This paper has a two-fold aim: to analyze the development of the digital transformation field, and to understand the impact of digital technologies on business model innovation through a structured review of the literature. The results of this research reveal that the field of digital transformation is still developing, with growing interest from researchers since 2014. Results show a need for research in developing countries and for more collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The review highlights that the field is fragmented (...) among disruptive technologies, shared platforms and ecosystems, and new enabling technologies. We conclude that digital transformation has impacted value creation, delivery, and capture in almost every industry. These impacts have led to the employment of a variety of new business models, such as those for frugal innovation and the circular economy. (shrink)

This paper builds on previous literature on corporate governance and sustainability by studying the relation between the adoption of multiple voting shares (MVS) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. More specifically, it hypothesises that controlled companies with MVS have lower sustainability performance than controlled companies without MVS because of different shareholders incentives. We rely on a proprietary dataset that includes 1,940 firm-year observations from 11 European countries, between 2016 and 2018 and we conduct multivariate analyses. To account for endogeneity (...) and to further strengthen the results, we performed a difference-in-differences (diff-in-diff) analysis. We find that companies controlled by a dominant shareholder through MVS have lower sustainability performance compared to controlled companies without MVS. (shrink)

En este artículo analizamos y comparamos tres marcos de interpretación filosófica muy distintos del Barroco español: el de Frederick D. Wilhelmsen, que desde las filas del tradicionalismo católico considera el Barroco como la «civilización de la Contrarreforma» y la manifestación más pura de la idiosincrasia hispánica, única barrera de contención de las ideas secularizadoras del Renacimiento y la Reforma protestante; el de José Luis Abellán, que desde una visión progresista de la historia interpreta el Barroco español como un periodo sintomático (...) de decadencia, regresión social, antihumanismo y misoneísmo, frente a las corrientes modernizadoras que por entonces recorrían toda Europa, y el de Fernando Rodríguez de la Flor, que desde presupuestos freudianos se adentra en la producción simbólica y el imaginario del Barroco español para desvelar la psicología oculta del sujeto barroco, atravesado por el escepticismo y la energía nihilista. (shrink)

Este repertorio registra los artículos sobre Platón que se encuentran en la Hemeroteca de la Biblioteca Central de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. El listado abarca las publicaciones existentes hasta el primer semestre del año 2000.

El artículo pretende analizar la metodología de los programas de investigación de Imre Lakatos a la luz de la ciencia contemporánea. Tomando como base las encuestas realizadas a un grupo de físicos del CERN, se constata que las sugerencias de Lakatos sobre el progreso en la ciencia, esto es, sobre cómo determinar el carácter progresivo o no de un programa de investigación, entran en colisión con la práctica cientí? ca. La conclusión es que el modelo lakatosiano no es un (...) class='Hi'>marco adecuado para entender qué factores informan de facto el juicio de los investigadores sobre la progresividad de un programa de investigación. (shrink)

During the turn of the 20th century medical geography in Peru concentrated in the study of a native disease (bartonellosis, also known as Carrión's disease and Verruga Peruana) and reinforced the relationship between the country's 'natural' regions (coast, highlands and Amazon) and different patterns of disease. Expert knowledge on these themes was portrayed as important not only for the practice of medicine but also for the development of the country. This knowledge was instrumental for an emergent local medical tradition and (...) for legitimizing the authority, power and prestige of Lima's medical elite. The city was the capital of a country whose population was mainly Indian and rural, and lived in the highlands. This article studies the development of medical geography in Peru emphasizing the role played by Ernesto Odriozola, an influential clinician from Lima trained in Paris. (shrink)

Este artículo sintetiza algunos aspectos del proyecto “Hierro y bronce. Criterios para la valoración y conservación de la herrería artística en el patrimonio arquitectónico del Uruguay”[i], cuyo objetivo es establecer los atributos patrimoniales de los elementos ornamentales metálicos asociados a fachadas del patrimonio arquitectónico nacional y contribuir a su difusión, puesta en valor y conservación. A lo largo de la investigación se abordan los aspectos socioculturales, artísticos, formales, técnicos y, por último, los relativos al deterioro de estos elementos y las (...) pautas para su preservación y restauración. La metodología se basa en el estudio de fuentes primarias, éditas e inéditas, en la revisión de bibliografía especializada y en el trabajo de campo sobre una muestra representativa de elementos ornamentales metálicos aplicados a las fachadas de la arquitectura montevideana. Fue relevado un total de 250 edificios, correspondientes a los distintos períodos que distinguimos en la evolución de la herrería local entre finales del siglo XVIII y mediados del siglo XX. Se trata de un aporte inicial que profundiza en un campo escasamente abordado en nuestro medio acerca del conocimiento y difusión de los trabajos de herrería en el marco del patrimonio arquitectónico y artístico uruguayo, proporcionando información útil a la academia, las instituciones vinculadas a la valoración y conservación patrimonial y el público general. Notas [i] Proyecto concursado y financiado en la modalidad Investigación y Desarrollo (I+D), Comisión Sectorial de Investigación científica (CSIC), Universidad de la República, a realizarse entre marzo de 2018 y marzo de 2020, por un equipo interdisciplinario integrado por docentes e investigadores de las facultades de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo: Miriam Hojman, Valentina Marchese y Tatiana Rimbaud (Instituto de Historia), Gianella Mussio, Leticia Olivera, Carola Romay y Verónica Ulfe (Instituto de Tecnologías); de la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación: Ernesto Beretta (Instituto de Ciencias Históricas-Historia del Arte); y de la Facultad de Ingeniería: Sofía Aguiar (Instituto de Ensayo de Materiales). El presente artículo fue elaborado por todos los integrantes del equipo. (shrink)

Los pueblos originarios que habitaban —y habitan— el territorio actualmente ocupado por el Estado argentino han sido objeto de una serie de procesos simultáneos de desposesión, discriminación y pauperización. No obstante, con el paso de las décadas y en el marco de la lucha que los primeros llevaran a cabo, el gobierno ha adecuado parte de su legislación a los requerimientos internacionales en relación con el respeto debido hacia los derechos de todos los pueblos. En ese marco, la (...) ciudad rionegrina de San Carlos de Bariloche —principal núcleo urbano del territorio provincial— fue declarada formalmente como Municipio intercultural en 2015. Sin embargo, a pesar del pronunciamiento oficial y del compromiso exigible a los dirigentes locales, algunas situaciones dan cuenta de una aplicación superflua y acotada de la normativa, así como, también, de la pervivencia de una historiografía conservadora que incide con efectos reaccionarios en el accionar de los funcionarios. Puntualmente, en base al análisis de circunstancias específicas bajo el marco intercultural de la legislación local vigente, el presente artículo se propone precisar falencias en el accionar del Municipio para dar cuenta de una postura vaga respecto del acompañamiento y salvaguarda de las comunidades mapuche. De esta manera, sin pretender que lo intercultural se agota en la relación pueblos originarios/Estado, el objetivo es encender una luz de alerta que motive un accionar superador por parte de quienes ejercen —y ejerzan— la función pública en la ciudad, bajo la convicción de que es necesario reivindicar los derechos del pueblo mapuche a su propia historia, territorio e identidad, todos ellos derechos humanos garantizados por la legislación internacional para todos los habitantes del planeta. (shrink)

Introducción -- Capítulo I Antecedentes y contexto -- Capítulo II Concepto de democracia y república -- Capítulo III Concepto de providencia y progreso -- Capítulo IV Relación e interacción de los conceptos.

Diferentes estudios sostienen que el perfil del profesional de relaciones públicas varía según los países y regiones; entre otras razones, por el desarrollo académico y las dinámicas del mercado profesional. Esta investigación analiza comparativamente, a nivel teórico (definición de competencias y marcos regulatorios) y empírico (programas académicos y tendencias) la principal oferta académica de grado en los casos de Ecuador y España, a partir de las siguientes dimensiones: desarrollo de competencias, áreas de desempeño y perfiles de egreso. El perfil profesional (...) de relaciones públicas está demandando nuevas competencias y habilidades que en muchos casos trasciende el quehacer tradicional del área. (shrink)

Diferentes estudios sostienen que el perfil del profesional de relaciones públicas varía según los países y regiones; entre otras razones, por el desarrollo académico y las dinámicas del mercado profesional. Esta investigación analiza comparativamente, a nivel teórico (definición de competencias y marcos regulatorios) y empírico (programas académicos y tendencias) la principal oferta académica de grado en los casos de Ecuador y España, a partir de las siguientes dimensiones: desarrollo de competencias, áreas de desempeño y perfiles de egreso. El perfil profesional (...) de relaciones públicas está demandando nuevas competencias y habilidades que en muchos casos trasciende el quehacer tradicional del área. (shrink)

El trabajo cuestiona críticamente cierta visión extrema y unilateral apreciable en Adorno y Horkheimer al juzgar la relación de la industria cultural con la música. Es cierto que hoy prácticamente toda actividad humana se encuentra condiciona¬da por el mercado y que la música no es una excepción. Ella también es portadora de valor de cambio que tiende a ser dominante en los marcos de la industrial cultural. Pero es plausible que dentro de las industrias culturales mismas se empezara a hacer (...) una distinción entre los bienes culturales producidos por razones meramente comerciales y aquellos producidos por razones más artísticas. Un público demandante de obras de valor artístico, aun cuando pueda ser minoritario y estar inmerso también él en el mercado, condiciona de cierta manera la propia producción cultural, o, al menos, un segmento de ella. Esta posibilidad real no era muy reconocida por los autores de la “La industria cultural”. Según su lógica, como nada puede sustraerse a la industria cultural y como ésta compulsa a la prevalencia del valor de cambio o comercial y a la casi supresión de cualquier otro valor, entonces el arte, el verdadero arte, terminaría por desaparecer, sucumbiendo ante una lógica no interesada en su conservación o crecimiento, sino sólo en la maximización de ganancias a toda costa. Los hechos han contradicho esta conclusión. La relación de la música con la industria cultural, igual que las monedas, tiene dos caras. No basta con reconocer sólo la parte negativa, la que busca alienar las obras con tal de convertirlas en sólo mercancías. Es imprescindible tomar en cuenta también la posibilidad más que comprobable de que piezas con excelente factura estética surjan también en los marcos de esta industria. El asunto radicaría en develar las condiciones que lo posibilitan. El mercado, si bien puede favorecer la generación de productos pseudoculturales de escaso o nulo valor artístico, también se constituye en la única vía, dentro de la sociedad de consumo, por medio de la cual lo genuinamente valioso se convierte en patrimonio común. (shrink)

César Ernesto Arenas Ulloa nació el 15 de septiembre de 1988 en Chiclayo (Lambayeque, Perú). Realizó estudios literarios en la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, hasta obtener el grado de licenciado. En el 2012, obtuvo un reconocimiento académico por ocupar el primer puesto a nivel de toda la escuela de Literatura. En el 2018, presentó su tesis titulada Autonomía y especificidad de la obra dramática: una lectura semiológica de El sistema Solar de Mariana de Althaus. Asimismo, tiene intereses (...) en el teatro peruano, el psicoanálisis y la escritura. Ha sido docente de Lenguaje en diversas universidades privadas de Lima. Ha publicado en revistas indexadas, así como ha participado en congresos y proyectos financiados. Actualmente, vive y estudia en Italia. (shrink)

Este artículo investiga los vínculos entre el sujeto y la estructura en el transcurso de la teoría política de Ernesto Laclau, integrando sus aspectos teóricos, onto-epistemológicos y axiológico-normativos. A través de la sistematización de sus principales trabajos escritos durante el período 1977-2014, se indaga en sus contribuciones al debate Agente-Estructura y se propone una periodización compleja de su obra. Mediante una articulación pragmática de conceptos del (pos)estructuralismo, el psicoanálisis, la deconstrucción, la fenomenología, el marxismo y la filosofía posanalítica, a (...) partir de su ruptura onto-epistemológica con el esencialismo de los años 80 Laclau construyó una innovadora teoría discursiva del sujeto, superadora tanto del subjetivismo como del objetivismo, y convergente con una estrategia socialista y radicalmente democrática. La razón populista aportó nuevas herramientas que destacaron la capacidad del agente de articular (parcialmente) lo social. Sin embargo, este trabajo marcó un quiebre en su obra, que dejó de lado el análisis retroductivo de las transformaciones históricas más recientes en la estructura social y en las identidades y su conexión con la creciente fragmentación y proliferación de las luchas sociales. Al mismo tiempo, relegó la centralidad de la categoría de articulación para amalgamar la pluralidad de luchas sociales en el capitalismo complejo actual, para priorizar la construcción (tendencial) de un antagonismo binario y una lógica de simplificación y reducción conceptual del espacio social. Desde el plano axiológico, la teoría formal del populismo Laclau abandonó la iniciativa socialista y el desarrollo de los contenidos ético-políticos críticos, inherentes a la teoría posgramsciana de la hegemonía. Se concluye que ―más allá de estas inconsistencias― la teoría posfundacional del sujeto de Laclau realizó aportes innovadores, relevantes y valiosos que contribuyen a superar la falsa disyunción sujeto-estructura, a complejizar el análisis político y social, y a fortalecer la lucha hegemónica, desde una perspectiva antiesencialista. (shrink)

El trabajo analiza el vínculo entre afectos y manipulación tal como ha sido concebido por uno de los abordajes canónicos sobre el fenómeno peronista –el de Gino Germani– y por la teoría del populismo de Ernesto Laclau. En ese marco, se ofrece una serie de precisiones conceptuales que sitúan distintos aspectos de los debates suscitados por ambas obras e interrogan el estatuto conceptual de la afectividad en los procesos de subjetivación. Asimismo, se repasan ciertas premisas del pensamiento de (...) Jacques Lacan al revisar críticamente no solo aquellas perspectivas que explican al populismo como lo otro de la democracia debido a la supuesta dimensión manipuladora del líder, sino también a las propias reflexiones de Laclau, cuya ponderación de los afectos como vía de explicación de las identidades colectivas parece implicar la disolución de la singularidad de los sujetos, reabriendo así la conexión entre autoritarismo y populismo. (shrink)

This paper presents two studies on the development and validation of a ten-item scale of epistemic vice and the relationship between epistemic vice and misinformation and fake news. Epistemic vices have been defined as character traits that interfere with acquiring, maintaining, and transmitting knowledge. Examples of epistemic vice are gullibility and indifference to knowledge. It has been hypothesized that epistemically vicious people are especially susceptible to misinformation and conspiracy theories. We conducted one exploratory and one confirmatory observational survey study on (...) Amazon Mechanical Turk among people living in the United States. We show that two psychological traits underlie the range of epistemic vices that we investigated: indifference to truth and rigidity. Indifference manifests itself in a lack of motivation to find the truth. Rigidity manifests itself in being insensitive to evidence. We develop a scale to measure epistemic vice with the subscales indifference and rigidity. The Epistemic Vice Scale is internally consistent; has good convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity; and is strongly associated with the endorsement of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Epistemic vice explains additional variance in the endorsement of misinformation and conspiracy theories over and above demographic and related psychological concepts and shows medium to large effect sizes across outcome measures. We demonstrate that epistemic vice differs from existing psychological constructs, and show that the scale can explain individual differences in dealing with misinformation and conspiracy theories. We conclude that epistemic vice might contribute to “postfactive” ways of thinking. (shrink)

During his celebrated 1922 debate with Bergson, Einstein famously proclaimed: “the time of the philosopher does not exist, there remains only a psychological time that differs from the physicist’s.” Einstein’s dictum, I maintain, has been metabolized by the natural sciences, which typically presuppose, more or less explicitly, the existence of a single, univocal, temporal substratum, ultimately determined by physics. This reductionistic assumption pervades much biological and biomedical practice. The chronological age allotted to individuals is conceived as an objective quantity, allowing (...) one to straightforwardly assign and compare the biological age of organisms. This essay argues that the standard practice of assessing the age and aging of organisms against the backdrop of a physical conception of time is problematic. This becomes especially evident in light of recent discoveries of various levels of senescence underlying the development of individual organisms—a phenomenon known as ‘age mosaicism.’ The bottom line is that the study of age and aging requires a biological conception of time, as opposed to a physical one. Einstein clearly wasn’t wrong about his operationalization of time in relativity theory. Still time may be less monolithic than he surmised. (shrink)

El trabajo analiza el estatuto de los afectos en los procesos de subjetivación política atendiendo al debate sobre el populismo y sobre la obra de Ernesto Laclau. Para ello apela a la teoría de la guerra moderna de Nicolás Maquiavelo y de Carl von Clausewitz abonando, a su vez, una comprensión más acabada sobre el rol de los afectos en la gestación de un grupo o unidad política. Sin embargo, en el artículo se analiza por qué la teoría de (...) la guerra debe ser inscripta en una reflexión política de más largo alcance que se pregunte, a su vez, por la organización afectiva y sus niveles de heterogeneidad inerradicables. En ese marco, es que se apela a la teoría psicoanalítica de raigambre lacaniana. (shrink)

A view that emancipates free will by means of quantum indeterminism is frequently rejected based on arguments pointing out its incompatibility with what we know about quantum physics. However, if one carefully examines what classical physical causal determinism and quantum indeterminism are according to physics, it becomes clear what they really imply–and, especially, what they do not imply–for agent-causation theories. Here, we will make necessary conceptual clarifications on some aspects of physical determinism and indeterminism, review some of the major objections (...) against libertarian conjectures, and show that there is no conceptual incompatibility preventing us from taking a ‘quantum-libertarian’ approach to the problem of free will. In particular, we will illustrate the possible role of self-causation (causa sui) as a potential solution to otherwise apparently incompatible or even paradoxical statements concerning free will and quantum indeterminism. (shrink)

Pretendemos abordar pedagogo português Faria de Vasconcelos (1880-1939) no contexto da Escola Nova, norteando-nos por uma pesquisa de metodologia hermenêutica na análise aos seus pressupostos pedagógicos sobre os problemas escolares e, principalmente a sua preocupação pela adolescência e jovens delinquentes, infratores e/ou indisciplinados. Recorremos conceptualmente aos seus textos (fontes primárias) e à sua obra compilada por Ferreira Marques, a fontes secundárias sobre Escola Nova e História da Educação em Portugal da época. O método hermenêutico permitiu-nos compreender os escritos daquele pedagogista, (...) na frágua da temática, quer pelo questionamento, quer pelo alicerçar dessa compreensão sobre (análise) o conteúdo a interpretar. Ou seja, a hermenêutica sendo a palavra, em que a correspondente interpretação vem sempre do texto, converteu-se em mediadora desse processo interpretativo. Os objetivos foram os seguintes: analisar os contributos de Vasconcelos ao estudo científico da criança/infância, em especial no seu desenvolvimento físico e mental, sob a influência da Escola Nova; compreender a sua análise à adolescência e delinquência juvenil, na relação que estabeleceu entre a inteligência (percentagens de deficiências mentais) e tipos de delitos/crimes cometidos. Pretendemos resgatar este pedagogo para a História da Educação em Portugal, divulgando os seus contributos em prole do estudo da criança, da adolescência e jovem delinquente. Palavras-chave: Faria de Vasconcelos; Adolescência; Jovem delinquente; Inteligência; Ideais Escola Nova. The analysis of adolescence and young offenders by the pedagogist Portuguese Faria de Vasconcelos: relationship between intelligence and types of offenders Abstract: Intending to approach pedagogue Portuguese Farai de Vasconcelos (1880-1939) in the context of the New School, we were based on our research for a hermeneutic methodology in the analysis of its pedagogical assumptions, especially about school problems and, especially, its concern for adolescence and young offenders or undisciplined. We use conceptually his texts (primary sources) and his work compiled by Ferreira Marques, to second sources on New School and History of Education in Portugal at the time. The hermeneutic method allowed us to understand the writings about this pedagogist, in the depth of the theme, either by questioning or by the support of understanding about (analysis) the content to be interpreted. That is, hermeneutics being the word, in which the corresponding interpretation always comes from the text, has become a mediator of this interpretative process. The objectives were: to analyse Vasconcelos contributions to the scientific study of children/childhood, especially in physical and mental development, understand their analysis of adolescence and juvenile offenders, in the relationship he established between intelligence (percentages of mental disabilities) and types of crimes/crimes committed. We intend to rescue the thought and work of this pedagogue for the History of Education, disseminating his contributions in favour of the study of children, adolescents, and young offenders. Key-words: Faria de Vasconcelos; Adolescence; Young offender; Intelligence; New School ideas. El análisis de la adolescencia y a los delincuentes juveniles por el pedagogo portugués Faria de Vasconcelos: relación entre la inteligencia y los tipos de delitos Resumen: Pretendemos acercarnos al pensamiento del pedagogo portugués Faria de Vasconcelos (1880-1939) en el contexto de la Escuela Nueva, guiándonos por una investigación de metodología hermenéutica en el análisis a sus supuestos pedagógicos, especialmente sobre los problemas escolares y, especialmente su abordaje a la adolescencia y jóvenes delincuentes y/o indisciplinados. Utilizamos conceptualmente sus textos (fuentes primarias) y el trabajo compilado por Ferreira Marques, además de fuentes secundarias sobre el periodo de la Escuela Nueva e Historia de la Educación en Portugal en la época. El método hermenéutico nos permitió comprender los escritos, en la profundidad del tema, ya sea cuestionando o por el apoyo a la comprensión sobre (análisis) el contenido a interpretar. Es decir, siendo la hermenéutica la palabra, en la que la interpretación correspondiente proviene del texto, se ha convertido en mediadora de este proceso interpretativo. Los objetivos fueron: analizar los aportes de Vasconcelos al estudio científico de los niños, especialmente en el desarrollo físico y mental, bajo la influencia de la Escuela Nueva; comprender su análisis a la adolescencia y los delincuentes juveniles, en la relación de la inteligencia (porcentajes de discapacidad mental) con los tipos de delitos/delitos cometidos. Pretendemos rescatar a este pedagogo para la Historia de la Educación en Portugal, difundiendo sus aportaciones a favor del estudio de los niños, adolescentes y jóvenes infractores. Palabras-Clave: Faria de Vasconcelos; Adolescencia; Joven delincuente; Inteligencia; Ideales de la Escuela Nueva. Data de registro: 10/06/2022 Data de aceite: 17/08/2022. (shrink)

Bricks and boxes -- Between Scylla and Charybdis -- Lessons from the history of science -- Placeholders -- Black-boxing 101 -- History of science 'black-boxing style' -- Diet mechanistic philosophy -- Emergence reframed -- The fuel of scientific progress -- Sailing through the strait.

Embodiment and embeddedness define an attractive framework to the study of cognition. I discuss whether theory of mind, i.e. the ability to attribute mental states to others to predict and explain their behaviour, fits these two principles. In agreement with available evidence, embodied cognitive processes may underlie the earliest manifestations of social cognitive abilities such as infants’ selective behaviour in spontaneous-response false belief tasks. Instead, late theory-of-mind abilities, such as the capacity to pass the (elicited-response) false belief test at age (...) four, depend on children’s ability to explain people’s reasons to act in conversation with adults. Accordingly, rather than embodied, late theory-of-mind abilities are embedded in an external linguistic practice. (shrink)

According to Dr. Clare Graves, mankind has developed eight core value systems, as responses to prevailing circumstances. Given different contexts and value systems, a one-solution-fits-all concept of corporate sustainability is not reasonable. Therefore, this paper presents various definitions and forms of sustainability, each linked to specific (societal) circumstances and related value systems. A sustainability matrix - and essential element of the overall European Corporate Sustainability Framework - is described showing six types of organizations at different developmental stages, with different forms (...) of corporate sustainability, each supported by specific institutional arrangements. (shrink)

This essay is concerned with concentrations of entities, which play an important—albeit often overlooked—role in scientific explanation. First, I discuss an example from molecular biology to show that concentrations can play an irreducible causal role. Second, I provide a preliminary philosophical analysis of this causal role, suggesting some implications for extant theories of causation. I conclude by introducing the concept of causation by concentration, a form of statistical causation whose widespread presence throughout the sciences has been unduly neglected and which (...) deserves to be studied in more depth. 1 Introduction2 Solving Lillie's Paradox: Lysogenic Induction in Phage λ3 Repressor Concentration and the Tuning of the Switch4 Concentration and Causality5 Preemption in Concentrations: Analysis and Implications6 Causation by Concentration: General Definition, Refinements, and Further Applications. (shrink)

The ‘species problem’ can be characterized, to a first approximation, as the task of providing a viable species concept —that is, a functional analysis that picks out the ‘right’ kind of biological entities. After decades of debate and centuries of taxonomic practice, no overarching consensus has been reached. The individuation and definition of the units of evolution and classification, species included, remains controversial. If anything, there now seems to be more disagreement than ever before.

This essay examines the relation between causation and causal explanation. It distinguishes two prominent roles that causes play within the sciences. On the one hand, causes may work as metaphysical posits. From this standpoint, mainstream in contemporary philosophy, causation provides the ‘raw material’ for explanation. On the other hand, causes may be conceived as explanatory postulates, theoretical hypotheses lacking any substantial ontological commitment. This unduly neglected distinction provides the conceptual resources to revisit longstanding philosophical issues, such as overdetermination and causal (...) pluralism. It also inspires a provocative reframing of Russell’s famous, if notoriously elusive, remarks on the nature of causation. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se valora la impronta de la perspectiva deconstructiva del mal en/de/por la soberanía, en la obra de Jaques Derrida, para una crítica anti-idolátrica de la democracia. Parte del estudio crítico de dos tradiciones de fundamentación contemporánea de la democracia representativa. El examen de la propuesta de democracia deliberativa de Habermas y de la concepción de radicalización de la democracia de Ernesto Laclau, las cuales permiten evidenciar la reproducción del proceso de formalización de la democracia. Ambas (...) critican al paradigma del conflicto material de clases de origen marxista y responden con una comprensión comunicativa que parte de la centralidad del lenguaje y el discurso como práctica subjetiva consensual. A partir de la reducción del proceso subjetivo a la anterioridad preminente del discurso, la democracia deja de comprender las condiciones materiales de reproducción del sujeto corporal. Marco ante el cual valoramos el papel de la crítica al malestar de la soberanía presente en la obra de Jaques Derrida. El pensamiento derridiano en torno al Malestar de Soberanía critica la reducción de la diferencia desde una constelación categorial y metódica que implica el reconocimiento del conflicto irreductible que representa la emergencia contingencial del otro. La espectralidad como intuición comprensiva permite la afirmación de la responsabilidad ética, como base de toda posición gnoseológica, que pretenda dar condición de posibilidad a un discurso verdadero. Posición que resguarda la posibilidad transformadora del ejercicio de la soberanía a partir de develar sus procesos de represión subjetiva. Esta constelación categorial es sustantiva a una crítica de la reducción de la democracia en tanto ejercicio soberano. (shrink)

Vice epistemology studies the qualities of individuals and collectives that undermine the creation, sharing, and storing of knowledge. There is no settled understanding of which epistemic vices exist at the collective level. Yet understanding which collective epistemic vices exist is important, both to facilitate research on the antecedents and effects of collective epistemic vice, and to advance philosophical discussions such as whether some collective epistemic vices are genuinely collective. I propose an empirical approach to identifying epistemic vices in corporations, analyzing (...) a large dataset of online employee reviews. The approach has parallels to the methodology for identifying the big-five personality traits. It surfaces epistemic vices that are attributed to corporations by its own members and reduces the number of vices to the minimum required to describe differences between corporations. This approach yields a new taxonomy of epistemic vices for corporations. While two vices identified have close correlates in the existing literature, four others have not been identified at all or only in aspects. Two of these vices are ‘genuinely’ collective in the sense that they can only be attributed to collectives. (shrink)

My main purpose here is to provide an account of context selection in utterance understanding in terms of the role played by schemata and goals in top-down processing. The general idea is that information is organized hierarchically, with items iteratively organized in chunks—here called “schemata”—at multiple levels, so that the activation of any items spreads to schemata that are the most accessible due to previous experience. The activation of a schema, in turn, activates its other components, so as to predict (...) a likely context for the original item. Since each input activates its own schemata, conflicting schemata compete with (and inhibit) each other, while multiple activations of a schema raise its likelihood to win the competition. There is therefore a double movement—with bottom-up activation of schemata enabling top-down prediction of other contextual components—triggered by multiple sources. Another claim of the paper is that goals are represented by schemata placed at the highest-levels of the executive hierarchy, in accordance with Fuster’s model of the brain as a hierarchically organized perception action cycle. This account can be considered, in part at least, a development of ideas contained in Relevance Theory, though it may imply that some other claims of the theory are in need of revision. Therefore, a secondary purpose of the paper is a contribution to the analysis of that theory. (shrink)

We compare a number of influential approaches to human communication with the aim of understanding what it means for interpersonal communication to be a form of social action. In particular, we discuss the large-scale social normativity advocated by speech act theory, the view of communication as small-scale social interaction proper of Gricean approaches, and the intimate connection between communication and cooperation defended by Tomasello. We then argue in favor of a small-scale view of communication capable of accounting for the normative (...) effects of communicative acts; to this purpose, we introduce the concept of interpersonal normativity and analyze its relationship with communicative intentions. (shrink)

While philosophers tend to consider a single type of causal history, biologists distinguish between two kinds of causal history: evolutionary history and developmental history. This essay studies the peculiarity of development as a criterion for the individuation of biological traits and its relation to form, function, and evolution. By focusing on examples involving serial homologies and genetic reprogramming, we argue that morphology (form) and function, even when supplemented with evolutionary history, are sometimes insufficient to individuate traits. Developmental mechanisms bring in (...) a novel aspect to the business of classification—identity of process-type—according to which entities are type-identical across individuals and natural kinds in virtue of the fact that they form and develop through similar processes. These considerations bear important metaphysical implications and have potential applications in several areas of philosophy. (shrink)

Recent advancements in the brain sciences have enabled researchers to determine, with increasing accuracy, patterns and locations of neural activation associated with various psychological functions. These techniques have revived a longstanding debate regarding the relation between the mind and the brain: while many authors claim that neuroscientific data can be employed to advance theories of higher cognition, others defend the so-called ‘autonomy’ of psychology. Settling this significant issue requires understanding the nature of the bridge laws used at the psycho-neural interface. (...) While these laws have been the topic of extensive discussion, such debates have mostly focused on a particular type of link: reductive laws. Reductive laws are problematic: they face notorious philosophical objections and they are too scarce to substantiate current research at the intersection of psychology and neuroscience. The aim of this article is to provide a systematic analysis of a different kind of bridge laws—associative laws—which play a central, albeit overlooked role in scientific practice. (shrink)

La ricerca empirica nelle scienze cognitive può essere di supporto all’indagine filosofica sullo statuto ontologico e epistemologico dei concetti mentali, ed in particolare del concetto di credenza. Da oltre trent’anni gli psicologi utilizzano il test della falsa credenza per valutare la capacità dei bambini di attribuire stati mentali a se stessi e a agli altri. Tuttavia non è stato ancora pienamente compreso né quali requisiti cognitivi siano necessari per passare il test né quale sia il loro sviluppo. In questo articolo (...) analizzo l’impatto della funzione esecutiva e delle abilità linguistiche per la capacità di passare il test della falsa credenza. Suggerisco che tale abilità dipende dall’acquisizione di un nuovo formato rappresentazionale per codificare la falsità degli stati mentali altrui. I dati in nostro possesso non permettono tuttavia di precisare la natura di tale formato. (shrink)

The standard view of classical cognitive science stated that cognition consists in the manipulation of language-like structures according to formal rules. Since cognition is ‘linguistic’ in itself, according to this view language is just a complex communication system and does not influence cognitive processes in any substantial way. This view has been criticized from several perspectives and a new framework (Embodied Cognition) has emerged that considers cognitive processes as non-symbolic and heavily dependent on the dynamical interactions between the cognitive system (...) and its environment. But notwithstanding the successes of the embodied cognitive science in explaining low-level cognitive behaviors, it is still not clear whether and how it can scale up for explaining high-level cognition. In this paper we argue that this can be done by considering the role of language as a cognitive tool: i.e. how language transforms basic cognitive functions in the high-level functions that are characteristic of human cognition. In order to do that, we review some computational models that substantiate this view with respect to categorization and memory. Since these models are based on a very rudimentary form of non-syntactic ‘language’ we argue that the use of language as a cognitive tool might have been an early discovery in hominid evolution, and might have played a substantial role in the evolution of language itself. (shrink)

L'article cherche ä demontrer que le relativisme ne constitue pas une base viable pour les reflexions sur les relations interculturelles. Contrairement ä ce que beaucoup d'intellectuels croient actuellement, le relativisme ne s'avere pas plus difficile ä defaire qu'une pensee recherchant une assise universelle pour penser les relations entre cultures. Trois points de vue importants sont abordes pour etayer la these de l'article. II y a d'abord le concept de matrice interculturelle developpee par le sociologue quebecois Jean-Jacques Simard. Selon cet auteur, (...) les valeurs de la modernite, comme la liberte et l'egalite des personnes, sont des valeurs universelles et non propres ä la culture occidentals La modernite est en effet une matrice culturelle qui ne se cantonne pas ä une culture particuliere. Ensuite, une analyse du relativisme present chez Levi-Strauss est faite afm de montrer l'incoherence de cette approche. Pour terminer, on aborde quelques points interessants sur le relativisme apportes par Raymond Boudon, dont le concept d'axiologie est rationaliste et non consequentialiste, et qui affaiblissent le relativisme des valeurs. (shrink)

Jürgen Habermas a sans contredit marqué la philosophie contemporaine. Défenseur d'une éthique de la discussion, il a lui-même sans cesse poursuivi un dialogue avec des théoriciens de divers horizons. Ces dernières décennies, il a accordé une attention toute particulière à la démocratie et à la religion. C'est à partir de sa réflexion sur ces thèmes, mais aussi d'écrits d'autres penseurs, que l'auteur dégage un cadre théorique et normatif permettant de penser la place et le rôle de la religion dans les (...) démocraties libérales d'aujourd'hui. Le pluralisme des valeurs et des convictions étant devenu une caractéristique de notre époque, il importe en effet d'aménager celui-ci de manière juste. Cherchant à éviter les écueils du laïcisme et du communautarisme, l'auteur mobilise ici la philosophie morale et politique contemporaine, en particulier les travaux de Jürgen Habermas, pour définir les principes constitutifs et les conditions de réalisation d'une laïcité « bien comprise ». "--Résumé de l'éditeur. (shrink)

One of the legacies of modern philosophy is to have separated or bifurcated the human from nature. Marco Altamirano offers a critique of the modern concept of nature in order to chart a new trajectory for the philosophy of nature. -/- By examining the history of the concept of nature, Altamirano shows how a spatial and epistemological concept of nature emerged in Descartes, where a subject confronts an object in space and subsequently wonders about her mode of access to (...) that object. He then argues that a time-based concept of nature is necessary in order to reinstall the subject within its eventual ecology. Deploying conceptual resources from Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, and Leroi- Gourhan (among others), Altamirano shows how the concept of technology harbors an escape route from the spatial and epistemological picture of nature. Ultimately, this book draws the profile of a concept of nature based on time and technology that bypasses the nature-artifice distinction that has mired the philosophy of nature since modern philosophy. (shrink)

Neste trabalho pretendemos analisar as propostas de construção social da realidade a partir da Teoria do Discurso, na perspectiva de Ernesto Laclau e da análise do discurso de Michel Foucault. Um discurso na perspectiva de Laclau ocorre pela articulação contingente de identidades, em torno de demandas hegemonizadas por uma das identidades que configuram o sentido da realidade. Esse fechamento de sentido é sempre inacabável e, portanto, é contingente e temporário. Já para Foucault o sentido do discurso não está preso (...) às suas condições de emergência passadas, e o que o define não é tanto um conjunto de aspectos comuns, mas um conjunto de regras de formação comuns e um marco institucional desde onde a autoridade do discurso emana. Aqui pretendemos expor os pressupostos epistemológicos dos dois autores e suas implicações na construção do político. (shrink)

This essay presents a model-theoretic account of dispositional properties, according to which dispositions are not ordinary properties of real entities; dispositions capture the behavior of abstract, idealized models. This account has several payoffs. First, it saves the simple conditional analysis of dispositions. Second, it preserves the general connection between dispositions and regularities, despite the fact that some dispositions are not grounded in actual regularities. Finally, it brings together the analysis and the explanation of dispositions under a unified framework.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Uses of EqualityThe following exchange between Judith Butler (who at the time was in Irvine, California) and Ernesto Laclau (in Essex, England) took place during the months of May and June of 1995. Ernesto Laclau, born in Argentina, is well known for his Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, published in 1985 in collaboration with Chantal Mouffe. The work starts off by critically examining the concept of “hegemony” (...) within a Marxist tradition, and it ends by proposing a socialist strategy that not only takes into account the criticism posited against the Marxist tradition of the last three decades, but also the emergence of new social and political fronts. Hegemony manifests a motive that is felt in the background of the following discussion: a politics of “radical democracy” (a term introduced in the book) should aspire to preserve the conflictive character of all social processes if it intends to avoid becoming a totalitarian system. In other words, a politics of a “radical democracy” should remain faithful to the dictum stated by the German poet Paul Celan: “build on inconsistencies.” It is evident that Laclau and Judith Butler, the North American author of Gender Trouble (1990) and its sequel, Bodies That Matter (1993), share this position. In these works, Butler advocates the reactivation of the concept of “interpellation” in order to expose the ways in which any given subject is “engendered.” The performative constitution of a subject, according to Butler, is defined through a reiterative convocation or “interpellation,” which continuously exhorts the subject to adhere to a gender norm. Not all sequences and efforts at interpellation, however, are completely successful; hence the need for notions of “deviations” in contrast to the norm. This theoretical standpoint facilitated a deconstruction of social gender norms and addressed issues raised by the gay and lesbian communities. In Bodies That Matter, however, a growing emphasis was placed on the articulation of the task at hand within a broader field of the democratic claims of minorities. Here, references to Mouffe and Laclau and to the concepts of “articulation” and “hegemony” were increasingly necessary.The link between Butler and Laclau was extended by the dialogue that follows. An example of this is the notion that all identities constitute themselves by differentiation. However, differentiation immediately implies antagonism. Identities exist because there are differences in strength, antagonism, and finally, in hegemony. According to both Butler and Laclau, the social constitutes itself as the space in which hegemonic relations unfold. Nevertheless, it is characteristic of any hegemonic position to never gain stability: any hegemonic position is always exposed to the risk of being subverted. Thus the recurrence of two issues that play a role in the following discussion: the existence of hegemonic relations and, hence, exclusion, found in the social domain. But since no particular exclusion is based on “the nature of things,” or can be ultimately justified, no exclusion can be definite, and no politics can achieve a final form. It is within the gap between the recognition that exclusion always exists in the social domain, and the rupture it provokes—that is to say, between the affirmation that no situation is purely structured and that no structure formation is ever complete—that perhaps the program of radical democracy unfolds.Equality, as a signifier and as a thing—if it exists—was the topic proposed to Butler and Laclau: their dialogue exceeds our original expectations.Reinaldo Laddaga [End Page 3]What’s the political value, today, of the use of the signifier “equality”? Considering the poststructuralist elaboration of “difference,” how does “equality” work today in gender and/or race politics? “Difference” has been, for more than a decade, the key word for a certain number of programs related to radical democracy. Certainly, “difference” has given space to the constitution of new types of social solidarity. Recently, however, some reservations on the extension of the term have been published. Chantal Mouffe—in her introduction to Dimensions of Radical Democracy—has stated that “all differences cannot be accepted” in order “for pluralism to be made compatible with the struggle against inequality.” Mouffe doesn’t clarify, in this particular text, the criteria with which to discriminate between “acceptable” and “nonacceptable” (or, maybe, “pertinent” and... (shrink)

Computational models of meaning trained on naturally occurring text successfully model human performance on tasks involving simple similarity measures, but they characterize meaning in terms of undifferentiated bags of words or topical dimensions. This has led some to question their psychological plausibility (Murphy, 2002;Schunn, 1999). We present here a fully automatic method for extracting a structured and comprehensive set of concept descriptions directly from an English part‐of‐speech‐tagged corpus. Concepts are characterized by weighted properties, enriched with concept–property types that approximate classical (...) relations such as hypernymy and function. Our model outperforms comparable algorithms in cognitive tasks pertaining not only to concept‐internal structures (discovering properties of concepts, grouping properties by property type) but also to inter‐concept relations (clustering into superordinates), suggesting the empirical validity of the property‐based approach. (shrink)

This article is a libertarian critique of incest laws. On the basis of the libertarian “harm principle”, one must ask what exactly is the harm that incest brings forth. Traditionally, anthropologists have tried to rationalize the incest taboo in various theories, and lawmakers have used these principles as grounds for the criminalization of incest. These principles are the preservation of family structure, the enhancement of alliances and the avoidance of genetic risks. While I acknowledge that these rationalizations are plausible, I (...) argue that they are still not sufficient grounds for the preservation of incest laws, and consequently, there is an ethical need to reform them. (shrink)

The metaphysical question presupposes the ontological one: are there forms of social unit that can be recognized as real groups and, if so, what are they? The ontological answer can be affirmative only if we are able to identify real collective entities, that is, social wholes that are not reducible to the mere sum of their individual parts. Through an ontological comparison between different types of social interaction, this paper shows the ontological properties of a real collective subject. It is (...) such, only if relations between its constituent parts generate an intrinsic normative structure, which gives existence to a higher order of social units. In this order members are bound to each other and are collectively bound to their group. They are bearers of collective intentionality. Their actions contribute to collective agency. Their responsibility is more complex and stratified than that of an independent individual. Moreover, all types of real wholes depend on ontological constitution processes, which give them the following: an intrinsic structural unit, a typological identity and emerging properties. The latter can be both new characteristics and new causal powers, which constituent parts do not have. Therefore, a right understanding of these ontological constitution processes is capable of overcoming reductionist isomorphism. It also offers the fundamental criterion for proposing a metaphysical theory that, being rooted in a rigorous ontology, is not an arbitrary exercise of imagination. (shrink)

Las dificultades teóricas que obstaculizan la idea de una ética constitucional -- ¿constitucionalismo global o constitucionalismo cosmopolita? -- El constitucionalismo, entre el cosmopolitismo, el universalismo y el localismo del estado nación -- El estado constitucional de derecho (o Estado constitucional de derecho, social y ambiental) y los derechos sociales -- El impacto del consenso de Washington en el derecho social colombiano, y la respuesta social desde la movilización y desde los derechos -- Los derechos, un espacio de lucha y emancipación (...) -- La autocrítica a modo de conclusión. (shrink)

Biologists employ a suggestive metaphor to describe the complexities of molecular interactions within cells and embryos: cytological components are said to be part of “ecosystems” that integrate them in a complex network of relations with many other entities. The aim of this essay is to scrutinize the molecular ecosystem, a metaphor that, despite its longstanding history, has seldom be articulated in detail. I begin by analyzing some relevant analogies between the cellular environment and the biosphere. Next, I discuss the applicability (...) of the molecular ecosystem concept in actual scientific practice. (shrink)