El Juicio de gusto como Juicio estético parte de la contemplación de un objeto en particular. Surge de forma libre y no guarda relación alguna con una intencionalidad por parte del sujeto. En el caso de un juicio sobre lo bello se considera que atribuye cierta belleza al objeto como si se tratase de una propiedad que le caracteriza. La forma en la que se da este juicio posibilita el surgimiento de cierta universalidad del mismo en la medida en que (...) todo aquel que pueda contemplarlo pueda distinguir la belleza en él. Pero se trata sólo de universalidad estética y no lógica. En la forma que adoptan estos objetos se advierte una finalidad de la naturaleza como condición a priori que posibilita su conocimiento. Dicha posibilidad basada en la reflexión sobre la forma de estos viene determinada por el uso reflexionante de la facultad de juzgar. (shrink)

Este espacio ofrece un conjunto de aspectos de la filosofía de Lévinas expresados en una sección de su obra Totalidad e Infinito que se enfrentan con el pensamiento de Hegel en el marco de las relaciones intersubjetivas en torno a un comportamiento ético de la conciencia o el yo frente a lo otro de sí. Los puntos de encuentros y más aún de desencuentros entre ambos autores revelan que el contexto histórico es determinante en las posturas que plantean en la (...) medida en que ofrecen interpretaciones mayormente divergentes de acuerdo a la relación de cada sujeto con lo externo a sí. El objetivo de este espacio de discusión entre ambos autores es resaltar la importancia y el papel que juega la figura de la Autoconciencia hegeliana frente a la construcción de sociedades que aspiran a poner en marcha proyectos de justicia social y verdadera democracia. (shrink)

La facultad de juzgar teleológica se distingue de la estética básicamente en el punto de partida que tiene el sujeto frente a los objetos que juzga. En este caso el sujeto parte de algún conocimiento sobre ellos y no juzga solo a partir de lo que exteriormente advierte en los mismos. Esto implica que la realidad de dichos objetos cobra una dimensión diferente y el hombre puede incluirle en su quehacer diario ya que puede dar cuenta de su utilidad. La (...) finalidad en sentido de intencionalidad que se muestra en ciertos productos naturales guarda una relación externa con el hombre y con otros productos pues su existencia se basa en la conveniencia de su manifestación en un momento y lugar determinados. En los organismos naturales la finalidad de la naturaleza se basa en una relación orgánica entre los componentes que los constituyen formando entre todos un conjunto como ser organizado. (shrink)

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, approved on December 13, 2006 by the UN General Assembly, represented a historic advance in the field of disability by recognizing that the right to education implied the right to an quality inclusive education, thus consolidating a normative evolution from previous international instruments. Since May 3, 2008, the Convention has been part of the Spanish legal system, which implies that the State is obliged to modify national laws that do not correspond (...) to the principles established in the Convention. However, different reports have revealed the weakness of its implementation in Spain, with the consequent breach of the rights of people with disabilities. These difficulties in establishing a truly inclusive education show how ableist conceptions and practices continue to be perpetuated in the educational field. (shrink)

El objeto de este trabajo es abordar la idea de nación cívica, un concepto político clave en la producción discursiva de la Generación de 1837, cuyo poder de interpelación ha persistido en momentos más recientes de la historia Argentina. Para ello, se analizarán con las herramientas heurísticas de la historia conceptual los usos de ‘civilidad', ‘civismo', ‘civilización', ‘patria' y ‘nación' en un corpus específico de la producción de Juan Bautista Alberdi y Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Nuestra hipótesis de lectura es que, (...) para comprender las diferencias entre estos dos planteos y las tensiones internas de cada uno de ellos, hay que problematizar sus representaciones discursivas, a partir del carácter polisémico y polémico de la nación cívica, donde conviven formas de la politicidad muchas veces contrapuestas, como el republicanismo cívico y la dominación civilizatoria. En ese marco, adquiere mayor relevancia una pregunta filosófico-política cuyo sentido se reafirma en el contexto del Bicentenario: ¿cuáles son las implicancias contemporáneas de un discurso político-generacional que pretendió crear una nación para el desierto Argentina? The main object of this paper is analyze to the notion of civic nation, a concept and a politic representation which is fundamental in the production of the Generation of 1837 in Argentina The interpellation power of this concept still persists in recent moments of argentine history. To this end, we shall study, with the heuristic tools of Conceptual and Intellectual History, the uses of ‘civility', civism', ‘civilization', ‘patria' and ‘nation' in an specific corpus of Juan Bautista Alberdi and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's production. Our reading hypothesis is that for understanding the differences between these two interpretations of the civic nation and the internal tensions that each proposition has is necessary to question their discursive representations. Because it is inside these representations of civic nation we can identify oppositional conceptions of politics such as the civic republicanism and the domination of the civilization. (shrink)

Ante el pensamiento del neocapitalismo y su poder actual, el autor se pregunta su hay razones para reivindicar la justicia social en nuestros días. Para responder a esta interrogante realiza un análisis de algunos elementos históricos que habrían sido en su opinión decisivos para llegar a la situación actual de la democracia en Occidente, desgranando algunas de las diferencias ideológicas que sobre la gobernabilidad de la democracia surgieron en la izquierda, y que condujeron a dos vías diferentes en el seno (...) de la misma y al triunfo de la identificada con las posiciones socialdemócratas. Así, señala, una socialdemocracia reconvertida en tercera vía, y un comunismo pertrechado de consignas altisonantes con poca sustancia ideológica se reparten la clientela política de izquierda a este lado del mundo. (shrink)

We propose a semiotic framework to underpin a posthumanist philosophy of education, as contrasted to technological determinism. A recent approach to educational processes as semiotic phenomena lends itself as a philosophy to understand the current interplay between education and technology. This view is aligned with the transhumanist movement to defend techno-scientific progress as fundamental to human development. Particularly, we adopt a semiotic approach to education to tackle certain tensions in current debates on the human. Transhumanism scholars share the optimistic belief (...) that there is no limit to how the ethical use of technology can help alleviate suffering and increase our health and wisdom. From this perspective, it appears possible to acquire capacities that require rethinking the notion of human altogether. For others, this undermining of essentialist concepts of humanity entails serious risks, especially related to ethical egalitarianism. We adopte the perspective of edusemiotics, a framework that brings together semiotics, educational theory and philosophy of education. As a theoretical-practical framework, edusemiotics affords a hermeneutic and semiotic method for our approach. Peirce’s logic of signs is used to analyze socio- educational interactions as environmental. We observe two lines of thought. On the one hand, technological transhumanism enhances Cartesian mind–body dualism. On the other hand, philosophical posthumanism seeks to overcome this dichotomy. The former proposal construes human transformation as an artifactualization derived from techno-scientific enhancements. The latter position proposes an integrative posthumanism, capable not only to include edusemiotic theory but also to rethink the concept of learning as mutual to that of human. (shrink)

El desarrollo de internet en los últimos años ha sido espectacular. Con la explosión del internet de las cosas (IoT) el procesamiento de datos incrementa su complejidad, pero también sus beneficios. No obstante, en la última década han surgido periódicamente noticias que nos muestran una serie de efectos de esta tecnología, alejados de la visión casi mítica que siempre ha tenido y que pudiera afectar a elementos básicos de nuestra democracia. En este trabajo se señalan tres de los principales retos (...) que tienen nuestros Estados democráticos de derecho. El primero es el de los datos y la forma en qué son procesados. El segundo es el uso de la tecnología de la información para la vigilancia de la ciudadanía con el uso de instrumentos que vulneren las garantías contempladas por los derechos fundamentales. Finalmente, la manera en que internet impacta en la formación y educación cívica. Se finalizarán con unas breves conclusiones donde se contemplarán algunas propuestas. (shrink)

This study explores the rationality behind firms’ decision to admit or deny their involvement in bribery when responding to confidential surveys conducted by international agencies. Specifically, we posit that firms’ reluctance to provide accurate information about their engagement in bribery is at least to some extent contingent on certain situational factors. In other words, we claim that this behavior is context dependent. The paper uses the notions provided by the theory of planned behavior to understand the way in which the (...) corruption of the legal environment, the intensity of market competition, and identification risk influence firms’ decision to lie about their involvement in bribery. To test these notions, we use databases from the fifth wave of the EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, country-level data from the Kauffman Foundation and macroeconomic information from the World Bank database. We run ordinary least squares with geographic region-clustered standard errors on data from 30 countries and 6122 individual firms during the period 2012–2013. Consistent with our expectations, the results indicate that firms operating within more corrupt legal environments, facing more competition, and bearing a higher risk of being identified are less likely to deny their involvement in bribery. We conclude that not all firms have the same incentives to lie about their participation in bribery, and therefore, identifying the drivers of this heterogeneity may help policymakers better assess the reliability of bribery information collected through confidential surveys. (shrink)

RESUMEN El presente texto es el resultado de un estudio dirigido a demostrar la importancia del sistema muscular en mujeres operadas de cáncer de mama, enfermedad con elevada incidencia en Cuba y el mundo. Se investigó en los principales reportes anatómicos. Se partió de la revisión documental de textos básicos para la carrera de Medicina inherentes a la asignatura Anatomía Humana. Se corroboró que autores como M. Prives, N Lisenkov y V Bushkovich y R. D. Sinelnikov; describen los músculos, pero (...) no relatan su importancia en la práctica quirúrgica. Se emplearon los buscadores en Internet y otros sitios webs de información científica, que permitieron corroborar desde un enfoque de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad la importancia del tejido muscular y su aplicación en técnicas reconstructivas en pacientes operadas de cáncer de mama. Se constató que los músculos más usados son los rectos abdominales, los dorsales anchos, los gráciles y el tejido adiposo del pliegue glúteo. ABSTRACT The present text is the result of a study directed to demonstrate the importance of the muscular system in women who had a surgery on breast cancer, illness with high incidence in Cuba and the world. It was investigated in the principal anatomical reports. It began with the documentary review of basic texts for the career of Medicine inherent to the subject Human Anatomy. It was corroborated that authors like M. Prives, N Lisenkov and V Bushkovich and R. D. Sinelnikov; they describe the muscles, but they do not report their importance in surgical practice. It was used the searche engines on Internet and other web sites of scientific information, which allowed to corroborate from an approach of science, technology and society the importance of the muscular tissue andits application in reconstructive techniques in patients who undergoa breast cancer surgery. It was stated that the most used muscles are the abdominal rectus, the latissimusdorsi, the graceful ones and the adipose tissue of the gluteus fold. (shrink)

A través de algunos largometrajes de animación de Hayao Miyazaki es posible reconocer las principales manifestaciones del sintoísmo. La veneración a los antepasados asociada al culto al emperador, el culto a la naturaleza manifestado en los irui-kon o matrimonios con seres sobrenaturales además de otros aspectos como la purificación, el más allá, los vuelos y el sacerdocio sintoísta son analizados en estas películas japonesas.

Autocracies draw their political power from cronyism and organized repression. The opacity of business information protects these regimes and their crony firms from any opposition. However, autocracies might also desire to eliminate cronyism because it dampens economic growth. Autocracies survive through repression that engenders tensions, as evident in the Spanish newspaper industry during the Francoist dictatorship. State control over this industry was important because the press disseminated news to the public. From 1939 to 1957, the autocracy institutionalized both cronyism and (...) the opacity of circulation figures to sustain the political powers of Franco and the single party state. Opacity concealed the economic performance of newspapers owned by sole legal party and any distribution of resources in its favor. Franco authorized voluntary disclosure of reliable circulation figures in 1964, after eliminating cronyism in favor of a freer market. Repression guaranteed support for this industry until Franco's death. (shrink)

The research focuses on the study of public housing built in response to the urgent housing needs in Europe throughout the 20th century. These developments share many of the characteristics of their European counterparts. The Spanish case presents certain peculiarities in its development. The research aims to analyse the context -social, economic and political- that conditioned the massive construction of housing in Spain between 1939 and 1976. An analysis is made of the approved urban planning legislation, housing regulation and the (...) identification of the responsible bodies. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la aplicación en la escuela de plataformas privativas de enseñanza, cuyo uso ha tenido un impulso con la pandemia de la COVID19. Google workplace for education se ha considerado una vía eficaz tanto para adaptarse a los retos de la digitalización como para afrontar situaciones ex- traordinarias. El análisis realizado revela una amenaza ligada a la intimidad de los menores. Aplicando análisis heurístico, los resultados muestran la ne- cesidad de efectivizar un principio de cautela tecnológica sobre el (...) uso de estas plataformas en la educación. Se concluye con la necesidad de profundizar en el análisis de las implicaciones para los niños y adolescentes del uso de este soft- ware y la conveniencia de aplicar herramientas libres y abiertas. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analiza el postmarxismo o populismo que colectivos autodenominados de izquierda han incorporado al debate político español procedente de Iberoamerica, desde la perspectiva del pensamiento de Rosa Luxemburg. En este artículo se plantea la hipótesis de que podría establecerse un paralelismo entre el reformismo, con el que Luxemburg calificó a la socialdemocracia alemana, y el discurso de actores políticos que asumen los postulados populistas. Se entiende que el populismo oculta la cuestión de clase en beneficio de ‘guerras culturales’. (...) Este artículo responde a esta pregunta afirmativamente y se estima que el populismo o postmarxismo es una herramienta que desatiende la cuestión de clase y hace inviable el cambio social. (shrink)

A humane and respectful treatment of patients by the staff has inspired the creation of the Department of Humanism and Bioethics at the University Hospital of Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá which not only has met, but even surpassed established goals. Since 2013, the Department has developed different activities that have made it possible to respond more ethically to the daily needs of patients and to strengthen other humanization processes. Currently, the Department of Humanism and Bioethics addresses five lines of (...) work: a continuing education program, an assistance advisory program, support, and strengthening of existing committees, support for the activities of our institutional humanization program and research activities. This article updates the experience of this Department, specifically focusing on notable changes in the last years. (shrink)

Clinical bioethics plays a significant role in hospital settings through bioethics consultations, which focus on providing ongoing assistance in complex situations within the doctor-patient dynamic. These consultations entail regular interaction between physicians and clinical bioethicists. This situation prompts an exploration into how bioethics consultations affect physicians. The current research aims to understand the influence of bioethics consultations on physicians’ bioethical knowledge by analyzing the lexical content in their patients’ medical records. Medical records are a synthesis carried out by physicians, often (...) reflecting collaborative efforts, and capturing verbal statements indicative of thought processes suggestive of learning. The study is a sequential mixed-methods design with a retrospective descriptive approach, comparing medical records from the early years of the Department of Humanism and Bioethics’ operation (2013–2015) to the more recent ones (2019). Technical bioethical terminology such as “therapeutic effort limitation,” “futility,” “beneficence,” and “respect for autonomy” is more prevalent in recent medical records. This trend may stem from the positive impact of bioethics consultations conducted by the Department, with haptic communication serving as a particularly effective form of interaction with others during experiences of moral distress. This appears to be characteristic of cultures like those in Latin America. (shrink)

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to identify factors motivating women to take part in endometriosis research and to determine if these factors differ for women participating in clinical versus basic science studies. METHODS: A consecutive series of 24 women volunteering for participation in endometriosis‐related research were asked to indicate, in their own words, why they chose to volunteer. In addition, the women were asked to rate, on a scale of 0 to 10, sixteen potentially motivating factors. The (...) information was gathered in the form of an anonymous self‐administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Strong motivating factors (mean score >8) included potential benefit to other women's health, improvement to one's own condition, and participation in scientific advancement. Weak motivating factors (mean score <3) included financial compensation, making one's doctor happy, and use of ‘natural’ products. No difference was detected between clinical and basic science study participants. CONCLUSION: This study is the first study to specifically investigate the factors that motivate women to take part in endometriosis research. Understanding why women choose to take part in such research is important to the integrity of the informed consent process. The factors most strongly motivating women to participate in endometriosis research related to improving personal or public health; the weakest, to financial compensation and pleasing the doctor. (shrink)

The interest of assigning homework is frequently discussed due to its alleged low impact on student achievement. One of the current lines of research is to emphasize the quality of student homework engagement rather than the amount of time spent on homework. The aim of this study was to determine (a) the extent to which students’ prior achievement affects their homework engagement (i.e., time spent, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done), and (b) how students’ intrinsic motivation towards homework (...) may mediate or moderate the relationship between prior achievement and the homework engagement variables. A large sample of students from the first four years of Secondary Education (N = 1899) completed questionnaires. The results showed that intrinsic motivation partially mediates, but does not moderate, the effect of prior achievement on the three variables related to homework engagement (time spent, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done). These results highlight the importance of considering both students’ current level of achievement and their motivation towards homework engagement when assigning homework. (shrink)

La educación cívica se encuentra en la misma base de la democracia . T odo sistema democrático que prescinda de esta necesidad acabará haciendo de s v anecerse la racionalidad democrática de sus instituciones. La democracia liberal es un buen ejemplo de este debilitamiento pr o g res i v o de las estructuras democráticas. Benjamin R. Barber no tarda en referirse a ella como "democracia débil". La democracia carece de plenitud sin ciudadanos fo r mados cívicamente. Educación y democracia (...) están indisol u b lemente unidas. P or eso, para este autor la r e generación de la democracia, con sus contenidos reales de pa r ticipación política, pasa necesariamente por la educación. Enseñar democracia es se r vir a la comuni dad. (shrink)

Currently, the concept of engagement is crucial in the field of learning and school achievement. It is a multidimensional concept (e.g., behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions) that has been widely used as a theoretical framework to explain the processes of school engagement and dropout. However, this conceptual framework has been scarcely used in the field of homework. The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of intrinsic motivation, perceived homework utility, and personal homework attitude as precursors of (...) student homework engagement (behavioral engagement) and, at the same time, how such engagement is the precursor of academic achievement. Seven hundred and thirty students of Compulsory Secondary Education (7th to 10th grade) from fourteen schools northern Spain participated. A structural equation model was elaborated on which intrinsic motivation, perceived utility and attitude were observed variables, and student engagement (time spent on homework, time management, and amount of teacher-assigned homework done) and academic achievement (Mathematics, Spanish Language, English Language, Social Science) were latent variables. The results reveal that (i) intrinsic motivation is a powerful precursor of student behavioral engagement (also perceived utility and attitude, although to a lesser extent) and (ii) academic achievement is closely linked to the level of student engagement, qualifying the results of many of the previous studies conducted from a task-centered perspective (as opposed to a person-centered perspective). (shrink)

This article aims to adapt to Spanish the Relational Needs Satisfaction Scale and to test the factor structure with a clinical and a non-clinical sample. A total of 459 individuals completed the RNSS, a measure of life satisfaction and of psychological wellbeing. Results showed that the translation was adequate. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted followed by the test of three models that confirmed the five-factor structure and the second-order global factor proposed in the original study, and in (...) adaptations to other languages. The advantages and disadvantages of these models are discussed. Correlations of the RNSS with life satisfaction and psychological wellbeing measures were in the expected direction, providing evidence of convergent validity. The Spanish version of the RNSS is a valid and reliable measure of the construct it was intended to measure, though some improvements in item wording could be incorporated and tested. (shrink)

The objective of this research study was to determine if psychological distress, anxiety, and academic self-efficacy predict satisfaction with studies in Peruvian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional and predictive design was used, in which 582 Peruvian university students participated, 243 men and 339 women, between the ages of 16 and 41. Student’s t-statistics were used to analyze the differences in scores of psychological distress, anxiety, academic self-efficacy, and satisfaction with studies based on the sex of the participants, (...) Pearson’s R was used for the analysis of correlations between variables, and multiple linear regressions were used to evaluate the predictive model. In the analyses, the significance level was set at 0.05. The results show that men have higher levels of psychological distress, anxiety, and academic self-efficacy than women do ; high levels of psychological distress correlate with high levels of anxiety and low levels of satisfaction with studies and academic self-efficacy ; high levels of anxiety correlate with low levels of satisfaction with studies and academic self-efficacy ; and high levels of academic self-efficacy correlate with high levels of satisfaction with studies. Academic self-efficacy was also found to predict satisfaction with studies. This concludes that, although there are significant correlations between psychological distress, anxiety, academic self-efficacy, and satisfaction with studies, academic self-efficacy is the variable that most predicts satisfaction with studies in Peruvian university students. (shrink)

In daily academic life, students are exposed to a wide range of potentially stressful situations which could negatively affect their academic achievement and their health. Among the factors that could be weakened by academic stress, attention has been paid to expectations of self-efficacy, which are considered one of the most important determinants for student engagement, persistence, and academic success. From a proactive perspective, research on academic stress has emphasized the importance of coping strategies in preventing harmful consequences. In recent years, (...) there has been a growing interest in discovering the extent to which individuals are able to combine different coping strategies and the adaptive consequences this flexibility entails. However, studies using this person-centered approach are still scarce in the academic context. On that basis, this current study had two objectives: (a) to examine the existence of different profiles of university students based on how they combined different approach coping strategies (positive reappraisal, support seeking, and planning); and (b) to determine the existence of differences in general expectations of self-efficacy between those coping profiles. 1072 university students participated in the study. The coping profiles were determined by Latent Profile Analysis (LPA). The differences in the self-efficacy variable were determined using ANCOVA, with gender, university year, and degree type as covariates. Four approach coping profiles were identified: (a) low generalized use of approach coping strategies; (b) predominance of social approach coping approaches; (c) predominance of cognitive approach coping approaches; (d) high generalized use of approach coping strategies. The profile that showed that a greater combination of the three strategies was related to higher general self-efficacy expectations, and vice versa. These results suggest that encouraging flexibility in coping strategies would help to improve university students’ self-efficacy. (shrink)

En los procesos sociopolíticos de superación de los conflictos armados, la recuperación de la Memoria histórica está ocupando un lugar central debido al papel que está juega para una efectiva reconciliación donde la verdad, la reparación y el perdón forman parte de ese proceso. La experiencia cristiana, como comunidad de memoria tiene mucho que aportar en la medida que articule la reflexión crítica sobre qué memoria, desde dónde, desde quiénes; con el potencial liberador del Dios que se pone del lado (...) de las víctimas y desde ellas no deja que se olvide su dolor sino que busca transformarlo. Además incorporar la perspectiva de género, permite reconocer las diferencias genéricas que influyen en la recuperación de la memoria histórica. Mostrar la relevancia de estas articulaciones, es el propósito de este artículo con la invitación a transformar la pastoral urbana que pretende acompañar a las personas en situación de desplazamiento. In socio-political processes of overcoming armed conflict, the Historical Memory is taking a central point because of the role it plays for effective reconciliation where "truth, reparation and forgiveness" are part of that process. Christian experience, as memory community has much to contribute to articulate the critical reflection about what memory, from where, from whom; with the liberating potential of the God who takes the side of the victims and doesn’t allow to forget them neither their pain and seeks transformation. Besides, incorporate the gender perspective, allow to recognize the gender differences and their influences in the recovery of historical memory. Show the relevance of these articulations is the purpose of this article with an invitation to transform urban pastoral in order to support displaced people. (shrink)

Altered attachment characteristics may disturb the HPA and can even cause changes in the hippocampus. However, it is unknown if that will influence spatial navigation performance, learning and recalling. In this study we pretend to verify if there are differences in spatial navigation learning and was associated with attachment style dimensions of anxiety and close-depend. Sixty-five female participants were recruited and were evaluated using the Adult Attachment Scale-R and tested on a virtual maze navigation task (VMT) at one moment (exploratory (...) trial + 3 trials) and 24h later (3 trials). There was a significant Moment x Trial x Close-Depend interaction for the outcome time, F (2, 126) = 3.807, p = 0.025, with post-hoc analysis indicating that the High Close-Depend group displayed significant improvements between Trial 1 and Trial 3 in the post-test assessment. Conversely, the Low Close-Depend group displayed significant improvements between Trial 1and Trial 3 but on the pre-test assessment. Furthermore, the Low Close-Depend group presented significant better performance in pre-test Trial 3 in comparison to the High Close-Depend group. Thereby, it seems that low comfort with proximity and trust in others is associated with reduced spatial navigation recall, although spatial learning performance was actually superior in these participants. It is possible that reduced exposure to social interaction and meaning relationship may be reduced in the Low Close-Depend group, leading to modifications in hippocampal function and, ultimately, reduced spatial recall. Conversely, participants with high comfort with proximity and trust in others may not display typical spatial learning in the proposed task as they are more willing to freely explore the presented environment. (shrink)

RODRÍGUEZ LLAMOSÍ, Juan Ramón: Casos difíciles de conciencia judicial.

I respond to H. M. Collins's claim (1985, 1990, 1993) that experimental inquiry cannot be objective because the only criterium experimentalists have for determining whether a technique is "working" is the production of "correct" (i.e., the expected) data. Collins claims that the "experimenters' regress," the name he gives to this data-technique circle, cannot be broken using the resources of experiment alone. I argue that the data-technique circle, can be broken even though any interpretation of the raw data produced by techniques (...) is theory-dependent. However, it is possible to break this circle by eliminating dependence on even those theoretical presuppositions that are shared by an entire scientific community through the use of multiple independently theory-dependent techniques to produce robust bodies of data. Moreover, I argue, that it is the production of robust bodies of data that convinces experimentalists of the objectivity of their data interpretations. (shrink)

In their target article, Mikhalevich & Powell (M&P) argue that we should extend moral protection to arthropods. In this commentary, we show that there are some unforeseen obstacles to applying the sort of individualistic welfare-based ethics that M&P have in mind to certain arthropods, namely, insects. These obstacles have to do with the fact that there are often many more individuals involved in our dealings with insects than our ethical theories anticipate, and also with the fact that, in some sense, (...) some insects count as more than an individual and, in another sense, they sometimes count as less than an individual. (shrink)

When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. Playing Possum explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom. -/- With humor and empathy, Susana Monsó tells the (...) stories of ants who attend their own funerals, chimpanzees who clean the teeth of their dead, dogs who snack on their caregivers, crows who avoid the places where they saw a carcass, elephants obsessed with collecting ivory, and whales who carry their dead for weeks. Monsó, one of today’s leading experts on animal cognition and ethics, shows how there are more ways to conceive of mortality than the human way, and challenges the notion that the only emotional reactions to death worthy of our attention are ones that resemble our own. -/- Blending philosophical insight with new evidence from behavioral science and comparative psychology, Playing Possum dispels the anthropocentric biases that cloud our understanding of the natural world, and reveals that, when it comes to death and dying, we are just another animal. (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)

Rasmussen (1993) argues that, because electron microscopists did not use robustness and would not have been warranted in using it as a criterion for the reality or the artifactuality of mesosomes, the bacterial mesosome serves as a test case for robustness that it fails. I respond by arguing that a more complete reading of the research literature on the mesosome shows that ultimately the more robust body of data did not support the mesosome and that electron microscopists used and were (...) warranted in using robustness as a criterion for the artifactuality of mesosomes. (shrink)

Observations of animals engaging in apparently moral behavior have led academics and the public alike to ask whether morality is shared between humans and other animals. Some philosophers explicitly argue that morality is unique to humans, because moral agency requires capacities that are only demonstrated in our species. Other philosophers argue that some animals can participate in morality because they possess these capacities in a rudimentary form. Scientists have also joined the discussion, and their views are just as varied as (...) the philosophers’. Some research programs examine whether animals countenance specific human norms, such as fairness. Other research programs investigate the cognitive and affective capacities thought to be necessary for morality. There are two sets of concerns that can be raised by these debates. They sometimes suffer from there being no agreed upon theory of morality and no clear account of whether there is a demarcation between moral and social behavior; that is, they lack a proper philosophical foundation. They also sometimes suffer from there being disagreement about the psychological capacities evident in animals. Of these two sets of concerns—the nature of the moral and the scope of psychological capacities—we aim to take on only the second. In this chapter we defend the claim that animals have three sets of capacities that, on some views, are taken as necessary and foundational for moral judgment and action. These are capacities of care, capacities of autonomy, and normative capacities. Care, we argue, is widely found among social animals. Autonomy and normativity are more recent topics of empirical investigation, so while there is less evidence of these capacities at this point in our developing scientific knowledge, the current data is strongly suggestive. (shrink)

Traditional approaches to theory structure and theory change in science do not fare well when confronted with the practice of certain fields of science. We offer an account of contemporary practice in molecular biology designed to address two questions: Is theory change in this area of science gradual or saltatory? What is the relation between molecular biology and the fields of traditional biology? Our main focus is a recent episode in molecular biology, the discovery of enzymatic RNA. We argue that (...) our reconstruction of this episode shows that traditional approaches to theory structure and theory change need considerable refinement if they are to be defended as generally applicable. 1This paper emerged from discussions between us, and we are both equally responsible for its errors. We would like to thank Yvonne Paterson for helpful comments. (shrink)