The aim of this article is to theorize how materials can play an active, constitutive, and causally effective role in the production and sustenance of cultural forms and meanings. It does so through an empirical exploration of the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA). The article describes the museum as an “objectification machine” that endeavors to transform and to stabilize artworks as meaningful “objects” that can be exhibited, classified, and circulated. The article explains how the extent to which (...) the museum succeeds in this process of stabilization ultimately depends on the material properties of artworks and, more specially, on whether these behave as “docile” or “unruly” objects. Drawing on different empirical examples, the article explores how docile and unruly objects shape organizational dynamics within the museum and, through them, the wider processes of institutional and cultural reproduction. The article uses this empirical example to highlight the importance of developing a new “material sensibility” that restores heuristic dignity to the material within cultural sociology. (shrink)

In the last few years, biologists and computer scientists have claimed that the introduction of data science techniques in molecular biology has changed the characteristics and the aims of typical outputs (i.e. models) of such a discipline. In this paper we will critically examine this claim. First, we identify the received view on models and their aims in molecular biology. Models in molecular biology are mechanistic and explanatory. Next, we identify the scope and aims of data science (machine learning in (...) particular). These lie mainly in the creation of predictive models which performances increase as data set increases. Next, we will identify a tradeoff between predictive and explanatory performances by comparing the features of mechanistic and predictive models. Finally, we show how this a priori analysis of machine learning and mechanistic research applies to actual biological practice. This will be done by analyzing the publications of a consortium—The Cancer Genome Atlas—which stands at the forefront in integrating data science and molecular biology. The result will be that biologists have to deal with the tradeoff between explaining and predicting that we have identified, and hence the explanatory force of the ‘new’ biology is substantially diminished if compared to the ‘old’ biology. However, this aspect also emphasizes the existence of other research goals which make predictive force independent from explanation. (shrink)

Diez, M.A. Discurso ... -- Urdaneta, A. Contestación ...

Deep learning is a kind of machine learning which happens in a certain type of artificial neural networks called deep networks. Artificial deep networks, which exhibit many similarities with biological ones, have consistently shown human-like performance in many intelligent tasks. This poses the question whether this performance is caused by such similarities. After reviewing the structure and learning processes of artificial and biological neural networks, we outline two important reasons for the success of deep learning, namely the extraction of successively (...) higher level features and the multiple layer structure, which are closely related to each other. Then some indications about the framing of this heated debate are given. After that, an assessment of the value of artificial deep networks as models of the human brain is given from the similarity perspective of model representation. Finally, a new version of computational functionalism is proposed which addresses the specificity of deep neural computation better than classic, program based computational functionalism. (shrink)

Drawing on the Agency-Stewardship approach, which suggests that manager profile may range from the agent model to the steward model, this article aims to examine how important CEOs are to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Specifically, this exploratory study proposes the existence of a relationship between manager profile and CSR practices and that this relation is mediated by the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. After applying a mediated regression analysis using survey information collected from 149 CEOs in Spain, results (...) show that those closer to the steward model are more inclined to attach great importance to ethics and social responsibility, and to implement CSR practices in their companies. Results also provide support for the suggested mediating effect. Thus, this article extends research in understanding top managers as drivers for CSR and suggests new ways to deal with this issue empirically. (shrink)

In the last few years, biologists and computer scientists have claimed that the introduction of data science techniques in molecular biology has changed the characteristics and the aims of typical outputs (i.e. models) of such a discipline. In this paper we will critically examine this claim. First, we identify the received view on models and their aims in molecular biology. Models in molecular biology are mechanistic and explanatory. Next, we identify the scope and aims of data science (machine learning in (...) particular). These lie mainly in the creation of predictive models which performances increase as data set increases. Next, we will identify a tradeoff between predictive and explanatory performances by comparing the features of mechanistic and predictive models. Finally, we show how this a priori analysis of machine learning and mechanistic research applies to actual biological practice. This will be done by analyzing the publications of a consortium—The Cancer Genome Atlas—which stands at the forefront in integrating data science and molecular biology. The result will be that biologists have to deal with the tradeoff between explaining and predicting that we have identified, and hence the explanatory force of the ‘new’ biology is substantially diminished if compared to the ‘old’ biology. However, this aspect also emphasizes the existence of other research goals which make predictive force independent from explanation. (shrink)

En 1588, el jesuita Luis de Molina publicaría su famosa Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, en la cual intenta defender –contra el fatalismo protestante- la libre determinación de la voluntad con respecto a su fin último sobrenatural. Sin embargo, las explicaciones teológicas del P. Molina suponen graves errores metafísicos, particularmente con respecto al concurso general o simultáneo de Dios sobre las causas segundas en las que Dios no obra in sino cum causa, donde la acción de la creatura determina (...) al Creador a producir conjuntamente un efecto. A partir de la Apología de los Padres Dominicos que recoge la doctrina de Santo Tomás acerca de la premoción física, procederemos en la crítica de esta tesis molinista: sólo Dios es Acto Puro y por eso es causa del movimiento actualizador tanto de las potencias naturales como espirituales, pues todo efecto –sea contingente o necesario– depende de la voluntad divina que trasciende todo orden de necesidad y contingencia: de allí que sólo Dios puede mover eficazmente nuestro intelecto y voluntad, y no por eso nuestros actos dejan de ser nuestros y personales. (shrink)

Este artículo examina cómo la tragedia griega, especialmente Antígona de Sófocles recupera y amplia el mito. En efecto, el mito encuentra en la tragedia un despliegue tal que en muchas ocasiones llega a competir con el canon mítico. Es también nuestra intención analizar de qué modo opera el mito en la dinámica dramática; esto es, en qué medida le es funcional a la representación trágica. This article examines how the Greek tragedy, especially Sophocles' Antigone recuperates and expands the myth. Indeed, (...) the tragedy displays the myth in a way that it can compete with the mythic canon in many occasions. It is also our intention to examine how the myth operates in the dramatic dynamics, that is, to what extent it is functional to the tragic representation. (shrink)

Background: Patients at the end-of-life and their families experience a strong emotional impact. The wellbeing of the patient at the end-of-life and their family caregiver are related. Aim: to explore the elements related with the emotional wellbeing of patients with and without cognitive impairment at the end-of-life and that of their primary family caregivers. Design: Cross- sectional study. Participants: data was collected from 202 patients at the end of life with different diagnosis (COPD, cancer and frail elderly) as well as (...) from their respective 202 primary family caregivers. Results: Structural equation models indicated that the emotional state of the patients was best predicted by their functional independence and the burden of their family caregivers. At the same time, the emotional state of the primary family caregiver was predicted by their burden and not by the cognitive state or the functional independence of the patient. Nevertheless, the burden of the family caregiver, which is the only variable predicting both the emotional state of the patient and that of the caregiver, was directly related with the functional independence of the patient and indirectly with the patient’s cognitive state. Conclusions: The burden of the family caregiver stands out as a key factor in the reduction of the emotional distress of patients at the end-of-life –whether or not they present significant cognitive impairment- and that of their family caregivers. (shrink)

Este ensayo está dirigido a comprender, someramente, la relación del hegelianismo y Kierkegaard a través del contexto intelectual de Dinamarca en la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Para esta aproximación es necesario, en primer lugar, constatar bajo qué formas irrumpe el hegelianismo alemán en los círculos intelectuales de Copenhague; luego, sondear la relación existente entre este hegelianismo y las figuras que dan forma y contenido al hegelianismo danés; para, por último, entender qué tipo de relación mantuvo Søren Kierkegaard con el (...) hegelianismo. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analizan las cláusulas de liquidez constitucional (CLC), tal como han sido caracterizadas por José María Sauca. Sobre los rasgos estructurales, se sostiene, primero, que es difícil reconducir los ejemplos de CLC a un solo modelo, por cuanto, una vez introducida la distinción entre reglas prescriptivas y constitutivas, caben seis posibles reconstrucciones; segundo, que el principio de prevalencia, lejos de suponer que no hay contradicciones entre las normas que puedan emanar de las CLC y la normativa constitucional, (...) las presuponen; tercero, que mantener que las CLC implican una transferencia de soberanía solo puede obedecer a un uso ambiguo del término “soberanía”. Por lo que hace a las funciones, y en contra de lo sostenido por Sauca, se muestra que las CLC pueden conducir a mutaciones constitucionales y es factible considerarlas mecanismos de última palabra. (shrink)

To Shh, or not to Shh: that is the question. Paraphrasing Hamlet, one of the main ethical dilemmas for workers and organisations can be represented: to blow the whistle or to remain silent when facing a wrongdoing. Whistleblowing is analysed from psychological, normative and organisational points of view, but the implementation in the company is less represented. And it should not be like that, since internal whistleblowing mechanisms allow organisational wrongdoing staying inside the organisation, where it can be remedied and (...) its reputational effects, alleviated. With a content analysis methodology, this paper analyses disclosed information about the implementation of whistleblowing mechanisms in Spanish listed companies (Ibex35), a country where corruption scandals have once again brought to the fore the problem of reporting wrongdoing. The implementation of whistleblowing mechanisms is heterogeneous in terms of denominations, channels and procedures, identifying weak points in the reporting of irregularities in CSR and sustainability reports. (shrink)

Vivimos en el Antropoceno, tomado en sentido amplio, donde lo geológico y lo histórico convergen porque la acción humana lo hace posible. El cambio climático y la explotación global de recursos naturales y de las estructuras capitalistas conducen al género humano hacia el colapso de la civilización tal como la conocemos. Hay algunas relaciones importantes entre Antropoceno y colapso que muestran a la vez el poder y la impotencia de la humanidad.

From 1912, Alejandro Korn and José Ingenieros began to publish articles that then would be part of their historical works, respectively, Influencias filosóficas en la evolución nacional and La evolución de las ideas argentinas. Therefore, they started to generate some discussion in reference to sections that they knew of each other's work. Being the first major works from a developing philosophical field about the history of Argentine thought, their authors sought to create cultural traditions to affirm their own academic, cultural (...) and political positions. Thus, they based their positions about their academic situation through their interventions in the debate on the evaluation of the various features of the intellectual past of the country and national identity during the academic professionalization of historical studies, and actively participated in discussions on the function of culture and philosophy in a national project. Yet, besides, in order to address their history of ideas, the two most important teachers of the philosophical sphere around 1918 tested very different methodological approaches that worked under different conceptions of philosophical and historical practice and two different ways of thinking the reception and circulation of ideas from Europe. (shrink)

This paper based on the distinction between the instrumental and normative views of stakeholder management explores how business education and personal moral philosophies may influence the orientation adopted by an individual. A mediated regression analysis using survey information collected from 206 Spanish university students showed that those exposed to management theories were less willing to consider stakeholders when making business decisions if the consequent economic impacts on the firm were omitted. The results also provided support for a negative effect of (...) business education on idealism and a mediating effect of the latter on the relationship between education and stakeholder management orientation. This study thus raises awareness on the influence of business education on individuals’ ethical decision-making processes and suggests some possible changes for business education. (shrink)

Ames, Roger. Confucian Role Ethics: A Vocabulary. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2011. 332 pp.

This paper compares the concepts of “spirit” and “dialectic” in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death respectively. For this purpose, I delve into the way in which both philosophers understand these two concepts. The aim of this comparison is to detect whether there is some kind of relationship between the two concepts that could bring Hegel and Kierkegaard closer to each other.

El objetivo de este trabajo es dar cuenta de los conceptos de sujeto, subjetivación y ontología histórica de nosotros mismos. Estas categorías son esenciales en las pesquisas de Foucault de los años 80-84. De igual manera, desde estos conceptos, Foucault pudo pensar al sujeto de forma alterna al modo como este fue configurado en Occidente. En efecto, en sus intensas búsquedas encuentra en la tradición moderna, Baudelaire y Kant, pistas para considerar al sujeto no como un dato estático, sino como (...) alguien que se gestiona a través de procesos históricos que lo van delineando y que lo habilitan en la empresa de construirse, de elaborarse a sí mismo, esto es, mediante procesos de subjetivación. Finalmente, la tradición antigua, es decir, la tradición greco-latina, le ofrece elementos teóricos sustanciales para reflexionar sobre las condiciones en las que se pueden configurar modos de vida, estilos de existencia que operen como ejes de resistencia a las formas que se nos han impuesto. (shrink)

"Estos dos modos de ver la explicación no son incompatibles entre sí; cada uno ofrece un modo razonable de analizar la explicación. De hecho, pueden ser tomados como representando dos aspectos diferentes pero compatibles de la explicación científica" (1989, p. 183). "[estos dos enfoques] se han desarrollado hasta el punto en que pueden coexistir pacíficamente como dos aspectos distintos de la explicación científica" (1992, p. 39). "No rechazo la posibilidad de una teoría [unificacionista] de este tipo; creo que ella no (...) entraría en conflicto con la explicación causal sino que la complementaría " (2001a, p. 10). (shrink)

Toda imagen es un modo de mirar, de descubrir la realidad. La mirada del pintor o la del fotógrafo guarda para el futuro una parte, infinitesimal, del espacio. Solamente queda para la posteridad lo que ellos quieren que perdure. Las imágenes hablaron durante siglos acerca del pasado. Las pinturas retrataban las costumbres de la sociedad. La autoridad consagrada por el orden imperante resultaba reforzada por el arte canónico. Después de la invención de la fotografía las imágenes de guerra dejaron de (...) ser solamente un registro de gestas épicas. Este artículo busca presentar una perspectiva semiótica para leer una pintura sobre la guerra como un texto para lo cual propone cotejarla con una foto sobre el mismo tema.For a long time images spoke to society about the past. Paintings described different social groups' ways of life or moments like Amien's siege. Since the invention of photography the images of war didn't stand only for epic romances: photo could show the bare truth. The author proposes to look at a painting about the Paraguayan war as a text, trought a semiotic aproach. This allow us to know painter's cultural context and his ideological views. To make this possible, the author compares the painting with a photo on the same topic. (shrink)

Summary The portrayal of Pontius Pilate as a single-handed prefect is one of the many incongruous and implausible elements found in the Gospel accounts of Jesus of Nazareth’s passion. Moreover, a striking imbalance in these accounts emerges: whilst Romans appear only at the last phase of the story, earlier the only people plotting against Jesus are Jews. There is every indication that some key information has been dropped. The present paper, after taking into account the traces of anti-Roman aspects in (...) Jesus’ career, surveys what is known about the consilia of Roman provincial governors and the sources of information available to them, and, for the first time, applies this knowledge to a critical reconstruction of the story underlying the Gospels, thereby providing a missing link to understand it. (shrink)

Partiendo de la noción de “arte de gobierno liberal”, que encuentra su con guración en la forma de una Economía Política y su modelo normativo en un gobierno frugal, pretendemos elevar nuestro estudio hacia un análisis del tipo de subjetividad que funciona como correlato de la racionalidad política (neo)liberal: el homo oeconomicus y su actualización en la forma de sujeto “empresario de sí mismo”. Para tal n nos veremos en la necesidad de señalar la mutación epistemológica planteada por el análisis (...) neoliberal –iniciado por la Escuela de Friburgo y, más especí camente, desarrollado por la Escuela de Chicago en el ámbito norteamericano–, el cual tiende un puente entre el análisis de los procesos económicos y el estudio de la racionalidad interna del comportamiento humano. Asimismo, haremos una incursión en la teoría del Capital Humano a través de intelectuales como eodore W. Schultz y Gary S. Becker y sus derroteros actuales. (shrink)