Every corporation has an economic and moral responsibility to its stockholders to perform well financially. However, the number of bankruptcies in Slovakia has been growing for several years without an apparent macroeconomic cause. To prevent a rapid denigration and to prevent the outflow of foreign capital, various efforts are being zealously implemented. Robust analysis using conventional bankruptcy prediction tools revealed that the existing models are adaptable to local conditions, particularly local legislation. Furthermore, it was confirmed that most of these outdated (...) tools have sufficient capability to warn of impending financial problems several years in advance. A novel bankruptcy prediction tool that outperforms the conventional models was developed. However, it is increasingly challenging to predict bankruptcy risk as corporations have become more global and more complex and as they have developed sophisticated schemes to hide their actual situations under the guise of “optimization” for tax authorities. Nevertheless, scepticism remains because economic engineers have established bankruptcy as a strategy to limit the liability resulting from court-imposed penalties. (shrink)

Many reports independently confirm that even more than a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the results of research and development in those countries that were under its influence are insufficient in comparison to the rest of the world. Given that human intelligence is not distributed unevenly and that science is a powerful driving force for the future of an economy, there is a hidden problem, which, if it can be resolved, may release great economic (...) potential. The first generation of researchers from Armenia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Slovakia and Ukraine, who successfully completed their education after the political revolution, were surveyed. The survey revealed many similarities with regards to ethics, but that there is mounting evidence that the main cause of the current situation is the state of the local legal systems. The conclusion was drawn that a conceptual change in staffing within the relevant legal systems is required to release potential and stimulate wealth creation. (shrink)

Digital capability encompasses the skills and attitudes that firms and employees need to thrive in the modern digital era. Digital capability of a firm involves the effective adoption and use of modern digital technologies such as Industry 4.0. From the individual perspective, digital capability is referred to as knowledge and skill sets of people which are essential to work in digitally enabled firms. Not many studies have been conducted to assess how digital capability can help in twin transition, that is, (...) both at individual and firm levels, and how such digital capability can help in improving profitability for the firms. There is also a lack of studies exploring how firm leadership support can enhance digital capability to improve both organizational and employee performance. In this background, the aim of this study is to assess the role of digital capability for both firm and people perspectives with leadership support as moderator. With the support of resource-based view (RBV) and literature, a research model was prepared conceptually which was later validated using PLS-SEM technique considering 348 responses from employees of different types of industries. Based on the analysis of feedback from participants in India, this study has reached a specific conclusion. Consequently, the results suffer from external validity issues which have been considered as one of the critical limitations of this study. It has been demonstrated that impacts of digital competency could improve both people and firm performance enhancing the profitability of the firms. Such enhancement of profitability is facilitated by the impact of leadership support. (shrink)

The present paper was written as a contribution to ongoing methodological debates within the NCC project. We focus on the neural correlates of conscious perceptual episodes. Our claim is that the NCC notion, as applied to conscious perceptual episodes, needs to be reconceptualized. It mixes together the processing related to the perceived contents and the neural substrate of consciousness proper, i.e. mechanisms making the perceptual contents conscious. We thus propose that the perceptual NCC be divided into two constitutive subnotions. The (...) main theoretical idea that emerges as a consequence of this reconceptualization is that the neural correlate of a perceptual episode is formed in the neural interaction between content-processing and consciousness-conferring mechanisms. The paper elaborates this distinction, marshals some initial arguments in its favour, and tests it against some of the most debated theories of consciousness. (shrink)

Two important questions arise concerning the properties that constitute the phenomenal characters of our experiences: first, where these properties exist, and, second, whether they are tied to our consciousness of them. Such properties can either exist externally to the perceiving subject, or internally to her. This article argues that phenomenal characters, and specifically the phenomenal characters of colours, may exist independently of consciousness and that they are internal to the subject. We defend this combination of claims against a recent criticism (...) according to which the unconscious phenomenal character of colours exists externally to the subject. We defend internalism about (potentially unconscious) phenomenal character by appealing to recent neuroscientific and behavioural evidence, and by rejecting the claim that externalism about phenomenal character is dialectically in a better position than internalism. In addition, we briefly present certain difficulties for externalist views of phenomenal character. These concern cases where the perceptual relation fails, but a perceptual experience still results. These points suffice to defuse the externalist critique of our view, and support the internalist variant of the consciousness-independence claim as the most plausible account of the unconscious phenomenal character of colours. (shrink)

Tato kritická studie se zabývá dvěma současnými knihami o epistemickém relativismu, Boghossianovou Fear of Knowledge a Halesovou Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy. První z těchto prací se přesvědčivě pokouší vyvrátit populární relativistické a konstruktivistické teze, zatímco ta druhá předkládá obhajobu specifické formy relativismu zaměřené na filosofické propozice.

The forceful impact of Michel Foucault’s work in the humanities and social sciences is apparent from the sheer abundance of its uses, appropriations, and refigurations. This article calls for greater self-conscious reflexivity about the relationship between our uses of Foucault and the opportunities afforded by his work. We argue for a clearer distinction between analytics and concepts in Foucault-inspired work. In so doing we draw on key moments of methodological self-reflection in Foucault’s Collège de France lectures and elsewhere. This distinction (...) helps identify different ways that Foucault might be put to productive use today as well as what can go wrong therein, a concern we develop with reference to Giorgio Agamben’s post-Foucaultian contributions to political theory. We are eager to open up a possibility that has been infrequently explored despite Foucault’s contemporary influence—-the idea that critique in and through Foucault is empirical critique. This idea can help facilitate a gain in reflexivity in the broader landscapes of contemporary theory, inquiry, and critique. (shrink)

Contract cheating is currently one of the most serious academic integrity issues around the globe. Numerous studies have been conducted, mostly in English speaking countries. So far, no such research has been conducted in Czechia, and consequently there have been no specific data available on Czech students’ fraudulent behaviour. For this study, we created a questionnaire to obtain primary data on student usage of essay mills and their self-reported exposure to contract cheating. The questionnaire focused on students and graduates of (...) Czech universities and collected a total of 1016. Of that number, 8% of respondents admit having engaged in contract cheating. The questionnaire responses yielded useful information and insight into students’ attitudes regarding contract cheating and the extent of this phenomenon in Czechia. We now know more about their reasons for contract cheating and have insight into their thoughts regarding possible discovery. (shrink)

El presente artículo propone un modelo de análisis para orientar el discernimiento y posicionamiento en torno al uso de la IA en educación superior. Analizaremos los cuatro posibles usos de la IA que más incidencia tendrán en esta si se considera el actual desarrollo de esta tecnología. Ellos son: la co-construcción de conocimiento, el uso de IA para tutoría o mentoreo, el auge de las plataformas adaptativas y la capacidad predictiva. Propondremos un ejercicio de análisis para cada uso apelando a (...) algunas de las dimensiones del modelo propuesto para orientar sobre su utilización. El resultado es fecundo, en tanto advierte sobre el riesgo de parcializar el análisis perdiendo de vista las implicancias y los compromisos más profundos que exige el discernimiento sobre el uso de la IA. (shrink)

Mediation is a process in which two parties agree to resolve their dispute by negotiating over alternative solutions presented by a mediator. In order to construct such solutions, the mediator brings more information and knowledge, and, if possible, resources to the negotiation table. In order to do so, the mediator faces the challenge of determining which information is relevant to the current problem, given a vast database of knowledge. The contribution of this paper is the automated mediation machinery to resolve (...) this issue. We define the concept of a Mediation Problem and show how it can be described in Game Description Language. Furthermore, we present an algorithm that allows the mediator to efficiently determine which information is relevant to the problem and collect this information from the negotiating agents. We show with several experiments that this algorithm is much more efficient than the naive solution that simply takes all available knowledge into account. (shrink)

In this article we investigate infinitary propositional logics from the perspective of their completeness properties in abstract algebraic logic. It is well-known that every finitary logic is complete with respect to its relatively subdirectly irreducible models. We identify two syntactical notions formulated in terms of intersection-prime theories that follow from finitarity and are sufficient conditions for the aforementioned completeness properties. We construct all the necessary counterexamples to show that all these properties define pairwise different classes of logics. Consequently, we obtain (...) a new hierarchy of logics going beyond the scope of finitarity. (shrink)

This article analyses 1,073 e-mails that were hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in November 2009. The incident was popularly dubbed 'Climategate', indicating that the e-mails reveal a scientific scandal. Here we analyse them differently. Rather than objecting to the exchanges based on some idea about proper scientific conduct, we see them as a rare glimpse into a situation where scientists collectively prepare for participation in heated controversy, with much focus on methodology. This allows (...) us to study how scientists communicate informally about framing propositions of facts in the best possible way. Through the eyes of science and technology studies, the e-mails provide an opportunity to study communication as part of science in the making across disciplines and laboratories. Analysed as 'written conversation' the e-mails provide information about processes of consensus formation through 'agonistic evaluations' of other scientists' work and persuasion of others to support one's own work. Also, the e-mails contain judgements about other groups and individual scientists. Consensus-forming appeared as a precarious activity. Controversies could be quite resilient in the course of this decade-long exchange, probably reflecting the complexity of the methodological challenges involved. (shrink)

[From an Evolutionary Point of View: The Concept of Evolution in Contemporary Philosophy].

Is it possible to look at schools as spaces for encounters? Could schools contribute to a deliberative mode of communication in a manner better suited to our own time and to areas where different cultures meet? Inspired primarily by classical (Dewey) and modern (Habermas) pragmatists, I turn to Seyla Benhabib, posing the question whether she supports the proposition that schools can be sites for deliberative communication. I argue that a school that engages in deliberative communication, with its stress on mutual (...) communication between different moral perspectives, gives universalism a procedurally oriented meaning, serving as an arena for encounters that represents a weak public sphere. An interactive universalism of this kind attaches importance to developing an ability and willingness to reason on the basis of the views of others and to change perspectives. In that respect, the institutional arrangements of schools are potential parts of the political dimension of cosmopolitanism, as well as its moral dimension, in terms of the obligations and responsibilities we develop through our institutions and in our actions as human beings towards one another. (shrink)

EI objetivo de este artículo es analizar ciertas críticas a la aplicación de la nocion de informacíon en biología, teniendo en cuenta tanto la historia del concepto como las diferentes posiciones actuales. Creemos que la motivacíon principal de las críticas es negar que los genes sean un factor causal excepcional en el desarrollo, y favorecer la imagen de la vida como un sistema organizado que requiere diferentes recursos. Aunque compartimos el rechazo deI reduccionismo genetico, argumentamos que éste no es atribuible (...) a la analogía informacional y que, por tanto, no es necesario abandonarla completamente.The goal of this article is to analize certain criticisms to the notion of information in biology, taking into account both the history of the concept and some recent positions. We think that the main motivation behind the criticisms is to deny that genes are an exceptional cause in development, and to favor an image of life as an organized system that requires diffirent resources. While we share the rejection of genetic reductionism, we argue that it is not entirely due to the informational analogy and that, therefore, it is not necessary to abandon this analogy. (shrink)

We provide a brief overview of the shift toward the intrinsic view of brain activity, describing in particular the structural and functional connectivity patterns of the “Default mode network”. We then consider the Default mode network in a specifically cognitive setting and ask what changes the focus on the Default mode network and other sorts of intrinsic activity require from models put forward by cognitive neuroscientists.

Se presenta una visión de la epistemología como lógica del pensar y se la lleva a una elaboración de la práctica clínica como una lógica del padecimiento psíquico. Esto basado en los planteamientos de Deleuze y Guattari. Para ello se toma como punto de partida la noción de los movimientos aberrantes que, leyendo la obra de Deleuze, elaboró David Lapoujade entendiéndolos como movimientos que se producen en la relación entre distintos términos heterogéneos, pero manteniendo su heterogeneidad. Esto es vinculado con (...) la invitación que hace el mismo Lapoujade a entender la obra deleuzeana como el desarrollo de lógicas irracionales, intentando pensar desde ahí una lógica de la locura y del padecimiento mental con base en, a su vez, una lógica de las obras literarias de Proust y Kafka, tal como las leen los mismos Deleuze y Guattari. En relación con ello destacamos, por un lado, cierta lógica de conjuntos abiertos y no totalizables que estos últimos autores encuentran en la obra de Proust y, por otro lado, una lógica de la contigüidad que encuentran en la obra de Kafka. Al mismo tiempo, se establecen puntos en común entre estas dos lecturas a propósito de lo esquizoide como algo que excede a la significación del discurso, así como a la normatividad de la conducta. Asimismo, en distintos puntos del escrito se extraerán las implicaciones que estos modos de pensar tienen para una práctica clínica en relación con modos de existencia subjetivos que se escapan a lo que está establecido en el campo social. De esa manera, ponemos en conjunción una aproximación epistemológica con una política. (shrink)

La igualdad de género es para la UNESCO una prioridad mundial estrechamente ligada a los esfuerzos de la Organización para promocionar el derecho a la educación de las niñas para que adquieran las mismas competencias en la educación y mediante ella.Existen, dependiendo del contexto (niveles de enseñanza e instrucción) y de la ubicación geográfica, grandes desigualdades de género en el acceso, el logro del aprendizaje y la continuación de la educación, resultando ser las niñas, en general, las más desfavorecidas. A (...) pesar de los logros alcanzados, existe un mayor número de niñas sin escolarizar que de niños - 16 millones de niñas nunca irá a la escuela (Instituto de Estadística de la UNESCO) - y las mujeres representan dos tercios de los 750 millones de adultos que carecen de conocimientos básicos de lectura y escritura. (shrink)

Desde hace décadas que tanto la ciencia política, como el enfoque de lo político desde lo filosófico, se debe o debe, resignificar el contrato social, redefinir el principio de igualdad, y acotar el significante extenso y polisémico de lo de democrático, para consignarle un valor diferente, sobre todo para aquellos que el estado los tiene para la obligación sin velar por sus derechos, para que en la jornada electoral, a estos invisibilizados se los empodere con el valor de cinco (5) (...) a cada uno de sus votos, dignificándolos para sacarlos del estado de víctimas que impone el prebendedarismo, la compra de votos o los bolsones de mercadería (una práctica muy extendida en Latinoamérica) que en definitiva carcome y deslegitima la democracia actual que se pretende, como finalidad restaurar el contrato social y reconstruir el principio de igualdad de acuerdo a categorías aún no transitadas. Creemos que de tal manera, a nivel teórico lo democrático estará acendrado en una representatividad taxativa y explícita, que será la de tener como prioridad el sujeto histórico de la condición (la del pobre para modificarla) a los efectos de abandonar el actual sujeto histórico, el individuo y su individualismo, que es contradictorio en su funcionalidad y definición. (shrink)

Partial commentaries of Gomez Davila’s epigraphs in Scholia to an Implicit Text have been put forward by several scholars. Nevertheless, none of them has yet attempted a systematic study of their meaning and their relation to the rest of the book or the literary sources to which they allude. This article is aimed to present such a systematic analysis, thus revealing two things: first, a number of essential premises of Gómez Dávila’s thought; second, the importance of intertextuality for a thorough (...) understanding of this work: the epigraphs need an hors du texte and the scholia to be interpreted, just as the scholia need the epigraphs and an “out of the text” to be deciphered. In other words, neither is autonomous: their meaning is to be found in intertextuality. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze Jürgen Habermas’s critique of liberal eugenics and why it should be stopped. For this purpose, the concept of liberal eugenics, its features and goals, postmetaphysics in Habermas’s philosophy, will be exposed, as well as the notions of Körper and Leib, which are three key elements that the philosopher presents to articulate his critique. Next, the importance of the naturalness of birth and reciprocal relations between individuals, and how they can be affected by genetic modifications, will (...) be explored to finally expose the measurements that Habermas proposes against the effects and consequences of genetic engineering. (shrink)

Transcending reviewed proximate theories, Van Lange et al.'s CLASH model attempts to ultimately explain the poleward declension of aggression and violence. Seasonal cold is causal, but, we contend, principally as an ecologically relevant evolutionary pressure. We further argue that futurity and restraint are life history variables, and that Life History Theory evolutionarily explains the biogeography of aggression and violence as strategic adaptation.

La discusión acerca de la capacidad de nuestra inteligencia de acceder al conocimiento de la realidad en sí es y sigue siendo una de las más antiguas y apasionantes de la filosofía. Piaget revolucionó la historia de la psicología y la pedagogía a partir de sus descubrimientos científicos relativos al modo en que el ser humano conoce. Sin embargo, por su misma inclinación filosófica, su constructivismo pedagógico quedó fuertemente arraigado en tradiciones filosóficas inmanentistas, a punto tal que la asociación entre (...) constructivismo pedagógico y antirrealismo constituye una suerte de lugar común y un cierto presupuesto dogmático. Lo cierto es que esta asociación no constituye la única alternativa posible y, hasta cierto punto, ni siquiera parece responder cabalmente a los principios o consecuencias últimas de los hallazgos del constructivismo de Piaget. Es posible justificar el constructivismo pedagógico desde posiciones realistas, siempre y cuando se revisen algunos supuestos que la modernidad ha instalado de manera no muy crítica en los círculos educativos y filosóficos. La revisión de la noción de representación, concebida según la tradición aristotélica y aggiornada por los aportes del constructivismo, permite abrir un camino de conciliación entre el constructivismo pedagógico y un tipo de realismo que sea, a la vez, robusto y plural. (shrink)

The Purpose in Life Test is a measure of purpose in life widely used in many cultures and countries; however, cross-cultural assessments are scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the PIL in the general population of seven Latin American countries. A total of 4306 people participated, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, where Uruguay has the highest mean age ; while Ecuador has the lowest mean age. Furthermore, in each country, there is a higher proportion (...) of women than men. Using Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the factorial structure does not show evidence of invariance among the included countries. However, based on the Multi-Group Factor Analysis Alignment, there is evidence that a three-dimensional structure of the PIL is the same in the participating countries. Results based on item response theory indicate that most PIL items can significantly differentiate responses according to the level of life purpose. In addition, people with low life purpose will tend to choose the lower response alternatives on the PIL; while people with higher life purpose will choose higher response alternatives. The findings indicate that the PIL has the potential to increase knowledge about how people conceive and experience their purpose in life in different countries. (shrink)

El presente texto acompaña la traducción de los apuntes de Walter Benjamin sobre la literatura de la Rusia Soviética hacia finales de la década de 1920. En este sentido, se intentará reponer el contexto de producción de estos apuntes con el fin de proponer una lectura que recorra aquellos rasgos de la incipiente cultura soviética que suscitaron estas impresiones en el pensador alemán.

This article examines the dominant agricultural model in Colombia of which the emergence of biofuels is an inevitable and major consequence. Some uncertainties and complexities of the introduction of biofuels and the use of genetically modified crops are analyzed, including a general reflection on the possibilities of producing biofuels on the basis of a model of ecological agriculture.