El tema de esta investigación se refiere a la participación de los catedráticos rioplatenses de Derecho en la construcción de los criterios públicos de justicia. Tiene que ver, por lo tanto, con contenidos teóricos vinculados a la teoría de la Justicia y a la teoría del Derecho y del Estado, y con una situación histórica en que el debate de los juristas se orienta hacia un proyecto de reforma social. Estos contenidos, particulares e irrepetibles por ser históricos y característicos de (...) ciertas coyunturas del proceso temporal, son el resultado de una particular sensibilidad pública en que se mezclan las ideologías, con su pureza doctrinaria, con los prejuicios, con las condiciones necesarias para el equilibrio institucional, con el problema social, con la diversidad cultural de los inmigrantes y con las opuestas tendencias hacia la integración y la exclusión al ofrecer y negar la democracia. El universo de estudios específico es lo que denominamos comunidad rioplatense de juristas, comprendiendo a los catedráticos de Montevideo, Buenos Aires, La Plata y Córdoba, ya que de las fuentes relevadas surgen pruebas de la existencia de una comunidad intelectual y de su protagonismo en el debate ideológico de hace un siglo. Estos doctores aportaron una carga simbólica a la comunicación de ideas, pues su papel asignado socialmente y en gran medida auto atribuido es el de crear y difundir conocimientos, el de tener la última palabra sobre un asunto en discusión, para lo que pueden recurrir a fuentes que sólo están a su alcance. Su papel social es imprescindible. Forjan ideología al mismo tiempo que plasman y critican el orden social. (shrink)

The aim of the present research was to assess elite student-athletes’ perception of the dual career during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, compared with a group of elite student-athletes who could develop their dual career under normal conditions. A total of 150 elite athletes who were also undergraduate or postgraduate students self-completed the “Perceptions of dual career student-athletes ” questionnaire. From them, 78 did it during the mandatory lockdown period due to the state of emergency caused (...) by COVID-19 and 72 completed it in the previous year to Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The COVID-19 group was found to spend a significantly higher number of hours per week studying, while no significant differences were observed between groups in any training time variable. Student-athletes of the COVID-19 group showed better perception of whether their sport career could help them cope with their academic career and better general perception of remote learning and the use of tasks and videoconferencing as learning support tools. A lower percentage of athletes of the COVID-19 group than of the control group wished to continue with their sport career once they finished their studies. To conclude, student-athletes of the COVID-19 group show adaptations with regard to the organization of their studies and the importance they give to them and to the services provided by dual-career programs, compared with student-athletes from an ordinary pre-Olympic year. In general, student-athletes’ perception of the dual career is very positive. (shrink)

Las fake news se suelen caracterizar como contenidos, de modo que prevalece el planteamiento semántico. Aquí se propone un enfoque pragmático, donde son actos comunicativos intencionales. Esto permite entender las fake news desde los actos locucionarios, ilocucionarios y perlocucionarios. Esta triple versión de intencionalidad comunicativa permite una mejor intelección de la mala información (misinformation) y de la desinformación (disinformation), que se refleja con claridad en el caso económico.Para mitigar o neutralizar los daños causados por las fake news en el tejido (...) social, se suele recomendar la contrastación de hechos (fact checking). La contribución de la Economía Experimental —y, en concreto, la aportación de Alvin Roth (Premio Nobel de Economía 2012)— puede ser especialmente relevante en dos direcciones: (a) la actividad económica y (b) la Economía como actividad entrelazada con otras. Esto supone el contrastar hechos partiendo de la intencionalidad en la actividad económica, en cuanto tal y en su nexo con otras actividades humanas. A este respecto, las fake news convergen con la toma de decisiones económicas, en cuanto que ambas están surcadas por la intencionalidad y, además, tienen lugar en un contexto donde adquieren un perfil orientado a fines. (shrink)

El Patronato de Misiones Pedagógicas desarrolló una importante labor de recuperación y difusión de la cultura musical, especialmente del folklore musical español, en los primeros años de la II República española, al poner en marcha un servicio de música y un coro que se encargaron de acercar diferentes estilos y géneros musicales a los habitantes de las zonas rurales más deprimidas. En este artículo se presenta un estudio documental sobre el trabajo llevado a cabo por los integrantes del coro y (...) por las personas que se encargaron de custodiar los recursos musicales cedidos por el Patronato y de programar las diferentes actividades musicales en los municipios que gozaron de dichos recursos. A su vez, se recogen diversos testimonios que dan fe del cometido realizado por esta institución y del impacto cultural y musical que supuso en los habitantes de las localidades donde se desarrollaron las diferentes actividades misionales. (shrink)

The purpose of the article was to determine the relationship between the organizational culture and the institutional management of the "Enrique López Albújar" Educational Institution, Piura. Work is worked under a quantitative approach, descriptive and correlational scope, 40 teachers participated as a sample. Among the results, it was found that there is no significant relationship between organizational culture and institutional management, which did not allow validating the research hypothesis; However, a significant relationship between norms and customs with institutional management was (...) found; which concludes in compliance with the norms and good customs based on values. (shrink)

Se habla de crisis en la economía, en el trabajo, en la vivienda� Crisis que se explican con datos, con números, que aparecen en los periódicos y las televisiones. Pero hay otras crisis, crisis concretas, que afectan a cada vida particular, experiencias que van más allá de los que se puede contar: Hay más cosas que hay que vivirlas, si no, no se pueden llegar a entender. Más allá de os discursos institucionalizados, son muchos los que han vivido siempre en (...) crisis, desde su nacimiento en una familia y un entorno concretos les colocó en una determinada posición social marcando profundamente sus posibilidades de promoción y los esfuerzos que tendrían que hacer para salir adelante. (shrink)

Despite the shifting ideologies of gender of the seventeenth century, the arrival of the first actresses caused deep social anxiety: theatre gave women a voice to air grievances and to contest, through their own bodies, traditional gender roles. This paper studies two of the best-known actresses, Nell Gwyn and Anne Bracegirdle, and the different public personae they created to negotiate their presence in this all-male world. In spite of their differing strategies, both women gained fame and profit in the male-dominated (...) theatrical marketplace, confirming them as the ultimate “gender benders,” who appropriated the male role of family’s supporter and bread-winner. (shrink)

La investigación científica trae consigo múltiples cuestiones, que este libro analiza centrándose en dos grandes corrientes metodológicas: el pragmatismo y el pluralismo. En el primero destacan autores como Nicholas Rescher, que tiene un capítulo en el libro, y en lo segundo hay cada vez más partidarios, muchos de los cuales reconocen el papel de Patrick Suppes en el giro para deslindarse del monismo metodológico, que fue dominante durante un buen número de años. Mediante la reflexión filosófico-metodológica se profundiza en el (...) libro en los procedimientos de investigación, que es la fase inicial para resolver problemas científicos, y en los métodos, que siguen después, dotados mayor grado de rigor que propician la sistematicidad en la indagación de lo real (sea natural, social o artificial). Por un lado, quien investiga ha de seguir los procesos para estudiar adecuadamente su objeto y poder resolver los problemas que plantea ese estudio; y, por otro lado, la realidad a conocer ha de ser inteligible mediante los recursos epistemológicos, de uso de procesos de investigación y de los materiales adecuados, bien sea para la observación o para la investigación. (shrink)

University students will be our future business leaders, and will have to address social problems caused by business by implementing solutions such as social entrepreneurship ventures. In order to facilitate the learning process that will foster social entrepreneurship, however, a more holistic pedagogy is needed. Based on learning theory, we propose that students’ social entrepreneurship actions will depend on their learning about CSR and their absorptive capacity. We propose that instructors and higher education institutions can enhance this absorptive capacity by (...) exploiting Web 2.0 technologies. We tested our proposition with a sample of 425 university students using structural equation modeling and found support for the proposed relationships. (shrink)

What role could have intrinsic motivation toward reading in an extraordinary situation like the recent confinement? This research examines the relationship between intrinsic reading motivation and reading habits in an adult population considering types of reading, gender, and distress generated by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Participants were 3,849 adults from Spain who were surveyed about their reading practices: before, during the first weeks, and after several weeks of confinement. Linear mixed effects models were used to analyze data. Results showed (...) a three-way interaction between reading frequency, IRM, and type of reading. Also, distress seems to pose a differential impact depending on the type of reading. The higher the IRM, the lesser the time devoted to study/work reading and the more to social and news reading. In this sense, IRM can function as a protective factor of reading behavior but only for leisure reading. Results support previous findings of the importance of consciously promoting this type of motivation in all individuals beyond educational contexts, since it seems to be positively related to well-being. Other results and implications are discussed. (shrink)

Background:The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of qualified nurses in Spain. As a result, the government authorized the hiring of senior students.Objectives:To explore the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts experienced by final-year nursing students who worked during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.Research design:A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a question guide. Interviews took place via a private video chat room platform. A thematic, inductive (...) analysis was performed of the information gathered.Participants and research context:Eighteen nursing students were recruited from two universities of Madrid, aged between 18 and 65 years old, enrolled in the fourth year of nursing studies and who were hired under a relief contract for health professionals during the pandemic.Ethical considerations:The present study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.Results:Three specific themes emerged: (a) coping with patient triage, (b) difficulties in providing end-of-life care, and (c) coping with patient death. Nursing students participated in the process of patient selection for resource allocation and ICU bed occupancy. They were shown how to care for patients who were not admitted to the ICU, in their last moments and were faced with the difficulties of applying end-of-life care. Finally, the nursing students were confronted with the death of their patients, in overwhelming numbers and under adverse conditions.Conclusions:These findings can help shed light on the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts faced by novice nursing students, incorporated into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it was described that students may normalize the death due to the exhaustion and overwhelmed routine. (shrink)

La cuestión del significado de la entonación, ya sea como fenómeno de la lengua o del discurso, ha sido uno de los aspectos más debatidos en las últimas décadas. Este trabajo se propone estudiar el valor comunicativo de los patrones de entonación del español de Cuba con un enfoque basado en la Teoría de la Complejidad; lo cual permite interpretar las dimensiones ilocutiva y modal de los actos de habla interaccionales a partir de la confluencia de la prosodia con el (...) resto de los medios de expresión de la lengua y los factores contextuales. Se parte del análisis empírico de una muestra de enunciados/actos de habla del discurso académico oral, al cual se aplican métodos perceptivos, acústicos y semántico-pragmáticos, partiendo de la relación sistema-discurso como principio teórico-metodológico. El estudio realizado demuestra el empleo de 6 tipos diferentes de patrones de entonación, codificados en el español de Cuba, que mantienen cierta estabilidad en sus rasgos prosódicos fundamentales, aunque evidencian una variabilidad en sus funciones semántico-pragmáticas. (shrink)

The article is an approach to the possibilities of the evolution of consciousness. The research will be presented from the point of view of the Art and Mystic experiences and also compared with the biological point of view.The differences between the perception space and the representation space will be described, since it is considered that the later represents the location where the conscience processes take place. An example in the contemporary architecture on the representation space (the Jean Nouvel's Agbar Tower) (...) will be analysed. The contemporary artistic practices on living tissue manipulation will also be reviewed: artists inspired by the evolutionary laws are working nowadays with the manipulation of living tissues as artistic objects. This could be a controversial phenomenon that may drive the art-science to a materialistic position. It is for this reason that the work with consciousness could prove that the immaterial or energy is a real element that humans can manipulate as they do with living tissues. To know how to do it would be the research in art for this century and could change the direction in art-science, could change the direction of the global consciousness through a planetary culture. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the student-athletes' capability to face the academic, sport, and social challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown and to disclose novel aspects of dual careers. A 32-item online survey encompassing demographic characteristics, sport and university engagement, support and dual-career benefits, physical activity, sitting time, and the time deemed necessary to recover the previous level of performance was developed. Four hundred sixty-seven student-athletes (males: 57%, females: 43%) from 11 countries, competing in 49 different sports (individual: (...) 63.4%, team: 36.6%) at regional (17.5%), national (43.3%), and international (39.2%) levels, and enrolled at high school (21.9%) and university (78.1%) levels completed the survey. During the lockdown, the respondents decreased the time dedicated to sport and academics, although they maintained an active lifestyle. Student-athletes from countries under severe contagion were more likely to train at home, dedicate to academics, and receive support from the coach but less likely receive support from their teachers. With respect to their team sport counterparts, athletes competing in individual sports trained more and were more likely to receive support from their coaches. International athletes showed the highest training time and support from their coaches and as student-athletes. High school students received more support from their coaches and teachers, whereas university students were more likely considering dual careers useful to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study substantiates the relevant role of competitive sports participation in the maintenance of active lifestyles, with student-athletes considering home training and e-learning valuable resources during the lockdown. Furthermore, their sport and academic commitments helped student-athletes cope with the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

: In recent years, research on the family role and entrepreneurship has increased extremely, consolidating itself as a valid and current subject of study. However, a part of the scientific literature seems to lack systematization and the boundaries appear unclear, maybe due to its multidisciplinary nature. This paper presents a systematic analysis of academic research, applying bibliometric indicators and cluster analysis, which define the state of research on the international scene. For this purpose, using three well accepted databases among the (...) research community: Scopus, Web of Science, Business Source, a total of 92 articles were selected and analyzed, published between 1989 and 2019 (until March). The results show that this is a relatively recent field of study, with a multidisciplinary character and in which the most influential authors do not coincide with the most productive scientific journals. A cluster analysis finds out five main areas of literature development: the cluster with the largest percentage of co-occurrences (25%) is the one that relates to the dimensions of entrepreneurship, self-employment and personality; in contrast, the area with a lower percentage of co-occurrences of keywords (12,1%) is refers to family business, succession, economic development and Arabia Saudita. Based on the outcome obtained and the shortcomings above, in the final part of the article, possible points of reflection for future research are exposed, which could be useful to further of this field of study. (shrink)

Introduction: Connectedness to nature is a concept that reflects the emotional relationship between the self and the natural environment, based on the theory of biophilia, the innate predisposition to the natural environment. However, the biophobic component has largely been ignored, despite, given its adaptive functional role, being an essential part of the construct. If there is a phylogenetic component underlying nature connectedness, biophilic and/or biophobic, there should be evidence of this record from early childhood. The main aim of this study (...) is therefore to describe the emotional attributions identified in five-year-olds. Methodology: Two studies were conducted. In the first, 94 children expressed their concept of nature and made basic emotional attributions to a set of 60 images of natural and urban environments, using a software designed for the study. In the second, 39 children repeated the procedure and provided explanations for their responses. Results: The main results show that, in general, children use both positive and negative emotions, which may be related to a three-dimensional model of emotional attributions to nature. The most widely attributed emotion is happiness, for the images of both natural and built environments. However, fear is the second most common attribution. The role of happiness could be explained by a feeling of security and familiarity that the habitat of the built environment contributes to, while the importance of fear in nature could show an adaptive response of the fear of wild nature in children. This interpretation could be confirmed when analyzing specifically the emotional attributions to the natural environment, classifying the images according to biological and ecosystemic criteria. Thus, for example, more emotional attributions are explained by the "pleasantness" attributed to primary producers and landscapes (e.g. flora), versus attributions of "harm" to the images of secondary and tertiary consumers (e.g. hunters). Conclusions: These results provide evidence in favor of a didactic procedure to study emotional attributions to images of nature in preschool children. They suggest the incorporation of biophobia as an important adaptive factor in connectedness to nature and a tripartite emotional hypothesis based on the valences of the attributed emotions. (shrink)

Social entrepreneurship (SE) enables business consolidation, combined with the production of positive impact and improvements in society. Aligned with 2030 Agenda for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, it is important to clarify the role of social entrepreneurs, as they are making visible the impact of their creative ideas in several areas, from civic engagement to the environment, health and learning. The main purpose of this study is to specify a model of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) and (...) explore it by country, based on the dimensions of the Theory of Planned Behavior and how these are mediated by spirituality and optimism. With a convenience sample of 1476 Portuguese and Spanish students, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used. For a deeply understanding, variables within the model were compared by country usingt-rest, and multivariate analysis was done by each one separately. The mean comparison between countries, demonstrated that there are differences only between perceived behavioral control (PBC), Spirituality, Optimism and SEI, with Portuguese students scoring the highest values, in all variables except Optimism. A mediation path was carried out, and Spirituality mediate a significant effect between the three TPB dimensions in Portuguese students, but not in students from Spain. Finally, after discussing the results, theoretical and practical contributions are analyzed, with regard to the field of SE in Portugal and Spain, and alternatives are pointed out for a more social and sustainable entrepreneurial future. (shrink)

In recent years, the study of women entrepreneurship has experienced great growth, gaining a broad consensus among academics and contributing above all to understanding all those factors that explain the difficulty of women in undertaking an entrepreneurial career. This document tries to contribute to the field of study, thanks to a systematic analysis through the publications present in the topic. For this purpose, 2,848 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed, published between 1950 and 2019, using the Scopus database (SCImago Research Group). Through (...) the use of a series of bibliometric indicators it was possible to define the current state of research on the international scene. The analysis revealed that it is a multidisciplinary field of study and that has started to expand further since 2006, culminating in 2019, which makes it become a current and valid object of study. The analysis of the clusters allowed to isolate 6 different lines of research in which emerged, on the one hand, the importance of entrepreneurial education, social entrepreneurship and the socio-cultural context of reference (e.g. culture, family and institutional support) as tools to overcome the gender gap, on the other, the importance that women entrepreneurship assumes in the economic growth of the country (especially in developing economies), promoting social inclusion and combating poverty and discrimination. The study presents an important contribution to reflect on current policies and to outline future lines of investigation. (shrink)

The dual career allows elite athletes to attain their maximum competitive and academic performance, but the COVID-19 pandemic hindered their development and changed their perception of the importance given to the sporting and educational environment. For this reason, the aim of the present study was to determine the differences in the motivations and perceived barriers, the importance given to academic qualifications, and the perception of the dual career from a multifactorial perspective, of elite athletes according to sex, type of sport (...) practiced, job performance, time of sports career, type of athlete, and type of scholarship received. A total of 100 student-athletes participated in the research study by completing the “Perceptions of dual career student-athletes” questionnaire. The results showed that athletes from individual modalities and those who did not receive any scholarships described more barriers. In addition, women studied more because they enjoyed it ; athletes from individual modalities studied to work later ; athletes who do not work perceived a greater influence between study and sports performance ; at the beginning and at the best stage of their sports career, a greater influence of academics on performance was perceived ; and athletes who considered themselves professionals, and athletes who did not receive any scholarships, reported that the conciliation between sports and academic life was difficult. The results obtained point to the importance of dual career scholarships for student-athletes, as well as the need for the programs implemented for these athletes to consider sex, sport modality or type of scholarship granted. (shrink)

Reflete-se sobre o papel das biografias na escrita das memórias da cidade com um paralelo entre Primavera em pleno outono: a jovem Olívia faz 80 anos!, de Wilson Gelbcke, e Eu, Wittich Freitag, de Raquel S. Thiago, para averiguar como memória, narrativas e paisagem cultural de Joinville aparecem nos discursos. Questiona-se a construção do contar biográfico, ressaltando as interferências dessas narrativas nas discussões de memória e patrimônio cultural, reforçando/negando os discursos oficiais da cidade. Como discurso oficial, tomamos como narrativa (...) História de Joinville: crônicas da Colônia Dona Francisca, de Carlos Ficker, importante influenciador do discurso que envolve Joinville. (shrink)

Fruto da colaboração de quatro autores com ligação à Universidade de Salamanca (José-Antonio Cordón-García, Julio Alonso-Arévalo, Raquel Gómez-Díaz, Daniel Linder), Social Reading: platforms, applications, clouds and tags pretende fazer a defesa do conceito e, principalmente, das práticas de leitura social em ambiente digital. E fá-lo apresentando, além da necessária contextualização teórica, efectuada sobretudo no primeiro capítulo, uma série de conselhos e recomendações de plataformas, disp...

Postmodernism may seem a particularly inappropriate term when used in conjunction with a region that is usually thought of as having only recently, and then unevenly, acceded to modernity. Yet in the last several years the concept has risen to the top of the agenda of cultural and political debate in Latin America. This collection explores the Latin American engagement with postmodernism, less to present a regional variant of the concept than to situate it in a transnational framework. Recognizing that (...) postmodernism in Latin America can only inaccurately be thought of as having traveled from an advanced capitalist "center" to arrive at a still dependent neocolonial "periphery," the contributors share the assumption that postmodernism is itself about the dynamics of interaction between local and metropolitan cultures in a global system in which the center-periphery model has begun to break down. These essays examine the ways in which postmodernism not only designates the effects of this transnationalism in Latin America, but also registers the cultural and political impact on an increasingly simultaneous global culture of a Latin America struggling with its own set of postcolonial contingencies, particularly the crisis of its political left, the dominance of neoliberal economic models, and the new challenges and possibilities opened by democratization. With new essays on the dynamics of Brazilian culture, the relationship between postmodernism and Latin American feminism, postmodernism and imperialism, and the implications of postmodernist theory for social policy, as well as the text of the Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatatista National Liberation Army, this expanded edition of boundary 2 will interest not only Latin Americanists, but scholars in all disciplines concerned with theories of the postmodern. Contributors. Xavier Albó, José Joaquín Brunner, Fernando Calderón, Enrique Dussel, Néstor García Canclini, Martín Hopenhayn, Neil Larsen, the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group, Norbert Lechner, María Milagros López, Raquel Olea, Aníbal Quijano, Nelly Richard, Carlos Rincón, Silviano Santiago, Beatriz Sarlo, Roberto Schwarz, and Hernán Vidal. (shrink)

The responses of 178 Latin dioceses in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to the Preparatory Document for the Synod on Synodality were synthesized in fourteen regional reports. From these reports, and a report of lay groups, the USCCB produced the US report, which was synthesized with 111 other national reports into the Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS). The latter was provided to seven continental assemblies. North American participants discussed the DCS in virtual meetings, and a (...) writing team produced the North American report. The synthesized result of the continental assemblies’ reports was the synod’s 2023 Instrumentum laboris. This article discusses US diocesan participation and the North American response to the DCS as they contributed to the Instrumentum laboris’ statement relative to “the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate.” It includes a table documenting US diocesan responses to questions of women’s participation in the Church. (shrink)

RESUMEN Esta entrevista tiene como objetivo mostrar los aportes de la fenomenología de Dan Zahavi a algunas temáticas fundamentales de filosofía de la mente. El filósofo danés expresa su interés en vincular la fenomenología con otras disciplinas y comenta su último proyecto, dedicado al vínculo intersubjetivo. Además, explica su posición con respecto a la naturalización de la fenomenología, la importancia de desarrollar una filosofía de la mente desde la perspectiva de primera persona, y la cuestión del idealismo husserliano y su (...) vínculo con Putnam. Por otro lado, se refiere a cómo el estudio de los trastornos psiquiátricos aporta a la filosofía, presenta la propuesta de la tradición fenomenológica para evitar los problemas del debate internalismo-externalismo y explica la manera en que su concepto del yo ilumina la clásica discusión sobre la mente y el cerebro. Finalmente, Zahavi comenta sobre la posibilidad de vincular filosofía, ciencia y religión. ABSTRACT The aim of this interview is to show the contributions of Dan Zahavi's phenomenology to some fundamental issues in philosophy of mind. The Danish philosopher expresses his interest to link phenomenology to other disciplines and talks about his latest project, dedicated to the intersubjective relation. He also explains his position with respect to the naturalization of phenomenology, the importance of developing a philosophy of mind from a first-person perspective, and the question of Husserlian idealism and his link with Putnam. On the other hand, he refers to how the study of psychiatric disorders contributes to philosophy, presents the proposal of the pheno-menological tradition to sidestep the problems of internalism-externalism debate, and explains how his concept of self illuminates the classic discussion on mind and brain. Finally, Zahavi comments on the possibility oflinking philosophy, science and religion. (shrink)

The idea that natural selection acts on many levels—and not only at the level of organisms or individual genes—is increasingly accepted among biologists. However, it is not easy to reconcile this idea with the strictly “individualistic” conception of the evolutionary process that has always characterized Darwinian thought. Moreover, the individuality of some forms of life is a vague concept and therefore controversial. This is the case of Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis, whose discovery immediately inspired the following question: Does the concept of (...) individuality have degrees? Alternatively, how far is this structure of prokaryotic cells from deserving to be called an organism? In this article, we propose a new conceptual scheme based on an idea of individuality that is not limited to organisms and that makes sense in terms of Darwinian evolution. In this conceptual scheme, selection at levels above that of the individual organism is interpreted as the evolutionary emergence of higher-level individuality. This proposal may serve as a basis on which to construct a promising hierarchical evolutionary theory. (shrink)

Cosmopolitan critics attack the scope-limitation of justice of egalitarian liberal theorists to states. They treat justice as the production of a given set of outcomes for people regardless of location or relationship. However, in doing so they either ignore the relevant agent towards whom principles of justice are addressed or see the question of agency as a practical, derivative question, of a secondary character. This paper argues that a principle of justice without a clearly justified agent is not a genuine (...) principle at all. This is what writers like Rawls mean by the "subject" of justice (analogous to the grammatical subject of a sentence, i.e.,the agent). We should reflect on agents and why they would or would not justifiably carry certain burdens for others and what kind of benefits or goods they are able to secure. The answers to those questions explain why the idea of cosmopolitan global justice is incomplete, either requiring a global basic structural agency or not applying because no relevant agent is present that can create cooperative arrangements between individual persons across the globe. Other moral principles will still apply globally, but they will be distinct from those that apply to basic-structural agencies. This account is not a practice dependence account, as it bases the distinctness of moral and political principles on purely moral and value-based considerations. (shrink)