La literatura especializada ha solido reproducir la distinción scheleriana entre “actos” y “funciones” sin aventurar, por lo general, una justificación teórica satisfactoria de la misma; la cual tampoco es ofrecida con claridad por el fenomenólogo muniqués. En este artículo propongo una interpretación de dichos conceptos que ayude a clarificarlos y que haga comprensible su diferenciación. Se comprobará que la distinción entre acto y función es de importancia decisiva para la antropología filosófica y, en particular, para el contraste entre el “mundo” (...) (Welt) de la persona humana y el “entorno” (Umwelt) del animal. Como contribución al tratamiento de tales cuestiones, plenamente vigentes un siglo después de la muerte de Scheler, me permito introducir el concepto adicional de “mera función”. (shrink)

La fundamentación metafísica que sirve de núcleo a la ética de la responsabilidad de Hans Jonas participa de unos determinados presupuestos acerca de la relación entre los aspectos objetivo y subjetivo de la ética, donde la objetividad se atribuye automáticamente a lo teórico y la relatividad subjetiva a lo valorativo. Con ayuda de la crítica que realizó Max Scheler de estos mismos presupuestos en el formalismo ético de Immanuel Kant, se trata de discutirlos y mostrar que suprimen el fundamento propio (...) de la moral, que reside en el conocimiento objetivo, pero al mismo tiempo afectivo, de cualidades materiales de valor en tanto que objetos intencionales del percibir afectivo. (shrink)

The Purpose in Life Test is a measure of purpose in life widely used in many cultures and countries; however, cross-cultural assessments are scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the PIL in the general population of seven Latin American countries. A total of 4306 people participated, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, where Uruguay has the highest mean age ; while Ecuador has the lowest mean age. Furthermore, in each country, there is a higher proportion (...) of women than men. Using Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the factorial structure does not show evidence of invariance among the included countries. However, based on the Multi-Group Factor Analysis Alignment, there is evidence that a three-dimensional structure of the PIL is the same in the participating countries. Results based on item response theory indicate that most PIL items can significantly differentiate responses according to the level of life purpose. In addition, people with low life purpose will tend to choose the lower response alternatives on the PIL; while people with higher life purpose will choose higher response alternatives. The findings indicate that the PIL has the potential to increase knowledge about how people conceive and experience their purpose in life in different countries. (shrink)

The Venezuelan-Chilean humanist Andrés Bello has been recognized as one of the most distinguished intellectuals of the 19th century—one of the last polymaths of the stature of figures such as Athanasius Kircher, Gottfried Leibniz or Benjamin Franklin. Indeed, his numerous contributions span fields such as grammar, poetry, civil law, diplomacy, education, political theory, philology and philosophy. However, despite having composed one of the most important philosophical treatises ever written in Spanish, his philosophical proposals have not been engaged with a substantial (...) way by scholars of the Anglophone world. Only a few scholars such as... (shrink)

When reasoning about dependence relations, philosophers often rely on gradualist assumptions, according to which abrupt changes in a phenomenon of interest can only result from abrupt changes in the low-level phenomena on which it depends. These assumptions, while strictly correct if the dependence relation in question can be expressed by continuous dynamical equations, should be handled with care: very often the descriptively relevant property of a dynamical system connecting high- and low-level phenomena is not its instantaneous behavior, but its stable (...) fixed points (those in the vicinity of which it spends most of the time, after comparatively short transitory periods), and stable fixed points can change abruptly as a result of infinitesimal changes of the low-level phenomenon. We illustrate this potential gradualist trap by showing that Chalmers’s fading qualia argument falls in it. (shrink)

En este trabajo se reflexiona sobre la propuesta de Jacques Derrida a propósito de la relación de la filosofía con su institución y enseñanza actuales. El objetivo de esta reflexión es exponer, analizar e interpretar las aporías que, según Derrida, se refieren a la escena escolar, finalidad, lugar, enseñanza, institución, magisterio, didáctica y tiempo de la filosofía. En el análisis y la interpretación se defiende que la propuesta de Derrida es compatible y puede completarse con las aportaciones de filósofos de (...) corrientes diversas: Martha Nussbaum, Gianni Vattimo, Max Horkheimer, Alain Badiou, Pierre Hadot, Dario Antiseri. El concepto de síntesis disyuntiva, concebido por Gilles Deleuze, posibilita la realización de esta tarea constructiva, afirmativa y reivindicativa. (shrink)

Este trabajo indaga la dimensión poética del testimonio en situaciones donde el agravio se encuentra tejido entre discursos impulsados por aspiraciones democráticas y dinámicas destructivas de la diversidad lingüística y cultural. A partir de la documentación del caso de Inés Fernández Ortega y etnografías en La Casa de los Saberes, Gúwa Kúma, se abordarán las prácticas de cuidado, los discursos de verdad y resistencia ante los mecanismos de reproducción social, política y cultural generados por la transición partidista en México y (...) el militarismo diseminado como reflujo de la violencia. En este marco la plasticidad, el testimonio no se encuentra solo y únicamente en marcos lingüísticos y ostensibles, que se despliegan con pretensiones de persuasión y de una verdad aceptada de manera lógica racional, sino se instala de manera dinámica, clandestina y eventual desde expresiones corporales múltiples, contra normativas que dinamizan vínculos inesperados y afectividades alternativas que atestan formas de habitar la tierra desde la vulnerabilidad sin daño, la comunalidad sin explotación y el cuidado sin condiciones. (shrink)

Este artículo explora la digitalización de las sociedades democráticas tardomodernas como una de las realizaciones del programa neoliberal que trabaja en la conformación de nuevas subjetividades. En esta labor el imperativo tecnológico es fundamental porque tiende a convertirse en fuente exclusiva de normatividad. Sus consecuencias son la fragmentación de la experiencia, la quiebra de las identidades, la disrupción y el desvío del deseo de comunidad. Para evitarlas, se apunta cuál puede ser el procedimiento para la construcción de una subjetividad alternativa (...) de tipo democrático-emancipatorio que diverja de los procesos de subjetivación ligados a la digitalización neoliberal. En la realización de esta tarea se recurre a filósofas y filósofos de tradiciones diversas. (shrink)

In this chapter, I argue that the insurrectionist ethics initially articulated by Leonard Harris, and further developed by other scholars such as Lee McBride III, Jacoby Carter, and Kristie Dotson, can fruitfully be deployed to understand how resistance movements and liberatory struggles have been framed in Mexico by some prominent intellectuals. To be more precise, I argue that one can read the historical work México a través de los siglos. El Virreinato from the nineteenth century Mexican historian and novelist Vicente (...) Riva Palacio as articulating a form of insurrectionist ethics adapted to the Mexican context to the extent that it exemplifies the core features that Harris identifies in insurrectionist ethics. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility is increasingly viewed as a strategic management tool for companies to draw in candidates. In this arena, international responsible rankings such as ‘The Great Place to Work’, ‘Family Responsible Employer Index ’ or ‘The Best Companies for Working Mothers’ put emphasis on the value of responsible behaviours, not only for surviving in the market, but also to ‘win the war for talent’. Using a sample of Spanish University students, this research aims to analyse the process of selecting (...) responsible organizations to work and whether there is a possible future conflict of interest by students between their own and organizational values. Surprisingly, the university students assessed two opposing situations with the highest values: of looking to change employer and of letting time pass in order to ignore the conflict. The implications of the students’ assessments and the related factors which affect their decision-making criteria are explored in this article. (shrink)

Resumen: En la fórmula Campo + [Capital + Habitus] = Prácticas sociales, se condensan las aportaciones de un autor como Pierre Bourdieu a nivel teórico, y de ahí es posible desprender el método de abordaje para la investigación social al recuperar lo objetivo y lo subjetivo de las prácticas sociales. A partir de los conceptos así formulados, se proponen dos lecciones que se desprenden del trabajo intelectual del sociólogo bearnés: lecciones teóricas y algunas lecciones metodológicas derivadas de las primeras, con (...) el fin de contribuir a una sistematización explícita de su modus operandi para la investigación social, toda vez que el autor nunca lo hizo para evitar que sus aportaciones quedasen atrapadas con la rigidez de los esquemas escolásticos. En este sentido, el autor es tanto objeto como instrumento de la reflexión propuesta que mira a la noción de capital como la metodológicamente más importante para la práctica de la investigación social.: In the formula Field + [Capital + Habitus] = Social practices, the contributions of an author such as Pierre Bourdieu are condensed on a theoretical level, and from there it is possible to detach the approached method for social research by recovering the objective and subjective aspects of social practices based on the concepts thus formulated, two lessons are proposed that are derived from the intellectual work of the béarnese sociologist: theoretical lessons and some methodological lessons derived from the former, in order to contribute to an explicit systematization of their modus operandi for social research, since the author never did it to avoid that his contributions were trapped with the rigidity of the scholastic schemes. In this sense, the author is both an object and an instrument of the proposed reflection that looks at the notion of capital as the most important methodologically for the practice of social research. (shrink)

Resumen: Pierre Bourdieu es uno de esos autores que siempre es posible “redescubrir” dependiendo de los intereses científicos que el lector tenga, y eso por la maestría con la que practicó la ciencia de forma crítica. Para él la epistemología, más que una metaciencia discursiva, es una práctica para todo sociólogo que ejerce el oficio de la investigación científica, y su mismo legado científico lo evidencia. De ahí que su “sociología reflexiva” no sea sino una epistemología práctica que permite a (...) la vez la más variada construcción de objetos científicos con el apoyo de un capital teórico amasado a través de toda su trayectoria intelectual en la fórmula [ ] + campo = práctica cuyos conceptos abordados de forma abierta lo permiten. Así como se pueden aprender lecciones teóricas y metodológicas, este artículo presenta dos lecciones directas de la obra del sociólogo francés, una epistemológica y otra sobre la construcción del objeto de estudio, y una indirecta en las conclusiones sobre las ventajas de estar ante una propuesta abierta e inacabada como la de Pierre Bourdieu para la investigación científica.: Pierre Bourdieu is one of those authors that it is always possible to “rediscover” depending on the scientific interests that the reader has, and that because of the mastery with which he practiced science critically. For him, epistemology, more than a discursive meta-science, is a practice for every sociologist who exerts the office of scientific research, and his very scientific legacy evidences it. Hence, his “reflexive sociology” is nothing more than a practical epistemology that allows at the same time the most varied construction of scientific objects with the support of a theoretical capital amassed throughout his intellectual career in the formula [ ] + field = practice whose openly addressed concepts allow it. Just as it can be learned theoretical and methodological lessons, this article presents two direct lessons from the work of the French sociologist, one epistemological and another about the construction of the object of study, and an indirect one in the conclusions about the advantages of being faced with an open and unfinished proposal like Pierre Bourdieu's for scientific research. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Spanish mobile phone industry to determine how mobile phone companies and certain institutions can improve protection for children who use mobile phones. We carried out a multivariate statistical analysis using anonymous primary data from mobile phone companies, and institutions and associations that protect children, to compare these stakeholders’ opinions and to put forward solutions. We proved that, even though some European countries have made an effort to provide safer ICT services, all (...) stakeholders still need to cooperate and agree on solutions to the commercial problems associated with children using mobile phones. This can be done by signing codes of conduct. We found that even though some companies implement measures to protect children from accessing harmful content via their mobile phones, they do so for reasons of legal and not social responsibility. (shrink)

The Novohispanic nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz has not been traditionally considered as a philosopher within the Anglophone philosophical sphere because her writings are primarily poems and plays. In the last three decades, only a few philosophers have engaged with Sor Juana's works. However, their scholarship has focused only on a narrow range of issues, such as Sor Juana's defense of the right of women to be educated, and has neglected other dimensions of her thought, such as her (...) position on self-control. In this study, I argue that, in contraposition to traditional interpretations of Sor Juana's views on self-control offered by Octavio Paz and Anna More, it is better to read her as adopting a stance on self‐control that prefigures a position recently adopted by Al Mele (who distinguishes having self‐control from being self‐controlled). In particular, I show that the interpretation that I propose is better than the others I discuss because it fits better Sor Juana's apologetic goals. (shrink)

The objective of this study was to describe the cultural domain of ethical behaviours in clinical practice as defined by health care providers in Mexico. Structured interviews were carried out with 500 health professionals employed at the Mexican Institute of Social Security in Mexico City. The Smith Salience Index was used to evaluate the relevance of concepts gathered from the free listings of the interviewees. Cluster analysis and factor analysis facilitated construction of the conceptual categories, which the authors refer to (...) as `dimensions of ethical practice'. Six dimensions emerged from the analysis to define the qualities that comprise ethical clinical practice for Mexican health care providers: overall quality of clinical performance; working conditions that favour quality of care; use of ethical considerations as prerequisites for any health care intervention; values favouring teamwork in the health professional—patient relationship; patient satisfaction scores; and communication between health care providers and patients. The findings suggest that improved working conditions and management practices that promote the values identified by the study's participants would help to improve quality of care. (shrink)

This article offers a critical complement to Diego von Vacano’s differential characterization of Bolívar’s political thought and his understanding of race through a comparative analysis between Bolívar’s views and those of certain philosophers of the Enlightenment. Indeed, von Vacano argues that Bolívar’s contributions to republican theory have been traditionally ignored by the Anglo-American tradition. Though von Vacano is right in underscoring that Bolívar’s political thought deserves more attention since it contains valuable contributions that stand in “contradistinction to prevalent discourses in (...) European and American intellectual history,” this article argues that, if we reconstruct the genealogy of Bolívar’s political thought by tracing it back to Montesquieu and Rousseau, it turns out to be very different in some respects from the views voiced in European discourses, but it also bears the imprint of certain racist assumptions and biases. This article also offers a brief diagnosis of the tensions that are found in Bolívar's political thought. (shrink)

In the last twenty-five years, several authors have raised problems to the thesis that privileged self-knowledge is compatible with content externalism. In particular, the 'slow-switching' argument, which was originally put forth by Paul Boghossian (1989), aims to show that there is no satisfactory account of how we can have privileged knowledge about our own thoughts given content externalism. Though many philosophers have found ways to block the argument, no one has worried to address a major worry that Boghossian had when (...) he presented the argument, which is to understand under which conditions privileged self-knowledge is possible given content externalism. In this paper, I offer a diagnosis of why the slow-switching argument fails and I show how the diagnosis enables us to provide a partial response to Boghossian's worry. (shrink)