During the last decades the question of defining life has gained increased interest but, at the same time, the difficulty in reaching consensus on a possible answer has led many to skeptical positions. This, in turn, has raised a wider debate about why defining life is so hard and controversial. Such a debate introduces additional aspects to be considered, like the role and nature of a definition of life itself. In this paper, we will focus on those aspects, arguing that (...) progress can be made if we conceive definitions of life as open heuristic tools that contribute to develop specific research strategies in the biological sciences and, more generally, to increase our understanding of life’s complexity. In contrast with pragmatic or operationalist approaches, we will defend that definitions of life comprise a set of ontological assumptions, together with an inherent unifying vocation, so they should be subject to comparison and critical assessment, closely related to the success or failure of the corresponding research programs, but also to the success or failure in establishing well-grounded interconnections among the latter. We consider that the search for a more coherent, integrated and generalized theory of biology cannot be pursued without keeping an empirical standpoint, and the exercise of defining life should not be taken as an obstacle but as a valuable instrument to achieve that goal. (shrink)

How precisely to understand and evaluate counterfactuals can be an intricate issue. The aim of this article is to examine a new set of difficulties for evaluating counterfactuals that arise in the context of the dynamical spacetimes described by the theory of general relativity. The initial value formulation provides us with a methodology to pin down the specific combination of features of the theory at the origin of the difficulties, namely, non-linearity and certain non-local aspects, in particular when combined with (...) the global and/or quasi-local character of physical quantities in general relativity. Finally, we connect the philosophical question about counterfactuals with concrete applied physical issues in general relativity about extracting meaningful predictions by constructing appropriate initial data sets, leading us to question the very suitability of the Cauchy approach to fully account for the explanatory power of the theory. (shrink)

This study employed a technology surveillance process in the beekeeping sector with the objective of identifying emerging technologies that are relevant to small beekeepers in emerging economies. The analysis of patents classified under A01K 47/00 revealed the emergence of pivotal innovations in domains such as hive design, automated honey extraction, and the integration of sensors for hive monitoring. The surveillance process facilitated the collection and analysis of data on the most patented technologies in the sector, thereby addressing key planning questions. (...) The study identified technological trends with the potential to transform beekeeping in low-tech contexts, thereby enhancing the productivity and sustainability of beekeeping operations. The findings of this study indicate that the identified technologies have the potential to significantly contribute to the well-being of small beekeepers, provided that their adoption is facilitated through the provision of governmental and organizational support. It is recommended that future research investigate the implementation of these technologies and the factors that influence their adoption in diverse production contexts. (shrink)

Además del desafío propiamente jurídico que plantean la interamericanización del derecho y los proyectos que propugnan por un constitucionalismo transformador de las desigualdades sociales y políticas que aquejan a los países de la región, se plantean retos de naturaleza política. Sobresalen la inclusión social y la debida representación política. Dentro de los retos filosóficos se encuentra la depuración de conceptos que sofistiquen y precisen las categorías con las cuales describimos nuevos fenómenos en América Latina.

El presente trabajo analiza el esquema de las Asociaciones Público Privadas consagradas en la ley 1508 de 2012, como un instrumento de vinculación del capital privado y modalidad de gestión pública dentro de la actividad contractual. Para ello, se propone resaltar aspectos esenciales de las mismas que permitan responder a la pregunta: ¿Cuál es la importancia de las app como modelo de gestión pública en la actividad contractual, para la concreción de los fines del Estado? La finalidad se cimienta en (...) analizar la importancia de estas como esquemas y herramientas de gestión pública dirigidas al cumplimiento de los fines del Estado, desde el elemento cuantitativo del Estado Social de Derecho, en especial desde el fin de servicio a la comunidad, proponiéndose ahondar en la normatividad vigente colombiana que versa en torno a las mismas, donde se vislumbra la importancia de estas estructuras y se detallan las diferencias entre los esquemas de iniciativa privada como verdadera novedad e iniciativa pública. (shrink)

Los Ayoreos bolivianos enfrentan una lucha por el reconocimiento de su territorio, su demanda jurídica se inicia al final de los ochenta; en 1999 a través de la Ley Nº 1715 logran que cuatro de sus comunidades sean reconocidas como Tierras Comunitarias de Origen (TCO). El año 2009, la nueva Constitución cambiará el nombre de TCO al de Territorio Indígena Originario Campesino (TIOC) esta nueva denominación trae conflictos en su reconocimiento territorial y avasallamiento. Aproximadamente hace 20 años que no logran (...) ningún tipo de reconocimiento territorial, aunque la Constitución les reconoce como “nación” y el dominio ancestral sobre sus territorios. (shrink)

El objetivo del artículo es plantear un concepto de preexistencia y los elementos que lo componen para las identidades históricas de América del Sur, denominadas: indígenas, pueblos indígenas. Por dos razones: a) porque han sido cercenadas por divisiones internas de los Estados y las fronteras territoriales de dos o más países, b) porque la normativa constitucional e internacional no reconoce este derecho apropiadamente. El método utilizado fueron trabajos previos de la autora sobre los aymaras, quechuas, kichwas (2012-2016) y ayoreos (2020-2021). (...) Finalmente se presentan soluciones para este reconocimiento: la emancipación de estas identidades y la constitucionalización de los derechos históricos. (shrink)

Confusa, difusa, profusa, la «muerte del hombre» después de cinco décadas de su proclamación sigue siendo una cuestión punzante para no pocos lectores de Foucault. Sin embargo, llama la atención que la mayoría de esos preocupados lectores no considera las rectificaciones que el autor hace a esa formulación. Examinar esas rectificaciones, en relación con los desplazamientos del pensamiento de Foucault, es el propósito de estas reflexiones e inflexiones.

The purpose of professional education programs is to prepare aspiring professionals for the challenges of practice within a particular profession. These programs typically seek to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills, as well as providing opportunities for their application. While not denying the importance of knowledge and skills, this paper reconfigures professional education as a process of becoming. Learning to become a professional involves not only what we know and can do, but also who we are (becoming). It (...) involves integration of knowing, acting, and being in the form of professional ways of being that unfold over time. When a professional education program focuses on the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, it falls short of facilitating their integration into professional ways of being. In addition, through such a focus on epistemology (or theory of knowing), ontology (or theory of being) is overlooked. This paper explores what it means to develop professional ways of being where the focus is becoming, not simply knowing as an end in itself. (shrink)

How precisely to understand and evaluate counterfactuals can be an intricate issue. The aim of this article is to examine a new set of difficulties for evaluating counterfactuals that arise in the context of the dynamical spacetimes described by the theory of general relativity (GR). The initial value formulation provides us with a methodology to pin down the specific combination of features of the theory at the origin of the difficulties, namely, non-linearity and certain non-local aspects (typically captured by ellipticity (...) at the analytical level), in particular when combined with the global and/or quasi-local character of physical quantities in GR. Finally, we connect the philosophical question about counterfactuals with concrete applied physical issues in GR about extracting meaningful predictions by constructing appropriate initial data sets, leading us to question the very suitability of the Cauchy approach to fully account for the explanatory power of the theory. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo trata del método y su relación con la investigación educativa. El objetivo es analizar la relevancia del método en ciencias humanas y sociales, en especial, en educación. Para ello, dividimos este artículo en tres secciones: 1. ¿Hay método? 2. ¿Hay uno o varios métodos? 3. La discusión sobre el método en la investigación educativa. A la primera pregunta, respondemos que hay método. Respondemos a la segunda señalando la necesidad de adoptar un pluralismo metodológico. La tercera sección defiende (...) que las discusiones sobre el método de investigación educativa implican dimensiones ontológicas, epistemológicas y éticas que se han tornado críticas, y se hace una revisión de cada una de ellas. En el apartado conclusivo, sugerimos algunas vías para desanudar esos asuntos críticos en la investigación educativa.: This article deals with method and its relation to educational research. The objective is to analyze the relevance of method in human and social sciences, especially in education. To this end, we divide this article into three sections: 1. Is there a method? 2. Is there one or more methods? 3. The discussion on method in educational research. To the first question, we answer that there is a method. We answer the second question by pointing out the need to adopt methodological pluralism. The third section argues that discussions on the method of educational research involve ontological, epistemological, and ethical dimensions that have become critical, and a review is made of each of them. In the concluding section, we suggest some ways to disentangle these critical issues in educational research. (shrink)

This article explores the intellectual relationship between Paul Ricœur and Karl Marx, focusing on the metaphor of the camera obscura used by Marx to describe ideology in The German Ideology. It provides an overview of Ricœur’s significant references to Marx, which began with a critical appropriation of Marxism in an attempt to reconcile it with a Christian worldview, continuing throughout the 1960s and beyond with the exploration of concepts such as “false consciousness” and ideology. After this overview, the article examines (...) three presuppositions inherent in this metaphor, which implies an inversion of reality. First, it analyzes the notion of “false consciousness” within Ricœur’s hermeneutics, situating Marx among the “masters of suspicion.” Second, the article examines the conditions that make this inversion of reality possible, framed within Ricœur’s broader examination of ideology and the symbolic constitution of the social bond. Third, it discusses the idea of an original state to which one can return by reversing the inversion, drawing parallels with Husserl’s method of retrospective questioning applied to Marx’s reduction in The German Ideology. The metaphor of the camera obscura illustrates the complex relationships between reality and its distorted representations. The discussion around the metaphor used by Marx leads Ricœur to underline the fundamental role of imagination to broaden understanding and overcome interpretative reductionisms. (shrink)

El ensayo explora los principios básicos y los supuestos teóricos del socialismo raizal propuesto por el sociólogo colombiano Orlando Fals Borda. Este socialismo es presentado como una propuesta enraizada en la Investigación Acción Participativa, haciendo énfasis en su origen en las experiencias históricas revolucionarias de los pueblos originarios y diversos sectores populares de América Latina. Igualmente, se resalta su contenido popular, humanista, democrático y epistémico. El ensayo también explora sus acercamientos y sus diferencias con el pensamiento de Marx.

Resumen En la presente nota crítica entablo una polémica con la obra Cuando los filósofos políticos se equivocan de Guillermo Lariguet. Este libro plantea la necesidad de pensar cómo una filosofía política responsable, ética y epistémicamente, ha de llevar a la reflexión sobre la política y lo político el rigor y la voluntad de imparcialidad que definen el pensar filosófico. Abordo los conceptos centrales de Lariguet desde una visión crítica tomando como referentes algunos tópicos del campo de la filosofía política. (...) Para tal fin, expongo el contexto de la obra, reviso varias de sus ideas y cierro con algunas reflexiones propias.This critical note discusses the book When the Political Philosophers are Wrong by Guillermo Lariguet, which raises the need to think how an ethically and epistemically responsible political philosophy must bring to the reflection on politics and politics the rigor and willingness to impartiality that define philosophical thinking. I examine Lariguet’s central concepts from a critical perspective taking as references topics from the field of political philosophy. For this purpose, I describe the context of the work, I review some of the ideas contained in it and close by putting forward certain thoughts of my own. (shrink)

Montaigne compone una ética moderna definida por el ejercicio de su pensamiento autocritico que acompañado de un método filosófico aborda la construcción de sÍ mismo como una "manera" filosófica. Las reflexiones intentan responder simultáneamente a dos cuestiones: ¿cómo le es posible proveerse de una ética que le permita una existencia ordenada y sensata, cuando la condición humana está signada por el desorden y la extravagancia? ¿Cómo le es posible fundar una ética moderna -antes que Descartes- con una posición escéptica?

Attitudinal- and stress theory are used to investigate the effect of ethical climate on job outcomes. Responses from 208 service employees who work for a country health department were used to test a structural model that examines the process through which ethical climate (EC) affects turnover intention (TI). This study shows that the EC–TI relationship is fully mediated by role stress (RC), interpersonal conflict (IC), emotional exhaustion (EE), trust in supervisor (TS), and job satisfaction (JS). Results show that EC reduces (...) (RS) and increases TS. Lower stress levels result in lower EE, higher JS, and lower TI. Also, supervisor trust (TS) reduces IC and EE. The structural model predicts 53.9% of the variance of TI. (shrink)

Background: Reliance on moral principles and professional codes has given nurses direction for ethical decision-making. However, rational models do not capture the emotion and reality of human choice. Intuitive response must be considered. Research purpose: Supporting intuition as an important ethical decision-making tool for nurses, the aim of this study was to determine relationships between intuition, years of worked nursing experience, and perceived ethical decision-making ability. A secondary aim explored the relationships between rational thought to years of worked nursing experience (...) and perceived ethical decision-making ability. Research design and context: A non-experimental, correlational research design was used. The Rational Experiential Inventory measured intuition and rational thought. The Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Scale measured perceived ethical decision-making ability. Pearson’s r was the statistical method used to analyze three primary and two secondary research questions. Participants: A sample of 182 emergency nurses was recruited electronically through the Emergency Nurses Association. Participants were self-selected. Ethical considerations: Approval to conduct this study was obtained by the Adelphi University Institutional Review Board. Findings: A relationship between intuition and perceived ethical decision-making ability ( r =.252, p =.001) was a significant finding in this study. Discussion: This study is one of the first of this nature to make a connection between intuition and nurses’ ethical decision-making ability. Conclusion: This investigation contributes to a broader understanding of the different thought processes used by emergency nurses to make ethical decisions. (shrink)

This article has been retracted by the Publications Committee of the School of Philosophy and Universitas Philosophica editorial team.

En este escrito me propongo presentar una reconstrucción à la Suppes de la Teoría pictórica, representacional o figurativa del lenguaje propuesta por L. Wittgenstein en el Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus para mostrar los límites del pensamiento, o más precisamente del lenguaje como expresión sensible del pensamiento, sobre el presupuesto de la existencia no explícita por parte de su autor de un isomorfismo entre la estructura del lenguaje, como expresión sensible del pensamiento, y la del mundo; de suerte que, para que el lenguaje (...) pueda figurar algo del mundo, se requiere que entre ambas estructuras, la del lenguaje y la del mundo, se pueda establecer una función h-isomórfica no solo a nivel de sus dominios respectivos, dado que ambos poseen la misma cardinalidad, sino entre sus predicados y relatores, dada su misma aridad. Con ella pretendo dar cuenta de la compleja teoría pictórica o figurativa con el fin de diferenciar aquello que podemos decir con sentido, de aquello que únicamente podemos mostrar. (shrink)

The purpose of professional education programs is to prepare aspiring professionals for the challenges of practice within a particular profession. These programs typically seek to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills, as well as providing opportunities for their application. While not denying the importance of knowledge and skills, this paper reconfigures professional education as a process of becoming. Learning to become a professional involves not only what we know and can do, but also who we are. It involves (...) integration of knowing, acting, and being in the form of professional ways of being that unfold over time. When a professional education program focuses on the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, it falls short of facilitating their integration into professional ways of being. In addition, through such a focus on epistemology, ontology is overlooked. This paper explores what it means to develop professional ways of being where the focus is becoming, not simply knowing as an end in itself. (shrink)