There is widespread agreement that an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy and a major goal in science education. However, we still do not know many specific details regarding how students and teachers learn particular aspects of NOS and what are the most important feature traits of instruction. In this context, the main objective of this review is to analyze articles from nine main science education journals that consider the teaching of (...) NOS to K-12 students, pre-service, and in-service science teachers in search of patterns in teaching and learning NOS. After reviewing 52 studies in nine journals that included data regarding participants’ views of NOS before and after an intervention, the main findings were as follows: (1) some aspects of NOS (empirical basis, observation and inference, and creativity) are easier to learn than others (tentativeness, theory and law, and social and cultural embeddedness), and subjective aspects of NOS and “the scientific method” seemed to be difficult for participants to understand; (2) the interventions most frequently lasted 5 to 8 weeks for students, one semester for pre-service teachers, and 1 year for experienced teachers; and (3) most of the interventions incorporated both decontextualized and contextualized activities. Given the substantial diversity in the methods and intervention designs used and the variables studied, it was not possible to infer a pattern of more-effective NOS teaching strategies from the reviewed studies. Future investigation should focus on (a) disentangling whether a difference exists between the easy and difficult aspects of learning NOS and formulating a theoretical explanation for distinguishing the two types of aspects and (b) assessing the effectiveness of different kinds of courses (e.g., history of science, NOS or informal) and strategies (e.g., hands-on vs. drama activities; SSI vs. HOS). (shrink)

Iskra Pavez Soto Editorial Forja Agosto 2015, 238 pp. ISBN: 978-956-338-184-9.

This book explores the epistemic side of racial and sexual oppression. It elucidates how social insensitivities and imposed silences prevent members of different groups from listening to each other.

Este ensayo se propone como una lectura tentativa de “Fors. Les mots anglés de Nicolas Abraham et Maria Torok”, texto que Jacques Derrida publicase en 1976 como prefacio al libro de Nicolas Abraham y Maria Torok, Cryptonymie. Le verbier de l’homme aux loups. A través de una suerte de mecanismo compositivo, se plantea que “Fors”, como operación bifaz de un doble cortante, pone en cuestión el campo de la institución psicoanalítica. A la vez, texto indispositivo e indigesto, expone el límite (...) de la asimilación introyectiva y cuestiona todo sistema de apropiación, neutralización, silenciamiento y/o recuerdo-interiorizante. Como un vómito interno, se trata, así, del “Yo” que porta al otro –al otro mortal en el yo y fuera del yo–, de aquello que instituye un fracaso en el cumplimiento de la asimilación. Se hacen lugar las cuestiones de la cripta, el lugar, la muerte –el otro como muerto vivo–, la cifra, el límite entre incorporación e introyección, el duelo imposible, así como un trazado de la operación del analista como poeta-traductor. “Fors” –fueros, salvo, excepto–, resta intraducible, indigerible, como marca una tópica fuera de sí. Deja la tarea de la traducción sin aforo, fuera de quicio, desaforada en una experiencia sin reserva ni fuero interno, infiel, desmedida, autoinmune, como un trabajo que no puede sino perder sus fueros, sus exenciones, sus privilegios. No estamos sino desaforados en traducción. Nuestra estancia en la transposición de la lengua: el desafuero. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to describe the levels of cognitive system processing that are present in the genre Worksheets of the academic discourse in economics as multimodal discourse. It was worked with a corpus of 68 Worksheets. This research is based on a qualitative paradigm, it has a non-Experimental design and it is an explorative and descriptive study. The data analysis shows that the Analysis and Knowledge Utilization are the levels of processing most worked in the Worksheets, both (...) levels correspond to the last levels of the cognitive system of the new taxonomy. These levels point to the elaboration of ideas in order to reach the application of the knowledge in the tasks. It was observed that the Worksheets used multisemiotic artifacts, mainly in tables and graphics. Finally, the multisemiotic artifacts are associated to levels of last order, in which it is required the knowledge of previous levels. It implicates the practice of divers cognitive abilities. (shrink)

En cada contexto son diversas las formas de ser niña y niño. El objetivo de este artículo es reflexionar sobre los significados que implica el “ser migrante” para las niñas y los niños peruanos en Chile, considerando los procesos de integración social desde la perspectiva generacional y cómo cambia el concepto de infancia en contextos transnacionales. Mediante observación participante y entrevistas semiestructuradas con 16 niñas y niños peruanos, de 9 a 16 años de edad, se concluye que existe cierta idealización (...) de las formas de expresión de la infancia en Perú. Mientras que en Chile, las niñas y los niños migrantes sienten que las diferencias con sus pares chilenos se transforman en relaciones de desigualdad, conflicto y negociación. Además, la inserción escolar promueve la integración a determinados modelos de infancia construidos normativamente desde el mundo adulto y chileno, que dejan poco espacio para la diversidad cultural de las infancias transnacionales. (shrink)

This paper defends a contextualist approach to epistemic injustice according to which instances of such injustice should be looked at as temporally extended phenomena (having developmental and historical trajectories) and socially extended phenomena (being rooted in patterns of social relations). Within this contextualist framework, credibility excesses appear as a form of undeserved epistemic privilege that is crucially relevant for matters of testimonial justice. While drawing on Miranda Fricker's proportional view of epistemic justice, I take issue with its lack of attention (...) to the role that credibility excesses play in testimonial injustices. I depart from Fricker's view of the relation between credibility excesses and credibility deficits, and I offer an alternative account of the contributions that undeserved epistemic privileges make to epistemic injustices. Then, through the detailed analysis of To kill a mockingbird, I elucidate the crucial role played by the social imaginary in creating and sustaining epistemic injustices, developing an analysis of the kind of social blindness produced by an oppressive social imaginary that establishes unjust patterns of credibility excesses and deficits. (shrink)

El idealismo moderno de la estética plantea una distinción entre símbolo y alegoría. A partir de esta distinción, Schelling y Hegel caracterizan la alegoría como un suplementario o un mecanismo degradado de representación. Consecuentemente, sus lecturas de Calderón de la Barca están informadas por la preminencia del símbolo y el supuesto de la idealidad del significado, es decir, su univocidad y transparencia frente al carácter secundario de la encarnación o inscripción alegórica. De este modo, afirmar que en el símbolo no (...) hay diferencia entre el símbolo y lo simbolizado no es sino una apuesta que subsume la materialidad en lo absoluto y conjura la inscripción. Dicho de otro modo, al rechazar la figuración alegórica porque el sentido estaría escindido y mal representado, se oculta la pregunta acerca de las condiciones materiales que complican cualquier clasificación fija. En este registro, y a partir de Walter Benjamin, se propone que el procedimiento barroco en Calderón pone en cuestión este supuesto de la anterioridad del sentido. Calderón, entonces, temática y performativamente, levanta y entabla la pregunta por las condiciones materiales de la producción del sentido, y con ello pone en escena que el sentido no puede permanecer simplemente intocado. La teatralidad, pues, consiste en hacer aparecer esta relación contaminante. El Gran teatro del tundo de Calderón aparece, así, como una radical crítica del idealismo trascendental: instala la pregunta por la teatralidad que desajusta la posición de la idealidad, desmonta el ordenamiento a partir del cual se afirmaba la idealidad en desmedro de la singularidad empírica de la encarnación alegórica, al mismo tiempo que desestabiliza las condiciones de la soberanía. Modern idealism of aesthetics poses a distinction between symbol and allegory. From this difference, Schelling and Hegel characterize the allegory as a supplementary or degraded mechanism of representation. Consequently, his readings of Calderón de la Barca are informed by the preeminence of the symbol and the presupposition of the ideality of the meaning, that is, its univocity and transparency in the face of the secondary character of the incarnation or allegorical inscription. In this way, to affirm that in symbol there is no difference between the symbol and the symbolized is nothing more than a bet that subsumes the materiality in the absolute and conjures up the inscription. In other words, by rejecting the allegorical figuration because the meaning would be divided and misrepresented, the question about the material conditions that complicate any fixed classification is hidden. In this register, and following Walter Benjamin, this paper proposes that the baroque procedure in Calderón put in question this assumption of the anteriority of meaning. Then, Calderón, thematically and performatively, raises and poses the question of the material conditions of the production of meaning, and with this, he puts on stage that meaning cannot simply remain untouched. Theatricality, then, consists of making this contaminating relationship appear. El Gran Teatro del Mundo, thus, appears as a radical critique of transcendental idealism: it installs the question of theatricality that dismantles the position of ideality, it disassembles the order from which ideality was affirmed to the detriment the empirical singularity of the allegorical incarnation, and, at the same time, it destabilizes the conditions of sovereignty. (shrink)

Background The Regional Committee for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 expressed concern that some health-related studies undertaken in the Region were not subjected to any form of ethics review. In 2003, the study reported in this paper was conducted to determine which Member country did not have a national research ethics committee (REC) with a view to guiding the WHO Regional Office in developing practical strategies for supporting those countries. Methods This is a descriptive study. The (...) questionnaire was prepared and sent by diplomatic pouch to all the 46 Member States in the WHO African Region, through the WHO country representatives, for facilitation and follow up. The data were entered in Excel spreadsheet and subsequently exported to STATA for analysis. A Chi-Squared test (χ 2) for independence was undertaken to test the relationship between presence/absence of Research Ethics Committee (REC) and selected individual socioeconomic and health variables. Results The main findings were as follows: the response rate was 61% (28/46); 64% (18/28) confirmed the existence of RECs; 36% (10/28) of the respondent countries did not have a REC (although 80% of them reported that they had in place an ad hoc ethical review mechanism); 85% (22/26) of the countries that responded to this question indicated that ethical approval of research proposals was, in principle, required; and although 59% of the countries that had a REC expected it to meet every month, only 44% of them reported that the REC actually met on a monthly basis. In the Chi-Squared test, only the average population in the group of countries with a REC was statistically different (at 5% level of significance) from that of the group of countries without a REC. Conclusion In the current era of globalized biomedical research, good ethics stewardship demands that every country, irrespective of its level of economic development, should have in place a functional research ethics review system in order to protect the dignity, integrity and safety of its citizens who participate in research. (shrink)

This Article shows how three modern English thinkers — Hobbes, Locke and Bentham — construe the law as an intersection of secular eternity on the one one hand and transience in modernity on the other, allowing for immovability and movement at the same time, combining stability with change. It details how these theorists, who undoubtedly have earned themselves places of honor in the canon of modern political thought, tried to solve the problem of self-grounding in three different and yet paradigmatically (...) modern ways, each of them intertwining law and time in a different fashion, and each of them connecting both law and temporality to happiness. Thus this Article shows not only that these three British thinkers claim in one way or another that while natural desires may provide pleasure, only the law can bring happiness, but also emphasizes that, in their view, the transformation of the former into the latter entails a transformation of temporal consciousness. Thereby this Article foregrounds two elements that are crucial to an understanding of how seventeenth and eighteenth century British thinkers envisaged the transformation of pleasure into happiness by means of the law: first, the notion that the law creates or reinforces duration in social life, and second, the idea that the law can harness the immediacy of desires by assuring the legal protection of enduring pleasures, which lead to happiness. (shrink)

Este artículo aborda el antiguo problema de la diferencia entre filosofía y poesía partiendo de una interpretación del arte narrativo personificado por Ulises en la Odisea. Una lectura del episodio de las Sirenas permite reconstruir la trama de voces diversas que compone el relato homérico y comprender la significación de esta estructura polifónica en el imaginario odiseico. Frente a la neta oposición entre autofonía y alofonía que propone la filosofía platónica, la poesía homérica implica una idea de heterofonía que apunta (...) más allá de una lógica binaria y sugiere la irreductibilidad de la voz poética a un juego entre extremos contrarios. La heterofonía consiste más bien en una voz figural que crea la «lógica difusa» del mundo ficcional mediante la neutralización de las diferencias entre sujetos enunciativos. (shrink)

A partir del reto axiológico que presupone el hecho de que sea el propio ser humano el creador de los principales peligros que amenazan su supervivencia, tanto en sus efectos naturales como sociales, en el trabajo se argumenta por qué ello es indicador del extravío de los valores fundamentales que debe guiar el accionar humano y cómo el rescate de una confiable brújula axiológica debe partir por asumir a la vida como el criterio último de lo valioso.

El artículo propone una contribución al debate contemporáneo sobre el futuro de la educación, enmarcado en las discusiones entre la escuela crítica de J. Habermas y el transhumanismo de S. Sorgner. Se somete a crítica, desde una perspectiva crítica y decolonial, los olvidos y omisiones de las condiciones materiales en las cuales se realizan las relaciones de enseñanza/aprendizaje. En términos metodológicos optamos por una hermenéutica crítica y democrática que nos permitió diseñar un cuadro propositivo de ‘Dimensiones de transformación’. Estas pueden (...) contribuir en la democratización y universalización de las educaciones futuras, a través de la definición de cuatro dimensiones claves: ‘Relaciones con la comunidad y la otredad’, ‘Saberes y sentires éticos y políticos’, ‘Inclusión de agentes invisibilizados’ y ‘Herramientas de transformación social’. (shrink)

El ensayo tiene como tema central el desarrollo de la capacidad valorativa y la participación que en este proceso tienen lo genético y lo sociocultural. Nos interesa mostrar las premisas biológicas generales de esa relación y enfatizar en la especificidad cualitativamente humana de su desarrollo, todo ello sobre todo desde el ángulo del vínculo entre las influencias genéticas y del medio y sus respectivos papeles en la determinación del desarrollo de aquella capacidad que a nivel humano identificamos como valoración. -/- (...) . (shrink)

En esta ponencia nos proponemos mostrar que ciertas tesis o consensos recibidos sobre pseudoprocesos causales , procesos cuya característica prominente parece ser superar la velocidad de la luz, deben ser cuestionados o seriamente modificados. Dos de dichos consensos son, primero, que los PSP deberían ser tratados simplemente como "basura espacio-temporal" y, segundo, que ellos no cumplen, aparte de permitir aislar procesos causales genuinos, ninguna función epistémica o metodológica en la descripción de cualquier estado físico, en particular, al interior de la (...) relatividad especial . Para ello, apelaremos a procedimientos de medición física bien conocidos tanto en física clásica como en RE. Como consecuencia de lo anterior, argumentamos que, una vez que los PSP son integrados en toda la escena física, se revela que ellos juegan un rol fundamental y más complejo en la física experimental de lo que hasta ahora se ha pensado. In this paper we show that some received contentions about causal pseudo processes , processes of which the most salient aspect seems to be travelling faster than the speed of light, must be rejected o seriously modified. Two of such contentions are, first, that PSPs should be considered just "spatiotemporal junk" and, second, that they do not meet, besides allowing us to isolate proper genuine causal processes, any other epistemic or methodological role in the description of a physical state of affair, in particular, in a special relativity setting. In order to do that, we are going to appeal to physical measure procedures, well known both in classic and relativistic physics. As a consequence of that, we contend that, once PSPs are integrated into the whole physical scenario, a fundamental and more complex role for them in experimental physics is revealed. (shrink)

In this essay we show that some thesis -contended by some authors searching on physical causation- about causal pseudoprocesses, processes of which the most salient aspect seems to be travelling faster than the speed of light, must be rejected o seriously modified. Secondly, we will argue that there is just one non causal entities category and that special relativity does not provide any particular motivation to appeal to an ontological distinction based on identity over time. In addition, this conclusion we (...) will enable us to offer a more accurate definition of a pseudoprocess than that found in the relevant literature. In third place, we will show in some detail how such processes, understood the way that we suggest here, are and have been valuable methodological tools when studying –through usual measurement procedures- effective causal relations holding in the physical world. Finally, we will connect our conclusions with R. Torretti’s criticism on the relation between ordinary causation and governed-by-differential-equations physical processes and we will show that, although neutral on his anthropocentric background, the account here argued provides, against what Torretti claims, a natural explanation to the physical connection between ordinary causation and causal processes such as studied by physics. (shrink)

Based on published works and unpublished materials, this article analyses how cybernetics was received by two Spanish thinkers exiled in Mexico: José Gaos (1900–1969) and Eduardo Nicol (1907–1990). This reception is particularly intriguing especially when considering the substantial presence and social impact that Norbert Wiener had in Mexican society because of his friendship with Arturo Rosenblueth. Gaos and Nicol are the first philosophers to develop a complex and original diagnosis of cybernetics in Mexico. It will be shown how the (...) exiled thinkers take on the philosophical implications of this science in the light of their respective theoretical projects, and finally, it will be defended how the critical perspective they develop is particularly significant for Mexico’s political and academic context since it illuminates some negative aspects of cybernetics that Wiener did not foresee and that had not been reported there until then. (shrink)

In this paper I will argue that when Aristotle uses the word ‘ἀρχή’ he is often referring to what we call a condition, whether necessary, sufficient or necessary and sufficient. To this end I will discuss how conditions for being, change, and knowledge, as identified by Aristotle, can be equated to ontological, physical and noetic principles, respectively.

Este livro não é propriamente uma monografia, mas um ajuste de contas. Desde os anos 60, J. A. Giannotti se preocupa com a possibilidade de uma dialética materialista. No seu último livro, Trabalho e reflexão, percebeu que a tentativa de uma "inversão" da dialética hegeliana conduzia a uma investigação lógica sobre esquemas operatórios capazes de ligar normas às condutas que as seguem. No fundo, tocava no conceito wittgensteiniano de jogo de linguagem não-verbal, sem tirar dele as conseqüências devidas. Impunha-se assim (...) uma reflexão mais penetrante sobre questões elementares da lógica. Esta Apresentação do mundo resulta dessa reflexão, de um esforço de dez anos e, se de novo tenta remar contra a maré, é porque nasce mais duma obsessão do que de um diálogo com seus contemporâneos. (shrink)

Essays on the role of the body in self-consciousness, showing that full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness is built on a rich foundation of primitive, nonconceptual self-consciousness. These essays explore how the rich and sophisticated forms of self-consciousness with which we are most familiar—as philosophers, psychologists, and as ordinary, reflective individuals—depend on a complex underpinning that has been largely invisible to students of the self and self-consciousness. José Luis Bermúdez, extending the insights of his groundbreaking 1998 book, The Paradox of Self-Consciousness, argues (...) that full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness is built on a rich foundation of primitive, nonconceptual self-consciousness, and that these more primitive forms of self-consciousness persist in ways that frame self-conscious thought. They extend throughout the animal kingdom, and some are present in newborn human infants. Bermúdez makes the case that these primitive forms of self-awareness can indeed be described as forms of self-consciousness, arguing that they share certain structural and epistemological features with full-fledged, linguistic self-consciousness. He offers accounts of certain important classes of states of nonconceptual content, including the self-specifying dimension of visual perception and the content of bodily awareness, considering how they represent the self. And he explores the general role of nonconceptual self-consciousness in our cognitive and affective lives, examining in several essays the relation between nonconceptual awareness of our bodies and what has been called our “sense of ownership” for our own bodies. (shrink)

In this chapter, I outline what philosophers working on the ethics of immigration have had to say with regard to invidious discrimination. In doing so, I look at both instances of direct discrimination, by which I mean discrimination that is explicitly stated in official immigration policy, and indirect discrimination, by which I mean cases where the implementation or enforcement of facially “neutral” policies nonetheless generate invidious forms of discrimination. The end goal of this chapter is not necessarily to take a (...) side, but to outline the terrain and provide the reader with an adequate entryway into these philosophical discussions over discrimination and immigration. (shrink)

The central theme of the present study is the importance of "Peace" in Norberto Bobbio's thematic trilogy, namely: Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, as interconnected and necessary elements for historical and social progress. The objective is to explore the interaction between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, advocated by Bobbio, and its significance for the construction of a just and peaceful society. The relationship between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace as essential components of a historical movement towards social progress will be (...) discussed; the doctrines justifying war will be analyzed, and their validity in the atomic age will be questioned; the necessary conditions to achieve Peace, including non-aggression pacts and the establishment of rules for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, will be highlighted; the lack of authority of the United Nations (UN) and the need for an "effective international power" to guarantee global peace will be examined. The study of Bobbio's thematic trilogy is relevant to understanding the importance of the interaction between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace in the pursuit of a just and peaceful society. Moreover, the analysis of doctrines justifying war and the necessary conditions to achieve Peace contributes to a critical reflection on contemporary challenges related to global security and Human Rights. The study is based on the analysis of Norberto Bobbio's writings on Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, examining his ideas and arguments throughout his extensive body of work. The research involves a theoretical and critical approach, interpreting Bobbio's major contributions on these topics. The results highlight the interdependence between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, emphasizing their relevance for social and historical progress. Furthermore, the research underscores the need to rethink doctrines justifying war in the atomic age and the importance of establishing an effective international authority to promote global peace. (shrink)

Un análisis ameno e inteligente sobre los testimonios de los grandes pensadores del progreso: E. Fromm, F. Nietzsche, K. Popper, E. Morin, C.G. Jung, M. Ferguson, A. Finkielkraut, Ortega y Gasset, entre otros.