The article analyzes Alexander Bogdanov’s systemic approach to historical process. Society is portrayed in development—like a living creature that evolves in response to the challenges of its envir...

How might critical realism provide a better metatheoretical framework to understand the complex causality behind experiences of mental illness? How do we understand the agency of people suffering from mental illness? Prior work on critical realism and disability has argued that critical realism helps move past one or another form of reductionist explanations for illness, whether that is biological, environmental or psychological. But using a critical realist framework to study mental illness also raises issues about the agency of people whose (...) rational capacities are thought to be diminished. In this article, I present the life history of one of 26 young adults I interviewed as part of a project on resilience. Because interviews reveal the complex causal forces in any person's life, they remind us that scientific explanations should not be reductionistic. Human agency can be diminished by biological illness, power structures in psychiatry, and cultural categories of mental illness diagnoses. But a critical realist framework allows me to explore how people who experience mental illness still exercise their capacity to reflect on the moral ends to which to direct their actions. (shrink)

Much social theory tends to emphasize the external goods of social practices, often neglecting the internal goods of those practices. For example, many analyses of religious rituals over-emphasize the instrumental and individualistic ends of prayer and liturgy by describing such religious practices as effective means for achieving external ends like positive emotions, psychological benefits, social status, or social capital. By contrast, we use a neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective to analyze the relational goods, such as trust and intimacy, which are expressed (...) and sustained through ritualized social practices. Using ethnographies of Haitian and Ghanaian Christians in the U.S., we demonstrate that prayer and liturgy can also be understood as constitutive-ends practices, practices in which human persons engage to sustain relations with others because there are goods inherent to those relationships. We further argue that in many religious practices, the end goals and the means—i.e. specific aspects of the practice—are inseparable. Our approach to developing theory combines critical engagement with numerous other theorists and also exploring how well various theories can explain the motivations and experiences of participants in the religious rituals where we conducted our ethnographies. (shrink)

Tomographic approach to describing both the states in classical statistical mechanics and the states in quantum mechanics using the fair probability distributions is reviewed. The entropy associated with the probability distribution (tomographic entropy) for classical and quantum systems is studied. The experimental possibility to check the inequalities like the position–momentum uncertainty relations and entropic uncertainty relations are considered.

Building on their important findings in The Source of the River, the authors now probe even more deeply into minority underachievement at the college level. Taming the River examines the academic and social dynamics of different ethnic groups during the first two years of college. Focusing on racial differences in academic performance, the book identifies the causes of students' divergent grades and levels of personal satisfaction with their institutions. Using survey data collected from twenty-eight selective colleges and universities, Taming the (...) River considers all facets of student life, including who students date, what fields they major in, which sports they play, and how they perceive their own social and economic backgrounds. The book explores how black and Latino students experience pressures stemming from campus racial climate and "stereotype threat"--when students underperform because of anxieties tied to existing negative stereotypes. Describing the relationship between grade performance and stereotype threat, the book shows how this link is reinforced by institutional practices of affirmative action. The authors also indicate that when certain variables are controlled, minority students earn the same grades, express the same college satisfaction, and remain in school at the same rates as white students. A powerful look at how educational policies unfold in America's universities, Taming the River sheds light on the social and racial factors influencing student success. (shrink)

In their account of the origins of human collaborative abilities, Tomasello et al. rely heavily on reasoning and evidence from adult–child collaborations. Peer collaborations are not discussed, but early peer collaborations differ from early adult–child collaborations. Describing and explaining the similarities and differences in shared intentionality with peers and adults will bring us closer to understanding the developmental mechanisms.

New nursing researchers are faced with a smorgasbord of competing methodologies. Sometimes, they are encouraged to adopt the research paradigms beloved of their senior colleagues. This is a problem if those paradigms are no longer of contemporary methodological relevance. The aim of this paper was to provide clarity about current research paradigms. It seeks to interrogate the continuing viability of positivism as a guiding paradigm for nursing research. It does this by critically analysing the methodological literature. Five major paradigms are (...) addressed: the positivist; the interpretivist/constructivist; the transformative; the realist; and the postpositivist. Acceptance of interpretivist, transformative or realist approaches necessarily entails wholesale rejection of positivism, while acceptance of postpositivism involves its partial rejection. Postpositivism has superseded positivism as the guiding paradigm of the scientific method. The incorporation in randomized controlled trials of postpositivist assumptions indicates that even on the methodological territory that it once claimed as its own, positivism has been rendered redundant as an appropriate paradigm for contemporary nursing research. (shrink)

In this article, we examine trends in women’s mobility among male-dominated, gender-neutral, and female-dominated occupations. Earlier research, largely employing data from the 1970s and early 1980s, showed that along with significant net movement by women into male-dominated fields, there was also substantial attrition from male-dominated occupations. Here, we build on previous research by examining how “gender-type” mobility rates have changed in recent decades. The findings indicate that while still quite high, levels of women’s occupational mobility among female, gender-neutral, and male (...) occupations have decreased considerably over time. We suggest that this is the result of increasing differentiation among women. In particular, many women, especially those in high-status occupations, plan to pursue employment in a male-dominated field, succeed in gaining entry, and tend to remain in these fields more often than their counterparts in previous decades. We interpret these findings as evidence that gender segregation is maintained by an enduring but imperfect system of social control that constrains women’s choices before, during, and after entry into the labor market. The evidence presented here underscores the importance of studying gender-type mobility as a distinct dimension of labor market inequality. (shrink)

This book seeks to arrive at a better understanding of the relationships between the objective and subjective aspects of time. It discusses the existence of fluent time, a controversial concept in many areas, from philosophy to physics. Fluent time is understood as directional time with a past, a present and a future. We experience fluent time in our lives and we adopt a temporal perspective in our ways of knowing and acting. Nevertheless, the existence of fluent time has been debated (...) for both philosophical and scientific reasons, thus creating a rift between the subjective and objective aspects of time. Starting from the basic notion of points of view, or perspectives, this book explores the relationships between objective or external time, as it has been conceptualized by science, and subjective or internal time, which is involved in our lived experiences. It establishes a general framework encompassing the nature, structure and mode of existence of points of view, in which the objective and subjective aspects of time can be integrated. The book mainly addresses researchers and postgraduates in philosophy and logic. Additionally, it offers inspiration for physicists and computer scientists involved in the modeling and simulation of complex behaviors for which the representation of internal time should be considered together with the notion of objective, external time. (shrink)

Objeto o sujeto de derechos Nature: Object or subject of rights Cartay, Belkis Acerca de la racionalidad científica: Feyerabend y los límites de la argumentación Scientific rationality, Feyerabend and the limits of the argument Castrejón, Gilberto El embrión es vida humana The embryo is human life Chacín, Ronald Ética y política: Las consecuencias prácticas de la modernización en la óptica de una acción comunicativa Ethics and politics: Practical consequences of modernization from the viewpoint of a comunicative act De La Vega, (...) Marta La libertad de expresión: De la doctrina a la ley The freedom of expresion: From doctrine to law Belandria, Margarita y González, Javier Globalización y "Glocalización" frente al debate postmoderno Globalization and "Glocalizacion" in the post-moderne debate Mora García, José Pascual El Derecho en "El Alcalde de Zalamea" Law in "The Mayor of Zalamea" Parodi Remón, Carlos Interdisciplinares La palabra y su universo de sentido Word and its universe of sense Espar, Teresa Procesos existenciales en el ritmo de la poesía Existential processes in the thythm of poetry Hocevar, Drina Traducciones Karl Löwith "Mi vida en Alemania antes y después de 1933" Vasquez, Eduardo. (shrink)

Cada uno de los capítulos que reúne este libro es una invitación a abrir la discusión sobre ética en el trabajo de campo etnográfico, en particular sobre el problema del «consentimiento informado». Algunas de las perspectivas son coincidentes con otras en cuanto a los temas y a la forma de abordarlos, pero otras veces están en franca contradicción. Sin embargo, los autores coinciden en que los dilemas éticos tienen que ver con la relación que en cada momento se establece y (...) que, por lo tanto, no hay soluciones universales, porque los intereses y los valores que orientan la relación entre las personas tampoco lo son. Pero el hecho de que los dilemas éticos sean contextuales y dependan de la relación que en cada caso se establece, no exime de la responsabilidad de plantearlos, sino al contrario: hay que señalarlos porque no se pueden anticipar y tampoco presuponer que están resueltos. Este ejercicio supone darle la vuelta a la tela del trabajo antropológico para ver las costuras, los remiendos y los errores, lo que implica una buena dosis de humildad y a veces un doloroso ejercicio de escarbar en la intimidad y dejar expuesto lo que normalmente se oculta. (shrink)

Frente a la esclavitud natural defendida por Aristóteles, algunos intentan salvaguardar la coherencia interna del discurso, mientras que otros la niegan. Sin pretender un juicio valorativo, se busca esclarecer la naturaleza del esclavo, de la mujer y de las relaciones entre señor, mujer y esclavo en el oikos. In face of the natural slavery defended by Aristotle, some commentators try to protect the internal coherence of his discourse, while others deny it. Trying not to give a value judgment, the article (...) seeks to clear up the nature of the slave, the woman and the relationships between master, woman, and slave within the oikos. (shrink)

Objeto o sujeto de derechos Nature: Object or subject of rights Cartay, Belkis Acerca de la racionalidad científica: Feyerabend y los límites de la argumentación Scientific rationality, Feyerabend and the limits of the argument Castrejón, Gilberto El embrión es vida humana The embryo is human life Chacín, Ronald Ética y política: Las consecuencias prácticas de la modernización en la óptica de una acción comunicativa Ethics and politics: Practical consequences of modernization from the viewpoint of a comunicative act De La Vega, (...) Marta La libertad de expresión: De la doctrina a la ley The freedom of expresion: From doctrine to law Belandria, Margarita y González, Javier Globalización y "Glocalización" frente al debate postmoderno Globalization and "Glocalizacion" in the post-moderne debate Mora García, José Pascual El Derecho en "El Alcalde de Zalamea" Law in "The Mayor of Zalamea" Parodi Remón, Carlos Interdisciplinares La palabra y su universo de sentido Word and its universe of sense Espar, Teresa Procesos existenciales en el ritmo de la poesía Existential processes in the thythm of poetry Hocevar, Drina Traducciones Karl Löwith "Mi vida en Alemania antes y después de 1933" Vasquez, Eduardo. (shrink)

This article is contextualized within the recent evolution of household employment in Spain. In the context of the strong demand for personal care services – due to rapid population ageing, mass incorporation of women into the labour market and insufficient collective provision of care services – the growth of domestic work is closely related to the overall social organization of care and specific migration policies that have eased, both implicitly and explicitly, the labour supply of foreign women into Spanish households. (...) In line with ongoing debates in the academic literature as well as in the political sphere, this article seeks to explain the extent to which domestic work can or should be considered as any other job in terms of social and employment rights and obligations. To that end, it evaluates changes in the regulation of household employment in Spain since the creation of the Special Regime for Household Employees in 1969 until the most recent 2011 reform. Following the recommendations of the ILO Convention for Domestic Workers, this latest reform puts domestic workers on equal footing with other dependent employees. It thus implies a sea change in relation to the discriminatory treatment embedded in previous legal frameworks. The main hindrance to the effective transposition of the norm however remains the strong presence of the informal economy and a dubious political commitment to ensure its application. (shrink)

We consider IOpen, the subsystem of PA (Peano Arithmetic) with the induction scheme restricted to quantifier-free formulas. We prove that each model of IOpen can be embedded in a model where the equation x 2 1 + x 2 2 + x 2 3 + x 2 4 = a has a solution. The main lemma states that there is no polynomial f(x,y) with coefficients in a (nonstandard) DOR M such that $|f(x,y)| for every (x,y) ∈ C, where C is (...) the curve defined on the real closure of M by C: x 2 + y 2 = a and $a > 0$ is a nonstandard element of M. (shrink)

Gómez Pereira's Antoniana Margarita (1554) represents one of the most original works of his time. Its author develops some issues of great impact in later philosophy, such as animal automatism, soul-body radical separation and self-awareness.

The worldwide problem of corruption is one that requires greater knowledge about responsible leadership. Based on the literature on responsible leadership, developmental psychology, and moral development, the purpose of our study is to understand the constructions of the motivational drivers behind the behaviors of a responsible leader. Using biographical and narrative methodologies, we analyzed the individual motivational drivers of Carlos Cavelier, a recognized responsible leaders who grew up and works in Colombia, a social/economic context characterized by institutional fragility and corruption. (...) Our findings suggest that the coherence between the immediate environments of development of the future leader, configured optimal environments in which the leader developed the moral conscience that guides his behavior as a responsible leader. Our study points out the need not to take the development of responsible leaders for granted, and presents propositions that allow for a deeper understanding of the micro‐foundations of responsible leadership, highlighting the importance of the contexts in which leaders are raised and in which they develop. Thus, our study has the potential to be heuristic and generative of future studies. (shrink)

La ética ambiental se enfoca en la responsabilidad humana hacia el entorno, especialmente debido al abuso de los recursos naturales en la actualidad. Esta relación ha causado impactos graves en el medio ambiente y en la vida humana, señalando la necesidad de un cambio genuino y práctico para que la humanidad asuma su responsabilidad en la preservación del entorno. Al considerar los puntos de vista teológicofilosóficos presentados por el papa Francisco y la propuesta ética de Hans Jonas para la era (...) tecnológica, se busca en este estudio fusionar ambas ideas para lograr que fomenten la biodiversidad. Esto implica reconocer el papel del ser humano como administrador responsable, promoviendo una ética que oriente hacia el futuro, manteniendo el respeto por la posición del ser humano como guardián del ecosistema y su diversidad biológica. (shrink)

Frente a la esclavitud natural defendida por Aristóteles, algunos intentan salvaguardar la coherencia interna del discurso, mientras que otros la niegan. Sin pretender un juicio valorativo, se busca esclarecer la naturaleza del esclavo, de la mujer y de las relaciones entre señor, mujer y esclavo en el oikos.

The question of what art is and why certain objects and events are considered art is examined. In the light of John Searle’s Social Philosophy, a hybrid Institutionalist-Functionalist explanation of what counts as art is presented. However, Searle’s apparatus applied to the ontology of the work of art is not enough to answer the question of why art has the status it exhibits. The proposal is to trace back the ontology of art to the origins of the dichotomy between freedom (...) and necessity, and more specifically to the notion of “end in itself” presented by Kant, as the status that persons have. Ultimately, the ontology of art emerges as a projection of the status “end in itself”, of personhood, to objects and events. (shrink)

This study focuses on influence that older adults, living in nursing homes, have over everyday activities. Everyday activities are key to sustain a sense of stability, predictability, and enjoyment in the local world of people's everyday and therefore a critical dimension of the person‐centeredness framework applied within gerontology. This narrative ethnographic study aimed to shed light on how influence can be situated contextually, and how it can emerge through activities as well as how it is negotiated in everyday by frail (...) older adults living in a nursing home. Residents, staff members, and significant others from one nursing home in an urban area of Sweden participated in this study. Data were gathered through fieldwork, including participant observation and formal and informal conversations during a period of 6 months. Data were analyzed through a narrative interpretative approach. The findings are presented in narrative form as exemplars. The exemplars—Craquelures as justification, Seeking a place for other life worlds and An almost perfect trip—reveal a gap between the client‐centeredness framework and lived experiences regarding older adults’ influence in everyday activities. The role of everyday activities in the context of frailty is discussed in terms of ethical and responsive engagement, and implications for health‐care practices are considered. (shrink)

This article seeks to explore the relationship between populism, 21st-century socialism, and the emergence of what has been referred to as an ‘ estado delincuente’, in the case of Venezuela. That is, a state structure permeated with transnational organized crime mafias in the executive and the judiciary, in the financial system, the prosecutor’s office, the police, the armed forces, the prison system, state-owned companies, governorships, and city councils, among other state institutions. First, I review conceptual aspects of populism to understand (...) how this served as the basis for creating the postulates of 21st-century socialism, which promoted the institutional destruction of Venezuelan democracy and created the conditions for the unbridled dissemination of state corruption. Second, emblematic cases of white-collar and blood crimes, nepotism and other corrupt activities are discussed to provide an idea of the magnitude of the issues that permeate the state apparatus. To conclude, I provide a critical summary of the consequences of this way of doing politics in contemporary Venezuela. (shrink)

Margarita Palacios reviews Howard Caygill's On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance, 2013. Howard Caygill reviews Margarita Palacios's Radical Sociality: On Disobedience, Violence and Belonging, 2013.

La inclusión del patriotismo dentro de la moralidad depende de cuál sea el fundamento de la legitimidad de las decisiones morales. El artículo analiza el texto de Alasdair MacIntyre, Is Patriotism a Virtue?, y pone en relieve la complejidad de referirse a los términos ‘patriotismo’ o ‘nación’ en el caso de situaciones políticas como, por ejemplo, la española.

En los debates recientes sobre la fórmula de la humanidad del imperativo categórico se intenta comprender los insumos conceptuales de dicha fórmula a partir de obras kantianas que no son propiamente la Fundamentación de la metafísica de las costumbres. Este proceder se ampara en la falsa suposición de que en la GMS no hay un significado claro o concreto de lo que encarnarían términos como humanidad (Mensch) o fin en sí mismo (Zweck an sich selbst). En virtud de lo anterior, (...) en este artículo buscaré analizar acuciosa y detalladamente qué es lo que tiene que decir Kant concretamente en GMS AA IV 42719-42833, puesto que ahí sí hay una argumentación que se construye progresivamente desde la noción de fin hasta la equivalencia de la naturaleza racional como fin en sí mismo, lo cual considero que es central para una comprensión adecuada de la fórmula de la humanidad presentada posteriormente. (shrink)

Many in the international development community have embraced the randomized controlled field experiment, akin to a biomedical clinical trial for social interventions, as the new “gold evidential standard” in program impact evaluation. In response, critics have called upon the method’s advocates to consider the moral dimensions of randomization, leading to a debate about the method’s ethics. My research intervenes in this debate by empirically investigating how researchers manage the perception of randomization in the field. Without the possibility of a placebo, (...) researchers rhetorically and materially frame the experiment differently for the control and treatment groups. Three technologies allow for this differential framing: geographic separation, temporal delay, and public randomization ceremonies. Geographic separation is a “technology of opacity” designed to obscure unequal resource distribution by disentangling the intervention and research components of the experiment for the control group. The latter two are technologies of transparency designed to expose the element of randomization but downplay conditions that may affect participant buy in. All three technologies work to preclude collective definitions of fair resource allocation, yet they are not fully successful in preventing modes of confrontation and resistance that lie outside of the experiment’s framing. (shrink)

The number of women occupying male-dominated blue-collar jobs continues to be very low. This study examines segregation in the blue-collar trades, taking into consideration both structural and individual factors. Using nationally representative data for 25 countries, the study shows that segregation in the blue-collar sector does not vary with the strength of vocational education and training programs. At the individual level, findings reveal higher degrees of social reproduction among working-class families, but parental background alone does not fully account for the (...) gender composition of the sector in which children end up working. Overall, the findings point to the existence of a socializing mechanism that entrenches horizontal segregation in the blue-collar sector. The study indicates that to reduce segregation in the blue-collar fields, policies must address this prior mechanism, both at the structural and individual level. (shrink)

In this paper, we explore digitally fabricated aesthetic enhancements and modifications of the body as well as digitally fabricated fauna habitats. We will address how we utilize speculative works through our bio inspired digitally fabricated designs via two of our most recent projects: {skin} D.E.E.P. and in silico et in situ. Through these two projects we explore cultural implications of the intersection of technology and biologically inspired art/design. Technology has provided an ever increasing amount of data which has facilitated the (...) way data can be used in aesthetic explorations. Technology can redefine the human experience by enhancing our senses, experiences, and forms of expression. In our work {skin} D.E.E.P., we explore these ideas via augmentation through wearables and biomimetic expressions on the skin through digitally fabricated prosthetics. {skin} D.E.E.P. employs temporary biomimetic skin patterns via wearable 3D printed exoskeletons. The first series of this work mimics the patterns and textures of animal skin via ephemeral impressions onto human skin. Taking inspiration from shedding snakeskin, we shed the outer layer by removing the 3D printed prosthesis. The epidermis retains the negative imprint of the prosthetic mimicking the look of serpent skin. The dermis reestablishes the smooth form of the human skin as it heals itself within the hour, erasing the ephemeral imprint, symbolically representing rebirth and renewal. Investigating the ephemeral aesthetic of textured patterns on human skin will not by any means provide a solution to an engineering problem, yet acts as a larger philosophical basis to conduct a discussion about the possibilities of blending bio inspired designs. The manifestation of data into physical form occurs via digital fabrication in our most recent series in silico et in situ: fauna habitats in the age of voxels, where we aim to create a new ecosystem for animals and to potentially augment their habitat. The habitats include pollinator waterers, spider habitats and turtle basking platforms. This project pushes forward with a new piece—the development of a 20-foot avian sculpture that will solely exist to support the habitat of the Chimney Swift species. The Chimney Swift is a near-threatened bird species in the US. in silico et in situ investigates the interplay of art, nature and technology by contextualizing sculptural works and placing these sculptures into nature. The project serves as a breeding ground for a larger dialogue about nature, culture, human intervention, design art and technology. Providing the artwork in the public sphere, barrier free in nature, fosters this discourse. (shrink)

The report is devoted to elaboratation creative philosophical models for optimization multi-cultural dialogue into “post modern” global society. The main idea of the article is to describe the basic philosophical models (rooting in ancient philosophy, as the most seriously and fundamental theoretical positions for solution the problem of many-pole's world), connecting them with the main points of modern philosophers (F. Fucuyama, A. Toffler, S. Hantington, S. Averintsev, A. Panarin, Y. Lotman, S. Filatov, A. Malashenco, E. Volkhova etc). The dialogue of (...) cultures is the “other side” of the process of globalization. The question about possible strategies of intercultural interaction, its opportunities and limits, as well as potential grounds for mutual understanding is ultimately vital todayfor contemporary philosophy of culture. Its solution determines perspective of consolidation of sodium as well as selection of definite position in the dialogue itself – whether it will be an isolationism leading to the “end of history” as to the returning to cyclic model of life of human community; or there will be retained an orientation for mutual displacement of value priorities (war of ideologies) as competitive adaptive programs. In any case the globalizing world in the order of self-organization in the next decades will stop at the selection of any definite strategy. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to propose a research agenda for future studies of local forms of caregiving. It does this by exploring practices of care giving and receipt through the prism of childcare. Focusing on Nairobi, it investigates one critical form of care work in the city: the labour of women who work as ‘nannies’ in private homes, a form of labour that has received little systematic study or scholarly attention. Every day, women in Nairobi construct complex and (...) far-ranging care chains that ensure that the socially necessary labour of childcare takes place. The phenomenon of ‘diverted mothering’ that has been associated with the globalisation of care can also be understood as a local phenomenon. Whereas global care chains involving migrant domestic workers have been the focus of detailed investigation, hitherto the workings of more widespread and highly fragile local care chains in the cities of the third world have been neglected. We argue that it is critical to understand practices of intimate and emotional labour in the context not just of global migration but in situations of severe intersecting inequalities within the global south. (shrink)