In 155 B.C. Athens sent an embassy to Rome to mediate in the matters raised by the Athenian intervention in the city of Oropos. Although the senate not long before has expelled philosphers and rhetors, they decided to entrust negotiations to the academic Carneades, the stoic Diogenes and the peripatetic Critolao. We know nothing of the role played by the latter two, who in the testimonials that we have either do not appear or are merely mentioned in passing, perhaps because (...) only that which is scandalous tends to be remembered o perhaps because they were not fortunate enough to have Cicero notice them. We are also fortunate that Lactantius conserves parts of the Ciceronian text that otherwise would have been lost. The present paper addresses the relations and interrelations among these three levels of readings: the discourses of Carneades in favor of justice and injustice, the recreation of the discourse on injustice that Cicero puts in the mouth of Philo, and the fragments of Lactantius that allows us to complete the prior two discourses. (shrink)

Running marathons is an increasingly popular activity with an ever-increasing number of events and participants. Many participants declare that they pursue a variety of goals by running, namely, the maintenance of good health, the development of strength and improvement of fitness, the management of emotions, and the achievement of resilience and psychological wellbeing. The research has examined marathon running, like many other sports, and has studied various factors that reduce athletic performance, such as the experience of anxiety, and that enhance (...) such performance, such as an increase in general wellbeing. This article reports the results of a study on the experience of competitive anxiety among 238 male marathon runners who participated in Seville’s 26th Marathon race on February 23, 2020, and investigates the relationship between anxiety and key dimensions of wellbeing as measured by the Spanish-adapted 20-item PWB Scale. We hypothesized that participating athletes who rated high on the dimensions of PWB would experience lower levels of competitive anxiety with respect to this race. We also proposed that PWB would function as a mediating factor with respect to the experience of anxiety. The results show, as hypothesized, that marathon running enhances wellbeing and reduces anxiety. The data showed significant negative correlations between four of five wellbeing dimensions and the three types of anxiety measured, namely, somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration-impairing anxiety. Other findings supported our hypothesis that wellbeing, as measured, functions as a mediating factor for the moderation of competitive anxiety. Generalization of these findings is limited by the fact that the low number of female participants recruited did not permit valid statistical analyses in this respect. It is known that both anxiety and wellbeing are subjects to variation by gender. The future inclusion of male and female subjects in equivalent studies will undoubtedly add valuable information concerning the dynamics of anxiety and wellbeing. The implications of these findings and the limitations of the study will be discussed. (shrink)

Most of current theoretical analyses on biological functions can be classified as etiological or dispositional, depending on how they deal with the teleological dimension. In this paper, we propose a critical survey of these two perspectives, and we argue that some recent studies have set the basis of a new approach which grounds the teleological dimension of functional attributions in the organizational properties of living systems. We outline a new proposal within this new approach, based on an interpretation of living (...) systems as organized self-maintaining systems. (shrink)

Claims concerning the death of the nation-state are often accompanied by postnationalist arguments that emphasize the potential of human rights to contest nation-bounded conceptualizations of membership. Conversely, arguments focusing on the continuing importance of state-bounded social citizenship rights undermine such postnationalist claims. To assess these claims, this article turns to the Irish state and its prohibition of abortion except in cases where the life of the pregnant woman is in danger. The authors focus their analysis on four legal cases that (...) unfolded between 1992 and 2010. These cases reflect how specific women’s social location within interconnected power hierarchies of nationality, gender, class, race/ethnicity positioned them differently vis-a-vis the Irish state, international and supranational bodies. Furthermore, the transnational, in the form of immigration, non-governmental organizations and the Catholic Church, plays an important role in structuring the context within which these cases unfold. Rather than showing that the international, supranational and transnational are conduits for the declining power of the nation-state, this article finds that in the increasingly dense legal-political field there is room for all of these forces. (shrink)

Interactive narratives are inextricable from the way that we understand our encounters with digital technology. This is based upon the way that these encounters are processually formed into a narrative of episodic events, arranged and re-arranged by various levels of agency. After describing past research conducted at the iCinema Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, this paper sets out a framework within which to build a relational theory of interactive narrative formation, outlining future research in the area.

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)

Saint Augustine conception of freedom forges through his polemics with Manichees and Pelagians. Augustine defends the existence of freedom against the Manichees and he considerates it the real cause of evil or sin as well as capable of obteining merits. Face to Pelagians he affirms that liberum arbitrium needs God grace to do good arriving to a more perfect freedom, libertas, which consists in the need to do the good. The goal of freedom is God, man's highest good and happiness.

El debate que se gestó alrededor del concepto de existencia en manos de Willard Van Orman Quine y Rudolf Carnap, dio al siglo XX un cúmulo de aportes significativos a la ontología. La postura realista, con algunas variantes, de Quine y el criterio anti-realista de Carnap, otorga insumos para pensar de mejor forma cómo se intenta dar descripciones acerca del inmobiliario del mundo. Conocer este debate es importante, ya que, se expone los alcances y limitaciones que implican las explicaciones ontológicas (...) acerca de la realidad que deben ser tenidas en cuenta en la actualidad. Este trabajo cumple esa función, la de explicar sintéticamente uno de los debates más importantes para la ontología. (shrink)

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cAMP‐dependent protein kinase A (PKA) are evolutionary conserved molecules with a well‐established position in the complex network of signal transduction pathways. cAMP/PKA‐mediated signaling pathways are implicated in many biological processes that cooperate in organ development including the motility, survival, proliferation and differentiation of epithelial cells. Cell surface polarity, here defined as the anisotropic organisation of cellular membranes, is a critical parameter for most of these processes. Changes in the activity of cAMP/PKA elicit a variety of (...) effects on intracellular membrane dynamics, including membrane sorting and trafficking. One of the most intriguing aspects of cAMP/PKA signaling is its evolutionary conserved abundance on the one hand and its precise spatial–temporal actions on the other. Here, we review recent developments with regard to the role of cAMP/PKA in the regulation of intracellular membrane trafficking in relation to the dynamics of epithelial surface domains. BioEssays 30:146–155, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Humanitarian organisations often work alongside those responsible for serious wrongdoing. In these circumstances, accusations of moral complicity are sometimes levelled at decision makers. These accusations can carry a strong if unfocused moral charge and are frequently the source of significant moral unease. In this paper, we explore the meaning and usefulness of complicity and its relation to moral accountability. We also examine the impact of concerns about complicity on the motivation of humanitarian staff and the risk that complicity may lead (...) to a retreat into moral narcissism. Moral narcissism is the possibility that where humanitarian actors inadvertently become implicated in wrongdoing, they may focus more on their image as self-consciously good actors than on the interests of potential beneficiaries. Moral narcissism can be triggered where accusations of complicity are made and can slew decision making. We look at three interventions by Médecins Sans Frontières that gave rise to questions of complicity. We question its decision-guiding usefulness. Drawing on recent thought, we suggest that complicity can helpfully draw attention to the presence of moral conflict and to the way International Non-Governmental Organisations can be drawn into unintentional wrongdoing. We acknowledge the moral challenge that complicity presents to humanitarian staff but argue that complicity does not help INGOs make tough decisions in morally compromising situations as to whether they should continue with an intervention or pull out. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analiza los poemas «III» y «XXVIII» de Trilce (1922) del escritor peruano César Vallejo, considerando que su temática aborda la composición idealizada de la familia desde una posición desfavorable para el yo poético y que, al establecerse de esa manera, logra la perlocución en el lector (lo persuade y lo convence de una realidad específica). Esta configuración semántica se demuestra mediante el análisis del discurso retórico, investigado por C. Fernández Cozman, que adopta los postulados de G. Lakoff (...) y M. Johnson, que recurren a conceptos macro (megametáforas) y micro (metáforas específicas), imprescindibles para la formación de la clasificación tipológica, dispuesta en metáforas orientacionales, ontológicas y estructurales. Igualmente, se confronta con planteamientos asociados, como los de los interlocutores, la cosmovisión y la interdiscursividad. (shrink)

Esta investigación se basa en un análisis semiótico tensivo (Fontanille) para interpretar el rol que cumple Naimlap (el hombre pájaro), un personaje mítico de una región histórica del antiguo Perú (siglo VIII d. C.), específicamente, Lambayeque. El interés por el mismo es por su protagonismo ejercido al ser un mediador entre las divinidades y la comunidad que ayuda a la prosperidad ganadera y doméstica; en ese sentido, también es de utilidad lo fundamentado por Mircea Eliade sobre lo sagrado contra lo (...) profano. El abordaje semiótico permitirá distinguir esta relación antagónica y conflictiva. (shrink)

El siguiente trabajo se enmarca en una investigación acerca de las fuentes históricofilosóficas que dan cuenta de los fundamentos de la tendencia de la filosofía a interpretarse a sí misma como una ciencia. Hemos tomado algunos de los diálogos socráticos de Platón para pesquisar cómo opera esto ahí, cuál es su motivación última y cuál su sentido. El supuesto básico es que cabe, en algún sentido, pensar la actividad filosófica como un “saber del saber”. El hilo conductor lo constituye el (...) examen de ciertos pasajes ejemplares en donde aparece la llamada “analogía del arte”, a través de la cual se ponen al descubierto ciertos caracteres esenciales del saber. Finalmente se concluye que la motivación de un “saber referido al saber” no puede ser “epistemológica” sino fundada en la preocupación por alcanzar una vida de excelencia. (shrink)

Los libros de doctrina o tratados pocas veces se hacen cargo de todas las consideraciones teóricas que están involucradas en exponer una materia. Estas consideraciones, por consiguiente, tienden a volverse una rutina que se repite sin muchas consecuencias. El propósito de este trabajo es presentar tres modelos con los que dentro de nuestra tradición, la latinoamericana, se han pensado las reglas sobre matrimonio, divorcio y paternidad. El fin último es enriquecer el debate contemporáneo sobre la reforma de estas reglas al (...) proporcionar herramientas, argumentos y perspectivas sobre los límites y oportunidades de cada modelo. (shrink)