La actualidad, por la que transita el ser humano contemporáneo, se constituye en el acontecimiento reflexivo para que el sujeto, que “cuida de sí”, se examine en relación con los regímenes del saber, de verdad y de poder, que el pensador Michel Foucault teorizó, con el objeto de contribuir a la vigilancia etico-política de sí, y a la inserción que tiene con la totalidad del mundo, que le concierne, en el presente globalizado por el modelo del mercado y por el (...) individualismo. (shrink)

The way of thinking of mathematicians and chemists in their respective disciplines seems to have very different levels of abstractions. While the firsts are involved in the most abstract of all sciences, the seconds are engaged in a practical, mainly experimental discipline. Therefore, it is surprising that many luminaries of the mathematics universe have studied chemistry as their main subject. Others have started studying chemistry before swapping to mathematics or have declared some admiration and even love for this discipline. Here (...) I reveal some of these mathematicians who were involved in chemistry from a biographical perspective. Then, I analyze what these remarkable mathematicians and statisticians could have learned while studying chemical subjects. I found analogies between code-breaking and molecular structure elucidation, inspiration for statistics in quantitative analytical chemistry, and on the role of topology in the study of some organic molecules. I also analyze some parallelisms between the way of thinking of organic chemists and mathematicians in terms of the use of backward analysis, search for patterns, and use of pictures in their respective researches. (shrink)

We provide here irrefutable facts that prove the falsehood of the claims published in [1] by Dehmer and Mowshowitz (DM) against our paper published in [2]. We first prove that Dehmer’s definition of node probability [3] is flawed. In addition, we show that it was not Dehmer in [3] who proposed this definition for the first time. We continue by proving how the use of Dehmer’s definition does not reveal all the physico-mathematical richness of the walk entropy of graphs. Finally, (...) we show a few facts about the failure of DM themselves to cite properly the relevant literature in their field. We also show here how the Editors of Complexity have failed to manage the publication of [1] in an appropriate way according to the accepted guidelines given in the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (shrink)

The study of complex systems, although an interdisciplinary endeavor, is considered as an integrating part of physical sciences. Contrary to the historical fact that the field is already mature, it still lacks a clear and unambiguous definition of its main object of study. Here, I propose a definition of complex systems based on the conceptual clarifications made by Edgar Morin about the bidirectional non-separability of parts and whole produced by the nature of interactions. Then, a complex system is defined as (...) the system where there is a bidirectional non-separability between the identities of the parts and the identity of the whole. Thus, not only the identity of the whole is determined by the constituent parts, but also the identity of the parts are determined by the whole due to the nature of their interactions. This concept allows, as shown in the paper, to derive some of the main properties that such systems must have as well as to propose its mathematical formalization. (shrink)

An analysis of Nicholas of Cusa’s conception of the power of judgment that shows it enables morality as well as cognition.

In this article, we shift the usual analytical attention of the GPN framework from lead firms to suppliers in the network and from production to IT services. Our focus is on how Indian IT suppliers embed in the Netherlands along the threefold characterization of societal, territorial and network embeddedness. We argue that Indian IT suppliers attempt to display societal embeddedness when they move to The Netherlands. Our findings reveal that the endeavour by Indian IT suppliers to territorially dis-embed from the (...) Dutch context is reinforced by their peripheral position in the network and their ability to offshore work in a bid to contain costs, in addition to the influence of client domination. Therefore, territorial embeddedness is considered to be secondary to societal embeddedness which is intertwined with client interest while neglecting the interest of other network members. Nonetheless, the inter-firm relationship is complex, given the tension between societal, territorial and network embeddedness. While preferring Indian IT suppliers because of their low pricing, Dutch clients also insist on compliance with the institutional context of the Netherlands especially when it comes to Dutch employees. This results in hybridization which means that Indian IT suppliers find ways to adhere to the institutional framework for Dutch nationals while simultaneously insulating Indian employees from the same. Consequently, a highly unfair segmented internal labour market develops, with Dutch nationals being treated more favourably as compared to Indian nationals. Nonetheless, to address these violations, Indian employees prefer individual strategies of resilience and rework rather than a collectivization response. (shrink)

Interest in ethical aspects associated to product acquisition and consumption is a growing trend among consumers. In this context, the concept of “product with ethical attributes” has arisen to refer to products with explicit social and environmental characteristics. However, one of the factors that most hinders the purchasing of these products is certainly price. Given the difficulty of reducing price, the question that arises is the extent to which other product attributes can attenuate the negative impact of price on perceived (...) value. We assume that the special benefits associated to this type of products are, at a different level, attenuators of the relationship between price and perceived value. Focusing on Fair Trade organic coffee, hypotheses are tested regarding survey data from 407 customers. They were interviewed in an actual purchasing scenario. The models are tested using conventional Structural Equation Models and the Latent Moderated Structural Equation method. The results obtained shed some light on a highly generalised belief that the marketing of these products can only be improved by reducing their price. However, although a price reduction could be desirable, albeit complicated in this product category, its effects could be reduced by acting on other variables such as the ethical aspects, quality and healthiness of this product category. (shrink)

¿Por qué construír al pueblo es la principal tarea de una política radical? -- Una ética del compromiso militante -- ¿Vida nuda o indeterminación social? -- ¿Puede la inmanencia explicar las luchas sociales? Crítica a Imperio.

Este texto resume algunas críticas sobre el uso de la modelación matemática y estadística en temas relacionados con el conflicto armado. Para lo cual se presenta la teoría pura de la guerra a partir de Carl Von Clausewitz; la cual se muestra como condición necesaria para los modelos formales. Luego de ello se demarcan los alcances de estos modelos y sus limitaciones.

La propuesta tiene como objetivo, plantear un modelo educativo sostenible respondiendo a las necesidades de los países en vías de desarrollo en materia de economía, sociedad, medio ambiente y cultura teniendo como principio fundamental el análisis de efectos que pueden poner en riesgo el bienestar de las generaciones futuras ante fenómenos como la escolaridad masiva, la correlación entre grado de estudio y movilidad social, los efectos de las subvenciones a fondo perdido en eldesarrollodeinnovacióntecnológica y no tecnológica y la preservación de (...) la cultura en los diferentes niveles educativos analizando las prospectivas de los modelos educativos; teniendo como directriz el Informe Brutland (1987) presentado en la comisión Mundial del Medio Ambiente y desarrollo de Naciones Unidas creada en 1983 y la Declaración en la sexagésimo novena sesión plenaria de naciones Unidas en 2010 sobre la cultura como cuarto pilar del desarrollo sostenible.Consecuentemente la propuesta tendrá como sustento los indicadores de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) de sus publicaciones de Education at a Glance 2014, Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 y OECD Science, Technologyand Industry Scoreboard 2013, para efecto de realizar un análisis comparativo entre países en vías de desarrollo. (shrink)

In this hugely influential book, Laclau and Mouffe examine the workings of hegemony and contemporary social struggles, and their significance for democratic theory. With the emergence of new social and political identities, and the frequent attacks on Left theory for its essentialist underpinnings, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy remains as relevant as ever, positing a much-needed antidote against ‘Third Way’ attempts to overcome the antagonism between Left and Right.

Engaging Polanyi’s embeddedness–disembeddedness framework, this study explored the work experiences of Bhil children employed in Indian Bt cottonseed GPNs. The innovative visual technique of drawings followed by interviews was used. Migrant children, working under debt bondage, underwent greater exploitation and perennial and severe depersonalized bullying, indicative of commodification of labour and disembeddedness. In contrast, children working in their home villages were not under debt bondage and underwent less exploitation and occasional and mild depersonalized bullying, indicative of how civil society organizations, (...) along with the state, attempt to re-embed economic activities in the social context. Polanyi’s double movement was evident. ‘Place’ emerged as the pivotal factor determining children’s experiences. A ‘protective alliance’ of community controls and social power, associated with in-group affiliations and cohesive ties, stemming from a common village and tribal identity, aided children working at home for Bhil farmers. ‘Asymmetric intergroup inequality’ due to pronounced social identity and class differences, coupled with locational constraints and developmental disadvantage, made migrant children vulnerable targets. Social embeddedness influences how child workers are treated because it forces employers to be ethical and not engage in bullying. However, by shifting production to children’s home villages, there is an attempt to obscure the difference between child labour and child work. Thus, the seeds of disembeddedness are sown through the very act of re-embeddeding, potentially hampering future interventions. (shrink)

Las imágenes de Dios constituyen el núcleo del lenguaje religioso. Al poner en relación a Dios con los problemas y preocupaciones humanos, surge una motivación e inspiración que moviliza y fascina. La filosofía no sólo tiene como misión el diálogo con los distintos saberes y lenguajes, sino también su evaluación y crítica, analizando sus presupuestos, fines y consecuencias. En este volumen se analizan las imágenes de Dios en relación con el monoteísmo y el politeísmo, la violencia, la pluralidad de religiones, (...) la política, el nacionalismo, el nihilismo, el mal y la metafísica, así como los mismos lenguajes de la filosofía y de la ciencia. La ambigüedad de las imágenes religiosas, la tendencia a confundir a Dios con sus representaciones, la manipulación de Dios en la religión y en la sociedad, son algunas de las temáticas que se abordan. Especial incidencia tiene el problema de la violencia y sus raíces religiosas, al que se dedican varios trabajos, que ha cobrado trágica actualidad con el resurgir de los fundamentalismos e integrismos que se legitiman apelando a Dios. De ahí la importancia de una actitud crítica y racional, ya que la razón no lo es todo pero debe estar en todas partes so pena de fanatismos irracionales. Esto es lo que se pretende con estos trabajos, que apelan por igual a la crítica ilustrada y a la sospecha y el discernimiento en las tradiciones religiosas. (shrink)

L’épistémologie ouverte de Gilbert Durand a permis, depuis ses origines, il y a déjà 50 ans, non seulement un approfondissement dans l’étude du mythe dans les œuvres de culture, à partir de ces deux notions clés, que sont la mythocritique et la mythanalyse, mais également une pluridisciplinarité, de plus en plus poussée, entre les dites sciences humaines et les sciences en général. C’est, en définitive, grâce à l’imago-centrisme inhérent à cette méthode archétypologique qu’elle est devenue un horizon mythodologique au pluriel, (...) pour mieux étudier l’humain. For 50 years, Durand’s epistemology has both enhanced our understanding of cultural myths through the key notions of “myth-criticism” and “myth-analysis” and allowed multi-disciplinary collaborations between the social sciences and sciences proper. In sum, the central role Durand’s theoretical positions assign to “the image” has given rise to a manifold “myth-dology” now central in the study of human nature. (shrink)

*Runner-up for the 2021 Royal Institute for Philosophy Essay Prize*: What should we think about ‘acts of conscience’, viz., cases where our personal judgments and public authority come into conflict such that principled resistance to the latter seems necessary? Philosophers mainly debate two issues: the Accommodation Question, i.e., ‘When, if ever, should public authority accommodate claims of conscience?’ and the Justification Question, i.e., ‘When, if ever, are we justified in engaging in acts of conscience – and why?’. By contrast, a (...) third important topic – the Conduct Question, i.e., ‘How should we act, morally speaking, when engaging in acts of conscience?’ – has been mostly neglected. This paper aims to offer concrete guidance for persons wishing to engage in acts of conscience in morally virtuous ways. I argue that such agents are subject to two basic prima facie duties: duties to oneself related to demands of integrity and duties to others related to demands of civility. I explain both duties in detail, arguing with regard to, that in light of what I call ‘the paradox of conscience’, we need to rethink our views about both ‘conscience’ and ‘integrity’; and with regard to, that, building upon Rawls’ ‘duty of civility’, we should embrace at least seven general principles for undertaking acts of conscience in a morally conscientious manner. (shrink)

En este artículo analizamos y comparamos tres marcos de interpretación filosófica muy distintos del Barroco español: el de Frederick D. Wilhelmsen, que desde las filas del tradicionalismo católico considera el Barroco como la «civilización de la Contrarreforma» y la manifestación más pura de la idiosincrasia hispánica, única barrera de contención de las ideas secularizadoras del Renacimiento y la Reforma protestante; el de José Luis Abellán, que desde una visión progresista de la historia interpreta el Barroco español como un periodo sintomático (...) de decadencia, regresión social, antihumanismo y misoneísmo, frente a las corrientes modernizadoras que por entonces recorrían toda Europa, y el de Fernando Rodríguez de la Flor, que desde presupuestos freudianos se adentra en la producción simbólica y el imaginario del Barroco español para desvelar la psicología oculta del sujeto barroco, atravesado por el escepticismo y la energía nihilista. (shrink)

Presentism is, roughly, the ontological view that only the present exists. Among the philosophers engaged in the metaphysics of time there is wide agreement that presentism is intuitive (or commonsensical) and that its intuitiveness counts as evidence in its favour. My contribution has two purposes: first, defending the view that presentism is intuitive from some recent criticisms; second, putting forth a genealogical (or debunking) argument aimed at depriving presentism’s intuitiveness of the evidential value commonly granted to it.

La situación laboral de los países desarrollados impone a la filosofía la tarea de pensar el trabajo en cuanto que los cambios producidos pueden afectar - y de hecho afectan- a la concepción de la persona, de la sociedad y del mundo actual. En este artículo, después de cuestionar que estemos asistiendo al final del trabajo a causa de la revolución tecnológica, analizaremos dos propuestas de reducción y reorganización del tiempo de trabajo, y otras dos que hacen referencia a un (...) cambio de paradigma: una rompe la actual barrera entre trabajo asalariado y trabajo no monetarizado, y la otra defiende el subsidio universal garantizado. (shrink)

In a series of recent papers Francesco Orilia has presented an argument for the moral desirability of presentism. It goes, in brief, as follows: since the existence of painful events is morally undesirable, presentism, which denies that past painful events (tenselessly) exist, is morally more desirable than non-presentism, which instead affirms that past painful events (tenselessly) exist. An objection against this argument, which has already been taken into consideration by Orilia, is the ugly history objection or radical objection: what really (...) matters in the moral appraisal of a world is the history of it, and since the presentist and the non-presentist versions of our world share the same ugly history, they are morally on a par. This paper aims at corroborating this objection and defending it from Orilia’s criticisms. This will be done by bringing into play various thought experiments and a distinction between relevance (of an event or a fact about the occurrence of an event) to the moral evaluation of a world and moral (and psychological) involvement (in an event or in a fact about the occurrence of an event). (shrink)

This work brings together trends of current thinking - Lacanian psychoanalysis, deconstruction, neo-Hegelianism and political philosophy - to illuminate the question of identity in the contemporary world. It also examines some of the new political identities which have emerged in recent decades.

What place, if any, does love have in Kantian ethics? This chapter is divided into three parts. First, I discuss Kant’s own account of moral versus non-moral love as found throughout his various writings and show how this closely parallels his account of moral versus non-moral friendship. Second, I discuss contemporary Kantian accounts of both friendship and love, highlighting how they go beyond, and in some ways seem to significantly improve upon, Kant’s own views via their appeal to Kant’s Formula (...) of Humanity. Lastly, I discuss the overall merits of what I call ‘Kantian moral love’. I argue that while Kantian moral love might rightly identify, from the moral point of view, how we ought to act and think when loving other people, it fails to provide a complete account of love, crucially leaving out certain key elements from the wide range of loving relationships we find ourselves in, especially romantic love. That is, while Kantian moral love might successfully identify a morally ideal way to love other people, it falls short of capturing the full essence of love—mainly because love is not simply a moral affair but also a matter of the heart. (shrink)

Se intenta una contribución al conocimiento de la enseñanza de la filosofía en el Colegio de San Carlos de Buenos Aires hacia fines del siglo XVIII. Para ello se examinan las propuestas de Juan Baltasar Maziel (1727-1788) para dicho Colegio en materia de Filosofía, Teología y Derecho. Esta información se complementa con la exposición de otras ideas jurídico-políticas de Maziel, en el contexto de su actividad eclesiástica. The subject is the contribution of Juan Baltasar Maziel (1727-1778) to the teaching of (...) Philosophy, Theology and Law in the Colegio de San Carlos of Buenos Aires, in the last third of the XVIIIth Century. In addition, other political ideas of Maziel are considered. (shrink)

Here we study two connexive logics based on one of the conditionals introduced by Church in [4] and on some negations defined through falsity constants in the sense of Ackermann in [1].

Philosophy of logic is a fundamental part of philosophical study, and one which is increasingly recognized as being immensely important in relation to many issues in metaphysics, metametaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of language. This textbook provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to topics including the objectivity of logical inference rules and its relevance in discussions of epistemological relativism, the revived interest in logical pluralism, the question of logic's metaphysical neutrality, and the demarcation between logic and mathematics. Chapters (...) in the book cover the state of the art in contemporary philosophy of logic, and allow students to understand the philosophical relevance of these debates without having to contend with complex technical arguments. This will be a major new resource for students working on logic, as well as for readers seeking a better understanding of philosophy of logic in its wider context. (shrink)