The Author describes briefly how, through the confluence of trie new medical specialties of Reproductive Medicine and Molecular Genetics, a wide avenue has been opened to the genetic diagnosis and therapy of the preimplantation embryo. Today, the human embryo in its early stages has become the object of medical experimentation. In the next future, we will see the advent of new techniques for microsurgical manipulation and gene therapy Embryo-fetal Medicine will grow actively. The Author, after briefly analyzing the origin, and (...) criticizing the meaning, of the term preembryo, condueles, on the basis of unbiased observation of the continuum of human life, that only an attitude of respect for life and the determination to extend to the early human embryo the benefits of (gene)therapy are consistent with the deepest medical-deontological traditions. (shrink)

This text has already been published in Time & Society, 2016, Vol. 25, pp. 613-633. We thank Gonzalo Iparraguirre for the permission to republish it here.: This article presents the introduction and the update of an ethnographic research on temporality among indigenous groups, published in 2011 in its full version as a book in Spanish. It seeks to prove the usefulness of the conceptual distinction between time, defined as the phenomenon of becoming in itself, and - Anthropologie – Nouvel (...) article. (shrink)

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has hit almost all countries around the globe, seriously affecting the welfare of populations. Spain is especially hard-hit. In this context, the purpose of the present study is to analyze social, demographic, and economic correlates of mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the population residing in Spain.MethodThe sample of this cross-sectional study was comprised of 801 participants aged 18 or older and residing in Spain. Data collection was carried out during March and April 2020. Data of (...) mental health and well-being indicators, and those of a wide number of social, demographic, and economic variables were recorded. Linear regression models were built to value associations between mental health and social, demographic, and economic indicators.ResultsMental health morbidity was higher in women, younger people, individuals with medium studies, people with fewer children, singles, students, and unemployed individuals. Positive affect was higher among women, people with a high level of studies, those not co-living with dependent seniors, the self-employed, the employed, and those working outside home. Negative affect was negatively associated with age and number of children and was higher among women, people with basic studies, singles, individuals co-living with dependent seniors, homemakers, and students.ConclusionThe most vulnerable populations were found to be women, younger people, people with basic or medium studies, students and individuals with no remunerated activities, single populations, and those co-living with dependent seniors as well as those with a reduced number of children. (shrink)

In this study, we propose considering membership in the Ethics Officer Association (EOA) as a proxy for the firm's commitment to ethical decision making, and we analyze the influence of firm- and CEO-specific characteristics on this commitment. While we observe a positive relationship between membership and firm size, we also document a negative relationship between EOA membership and the executive's time in position and, to a more modest extent, accounting returns. Pursuing this further, we present evidence that firms with past (...) legal issues may seek EOA membership as a signal of their intention to be compliant in the future. (shrink)

Among the various contemporary schools of moral thinking, consequence-based ethics, as opposed to rule-based, seems to have a good acceptance among professionals such as software engineers. But naïve consequentialism is intellectually too weak to serve as a practical guide in the profession. Besides, the complexity of software systems makes it very hard to know in advance the consequences that will derive from professional activities in the production of software. Therefore, following the spirit of well-known codes of ethics such as the (...) ACM/IEEE’s, we advocate for a more solid position in the ethical education of software engineers, which we call ‘moderate deontologism’, that takes into account both rules and consequences to assess the goodness of actions, and at the same time pays an adequate consideration to the absolute values of human dignity. In order to educate responsible professionals, however, this position should be complemented with a pedagogical approach to virtue ethics. (shrink)

Published in 1998, the main aim of this book is to use a naturalistic, evolutionary approach to solve some of the most important problems in philosophy. The first two problems come from the philosophy of science: the problem of rationality of science and the problem of truth in science. In presenting the first problem, the author argues that the views of Kuhn and Feyerabend do create a very serious challenge to traditional epistemology, however, if the assumption of individual rationality is (...) abandoned in favour of the author's social concept of rationality, a committed naturalism can account for science as a rational activity. In tackling the second problem of truth, the author shows that a committed evolutionary philosophy does not support realism but leads instead to a thorough evolutionary relativism of scientific knowledge. It is nevertheless possible to use this evolutionary relativism to construct a theory of relative truth. The issue of whether science discovers truth has also been tied to absolutism, that a well formulated theory of relative truth is likely to bring about a profound transformation of the way we think about the field. The author explores the notion of relative truth in the philosophy of science, ethics and aesthetics. (shrink)

El origen de la escritura china sigue siendo a día de hoy una cuestión que no deja de despertar gran interés. Con el presente trabajo pretendemos exponer ciertos aspectos de dicha escritura, centrando la investigación en sus orígenes y prestando una especial atención a las explicaciones mitológicas que se han dado al respecto. Se exponen cuatro personajes destacados de la mitología china en torno a los cuales se han centrado los mitos sobre el inicio de esta escritura milenaria.

Resumen: El artículo busca una comprensión de los trabajos académicos acerca de filosofía de la historia desarrollados por Hegel y Friedrich Schlegel a partir del análisis de lo que considera una disputa constante entre idealismo y romanticismo, en la que se encuentran involucradas tanto la idea de una exposición sistemática inherente a la filosofía en tanto ciencia, como así también el recurso retórico a la ironía y el enfrentamiento confesional de los cristianismos posteriores a la Reforma y su concepto de (...) historia universal.: The article aims to reach an understanding of the scholarly work developed by Hegel and Friedrich Schlegel concerning the Philosophy of History, from the analysis of what is considered as a constant dispute between idealism and romanticism, in which the ideas of a systematic exposition, inherent to philosophy as science, as well as the rhetorical resort to irony and the confessional confrontation of Christianities following the Reformation and its universal history. (shrink)

The possible linkages among liberty and power is a philosophical issue that gets to special important inside to contemporary political philosophy’s context. During this stage, a notion of legitimacy began to develop on which both freedom and power would be sustained, without being justified in a supposed statalist originin. Neither the legitimate power no the legitime freedom come to be backing by the juristic order up in the first instance, inasmuch up its source would be prior. From Foucault and Marcuse (...) outlooks on this issue, it will treat to inquire on the disquisitions that both their ever speeches propose. (shrink)

Traditionally, “the operator calculus of Born and Wiener” has been considered one of the four formulations of quantum mechanics that existed in 1926. The present paper reviews the operator calculus as applied by Max Born and Norbert Wiener during the last months of 1925 and the early months of 1926 and its connections with the rise of the new quantum theory. Despite the relevance of this operator calculus, Born–Wiener’s joint contribution to the topic is generally bypassed in historical accounts of (...) quantum mechanics. In this study, we analyse the paper that epitomises the contribution, and we explain the main reasons for the apparent lack of interest in Born and Wiener’s work. We argue that they did not solve the main problem for which the tool was intended, that of linear motion, because of their reluctance to use Dirac delta functions. (shrink)

In this article, we aim at presenting a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the mathematical and theoretical relation between all the aspects of Ptolemaic planetary models and their counterparts which are built according to Kepler’s first two laws. Our article also analyzes the predictive differences which arise from comparing Ptolemaic and these ideal Keplerian models, making clear distinctions between those differences which must be attributed to the structural variations between the models, and those which are due to the specific parameters (...) Ptolemy determined in the Almagest. We expect that our work will be a contribution for a better understanding not only of the Ptolemaic theories for planetary longitudes through a clearer perception of the way in which Keplerian features are present—or absent—in Ptolemy’s models, but also for a more balanced judgement of different aspects of the contribution of the first two laws of Kepler to the modern astronomical revolution. (shrink)

The paper gives a model of the sentences that express the core of the doctrine of the Trinity. The new elements in the model are: 1) an underlying map between "Divine Person" and "God"-- in place of set- theoretic inclusion, and 2) the notion of a predicable keeping or not keeping phase in a system of kinds. These elements, which are explained in the text, are common in everyday language. The model requires no tampering with the fundamental laws of logic, (...) nor does it require the use of any such difficult metaphysical notions as substance and essence as distinct from person. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new approach to the modal operators of necessity and possibility. This approach is based on the existence of two negations in certain lattices that we call bi-Heyting algebras. Modal operators are obtained by iterating certain combinations of these negations and going to the limit. Examples of these operators are given by means of graphs.

The hypothesis of a theoretical unity between On Sophistical Refutations and Prior Analytics presents a major challenge to scholars attempting to unify the criteria of analysis. This paper examines this problem and proposes a middle ground between the perspectives of Woods and Boger to address this crucial question: If a unitary and coherent theory of deduction exists, why does not the technical apparatus of syllogistic modes for analyzing fallacies appear in SE? This paper makes useful contributions to the discussion on (...) the internal unity of Aristotle's logical writings on around categorical syllogistics and the doctrine of sophistical refutations. (shrink)

The work will be structured in three sections. The first of them analyzes how the different specialists in Spinozian work have studied the Dutch corpus in a dialectical way. This type of interpretation will be emphasized here not only in regard to Spinoza's own ontology, but also to his political philosophy. Secondly, this article investigates the way in which Spinozian ontology can be studied, proposing that, rather than making use of a dialectical method of Hegelian roots, it is rather possible (...) to undertake the study of Spinoza's main philosophical concepts. that are linked to the essence from the notion of sublimation, a notion that, as we will see, is closely related to the monism of Spinoza's philosophy. Finally, the way in which this sublimation procedure can also be applied to the concepts of the Dutchman that specifically refer to the political aspect of his thought is analyzed. (shrink)

This article deals with a modern disease of academic science that consists of an enormous increase in the number of scientific publications without a corresponding advance of knowledge. Findings are sliced as thin as salami and submitted to different journals to produce more papers. If we consider academic papers as a kind of scientific ‘currency’ that is backed by gold bullion in the central bank of ‘true’ science, then we are witnessing an article-inflation phenomenon, a scientometric bubble that is most (...) harmful for science and promotes an unethical and antiscientific culture among researchers. The main problem behind the scenes is that the impact factor is used as a proxy for quality. Therefore, not only for convenience, but also based on ethical principles of scientific research, we adhere to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment when it emphasizes “the need to eliminate the use of journal-based metrics in funding, appointment and promotion considerations; and the need to assess research on its own merits rather on the journal in which the research is published”. Our message is mainly addressed to the funding agencies and universities that award tenures or grants and manage research programmes, especially in developing countries. The message is also addressed to well-established scientists who have the power to change things when they participate in committees for grants and jobs. (shrink)

In the paper [8], the first author developped a topos- theoretic approach to reference and modality. (See also [5]). This approach leads naturally to modal operators on locales (or spaces without points). The aim of this paper is to develop the theory of such modal operators in the context of the theory of locales, to axiomatize the propositional modal logics arising in this context and to study completeness and decidability of the resulting systems.

Šiame straipsnyje tiriami subtilūs Hobbes’o ir Kanto požiūrių į retoriką ir materializmą skirtumai, žvelgiant į juos platesniame politinės filosofijos kontekste. Nors abu šie filosofai buvo retorikos kritikai, tarp jų požiūrių išryškėja esminių skirtumų. Hobbes’as, būdamas monarchijos šalininkas, paveiktas Lukrecijaus, kritikavo retoriką iš materialistinės, antropologijos perspektyvos. Paradoksalu, tačiau jis pasitelkė retorines strategijas savo naujajame scientia civilis. Kantas, nors ir kritikuodamas tiek Lukrecijaus materializmą, tiek ir retoriką, į savo filosofijos perspektyvą integravo kai kuriuos suderinamus retorinius elementus, visų pirma susijusius su epikūrizmo tradicija. (...) Šiame straipsnyje tiriama, kaip du aptariamieji filosofai traktuoja paradiastole ir kokias pasekmes jų interpretacija turi jų politinei minčiai. Iškeliamas argumentas, kad abu mąstytojai, ieškodami racionalaus pamato politinei tvarkai, savąjį racionalumo sąvokos interpretavimą įtvirtina epikūrietiškame materializme, perkonfigūruodami retorinius elementus taip, kaip būtų patogu jų filosofijai. Straipsnyje išsiaiškinama, kad Kantas yra linkęs į respublikoniškas politines pažiūras; jis siekia kuo labiau padidinti piliečių autonomiją. Tai kategoriškai skiriasi nuo Hobbes’o orientacijos į monarchinę valdymo struktūrą. Šis tyrimas prisideda prie labiau niuansuoto suvokimo apie ankstyvąją Naujųjų laikų politinę mintį bei jos aktualumą šiuolaikinei respublikoniškai bei demokratinei teorijai. (shrink)

Todo el curso gravita sobre la función reproductiva de la trompa. La trompa, en fin de cuentas, es un oviducto. Ya bastante habrán dicho de todo ello Michel Idoate y Fernando de la Fuente. Yo lo que quiero hacer en mi charla es llamar la atención sobre los aspectos éticos de unos pocos hechos básicos: que, de ordinario, la fecundación tiene lugar en la ampolla tubárica y que aquí y en el istmo transcurren las primeras horas y los primeros días (...) del desarrollo embrionario. Estos hechos, tan conocidos, tienen implicaciones ético-médicas muy importantes. La principal de ellas, se refiere a quien sea el embrión humano que se engendra en la trompa y en ella habita cuatro o cinco días. Pero, no menos importante, es la que se refiere a cuáles son las relaciones éticas que han de establecerse entre el médico y la mujer en cuya trompa flota un embrión. (shrink)

Upon his controversial and successful publication of Words of a Believer, Lamennais became one of the most influential thinkers in Europe and America. Lamennais’s other works, such as Modern Slavery, have received surprisingly less attention, considering that with it he made a re-description of the concept people and consequently of democracy. Lamennais’s presentation of the antagonism between liberty and tyranny, between a few oppressors and the majority of the oppressed turned him into a key reference for the democratic, republican, and (...) socialist political cultures. We can then speak of a “Lamennais moment” as opposed to the “Guizot moment,” which offered conflicting world views. This article combines an analysis of the translations and circulation of Modern Slavery in Spain and Latin America with the study of the new meanings of the concept people. (shrink)

La libertad, para Spinoza, consiste en la autodeterminación, siendo causa de las propias acciones, siguiendo la necesidad de su naturaleza. Este artículo abordará este tema en cuatro movimientos. Los dos primeros investigarán cómo los especialistas habrían interpretado la libertad de Spinoza en términos positivos y negativos, respectivamente. El tercero investigará una interpretación que afirma que la libertad, en Spinoza, debe ser necesariamente positiva y negativa al mismo tiempo. El cuarto apartado consistirá en una interpretación de la libertad del propio Spinoza, (...) demostrando que debe concebirse de manera positiva. (shrink)

Resumen Este trabajo reconstruye la caracterización de “positivismo” en tres obras centrales de Horkheimer. Se afirma que, en el uso del término, Horkheimer incurre en una doble equivocidad, pues lo utiliza indistintamente para referirse al positivismo decimonónico y al del siglo XX; además, no reconoce las diferencias internas entre las posiciones de los positivistas contemporáneos. Asimismo, se muestra que muchos rasgos que se consignan como propios del positivismo del siglo XX no tienen justificación en los textos de esa tradición, de (...) manera que la categoría horkheimeriana de “positivismo” se convierte en una entidad interpretativa respecto de la cual la Escuela de Fráncfort se considera antagónica. A partir de lo anterior se realiza una crítica a las interpretaciones del autor.This paper reconstructs the characterization of “positivism” in Horkheimer’s works. We argue that in the use of this term, Horkheimer makes a misinterpretation, then he uses it in order to refer to both nineteenth century positivism and the positivism of the twentieth century; at the same time, he does not recognize the significant contrasts between the positions of the twentieth century positivists. We also show that many of the features Horkheimer sets out for twentieth century positivists find no correlation in texts belonging to this tradition, which makes Horkheimer’s concept of “positivism” an interpretative entity in opposition to Frankfurt School. From the foregoing, we carry out a critique of the interpretations made by the author. (shrink)

The river Portoviejo crosses four cantons of the province of Manabí and is the main source of water for the inhabitants of the area to be used in various uses. The objective of this bibliographic review article is to carry out a historical analysis of the water pollution of the Portoviejo River. The qualitative and descriptive documentary research methodology was used. The authors conclude that the factors that influence the pollution of the Portoviejo River are the constant direct discharges of (...) wastewater and solid waste along its route by the residents of the area and the contribution of the water treatment plant waste from the area. (shrink)

Planteo una lectura del Wallenstein de Friedrich Schiller como una puesta en escena (Darstellung) de las categorías de lo bello y lo sublime, así como de otras categorías poéticas derivadas, como lo ingenuo y lo sentimental, el idilio y la elegía o la sátira patética y la festiva. Este ejercicio artístico también le permite a Schiller experimentar y desarrollar sus propias ideas estéticas y poéticas y, de este modo, se desarrolla un auténtico diálogo entre el arte y la filosofía en (...) la obra de uno de los clásicos alemanes de la modernidad. Una de las conclusiones es que con el Wallenstein se clausura una comprensión idealista del mundo, pues, como señala Villacañas a través de Hegel, no tiene final de teodicea. (shrink)

La revisión de las humanidades a partir de la cultura material parte de la consideración de que la conciencia y la agencia humanas no pueden disociarse de su nicho tecnológico. El presente artículo trata de indagar cómo la experiencia subjetiva de la ciudad se ha visto modificada por la universalización del smartphone como herramienta de orientación a través de los sistemas de navegación gps. Con este fin, y a través del marco teórico formulado por Henri Lefebvre, el artículo realiza un (...) análisis exploratorio acerca de la producción del espacio urbano contemporáneo. Recurriendo a la revisión crítica de la teoría cartográfica, interroga si la universalización de los mapas digitales supone una recuperación de la experiencia subjetiva o una extensión del espacio abstracto propio del capitalismo de la experiencia. (shrink)

In this study, we propose considering membership in the Ethics Officer Association (EOA) as a proxy for the firm's commitment to ethical decision making, and we analyze the influence of firm- and CEO-specific characteristics on this commitment. While we observe a positive relationship between membership and firm size, we also document a negative relationship between EOA membership and the executive's time in position and, to a more modest extent, accounting returns. Pursuing this further, we present evidence that firms with past (...) legal issues may seek EOA membership as a signal of their intention to be compliant in the future. (shrink)

In Spain, free gender self-determination has been recognized with the promulgation of Law 4/2023, of February 28. The objective of this text is to analyse what reasons have motivated this regulation and how well founded they are. Should we recognize gender self-determination? We conclude negatively, but for reasons other than those usually cited. To reach this conclusion, we review the legal and jurisprudential evolution of the matter (section 1), and analyse the main arguments offered in favour (section 2) and against (...) (section 3) of this possibility. Finally, we suggest that the best option would be to include the mention of sex in its traditional conception and allow those who wish to also include their gender or gender identity. (shrink)