La instalación El archivo de los abuelos, 1995, es el resultado de un proyecto de investigación que el artista Christian Boltanski realizó junto con los estudiantes de la Universidad de Leuphana, Luneburgo (Alemania) en la misma institución. El archivo reúne efectos personales de los abuelos de los estudiantes de aquella generación. Se trata de una pieza significativa dentro de la obra del francés porque no se atiene a las características habituales de sus obras de archivo, a las que denomino «meta-archivos» (...) por su carácter posmoderno de desestabilización del concepto mismo de archivo, y consecuentemente, del de documento y del de historia. El proyecto hizo patente el silencio sobre el Tercer Reich imperante en la época dentro de las familias, e hizo que este pasado reprimido resurgiese. Asimismo, puso de manifiesto los orígenes nazis del campus universitario. Por estos motivos, pese a poder considerarse un «meta-archivo fallido», es una obra de arte relevante y pertinente a nivel socio-cultural, y dentro de la obra de Boltanski, al arrojar luz sobre sus tácitos modus operandi y objetivos habituales precisamente por no cumplirlos. (shrink)

La actual pandemia de SARS-CoV-2 pone de relieve una vez más el modelo fallido con el nos enfrentamos a las crisis que afectan a nuestro mundo, desde el cambio climático y las recientes situaciones de emergencia de los refugiados, hasta la ascensión de los extremismos políticos en las sociedades occidentales. Como argumentan la filósofa feminista Donna Haraway y el sociólogo y filósofo Bruno Latour, se hace necesario un cambio de paradigma y una redefinición de la subjetividad para enfrentarnos al Antropoceno. (...) La Bienal de Venecia 2019, “May You Live in Interesting Times”, comisariada por Ralph Rugoff, propuso un modelo experimental de pensamiento artístico (que denominaré “tentacular” haciendo uso de la teoría desarrollada por Haraway) que cuestionaba los paradigmas heredados de la Ilustración, y también, en cierto grado, de la postmodernidad. Por su calado filosófico, la muestra es comparable a “Les Immatériaux” (1985), la histórica exposición comisariada por el filósofo Jean-François Lyotard, quien asimismo conceptualizó la postmodernidad y la experiencia de lo “sublime postmoderno”, concepto que sirve para establecer un contraste con lo “sublime tentacular”, la experiencia contemporánea que aportó la reciente la bienal. (shrink)

Positive Psychology has turned its attention to the study of emotions in a scientific and rigorous way. Particularly, to how emotions influence people’s health, performance, or their overall life satisfaction. Within this trend, Flow theory has established a theoretical framework that helps to promote the Flow experience. Flow state, or optimal experience, is a mental state of high concentration and enjoyment that, due to its characteristics, has been considered desirable for the development of the performing activity of performing musicians. Musicians (...) are a population prone to health problems, both psychological and physical, owing to different stressors of their training and professional activity. One of the most common problems is Musical Performance Anxiety. In this investigation, an electronic intervention program was carried out for the development of psychological self-regulation skills whose main objective was to trigger the Flow response in performing musicians and the coping mechanism for Musical Performance Anxiety. A quasi-experimental design was used with a control group in which pre- and post-measures of Flow State, Musical Performance Anxiety and, also, Social Skills were taken. Sixty-two performing musicians from different music colleges in Spain participated in the program. Results indicated that the intervention significantly improved Flow State, and Sense of Control, and decreased Music Performance Anxiety, and self-consciousness of the participants in the EG but not CG. The changes in the EG after the program showed the inverse relationship between Flow and Anxiety. Two important theoretical factors of both variables, such as worry and the feeling of lack of control, could be involved. The results are under discussion and future lines of research are proposed. (shrink)

The global environmental and social-economic crises of industrialized agriculture have led to the emergence of agroecology as an alternative approach aiming to increase the ecological, social and economic sustainability of agri–food systems. The ‘multi-level perspective’ is now a widely used framework to understand and promote the upscaling of local innovation niches, such as agroecology, to broader scales (e.g., regional, national, international), thus reconfiguring the dominant socio-technical regimes. Additionally, emergent ‘hybrid forums’ can provide a space between niche and regime where niche (...) innovators can become important actors in scaling up and out emergent innovations. In this paper, we examine a university training program (Postgraduate Diploma in Local Agroecological Dynamization at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), to better understand its role as a ‘hybrid forum’. Our analysis focuses especially on how the program, as an example of a hybrid forum, worked to reconfigure practices, concepts, and tools of local development practitioners. We also assess to what extent the program contributed to transitioning local development institutions toward agroecology. An online survey (n = 46) and in-depth interviews (n = 16) were carried out to determine how the training program has impacted the student’s opinions and their respective institutions. The results show that most of the students consider that they have acquired new theoretical frameworks and useful methods to re-framing their local development projects, that new alliances with multi-actor networks have been perceived, and that some internal changes of the local development practices have taken place. We conclude that the training program, as a hybrid forum, is capable of outscaling niche innovations through linkages with different kind of actors both from the niche and the regime. Political changes in the socio-technical landscape level offer an opportunity to amplify the impact of the innovations which are being generated by those multi-actor networks, but with a limited multi-level impact as far as institutional regime-actors not aligned with agroecological transition keep the most of the competencies on agri–food systems. (shrink)

Jose Marti contributed greatly to Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain with words as well as revolutionary action. Although he died before the formation of an independent republic, he has since been hailed as a heroic martyr inspiring Cuban republican traditions.

La biología sintética se encarga de modificar y rediseñar organismos biológicos complejos, según fines benéficos al ser humano. Existe una popular objeción moral a su práctica: la creación de seres vivos es asunto de Dios y no del humano. Dicho argumento popular influencia el proceso de legislación de esta técnica en algún grado, lo cual implica que el tema no está siendo abordado desde una perspectiva bioética laica y, por lo tanto, no garantiza la prevalencia del interés público y la (...) mejora del marco de regulación de la biología sintética. La hipótesis central de este artículo es que el diseño inteligente afecta la forma en que se concibe la biología sintética y, por lo tanto, su legislación. (shrink)

Las posibilidades educativas que ofrece la realidad virtual inmersiva (RVI) son actualmente incuestionables, si bien aún se cuenta con escasas propuestas que estén diseñadas expresamente por y para el aula. En esta contribución se presentan los primeros pasos de una interesante iniciativa diseñada por la Fundación Integra (Región de Murcia) entre las que se encuentra el desarrollo de un videojuego de RVI de temática histórica ambientado en el Teatro Romano de Cartagena y al que se juega con gafas Oculus Rift (...) o HTC VIVE. El videojuego ha sido diseñado a modo de serious game y se completa con una secuencia didáctica que permite su integración en el aula. A pesar de que aún no se ha realizado la fase de evaluación de los aprendizajes, la observación de los primeros prepilotajes del juego con estudiantes parecen mostrar su valor como elemento para el aprendizaje y favorecer un acercamiento motivador a la historia. (shrink)

Audio description remains the cornerstone of accessibility for visually impaired audiences to all sorts of audiovisual content, including porn. Existing work points to the efficacy of audio description to guarantee immersion and emotional engagement, but evidence on its role in sexual arousal and engagement in porn is still scant. The present study takes on this challenge by comparing sighted and visually impaired participants’ experiences with porn in terms of their physiological response [i.e., cortisol and heart rate ] and self-report measures (...) of affect [Positive and Negative Affect Schedule ; Watson et al., 1988], anxiety [State-Trait Anxiety Inventory ; Spielberger et al., 1970], sexual reactivity and arousal [Sexual Inhibition/Sexual Excitation Scale ; Moyano and Sierra ; and the Ratings of Sexual Arousal ; Mosher ], and narrative engagement or transportation [The Transport Narrative Questionnaire, Green and Brock ]. 69 Spanish participants were allocated into three different groups: 25 sighted participants who watched and heard the porn scenes in their audio-visual version ; 22 sighted participants who listened to the audio described version without images ; and 22 visually impaired participants who also listened to the audio described version without images. Overall, results on physiological and self-report measures revealed no significant differences between groups or different versions of the clips. The analysis of cortisol reactivity to porn as the maximum increase or decrease in cortisol with respect to baseline values revealed no significant differences between the groups, but pointed to a higher percentage of non-responders than responders in the three groups, the highest being found in the ONCE group. As for participants’ cardiac response to the clips, no significant differences were found across the groups, with the highest HR levels being registered in the baseline phase. Self-report measures revealed significant between-group differences in negative affect. The ONCE group displayed the highest pre-task levels of negative affect and was the only group that showed a decrease in negative affect after exposure to the clips. Sighted and visually impaired participants reported to be moderately aroused and immersed in the films, regardless of exposure to AV or AD porn. In addition, correlations found between participants’ levels of self-report sexual arousal and transportation and post-task affect pointed to a positive relationship between exposure to porn and perceived levels of sexual arousal and affect. Results from the study reflected the efficacy of audio description in providing sighted and visually impaired audiences with a similar experience to that offered by original AV porn scenes. This study is exploratory but provides valid, initial groundwork for further research on the impact of audio description on porn reception. (shrink)

The global environmental and social-economic crises of industrialized agriculture have led to the emergence of agroecology as an alternative approach aiming to increase the ecological, social and economic sustainability of agri–food systems. The ‘multi-level perspective’ is now a widely used framework to understand and promote the upscaling of local innovation niches, such as agroecology, to broader scales, thus reconfiguring the dominant socio-technical regimes. Additionally, emergent ‘hybrid forums’ can provide a space between niche and regime where niche innovators can become important (...) actors in scaling up and out emergent innovations. In this paper, we examine a university training program, to better understand its role as a ‘hybrid forum’. Our analysis focuses especially on how the program, as an example of a hybrid forum, worked to reconfigure practices, concepts, and tools of local development practitioners. We also assess to what extent the program contributed to transitioning local development institutions toward agroecology. An online survey and in-depth interviews were carried out to determine how the training program has impacted the student’s opinions and their respective institutions. The results show that most of the students consider that they have acquired new theoretical frameworks and useful methods to re-framing their local development projects, that new alliances with multi-actor networks have been perceived, and that some internal changes of the local development practices have taken place. We conclude that the training program, as a hybrid forum, is capable of outscaling niche innovations through linkages with different kind of actors both from the niche and the regime. Political changes in the socio-technical landscape level offer an opportunity to amplify the impact of the innovations which are being generated by those multi-actor networks, but with a limited multi-level impact as far as institutional regime-actors not aligned with agroecological transition keep the most of the competencies on agri–food systems. (shrink)

RESUMEN Más allá de ser un mero recurso ornamental, la alusión a los perros que hace Platón en diferentes pasajes de la República parece realizarse con miras a defender importantes tesis políticas. Este artículo tiene como propósito develar algunas de estas tesis y busca defender la elección que hace Platón del perro, de entre otros animales, para caracterizar la figura del guardián y del filósofo. El texto aborda la analogía presentada en República según la cual la disposición natural para vigilar (...) es el elemento común que comparte un buen cachorro con un joven de buen linaje y pone en el centro de su interés el rol que tiene el perro, descendiente de un antepasado más bestial y salvaje, el lobo, por ser capaz de sintetizar fiereza y mansedumbre por medio del aprendizaje y la domesticación. ABSTRACT Plato's reference to dogs in different passages of the Republic is more than a mere embellishment; it also serves to defend important political theses. The purpose of this article is to reveal some of these theses and to defend the author's choice of the dog, among other animals, to characterize the figures of the guardian and of the philosopher. The text discusses the analogy presented in the Republic according to which the natural disposition to guard is the common element shared between a puppy and a young man from good descent. The article focuses on the dog's role - descending from a wilder and more beastly animal, the wolf - as that of being able to synthesize fierceness and gentleness through learning and domestication. (shrink)

Este documento ofrece una propuesta desde la perspectiva de la bioética para la elaboración de un protocolo de triaje en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. Dicha propuesta incluye recomendaciones sobre las normas procedimentales y normas sustantivas que deben regir la asignación y reasignación de recursos terapéuticos en condiciones de escasez extrema.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of millions of people around the globe and some of the unprecedent emerged disruptions, are likely to have been particularly challenging for young children. Studying the impact of such extraordinary circumstances on their well-being is crucial to identify processes leading to risk and resilience. To better understand how Spanish children have adapted to the stressful disruptions resulting from the pandemic outbreak, we examined the effects of child coping and its interactions with contextual stressors (...) on child adjustment, incorporating in our analysis a developmental perspective. Data was collected in April 2020, through parent-reports, during the acute phase of the pandemic and, temporarily coinciding with the mandatory national quarantine period imposed by the Spanish Government. A sample of 1,123 Spanish children aged 3 to 12 participated in the study. Results showed differences in the use of specific strategies by children in different age groups. Despite the uncontrollable nature of the pandemic-related stressors, child disengagement coping was distinctively associated to negative outcomes, whereas engagement coping predicted psychosocial adjustment across all age groups. Moreover, interactively with child coping, parent fear of the future and parent dispositional resilience appear as relevant contextual factors to predict both negative and positive outcomes, but their effects seem to be age dependent, suggesting a higher contextual vulnerability for younger children. These findings might have implications for identifying individual and contextual risk and informing potential preventive interventions aimed to reduce the impact of future pandemic outbreaks on children of different ages. (shrink)

Artistic images, of a universal nature and validated by global culture, are carriers of an emotional potential that can be used for therapeutic purposes in cultural centers as well as in clinical spaces. Esthetic studies reveal the mobilizing power in their contemplation and the capacity to bring out personal stories with healing potential. The general objective of this paper is to design and validate the PROJECTA instrument, consisting of the therapeutic use of artistic images to approach trauma or difficult conditions (...) in therapy, by means of the association between art images and emotions, feelings or states of mind related with a traumatic experience. A mixed approach of investigation with a concurrent triangulation design has been used for the integration of qualitative and quantitative results, where qualitative research outweighs quantitative, but both have been QUAL → quan sequentially developed. The study was carried out in two phases. The first was a systematic review of the literature. The second, divided into five steps, consisted of the validation of artworks and the associated emotions with the participation of students, experts in art therapy, psychologists and educators through focus groups, interviews and an online questionnaire. The analysis techniques were qualitative and quantitative. A set of 220 artistic images linked to emotional states were proposed by experts in education, psychology and art therapy, and validated through an online questionnaire. The respondents included 228 students and professionals and for 64.55% of these images a consensus of over 80% was obtained. These images and their associated emotions were again reviewed by a confirmatory focus group. Finally, 92 artistic works were linked to primary, secondary and tertiary emotions such as love, joy, victory, surprise, balance, sense of humor, anger, sadness, fear, and emptiness. In addition, there are mobilizing images that have not been related to any emotion because of the polysemy of their meanings. It concludes that PROJECTA is a visual art therapy tool that provides professionals with a resource that helps facilitate the identification, expression or demonstration of emotions or feelings related with trauma, and in challenging situations of vulnerability, psychological discomfort or post-traumatic stress. (shrink)

Audiovisual communication is greatly contributing to the emerging research field of affective computing. The use of audiovisual stimuli within immersive virtual reality environments is providing very intense emotional reactions, which provoke spontaneous physical and physiological changes that can be assimilated into real responses. In order to ensure high-quality recognition, the artificial intelligence system must be trained with adequate data sets, including not only those gathered by smart sensors but also the tags related to the elicited emotion. Currently, there are very (...) few techniques available for the labeling of emotions. Among them, the Self-Assessment Manikin devised by Lang is one of the most popular. This study shows experimentally that the graphic proposal for the original SAM labelling system, as devised by Lang, is not neutral to gender and contains gender biases in its design and representation. Therefore, a new graphic design has been proposed and tested according to the guidelines of expert judges. The results of the experiment show an overall improvement in the labeling of emotions in the pleasure–arousal–dominance affective space, particularly, for women. This research proves the relevance of applying the gender perspective in the validation of tools used throughout the years. (shrink)

8 March, now known as International Women’s Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal (...) well-being and collective well-being, collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women’s rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people from countries in Latin America and Europe, with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks. Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals. (shrink)

En este texto defendemos que todo lo que adquiere sentido, significado, es afectivo. Nuestras operaciones mentales y acciones en el mundo están orientadas afectivamente. En la primera sección discutimos la forma en que sentido y afecto han sido entendidos bajo las concepciones de mente y cuerpo en el debate tradicional. En la segunda, proponemos una concepción de sentido público, corporizado y constituido por el afecto. Para ello, nos apoyamos en la sintonía en torno a la concepción de sentido y afecto (...) que puede encontrarse en las propuestas filosóficas de L. Wittgenstein y M. Merleau-Ponty. Finalmente, en la tercera sección discutimos las implicaciones de nuestra propuesta; señalamos allí algunas diferencias importantes con propuestas cercanas a la nuestra, así como algunas objeciones a las mismas. (shrink)

The present study had two main aims: to determine whether deaf children show higher rates of key behaviors of ADHD and of Conduct Disorder—CD— than hearing children, also examining whether the frequency of these behaviors in deaf children varied based on cochlear implant use, type of school and level of receptive vocabulary; and to determine whether any behavioral differences between deaf and hearing children could be explained by deficits in inhibitory control. We measured behaviors associated with ADHD and CD in (...) 34 deaf and hearing children aged 9–10 years old, using the revised Spanish version of the Conners scale. We then assessed inhibitory control ability using a computerized Stroop task and a short version of the Attention Network Test for children. To obtain a measure of the level of receptive vocabulary of the deaf children we used a Spanish version of the Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test for Deaf and hearing-impaired children. Deaf children showed significantly higher rates of behaviors associated with ADHD and CD, and over 85% of cases detected with high risk of ADHD-inattentive type in the entire present sample were deaf children. Further, in the group of deaf children a negative correlation was found between receptive vocabulary and frequency of disruptive, aggressive, or antisocial behaviors associated with CD. However, inhibitory control scores did not differ between deaf and hearing children. Our results suggested that the ADHD-related behaviors seen in deaf children were not associated with a deficit in inhibitory control, at least in the interference suppression subcomponent. An alternative explanation could be that these behaviors are reflecting an adaptive strategy that permits deaf children to access information from their environment which is not available to them via audition. (shrink)

Background: Serious games have shown positive results in increasing motivation, adherence to treatment and strengthening the therapeutic alliance in multiple psychiatric disorders. In particular, patients with impulse control disorders and other disorders in which the patient suffers from inhibitory control deficits have been shown to benefit from serious games.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and to evaluate the usability of a new serious videogame, e-Estesia. This serious videogame was designed to improve emotion regulation in patients (...) with gambling disorder. Preliminary results from a pilot sample are also reported.Method: A pilot sample of 26 patients undergoing treatment for GD was recruited. Participants used e-Estesia on a tablet, which was connected to a thoracic band that sent heart rate and heart rate variability data to the videogame platform in order to provide biofeedback. The System Usability Scale was completed by patients to determine the usability of e-Estesia.Results and Discussion: e-Estesia performed comparatively well for all the explored groups. Around 84.6% of the patients endorsed that it was easy to use. Female patients with GD presented higher HRV during the use of the serious videogame compared to men. (shrink)

Several studies have shown that physical exercise improves behavior and cognitive functioning, reducing the risk of various neurological diseases, protecting the brain from the detrimental effects of aging, facilitating body recovery after injuries, and enhancing self-efficacy and self-esteem. Emotion processing and regulation abilities are also widely acknowledged to be key to success in sports. In this study, we aim to prove that regular participation in sports enhances cognitive and emotional functioning in healthy individuals. A sample of 60 students, divided into (...) sportive and sedentary, were subjected to a neuropsychological tests battery to assess their overall cognitive abilities, verbal and graphic fluency, as well as their emotional awareness skills. Our results showed that sportive students performed better than sedentary ones in all cognitive tasks. Regarding emotional processing abilities, significant differences were found in the TAS-20 total score as well as in the Difficulty Describing Feelings subscale and the Difficulty Identifying Feeling subscale. Lastly, gender differences were found in the External-Oriented Thinking subscale. Overall, our findings evidence that PE has positive effects on cognitive functioning and emotion regulation, suggesting how sports practice can promote mental health and wellbeing. (shrink)

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has forced changes in patient care in Mental Health Day Hospitals.ObjectivesTo study the interventions performed in MHDHs during the pandemic in comparison with those performed in other facilities and to analyze the new hospital admissions in both groups.MethodA retrospective multicenter cohort study comparing the interventions received by a group of 161 patients admitted in MHDHs during the lockdown period in Spain with the interventions of another group of 109 patients who were treated at other facilities during lockdown.ResultsMHDHs (...) reduced their face-to-face interventions during lockdown just as much as other facilities but implemented telematic intervention methods to a greater extent. Patients attached to MHDHs during lockdown were admitted significantly less and presented fewer urgent consultations in the following 6 months.ConclusionThe use of telepsychiatry made it feasible to adapt MHDHs to periods of lockdown, being useful to improve the continuity of care during the pandemic. In addition, it was possible to maintain a reduction in hospital admissions in patients treated at MHDHs. (shrink)

Presentación de la obra que realiza una exposición de las principales teorías del conocimiento y de interpretación de la subjetividad desde el inicio de la modernidad.

The aim of this article is to revisit Clement of Alexandria’s Paedagogus 2.5.45-8 discussing whether Clement holds a moderate position οf laughter or, like most early Christians, tends to an “antigelastic” position. Some scholars, such as Stephen Halliwell and Laura Rizzerio, have concluded that Clement holds an intermediate position between an optimistic approach to laughter and its condemnation. However, in this essay we argue that while Clement’s position is not a straightforward antigelastic one, his apparent acceptance of laughter is (...) so narrow that his moderate view ends up being compromised. Ultimately, he is strongly inclined to condemn laughter and to prescribe an ascetic life devoid of laughter. (shrink)

In Lukács: Praxis and the Absolute, Daniel Andrés López reassembles Lukács’s philosophy of praxis on a Hegelian basis, as a conceptual-historical totality, both defending him and proposing an unprecedented, immanent critique that raises problems for Marxian philosophy as a whole.

Is democracy a requirement of justice or an instrument for realizing it? The correct answer to this question, I argue, depends on the background circumstances against which democracy is defended. In the presence of thin reasonable disagreement about justice, we should value democracy only instrumentally (if at all); in the presence of thick reasonable disagreement about justice, we should value it also intrinsically, as a necessary demand of justice. Since the latter type of disagreement is pervasive in real-world politics, I (...) conclude that theories of justice designed for our world should be centrally concerned with democracy. (shrink)

In most domains of human life, we are willing to accept that there are experts with greater knowledge and competencies that distinguish them from non-experts or laypeople. Despite this fact, the very recognition of expertise curiously becomes more controversial in the case of “moral experts”. Do moral experts exist? And, if they indeed do, are there ethical reasons for us to follow their advice? Likewise, can emerging technological developments broaden our very concept of moral expertise? In this article, we begin (...) by arguing that the objections that have tried to deny the existence (and convenience) of moral expertise are unsatisfactory. After that, we show that people have ethical reasons to ask for a piece of moral advice in daily life situations. Then, we argue that some Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can play an increasing role in human morality by becoming moral experts. Some AI-based moral assistants can qualify as artificial moral experts and we would have good ethical reasons to use them. (shrink)

In his recent bookThe Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen suggests that political philosophy should move beyond the dominant, Rawls-inspired, methodological paradigm – what Sen calls ‘transcendental institutionalism’ – towards a more practically oriented approach to justice: ‘realization-focused comparison’. In this article, I argue that Sen's call for a paradigm shift in thinking about justice is unwarranted. I show that his criticisms of the Rawlsian approach are either based on misunderstandings, or correct but of little consequence, and conclude that the Rawlsian (...) approach already delivers much of what Sen himself wants from a theory of justice. (shrink)

A globalized world, some argue, needs a global democracy. But there is considerable disagreement about whether global democracy is an ideal worth pursuing. One of the main grounds for scepticism is captured by the slogan: “No global demos, no global democracy.” The fact that a key precondition of democracy—a demos—is absent at the global level, some argue, speaks against the pursuit of global democracy. The paper discusses four interpretations of the skeptical slogan—each based on a specific account of the notion (...) of “the demos”—and concludes that none of them establishes that the global democratic ideal must be abandoned. In so doing, the paper (i) systematizes different types of objections against global democracy, thus bringing some clarity to an otherwise intricate debate and (ii) offers a robust but qualified defense of the global democratic ideal. (shrink)

When travelling to a new city, we acquire knowledge about its physical terrain, directions, historical facts and aesthetic features. Engaging in tourism practices, such as guided walking tours, provides experiences of a city that are necessarily mediated and partial. This has led scholars in tourism studies, and more recently in philosophy, to question the epistemological value of city tours, critiquingthem as passive, lacking in autonomous agency, and providing misrepresentative experiences of the city. In response, we argue that the mediated and (...) partial knowledge of a city acquired through city tours is not epistemologically disvaluable. Although city tours involve the transmission of testimonial knowledge, this does not necessarily render tourists as passive and non-autonomous. Instead,tourists have the potential to participate in the generation of their knowledge actively. Moreover, we argue that city tours also provide a tourist with valuable ‘objectual’ knowledge of a city, whichhas the potential to be first-personal and active, and does not necessarily misrepresent the city’s identity. This type of knowledge is valuable both for tourists as credible epistemic agents, and for the city itself, as the knowledge generated by the tour can facilitate an accurate representation of the city and promote social transformation. We conclude by highlighting four further epistemic and ethical implications of our argument. (shrink)

This article provides a conceptual map of the debate on ideal and non‐ideal theory. It argues that this debate encompasses a number of different questions, which have not been kept sufficiently separate in the literature. In particular, the article distinguishes between the following three interpretations of the ‘ideal vs. non‐ideal theory’ contrast: (i) full compliance vs. partial compliance theory; (ii) utopian vs. realistic theory; (iii) end‐state vs. transitional theory. The article advances critical reflections on each of these sub‐debates, and highlights (...) areas for future research in the field. (shrink)

Critical studies in higher education often embrace the ideas of the slowness movement to address time pressure. However, this desirable horizon presents some limitations. On the one hand, by emphasizing solutions at the individual level, boosting slowness may promote tactics incapable of producing changes to the underlying structural dynamics of time pressure. On the other hand, approaches based on slowness may also inadvertently foster a form of ethical paternalism within the context of ethical pluralism by prescribing substantive models of practice (...) ultimately based on ‘do this quickly or do it slowly.’ This theoretical research moves away from the temporal paradigm to that of the way of relating. Building upon the ethical concept of resonance, the approach focuses on a formal critique of the current socioeconomic and ethical dynamics of social acceleration, growth, and innovation that can contribute to projecting non-alienated relationships in higher education. (shrink)

Social Education implies a constant exposition to human experiences of vulnerability and suffering. In this paper, Levinas’s philosophy of alterity and, specifically, the notion of hospitality constitutes our ethical lens to explore educational encounters in non-formal contexts within the Spanish Social Sector. The study is developed from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach into the depth of lived experiences of eight social educators who currently work with different populations groups. The testimonies, explored through semi-structured interviews, are presented in a conversational, dialogic, poetic (...) format. First, Levinas’ philosophy is presented as our ethical position, focusing on subjectivity as hospitality. Secondly, methodological aspects regarding hermeneutics are addressed. Finally, the testimonies of social educators are presented in an evocative way, exploring uncertainty and three different tensions regarding human relations in their practices: physical spaces, affection, and embodiment. (shrink)

In this article I present a disagreement between classical and constructive approaches to predicativity regarding the predicative status of so-called generalised inductive definitions. I begin by offering some motivation for an enquiry in the predicative foundations of constructive mathematics, by looking at contemporary work at the intersection between mathematics and computer science. I then review the background notions and spell out the above-mentioned disagreement between classical and constructive approaches to predicativity. Finally, I look at possible ways of defending the constructive (...) predicativity of inductive definitions. (shrink)

In this article, Laura Quintana elaborates on a conceptual distinction between violence and rage. Along with this distinction, she recognises that while rage may possess a destructive potential, it can also be politicised in emancipatory practices that confront conditions of injustice and structural violence. Her analysis centers on contemporary political movements in Latin America, which she views as collective manifestations of rage. Within these movements, the manifestation of rage is intertwined with forms of care and communal labor. Quintana characterises (...) such movements as embodying a “dignified rage” (digna rabia) that calls for an emancipatory transformation of the status quo. She contends that these practices can be understood in terms of the notion of “anti-violence,” as it has been coined by Étienne Balibar. In this she diverges from Judith Butler, since, according to Quintana’s analysis, such practices challenge the demand for non-violence that has often served to neutralise the disruptive force of such manifestations and movements. (shrink)