Quantum physics and the dialogue with religion The present paper has two main purposes. On the one hand, to introduce Pascual Jordan, an author little known in philosophy academic circles and better known in scientific ones. Jordan took part in the birth of quantum physics during the first half of the 20th century and worked side by side with Werner Heisenberg under Max Born’s direction to elaborate Matrix Mechanics, an essential contribution to the formal description of atom quantum structure. On (...) the other hand, I expose his personal contribution to the science and religion debate. In this regard, he found himself both in an unfavorable and a favorable position. Unfavorable, because Jordan stands far from such epistemological matters as scientific realism; favorable, because he took very seriously the discoveries of new rising physics, and was, thus, a committed realist when discussing scientific theories. Furthermore, he was a devoted Christian, which means that he has a realist stance on religion – the only valid choice for those who consider the relation between life and faith as indissoluble. His constitutive realism leads him to regard the relation between religion and science as an existential problem rather than as an academic one, and therefore, he dedicated a large part of his philosophical works to this subject. (shrink)

Para sugerir posibles soluciones a las desigualdades sociales, culturales y económicas, así como al alarmante deterioro del planeta, es necesario tener en cuenta que las causas que las provocan no son coyunturales. Según numerosos expertos, estamos ante una crisis estructural, energética, alimentaria, social, económica, medioambiental, política, institucional, cultural y de valores.

Resumen Este artículo analiza la construcción de la infancia en las novelas El mercurio (1968), El río de la luna (1981) y Esta pared de hielo (2005), de José María Guelbenzu, a la luz de los conceptos mítico-simbólicos de Bachelard y Durand para demostrar que funciona como un absoluto primigenio al que se busca volver constantemente, pues resguarda a los personajes hasta el inminente choque con la realidad adulta. Esto para concluir que desde la adultez los personajes observan la infancia (...) con el anhelo de volver allí, lo que tiene una función paliativa mediante la memoria y la palabra, por ello, la narrativa de Guelbenzu plantea regresar al ámbito infantil desde las imágenes literarias y así conservar ese mundo de fantasía. Abstract This article analyzes the construction of childhood in the novels El mercurio (1968), El río de la luna (1981) and Esta pared de hielo (2005), by José María Guelbenzu, in the light of the mythical-symbolic concepts of Bachelard and Durand to demonstrate that it functions as a primitive absolute to which it is sought to return constantly, since it protects the characters until the imminent clash with adult reality. This to conclude that in their adulthood the characters observe childhood with the desire to return there, this has a palliative function through memory and word, therefore, Guelbenzu’s narrative proposes the return to the child environment trough literary images to preserve that world of fantasy. (shrink)

Since the nineteenth century, the debate around the process of professionalization of higher education has been characterized by two extreme positions. For some critics the process carries the risks of instrumentalizing knowledge and of leading the university to succumb under the demands of the market or the state; for other theorists it represents a concrete opportunity for the university to open up to the real needs of society and for reorienting theoretical and fragmented disciplines towards the resolution of concrete and (...) challenging problems. This article pursues three objectives. Firstly, we show that the debate is usefully informed not only by ideas of what a university is, but also by ideas of a profession. We suggest that both ideas help to overcome the conflict between the two afore-mentioned antagonist perspectives. Secondly, we demonstrate that a certain understanding of a profession can prevent the risk of viewing knowledge exclusively as scientific expertise and reducing training to the acquisition of technical skills. The position on professions adopted here is inspired by the Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, whose work is instructive in understanding professions as “rational practical activities”, embedded in a social context with their own internal goods. Our third objective, therefore, is to argue, with MacIntyre, that the presence of professions within the university opens up the opportunity to rescue forms of rationality that are oriented towards action and, by implication, promotes spaces of training that are resistant to exclusively corporate or governmental interests and criteria of mere effectiveness. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es problematizar la lectura que Alexandra von Teuffenbach ha hecho sobre el actuar del sacerdote alemán Joseph Kentenich, a quien denuncia por haber cometido abuso de poder, abuso espiritual y emocional contra un grupo de Hermanas de María en los años 50. De acuerdo con la investigadora, una revisión de los expedientes vaticanos daría cuenta de que la razón por la que Kentenich habría sufrido un exilio durante 14 años fuera de Schönstatt, correspondería a una (...) medida del visitador pontificio, el jesuita neerlandés Sebastian Tromp, para proteger a la comunidad de mujeres consagradas contra su abusador. El propósito de este artículo es mostrar que la cuestión juzgada por el Santo Oficio se mueve en otro plano, el que se debiese abordar desde una hermenéutica más objetiva que haga justicia a las palabras utilizadas en los documentos oficiales, así como a las mismas expresiones emitidas por el encargado de la visitación. En esa línea, se analiza en este trabajo la crítica dirigida por Tromp a la espiritualidad de Schoenstatt y de su fundador por falso misticismo, falso culto personal y falsa dirección espiritual. Para este trabajo se ha utilizado la reciente edición de los informes apostólicos publicados por Patris Verlag, archivos sobre los que sólo recientemente se ha levantado su embargo como parte de los documentos del pontificado de Pío XII. (shrink)

This paper seeks to reflect, from a political philosophy point of view, about the integration possibilities of religion in public sphere –specifically Islam– in plural and democratic societies. In this article, we will confront ideas of Occidental thinkers –such as Rawls, Habermas and Taylor– with Muslim scholars such as Sachedima and An-Na’im.

El propósito del presente artículo es estudiar la respuesta humana al don divino según el comentario de Tomás de Aquino y Martín Lutero a la Carta a los Romanos. Si bien ambos autores asumen una postura antipelagiana, la concepción tomista, al reconocer el valor positivo del orden creado, comprende con mayor hondura metafísica la acción justificadora y santificadora de Dios en la creatura humana. Por otra parte, la exégesis de Lutero, más existencial, es especialmente aguda e incisiva desde este punto (...) de vista. En ambos casos es posible deducir que el punto de partida de la exégesis no es una reflexión abstracta sino un diálogo personal y vital con el Apóstol. El artículo profundizará en los comentarios a Rm 5,5, pasaje central en el pensamiento de san Agustín, cuya influencia es patente tanto en la exégesis de Tomás de Aquino como en la de Martín Lutero. Para estos efectos se apoyará en las recientes reflexiones sobre la categoría de don con la que se analizará la gracia divina, pues ésta contribuye a poner de manifiesto la diferencia entre una visión extrínseca o forense de la justificación y santificación, en la que se acentúa la pasividad del cristiano ante el don inmerecido recibido (Lutero), y una salvación que trasforma al cristiano para que responda al amor de Dios desde el amor (Tomás de Aquino). (shrink)

The study of corporate social responsibility has been the object of much research in recent decades, although there is a need to continue investigating its benefits as a marketing tool. In the current work we adopt a multi-dimensional perspective of social responsibility, and we carry out market research to determine the perceptions of users of mobile telephone services about economic, legal, ethical and social aspects of their operating companies. With these data we determine the structure and components of the concept (...) of social responsibility. Subsequently, this is related with the overall evaluation of the service and loyalty by means of a model of structural equations, in order to determine the influence of corporate social responsibility on these concepts, and hence its benefits as a commercial tool. (shrink)

Recommender Systems (RecSys) have been around since the early days of the Internet, helping users navigate the vast ocean of information and the increasingly available options that have been available for us ever since. The range of tasks for which one could use a RecSys is expanding as the technical capabilities grow, with the disruption of Machine Learning representing a tipping point in this domain, as in many others. However, the increase of the technical capabilities of AI-powered RecSys did not (...) come with a thorough consideration of their ethical implications and, despite being a well-established technical domain, the potential impacts of RecSys on their users are still under-assessed. This paper aims at filling this gap in regards to one of the main impacts of RecSys: personal autonomy. We first describe how technology can affect human values and a suitable methodology to identify these effects and mitigate potential harms: Value Sensitive Design (VSD). We use VSD to carry out a conceptual investigation of personal autonomy in the context of a generic RecSys and draw on a nuanced account of procedural autonomy to focus on two components: competence and authenticity. We provide the results of our inquiry as a value hierarchy and apply it to the design of a speculative RecSys as an example. (shrink)

Among the many applications of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual assistants are one of the tools most likely to grow in the future. The development of these systems may play an increasingly important role in many facets of our lives. Therefore, given their potential importance and present and future weight, it is worthwhile to analyze what kind of challenges they entail. In this chapter, we will provide an overview of the ethical aspects of artificial virtual assistants. First, we provide a conceptual (...) clarification of the term ‘virtual assistant’, including different types of interfaces and recommender systems. Second, we address three ethical issues related to the deployment of these systems: their effects on human agency and autonomy and the subsequent cognitive dependence they would generate; the human obsolescence that may cause a generalized extension of the dependence problem; and the invasions of privacy that virtual assistants may cause. Finally, we outline the debates about the use of virtual assistants to improve human moral decisions and some areas in which these systems can be applied. (shrink)

Los pacientes con síndrome braquicefálico suponen un reto para el anestesiólogo, ya que la mayoría de ellos tienen alteraciones en el sistema respiratorio que convierten a estos animales en pacientes de riesgo.

Se ha acusado a los jesuitas, muchas veces, de ser una orden híbrida: son religiosos y también seculares, se preocupan del Evangelio y también de la economía, política, ciencias, etc. ¿De dónde proviene esta particular forma de ser? Pensamos que la clave para responder a esta pregunta está en la preocupación de los jesuitas por la idea del bien común que ya se puede encontrar en sus documentos fundacionales.