The dichotomy between the qualitative and the quantitative has been a classic throughout the history of science. As will be seen, this dichotomy permeates all ontological levels of reality. In this work, phenomenological examples potentially related to semiosis are presented at the different levels established by Mario Bunge and Josep Ferrater Mora, contrasting the qualitative categorizations with the quantifiable physical reality. Likewise, the need to continue in the quantification of the biosemiotic and linguistic studies will be presented, while, in contrast, (...) the need to establish a qualitative framework in the little-addressed study of technosemiotics will be raised, of potential interest given the notable advances that are expected in communication systems for inert artifacts in the next years. In short, in the thesis defended here the qualitative precedes the quantitative in the defining path of science. (shrink)

A key aim in biology and psychology is to identify fundamental principles underpinning the behavior of animals, including humans. Analyses of human language and the behavior of a range of non-human animal species have provided evidence for a common pattern underlying diverse behavioral phenomena: Words follow Zipf's law of brevity (the tendency of more frequently used words to be shorter), and conformity to this general pattern has been seen in the behavior of a number of other animals. It has been (...) argued that the presence of this law is a sign of efficient coding in the information theoretic sense. However, no strong direct connection has been demonstrated between the law and compression, the information theoretic principle of minimizing the expected length of a code. Here, we show that minimizing the expected code length implies that the length of a word cannot increase as its frequency increases. Furthermore, we show that the mean code length or duration is significantly small in human language, and also in the behavior of other species in all cases where agreement with the law of brevity has been found. We argue that compression is a general principle of animal behavior that reflects selection for efficiency of coding. (shrink)

Here we study polysemy as a potential learning bias in vocabulary learning in children. Words of low polysemy could be preferred as they reduce the disambiguation effort for the listener. However, such preference could be a side-effect of another bias: the preference of children for nouns in combination with the lower polysemy of nouns with respect to other part-of-speech categories. Our results show that mean polysemy in children increases over time in two phases, i.e. a fast growth till the 31st (...) month followed by a slower tendency towards adult speech. In contrast, this evolution is not found in adults interacting with children. This suggests that children have a preference for non-polysemous words in their early stages of vocabulary acquisition. Interestingly, the evolutionary pattern described above weakens when controlling for syntactic category (noun, verb, adjective or adverb) but it does not disappear completely, suggesting that it could result from a combination of a standalone bias for low polysemy and a preference for nouns. (shrink)

Aims: Attentional bias, alcohol craving, and anxiety have important implications in the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder. The current study aims to test the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Cue-Exposure Therapy to reduce levels of alcohol craving and anxiety and prompt changes in AB toward alcohol content.Method: A 49-year-old male participated in this study, diagnosed with severe AUD, who also used tobacco and illicit substances on an occasional basis and who made several failed attempts to cease substance misuse. (...) The protocol consisted of six VR-CET booster sessions and two assessment sessions over the course of 5 weeks. The VR-CET program consisted of booster therapy sessions based on virtual reality exposure to preferred alcohol-related cues and contexts. The initial and final assessment sessions were focused on exploring AB, alcohol craving, and anxiety using paper-and-pencil instruments and the eye-tracking and VR technologies at different time points.Results: Pre and post assessment sessions indicated falls on the scores of all instruments assessing alcohol craving, anxiety, and AB.Conclusions: This case report, part of a larger project, demonstrates the effectiveness of the VR-CET booster sessions in AUD. In the post-treatment measurements, a variety of instruments showed a change in the AB pattern and an improvement in craving and anxiety responses. As a result of the systematic desensitization, virtual exposure gradually reduced the responses to significant alcohol-related cues and contexts. The implications for AB, anxiety and craving are discussed. (shrink)

This paper presents two formation tracking control strategies for a combined set of single and double integrator agents with an arbitrary undirected communication topology. The first approach is based on the design of distance-based potential functions with interagent collision avoidance using local information about the distance and orientation between agents and the desired trajectory. The second approach adds signed area constraints to the desired formation specification and a control strategy that uses distance as well as area terms is designed to (...) achieve tracking convergence. Numerical simulations show the performance from both control laws. (shrink)

A genuine commitment to ethics and compliance (E&C) programs means that top management adopt them for what they represent and not for other purposes. Only then can they truly build socially responsible behavior and a successful and sustainable business, as stated in the latest international standard for compliance management practice (ISO 37301:2021), which we found to be consistent with a new business narrative as conceptualized in Freeman's work. However, it also requires that top managers place a moral value on these (...) practices, rather than simply using them for instrumental reasons. Building on Kohlberg's six stages of moral development as applied to managers' moral thinking, this manuscript offers a model to explain how top managers' moral valuing of these practices varies along a moral reasoning continuum, resulting in four distinct modes. It also theorizes that each mode of moral valuing yields an archetype of E&C programs. It thus offers a new approach that contributes to the business ethics and management literature by incorporating a morally grounded perspective on the adoption and implementation of E&C practices and how it might shape their features and characteristics. It also aims to improve professional practice and business contributions to Freeman's ideas through genuine ethics‐based E&C programs. (shrink)

Background: Respecting dignity is having a profound effect on the clinical relationship and the care framework for terminally ill patients in palliative care units, hospices and their own homes, with particular consequences for the emergency department. However, dignity is a vague and multifaceted concept that is difficult to measure. Objective: The aim of this study is to define the attributes of dignity in end-of-life care in the emergency department, based on the opinions of physicians and nurses. Research design: A hermeneutic (...) phenomenological approach utilising Gadamer's philosophical underpinnings guided the study. Participants and research context: This research was conducted in Spain in 2013–2014. Participants included 10 physicians and 16 nurses with experience working in the emergency department. Two focus groups and 12 in-depth interviews were carried out. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the Research Centre Ethical Committee (Andalusian Health Service, Spain). Findings: The results point to the person's inherent value, socio-environmental conditions and conscious actions/attitudes as attributes of dignity when caring for a dying patient in the emergency department. Discussion: Dying with dignity is a basic objective in end-of-life care and is an ambiguous but relevant concept for physicians and nurses. In line with our theoretical framework, our results highlight care environment, professional actions and socio-family context as attributes of dignity. Conclusion: Quality care in the emergency department includes paying attention to the dignity of people in the process of death. The dignity in the care of a dying person in the emergency department is defined by acknowledging the inherent value in each person, socio-environmental conditions and social and individual acceptance of death. Addressing these questions has significant repercussions for health professionals, especially nurses. (shrink)

Preserving dignity during the dying process requires reviewing the roles of those involved in the treatment, care methods and decision-making. This article examines the participation and responsibility assigned to nurses regarding decision-making in the final stages of life, as laid out in the Rights to and Guarantee of Dignity for the Individual During the Process of Death Act. This text has been analysed on the levels of socio-cultural practice and discourse practice, using the critical discourse analysis methodology. The results show (...) that, although the law is another result of the social trend of patient empowerment, the responsibility of the nurses is not recognised, and they are left out of the decision-making process in the final stages of life. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo investigate the association of pre-existing migraine in patients hospitalised and who recovered from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection with the presence of post-coronavirus disease symptoms.BackgroundNo study has investigated the role of migraine as a risk factor for development of post-COVID symptoms.MethodsA case-control study including individuals hospitalised during the first wave of the pandemic was conducted. Patients with confirmed previous diagnosis of migraine were considered cases. Two age- and sex-matched individuals without a history of headache per case were (...) also recruited as controls. Hospitalisation/clinical data were collected from hospital medical records. Patients were scheduled for a telephone interview. A list of post-COVID symptoms was systematically evaluated, but participants were invited to freely report any symptom. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to assess anxiety/depressive symptoms and sleep quality. Multivariable conditional logistic regression models were constructed.ResultsOverall, 57 patients with confirmed diagnosis of migraine and 144 non-migraine controls who had recovered from COVID-19 were assessed at 7.3 months after hospital discharge. The number of post-COVID symptoms in the migraine group was significantly greater than in the non-migraine group. Fatigue was significantly more prevalent in the migraine group. However, no between-groups difference in the prevalence of headache as a post-COVID symptom was detected.ConclusionPatients with a history of migraine who recovered from COVID-19 exhibited more long-term fatigue as post-COVID sequelae than those without migraine. Some of the pathophysiological changes associated with migraine could predispose to the occurrence of post-COVID symptoms. (shrink)

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo examinar algunas ideas contemporáneas sobre el método científico inscritas en la corriente de pensamiento denominada "Racionalismo Crítico". En este sentido, destacan los planteamientos propuestos por Karl Popper, máximo representante de esta tesis; así como ..

This work approaches views on the preservation of industrial housing heritage in Malaga, Spain, and the pressure caused by its recent urban renovation. The aims of the research include geographic space analysis and assessing how archaeological recording and archaeometry, specifically archaeometallurgy, can contribute to the preservation of information about structures and materials that continuously disappear from urban contexts. The results constitute an initial beginning to expand a comparative archaeological database for the city. The ideas and procedures presented here are expected (...) to provide some guidance for generating further research from urban, architectural, archaeological, and geographical perspectives. (shrink)

The notion that patients’ medical decision-making capacity depends on risk considerations has some acceptance in the bioethical literature. However, it arouses some criticism since it seems to give rise to paternalistic attitudes. In addition, the idea of capacity assessment as a collaborative space in which aid is given to the patient is emphasized so that they can decide about their life. It does not seem ethically acceptable to pose the evaluation as a simple observer report. Capacity assessment can sometimes be (...) impossible or inconsequential. In short, capacity assessment is a procedure that, used wisely, can allow the patient to take charge of their life. Misused, it can be the gateway to unjustified paternalistic actions. (shrink)

El objetivo de esta investigación es poner de manifiesto la importancia de las imágenes de vestir marianas y, también, las joyas y accesorios que presentan. Se plantearán las bases y claves de un lenguaje no verbal que actúa como testimonio de la devoción además de las relaciones sociales y económicas del momento que las marcan. Merced a los casos analizados, se comprobará cómo, con gran frecuencia, se une a la piedad popular de pueblos y de las culturas de determinados acontecimientos (...) de la zona. Los resultados demostrarán la importancia dada y valores atribuidos a este tipo de iconografía. (shrink)

Los métodos productivos de enseñanza preparan a los estudiantes para resolver problemas semejantes a los que se enfrentarán en el ejercicio laboral. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo fundamentar la pertinencia de la utilización del caso clínico como herramienta didáctica para la enseñanza en las ciencias básicas biomédicas, mediante un sistema de tareas para abordar los contenidos del tema Fisiología de la sangre de la asignatura Sangre y Sistema Inmune de la carrera de medicina. El caso clínico permite la vinculación de (...) las ciencias básicas biomédicas con las ciencias clínicas. Su utilización contribuye a la aproximación del estudiante de las ciencias básicas al estudio de estas durante su formación médica. El aprendizaje se logra a lo largo del proceso de resolución del mismo, se estimula la incorporación de conceptos necesarios para resolver el problema y se aprende un método para abordar situaciones en la práctica. Se elaboró un sistema de tareas y preguntas derivadas del problema profesional síndrome anémico. El problema docente se basó en un artículo médico que expone un caso de lesiones por empalamiento que produjo un gran sangramiento en un individuo. Se elaboraron preguntas problémicas relacionadas con la fisiología de la sangre y el tratamiento que recibió el paciente con eritropoyetina, factores de la coagulación y soluciones cristaloides en sustitución de la sangre. Se incluyó una pregunta que aborda un conflicto ético para sistematizar los conocimientos adquiridos en la asignatura Sociedad y Salud II. Productive teaching methods train students to solve problems similar to those they will face in their work life. The objective of the paper is to argue pertinence in the use of the clinical case as a didactic tool in biomedical basic sciences teaching by means of a task system that deals with the contents of the Blood Physiology subject in the Blood and Immune System subject matter of the medicine degree. Clinical cases enable the link between biomedical basic sciences and clinical sciences. Their use contributes to basic sciences students' approach to the study of the latter during their medical training. Learning is achieved through its solving process; the introduction of necessary problem-solving concepts is encouraged and a method to deal with in-practice situations is learned. A task and questions system derived from the anemic syndrome professional problem was made. The teaching problem was based on a medical article which presents a case of an individual who suffered impaling injuries which caused a great bleeding. Problem questions related to blood physiology and to the erythropoietin-based treatment the patient received, coagulation factors and crystalloid fluids used as blood substitutes, were prepared. It was included a question that deals with an ethical conflict in order to systematize the knowledge acquired in the Society and Health II subject matter. (shrink)

Cooperative, connected and automated mobility technologies have the potential to revolutionize transportation systems and enhance safety, efficiency and sustainability. However, the increasing reliance on digital technologies also introduces new cybersecurity risks that can compromise the safety and privacy of passengers and the integrity of transportation systems. The purpose of this article is to examine the most important threats, vulnerabilities, risks and challenges related to automated mobility and to review the status of the most promising standardization initiatives on cryptography in a (...) world where quantum computers will soon represent an actual threat. (shrink)

Diferentes estudios sostienen que el perfil del profesional de relaciones públicas varía según los países y regiones; entre otras razones, por el desarrollo académico y las dinámicas del mercado profesional. Esta investigación analiza comparativamente, a nivel teórico (definición de competencias y marcos regulatorios) y empírico (programas académicos y tendencias) la principal oferta académica de grado en los casos de Ecuador y España, a partir de las siguientes dimensiones: desarrollo de competencias, áreas de desempeño y perfiles de egreso. El perfil profesional (...) de relaciones públicas está demandando nuevas competencias y habilidades que en muchos casos trasciende el quehacer tradicional del área. (shrink)

The topology of DNA duplexes changes during replication and also after deproteinization in vitro. Here we describe these changes and then discuss for the first time how the distribution of superhelical stress affects the DNA topology of replication intermediates, taking into account the progression of replication forks. The high processivity of Topo IV to relax the left‐handed (+) supercoiling that transiently accumulates ahead of the forks is not essential, since DNA gyrase and swiveling of the forks cooperate with Topo IV (...) to accomplish this task in vivo. We conclude that despite Topo IV has a lower processivity to unlink the right‐handed (+) crossings of pre‐catenanes and fully replicated catenanes, this is indeed its main role in vivo. This would explain why in the absence of Topo IV replication goes‐on, but fully replicated sister duplexes remain heavily catenated. (shrink)

Reseñado por ENCARNACIÓN RUIZ CALLEJÓNUniversidad de Granada, [email protected].

El presente trabajo es un estudio descriptivo y con un enfoque sincrónico que da muestra de las deficiencias de los profesores universitarios al redactar textos científicos. Este estudio tiene como objetivo proponer varias acciones de superación para perfeccionar el manejo del lenguaje y el arte de redactar de los docentes de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas "Dr. Faustino Pérez Hernández" de la provincia Sancti Spíritus que cursan la octava edición de la Maestría en Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad (...) de Sancti Spíritus "José Martí Pérez". Para darle cumplimiento a este propósito, se aplicaron varios métodos y técnicas de recolección de datos a una muestra seleccionada al azar de informantes y de sus publicaciones, lo que permitió fundamentar la existencia de varias problemáticas en la redacción científica de dichos profesores y la necesidad de implementar formas organizativas básicas del proceso de educación de posgrado para su inmediata y eficaz aplicación. The present work is a descriptive study grounded in a synchronic approach that identifies the deficiencies of university professors when writing scientific texts. This study aims to propose several measures to improve the use of language and the art of writing of teachers of the " Dr. Faustino Pérez Hernández" University of Medical Sciences in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba who are participating in the eighth edition of the Master's Degree in Educational Sciences program at the "José Martí Pérez" University, also located in Sancti Spiritus. Several methods and techniques of data collection were applied to a random sample of informants and their scientific articles. This allowed for the detection of several problems in scientific writing and the need to implement basic organizational forms of postgraduate education for immediate and effective application. (shrink)

ABSTRACTOrganization and management researchers praise the value of care in the workplace. However, they overlook the conflict between caring for work and for coworkers, which resonates with the dilemma of care allocation highlighted by ethicists of care. Through an in-depth qualitative study of two organizations, we examine how this dilemma is confronted in everyday organizational life. We draw on the concept of boundary work to explain how employees negotiate the boundary of their caring responsibilities in ways that grants or denies (...) care to coworkers. We argue that the possibility of an ethics of care for coworkers requires boundary work that suspends the separation of personal and professional selves and constitutes the worker as a whole person. We contribute to research on care in organizations by showing how care for coworkers may be enabled or undermined by maintaining or suppressing the care allocation dilemma. (shrink)

Management and organization researchers are being called to conduct research that is more caring, yet the concept of care and how to practice it within the profession is undertheorized. Adopting a feminist epistemology and methodology, we develop the concept of care by weaving the personal, ethical, and political into the research process. First, we reflect critically on how aspects of care—attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness (Tronto, Moral boundaries: a political argument for an ethic of care, Routledge, 1993; Tronto, Caring democracy: (...) markets, equality, and justice, New York University Press, 2013)—unfolded in our personal research experiences, and secondly, we conduct a review of articles published in management and organization studies and analyse expressed or concealed conceptions of care in scholars’ accounts of research purpose and ethics. We find three ethical sensibilities at the heart of enacting care: encountering the ‘other’, interpreting roles and responsibilities, and deliberating needs and resources. We contribute to a feminist research ethics by highlighting issues related to care that are concealed in dominant ethos guiding management and organization research. Further, we develop methodological insights for implementing an ethic of care as an alternative ethical standpoint in business research ethics. Finally, we provide suggestions for how to embed more care within research ethics practices in academic institutions. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Isaac Barrow on the Mathematization of Nature: Theological Voluntarism and the Rise of Geometrical OpticsAntoni MaletIntroductionIsaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy embodies a strong program of mathematization that departs both from the mechanical philosophy of Cartesian inspiration and from Boyle’s experimental philosophy. The roots of Newton’s mathematization of nature, this paper aims to demonstrate, are to be found in Isaac Barrow’s (1630–77) philosophy of the mathematical sciences.Barrow’s attitude (...) towards natural philosophy evolved from his earnest interest in medicine of around 1650, when a young Cambridge graduate, to natural philosophy (apparently under Henry More’s influence); from his thesis on the insufficiency of the Cartesian hypothesis to geometrical optics and the strong program of mathematization of natural philosophy of the middle 1660s; from Lucasian professor of Mathematics to Chaplain of his Majesty and eminent Restoration divine. Contemporary accounts of Barrow’s life suggest that he grew ever more skeptical about the worth of natural philosophy and mathematics. 1 In his last years he became a prolific [End Page 265] author of sermons and theological works. Published shortly after his death by John Tillotson (1630–94), later archbishop of Canterbury, they occupy over two thousand folio pages. Overloaded with involved philosophical arguments, Barrow’s sermons were apparently not very popular, but they were highly regarded by scholars and the Anglican hierarchy. 2 It is on certain of his sermons, as well as on the philosophical discussions contained in the Mathematical Lectures that our account of Barrow’s philosophy of the mathematical sciences will rest. 3 Barrow’s understanding of the mathematical sciences will allow us to discuss together three issues often analyzed independently: the theological background to English natural philosophy, the changing notion of mixed mathematical sciences during the seventeenth century, and finally the philosophical foundations of modern geometrical optics.It has long been recognized that significant relationships exist between theological voluntarism or intellectualism and views on natural philosophy. In particular Robert Boyle’s theological voluntarism is seen as grounding his experimentalist approach to natural philosophy. It is not quite so clear, however, how well theological voluntarism may relate to a strong program of mathematization such as the one embodied in Newton’s Principia Mathematica. In fact it has been suggested that the relationship is a negative one. This is derived from the necessary character of mathematical laws, which would put unwanted restrictions on God’s absolute dominion over nature, and also from the notion that theological intellectualism is conducive to a deductive, a priori science—the paradigm of which is of course geometry. However, Barrow’s theological voluntarism lead him to heighten the role of mathematics within natural philosophy.During the seventeenth century the so-called mixed or subalternate mathematical sciences changed profoundly. In the Enlightenment mixed mathematics—meaning above all rational mechanics—became one of the most prestigious and influential disciplines. The mixed mathematics of the Enlightenment, however, was markedly different from the Aristotelian [End Page 266] mixed mathematical sciences. The differences are noticeable both in the subject matter and in the substitution of mathematical infinitesimal analysis for geometrical synthesis, but also in the way of grounding mathematical theory on empirical evidence. Barrow’s Mathematical Lectures (delivered at Cambridge from 1664 to 1666) offer a fresh insight into the metamorphosis of these sciences just when Newton’s “mathematical principles” were in the making. Not the least interesting feature of Barrow’s discussion is that God’s omnipotence allows an evaluation of the truth of mathematical theories that do not apply to this world. Therefore, Barrow is led to introduce the distinction between the internal consistency, or mathematical truth, of a mathematical theory and its physical truth. This, in turn, leads him to the notion that theories need testing.Barrow on Matter and GodRecent literature has established significant correlations between theological voluntarism and empiricism, as well as between theological intellectualism and rationalism. As E. B. Davis writes, “the Christian doctrine of creation is a dialogue between God’s unconstrained will, which utterly transcends the bounds of human comprehension, and God’s orderly intellect, which serves as the model for the human mind.” Intellectualist theology considers God’s omniscience His... (shrink)

The “systematicity argument” has been used to argue for a classical cognitive architecture (Fodor in The Language of Thought. Harvester Press, London, 1975, Why there still has to be a language of thought? In Psychosemantics, appendix. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 135–154, 1987; Fodor and Pylyshyn in Cognition 28:3–71, 1988; Aizawa in The systematicity arguments. Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, 2003). From the premises that cognition is systematic and that the best/only explanation of systematicity is compositional structure, it concludes that cognition is (...) to be explained in terms of symbols (in a language of thought) and formal rules. The debate, with connectionism, has mostly centered on the second premise-whether an explanation of systematicity requires compositional structure, which neural networks do not to exhibit (for example, Hadley and Hayward, in Minds and Machines, 7:1–37). In this paper, I will take issue with the first premise. Several arguments will be deployed that show that cognition is not systematic in general; that, in fact, systematicity seems to be related to language. I will argue that it is just verbal minds that are systematic, and they are so because of the structuring role of language in cognition. A dual-process theory of cognition will be defended as the best explanation of the facts. (shrink)

En este trabajo invito a considerar la existencia de la perspectiva de segunda persona de la atribución mental, como una perspectiva diferenciada de las de primera y tercera persona. Su ámbito específico sería el de las atribuciones espontáneas y recíprocas en situaciones de interacción cara a cara, por lo que supondría su naturaleza expresiva. Al tratarse de la perspectiva ontogenéticamente primaria, ofrece una vía para superar las dificultades complementarias de los enfoques teóricos y empáticos dominantes.

This paper deals with Hobbes's theory of optical images, developed in his optical magnum opus, ‘A Minute or First Draught of the Optiques’, and published in abridged version in De homine. The paper suggests that Hobbes's theory of vision and images serves him to ground his philosophy of man on his philosophy of body. Furthermore, since this part of Hobbes's work on optics is the most thoroughly geometrical, it reveals a good deal about the role of mathematics in Hobbes's philosophy. (...) The paper points to some difficulties in the thesis of Shapin and Schaffer, who presented geometry as a ‘paradigm’ for Hobbes's natural philosophy. It will be argued here that Hobbes's application of geometry to optics was dictated by his metaphysical and epistemological principles, not by a blind belief in the power of geometry. Geometry supported causal explanation, and assisted reason in making sense of appearances by helping the philosopher understand the relationships between the world outside us and the images it produces in us. Finally the paper broadly suggests how Hobbes's theory of images may have triggered, by negative example, the flourishing of geometrical optics in Restoration England. (shrink)

We show that the class of all isomorphic images of Boolean Products of members of SR [1] is the class of all archimedean W-algebras. We obtain this result from the characterization of W-algebras which are isomorphic images of Boolean Products of CW-algebras.

The declared goal of this paper is to fill this gap: “... cognitive systems research needs questions or challenges that define progress. The challenges are not (yet more) predictions of the future, but a guideline to what are the aims and what would constitute progress.” – the quotation being from the project description of EUCogII, the project for the European Network for Cognitive Systems within which this formulation of the ‘challenges’ was originally developed (http://www.eucognition.org). So, we stick out our neck (...) and formulate the challenges for artificial cognitive systems. These challenges are articulated in terms of a definition of what a cognitive system is: a system that learns from experience and uses its acquired knowledge (both declarative and practical) in a flexible manner to achieve its own goals. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 3, Page 875-887, July 2022.

The Jesuit C.F. Milliet Dechales, author of one of the most famous early modern mathematical encyclopedias, Cursus seu mundus mathematicus, wrote a hundred-folio-page long treatise devoted to the “progress of mathematics,” which was published in the second, enlarged edition of his encyclopedia. His historical treatise covers the gamut of mixed mathematics—including astronomy, mechanics, optics, music, geography and navigation, ars tignaria, and architecture. The early modern historical narratives about the mathematical sciences, from Regiomontanus’s Oratio onwards, have been aptly characterized by their (...) literary form and goals rather than their historical content. Rhetoric, humanistic topoi, and philosophical filiation turned the histories of mathematics into powerful tools for different purposes. My account of Dechales’ tract on the “progress of mathematics” analyzes the ways in which it dovetails with Jesuit approaches to mathematics, provides legitimation to the mathematical sciences as well as to their authors, and contributes to define the role and boundaries of the discipline, in particular vis-à-vis natural philosophy. (shrink)