This study analyzes shells of marine gastropods of a zoological museum and the Latin epithets expressing perceptual and connotative attributes that they have received in the standard, Linnaean nomenclature. Making use of the Osgood semantic differential, we presented the subjects with digital 3-D reproductions of the shell specimens to be subjectively evaluated according to 17 pairs of attributes. The results show that, overall, the subjective evaluations given by the subjects are consistent, which suggests that an intersubjective characterization of the shells (...) as wholes according to their qualitative and morphological traits is possible and scientifically explicable. This may apply to other biological items as well. The results also show that the epithets given to the shells by taxonomists do not always reflect the perceptual evaluation of the general population, being a product of the well-known ambiguity in taxonomic categorization and naming. (shrink)

This book is a study of ancient views about "moral luck." It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control, and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of them have received the attention they deserve. This updated edition contains a new preface.

This chapter discusses the application of the capabilities approach to the question of animal rights. It explains that this approach provides better theoretical guidance on the issue of animal entitlements over contractarian and utilitarian approaches because it is capable of recognising a wide range of types of animal dignity and of corresponding needs for flourishing. The chapter criticises the view of philosopher Immanuel Kant and his followers that mistreatment of animals does not raise questions of justice and suggests that the (...) claims of animals should be rooted in an understanding of what sorts of capabilities animals have. (shrink)

As an ethicist trained in narrative, I wondered what I could offer Dr. Darcy at this point, two weeks after the events he described. And what might I have offered those involved if they had called an ethics consult at the time? One of this physician's implicit questions was, “How might this have unfolded in a better way?”When difficult choices must be made, how can a narrative approach help? A narrativist focuses less on principles, rules, and law than would a (...) philosopher or a lawyer. This is not to say that we ignore the law or are unaware of bioethical principles. But where do we go from there? Narrative offers a mode of engagement that asks different kinds of questions than those that law or philosophy might ask about moral agency, context, and values. (shrink)

La idea de la Justicia es un libro escrito por Amartya Sen, el ganador del premio Nobel de Economía de 1998. Representa la síntesis de más de 50 años de su investigación académica. Consta de 18 capítulos, de los cuales los diez primeros se refieren a cuestiones teóricas sobre la justicia y los restantes a temas relacionados con la aplicación de los fundamentos en los cuales se basan los juicios sobre la justicia. Entre estos temas se encuentran como principales: las (...) libertades, las capacidades, los recursos, la felicidad, la igualdad y el bienestar. (shrink)

Identity has been addressed from diverse perspectives that range from a conceptualisation of it as a pre-existing and static notion to a view that regards it as dynamically constructed in interaction. In this work, we take the latter as the guiding principle for our investigation into the ways in which identity is co-constructed by Argentinian university students in casual conversations. The analysis is carried out on the premise that there is an unquestionable relationship between discourse, identity and social processes. Given (...) the nature of the topic, an eclectic theoretical framework has been employed. An exhaustive examination of the data reveals the different types of identities deployed by the participants, the linguistic resources and the discursive functions used in the negotiation of identities. The analysis also shows that the emerging identities can be heavily conditioned by the topics addressed by the interactants. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to propose a unified approach to the split scope readings of negative indefinites, comparative quantifiers, and numerals. There are two main observations that justify this approach. First, split scope shows the same kinds of restrictions across these different quantifiers. Second, split scope always involves low existential force. In our approach, following Sauerland, natural language determiner quantifiers are quantifiers over choice functions, of type <<,t>,t>. In split readings, the quantifier over choice functions scopes above other (...) operators (such as intensional verbs like must or can). Determiner quantifiers leave a choice-function trace when they move and this trace combines with the noun restriction, which is interpreted low. That split scope always involves low existential force is derived, without stipulation, from Kratzer’s idea that low existential force can be achieved via binding (into the noun restriction). (shrink)

This article provides an intellectual history of the status of wage earners as conceptualized within the natural law paradigm by European writers both on the Continent and in Britain. Historians of political discourse have mostly investigated the consequences of such a status for the political rights of labourers. This article shows that the crucial moves were made by different authors analysing the relation of servant to master either in the domestic sphere or in private contracts. The article further contends that (...) that resulting deeply ambiguous analyses implied a far from complete personal freedom for wage earners. This had a decisive impact on different visions of commercial society in early modern times, and left a significant legacy for moderns. ☆ Apart from a few changes and some abridgment, this essay is the first chapter of my forthcoming book Vite da servi. Figure del lavoro salariato dalla giurisprudenza naturale all’economia politica (Servants’ Lives: Figures of Paid Labour from Natural Law to Political Economy). I am much indebted to Matthew Armistead for translating it, and to Marco Geuna and Gabriella Silvestrini for commenting on an earlier draft. (shrink)

Vulnerability theory as developed in the Vulnerability and Human Condition Initiative is an alternative to a rights-based or social contract paradigm for thinking about foundation concepts of state responsibility. One fundamental premise of the theory is that the individuals and groups currently described as “vulnerable populations” should not be labelled vulnerable, nor should they be sequestered in discreet categories for the purposes of law and policy. This plea for their inclusion in a larger whole is not to deny that discrimination, (...) harm, and relative disadvantage arising from all sorts of circumstances and situations exist. Nor is it to suggest that particular instances of harm should not be addressed by appropriate state action. Rather, it is an argument that “vulnerability” is the wrong concept to use to define and isolate these groups, or any other specific group, from the whole of humanity. Human vulnerability is universal and constant, inherent in the human condition. Recognizing the theoretical mandates of accepting the universal, vulnerability theory presents a “vulnerable subject” as the only appropriate object of law and policy. This inclusive, universal legal subject incorporates the realities of the ontological body and its life-long dependence on social institutions and relationships, building a theory of essential social cohesion and reciprocity in which the state has the responsibility to see that these vital social institutions and relationships operate justly. (shrink)

This paper deals with how telematic technologies such as the cellular phones, Internet, telerobotics and other varieties of telematic communication and control are placing into discussion the nature of knowledge and its scope. These technologies offer us knowledge by description and representation instead of physical contact, a fact that is often seen with suspicion since they are perceived as technologies of delusion in a culture characterized by its conspicuous materialism. What are the possible roles for our mediated activities in relation (...) with the comprehension of our environment and the construction of subjectivity? Telematic mediation necessarily deals with the immaterial aspects of technologies such as the changing concepts of reality and nature, future possibilities of an ethereal afterlife achieved through spiritual or technological means and the concept of distance that can render mediated communication delusory and unsatisfying while acting as an agent of delocalization. This view is supported by our traditional Platonic view that perceives representation of things as a palpable degradation while neglecting the constructive aspects of those fictional endeavours. (shrink)

For the last few years, the Escuela de Estudios Árabes has been carrying out a project for the computerisation of Arabic manuscripts. In this paper, we explain the benefits of consulting a manuscript using computer support, as apposed to traditional methods. We outline the steps followed in the process of building a digital archive: scanning of the manuscript as the first step, retrieval and use of the images storaged in the computer as the last one.

Sports occupy an interesting ethical space from a pedagogic point of view, being included in physical education curricula in most Western countries. The approach of physical education to sports as vehicle for ethical education is too limited when it is restricted to their minimal functional, constitutive and regulatory goals. This essay’s aim is to argue the extent to which the ethical potential of physical education can embrace more than functional purposes, or whether that will be neglected in terms of limited (...) educational aspirations. We present data from nineteen exploratory interviews with experienced philosophy, sports and physical education researchers and teachers, from six different nations, concerning the ethical potentiality of physical education. We highlight five ethical themes: (i) the regulatory and normative structure of sports; (ii) the spirit of sports and its internal values; (iii) the right playing/doing of sports; (iv) the overcoming in sports; and (v) sports as an opportunity for a supererogatory ethics as fertile ground for future operationalization of the potential of physical education for ethical education through sports.El deporte ocupa un interesante espacio ético desde un punto de vista pedagógico, integrándose en los curricula de educación física en la mayoría de países occidentales. El planteamiento de la educación física como vehículo de la educación ética es limitado cuando restringido a sus objetivos mínimos funcionales, constitutivos y regulatorios. El objetivo de este estudio es discutir si el potencial ético de la educación física puede ir más allá de los propósitos funcionales, que considerados aisladamente constituyen un desperdicio de la experiencia pedagógica del deporte. Para conseguirlo, presentamos datos de diecinueve entrevistas exploratorias con experimentados investigadores y profesores de filosofía, deporte y educación física relacionadas con las potencialidades éticas de la educación física. La muestra incluye individuos de seis diferentes nacionalidades, cuyo trabajo demuestra preocupaciones con el tema. La argumentación resulta de cinco temáticas principales: (i) Estructura normativa y regulativa del deporte; (ii) El espírito del deporte y sus valores internos; (iii) El bien hacer deportivo; (iv) La superación deportiva; (v) El deporte como oportunidad de una ética supererogatoria como contexto fértil para la concretización del potencial ético de una educación deportiva. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 16 Heft: 1 Seiten: 41-64.

Una dificultad frecuente en los trabajos sobre desarrollo sintáctico infantil es la de explicar usos cuya configuración no responde a una forma canónica aunque cumplan esa función. En el caso de las Cláusulas Relativas la tipología de lenguas propone el concepto de “Estrategia de relativización” para comprender las diferentes formas con las que las lenguas articulan modificadores complejos posnominales. Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación que analizó la producción espontánea y la recuperación de Cláusulas Relativas en 32 niños (...) y niñas, hablantes de español de 5 años, de Nivel Socioeconómico Medio y Bajo. Se consideró el desempeño sintáctico según variables poblacionales, pues existe una extensa tradición en la literatura sobre desarrollo sintáctico que atiende a esta incidencia. Se relevaron, describieron y clasificaron las CR siguiendo a Givón y Silva . Los objetivos de la investigación son, por un lado, considerar las ER y comparar su forma y frecuencia y, por otro lado, indagar cuáles son los factores que inciden en las diferencias. Los resultados muestran que las formas son comparables a usos de Estrategias de relativización descriptos previamente en población infantil y adulta para el español. Se releva una variación sintáctica novedosa, aducible al contexto particular de renarración. El análisis de diferencias de desempeño, según variables poblacionales, no reporta diferencias significativas, aunque sí se reportan al considerar tareas y Cláusulas Relativas Recuperadas ). El análisis de incidencia de variables poblacionales según tareas reporta diferencias significativas entre NSE Medio y Bajo para las CRREP. Los resultados permiten inferir que el uso infantil de CR no es una condición unicausal, ni completamente acreditable a la incidencia de factores poblacionales sino que es el resultado de la interacción entre condiciones poblacionales, lingüísticas, pragmáticointeraccionales y cognitivas. (shrink)

Los derechos sociales no han estado incorporados en las Comunidades Europeas, sino como consecuencias de la libre circulación de personas. Poco a poco a través de la política social se han ido asumiendo exigencias sociales que han desembocado en la formulación de derechos sociales denominados hoy "derechos de la solidaridad" en la Carta de Derechos Fundamentales de la Unión. No obstante, su efectividad y su justicialidad continúan siendo un interrogante y expresión del déficit de la U.E.

In paragraph 162 of Cato’s De agricultura there is an inconsistency between the topic announced in the headline - Salsura pernarum ofellae Puteolanae - and the subsequent text, as it is solely concerned with the salsura pernarum. All recent discussions assume that the text deals with two different recipes. In my paper, I suggest that, given Cato’s usus scribendi as well as the form of other recipes, Cato presents one recipe only: The headline specifies its name and alludes to the (...) process of its production (in reversed order) so that neither et nor a comma should be inserted between pernarum and ofellae (as most editors have done ever since Merula’s editio princeps). Finally, I offer an explanation for the inconsistency between the different forms of the title in the rubrica and in the summarium that correspond to this paragraph. (shrink)

Enrique Leff sostiene que las causas profundas de la crisis ambiental se basan en formas dominantes de conocimiento, es decir, la crisis tiene sus raíces en las bases epistemológicas de la modernidad. Leff sistemáticamente se ha dedicado a proponer y construir conceptos que deconstruyen los supuestos modernos, y que al mismo tiempo, permiten nuevas formas de entender y aprehender el mundo. Su extensa obra ha logrado trascender y forjar un espacio para el pensamiento ambiental, no sólo en la educación y (...) la filosofía ambiental, sino también en las áreas de la economía, la sociología y el desarrollo. Su argumento central es que estos problemas son el resultado de una crisis de la civilización, e insta a todos a repensar los fundamentos de la racionalidad moderna que subyace a la sociedad global contemporánea. (shrink)

Enrique Leff sostiene que las causas profundas de la crisis ambiental se basan en formas dominantes de conocimiento, es decir, la crisis tiene sus raíces en las bases epistemológicas de la modernidad. Leff sistemáticamente se ha dedicado a proponer y construir conceptos que deconstruyen los supuestos modernos, y que al mismo tiempo, permiten nuevas formas de entender y aprehender el mundo. Su extensa obra ha logrado trascender y forjar un espacio para el pensamiento ambiental, no sólo en la educación y (...) la filosofía ambiental, sino también en las áreas de la economía, la sociología y el desarrollo. Su argumento central es que estos problemas son el resultado de una crisis de la civilización, e insta a todos a repensar los fundamentos de la racionalidad moderna que subyace a la sociedad global contemporánea. (shrink)

Las redes sociales asociadas al conocimiento resultan de interés tanto a los estudios en Ciencia Tecnología y Sociedad, como al desenvolvimiento del pensamiento de la complejidad que se desarrolla en el país. Su análisis explica la naturaleza social de la producción científica y la existencia del capital social, cuyas características se vinculan con la satisfacción y resolución de las necesidades sociales dentro de la población cubana. Se muestra una red, conformada en torno a la Publicación Archivo Médico de Camagüey, durante (...) los años 2003, 2004 y dos bimestres del 2005 sobre el desenvolvimiento de las co autorías dentro de ella. Delineando en qué forma los investigadores se relacionaron entre sí, para valorar algunos de sus resultados. Se describen, los grupos esenciales de investigación y sus principales fortalezas. Constituye una herramienta de trabajo, al exponer los cambios que están ocurriendo en torno a la Universidad Médica Camagüeyana The social networks associated to human knowledge are useful to the studies in Science Technology and Society. Their analysis explains the social nature of the scientific production and the existence of social resources, which link the satisfaction and resolution of the social necessities inside the Cuban population. The characteristics of this networks conformed in Archivo Médico de Camagüey publication on the development of co authorship from 2003 to 2005 were presented in this article. The researchers were related to each other in this work to value in which way they function together and analyze some of their results. The essential groups of investigation and their main strengths were also described. It constitutes a work tool for further research works, to considering the changes that are happening about the scientific knowledge production in Camagüey University of Medicine. (shrink)

We extend results of Bonet, Buss and Pitassi on Bondy’s Theorem and of Nozaki, Arai and Arai on Bollobás’ Theorem by proving that Frankl’s Theorem on the trace of sets has quasipolynomial size Frege proofs. For constant values of the parametert, we prove that Frankl’s Theorem has polynomial size AC0-Frege proofs from instances of the pigeonhole principle.

This multi-faceted collection of women's perspectives on the renaissance in philosophical practices provides an international overview on the professional practice of philosophical counseling as rooted in the ancient philosophical discipline of life and its essential difference from modern mainstream philosophy.

Las culturas maya, azteca e inca habían desarrollado hasta el S. XVI originales y complejas estructuras de pensamiento. La superposición de la cultura europea hizo posible el traslado de la filosofía, que tiene ya una presencia ininterrumpida de más de cuatro siglos y medio. Sin embargo, ese proceso filosófico, visto desde la perspectiva de la problemática indígena actual, evidencia que no ha podido lograrse todavía, a través de la reflexión, una síntesis armoniosa que exprese los legados culturales indígena y occidental. (...) En cambio, tanto lafilosofía inculturada como la filosofía de la liberación, por sus postulados teóricos y de praxis, aspiran a esa anhelada síntesis cultural. (shrink)

La identidad nacional -- La filosofía contemporánea en la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima -- Las correintes contemporáneas de la filosofía peruana y latinoamericana.

El propósito de este trabajo es mostrar, primero, cómo se formaron las ciencias sociales, con qué características y presupuestos, y comprender sus dificultades para entender y abordar los problemas ambientales. En un segundo momento se presentarán unas reflexiones en torno al conocimiento y su relación con el ambiente, así como la importancia de superar la escisión entre las llamadas ciencias duras y las sociales/humanas, y la necesidad de aportes como los de las ciencias de la complejidad, de los estudios culturales, (...) de modernidad/colonialidad, y del pensamiento ambiental, como desafíos y posibilidades para abordar el problema ambiental de manera integral. Este conjunto de aproximaciones representa un reto grande para las ciencias sociales, pero sin enfrentarlo será imposible abordar los problemas ambientales de manera adecuada. (shrink)