possibilities” (...) but it is unable per se to choose among them: the emergence of a specific phenotype is enabled by physical constraints that drive the system toward a preferred solution. These findings may help in understanding how cells and tissues behave in both development and cancer. In microgravity, cells undergo spontaneous and reversible transitions between different phenotypes. In the absence of physical constraints, living systems could yield bi-stable decisions. On the contrary, physical ‘boundaries’ constrain cells to acquire only a specific configuration by selecting and shaping different gene expression patterns provided by the intrinsic genetic stochasticity. (shrink)

Ionizing radiation is present in various situations in the contemporary world. Defining the quantities and units for this field is a complex scientific task, especially the quantities used in radiological protection (RP) to estimate the damage caused to individuals exposed to radiation (detriment). This article highlights the lack of consensus in the scientific RP community regarding the quantities and units employed in practice from the perspective of the philosophy of science. The basic concepts related to the system of quantities are (...) presented, followed by the problems and criticisms addressed by experts in the field. Several reasons for these problems are identified. The article discusses the scant interest on the part of philosophy of science in RP. The philosophy of science is still dominated by an analytical–conceptual perspective that pays little attention to the actual influence of certain structures better understood when considered from the institutional viewpoint, which is here exemplified by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (shrink)

This article problematizes the recent comeback of the exceptionalist jargon as it is conjured by both critics and sympathizers. While in the last decades governments across the globe had recourse to emergency measures to cope with far-reaching emergencies, from terrorism to the COVID-19 pandemic, the received view has it that political power takes advantage of states of emergency as they put themselves in the position to circumvent constitutional limitations. Carl Schmitt is claimed to be the major advocate of this conception (...) of emergency politics in that he elaborated on the concept of the state of exception as the heart of the state political power. This article contends that the received view is doubly wrong. First, soon after his espousal of exceptionalism, Schmitt realized that emergency legislation is an ineffective and costly governmental device that should be transitory and is as unstable as the crisis it is meant to overcome. Second, the received view neglects how Schmitt came to his model of ultraconservative substantive constitutionalism as he maintained that the main task of politics is to protect the normative life of a limited set of state-sponsored institutions as well as the substantive contents they produce. (shrink)

Few thought systems have been as distorted and sometimes misconstrued as those of Marx and Hegel. Philosophy and Revolution, presented here in a new edition, attempts to save Marx from interpretations which restrict the revolutionary significance of the philosophy behind his theory. Developing her breakthrough on Hegel's Absolute Idea, Raya Dunayevskaya, who died in the June of 1987, aims at a total liberation of the human person—not only from the ills of a capitalist society, but also from the equally (...) oppressive state capitalism of established communist governments. (shrink)

This essay looks askance at how robot-assisted childcare is constructed in the public domain of the Internet. Complex interactions of rhetorical manoeuvres, narratives and postnarrativity, and semiotic slippages may channel the apperception of this application of robotics. The prospect of robots in childcare roles is exceptionally contentious, for it connotes interference with the child-caregiver attachment bond. The industry’s response to psychology-informed concerns is to ‘rebrand’ the product as a robot companion for a child or as a home robot for the (...) family. A technocentric bias in information disseminated online creates an illusion of expertise and may endorse technology-driven morality. (shrink)

Según reza la tradición, la filosofía nació del asombro. El mundo, pleno de verdad y de belleza, invitaba a la contemplación. Pero esta actitud reverente fue abandonada por las ideologías, que redefinieron a la filosofía como un programa de acción. El pensamiento devino praxis, programa transformador dirigido a eliminar los males y alienaciones, construyendo, por fin, el paraíso en la tierra. El TH puede interpretarse como una reedición de este espíritu ideológico, que apuesta por la tecnología como instrumento para la (...) revolución más radical: la transformación de la biología humana. En cuanto a lo metodológico, mi trabajo tiene dos partes. La primera (secciones 1 a 5) es una presentación general, que incluye una consideración acerca de la relevancia de la cuestión, su contexto filosófico, antecedentes, definición, y una alusión a las formas habituales en que el TH se autojustifica. En la segunda parte (secciones 6, 7 y 8) propongo un análisis teórico. En la sección 6, introduzco mi interpretación del TH como ideología. En la sección 7, analizo la dificultad fundamental del TH, esto es, su tendencia a colapsar, bajo el rótulo de aspectos indeseables e innecesarios de la naturaleza humana, verdaderos males con límites constitutivos. Ya en el apartado conclusivo, expongo cómo las dificultades ontológicas y epistémicas del progresismo radical de las ideologías afectan también al TH. (shrink)

El proyecto del _Vocabulaire européen des philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles _(_VEP_, 2004) es el primer abordaje a gran escala del problema de la traducción en el discurso filosófico. Su principal animadora, Barbara Cassin, postula, a partir de la revalorización del relativismo sofístico, que la traducción implica un “saber hacer con las diferencias” de alcances éticos y comunitarios a escala transnacional. Sin embargo, más allá del pluralismo que supone la “logología sofística”, se insinúa en la traducción al castellano del _VEP_, el (...) _Vocabulario de las Filosofías Occidentales_ (_VFO_, 2018), una imagen de Latinoamérica estereotipadamente eurocéntrica, que entra en conflicto con otras narrativas también presentes en la edición española. El objeto de este trabajo es pues analizar la cartografía de la filosofía mundial que traza el _VFO_, lo cual supone revisar la teoría de la traducción de Cassin y establecer conexiones con las posiciones que tomaron la filósofa y algunos de sus colaboradores en las discusiones que se dieron en los últimos años en la Argentina en torno a la adopción del “modelo sudafricano” como forma de tramitar la violencia del pasado reciente. (shrink)

The book identifies various facets of applying contemporary Jungian thought to the issue at hand, in chapters that range from scholarly critiques to practical ...