Apresentamos uma experiência de convivência entre uma professora e seus estudantes atuando em parceria e legitimidade, na qual a aprendizagem emerge a partir de um fluir de coordenações de ações recursivas. O texto se constitui como uma narrativa cartográfica que “mapeia” o fluir das ações e dos movimentos relacionados à convivência. Para explicar as experiências vivenciadas foi feito o uso da Teoria da Biologia do Conhecer, proposta por Humberto Maturana e por Francisco Varela, em especial os conceitos de convivência, de (...) coordenações de ações recursivas, de acoplamento estrutural e de autopoiese. Nessa perspectiva teórica, a aprendizagem é um processo intersubjetivo que acontece na experiência, em acoplamento com a estrutura do sujeito e do meio. A abertura ao fluir das ações, a parceria entre professora e estudantes, em legitimidade, são aspectos que permitiram a emergência de experiências com potencial de desencadear movimentos autopoiéticos relacionados aos processos de ensinar e de aprender. Dentre elas, destacam-se a meditação, aqui pensada a partir do conceito de Enação, e o Conversar Liberador, que oferece princípios para desencadear movimentos de observação de si e de autotransformação. Por fim, através da narrativa cartográfica, apresentamos algumas pistas para práticas pedagógicas articuladas aos princípios apresentados. Entendemos que a missão de educar, sob esse ponto de vista, constitui-se em uma incumbência grandiosa, que implica em ter fé e amor pela vida nas suas diferentes dimensões, atitude que poderá contribuir com a emergência de uma nova consciência planetária, que sustente o viver e o conhecer alicerçado em uma outra forma de ser e de estar na experiência humana. (shrink)

The connection between brain and mind is an important scientific and philosophical question that we are still far from completely understanding. A crucial point to our work is noticing that thermodynamics provides a convenient framework to model brain activity, whereas cognition can be modeled in information-theoretical terms. In fact, several models have been proposed so far from both approaches. A second critical remark is the existence of deep theoretical connections between thermodynamics and information theory. In fact, some well-known authors claim (...) that the laws of thermodynamics are nothing but principles in information theory. Unlike in physics or chemistry, a formalization of the relationship between information and energy is currently lacking in neuroscience. In this paper we propose a framework to connect physical brain and cognitive models by means of the theoretical connections between information theory and thermodynamics. Ultimately, this article aims at providing further insight on the formal relationship between cognition and neural activity. (shrink)

Many organizations have adopted an organizational ethics program to prevent unethical behavior within the organization. Decoupling the adoption of ethics programs from their implementation has been identified in the literature as an explanation for the ineffectiveness of such programs. In addition to this so-called policy–practice decoupling, means–ends decoupling may also occur when a well-implemented ethics program is nevertheless ineffective. This study investigates whether team ethical culture (TEC) acts as a coupling mechanism that mediates the effects of a well-implemented ethics program (...) on unethical behavior in teams. We conducted a survey of 202 teams working in a business organization in the UK. The results of a structural equation analysis support the claim that TEC mediates this relationship. Based on this team-level case study, we argue that organizations that aim to implement an effective ethics program should acknowledge and manage TECs to avoid means-ends decoupling. (shrink)

Studies on the ethical culture of organizations have mainly focused on ethical culture at the organizational level. This study explores ethical culture at the team level because this can add a more detailed understanding of the ethics of an organization, which is necessary for more customized and effective management interventions. To find out whether various teams within an organization can have different ethical cultures, we employ the differentiation perspective and conduct a survey of 180 teams from one organization. The results (...) show that there are significant differences between the ethical cultures of teams. These differences are relevant given the different relationships that were established between high and low clusters of team ethical culture and two outcome variables. The results also show that the dimensions of ethical cultures among teams have different patterns, which indicates the usefulness of using a multidimensional scale for capturing further differences among team ethical cultures. (shrink)

Studies on the ethical culture of organizations have mainly focused on ethical culture at the organizational level. This study explores ethical culture at the team level because this can add a more detailed understanding of the ethics of an organization, which is necessary for more customized and effective management interventions. To find out whether various teams within an organization can have different ethical cultures, we employ the differentiation perspective and conduct a survey of 180 teams from one organization. The results (...) show that there are significant differences between the ethical cultures of teams. These differences are relevant given the different relationships that were established between high and low clusters of team ethical culture and two outcome variables. The results also show that the dimensions of ethical cultures among teams have different patterns, which indicates the usefulness of using a multidimensional scale for capturing further differences among team ethical cultures. (shrink)

Studies on the ethical culture of organizations have mainly focused on ethical culture at the organizational level. This study explores ethical culture at the team level because this can add a more detailed understanding of the ethics of an organization, which is necessary for more customized and effective management interventions. To find out whether various teams within an organization can have different ethical cultures, we employ the differentiation perspective and conduct a survey of 180 teams from one organization. The results (...) show that there are significant differences between the ethical cultures of teams. These differences are relevant given the different relationships that were established between high and low clusters of team ethical culture and two outcome variables. The results also show that the dimensions of ethical cultures among teams have different patterns, which indicates the usefulness of using a multidimensional scale for capturing further differences among team ethical cultures. (shrink)

Spanish legislation on insurance and reinsurance mediation stipulates that intermediary can only receive commissions and fees for the management of their policies and prohibits any other form of remuneration. However, it is possible that financial intermediaries who manage larger risks wait until the end of the legal deadline to settle with insurance companies. This common practice in the insurance market hides additional remuneration in defiance of the law. It also means that the risk is not covered within the prescribed period (...) and would, involve a commercial payment to the client, and, on the other hand, affect sustainable claims management. (shrink)

Homework have different familiar impact in each familiar environment. In order to uncover the attitudes parents take towards their children’s homework, a national study about family balance, where 471 people have been interviewed, is done. The results show that women are more likely to help children doing homework. The study concludes making evidence some changes.

This paper analyses the arguments for and against what we have called automatic organ procurement model in relation to the organs of the deceased. For this purpose, this work provides empirical evidence to assess the potential impact of this model on donation rates and on public opinion. Specifically, we examine first the reasons supporting this model, with special reference to utilitarian and justice arguments. On the other hand, we analyse both the approaches based on the violation of pre mortem and (...) post mortem interests opposing this theoretical model and the rejection the model would generate in the population. Finally, we point out the aspects that, in our opinion, should be exhaustively regulated if this model were implemented. In particular, we refer to the legal status of the human body, the treatments for end-of-life patients, the incentives for health professionals and the recognition of the right to conscientious objection. (shrink)

This text has already been published in Time & Society, 2016, Vol. 25, pp. 613-633. We thank Gonzalo Iparraguirre for the permission to republish it here.: This article presents the introduction and the update of an ethnographic research on temporality among indigenous groups, published in 2011 in its full version as a book in Spanish. It seeks to prove the usefulness of the conceptual distinction between time, defined as the phenomenon of becoming in itself, and - Anthropologie – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

Baldine Saint Girons s’efforce de montrer comment l’interrogation de Pierre Kaufmann oblige à décloisonner l’esthétique et examine le cas particulier de l’architecture. À la différence des autres arts plastiques, l’architecture oblige à penser de façon drastique ce qu’il en est du réel de l’espace et à assumer, d’une manière ou d’une autre, la peur suscitée par un espace qui se dérobe et qui se disloque.

The present work aims to offer an interpretation of Wolff’s place in the history of Early Modern Philosophy: we intend to argue that Wolff, relevantly indebted to German university Schulphilosophie, enriches this tradition by incorporating intellectual innovations coming from European modern science. In order to defend this thesis, the essay is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to elucidate Wolff’s conception of philosophy through an analysis of his programmatic “Discursus praeliminaris de philosophia in genere”. After first clarifying Wolff’s (...) conception of philosophy, the second part consists of a reflection on the extent to which German Schulphilosophie and European modern science converge in Wolffian philosophy. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se argumenta que la Medicina mentis de E. W. von Tschirnhaus participa del alejamiento respecto a la Metafísica escolástica ejemplificado tanto por la Logica vetus et nova de Johannes Clauberg de modo moderado y conciliador como por la Einleitung zur Vernunft-Lehre de Christian Thomasius con mayor radicalidad. Para ello, el artículo consta de tres partes. En la primera, se bosqueja el proceso por el que la Schulmetaphysik adquiere presencia y relevancia en las universidades germanas del siglo (...) XVII. A continuación, se analizan las mencionadas obras de Clauberg y Thomasius para descubrir en qué medida ambos pensadores dialogan críticamente con la tradición susodicha. Finalmente, se culmina el trabajo con una reflexión sobre los vínculos existentes entre la obra de Tschirnhaus y las Lógicas de Clauberg y Thomasius. (shrink)

Wind turbines have been used by many groups of humans for many centuries. Wind turbines have allowed groups of humans to perform many different tasks in the past. However, only a century and a half ago, they began to be used to convert the energy captured from wind into electric energy. Moreover, only approximately twenty-five years ago, we started to introduce on a massive scale the energy generated from wind turbines into the electric networks of most developed countries in the (...) world for regular consumption. According to 2017 statistics, approximately 12 percent of the electric energy consumed in the EU is produced by wind turbines. Despite the fact that wind turbines generally appear quite similar externally—i.e., a three-blade structure, a nacelle, a tower, etc.—if we carefully examine the electric technology used within them, we find quite a wide range of technologies for energy conversion, which is a key issue in wind turbine technology. Hence, this paper adopts a dialectic perspective towards analyzing and understanding why several electric technologies coexist in wind turbine technology. We explain the specific factors that have influenced different wind turbine manufacturers to adopt different electric technologies across the last twenty-five years. We show how their actions and the technological directions that have followed have been mutually codetermined, resulting in a technological evolution that has produced today’s wind turbine variety. (shrink)

This article rereads Benedict de Spinoza and recent interpretations of him as an epistemic democrat through the prism of contemporary debate on the conditions for deliberation in a democracy. Through a reconstruction of Spinoza's arguments and theories of deliberation and its preconditions, we argue that, for deliberation to produce the benefits Spinoza recognizes, the process must be inclusive, and those deliberating must be both intellectually humble and autonomous. This interpretation is new and diverges from those recently advanced by Justin Steinberg (...) and Sandra Leonie Field. In particular, on our reading, Spinoza's critique of humility does not extend to intellectual humility as it is understood today in political theory. Both autonomy and humility, as epistemologically conceived by political theorists today, can therefore be considered Spinozian civic virtues. (shrink)

Contrairement à l’attente du lecteur cultivé, ce n’est pas dans l’Analytique du sublime, mais dans celle du beau qu’on peut sentir l’influence de Longin sur Kant. Le rôle de la lecture de Burke est, lui, plus facile à cerner : Kant y trouve le fil directeur d’une opposition systématique du sublime et du beau et de leur nécessaire définition l’un par rapport à l’autre. La question du monisme ou du dualisme esthétique devient alors centrale et rejoint chez Kant celle du (...) sens de la place de la raison humaine. Quelle est la finalité de l’évolution? Et l’espèce humaine parvient-elle à « la fin dernière de sa destination morale » quand « l’art, ayant atteint sa perfection, redevient nature », selon la formule saisissante de Mutmasslicher Anfang der Menschengeschichte (VIII, 117-118, Pléiade, II, p. 513)? (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify and defend the distinction by Isaiah Berlin between “negative liberty” on the one hand, and “positive” and “communal liberty” on the other. This distinction has been attacked by those who believe it breaks the necessary harmony with equality or fraternity, virtues that many progressive authors place on the same plane as freedom. Instead of speaking of “negative liberty,” as proposed by Berlin, we propose to call it “classical” or “formal” liberty. In turn, rather than speaking (...) of “positive” liberty, we propose to say “possessive liberty” and “communal liberty.” Thus, Isaiah Berlin should have spoken of three concepts of liberty and have stressed that the latter two may be destructive of the first. Possessive and communal liberty can be significant aspects of a society, but should not be confused with personal liberty. The promotion of possessive and comunal liberty is often accompanied by invasions of formal liberty. (shrink)

We present a characterization of confluence for term rewriting systems, which is then refined for special classes of rewriting systems. The refined characterization is used to obtain a polynomial time algorithm for deciding the confluence of ground term rewrite systems. The same approach also shows the decidability of confluence for shallow and linear term rewriting systems. The decision procedure has a polynomial time complexity under the assumption that the maximum arity of a function symbol in the signature is a constant.

The discovery of F.M. Dostoyevsky by young E. M. Cioran marks a turning point for a better understanding of his first Romanian work and his later production in French. His first work, Pe culmile disperării [On the Heights of Despair] has a tragic breath, typically dostoyevskyan, which reminds us of the tragical and sick conscience of the hero of his Notes from the Underground.

Il saggio mira a superare l’antinomia tra la teoria di Wölfflin e quella di D’Ors, cercando una conciliazione tra storia dell’arte ed estetica. La contrapposizione tra il rigore di un principio formale e la sensibilità di un principio materiale viene superata grazie a un principio specificamente marino e alla sua ambivalenza (fonte di vita e di morte, strumento di legame e di dissociazione, principio di dolcezza e di aggressione). Infine, viene richiamata l’arte del modellare, in cui l’argilla trova la forma (...) attraverso la deformazione e in cui dall’amorfo si sviluppa una ricca vegetazione, e, attraverso Bachelard, viene sviluppata una paradossale analogia con l’arte del fabbro che però trova inaspettata conferma nelle curve carezzevoli degli esuberanti decori di ferro tipici del barocco siciliano. (shrink)

Published in 1998, the main aim of this book is to use a naturalistic, evolutionary approach to solve some of the most important problems in philosophy. The first two problems come from the philosophy of science: the problem of rationality of science and the problem of truth in science. In presenting the first problem, the author argues that the views of Kuhn and Feyerabend do create a very serious challenge to traditional epistemology, however, if the assumption of individual rationality is (...) abandoned in favour of the author's social concept of rationality, a committed naturalism can account for science as a rational activity. In tackling the second problem of truth, the author shows that a committed evolutionary philosophy does not support realism but leads instead to a thorough evolutionary relativism of scientific knowledge. It is nevertheless possible to use this evolutionary relativism to construct a theory of relative truth. The issue of whether science discovers truth has also been tied to absolutism, that a well formulated theory of relative truth is likely to bring about a profound transformation of the way we think about the field. The author explores the notion of relative truth in the philosophy of science, ethics and aesthetics. (shrink)

Este trabajo realiza un estudio metafísico sobre la noción de contacto en términos de límites a partir de una ontología de objetos materiales. Dos cosas están en contacto cuando sus límites (o partes de ellos) se topan espacialmente. Las tesis relacionista y la substantivista sobre la naturaleza del espacio son evaluadas en sus compromisos respecto a la idea de contacto. Sin embargo, puesto que considerando algunos descubrimientos de la física cuántica es posible descartar la idea de contacto físico, la discusión (...) requiere ser trasladada a un espacio topológicamente continuo. Aquí la idea de contacto requiere solucionar la compatibilidad entre la existencia de un espacio continuo y la existencia de límites como un tipo de discontinuidad. Cuatro tesis son evaluadas: clásica, superposición, brecha, y coincidencia. Esta última es defendida puesto que, a diferencia de las otras, no renuncia a características ontológicas fundamentales de un límite y es la menos arbitraria sobre su pertenencia. (shrink)

This chapter is a discussion of Class and Resemblance Nominalism. According to the traditional versions of these theories, properties are classes of particulars. Thus, the property of being red is the class of red particulars, and the property of being square is the class of square particulars. Several objections have been advanced against these theories, and one of the most powerful of such objections is the so-called Coextension Difficulty, according to which Class and Resemblance Nominalism have to wrongly identify distinct (...) but coextensive properties. After discussing the nature of Class and Resemblance Nominalism, some problems of these theories and how they can be deal with, the superiority of Class and Resemblance Nominalism over other theories of properties and the superiority of Resemblance Nominalism over Class Nominalism, I concentrate on the Coextension Difficulty. With respect to this I argue that Class and Resemblance Nominalism can be developed in such a way that they admit properties without identifying them with classes, and this allows them to avoid the Coextension Difficulty, since such versions of these theories are not forced to wrongly identify distinct but coextensive properties. Thus the Coextension Difficulty is not a lethal problem for Class and Resemblance Nominalism. (shrink)

In this article, we aim at presenting a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the mathematical and theoretical relation between all the aspects of Ptolemaic planetary models and their counterparts which are built according to Kepler’s first two laws. Our article also analyzes the predictive differences which arise from comparing Ptolemaic and these ideal Keplerian models, making clear distinctions between those differences which must be attributed to the structural variations between the models, and those which are due to the specific parameters (...) Ptolemy determined in the Almagest. We expect that our work will be a contribution for a better understanding not only of the Ptolemaic theories for planetary longitudes through a clearer perception of the way in which Keplerian features are present—or absent—in Ptolemy’s models, but also for a more balanced judgement of different aspects of the contribution of the first two laws of Kepler to the modern astronomical revolution. (shrink)

This article analyzes the evolution of Philosophy of Educationin Spain and its situation at the dawn of the 21st century. Spain'speculiar socio-historical circumstances have largely conditioned thedirection this discipline has taken over the last several decades. So,although during a period there was some approximation towards themethods of analytic philosophy, Philosophy of Education has never fullyrelinquished its normative vocation. To do so would have meant spurningthe hopes and fears that had filled Spanish society by the mid 1970supon the reinstatement of civil (...) liberties and democracy. Indeed,attention to the circumstances and that normative orientation have foundtheir best fit in a practical Aristotelian-based philosophy meant toendow Philosophy of Education with a normative character that do notshun the educator's need for reflection, practical decision-making, andresponsibility. Since the 1990s, new directions have been marked by thechallenge of postmodernism, inasmuch as it affects not only thetechnological positivist model but also the reflective educator's modelof a practical Philosophy of Education. The new directions spread out invarious ways, yet they all fall into a common denominator of narrativetrends. The problem posed by these new languages lies in the extent towhich they are consistent with pedagogic intent. In turn, the answerstake on different profiles depending on whether the stance leans moretowards the philosophical or the pedagogical point of view withinPhilosophy of Education. The complementary nature of both perspectivescharacterizes the current state of the field in Spain. (shrink)

Working from a concept of politics of education that encompasses legal,ethical and pedagogical levels of analysis, this paper presents theresults of a field work project on the meaning and current state of theright to education with a larger philosophical discourse. Talk ofeducation as a human right presupposes taking part in a horizon ofinterpretation. Projected is a view of person as a subject, i.e., assomeone not only placed in a specific context, but also as someone whois capable of distancing him/herself from (...) local and culturalconditioning. (shrink)

L'histoire du sublime, presque aussi ancienne que la philosophie, concerne, de nos jours, la plupart des disciplines qui la constituent esthétique, politique, éthique, anthropologie. Les philosophes ont d'abord pensé le sublime dans la sphère du discours. Ils ont étendu ensuite son domaine aux différents arts et aux grands phénomènes de la nature,- pour étudier, enfin, son apparition dans diverses formes d'activité humaine, comme les sciences et les techniques. Le sublime confronte la philosophie aux limites de son pouvoir, en vue de (...) la mettre en échec ou de lui permettre d'aller plus loin. Il opère à la fois comme principe de connaissance et comme principe de métamorphose. D'une part, il subvertit les valeurs du beau, du vrai et du bon, d'autre part, il me transcende ou me sublime, au sens très général où la sublimation est dépassement de soi. Le présent livre vise à redonner au sublime la place qu'il mérite dans notre système éducatif et dans nos vies : celle d'une épreuve initiatrice, susceptible d'insuffler la vie à des connaissances qui resteraient sinon formelles et tronquées. Il cherche également à nous orienter vers une science possible du sujet qui prenne en compte la vocation de l'homme à se transcender lui-même. (shrink)