The emergence and development of 'national sciences' in Latin American countries were not, until very recently, part of the agenda of historians of science because the 'traditional' history of sciences was not interested in the scientific activity of peripheral areas. The history of science is a recent discipline in Mexican historiographic studies. The methodological interest in the history of science, the creation of schools and institutes that deal with it, the establishment of particular chairs, the organization of national societies, and (...) the publication of books and periodicals are all very recent. It is important to carry out studies in the history of science that examine the development of Mexican science introducing the 'local' context, and study how this development has influenced the formation of scientific societies and the development of scientific disciplines in the country. We want to explore the introduction of genetics in Mexico as applied to agriculture between 1930 and 1960. This matter has not been investigated in Mexico and therefore this work would represent one of the first studies of this subject and one of the first studies in the general field of Mexican scientific history. (shrink)

We explore the distinctive characteristics of Mexico's society, politics and history that impacted the establishment of genetics in Mexico, as a new disciplinary field that began in the early 20th century and was consolidated and institutionalized in the second half. We identify about three stages in the institutionalization of genetics in Mexico. The first stage can be characterized by Edmundo Taboada, who was the leader of a research program initiated during the Cárdenas government (1934-1940), which was primarily directed towards improving (...) the condition of small Mexican farmers. Taboada is the first Mexican post-graduate investigator in phytotechnology and phytopathology, trained at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, in 1932 and 1933, respectively. He was the first investigator to teach plant genetics at the National School of Agriculture and wrote the first textbook of general genetics, Genetics Notes, in 1938. Taboada's most important single genetics contribution was the production of "stabilized" corn varieties. The extensive exile of Spanish intellectuals to Mexico, after the end of Spain's Civil War (1936-1939), had a major influence in Mexican science and characterizes the second stage. The three main personalities contributing to Mexican genetics are Federico Bonet de Marco and Bibiano Fernández Osorio Tafall, at the National School of Biological Sciences, and José Luis de la Loma y Oteyza, at the Chapingo Agriculture School. The main contribution of the Spanish exiles to the introduction of genetics in Mexico concerned teaching. They introduced in several universities genetics as a distinctive discipline within the biology curriculum and wrote genetics text books and manuals. The third stage is identified with Alfonso León de Garay, who founded the Genetics and Radiobiology Program in 1960 within the National Commission of Nuclear Energy, which had been founded in 1956. The Genetics and Radiobiology Program rapidly became a disciplinary program, for it embraced research, teaching, and training of academics and technicians. The Mexican Genetics Society, created by de Garay in 1966, and the development of strains and cultures for genetics research were important activities. One of de Garay's key requirements was the compulsory training of the Program's scientists for at least one or two years in the best universities of the United States and Europe. De Garay's role in the development of Mexican genetics was fundamental. His broad vision encompassed the practice of genetics in all its manifestations. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:FROM CAIN AND ABEL TO ESAU AND JACOB Angel Barahona UniversidadComplutense, Madrid The theme of twins or of enemy brothers is one which fascinates anthropologists owing to its frequency, the beauty of its mythopoetic settings, and its social significance. The theme always appears in relation to fratricidal violence, and is always linked to myths offoundation or origin. Clyde Kluckhohn in his book about brothers "born in immediate sequence" (...) reminds us that the death of one of them brings with it a momentary peace, the foundation ofa new social order. Thus it is not the fact ofbeing twins, or antagonistic brotherhood per se which is the key to the stories, but violence: Twins are impure in the same way that a warrior steeped in carnage is impure, or an incestuous couple, or a menstruating woman. All forms of violence lead back to violence. We overlook this fact because the primitive concept of a link between the loss ofdistinctions and violence is strange to us; butwe need only consider the calamities primitive people associate with twins to perceive the logic of this concept. Deadly epidemics can result from contact with twins, as can mysterious illnesses mat cause sterility in women and animals. Even more significant to us is the role oftwins in provoking discord among neighbors, a fatal collapse of ritual, the transgression of interdictions—in sort, their part in instigating asacrificial crisis....Behindthe image oftwins lurks the baleful aspectofthesacred, perceived as a disparate but formidableunified force. (Girard 1977, 58) All the mythological, literaryand historical accounts oftwinswhichwe have involve bloody conflict: Eteocles and Polyneices, Romulus and Remus, Richard the Lion Heart and John Lackland, and so on. To a 2 Angel Barahona surprising extent even the development of the different stories is similar. When Polynices departs from Thebes leaving his sister there, hoping to reign through her, he takes with him his fraternal conflict as if it were an attribute of his being. Wherever he goes his brother appears to him, and will oppose him to the death. When an oracle announced to Adrastrus that his two daughters would marry, respectively, a lion and a wild boar, animals which are different in their appearance but identical in their violence, it was presaging fraternal conflict. In Euripides' The Suppliant Women, the king tells how he came upon his sons-in-law. At his door, one night, Polynices and Tideus, both reduced to poverty, were quarreling furiously over possession ofa camp bed. Their brotherhood by virtue ofmarriage with two sisters brings them within the fraternalcategory, likeOedipus and Creon, orDionysus and Pentheus, rival cousins. A plot of land or a kingdom, a woman or an object, the status of firstborn or an unjust inheritance, all give pretexts for conflict. We cannot avoid conflict when desires converge on the same object. It is difficult for the brothers to be aware of their symmetry, their reciprocity, the intense violence which is hidden behind their brotherhood,—an awareness which might spare them their confrontations—because they never occupy the same positions atthe same time. The reciprocity is real, but it is the sum of non-reciprocal moments. The antagonists occupy the same positions in time, but successively, not simultaneously. The same acts and the same sentiments appear in cyclical alternation, but the brothers cannot directly observe their own reciprocity, and thus their identical nature, because they seem to be differentiated by the role which each one plays. Cain and Abel There are many stories ofconfrontations between brothers in Scripture, including those related to the rights of the first born. From Genesis 4,5 onwards we see how these are an interminable source ofconflicts. The first example, Cain and Abel: "And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell" anticipates the themes ofthe blessing and the looking at the face. And we can observe the games of symmetry with the language: "the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but forCain and his offering he had no regard." Cain and Abel are presented as an agriculturalist and as a shepherd respectively, two forms ofsocial life. In this quarrel... (shrink)

This paper will address the collaborative networks and the gendered organization of the scientific work at the first Unit on Human Genetics of the Mexican Institute for Social Security. There, women and men had different tasks, duties and authority according to their gender and individual and professional skills. I will focus on physician Susana Kofman, who specialized in cytogenetics with Jérôme Lejeune and Jean de Grouchy in France, and physician Leonor Buentello, who graduated in virus genetics in Germany. This narrative (...) intends to return them to the forefront of the history of cytogenetics and to illustrate the contribution of women to scientific developments when research on human genetics was becoming a medical domain for diagnosis at an international level. (shrink)

Haciendo uso de paquete informático Bibliometrix y de la Guía Prisma, se desarrolló un análisis bibliométrico de la literatura proveniente de la Web of Science sobre la competencia digital docente universitaria. Se delimita la investigación a través de tesauros de Eric. Se plantearon preguntas de investigación relacionadas con las fuentes de datos, los autores y las redes de colaboración. La investigación evidencia incrementos en la producción a partir del año 2019, la nacionalidad de los autores y la filiación de instituciones (...) resaltan a través de redes de investigaciones extendidas en Iberoamérica. Es necesario ampliar este estudio a otras bases científicas. (shrink)

Se realizó una revisión sistemática de la literatura localizada en Scopus sobre la competencia digital (CD) del profesorado universitario; con ayuda de la metodología PRISMA y operadores se delimitó la investigación a través de tesauros de Eric. Los autores/entidades españolas resaltan en la temática, existen esfuerzos orientados al diseño, validación y aplicación de rúbricas a nivel mundial. Los abordajes predominantemente son cuantitativos. La investigación fortalece el entendimiento sobre la CD, existe un efecto positivo otorgado por las CD docentes en la (...) formación de estudiantes, se requiere desarrollar planes de formación y emprender esfuerzos similares en otras bases de datos científicas. (shrink)

The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico included innovative practices and technological knowledge of human biology. The first time that cytogenetic techniques had been applied to athletes was in the 1966 European Athletics Championship in Budapest and used on Olympic athletes for the first time in Mexico in 1968. The Genetics and Human Biology Program was created for this purpose in 1966 in close collaboration with the Local Organizing Committee, by Mexican geneticists Alfonso León de Garay and Rodolfo Félix Estrada who (...) led the project. The main objective was to study the genetic and anthropological components which determine an Olympic athlete’s abilities. This investigation studied 1,265 game participants and included family studies, cytological analyses, research on single genes, and the study of sex determination. In terms of influence beyond Mexico, this Program was significant as a site of transnational collaboration. It mobilized cognitive and financial resources, scientific practices, and material culture to set up a clinical laboratory in the Olympic Village. The Program also hosted three international seminars in Mexico City, two before the games, to calibrate clinical trials and anthropological tests. One in 1969 to analyze the results and proceed to their publication in 1974. This manuscript will focus on the PGBH to show how its work fits in the larger tapestry of post-1945 human biological studies. Also, to explore how the Olympic athlete populations studied can be considered laboratories of knowledge production or sites of cognition conceived as specific entities for scientific inquiry, standardization of medical practices, and the production or application of medicines. Finally, through the narrative of the different trajectories and collaborations of the leaders of the PGBH, this manuscript will show how contact between their scientific practices brought cytogenetics and sports together. (shrink)

After WWII, global concerns about the uses of nuclear energy and radiation sources in agriculture, medicine, and industry brought about calls for radiation protection. At the beginning of the 1960s radiation protection involved the identification and measurement of all sources of radiation to which a population was exposed, and the evaluation and assessment of populations in terms of the biological hazard their exposure posed. Mexico was not an exception to this international trend. This paper goes back to the origins of (...) the first studies on the effects of radiation and on radioprotective compounds in the Genetics and Radiobiology Program of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy founded in 1960, at a time when the effects of radiation on living beings and radiation protection demanded the attention of highly localized groups of scientists and the creation of international as well as national institutions, and its connection to dosimetry and radiation protection until the 1990s. This historical reconstruction examines the circulation of knowledge, scientists, and their material and cognitive resources, to show that radiobiology, with dosimetry and radiation protection as cases in point, not only were carried out with high international standards in parallel with international agencies, but also reflected local material needs, including the standardization of new experimental techniques. (shrink)

The history of science within the Ibero-American context has not received significant attention from historians of science. In the case of historical studies of science in Spain and Latin America, research has primarily been carried out under the umbrella of “centers and peripheries,” indicating that despite their historiographical and epistemological importance, narratives on science within certain national contexts have analytical limitations. Recent research has indicated a need to reconstruct transnational stories that account for how knowledge produced in developing countries forms (...) part of the circulation of international knowledge via international networks of collaboration. This perspective enables the... (shrink)

El feminismo, en su vertiente de epistemología crítica, tiene grandes afinidades con los planteamientos (posmodernos y otros) que cuestionan la posibilidad de conocimiento certero y discuten el estatus privilegiado de la ciencia como instancia de saber. A la vez, algunas corrientes feministas pretenden redefinir la creencia y la práctica religiosa y muestran gran simpatía por la religiosidad femenina. Ambos factores merecen una cuidadosa consideración crítica, pero su combinación puede ser desastrosa para el feminismo.

A discussão nos livros dos Tópicos giram em torno dos debates dialéticos e seus elementos. Aristóteles discorre sobre os gêneros, as propriedades e os chamados acidentes e suas relações predicativas em categorias. Interessa-nos, sobretudo, compreender o papel desempenhado pela Definição e qual sua relação com os demais instrumentos para a dialética.

Esta obra está pensada para que sirva como ayuda para cursos universitarios de Filosofía de la Ciencia. Además de ocuparse del conocimiento científico, se propone una filosofía de la actividad científica, en la que se tienen presentes las interrelaciones entre ciencia y tecnología. Se abordan asimismo cuestiones relativas a valores que rigen la práctica científica.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:THE FATE OF THEISM REVISITED I THEISM SEEMS to be caught in a dilemma. Speaking persuasively to the surrounding culture seems to demand hat theism sacrifice its own integrity as a significantly distinctive world-view; affirming its distinctiveness seems to result in moving itself to the periphery of the culture. Briefly, then, either theism acquires relevance at the price of forfeiting any claim to distinctiveness or it takes seriously precisely (...) those things that make it seem significantly distinctive and thereby isolates itself from the rest of the culture. Such is the fate of theism as portrayed by (friendly?) critics of theism like Jeffrey Stout, Alasdair Macintyre, and Van A. Harvey.1 The main question addressed in this paper is whether or not the theist (or his more specific variant, the Christian theist) has a sound response to this dilemma? How, if at all, can the Christian theist avoid the horns of the dilemma of redundancy and irrelevance? 1 Jeffrey Stout, The Flight from Authority: Religion, Morality, and the Quest for Autonomy (London and Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), especially Part 2. Alasdair Macintyre, "God and the theo· logians," in Against the Self-Images of the Age (London: Duckworth, 1971), pp. 12-26; see also Macintyre's essay, "The Fate of Theism," originally delivered as one of his Bampton Lectures at Columbia University in 1966. Macintyre's lectures were published in The Religious Si,qnificance of Atheism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). For "The Fate of Theism," see pp. 3-29. Van A. Harvey, The Historian and the Belie1Jer: The Morality of Historical Knowledge and Christian Belief (New York: Macmillan, 1966); see also Harvey's essay, "The Pathos of Liberal Theology," Journal of Religion 56 1976: 382-391. For an illuminating discussion of the fate of theism, see Peter L. Berger, The Heretical Imperatives: Contemporary Possibilities of Religious Affirmation (New York: Doubleday 1980). 63~ THE FATE OF THEISM REVISITED 633 The practical relevance of this dilemma for Christian doctrine was recently evidenced in Thomas Sheehan's review of Hans Kiing's latest book in the New York Review of Books.2 After summarizing Kiing's views on the Christian doctrine of eternal life, Sheehan writes: Kiing... has pushed Catholic theology to the limits of its own language. In fact, he has brought it to the point where one can ask what its teachings have to offer that cannot be found outside the scope of its experience and discourse. For example, the hope in immortality he evokes is certainly not peculiar to Catholicism or Christianity. Nor is it an exclusively religious doctrine: we find it in pagan philosophy from the Greeks onward, even in thinkers who did not believe in a personal god.... On a broader scale, it is clear that religious experience is available outside Catholicism and Christianity; and for many people natural human experience, with no religious or transcendent dimension, is satisfying enough. What, then, does Catholicism claim to provide that cannot be found beyond its boundaries? I am not asking about the subjective aspects of experience, be it natural or religious (its felt quality, psychological genesis, personal meaning, and so on). I am asking an objective theological question: what does Catholicism claim that makes it unique, essentially different from non-Catholic religions and non-religious humanisms? 3 Sheehan's answer to this last question is clear. That which makes Christianity unique and essentially distinctive and which traditional believers sought to clarify and defend moves Christianity to the periphery of the culture. By identifying themselves primarily with the tradition in terms of classical Christianity, no one hears what Christians have to say but themselves. The only alternative to this self-imposed isolation, holds Sheehan, is to be intelligible to contemporary educated, secularminded men and women: in which case Christian theism may well have interesting things to say, but these will not be significantly distinctive in any Christian sense. To put this last 2 Thomas Sheehan, "Revolution in the Church," The New York Review of Books, June 14, 1984, pp. 35-39. s Ibid., p. 38. 634 EDWARD J. ECHEVERRIA point another way, the strategy of accommodation raises the question why one should be Christian at all... (shrink)

La teoría del actor-red y el análisis de la tecnociencia desarrollado por Javier Echeverría (2003) presentan múltiples puntos comunes, pero también importantes divergencias. Mientras que el análisis de la tecnociencia responde al intento filosófico de clasificar y caracterizar las modalidades de práctica científico-tecnológica contemporánea, el conjunto de herramientas metodológicas de la teoría del actor-red trae al primer plano el desorden oculto tras la ordenada apariencia de la tecnociencia, la contemporánea y la de épocas pasadas. Sin embargo, la teoría del actor-red (...) se muestra útil para describir las complejas redes tejidas por centros de investigación, instituciones, universidades y empresas, y los productos resultantes de las mismas en términos de orden natural y social. En este trabajo caracterizamos someramente tanto la teoría del actorred como la tecnociencia, para identificar de qué modo ambas, pese a sus diferencias, pueden beneficiarse mutuamente. (shrink)

José Echeverría. HUITIEME PROPOSITION : L'expérience de vieillir nous renvoie à une limite de la mutation temporelle, c'est-à-dire, à une expérience qui sera la fin de notre temps. Commentaire. Reprenant l'évidence que nous existons et ...

In sensorimotor integration, representation involves an anticipatory model of the action to be performed. This model integrates efferent signals (motor commands), its reafferent consequences (sensory consequences of an organism’s own motor action), and other afferences (sensory signals) originated by stimuli independent of the action performed. Representation, a form of internal modeling, is invoked to explain the fact that behavior oriented to the achievement of future goals is relatively independent from the immediate environment. Internal modeling explains how a cognitive system achieves (...) its goals despite variations in the environment with insufficient and noisy sensory–perceptual data. In a self that acts intentionally on the environment, knowledge is dependent upon the necessity to guide actions directed toward an aim. The self-inner model, a representation of internal and external environments (including reafferent and afferent messages) and also of the behavior plans and desirable future states (aims) and efferent intentions (motor planning and motor command messages), is intrinsically linked to a thinking capacity, which is supposed to emerge from the binding of multiple influences. Thinking emerges when higher behavior strategies are considered possible and capable of leading to aims or the fulfillment of intentions. In this model, symbolization processes are projective and anticipatory and, in this way, beyond present referents. Symbolization occurs linked to action planning, command, and regulation in mental simulation. Meaning is related to an inner sense of a self that acts over the environment. (shrink)

Twenty-two years after Charles Darwin began to think of character divergence from a common ancestor in his Notebook B, the now famous and iconic branching diagram appeared in the fourth chapter of On the Origin of Species.

In this review, we describe some of the central philosophical issues facing origins-of-life research and provide a targeted history of the developments that have led to the multidisciplinary field of origins-of-life studies. We outline these issues and developments to guide researchers and students from all fields. With respect to philosophy, we provide brief summaries of debates with respect to (1) definitions (or theories) of life, what life is and how research should be conducted in the absence of an accepted theory (...) of life, (2) the distinctions between synthetic, historical, and universal projects in origins-of-life studies, issues with strategies for inferring the origins of life, such as (3) the nature of the first living entities (the “bottom up” approach) and (4) how to infer the nature of the last universal common ancestor (the “top down” approach), and (5) the status of origins of life as a science. Each of these debates influences the others. Although there are clusters of researchers that agree on some answers to these issues, each of these debates is still open. With respect to history, we outline several independent paths that have led to some of the approaches now prevalent in origins-of-life studies. These include one path from early views of life through the scientific revolutions brought about by Linnaeus (von Linn.), Wöhler, Miller, and others. In this approach, new theories, tools, and evidence guide new thoughts about the nature of life and its origin.We also describe another family of paths motivated by a” circularity” approach to life, which is guided by such thinkers as Maturana & Varela, Gánti, Rosen, and others. These views echo ideas developed by Kant and Aristotle, though they do so using modern science in ways that produce exciting avenues of investigation. By exploring the history of these ideas, we can see how many of the issues that currently interest us have been guided by the contexts in which the ideas were developed. The disciplinary backgrounds of each of these scholars has influenced the questions they sought to answer, the experiments they envisioned, and the kinds of data they collected. We conclude by encouraging scientists and scholars in the humanities and social sciences to explore ways in which they can interact to provide a deeper understanding of the conceptual assumptions, structure, and history of origins-of-life research. This may be useful to help frame future research agendas and bring awareness to the multifaceted issues facing this challenging scientific question. (shrink)

Rabern and Rabern (Analysis 68:105–112 2 ) and Uzquiano (Analysis 70:39–44 4 ) have each presented increasingly harder versions of ‘the hardest logic puzzle ever’ (Boolos The Harvard Review of Philosophy 6:62–65 1 ), and each has provided a two-question solution to his predecessor’s puzzle. But Uzquiano’s puzzle is different from the original and different from Rabern and Rabern’s in at least one important respect: it cannot be solved in less than three questions. In this paper we solve Uzquiano’s puzzle (...) in three questions and show why there is no solution in two. Finally, to cement a tradition, we introduce a puzzle of our own. (shrink)

En las sociedades de la información y el conocimiento las lenguas se convierten en un recurso estratégico. Al expresar y compartir conocimiento por medio de los idiomas, las culturas generan yacimientos de conocimiento, que pueden ser transferidos e intercambiados entre comunidades epistémicas diferentes. Las actuales tecnologías de la información y la comunicación han cambiado la estructura de los flujos de conocimiento. La globalización del conocimiento plantea un gran desafío a todas las lenguas, incluyendo la española. Para sobrevivir en el mundo (...) digital, los lenguajes han de convertirse en tecnolenguajes. El lema “Pensar en español” aporta un nuevo modelo de gobernanza para las comunidades iberoamericanas del conocimiento. (shrink)

Este artículo distingue entre creatividad e innovación, asume el enfoque sistémico en estudios de innovación y lo aplica a las innovaciones poéticas y literarias. Se centra en sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, la gran poeta y escritora del virreinato español en México a finales del siglo XVII. Sor Juana vinculó las artes literarias con las ciencias y técnicas de la época barroca y consiguió apoyos sociales, políticos y religiosos que la convirtieron en una mujer emprendedora y altamente innovadora. También (...) se analiza el resurgimiento de la figura de sor Juana en el siglo XX, gracias a escritores como Amado Nervo, Clara Campoamor y Octavio Paz, así como a investigadores mexicanos e internacionales que han generado una gran innovación social, cultural e institucional, el sorjuanismo, cuyos hitos principales se analizan. (shrink)

Information technologies have made possible the rising of new forms of communities, cities and societies. These changes are analyzed from the perspective of innovation studies, as technological but also social innovations. Starting from the contributions of Ortega y Gasset to the philosophy of technology, and applying these ideas to the information and communications technologies system, this article introduces the notions of technosocieties and cybercities. Our aim is to deeply examine the Telepolis project; a digital and global city supported by ICT (...) and artificial intelligence. We pay attention to the different challenges that AI will have to face in upcoming years in technosocieties and cybercities. In our opinion, the future of AI is tightly related with the technological support of this kind of new city and their cybercitizens. Finally, we claim that there won’t be a shared public space in the infosphere till public organizations acknowledge the importance of promoting and maintaining this new and already needed digital agora. (shrink)

Con Prólogo de José Luis Pinillos, una especialista en Estética, Ana María Leyra, y otra en Filosofía de la Ciencia, Carmen Mataix, han publicado este libro, en el que pretenden aproximar e interrelacionar conceptualmente la ciencia y el arte. Su punto de partida consiste en considerar, citando a Prigogine, que “la ciencia es sobre todo un fenómeno cultural”. Superando la escisión entre ciencia y cultura, las autoras se proponen confrontar el recorrido experimentado por la Estética desde el siglo XIX con (...) las modificaciones habidas en la propia ciencia, sobre todo a partir de la aparición de la mecánica cuántica. Según las autoras, el principio de indeterminación de Heisenberg ha introducido a la ciencia en la vía del fenomenismo, e incluso de un fenomenismo mucho más fuerte que el que en su día propusieron Berkeley o Mach. Las discusiones entre Bohr y Einstein son comparadas, siguiendo de nuevo a Prigogine, con las que mantuvieron Leibniz y Clarke a principios del siglo XVIII. La noción de “realidad” está en el centro del debate entre los científicos, habiéndose introducido nuevas variables, como el tiempo y el sujeto, que hasta el siglo XX habían quedado fuera del contexto científico. Por el contrario, tanto el tiempo como el sujeto “ocupaban con pleno derecho el mundo de la estética, del arte o de la literatura”, temas que ahora tiene que incorporar la reflexión científica. Frente al modelo mecanicista que imperó en la ciencia moderna, las autoras proponen un “modelo estético” para la ciencia contemporánea. (shrink)

La noción de intimidad tiene diversos orígenes y acepciones. En la tradición filosófica, Séneca, Agustín de Hipona, Lutero, Pascal, Descartes, Leibniz, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Freud, Ortega y Zambrano concibieron la intimidad desde diferentes enfoques. Esta contribución dedica especial atención a Ortega y Gasset, porque vinculó ensimismamiento y técnica. Asimismo afirma una intimidad voluntariamente compartida que se desarrolla mediante relaciones íntimas en red. Sin embargo, algunos sistemas tecnológicos amenazan la intimidad. Es el caso de la inteligencia artificial promovida por el transhumanismo, (...) que surgió con el programa NBIC (nano-bio-info-cogno, NSF 2001). Transhumanistas tecnocientíficos de gran influencia mundial, como Harari, han defendido ideas particularmente peligrosas para la intimidad de las personas. Para combatir esas amenazas se requiere promover una intimidad compartida y en red. Asimismo hay que desarrollar la noción de tecnopersona, reinvindicando el derecho a la intimidad de las tecnopersonas en el mundo digital. (shrink)

Los estudios de innovación han experimentado un giro social en esta primera década del siglo XXI, que comienza a trasladarse a las políticas de innovación. Estamos ante un nuevo paradigma en ese tipo de estudios, no sólo ante una nueva ampliación de los tipos y modelos de innovación. Para ello, se analizan algunos de los primeros marcos conceptuales de la innovación social (Goldenberg y grupo Crises en Canadá, Young Foundation y NESTA en el Reino Unido) y se comenta el avance (...) del nuevo paradigma en la Unión Europea. Se concluye que las tecnociencias de innovación social parecen haber llegado a un punto de amplio consenso: las innovaciones sociales surgen en primera instancia de la sociedad civil, pero también pueden ser generadas o implementadas por el sector público y por el sector privado. Además, tanto los medios como los fines para promoverlas han de ser predominantemente sociales. (shrink)

El sistema tecnológico TIC (tecnologías de la información y la comunicación) genera el espacio electrónico, los objetos digitales y una memoria distribuida. El desarrollo en la sociedad de la información implica el problema estructural de preservar esa memoria digital, en particular los objetos “de origen digital”, que sólo existen en red. Se analizan los principios promovidos por la UNESCO en su carta para la preservación de la memoria digital (2003) y se afirma que el patrimonio público debería ser conservado en (...) software libre, garantizando el acceso abierto y universal a esos nuevos bienes culturales. Asimismo se analiza el problema de la sostenibilidad del patrimonio digital, que corre el riesgo de desaparecer a causa del veloz ritmo de cambio tecnológico del sistema TIC. Ello da lugar a una nueva modalidad de brecha digital, la brecha mnemónica. (shrink)

El concepto de multitud ocupa un lugar central en la teoría política de Spinoza. Al hacer de la potencia de la multitud el fundamento de la sociedad política, se distancia tanto del contractualismo individualista de Hobbes como del organicismo escolástico. Pero, pese a lo que sugieren algunas interpretaciones, la potencia de la multitud necesita expresarse a través de un marco jurídico e institucional que la ordene y canalice. El autogobierno democrático institucionalizado haría posible el mayor grado de integración y estabilidad (...) de esa potencia. (shrink)

La Agenda de Lisboa y los planes e-Europe 2002 y 2005 tuvieron la finalidad de impulsar la sociedad europea de la información y el conocimiento. En una primera fase, la participación ciudadana no fue una prioridad. A partir de 2005 la UE reorientó su estrategia, promovió la creación del Espacio Único Europeo de la Información y fomentó la participación electrónica de los ciudadanos, haciéndola depender a veces de la e-inclusión, otras veces de la gobernanza. El programa i2010 supuso un paso (...) importante hacia la utilización del espacio electrónico europeo para la participación ciudadana. La reciente Agenda Digital para Europa, en cambio, no parece priorizar la e-participación, aunque mantiene planes de e-inclusión y e-gobierno. (shrink)

Siendo Muguerza un gran conocedor de Kant, sus críticas a la moral kantiana han ido creciendo con el tiempo. Muguerza ha disentido del principio kantiano de universalización, ha primado el principio de autonomía y ha criticado el reino de los fines para, finalmente, ha elaborado una concepción propia del individualismo moral, basada en la alternativa del disenso. En este artículo se comentan algunas de las críticas de Muguerza a Kant, sobre todo las que atacan el carácter universalista e imperativo de (...) la moral kantiana. Asimismo se comentan otras objeciones al universalismo kantiano, provenientes de las éticas feministas y de la neuroética. Se concluye que el individualismo ético de Muguerza sigue siendo válido, aunque ha de ser reformulado en algunos aspectos. Al final se propone una interpretación axiológica de la moral kantiana, según la cual los principios que afirman Kant y Muguerza son valores que se contraponen entre sí, dando lugar a diferentes concepciones del individualismo ético según se prioricen unos u otros valores. (shrink)

Las nuevas tecnologías de la información y las telecomunicaciones (NTIT) están suscitando profundos cambios en las sociedades avanzadas y plantean dilemas estratégicos a los países en vías de desarrollo. La rápida difusión de la red Internet es uno de los fenómenos más destacados de la década final del siglo XX, pero la transformación proviene de otras muchas tecnologías: informática, bases de datos, teléfonos móviles, satélites de telecomunicaciones, televisión digital, realidad virtual, tecnologías multimedia, etc. En conjunto, las redes telemáticas están modificando (...) profundamente la guerra, las finanzas, la organización y actividades empresariales, el trabajo, el comercio, la administración, la enseñanza, la medicina, el ocio, el arte y la cultura. Por ello cabe afirmar que las NTIT están posibilitando un profundo cambio, que afecta a casi todas las actividades sociales, incluida la vida cotidiana. En esta conferencia me ocuparé de su influencia sobre la política y la democracia. (shrink)

Aunque las innovaciones suelen ser evaluadas únicamente desde una perspectiva económica, aportan otras formas de valor (social, cultural, político, medio-ambiental, moral). La fase de difusión social de las innovaciones es clave para una evaluación integrada y plural de los procesos de innovación. El Manual de Oslo, al identificar la difusión con la comercialización en los mercados, ha generado nuevas modalidades de innovación oculta, que no pueden ser analizadas por los instrumentos usuales de análisis en estudios de innovación. Como conclusión, se (...) propone un cambio metodológico en los estudios de innovación, que permita evaluar las diversas fases de un proceso de innovación y tener en cuenta a los distintos agentes que intervienen en él. (shrink)

I ask everyone to look more deeply at man, whom Christ has saved in the mystery of His love, and at the human being’s unceasing search for truth and meaning. Different philosophical systems have lured people into believing that they are their own absolute master, able to decide their own destiny and future in complete autonomy, trusting only in themselves and their own powers. But this can never be the grandeur of the human being who can find fulfillment only in (...) choosing to enter the truth, to make a home under the shade of Wisdom and dwell there. Only within this horizon of truth will people understand their freedom in its fullness and their call to know and love God as the supreme realization of their true self. (shrink)

Las nanotecnologias y los programas Converging Technologies (CT) plantean importantes desafíos a la gobernanza de la ciencia y la tecnología, al desarrollarse en un sistema transnacional de l+D+i con una pluralidad de agentes que compiten y cooperan entre sí, y que tienen intereses y objetivos diversos. Integrar esa pluralidad de agencias tecnocientíficas y fijar las prioridades de los diversos programas CT es el principal problema. Tras comparar los programas norteamericano (NBIC) y europeo (CTEKS), este artículo analiza sus principales puntos comunes, (...) pero también sus diferencias, que son significativas. Se afirma que las nanociencias y las nanotecnologias constituyen uno de los grandes ejemplos de tecnociencia contemporánea, y se distingue la tecnociencia de la ciencia porque en el primer caso el conocimiento científico es un medio para el logro de otros objetivos (sociales, políticos, económicos, militares, etc.), no un fin en sí mismo. Además de proponer una hipótesis filosófica general, la colonización e industrialización de los nanocosmos, se utiliza la noción de agenda científica como herramienta para analizar y caracterizar los diversos modelos de gobernanza actualmente existentes. (shrink)

Herman Bavinck (1854–1921), the Dutch master of dogmatic theology, wrote a systematic treatise in theological ethics. Bavinck is a theistic moral realist whose ethics is deontological and virtue centered. His realism—both ontological and epistemic—is reflected in his understanding of conscience and its relation to the objective moral law. Furthermore, this review article discusses issues in Christian anthropology, particularly the selfhood of the human person, the relation between nature and grace, creation and redemption, and philosophy and theology, and the distinction between (...) objective and subjective religion. It concludes with a brief reflection on Bavinck’s hermeneutics of renewal and reform in the continuity of the catholicity of the Reformed tradition. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza las aportaciones que Eloy Rada hizo a los estudios leibnicianos a través de sus ediciones de textos de Leibniz y al analizar la confrontación entre Leibniz y los newtonianos: polémica sobre el origen del Cálculo y el Análisis Matemático a finales del siglo XVII y contraposición entre las teorías del espacio y el tiempo de Newton y Leibniz. Rada mostró que el sistema newtoniano tenía una fundamentación teológico-religiosa, que fue puesta en cuestión por el sistema leibniciano de (...) la armonía preestablecida, haciendo irreconciliables las posturas de ambos. Las divergencias, incluida la discusión sobre la fuerza de la gravedad, son consecuencia de esa contraposición metafísica y teológica, que afectaba a las raíces de la religión anglicana, tal y como se había conformado a partir del latitudinarismo de los filósofos de Cambridge, de Boyle y del propio Newton y su sistema de la gravitación universal. (shrink)

Algunas innovaciones epistémicas (avances del conocimiento) pueden ser analizadas como resultado de procesos de transferencia de conocimiento entre diferentes comunidades científicas. Los científicos no sólo producen conocimiento en su ámbito de especialización, además son usuarios del conocimiento que otros han producido en campos distintos. Reinterpretando las propuestas de von Hippel (2005), se analizan otras fuentes de innovación epistémica, mencionando ejemplos concretos: los suministradores (ISI), distribuidores (Nature, Science) y el uso transdisciplinario del conocimiento científico. Se concluye que los procesos de transferencia (...) que pueden generar innovaciones se producen en redes de conocimiento con diferentes nodos de innovación. Estas propuestas pueden aplicarse a otras modalidades de conocimiento (ciencia, tecnología, arte, cultura), e incluso a la transmisión del conocimiento a la sociedad. (shrink)

The Erlanger Program of F. Klein ensures a ground for the ὲ́κθεσις procedure, which has not been much studied in the recent debates about geometrical analysis, but refers to a more general problem: the identity of a sign within a sign system, and the attempts of reduction of the mentioned system by another one. The exampIe considered is the reduction of the conics to characteristic rectangles realized by Apollonius. Starting from Klein and Apollonius, as weIl as from cartesian geometry, the (...) figures are considered as geometric signs, and the proposed analysis of sign identity are conceived as models to follow in the analysis of identity of mathematical signs in general. (shrink)

Roy Clouser’s reply to my article on John Paul II’s 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio is learned, engaging, clear--and, respectfully put, full of errors on many points regarding John Paul’s understanding of faith and reason.1 On this matter, he attacks a straw man. Indeed, at times I wondered whether Clouser and I had read the same encyclical. Despite this, however, let me underscore my genuine appreciation of Clouser for pressing me to be clearer on my view of the encyclical’s position (...) on faith and reason.My reply is organized in two parts. First, I argue that in FR faith is a form of knowing; John Paul II is not a rationalist; and the impact of the fall into sin on human reason is integral. Second, I defend the view of FR that a metaphysical theology is necessary in order to give an account of the intelligibility of the Christian revelation. Indeed, one of the biblical requirements for a “Scriptural philosophy” is a philosophy of a truly metaphysical range, according to John Paul. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the four elements—universal sinfulness, natural sinfulness, inherited sinfulness, and Adamic sinfulness—of the doctrine of original sin in both the Reformed confessions, with particular attention to the Canons of Dort, and the Council of Trent’s definitive teaching on Original Sin. I give particular attention to the question regarding how all men are implicated in the sin of Adam. Realism and federalism will be analyzed as answers to this question. Even if a theological account is given that (...) justifies the claim that God may justly impute Adam’s sin to his posterity, that still leaves unanswered the question of unconditional negative reprobation, also called, preterition (praeteritio), namely, that God passes over some and not others. Does preterition jeopardize the Church’s call to evangelization? That question will need to be reconsidered briefly, and in conclusion, in light of the doctrine of divine election and its implications for the preaching and hence proclamation of the gospel. (shrink)

La condición distribuida en el espacio y en el tiempo del deseo de saber no implica universalidad, sino más bien pluralidad, e incluso pluriversalidad. La universalidad implica tender a “lo Uno”, que desde Platón ha sido concebido como una entidad trascendente. La pluralidad que se propugna en esta contribución, inspirada en Leibniz y en James, se a!rma adversus unum, no versus unum. En consecuencia, se propugna una!losofía pluriversal, que indaga y a!rma la pluralidad en cada uno de los ámbitos que (...) investiga. También se señala el sustrato monoteísta de la universalidad en la lógica escolástica. Frente al monismo lógico-deductivo, que a!rma la existencia de un único modo de racionalidad, esta contribución a!rma la racionalidad pluralista, por contraposición a la racionalidad monista. Finalmente, se sugiere que la propia idea de universidad podría ser reemplazada ventajosamente por instituciones basadas en la multidisciplinariedad y en la pluralidad de perspectivas de análisis: las pluriversidades. "e condition distributed in space and in time of the philosophy does not imply universality, but rather plurality, and even pluriversality. Universality implies a tendency to “the One”, which since Plato has been conceived as a transcendent entity. "e plurality advocated in this contribution, inspired by Leibniz and James, states adversus unum, not versus unum. Consequently, it advocates a pluriversal philosophy, which explores and a#rms the plurality in each of the areas investigated. "e monotheistic substrate of universality in the scholastic logic is also remarked. Facing the logical-deductive monism, which a#rms the existence of a single mode of rationality, this paper claims for a pluralistic rationality, in contrast to the monist rationality. Finally, it is suggested that the very idea of the university could be advantageously replaced by institutions based on multidisciplinary and plurality of perspectives of analysis: pluriversities. (shrink)

La contraposición entre el pluralismo y el monismo se ha planteado muchas veces a lo largo de la historia de la filosofía. Dicho debate ha tenido diversas facetas. Mi propósito en esta contribución consiste en evocar esa variedad de aspectos, con el fin de proponer algunos argumentos a favor del pluralismo en filosofía. [Fragmento].

La concepción semántica en filosofía de la ciencia propuso las relaciones de isomorfismo (van Fraassen) y semejanza (Giere) para analizar las representaciones científicas. Recientemente, Ibarra y Mormann han sugerido una geometrización de la concepción representacional en filosofía de la ciencia. Este artículo afirma que es precisa una relación mas general (la de homeomorfismo) para reconstruir las representaciones científicas externas que son utilizadas en la practica científica contemporánea, y especialmente en la visualización científica digitalizada.The semantical view on philosophy of science has (...) proposed the relationships of isomorfism (van Fraassen) and similitude (Giere) in order to analyse scientific representations. Recently, Ibarra & Mormann have suggested a geometrization of the representational view on philosophy of science. This contribution claims that a more general relationship (homeomorfism) is needed to reconstruct external representations used in contemporary scientific practice and, specially, in scientific digitalized visualization. (shrink)

Dos libros recientes de Olivé y Queraltó, ambos partiendo de concepciones filosóficas pluralistas, pragmáticas, axiológicas, contextuales y realistas, han reanimado la discusión entre filósofos morales y epistemólogos en torno a la ética y las nuevas tecnologías. Olivé propugna una ética intercultural, Queraltó propone un refuerzo mutuo entre los valores morales y tecnológicos. Esta nota compara ambas contribuciones y plantea de nuevo el problema de la ética en las sociedades tecnológicas contemporáneas.

Esta conferencia, dictada la Universidad de Puerto Rico,postula un vínculo firme entre la vivencia universitaria y el ejercicio de la democracia. Recoge que el siglo XII se caracterizó por el auge de los debates teológicos, y la recuperación del Derecho romano, de lo que surge la creación de universidades en Europa, ocupando la palabra que deriva de universitatem, voz que significa el todo. El autor vincula esta relación entre universidad y democracia, a la concepción de destino surgida en el renacimiento (...) y en la época moderna, según la cual nosotros decidimos y hacemos nuestro destino en ejercicio de nuestra más esclarecida libertad. (shrink)