En el presente escrito busco esclarecer las dificultades a las que se enfrenta la metafísica de Spinoza, a la luz de su contexto histórico intelectual. En particular, exploro cómo el desarrollo del concepto de grados de perfección en la escolástica tardía ejerce una fuerte influencia en el pensamiento espinosista, hasta el punto de arrojarlo a una serie de dificultades, en las que el horizonte cualitativo de la realidad se confunde con el cuantitativo. De este modo, el proyecto de naturalización de (...) Dios de Spinoza no parece solventar completamente el problema del abismo relacional que hay entre una entidad absolutamente infinita y los compuestos finitos procedentes de ella. (shrink)

El valor económico del objeto artístico está dado por el costo de su producción y las fluctuaciones del mercado, además de otros elementos axiológicos en cada caso. Pero ¿es este precio, el representante fiel de su valor estético? ¿El valor económico es directamente proporcional a su valor estético? ¿Su valor de uso corresponde a su valor de cambio? Los problemas de precio y valor nos redirigen a cuestiones más humanas y culturales, no solo a los análisis de costo y beneficio, (...) esta es otra puerta de crítica y salida que podemos ocupar para investigar las paradojas del sistema capitalista. El valor del arte, asumiendo a este como a una vil mercancía más, nos ayudan a confrontar las contrariedades culturales que el sistema como ideología crea a su favor, pero también encontraremos otras coyunturas, como el concepto de patrimonio o el don, para poder explorar otro tipo de opciones de intercambio fuera del mercado económico capitalista. En este ensayo nos inclinamos por el valor de uso de la obra de arte, como objeto de cambio en la conciencia humana, por encima de su valor de cambio, el cual es el que domina en la actualidad transmoderna su intercambio mercantil. (shrink)

At the beginning, the poetry was considered as the genesis of the arabic art, and after then the prose of adab, both of them appeared with the idea of the "beauty science". This idea would be projected on the music. On the other hand, the greek heritage of the classic arabic philosophy legacy was reflected during the first manuscripts of the arabic philosophers and musical theoreticians as al-Kindf and al-Farabf, as a result appeared a new conception of the "beauty" and (...) "aesthetic". By this way, taking as a point of reference the greek classical world, the new parameters would appear as an result of this own reality and idiosyncrasy. Their poetry and musical legacy, joined to the philosopher and religious mind would complete the work of the "aesthetic musical art". The study of the arabic middle music prove that the harmony in the poetry, lingüistic and rhitmycal contents, go in parallel with the melodic content until it reached a harmonic relation and in definitive cosmic, and as a result an "aesthetic ideal". This ideal was based on "beauty" and the "aesthetic emotion" produced by the art and all that as reflet to the harmonic until the corp and the spirit and oriented to the spherical work and to the divinity. (shrink)

Mixture modeling technics are not the one and only to perform person-centered analyses, but they do offer the possibility of integrating latent profiles into models of some complexity that include antecedents and results. When analyzing the contribution of socioemotional resources to the preservation of mental health, it is the variable-centered approaches that are the most often performed, with few examples using a person-centered approach. Moreover, if the focus is on the Arab adolescent population, to our knowledge, there is an absence (...) of such studies. This study aims to extend the research about socioemotional resources by examining: if distinguishable profiles can be identified based on scores about perceptions of different emotional abilities and levels of social support from different sources ; if the identified profiles relate to mental health indicators, such as depression levels and health-related quality of life ; and to acknowledge if sociodemographic variables such as age or gender and positive self-views ascertain the probability of pertaining to the identified profiles. The study was carried out on a large sample of Moroccan adolescents. We adopted a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis to establish whether different socioemotional resources profiles are present in Moroccan adolescents. Furthermore, we investigated the role of sociodemographic variables and self-esteem as antecedents of these profiles and the association of these profiles with mental health. Results from LPA revealed three patterns of socioemotional resources : “High socioemotional resources” ; “Moderate socioemotional resources” ; and “Low socioemotional resources”. Analyses showed that Moroccan adolescents differed significantly in depression and HRQoL depending on the profile membership. Profiles with higher levels of resources contributed positively to preserving mental health. Finally, the results show that self-esteem boosted the probability of pertaining to the profiles related to better mental health. Thus, this study extends previous research about socioemotional resources, highlighting that researchers and health professionals should consider empirically identified profiles of adolescents when explaining mental health outcomes. Therefore, the psychological intervention should be focused on enhancing the self-esteem of adolescents, to favor a high socioemotional resource profile, which results in better mental health. (shrink)

The acceptance or rejection of classmates is one of the most widely recognized determinants of wellbeing in childhood. This study analyses psychosocial adjustment and sociometric status in primary education pupils, and possible differences by gender. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in Huelva. The surveyed schools were selected using a stratified random sampling technique with both public and private elementary schools. Sample was composed of 247 4th grade students. Data revealed gender differences in psychosocial adjustment, particularly in terms of prosocial behavior (...) in girls and behavioral problems in boys. Popular and rejected statuses presented opposing adjustment profiles, particularly in hyperactive symptoms and behavioral problems. When the sample was separated by gender, the differences between the types of status in emotional symptomatology and prosocial behavior disappeared. In addition, the differences between statuses were greater in boys, and were defined mainly by hyperactivity, whilst for girls these differences were more apparent in behavioral problems. (shrink)

La doctrina establecida por la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Argentina en relación a los crímenes de lesa humanidad cometidos durante la última dictadura militar, expresamente declaraba la obligación del Estado de investigar y juzgar a los responsables de su comisión. La Corte no sólo caracterizó dichos delitos, sino que también estableció que no eran susceptibles de amnistía, indulto, ni prescripción. Pero, en el año 2017 dictó el fallo “Muiña” donde, por voto mayoritario, decidió otorgarle el beneficio del “2 (...) por 1” a un condenado por dichos delitos. La consecuencia fue su inmediata libertad por el vencimiento de la condena. La respuesta de la sociedad fue clara. Con diversas manifestaciones, la sociedad civil, las instituciones y las personalidades públicas se declararon en contra de la sentencia. Más aún, del voto de los mismos jueces se observan expresiones que denotan un gran pesar a la hora de tomar la decisión. Más precisamente, sostenían estar ante un dilema. En este trabajo, lejos de realizar un análisis de la interpretación jurídica que se efectuó en la sentencia, se propone trabajar sobre el concepto de dilema y la posibilidad de aplicación en el presente caso. La finalidad concreta es indagar si se está ante un dilema y en su caso si los jueces utilizan este concepto como un arma argumentativa para lograr adhesión o compasión de la opinión pública. En este sentido, se comenzará relatando el marco jurídico del fallo, donde se describirá la historia judicial de Muiña y los argumentos dados por el voto mayoritario y el minoritario de la Corte. Luego, se realizará un análisis del concepto de dilema, para reconstruirlo sobre la base de dos grandes posturas: Una lógica conceptual y otra fenomenológica. Posteriormente, se realizará un examen de la dimensión institucional del derecho y la moralidad judicial, para - finalmente - poder intentar responder si se está efectivamente ante un dilema. (shrink)

La letteratura veneziana degli anni Trenta del Cinquecento è caratterizzata da una volontà di reazione nei confronti della tradizione letteraria precedente. Gli effetti delle guerre d’Italia e la conseguente discesa di Carlo V comportò profondi cambiamenti politici e culturali e una decadenza del sistema delle corti. Autori come Aretino, Speroni e Piccolomini furono tra i primi a cogliere questi mutamenti, scrivendo opere che polemizzano nei confronti di testi ambientati a corte come gli Asolani di Bembo e il Cortegiano di Castiglione. (...) Un aspetto che accomuna questa produzione letteraria è rappresentato dal ruolo preminente che viene affidato ai personaggi femminili. Nei Ragionamenti di Aretino, nella Raffaella di Piccolomini e nel Dialogo d’amore di Speroni, le donne diventano lo strumento principale per esprimere opinioni nuove e polemiche nei confronti delle ipocrisie e delle idealizzazioni del mondo della corte. Nel presente articolo, si evidenzieranno gli aspetti più importanti di queste opere, mostrando come la scelta di personaggi femminili non risponda ad una semplice moda letteraria ma derivi piuttosto da ragioni ideologiche. (shrink)

Filósofos modernos como Berkeley y Hume desplegaron una argumentación de corte escéptico en contra del llamado realismo ingenuo: la idea de que la experiencia perceptual provee un accesodirecto al mundo. Dicha argumentación ha sido criticada por Michael Martin y John Campbell, quienes reclaman justicia por una nueva forma de realismo ingenuo llamado relacionalista. Se argumenta que tanto el realismo ingenuo como el relacionalista son falsos, y se defiende la tesis central de Berkeley y Hume: no hay experiencias perfectamente verídicas de (...) objetos materiales. (shrink)

El autor sigue desplegando su línea interpretativa de la recepción de Vico en España a la luz de una lectura diferencial. Como continuación a su anterior estudio "Nuevos aportes (históricos y filosóficos) para la fortuna de Vico en el siglo XIX español" (Cuadernos sobre Vico, 5/6, 1995-96), se realiza una relectura de la modernidad viquiana a través de la recepción en Juan Donoso Cortés, proponiendo una clave hermenéutica mediante la cual es posible comprender además de la imagen moderna de Vico, (...) reflectada tanto en la asunción cuanto en el abandono del napolitano por Donoso, también la bifronte posición donosiana frente a su siglo: un "primer Donoso", ilustrado, liberal y ecléctico; y un "segundo Donoso", reaccionario y tradicionalista. El mismo caso de la recepción de Vico se muestra así concluyente como un elemento más con el que poder interpretar el siglo XIX español a través de los dos lenguajes de tradición y progreso. (shrink)

El inmigrante italiano Luigi Bona publica, en 1960 en Montevideo, I racconti dell´ombú, una recopilación de tres cuentos que describen historias y costumbres del ambiente rural uruguayo. Esta original obra narrativa está marcada por la intención del autor de explicarle al lector italiano algunos datos lingüísticos necesarios para la comprensión del texto. Para ello, Bona apela a diferentes recursos lexicográficos, cuyo análisis son el objetivo de este artículo. En este sentido, y a través de una metodología propia de la lexicografía (...) actual, identificamos dos mecanismos utilizados por el autor: la inserción en la propia narración de algunas explicaciones lingüísticas de tenor lexicográfico y la confección de un vocabulario que se anexa al final de los cuentos, en el que selecciona voces regionales de origen español e indígena. Logramos establecer que las 75 voces recogidas por Bona se vinculan fuertemente con lo local y lo rural, lo que se explica por las características temáticas de los cuentos. Observamos también que los lemas se definen a través de traducciones literales, de ser posible, o de explicaciones de corte enciclopédico, en las que abundan los detalles geográficos, históricos, económicos, etc. Bona respalda sus definiciones a través de diferentes autores que, en la tradición lexicográfica, funcionarían como “autoridades”. El autor da también información sobre de dónde derivan algunas voces. Así, el inmigrante italiano se convierte en lexicógrafo amateur del español de la región y genera un producto lexicográfico bilingüe de particulares características. (shrink)

The objective of this work is to analyze the relation between active life, nobility and liberty in Thomas More s Utopia. In Quentin Skinners interpretation, Moro argues that the true nobility should not be understood as abundance of wealth, but as willingness to provide good services for the commonwealth. In first place, this paper will show some classical interpretations in favor and against of active and contemplative life. Second, it will contrast the propositions of two strands of Humanism found in (...) The Utopia; one closer to Plato and Greek philosophy, the other inspired in Roman civic philosophy. Third, I will show the relation between active life and nobilitas in Mores Utopia. Finally, I will try to link these concepts with the notion of liberty developed by Skinner and More. O objetivo deste trabalho é re-analisar, a partir da interpretação de Quentin Skinner, a relação entre vida ativa, nobreza e liberdade em A Utopia de Tomás Moro. Para o pensante inglês, o conceito de nobilitas de Moro não se entende como a abundância de riquezas, mas como a disposição a sacrificar-se pelo bem comum. Em primeiro lugar, se mostrarão diversas interpretações a favor e contra da vida contemplativa e a vida ativa na tradição política clássica. Em segundo lugar, se mostrará como são contrastadas duas correntes humanistas dentro do contexto de A Utopia; uma de tendencia platónica e outra relacionada com o humanismo cívico de inspiração romana. Terceiro, se tratará de mostrar o vínculo entre vida ativa e nobilitas em A Utopia de Moro. Por último, se buscará a relação entre esta noção de nobreza com a concepção de liberdade que propõem Skinner e Moro. El objetivo de este trabajo es reanalizar, a partir de la interpretación de Quentin Skinner, la relación entre vida activa, nobleza y libertad en La Utopía de Tomás Moro. Para el pensador inglés, el concepto de nobilitas de Moro no se entiende como la abundancia de riquezas, sino como la disposición a sacrificarse por el bien común. En primer lugar, se mostrarán diversas interpretaciones a favor y en contra de la vida contemplativa y la vida activa en la tradición política clásica. En segundo lugar, se verá como son contrastadas dos corrientes del humanismo dentro del contexto de La Utopía. Una de corte platónico y otra relacionada con el humanismo cívico de inspiración romana. Tercero, se tratará de mostrar el vínculo entre vida activa y nobilitas. Por último, se buscará la relación entre esta noción de nobleza con la concepción de libertad que proponen Skinner y Moro. (shrink)

Es una crítica a la posición filosófica de Rorty frente a los problemas de la sociedad y la política. El autor desenmascara las paradojas, la provocación y la seducción que ejerce su filosofía, lo cual la convierte en ideología para la justificación de la política en la sociedad liberal de corte norteamericano. El autor considera que la crisis de la modernidad como crisis de la razón ilustrada es un hecho, pero critica la posición filosófica que se autocomprende como agente de (...) ella, pues no se puede pretender ser filósofo y no creer en el conocimiento, ni hacer de la filosofia un asunto privado, cuando su razón de ser está en su compromiso con la tarea emancipatoria y libertaria de la ilustración pública. (shrink)

Este artículo se adentra en los temas y tópicos vitales de la obra literaria de Eliacer Cansino, escritor dedicado a la literatura juvenil, e invita a reflexionar sobre cómo su lectura puede desarrollar el pensamiento crítico de los jóvenes lectores del siglo XXI. Para abordar esta investigación, se ha recurrido a una metodología de corte cualitativo, con especial atención a la narrativa biográfica. De esta manera, dado que literatura y realidad constituyen dos caras de una moneda al forjar lectores, se (...) analizó el perimundo literario de Eliacer Cansino. Los resultados justifican que la lectura de la obra de este autor es un referente literario para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico desde la experiencia lectora de los adolescentes. (shrink)

The paper gives an overview of primate research and the economic-ethical 'lessons' we can derive from it. In particular, it examines the complex, multi-faceted and partially conflicting nature of (non-) human primates. Our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, apparently walk on two legs: a selfish and a groupish leg. Given evolutionary continuity and gradualism between monkeys, apes and humans, human primates seem to be bipolar apes as well. They, too, tend to display a dual structure: there seems to (...) be a pro-social and a self-interested side to our species and a bipolar tension seems to exist between competition and cooperation respectively between self-interest and the common good. We are apparently at the same time Homines oeconomici and Homines culturali. Our inner ape tries to combine self-interested and common good motives. Based on de Waal's Russian doll model, the essay investigates the evolutionary origins of morality and 'eusociality'. With the help of selected case studies stemming from behavioural sciences/economics, the paper illustrates examples of empathy, altruism, reciprocal fairness, pro-social and other-regarding preferences, inequity aversion and altruistic punishment in (non-)human primates. Beside this selfless and groupish side, the paper also reflects on the self-interest and egoistic nature of (non-)human primates and the behavioural and cognitive differences between monkeys, apes and humans. (shrink)

Presupposition, vagueness, and oddness can lead to some sentences failing to have a clear truth value. The homogeneity property of plural predication with definite descriptions may also create truth-value gaps: The books are written in Dutch is true if all relevant books are in Dutch, false if none of them are, and neither true nor false if, say, half of the books are written in Dutch. We study the projection property of homogeneity by deploying methods of general interest to identify (...) truth-value gaps. Method A consists in collecting both truth judgments and, independently, falsity judgments. The second method, employed in experiment series B and C, is based on one-shot ternary judgments: completely true vs. completely false vs. neither. After a calibration of these methods, we use them to demonstrate that homogeneity projects out of negation, the scope of universal sentences and the scope of non-monotonic quantifiers such as exactly two, to some extent. We assess our results in light of different theoretical approaches to homogeneity—approaches based on presuppositions, scalar implicatures, and something like supervaluations, respectively. We identify free parameters in these theories and assess various variants of them based on our results. Our experimental paradigms may be of broader significance insofar as they can be applied to other phenomena which result in the failure of a sentence to have a definite truth value. (shrink)

Firm managers play an important role in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. Education is emerging as the key factor in developing a sense of moral responsibility amongst the business students who will eventually become company managers and decision makers. The aim of this research is, thus, twofold. First, to analyze the existence of a direct positive correlation between university students’ perception of CSR and its impact on business performance; and second, to examine the extent to which two (...) factors (advantages brought by CSR and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforementioned correlation. The analysis was performed with a sample of 390 business‐related university students. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study we can highlight the possibility of knowing future managers’ way of thinking and of knowing the aspects where educational centers might improve their CSR teaching. (shrink)

This paper discusses the logical space of alternative conceptual engineering projects, with a specific focus on (1) the processes, (2) the targets and goals, and (3) the methods of such projects. We present an overview of how these three aspects interact in the contemporary literature and discuss those alternative projects that have yet to be explored based on our suggested typology. We show how choices about each element in a conceptual engineering project constrain the possibilities for the others, thereby giving (...) rise to distinct groupings of possible projects under the banner of conceptual engineering. We conclude with a critical reflection on the potential ethical issues that arise as a result of effectively putting conceptual engineering into practice. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering means to provide a method to assess and improve our concepts working as cognitive devices. But conceptual engineering still lacks an account of what concepts are (as cognitive devices) and of what engineering is (in the case of cognition). And without such prior understanding of its subject matter, or so it is claimed here, conceptual engineering is bound to remain useless, merely operating as a piecemeal approach, with no overall grip on its target domain. The purpose of this (...) programmatic paper is to overcome this knowledge gap by providing some guidelines for developing the theories of concepts and of cognition that will ground the systematic unified framework needed to effectively implement conceptual engineering as a widely applicable method for the cognitive optimization of our conceptual devices. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. However, little has been written about how best to conceive of concepts for the purposes of conceptual engineering. In this paper, I aim to fill this foundational gap, proceeding in three main steps: First, I propose a methodological framework for evaluating the conduciveness of a given concept of concept for conceptual engineering. Then, I develop a typology that contrasts two competing concepts of concept that can be used in conceptual (...) engineering — namely, the philosophical and psychological ones. Finally, I evaluate these two concepts of concept using the proposed methodological framework and I show that, when it comes to making conceptual engineering an actionable method, the psychological concept of concept outclasses its philosophical counterpart on all counts. This provides a baseline from which the concept of concept can be further improved for the purposes of conceptual engineering. (shrink)

It is well known that the formal system developed by Frege in Begriffsschrift is based upon the distinction between function and argument—as opposed to the traditional distinction between subject and predicate. Almost all of the modern commentaries on Frege's work suggest a semantic interpretation of this distinction, and identify it with the ontological structure of function and object, upon which Grundgesetze is based. Those commentaries agree that the system proposed by Frege in Begriffsschrift has some gaps, but it is taken (...) as an essentially correct formal system for second-order logic: the first one in the history of logic. However, there is strong textual evidence that such an interpretation should be rejected. This evidence shows that the nature of the distinction between function and argument is stated by Frege in a significantly different way: it applies only to expressions and not to entities. The formal system based on this distinction is tremendously flexible and is suitable for making explicit the logical structure of contents as well as of deductive chains. We put forward a new reconstruction of the function-argument scheme and the quantification theory in Begriffsschrift. After that, we discuss the usual semantic interpretation of Begriffsschrift and show its inconsistencies with a rigorous reading of the text. (shrink)

Plural definite descriptions across many languages display two well-known properties. First, they can give rise to so-called non-maximal readings, in the sense that they ‘allow for exceptions’. Second, while they tend to have a quasi-universal quantificational force in affirmative sentences, they tend to be interpreted existentially in the scope of negation. Building on previous works, we offer a theory in which sentences containing plural definite expressions trigger a family of possible interpretations, and where general principles of language use account for (...) their interpretation in various contexts and syntactic environments. Our theory solves a number of problems that these previous works encounter, and has broader empirical coverage in that it offers a precise analysis for sentences that display complex interactions between plural definites, quantifiers and bound variables, as well as for cases involving non-distributive predicates. The resulting proposal is briefly compared with an alternative proposal by Križ, which has similar coverage but is based on a very different architecture and sometimes makes subtly different predictions. (shrink)

William Molyneux was born in Dublin, studied in Trinity College Dublin, and was a founding member of the Dublin Philosophical Society (DPS), Ireland’s counterpart to the Royal Society in London. He was a central figure in the Irish intellectual milieu during the Early Modern period and – along with George Berkeley and Edmund Burke – is one of the best-known thinkers to have come out of that context and out of Irish thought more generally. In 1688, when Molyneux wrote the (...) letter to Locke in which he posed the now famous question about a man born blind made to see, he was an active member of the DPS and was on familiar terms with several other key figures in Irish philosophy at the time. For the most part, Irish thinkers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries answered “no” to Molyneux’s question of whether a blind man made to see could distinguish, by sight alone, between a cube and a sphere. (shrink)

The debate surrounding ‘big tech’ and antitrust has dominated public policy discourses over the past few years in many parts of the world. Noteworthy is that several countries and regions, including China, the European Union, and the United States, have launched investigations into the allegedly anticompetitive and exclusionary business practices of companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google and their Chinese counterparts, Alibaba and Tencent. This paper builds on the renewed interest in the topic and discusses in detail – (...) and from an ordoliberal perspective – the key characteristics of the digital economy, the business conduct of tech platforms, and the corresponding antitrust concerns, as well as possible reform steps which could help to strengthen modern-day competition law and policy (and antitrust enforcement). (shrink)

Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. Some have recently claimed that the implementation of such method in the form of ameliorative projects is truth-driven and should thus be epistemically constrained, ultimately at least (Simion 2018; cf. Podosky 2018). This paper challenges that claim on the assumption of a social constructionist analysis of ideologies, and provides an alternative, pragmatic and cognitive framework for determining the legitimacy of ameliorative conceptual projects overall. The upshot is that one should (...) not ameliorate for the sake of truth or knowledge, in the case of ideologies—at least, not primarily. (shrink)

Is brain structure related to function? Can one predict the other? These are questions that are still waiting to be answered definitively. In this paper we seek to investigate these questions, in particular, we are interested in the relation between brain structure and theory of mind. ToM is defined as the ability to attribute mental states to others. Previous studies have observed correlations between performance on ToM tasks, and gray-matter size/volume in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction and precuneus. Despite these (...) findings, there are concerns about false positive results and replicability issues. In this study we used two different tasks to evaluate ToM, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and the Short Story Task. Performance in these tasks was correlated to brain anatomy measures including voxel-based morphometry and cortical thickness analysis, from ninety-one neurotypical participants. High-resolution structural brain images were acquired, and whole-brain and region of interest analyses were implemented. The analyses did not show statistically significant associations between ToM performance and brain structural measures after correction. Significant associations between performance on ToM tests and a widespread array of regions loosely associated with ToM were observed only for whole brain uncorrected analysis. These results do not replicate a previous study with neurotypical participants. We tested two different ToM tests, two different softwares for VBM and CT, and we used two samples, one with 91 and a sub-sample with 69 participants. Neither of these conditions made a difference in the results obtained. Consequently, these results suggest that if the population is neurotypical and homogenous, it is unlikely that a reliable association between brain anatomy measures and ToM performance, as measured with these tasks, may be found. (shrink)

The paper presents a renewed Habermasian view on transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) and assesses the institutional characteristics of the Equator Principles Association (EPA) from a deliberative democracy perspective. Habermas’ work has been widely adopted in the academic literature on the political responsibilities of (multinational) corporations (i.e., political corporate social responsibility), and also in assessing the democratic qualities of MSIs. Commentators, however, have noted that Habermas’ approach relies very much on ‘nation-state democracy’ and may not be applicable to democracy in MSIs—in (...) which nation-states are virtually absent. We argue that Habermas’ detailed conceptualization of the institutionalization of deliberative democracy can be applied to transnational MSIs if these initiatives can be said to have their own ‘dèmoi’ that can be represented in associational decision-making. Therefore, we develop a definition of the dèmos of an MSI based on the notion of collective agency. Subsequently, we explain how Habermas’ approach to democracy can be applied to MSIs and show that it has more to offer than hitherto has been uncovered. Our illustrative analysis of the EPA confirms the criticisms regarding this MSI which have recently been articulated by researchers and practitioners, but also yields new findings and possible avenues for the further development of the EPA: That is, although our assessment suggests that the EPA in its current state is still far from being a democratic MSI, the possibility of a sensible analysis of its democratic character indicates that transnational MSIs can, in principle, help to fill governance gaps in a democratic way. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our representational devices. On its ‘broad-spectrum’ version, it is expected to be appropriately applicable to any of our representation-involving cognitive activities, with major consequences for our whole cognitive life. This paper is about the theoretical foundations of conceptual engineering thus characterised. With a view to ensuring the actionability of conceptual engineering as a broad-spectrum method, it addresses the issue of how best to construe the subject matter of conceptual engineering and successively (...) defends the theses that conceptual engineering should be: (i) About concepts, (ii) psychologically theorised, (iii) as multiply realised functional kinds. Thereby, I claim to theoretically secure and justify the maximum scope, flexibility, and impact for the method of conceptual engineering on our representational devices in our whole cognitive life—in other words, a broad-spectrum version of conceptual engineering. (shrink)

In the light of several ongoing antitrust investigations in the E.U. and the U.S., the following research paper analyzes whether ‘big tech’ – same as the big banks – need special regulatory (and economic -political) attention and if so, how an updated form of regulatory policy for the digital era could look like. It does so by utilizing – and reviving – the normative and business -ethical ideals of German ‘neoliberalism’, also known as (classical) ordoliberalism. Especially, Walter Eucken’s work has (...) the potential to inform and enrich the current debate concerning the regulation of big tech. The main goal of the paper is to outline a potentially new regulatory framework – one that combines (and revises) Eucken’s ordoliberalism with the competition policy of the European Union. (shrink)

Filosofía de la historia, Juan Bautista Vico.--Consideraciones sobre el cristianismo.--Antecedentes para la inteligencia de la cuestión de Oriente.--Discurso acerca de las relaciones de España con otras potencias.--Discurso sobre la dictadura.--Cartas relacionadas con el discurso sobre la dictadura.--Discurso sobre la situación general de Europa.--Discurso sobre la situación de España.

The past few years have seen the opening of several antitrust investigations against some of the most dominant and powerful companies in the world—e.g., the U.S. Department of Justice, numerous states, and the Federal Trade Commission have sued Google, Facebook, and Amazon, and the E.U. has launched additional proceedings against Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. This paper looks at the latest trends and developments in the E.U. and the USA and analyzes the different regulatory approaches taken from a distinct business (...) ethics, that is, ordoliberal perspective. The paper aims to derive ordoliberal-inspired antitrust principles and apply them to the current antitrust proceedings and investigations, thereby assessing their strengths and weaknesses. It also aims at developing ordoliberal-inspired reform proposals which might help to strengthen and “harden” modern-day antitrust regimes. (shrink)

Dreyfus examines the central ideas of Dharmakīrti, one of the most important Indian Buddhist philosophers, and their reception among Tibetan thinkers. During the golden age of ancient Indian civilization, Dharmakīrti articulated and defended Buddhist philosophical principles. He did so more systematically than anyone before his time (the seventh century CE) and was followed by a rich tradition of profound thinkers in India and Tibet. This work presents a detailed picture of this Buddhist tradition and its relevance to the history of (...) human ideas. Its perspective is mostly philosophical, but it also uses historical considerations as they relate to the evolution of ideas. (shrink)

O trabalho, em sua íntegra, foi realizado tendo como entrevistado um jovem que se autodenomina gay e negro, oriundo do Rio de Janeiro, de classe social baixa, estudante de uma escola pública do ensino médio regular, situada em uma periferia de um município localizado no interior da Bahia. Na tessitura que segue, enfatizamos os marcadores sociais de gênero/sexualidade e raça/etnia. Esses marcadores apresentaram-se como desconforto para o sujeito entrevistado, visto que não atendem às caracterizações e práticas determinadas pela heteronormatividade. Assim, (...) constatamos que há um olhar hierarquizante e verticalizado envolvendo identidades outras assim como possibilidades de vivências afetivas e sexuais diferentes daquelas determinadas pelas normas sociais. Palavras-chave: gênero; marcadores étnicos; diversidade sexual; estudante. (shrink)

Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our representational devices. On its ‘broad‐spectrum’ version, it is expected to be appropriately applicable to any of our representation‐involving cognitive activities, with major consequences for our whole cognitive life. This paper is about the theoretical foundations of conceptual engineering thus characterised. With a view to ensuring the actionability of conceptual engineering as a broad‐spectrum method, it addresses the issue of how best to construe the subject matter of conceptual engineering and successively (...) defends the theses that conceptual engineering should be: (i) About concepts, (ii) psychologically theorised, (iii) as multiply realised functional kinds. Thereby, I claim to theoretically secure and justify the maximum scope, flexibility, and impact for the method of conceptual engineering on our representational devices in our whole cognitive life—in other words, a broad‐spectrum version of conceptual engineering. (shrink)

Understanding what motivates employees is essential to the success of organizational objectives. Therefore, properly capturing and explaining the full range of such motivations are important. However, the classical and most popular theories describing employee motives have neglected, if not omitted entirely, the importance of the ethical and spiritual dimensions of motivation. This has led to a model of a person as self-interested, amoral, and non-spiritual. In this paper, we attempt to expose this omission and offer a more complete taxonomy of (...) motivations which include these dimensions. Although more work will need to be done to fully develop the ethical and spiritual dimensions of motivation, the expanded taxonomy will provide the foundations and serve as a guide for such further research. Furthermore, this new categorization of motivations brings out the full dimensions of being human, which promises to lead to improved management practices with regard to employees and foster greater human flourishing in the workplace. (shrink)

The central aim of the present investigation is to shed light on Nietzsche’s understanding of happiness and a good life, starting from Nietzsche’s appropriation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s doctrine of a hierarchy of human beings and forms of life.

Ratio, Volume 34, Issue 4, Page 286-302, December 2021.