This article is part of a For-Discussion-Section of Methods of Information in Medicine about the paper "Biomedical Informatics: We Are What We Publish", written by Peter L. Elkin, Steven H. Brown, and Graham Wright. It is introduced by an editorial. This article contains the combined commentaries invited to independently comment on the Elkin et al. paper. In subsequent issues the discussion can continue through letters to the editor.

Este artículo emplea algunas de las nociones fundamentales de la historia conceptual de Reinhart Koselleck para valorar la aportación de G.W. Leibniz a la semántica de la Ilustración. En concreto, se analizan el diagnóstico que el filósofo de Leipzig hace de su época, su filosofía de la historia y su teoría y praxis de la historia.

This paper is a critical and comparative legal historical study, which offers a global vision of the U.S. Legal System, according to the religious factor impact and its complex dimensions (e.g. religious liberty, Church-State relations, welfare state & solidarity). The principal goal is the deconstruction of the fake official History, elaborated after the Second World War (e.g. inferences, impostures, fallacies). At the same time, it shows the social development (and the kind of commitment in each period), and how it happens (...) the consolidation of the system thanks to the regulation. In this way, it is possible to pay attention to the American experimental evolution (not lineal or exceptional –as many U.S.hand-books pretend): from colonial Blue Laws (or Sunday regulation), up to the current regulation on freedom of religion and non-discrimination. Also, this paper offers a systematic set of diverse legal sources (e.g. Executive orders & rules, Legislative statutes, Judicial cases & resolutions). Another goal of this paper is the evaluation of the allegedly paradoxical policies and regulations in this field, during the last two Administrations (Clinton and W. Bush); both of them, from extreme views (linked at the end), they used incorrectly the religious factor, and they confused the institutions. The result seems to be a landed in the Postmodernity (less realistic and more speech based). (shrink)

Traducción capítulo siete del libro de Brian O’Connor Adorno, publicado por Routledge en 2013.

El presente trabajo parte del paralelo antitético establecido en torno al par amigo-enemigo que aparece en el “Concepto de lo político” de C. Schmitt para, a continuación, analizar las interesantes propuestas que llevan a cabo distintos autores, entre otros, H. Blumenberg, a las que añadiremos como contrapunto los representantes de la Escuela de J. Ritter, W. Böckenförde y H. Lübbe. En especial señalamos el tránsito que se produce de la neutralidad a la neutralización, a partir de la nueva consideración de (...) la temporalidad que se produjo a comienzos del Siglo XVI. Sin embargo, de esta paradójica constitución surgirán una serie de mitos correlativos a la neutralización que la refuerzan, por lo que nos referimos, finalmente, al status quo y al regreso, que constituyen los ecos metáforicos del moderno binomio progreso-regreso. (shrink)

Como asociado del Instituto de Investigación Social de Frankfurt durante la década de 1930, Herbert Marcuse produjo una serie de artículos que tendrían un impacto significativo en la agenda futura de la teoría crítica. Hizo contribuciones innovadoras, entre otras cosas, al desarrollo de la relación entre la teoría de la Escuela de Frankfurt y las nociones hegeliana y weberiana de desarrollo social, a la idea de la cultura como una limitación de la posibilidad humana y a la articulación de las (...) marcadas diferencias entre el liberalismo y la teoría emancipatoria. A diferencia de varios de sus pares en este periodo, en particular Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm y Theodor W. Adorno, Marcuse prestó poca atención a las posibles afinidades entre la teoría crítica y el psicoanálisis. (shrink)

En este artículo nos centraremos en las reflexiones de G. W. Leibniz sobre el problema de la individuación en torno a 1686, principalmente a partir del análisis del Discours de Metaphysique1 y de los textos de la correspondencia que entabló con Arnauld2. Nuestros objetivos principales son, en primer lugar, poner de relieve los principales elementos teóricos que definen la posición leibniziana y, en segundo lugar, atender a la recepción de tales ideas por parte de la filosofía del lenguaje contemporánea, especialmente (...) en lo que respecta a la utilización del principio de individuación de Leibniz como base para una semántica modal. (shrink)

This text considers the results of the western powers’ recognition of Kososvo’s independence from three perspectives: firstly, the possible consequences (of which what is happening in Georgia already gives us some proof) of this independence proclaimed and recognised outside the provisions of international law, and which can be considered a precedent in other territories with similar problems; secondly, it proposes, following Hegel, a rational conception of the state, far removed from ideas of ethnicity based on race, language, and so on, (...) in which nationalism finds its inspiration. Finally, it analyses and criticises from the Hegelian perspective, as updated by the reasoning of authors such as Habermas, the foundations of nationalism, especially its mistaken defence of the pre-eminence of collective over individual rights. (shrink)

Se indaga la relación que se da en la República entre los dos significados de ousia: como propiedad en el sentido de posesiones y riqueza, o en el sentido de esencia o sustancia. Aparte de las relaciones económicas asociadas al préstamo, al intercambio y al interés, se examina la función que, respecto de la ousia, cumple la moneda en la economía como recurso para disociar la riqueza de las posesiones, con lo cual logra un nivel de universalidad y equivalencia equiparable (...) al del propio ser. The article inquires into the relation established in the Republic between the two meanings of ousia: property in the sense of possessions and wealth, and essence or substance. Besides the economic relations associated with loans, exchange, and interest, the paper examines the role of currency in the economy, with respect to ousia, as a means of dissociating wealth from possessions, thus achieving a degree of universality comparable to that of being itself. (shrink)

Tax compliance is a concern to governments around the world. Prior research (Alm, J. and I. Sanchez: 1995, KYKLOS 48, 3–19) has attributed unexplained inter-country differences in compliance rates to differences in social norms. Economics researchers studying tax compliance in the United States (U.S.) (see for example J. Andreoni et al.: 1998, Journal of Economic Literature 36, 818–860) have called for more attention to social (as opposed to economic) influences on tax compliance. In this study, we extend this prior research (...) by explicitly examining the role of social norms [Cialdini, R. and M. Trost: 1998, The Handbook of Social Psychology (Oxford University Press, New York)] on tax compliance in three different countries. We test our research hypotheses using a hypothetical compliance scenario, which was administered in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. There were differences in compliance rates and social norms among the three countries. Factor analysis of the social norm questions identified three distinct social norm constructs. Two of these factors were significant in explaining tax compliance behavior. The first and most influential factor was taxpayers’ own personal moral beliefs, along with the beliefs of those close to them (e.g., friends and important others). The second significant factor represented societal views of proper behavior. We conclude that social norms help to explain tax compliance intentions and why tax compliance rates are higher than would be predicted by strictly economic models. (shrink)

Nancy Jecker’s essay Nothing to be Ashamed of: Sex Robots for Older Adults with Disabilities 1 presents a provocative application of the capabilities approach. Her ethical argument for providing access to sex robots for older adults with disabilities proceeds in five parts: 1. Older adults frequently suffer disabilities that impair sexual functioning. 2. The ability to function sexually is linked to central human capabilities, including: the ability to generate a personally meaningful life narrative; be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy; experience (...) bodily integrity; feel and express a range of human emotions; affiliate deeply with others; and reflect on and choose a plan for their life. 3. Society should take reasonable steps to support these human capabilities at a minimal threshold as part of a broader duty to respect human dignity. 4. Providing access to sex robots comprises part of reasonable efforts to support the six capabilities at a minimal threshold. 5. Therefore, society ought to make reasonable efforts to ensure access to sex robots for older adults with disabilities that impair sexual functioning. I am sympathetic to this line of reasoning, having proposed a series of legal reforms that would facilitate sexual expression among older adults with cognitive impairments as well.2 3 …. (shrink)

As a continuation of the work of the third author in [5], we make further observations on the features of Galois cohomology in the general model theoretic context. We make explicit the connection between forms of definable groups and first cohomology sets with coefficients in a suitable automorphism group. We then use a method of twisting cohomology (inspired by Serre’s algebraic twisting) to describe arbitrary fibres in cohomology sequences—yielding a useful “finiteness” result on cohomology sets. Applied to the special case (...) of differential fields and Kolchin’s constrained cohomology, we complete results from [3] by proving that the first constrained cohomology set of a differential algebraic group over a bounded, differentially large, field is countable. (shrink)

Although US and European research has documented improvement in earnings quality associated with corporate governance characteristics, the situation in Latin America is questionable, given the business environment in which firms operate, which is characterized by controlling family ownership and weak legal protection. The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between the internal mechanisms of Corporate Governance and Earnings Management measured by discretionary accrual. We use a sample of listed Latin American non-financial companies from the period 2006–2009. Our (...) results show how in the Latin American context the role of external directors is limited and that Boards which meet more frequently take a more active position in the monitoring of insiders, so showing a lower use of manipulative practices. In addition, we find a non-linear relation between insider ownership and discretionary accruals, also pointing to the fact that ownership concentration may be a manipulative practices constrictor mechanism only when the ownership of main shareholders is moderate. The findings have important policy implications since this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first study to analyze the relation between the effectiveness of the government and the earnings management behavior. As policy implications, we document how when a country implements controls aimed at reducing corruption, strengthening the rule of law or improving the effectiveness of government, this leads to a reduction in firm earnings management. (shrink)

This Article uses age as an entry point for examining how temporal and methodological issues in egalitarianism make substantive equality an unattractive goal for vulnerability theory. Instead, vulnerability theory should adopt a continuous doctrine of sufficiency, which is a better fit with vulnerability theory’s underlying aims and rhetoric. Instead of evaluating what individuals have in relation to others, sufficiency refocuses the inquiry on whether we have enough throughout the lifecourse. In the context of vulnerability theory, enough should be defined as (...) the capability to be resilient as guaranteed by the responsive state. (shrink)

Elizabeth Anker y Bernardette Meyler, profesoras de literatura y de derecho respectivamente, involucradas ambas en los últimos años con el movimiento “derecho y literatura”, editan en 2017 New Directions in Law and Literature.

Este trabajo pretende comprender la ética como un modo específico de sabiduría, distinguiéndola de otros modos de sabiduría, como son la magia, el mito, la técnica, la religión y la filosofía. A su vez, se establece la importancia que tiene la virtud para el planteamiento de Polo de la ética como carácter propio de este modo de sabiduría. A continuación, se intenta establecer algunas similitudes y diferencias entre la antropología de Polocon la de Zubiri referida a la noción de virtud.

Este artículo estudia la razón de Zambrano desde sus albores como razón mediadora. Su rechazo del sistema va unido a su comienzo en la intuición y a su decurso temporal, que analizamos en relación con Bergson y Husserl. La razón poética va más allá de ese núcleo intuitivo para revelar re-flexivamente incluso lo invisible. Su inmersión en las profundidades, en la pasividad actuante, en las entrañas, en la multiplicidad de los tiempos es paralela a la fenomenología de la génesis merleau-pontiana, (...) a su poiesis carnal e incluso al telos de una razón ampliada al sentir. Ambos filósofos ejercitan su nueva concepción de la filosofía en la existencia. (shrink)

La temprana descripción merleau-pontiana de la coexistencia como interrelación entre conciencias encarnadas es una reactivación del Ineinander husserliano de la que se sigue una nueva visión de la trascendencia del otro desde el horizonte del mundo compartido. El reconocimiento de la insuficiencia de la polaridad yo-otroy el descubrimiento de la Chair como institución originaria y quiasma de identidad ydiferencia, supondrán una revisión todavía más enriquecedora de la intersubjetividady conducirán a una concepción compresiva de lo social. La Carne habrá de entendersecomo (...) lo irrelativo de toda relación o como generalidad en la que se gestandiferenciaciones por écart. Este núcleo de la intra-ontología merleau-pontiana nospermitirá interpretar la Stiftung como “institution”, que no requiere una concienciaconstituyente y nos acerca a un universal concreto. Mostraremos la utilidad de éstepara trascender la multiculturalidad hacia la interculturalidad y para eludir el relativismoextremo. Sostendremos que una filosofía intercultural ha de insertarse en elproyecto de una fenomenología de la razón élargie que no desvincule las estructurasde la experiencia vivida.The early Merleau-Pontian description of the coexistence as an interaction betweenembodied consciousnesses is a reactivation of Husserlian Ineinander. A newvision of the transcendence of the other from the horizon of the shared world followsfrom this. The recognition of the self-other polarity and the development ofthe Chair as original institution and chiasm of identity and difference will mean afurther review of the intersubjectivity and lead to an understanding conception ofthe social world. Flesh must be understood as the basis of any relationschip or asthe generality from which differentiations are gestated by écart. This core of theMerleau-Pontian intra-ontology allows us to interpret the Stiftung as institution thatdoes not require a constituing consciousness and brings us closer to a concrete universal.We show its usefulness in order to move beyond multiculturalism towardsinterculturalism and to avoid extreme relativism. We will claim that an interculturalphilosophy has to be embodied in the project of a phenomenology of the élargiereason that does not dissociate the structures of lived experience. (shrink)

We study the origin of quantum probabilities as arising from non-Boolean propositional-operational structures. We apply the method developed by Cox to non distributive lattices and develop an alternative formulation of non-Kolmogorovian probability measures for quantum mechanics. By generalizing the method presented in previous works, we outline a general framework for the deduction of probabilities in general propositional structures represented by lattices (including the non-distributive case).

This paper presents a pilot study that explores instances of objectless awareness during sleep: conscious experiences had during sleep that prima facie lack an object of awareness. This state of objectless awareness during sleep has been widely described by Indian contemplative traditions and has been characterised as a state of consciousness-as-such; while in it, there is nothing to be aware of, one is _merely_ conscious (cf. Evans-Wentz, 1960 ; Fremantle, 2001 ; Ponlop, 2006 ). While this phenomenon has received different (...) names in the literature, such as ‘witnessing-sleep’ and ‘clear light sleep’ among others, the specific phenomenological profile of this state has not yet been rigorously studied. This paper aims at presenting a preliminary investigation of objectless consciousness during sleep using a novel tool in qualitative research that can guide future research. Five participants experiencing objectless consciousness during sleep were interviewed following the _Micro-phenomenological Interview_ technique (MPI; Petitmengin, 2005, 2006 ). All participants reported an experience they had during sleep in which there was no scenery and no dream. This period labelled as ‘No Scenery/Void’ was either preceded by the dissolution of a lucid dream or by other forms of conscious mentation. The analysis of the results advances four experiential dimensions during this state of void, namely (1) Perception of absence, (2) Self-perception, (3) Perception of emotions, and (4) Perception of awareness. While the results are primarily explorative, they refer to themes found in the literature to describe objectless sleep and point at potential avenues of research. The results from this study are taken as indications to guide future operationalisations of this phenomenon. (shrink)

Standard approaches to ontological simplicity focus either on the number of things or types a theory posits or on the number of fundamental things or types a theory posits. In this paper, I suggest a ground-theoretic approach that focuses on the number of something else. After getting clear on what this approach amounts to, I motivate it, defend it, and complete it.

The statue and the lump of clay that constitutes it fail to share all of their kind and modal properties. Therefore, by Leibniz’s Law, the statue is not the lump. Question: What grounds the kind and modal differences between the statue and the lump? In virtue of what is it that the lump of clay, but not the statue, can survive being smashed? This is the grounding problem. Now a number of solutions to the grounding problem require that we substantially (...) revise our view of reality. In this paper, I provide a solution to this problem that does not require such a revision. I then show how my solution to the grounding problem can solve a related problem and answer a related question. The upshot is that the solution I offer is not only non-revisionary, but also fruitful. (shrink)

The most recent work by Jürgen Habermas tries to revalue religion in today's society. For this he tries to find genealogical connections between secular content and the worldviews that emerged in the Axial Age, including Jewish monotheism. In this article we try to propose that a genealogical approach to monotheism from the perspective of those involved would have to start from the context of undetected origin that constitutes the ethical universalism of Judaism: the Noahide code. To do this, we analyze (...) narrative and conceptual elements of axial and non-axial cultures and show their parallels with the seven laws of the children of Noah as the moral core of humanity. (shrink)