A period of exposure to trains of simultaneous but spatially offset auditory and visual stimuli can induce a temporary shift in the perception of sound location. This phenomenon, known as the 'ventriloquist aftereffect', reflects a realignment of auditory and visual spatial representations such that they approach perceptual alignment despite their physical spatial discordance. Such dynamic changes to sensory representations are likely to underlie the brain's ability to accommodate inter-sensory discordance produced by sensory errors (particularly in sound localization) and variability in (...) sensory transduction. It is currently unknown, however, whether these plastic changes induced by adaptation to spatially disparate inputs occurs automatically or whether they are dependent on selectively attending to the visual or auditory stimuli. Here, we demonstrate that robust auditory spatial aftereffects can be induced even in the presence of a competing visual stimulus. Importantly, we found that when attention is directed to the competing stimuli, the pattern of aftereffects is altered. These results indicate that attention can modulate the ventriloquist aftereffect. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. (shrink)

Social exclusion influences how expressions are perceived and the tendency of the perceiver to mimic them. However, less is known about social exclusion’s effect on one’s own facial expressions. The aim of the present study was to identify the effects of social exclusion on Duchenne smiling behaviour, defined as activity of both zygomaticus major and the orbicularis oculi muscles. Utilising a within-subject’s design, participants took part in the Cyberball Task in which they were both included and excluded while facial electromyography (...) was measured. We found that during the active experience of social exclusion, participants showed greater orbicularis oculi activation when compared to the social inclusion condition. Further, we found that across both conditions, participants showed greater zygomaticus major muscle activation the longer they engaged in the Cyberball Task. Order of condition also mattered, with those who experienced social exclusion before social inclusion showing the greatest overall muscle activation. These results are consistent with an affiliative function of smiling, particularly as social exclusion engaged activation of muscles associated with a Duchenne smile. (shrink)

The major social, legal and judicial sensitization on the need to eradicate genderbased violence demands a suitable and effective response from all Public Institutions to safeguard the rights of the women. The principal aim of this article is to highlight the legislative solution given to this problem in relation with immigrant women (third-country nationals). Spanish and EC lawmakers have set out rules relating to gender-based violence for three groups of women: a) Married women or registered partners of European Union, EEE, (...) Swiss or Spanish citizens; b) Women married to third-country nationals; c) Women who are in Spain, married or not, in an irregular situation. The legislation analyzed in this paper regulates only the administrative situation to which women can accede when they are the victims of gender-based violence. That is to say, what types of authorizations can be granted and what possible “benefits” can be obtained, but only in the documentary area. Neither the penal or civil response to gender-based violence is analyzed. (shrink)

RESUMEN El artículo responde algunas críticas planteadas por Ignacio Ávila a mi interpretación de la epistemología davidsoniana. Presento argumentos en contra de: a) que sea necesario distinguir entre representaciones epistemológicamente “peligrosas”e “inofensivas”; b) que el empirismo mínimo sea un tipo de realismo directo; c) que mi uso de la expresión “evidencia distal” y el interés por la teoría de la correspondencia sean asuntos ajenos a Davidson. Finalmente, sostengo que la triangulación es un elemento fundamental de la epistemología davidsoniana, pues permite (...) sortear la ansiedad realista manteniéndose en una postura no representacionalista. ABSTRACT In this article, I respond to some of Ignacio Ávila's criticisms of my interpretation of Davidson’s epistemology. I argue against: a) the need to distinguish between epistemologically “dangerous” and “harmless” representations; b) the idea that minimal empiricism is a kind of direct realism; and c) the claim that my usage of the expression “distal evidence” and interest in the theory of correspondence are issues that do not pertain to Davidson. Finally, I claim that triangulation is a key element in Davidsonian epistemology since it allows us to deal with the realist anxiety while maintaining a non-representationalist viewpoint. (shrink)

The dialogical principle, the organizational recursivity principle and the hologramatical principle, are the three principles can help us to think the complexity. The first one allows us to think how the duality can stay in the breast of the unit. The second lead us to the understanding of how the products and the effects are, at the same time, causes and products of what produces them. The third, and perhaps the most beautiful of three, refers that the part itself is (...) not only in the everything but rather the everything is also in the part. Three images can help us to clarify these principles: first, the process of mating of the hens produces hens, which produces the process of mating of the hens; second, the hens put eggs of where to come out more hens than put more eggs; third, a hen egg is a hen in potential. The configuration of a psychology of complexity is related with the application of this principles for the analysis of the social reality in several addresses: a) to win complexity in the explanatory and descriptive environments, opening diverse ways of thinking and novel investigation lines, accepting that the theories of the complexity have been related inevitably with the sciences of the behavior; b) to understand that the daily life can be studied from four optics that deserve recognition in the epistemological level of the social psychology: fuzzyness, catastrophic, fractal and chaotic; c) to recognize that reality demands scientific explanations complex and leave the simplicity; d) to renovate the psychology from their base and not from the obedience and the academic subjection. (shrink)

Francisco Suarez published, at Coimbra in 1612, five years before his death, what is undoubtedly one of the greatest contributions to scholastic moral and legal philosophy, his Tractatus de legibus et legislatore Deo. It was part of his commentary on the Prima-Secundae of St. Thomas’s Summa. The complementary study of justice, commenting upon the Secunda-Secundae, never appeared, not even in the posthumous volumes edited by Balthasar Alvarez from the notes and lectures of Suarez. The omission is all the more remarkable (...) when one recalls the innumerable treatises De iustitia et iure that began with Suarez’s own predecessors and contemporaries—Soto, Molina, Lessius and the rest. This omission is now in part repaired by the happy recovery of some Disputationes on justice from Suarez’s sojourn at the Collegium Romanum between 1580 and 1585. They probably belong to the year 1584. The manuscript, a reportatio of whose authenticity there can be no doubt, begins about two-thirds of the way through the second Disputatio and goes on to the end of the fourth. The lost first Disputatio was probably on the object of justice; the second, of which we are now given qq. 11-16, is on ownership; the third, comprising only two questions, is inscribed De actibus iustitiae in genere; and the fourth, of eight questions, De habitu iustitiae. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es aclarar la crítica que el psicoanalista Jacques Lacan dirige al concepto marxista de plus-valía tal y como es formulado en el Capital de Marx. Tras el concepto de una plus-valía contable Lacan quiere desvelar la necesidad de atender a la noción más fundamental de un plus-de-gozar [plus-de-jouir] incontable. Atenderemos para ello a diferentes pasajes de sus seminarios XVI (1968-69), XVII (1969-70) y de su texto Radiofonía (1970).

Los textos acerca del tiempo de Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) se organizan en torno a tres núcleos temáticos. En una primero época, en las Lecciones de fenomenología de la conciencia interna del tiempo (1904-1905), el hilo conductor es la pregunta acerca de cómo la percepción de un objeto que dura (tiempo objetivo) es constituida por una conciencia que vive en el tiempo inmanete y cómo esta es el resultado de un plano anterior -conciencia interna-. En un segundo momento, en los manuscritos (...) de Bernau (1917-1918) y en los textos sobre el carácter pasivo de los procesos de la conciencia (1921), Husserl profundiza en la relación entre conciencia, reflexión y temporalidad, y destaca la pasividad con la que se llevan a cabo las operaciones de constitución de la conciencia. Por último, en los manuscritos C (1929-1934) introducirá la noción de presente viviente como centro desde el que pensar toda la temporalidad. A la par que una investigación sobre el carácter eternamente enigmático del tiempo, los análisis de Jusserl revelan el ser fundamentalmente temporal de nuestra conciencia, en un ejercicio riguroso de pensamiento que lleva a la fenomenología hasta los límites de su potencial descriptivo. (shrink)

Se examinan las diversas modalidades de la nada como casos de pérdida del sentido y falta de consumación del conocimiento: la nada como noúmeno y su relación con el fenómeno, así como la conexión trascendental de ambos. Aunque la nada pone en jaque al concepto de sentido, este se encuentra supuesto antes de todo tipo de pregunta por el ser, y se constituye en el trasfondo de las condiciones trascendentales que posibilitan el conocimiento.

Se examinan las diversas modalidades de la nada como casos de pérdida del sentido y falta de consumación del conocimiento: la nada como noúmeno y su relación con el fenómeno, así como la conexión trascendental de ambos. Aunque la nada pone en jaque al concepto de sentido, este se encuentra supuesto antes de todo tipo de pregunta por el ser, y se constituye en el trasfondo de las condiciones trascendentales que posibilitan el conocimiento. Various modes of non-being are examined as (...) cases of loss of sense and as a lack of consummation of knowledge: non-being as noumena and its relationship with the phenomena, as well as the transcendental connection between them. Although non-being makes the concept of sense doubtful, it is presupposed before any kind of question regarding being and it is constituted in the background which belongs to the transcendental conditions which make knowledge possible. (shrink)

Resumen El artículo se estructura en torno a dos ejes: la concepción de la filosofía como una actividad extremadamente recursiva en su aplicación al saber científico, a la ética y a la pedagogía; la discusión en torno al realismo y al papel que le cabe a las representaciones en la explicación de la cognición. Se pone énfasis en mostrar la plausibilidad de los enfoques antirrepresentacionistas o constructivistas en las ciencias cognitivas, en la medida que estos enfoques pretenden superar las limitaciones (...) y prejuicios que son propios de los enfoques computacionalistas y conexionistas que le precedieron.This paper consists of two main topics: the conception of philosophy as an extremely recursive activity applied to scientific, ethics and educational knowledge; the discussion about realism and the role of the representations in the explanation of cognition. The validity of the anti-representationism or constructivist-based perspectives, is highlighted in Cognitive Sciences where these pretend to overcome the limitations and prejudices that belong to the previous computacionalism and connectionism perspectives. (shrink)

El psicoanalista francés Jacques Lacan piensa el objeto del deseo como un objeto que falta y que no puede ser representado. Por su parte, Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari rechazan en El Antiedipo cualquier concepción que relacione el deseo con la carencia y sostienen que el deseo es un proceso de producción de un objeto real presente. En su opinión el psicoanálisis lacaniano maldice al sujeto deseante condenándolo a una melancolía y a una insatisfacción perpetuas. El objetivo principal de este (...) artículo es rechazar esta crítica basándose en tres argumentos: una distinción entre la falta y la carencia, la consideración de la falta como no necesariamente negativa y la defensa de que un deseo limitado y parcialmente insatisfecho es más liberador que un deseo masivamente colmado. (shrink)

ResumenEste estudio ofrece una presentación del trabajo de investigación desarrollado en una tesis doctoral sobre el problema de la conciencia del tiempo en la fenomenología de Husserl defendida en la Universidad de Barcelona en abril del 2007. Tras justificar la importancia que el tema tiene para el pensamiento de Husserl son presentados los diferentes acercamientos a esta cuestión en cada una de las épocas de su pensamiento, distinguiendo fundamentalmente tres periodos: las lecciones sobre la conciencia interna del tiempo (1904/05), los (...) manuscritos de Bernau (1917/18) y los manuscritos C (1929/34).Palabras claveFenomenología, tiempo, conciencia, Husserl.AbstractThis paper offers a general overview of a research developed and defended as a PhD at the University of Barcelona in April 2007 concerning the problem of time- consciousness in Husserl’s phenomenology. After justifying the relevance of the subject to Husserl, we present the different approaches to the problem of time-consciousness in every period of his thinking, distinguishing mainly three phases: the lessons about inner time consciousness (1904/05), the Bernauer manuscripts (1917/18) and the C- manuscripts (1929/34).KeywordsPhenomenology, time, consciousness, Husserl. (shrink)

Ernesto Laclau’s theory of hegemony interprets in a peculiar way two central concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis: the signifier and the real. Laclau maintains that signifiers are per se tendentially empty and that there is some constituting impossibility in every social system, that is, some real in the Lacanian sense. This paper levels two criticisms at this interpretation. Firstly, Lacan never employs the concept “empty signifier”: His definition of the signifier as that which represents a subject—and his enjoyment—for another signifier contradicts (...) this emptiness. Secondly, in the place of the impossible, Lacan puts enjoyment. The main political consequence of these two considerations is that the theory of hegemony is mistaken when focusing on the rhetorical debate and forgets that individual political inclinations are based mainly on their enjoyment. (shrink)

Cuando ahora las formas de hacer historia materializan una multiplicidad de grafías, y el giro reflexivo y el giro historiográfico nos permiten idear las historias de las teorías de la historia en una posibilidad más, en este ensayo se presenta un deseo, una promesa cuya llave de acceso precisa saber lo que pretende la locución arqueoescritura. Esbozos y trazas de la teoría de la historia en cuestión: ¿qué cabe esperar en las escrituras diferidas de la arqueoescritura? Escrituras equívocas en clave (...) derridiana de la teoría de la historia como historiografía. Una posibilidad imposible aplazada. Escrituras para examinar la metafísica de la presencia en la historiografía, conscientes de que no podrán formular una teoría de la historia en la única firma derridiana, porque lo real se resiste a ser domado e incorporado al impar filosófico derridiano. (shrink)

Habermas's early work on action and practical rationality -- Practical rationality in Habermas's communicative paradigm -- Towards a thoroughly communicative conception of social action and its rationality.

El presente artículo busca proponer un acercamiento a la influencia del pensamiento de Thomas Hobbes y su obra en el pensamiento económico. En especial en las escuelas marxista, neoclásica y keynesiana. El influjo de su pensamiento puede evidenciarse en el abordaje metodológico, antropológico e institucional. Se ofrece una Mirada sobre la sociedad civil (comercial), el Mercado y el Estado al mismo tiempo. Hobbes ha sido la inspiración de un concepto de Estado monolítico en lo político, en este sentido, la mirada (...) de la economía bajo el concepto de un gran planificador centralizado, tiene importantes antecedentes en este autor. El ejercicio del control social del individuo como propuesta institucional, en varias escuelas de la economía comparten con Hobbes, varios antecedentes que merecen ser analizados. (shrink)

Endocrinologists apply the idea of feedback loops to explain how hormones regulate certain bodily functions such as glucose metabolism. In particular, feedback loops focus on the maintenance of the plasma concentrations of glucose within a narrow range. Here, we put forward a different, organicist perspective on the endocrine regulation of glycaemia, by relying on the pivotal concept of closure of constraints. From this perspective, biological systems are understood as organized ones, which means that they are constituted of a set of (...) mutually dependent functional structures acting as constraints, whose maintenance depends on their reciprocal interactions. Closure refers specifically to the mutual dependence among functional constraints in an organism. We show that, when compared to feedback loops, organizational closure can generate much richer descriptions of the processes and constraints at play in the metabolism and regulation of glycaemia, by making explicit the different hierarchical orders involved. We expect that the proposed theoretical framework will open the way to the construction of original mathematical models, which would provide a better understanding of endocrine regulation from an organicist perspective. (shrink)

Dice Polo que el ser humano es un espíritu en el tiempo, y ello se manifiesta también en el cuerpo. Por eso, las explicaciones que nos ofrece la biología evolucionista sobre nuestra realidad vital no son completas si no tienen en cuenta su dualidad con lo superior. En este trabajo pretendemos profundizar en la idea de que el hombre no se finaliza en la especie, sino que la trasciende; en esto consiste el concepto de continuatio naturae.

Resumen: El presente estudio intenta demostrar que mediante la novela Los sinsabores del verdadero policía, Roberto Bolaño construye una alegoría de las fisuras que se provocan en las tramas simbólicas de la geografía global mediante la figura de su protagonista Oscar Amalfitano. A partir de este personaje en constante tránsito por distintos territorios, el autor deja en evidencia la situación diaspórica de un sujeto que representa el conflicto de aquellos individuos que traspasan las fronteras establecidas en la lógica del mapa (...) trazado por Occidente, constituyendo así una transgresión de la propia configuración identitaria nacional. Desde este enfoque, se propone la figura de Amalfitano como el sujeto que deconstruye la idea eurocéntrica de la “rosa de los vientos” y permite apropiarse de esta misma noción para generar un juego casi “archimboldiano”: el origen de una “rosa ilimitada de los vientos”.: The present study attempts to show that through the novel Los sinsabores del verdadero policía, Roberto Bolaño constructs an allegory of the cracks that are caused in the symbolic frame of global geography through the figure of its protagonist, Oscar Amalfitano. From this character in constant transit through other territories, the author shows clearly the diasporic situation of a subject that represents the conflict of individuals who cross borders established in the logic of the map drawn by the West, thus constituting a violation of the configuration of national identity itself. In this approach, the figure of Amalfitano as the subject that deconstructs the Eurocentric idea of wind rose and allows the appropriation of this notion to generate an almost "archimboldiano" game: the origin of the the unlimited wind rose. (shrink)