The results of evolutionary algorithms depend on population diversity that normally decreases by increasing the selection pressure from generation to generation. Usually, this can lead the evolution process to get stuck in local optima. This study is focused on mechanisms to avoid this undesired phenomenon by introducing parallel self-adapted differential evolution that decomposes a monolithic population into more variable-sized sub-populations and combining this with the characteristics of evolutionary multi-agent systems into a hybrid algorithm. The proposed hybrid algorithm operates with individuals (...) having some characteristics of agents, e.g. they act autonomously by selecting actions, with which they affect the state of the environment. Additionally, this algorithm incorporates two additional mechanisms: ageing and adaptive population growth, which help the individuals by decision-making. The proposed parallel differential evolution was applied to the CEC’18 benchmark function suite, while the produced results were compared with some traditional stochastic nature-inspired population-based and state-of-the-art algorithms. (shrink)

This article is divided into introduction andd three section. In the first section we examine Leibniz’ termini necesitas-possibilitas. In the second section we propose a minimal modal logic, LLM, arise from the addition of modal priciples. Finally in the last section we examine his complex studie towards the interpretation of modal language in the possible worlds. The resulting interplay between the minimal modallogic and the possible worlds perspective is one of the main charms of semantics.

In order to answer this question, we need to clarify what it refers to. We have to find out if “globalization” can semantically be related to ideology. Ideology denotes the entirety of our personal judgments, ideas and views based on knowledge, experience and sensation by which we perceive and interpret the world, our position in it and the whole society. If we use an enlightened perspective we consider ideology as a kind of prejudice by which reason is dominated. Why is (...) this relevant for the context of globalization? Generally speaking, globalization stands for the process of ongoing international interconnection and progress in nearly all areas of life, such as e.g. in economy, politics, culture and communication. This view involves the implicit experience of change that affects not only our environment, our society and its institutions but also the national states and their citizens. The environment and its resources are a pre-requisite for globalization. Due to the process of constant market liberalization the resources are changed and ultimately destroyed. In this paper we will discuss as whether political measures have the power of exerting any control upon this dialectic mechanism. (shrink)

This is a welcome reprint of a book that continues to grow in importance.

For some time now we have noticed an increasing scepticism regarding the effectiveness of democracy, and its ability to represent citizens through elections. Elections are the central mechanism of political decision taking. However, there is a clear tendency to exploit electo­ rial processes by populist politicians. The ancient ideal of paideia was to educate citizens by following a civic program. Its aim was to enable the citizen to exercise the civil rights and duties. Since the 1970s, however, we had observed (...) two contrasting tendencies: a growth of individualization, and a ecrease of the level of civic education. In the 1990s populist politi­ cal parties entered the political scene of European democracies, some of which have man­ aged to establish a mob rule or ochlocracy (ὀχλοκρατία). Since then, ochlocratic parties have systematically intended to win the votes of politically less educated citizens by offering them a simplified political discourse. In fact, these parties have managed to neutralize the two­party system in many European countries. Thus they managed to block majority­based governments, forcing parties to form coalitions with ideologically opposing smaller parties. This has created a situation in which the “punishment vote” becomes the mean to gain the votes of undecided people who may be characterized as rebels without political culture. (shrink)

The author presents and defends three theses: (1) "the first is that it is not profitable for us at present to do moral philosophy; that should be laid aside at any rate until we have an adequate philosophy of psychology." (2) "the second is that the concepts of obligation, And duty... And of what is morally right and wrong, And of the moral sense of 'ought', Ought to be jettisoned if this is psychologically possible...." (3) "the third thesis is that (...) the differences between the well-Known english writers on moral philosophy from sidgwick to the present day are of little importance." (staff). (shrink)

Linguistic justice is about institutions distributing material and symbolic resources fairly when they are faced with linguistic diversity. However, no theory of linguistic justice has developed a systematic and comprehensive account of the moral dilemmas that take place in interpersonal linguistic relationships, in particular the power dynamics leading to (linguistic) domination. The aim of this article is to start building a general theory of linguistic domination, one that offers new conceptual tools for both empirical and normative analyses of linguistically diverse (...) societies. Using the republican tradition of thought, I argue that there is linguistic domination whenever someone is subject to the uncontrolled capacity for interference over their linguistic uses, ideology and acquisition by another agent. This article tests under what conditions this phenomenon takes place and the parties involved in it (both in terms of individuals and political institutions). (shrink)

This book offers an introduction to the Sophists of fifth-century Athens and a new overall interpretation of their thought. Since Plato first animadverted on their activities, the Sophists have commonly been presented as little better than intellectual mountebanks - a picture which Professor Kerferd forcefully challenges here. Interpreting the evidence with care, he shows them to have been part of an exciting and historically crucial intellectual movement. At the centre of their teaching was a form of relativism, most famously expressed (...) by Protagoras as 'Man is the measure of all things', and which they developed in a wide range of views - on knowledge and argument, virtue, government, society, and the gods. On all these subjects the Sophists did far more than simply provoke Plato to thought. Their contributions were substantial and serious; they inaugurated the debate on many central philosophical questions and decisively shifted the focus of philosophical attention from the cosmos to man. (shrink)

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In this introduction, we first give a brief overview of the debate over multiculturalism in political theory. We then situate Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition in that context by highlighting his major normative thesis, according to which there are reasons of principle, in a liberal democracy, to grant special forms of public recognition and accommodation to cultural minorities. Finally, we present a succinct summary of the nine articles that follow this (...) introduction and that critically engage with Patten’s arguments. (shrink)

Politics is about managing conflict, about how we should live together. Many traditions of thought and political thinkers have nonetheless taken this shared space of conflict, this we the people, as a given. The people is considered as a necessary precondition for politics. What happens when a part of this we disagrees with that? When, for some, this shared community is not taken as a given and claim their right to secede and build their own independent political community. Such claims (...) bear on the fundamental questions: who is the “ demos ”? who are the people entitled to self-government?’. (shrink)

El artículo profundiza en el concepto de mainstreaming de género, analizando sus dos componentes básicos: (i) su contenido sustantivo que es el enfoque de género, de acuerdo con el cual la desigualdad entre mujeres y varones es un fenómeno sistémico cuya raíz última sería el género entendido como la (re)construcción social de la diferencia entre los sexos y de las relaciones entre ellos; y (ii) el mainstreaming como estrategia para alcanzar la igualdad, estrategia consistente en incorporar la perspectiva de la (...) igualdad de género en todas las normas y en todas las políticas (transversalidad, enfoque global), estrategia que sería complementaria y no excluyente de la igualdad de trato y de las acciones positivas y que aspiraría a ser particularmente incisiva para el logro del mencionado objetivo. Teniendo en cuenta que la meta del mainstreaming de género es la transformación social, la modif icación de las relaciones entre los sexos, así como de sus representaciones sociales y la existencia de una gran ambigüedad en torno a cuál debe ser el sentido y la dirección de los cambios, en el trabajo se argumenta que la transformación social debe ir en la línea de superar tanto el asimilacionismo (asunción de los modelos masculinos por parte de las mujeres), como el dualismo entre mujeres y varones, el mantenimiento de esferas separadas y distintas, pues ambos hacen imposible la consecución de la igualdad real. La transfor- mación social, que requiere incorporar a los varones al cambio, debería orientarse hacia la consecución de una mezcla positiva (a positive form of melding), de un nuevo modelo de sociedad superador del androcentrismo, pues el paradigma de lo humano, susceptible de universalizarse, serían no sólo los valores “masculinos”, sino todas las cualidades, ca- pacidades y posibilidades humanas, tanto las que forman parte del modelo “masculino”, como las que forman parte del modelo “femenino”, pues todas ellas son valores humanos que cualquier ser humano puede practicar.Por último el artículo destaca las potencialidades que encierra la estrategia de Gender Mainstreaming y también los riesgos y las dif icultades que comporta. (shrink)

La industria de alimentos vegetales consume grandes volúmenes de agua de buena calidad y genera grandes cantida­des de agua residual. Uno de los sistemas que se pueden aplicar para reducir el consumo y el vertido de agua es la reutilización del agua de lavado. Para llevar a cabo la reutilización del agua sin comprometer la seguridad microbiológica y química de los alimentos es necesario optimizar el uso de agentes antimicrobia­nos. El cloro ha sido tradicionalmente el tratamiento de desinfec­ción usado por (...) la industria hortofrutícola para el agua de lavado. Sin embargo, su uso tiene la desventaja de la acumulación de subproductos de desinfección, lo que ha impulsado el estudio y el uso de desinfectantes alternativos como el ácido peroxiacéti­co. En cualquier caso, el mantenimiento de la seguridad micro­biológica y química de los alimentos vegetales frescos, en lo que respecta a la etapa de lavado, pasa por la selección de los límites operacionales que deben mantenerse en cuanto a la concentra­ción de desinfectante, así como la monitorización y control de los parámetros críticos relacionados con la desinfección, como es el contenido en materia orgánica. La optimización de la desinfec­ción tiene que tener en cuenta las peculiaridades de cada caso, incluyendo el tipo de producto lavado, el desinfectante usado, y el diseño y manejo de la línea de lavado. (shrink)

There is a particular moral theory in which human rights are conceived as indestructible rights. Using Dworkin’s words we could say this is a good way of taking rights seriously. However, we may also ask whether there is another way of taking rights as seriously as Dworkin says without being a supporter of that theory. From this point of view, perhaps human rights cannot be considered neither as absolute ; nor universally valid ; and not even inalienable. Can this proposal (...) be seen as another way of taking rights seriously? (shrink)

What does the Chilean Constitution say about euthanasia? When we read the Chilean Constitution we cannot find the word “euthanasia” in the text, and there is no such thing as a right to die, therefore the answer should apparently be that the Constitution does not say anything about euthanasia and, in short, euthanasia is not allowed. However, on a second reading we can find out some statements from which we can infer another answer. My aim is to show that there (...) is room for the acceptance of euthanasia in the Chilean Constitution, and in other similar Constitutions and international regulations in which freedom of conscience is granted. (shrink)

Normal propositional modal systems This first chapter has two main aims. One is to give a general account of the propositional modal systems that we shall ...

El presente trabajo analiza la configuración de los personajes femeninos inmigrantes y transmigrantes en las obras “La han despedido de nuevo” de Claudia Hernández y La fila india de Antonio Ortuño y observa los mecanismos de adaptación, las estrategias y las dinámicas sociales de las que se basan como forma de auto protección o de cuidado mutuo. Proponemos una lectura de la representación de las mujeres migrantes como sujetos complejos, activos, dotados de agencia y transgresores como forma de contrarrestar los (...) imaginarios consolidados por narrativas anteriores en los que los sujetos femeninos no han tenido protagonismo en su representación o en su estudio. Palabras clave: Literatura salvadoreña, literatura mexicana, migración, violencia, género. (shrink)

An examination of verbal hallucinations and thought insertion as examples of "alienated self-consciousness.".

This book traces the intellectual revolution initiated by Thales in the sixth century BC to its culmination in the metaphysics of Parmenides.

El objetivo general de esta investigación se ha basado en analizar y comprender una parte de los resultados de una investigación mayor que se centra en el propio sujeto como actor principal de su relato. Se indaga el papel que la música desempeña dentro de los contextos de aprendizaje no formales e informales como vía para crear relaciones de empoderamiento de aquel alumnado en situación de abandono escolar, para así procurar medidas de renganche positiva con el sistema educativo a partir (...) de sus experiencias fuera del mundo curricular. (shrink)