The ambiguous-cue task is composed of two-choice simultaneous discriminations involving three stimuli: positive (P), ambiguous (A) and negative (N). Two different trial types are presented: PA and NA. The ambiguous cue (A) served as an S- in PA trials, but as an S+ in NA trials. When using this procedure, it is typical to observe a less accurate performance in PA trials than in NA trials. This is called the ambiguous-cue effect. Recently, it was reported in starlings that the ambiguous-cue (...) effect decreases when the stimuli are presented on an angled (120°) panel. The hypothesis is that the angled panel facilitates that the two cues from each discrimination are perceived as a compound, precluding value transfer via a second-order conditioning mechanism. In this experiment, we used pigeons and a flat panel. Nevertheless, our data were quite similar to the previous data in starlings. We conclude that the form of the panel cannot explain the ambiguous-cue effect. Several alternatives to be explored in future experiments are suggested. The riddle of the ambiguous-cue problem still remains unsolved. (shrink)

This study aims to analyze whether resilient SMEs have been able to overcome the bump of the COVID-19 crisis in terms of profitability. When facing such unforeseen crises, SMEs require resilience, and one of the factors that positively affect resilience generation is the adoption of social and environmental practices (SEPs). Using survey data on the managerial perceptions of 259 SMEs, this study reveals the positive association between resilience and improvements in business performance, and how the adoption of SEPs is an (...) essential prerequisite for developing a higher level of resilience. We corroborate these associations for SMEs at two moments of the pandemic: November 2020 and October 2021. Our findings show that more resilient SMEs exhibit better results in terms of business performance, and the prior adoption of SEPs is positively associated with the development of resilience in the crisis context of COVID-19. (shrink)

En este artículo se pretende plantear la posibilidad de una filosofía que useel género teatral como forma consciente de expresión, no solo para ilustraro hacer atractiva las ideas, sino para hacer propiamente filosofía. El diálogopermite establecer el desarrollo de ideas en forma de conflicto o de entrelazamientode acciones como una filosofía teatral. El debate filosófico quemuestra las circunstancias del encuentro de los personajes y cómo estas sedesarrollan, aunque solo sea implícitamente, construyen una filosofía dondelos hechos particulares se integran y, de (...) ese modo, hacen posible un modoparticular de hacer filosofía. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es revisar la relación entre utilitarismo, las emociones y la razón, desde el punto de vista de la teoría descriptiva. En particular, repasa los estudios más recientes sobre las emociones y el comportamiento moral y extrae algunas conclusiones preliminares sobre las implicaciones sobre la teoría normativa y en particular el utilitarismo.

Understanding Aesthetics in it's etymological meaning as the "science of the perception" makes any study of the theory of the sensibility essential to understand a given aesthetics. Moreover, theories of sensibility and knowledge in Arabic and Islamic classical culture, have hardly been probed in it's aesthetic dimension. As a result of this, the spread of conceptualizations about Arabic and Islamic aesthetics has, in many cases, sunk in a sea of imprecisions and prejudgements. In the following pages, we present an approximation (...) of these topics through works of greats thinkers from Al-Andalus such as Ibn Hazm, Ibn Bayya, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rusd, Hazim al-Qartayanni, Ibn 'Arabi and Ibn Jaldun, in whose works we appreciate a clear, though diverse, intention of constituting a cognizant and percipient human subject, ethically and aesthetically defined, across psychologies and concepts that we will also discover in the construction of Aesthetics in the West. (shrink)

The main aim of the present study is to identify which mental footnotes (related to Adam Smith’s Capitalism) have more weight in the current cognitive processing of participants. We used the “Wealth of Nations” as the main source of the concepts from this author. An experimental design (based on a previous qualitative research) was carried out to test the influence of mental footnotes on the citizens’ decision on the validity of the concepts. The findings point out that there are strong, (...) current, mental footnotes related to the Adam Smith’s concept of price. People mostly understand that, for every product, the entrepreneur has to recover their initial investment and to gain a profit. On the other hand, the fact that entrepreneurs have to pay some expenditures and they need to have profits determines the price of products. (shrink)

We will intend to evaluate, throughout the two consecutive parts of this study, which is to be considered the status at the very same time hierophanical and cosmological, ontological and anthropological, that dic notion of Beauty invests in te speculative misticism of the anda lusian Muhy¡ al-Din lbn `Arab¡ (1165-1240), known as well as "the gre Este articulo es la ponencia presentada en el Seminario Muhy¡ al-Din ¡bn Arabí -Mawláná faMí al-Din Balji(Mowlavi/ RflmiJ. Das fuentes clásicas para el estudio de (...) la mística especulativa en el Islam, que se celebró en la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad Complutense, en colaboración que la Consejerla Cultural de la República Islámica de Irán en Madrid. durante los días 19,20 y 21 de enero de 1999. krks&l&~ú..t&Hitat&k¡Fíksq%L <~),n~n ¡7. ~ 77-rn Sm*t& ñt4~m. thí~.~~h1Cw1tm MaI*f 78 José Miguel Puerta Vílchez atest master" in the realm of isla¡nic spirituality. And this by confronting the theories of islamic aesthetics and philosophy, and both furthermore by clarifying a vocabulary plenty of poliedric signifwances and by presen ting the doctrine of a creative imagination of which its noetical and sacred value will be thus explored. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that Peter Fitzpatrick provides a unique contribution to international studies, most especially to contemporary interdisciplinary studies of International Law (IL) and International Relations (IR). Peter provides a significant theoretical contribution to the interdisciplinary study of IL and IR not only as a critical thinker of modern law, but also as a critical thinker of the modern international. On the one hand, his supplementary critical legal thinking contributes to a ‘decolonial deconstructionist’ rethinking of the politics of (...) international law. His close reading of how modern international law (auto)grounds ‘itself’, for instance, offers a strident critique of the racist, imperial, and colonial lines of discrimination involved in the negative (auto)constitution of this (supposedly) universal legal being. On the other hand, he provides a conception of the ‘(inter)national’ which displaces conventional, modern understandings of the legal and political organization of ‘humanity’ and ‘the world’, problematizing their foundational assumptions and spatialized geometrical frames as being based on oppositional dualisms (‘inside/outside’, ‘national/international’, ‘empire/modernity’, ‘theological/secular’, etc.), while offering a deconstructionist engagement with the ‘constitutive outside’ of the modern (inter)national. As a form of postcolonial counter-archive, Peter’s work enacts a decolonial deconstruction of ‘our’ (inter)national ‘selves’, including the (inter)national commonality ‘itself’. Before an incalculable, quasi-ontological heteronomy, a dissymmetrical Law of originary sociability which I (re)articulate here with/as the ‘and’ of the world(s), Peter’s supplementary critical thinking of the (inter)national contributes to imagining the world, humanity, and our social being(s), including law and language, otherwise. (shrink)

Aim: The main aim of the present study is to identify which mental footnotes (related to Marx’s and Engels’ Socialism) have more weight in the current cognitive processing of citizens. Background: We used the “Manifesto of the communist party” as the main source of the thoughts from these authors. Method: An experimental design (based on a previous qualitative research) was carried out to test the influence of mental footnotes on the citizens’ decision on the validity of the concepts. Results: The (...) findings point out that there are strong, current, mental footnotes related to the Marx’s and Engels’ concept of bourgeoisie. Conclusions: The Marx’s and Engels’ Philosophy is currently alive, at least, some concepts related to bourgeoisie. People mostly think that the current means of production of modern bourgeoisie were developed in the feudal age, proletariat struggles with bourgeoisie from the beginning, Communism and Socialism are the only political movement that recognized this bourgeoisie-proletariat antagonism and the means of production are nowadays extended to other social classes. The present methodology (from an Experimental Psychology perspective) means a reliable technique to extract the essence of a text and to test the influence of its concepts on human cognitive processing. (shrink)

Propaganda has been historically used for the benefit of certain social groups faced up to another. This propaganda is not always ethical at all. It is based on misconceptions, lies, and fallacies. We have analyzed (by using an experimental Psychology task) the presence and cognitive weight of certain mental footnotes and their influence on the Reasoning of Hispanic-Americans (Ecuadorian). These mental footnotes have been extracted from the classical work “A brief account of the destruction of the Indies” of Bartolomé de (...) las Casas in 1552. The most relevant and significant finding of this study is the clear evidence that nowadays we can still find these historical falsehoods in the current cognitive system of Ecuadorian people which are product of a well-planned and maliciously orchestrated propaganda. We conclude that all the contents of the Spanish black legend are the consequences of the aspirations of some social sectors to boycott the Spanish culture. (shrink)

Entendiendo la Estética en su sentido etimológico de "ciencia del sentir", el estudio de la teoría de la sensibilidad se convierte en indispensable para el conocimiento de una estética dada. Sin embargo, rara vez se han estudiado las teorías de la sensibilidad y del conocimiento en la cultura árabe islámica clásica en su dimensión estética, con lo que conceptualizaciones difundidas acerca de la estética árabe e islámica suelen caer en la imprecisión y el juicio apriorístico. Aquí presentamos una aproximación a (...) dicha temática a través de la obra de grandes pensadores andalusíes como Ibn Hazm, Ibn Bayya, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rusd, Hazim al-Qartayanni, Ibn `Arabi o Ibn Jaldun, en cuya obra se aprecia una clara, aunque diversa, intención de configurar un sujeto humano perceptor y conocedor, ética y estéticamente definido, con psicologías y conceptos que más tarde hallaremos también en la construcción de la Estética en occidente . (shrink)

El presente estudio se propone, a lo largo de dos entregas consecutivas, evaluar cuál sea el estatuto a un tiempo hierofánico y cosmológico, ontológico y antropológico, que la noción de Belleza reviste en la mística especulativa del andalusí MuhyÌ al-DÌn Ibn ÿArabÌ (1165-1240), conocido asimismo como "el más grande de los maestros" en materia de espiritualidad islámica. Y ello en confrontación con las teorías al uso de la estética y la filosofía islámicas, a través del esclarecimiento de un vocabulario denso (...) en sugerencias poliédricas, y de la presentación de la doctrina relativa a la facultad creadora de una imaginación de la que se indagará, en fin, su valor noético y sagrado. (shrink)

Estas reflexiones son una síntesis de la investigación que personalmente ha llevado a cabo, ayudado por especialistas y estudiosos del tema, patrocinada por la Fundación santa María y publicada en uno de sus cuadernos con el título: "La potencialidad educativa de la música". En este trabajo se recogen datos y opiniones de unos 2000 alumnos, varias decenas de profesores y especialistas, así como de intérpretes musicales, compositores, directores de coros y miembros de agrupaciones corales. La investigación, de gran amplitud y (...) estructurada a partir de técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas, fue presentada en el congreso que reunió el pasado mayo en Madrid a 700 profesores de Música de centros educativos españoles, titulado: "Música en el aula, todo un arte". (shrink)

A descriptive-exploratory analysis of assurance practices is presented in this paper, by analysing the patterns of sustainability assurance reporting in two national contexts with different levels of assurance activity over a period of 11 years. The study is based on theoretical insights drawn from institutional sociology and normativity production. It is framed both in the Italian situation, where assurance statements consistently include a narrow set of formal and procedural communications, and in an unsettled situation in the U.S., where assurance activity (...) is more incipient, but where experimentation in substantial assurance disclosure practices has more room to develop. Its main implication is that the diffusion of sustainability assurance and the creation of sustainability assurance disclosure norms are not without its cost: information quality does not increase with patterned practice. The results also point towards the noteworthy role of specific professionals in the earlier and later stages of assurance practice norms. They reveal a significant influence of non-Big4 firms in the diffusion of sustainability assurance disclosure norms. In contrast, the Big4 firms appear to be positively associated with the narrowing down of the assurance focus to a selected subset of this activity in later stages of the development of the assurance norm. In this regard, this study provides insight into the circumstantial—but relevant—carrier role of the Big4 firms in determining what “assurance” means. (shrink)

The original article was published without open access and with the copyright notice indicating © Springer Nature B.V. The article is now open access with the copyright residing with the authors.

Environmental research has usually highlighted that the existence of slack resources in an organization helps allocate investment to innovative initiatives. However, the existing literature has paid very limited attention to how slack resources can influence the effects of focused and diversified innovations in different ways. Agency theory scholars claim that a manager’s first preference when confronted with discretionary resources will not generate positive investments for the firm, but their own opportunistic preferences. The differences between focused and diversified environmental innovations allow (...) us to gain a better understanding of the financial impact of being focused and how slack resources matter in this context. We analyze a longitudinal sample of 5845 environmental patents from the 75 largest companies in the electrical components and equipment industry worldwide. Our results show that high levels of slack resources reduce the existing positive relationship between focused environmental innovations and a firm’s financial performance. These results contribute to delineating the theoretical and empirical implications of focused versus diversified environmental innovations and extend the literature on ethical dilemmas concerning managers’ use of slack resources in the firm. (shrink)

The semantically ambiguous nature of the sign and aspects of non-classicality of elementary matter as described by quantum theory show remarkable coherent analogy. We focus on how the ambiguous nature of the image, text and art work bears functional resemblance to the dynamics of contextuality, entanglement, superposition, collapse and decoherence as these phenomena are known in quantum theory. These quantumlike properties in linguistic signs have previously been identified in formal descritions of e.g. concept combinations and mental lexicon representations and have (...) been reported on in the literature. In this approach the informationalized, communicated, mediatized conceptual configuration—of e.g. the art work—in the personal reflected mind behaves like a quantum state function in a higher dimensional complex space, in which it is time and again contextually collapsed and further cognitively entangled. The observer–consumer of signs becomes the empowered ‘produmer’ creating the cognitive outcome of the interaction, while loosing most of any ‘classical givenness’ of the sign. These quantum-like descriptions are now developed here in four example aesthetic signs; the installation Mist room by Ann Veronica Janssens, the installation Sections of a happy moment by David Claerbout, the photograph The Falling Man by Richard Drew and the documentary Huicholes. The Last Peyote Guardians by Vilchez and Stefani. Our present work develops further the use of a previously developed quantum model for concept representation in natural language. In our present approach of the aesthetic sign, we extend to individual—idiosyncratic—observer contexts instead of socially shared group contexts, and as such also include multiple idiosyncratic creation of meaning and experience. This irreducible superposition emerges as the core feature of the aesthetic sign and is most critically embedded in the ‘no-interpretation’ interpretation of the documentary signal. (shrink)