El problema del diálogo entre interlocutores con distintas expresionesculturales es una de las difi cultades más notables que afrontan las actualessociedades democráticas. En el presente artículo se aborda dicho problemaen clave de los aportes fi losófi cos de Hans Georg Gadamer y Charles Taylor.Se plantea como pregunta central: ¿qué actitudes ameritan promover losinterlocutores con tradiciones culturales incompatibles para la construcciónde unidad política democrática y pluricultural? Se acoge como principiode argumentación la idea de que diálogo abierto y reconocimiento mutuoson dos actitudes (...) ineludibles de cualquier intento sano por construir unidadpolítica democrática y pluricultural. (shrink)

In this paper we examine Husserl’s ethics contribution to the understanding of human action determined by self-responsibility. We admit that self-responsibility is that ‘capacity’ of any subject to take a reflective stance on himself and his life. In this sense, the subject only experiences fully being responsible when guides his reason in the multidimensionality of his actions, aiming at a personal and cultural renewal. To show this, we firstly analyze the project of renewal of man and culture in the personalist (...) ethics proposed by Husserl, viewed from the history of parricide Karamazov. Secondly, we inquire about one of the two dimensions of human personality, self-awareness and presence of oneself, to approach the complex intentional act in which this selfconsciousness takes place. Thirdly, we analyze how the ability of self-determination, the other key dimension of the person, makes possible the self-appraisal by which the new man values his actions, motives, means and ends. We conclude that the self guides his life in full participation and emotional manifestation out of experiences that strengthen the ‘self’ and the ‘us’. (shrink)

En este trabajo se presentan algunos de los elementos teóricos que fundamentanla dimensión interpretativa como parte del marco epistemológicoque nos permitirá entender la situación de tensión y conflicto entre la visiónde justicia del régimen imperante y la administración de justicia pensada yrealizada desde las etnias en Colombia. Después se reconstruyen tres aspectospropios de la dimensión interpretativa para mostrar que dicha situaciónde tensión y conflicto puede comprenderse por fuera de la alternativa deobjetividad y de subjetividad establecida por la concepción clásica del (...) conocimiento.Se concluye que la dimensión interpretativa nos posibilita comprendery reconocer que existe un espacio de la multiplicidad simbólica ycultural. Espacio que demanda de ciudadanos con disposición para arriesgary remover continuamente las mentalidades empleadas en la interacciónsocial. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se afirma que el lenguaje determinado por el seguimiento de reglas, por la intencionalidad de los estados mentales y por las expresiones con contenidos, tiene una preeminencia frente al planteamiento funcional ofrecido por la versión cognitiva en lo relacionado con el estudio de los procesos mentales. 1) Se reconstruye el modo como Searle entiende el lenguaje y la manera como están entrelazados sus rasgos constitutivos con el problema de los estados mentales. 2) Se muestra la característica (...) principal de cada uno de los rasgos del lenguaje. 3) Se concluye que los contenidos de la acción mental intencionada están siempre determinados por la infinita capacidad individual y por la generosa multiplicidad de perspectivas generales sobre el mundo, en lo referente con la continua creación y representación de los hechos institucionales determinados por el lenguaje. (shrink)

Este artículo tratará el problema del reconocimiento de las identidades colectivasen el marco del Estado democrático de derecho a partir de la interpretación sugerida por Jürgen Habermas. Se presenta, en primer lugar, el problemadel reconocimiento de las demandas de las identidades colectivas; en segundolugar, algunos presupuestos teóricos previos al debate con Taylorsobre la lucha por el reconocimiento en las sociedades modernas; y en tercerlugar, algunos de los elementos teóricos que estructuran la interpretación deJürgen Habermas en torno al reconocimiento de las (...) demandas no satisfechasde las identidades colectivas. Se concluye que el reconocimiento de lasidentidades colectivas puede articularse moral y políticamente si en el Estadodemocrático de derecho se crean condiciones de igualdad de derechos yparticipación. Condiciones fundamentales para que en el ámbito de lo públicolos actores sociales realicen el ejercicio de la autonomía ciudadana, el cualdebe estar orientado a visualizar con claridad los intereses colectivos y loscriterios justificados que permitan tratar de modo justo los diferentes interesesy necesidades de las identidades colectivas. (shrink)

RESUMEN Desde el planteamiento de Gadamer sobre diálogo se muestra que cuando los interlocutores efectúan la conversación en armonía con el proteger el derecho de opinión y el reconocer de modo recíproco los límites de los puntos de vista arriesgados, es factible configurar comunidad de vida humana en la mutua estima y aprobar la validez de otros juicios como respuestas que ayudan con el proceso interhumano de entendimiento común. Y en este realizar el diálogo así tiene lugar una creación nueva (...) de sentido que con la participación de la pluralidad lleva a cabo simultáneamente la actualización del habitual modo de efectuar la formación de comunidad de vida. En la medida en que los interlocutores ejercen el entender sus opiniones en relación con la pregunta orientadora del diálogo y reconocen la finitud de sus puntos de vista como posibilidades entre otras, se contribuye con el establecimiento de comunidad de vida humana en un sentido completamente distinto trasformando con ello de un modo u otro las prácticas habituales de relación e integración social. En primer lugar, se explica el vínculo entre experiencia comprensible y conversación; y, en segundo lugar, se establece el modo como Gadamer describe el presupuesto hermenéutico de la pertenencia y su relación con la creación de un nuevo sentido que incumbe a la experiencia comprensible del entendimiento interhumano en la conversación. ABSTRACT From Gadamer's approach to dialogue, it is shown that when the interlocutors carry out the conversation in harmony with protecting the right of opinion and reciprocally recognizing the limits of risky points of view, it is feasible to configure a community of human life in mutual estimate and approve the validity of other judgments as answers that help with the interhuman process of common understanding. And in this realization of the dialogue thus a new creation of meaning takes place that with the participation of the plurality simultaneously carries out the updating of the usual way of carrying out the formation of a community of life. To the extent that the interlocutors understand their opinions in relation to the guiding question of the dialogue and recognize the finiteness of their points of view as possibilities among others, it contributes to the establishment of a community of human life in a completely different sense, transforming with this, in one way or another, the usual practices of relationship and social integration. First, the link between understandable experience and conversation is explained; and, secondly, the way in which Gadamer describes the hermeneutical assumption of belonging and its relationship with the creation of a new meaning that concerns the comprehensible experience of interhuman understanding in conversation is established. (shrink)

El propósito del presente artículo es el de reflexionar sobre la relación política y legitimación del Estado en las sociedades modernas liberales, a partir del enfrentamiento ideológico entre los promotores del “estado de opinión” y los defensores del Estado de Derecho en Colombia. Considero que la participación, la comunicación deliberativa, el uso público de la razón práctica, la autonomía ciudadana y el respeto a los derechos fundamentales son supuestos ético-políticos inevitables sí queremos construir una cultura política democrática y pluralista en (...) Colombia. Para justificar mi punto de vista, procederé del siguiente modo. En primer lugar, introduciré la idea de que en la democracia deliberativa se privilegia el concurso de la pluralidad política en pleno respeto tanto del derecho como de los procedimientos institucionalizados de comunicación entre los ciudadanos y las instituciones públicas. En segundo lugar, sostendré que la democracia deliberativa implica un proceso democrático sujeto a principios generales imparciales de justicia. (shrink)

Wainwright and Reingold presented equations for various versions of the process dissociation procedure that has been used to separate conscious and unconscious memory processes. In the present reply it is suggested that these equations, though helpful, may not capture some of the key theoretical possibilities that could help to resolve apparent contradictions and paradoxes in the empirical literature. Specifically, there could be an independence ofprocessesthat might be estimated to a sufficient degree of accuracy for some theoretical purposes despite a violation (...) of the assumption ofstochasticindependence. (shrink)

This paper presents the theoretical bases and central proposes of anarchism, a social philosophy undergoing a resurgence in contemporary societies as the cornerstone of a possible radical utopia by demonstrating its renewed relevance to today’s socio-political circumstances while undermin..

The thought that human embryos could command moral respect yet also be acceptably used in medical research has struck some as incoherent. Given some assumptions about why they deserve respect, however, the thought is not objectionable, indeed not even unusual.

People often choose intuitive rather than equally valid nonintuitive alternatives. The authors suggest that these intuitive biases arise because intuitions often spring to mind with subjective ease, and the subjective ease leads people to hold their intuitions with high confidence. An investigation of predictions against point spreads found that people predicted intuitive options more often than equally valid nonintuitive alternatives. Critically, though, this effect was largely determined by people's confidence in their intuitions. Across naturalistic, expert, and laboratory samples, against personally (...) determined point spreads, and even when intuitive confidence was manipulated by altering irrelevant aspects of the decision context, the authors found that decreasing intuitive confidence reduced or eliminated intuitive biases. These findings indicate that intuitive biases are not inevitable but rather predictably determined by contextual variables that affect intuitive confidence. (shrink)

BackgroundIn response to COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Uganda adopted public health measures to contain its spread in the country. Some of the initial measures included refusal to repatriate citizens studying in China, mandatory institutional quarantine, and social distancing. Despite being a public health emergency, the measures adopted deserve critical appraisal using an ethics and human rights approach. The goal of this paper is to formulate an ethics and human rights criteria for evaluating public health measures and use it to (...) reflect on the ethical propriety of those adopted by the government of Uganda to contain the spread of COVID-19.Main bodyWe begin by illustrating the value of ethics and human rights considerations for public health measures including during emergencies. We then summarize Uganda’s social and economic circumstances and some of the measures adopted to contain the spread of COVID-19. After reviewing some of the ethics and human rights considerations for public health, we reflect upon the ethical propriety of some of Uganda’s responses to COVID-19. We use content analysis to identify the measures adopted by the government of Uganda to contain the spread of COVID-19, the ethics and human rights considerations commonly recommended for public health responses and their importance. Our study found that some of the measures adopted violate ethics and human rights principles. We argue that even though some human rights can sometimes be legitimately derogated and limited to meet public health goals during public health emergencies, measures that infringe on human rights should satisfy certain ethics and human rights criteria. Some of these criteria include being effective, strictly necessary, proportionate to the magnitude of the threat, reasonable in the circumstances, equitable, and least restrictive. We reflect on Uganda’s initial measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 and argue that many of them fell short of these criteria, and potentially limit their effectiveness.ConclusionThe ethical legitimacy of public health measures is valuable in itself and for enhancing effectiveness of the measures. Such legitimacy depends on the extent to which they conform to ethics and human rights principles recommended for public health measures. (shrink)

The concept of religion as an anthropological category and the idea of race as an organizing principle of human identification and social organization played a major role in the formation of modern/colonial systems of symbolic representation that acquired global significance with the expansion of Western modernity. The modern concepts of religion and race were mutually constituted and together became two of the most central categories in drawing maps of subjectivity, alterity, and sub-alterity in the modern world. This makes the critical (...) theory of religion highly relevant for the theory of race, and both of them crucial for ethics. It follows from this, not only that religion and race have been profoundly intertwined in modernity, but also that any ethics that seeks to take seriously the challenges created by modernity/coloniality has to be, at least to some extent, decolonial. (shrink)

The valencies of the lanthanides vary more than was once thought. In addition to valencies associated with a half-full shell, there are valencies associated with a quarter- and three-quarter-full shell. This can be explained on the basis of Slater’s theory of many-electron atoms. The same theory explains the variation in complexing constants in the trivalent state. Valency in metallic and organometallic compounds is also discussed.

Like biological species, languages change over time. As noted by Darwin, there are many parallels between language evolution and biological evolution. Insights into these parallels have also undergone change in the past 150 years. Just like genes, words change over time, and language evolution can be likened to genome evolution accordingly, but what kind of evolution? There are fundamental differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic evolution. In the former, natural variation entails the gradual accumulation of minor mutations in alleles. In the (...) latter, lateral gene transfer is an integral mechanism of natural variation. The study of language evolution using biological methods has attracted much interest of late, most approaches focusing on language tree construction. These approaches may underestimate the important role that borrowing plays in language evolution. Network approaches that were originally designed to study lateral gene transfer may provide more realistic insights into the complexities of language evolution.Editor's suggested further reading in BioEssaysLinguistic evidence supports date for Homeric epics Abstract. (shrink)

Spatial skills predict important life outcomes, such as mathematical achievement or entrance into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines. Children significantly vary in their spatial performance even before they enter formal schooling. One correlate of children's spatial performance is the spatial language they produce and hear from others, such as their parents. Because the emphasis has been on spatial language, less is known about the role of hand gestures in children's spatial development. Some children are more likely to fall behind (...) in their spatial skills than others. Children born premature constitute such a risk group. Here, we compared performance of term and preterm-born children on two non-verbal spatial tasks—mental transformation and block design. We also examined relations of children's performance on these tasks to parental spatial language and gesture input and their own production of spatial language and gesture during an independent puzzle play interaction. We found that while term and preterm-born children as a group did not differ in the mental transformation or block design performance, children varied widely in their performance within each group. The variability in mental transformation scores was predicted by both a subset of spatial words and all spatial gestures children produced. Children's spatial language and gesture were in turn related to their parents' spatial language and gesture. Parental spatial language and gesture had an indirect relation on children's mental transformation, but not block design, scores via children's spatial language, and gesture use. Overall, results highlight the unique contributions of speech and gesture in communicating spatial information and predicting children's spatial performance. (shrink)

Introduction -- Youth, a contradictory formation: 1910-18 -- Workers' democracy and factory-councils: 1919-20 -- Passage to maturity: 1921-6 -- Methodological observations on the prison notebooks -- The 'extended' theory of the state -- The party as 'collective intellectual' -- The current relevance and universality of Gramsci.

We should not always expect parents to put their children first.

An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development research priority, innovative learning environments have been translated into policy and practice in 25 countries around the world. In Aotearoa/new Zealand, learning spaces are being reconceptualised in relation to this policy work by school leaders who are confronted by an impetus to lead pedagogic change. The article contributes a conjunctural analysis of the milieu around the redesign of these education facilities. Recognising that bodies and objects entwine in pedagogic spaces, we contribute a new (...) materialism reading of ILEs as these are instantiated in New Zealand. New materialism recognises the agential nature of matter and questions the anthropocentric narrative that frames the post-enlightenment conception of what it means to be human. The decentring of human subjects through a materialist ontology facilitates a consideration of the power of objects to affect the spatial politics of learning environments. The article traces a relationship between the New Zealand strategic plan for Education 2015–2021 and principal conceptions of ILE as the lived spaces of this policy actualisation and the disciplinary/control society conjuncture. Informed by theories of spatial practice, we argue that principals’ understandings of ‘space’ are integral to pedagogic approaches within open-plan spaces. A conjunctural analysis can expand the capacity to act politically. By examining the complex conditions of a political intervention, in this case ILEs, we trace the displacements and condensations of different sorts of contradictions, and thus open up possibilities for action. (shrink)

The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of thirty-seven issues of The DDU Review, a newsletter produced by residents of the Dual Diagnosis Unit, a residential unit for people who had diagnoses of developmental disability and serious mental illness in the Central State Hospital. The analysis of the newsletters produced between September 1988 and June 1992 revealed three major themes: 1) the mundane; 2) good behavior; and 3) advocacy. Contrary to the authors’ expectations, the discourse of medicalization—such as relations with physicians, (...) diagnoses, and medications—receive little attention. Instead, the patient-journalists focus on prosaic aspects of institutional life. The patients used their writing as a form self-definition and advocacy. The authors argue that even though it is tempting to consider the patients’ emphasis on good behavior as evidence of institutional control, internalized discipline, and medicalization, a more nuanced interpretation, which focuses on how the patients’ understood their own experiences, is warranted. Researchers must also recognize the ways in which The DDU Review reveals the patient-journalists’ experience of an institutional life that includes non-medical staff, varied social relationships among patients, and negotiated freedoms. (shrink)

My aim in this note is to address the question of how a context of utterance can figure within a formal, specifically truth-conditional, semantic theory. In particular, I want to explore whether a formal semantic theory could, or should, take the intentional states of a speaker to be relevant in determining the literal meaning of an uttered sentence. The answer I’m going to suggest, contrary to the position of many contemporary formal theorists, is negative. The structure of this note is (...) then as follows: first, I’ll very briefly sketch three distinct forms of semantic theory. One, ‘strong formal semantics’, will be seen to be immediately problematic, leaving us with two other options: use-based theories and what I’ll term ‘moderate formal semantics’. If we opt for the latter position, the question arises of what kinds of appeals to a context of utterance are legitimate given a formal outlook. I’ll suggest that this question arises in two distinct ways and explore the moderate formal semanticist’s position in regard to both. However, the conclusion I will reach is that what is characteristic of formal semantics is that it makes only the most minimal semantic concessions to context. (shrink)

This study empirically tests a sequential mediation model that links ethical leadership with employees’ unethical behaviour. The corruption index for countries is used as the moderator, because it represents both the instrumental ethical climate and the employee displacement of responsibility embedded in society’s ethical standards. A total of 175 participants comprising 41 teams (134 dyads) across 13 countries participated in a dyadic two-wave survey. The findings show that ethical leadership has an indirect influence on the avoidance of unethical behaviour by (...) reducing the instrumental ethical climate and by negating the displacement of individuals’ responsibility. In addition, the results also show that this process is not sensitive to the countries’ corruption levels. Such findings suggest that organizations are less prone to adjust their ethical standards to the environment than is usually expected. Accordingly, ethical leaders of MNCs may be instrumental in counteracting any corruptive pressure in the social environment, and likewise, non-ethical leaders may be a contributing factor to fostering corrupt organizations in a society that otherwise values ethical principles in business. (shrink)