We present a fully relational definition of inertial systems based in the No Arbitrariness Principle, that eliminates the need for absolute inertial frames of reference or distinguished reference systems as the ``fixed stars'' in order to formulate Newtonian mechanics. The historical roots of this approach to mechanics are discussed as well. The work is based in part in the constructivist perspective of space advanced by Piaget. We argue that inertial systems admit approximations and that what is of practical use are (...) precisely such approximations. We finally discuss a slightly larger class of systems that we call ``relatively inertial'' which are the fundamental systems in a relational view of mechanics. (shrink)

While mechanics was developed under the idea of reciprocal action (interactions), electromagnetism, as we know it today, takes a form more akin to unilateral action. Interactions call for spatial relations, unilateral action calls for space, just one reference centre. In contrast, interactions are matters of relations that require at least two centres. The development of the relational electromagnetism encouraged by Gauss appears to stop around 1870 for reasons that are not completely clear but are certainly not solely scientific. By the (...) same time, Maxwell recognised the equivalence in formulae of his electromagnetism and the one advocated by Gauss and called for an explanation of why such theories so differently conceived have such a large part in common. In this work we reconstruct and update the relational electromagnetism up to the contributions of Lorentz guided by the non-arbitrariness principle (NAP) that requests arbitrary choices to be accompanied by groups of symmetries. We show that a-priori there must be two more symmetries in electromagnetism, one related to the breaking (in the description) of the relation source/detector and one relating all the perceptions of the same source by detectors moving with different (constant) relative velocities. We show that the idea of electromagnetic waves put forward in concept by Lorenz (1861-1863) before Maxwell (1865) and in formulae (1867) just after Maxwell, together with the ``least action principle'' proposed by Lorentz are enough to derive Maxwell's equations, the continuity equation and the Lorentz' force, and that there is a dual formulation in terms of fields of the receiver (as opposed to fields of the source). While Galilean transformations are associated with removing the arbitrariness implied in the election of a reference space, they will not explicitly appear in a formulation based upon a relational space although we occasionally mention their usefulness. In contrast, Lorentz' transformations will emerge in this formulation involving the relations between the perceived fields of different receivers. Moreover, the role of the full Poincaré-Lorentz group as a group of transformations of the perceived actions is elucidated. In summary, we answer Maxwell's philosophical question showing how the same theory in formulae can be abduced using different inferred entities. Each form of abduction implies as well an interpretation and a facilitation of the theoretical construction. This work relies heavily on logical concepts as abduction put forward by C. Peirce, needed for the construction of theories. (shrink)

This essay aims to defend the need to help animals in any disaster situation, be it anthropogenic, natural, or hybrid. To this end, I will first establish a brief foundation of the antispeciesist principles that have been advocated by different theorists over the last decades. Then, I will describe the conflict between environmental and animal approaches as a problem for the consideration of animals in unfavorable situations. This will be followed by the ways in which animals can be harmed in (...) such contexts. After that, I will argue that many anthropogenic disasters affect animals, but they also deserve aid in the face of natural disasters: they are sentient beings and capable of suffering just like humans, to whom help is offered unconditionally in such cases. Finally, I will propose sentience, particularly suffering, and an ecofeminist and antispeciesist approach to address the situation of animals in disaster situations in a dialogic way between environmentalist and individual-centered positions. (shrink)

en este trabajo, tutorizado por el Dr. Juan José Padial Benticuaga, Paloma García Briones y María Benítez Hidalgo analizan dos vías distintas y opuestas en las que puede derivar la crisis de los valores: el nihilismo y el auge de la importancia de la afección subjetiva.

As earlier research on Korsakoff syndrome, a frequent neurological complication of alcohol-dependence, mainly focused on cognition, affective impairments have been little investigated despite their crucial impact in AD. This article proposes new research avenues on this topic by combining two theoretical frameworks: dual-process models, positing that addictions are due to an imbalance between underactivated reflective system and overactivated affective-automatic one; continuity theory, postulating a gradual worsening of cognitive impairments from AD to KS. We suggest that this joint perspective may renew (...) the current knowledge by clarifying the affective-automatic deficits in KS and their interactions with reflective impairments, but also by offering a direct exploration of the continuity between AD and KS regarding reflective and affective-automatic abilities. (shrink)

Approaches to supporting autonomy in medicine need to be able to support complex and sensitive decision-making, incorporating reflection on the patient's values and goals. This should involve deliberation in partnership between physician and patient, allowing the patient to take responsibility for her decision. Nowhere is this truer than in decisions around pregnancy and Caesarean section where maternal autonomy can seem to directly conflict with foetal interests. Medical and societal expectations and norms such as the expectations of a ‘mother’, constraints of (...) making decisions in an emergency, and the role of technology in viewing the foetus as a separate patient and surgery as a guarantor of results can all act to limit a woman's autonomy. In considering decisions about Caesarean section, maternal interests in bodily integrity can be dismissed as being less important than the foetus's own interests and the mother's duties to it, despite the inherent risks and impacts of such a major surgical procedure... (shrink)

La presente obra indaga sobre la tenue línea divisoria entre los discursos de lo que hemos llamado filosofía y literatura. Cuestión de frontera, de imagen no siempre visible, en este libro se sostiene la idea de la casi identificación entre las funciones cognoscitivas, estéticas, referenciales y de cierta aplicabilidad. Del poder de los discursos de la filosofía y la literatura. La última consecuencia del giro lingüístico del pensamiento, y de nuestros hábitos culturales alrededor de la enorme profusión de textos filosófico-literarios (...) o literario-filosóficos, se interpreta así como la posible, acaso provocada, disolución de los géneros discursivos. Un lenguaje que se distingue por su continuidad, contingencia y siempre problemática referencialidad, es lo que el autor pone en juego al querer leer como casos paradigmáticos de esta disolución discursiva a Borges, Cortázar, R. Arenas o Kafka, pero también a Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida o Deleuze. (shrink)

Chile experimenta un periodo de readecuaciones en materia social. La demanda ciudadana por una mayor igualdad y seguridad social se refleja en el debate público sobre dimensiones distributivas como el salario mínimo. Como un intento de dar respuestas a estos requerimientos, el gobierno democrático ha implementado reformas en el campo educativo, en materia laboral y previsional. El presente artículo se propone contribuir a una caracterización institucional de la política social chilena y un análisis de la dinámica distributiva. Para el logro (...) de este objetivo, se recurre a los estudios especializados sobre los Estados de bienestar adaptando estas aportaciones a la configuración que evidencian las políticas sociales en el contexto nacional. Más adelante, se presentan algunos indicadores sociales vinculados con el tratamiento de la desigualdad y la pobreza, comparando las medidas distributivas con las utilizadas en los países de la OCDE. (shrink)

¿Se puede pensar la verdad desde trascendentales antropológicos? Sí, se puede, y el resultado es una verdad que inspira, que refiere a un buscar no meramente lógico, sino libre, donde lo que se encuentra moviliza en lugar de extasiar en la contemplación sosegada; una verdad que no es fin, sino inicio. La inspiración es un momento propiamente significativo y caracterizador de la verdad: la verdad es esencialmente inspiración cuando se la observa en su ser algo propiamente humano.

Resumen Al momento de comparar dos obras disímiles en términos de lo que aquí llamaremos el gesto lingüístico, pero similares en cuanto a su comprensión fundamental del decir respecto de su función, se vuelve clara la necesidad de expandir la metódica de acceso a tal fenómeno e incluir el momento analítico clave del ánimo del lenguaje. El presente análisis tiene como meta lograr tal expansión, desde el punto de partida ontológico que se propone en Ser y tiempo, para llevarlo hasta (...) un puerto -en apariencia- tan disímil como es la obra literaria de Roberto Bolaño.When comparing two works, that are dissimilar in terms of what we will call here the linguistic gesture, but similar in terms of their fundamental understanding of the concept with respect to its function, the need to expand the access to such phenomena becomes clear, and to also include the key analytical moment of the mood of the language. The purpose of this analysis is to achieve expansion, from the proposed ontological starting point in Being and time, to take it to a port -apparently- as different as the literary work of Roberto Bolaño. (shrink)

El historiador francés Ernest Renan publicó en 1863 una Vida de Jesús que cuestionaba la divinidad del mismo. Causó escándalo e intentos de refutación. Se estudian algunas reacciones en América Latina y se describe el proceso por el cual Renan llegó posteriormente a ser aceptado por círculos conservadores. The French historian Ernest Renan published in 1863 a Life of Jesus that questioned his divinity. The book aroused scandal and attempts of rebuttal. This analysis examines some of the reactions in Latin (...) America, as well as the process by which Renan came later to be accepted in conservative circles. (shrink)

La comprensión de lo histórico por medio de la “revivencia” en Dilthey confluye con la idea de re-enactment en la teoría de la imaginación histórica de Collingwood a través de la autognosis. Este conocimiento de sí constituye la actividad primordial de la comprensión histórica y es llevado a cabo por el individuo que comprende de acuerdo con los significados vitales y sociohistóricos de su época. Así, las tradiciones del empirismo y del idealismo se acercan en aras de una reflexión sobre (...) la actividad efectiva del historiador. Se analiza, entonces, cuál es el rol de la autoconciencia en el conocimiento humano, atendiendo a las diferencias entre la psicología de ambos pensadores. (shrink)

Our purpose is to describe the application of legitimate defense in so-called non-confrontational situations. To do this, we will conceptualize gender violence as that which against women, due to their condition as such, and we will describe the absence by the courts in the identification of this problem. Second, we will analyze the reception of Argentine and international legislation on the treatment of gender violence and the recommendations and criteria to take into account when interpreting and applying criminal law. Finally, (...) we will present the treatment of legitimate defense in contexts of gender violence, analyzing each of its elements. Our conclusions will focus on the need to address situations of gender violence based on international regulations for the application of legitimate defense in non-confrontational situations. (shrink)

El presente artículo discute la posibilidad del tránsito de la revolución, como momento social de extrema violencia, a la resistencia organizada de forma permanente en los ámbitos de grupos disidentes contra la "totalidad" que los confina a un estatus de dependencia pasiva. En contra de la fetichiza..

_Humanizing Education_ offers historic examples of humanizing educational spaces, practices, and movements that embody a spirit of hope and change. From Dayton, Ohio, to Barcelona, Spain, this collection of essays from the _Harvard Educational Review_ carries readers to places where people have first imagined—and then organized—their own educational responses to dehumanizing practices and conditions. Contributors include Montse Sánchez Aroca, William Ayers, Kathy Boudin, Fernando Cardenal, Jeffrey M. R. Duncan-Andrade, Marco Garrido, Jay Gillen, Maxine Greene, Kathe Jervis, Nancy Uhlar Murray, Valerie (...) Miller, Wendy Ormiston, Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas, Vanessa Siddle Walker, Arthur E. Thomas, and Travis Wright. (shrink)

The paradigm of rights, established throughout the academic, policy and migrant activism arenas, governs the protection of vulnerable migrant workers against abuse. To what extent this approach has achieved social justice for the migrant worker in the current global political economy climate is, however, uncertain. In analyzing the use of rights in migrant activism in Hong Kong, this paper shows the limitation of rights in the migrant experience at the same time as it shows how a new paradigm based on (...) the Capablities Approach could provide a more appropriate framework from which to achieve social justice for the migrant worker. (shrink)

Castro-Gómez, Santiago. Revoluciones sin sujeto. Slavoj Žižek y la crítica del historicismo posmoderno. Ciudad de México: Akal, 2015. 400 pp.

Behavioral momentum theory has evolved within the realm of operant conditioning. The thought-provoking momentum metaphor equates the strength of an operant response with its resistance to change and preference (i.e., choice) for that response over other available responses. Whereas baseline response rate (velocity in the metaphor) is assumed to be largely influenced by the response-reinforcer contingency, resistance to change and preference are assumed to reflect an intervening variable called behavioral mass, which is determined primarily by the stimulus-reinforcer relationship. This invites (...) the question of how well the momentum metaphor applies to the stimulus-reinforcer relationships of traditional Pavlovian paradigms. Presumably, a correspondence exists between behavioral mass and the notion of associative strength in the associative learning literature. Although response rate has little meaning in the trialwise structure of classical (i.e., Pavlovian) conditioning, response probability or magnitude might be regarded metaphorically as velocity. Momentum theory suggests that resistance to change (e.g., extinction) is a better indicator of associative strength than is response probability or magnitude. Therefore, variables that strengthen Pavlovian learning should influence resistance to extinction of conditioned responding in a similar manner. Moreover, it is important to assess momentum theory outside of strictly operant paradigms, particularly because in clinical settings many common disorders (e.g., phobias) and their therapies (e.g., cue exposure) are thought to be classically conditioned. (shrink)

El objetivo de nuestra investigación es determinar el impacto de hábitos alimenticios en el desempeño académico. Fue evaluada los hábitos alimenticios según instrumentos validados y establecido su normalidad con Shapiro-Wilk W=0.97 y significancia p-valor=0.34. Tenemos que el consumo alimenticio también tiene distribución normal e impacta en el desempeño académico con una correlación de Pearson de 0.24 y significancia p-valor=0.04. La regresión logística establece el punto de corte de consumo igual a 38 para tener la probabilidad de un 50% de buen (...) desempeño académico. Asimismo, la estimación puntual de desempeño académico correspondiente a este corte de consumo 38 es el puntaje de 14. (shrink)

We integrate dualistic conceptions of the real with Peirce's perspectives about reality and abduction, emphasizing the concept of reason underlying Peirce's thoughts. Peirce's abduction is related to the notions of retrogression and grounding in Hegel, later re-encountered in Hansonian-abduction. Abduction in turn is considered in relation to abstraction acquiring its fullest sense as a stage in the process of producing a theory. The process is iterative and self improving, it incorporates ``turbid thinking'' making it increasingly ``clear'' at successive iterations that (...) incorporate the lessons taught by failed predictions, i.e., refutations. The cycle of thoughts promoted by doubts comes to rest when belief is reached. We discuss how this coming to rest depends on a criterion for cessation of doubts. The observation is illustrated with two different criteria, one proposed by Mach that only demands analogy and the criteria of dualists such as Goethe and Whewell that inspire the present work. Hence, it is possible to produce, and socially accept, imperfect theories unless we demand the highest level of rationality, avoiding any leftover of the turbid thoughts that have been used in the early developments. This work rests upon the existence of some objective form of reason. Influenced by a constructivist, Piagetian, perspective of science, we propose and discuss a small number of conditions that we identify as characteristics of rational abduction: rules for the rational construction of theories. We show how a classical example of belief that satisfies today's most common definition of abduction does not match the standards of rational retroduction. We further show how the same rules indicate the partial detachment of Special Relativity from the observable world, a fact actually known to Einstein. We close arguing that there is an urgent need to develop a critical epistemology incorporating dualistic perspectives. (shrink)

En este trabajo nos proponemos estudiar los vínculos que Cassirer establece entre los conceptos de causalidad, invariancia y sistematicidad en el conocimiento de la física. Para ello, comenzaremos considerando el marco general en el que se inscribe el análisis que Cassirer realiza. Este marco es el provisto por el método trascendental. En segundo lugar, consideraremos el principio de causalidad de Kant a la luz de su distinción entre principios constitutivos y principios regulativos de la experiencia. Luego, discutiremos las dificultades que (...) Cassirer encuentra en la doctrina kantiana de la causalidad. Más adelante nos referiremos al sistema de los enunciados de la física, para poder así determinar el modo en el que se relacionan los conceptos de causalidad, invariancia y sistematicidad. (shrink)

The prospective formalization of the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy has been intensely debated. This paper explores and assesses the stakes of this process from a philosophical perspective. I distinguish two senses of formalization—the descriptive and the evaluative—and argue that: 1) there are descriptive and evaluative formalizations of the Anthropocene beyond the confines of the ICS; 2) incoherencies between Anthropocene proposals and the ICS’s current tenets are not a decisive reason for deferring descriptive formalization; (...) and 3) the prospective evaluative formalization of the Anthropocene by the ICS would be impactful. (shrink)

The existence of shoulder abduction (SA) and finger extension (FE) movement capacity shortly after stroke onset is an important prognostic factor, indicating favorable functional outcome for the hemiparetic upper limb. Here we asked whether variation in lesion topography affects these two movements in a similar or a distinct way, and whether lesion impact is similar or distinct for left and right hemisphere damage. SA and FE movements were examined in 77 chronic post-stroke patients using relevant items of the Fugl-Meyer test. (...) Lesion effects were analyzed separately for left and right hemispheric damage (LHD, RHD) patient groups using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping. In the LHD group, SA and FE were affected only by damage to the cortico-spinal tract in its passage through the corona radiata. In contrast, following RHD, these two movements were affected not only by cortico-spinal tract damage but also by damage to white matter association tracts, the putamen and the insular cortex. In both groups, voxel clusters have been found where damage affected SA and also FE, along with voxels where damage affected only one of the two movements. The capacity to execute SA and FE movements following stroke is affected significantly by damage to shared and distinct voxels in the cortico-spinal tract in LHD patients and by damage to shared and distinct voxels in a larger array of cortical and subcortical regions in RHD patients. (shrink)

Las ideas de Simón Bolívar sobre América y sobre Europa han recibido alguna atención de los investigadores. Mucho menos las que expresó sobre Asia y África. Aunque fueron marginales a su pensamiento, la reunión de sus alusiones al respecto permite arrojar alguna luz sobre la reflexión de la Independencia y sobre los cambios que el Libertador experimentó en su percepción del naciente mundo que aparecía ante sus ojos. Partiendo de una actitud orientalista y despectiva inicial, con el tiempo llegó a (...) pensar que el Oriente no podía descartarse como influencia en las instituciones americanas. (shrink)

During the second half of the nineteenth century, electronegativity has been one of the most relevant chemical concepts to explain the relationships between chemical substances and their possible reactions. Specifically, EN is a property of the substances that allows them to attract external electrons in bonding situations. The problem arises because EN cannot be measured directly. Indeed, the only way to measure it is through different properties that do can be directly measured, for instance enthalpy, ionization energies or electron affinities. (...) What is particularly troubling about this case in quantum chemistry is that the different models used to describe and quantify EN are incompatible but, in a certain sense, equivalent because the same EN scale results in all of them. By analyzing Linus Pauling’s and Robert Mulliken’s models of EN, it will be argued that, if we remain cling to a traditional representative conception of models, we cannot understand the meaning of the information provided by those models. Indeed, if we do not want to adopt an instrumentalist point of view concerning chemical knowledge, we should reconsider by virtue of what a model represents the system, or, in other words, which the factors that determine the representative power of a model are. I will propose a new perspective that incorporates the role of experimental techniques in the very notion of representation; this perspective allows us to understand how supposedly incompatible models of the same target system can be both simultaneously representative. (shrink)

El objetivo de nuestra investigación es determinar el impacto de demanda de trabajo y recursos psicológicos en el desempeño profesional. Fue evaluada la calidad laboral según instrumentos validados y establecida su normalidad. Tenemos que los recursos psicológicos y demanda de trabajo impactan en el desempeño profesional con una correlación múltiple de Pearson de 0.91. La correlación de Pearson entre calidad laboral y desempeño profesional fue de 0.69 y p valor de 0.004. La correlación de Spearman entre recursos psicológicos y desempeño (...) profesional fue de 0.735 y p valor de 0.002. (shrink)