A través del presente trabajo se aborda el papel de la musicoterapia en la enfermedad de alzheimer (EA) desde el ámbito del trabajo social. Para ello, se lleva a cabo una revisión bibliográfica y se identifican conceptos claves como musicoterapia, EA e intervención del trabajo social. La información recogida lleva a considerar la musicoterapia como tratamiento coadyuvante en la enfermedad de Alzheimer a través de áreas como la integración social, la autoestima, la comunicación o la reducción del estrés. Por ello, (...) se concluye que la estimulación musical mejora la calidad de vida en pacientes con EA. (shrink)

Social Education implies a constant exposition to human experiences of vulnerability and suffering. In this paper, Levinas’s philosophy of alterity and, specifically, the notion of hospitality constitutes our ethical lens to explore educational encounters in non-formal contexts within the Spanish Social Sector. The study is developed from a hermeneutic phenomenological approach into the depth of lived experiences of eight social educators who currently work with different populations groups. The testimonies, explored through semi-structured interviews, are presented in a conversational, dialogic, poetic (...) format. First, Levinas’ philosophy is presented as our ethical position, focusing on subjectivity as hospitality. Secondly, methodological aspects regarding hermeneutics are addressed. Finally, the testimonies of social educators are presented in an evocative way, exploring uncertainty and three different tensions regarding human relations in their practices: physical spaces, affection, and embodiment. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Examining the Role of Re-Presentation in Mathematical Problem Solving: An Application of Ernst von Glasersfeld’s Conceptual Analysis” by Victor V. Cifarelli & Volkan Sevim. Upshot: Problem solving is an enormous field of study, where so-called “problems” can end up having very little in common. One of the least studied categories of problems is open-ended mathematical modeling research. Cifarelli and Sevim’s framework - although not developed for this purpose - may be a useful lens for (...) studying the development of mathematical modelers and researchers in applied mathematics. (shrink)

Offers a thorough, multidisciplinary picture of the informational challenges of our media ecosystem, as well as collaborative strategies for addressing them.

The article is proposed as a reading of A Feminist Theory of Refusal (2021), by Bonnie Honig. Under the assumption that Honig has the merit of introducing into feminist political theory a thought of rejection patiently elaborated from a commentary on literary figures such as Antigone and Bartleby, the article interrogates the logic of resistance that these figurations of negativity advance. From the perspective of A Feminist Theory of Refusal, the names of Antigone and Bartleby are not only subjective indications (...) of the interruption of a domain, but above all they are agonistic figurations of a politics that has the dispute of meaning as one of its main axes. In other words, the politics of rejection that Honig proposes is at the same time an agonal politics that is organized around the meaning of words, of the narratives that structure the commonality of a social order. Following this line of reading, the essay sets out to interrogate the politics of rejection elaborated by Honig from the figurations that embody it. (shrink)

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, several changes have been forcibly made and observed in various fields and areas of society, one of which include the field of education; the foundation of the formation of intellect and knowledge. After two years of studying indoors and private educational institutions holding virtual classes, the time has finally come for students to be re- adjusted once more to the blended mode of learning; a combination of virtual and in-person classes. Thus, this study aimed to (...) investigate the development of students’ study habits and how these habits could potentially affect the students’ academic achievement or performance. The study utilized a descriptivecorrelational design to examine the impact of study habits to the academic performance of 137 senior high school students. The study made use of the Palsane and Sharma’s Study Habits Inventory, or also known as PSSHI, and using this instrument, the study has been able to procure sufficient results that will answer the present study’s problems. Using linear regression analysis, the present study found that there was a significance between the study habits and academic performance of the senior high school students, thus the study’s null hypothesis was eventually rejected. (shrink)

In both scientific and popular circles it is often said that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. Although the urgency of our present environmental crises is not in doubt, such claims of a present mass extinction are highly controversial scientifically. Our aims are, first, to get to the bottom of this scientific debate by shedding philosophical light on the many conceptual and methodological challenges involved in answering this scientific question, and, second, to offer new philosophical perspectives (...) on what the value of asking this question has been — and whether that value persists today. We show that the conceptual challenges in defining ‘mass extinction’, uncertainties in past and present diversity assessments, and data incommensurabilities undermine a straightforward answer to the question of whether we are in, or entering, a sixth mass extinction today. More broadly we argue that an excessive focus on the mass extinction framing can be misleading for present conservation efforts and may lead us to miss out on the many other valuable insights that Earth’s deep time can offer in guiding our future. (shrink)

Analizaremos algunos rasgos del proceso de transformación económica y social que tuvo lugar en al-Andalus entre los siglos X y XII, en el marco de la «revolución económica» de la Europa plenomedieval, tomando como caso de estudio la región oriental de la península ibérica. El proceso debió de arrancar con un despegue demográfico y con el aumento de la productividad agrícola, en este caso derivado de los progresos técnicos asociados a la llamada «revolución verde» islámica de los siglos VIII al (...) X. El incremento creciente de los beneficios derivados del campo y el interés por aprovecharlos seguramente impulsó la coacción de las élites urbanas sobre las comunidades campesinas para arrebatarles las tierras más rentables. También pudo ocasionar la colonización de áreas rurales menos favorecidas, que hasta ese momento habían permanecido incultas, por parte de esos grupos acomodados que buscaban expandir los cultivos comerciales, así como por familias de campesinos desposeídos de las mejores tierras. Los cambios en el mundo rural influyeron en el crecimiento de las ciudades debido a la inmigración de la población del campo, presionada y desplazada, que se incorporaba como proletariado urbano ante el incremento en la demanda de manufacturas y bienes de consumo por parte de los terratenientes enriquecidos que habitaban esas ciudades. (shrink)

X. Zubiri, uno de los pensadores espanoles mas sobresalientes en el presente siglo, nos ha hecho ver que el mal se entiende como condicion de la realidad en respectividad ante el hombre, o sea, en la interaccion del hombre con las cosas reales o consigo mismo en cuanto realidad. En este sentido, el mal se entiende desde la realidad condicionada. Como se entiende que el mal surja desde la realidad? Cual es la consistencia del mal en cuanto condicion? En que (...) supera Zubiri la vision del mal como privacion del bien? El presente estudio pretende dar respuesta a tales cuestiones, considerando el planteamiento del mal segun Zubiri desde el contexto de su pensamiento filosofico. Julio Martin Castillo nacio en 1960 en las Yayas, La Vega (Rep. Dominicana). Ordenado sacerdote en 1986. Ha terminado su doctorado en Filosofia en la Pontificia Universidad Gregoriana (Roma). (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to show that any process of benefit sharing that does not guarantee the representation and participation of women in the decision-making process, as well as in the distribution of benefits, contravenes a central demand of social justice. It is argued that women, particularly in developing countries, can be excluded from benefits derived from genetic research because of existing social structures that promote and maintain discrimination. The paper describes how the structural problem of gender-based inequity (...) can impact on benefit sharing processes. At the same time, examples are given of poor women’s ability to organise themselves and to achieve social benefits for entire communities. Relevant international guidelines (e.g. the Convention on Biodiversity) recognise the importance of women’s contributions to the protection of biodiversity and thereby, implicitly, their right to a share of the benefits, but no mechanism is outlined on how to bring this about. The authors make a clear recommendation to ensure women’s participation in benefit sharing negotiations by demanding seats at the negotiation table. (shrink)

There are very few (published) accounts of editorial misconduct, and those that do exist are almost exclusively focused on medicine-related areas. In the present article we detail a case of editorial misconduct in a rather underexplored domain, the social sciences. This case demonstrates that although legal systems provide different instruments of protection to avoid, compensate for, and punish misconduct on the part of journal editors, the social and economic power unbalance between authors and publishers suggests the importance of alternative solutions (...) before or instead of bringing a lawsuit to court. It puts forward strong arguments in favour of the need for effective regulatory bodies so as to achieve and maintain a culture of research integrity by all involved in the process. (shrink)

In this paper, two different philosophical proposals to introduce and carry out philosophy in school spaces which include the participation of children are compared, these are: Philosophy for Children, mainly developed by Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp, and Philosophy with Children, which is actually a set of “second generation” proposals –as described by Vansieleghem and Kennedy, based on Reed and Johnson –, among which those created by Walter Kohan and Karin Murris, to mention a few, stand out. The text begins (...) with some similarities between both proposals, before comparing them in each of their dimensions. First, P4C is discussed. Second, PwC. Their ideas about education, school, philosophical education, their concept of childhood, the role given to teachers and their relation with politics are the main focus. Third, PwC’s critique of the P4C programme is studied. Finally, the paper concludes with some ideas on the issue of introducing philosophy to the school space. Particularly, PwC’s proposal is supported, fundamentally because of its coherent acknowledgment of the autonomy of teachers and of the political element in education, since philosophical experience with children is particularly questioning, defying, and, therefore, it has the possibility of bringing about important transformations, both at a personal-individual level, as well as a collective one. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to show how the use of certain terms of theatre, that are employed to describe philosophical procedures or concepts, reveals two different kinds of relations between philosophical discourse and artistic practices: On the one hand, some philosophers make a conscious and metaphorical use of the vocabulary of scenic practices to describe their own operations; on the other, the technical and historical determinations of these practices open up new interpretations of philosophical constructs, even though, at (...) first, they were not intended to do so by the authors that exploit them. To fulfil this purpose, this article analyzes significant moments of contemporary French thought—where there are frequent expressions such as scene and dramaturgy—, in order to trace the genealogy of that philosophical interest and explore a series of descriptions of the theory and practice of classical French theatre. (shrink)

The nanotechnologies and nanomaterials sector is a huge and growing industry. The amount of legislation already in place and still to be produced in order to regulate it will be very substantial. What process is used to produce such regulation? The answer is that very diverse regulatory approaches are and will be used. The approach taken by the European Commission diverges from the one taken by the European Parliament. Moreover, at national level, Member States add their own contribution to the (...) process. This article attempts to describe the landscape and various regulatory actions that have been undertaken by all these actors in the European Union. It first describes the role played by the European Commission and Parliament. It then looks at specific regulatory initiatives from a more sectoral perspective: Cosmetics, Food information, Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Biocides. The third part of the paper describes some major national initiatives, in particular those concerning the establishment of reporting systems for nanomaterials, mixtures, articles and consumer products containing them, as an example of how to improve the current governance in the EU and to prevent the risks to human health and the environment. The fourth part gives the perspective of the European Trade Union Confederation. Finally it presents some conclusions and policy recommendations, taking into consideration the diversity of regulatory approaches. (shrink)

Coping with assessment tests are known to generate anxiety frequently in the students who face them. In academic circumstances with the continued presence of emotional disturbance, high demand, and stress, emotional and physical fatigue, typical of burnout syndrome, and can be detected. Anxiety and burnout are related to each other and even more closely in high-stakes tests. One of these tests is the examination imposed in Spain for access to the university. The objective of this work is to analyze the (...) presence of anxiety and burnout and the relationship between them in students who face these tests, both during the confinement situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and during the pandemic after the lockdown. For this purpose, we used a sample of 1,021 students with a mean age of 17.89. Of these, 866 were students who were taking the test, while the rest were university students who had passed it recently. Our results show high levels of anxiety and burnout in students who face the evaluation test during the COVID-19 pandemic, sustained over time and especially in comparison with students who had already taken the exam. The association between higher levels of anxiety and higher levels of burnout in the students who take these exams was also verified. These results link the relationship between these two variables more solidly and suggest the need to include address anxiety to reduce burnout levels in these students. The results are discussed with regard to prior evidence and their applications. (shrink)

Academic philosophy's lack of diversity is of concern because it results in a discipline that does not adequately reflect or address the experiences, concerns, and perspectives of many people outside of the dominant demographic. In this article, I examine some of the practical and psychological challenges of entering into dialogue with thinkers whose background knowledge, culture, life experiences, and/or methodologies generate philosophical thought that is radically different from one's own. I contend that in order to build a discipline that is (...) more genuinely dialogical, academic philosophers should embrace this challenging tension between incommensurable worlds of sense. Specifically, I consider how the philosophical practice of translating foreign concepts into terms that have meaning for us might be carried out in a way that preserves radical friction. I warn of the risk of projecting our ideas onto those whose worldviews are incompatible with our own, and I offer strategies for navigating this risk. (shrink)

todas las esferas de la sociedad cubana, en tal sentido, la presente investigación ofrece una metodología para promover un accionar más activo y transformador de las instituciones sociales en la Educación Comunitaria desde el trabajo comunitario integrado que vincula los intereses y necesidades de la población en las tareas del desarrollo social. The existence of indifference behaviors to principles reveals the need for strengthening the educative work in all spheres of the Cuban society. In that sense, the present research provides (...) a methodology in order to promote a more active and transforming work of social institutions in the community education from the integrated community work connecting the interests and needs of the people on duties of social development. (shrink)

When recalling autobiographical events, people not only retrieve event details but also the feelings they experienced. The current study examined whether people are able to consistently recall the intensity of past feelings associated with two consequential and negatively valenced events, i.e. the 9/11 attack (N = 769) and the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 726). By comparing experienced and recalled intensities of negative feelings, we discovered that people systematically recall a higher intensity of negative feelings than initially reported – overestimating the (...) intensity of past negative emotional experiences. The COVID-19 dataset also revealed that individuals who experienced greater improvement in emotional well-being displayed smaller biases in recalling their feelings. Across both datasets, the intensity of remembered feelings was correlated with initial feelings and current feelings, but the impact of the current feelings was stronger in the COVID-19 dataset than in the 9/11 dataset. Our results demonstrate that when recalling negative autobiographical events, people tend to overestimate the intensity of prior negative emotional experiences with their degree of bias influenced by current feelings and well-being. (shrink)

El conjunto de tratados de agricultura que se elaboró en al-Andalus ha sido hasta ahora explotado como fuente para aspectos relacionados con la botánica y la historia de las técnicas agrícolas; sin embargo, se ha empleado poco para la obtención de información histórica, aspecto que hemos tratado de enfatizar en este trabajo. Con este objetivo, hemos intentado situar la eclosión de los libros de agricultura en su contexto histórico: el de la revolución económica y demográfica plenomedieval, uno de cuyos aspectos (...) más significativos fue la expansión agrícola impulsada por un estamento de terratenientes, muchos de ellos residentes en las ciudades, que puso en marcha una producción orientada básicamente al mercado. A este grupo social es al que creemos estaban destinados principalmente los libros geopónicos, pues tenía la necesidad y los recursos económicos e intelectuales para aprovecharlos, a diferencia de los pequeños propietarios y las comunidades gentilicias de campesinos que practicaban una agricultura destinada esencialmente al autoabastecimiento. Una vez que reconocemos los libros de agricultura como auténticos manuales de aquellos hacendados, se puede recuperar esa literatura como fuente histórica de primer orden con el fin de conocer el funcionamiento y la organización de ese tipo de propiedad fundiaria en esta fase de la historia de al-Andalus. (shrink)

This particular roundtable falls at the end of a four-year networking project (COST Action IS1307 New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on ‘How Matter Comes to Matter’) and reflects upon the genealogies of new materialism and how these flow into the individual working practices of participants. The texts below were contributed remotely via email by members of the group, following face-to-face meetings in Barcelona, Maribor, Warsaw, Liverpool, Paris and Utrecht. Authors were unaware of each other’s responses and in this way the (...) dialogue has unfolded a little like a game of Exquisite Corpse or Consequences, with questions acting like a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. Accordingly, the text is the product of a partially bounded experimental system ‘designed to give unknown answers to questions that the experimenters themselves are not yet able to clearly ask’ (Rheinberger 1997: 28). Thus, it both ruminates upon work to date and is intended to generate novel responses from authors and readers alike. (shrink)

Resumen. A la Sociedad Cooperativa, se le distingue por ser una sociedad mercantil con ciertas particularidades a diferencia de los demás tipos de sociedades, tan es así que se rige por su legislación especial. En los últimos años en México, se ha detectado un incremento de sociedades cooperativas dedicadas al suministro de personal, toda vez que el esquema fue considerado por algunos especialistas fiscales como una alternativa para las empresas que buscan disminuir sus cargas impositivas derivadas de las relaciones laborales. (...) Dicho esquema básicamente consiste en transferir a los trabajadores de las empresas a la sociedad cooperativa, los cuales al ser registrados como socios, las remuneraciones que estos perciben son bajo el concepto de previsión social; en lugar de salarios evitando así la retención y pago del Impuesto Sobre la Renta correspondiente. Con motivo de lo anterior, en la presente investigación se analizan y califican los aspectos más relevantes del asunto.Palabras claves. Sociedad cooperativa, evasión fiscal, outsourcing, previsión social.. A cooperative society is distinguished as a corporation with certain features unlike other types of companies, so much so that is governed by a special legislation. In recent years Mexico has seen an increase of cooperative societies dedicated to supply services, since the scheme was considered by some experts as an alternative tax for companies seeking to lower their tax burdens resulting from relations. This scheme basically consists of transferring workers from companies to the cooperative, which when registered as members the remuneration that they perceive are under the concept of social welfare, instead of avoiding wage withholding and payment of VAT Income for. On the occasion of the above, this research analyzes and scored the most relevant aspects of the case. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reclaiming the Works of Early Modern Women Authorship, Gender, and Interpretation in the Nouveau recueil de lettres des dames de ce temps (1635)1Aurora Wolfgang (bio) and Sharon Diane Nell (bio)Reclaiming the forgotten texts of women writers has been a major feminist undertaking of the last half-century. Indeed, believing in the importance of this sort of work, we have each spent much of our careers studying the women writers absent (...) from our own graduate-school education. What follows, however, is a cautionary tale about discovery and reclamation: first, our discovery of what we thought was a hitherto-neglected text by eminent seventeenth-century writer Madeleine de Scudéry—her Lettres amoureuses de divers auteurs de ce temps (1641); second, our discovery that the text was not (even as indexed in Gerritsen Collection of Women’s History microfilm collection) authored by Scudéry but was written instead by a Franciscan priest, Jacques Du Bosc. Clearly, our second discovery pointed out both our own rush to judgment as well as that of other literary scholars interested in the tenuous project of historical reclamation. In this essay, we seek to explore the implications of attribution and authorship for our cautionary tale. Does the fact that a work is not Scudéry’s Lettres amoureuses but instead Du Bosc’s Nouveau recueil de lettres des dames de ce temps (1635) diminish its importance to the history of women’s letters?The First DiscoveryWe became interested in Scudéry’s Lettres amoureuses because of a brief description of the text in Joan DeJean’s Tender Geographies, a pioneering study of women novelists of the seventeenth century. DeJean describes a one-volume work that constituted the first publication of one of the most important writers of the seventeenth century, Madeleine de Scudéry. This work was a reversal of and “forceful response to” the so-called Ovidian model of epistolary fiction in which a “seduced and abandoned” woman complains in letter form about the infidelity of her male lover. In Scudéry’s text, however, men wrote long letters complaining about the women who did not reciprocate their love (DeJean, Tender Geographies 79).We obtained a copy of the Lettres amoureuses from the Women’s History microfilm collection, which was created in the 1970s (published 1983) in order to make available [End Page 1] an extensive array of texts and documents relating to women’s lives. We were surprised to see that all of the letters in the Lettres amoureuses were written by women—not men. Moreover, most of the letters were written by women to other women. No letters by men were included at all. Our copy of Lettres amoureuses contained letters and responses written between women, meant to show the excellence of women’s writing skill. The letters discussed and debated a wide variety of topics of interest to seventeenth-century French women; more strikingly, however, they reflected a close-knit homosocial world of women who openly expressed love, devotion, desire, and longing for each other’s company.Given the differences between our copy of Lettres amoureuses and the text described by DeJean, we wondered if we were looking at the same book. Was our collection the one to which DeJean referred? Yes and no. In another DeJean article about the Lettres amoureuses, we discovered that DeJean had used a particular copy of the text, one found in the holdings of Harvard’s Houghton Library. Upon first obtaining a microfilm copy of the Houghton volume, and later examining the physical book itself in Houghton’s rare books room, we saw that it (unlike our own copy) did indeed contain only letters by men who complain about their female beloveds. At this point, we thought we had discovered a second volume to Scudéry’s work: it seemed clear to us that the Lettres amoureuses had been halved at some point in the last several centuries and that we had a chance to reunite the volumes. After all, the preface in the Houghton volume tells the reader, “Si vous receuez fauorablement ce volume, ie vous en prepare un second” [“If you receive this volume favorably, I will prepare a second one... (shrink)

How well can institutional guidelines help ensure the dignity, rights, safety and well being of research participants in an underdeveloped country? In this paper I describe the limits of informed consent as an instrument for the protection of participants in the context of the Philippines. I bring to this paper my experiences as an advocate of rights, a member of an ethics review board, a researcher on the ethics of research and as an observer of the dynamics of clinical practice (...) in an academic public teaching hospital of the University of the Philippines where I am professor. (shrink)

Since the 1980s, there has been a significant increase in the number of studies concerning Andalusian rural settlements linked to irrigated agriculture, both related to large suburban green belts and to small hydraulic systems. In the vast areas where water is scarce, the settlement apparently would have been concentrated in cities and fortified towns, leaving without population most of the dry lands between them. However, thanks to the intensive survey of one of these regions, La Mancha’s Southeastern area, we are (...) recording a dense rural settlement corresponding to a pattern unknown until now. It consists basically of small villages in plain, devoid of community defense elements, which must have been inhabited by humble peasants, judging by the modesty of the architecture and domestic goods. Surely they make use of the scanty natural resources, which have traditionally oriented the economy of the region towards livestock and rainfed agriculture. In particular, the studied settlement would be related to the demand of wool for the export oriented textile production of the region, within the framework of the commercial expansion of that period. Apparently, most of those villages could have appeared in the eleventh century, disappearing in the middle of the thirteenth century because of the Christian conquest. Their existence would be associated with a general context of population growth that pushed the competition between urban elites and peasants pursuing the privileged agricultural areas, as well as the colonization of less favorable production areas. (shrink)

Resumen: La imposibilidad del desarrollo para conciliar normativamente imparcialidad con pluralidad responde a un sesgo de carácter ontológico. Esta ruptura, que constituye la esencia misma de los estudios del desarrollo, supone aceptar que cualquier teoría del desarrollo que se precie se encuentra sustancialmente inacabada. De tal imposibilidad emerge, sin embargo, un perfeccionamiento que transcurre dialécticamente en términos de doble negación hegeliana por el cual las distintas teorías van perfeccionándose a partir de un mayor grado de concienciación normativa. Este perfeccionamiento alcanza (...) analíticamente un estado absoluto de desarrollo definido como libertad. Un concepto que perfecciona el presentado por Amartya Sen, facultado para reconciliar analíticamente el sesgo originario.: The impossibility of development to gather normatively impartiality and plurality makes itself to be ontologically incomplete. Nevertheless, the analytical that emerges in the very essence of development discipline implies to accept that any development theory is and will always be unfulfilled. Nevertheless, and beyond that substantive impossibility, an improvement occurs dialectically in terms of Hegelian double negation by which each theory is overcome by a higher grade of normative awareness by the following one. This improvement reaches analytically an absolute dimension of development as freedom. A concept that goes beyond such introduced by Amartya Sen, which it is well able of including all human determinations that ultimately allow to meet analytically those edges of the gap. (shrink)

Phenomenology and structuralism are commonly understood as two opposing and largely incompatible schools of thought. Indeed, if the former is thought of as the philosophy of subjectivity par excellence, and the latter as the tradition in which the “death of man” is declared, it seems difficult to challenge the antagony between them. On closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that this picture represents an oversimplification and turns out to be, to a great extent, fallacious. The aim of this paper is (...) to show that the philosophy of the early Husserl – notably as exposed in the Logical Investigations – ought to be fully considered as both part of the wide tradition of Transcendental philosophy as well as Structuralism. To this end, the paper mainly addresses Husserl’s notion of Wissenschaftslehre and the mereology developed in the Third logical investigation and, as a result, tries to show how Husserl’s position can be defined in terms of a “phenomenological structuralism” or a “structural phenomenology” or, as I propose, a “transcendental structuralism”. (shrink)

In this paper I take Rorty’s self-description as a “hedgehog” as the starting point for a portrait of his intellectual temperament. I re-examine in the first instance Isaiah Berlin’s contrast between hedgehogs and foxes as inspired by the proverb of Archilocus. I then analyze, in philosophical terms, some differences between foxes and hedgehogs. I distinguish different types of hedgehogs in order to make clear exactly what kind of hedgehog Rorty was. In spite of his multiple interests and conversations, I argue, (...) Rorty portrayed himself as a hedgehog with only one important idea: the need to overcome notions such as Truth and Reason and to promote a less cruel and more anti-authoritarian way of living. I claim that this single idea is better understood when we pay special attention as to why Rorty gave priority to literature over philosophy, why he made distinctions between different types of writers, and why one of his favorite writers, Nabokov, was only apparently a fox. (shrink)

El presente artículo compara las consideraciones de Hegel y Husserl sobre la intersubjetividad en relación a la normatividad. Para esto, en una primera parte se discute la descripción de la conciencia del yo y el otro en cada uno de los autores; en la segunda, sus conceptos de libertad; y en la tercera, sus conceptos de normatividad, teleología e historia.

Atoms and molecules are particular kinds of restricted n-body systems, which generally behave as quasi-separable, unlike other n-body systems, e.g., Newtonian ones. The Coulomb repulsion and the Pauli exclusion principle in atoms and molecules are responsible for that separability. Additionally, chemical bonds, especially covalent bonds, enhance the separability of molecules. Independent particle models do not describe atoms and molecules since first-order energy corrections are high. However, these corrections obtained by the first-order perturbation or mean-field strongly converge, implying a one-electron effective (...) potential description. Consequently, stable states of atoms and molecules can be reasonably described by one-electron effective potentials, which strongly differ from other n-body problems. We discuss the peculiarities of the correlation motion of generic systems in the context of the four fundamental forces. In particular, we have shown that the two components (attraction and repulsion) of the electromagnetic force confer a relatively low correlation motion to atoms and molecules. We discuss the physical and chemical nature of atoms and molecules, comparing the degrees of separability between different systems. For example, the separability of Newtonian systems is generally possible in particular classes of restricted systems due to relative mass differences. However, for atoms and molecules, the separability is much broader. (shrink)

Diseases of complex origin have a component of quantitative genetics that contributes to their susceptibility and phenotypic variability. However, after several studies, a major part of the genetic component of complex phenotypes has still not been found, a situation known as “missing heritability.” Although there have been many hypotheses put forward to explain the reasons for the missing heritability, its definitive causes remain unknown. Complex diseases are caused by multiple intermediate phenotypes involved in their pathogenesis and, very often, each one (...) of these intermediate phenotypes also has a component of quantitative inheritance. Here we propose that at least part of the missing heritability can be explained by the genetic component of intermediate phenotypes that is not detectable at the level of the main complex trait. At the same time, the identification of the genetic component of intermediate phenotypes provides an opportunity to identify part of the missing heritability of complex diseases. (shrink)

The phenomenon of cheating in higher education is of overwhelming importance in that the students engaging in these acts are unlikely to have the skills necessary for their future professional life. Despite its relevance, the empirical evaluation of cheating in universities has been almost exclusively focused on the US context. Little is known about cheating at the European level, let alone in Portugal. Even less is explored at the regional level. In this paper we present evidence on the perception of (...) cheating by Portuguese undergraduate students of economics/business degrees. We undertake a large-scale survey, involving 2675 students from all Portuguese mainland public universities. We found that copying-favourable environments are associated with a higher propensity to cheat. Moreover, in universities where ‘codes of honour’ exist, this propensity tends to be lower. Finally, the propensity to copy seems to be highly influenced by the cultural systems and socially-related factors of different regions. (shrink)

Gardens on Fire. Fahrenheit 451 Revisited Resumen: En este trabajo proponemos una reconsideración de una de las historias distópicas más populares y discutidas desde mediados del siglo XX, Fahrenheit 451, del escritor y ensayista estadounidense Ray Bradbury. Aunque esta historia ha atraído desde su publicación la atención del pensamiento político y social, creemos que ha sido ampliamente simplificada. A diferencia de ciertos críticos, no creemos que la fábula política de Bradbury fomente, como muchas otras distopías, una falta de perspectiva histórica (...) o una insuficiente comprensión del presente. Si la visión política y cultural de Bradbury es criticable no lo es por su evasión de la historia, sino más bien por una visión histórica demasiado optimista. También queremos mostrar que Bradbury no fue un humanista enemigo de la cultura de masas, ni de la tecnología. El examen en profundidad de su novela y de numeroso material complementario permitirá explicar porqué su historia sobre el sombrío futuro de la sociedad industrial también contenía elementos para imaginar un futuro alternativo. Gracias a ese examen, finalmente, concluiremos que en el caso de Bradbury la ciencia-ficción no solo sirve para imaginar un futuro indeseable, sino, sobre todo, para mantener vivas y transformar tradiciones con las que fabricar un futuro deseable.: In this paper we propose a reconsideration of one of the most popular and discussed dystopian stories since the mid-20th century, Fahrenheit 451, by the American writer and essayist Ray Bradbury. Although this novel attracted the attention of political and social thought since its publication, we think that it has been largely simplified. Unlike some critics, we do not consider that Bradbury's political fable, like many other dystopias, fosters a lack of historical perspective or an insufficient understanding of the present. If Bradbury's political and cultural vision is open to criticism, it is not only for his evasion of history, but rather for an overly optimistic historical vision. We also make clear that Bradbury was not a humanist enemy of mass culture and technology. A close reading of his novel and numerous supplementary material make us to elucidate why his story about the bleak future of industrial society also contains elements to envisage an alternative future. Thanks to this examination we will conclude that, in the case of Bradbury, science-fiction does not serve just to foretell an undesirable future, but it significantly helps to keep alive and to transform traditions with which to manufacture a desirable future. Palabras clave: distopía, tecnologías, libros, memoria, Bradbury. Keywords: dystopia, technologies, books, memory, Bradbury. (shrink)

El empleo de herramientas digitales está transformando los procesos de producción científica y sus impactos. En este trabajo evaluamos en qué medida la digitalización en ciencia ha alcanzado a la actividad científica en América Latina y cuáles han sido sus efectos. Para eso, utilizamos datos bibliométricos de tres países latinoamericanos de tamaño medio, Argentina, Chile y Colombia, que tienen una trayectoria científica importante y el análisis lo hemos centrado en cuatro disciplinas: ciencias biológicas y agrícolas, ciencias de la tierra y (...) planetarias, ciencias ambientales y ciencias decisionales. Encontramos que la digitalización ha ido creciendo durante los últimos 25 años, pero la brecha con los países líderes sólo se ha reducido levemente. Asimismo, la incidencia de la digitalización varía por disciplina. En términos de beneficios asociados a la digitalización, nuestros resultados muestran que los artículos que utilizan prácticas o herramientas de ciencia digital tienen mayor impacto académico, más colaboración y más internacionalización. Es decir, en estas disciplinas y en estos países, la digitalización ha logrado aumentar la visibilidad de la investigación, potencialmente su calidad y, así, los retornos sociales de los recursos invertidos. También se han ampliado las redes, propiciando de esta forma un mejor aprovechamiento de la inteligencia colectiva y la integración de los problemas de investigación locales a una agenda global, aumentando potencialmente los recursos que se destinan a la investigación en estos países. (shrink)

El presente ensayo reconsidera las críticas de John Dewey a Walter Lippmann tomando como eje los argumentos esgrimidos en las sucesivas reseñas que Dewey fue haciendo de las obras de Lippmann. Se sostiene que las críticas que Dewey lanzó en estas reseñas, así como luego en The Public and its Problems (1927) ya apuntaban en una dirección que quedó más explícita en los años treinta, cuando Dewey respondió con lenguaje socialista a un Lippmann que apelaba a algo más que a (...) la autoridad de expertos para contrarrestar las derivas de la democracia. En el debate que mantuvieron, no solo se pusieron en juego dos visiones de la relación entre democracia y voluntad popular, sino dos concepciones discrepantes sobre las bases económicas de una sociedad abierta y las condiciones necesarias para el ejercicio de la libertad. (shrink)

In appearance, Husserl’s writings seem not to have had any influence on linguistic research, nor does what the German philosopher wrote about language seem to be worth a place in the history of linguistics. The purpose of the paper is exactly to contrast this view, by reassessing both the position and the role of Husserl’s early masterpiece — the Logical Investigations — within the history of linguistics. To this end, I will focus mainly on the third (On the theory of (...) wholes and parts) and fourth (The distinction between independent and non-independent meanings) Investigations, paying special attention to Husserl’s mereology and to the idea of a general pure grammar. The paper tries to situate the third and fourth Logical Investigation within the general context of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century linguistics and furthermore attempts to show the historical and theoretical importance of the Logical Investigations for the birth and the development of one of the most important linguistic “schools” of the twentieth century, namely structural linguistics. (shrink)

_Confines of Democracy_ is a collection of critical assessments and interpretations of Richard J. Bernstein’s extensive and illuminating work on pragmatism, epistemology, hermeneutics, and social and political theory, including Bernstein’s replies to the contributors.

El artículo analiza el derecho al agua y su importancia, no sólo para la supervivencia humana, sino para el desarrollo económico sostenible, de ahí que se esperaba que Río+20 avanzara en la protección del derecho del agua: un derecho de todos, incluso de las generaciones futuras. Pero lo cierto es que ha sido una oportunidad perdida, en un mundo en el que según la ONU, 884 millones de personas no tienen garantizado el acceso seguro a aguas potables y 2.600 millones (...) no disponen de servicios básicos de saneamiento. (shrink)