Alternative currencies are means of payment that circulate alongside—as an alternative or complement to—official currencies. While these currencies have existed for a long time, both society and academia have shown a renewed interest in their potential to decentralize the governance of monetary affairs and to bring people and organizations together in more ethical or sustainable ways. This article is a review of the ethical and philosophical implications of these alternative monetary projects. We first discuss various classifications of these currencies before (...) analyzing the ethical challenges linked to the way they tackle social and environmental issues. We also examine the incentive-based and coercive mechanisms used by these currencies from an ethical perspective and debate the promises and perils of monetary decentralization and democracy. We conclude by identifying an agenda for future research. (shrink)

The paper defends a version of Direct Reference for indexicals on which reference-fixing material (token-reflexive conditions) plays the role of an ancillary presupposition.

The truth of a statement depends on the world in two ways: what the statement says is true if the world is as the statement says it is; on the other hand, what the expressions in the statement mean depends on what the world is like (for instance, on what conventions are in place). Each of these two kinds of dependence of truth on the world corresponds to one of the dimensions on the two-dimensional semantic framework, developed in the 1970’ (...) in the work of Evans, Kaplan, Kripke and Stalnaker. The introduction provides a systematic overview of the framework, the ideas of its earlier originators, recent developments and criticism. Finally, it gives a brief overview over the contributions to the volume. (shrink)

This paper proposes an epistemological approach to analyse social-ecological systems from a process perspective in order to better tackle the co-constitution of the social and the ecological and the dynamism of these systems. It highlights the usefulness of rethinking our conceptual tools taking processes and relations as the main constituents of reality instead of fundamental substances or essences. We introduce the concept of experience as understood in radical empiricism to critically revise our available concepts through focusing on the concept of (...) difference, exploring apparent contradictions and engaging in assemblage thinking. (shrink)

There are propositions constituting the content of fictions—sometimes of the utmost importance to understand them—which are not explicitly presented, but must somehow be inferred. This essay deals with what these inferences tell us about the nature of fiction. I will criticize three well-known proposals in the literature: those by David Lewis, Gregory Currie, and Kendall Walton. I advocate a proposal of my own, which I will claim improves on theirs. Most important for my purposes, I will argue on this basis, (...) against Walton’s objections, for an illocutionary-act account of fiction, inspired in part by some of Lewis’s and Currie’s suggestions, but (perhaps paradoxically) above all by Walton’s deservedly influential views. (shrink)

Cosmopolitan critics attack the scope-limitation of justice of egalitarian liberal theorists to states. They treat justice as the production of a given set of outcomes for people regardless of location or relationship. However, in doing so they either ignore the relevant agent towards whom principles of justice are addressed or see the question of agency as a practical, derivative question, of a secondary character. This paper argues that a principle of justice without a clearly justified agent is not a genuine (...) principle at all. This is what writers like Rawls mean by the "subject" of justice (analogous to the grammatical subject of a sentence, i.e.,the agent). We should reflect on agents and why they would or would not justifiably carry certain burdens for others and what kind of benefits or goods they are able to secure. The answers to those questions explain why the idea of cosmopolitan global justice is incomplete, either requiring a global basic structural agency or not applying because no relevant agent is present that can create cooperative arrangements between individual persons across the globe. Other moral principles will still apply globally, but they will be distinct from those that apply to basic-structural agencies. This account is not a practice dependence account, as it bases the distinctness of moral and political principles on purely moral and value-based considerations. (shrink)

Background COVID-19 has greatly impacted the health of incarcerated individuals in the US. The goal of this study was to examine perspectives of recently incarcerated individuals on greater restrictions on liberty to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.Methods We conducted semi-structured phone interviews from August through October 2021 with 21 people who had been incarcerated in Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities during the pandemic. Transcripts were coded and analyzed, using a thematic analysis approach.Results Many facilities implemented universal “lockdowns,” with time out of the (...) cell often limited to one hour per day, with participants reporting not being able to meet all essential needs such as showers and calling loved ones. Several study participants reported that repurposed spaces and tents created for quarantine and isolation provided “unlivable conditions.” Participants reported receiving no medical attention while in isolation, and staff using spaces designated for disciplinary purposes (e.g., solitary housing units) for public health isolation purposes. This resulted in the conflation of isolation and discipline, which discouraged symptom reporting. Some participants felt guilty over potentially causing another lockdown by not reporting their symptoms. Programming was frequently stopped or curtailed and communication with the outside was limited. Some participants relayed that staff threatened to punish noncompliance with masking and testing. Liberty restrictions were purportedly rationalized by staff with the idea that incarcerated people should not expect freedoms, while those incarcerated blamed staff for bringing COVID-19 into the facility.Conclusions Our results highlighted how actions by staff and administrators decreased the legitimacy of the facilities’ COVID-19 response and were sometimes counterproductive. Legitimacy is key in building trust and obtaining cooperation with otherwise unpleasant but necessary restrictive measures. To prepare for future outbreaks facilities must consider the impact of liberty-restricting decisions on residents and build legitimacy for these decisions by communicating justifications to the extent possible. (shrink)

In the valley of the Trujala, Hornos and Guadalimar rivers in the Sierra de Segura, northeast of the province of Jaén, is an articulated system of preserved Andalusi structures that configure a landscape. To orient in a landscape, one needs a map that accurately represents the elements involved in its formation. The objective of this work is to reveal these points and to draw a chart that serves to understand and read into the palimpsest of the landscape. To achieve this, (...) an intensive prospecting of the territory is carried out to document the existing remains and an evaluation model based on Geographic Information Systems is elaborated. This process allowed for quantifying variables, obtaining statistically relevant data and classifying the information obtained in places where there is some Andalusi preexistence. The results supply useful parameters in the analytical reading of the landscape, provide quantitative knowledge about factors that connect the sites, and allow for the determination of settlement patterns. The results also reveal the mode of occupation in a territory -the ancientʿamal Šaqūra- as a reflection of the Andalusi organization in the rural world and the anthropic role that these settlements, which are associated with structures built of rammed-earth during the 12th century, have had in the landscape’s configuration. (shrink)

Research over the past three decades on the gender gap in STEM has consistently found an underrepresentation of females pursuing STEM degrees and careers. This is, at its foundation, an educational ethics issue. Schools at all levels, ranging all the way from middle school to graduate school, have a responsibility to prepare more females for careers in STEM. Experts have proposed a variety of fixes to encourage female students to study STEM, including increased funding, some of which have helped, and (...) yet the gap remains. This paper examines one such effort to address this education and ethics issue - voluntary programs outside of normal school hours that provide young female students’ opportunities for active participation and engagement in STEM. Are these enrichment programs actually increasing subsequent female participation rates? The authors use a correlational study in an attempt to determine whether there is a positive correlation between participation in a voluntary before school STEM program, and their subsequent enrollment in STEM courses in high school, and/or in college and career. The authors surveyed intermediate school students, and the results showed that although voluntary before-school programs may not increase female interest in STEM, they do help to maintain long-term interest by those who have already demonstrated an inclination toward STEM. This is a pilot study with a limited number of subjects from one geographical area. Future research should be conducted that focuses on a larger nationwide sample to determine if school enrichment programs indeed act as career influencers for female students. (shrink)

Dennett provides a much discussed argument for the nonexistence of qualia, as conceived by philosophers like Block, Chalmers, Loar and Searle. My goal in this paper is to vindicate Dennett's argument, construed in a certain way. The argument supports the claim that qualia are constitutively representational. Against Block and Chalmers, the argument rejects the detachment of phenomenal from information-processing consciousness; and against Loar and Searle, it defends the claim that qualia are constitutively representational in an externalist understanding of this. The (...) core of the argument is contained in section 3. In the first part, I contrast a minimal conception of qualia, relative to which their existence is not under dispute, with the sort of view to which I will object. In the second part I set the stage by presenting the facts about qualia on which a Dennett-like argument can be based. (shrink)

The object of this paper is to discuss several issues raised by Fred Dretske’s account of the causal efficacy of content, as given in his book Explaining Behavior. To warrant the causal efficacy of folk-psychological properties while keeping attached to a naturalistic framework, Fred Dretske proposes that these properties are causes of a peculiar type, what he calls structuring causes. Structuring causes are not postulated ad hoc, to somehow account for the causal efficacy of content. Dretske claims that we independently (...) need this dualism of causes to make sense of some of our (not necessarily involving mental states) causal explanations. Even if this variety of dualism is not untenable from a openly-minded physicalistic viewpoint, it seems for several reasons preferable to establish that content properties are causally efficacious in the same sense that physical properties are. The main point I will try to make in this paper is a metaphysical one, namely, that Drestke’s structuring causes are causes of a more ordinary kind. I will try to show that we can make sense of the phenomena that structuring causes are introduced to account for in more conservative terms, having only recourse to the material we must anyway posit to understand ordinary causal explanations. (shrink)

Susan B. Levin argues that the human confidence that an ageless body would be better is irrational. She offers a Kantian-inspired argument to show that human understanding cannot rationally access the experiences of a post-human and ageless existence. We challenge this rationale with a three-step argument: first, an ageless body does not have to be post-human. One should distinguish between the transhumanist projects of life extension and accounts focused on enhancing well-being and quality of life. An existence without aging does (...) not require a radical change in one's temporal intuitions, which makes rational discussion possible. Second, we defend that biological aging does not entail any valuable goods. These goods refer to the chronological dimension of aging. Finally, we argue that biological aging is indeed negative and one may need biotechnological interventions in aging to achieve internal transcendence. Thus, we rationally argue that an ageless body would be better. (shrink)

Critical notice of Andy Clark's "Associative Engines".

Drawing on Brown and Fraser’s (in: Giles, Scherer (eds) Social markers in speech, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 33–62, 1979) framework for the analysis of communicative situations and Fuentes Rodríguez’s (Lingüística pragmática y Análisis del discurso, Arco Libros, Madrid, 2000; in Estudios de Lingüística: Investigaciones lingüísticas en el siglo XXI, 2009. https://doi.org/10.14198/ELUA2009.Anexo3.04 ) model of pragmatic analysis, this paper examines three home-made recordings featuring some of the members of the terrorist cell responsible for the 2017 vehicle-ramming attacks in Barcelona and (...) Cambrils weighted as evidence during the trial held between November 2020 and May 2021 in the Spanish National High Court. The aim of this qualitative analysis is to test whether the linguistic evidence available supports the allegation that the participation in these recordings by one of the accused, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, had been planned by his interlocutors. Results show, first, that the exchanges analyzed present features indicative of both spontaneity and (limited) planification. Second, that Houli makes key contributions to the unfolding of the interactions shown in the recordings and that he does so in a cooperative and apparently relaxed manner, which could at best provide only partial support to his allegations. It is claimed that forensic linguistic analysis can generate valuable insights within terrorism-related legal proceedings. (shrink)

El estudio de las presas y embalses históricos es un campo desigualmente abordado desde la historiografía, la arqueología, la arquitectura o la ingeniería civil. En la península ibérica su estudio ha estado centrado en obras de grandes dimensiones que, en general son romanas, renacentistas o posteriores. Sin embargo, pocas veces se consideran las infraestructuras andalusíes, sus formas de implantación, cómo fue la transmisión del conocimiento de su tecnología o el ámbito social y cultural en el que se desarrollaron. Suelen ser (...) vestigios que se encuentran aislados y dispersos en el ámbito rural con el que dibujan un paisaje único. Esta circunstancia dificulta su documentación e impide el estudio a fondo de estas obras como condición, previa e imprescindible, para su conocimiento. La contribución de este trabajo es el resultado de una investigación realizada sobre el paisaje generado por uno de los pocos ejemplos de presa de contención conocidos en al-Andalus de los que aún se conservan restos. Se trata de una barrera fluvial levantada, a mediados del siglo XII, en la cuenca del río Trujala en el municipio de Segura de la Sierra (Jaén); un dique que transformó un campo en un pequeño mar o albuhera. (shrink)

Este artículo muestra los paralelismos y las divergencias del giro ontológico y de la antropología fenomenológica. Ambas corrientes, en fidelidad al dato etnográfico, comparten el rechazo al régimen de representación y ambas corrientes cuestionan los compromisos epistémicos del investigador. Sin embargo, el giro ontológico presenta una orientación conceptual, que deriva a menudo en tipología, mientras que la antropología fenomenológica atiende a las relaciones perceptivas del mundo de la vida desde una apertura hermenéutica.

In this paper I consider the possibility of a kind of a priori cognition that serves the purposes of metaphysics, given that metaphysics involves the search for modal knowledge. Necessary or, better, modal knowledge is a priori; so metaphysical knowledge is likewise a priori. Here I argue that intuition is the route to modal knowledge in metaphysics, and I insist that conceivability or knowledge of conceptual truths does not lead towards the modal realm of metaphysics.

Walter Benjamin a suggéré de voir dans le fascisme une « esthétisation de la politique ». Avant lui, ce même diagnostic était appliqué non pas aux régimes autoritaires, mais, au contraire, aux régimes démocratiques. De Platon à Carl Schmitt, la philosophie a dénoncé la démocratie comme une multitude inconsistante et « bigarrée », qui préfère le jeu à l’ordre. Rebentisch estime que derrière ce jugement dépréciatif, les ennemis de la démocratie ont en fait parfaitement saisi quelques-uns de ses traits distinctifs (...) qu’il s’agit aujourd’hui de défendre dans une culture démocratique. La démocratie ne peut se passer de la mise en scène, car c’est sur scène qu’elle peut figurer le visage qu’elle veut se donner collectivement, consciente de l’écart qui subsiste toujours entre les identités actuelles et les identités possibles. (shrink)

El objetivo del trabajo consiste en revisar dos versiones del argumento que concibe a la averiguación de la verdad como un factor que confi ere legitimidad al ejercicio de la función jurisdiccional penal: la de Ferrajoli y la de Laudan. Se sostiene que su estudio minucioso puede proporcionar bases racionales para decidir sobre la conveniencia de suscribir un garantismo extremo o uno de carácter más mesurado. Esta decisión cobra relevancia en el contexto de la discusión acerca de cuáles son las (...) características más apropiadas de los modelos teóricos del proceso penal. (shrink)

RESUMENInforme bibliográfico de las obras de Maurice Merleau-Ponty hasta 1996, que revisa y actualiza repertorios anteriores. El informe incluye también trabajos inéditos y documentos de su legado personal.PALABRAS CLAVEMERLEAU-PONTY-FILOSOFIA FRANCESA-FENOMENOLOGIAABSTRACTBibliographical report of Maurice Merleau-Ponry's works up to 1996, wich revises and updates previous bibliographies. The report also includes unpublished papers and documents from his personal legacy. KEYWORDSMERLEAU-PONTY- FRENCH PHILOSOPHY-PHENOMENOLOGY.

El presupuesto de una eficaz transmisión de conocimientos es su adecuado almacenamiento, algo que el hombre ha conseguido de modo excelente, merced al lenguaje simbólico, íntimamente ligado a su capacidad de abstraer. La educación debe capacitar para relacionar causalmente los conocimientos dispersos e integrarlos críticamente en una visión holística del mundo. La utilización de las TIC reporta ventajas muy importantes, pero no carece de sombras y aspectos preocupantes. Por ejemplo, el control exhaustivo de todo lo que somos y hacemos. Todos (...) parecen estar de acuerdo en que los criterios por los que se rige el desarrollo humano son unilaterales e insuficientes. Pero va a ser muy difícil luchar eficazmente contra los instintos de agresividad, posesión y dominio, tan profundamente arraigados en nuestras disposiciones genéticas, ya que ello implica sacrificios personales y colectivos, difícilmente aceptables, si no se parte de valoraciones morales distintas de las comúnmente admitidas en nuestros días. (shrink)

El principal cometido del presente trabajo es examinar el nivel productivo-infraestructural y subjetivo del régimen neoliberal, en contraste con la lógica puramente económica-empresarial del modo de producción capitalista en la era industrial y disciplinaria. En primer lugar, examinamos la noción foucaultiana de “biopolítica” y su recepción en el pensamiento de Deleuze, analizando el papel pretendidamente esencial que juegan los deseos humanos para el funcionamiento del capitalismo de consumo. A la luz de las averiguaciones logradas, indagamos en perspectiva histórica las principales (...) tecnologías donde se cifra la eficacia del “psicopoder” emergente, con el objeto de dilucidar, a la luz de las nuevas formas de producción inmateriales y en red, su sentido y sus efectos en las subjetividades y las formas de vida. (shrink)