Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

Recently a role for the vagus nerve in conditioning food preferences was established in rodents. In a prospective controlled clinical trial in humans, invasive vagus nerve stimulation shifted food choice toward lower fat content. Here we explored whether hedonic aspects of an orally sampled food stimulus can be modulated by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) in humans. In healthy participants (n= 10, five women, 20–32 years old, no obesity) we tested liking and wanting ratings of food samples with varying (...) fat or sugar content with or without tVNS in a sham-controlled within-participants design. To determine effects of tVNS on food intake, we also measured voluntary consumption of milkshake. Spontaneous eye blink rate was measured as a proxy for dopamine tone. Liking of low-fat, but not high-fat puddings, was higher for tVNS relative to sham stimulation. Other outcomes showed no differences. These findings support a role for the vagus nerve promoting post-ingestive reward signals. Our results suggest that tVNS may be used to increase liking of low-calorie foods, which may support healthier food choices. (shrink)

Multiculturalism, namely the coexistence of different cultural traditions within the framework of a single socio-political structure, is one of the most salient characteristics of western democratic societies. This situation is due mainly to two factors. On the one hand, we find a plurality of historical communities within the State that have different cultural roots, and each one of them defends the right to have its cultural identity recognised. On the other hand, there is a growing exodus of people from less (...) developed countries into western ones. In this paper I analyse from a philosophical point of view the multicultural situation that has its origin in immigration, paying attention to a public debate on this topic that has been held in Spain recently. I also analyse some conditions that must be taken into account by educators if they want to promote an adequate integration of immigrants into society, being respectful both of their cultural identity and the rights of the society of destination. (shrink)

In a case study of the social studies planning and leaching of two first year teachers, it was found that the social studies methods course is influential on teachers' beliefs. The implementation of those beliefs, however, was constrained by the ecology of the classroom situation. The teacher's views of the curriculum were found to be particularly influential.

The word έρμηνϵία (ermeneia) means expression and interpretation of a thought, from which the word “hermeneutics” comes. Some authors maintain that the name of the Greek god Hermes subsequently came from the same root. Hermes was the brother of Apollo and Athene and the son of Zeus and Maia, from which it could be deduced that he is paired by family lineage with images of light on the one hand and darkness and opacity on the other. Both metaphors remind us (...) that the expression and interpretation of thoughts may follow either a rational or an irrational order. The fact that most authors agree that it was after the expansion of Greek culture that the problem of interpretation acquired such marked prominence gives us an idea of the connection between hermeneutics and otherness. (shrink)

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are intended to develop, maintain and administrate information using computer systems, communication networks, portable dispositives, etc. In addition to that, this paper deals with ICT’s power to create new contexts: what is called digital ambiences. According to the author the design and even the concept of these intelligent ambiences has problems that have to do both with the use of reasoning and the display of inferential and interpretative processes to interact with the social context in (...) an individual or a collective way. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to argue that abductive reasoning is part of a cognitive process of interpreting something as being something. The paper holds two fundamental claims. First, it proposes a definition of interpretation as a type of cognitive event. Second, it is argued that in some cases the activity of interpreting is a process to search for plausible assumptions for consistent explanatory hypotheses formation. As a result of these two theses, it is concluded that logic of interpretation (...) could enrich and extend the study of so-called reproduction or hypothesis generation. The treatment given here to abduction is contrasted and integrated into the history of studies on logical pattern of abduction and its applications. (shrink)

A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in our judgment or our processing of what we perceive. Its raison d'être is the evolutionary need to produce immediate judgments in order to adopt a position quickly in response to stimuli, problems, or situations that catch our attention for some reason. They have a social dimension because they are present in the interactions and decision-making processes of ordinary life. They can be understood to be an adaptive response to human inability to (...) process all of the available information that we receive and selectively filter through biased reasoning or through procedures and heuristic rules. (shrink)

Taking into account the critical analysis of the first scientific magazines written in Spanish during the so-called “República de las letras”, the author explores the progressive constitution of the written press as an ideal public space to express Opinion and Thought. The study looks over the formation of the abovementioned public space from a point of view of its dimension and both as a cognitive and juridic agent. In this article, the contradictions, paradoxes and limitations of that double dimension are (...) explored. The two dimensions, namely the cognitive and juridical, are examined in the context of the public opinion for both the civil society and the scientific one. (shrink)

In the last forty years the number of specialized publications on deliberative democracy has increased steadily. Yet, today, one of the greatest challenges we still face today is to deepen into the knowledge of our actual and singular deliberative cultures. In order to achieve this, it is necessary that we use theoretical and methodological approaches that enable us to capture the inherent complexity to the specific forms of deliberation that are present in as different areas as that of politics, economics, (...) law, science, urbanism or the Net. (shrink)

Der Kodex, mit dem sich die Produzenten des universellen Wissens in der Gelehrtenrepublik identifizierten, befindet sich während des 18. Jahrhunderts im Wandel. Dies entnehmen wir einer bekannten Studie von Goldgar (1995), die unter anderem von der Ausbreitung der Zeitungspresse handelt. Zum Teil war dieser Umstand durch die Erfordernisse zeitgenössischer Höflichkeits- und Zivilitätskonzepte bedingt, aber auch den ökonomischen Aspekten eines stoßkräftigen Verlagsmarktes geschuldet, der sich aus dem damaligen Aufstieg der sogenannten Papierzeitungen ergab.

En estas páginas hemos presentado varios argumentos para defender que existe una conexión entre el empleo de heurísticas y los procesos de deliberación. En lugar de caracterizar las heurísticas en función de las disciplinas, los campos y/o los ámbitos en que se emplean—tal y como hace, por ejemplo, el grupo ABC, i.e. racionalidad ecológica—las hemos proyectado sobre nuestros enclaves deliberativos, esto es, sobre un espacio eminentemente retórico y político. En dichos enclaves, tal y como solía recordarnos Quintín Racionero, la téchne (...) de la persuasión se nos presenta como parte del órganon de la filosofía práctica porque está aplicada a un espacio ontológico fundado por la comunicación humana. Y es en el seno de dicha comunicación como cabe entender la proliferación de razonamientos heurísticos encaminados al cálculo, la estimación y/o la ponderación, con ayuda de los cuales no sólo se orienta la acción colectiva sino las mismas fases de la deliberación. (shrink)

This article explores the extent to which our deliberative culture determines our capacity to recognize relevant knowledge, to select and value epistemic authority, or to recognize the importance of individual and/or collective epistemic achievements in a deliberative context. This investigation is especially relevant in a moment in which the formation of public opinion no longer depends exclusively on political parties. This leads to a paradoxical situation in which the diffuse energy issued by the electorate is not easily subjected to the (...) discipline of party-oriented proposals or by media disputes that, despite their projection, may be ignored by many people. Thus, it is unclear in which sense social networks act as an alternative to the traditional system of intermediation set up by trade unions and pressure groups. By combining the approaches of deliberative democracy and social cognition theories, this essay sustains the relevance of what is defined here as ‘cooperative cognition’ in order to face this challenge. (shrink)

Interactions with global markets offer development opportunities for Indigenous communities. They also place pressure on the natural resources that communities depend upon for their livelihood and, in many cases, their political and cultural autonomy. These markets often interact with family-based enterprises embedded within commons, with important implications for the social relationships and shared territorial resources that characterise such regimes. In this paper, we analyse the relationships that exist between commons, global markets, and small-scale family enterprises, using the case of mezcal (...) production—an alcoholic beverage made from agave—in an Indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico. Most mezcal production is organized at the family level; yet the raw materials and inputs necessary for making mezcal are held communally and regulated by locally-crafted institutions. Empirical data show that as family enterprises engage with an emergent global market for mezcal, the commons become essential for not only protecting territorial resources but also maintaining a degree of autonomy from powerful global markets and value chains. However, this requires substantial investment in monitoring and enforcement, and for community members to value sustainable commons management over short-term economic self-interest. To seek autonomy while participating in global markets, producer families also join together to develop cooperative strategies to access markets on better terms. (shrink)

So wohl Campbell als auch Whately sind sehr besorgt um die verschiedenen argumentations Formen zu analisieren, aber nicht in seiner abstrecten Vielfalt, sondern den verschiedenen Ableihungen des gebrauches oder der gegenwärtigen argumentations absicht im Entwurf jedes Arguments. In seiner Analyse haben sie beobachtet, dass die etische Begründung bemerkensmert verschieden als die Wissenschafliche. Beide Verfasser sind damit einverstanden dass es einen grossen Unterschied gibt zwischen: der existenten Prämisse in der Wissenchaftlichen Probe, und zweitens, die Form in der die Prämissen im induktiven (...) (oder moralen) Begründung verbunden sind, wiel in diesen letzten verschaffen die Prämissen getrennter Wiese eine Kosistenz auf dem Abschluss, aber sie müsen zusammen bleiben damit der Abschluss beweisbarer ist. Dieser Unterschied zwischen den art die Wharheit oder probabilität zwischen Wissenschaft und Humanität zu erzeugen, ist eines der grossen Themen der Philosophie aber das hermeneutische Paradigma zweifalt über die wissenschaftliche Folgerung, sind die Prämissen nicht doch der gleichen art vorgestellt, wer weiss, mit einer gewiss logischen Interdependenz zwischen inhnen und eine extralogische argumentative last die sie verbindet dem Anlass die Schlussfolgenung konsistente zu machen. (shrink)

Las heurísticas son procedimientos de estimación utilizados por todos nosotros al razonar en nuestra vida ordinaria.

Existen insospechados parecidos de familia. En sus clases de Ciencia y Filosofía Política en la Universidad de Yale, Seyla Benhabib suele insistir en que las personas se terminan pareciendo mucho más a sus propias instituciones que a los Estados o a las naciones en las que viven. Esta aseveración resulta inquietante. De todos es sabido que podemos identificarnos más o menos con nuestra propia nación, pero la idea de que, en verdad, todos vayamos a terminar pareciéndonos mucho más a ciertas (...) instituciones solo es comparable a una de esas experiencias culinarias que proporciona Dabiz Muñoz, calificadas por él mismo como “de romperte la cabeza”. Laureado con el Nobel en 1993, el economista e historiador Douglass C. North sostuvo que los seres humanos idean las instituciones para crear orden, reducir la incertidumbre y estructurar la interacción socio-política. (shrink)

Lorenzo Peña y Gonzalo has developed a logic, a legal philosophy and a political thought of a deeply neo-Leibnizian nature. The neo-Leibnizian mark characterizes both his philosophical thesis and the terms has coined in his contributions to the theory of knowledge, theodicy, ontology, political philosophy, etc. Above all, this mark is present in his conception of Law and of the logic of legal situations. Under the light of the political problems and crossroads of the present time, this interview allows for (...) an approach to some of the intellectual findings in his work. (shrink)

Uno de los conceptos fundamentales del área de las Ciencias humanas y sociales es el de «cognición social». Este término se suele utilizar para referir teorías, categorías y principios que explican e interpretan fenómenos relacionados con el conocimiento que los seres humanos poseen sobre el mundo social.

In this paper art history and visual studies, the disciplines that study visual culture, are presented as a field whose conjectural paradigm can be used to understand the epistemic problems associated with abduction. In order to do so, significant statements, concepts and arguments from the work of several specialists in this field have been highlighted. Their analysis shows the fruitfulness and potential for understanding the study of visual culture as a field that is interwoven with the assumptions of abductive cognition.

In this article, the hypothesis according to which the institutional change is determined by the mobilization of social capital is exposed. It is analysed what consequences derived from this fact in relation to the processes of deinstitutionalization of the policy. It proposes an interpretation of academically relevant results about the meaning of the term ‘deinstitutionalization’, explains some of the most important antecedents on institutional theory and, fially, proposes some fundamental ideas to advance the philosophical reflction about the so-called new institutionalism.

"Aranguren: filosofía en la vida y vida en la filosofía" llevó por nombre la exposición sobre la figura y el legado de José Luis L. Aranguren (Ávila 1909- Madrid 1996) que pudo verse desde el 4 de junio al 26 de julio de 2009 en el Pabellón Transatlántico de la Residencia de Estudiantes de Madrid con ocasión del centenario del nacimiento del filósofo abulense.

When are we, in fact, arguing? Even one and the same author may offer more than one definition of what he understands by argumentation: this is partly because the problem of argumentation is not confined to a single area of knowledge or of practical life. Definitions of argumentation are as varied as the different positions taken on the question of what exactly we do when we argue. Be that as it may, we are struck by the fact that the problem (...) of argumentation (above all in its application to hypothetic-inductive methods) has not been analysed as a problem linked to interpretation. (shrink)

Some authors sustain that historical research is an effect of a specific historiographical context (Jenkins, 1991; González de Oleaga, 2009). An approach to the historiographical debate between constructivism and recontructivism is presented in this paper. Two theses are here defended. The first one affirms that the above mentioned debate is deeply related to epistemological questions (study of mental representations, different conceptions about historical reasoning functions, historical reasoning, cognitive bias, and informal falacies). The second thesis affirms that each historiographical conception can (...) be understood as the effect of assuming a specific perspective about these epistemic questions. As an evidence of this, some connections between historiography and epistemology will be analysed through the analogy between the reconstructivism vs. constructivism debate, and the epistemological debate detectivism vs. constitutivism (Finkelstein, 2003). (shrink)

Comprender las tecnologías de la comunicación a la luz de las redes con que se comunican y entran en cooperación las personas ha sido una constante en autores que no han disociado su visión acerca del significado de las tecnologías respecto a los nuevos movimientos sociales. Este artículo sostiene que las TIC no son sólo una red a la que se suman los individuos, sino que actúan como tecnologías sociales cuyo perfeccionamiento depende tanto de la diversidad de sus funciones (socio-políticas, (...) cognitivas, etc.) como de la flexibilidad con que se adapten a nuestra diversidad funcional (ciclos de la vida, motricidad, umbrales de percepción, etc.). Prueba de ello son desafíos tecnológicos como el diseño de dispositivos llevables, las redes de área personal, las interfaces de usuario de alta usabilidad, los sistemas de cuidado en el hogar, etc. Este artículo explora dichas tesis en relación con el entorno educativo. (shrink)

Benito Pérez Galdós encontró en la clase media una fuente de inspiración para la creación de una novela de costumbres con una destacada dimensión política: describir y hacer comprensibles los problemas de índole moral que hacían muy difícil concebir e implantar un orden social basado en la prosperidad individual y colectiva. Aunque su talante descriptivo, su técnica realista, costumbrista e incluso naturalista, como se ha dicho en alguna ocasión —sin que estemos aquí completamente de acuerdo con ello—,es una de las (...) más sobresalientes de las letras españolas, Galdós nunca renunció al uso de una poderosa voz narrativa con la que imprimió a su literatura un declarado afán de comprensión de la realidad social. (shrink)

Understanding Information and Communication Technologies through the networks in which people get con¬nected, communicate and co-operate has been a constant feature in the work of researchers who have not dissociated their view of the meaning of technologies from new social movements. This paper maintains that Information and Communication Technologies are not only networks that people join individually, but they also act as social technologies. Their improvement depends both on the diversity of their functions (social, political, cognitive, etc.) and the flexibility (...) with which they adapt to functional diversity (for example, to life cycles, changing and fluctuating mobility or audiovisual perception thresholds). This idea is supported by the new technological challenge represented by portable devices, such as, personal area networks, high-use user interfaces, and systems designed for home care. These important changes will be explored in this paper in connection with their value for education. (shrink)

One of the challenges related to the discursive practices of argumentative agents is to get to know if those interactions have an institutional effect. In this article, it is argued that in the new institutionalism, theoretical approaches and deterministic analysis are outlined to investigate argumentative practices that take place in processes of legitimation and recognition. Here a double socio-institutional and discursive or constructivist approach to the argumentation theory is defended, and it is argued that this perspective could be extended to (...) a research program aimed at interpreting argumentative processes in the public sphere that act as calculation mechanism and conformation of social capital. (shrink)

«Fortaleza» y «debilidad» son dos adjetivos que se han utilizado prolijamente en la literatura científica sobre institucionalismo para describir la permanencia o, por el contrario, la porosidad y maleabilidad de las reglas y principios rectores en los que están atrincheradas las instituciones que sobreviven en equilibrio y, por tanto, no son alteradas unilateralmente.

Take the strong rhetoric! This expression comes to mind as we set in order the ideas and impressions prompted by Sandra Harding’s “An Organic Logic of Research: A Response to Posey and Navarro”.

The relationship between the necessity to ensure that information is shared in the stages of deliberation and the overcoming of what Dryzek (2001) called constriction of deliberative economy is directly related to the proponents and opponents’ propensity to submit and add information differently, in a plural manner. This article describes the salient features of the deliberative turn in order to defend that this propensity is not individual. The evolution of the public space in science and in politics are both paradigmatic (...) examples to appreciate that individual deliberation, and even mere aggregation of opinions, are consistently interpreted only if they are part of social practices and collective institutions aimed at defending tolerance towards positions, beliefs and interpretations that are different or even confronted. This paper argues that the so called model of contestatory deliberative democracy contributes to the acquisition of knowledge precisely because it fosters a plurality of epistemic states associated with practices as consensus and dissent. (shrink)

Este artículo muestra la conexión entre heurísticas sociales y deliberación. En lugar de caracterizar las heurísticas según disciplinas o campos, aquí se proyectan sobre nuestros enclaves deliberativos. La autora sostiene que el empleo de heurísticas sociales orienta el flujo de la información y la participación en las distintas fases deliberativas, y es necesario analizarlas para establecer indicadores con los que medir grados de deliberación. Esta hipótesis da lugar a una visión pluralista sobre la función social de las heurísticas entendidas como (...) caja de herramientas con nuevos instrumentos y utilidades sociales. Según dicha perspectiva, habría que integrar este tipo de razonamiento en un plan de acción más amplio que explicara en qué sentido las heurísticas son recursos que producen conocimiento, al tiempo que un tipo de conocimiento ya producido. (shrink)

La autora presenta la hipótesis de que es en la hermenéutica filosófica donde se encuentran los fundamentos especulativos de las llamadas teorías de la argumentación. Para mostrar la consistencia de esta hipótesis no sólo se exploran las más famosas tesis históricas sobre la conexión entre analíticos y continentales, sino que se presenta un análisis de conceptos (plausibilidad, dialéctica, retórica, razonamiento heurístico, razonamiento tópico) del que se desprenden las bases hermenéuticas de los desarrollos en el campo de las teorías de la (...) argumentación. (shrink)

La oposición a una estricta separación entre las dimensiones dialéctica y retórica de la actividad argumentativa es una de las aportaciones más destacadas y peculiares de la denominada escuela holandesa sobre argumentación. Frans H. van Eemeren y Peter Houtlosser reaccionaron contra una separación estricta entre dialéctica y retórica en varios trabajos, pero uno de los más inspiradores es sin duda su artículo “William the Silent’s argumentative discourse” (1998) presentado en la ciudad de Ámsterdam con ocasión de la cuarta conferencia organizada (...) por la International Society for the Study of Argumentation (ISSA). Sobre este tema siguieron investigando para presentar un análisis de la perspectiva dialéctica inherente al caso de Guillermo I de Orange en un congreso de la Japan Debate Association en Tokio (van Eemeren y Houtlosser, 2000). (shrink)

Este libro es un homenaje a la trayectoria intelectual y académica de la profesora María Teresa López de la Vieja, Catedrática emérita de la Universidad de Salamanca. En él se trazan algunos de los caminos que, con su obra, nos invita a transitar. El volumen recoge contribuciones de colegas de varias nacionalidades y procedentes de diversos ámbitos de reflexión que le son afines: la filosofía moral y política, la literatura, la teoría de la argumentación, los estudios feministas, las éticas aplicadas, (...) la bioética. Los capítulos que componen este libro dan voz a varias generaciones de investigadoras e investigadores que han acompañado y acompañan su andadura académica y que aquí dialogan con ella haciendo propias sus preocupaciones intelectuales. Con su participación contribuyen al justo reconocimiento de su dedicación a la labor docente e investigadora. (shrink)

motion and Psyche is a really exciting book. In just 47 pages, Marc Jackson gets to define what is an emotion, what emotion categories can be established, when an action represents an emotional conflict, why some people tend to keep memories of certain events while others forget them, and so on. Emotion and Psyche is a reflection on the nature of emotions. But it is much more. The author does not only question the meaning of emotions in our affective life, (...) he presents an audacious thesis that describes the intricate and complex relationship between emotional life, cognition, and psyche in a broad sense. (shrink)