(Axiological Systems in the XXI century: A Collage. The downfall of axiological systems based on beliefs and the co-existence of varied beliefs in the spiritual market) - DOI – 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2012v10n28p1295 Resumen Pretendemos mostrar como los sistemas axiológicos de creencias provenientes de las religiones no están vigentes en la actualidad. Para ello mostramos algunos datos del Banco Mundial que muestran como los sistemas heterónomos de creencias no funcionan como orientadores de la vida personal y social del individuo. También facilitamos información sobre (...) la disminución de los que se autoadscriben como pertenecientes a un sistema de creencias y además demostramos mediante las estadísticas que no existe relación entre autoadscribirse como miembro de un sistema de creencias y mantener unas determinadas creencias. Clarificamos la noción de creencia comúnmente utilizada como supuesto acrítico y otros usos del lenguaje corriente y del lenguaje científico. Utilizamos estadísticas de Catalunya, España, y de algunos países de Europa y América. Concluimos que si los sistemas axiológicos de los individuos no vienen determinados por las religiones, entonces ¿qué sistemas axiológicos tenemos que sean capaces de cohesionar y motivar los individuos hacia fines valiosos comunes? Palabras clave : Sistemas Axiológicos. Creencias. Religión. Cualidad humana. Estadísticas. España católicaWe aim at showing why axiological systems coming from religion are not operative currently. To do this we show World Bank data where it is manifested that heteronomous systems of beliefs are not in force to orient the personal and social life of the individuals. We also communicate the declining numbers of those that register themselves as believers and we also reveal that there is no relationship between registering oneself as a believer in an axiological system and effectively holding and “believing” the beliefs of that axiological system. We clarify the common use of the term belief as a non-critical assumption, and other uses of the term in natural language and scientific language. We use statistical data for Catalonia, Spain and some countries of Europe and America. We conclude by asking if individuals’ axiological systems are not determined by religions, then What axiological systems do we have able to cohere and motivate individuals towards valuable common futures? Keywords: Axiological systems. Beliefs, Religion. Human Quality. Statistics. Spain Catholic. (shrink)

Human Towers are one of the most representative traditional sporting games in Catalonia, recognized in 2010 as Intangible Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture. The objective of this research was to study the emotional states elicited by a representative performance of the colla de Castellers de Lleida. This research is based on an ethnographic case study, with mixed methods in which 17 key informants voluntarily participated. Participant observation was used; the data were recorded in (...) a field diary and oral sources. The content analysis was done using the Atlas.ti software. An SPSS database was also created. The statistical techniques were: Descriptive statistical techniques, cross tables with Pearson's Chi-square values. We also used a classification and regression trees to examine the predictive capacity of five independent variables of emotional states. The results reveal that the comments were mostly oriented toward well-being states, The internal cooperative logic of the Human Towers enhances the intense interpersonal relationships of socio-emotional well-being. (shrink)

This methodological article provides a Mixed Method approach to analyze how the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) Model is feasible to enhance student’s autonomy. The objective is to detect how teachers’ behavior-oriented patterns shift in response to continuing professional development to reinforce TPSR strategies. We compared the application of TPSR by three teachers who had previously attended a training course for this model, with that of an expert in the model. A total of 44 sessions of primary and secondary (...) school semesters in various subjects, taught by all four teachers and comprising 120 students. A mixed-method approach followed in the study involved: a) the Observational System of Teaching Oriented Responsibility (OSTOR), which revealed how the teachers’ behavior patterns shifted over their interventions, and b) the Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education (TARE 2.0.), which focused on perceived behaviors by teachers and student behaviors. Data analysis was conducted for a) the T-pattern detection technique, b) polar coordinate analysis to obtain detailed sequences of instruction, and c) descriptive and correlational analysis from the TARE. The mixed-method analysis of data confirms how the TPSR improved the teaching behaviors of the three teachers in training compared with the expert teacher. (shrink)

UNESCO in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development establishes respect for the environment and sustainability education as key elements for the challenges of society in the coming years. In the educational context, physical education can have a vital role in sustainability education, through Traditional Sporting Games. The aim of this research was to study from an ethnomotor perspective the different characteristics of two different groups of TSG in the Canary Islands, Spain. The corpus of this investigation was made up of (...) 513 TSG, identified by two analysis techniques and collected in a database. The categories corresponding to the variables of the internal logic of the game were the type of motor interaction, related to space, relationships with time, and relationships with objects. The study also examined the variables of external logic or sociocultural conditions such as the protagonists, playing areas, and game moments. The data analysis was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics: cross-tables, effect sizes, classification trees, and the identification of frequency areas. Of the total number of playful activities identified, most were physical activities. These activities were Quasi-games without rules and TSG as well as activities with Objects and without material. This research confirms that the TSG in the Canary Islands is a mirror of traditional culture and, from a pedagogical approach, shows great potential for material and social sustainability. (shrink)

Resumen: Uno de los mayores retos a superar por las democracias representativas electorales contemporáneas pasa por paliar la desafección ciudadana y, consecuentemente, suturar la brecha entre gobernantes y gobernados. Se podría llegar a un cierto consenso, si afirmáramos que la profesionalización de los políticos se está convirtiendo en uno de los obstáculos a los que se enfrenta la ciudadanía a la hora de confiar en el sistema político. En este sentido, el objetivo principal del presente artículo pasa por reflexionar sobre (...) los efectos nocivos de la profesionalización de la clase política, y analizar el potencial del sorteo como mecanismo neutralizador. A su vez, averiguar si este, a través de minipúblicos deliberativos, tiene o no la capacidad de minimizar sus excesos nocivos y, con ello, aumentar el grado de confianza de la ciudadanía con sus representantes políticos. Abstract: One of the greatest challenges to be overcome by contemporary electoral representative democracies is to alleviate citizen disaffection and, consequently, bridge the gap between the rulers and the ruled. A certain consensus could be reached if we affirmed that the professionalization of politicians is becoming one of the obstacles that citizens face when it comes to trusting the political system. I In this sense, the main objective of this article is to reflect on the harmful effects of the professionalization of the political class and analyze the potential of the sortition as a neutralizing mechanism. In turn, find out if this, through deliberative mini publics, has or not the ability to minimize its harmful excesses and, with it, increase the degree of trust of citizens with their political representatives. (shrink)

Victor Hugo a soutenu : « Dieu, cela n’est pas tant que ce n’est pas en pierre / Il faut une maison pour mettre la prière. » L’histoire de l’incarnation christique suffit-elle à expliquer la place de la pierre dans l’imaginaire des sociétés culturellement issues du christianisme? En quoi l’Église – la communauté et l’institution nées de l’enseignement du Christ – poursuit-elle ce projet d’inscription de la chair dans la pierre? Dans quelle mesure la parole de Jésus à l’un de (...) ses apôtres, Pierre – « tu es Pierre et sur cette pierre je bâtirai mon Église » (Mt. xvi, 18) – est-elle fondatrice non seulement de la « pétrification » de l’Église, mais plus généralement du poids donné à l’architecture et au bâti dans les mille et une façons occidentales de penser la société et de faire communauté? (shrink)

In the context of the end of life, many authors point out how the experience of identity is crucial for the well-being of patients with advanced disease. They define this identity in terms of autonomy, control, or dependence, associating these concepts with the sense of personal dignity. From the perspective of the phenomenology of embodiment, Kay Toombs and other authors have investigated the ways disease can impact on the subjective world of patients and have stressed that a consideration of this (...) personal world can promote understanding and recognition of their experience. Based on the findings of qualitative studies of the perception of dignity and autonomy in patients at the end of life, this analysis assesses concepts such as being-in-the-world in illness, embodiment, lived body versus objective body or the gaze of the other from a Toombsian phenomenological perspective. (shrink)

Studies that have explored the wish to hasten death (WTHD) in patients with advanced illness have found that the feeling of being a burden may trigger WTHD. Research suggests that both the feeling and the wish are indicators of multidimensional suffering whose meaning may depend on the patient's biographical background. Therefore, we carried out a systematic review and meta‐ethnography. Fourteen qualitative studies, reported in 16 articles, met the inclusion criteria. The analysis identified two themes: the personal and social dimensions that (...) could help to explain the feeling of being a burden in these patients. These dimensions reveal how this feeling is linked to physical, psychological/emotional, existential and social factors. The feeling of being a burden cannot be understood without considering patients’ personal interpretation of their dependency or care needs, and hence it is also necessary to understand their biographical background. Such an understanding is crucial to inform clinical policies based on the moral duty to provide all patients with humane care. (shrink)

En este artículo se parte de la distinción aristotélica de cuatro formas fundamentales de acción: enérgeia-kínesis (de la Metafísica) y praxis—poiesis (de la Ética) y de las aportaciones de L. Polo en sus obras de Teoría del Conocimiento y de Ética, especialmente, de sus conceptos de operación inmanente y movimiento transitivo, para establecer una tipología con las cuatro formas fundamentales de un dinamismo: proceso (kinesis), operación (enérgeia), acción (praxis) y producción (poiesis).

It is not uncommon for patients with advanced disease to express a wish to hasten death. Qualitative studies of the WTHD have found that such a wish may have different meanings, none of which can be understood outside of the patient’s personal and sociocultural background, or which necessarily imply taking concrete steps to ending one’s life. The starting point for the present study was a previous systematic review of qualitative studies of the WTHD in advanced patients. Here we analyse in (...) greater detail the statements made by patients included in that review in order to examine their moral understandings and representations of illness, the dying process and death. We identify and discuss four classes of assumptions: assumptions related to patients’ moral understandings in terms of dignity, autonomy and authenticity; assumptions related to social interactions; assumptions related to the value of life; and assumptions related to medicalisation as an overarching context within which the WTHD is expressed. Our analysis shows how a philosophical perspective can add to an understanding of the WTHD by taking into account cultural and anthropological aspects of the phenomenon. We conclude that the knowledge gained through exploring patients’ experience and moral understandings in the end-of-life context may serve as the basis for care plans and interventions that can help them experience their final days as a meaningful period of life, restoring some sense of personal dignity in those patients who feel this has been lost. (shrink)

A significant part of perception, especially in visual perception, is characterized by particularity (roughly, the view that in such cases the perceiver is aware of particular objects in the environment). The intuition of particularity, however, can be made precise in at least two ways. One way (proposed by Searle) is consistent with the view that the content of perception is to be thought of as existentially quantified. Another way (the “demonstrative element” view championed by Evans, Campbell and others in diverse (...) ways) is not. This paper reconstructs the argumentative context in which these views are put forward, and, after mentioning some drawbacks of both views, as these have been advanced to date, suggests a new view that may be regarded as a compromise between the contenders. (shrink)

El sorteo, practicado por primera vez en Atenas a principios del siglo V a. e. c., ha sido considerado durante mucho tiempo, por parte de la teoría política, como un importante mecanismo democratizador. Sin embargo, este recurso entró en desuso durante el desarrollo de la democracia moderna representativa a favor de las elecciones por votación, un fenómeno que algunos autores han calificado como “fundamentalismo electoral”. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar, comparar y evaluar dos propuestas utópicas de democracia por (...) sorteo ofrecidas por John Burnheim y Barbara Goodwin. La tarea que se plantea es analizar su validez y limitaciones, así como considerar su potencial de cara a mejorar las actuales democracias representativas. (shrink)

The study of the contrast between fundamental aspects of spatial and temporal awareness offers a good opportunity to bring to light the relation between philosophical and scientific theories of consciousness. In this paper we critically examine important work by Rick Grush on spatial and temporal experience, and we show that while there is a valid claim for the relevant neuroscientific model to be one that supports Gareth Evans's stance on "behavioral space", there is not at present any scientific model that (...) offers comparable support for philosophical theories of temporal experience, despite some claims by Grush that might suggest the contrary. Moreover, we argue that careful attention to the spatial case allows us to locate the point at which even relatively successful cases of neuroscientific modeling and explanation are left wanting when their aim is to show that phenomenal features of experience are a function of the representational structures produced by our neural information-processing machinery: an aim widely shared by the predominant programmatic stance in current neuroscience research. (shrink)

E. Ratschow, Rechtswlissenschaft und Formale Logik, Nomos, Baden- Baden, 1998.

Half of the working poor in developing countries are informal entrepreneurs – they make a living by engaging in commercial activities in the shadow economy. A series of government and market failur...

It has been argued that philosophical theories in the philosophy of mind necessarily require empirical theories in cognitive science or cognitive neuroscience to be validated. This is indeed an unexpected relation between philosophy and science, since it is widely assumed nowadays – quite apart from Quinean qualms – that philosophical claims are largely a priori just in that their justification proceeds along paths which are independent of empirical investigations. I will defend that the case of attention provides further confirmation of (...) a position which is similar to Davies’s, but it shows at the same time that we should subscribe to a weaker version that has to do with the possibility of an eliminativist attitude towards the philosophical theory and the entities postulated in it. However, I will try to show that the case studies concerning attention show that this possibility, though it should not be excluded, is rather remote due to the fact that philosophical theories of mental phenomena are typically related to one in a set of different possible empirical theories. I will also try to show that this relation arises in at least one rather interestingly different way, in addition to the one involved in the case studies discussed by Davies. (shrink)

The status of economic liberties remains a serious lacuna in the theory and practice of human rights. Should a minimally just society protect the freedoms to sell, save, profit and invest? Is being prohibited to run a business a human rights violation? While these liberties enjoy virtually no support from the existing philosophical theories of human rights and little protection by the international human rights law, they are of tremendous importance in the lives of individuals, and particularly the poor. Like (...) most individual liberties, economic liberties increase our ability to lead our own life. When we enjoy them, we can choose the occupational paths that best fit us and, in so doing, define who they are in relation to others. Furthermore, in the absence of good jobs, economic liberties allow us to create an alternative path to subsistence. This is critical for the millions of working poor in developing countries who earn their livelihoods by engaging in independent economic activities. Insecure economic liberties leave them vulnerable to harassment, bribery and other forms of abuse from middlemen and public officials. This book opens a debate about the moral and legal status of economic liberties as human rights. It brings together political and legal theorists working in the domain of human rights and global justice, as well as people engaged in the practice of human rights, to engage in both foundational and applied issues concerning these questions. conomic liberties leave them vulnerable to harassment, bribery and other forms of abuse from middlemen and public officials. This book opens a debate about the moral and legal status of economic liberties as human rights. It brings together political and legal theorists working in the domain of human rights and global justice, as well as people engaged in the practice of human rights, to engage in both foundational and applied issues concerning these questions. (shrink)

Economic disparities often translate into disparities in political influence, rendering political liberties less worthy to poor citizens than to wealthier ones. Concerned with this, Rawls advocated that a guarantee of the fair value of political liberties be included in the first principle of justice as fairness, with significant regulatory and distributive implications. He nonetheless supplied little examination of the content and grounding of such guarantee, which we here offer. After examining three uncompelling arguments in its favor, we complete a more (...) promising yet less explored argument that builds on the value of self-respect. We first inspect the conditions and duties that securing self-respect entails. We then look into how uneven allocations of the value of political liberties bear, expressively and due to the power imbalances they yield, on such conditions and duties. (shrink)

Despite renewed interest in work, philosophers have largely ignored self-employment. This neglect is surprising, not just because self-employment was central to classic philosophizing about work, but also given that half of the global workforce today, including one in seven workers in OECD countries, are self-employed. We start off by offering a definition of self-employment, one that accounts for its various forms while avoiding misclassifying dependent self-employed workers as independent contractors, and by mapping the barriers to becoming and remaining self-employed (section (...) 2). We then examine five arguments why governments ought to promote self-employment, despite the forgone opportunities to promote employee work instead that this often entails (sections 3-7): the argument from job creation, the argument from job satisfaction, the argument from independence, the argument from occupational freedom, and the argument from subsistence under non-ideal circumstances. Some of these are unconvincing, we argue, but others are not. Although the strength of the latter arguments hangs on various context-dependent conditions, such that they need to be carefully weighed against considerations of efficiency and equality, they nonetheless offer compelling pro tanto reasons to promote, and not just to protect, self-employment. (shrink)

Journal of Political Philosophy, EarlyView.

Rawls identifies only two arrangements, the liberal socialist regime and the property-owning democracy, as being compatible with justice. Both are market-based economies, suggesting that a just society must include the market. This article questions this idea by looking at three Rawlsian arguments in favour of the market. Two arguments, which link the market to certain basic liberties, are unsound because the market is shown to be nonessential in protecting these liberties. A third argument points at the instrumental value of the (...) market to make the least advantaged as well off as possible. It is based on an interpretation of the difference principle in which justice requires maximizing the position of the worst off within the most productive economic system. Although commonly accepted, this reading of the principle should be questioned, and thus the third argument is also inconclusive. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es explorar y reflexionar sobre el potencial de las asambleas ciudadanas, y observar si tienen o no la capacidad de influir en la toma de decisiones políticas. En primer lugar, se realiza una mirada crítica a las asambleas ciudadanas. A continuación, se presentan los procesos de reformas constitucionales de Islandia e Irlanda. Para terminar, se analizan las potencialidades y limitaciones de dichas asambleas ciudadanas constituyentes. La conclusión expone que, aunque los resultados fueron dispares, son un (...) buen referente de cómo la ciudadanía común puede participar en la agenda política. (shrink)

This paper develops a full account of Rawls's notion of a well-ordered society and uses it to address two luck egalitarian objections to his principles of justice. The first is an internal criticism which claims that Rawls's account of justice is better captured by a responsibility-sensitive egalitarian account. The second is an external objection according to which, regardless of the alleged inconsistency between Rawls's principles and his account of justice, we should reject those principles in favour of a responsibility-sensitive criterion (...) because it better captures our moral intuitions about distributive justice. The argument presented answers both objections by defending the value of well-orderedness and showing the difficulties of responsibility-sensitive egalitarian conceptions in realizing this ideal. (shrink)

This paper examines the link between political liberties and social equality, and contends that the former are constitutive of, i.e. necessary to secure, the latter. Although this constitutive link is often assumed in the literature on political liberties, the reasons why it holds true remain largely unexplored. Three such reasons are examined here. First, political liberties are constitutive of social equality because they bestow political power on their holders, leaving disenfranchised individuals excluded from decisions that are particularly pervasive, coercively enforced, (...) hard to avoid, monopolistic, and final. Second, they are constitutive of social equality due to their positional value, such that those who are denied such liberties are socially downgraded because and to the extent that others enjoy them. Third, they are constitutive of social equality due to their expressive value, in the sense that, by disenfranchising some individuals, the state publicly fails to recognize their equal moral agency. While unpacking these reasons, we address some criticisms of this constitutive link recently raised by Steven Wall and Jason Brennan. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende clarificar la relación entre los aspectos sensoriales de la percepción y el aspecto "demostrativo" sobre el que han llamado la atención autores como Evans y McDowell. Tras introducir un análisis husserliano en espíritu de los modos de presentación demostrativo-perceptuales, y con base en una versión de la teoría de los datos sensoriales -sin los defectos que la han hecho impopular recientemente entre los filósofos- se proponen correspondencias entre la "fase sensorial" y la "fase demostrativo-conceptual" de la percepción, (...) caracterizadas, respectivamente por su contenido no conceptual y conceptual. El punto crucial de la relación entre ambos se explica entonces apelando a cierta operación sintética. Finalmente, se intenta mostrar que esta propuesta es más satisfactoria que la propuesta alternativa existente, debida a John Campbell. /// This paper aims at clarifying the relationship between the sensory aspects and the "demonstrative" aspect of perception that has attracted the interest of philosophers like Evans and McDowell. On the basis of a broadly Husserlian analysis of perceptual demonstrative modes of presentation, on the one hand and, a recent version of the sense-data theory of perception on the other -without the drawbacks that have tended to render that theory impopular among philosophers- correspondences between the "sensory phase" and the "demonstrative and conceptual phase" of perception are proposed, once those "phases" have been characterized, respectively, by non-conceptual and conceptual contents. The key point of the relationship between these is then explained by appealing to a certain synthetic operation. Finally, an attempt is made to show that this is a more satisfactory proposal than the alternative by John Campbell. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza las principales aportaciones de Ronald Dworkin a la filosofía del derecho y a la filosofía política mostrando que provienen de una visión más amplia que integra el derecho y la moral. La exposición se divide en dos partes. La primera aborda los argumentos de Dworkin para rechazar el positivismo jurídico y presenta su idea de derecho. La segunda se centra en la fundamentación ética del liberalismo y en el criterio distributivo que propone Dworkin.