La mentalización es una capacidad que puede definirse como la habilidad de atribuir estados mentales que intervienen entre el comportamiento observable y la acción futura de otros. Esta capacidad ha sido estudiada durante décadas, pero las investigaciones al respecto no han logrado consolidar si es exclusivamente humana. Una vez dicho esto, surge la pregunta: ¿los chimpancés son capaces de atribuir estados mentales que intervienen entre el comportamiento observable y la acción futura o solo son capaces de leer el comportamiento? La (...) respuesta a esta pregunta no ha logrado ser determinada debido a que la hipótesis de la mentalización y la hipótesis de lectura de comportamiento poseen las mismas variables experimentales para justificarse, lo cual da forma al problema lógico del debate entre ambas hipótesis. Este artículo introduce la discusión entre las hipótesis de la mentalización y la hipótesis de la lectura comportamental para explicar el comportamiento de los chimpancés. Para lograrlo, se analizará primero lo que se ha dicho sobre la mentalización y la lectura de comportamiento en filosofía, luego se delimitarán ambas hipótesis y, finalmente, se explicarán los enfoques experimentales que han investigado la resolución del problema lógico. (shrink)

This research focuses on the paintings preserved on an unusual element: a raft of water for irrigation in Bédar. Along with an Arabic text that dates the painting, one can see two four-legged animals perhaps representing a hunting scene and an ornamental top. It also preserves other highly degraded graphic signs that it has not been possible to fully decipher. As until now its chronology has not been determined, in this study, I have followed the usual method in Arabic epigraphy: (...) to draw the visible strokes and then to restore the missing or very obliterated parts of the painting. We can say that the raft and the elements that compose it were built in that rural area under Caliph al-Ḥakam II rule in the year 355/966. As a result of this study, the value of this outstanding document of Andalusian popular culture is highlighted: a pool of similar size to those that have been found in other sites of the Caliphate period. It is urgent to proceed to a professional excavation of the monument. (shrink)

Many writers have commented on the heterogeneity of the socially responsible investment (SRI) movement. However, few have actually tried to understand and explain it, and even fewer have discussed whether the opposite – standardisation – is possible and desirable. In this article, we take a broader perspective on the issue of the heterogeneity of SRI. We distinguish between four levels on which heterogeneity can be found: the terminological, definitional, strategic and practical. Whilst there is much talk about the definitional ambiguities (...) of SRI, we suggest that there is actually some agreement on the definitional level. There are at least three explanations which we suggest can account for the heterogeneity on the other levels: cultural and ideological differences between different regions, differences in values, norms and ideology between various SRI stakeholders, and the market setting of SRI. Discussing the implications of the three explanations for the SRI market, we suggest that there is reason to be sceptical about the possibilities of standardisation if not standardisation is imposed top-down. Whether this kind of standardisation is desirable or not, we argue, depends on what the motives for it would be. To the extent that standardisation may facilitate the mainstreaming of SRI, it could be a good thing – but we entertain doubts about whether mainstreaming really requires standardisation. (shrink)

While theorists of epistemic injustice often refer to Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak” as an early articulation of the field’s concerns, they have stopped short of engaging deeply with Spivak’s deconstructive take on epistemic violence and her suggestion that this consists in an attribution of subjectivity to historically marginalized speakers. In redressing this oversight, this article makes a case for adopting a broader conception of epistemic harm and exclusion than has been acknowledged in the literature: I argue that the (...) presumption that speakers are subjects can precipitate silencing. For in determining the other who speaks as a subject, one forecloses hospitality to an alterity not already understood according to the subject/object distinction central to Western metaphysics. This deconstructive intervention thus challenges one of the field’s key assumptions, namely, that epistemic harm consists in a failure to treat speakers as subjects, and consequently that generating a more inclusive dialogical climate depends on restoring marginalized individuals to subject status. Folding Spivak’s deconstructive insight into the remedial project of epistemic justice is therefore far from straightforward; nonetheless, I argue that it is consistent with the literature’s demand for a heightened sensitivity vis-à-vis the ways marginalized others are routinely harmed in epistemic practices. (shrink)

Husserl has often stood accused of Eurocentrism given his disquieting coupling of philosophy as universal science with Europe. And yet, however much this accusation has clouded the appeal of transcendental phenomenology, the nature of this charge remains obscure: whether Husserl’s chauvinism is merely a personal opinion punctuating his writing or is instead closely connected to the methods of phenomenology has been left unexplored. This paper offers itself as a corrective, looking to get a clearer picture of how precisely Eurocentrism afflicts (...) transcendental phenomenology. The overarching aim of doing so is to chart the possibilities for the development of a non-Eurocentric, decolonial phenomenological thinking which exploits the enduring appeal of Husserl’s commitment to presuppositionlessness. The first part of the paper considers the relationship between the phenomenological reduction and eidetic variation, showing that, by Husserl’s own lights, phenomenological science seeks to expel all forms of prejudice. Part two, however, shows that the entrance of Eurocentrism into phenomenology is not simply accidental, in two distinct senses. The first, which takes off from Merleau-Ponty’s (implicit) critique of Husserl, argues that Husserl in his late work is insufficiently attentive to the empirical dimension: Eurocentrism thus stems from the overly transcendental emphases of this project and its inability to engage with concrete human diversity. The second draws on Derrida’s (explicit) critique of Husserl, arguing that it is precisely the admission of concrete historico-cultural facts into phenomenology that compromises the universal by identifying it with the particularities of Europe. I thus show that Eurocentrism does indeed insinuate itself in Husserl’s methods—_not_, however, in a manner that renders transcendental phenomenology irredeemable. Given the opposition between these two insightful criticisms, however, I argue that the challenge for a decolonial vision of phenomenology is formidable. (shrink)

Phenomenology and the Kyoto School implement an interaction among cultures1 that is not limited to illustrating Western philosophy wxith exotic similes. Insofar as my position is concerned, I will start out with phenomenology in order to study Nishida's work, trying on the one hand to understand the meaning that he gives to nothingness in relation to the Merleau-Pontian concept of creux in order, on the other hand, to enlarge reason and philosophy.To achieve this, I shall establish a comparison of the (...) two thinkers that will help to shed light on their conceptions, while at the same time demonstrating the efficacy of thinking the unthoughts or negativities indicating a... (shrink)

Este artículo pretende dilucidar el significado del sentir profundizando en la fenomenología genética y dialogando con la ontología fenomenológica, particularmente con la Métaphysique du sentiment de R. Barbaras. Comienza descubriendo los sentidos del cuerpo y lo que denominamos “re-flexión” corporal, siempre vinculada a la aisthesis (lato y stricto sensu) y a la afectividad. Aborda posteriormente la correlación entre fenomenología y estética como ejemplo de la pasividad en la actividad del sentir. Comprenderemos esta dinámica como movimiento ontológico que aúna la aisthesis (...) con el logos y exige ser expresado. Cézanne estará presente en esta investigación, como lo estuvo en la obra de Merleau-Ponty y de Maldiney, porque su pintura encarna ese movimiento en el que la creación es necesaria para experimentar y expresar el ser, y porque filosofía y arte son indispensables para sentir y pensar. Aceptaremos la crítica que Barbaras dirige Maldiney, mientras que continuaremos desarrollando la ontología fenomenológica de Merleau-Ponty para arrojar luz sobre le sentir. (shrink)

This article examines the role of the imagination in Fanon's and Husserl's work in order to rethink Fanon's relationship with Husserlian phenomenology. I begin with an investigation of the oft-overlooked ways in which the imagination appears in Wretched of the Earth. Here, I argue that Fanon puts a great deal of stock in the imagination, ultimately calling upon this faculty in order to presage the novel ways of being, thinking, and acting, which are a recurrent signature of his vision of (...) decolonization. In the latter half of the article, I then offer an account of the decisive methodological significance of the imagination within Husserl's work. Revisiting the methodological infrastructure of phenomenology with Fanonian concerns in mind casts Husserl's project in a surprising new light, bringing to the fore the revolutionary potential of both the epoché and the method of eidetic variation. For at the core of Husserlian methodology lies a resolve to exceed the limits of our present empirical reality—a leitmotiv of Fanon's own thinking. I ultimately show that Fanon's work can thus be imagined as a reactivation, indeed a revolution, inaugurated at the heart of phenomenology and its most basic methodological commitments. (shrink)

As concerns heighten over links between biomass production and land grabs in the global south, attention is turning to understanding the role of governance of biofuels systems, whereby decision-making and conduct are not solely determined through government regulations but increasingly shaped by non-state actors, including multi-stakeholder initiatives. Launched in 2005, Bonsucro is the principal MSI that focuses on sustainability standards for sugar and sugarcane ethanol production. Bonsucro claims that because it is free from government interference and draws on scientific metrics, (...) their standards transcend localized, political–economic contexts. In this paper, we illustrate how the local context shapes the prospects for Bonsucro sustainably certified biofuel production in relation to land and water grabs. To accomplish this, our case focuses on Colombia, which has used a range of national policy mandates to establish itself as one of the larger producers of agrofuels in Latin America. We draw on interviews with stakeholders in the sugar and ethanol industries, paired with an examination of Bonsucro principles on land rights and water use, to illustrate how the sugar industry is framing their participation in Bonsucro, and the effects of the increasing intensification of sugarcane for ethanol production on land and water access for communities. We find that within the context of Colombia, efforts such as Bonsucro provide a veil of legitimacy and authority to a system that is premised on deeply entrenched historical patterns of inequitable land ownership patterns and access to natural resources. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to analyse Spanish conversational structure, more concretely, to investigate in depth the role of the third move, or follow-up, outside classroom discourse. Since first introduced by Sinclair and Coulthard, the follow-up move has attracted a great deal of attention, as proved by numerous studies. However, these studies have mostly focused on English while Spanish has been neglected. The present study intends to fill in this gap by analysing a corpus of 50 conversational exchanges in (...) Peninsular Spanish. The analysis is qualitative and based on Tsui’s conversational framework, which has proved methodologically useful. As results will show, the presence or absence of the third move in Spanish conversations seems to rely heavily on a gender-based distinction. (shrink)

Objetivo. Verificar si el procesamiento semántico de estímulos visuales complejos, como la repetición, la identidad, el orden y la doble incongruencia, es recursivo o computable. Sujetos y métodos. Veintisiete universitarios respondieron a un paradigma adaptado N400 con cinco condiciones, cada una con 80 tareas, mientras se registraba su actividad cerebral con un gorro de 64 electrodos. Resultados. Dos ventanas temporales de 400 a 550 ms y de 550 a 800 ms se analizaron mediante un contraste ANOVA del factor condición por (...) regiones de interés. Además, se calculó la solución inversa de las ventanas mediante tomografía electromagnética de baja resolución para identificar las fuentes corticales subyacentes a los potenciales eléctricos. Se corroboran diferencias significativas (p< 0, 05) en los potenciales N400 y P600 en áreas frontales y centroparietales asociadas a los operadores lógicos estudiados. Conclusión. Se confirma que el procesamiento cerebral de imágenes complejas (congruentes/incongruentes) es modulado por la repetición, la identidad y el orden, pero no por la negación. Por consiguiente, se puede decir que el procesamiento semántico de imágenes complejas es semicomputable. (shrink)

La concepción agustiniana de la libertad se va fraguando al hilo de sus polémicas con los maniqueos y pelagianos. Agustín defiende la existencia de la libertad frente a los maniqueos y la considera la causante del mal o pecado así como capaz de méritos. Frente a los pelagianos afirma que el liberum arbitrium necesita de la gracia de Dios para hacer el bien y de este modo llegar a un grado más perfecto de libertad, la libertas, que consiste en le (...) necesidad de hacer el bien. La meta de la libertad no es otra que Dios, sumo Bien y felicidad para el hombre. (shrink)

As research on meaning in work progresses, access to theoretically integrated, differentiated survey instruments becomes crucial. In response to this demand, the present article introduces ME-Work, a modular inventory to measure meaning in work. Derived from research findings on meaning in life, the ME-Work inventory offers three modules that can be used separately or jointly. Module 1 assesses four facets of meaning in work, i.e., coherence, significance, purpose and belonging; module 2 measures the subjective assessment of work as meaningful or (...) meaningless, and module 3 records the extent to which work is perceived as a source of meaning. We report on the development of the instrument and the results of an exploratory factor analysis in a pilot study of 115 working adults. A further study with 278 working adults provided evidence for construct and incremental validity. Relationships with meaning in life, mental health, job satisfaction, socio-moral climate, burnout and work as meaning were investigated. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factor structure. Gender-specific analyses of the four facets of meaning’s differential predictive power provided additional insights. Practical implications and further research needs are discussed. (shrink)

The Oxford Handbook of Freedom crafts the first wide-ranging analysis of freedom in all its dimensions: legal, cultural, religious, economic, political, and psychological. This volume includes 28 new essays by well regarded philosophers, as well some historians and political theorists.

The subject of “The Other”, the different one always generated conflicts more or less serious in the history of humanity, without proposals of any resolution. In the measure in that The Other questions, by similitude or by difference, the identity in which the subject is sustained, that questioning make unstable that precarious construction, and because of this, it converts itself in the opposer. In this study, we will find, in the text of Il Visconte Dimezzato by Italo Calvino, the subject (...) of the Otherness/Alterity, analyzing from the semiotic point of view the reactions and behaviors of each one of the two characters and of the members of the society in which they live. The starting point of the story by Italo Calvino is that in a war between Austria and the Turks, the Viscount Medardo di Terralba as a consequence of a canon shot remains divided vertically into two halves and both halves survive. One of the two halves is very bad and the other is very good. Each one of the two halves sees in the other one “The Other”, feeling itself “The One” but incomplete and desiring to turn to be “The Same” as it was before being divided by the canon shot. (shrink)

This study investigates priming in an implicit word stem completion (WSC) task by analyzing the effect of linguistic stimuli characteristics on said task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. Analysis revealed that priming (mean = 0.22) was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that they were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for (...) the data of the unique-solution stems. Correlations between priming and familiarity, frequency of use, and baseline completion were significant. The less familiar words, which were less frequent, had higher priming values. At the same time, the stems with lower baseline completion generated more priming. A regression analysis showed that baseline completion was the only significant predictor of priming, suggesting that the previous processing of the stimuli had a greater impact on the stimuli with low baseline performance. At the same time, baseline completion showed significant positive correlations with familiarity and frequency of use, and a negative correlation with length. When baseline completion was the dependent variable in the regression analysis, the significant variables in the regression were familiarity and length. These results were compared with those obtained in a study using word fragment completion (WFC) by Soler et al. (2009), in which the same words and procedure were employed. Analysis showed that the variables that correlated with priming were the same as in the WSC task, and that completion baseline was the variable that showed the greatest predictive power of priming. This coincidence of results obtained with WFC and WSC tasks highlights the importance of controlling the characteristics of the stimuli used when exploring the nature of priming. (shrink)

Synthetic biology is an emerging engineering discipline that attempts to design and rewire biological components, so as to achieve new functions in a robust and predictable manner. The new tools and strategies provided by synthetic biology have the potential to improve therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, synthetic biology will help design small molecules, proteins, gene networks, and vectors to target disease‐related genes. Ultimately, new intelligent delivery systems will provide targeted and sustained therapeutic benefits. New treatments will arise from combining (...) ‘protect and repair’ strategies: the use of drug treatments, the promotion of neurotrophic factor synthesis, and gene targeting. Going beyond RNAi and artificial transcription factors, site‐specific genome modification is likely to play an increasing role, especially with newly available gene editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 systems. Taken together, these advances will help develop safe and long‐term therapies for many brain diseases in human patients. (shrink)

La transition, puisqu’il n’y eut point de coupure, du cinéma muet au parlant nous permet de retracer le parcours d’une parole filmique en quête de voix depuis ses origines. Cette voix, tantôt regrettée dans les films que Chion nomme « sourds » plutôt que « muets », tantôt rejetée sous le « 100 % parlant », erre encore à la surface de l’écran comme dans un entre-deux, à la recherche de la reconnaissance vis-à-vis de son double, l’image. The transition, as (...) there is not clear rupture, from silent films to the “talkies” allows us to track down the trajectory of film dialogue, which was in search of voice from the very beginning. This voice, which is sometimes missed, as in the cinema that Chion calls “deaf” rather than “silent”, sometimes dismissed, as in the “100% all-talking” cinema, still wanders on the screen as if in an interval, in search of recognition with regard to its double, the moving image. (shrink)

In the rhetorical tradition of Late Antiquity, Socrates’ legend has a good fortune in the works of different rhetoricians and philosophers. In the following pages I am going to deal with some examples of this phaenomenon, through the works of Themistius and Julian the emperor : two intellectuals of the IV century who are, under many aspects, the exact opposites.They both try to ‘actualize’ Socrates’ figure, highlighting different aspects of the Athenian philosopher, on the grounds of their personal purposes of (...) self-advertisement. So Themistius, a skilled politician working as princeps’ advisor, sees in Socrates a symbol of the ‘politikos philosophos’, who speaks plainly in public with people of all ranks, in a simple and direct way ; for Julian, emperor and philosopher of the new Hellenism, Socrates, instead, is mainly the saviour of the souls, addressing all men towards the true knowledge of themselves and the true faith in pagan gods. These portraits are complementary and both attest the ability of Late Antique intellectuals in their imitatio/aemulatio of figures and myths of Classical Antiquity. (shrink)

This article aims to analyze the philosophical and religious message of Julian’s Hymn to King Helios. The emperor, using Iamblichean structures, shows how the First Cause, the Neoplatonic One, can interact with the layers or gradation below it, including the physical world ; his starting point is an original ‘pluralizing’ interpretation of the Sun analogy contained in Resp. VI 509b.However, Julian’s hymn has a political meaning, too ; it can be considered as a sort of manifesto of Julian’s imperial ideology. (...) The parallel between the emperor and the sun – already present in the ancient rhetorical tradition – is reworked by the Apostate and is part of a complex metaphysical‑cosmological system, grounded on the principles of similarity and middleness. These concepts were subject to controversy between nicene and heterodox christians in the IV century. It is possible that these controversies were largely known by Julian and that he has consciously recalled them in his panegyric to Helios intellective, mediator and saviour. (shrink)

This article aims to show that Julian the Emperor had some knowledge of Middle Platonic doctrines. More specifically, the discussion focuses on the case of Plutarch of Chaeronea.We can find interesting parallels between the works of this philosopher and the Orations of Julian, especially concerning the allegorical exegesis of myths, the crucial metaphysical role played by Apollo-Helios and the doctrine of the soul. It is worth considering the possibility that Plutarch's works partially inspired Julian's concept of Hellenism.