Cleaning occupations, which in recent years have accounted for a not inconsiderable share of employment and job creation in France, are characterised by particularly bad working conditions and low pay. Is this situation inevitable? Are there not in fact mechanisms that might lead employers in the cleaning sector to adopt socially more responsible behaviours towards their employees? After all, the literature on corporate social responsibility suggests that the actions of consumers could be one of these mechanisms. The aim of our (...) paper is to test the impact on job quality of contact between cleaning workers and service recipients. To this end, we analyse data from a survey carried out by the French Ministry of Labour and supplemented by interviews. Our results indicate that contact with service recipients does indeed have an influence. (shrink)

The acoel worm Symsagittifera roscoffensis, an early offshoot of the Bilateria and the only well‐studied marine acoel that lives in a photosymbiotic relationship, exhibits a centralized nervous system, brain regeneration, and a wide repertoire of complex behaviors such as circatidal rhythmicity, photo/geotaxis, and social interactions. While this animal can be collected by the thousands and is studied historically, significant progress is made over the last decade to develop it as an emerging marine model. The authors here present the feasibility of (...) culturing it in the laboratory and describe the progress made on different areas, including genomic and tissue architectures, highlighting the associated challenges. In light of these developments, and on the ability to access abundant synchronized embryos, the authors put forward S. roscoffensis as a marine system to revisit questions in the areas of photosymbiosis, regeneration, chronobiology, and the study of complex behaviors from a molecular and evolutionary perspective. (shrink)

Avant-propos.--Philosophie allemande.--Philosophie française.--Philosophie anglaise.--Philosophie américaine.--Valeur des écoles.

Resumen Vivimos en un mundo cada vez más polarizado entre ricos y pobres. Entre un pequeño grupo de personas que concentra y controla la riqueza mundial, y la gran mayoría de la población que no cuenta con las condiciones indispensables para poder vivir. Por otra parte, la globalización económica promueve un modelo de humanidad basado en el consumismo. El ser humano ha identificado la búsqueda de la felicidad con el comprar y adquirir los nuevos modelos que la publicidad impone. Nos (...) estamos acabando al planeta -incluyendo a la humanidad- y las consecuencias son evidentes: calentamiento global, contaminación, extinción de especies, violencia, migración, etc. Por otra parte, la acumulación de recursos en manos de unos cuantos es algo que también destruye a los ricos, los deshumaniza. Consideramos por tanto que si bien la pobreza, como carencia de lo indispensable para poder vivir dignamente, es un problema que debemos solucionar; por otra parte, hay otro tipo de “pobreza” entendida como virtud, que nos ayuda a vivir más plenamente, y es aquella que nos proporciona libertad para centrarnos en lo esencial: la familia, la humanidad, el mundo y Dios. El objetivo del presente trabajo es pasar de la pobreza como problema a la pobreza como virtud.We live in a world where the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. In a world where a small group of people concentrates and controls the wealth, and the rest of the population is lacking the indispensable conditions for living. On another hand, economic globalization promotes a model of humanity based on consumerism. Human beings have related search of happiness with acquiring commodities and models imposed by advertising. We are destroying the planet -including humanity- and the consequences are evident: global warming, pollution, endangered species, violence, migration, etc. In addition, accumulating resources is dehumanizing and destroying the wealthy societies. We consider, that poverty understood as lacking financial resources is a problem that needs a resolution; but also, poverty, understood as virtue, help us to live fully and provides freedom, so we can focus on the essentials: family, humanity, the world and God. The objective of this work is to pass from poverty as a problem, to poverty as a virtue. (shrink)

O objetivo do artigo é determinar as evidências do irracionalismo nos textos iniciais de Alberto Guerreiro Ramos com respeito à teoria do conhecimento, considerando o período de preparação do autor para seu posicionamento posterior na fenomenologia. Para tanto, foi realizada análise imanente dos textos selecionados (1939-1955). Os resultados sugerem que as evidências do irracionalismo compareceram pela adesão do autor ao agnosticismo relativista presente nas posições do existencialismo e da fenomenologia, preenchendo assim uma lacuna na pesquisa a respeito do pensamento do (...) sociólogo brasileiro. Tal adesão se deu em circunstância de reação ao marxismo elegido como adversário a ser combatido, da mesma maneira em que fora confrontado por tendências irracionalistas na filosofia. (shrink)

64 . 1. La théorie des objets percevants dépasse le cadre de cet ouvrage dont le but est de démontrer les principes de la connaissance naturelle par l’examen des données et des lois expérimentales fondamentales pour la physique. Un objet percevant est en un certain sens au-delà de la nature. Mais la nature inclut la vie ; et la manière de concevoir la nature dans le chapitre précédent..

God — as we well know since Nietzsche — is dead. However, it is necessary to correct this sentence that was a sacrilege yesterday and has become common place today. We should be talking of the death of the “gods,” rather than of God; for what has been disappearing from the social space of modernity (I do not speak of the inner conscience of the faithful here), is not just the God who sits enthroned atop altar and dogma. What has (...) disappeared are the “gods” more generally; by this we understand the link with the world that, certainly rooted in religion but transcending it, surrounds things and beings with an aura of wonderful significances; that places them outside of those structures that modern man understands to be the utilitarian, the rational and the functional. (shrink)

This article explores the tensions between different conceptions of “citizenship.” On the one hand, we point out the virtues and limitations of cosmopolitan citizenship in the terms in which Seyla Benhabib understands it in The Right of Others…; on the other hand, we delve into another notion of citizenship, namely, the localist, in a version that could be at odds with some cosmopolitan values, that is, localism as understood by some Mexican autonomous communities, particularly the Zapatistas. Although Benhabib’s cosmopolitan federalism (...) is inclusive in spirit, it is conceived within a preponderantly global perspective and ends up being asymmetrical. While her proposal has some positive aspects, it faces some difficulties in the case of Mexican autonomous communities. In this article, we shall introduce the notion of democratic confederalism as a form of sociopolitical organization that seeks to strengthen the self-organization of social actors and to recognize the practice of citizenship in the terms in which autonomous communities exercise it. We propose that democratic confederalism could be an alternative for decreasing tensions between global citizenship and the idea of citizenship within autonomous communities. (shrink)

In the light of partial (mis)understanding, we examine the thesis that concepts are individuated in terms of possession conditions and show that adherents face a fatal dilemma: Either concept‐individuating possession conditions include cases of partially (mis)understood concepts or not. If yes, possession conditions do not individuate concepts. If no, the thesis is too restricted and lacks a minimally satisfactory level of generalization.

Se discute cómo pueden dos filósofos islámicos sostener que la generación del cuerpo es necesaria para que se origine el alma y, al mismo tiempo, afirmar que ésta puede separarse del cuerpo, ya sea transformándose en un intelecto inmaterial ‒en el caso de al-Fārābī‒, o bien en un alma individuada e inmortal ‒en el caso de Avicena. El primero es cercano al hilemorfismo peripatético; el segundo adopta un dualismo robusto. Se argumenta que la integración de la cosmología, la biología y (...) la noética conduce, en ambos casos, a una reconciliación coherente entre el origen natural del alma y su inmaterialidad. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se discute cómo pueden dos filósofos islámicos sostener que la generación del cuerpo es necesaria para que se origine el alma y, al mismo tiempo, afirmar que ésta puede separarse del cuerpo, ya sea transformándose en un intelecto inmaterial -en el caso de al-Fārābī-, o bien en un alma individuada e inmortal -en el caso de Avicena. El primero es cercano al hilemorfismo peripatético; el segundo adopta un dualismo robusto. Se argumenta que la integración de la cosmología, la biología (...) y la noética conduce, en ambos casos, a una reconciliación coherente entre el origen natural del alma y su inmaterialidad. ABSTRACT The article discusses how it is possible for two Islamic philosophers to claim that the generation of the body is necessary for the soul to arise, and, at the same time, to affirm that the latter can separate from the body, whether by becoming an immaterial intellect -in the case of al-Fārābī-, or an immortal, individual soul -in the case of Avicenna. While the former is close to Peripatetic hylemorphism, the latter adopts a robust dualism. The paper argues that the integration of cosmology, biology, and noetics leads, in both cases, to a coherent reconciliation between the natural origin of the soul and its immaterial nature. (shrink)

The radical mean suggested by Socrates in order to carry out the program of the Republic - the relegation to the fields of all inhabitants over the age of 10 - has perplexed modern commentators who have seen in it an ironical remark, a reductio ad absurdum presented in order to establish the very impossibility of Kallipolis or, on the contrary, a sign of the totalitarian and criminal character of the Platonic city. But it is far from evident, in view (...) of political or military events prior and contemporary with the redaction of the Republic, that this solution could offend the moral conscience of fourth-century Greeks. This practice even seems to be the logical consequence of a certain oligarchic or aristocratic ideology, common by the end of the 5th c. and at the beginning of the 4th c., which associated, on the one hand, rural organization with the ‘best regime’ and, on the other, urban centralisation with democracy. The actual practices of the Lacedaemonian city, which maintained its primitive organization in komai, and even tried to impose it to other cities, could also serve as a model for the opponents of Athenian democracy. All of Plato's political models, from the Republic to the Laws, present cities whose essential, if not exclusive, productive activity is agriculture. The displacement of the population to the countryside seems, from this perspective, a rather serious proposal of the philosopher. * * Agradezco a Héctor Zagal y a María-Elena García-Peláez por sus observaciones y sugerencias al texto en español. (shrink)

Sociocultural transformations brought about by indigenous leaders in Amazonia have been described as prophetic, millenaristic, or messianic and contrasted with modern reformism. This article addresses new ways of describing processes of change negotiated among indigenous actors. Although these processes are mostly absent from colonial or later sources, they should not remain foreign to ethnology, as the three empirical cases analyzed in this essay show. Methodologically, the essay asks why the regulatory image of Rousseau's small community, meeting face to face to (...) express the general will, has never had the same impact in the anthropological imagination as that of the “noble savage.” Thematically, these case studies raise the question of how peace is made and suggest that, while peacemaking demands “magic,” the invocation of extrahuman powers, the social forms and values on which peace is based are contained as objective possibilities in the present. Making peace actual requires creative choices. (shrink)

En varios pasajes de sus obras psicológicas, Avicena sugiere que los animales no humanos tienen un yo. Aquí argumentaré que, a partir de las características que le atribuye a la percepción, hay razones de peso para sospechar que los animales no humanos efectivamente tienen un yo: el impulso natural en ellos hacia la supervivencia, la familiaridad con su propio cuerpo, su capacidad para tender hacia aquello que les resulta conveniente y huir de lo peligroso de acuerdo con sus propias circunstancias, (...) así como el modo de relacionarse con el mundo, son conductas que, como se verá, requerirían la presencia de un yo. In several passages from his psychological works Avicenna suggests that non-human animals have a self. Here I argue that from the Avicennian description of perception, there are strong reasons to suspect that non-human animals have a self: their natural self-preservation impulse, the familiarity they have with their own body, their capacity to move towards what they perceive as convenient and to avoid what is dangerous according to their own circumstances, and the way each one relates to the world, are behaviors that, as will be shown, would require the presence of a self. (shrink)

This article exposes some characteristics of the first Arab interpretations on Aristotle´s Poetics. The thought of Abu Bishr Matta, al-Kindī and Alfarabi, philosophers previous to Avicenna, shows us that the Arabs included the Poetics as a logical treatise, but also they understand it throug..

The Arabic tradition knew Alexander’s treatises On Fate and On Providence. Alexander criticizes the Stoic determinism with some peripatetic arguments. In those treatises we can find, at least, two positions: the peripatetic and “libertarian” position represented by Alexander, and Stoic determinism. A very similar discussion can be found in Islamic tradition. As S. Van den Bergh has insisted, Islamic theological schools had some Stoic influences. One of the issues in which we can find some common views is, precisely, the problem (...) of determinism and free will. The aim of this paper is to show that the kasb (acquisition)doctrine of the Islamic theologians Asharites is very similar to Stoic determinism in its compatibilist version: both, Stoics and Asharites, conceive a causal network established by the fate or the providence. From this point of view we have to discuss which is the true agent of the natural and human acts that happen in this world. If the providence guides every act, the natural causality and the free will should be denied. On the one hand, I will present some arguments from the most representative Asharite theologian, al-Ghazali, to support a kind of compatibilist determinism; from the other hand, I will evaluate Averroes peripatetic arguments against determinism. Is Averroes more consistent than Alexander or do we have to conclude that al-Ghazali and the Asharites have stronger arguments in order to support the kasb doctrine? (shrink)

La noción de Witz tiene su origen en Shafiesbury y, posteriormente, en Kant y en Fichte. El genio es el puente de unión entre la aparente contradicción de la naturaleza con la libertad y, gracias a esta importante función es el único que logra conciliar la armonía helénica con la desarmonía romántica. Desde este planteamiento el autor intenta mostrar: primero, la configuración del genio desde las nociones de naturaleza y libertad (Kant); segundo, la posible conciliación efectuada por el genio entre (...) el espíritu helénico y el espíritu romántico, que no es otra cosa que la esencia de la poesía moderna (Schlegel, Goethe); tercero, una conciliación aparente que culmina, más bien, con la frustración y el desengaño del genio, que se vuelve, según la terminología hegeliana, "conciencia infeliz" (Hegel). (shrink)

The aim of this article is to revisit Clement of Alexandria’s Paedagogus 2.5.45-8 discussing whether Clement holds a moderate position οf laughter or, like most early Christians, tends to an “antigelastic” position. Some scholars, such as Stephen Halliwell and Laura Rizzerio, have concluded that Clement holds an intermediate position between an optimistic approach to laughter and its condemnation. However, in this essay we argue that while Clement’s position is not a straightforward antigelastic one, his apparent acceptance of laughter is so (...) narrow that his moderate view ends up being compromised. Ultimately, he is strongly inclined to condemn laughter and to prescribe an ascetic life devoid of laughter. (shrink)

The Arabic tradition knew Alexander’s treatises On Fate and On Providence. Alexander criticizes the Stoic determinism with some peripatetic arguments. In those treatises we can find, at least, two positions: the peripatetic and “libertarian” position represented by Alexander, and Stoic determinism. A very similar discussion can be found in Islamic tradition. As S. Van den Bergh has insisted, Islamic theological schools had some Stoic influences. One of the issues in which we can find some common views is, precisely, the problem (...) of determinism and free will. The aim of this paper is to show that the kasb (acquisition)doctrine of the Islamic theologians Asharites is very similar to Stoic determinism in its compatibilist version: both, Stoics and Asharites, conceive a causal network established by the fate or the providence. From this point of view we have to discuss which is the true agent of the natural and human acts that happen in this world. If the providence guides every act, the natural causality and the free will should be denied. On the one hand, I will present some arguments from the most representative Asharite theologian, al-Ghazali, to support a kind of compatibilist determinism; from the other hand, I will evaluate Averroes peripatetic arguments against determinism. Is Averroes more consistent than Alexander or do we have to conclude that al-Ghazali and the Asharites have stronger arguments in order to support the kasb doctrine? (shrink)

The Epistle concerning Dreams is a little known work where Avicenna deals with some relevant considerations regarding the way in which prophecy and veridical dreams take place. The theory contained in this- treatise accurately illustrates how intricate Avicenna’s theory of prophecy is and, at the same time, provides several clues in order to recognize the origin of this theory as it appears in major treatises such as fī al-Nafs and Ilahiyat of the Šifa’. The Risala al-Manamiyya also enables us to (...) recognize the impact of several influences coming from the Ancient Greek tradition—mainly from Aristotle, Galen, Plotinus, and other Neoplatonics. This article explains the theories of divination by means of dreams and the conception of prophecy, as they appear in the Arabic version of the De divinatione per somnum, a treatise where the origins of Avicenna’s theory of prophecy can be found. Furthermore it shows the impact that the theory contained in this treatise had in the Risala al-Manamiyya. Finally, it expounds some remarks regarding the transmission and adaptation of the metaphysical and psychological points of view posed both in the Arabic version of the De divinatione and the Risāla al-Manāmiyya, alluding to the impact they had in the theories of prophecy found both in Avicenna’s major treatises in the Šifā’. (shrink)

In In I Sent., d. 2, q. 1, aa. 1-3 Thomas Aquinas deals with divine simplicity and the predication of the divine attributes. There, he seems to take some distance from Avicenna, specifically when Avicenna avers that God lacks a quiddity. However, in the Summa theologiae Aquinas assumes, as he previously does both in In I Sent., d. 8, q. 1, a. 1 and in De ente et essentia, that there is an identity between the essentia/quiddity and the esse in (...) God, while this statement would also be held by Avicenna. I will show how back to the Commentary on the Sentences Aquinas has detected the existing tension between the two thesis held by Avicenna, and I will also analyze the way in which he addresses both these theses. (shrink)

In this paper I will show some contributions from Averroes around some issues related to psychology and medicine. My intention is to establish some relations between the commentaries on De anima and the medical treatises. The itinerary is the following: a) I will show that, like Aristotle, Averroes conceives the soul as a set of biological capacities; b) De anima is a biological treatise, so there we can find some considerations that must be understood from a medical point of view, (...) specially, from the Arabic contributions on Anatomy. It is necessary, then, to point out the importance of the nerves and the brain to understand the narrow relation between the De anima and the Book of Medicine. We will find that Averroes does not understand the soul as a 'spiritual principle' but like something generated that makes possible several biological functions, from the vegetative and the sensitive to the intellectual ones. So, Averroes denies the Neoplatonic conception of the soul as something separated from the body. Averroes explains that the soul is the concretion of the biological process denominated "life". KEY WORDS – Averroes. Aristotle. De anima. Neoplatonism. Biology. Life. (shrink)