This stimulating new international study of the state of democracy today contributes towards improving and deepening our understanding of the democratic process, both in new and old democracies. It brings together a leading group of international experts in the fields of politics, economics, sociology, journalism, anthropology and law. It covers key themes that have a bearing on the quality and sustainability of democratic practices and relates them to policies in specific countries or regions. A special concern of the book is (...) to identify and evaluate policies aimed at securing improvements in democratic practices. Most countries in the world today have embraced democracy. The rise of democracy has strengthened support for human rights and is making possible the resolution of many conflicts through political and legal means. In many countries, however, the state of democracy is a cause of concern. Countries that have recently become democratic are often unable to satisfy elementary social and economic aspirations of their citizens and many continue to restrict basic civil and political freedoms. Voters’ apathy, distrust of politicians, media manipulation and corruption are issues that also trouble citizens in old established democracies. This book was previously published as a special issue of _Democratization._. (shrink)

Resumen: Durante la Reconquista de Alberto Blest Gana puede ser leída como una novela en donde el secreto y el poder se entrelazan de manera profundamente significativa. Esta interrelación se constituye en el soporte de la narración, en cuyo desarrollo se entretejen los acontecimientos históricos, las intrigas amorosas y la descripción de costumbres sociales. En el despliegue de la novela hallamos inscritas las preocupaciones políticas y éticas de su autor.: Durante la Reconquista by Alberto Blest Gana can be read as (...) a novel in which a secret and power are intertwined in a profoundly significant manner. This interrelationship is constituted in the narrative support, in which the development of historical events, amorous intrigues and social customs are all interwoven. In the unfolding of the novel we can find the inscription of the political and ethical concerns of the author. (shrink)

Durante la Reconquista de Alberto Blest Gana puede ser leída como una novela en donde el secreto y el poder se entrelazan de manera profundamente significativa. Esta interrelación se constituye en el soporte de la narración, en cuyo desarrollo se entretejen los acontecimientos históricos, las intrigas amorosas y la descripción de costumbres sociales. En el despliegue de la novela hallamos inscritas las preocupaciones políticas y éticas de su autor.

This paper explores the ethical dilemma of conflicting loyalties found in whistleblowing. Central to this dilemma is the internal/external disclosure dichotomy; disclosure of organisational wrongdoing to an external recipient is seen as disloyal, whilst disclosure to an internal recipient is seen as loyal. Understanding how the organisation and society have dealt with these problems over the last 30 years is undertaken through an analysis of Vandekerckhove’s project, which seeks to place the normative legitimisations of whistleblowing legislation and organisational whistleblowing policies (...) within a globalisation semantic able to contain this conflict between society and the organisation. This project fails, it is argued, because of Vandekerckhove’s particular understanding of the organisation as an autopoietic system, i.e. an operationally closed system. A case is made to understand organisations as complex systems, i.e. operationally open systems. Critical Complexity theory sees the identities of systems and components as coterminous. In the context of the organisation, this means that the identities of the corporation and its corporate members arise and die together. The whistleblower’s disclosure reconfigures the organisation by forcing the organisation to open up and make its boundaries flexible, making the designation ‘internal’ or ‘external’ to the organisation, and, therefore, who qualifies as a recipient of a disclosure of wrongdoing, flexible. The organisation is restrained from retailing against the whistleblower, because its identities are coterminous. Furthermore, as the disclosure cannot be categorically defined as either internal or external, the question of whether an external disclosure can qualify as an act of organisational loyalty becomes moot. (shrink)

O presente estudo busca examinar alguns dos debates socrático-platônicos sobre a opinião pública diante da busca da verdade, e seu impacto político, particularmente para a democracia, que depende da noção de liberdade. Depois de se entender o avanço da visão de Platão sobre o problema da opinião e a impossibilidade de seu sobrepujamento geral, discute-se a visão do autor sobre o regime que dá poder ao demos e, ao final, que tipo de aprendizado se pode daí extrair para as democracias (...) contemporâneas. (shrink)

The texts of the Bible treasure a high amount of theatrical potential. Thus, the book of Job constituted the basis of the Theatrum Mundi . Nevertheless, the Jewish and Christian conception of the world and history, despite its tragedies and Passions, is far removed from Greek tragedy. The figure of Job constitutes a contrast to the tragic in King Lear . An exorcistic formula from the Bible appears in Hamlet, Macbeth, and in plays of the Faustian theme –El mágico prodigioso (...) and Marlowe’s and Goethe’s Fausts –, as well as, surprisingly, in Don Quixote and in many other plays where the devil appears on stage. OscarWilde’s Salome finds inspiration in the language of Song of Songs and of apocalyptic prophecies. Rituality and sacredness are common to the Bible and theatre in the quest for representation of the invisible through the visible. (shrink)

This book presents a conceptual mapping of supererogation in the analytic moral philosophical tradition. It first asks whether supererogation can be conceptualised in the absence of obligation or duty and then makes the case that it can be. It does so by enlisting the resources of the continental tradition, specifically using the work of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of infinite responsibility. In so doing the book contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic (...) and continental traditions within moral philosophy. Supererogatory actions are praiseworthy actions that go ‘beyond duty’, and yet are not blameworthy when not performed. In responding to this paradox, moral philosophy either brackets or attempts a reductionism of supererogation. Supererogation is epitomised in the paradigmatic figures of the saint and hero. Yet, most would agree that emulating these figures is too morally demanding. We rightly ask: where does moral obligation end? Is it even possible, or desirable to demarcate such a boundary? Besides the important theoretical issues these questions raise, they also speak to practical ethical dilemmas in the contemporary milieu, as they concern the global wealthy’s responsibility to the poor and the challenges of development aid work. (shrink)

Conceptual congruency effects are biases induced by an irrelevant conceptual dimension of a task (e.g., location in vertical space) on the processing of another, relevant dimension (e.g., judging words’ emotional evaluation). Such effects are a central empirical pillar for recent views about how the mind/brain represents concepts. In the present paper, we show how attentional cueing (both exogenous and endogenous) to each conceptual dimension succeeds in modifying both the manifestation and the symmetry of the effect. The theoretical implications of this (...) finding are discussed. (shrink)

This article has as its theme the democracy as fundamentalism, or the democratic fundamentalism. Its main objective is the recognition that the thinking about democracy can itself be fundamentalist, implying that not only religious fundamentalisms are a threat to contemporary democracy. Its method and object are the interpretation of texts by two contemporary philosophers who do not usually talk to each other, the Italian Gianni Vattimo and the French Jean-Luc Nancy. The essay's thesis is the affirmation of democratic thinking as (...) a form of fundamentalism, insofar as it fulfills certain conditions established by the two thinkers analyzed. These conditions are, in the language of the aforementioned philosophers, the framing of democracy under the so-called strong thought, or its subsumption to a metaphysical way of thought, so that it becomes incapable of self-criticism and its necessary reinvention. Thus, it is expected to contribute to the construction of a self-critical vision of democracy through dialogue with aspects of thought little known of important philosophers and also through the dialogue between philosophy and theology as emancipatory ways of knowing. (shrink)

This article provides a critical reading of the ‘Parecer CNE-CES 60, de 2014’, from the Ministry of education, Brazil, which defines the curriculum guidelines for courses of Baccalaureate in Theology. In its first section it discusses the theoretical background of the ‘Parecer’, questioning its illuminist orientation, as well as its pedagogical theory focused on contents and not on the students activities. It aims to show that are two opposed educational paradigms in the ‘Parecer’, the illuminist and the constructivist, although the (...) illuminist is the dominant one. It also question the view of the theologian present in the ‘Parecer’, marked by significant absences from the professional field of religious work. In the second section, the article presents a sample of particular interpretation of the ‘Parecer’, indicating the guidelines of a curriculum based on the constructivist paradigm. It dedicates special attention to the occult dimension of the curriculum and to an articulation of the student’s activities in relationship to the disciplines of the course. (shrink)

En 2011 se cumplió el centenario de la publicación del artículo de Husserl “La Filosofía como ciencia rigurosa”; este artículo presenta algunos problemas centrales a que tendría que responder la fenomenología en la actualidad. Los tres campos temáticos son los siguientes: 1) Cuál es la motivación que llevan a la epoché y en qué medida intervienen en ella los actos voluntarios. 2) Hasta qué punto la ampliación de la conciencia es un resultado de un procedimiento reflexivo, o en qué medida (...) participan allí procesos inconscientes. En esta parte se impone revisar las relaciones entre la fenomenología y el psicoanálisis. 3) Cuál es el sentido de los acontecimientos y en qué medida ellos permiten la ampliación o reducción del mundo de la vida. La consideración de la relación entre acontecimiento y acción exige replantear la pregunta por la responsabilidad social de la filosofía. (shrink)

Inauguration speech at chair number 18 of the Brasilian Academy of Philosophy.

La publicación relativamente reciente de los artículos de la revista japonesa Kaizo, titulados “Renovación del hombre y de la cultura” (1923-1924) y de las lecciones de ética impartidas por Husserl en los años de 1920 y 1924 permite acceder al nuevo rumbo que siguieron sus reflexiones éticas. Asimismo, estos textos permiten comprender la posición crítica de Husserl respecto de su primera versión de su ética, la cual se caracterizaba por ser una doctrina universal de los valores basada en una axiología (...) formal. A partir de los años veinte Husserl presenta una concepción novedosa de su ética, cuya principal base es la resolución del sujeto radical y volitiva por una vida consagrada a la responsabilidad y al amor. Este trabajo presenta cómo fue posible dicho tránsito y los rasgos generales de esta versión de la ética que se puede denominar también “personalista”. (shrink)

Los ODS marcan el camino de las empresas hacia la sostenibilidad. Pero no sabemos si las empresas audiovisuales, cinematográficas o televisivas van por el mismo camino. Además, existen algunos sellos y códigos de buenas prácticas que intentan poner la sostenibilidad en el rodaje. Esta investigación trata de explicar las iniciativas más antiguas e importantes sobre rodajes sostenibles:: Green Production Guide y Albert. Mostramos si enfocan la sostenibilidad en la huella de carbono o también en acciones sociales y de gobernanza, los (...) tres ejes de la sostenibilidad. Los resultados arrojan una serie de similitudes en los procesos, en la certificación interna y en el interés en la formación; así como diferencias en algunos ámbitos de aplicación y en asuntos sociales y de gobernanza. (shrink)

In the context of globalization, the existence of multiple legal cultures appears as a new form of legal pluralism and poses important challenges to jurisprudence and legal theory. On the one hand, the peaceful coexistence of several legal cultures demands a reasonable level of sustainable diversity; on the other hand, the processes of legal convergence can conceal new ways of legal imperialism, by means of legal transplant. In view of this, we understand there is a possibility of building a cosmopolitan (...) law, but this requires a new model of jurisprudence, released from the monist conception of state law, a formula that can go beyond the framework of old 19th century jurisprudence, in order to respond to the new circumstances of interdependence, globalization and multiculturalism. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 179-200.

Las fronteras entre la poesía y la filosofía fueron abiertas desde la misma antigüedad; sin embargo, el esfuerzo de los filósofos racionalistas por cerrarlas jamás fructificó; por el contrario, la imaginación moderna tejió las diferencias y afinó un debate que hoy parece llegar lento pero estremecido a su final. Este texto trata de esa querella, de cómo se planteó históricamente y de cómo la verdad y el conocimiento encuentran sentido en la fusión creativa antes que en la exclusión lógica.

The purpose of the article is to examine the nature of the quantitative investigation in the Peruvian sociology. In fact, quantitative studies show a divorce between theory and methodology, result of the insufficient development of the sociological instruments and the theoretical weakness that affe..

Este artículo destaca el papel del sujeto en la construcción del conocimiento científico, alejándose de las posturas positivistas en ciencias sociales. Destaca la teoría de la reflexividad y sus implicancias teóricas y metodológicas, en especial la investigación social de segundo orden. ..

Los datos se han convertido en un elemento significativo para comprender el comportamiento de diversos sistemas. En este contexto, Big Data es un concepto que hace referencia al trabajo con grandes volúmenes de datos y con una frontera difusa entre análisis y gestión de ellos. Con tal objeto, esta investigación se enmarca en el paradigma cualitativo. Mediante entrevistas a estudiantes y profesores, partícipes de un curso introductorio a Big Data, busca develar la utilidad en torno a esta temática. Los principales (...) hallazgos constatan una divergencia entre el concepto y lo que se entiende de él. (shrink)

In this paper I seek to critically examine UCT’s and CCT’s and consider how a Levinasian ethics might offer normative guidelines to evaluate such aid programmes. Such an analysis will serve to both critique and supplement the traditional utilitarian analyses of such programmes. In so doing, this paper also hopes to contribute to the business ethics literature in which a Levinasian ethics may be brought to bear on real world problems. I proceed by enlisting Jordaan who argues that a Levinasian (...) ethical politics can be instantiated in institutional designs by allowing a more complex representation of the other’s alterity. Two UCT programmes are interrogated in light of this finding – the first, a UCT programme in a community in Vietnam; the second, a joint CCT/UCT programme targeting adolescent girls in Malawi, designed to test the efficacy of conditionality to achieve certain. (shrink)