This essay reviews the documents of the pontifical magisterium of the Church from the encyclical Mater et magistra (1961) to the exhortation Evangelii gaudium (2013), in order to show the Church’s historical commitment to the defense of the environment. It then argues that Laudato si’ elevates the theological status of the environmental crisis to that of a new social issue, much as Leo XIII did for the industrial crisis with his encyclical letter Rerum novarum (1891).

La Iglesia es para Ratzinger una red de comunidades eucarísticas que miran a Roma, en las que la palabra y el ministerio son agentes de comunión eclesial. La esposa de Cristo es el pueblo convocado por Dios que se reúne en torno a la palabra y los sacramentos, especialmente alrededor del cuerpo eucarístico. Los conceptos de sucesión apostólica, del episcopado y del correlativo primado resultan nucleares. Por eso el diálogo teológico con otras confesiones cristianas se centra en torno a los (...) conceptos de autoridad, ministerio y las distintas concepciones de la eclesiología eucarística, donde la perspectiva católica presenta su propia especificidad. (shrink)

Luigi Pareyson is an italian existencialist philosopher, the unknown master of Umberto Eco and Gianni Vattimo. In this essay, the author shows the connection between aesthetics,onthology and hermeneutics in Pareyson. The paradigm of the interpretation of the work of art can be also useful for the discovery of truth, as a -at the same time- personal and universal knowledge. These lines end with a comparision between the Gadamer and Pareyson's hermeneutics.

Entre otras muchas fuentes, Ratzinger recibió su formación de los tres grandes maestros: Agustín, Buenaventura y Tomás de Aquino. Aun rechazando una escolástica impersonal y esencialista, reconoce la autoridad del Aquinate –vista a través de un tomismo agustiniano– en la antropología, la doctrina de la gracia y de la creación, así como en la naturaleza del acto de fe y el método de la Teología. El teólogo alemán procura compatibilizar la perspectiva ontológica con la histórico-salvífica, la personalista con la metafísica. (...) En la síntesis entre fe y razón, filosofía y teología, Ratzinger encuentra en el Aquinate un buen modelo, que se fundamenta no solo en el orden de la gracia sino también en el de la creación. (shrink)

El jesuita morisco P. Ignacio de las Casas colaboró en la traducción de algunos de los libros plúmbeos encontrados en Granada a fines del siglo XVI. Inicialmente se manifestó partidario de su autenticidad, pero pronto se convenció de que eran una falsificación. Desarrolló entonces una activa lucha para conseguir que la Iglesia evitara su divulgación. En el artículo se pasa revista a su intervención como traductor y a los argumentos que utilizó para criticar la doctrina de los libros plúmbeos. El (...) P. Las Casas, además de señalar la presencia de elementos islámicos, ve en ellos claras muestras de antiguas herejías antitrinitarias. Aunque no los considera obra de moriscos, señala el atractivo que el mesianismo y milenarismo contenidos en la doctrina de los libros plúmbeos tenía para los moriscos. (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene como principal objetivo analizar las dinámicas migratorias que se llevan adelante en África Occidental a partir del interrogante que se desprende de los discursos dominantes respecto de la supuesta invasión de migrantes africanos a Europa, especialmente después de 2015. Desde ese año, la consigna más frecuente ha sido “Grandes oleadas de refugiados arriban a Europa”. Sin embargo, la realidad muestra que no existe tal invasión en términos cuantitativos absolutos, además de profundizarse el discurso racista y xenófobo (...) que habla de “crisis migratoria” para alertar sobre una presunta invasión de africanos al continente, cuando casi un 80% de quienes emigran de sus países se dirige a otro país del continente africano y tan solo el, aproximadamente, 20% restante “intenta” cruzar a Europa. Y este último dato representa un porcentaje de población extremadamente reducido en relación con la población europea. A partir del trabajo de campo en Senegal, Malí, Burkina Faso y Níger, realizado para una tesis de doctorado, las reflexiones en torno al problema planteado se orientan a desmontar ideas ampliamente difundidas por medios de comunicación y determinados ámbitos académicos en relación con las migraciones subsaharianas en dirección a Europa, en muchos casos fundamentadas por representaciones vinculadas a “la huida del continente”, “las guerras”, “los conflictos étnicos” y “la invasión de migrantes a Europa”, entre otras. (shrink)

Resumen: La capacidad unificadora de una teoría científica es un rasgo usualmente contemplado a la hora de evaluar su adecuación. Kitcher ha elucidado satisfactoriamente tal noción mediante su enfoque de los patrones explicativos. Sin embargo, su perspectiva adolece de ciertas carencias. Concretamente, sostendremos que el requisito de rigurosidad de los patrones para evaluar la capacidad unificadora debe ser repensado, pues atenta contra la heterogeneidad característica de las diferentes aplicaciones de teorías unificadoras. A su vez, mostraremos cómo estas dificultades bien pueden (...) ser subsanadas desde el marco del estructuralismo metateórico sin por ello resignar ninguna de las acertadas intuiciones de Kitcher. -/- Palabras clave: Explicación, Kitcher, estructuralismo metateórico, unificación, unificación espuria. -/- Abstract: Kitcher has satisfactorily explicated unification using his particular approach to scientific explanation. However, we believe that his perspective has certain problems, which have been inherited by more recent approaches to the topic. Specifically, the requirement of stringency of patterns that Kitcher proposes to determine the unifying power of an explanatory pattern undermines the typical and peculiar heterogeneity we can find in different applications of unifying theories. We will show how this topic can be better addressed by the perspective built by metatheoretical structuralism without sacrificing any of Kitcher’s correct intuitions. -/- Keywords: Explanation, Kitcher, metatheoretical structuralism, spurious unification, unification. (shrink)

El Concilio Vaticano II ofrece una teología del diaconado, al aludir a la condición diaconal de toda la Iglesia y, más en concreto, del ministerio ordenado. Esta diakonía se expresa pues en clave de servicio, y no de poder. En este artículo se responde a la pregunta de cuál es la diferencia con un laico, quien puede desempeñar funciones muy parecidas. La condición sacramental del diaconado ha sido enseñada siempre por la Tradición y el Magisterio de la Iglesia, mientras que (...) la doctrina del “carácter diaconal” como representación in persona Christi Servi sería más bien un desarrollo del magisterio posconciliar. El Concilio ha afirmado que el diácono ha sido ordenado non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium, para expresar la colaboración con los obispos, con sus presbíteros y con todo el Pueblo de Dios. Sirve a la mesa de los pobres, a la Mesa de la Palabra y a la Mesa eucarística. Su misión consiste en crear las condiciones para que la comunidad local se convierta en Iglesia y pueda así contar con e. (shrink)

Luigi Pareyson is an italian existencialist philosopher, the unknown master of Umberto Eco and Gianni Vattimo. This not very well known philosopher has a consistent anthropology, which carries out its consecuences in his aesthetics and hermeneutics. Consecuently, he also considers philosophy as a permanent dialogue between each person with truth and other persons. This is the future of philosophy, he says.

On 20 December 1973, an attack by ETA put an end to the lives of Franco's head of government, his chauffeur and his bodyguard. This had important consequences for both the dictatorship and the terrorist group. Based on the existing sources, historians have developed a fairly credible account of the events. Nevertheless, the fact that ETA had managed to assassinate such a prominent politician, combined with some loose ends in the police investigation and the absence of a sentence gave rise (...) to all kinds of speculation. Furthermore, the case of Carrero Blanco has inspired narratives of uneven quality. In this paper we examine the interrelationship between history, conspiracy theories and fiction surrounding the attack. (shrink)

This paper is divided into two parts. In the first one I distinguish between weak and strong Anti-Archimedeanisms, the latter being the view that metaethics, just as any other discipline attempting to work out a second-order conceptual, metaphysical non-committed discourse about the first-order discourse composing normative practices, is conceptually impossible or otherwise incoherent. I deal in particular with Ronald Dworkin’s famous exposition of the view. I argue that strong Anti-Archimedeanism constitutes an untenable philosophical stance, therefore making logical space for the (...) practice of a discipline such as metaethics—conceived as ethically neutral. This makes space, concurrently, for neutral conceptual jurisprudence. In the second part of the article, I attempt to show two things. On the one hand, that Dworkin’s widely discussed ‘challenge of disagreements’ to legal positivism is founded upon strong Anti-Archimedeanism. On the other hand, that having rejected strong Anti-Archimedeanism we should consequently reject the challenge as a serious challenge to positivism. This move, of course, does not thereby imply that accounting for legal disagreements is not an important jurisprudential task. But it marks—contra Dworkin—that there is no principled or a priori impossibility of doing so within a positivist framework. (shrink)

Practices related to research misconduct seem to have been multiplied in recent years. Many cases of scientific fraud have been exposed publicly, and journals and academic institutions have deployed different measures worldwide in this regard. However, the influence of specific social and cultural environments on scientific fraud may vary from society to society. This article analyzes how scientists in Japan deal with accusations of scientific fraud. For such a purpose, a series of scientific fraud cases that took place in Japan (...) has been reconstructed through diverse sources. Thus, by analyzing those cases, the social basis of scientific fraud and the most relevant aspects of Japanese cultural values and traditions, as well as the concept of honour which is deeply involved in the way Japanese scientists react when they are accused of and publicly exposed in scientific fraud situations is examined. (shrink)

The continental drift controversy has been deeply analysed in terms of rationalist notions, which seem to find there a unique topic to describe the weight of evidence for reaching consensus. In that sense, many authors suggest that Alfred Wegener’s theory of the original supercontinent Pangea and the subsequent continental displacements finally reached a consensus when irrefutable evidence became available. Therefore, rationalist approaches suggest that evidence can be enough by itself to close scientific controversies. In this article I analyse continental drift (...) debates from a different perspective which is based on styles of thought. I’ll argue that continental drift debate took much longer than it was usually recognized with two styles of thought coexisting for hundreds of years. These were fixism and mobilism and they were always confronting their own evidence and interpretations and functioning as general frameworks for the acceptability of a specific theory. Therefore, this text aims to bring much broader sociological elements than usually involved in the analysis of the continental drift theory. (shrink)

It is presented here a Spanish version of the Prodromus’ text 146 Hörandner, with footnotes and a study, on the basis of the Migliorini’s edition with some little modifications. It is postulated that this text is a literary mime, which performance was made in a social gathering, a Byzantine θέατρον.

The article appearing previously in this journal entitled “Styles of Thought on the Continental Drift Debate” (Pellegrini 2019) prompted a response from Weber and Šešelja (2020) which they termed as “a defence of rationalist accounts”. They argue that their self-designated “sophisticated rationalism” explains the closure of the continental-drift debate without being affected by my critiques to rationalist approaches. While ignoring the empirical evidence that shows the complexity of the debate and the necessity to include broader social elements in the analysis (...) (such as scientists denying continental drift even after the plate tectonics theory, others supporting it without being familiarized with the literature), they proclaim to be unconvinced about the analysis of the styles of thought. In order to clarify differences in the approach to the continental-drift historical controversy, I respond here to the criticism my paper drew while discussing the place of rationalism when explaining the acceptance of a theory. I will argue that their distinction between “crude” and “sophisticated” rationalism does not solve the problem of social aspects being left aside by rationalists in view of the acceptance of a theory. I will also argue that in order to understand what leads people to embrace a belief (namely scientists in accepting a theory), the analysis of mere cognitive or epistemic arguments is not enough and it leads to a reductionist explanation as to social behaviour. (shrink)

The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian’an and the Three Kingdoms. By Xiaofei Tian. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, vol. 108. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard University, 2018. Pp. xvi + 454. $49.95.

This article discusses explanations behind theory choice, that is, ultimately, what leads people to accept a certain claim as valid. There has been a recent debate as to how closure was achieved in the continental-drift discussion. The controversy had found its usual explanation under rationalist terms: Wegener’s 1912 continental-drift theory was accepted 50 years later only after the plate tectonic theory had provided more evidence or a more in-depth problem-solving capacity. Nevertheless, a re-examination of the controversy under constructivist terms argued (...) that closure was achieved by a change in the style of thought. This analysis prompted some authors to react calling to a ‘defence of rationalism’ and insisting on explaining that the continental-drift theory was only accepted because of epistemic reasons. As the debate impacts on the way to explain scientific controversies, in this article I analyze rationalist and constructivist approaches with respect to ways to explain the social acceptance or rejection of a theory. The analytical perspectives will be contextualized within a broader theoretical discussion in philosophy and social sciences about the role of different factors that condition knowledge, which will also include an empirical approximation in the analysis of GMO and continental-drift controversies. Ultimately, the debate with rationalism is situated in a broader context about the ways of explaining the social acceptance of a theory, arguing that the problem with the rationalism that confuses a purely logical explanation with a sociological one is that it tends to judge rather than understand. (shrink)

The problem of religious freedom in Latin America is focused on the distinction between religious liberty and religious toleration. Religious freedom, by definition, must exclude the principle of toleration in religion. In most countries in Latin America, the power and prestige of the State is behind the Roman Catholic Church. Other beliefs and religions are merely tolerated to varying degrees. This and other factors are indications of religious coercion. God has not given any State the power to compel human beings (...) to religious observance. Equal rights to all and special privileges to none is the ideal which, in Latin America, seems to be neither explicitly nor implicitly evident. (shrink)

The notion of social belongingness has been applied to different scales, from individual to social processes, and from subjective to objective dimensions. This article seeks to contribute to this multidimensional perspective on belongingness by drawing from the capabilities and subjective wellbeing perspectives. The specific aim is to analyze the relationships between capabilities—including those related to social belongingness—and individual and social subjective wellbeing. The hypotheses are: There is a relationship between capabilities and individual and social subjective wellbeing; The set of capabilities (...) associated to individual subjective wellbeing differs from the set correlated to social subjective wellbeing; The intensity and significance of the correlation between subjective wellbeing and capabilities depends on whether the latter is measured as evaluation or functioning; and The relationships between capabilities and subjective wellbeing are complex and non-linear. Using a nationally representative survey in Chile, multiple linear and dose response matching regressions between capabilities and subjective wellbeing outcomes are estimated, confirming all hypotheses. Subjective evaluations and effective functionings of some capabilities are consistently correlated with both subjective wellbeing outcomes. Others capabilities are correlated with both subjective wellbeing outcomes only when measured as functionings, do not display a systematic pattern of correlation or are not associated with subjective wellbeing. When observed, correlations are sizable, non-linear, and consistent across estimation methods. Moreover, capabilities related to social belongingness such as “social ties” and “feeling recognized and respected” are important by themselves but also are positively correlated to both social and individual subjective wellbeing. These findings underscore the need of a multidimensional perspective on the relationships between capabilities and subjective wellbeing, considering both subjective and objective, as well as individual and social aspects that are relevant to belongingness. These findings also have practical and policy implications, and may inform public deliberation processes and policy decisions to develop capabilities, promote subjective wellbeing, and ultimately promote positive belongingness. (shrink)

En las siguientes páginas se traduce a una Iemigua moderna el texto astrológico Selenodromia dc David y Salomón. Este texto constituye un ejemplo de tín género astrológico llamado Lunorium y de su adopción dentro de un ambiente judío de lengua griega. La traducción del texto está precedida por una breve introducción en la que se estudiam cuestiones referentes a la cronología, origen y lengua del texto, así como la estructura del mismo.

For almost 50 years, the Council of Europe through a series of documents has been helping to build up a set of rules, principles, and strategies related to culture, environment, ethics, and sustainable development. At the moment, one of the most important aims of the Council of Europe’s agenda deals with the elaboration of the General Principles for the Protection of the Environment and Sustainable Development, as raised in document CO-DBP (2003)2 related to the environmental subject. The intention of the (...) Council of Europe is to encourage national authorities to implement these General Principles into their national environmental policies. These principles should have an important effect, especially in those countries which are new members of the European Union. The primary target of this paper is the study of these principles and the setting of their entailed implications in order to establish a relation between values and policy making. Quite often, the conclusions adopted by the agreements generated within the framework of the European Union are controversial. Therefore, a study aiming to lay the foundations of these principles will make the exchange of ideas easier, providing a wider and more detailed scope in the European environmental policy. (shrink)

Cancer is a singular cellular state, the emergence of which destabilises the homeostasis reached through the evolution to multicellularity. We present the idea that the onset of the cellular disobedience to the metazoan functional and structural architecture, known as the cancer phenotype, is triggered by changes in the cell's external environment that occur with ageing: what ensues is a breach of the social contract of multicellular life characteristic of metazoans. By integrating old ideas with new evidence, we propose that with (...) ageing the environmental information that maintains a multicellular organisation is eroded, rewiring internal processes of the cell, and resulting in an internal shift towards an ancestral condition resulting in the pseudo‐multicellular cancer phenotype. Once that phenotype emerges, a new local social contract is built, different from the homeostatic one, leading to tumour formation and the foundation of a novel local ecosystem. (shrink)

The technical possibilities of biomedicine open up the opportunity to intervene in ageing itself with the aim of mitigating, reducing or eliminating it. However, before undertaking these changes or rejecting them outright, it is necessary to ask ourselves if what would be lost by doing so really has much value. This article will analyse the desirability of ageing from an individual point of view, without circumscribing this question to the desirability or undesirability of death. First, we will present the three (...) most widely used arguments to reject biomedical interventions against ageing. We will argue that only the last of these arguments provides a consistent answer to the question of the desirability of ageing. Second, we will show that the third argument falls prey to a conceptual confusion that we will call the paradox of ageing: although ageing entails negative health effects, it leads to a life stage with valuable goods. Both valuations, one positive and the other negative, refer to two different dimensions of ageing: the chronological and the biological. We will defend that, by not adequately distinguishing these two types of ageing, it does not become apparent that all the valuable goods exclusive to ageing derive only from its chronological dimension. Third, we will argue that, if we just conceive ageing biologically, it is undesirable. We will elaborate on the two kinds of undesirable effects biological ageing has: direct and indirect. Finally, we will respond to potential objections by adducing that these are insufficient to weaken our argument. (shrink)

Biomedical innovations are making possible the enhancement of human capabilities. There are two philosophical stances on the role that medicine should play in this respect. On the one hand, naturalism rejects every medical intervention that goes beyond preventing and treating disease. On the other hand, welfarism advocates enhancements that foster subjective well-being. We will show that both positions have considerable shortcomings. Consequently, we will introduce a third characterization in which therapies and enhancements can be reconciled with the legitimate objectives of (...) medicine inasmuch as they improve the capabilities that enable the freedom to pursue personal well-being. (shrink)