These papers were presented at a panel, organized by us and chaired by Liz Wilson, on ‘Women’s Leadership and Monastic Organizations in Therav?da Buddhist Traditions’, at the 2008 American Academy of Religion meeting, Chicago. Here, we bring together articles that examine the roots of the teachings on nuns in P?li literature with others which investigate issues relating to contemporary Therav?da nuns, as well as an analysis of relevant debates in ancient China. The objective of these papers is to contribute to (...) discussion of the multiple ways in which professionally celibate women are represented, organized and empowered in the textual and contemporary traditions of P?li and Therav?da Buddhism, to study how representations of female monasticism are related to organizational structures of leadership and agency, and explore how debates over the need for ‘dual ordination’ have occurred in traditions other than the Therav?da. (shrink)

Sentence boundary detection (SBD) represents an important first step in natural language processing since accurately identifying sentence boundaries significantly impacts downstream applications. Nevertheless, detecting sentence boundaries within legal texts poses a unique and challenging problem due to their distinct structural and linguistic features. Our approach utilizes deep learning models to leverage delimiter and surrounding context information as input, enabling precise detection of sentence boundaries in English legal texts. We evaluate various deep learning models, including domain-specific transformer models like LegalBERT and (...) CaseLawBERT. To assess the efficacy of our deep learning models, we compare them with a state-of-the-art domain-specific statistical conditional random field (CRF) model. After considering model size, F1-score, and inference time, we identify the Convolutional Neural Network Model (CNN) as the top-performing deep learning model. To further enhance performance, we integrate the features of the CNN model into the subsequent CRF model, creating a hybrid architecture that combines the strengths of both models. Our experiments demonstrate that the hybrid model outperforms the baseline model, achieving a 4% improvement in the F1-score. Additional experiments showcase the superiority of the hybrid model over SBD open-source libraries when confronted with an out-of-domain test set. These findings underscore the importance of efficient SBD in legal texts and emphasize the advantages of employing deep learning models and hybrid architectures to achieve optimal performance. (shrink)

Edward Said's book Orientalism stands in a long lineage of critique of European scholarship responsible for shaping European understandings of foreign cultures. His book contributed significantly to the debate about the epistemological presuppositions informing European scholars of other cultures. However, while Said exposed in considerable detail the ways in which the Orient was distorted by the theories of the European academy, he left unexamined the possibility of genuine cross-cultural understanding. This article considers the significance of hermeneutics for cross-cultural rather than (...) historical understanding. It explores the implicit claim Gadamer makes for the universal validity of hermeneutics not only for understanding in history, but for a genuine intellectual rapprochement across geographical and cultural lines as well. S. Afr. J. Philos. Vol.21(4) 2002: 330-344. (shrink)

RESUMENAl analizar si Ludwig Wittgenstein mantiene una posición fundamentalista en Sobre la certeza, suele discutirse si la citada obra se adapta al modelo de fundamentalismo propuesto por Avrum Stroll. Tras exponer las líneas básicas de dicho modelo, en esta nota se mantiene que Sobre la certeza no se adapta al modelo de Stroll debido al importante papel que Wittgenstein concede al contextualismo. Además, se añade que Wittgenstein no puede ser calificado de fundamentalista porque no reconoce ninguna propiedad que, sin tener (...) en cuenta la diversidad de casos particulares, permita justificar de forma conjunta todas nuestras creencias básicas.PALABRAS CLAVEWITTGENSTEIN, FUNDAMENTALISMO, CONTEXTUALISMO, CERTEZAABSTRACTDid Wittgenstein hold a foundationalist position in On Certainty? When this question is tackled, it is often discussed, whether On Certainty fits in the foundationalist model devised by Avrum Stroll. After expounding the main lines of this model, I hold that On Certainty does not fit in Stroll’s model, because of the important role Wittgenstein attaches to contextualism. Furthermore, I add that Wittgenstein cannot be seen as a foundationalist –or a coherentist–, because he does not admit any feature in virtue of which the whole of our basic beliefs are justified without considering circumstances at all.KEYWORDSWITTGENSTEIN, CERTAINTY, FOUNDATIONALISM, CONTEXTUALISM. (shrink)

This article presents the stance taken by José Ortega y Gasset in the debate that took place in early-twentieth-century Spain regarding the convenience of reading Don Quixote in schools. To this end, we start by describing, albeit briefly, the state of Ortega y Gasset’s thought in 1920, when he writes Biología y pedagogía, the essay with which we shall concern ourselves. According to Ortega y Gasset, Don Quixote must not be read in the classroom because it does not contribute to (...) the development of the students’ spontaneous life, or natura naturans. In order to foster this development, Ortega y Gasset suggests leaving Don Quixote aside and resort to myths such as Odysseus or Heracles because their exploits would excite the students’ vital pulse. However, we suggest several reasons why the aim stated by Ortega y Gasset —and several other highly valuable educational benefits— could be reached resorting to the reading of selected passages of Don Quixote instead of the feats of Odysseus and Heracles. (shrink)

In this paper I examine two controversialissues that occurred in two different centuriesbut that are inextricably linked with eachother – the 1835 murder committed by a Frenchpeasant, Pierre Riviere and documented byMichel Foucault and the 1990's debate regardingthe controversial methods of FacilitatedCommunication used with students labeledautistic in the United States. In this paper Iargue that both controversies foreground thecrisis of the humanist subject. In other words,I argue that both controversies are generatedby a seemingly simple question: Are personsidentified as mentally disabledcapable/incapable (...) of representing themselves?In response to this question, I will use amaterialist analysis to explore theimplications that the poststructuralistdepiction of the humanist subject as a fictionholds for both the Riviere case and theFacilitated Communication debate. (shrink)

Using a sample of 124 managers and 248 subordinates, this study examines the mediating effect of subordinates’ job satisfaction in the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate organizational citizenship and counter-productive work behaviour in the Colombian context. We additionally analyse the effect of ethical leadership on subordinates’ perception of leaders’ performance. Factor analyses of the ethical leadership scale revealed two factors, ethical person and ethical guidance, which were differentially associated to the outcomes. We offer an explanation from three cultural dimensions (...) by which Colombian employees seem to be more willing to follow leaders’ ethical example as a way to strengthen their membership to the leader's group, than leaders ethical disciplining by which norms are imposed. These findings have a number of implications for organizations and managers who aim to improve their employees’ behaviour. Our advice to them is that leaders’ deeds have a greater impact than their ethical words. (shrink)

VVe argue in this essay that the real violence in schools is a result of the structural violence of oppresive social conditions that force students, especially low-income African American and Latino males, tofeel vulnerable, angry, and resistant to the normative expectations of “police-like” school environments. Instead of making attempts to transform these oppressive conditions and explore alternatives outsideof these frameworks, schools utilize the ideological state apparatuses (ISA’s) to justify the construction of certain students (e.g., African American and Latino males) as (...) “violent/deviant/disabled” therebymaking it an individual rather than a social problem. On the other hand, we contend, a political economic analysis of educational contexts makes critical linkages between race, class, and disabilityand in doing so offers an alternative way of re-theorizing identity. Additionally this argument will aIso demonstrate how a political economic analysis exposes and re-orients one towards a collective (global) struggle for social transfornlation in critical multicultural contexts. (shrink)

I examine Spinoza's claim in the Metaphysical Thoughts that the attributes of God are only distinguished by a distinction of reason. I contend that for Spinoza essential attributes, such as Thought or Extension, cannot be distinguished by Francisco Suarez's distinction of reasoning reason, as Martin Lin suggests, nor can he be using Suárez’ distinction of reasoned reason for this purpose, as Yitzhak Melamed believes. Since reasoning reason and the distinction of reasoned reason are the only two kinds of rational distinction (...) available to Spinoza, it follows that for him the distinction between God's essential attributes in the CM cannot be a distinction of reason. But I show that Spinoza is not mistakenly using Suarez's distinction in the CM. Rather, I argue, Spinoza consistently follows Suárez and uses reasoned reason to distinguish between God's necessary properties and not between God's essential attributes. (shrink)

I argue that, against what is commonly believed, Spinoza’s use of the relation of constitution to characterize the relation between attributes and the essence of a substance does not indicate that, for him, there must be a numerical identity between each attribute and the essence constituted by that attribute. To do this, I follow a twofold strategy. First, I contend that the claim that because in Spinoza’s time constitution was understood as a one- to-one relation is mistaken: the main logicians (...) of Spinoza’s time, all Cartesian philosophers, believe that the constitution of an essence can be a many-to-one relation. I show that Spinoza can both accept that constitution is a many-one relation and share Descartes’ understanding of this relation. Second, I defend the claim that Spinoza’s use of constitution in the Ethics is consistent with these logicians’ account of constitution. In particular, I focus on Spinoza’s inclusion of the intellect in the definition of attribute and his definition of God. (shrink)

I propose a new interpretation of Spinoza’s obscure but important concept of ‘expression’. Any account of Spinozistic expression must be able to fulfil two principal requirements. First, it must be...

En este artículo se muestra que la locura, dentro del contexto de la obra tardía de Wittgenstein, no ha de ser confundida con el hueco gramatical que se abre cuando tiene lugar una reacción que no tiene cabida dentro del juego de lenguaje que se esté jugando en cierto momento. Además, y teniendo en cuenta que en muchas ocasiones no se puede apreciar y valorar algo en su justa medida hasta que se carece de ello, se señala que es precisamente (...) en el loco, entendiendo por tal el sujeto que se halla gramaticalmente aislado, en quien más claramente podemos apreciar el acuerdo en la forma de vida sobre el que se cimenta la obra tardía de Wittgenstein. In this paper I show that madness, in the context of Wittgenstein's later work, should not be mistaken for the grammatical gap which is opened when a reaction takes place, which has no place in the language-game played in that very moment. Besides, and bearing in mind that we often do not place worth on something until we miss it, it is emphasized that it is in the madman, taken as a grammatically isolated individual, with whom, we are best able to appreciate agreement in form of life on which Wittgenstein's later work is based. (shrink)

Knafo and Teschke’s 2020 article, ‘Political Marxism and the Rules of Reproduction of Capitalism: A Historicist Critique’, is an important contribution to the debate between structuralist and historicist interpretations of Marxism. As such, it presents important implications for how Marxism is presented in broader academic debates. My aim is to highlight the contribution of its radical historicism and its methodological emphasis on agency for questioning Eurocentric macro-narratives, through an engagement with the ways in which Marxism (and the problem of Eurocentric (...) structuralism) is presented in Post- and Decolonial traditions. I end by drawing briefly upon examples from my previous work on Brazilian state-formation and development. (shrink)

This paper discusses the status of about childhood in Theodor Adorno’s critical theory, focusing on his reflections on the body, on technique and on play that mark childhood as another form of reason. Childhood is portrayed by Adorno as a place of the “first utopia,” that longed for and permanently uninhabited homeland that resists any rescue attempt, but illuminates the desire we once experienced, in a play between body and thought, dream and reality. Adorno’s child evokes the experience of another (...) order of reason that feeds on the memory of the human’s animal nature, without, however, being exempt from the dominant historical forces that affect the processes of subjectivation. These reflections start with the writings of Adorno and what his dialogues with interlocutors, such as Benjamin, Freud, and Huizinga, contribute to the analysis of the topic. In the second part of the article, in an effort to understand the potential and the limits of technologically-mediated play, we discuss several studies of virtual reality, especially electronic games. Conjectures about how contact with reality is already damaged in childhood by the relationship with technology, which establishes a desire for instant gratification, suggest a critique of the quality of attention that children receive in their education, and provide clues about the increasing appearance of socio-affective disorders, which culminate in the preference to dispense with time, the body, and real contact with other children in favor of electronic play. (shrink)

Computational sociology models social phenomena using the concepts of emergence and downward causation. However, the theoretical status of these concepts is ambiguous; they suppose too much ontology and are invoked by two opposed sociological interpretations of social reality: the individualistic and the holistic. This paper aims to clarify those concepts and argue in favour of their heuristic value for social simulation. It does so by proposing a link between the concept of emergence and Luhmann's theory of communication. For Luhmann, society (...) emerges from the bottom-up as communication and he describes the process by which society limits the possible selections of individuals as downward causation. It is argued that this theory is well positioned to overcome some epistemological drawbacks in computational sociology. (shrink)

To what extent does human reason apply to the mind-independent world according to Spinoza? Does he even believe that human reason applies to that world at all? Being and Reason answers these questi...

Introduction: Loss of employment is an experience that is lived and interpreted differently depending on a series of individual variables, including the psychological resources available to the affected person, as well as their perception of their degree of employability. Losing one’s job can be one of the most painful and traumatic events a person has to withstand. Following a dismissal, the worker needs to overcome a period of emotional adaptation to the loss. But that period of grieving can also condition (...) the process of job search of the person, and be influenced by different variables, highlighting the age and work experience. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between intensity and type of affliction due to the loss of employment in older workers and their level of employability. Method: We carried out a descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 140 unemployed participants, from 19 to 65 years of age, users of job Orientation in the Public Employment Service of Andalusia (España). Of the total participants, 66 were unemployed and over 45 years of age. They all took the Labour Insertion Potential Assessment Test, and the Texas Inventory revised adapted to job loss Results: Significant differences are shown in the grieving process due to loss of employment between both groups, with the older unemployed living the process more intensely. In relation to the employability potential, differences are found between both groups in terms of availability, perceived difficulties and fears. Interrelationships between total grieving intensity and the importance that older jobseekers give to work are also indicated. Conclusion:Loss of employment and the psychological and health consequences of this situation are identified with those that arise in the grieving process. Older workers present a series of features that determine that their job loss grieving process is more intense and lasts longer than that of other younger workers, regardless of whether the job loss was recent or not. On the other hand, it is shown that the intensity of grieving is related to the decrease of certain variables that are part of the concept of employability. (shrink)

Cognitive symptoms after COVID-19 have been increasingly recognized several months after the acute infection and have been designated as “brain fog.” We report a patient with cognitive symptoms that started immediately after COVID-19, in which cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers were highly suggestive of Alzheimer’s disease. Our case highlights the need to examine patients with cognitive symptoms following COVID-19 comprehensively. A detailed assessment combining clinical, cognitive, and biomarker studies may help disentangle the underlying mechanisms associated with cognitive dysfunction in each case. The (...) investigation of neurodegenerative processes in an early stage, especially in older patients, is probably warranted. (shrink)

The traditional “realist” conception of physics, according to which human concepts, laws and theories can grasp the essence of a reality in our absence , seems incompatible with quantum formalism and it most fruitful interpretation. The proof rests on the violation by quantum mechanical formalism of some fundamental principles of the classical ontology. We discuss if the conception behind Einstein’s idea of a reality in our absence, could be still maintained and at which price. We conclude that quantum mechanical formalism (...) is not formulated on those terms, leaving for a separated paper the discussion about the terms in which it could be formulated and the onto-epistemological implications it might have. (shrink)

La noción de interpretación desarrollada en el racionalismo crítico de Karl R. Popper muestra atributos específicos que la distinguen de modo sustancial de la interpretación constitutiva de la experiencia que tanto N. R. Hanson como Th. Kuhn defienden en sus respectivas propuestas. Se muestra que la interpretación del modelo popperia-no queda atrapada en una epistemología de corte empirista que la separa de modo radical de toda hermenéutica filosófica.

El ensayo explora los principios básicos y los supuestos teóricos del socialismo raizal propuesto por el sociólogo colombiano Orlando Fals Borda. Este socialismo es presentado como una propuesta enraizada en la Investigación Acción Participativa, haciendo énfasis en su origen en las experiencias históricas revolucionarias de los pueblos originarios y diversos sectores populares de América Latina. Igualmente, se resalta su contenido popular, humanista, democrático y epistémico. El ensayo también explora sus acercamientos y sus diferencias con el pensamiento de Marx.

En el marco de la reflexión sobre las relaciones entre ética y política como dimensiones de la experiencia humana y de la vida en común, se presenta una aproximación comparativa a la noción de democracia del filósofo estadounidense John Dewey y la del neozapatismo mexicano. Se señalan algunos puntos de encuentro entre estas nociones, principalmente, la consideración de la democracia como forma de vida comunitaria, como ethos, no sólo como forma de gobierno, y la afirmación de la coexistencia entre lo (...) diverso, en distintas escalas, como condición de la democracia —el pluralismo en Dewey y el pluriversalismo en el neozapatismo—. Se indican también importantes diferencias como el énfasis en el desarrollo de las potencialidades humanas individuales presente sólo en Dewey, y la historicidad y las relaciones de poder que contempla la noción de democracia de los neozapatistas, a diferencia de la de Dewey. El texto afirma la posible fecundidad del diálogo entre distintas tradiciones de pensamiento para la comprensión de la democracia en un sentido más radical, en el que se imbriquen ética y política. (shrink)

La humanidad evolucionó durante milenios para desarrollar unas características biológicas, culturales, cognitivas y simbólicas comunes, que han posibilitado la expansión de nuestra especie por toda la Tierra y el desarrollo cultural y tecnológico de nuestra era. En este artículo exploramos someramente las ideas del ser humano, proyecciones simbólicas de lo que hemos aspirado a ser, y nos concentramos en la idea moderna autopoiética o de autotransformación, que en nuestro tiempo está postulando la necesidad y posibilidad de una transmutación radical de (...) nuestra especie mediante las bio y neuro tecnologías, generando lo que se denomina «antropotecnologías». El transhumanismo o movimiento de automutación radical de la especie humana nos conducirá, probablemente, a un objetivo que alterará la historia de la humanidad y que, por tanto, debe ser revisado y evaluado desde una perspectiva filosófica y ética por sus profundas consecuencias. (shrink)

RESUMENLas nanotecnologías constituyen actualmente elsector másinnovador y desafiante en el desarrollo tecnocientífico-industrial. Dado que nuestrastecnociencias no son capaces de crearsistemas que sean tanto o más consistentes, más estables y autosustentables que los sistemas naturales, son necesarias e indispensables la supervisión y la regulación prudencial y precautoria de sus efectos y consecuencias, esperadas e inesperadas, mediante un debate público con amplia participación democrática. La nanoética es una forma de poner en acción una racionalidad colectiva prudencial que, en vistas del alcance omniabarcador (...) de las nanotecnologías, tiene que ser construida a partir de principios éticos de alcance global y debe tener un carácter prospectivo.PALABRAS CLAVENANOTECNOLOGÍA, REGULACIÓN, RIESGO TECNOLÓGICO, NANOÉTICAABSTRACTNowadays nanotechnologies constitute the most innovative and challenging sector in technoscientific-industrial development. Our technosciences aren’t capable of generating equally or more consistent stable and self-sufficient systems than natural systems. Therefore, supervision together with reasonable and precautionary regulation of their effects and consequences -being these expected or unexpected-, in the form of public debate with ample democratic participation proves to be necessary. Nanoethics is a way of starting a reasonable collective rationality movement which, in view of the all-containing span of nanotechnologies, must be constructed from ethic principles that have a global reach and must as well have a prospective character.KEYWORDSNANOTECHNOLOGY, REGULATION, TECHNOLOGICAL RISK, NANOETHICS. (shrink)