A descriptive-exploratory analysis of assurance practices is presented in this paper, by analysing the patterns of sustainability assurance reporting in two national contexts with different levels of assurance activity over a period of 11 years. The study is based on theoretical insights drawn from institutional sociology and normativity production. It is framed both in the Italian situation, where assurance statements consistently include a narrow set of formal and procedural communications, and in an unsettled situation in the U.S., where assurance activity (...) is more incipient, but where experimentation in substantial assurance disclosure practices has more room to develop. Its main implication is that the diffusion of sustainability assurance and the creation of sustainability assurance disclosure norms are not without its cost: information quality does not increase with patterned practice. The results also point towards the noteworthy role of specific professionals in the earlier and later stages of assurance practice norms. They reveal a significant influence of non-Big4 firms in the diffusion of sustainability assurance disclosure norms. In contrast, the Big4 firms appear to be positively associated with the narrowing down of the assurance focus to a selected subset of this activity in later stages of the development of the assurance norm. In this regard, this study provides insight into the circumstantial—but relevant—carrier role of the Big4 firms in determining what “assurance” means. (shrink)

The original article was published without open access and with the copyright notice indicating © Springer Nature B.V. The article is now open access with the copyright residing with the authors.

The ambiguous-cue task is composed of two-choice simultaneous discriminations involving three stimuli: positive (P), ambiguous (A) and negative (N). Two different trial types are presented: PA and NA. The ambiguous cue (A) served as an S- in PA trials, but as an S+ in NA trials. When using this procedure, it is typical to observe a less accurate performance in PA trials than in NA trials. This is called the ambiguous-cue effect. Recently, it was reported in starlings that the ambiguous-cue (...) effect decreases when the stimuli are presented on an angled (120°) panel. The hypothesis is that the angled panel facilitates that the two cues from each discrimination are perceived as a compound, precluding value transfer via a second-order conditioning mechanism. In this experiment, we used pigeons and a flat panel. Nevertheless, our data were quite similar to the previous data in starlings. We conclude that the form of the panel cannot explain the ambiguous-cue effect. Several alternatives to be explored in future experiments are suggested. The riddle of the ambiguous-cue problem still remains unsolved. (shrink)

Wittgenstein defiende que los problemas filosóficos son ilegítimos. Sin embargo, no resulta del todo claro qué se entiende en general por problema filosófico, cuál es, pues, su naturaleza. El presente artículo intenta elucidar la observación de Wittgenstein que sostiene que la forma de un problema filosófico se puede presentar con la expresión “Yo no sé salir del atolladero” (IF § 123). En el artículo se elige, a manera de ejemplo, el escándalo kantiano, que demanda que demostremos con el uso de (...) la razón que la proposición “hay objetos físicos” es verdadera. Sin renunciar al ejemplo, se explora en qué sentido la expresión de Wittgenstein caracteriza en buena medida la naturaleza misma de la dificultad filosófica. En el ejercicio se atienden recomendaciones formales del Tractatus, terapias desplegadas en Sobre la Certeza y el recurso de distinguir entre sentido primario y sentido secundario de una expresión insinuado en las Investigaciones Filosóficas. (shrink)

There is a phrase by Paul Klee that insists and repeats itself in Deleuze's writing: "We are missing this last force. We are missing a people". However, the contemporary world is defined precisely by the fullness and the becoming population of peoples. This is why the concept of people constitutes an amphibology that is revealed in Deleuze's work as an appearance between people and thought. In this sense, the relationship between both concepts shows a set of aesthetic, political, and ontological (...) consequences that these notes attempt to address in Deleuze's thought and beyond. Hay una frase de Paul Klee que insiste y se repite en la mano de Deleuze: “Nos falta esta última fuerza. Nos falta un pueblo”. Sin embargo, el mundo contemporáneo se define justamente por el lleno y el devenir población de los pueblos. Es por esto que el concepto de pueblo constituye una anfibología que se revela en el trabajo de Deleuze como una comparecencia entre pueblo y pensamiento. En este sentido, la relación entre ambas categorías muestran un conjunto de consecuencias estéticas, políticas y ontológicas que estas notan intentan abordar en el pensamiento de Deleuze y más allá de éste. (shrink)

Presentaré formalmente la reología como una filosofía precisa. Hoy hemos de habérnoslas con nuestras herramientas que no pueden ser, por razones que veremos, ni la epistemología ni la ontología clásicas; requerimos de «noología» y «reología», filosofías incoadas en el pensamiento de Xavier Zubiri. Teniendo a la noología por realismo de partida en el que «realidad es» modo de quedar las cosas en la aprehensión, y a la reología por realismo de llegada en el que la constitución estructural de las cosas (...) «es realidad», la metafísica queda purgada de lastres vetustos. Todo se presenta en dos partes: I) Escasez de reólogos, expondremos qué se entiende por «noología» y por «reología». II) Realidad, expondremos el problema de los «dos» realismos («de partida» y «de llegada»), lo concretizaremos en la filosofía de Zubiri y veremos que «ambos» son más bien uno solo. Concluiremos que, si queremos tener una filosofía pertinente para el conocimiento contemporáneo del mundo sin limitarnos a un estudio escolar de un autor, hemos de hacer reología. (shrink)

A study in the logic of theory change, examining the properties of maxichoice contraction and revision operations.

This paper is concerned with formal aspects of the logic of theory change, and in particular with the process of shrinking or contracting a theory to eliminate a proposition. It continues work in the area by the authors and Peter Gärdenfors. The paper defines a notion of safe contraction of a set of propositions, shows that it satisfies the Gärdenfors postulates for contraction and thus can be represented as a partial meet contraction, and studies its properties both in general and (...) under various natural constraints. (shrink)

There has been much debate recently on the question whether essence can explain modality. Here, I examine two routes to an essentialist account of modality. The first is Hale's argument for the necessity of essence, which I will argue is — notwithstanding recent attempted defences of it — invalid by its very structure. The second is the proposal that it is essential to essential truth that it is necessary. After offering three possible versions of the view, I will argue that (...) each fails to provide a metaphysical explanation of necessity in terms of essence. (shrink)

Investigates the resolution of contradictions and ambiguous derogations in a code, by means of the imposition of partial orderings.

Cuando ahora las formas de hacer historia materializan una multiplicidad de grafías, y el giro reflexivo y el giro historiográfico nos permiten idear las historias de las teorías de la historia en una posibilidad más, en este ensayo se presenta un deseo, una promesa cuya llave de acceso precisa saber lo que pretende la locución arqueoescritura. Esbozos y trazas de la teoría de la historia en cuestión: ¿qué cabe esperar en las escrituras diferidas de la arqueoescritura? Escrituras equívocas en clave (...) derridiana de la teoría de la historia como historiografía. Una posibilidad imposible aplazada. Escrituras para examinar la metafísica de la presencia en la historiografía, conscientes de que no podrán formular una teoría de la historia en la única firma derridiana, porque lo real se resiste a ser domado e incorporado al impar filosófico derridiano. (shrink)

In some recent papers, the authors and Peter Gärdenfors have defined and studied two different kinds of formal operation, conceived as possible representations of the intuitive process of contracting a theory to eliminate a proposition. These are partial meet contraction (including as limiting cases full meet contraction and maxichoice contraction) and safe contraction. It is known, via the representation theorem for the former, that every safe contraction operation over a theory is a partial meet contraction over that theory. The purpose (...) of the present paper is to study the relationship more finely, by seeking an explicit map between the component orderings involved in each of the two kinds of contraction. It is shown that at least in the finite case a suitable map exists, with the consequence that the relational, transitively relational, and antisymmetrically relational partial meet contraction functions form identifiable subclasses of the safe contraction functions, over any theory finite modulo logical equivalence. In the process of constructing the map, as the composition of four simple transformations, mediating notions of bottom and top contraction are introduced. The study of the infinite case remains open. (shrink)

Quantified hybrid logic is quantified modal logic extended with apparatus for naming states and asserting that a formula is true at a named state. While interpolation and Beth's definability theorem fail in a number of well-known quantified modal logics , their counterparts in quantified hybrid logic have these properties. These are special cases of the main result of the paper: the quantified hybrid logic of any class of frames definable in the bounded fragment of first-order logic has the interpolation property, (...) irrespective of whether varying, constant, expanding, or contracting domains are assumed. (shrink)

This book traces the origins and evolution of cybersemiotics, beginning with the integration of semiotics into the theoretical framework of cybernetics and information theory. The book opens with chapters that situate the roots of cybersemiotics in Peircean semiotics, describe the advent of the Information Age and cybernetics, and lay out the proposition that notions of system, communication, self-reference, information, meaning, form, autopoiesis, and self-control are of equal topical interest to semiotics and systems theory. Subsequent chapters introduce a cybersemiotic viewpoint on (...) the capacity of arts and other practices for knowing. This suggests pathways for developing Practice as Research and practice-led research, and prompts the reader to view this new configuration in cybersemiotic terms. Other contributors discuss cultural and perceptual shifts that lead to interaction with hybrid environments such as Alexa. The relationship of storytelling and cybersemiotics is covered at chapter length, and another chapter describes an individual-collectivity dialectics, in which the latter constrains the former, but the former fuels the latter. The concluding chapter begins with the observation that digital technologies have infiltrated every corner of the metropolis - homes, workplaces, and places of leisure - to the extent that cities and bodies have transformed into interconnected interfaces. The book challenges the reader to participate in a broader discussion of the potential, limitations, alternatives, and criticisms of cybersemiotics. (shrink)

La presente obra constituye el esfuerzo por rastrear la historia del pensamiento cosmovisional y filosófico latinoamericano, desde las cosmovisiones pre-colombinas hasta las corrientes filosóficas más actuales: las filosofías de la liberación, la postmodernidad y la postcolonialidad. Aunque el autor ha procurado en su voluminosa obra hacer referencia a todas las numerosas corrientes de pensamiento que se han ido dando en el amplio panorama cultural latinoamericano, se ha centrado sobre todo en rastrear la denominada filosofía americanista.

Célebre por um tipo de filosofia que se caracteriza pelas linhas de fuga e pela desterritorialização de um pensamento nômade, Deleuze se reconhece como um filósofo sistemático. Como todo sistema, uma filosofia sistemática se define por um conjunto de elementos que se compõem e se alinham de modo a conferir a ele uma coerência. O presente artigo pretende demonstrar como o conjunto da filosofia de Deleuze confere uma organicidade e verosimilhança a seu sistema de pensamento a partir da articulação entre (...) a imanência, o acontecimento e o conceito. Esta tríade atravessa todo o seu trabalho e irá caracterizar aquilo que Deleuze chama de heterogênese; uma tentativa de fazer com que a filosofia se desprenda dos estados de coisas e vá na direção das intensidades, levando o pensamento ao limite e à máxima potência. Queremos demonstrar o modo como Deleuze opera em seu sistema de forma a associar e criar aproximações entre elementos mais ou menos heterogêneos, ora criando zonas de aproximação, ora provocando afastamentos. (shrink)

Many experts have warned that environmental degradation is increasing the likelihood of future pandemics like COVID-19, as habitat loss and poaching increase close contact between wildlife and people. This fact has been framed as a reason to increase wildlife conservation efforts. We have many good reasons to step up conservation efforts, but arguments for doing so on the basis of pandemic prevention are rhetorically, ethically, and empricially flawed.

El trabajo analiza los aportes que Roig realiza al pensamiento decolonial, a partir de la consideración de tres cuestiones: 1) La “ampliación metodológica” y la consiguiente recuperación de textos propios de la tradición americana que representan una crítica frontal a la filosofía occidental moderna..

Esta reseña artística, escrita especialmente por Carlos Arturo Fernández Uribe, está dedicada a un artista que tiene una innegable importancia en el espíritu de la marginalidad tipográfica. Fernández Uribe comenta los ejercicios que José Antonio Suárez dedicó a los vaciados de la colección Pizano, copias de obras clásicas utilizadas durante mucho tiempo en las clases de pintura y escultura de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Las relaciones entre el homenaje, el centón, la apropiación y la copia que van de (...) la literatura y la filosofía a las artes visuales son más que evidentes. (shrink)

En este trabajo, el autor analiza las contradicciones que el multiculturalismo plantea en las sociedades actuales, resaltando la importante mediación que el sistema político democrático lleva a cabo en la resolución de las mismas. A partir de los artículos de tres autores ('The Politics ofRecognition" de CH Taylor: "Struggles for Recognition in Constitutional States" de J. Habermas y "Legitimacy and Diversity: Dialectical Reflections on Analytical Distinctions" de T. McCarthy) y de la referencia final al trabajo de Rawls 'The Law of (...) the People", expone una serie de momentos teóricos que representan diferentes estadios en la discusión entre el pensamiento liberal y el comunitarismo, y que componen un proceso explicativo en el que cada uno de esos momentos supondría una superación teórica del anterior. En concreto, el autor trata de situar la discusión sobre el reconocimiento del derecho a la diferencia, en el terreno en el que del análista del modelo teórico del liberalismo más acorde con el reconocimiento de derechos a las colectividades-el republicanismo comunitarista al que se refiere Taylor-, se pase al análisis del tipo de sistema político dentro del cual se reconozca la diferencia y la existencia de otras culturas como algo que ya estaba implícito en la teoría de los derechos. Este sistema político sería la democracia deliberativa y su procedimiento discursivo para tomar decisiciones y llegar a acuerdos, propuesto por J. Habermas. El trabajo de McCarthy tratarla de resolver algunas fisuras en la democracia deliberativa que afectarían a su legitimidad por cuanto suponen un menoscabo a la idea misma de las diferencias. Finalmente, la alusión a Rawls permite al autor erigir el sistema de los derechos humanos en el estándar mínimo necesario para llegar a un acuerdo global lo suficientemente amplio y abstracto como para garantizar el máximo respeto a las diferencias. Un acuerdo que, insiste el autor, sólo puede enmarcarse en un proyecto democrático con dimensión internacional, al que llama "horizonte cosmopolitamente democrático". (shrink)

Es importante destacar que cuando en la historia de la física se hace referencia al problema de si la luz se transmite de manera instantánea o si requiere de tiempo –que se abreviará aquí como el problema de la propagación sucesiva de la luz– siempre destacan ciertos personajes: por un lado, Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau y Jean Bernard León Foucault, quienes en el siglo XIX lograron medir por primera vez de forma precisa la velocidad de la luz; y por otro, (...) los astrónomos Ole Christensen Roemer y James Bradley, quienes en los siglos XVII y XVIII –respectivamente– fueron los primeros en dar una respuesta derivada de trabajos observacionales de que la luz sí requiere de tiempo en su transmisión, esto es, que su propagación es sucesiva. Entre estos nombres, aparece siempre de forma algo etérea Galileo Galilei como el primero que propuso un enfoque experimental para dar respuesta a esta pregunta. (shrink)

O presente estudo pretende salientar o trânsito das grandes formulações da concepção da temporalidade na tradição hindu: do tempo (kāla) à sua compreensão como instantâneo (kṣaṇa). Num ponto preliminar, salientam-se as condições linguísticas do pensar indo-europeu e a "gramática" sanscrítica a propósito do tempo. Sublinham-se de seguida os enquadramentos rituais e míticos, tanto ligados com a ciclicidade (saṃsāra), como com o imutável e eterno (ānantya). Depois percorrem-se, de forma sintética, os vários "sistemas" filosóficos salientando respectivamente: a concepção metafísica (no Vedānta (...) e Mīmānsā), a recorrência e irrealidade já num plano gnosiológico (no Sāṃkhya e no Yoga), e a formulação psicológica (tanto no Vaiśeṣika, como no Nyāya, além disso presente no Jainismo). Enfim, na última parte, faz-se menção aos principais traços característicos da doutrina budista da instantaneidade (muito característica sobretudo das escolas "subitistas"). Valoriza-se conclusivamente esta instância de um "agora" também como lição da espiritualidade hindu em geral. (shrink)

O Comentário ao Liber De Causis pertence à última fase das obras de Santo Tomás. Foi escrito, com toda segurança, no primeiro semestre de 1272, em Paris, como testemunha uma cópia parisiense da obra. O De Causis trata das primeiras causas das coisas, que estão constituídas em três ordens, e da distinção e dependência das causas entre si. O texto de Santo Tomás segue passo a passo as proposições em que a obra se divide, que são trinta e duas. Estas (...) trinta de duas proposições são verdadeiros capítulos desenvolvidos a partir de uma tese central. Santo Tomás expõem-nas a modo de lições. (shrink)

Colombia es hoy el país con mayor área y el mayor productor de hoja de coca y cocaína en el mundo. Las políticas y los modelos de intervención a través de los cuales se ha intentado que desaparezcan estas siembras han venido cambiando, pero han optado básicamente por una de dos vías: o la realización de programas de desarrollo alternativo, dirigidos a hacer económica y socialmente posible la sustitución de los cultivos en cuestión por otras actividades, o la aplicación de (...) programas de erradicación, en especial los que hacen uso de la fumigación aérea. El presente artículo contiene algunos elementos que pueden ser útiles para un balance de las políticas y los modelos que para enfrentar los cultivos de uso ilícito han venido aplicándose en Colombia durante los últimos quince años, así como algunas consideraciones que anticipan ese balance. (shrink)

I argue that the claim that all value is conferred is incompatible with the view that the capacity to set ends is unconditionally valuable. While this objection has been made, I offer a rebuttal and then a counterexample to the rebuttal. I also argue that, if all value were conferred, then the Kantian notion that moral wrongness consists in a practical contradiction is undermined.

In 1929 and 1930 Wittgenstein holds some form of Phenomenology. This is a most surprising development of his thought. His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, published in 1921, represents a form of Philosophy radically opposed to Phenomenology. And yet, "Some Remarks on Logical Form," of 1929, and Philosophical Remarks, of 1930, each defends a form of Phenomenology, in the sense that in each one finds that Wittgenstein presents a version of the thesis that the phenomena of immediate experience are in some way central (...) to construal of meaningfulness. I study this period of Wittgenstein's Philosophy with the objective of clarifying his concern with the study of the phenomena. It will emerge that he holds not one, but rather two different forms of Phenomenology. "Some Remarks on Logical Form" gives voice to one conception of the phenomena and of their role in the determination of the rules which stipulate meaningfulness. Philosophical Remarks, on the other hand, contains a criticism of this view, as well as a different conception of the phenomena and of their role with respect to the rules of meaningfulness . It also emerges that the former kind of Phenomenology is very similar to the Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, the founder of Phenomenology. I will examine Wittgenstein's Phenomenology of 1929, its similarity with the Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, his rejection of this conception, and his Phenomenology of 1930. (shrink)

Modelos neurocognitivos têm sido propostos para investigar a consciência. O objetivo é responder à pergunta sobre como o cérebro é capaz de produzir estados conscientes qualitativos. Os modelos são representações teóricas baseadas em algumas pesquisas empíricas. Contudo, a questão central, aparentemente trivial para alguns autores, refere-se à representatividade e confiabilidade dos modelos, i.e., saber se são capazes de explicar como a consciência emerge de processos neurais. Esses modelos são considerados como guia no estudo científico da consciência: os modelos cognitivos de (...) Dennett e Baars, os modelos neurobiológicos de Edelman, Dehaene et al., de Damásio, e o modelo neurodinâmico proposto por Freeman. O presente texto visa a analisar a coerência e a plausibilidade dos modelos, i.e., se realmente explicam a “consciência” e suas propriedades em termos neurais ou se explicam apenas mecanismos neurobiológicos subjacentes no cérebro. O objetivo é avaliar escopo e limites dos modelos além da aplicabilidade na resolução do problema da consciência. Neurocognitive models are proposed in order to study the problem of consciousness. The models are attempts to answer the question of how the brain can generate conscious and qualitative states. Models are theoretical representations based on empirical data. Nonetheless, the central question concerns the reliability and the representativeness of the models, i.e., whether they in fact represent what they are supposed to explain, viz., how consciousness can emerge from neuronal processes. Such models are taken to be a guide for the scientific study of consciousness. Presently, there are six models: the multiple draft, the global workspace, the dynamic core, the global neuronal workspace, the somatic markers hypothesis, and the neurodynamic model. This text is a survey and a philosophical analysis of the models of consciousness, and it considers their plausibility and coherence. I will concentrate on two points: whether the neuroscientific models are able to explain ‘consciousness’ and its properties in neural terms, or whether the models only explain the neural correlates of conscious states, and the scope, limitations and applicability of the models in the attempt to solve the problem of consciousness. (shrink)