The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism's effect on the sensitivity of the investment policies of a company in the face of financial variables and market variables . To test our assertions, we analyze firm-level data for United Kingdom , Germany, France, Denmark, and (...) Spain during the period 1995-2004. Our results point to a significant reduction in the sensitivity of company investment decisions in the face of these variables, especially relative to intangible capital, as a result of the neutralizing effect of activism on the high agency costs of free cash flow and on the information asymmetries of the market. (shrink)

BackgroundSafeguarding the right to die according to the principles of autonomy and freedom of each person has become more important in the last decade, therefore increasing regulation of Euthanasi...

The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism's effect on the sensitivity of the investment policies of a company in the face of financial variables and market variables. To test our assertions, we analyze firm-level data for United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, and Spain during (...) the period 1995-2004. Our results point to a significant reduction in the sensitivity of company investment decisions in the face of these variables, especially relative to intangible capital, as a result of the neutralizing effect of activism on the high agency costs of free cash flow and on the information asymmetries of the market. (shrink)

The activism of institutional investors tends more and more toward the supervision and control of the behavior of the managers of big companies. In this article, we present a model based on the creation of an activism index that lets us evaluate such activism’s effect on the sensitivity of the investment policies of a company in the face of financial variables (such as cash flow and liquidity ratio) and market variables (ownership concentration and value creation index). To test our assertions, (...) we analyze firm-level data for United Kingdom (U.K.), Germany, France, Denmark, and Spain during the period 1995–2004. Our results point to a significant reduction in the sensitivity of company investment decisions in the face of these variables, especially relative to intangible capital, as a result of the neutralizing effect of activism on the high agency costs of free cash flow and on the information asymmetries of the market. (shrink)

In this article we will argue that given certain conditions for the evolution of bi- ological controllers, these will necessarily evolve in the direction of incorporating consciousness capabilities. We will also see what are the necessary mechanics for the provision of these capabilities and extrapolate this vision to the world of artifi- cial systems postulating seven design principles for conscious systems. This article was published in the journal Neural Networks special issue on brain and conscious- ness.

[EN]In recent decades, problems related to the accessibility and sustainability of science have increased, both in terms of the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge and its generation. Policymakers, academics, and, increasingly, citizens themselves have developed various approaches to this issue. Among them, citizen science is distinguished by making possible the generation of scientific knowledge by anyone with an interest in doing so. However, participation alone does not guarantee knowledge generation, which represents an epistemological challenge for citizen science. Simultaneously, economic and (...) socio-institutional difficulties in science governance and maintenance have grown. To solve those problems, several market elements have been introduced, a solution rejected by those who consider science as a public good that states must guarantee. Alternatively, research and work on the commons are growing worldwide, the concept being extended from natural resources to knowledge resources. In this chapter, we propose science as a commons, underlining the essential role of citizen science. Difficulties also apply to citizen science itself, but the increasing development of a multitude of projects based on cooperation favours the conditions required for its sustainability and quality. Our philosophical proposal is based on empirical knowledge about citizen science coupled with socio-economic concepts, according to a sociopolitical epistemology. (shrink)

Background:The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of qualified nurses in Spain. As a result, the government authorized the hiring of senior students.Objectives:To explore the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts experienced by final-year nursing students who worked during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.Research design:A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a question guide. Interviews took place via a private video chat room platform. A thematic, inductive (...) analysis was performed of the information gathered.Participants and research context:Eighteen nursing students were recruited from two universities of Madrid, aged between 18 and 65 years old, enrolled in the fourth year of nursing studies and who were hired under a relief contract for health professionals during the pandemic.Ethical considerations:The present study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.Results:Three specific themes emerged: (a) coping with patient triage, (b) difficulties in providing end-of-life care, and (c) coping with patient death. Nursing students participated in the process of patient selection for resource allocation and ICU bed occupancy. They were shown how to care for patients who were not admitted to the ICU, in their last moments and were faced with the difficulties of applying end-of-life care. Finally, the nursing students were confronted with the death of their patients, in overwhelming numbers and under adverse conditions.Conclusions:These findings can help shed light on the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts faced by novice nursing students, incorporated into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it was described that students may normalize the death due to the exhaustion and overwhelmed routine. (shrink)

After compulsory secondary education; many teenagers face the process of choosing a university degree. This process involves uncertainties referred to their personal abilities, interests, social expectations and professional future. The present work is aimed at determining whether the reasons behind the selection of a particular university degree differ depending on the chosen degree. Another objective is determining whether these reasons differ significantly according to gender. The sample comprises 983 students belonging to the area of social and legal sciences at the (...) University of Seville. The obtained results reveal the existence of four main reasons behind the selection of university degrees for which significant gender-related differences were observed: easy degree, job opportunities, high wages and provision of social services. Besides, these seven reasons are observed to differ widely in six of the considered degrees. (shrink)

El Krausismo ha sido considerado como uno de los movimientos más significativo e influyente en la historia del pensamiento español contemporáneo. Originado aparentemente en la elección arbitraria de Sanz del Río, en pocos años adquiere un importante desarrollo en los círculos intelectuales, adquiriendo una notable influencia entre el profesorado de Universidad y de Enseñanza Secundaria. Mariano Arés y Sanz fue el principal representante del movimiento en Salamanca en su dimensión más metafísica. Este artículo, tras reconstruir las líneas generales (...) de su curso de metafísica ofrece sus principales ideas acerca del conocimiento, pieza básica de su pensamiento metafísico. (shrink)

In March 2021, the Spanish Congress approved the law regulating euthanasia, that regulates both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). In this article, we analyse the Spanish law regulating euthanasia and PAS, comparing it with the rest of the European laws on euthanasia and PAS (Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg). Identified strengths of the Spanish law, with respect to other norms, are that it is a law with many safeguards, which broadly recognises professionals’ right to conscientious objection and the specification that it (...) makes on the prior comprehensive care of the patient, including the approach to care dependency. Regarding its shortcomings, the law does not differentiate well between euthanasia and PAS; it barely assigns a role to the healthcare team as a whole (similar to other regulations); it does not clarify the functions of the different professionals involved; it does not detail the specific composition and duration of theevaluation commission; it has not been accompanied by a prior or simultaneous regulation of palliative care; and, lastly, the period of time to implement the law is too short. (shrink)

Neoliberal ideology and exclusionary policies based on racialized identities characterize the current contexts in North America and Western Europe. Nursing knowledge cannot be abstracted from social, political and historical contexts; the task of examining the influence of race and racial ideologies on disciplinary knowledge and inquiry therefore remains an important task. Contemporary analyses of the role and responsibility of the discipline in addressing race‐based health and social inequities as a focus of nursing inquiry remain underdeveloped. In this article, we examine (...) nursing's engagement with ideas about race and racism and explore the ways in which nursing knowledge and inquiry have been influenced by race‐based ideological discourses. Drawing on Henry and Tator's framework of democratic racism, we consider how strategic discursive responses—the discourses of individualism, multiculturalism, colour‐blindness, political correctness and denial—have been deployed within nursing knowledge and inquiry to reinforce the belief in an essentially fair and just society while avoiding the need to acknowledge the persistence of racist discourses and ideologies. Greater theoretical, conceptual and methodological clarity regarding race, racialization and related concepts in nursing inquiry is needed to address health and social inequities. (shrink)

According to some authors, Latour’s attention to politics during the last decades is the result of his proposing a different approach to politics that entails, with respect to his overall project, one of two situations. Either his epistemological proposal has suffered a “normative turn”—which necessarily breaks with the previous assumptions of Actor-Network Theory (ANT); or, if ANT’s view on technosciences remains valid, his political proposal becomes not possible as a new normative approach. In this paper, I will focus on the (...) critique voiced by John Law, as well as Graham Harman. I will argue that this is a false dilemma because there has not been a change in Latour’s conceptual basis, nor a lack of coherence within his thought that would undermine the democratic commitment of his Political Epistemology. I will justify this by exposing the fact that Latour’s overall project, as part of Science Studies, has not lately followed a “political” but an “ontological” turn, which has been underling his works since the very beginning of ANT. (shrink)

Entre meados do século XI e meados do XVI circularam no Ocidente cristão vários relatos sobre uma suposta papisa Joana, cuja condição feminina foi revelada ao parir em plena procissão pelas ruas de Roma. História à primeira vista anti-eclesiástica, contudo aceita pela Igreja medieval. Por quê? A hipótese aqui defendida é de que o mito de Joana expressava a androginia simbólica dos papas, daí ter sido censurado só com o advento do Protestantismo e sua constestação à própria existência da instituição (...) papal. (shrink)

Este trabajo esboza un programa de investigación que anuda la fenomenología del cuerpo con la paleontología humana y con la antropología filosófica, a fin de examinar si y en qué medida los vínculos existentes entre la experiencia corporal, la imaginación y la memoria pueden formalizarse en términos geométricos tales como la verticalidad y, en ese sentido, constituir una base para la determinación simbólica de fenómenos orgánicos.

Recent Canadian and international events have sparked dialogue and action to address racism within the nursing discipline. While the urgency to seek and implement antiracist solutions demands the attention of nurses, we contend that a contemporary analysis of the mechanisms that continue to perpetuate racism within nursing's theoretical foundation is required first. This study reconsiders the perceived functions of racism within the current state of nursing concepts and theories. In particular, we expose the role that covert racism plays by inadvertently (...) sustaining racism through nursing's theoretical foundation, and how this process strengthens white supremacy. We argue that, in the absence of exposing these covert mechanisms, the development of solutions will be futile in dismantling racism. By making visible the covert mechanisms of racism within nursing's theoretical foundation, we attempt to establish an opportunity for the nursing discipline to dismantle its racist foundation and engage in sustained antiracist action. Lastly, this study demonstrates the need to equip the discipline with a moral commitment to antiracism in an effort to emancipate nursing from its racist legacies. (shrink)

La mal llamada “Conquista del Desierto” constituyó una serie de campañas militares ocurridas en el actual territorio patagónico argentino entre los años 1878 y 1885 cuyo resultado fue el asesinato, la violación y sometimiento a la esclavitud de diversos pueblos y comunidades indígenas. Este no fue un caso aislado, sino que se suma a una serie de ataques sistemáticos que han sufrido los indígenas en la Argentina. En los últimos años, a raíz del reclamo y las luchas de los pueblos (...) y comunidades indígenas, así como también de las organizaciones de derechos humanos, se han comenzado a juzgar algunos de estos hechos. En particular, la Masacre de Napalpí (1924) y la Masacre de La Bomba (1947) fueron los primeros que lograron respuestas judiciales favorables. En ambos se determinó que el accionar estatal era constitutivo de un genocidio y, por lo tanto, se debía resarcir a las comunidades actuales. Ahora bien, la Campaña del Desierto, al día de hoy, no tiene respuesta por parte del Estado. Teniendo presente este panorama, nuestro objetivo en este trabajo es reconstruir los diferentes problemas que enfrenta la posibilidad del reclamo judicial. Para ello, comenzaremos describiendo en qué consistió la Campaña del Desierto. Luego, explicaremos la noción de genocidio aplicado a hechos de injusticias históricas. Como tercer paso, reconstruiremos los casos jurisprudenciales que se han preocupado por genocidios indígenas ocurridos en el pasado. Con este panorama revelado, nos enfocaremos en los diferentes problemas jurídicos y políticos que surgen en los reclamos de justicia. (shrink)

Este trabajo se ocupa de una interpolación textual transmitida por sólo dos manuscritos altomedievales en el capítulo que Isidoro de Sevilla dedica al libro de Job en sus Prooemia: Città del Vaticano, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana Vat. Barberini 505 y Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek Cod. Augiensis Perg. 229. A partir de la transcripción del texto de ambos manuscritos y de la identificación su fuente (un pasaje de los Moralia in Iob de Gregorio Magno), ofrece una reflexión acerca de la semejanza entre los (...) procedimientos exegéticos de Gregorio e Isidoro como elemento que pudo motivar la redacción interpolada del capítulo. (shrink)

Since March 14, 2020, Spanish citizens have been confined to their homes due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participating in musical activities has been associated with reduced anxiety and increased subjective wellbeing. The aim of this study is to analyze how Spanish citizens used music during the lockdown period. We also study perceptions of the impact music has in everyday life, in particular examining the respondents’ insights into the effects of listening to music in situations of isolation. The (...) study was conducted using the MUSIVID19 questionnaire administered to a total of 1868 Spanish citizens. The results indicate that during lockdown, respondents perceived an increase in the time they devoted to musical activities such as listening, singing, dancing or playing an instrument. The participants also reported using music to cope with the lockdown, finding that it helped them to relax, escape, raise their mood or keep them company. The findings suggest an improvement in their perception of the value of music in personal and social wellbeing during the lockdown. However, the study reveals significant differences in the use and perceptions of music according to respondents’ personal situations. Age and feelings of vulnerability may lead to more conservative uses of musical practice and to more moderate perceptions of the positive values of music. (shrink)

El artículo sugiere algunas observaciones sobre una antropología darwinista planteada a partir del conocimiento científico disponible. Al efecto, señala la importancia del estudio del genoma humano como fundamento de una reflexión filosófica de segundo grado sobre la naturaleza del ser humano, subrayando las grandes similitudes entre el Homo sapiens y las especies evolutivamente más próximas. Además, a partir del estudio del ADN mitocondrial y del cromosoma Y, centra la atención en el principio de coalescencia evolutiva entre seres humanos, gracias al (...) cual es posible afirmar que todos ellos son miembros consanguíneos de un mismo linaje. Concluye proponiendo algunas inferencias que muestran analogía entre determinados mythos y el logos científico actual. (shrink)

ResumenEl artículo presenta una sucinta exposición de las principales aportaciones sobre Filosofía Biológica realizadas por diversos autores al desarrollo del pensamiento evolucionista, durante el período histórico transcurrido entre el medievo y la articulación de la teoría darwinista. En particular, expone las contribuciones de diversa índole realizadas por Andrés Vesalio, Andrew Battell, Jacobo Bondt, Nicolás Tulp, Edward Tyson, John Ray, Benoit de Maillet, Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Karl von Linneo, Georges Louis Leclerc, Félix de Azara y Jean Baptiste Lamarck.Palabras claveHistoria (...) de la ciencia, historia de la filosofía biológica, evolucionismo predarwinista, orígenes de la primatologíaAbstractThis paper presents a brief exposition of the main contributions about Philosophy of Biology provided by several authors for the development of evolutionist thought, during the historical period elapsed from the Middle Ages to the beginning of Darwinian theory. It particularly presents different kinds of contributions made by Andreas Vesalius, Andrew Battell, Jacob Bondt, Nicolaes Tulp, Edward Tyson, John Ray, Benoit de Maillet, Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Karl von Linneo, Georges Louis Leclerc, Félix de Azara and Jean Baptiste Lamarck.KeywordsHistory of science, history of philosophy of biology, predarwinian evolutionary theory, origins of primatology. (shrink)

Este artigo procura refletir acerca do ponto a partir do qual Habermas afirma a inatualidade da crítica social da primeira geração frankfurtiana, em específico Adorno, a saber, a ideia de que a crítica radical da racionalidade articulada com a análise social conduziria inevitavelmente a uma aporia analítica, a qual só poderia ser superada pela mudança de paradigma no interior da teoria crítica. Focalizando como Adorno busca manter a situação aporética da crítica social, busco redimensionar a aporia tirando-a do registro de (...) obstáculo inultrapassável em direção à condição de possibilidade do exercício crítico. This article seeks to reflect on the point from which Habermas argues on the obsolescence of social criticism of the first generation from the Frankfurt School, especially Adorno, from the idea that the radical critique of rationality articulated with social analysis would inevitably lead to an analytic aporia, which could only be overcome by the paradigm shift within the critical theory. Focusing as Adorno tries to keep the aporetic situation of social critique, we sought to re-dimension the idea of the obstacle of aporia by removing it from the unsurpassable obstacle towards the condition of possibility of the critical exercise. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar os elementos centrais da crítica realizada por Axel Honneth ao pensamento de Michel Foucault, em Crítica do Poder, articulando-a com sua análise da obra do chamado “círculo interno” da Escola de Frankfurt, principalmente Adorno e Horkheimer. Dessa maneira, entende-se que Honneth opera uma aproximação do pensamento foucaultiano à tradição crítica frankfurtiana, com ênfase em deficiências comuns que apontam para uma filiação entre os autores e, ao mesmo tempo, para sua insuficiência na análise da sociedade (...) contemporânea. Tal leitura, contudo, em que pese sua inovação em pôr lado a lado Foucault e Habermas enquanto desenvolvimentos rivais da Teoria Crítica, é limitada tanto cronologicamente, por não levar em consideração a reorientação realizada por Foucault, a partir de 1978, quanto por identificar problematicamente as noções de poder e dominação. Essa limitação não inviabiliza, entretanto, manter o gesto de convergência entre o pensamento foucaultiano e a Escola de Frankfurt, pensando-o através de uma via positiva, que não se restrinja às limitações das suas ferramentas críticas, mas que, ao contrário, ao focalizar a radicalidade de tal crítica, torne possível destacar a sua atualidade. (shrink)

While the very existence of global literary studies as an institutionalised field is not yet fully established, the global turn in various disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences has been gaining traction in recent years. This book aims to contribute to the field of global literary studies with a more inclusive and decentralising approach. Specifically, it responds to a double demand: the need for expanding openness to other ways of seeing the global literary space by including multiple literary (...) and cultural traditions and other interdisciplinary perspectives in the discussion, and the need for conceptual models and different case studies that will help develop a global approach in four key avenues of research: global translation flows and translation policies, the post-1989 novel as a global form, global literary environments, and a global perspective on film and cinema history. Gathering contributions from international scholars with expertise in various areas of research, the volume is structured around five target concepts: space, scale, time, connectivity, and agency. We also take gender and LGBTQ+ perspectives, as well as a digital approach. (shrink)

JOHN CORCORAN AND WAGNER SANZ, Disbelief Logic Complements Belief Logic. Philosophy, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260-4150 USA E-mail: [email protected] Filosofia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiás, GO 74001-970 Brazil E-mail: sanz@fchf.ufg.br -/- Consider two doxastic states belief and disbelief. Belief is taking a proposition to be true and disbelief taking it to be false. Judging also dichotomizes: accepting a proposition results in belief and rejecting in disbelief. Stating follows suit: asserting a proposition conveys belief and denying conveys disbelief. (...) Traditional logic implicitly focused on logical relations and processes needed in expanding and organizing systems of beliefs. Deducing a conclusion from beliefs results in belief of the conclusion. Deduction presupposes consequence: one proposition is a consequence of a set of a propositions if the latter logically implies the former. The role of consequence depends on its being truth-preserving: every consequence of a set of truths is true. This paper, which builds on previous work by the second author, explores roles of logic in expanding and organizing systems of disbeliefs. Aducing a conclusion from disbeliefs results in disbelief of the conclusion. Aduction presupposes contrequence: one proposition is a contrequence of a set of propositions if the set of negations or contradictory opposites of the latter logically implies that of the former. The role of contrequence depends on its being falsity-preserving: every contrequence of a set of falsehoods is false. A system of aductions that includes, for every contrequence of a given set, an aduction of the contrequence from the set is said to be complete. Historical and philosophical discussion is illustrated and enriched by presenting complete systems of aductions constructed by the second author. One such, a natural aduction system for Aristotelian categorical propositions, is based on a natural deduction system attributed to Aristotle by the first author and others. ADDED NOTE: Wagner Sanz reconstructed Aristotle’s logic the way it would have been had Aristole focused on constructing “anti-sciences” instead of sciences: more generally, on systems of disbeliefs. (shrink)

Background and objectives: Definitions of medical futility, offered by healthcare professionals, bioethicists and other experts, have been rigorously debated by many investigators, but the perceptions of patients of futility have been explored only by a few. Patients were allowed to discuss their concerns about end-of-life care, so that their ideas about treatment futility or utility could be extrapolated by us.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 elderly people who were receiving outpatient care in a large, (...) urban Veterans Affairs medical centre in the US. Each of their healthcare providers was also interviewed. Participants were asked to consider four terms commonly used in advance directive forms and to discuss what these terms meant to them. Audiotapes of the open-ended interviews were transcribed and responses were coded and categorised by constant comparison, a commonly used qualitative method.Results: The following four factors were taken into account by the participants when discussing end-of-life interventions and outcomes: expected quality of life; emotional and financial costs of treatment; likelihood of treatment success; and expected effect on longevity.Conclusions: Although the terms “utility” or “futility” were not generally used by the participants, segments of speech indicating their perceptions of these terms were identified. Treatment was not always discussed in the same way by patients and providers, but seemed to reflect the same four concerns. Therefore, it may be fruitful for providers to focus on these concerns when discussing end-of-life treatment options with their patients. (shrink)

On analyse l’interprétation BHK de constantes logiques sur la base d’une prise en compte systématique de Prawitz, résultant en une reformulation de l’interprétation BHK dans laquelle l’assertabilité de propositions atomiques est déterminée par des systèmes de Post. On démontre que l’interprétation BHK reformulée rend davantage de propositions assertables que la logique propositionnelle intuitionniste rend prouvable. La loi de Mints est examinée en tant qu’exemple d’une telle proposition. La logique propositionnelle intuitionniste devrait par conséquent être considérée comme étant incomplète. Nous concluons (...) par une discussion sur l’adéquation de l’interprétation BHK de l’implication. (shrink)

On analyse l’interprétation BHK de constantes logiques sur la base d’une prise en compte systématique de Prawitz, résultant en une reformulation de l’interprétation BHK dans laquelle l’assertabilité de propositions atomiques est déterminée par des systèmes de Post. On démontre que l’interprétation BHK reformulée rend davantage de propositions assertables que la logique propositionnelle intuitionniste rend prouvable. La loi de Mints est examinée en tant qu’exemple d’une telle proposition. La logique propositionnelle intuitionniste devrait par conséquent être considérée comme étant incomplète. Nous concluons (...) par une discussion sur l’adéquation de l’interprétation BHK de l’implication. (shrink)