In a society where computers have become ubiquitous, it is necessary to develop a broader understanding of the nature of computing and programming, not just from a technical viewpoint but also from a historical and philosophical perspective. Computers and computer programs do not exist in a vacuum. Instead, they are a part of a rich socio-technological context that provides ways for understanding computers and reasoning about programs. This includes not only formal logic, mathematics, sciences, and technology but also cognitive sciences (...) and sociology. The focus of this special issue is on questions that arise when we consider computing and programming in a wider context. In particular, the papers in this special issue explore the interplay between computing or programming and mathematics, formal logic, sciences, technology, and society. (shrink)

This article analyses 1,073 e-mails that were hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in November 2009. The incident was popularly dubbed 'Climategate', indicating that the e-mails reveal a scientific scandal. Here we analyse them differently. Rather than objecting to the exchanges based on some idea about proper scientific conduct, we see them as a rare glimpse into a situation where scientists collectively prepare for participation in heated controversy, with much focus on methodology. This allows (...) us to study how scientists communicate informally about framing propositions of facts in the best possible way. Through the eyes of science and technology studies, the e-mails provide an opportunity to study communication as part of science in the making across disciplines and laboratories. Analysed as 'written conversation' the e-mails provide information about processes of consensus formation through 'agonistic evaluations' of other scientists' work and persuasion of others to support one's own work. Also, the e-mails contain judgements about other groups and individual scientists. Consensus-forming appeared as a precarious activity. Controversies could be quite resilient in the course of this decade-long exchange, probably reflecting the complexity of the methodological challenges involved. (shrink)

BackgroundIn Sweden, individuals with visual field loss have their driving license withdrawn. The literature clearly indicates that individuals with VFL are unsafe drivers on a group level. However, many drivers with VFL can be safe on an individual level. The literature also suggests that self-perception, beliefs, and insights of one’s own capabilities are related to driving performance. This study had three aims: To investigate self-perceived driving capability ratings for individuals with VFL; to compare these ratings between groups with different medical (...) conditions associated with VFL ; and to relate the self-perception ratings to actual driving performance in an advanced driving simulator.MethodsParticipants comprised 723 individuals whose driver’s license had been withdrawn because of VFL and 92 normally sighted elderly individuals. All participants completed a background survey, rated difficulties with different traffic situations, rated their strengths and weaknesses as drivers, and rated aspects that were important for causing traffic accidents. Of the VFL group participants, 264 also completed a simulator-based driving test that they knew could lead to renewal of their driving license. VFL participants and normally sighted was at the same age when they completed the simulator driving test.ResultsOverall, individuals with VFL rated their capabilities as high on all instruments and scales used, even higher than the elderly normally sighted control group. The only VFL etiology group that rated lower than other groups was the diabetes group. Safety orientation and internal control orientation values were best at discriminating between VFL participants in terms of self-perception of driving performance. Participants categorized as “high” in terms of safety skills and internal control were more modest in their ratings. Finally, participants who passed the simulated driving test did not differ from those who failed, in any of the self-perception measures.ConclusionSelf-perception ratings among individuals with VFL were higher than those of normally sighted elderly individuals. Self-assessed skills did not predict driving performance. Groups with different VFL etiologies rated similarly. Self-ratings of driving abilities cannot be used to assess actual driving performance. Actual driving tests are necessary to discriminate between safe and unsafe drivers with VFL. (shrink)

Desde hace décadas que tanto la ciencia política, como el enfoque de lo político desde lo filosófico, se debe o debe, resignificar el contrato social, redefinir el principio de igualdad, y acotar el significante extenso y polisémico de lo de democrático, para consignarle un valor diferente, sobre todo para aquellos que el estado los tiene para la obligación sin velar por sus derechos, para que en la jornada electoral, a estos invisibilizados se los empodere con el valor de cinco (5) (...) a cada uno de sus votos, dignificándolos para sacarlos del estado de víctimas que impone el prebendedarismo, la compra de votos o los bolsones de mercadería (una práctica muy extendida en Latinoamérica) que en definitiva carcome y deslegitima la democracia actual que se pretende, como finalidad restaurar el contrato social y reconstruir el principio de igualdad de acuerdo a categorías aún no transitadas. Creemos que de tal manera, a nivel teórico lo democrático estará acendrado en una representatividad taxativa y explícita, que será la de tener como prioridad el sujeto histórico de la condición (la del pobre para modificarla) a los efectos de abandonar el actual sujeto histórico, el individuo y su individualismo, que es contradictorio en su funcionalidad y definición. (shrink)

This article examines the dominant agricultural model in Colombia of which the emergence of biofuels is an inevitable and major consequence. Some uncertainties and complexities of the introduction of biofuels and the use of genetically modified crops are analyzed, including a general reflection on the possibilities of producing biofuels on the basis of a model of ecological agriculture.

Is it possible to look at schools as spaces for encounters? Could schools contribute to a deliberative mode of communication in a manner better suited to our own time and to areas where different cultures meet? Inspired primarily by classical (Dewey) and modern (Habermas) pragmatists, I turn to Seyla Benhabib, posing the question whether she supports the proposition that schools can be sites for deliberative communication. I argue that a school that engages in deliberative communication, with its stress on mutual (...) communication between different moral perspectives, gives universalism a procedurally oriented meaning, serving as an arena for encounters that represents a weak public sphere. An interactive universalism of this kind attaches importance to developing an ability and willingness to reason on the basis of the views of others and to change perspectives. In that respect, the institutional arrangements of schools are potential parts of the political dimension of cosmopolitanism, as well as its moral dimension, in terms of the obligations and responsibilities we develop through our institutions and in our actions as human beings towards one another. (shrink)

Una de las características distintivas de la producción graciana tiene que ver con su impronta antropológico-filosófica. A lo largo de sus páginas se despliega una semántica y una serie de problematizaciones que constantemente invitan a pensar acerca de la naturaleza humana. Se trazan distinciones entre los habitantes del mundo y se plantean numerosas reflexiones acerca de cómo es que cada quién llega a ser lo que es. No obstante, es interesante observar que, pese a que Gracián exhibe un gran interés (...) por estos temas, pareciera que no se contempla el lugar del elemento religioso. Atendiendo a esto, resulta provechoso investigar cuáles son los motivos por los que esto sucede. Para ello, este trabajo revisa algunas cuestiones relativas a la biografía del autor, el medio en el que produce y lo que se estima que son algunos de los rasgos fundamentales de su producción. (shrink)

AimIf we want to understand people’s satisfaction in their relationships, it is essential to have a valid and reliable measure of relational needs satisfaction. The aim of this study was to test the factor structure of the Czech version of the Relational Needs Satisfaction Scale as well as the scale’s measurement invariance and convergent validity.MethodIn total, 419 adults answered a battery of measures, including the RNSS, in an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the factor structure and (...) the measurement invariance of the RNSS across gender and age. A correlational analysis was conducted to assess the convergent validity.ResultsThe five-factor structure of the RNSS was confirmed. Furthermore, support for a second-order global relationship satisfaction factor was found. The hierarchical model was strictly invariant with respect to gender and age. Furthermore, the RNSS demonstrated an expected pattern of correlations with the reference instruments.ConclusionThe Czech version of the RNSS can be considered a valid and reliable method. (shrink)

Many reports independently confirm that even more than a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the results of research and development in those countries that were under its influence are insufficient in comparison to the rest of the world. Given that human intelligence is not distributed unevenly and that science is a powerful driving force for the future of an economy, there is a hidden problem, which, if it can be resolved, may release great economic (...) potential. The first generation of researchers from Armenia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Slovakia and Ukraine, who successfully completed their education after the political revolution, were surveyed. The survey revealed many similarities with regards to ethics, but that there is mounting evidence that the main cause of the current situation is the state of the local legal systems. The conclusion was drawn that a conceptual change in staffing within the relevant legal systems is required to release potential and stimulate wealth creation. (shrink)

The Group Cohesiveness Scale measures patient-rated group cohesiveness. The English version of the scale has demonstrated good psychometric properties. This study describes the validation of the Czech version of the GCS. A total of 369 patients participated in the study. Unlike the original study, the ordinal confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-dimensional solution. The analysis demonstrated the existence of two moderately to highly associated domains of group cohesiveness—affective and behavioral. The two-dimensional model was invariant across genders, age, education, and time (...) up to factor means level. Internal consistency reached satisfactory values for both domains. In terms of convergent validity, only weak association was found between the GCS domains and the group working alliance measured by the Group Outcome Rating Scale. This is the first revision of the factor structure of the GCS in the European context. The scale showed that the Czech version of the GCS is a valid and reliable brief tool for measuring both aspects of group cohesiveness. (shrink)

Malgré l’avènement de la figure de l’acteur créateur au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, les procédés de copie, d’imitation et de réactivation constituent une part non négligeable des outils convoqués dans les exercices spécifiques au jeu. Cette persistance, qui trouve son origine dans le _Paradoxe sur le comédien_ de Diderot, se lit et se décline tout au long de l’histoire des théories du jeu, dans le recours fréquent à un modèle, dont le type varie. C’est cette double continuité, celle (...) des procédés de copie et du modèle dans les théories du jeu auxquelles s’adossent des pratiques et dont découlent des modes de fabrication, qui a nourri une expérimentation pédagogique pratique au sein de La Manufacture – Haute École des Arts de la Scène de Lausanne. Les ateliers élaborés pour les étudiant.e.s consistant à mettre en œuvre ces trois opérations, à leur proposer une histoire sensible, c’est-à-dire éprouvée, du jeu de l’... (shrink)

ArgumentThis paper explores the links between the competing scientific, disciplinary, and institutional identifications of social scientists working for international organizations and the nature of the work produced in these establishments. By examining the case of UNESCO's Social Science Department from 1946 to 1955, the paper shows how the initial lack of organizational identification diminished the efficiency and productivity of the Department and slowed down the creation of an international system for research in the social sciences. It then examines how the (...) elaboration of such identification resulted from a period of trial and error during which several national, academic, and scientific models were explored. The paper concludes that only the discourse of “moral sensitivity” kept the Department together at a time when disillusions regarding internationalism, the destabilization of the meaning of nation, and suspicion towards some Western disciplines rendered unacceptable the universalization of a single international social scientific identification. (shrink)

Nursing is possible owing to a series of intricate systemic relations. Building on an established tradition of sociological research, we critically analysed the nursing profession in Chile, with an emphasis on its education system, in the light of social systems theory. The paper's aim was to explore basic characteristics of nursing education as a system, so as to outline its current evolution. Drawing on recent developments in nursing, we applied an empirical framework to identify and discuss functionally differentiated systems that (...) are relevant to nursing and observe communications between them. We found that the dynamics of nursing as a whole develop from communications with closely related systems, including the nursing profession and the education system more broadly. While the discipline (as a system of representations) strives to control the profession (as an applied occupational field), the necessities of practicing nurses imply other forces mediating the making of the profession, a process framed by market dynamics in education and health. (shrink)

El artículo plantea una reflexión acerca del alcance y el impacto de las políticas de desarrollo rural en la juventud andaluza, a través de los resultados que arroja la línea de investigación en ese ámbito que los autores han desarrollado en los últimos años. Esta ilustra sobre el contexto, las expectativas y las representaciones de la juventud —a menudo negativas—, desde los tiempos posteriores a la gran recesión iniciada en el 2008 hasta la actualidad. Asimismo, se recoge la perspectiva de (...) los gestores de tales políticas y se muestran los resultados de dos experiencias dirigidas a aumentar la participación de la juventud y su integración con las estructuras del desarrollo rural. Todo ello evidencia el limitado impacto que percibe la juventud, así como las dificultades y las inconsistencias a las que se enfrentan las políticas de desarrollo rural para revertir tal situación, pese al potencial que encierran y a sus logros en otros momentos y ámbitos. (shrink)

Promoting collaboration between university researchers and practitioners from the business and public sectors has emerged as an important tool of science policy. This article examines the discourses that policy makers employ in promoting this strategy by analyzing the narratives about the social relevance of science and its role vis-à-vis the industrial sector in the context of strategic research funding in Sweden. Four dominant discourses on science are identified and discussed. It is argued that these policy frames construct a boundary between (...) research and practice, which is in turn used as rhetorical justification for research funding policies that seek to increase business influence and input to university research at the expense of academic autonomy in this sphere. (shrink)

The aim of our paper is to analyze the position the psychedelic trance subculture takes on drug use and whether it applies to prescriptive regulatory systems on drug-taking. A qualitative field research strategy was adopted with the use of semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Actors at three levels of participation in the subculture (experts, long-term participants and newcomers to psychedelic trance parties) were interviewed. The results showed that the subculture distinguishes between tolerated and non-tolerated drugs. This distinction is different from (...) the mainstream paradigm. The subculture also has unwritten rules relating to the behavior expected of an intoxicatedperson. However, there is only limited potential for the subculture to enforce these standards and recognition that this represents a threat. Psychedelic trance stands out from other dance scenes in the use of specific drugs—hallucinogens—that dominate and inform its culture. (shrink)

Cuando se habla de literatura y filosofía, generalmente se hace referencia a campos totalmente distintos, con producciones enteramente diferentes. Algunos textos parecen pertenecer de manera exclusiva ya sea al ámbito de la filosofía o de la literatura, como si no pudiera haber hibridación; como si lo que fuera de un campo no pudiera ser leído en la clave del de otro. En este sentido, cabe preguntarse si una obra considerada literaria podría leerse filosóficamente y cómo.

Principialismo, bioética personalista y principios de acción en medicina y en servicios de salud Principialismo, bioética personalista e princípios de ação em medicina e serviços de saúde Since there is a gap and differences between bioethical concepts and other principles of action arising from the practice of modern medicine, their comparison is reasonable. Modern medicine has created principles of action based on evidence and principles of quality in medicine, and bioethical argumentation frequently resorts to principlism or personalist bioethics. This article (...) intends to illustrate the characteristics of the relationships between these concepts and their potential mutual enrichment. A simple, practical comparison matrix is proposed to compare the relationship between principles. These concepts have a significant overlap; however, both in the history of ideas and in their formulation, they are very dissimilar. Emphasis is placed on the contextual value of this analysis given by global health trends and some implications for medicine from personalist bioethics. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Insua JT. Principialismo, bioética personalista y principios de acción en medicina y en servicios de salud. pers. bioét. 2018; 22: 223-246. DOI: 10.5294/pebi.2018.22.2.3. (shrink)

The article deals with phenomenology in Lithuania. The main thesis of the article is this: phenomenology is a living tradition in need of both development and interpretation. The minor thesis follows from the main one: the Western phenomenological tradition and Lithuanian philosophy interact and develop in tandem with one another. According to the authors, the contact between poetics and philosophy is the dominant form of phenomenology in Lithuania. The phenomenological tradition is treated as creative and living philosophical thought.

We provide a brief overview of the shift toward the intrinsic view of brain activity, describing in particular the structural and functional connectivity patterns of the “Default mode network”. We then consider the Default mode network in a specifically cognitive setting and ask what changes the focus on the Default mode network and other sorts of intrinsic activity require from models put forward by cognitive neuroscientists.

A partir del análisis de tres crónicas de Carlos Monsiváis incluidas en la antología Los rituales del caos de 1995 respondemos a la pregunta por el tipo de discurso que constituyen dichas crónicas, es decir, ¿de qué hablan las crónicas de Monsiváis?, ¿están criticando algo?, y si es así ¿qué tipo de crítica establecen los textos del cronista mexicano?. A partir de los conceptos teóricos de Manuel Asensi, Slavoj Zizek o Julio Ramos abordamos la crónica monsivaisiana como una repolitización del (...) discurso literario. En ese sentido, retomamos el concepto de discurso y ponemos entre comillas el de “literariadedad” entendiendo, siguiendo a Asensi, que una maquinaria semiótica o discursiva opera desde distintas manifestaciones culturales, ya sea para consolidar una ideología dominante o para cuestionarla, quedando con ello de manifiesto que la interpelación hacia los sujetos por parte del texto, texto en un sentido amplio, tiene lugar no solamente desde el tratado político o filosófico. A partir de esto último, interpretamos que las crónicas monsivaisinas, como maquinarias discursivas, constituyen un cuestionamiento a la ideología dominante en el contexto en donde se encuentran operando, a decir, a la ideología nacionalista mexicana corporativista creada en los años treinta y perpetuada hasta la actualidad, al mismo tiempo que un cuestionamiento epistemológico al proyecto literario mismo. (shrink)

Se ha sostenido tradicionalmente que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas son análogos. Pero, ¿qué es la analogía? Varios filósofos han pensado que la analogía debe ser considerada como una forma de ambigüedad. Argumentamos aquí que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas no son ambiguos o vagos. Siguiendo algunas sugerencias de McDaniel, proponemos una concepción de la analogía donde el fenómeno semántico está asociado con el carácter más o menos natural de la propiedad o (...) propiedades que instancian las entidades que satisfacen el predicado análogo. Un predicado "θ" es análogo si y sólo si, la propiedad Θ, que algo instancia, si y sólo si es θ, es menos natural que cualquier propiedad Ξ tal que todo lo que instancie Ξ, instancia Θ. Además, se requiere que las entidades de las cuales el término análogo es predicado deban ser ontológica o epistémicamente dependientes unas de otras. || It has been traditionally sustained that predicates attributed to God and to the creatures are analogical predicates. But, what is analogy? Several philosophers have thought that analogy should be taken as a form of ambiguity. Here we argue that predicates attributed to God and to creatures are neither ambiguous nor vague. Following some suggestions given by McDaniel, we propose a view of analogy in which the semantic phenomenon is associated with the more or less natural character of the property or properties that the entities that satisfy the analogous predicate instantiate. A predicate "θ" is analogous if and only if the property Θ, which something instantiates, if and only if it is θ, is less natural that any property Ξ so that anything that instantiates Ξ, instantiates Θ. Furthermore, it is required that the entities of which the analogous term is predicated should be either ontologically or epistemically dependent on each other. (shrink)

[EN] Several conceptions of trope bundles have postulated mutual relations of ontological dependence to explain the unity of the bundle. The idea is that a bundle is a plurality of tropes such that each one of them is dependent on any other. A variant of this idea is that there is a ‘nucleus’ of tropes all of them mutually dependent, and there is also a ‘periphery’ or ‘halo’ of tropes that are dependent on the tropes of the nucleus, but the (...) tropes of the nucleus are not dependent on them. There are several theoretical advantages that trope bundles conceived in this way have. A weakness of the position nevertheless is that it requires an equivalence relation of dependence. But it has been normally supposed that dependence is a strict order, i.e. it is relation irreflexive, asymmetric and transitive. Several recent works have put into question this traditional assumption. Those recent criticisms are discussed and it is argued that they are not convincing. Further arguments are presented for the irreflexivity and transitivity of dependence, from which asymmetry follows. Dependence, then, appears to be in fact a strict order. This implies that most forms of nuclear trope bundles are unintelligible. But not all of them, because nuclear tropes with a unique nuclear trope are coherent. [ES] Varias concepciones de cúmulos de tropos han postulado relaciones de dependencia ontológica mutuas para explicar la unidad del cúmulo. La idea es que un cúmulo es una pluralidad de tropos tal que cada uno de ellos es dependiente de cualquier otro. Una variante de esta idea es que hay un ‘núcleo’ de tropos todos ellos mutuamente dependientes y hay también una ‘periferia’ o ‘halo’ de tropos que son dependientes de los tropos del núcleo, pero los tropos del núcleo no son dependientes de ellos. Hay varias ventajas teóricas que tienen los cúmulos de tropos concebidos de este modo. Una debilidad de esta posición, sin embargo, es que requiere una relación de dependencia que sea una relación de equivalencia. Pero se ha supuesto normalmente que la dependencia es un orden estricto, esto es, una relación irreflexiva, asimétrica y transitiva. Varios trabajos recientes han puesto en cuestión este supuesto tradicional. Estas criticas recientes son aquí discutidas y se argumenta que no son convincentes. Se presentan argumentos adicionales para la irreflexividad y la transitividad de la dependencia, de lo que se sigue la asimetría. Entonces, la dependencia resulta ser un orden estricto. Esto implica que la mayoría de las formas de cúmulos nucleares de tropos son ininteligibles. Pero no todos, porque los cúmulos nucleares con un único tropo nuclear son coherentes. (shrink)