The value of testimony as a source of knowledge has been a subject of epistemological debates. The "trust theory of testimony" suggests that human testimony is based on an affective relationship supported by social norms. However, the advent of generative artificial intelligence challenges our understanding of genuine testimony. The concept of "quasi-testimony" seeks to characterize utterances produced by non-human entities that mimic testimony but lack certain fundamental attributes. This article analyzes these issues in depth, exploring philosophical perspectives on testimony and (...) the implications of conversational AI technologies on our epistemic practices. (shrink)

En este artículo se cuestiona el desempeño del enfoque responsabilidad en epistemología de las virtudes para responder a la pregunta normativa. Para ello, se indica que el concepto de virtud no es suficiente para dar cuenta los motivos de nuestros actos epistémicos ni individual ni socialmente, por lo que se sugiere recurrir a una reconstrucción de la epistemología del testimonio kantiana para mostrar cómo la ética subyacente a dicha propuesta permitiría concebir una teoría del conocimiento basada en una alternativa que (...) sí puede responder a la pregunta normativa. Así, se presenta como línea novedosa de investigación el analizar la posibilidad de una epistemología deontológica, es decir, una epistemología cuyo fundamento moral (y, por tanto, normativo respecto de todas las acciones que impliquen personas y no mero procesos en la adquisición y difusión de conocimiento) se sostiene por cuenta propia. De este modo, se concluye que es necesario considerar la propuesta kantiana como fundamento para investigaciones epistemológicas, cuestión que, tradicionalmente, no ha sido abordada en profundidad. (shrink)

En este artículo se emplea la epistemología del testimonio kantiana para analizar el concepto de _akrasia _epistémica (es decir, creer que p cuando se tienen motivos de orden epistémico para sostener que ¬p) en el caso de las teorías conspirativas. Se señala que las personas suelen mantener esa clase de discursos por motivos sociales (e.g. Pertenecer a un grupo que comparte esas ideas) antes que por una genuina incomprensión de la evidencia como tal, de modo que el problema es fundamentalmente (...) moral. Ante esto, se indica que la akrasia epistémica es primeramente una forma de akrasia moral que explica a través del autoengaño, en tanto que ningún agente moral quiere tenerse a sí mismo como malo. Por consiguiente, se puede afirmar que, desde el punto de vista de la audiencia, el sostener un testimonio que contenga teorías conspirativas en un asunto ético en principio, aunque con consecuencias epistémicas evidentes. _Palabras clave: akrasia epistémica, testimonio, teorías conspirativas, epistemología kantiana, autoengaño. (shrink)

En este artículo se argumenta que el procedimentalismo epistémico de Estlund, en tanto que modelo democrático, requiere de disposiciones éticas mínimas que no son explicitadas en la propuesta. Para mostrar este punto, aborda la propuesta de Estlund desde la noción de modelo democrático de Macpherson. Con esto, se advierte que las disposiciones éticas mínimas que configurarían una base ética implícita en el procedimentalismo epistémico serían tres: una disposición frente al conocimiento que involucra el proceso; otra frente al procedimiento democrático mismo; (...) y, finalmente, una frente al reconocimiento de la legitimidad de los resultados. (shrink)

En este artículo se emplea la epistemología del testimonio kantiana para analizar el concepto de _akrasia _epistémica (es decir, creer que _p_ cuando se tienen motivos de orden epistémico para sostener que _¬p_) en el caso de las teorías conspirativas. Se señala que las personas suelen mantener esa clase de discursos por motivos sociales (e.g. Pertenecer a un grupo que comparte esas ideas) antes que por una genuina incomprensión de la evidencia como tal, de modo que el problema es fundamentalmente (...) moral. Ante esto, se indica que la _akrasia_ epistémica es primeramente una forma de _akrasia_ moral que explica a través del autoengaño, en tanto que ningún agente moral quiere tenerse a sí mismo como malo. Por consiguiente, se puede afirmar que, desde el punto de vista de la audiencia, el sostener un testimonio que contenga teorías conspirativas en un asunto ético en principio, aunque con consecuencias epistémicas evidentes. _Palabras clave: _akrasia epistémica, testimonio, teorías conspirativas, epistemología kantiana, autoengaño. (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)

Considering the transformation of educational scenarios, we recognize the need to train foreign language teachers with high pedagogical, research, and technological skills. This recognition considers the new challenges of education and aligns with the educational discourses and commitments that are shaped by the curricular proposals of foreign language programs in higher education. It is necessary to know the level of competencies of teacher trainers, university lecturers, to identify possible ongoing training needs. This research uses a mixed-methods design with an exploratory-descriptive (...) approach that contributes to the educational instructions to start continuous training plans for their teachers under the policies, global dynamics, and demands of education. The research shows that there are still challenges to confront, as teachers still have opportunities to strengthen their pedagogical, educational, and new technology competencies. This is a challenge that institutions should address in the rigorous implementation of lifelong learning programs. (shrink)

In this paper I propose a way of characterizing human agency in terms of the concept of a two‐way power. I outline this conception of agency, defend it against some objections, and briefly indicate how it relates to free agency and to moral praise‐ and blameworthiness.

Introduction to the fundamentals of Advaita Vedanta.

In 1969 Harry Frankfurt published his hugely influential paper 'Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility' in which he claimed to present a counterexample to the so-called 'Principle of Alternate Possibilities' ('a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise'). The success of Frankfurt-style cases as counterexamples to the Principle has been much debated since. I present an objection to these cases that, in questioning their conceptual cogency, undercuts many of those debates. Such cases (...) all require a counterfactual mechanism that could cause an agent to perform an action that he cannot avoid performing. I argue that, given our concept of what it is for someone to act, this requirement is inconsistent. Frankfurt-style alleged counterexamples are cases where an agent is morally responsible for an action he performs even though, the claim goes, he could not have avoided performing that action. However, it has recently been argued, e.g. by John Fischer, that a counterexample to the Principle could be a 'Fischer-style case', i.e. a case where the agent can either perform the action or do nothing else. I argue that, although Fischer-style cases do not share the conceptual flaw common to all Frankfurt-style cases, they also fail as counterexamples to the Principle. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of the significance of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. (shrink)

The aim of our research is to analyze how different religions influence business ethics. We develop an index of practices in the field of business ethics, made up of 19 items containing practices related to workers, consumers, products, human rights, management of ethical conflicts, and crime prevention. Also, we consider a wide range of religion affiliations. To undertake this research, we use a panel data sample composed of 11,956 firm‐year observations from 18 countries. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we posit some (...) hypotheses based on the religions considered. The results obtained show that a higher percentage of religious adherents in the country where a company does business usually involve the implementation of more ethical practices in the corporate field. These findings are obtained for Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu religions. In contrast, this does not stand for Buddhist and folk religions. Also, countries where there is no predominant religion do not show a confluence between religion and ethical corporate practices. (shrink)

In the mid-1970s, the fascist-leaning dictatorships in Spain (1939–1977) and Portugal (1933–1974) fell. Closely linked to the 1973 oil crisis, debates over energy and technology policies became very prominent during the ensuing political redefinition of both countries. Two decades after the first international agreements between the Iberian regimes and the United States for the development of nuclear programs, a myriad of movements of social resistance to nuclear technology emerged in dialogue with anti-nuclear organizations in other European countries. Fun and playfulness (...) have been used for top–down popularization and banalization of nuclear technologies since the 1950s, but here pleasant forms of resistance also played a central role in contesting national energy plans, expert discourses, and vested interests. This article explores what we call “anti-nuclear fun,” the use of amusement, play, and humor as political and epistemic tools to familiarize society with the exceptional and daily risks of the “peaceful atom.”. (shrink)

This paper will examine the issue of Plato’s purposes in the Sophist. First, we will shed light on the main purpose Plato might be drawing in the prologue of the dialog, where the Eleatic Stranger begins to show his philosophical status. Then, we will locate the sophist’s characterization within this main purpose, by reading the result of this characterization as an implicit παράδειγμα which prepares the execution ofthe dialectic and anticipates the defining features of an object key to this science.

En la siguiente contribución buscamos explorar la lectura “furtiva” que hace Michel de Certeau de la noción de episteme de Michel Foucault en su relación con el acontecimiento, para pensar la revolución. A partir de su —a la vez— sintonía y distancia con dicha categoría, Certeau avanza y elabora la noción de “Formalidad de las prácticas” (Formalité des pratiques) que le permitirá una lectura más compleja y problematizada de la modernidad y de la secularización, que lo que le ofrecía Foucault (...) en _Les mots et les choses_. (shrink)

Chromosome segregation requires the ordered separation of the newly replicated chromosomes between the two daughter cells. In most cells, this requires nuclear envelope (NE) disassembly during mitotic entry and its reformation at mitotic exit. Nuclear envelope breakdown (NEB) results in the mixture of two cellular compartments. This process is controlled through phosphorylation of multiple targets by cyclin‐dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1)‐cyclin B complexes as well as other mitotic enzymes. Experimental evidence also suggests that nucleo‐cytoplasmic transport of critical cell cycle regulators such (...) as Cdk1‐cyclin B complexes or Greatwall, a kinase responsible for the inactivation of PP2A phosphatases, plays a major role in maintaining the boost of mitotic phosphorylation thus preventing the potential mitotic collapse derived from NEB. These data suggest the relevance of nucleo‐cytoplasmic transport not only to communicate cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments during interphase, but also to prepare cells for the mixture of these two compartments during mitosis. (shrink)

Background: Recent studies on public attitudes toward life extension technologies show a mix of ambivalence toward and support for extending the human lifespan. Attitudes toward genetic modification of organisms and technological enhancements may be used to categorize individuals according to political or ideological orientation such as technoprogressive or conservative and it could be easy to assume that these categories are related to more general categorizations related to culture, e.g. between Traditional and Secular-rational values in the World Values Survey. This paper (...) discusses how attitudes toward aspects of radical life extension may be related to cultural values as revealed in an online deliberative survey among university students conducted between January 2012 to January 2013. Survey results suggest that attitudes toward radical life extension tend to be mixed among groups categorized as Traditional, Secular-rational, Survivalist, and Self-expressionist. The study explored the relation between responses of 326 university students to 5 key questions on radical life extension and the cultural values they tend to favor as indicated by their response to 20 statements from the World Values Survey.Design and Method: The survey consisted of 3 stages: an online pre-discussion survey, face-to-face discussion, and post-discussion survey. After completing the 5 main survey questions in stage 1, participants were presented two additional questionnaires: one on cultural attitudes using 20 statements from the 2004-2008 World Values Survey and another on health attitudes with 12 statements from Dutta-Bergman’s 2004 study. In stage 2, participants were engaged in a face-to-face discussion in class focusing on their responses to the five key questions. After the discussion, they were invited to reconsider the choices and reasons they posted in stage 1 in the light of the face-to-face class discussion in stage 2.Results: Responses to the five survey questions showed that there tended to be more individuals across groups who disagreed with adopting technologies that radically extend the human lifespan beyond the current limit of 120 years. Attitudes toward radical life extension did not correspond to cultural attitudes indicated by responses to the WVS questions. The proportion of agreement/disagreement to statements presented in each of the five questions varied across cultural groups and there tended to be more individuals who disagreed with radical life extension in all groups. Changes in responses after the discussion stage were not significant and most respondents maintained their prior views.Discussion: Cultural attitudes associated with familiar technologies may not correspond with attitudes toward newer technologies since beliefs and values may need to be adapted to new imagined situations that the new technologies elicit. Moral understandings associated with familiar technological habits and beliefs are not necessarily carried over to new technologies. (shrink)

Zygmunt Bauman, la tarea de construir un nuevo orden para reemplazar al viejo y oxidado actualmente ya no forma parte de ninguna agenda. La modernidad de hoy vive en una continua licuefacción: es la modernidad líquida. Por eso, advertida la dificultad de la tarea –dado que nos enfrentamos a un escenario en permanente transformación– y teniendo en cuenta que las reflexiones de nuestro autor distan mucho de ser una catalogación exhaustiva, el objetivo de este artículo es señalar una distinción primordial: (...) la contraposición entre ética y moral que trasluce en los textos de Zygmunt Bauman. Este contraste es necesario como presupuesto para secundar una aspiración de Bauman: la de hacer de la modernidad líquida un periodo histórico un poco más moral. Además, la relevancia de establecer este contraste se hace manifiesta al adquirir la convicción de que muchas de las ideas de fondo que subyacen detrás de las afirmaciones de Bauman no se nos presentan directamente ante los ojos, sino que han de ser reconstruidas. Por eso, comenzaremos por justificar la importancia de establecer tal distinción, para después ahondar en las nociones que el sociólogo polaco denominaba ética moderna y ética posmoderna, y, a partir de ahí, dilucidar mejor lo que sería para Bauman la moral. Cerraremos nuestro artículo haciendo una valoración de esta perspectiva de Bauman que, como él mismo reconoce, adolece de la misma ingénita incertidumbre del fenómeno analizado. (shrink)

Das Buch untersucht die Bedeutung des Begriffs rationalitas bei Hildegard von Bingen. Zunachst wird die Herkunft des Begriffs von der griechischen Logoslehre uber die fruhchristliche Trinitatsspekulation bis hin zur ratio-Rezeption des Fruhmittelalters beleuchtet. Auf diesem Hintergrund entfaltet der zweite Teil die anthropologisch-theologische Bedeutung von rationalitas fur das Weltbild Hildegards.

In Nietzschean thought there is a permanent tension between culture and life; both move, many times, in contradictory directions. According to Nietzsche, culture always wins, because it has the Apollonian dimension on its part, that is, that defined, clear, refined way in which it is expressed, understands and transmits what is narrated. The beautiful form is just a way of appearing from the deeply transcendental; it is the tip of a gigantic iceberg called life. Nietzsche is a vitalist thinker, committed (...) to human expression, consisting of wanting, for love of oneself, the same thing that life wants, that is, directing its actions toward the suspension of judgments about the most convenient, most appropriate, politically correct, forms of cutural life. Childhood has an abundance of life pushing to get out--it is the Dionysian latency that does not want to succumb to the Apollonian commitment; it is life without a name, the force that devastates the encystment of form. It is life and childhood in tension, a childhood we think we know and at the same time a childhood that will never match those names we give it. Frequently the impulse for capture and closure mobilizes our adult interest, we approach childhood by naming and assigning roles, we are shaping the account we give of it. The impulse is converted into a pulse, a cadence, a recording, a ticking; Cronos appears, being acquires a permanent form, becoming gradually fades away. (shrink)

Suicidal Thoughts is a compilation of some of the most moving and insightful writing accomplished on the topic of suicide. It presents the thoughts and experiences of fifteen writers who have contemplated suicide-some on a professional level, others on a personal level, and a few, both personally and professionally. Through this collection, the reader is able to bear witness to the struggle between life and death and to the devastating aftermath of suicide. Suicidal Thoughts provides readers with a better understanding (...) of the reasons why some individuals give serious consideration to killing themselves. (shrink)

This book brings research-based attention to the problem of increasing violence, abuse and disruption from natural disasters has upon adolescent learning and teacher practice.

La simplicidad desde la mirada poética es un asunto que, lejos de ser “inoficioso”, puede convertirse en una herramienta humana para asumir el riesgo de la existencia. Cuando el hombre vive en la simplicidad lo que hace es entablar una relación desnuda y directa con el mundo: se deja asombrar cada día, se sumerge en una felicidad en acto. Muchos poetas han sabido que a través de un lenguaje sobrio y, digamos, esencial es posible celebrar la simplicidad, y que ello (...) resulta ser un ejercicio tan válido como revelador. Creer en la simplicidad es creer en el entusiasmo. Vivir en la simplicidad es asumir una seria responsabilidad.  . (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to review some implications of the work of the Frankfurt School theorist Franz Neumann, the author of Behemoth. The Structure and Practice of National Socialism (1942). Against the conception of National Socialism as a form of «state capitalism» (F. Pollock, M. Horkheimer), Neumann argues that German fascism should be read as a form of «totalitarian monopoly capitalism», that preserves the primacy of economic relations and threatens essential components of the modern idea of State. Neumann’s (...) study provides important insights into the current relationship between power, law and sovereignty. (shrink)

El intimismo de Alejandra Pizarnik, tejedora de palabras de tormento y locura, deja entrever los infiernos irracionales y musicales que atraviesan una particular expresión de psique poética: la palabra que se atreve a decir una noche que presagia elegía. La palabra herida y la vida fatalmente rota de esta autora ponen al lector en un diálogo permanente entre el vitalismo y el existencialismo. El propósito de este artículo es reflexionar sobre los límites de la voluntad humana y la relación entre (...) vida y obra literaria, a partir de una disertación sobre los textos de Pizarnik, quien más que afanarse en embellecer la resignación, prefiere indagar acerca del destino y el sentido de la palabra poética, enjaulada e incapaz de expresar las heridas del ser. Busca, desde figuras retóricas precisas y de incuestionable impacto sensorial, el lugar de los cuerpos poéticos en los entresijos de una existencia inadaptada y sin brújula. Existencia que es espejo (o acaso abismo) de la realidad develada por una poesía filosófica en busca de sentido y deseo imposibles, pero cuya búsqueda sigue siendo un tópico necesario de la literatura. (shrink)