Desde la Revista “Derechos y Libertades” se nos convoca a dar nuestra opinión sobre los desafíos a los que se enfrenta el actual discurso de los derechos humanos. La cuestión planteada nos remite a la historicidad del propio concepto de derechos humanos, que no puede sustentarse sobre una razón abstracta, sino sobre una concepción evolutiva, diversa e intercultural del ser humano y de la sociedad. Desafíos han existido siempre y son amplios, pero quizá ahora estamos en un momento de importantes (...) cambios tecnológicos y transiciones energéticas, que demandan un enfoque ético, político y jurídico, para poder intervenir sobre los nuevos conflictos sociales que se derivan de su aplicación. (shrink)

Este artigo busca ampliar a reflexão a respeito da escolha profissional de jovens, assentado na premissa de que novos sentidos e compreensões heurísticas se descortinam com a consideração do conceito de identificação, conforme sua formulação em Freud e em Lacan. Considerando a adolescência, período ..

The aim of this paper is to explore the ethical dimension of hawala, an ancient informal financial practice rooted in Islamic moral traditions. Widely used in countries with an Islamic background and their diasporas, hawala is considered an important vehicle for the financial and economic development of some less developed countries. Nevertheless, in Western countries, hawala is regarded with suspicion due its controversial ethical nature. Unlike other Islamic financial institutions, the controversial questions are not the legitimacy of profit sources or (...) the interest charged, but rather the lack of transparency that surrounds hawala transactions. Yet, the literature on hawala has neglected its ethical perspective. Our study delves into this dimension with a critical approach, using the Triple Font Theory, grounded on virtue ethics. We conclude that if hawala transactions are carried out with honesty, and fairness, this practice deserves a positive ethical appraisal. However, it is necessary to implement efficient regulatory measures to guarantee that the system is not abused by money launders and criminals. In practice, it becomes imperative to bring over a change in the regulatory approach to hawala toward a more ethically, culturally, and economically sensitive strategy. Thus, future research should focus on how “hyper-norms” or fundamental principles inherent to humanity, which are common to both “formal” and “informal,” “Western” and “non-Western” financial practices, could run the new AML/ctf regulation agenda. (shrink)

Ejes de la territorialidad patriarcal -- Fronteras y antifaces del signo mujer -- En el flujo heterogéneo de la liberación.

Toda poesía es fundamentalmente imagen, ésta surge del poema como un instrumento incantatorio. Indudablemente, el poeta tiene con el mundo una relación de privilegio, de la que la experiencia poética es la revelación. Esa relación permite sentir como próximos y conexos, elementos que son considerados aislados y heterogéneos. La tendencia metafórica es algo inherente al ser humano, no una actitud privativa del poeta: en cierto modo, el lenguaje íntegro es metafórico y refrenda la tendencia humana a la concepción analógica del (...) mundo y el ingreso de las analogías en las formas del lenguaje. La poesía hace de la imagen su eje estructural, su instrumento poético por excelencia. Por medio de imágenes y metáforas, Raúl Aceves expresa su ser, sus angustias personales, su percepción del mundo y su ansia de comunión con lo exterior para participar de ello, para ser eso. El poeta, "pasajero de la irrealidad", como el loco, ordena su universo de acuerdo con su propio ritmo interior. (shrink)

Of all the different types of public buildings, hospitals are the biggest energy consumers. Cooling systems for air conditioning and healthcare uses are particularly energy intensive. Forecasting hospital thermal-cooling demand is a remarkable and innovative method capable of improving the overall energy efficiency of an entire cooling system. Predictive models allow users to forecast the activity of water-cooled generators and adapt power generation to the real demand expected for the day ahead, while avoiding inefficient subcooling. In addition, the maintenance costs (...) related to unnecessary starts and stops and power-generator breakdowns occurring over the long term can be reduced. This study is based on the operations of a real hospital facility and details the steps taken to develop an optimal and efficient model based on a genetic methodology that searches for low-complexity models through feature selection, parameter tuning and parsimonious model selection. The methodology, called GAparsimony, has been tested with neural networks, support vector machines and gradient boosting techniques. Finally, a weighted combination of the three best models was created. The new operational method employed herein can be replicated in similar buildings with similar water-cooled generators. (shrink)

The denial of voting rights to certain types of persons continues to be a moral problem of practical significance. The disenfranchisement of persons with mental impairments, minors, noncitizen residents, nonresident citizens, and criminal offenders is a matter of controversy. This book makes a contribution to this largely neglected yet key topic.

The aim of this article is to clarify the grounds of Kant’s practical postulate of the immortality of the soul. In order to do that, I discuss some passages of the Critique of Pure Reason, in which Kant explains the nature of antinomies and the reasons why these cannot be theoretically solved. After that, my next step will be to elucidate the connection in Kant’s philosophy between the moral law and the intelligible world. By doing so, I explore the arguments (...) in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason that prove that there is a practical access to the intelligible world, which is banned to those who consider the problems of antinomies –specially, the problem of human freedom– solely from a theoretical standpoint. I then reconstruct Kant’s view about the nature of practical postulates. In this regard, my analysis will focus on the notion of moral progress, which is, according to Kant, the actual motive that prompts us human beings to suppose legitimately our enduring existence after death. Lastly, I discuss the problematic nature of the notion of moral progress –which implies temporality–, and try to provide some reasonable grounds as to why it is nevertheless sound and cogent within Kant’s system. (shrink)

En este trabajo proponemos una lectura de la filosofía política de Smith, a partir de su teoría de la obligación política, en tanto crítica del contractualismo. El autor rechaza la hipótesis del estado de naturaleza y el consentimiento de los individuos, proponiendo, en cambio, una teoría basada en la opinión, pero, sobre todo, en la ilusión de que la sociedad comercial nos conducirá a la felicidad. Rastrearemos estas ideas en tres de sus textos más importantes: La teoría de los sentimientos (...) morales, La riqueza de las naciones y Lecciones de jurisprudencia. (shrink)

Kant entendió su tarea filosófica como un intento por responder a tres preguntas humanas fundamentales - qué puedo saber, qué debo hacer y qué me es lícito esperar. Esta pretensión kantiana puede tomarse como el hilo conductor que recorre los siete estudios reunidos en este libro.

One of theprincipaI tush of the philosoher is educution, thut is, rhe formation of other human beings. mis is so related with moral discourse that it could be said that dhere is no dzyerence with the discome of educa- ?ion, und the latter is ackieved through quesfions and a critica1 attiíude...

Even thought the emancipating feat of Cuba obteined always the support of people this continent, los lack of governmental recognition on the Latin American countries during tl~ew ar of 1895, joined to the virtual English acceptance of North American hegemony in the region, it maked easy the idea of the U.S.A to take part in the conflict Hispanic- Cuban in 1898.

This paper presents a synthesis of the methodology used when doing historical research from a positivist standpoint. It points out that the efforts of the historian to strictly imitate the scientific method is a fruitless effort which stems from the mechanistic worldview of the 17th century. In the ..

This article advances three claims. The first is that the standard instrumentalist case for minimal age and sanity requirements for voting is weak and inconclusive in such a way that the evaluation of such requirements should be made exclusively on the basis of procedural fairness considerations. The second claim is that fairness requires the inclusion of all and only those persons who have the franchise capacity: the minimum necessary cognitive and moral powers to experience the benefits of enfranchisement. The third (...) and final claim is that current age and sanity prerequisites for voting in most places fail to comply with the demands of fairness and ought to be revised. (shrink)

This research characterizes and compares the job satisfaction of fitness professionals in Portugal between genders, ages, professional experience, professional title, and educational qualifications. A total of 401 fitness professionals answered the online questionnaire Job Satisfaction Scale, which has 16 factors rated on a Likert scale with seven levels. The statistical analysis comprises descriptive and statistical tests to compare the results of two or more groups. Overall, the results demonstrated that fitness professionals were moderately satisfied with their work. The lower degrees (...) of job satisfaction were concerning salary, opportunities for promotion, and stability at work. The highest levels of job satisfaction were related to the freedom to choose their work method, their work colleagues, the physical conditions of their workplace, and the opportunity to use their competencies. There were no differences in job satisfaction in terms of gender and a few differences between professional title and between educational levels. Regarding age and professional experience, the results showed significant differences in almost all factors, suggesting that, as fitness professionals get older and more experienced, their job satisfaction is greater. The results of this study suggest that even though fitness professionals are, in general, moderately satisfied with their work, some aspects can be improved by employers to increase their satisfaction levels. Such findings would assist employers in guiding the job satisfaction of their employees with consequent enhancements in the services provided by fitness professionals, which can increase participants’ retention in exercise fitness activities. (shrink)

This article compares the ‘enfranchisement lottery’, a novel method for allocating the right to vote, with universal suffrage. The comparison is conducted exclusively on the basis of the expected consequences of the two systems. Each scheme seems to have a relative advantage. On the one hand, the enfranchisement lottery would create a better informed electorate and thus improve the quality of electoral outcomes. On the other hand, universal suffrage is more likely to ensure that elections are seen to be fair, (...) which is important for political stability. This article concludes that, on balance, universal suffrage is prima facie superior to the enfranchisement lottery. Yet the analysis shows that the instrumental case for the ‘one person, one vote’ principle is less conclusive than democratic theorists usually suppose. (shrink)

Este artículo describe un estudio realizado con docentes de primaria y secundaria en varias comunidades españolas. El estudio se centra en la percepción del profesorado sobre el uso del Aprendizaje Basado en Juegos (ABJ) en el aula, tratando de averiguar en qué medidas los docentes implementan el uso de esta metodología en sus aulas. Un cuestionario fue creado ad hoc para este propósito y fue debidamente validado. Los resultados de este estudio muestran que la mayoría de los docentes son proclives (...) a la utilización del ABJ, y que lo perciben como algo positivo para el aprendizaje significativo del alumnado. (shrink)

This article compares the ‘enfranchisement lottery’, a novel method for allocating the right to vote, with universal suffrage. The comparison is conducted exclusively on the basis of the expected consequences of the two systems. Each scheme seems to have a relative advantage. On the one hand, the enfranchisement lottery would create a better informed electorate and thus improve the quality of electoral outcomes. On the other hand, universal suffrage is more likely to ensure that elections are seen to be fair, (...) which is important for political stability. This article concludes that, on balance, universal suffrage is prima facie superior to the enfranchisement lottery. Yet the analysis shows that the instrumental case for the ‘one person, one vote’ principle is less conclusive than democratic theorists usually suppose. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Phenomenology of Superstition or a Phenomenological Superstition?Elena Ibáñez-Guerra (bio)KeywordsBehaviorism, constructionism, intentionality, operant behaviorWhen the editors of Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology asked me to make some brief comments on two articles for the special issue edited by Pérez-Álvarez and Sass, I was delighted to accept, thinking that the task would be a straightforward one, and that I could easily meet the agreed deadline. But nothing could be further (...) from the truth. The articles were of such density and their content of such profundity that it took months of interpretation and study, and of bringing my own knowledge up to date, before I was in a position to understand the concepts, adjust my beliefs, and make some comments. I could certainly have delivered some kind of eulogy about the brilliance of their content; I might have countered with my own article. However, what seemed most coherent to me was to meet their arguments head on and deal with what I consider to be their principal weaknesses, leaving the bouquets for the end.The articles set out, as I understand them and within the clinical context, to relate phenomenology, in its most traditional form, with the most current form of Skinnerian behaviorism, situating themselves in a contextualism that is, at the same time, close to and removed from the most radical type of social constructionism.But let us begin by looking more closely at “Phenomenology and Behaviorism.” It is novel for me, though Professor Pérez-Álvarez had already proposed it several years ago (Pérez-Álvarez 1992), to view operant behavior as intentionality, or at least as involving final causality according to the Aristotelian classification. It is a surprising contention, not least because, as I recall, Skinner lived in a time and a context (historical reason) in which the basic goal of psychology was to convert itself into a natural science, comparable in all respects to physics, which it took as a model, focusing therefore on efficient causality (also according to Aristotle’s terminology), so that behavior was considered as the immediate consequence of a stimulus, and the stimulus–response association became the cornerstone of the discipline. It is true that the operant behavior concept refers to the functional relationship between behavior and reinforcement, but it is no less true that Skinner’s definition of reinforcement is totally empirical—“all that which increases or decreases the probability”—meaning that reinforcement can be considered neither as a motive nor as a reason for behavior, unless it be in the eyes of the observer. [End Page 251]Furthermore, even though Yela (1987) refers to Ortega y Gasset’s formula “I am myself and my circumstances” as a Skinnerian approach, the truth is that Yela himself argues that it is precisely the self that constitutes personality, such that I have a personality because I am me, and not vice versa, as Skinner would appear to argue. In this regard, Ortega’s celebrated formula has generally been interpreted, from the most personalist perspectives, as “the circumstances are myself”—to highlight the denial of the psychological subject by radical behaviorism (Mischel’s [1968] criticism of the concept of personality is relevant here). On top of this, Skinner’s rejection of all that was not directly observable, or at least, that could not be operationalized, calls into question the admissibility of anything called final cause or intentionality of behavior. In his philosophy, all the indications are that contingencies are what determine behavior; and that there would be no room for a structural causality, as Althusser would argue, or of a reciprocal determinism, in Bandura’s terms, or even of an interaction between subject and environment, as modern interactionists would maintain. “I am myself and my circumstances” seems in Skinner to become “the circumstances are me”, and indeed, the reinforcement history – which in the article in question is considered as something akin to the Sartrian idea of “life project” – is for Skinner nothing more than a continuous association of events. In my view, Ortega’s perspectivism would perhaps be closer to the sociology of the American action theorists, Merton, Parsons, etc., than to Skinnerian behaviorism, since “action”—as the action theorists... (shrink)

This article reports on an empirical investigation of long-term use of a groupware system in a spatially and massively distributed network of educators. It is a case study based investigation aimed at understanding the impacts of collaboration technology in supporting social interaction. The paradigm of social constructivism and the perspective of structuration are proposed as frameworks for understanding the impacts of technology on mediating social interaction. Utilizing these perspectives in an empirical investigation, the case study findings demonstrate how collaboration technology (...) can serve as a change agent in transforming the culture and structure of social interaction. This is enacted in two ways: through the various meanings which people construct when interacting with technology and in benefiting from the structural properties of a system through its technical affordances. (shrink)

The question of how we should engage with a philosopher’s racial thought is of particular importance when considering Kant, who can be viewed as particularly representative of Enlightenment philosophy. In this article I argue that we should take a stance of deep acknowledgment when considering Kant’s work both inside and outside the classroom. Taking a stance of deep acknowledgment should be understood as 1) taking Kant’s racial thought to be reflective of his moral character, 2) Kant being accountable for his (...) racial thought and 3) being willing to consider the possibility that Kant’s racial thought is consistent with and inextricable from his moral philosophy. Alternative forms of engaging with Kant’s racial work have either moral or pedagogical failings, which range from simply teaching the history of philosophy uncritically to outright deception. A stance of deep acknowledgement will allow philosophers to understand how Kant’s racial thought interacts with his moral philosophy and allow instructors to teach philosophy in a historically contextualized approach so as to not alienate students whose demographic was disparaged by Kant. (shrink)