This study constructs a measurement scale for Socially Responsible Consumption in the particular context of Colombia. It uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodological approach, beginning with four focus groups and ending with a quantitative validation exercise employing Exploratory Factor Analysis. The result is a Socially Responsible Consumption measurement scale consisting of four dimensions that reflect paradigms found in the existing literature. These are, however, expressed differently in Colombia. In particular, Socially Responsible Consumption involves consumer behavior that favors corporate social (...) responsibility practices and the rational consumption of resources and products while recognizing the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through healthcare. (shrink)

We present an experiment designed to investigate three different mechanisms to achieve impartiality in distributive justice. We consider a first-person procedure, inspired by the Rawlsian veil of ignorance, and two third-party procedures, an involved spectator and a detached observer. First-person veiled stakeholders and involved spectators are affected by an initially unfair distribution that, in the stakeholders’ case, is to be redressed. We find substantial differences in the redressing task. Detached observers propose significantly fairer redistributions than veiled stakeholders or involved spectators. (...) Risk preferences partly explain why veiled stakeholders propose less egalitarian redistributions. Surprisingly, involved spectators, who are informed about their position in society, tend to favour stakeholders holding the same position as they do after the initial distribution. (shrink)

I will argue that Roy Cook’s (forthcoming) reformulation of Yablo’s Paradox in the infinitary system D is a genuinely non-circular paradox, but for different reasons than the ones he sustained. In fact, the first part of the job will be to show that his argument regarding the absence of fixed points in the construction is insufficient to prove the noncircularity of it; at much it proves its non-self referentiality. The second is to reconsider the structural collapse approach Cook rejects, and (...) argue that a correct understanding of it leads us to the claim that the infinitary paradox is actually non-circular. En este trabajo argumentaré que la reformulación que Roy Cook (forthcoming) hace de la paradoja de yablo en el sistema infinitario D es una genuina paradoja no circular, pero por motivos distintos a los defendidos por ese autor. La primera parte del trabajo consiste en mostrar que la ausencia de puntos fijos en la construcción es insuficiente para demostrar su no circularidad, a lo sumo prueba su no autorreferencialidad. La segunda parte consiste en volver a considerar el enfoque del colapso estructural que Cook rechaza, y argumentar que una correcta comprensión del mismo revela que la paradoja es genuinamente no circular. (shrink)

The question of how the probabilistic opinions of different individuals should be aggregated to form a group opinion is controversial. But one assumption seems to be pretty much common ground: for a group of Bayesians, the representation of group opinion should itself be a unique probability distribution, 410–414, [45]; Bordley Management Science, 28, 1137–1148, [5]; Genest et al. The Annals of Statistics, 487–501, [21]; Genest and Zidek Statistical Science, 114–135, [23]; Mongin Journal of Economic Theory, 66, 313–351, [46]; Clemen and (...) Winkler Risk Analysis, 19, 187–203, [7]; Dietrich and List [14]; Herzberg Theory and Decision, 1–19, [28]). We argue that this assumption is not always in order. We show how to extend the canonical mathematical framework for pooling to cover pooling with imprecise probabilities by employing set-valued pooling functions and generalizing common pooling axioms accordingly. As a proof of concept, we then show that one IP construction satisfies a number of central pooling axioms that are not jointly satisfied by any of the standard pooling recipes on pain of triviality. Following Levi, 3–11, [39]), we also argue that IP models admit of a much better philosophical motivation as a model of rational consensus. (shrink)

Why should sovereign states obey international law? What compels them to owe allegiance to a higher set of rules when each country is its own law of the land? What is the basis of their obligations to each other? Conventional wisdom suggests that countries are too different from one another culturally to follow laws out of mere loyalty to each other or a set of shared moral values. Surely, the prevailing view holds, countries act simply out of self-interest, and they (...) eventually consent to norms of international law to regulate matters of common interest.In this groundbreaking book, Fernando Tesón goes against this prevailing thought by arguing, in the Kantian tradition, that a shared respect for individual human rights underpins not just the obligation countries feel to follow international law but also international laws themselves and even the very legitimacy of nations in the eyes of the international community. Tesón, both a lawyer and a philosopher, proposes that an overlapping respect for human rights has created a moral common ground among the countries of the world; and moreover, that such an outlook is the only one that is rationally defensible. It is this common set of values rather than self-interest that ultimately provides legitimacy to international law. Using the tools of moral philosophy, Tesón analyzes the concepts of sovereignty, intervention, and national interest; the contributions of social contact theory, game theory, and feminist theory; and the puzzles of self-determination and group rights.More than simply outlining his theory, Tesón goes on to give detailed examples of international laws, international institutions, and their human rights foundations, putting his ideas to work and addressing legal reforms called for by the theory. He suggests that treaties, for example, should be considered binding if, and only if, the consent to the treaty was given by a genuinely representative government, one that acts out of interest for the human rights of its citizens. Although the theoretical achievement of this book is to challenge received wisdom on the foundation of international law, the practical ambition is a call to reform the international legal system for the post–Cold War era, to substitute for the old order one that gives primacy to human dignity and freedom over state power. (shrink)

Scholars have debated the meaning of the foreign-relations clauses in the U.S. Constitution. This essay attempts to outline the foreign-relations clauses that an ideal constitution should have. A liberal constitution must enable the government to implement a morally defensible foreign policy. The first priority is the defense of liberty. The constitution must allow the government to effectively defend persons, territory, and liberal institutions themselves. The liberal government should also contribute to the advancement of global freedom, subject to a number of (...) conditions, especially cost. The essay recommends improved methods to incorporate treaties and customary international law into the constitutional structure. Treaties should be approved by the whole legislature and should generally be self-executing. Customary law should be genuine, not fake, and consistent with liberal principles. Finally, based on economic theory and evidence, the essay recommends that liberal constitutions prohibit the government from erecting trade barriers. It concludes by tentatively proposing concrete constitutional language to implement these recommendations. (shrink)

We explore which types of probabilistic updating commute with convex IP pooling. Positive results are stated for Bayesian conditionalization, imaging, and a certain parameterization of Jeffrey conditioning. This last observation is obtained with the help of a slight generalization of a characterization of externally Bayesian pooling operators due to Wagner :336–345, 2009). These results strengthen the case that pooling should go by imprecise probabilities since no precise pooling method is as versatile.

Origens : Alex Atala, Fernando e Humberto Campana -- Presente : Fernando e Humberto Campana e Jum Nakao -- Intermezzo : convívio : Jam Nakao e colaboradores -- Destinos : Alex Atala e Jum Nakao -- Entrevistas -- Um pouco de história.

The current financial crisis demonstrated, once again, the need for deep reforms of the international monetary and financial architecture. This article argues that reforms under way are insufficient, as they are partial in scope and rely excessively on an ad hoc body, the G20. It thus calls for an international architecture that meets two basic criteria. First, it should be comprehensive. This means that a broad range of reforms should be undertaken: better macroeconomic policy coordination; regulatory reform, including cross-border capital (...) flows; ample countercyclical IMF and development financing with limited conditionality; global monetary reform; and the creation of an international debt court. Second, inclusive institutions should stand at the center of the new architecture, structured as a multilayered network of global, regional, and national financial institutions. (shrink)

In the present study we analyze if the risk concept of the hegemonic epidemiologychanges its nature in purportedly alternative currents as ecoepidemiology and socialepidemiology focused in multilevel analysis.We analyze the way this concept is distinguishedin every current and its relationship with other epidemiologic key notions as cause. We findthat the risk concept and the notion of cause remain relatively unchanged among the differentcurrents even when there is some theoretical discussion about the complexity of multilevelsystems and other explanations for the events. (...) Finally we discuss some consequences aboutthe appropriation of the risk concept in multiple interventions in the health field. We indicatethat the fragmented nature of the risk concept is problematic because it can make thesocial aspects of the disease considered only in a functional perspective. Alternatively to thatwe develop the vulnerability concept as a knowledge framed in a hermeneutical perspective.The vulnerability concept acts as a mediator knowledge between epidemiology and theinterventions in the health field. In the same way we point out some concerns from the anthropologicalfield about the simplification of social senses and omission of meanings aboutthe health of the communities. (shrink)

In this paper we review the critical reception given by Niklas Luhmann's General Theory of Social Systems to the classical Information Theory, as basis of its postulation of a General Sociological Theory entirely founded on the Theory of Communication. Our hypothesis suggests that the formulation of the synthetic model of communication re-formulates the classical model of Shannon, through a replacement of tele-communicative accents by sociological accents. En este trabajo revisamos la recepción crítica dada por la teoría de sistemas sociales de (...) Niklas Luhmann a la teoría de la información clásica, en el marco de su postulación de una teoría general de la sociología fundada en la teoría de la comunicación. La hipótesis que defendemos es que la formulación del modelo sintético de la comunicación reformula el modelo clásico de Shannon, mediante una sustitución de los acentos telecomunicativos por acentos sociológicos. (shrink)

In this paper we review the critical reception given by Niklas Luhmann's General Theory of Social Systems to the classical Information Theory, as basis of its postulation of a General Sociological Theory entirely founded on the Theory of Communication. Our hypothesis suggests that the formulation of the synthetic model of communication re-formulates the classical model of Shannon, through a replacement of tele-communicative accents by sociological accents. En este trabajo revisamos la recepción crítica dada por la teoría de sistemas sociales de (...) Niklas Luhmann a la teoría de la información clásica, en el marco de su postulación de una teoría general de la sociología fundada en la teoría de la comunicación. La hipótesis que defendemos es que la formulación del modelo sintético de la comunicación reformula el modelo clásico de Shannon, mediante una sustitución de los acentos telecomunicativos por acentos sociológicos. (shrink)

In this paper we reconstruct the epistemological foundations of the symmetrical constructivism that underlies in the actor-network theory by Bruno Latour. The elements reconstructed are the diagnostics about the shrinking of sociology, the programmatic lines of his sociology of association and the epistemological components of the symmetrical constructivism assumed by the author. Results are discussed under the light of the differentiation of the programme in respect to the social constructivism of the strong programme by Bloor. En este trabajo reconstruimos las (...) bases epistemológicas del constructivismo simétrico que subyacen en la teoría del actor-red de Bruno Latour. Los ejes de la reconstrucción son el diagnóstico crítico sobre la contracción de la sociología, los lineamientos programáticos de su sociología de las asociaciones y los componentes epistemológicos del constructivismo simétrico asumido por el autor. Los resultados son discutidos a la luz de la diferenciación de este programa respecto del constructivismo social del programa fuerte de Bloor. (shrink)

If personhood is the quality or condition of being an individual person, brainhood could name the quality or condition of being a brain. This ontological quality would define the `cerebral subject' that has, at least in industrialized and highly medicalized societies, gained numerous social inscriptions since the mid-20th century. This article explores the historical development of brainhood. It suggests that the brain is necessarily the location of the `modern self', and that, consequently, the cerebral subject is the anthropological figure inherent (...) to modernity (at least insofar as modernity gives supreme value to the individual as autonomous agent of choice and initiative). It further argues that the ideology of brainhood impelled neuroscientific investigation much more than it resulted from it, and sketches how an expanding constellation of neurocultural discourses and practices embodies and sustains that ideology. (shrink)

According to some Foucault' proposals, this paper deals with the historical constitution of individual identity forms through juridic practices, concretely the results of the transformation of modern law from the state monopo-lization of the legislative functions, a process considered to be based on so-cial contract theories -the constitution of social order according to a successive scheme: from the pre-social individuals to supra-individual society. The juridical individualism derives from this model, and the critical ap-proach on it is made from the contemporary (...) sciences of human behavior. (shrink)

There is no systematic knowledge about how individuals with Locked-in Syndrome experience their situation. A phenomenology of LIS, in the sense of a description of subjective experience as lived by the ill persons themselves, does not yet exist as an organized endeavor. The present article takes a step in that direction by reviewing various materials and making some suggestions. First-person narratives provide the most important sources, but very few have been discussed. LIS barely appears in bioethics and neuroethics. Research on (...) Quality of Life provides relevant information, one questionnaire study explores the sense of personal continuity in LIS patients, and LIS has been used as a test case of theories in “embodied cognition” and to explore issues in the phenomenology of illness and communication. A systematic phenomenology of LIS would draw on these different areas: while some deal directly with subjective experience, others throw light on its psychological, sociocultural and materials conditions. Such an undertaking can contribute to the improvement of care and QOL, and help inform philosophical questions, such as those concerning the properties that define persons, the conditions of their identity and continuity, or the dynamics of embodiment and intersubjectivity. (shrink)

President George W. Bush surprised many observers in his second inaugural address when he promised to oppose tyranny and oppression, and this in a world not always willing or ready to join in that fight. Humanitarian intervention is again on the forefront of world politics.

Research Articles Fernando R. Tesón, Social Philosophy and Policy, FirstView Article.

En este trabajo se discuten los aportes de la teoría sociológica contemporánea al debate filosófico y científico de la ontología, para ello son cotejados los componentes ontológicos de la Teoría General de Sistemas Sociales de Niklas Luhmann, lla Teoría de la Acción Comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas y la Actor-Network Theory de Bruno Latour.

El tópico de la guerra en la obra hegeliana no ha sido tratado ni profunda ni extensamente por los estudios académicos. Es más bien un sentido común que ve en Hegel a un conservador de la autonomía interestatal y la defensa del espíritu del pueblo el que se ha asentado en los estudios de su filosofía práctica. En este sentido, nuestro trabajo tiene la intención de brindar, al mismo tiempo que una respuesta a los presupuestos que se hacen en torno (...) al concepto de guerra en Hegel, una lectura de este que no sólo lo inscriba dentro de la ética, política y lógica del autor, sino que, además, muestre un aspecto hasta ahora impensable sobre su relación con la idea de una paz perpetua: ¿puede acaso la guerra, como parte del momento de la eticidad, tener como fin un estado de paz? Esperamos con estas líneas, por lo demás, establecer un lugar común desde el cual puedan aflorar nuevas rutas de lectura sobre este aspecto particular en la filosofía de Hegel. (shrink)

El texto aristotélico Metafísica IV, 2, y sus interpretaciones por parte de los filósofos musulmanes, Avicena y Averroes, constituyen el marco teórico en el que se han elaborado las doctrinas acerca de los trascendentales, de varios autores latinos de la segunda mitad del siglo XIII de la Universidad de París, que se han posicionado en torno a la cuestión de la ‘distinción real’ entre el esse y la essentia. Según esto, nuestro trabajo busca trazar la dependencia de la doctrina general (...) de los trascendentales de Dietrich, respecto de las tesis establecidas por Aristóteles en dicho texto, y en particular, respecto de la lectura averroísta – crítica de la de Avicena –, que “ha hecho escuela” en el medio parisino, especialmente entre los maestros y estudiantes de la Facultad de Artes, pero incluso también primero en Tomás de Aquino. Así, a la luz de este entramado de lecturas e interpretaciones, buscaremos delimitar los rasgos centrales de la concepción teodoriciana de los communia, señalando las posibles discrepancias o coincidencias respecto de las doctrinas de estos autores precedentes. (shrink)

Para Jean-Luc Marion, el pensamiento tomasiano no se deja encerrar en los parámetros de la metafísica onto-teo-lógica, tal como es definida por Martin Heidegger. Esto implica, respecto de Dios, que, si ya no ha de ser llamado “_ente supremo_”, pues para Tomás Dios se revela como el “_Ser mismo_”, carente de esencia, éste se caracteriza por su absoluta incognoscibilidad. Para sustentar esta interpretación, Marion recurre a una serie de tesis que entiende se desprenden de la consideración de algunos textos del (...) Aquinate. En el presente trabajo se analizan algunas de estas tesis en función de dichos textos, y se propone una lectura alternativa a la del autor. Se intenta mostrar particularmente que, a los ojos de Tomás, sí es posible atribuir la noción de “esencia” a Dios, y también, alcanzar un conocimiento verdadero, aunque imperfecto y limitado de la realidad divina, a partir de la predicación positiva de ciertas perfecciones absolutas que se encuentran en las creaturas. (shrink)

Resumen: Este trabajo reconstruye la crítica general del conflacionismo hecha por Margaret Archer. En su programa de morfogénesis social la autora británica realizó un agudo diagnóstico acerca de los déficits fundamentales de las diversas construcciones del objeto sociológico y las cuestionó teórica y epistemológicamente a través de la figura crítica de conflacionismo, en la que distinguió tres modalidades. Aquí las reconstruiremos por separado y analizaremos en esa crítica general la formulación in nuce de las bases teóricas o fundamento operativo del (...) programa de realismo crítico morfogenético, que impulsará la autora con el ariete alternativo de establecer una sociología no-conflacionista, informada ontológica y epistemológicamente por el realismo crítico y metodológicamente por el dualismo analítico. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea asumimos la perspectiva sistemática de programas multinivelados y la categoría de estrategia de metateorización de tipo preludio de Ritzer.: This text reconstructs the general criticism to conflation formulated by Margaret Archer. In its social morphogenesis programme, Archer elaborates an acute diagnosis about the main deficits of different constructions of sociological object and she questioned them ontological and epistemologically through the figure of conflation, in which she distinguished three modes. Here we reconstruct each of them separately and we analyse the formulation in nuce the theoretical basis of critical and morphogenetic realism, a scientific research programme that she establishes as a non-conflation sociological way, supported by critical realism and analytical dualism. In doing so, we assume the systematic perspective of multileveled research programmes and the category of metatheorizing as prelude by Ritzer. (shrink)