This study explores the efficacy of a specific tool – the articulation of the ideal self – in job engagement, psychological well-being, and organizational citizenship behavior. We hypothesized that employees who can visualize their jobs as part of their ideal self – in particular how it helps in its development and realization – would feel higher levels of engagement and fulfillment in their lives, as well as engage in greater amounts of helping and voice OCB. A total of 239 full (...) time employees from five companies in Costa Rica filled out the ideal self questionnaire, the job engagement, and psychological well-being surveys, and were evaluated by their peers on task behavior and helping and voice OCB. Results of the SEM model showed that the ideal self was positively related to job engagement, psychological well-being and helping and voice. These findings contribute to the research on the impact and importance for organizations to help employees find meaningfulness in their work. (shrink)

Based on a careful reading of Michael Marder’s book Plant-Thinking and a recent 2020 article by Michael Marder, this essay argues it is necessary to establish a differentiation between what is called plant and vegetal. Through and beyond the form of the plant there would be a time and a vegetal metabolism whose proper name is “we.” “We” as a denomination of the vegetal implies a conceptual transformation, but also an answer to the question of who “we” are. Who are (...) we now when, as Dipesh Chakrabarty asserts, our “we” no longer has any “ontological dimension”? While Chakrabarty answers the question of the “we” by answering that “we” are “a geophysical force,” I propose, following Marder, that the answer is: we are vegetality. (shrink)

We examine the comportment of the global trajectory of a piecewisely conceived single species population growth model. Formulation relies on what we develop as the principle of limiting factors for population growth, adapted from the law of the minimum of Liebig and the law of the tolerance of Shelford. The ensuing paradigm sets natality and mortality rates to express through extreme values of population growth determining factor. Dynamics through time occur over different growth phases. Transition points are interpreted as thresholds (...) of viability, starvation, and intraspecific competition. In this delivery, we focus on the qualitative study of the global trajectory expressed on continuous time and on exploring the feasibility of analytical results against data on populations growing under experimental or natural conditions. All study cases sustained fittings of high reproducibility both at empirical and interpretative slants. Possible phase configurations include regimes with multiple stable equilibria, sigmoidal growth, extinction, or stationarity. Here, we also outline that the associating discrete-time piecewise model composes the logistic map applied over a particular region of the phase configuration. Preliminary exploratory analysis suggests that the logistic map’s chaos onset could surpass once the orbit enters a contiguous phase region. (shrink)

The paper discusses Dr. Floris Tomasini's paper “What Is Bioethics: Notes toward a New Approach?”. Based on Tomasini's account of methodological and ethical pluralism, the paper explores the demarcation problem of bioethics and suggests a full methodological laissez-faire.

The European project European and Latin American Systems of Ethics Regulation of Biomedical Research Project (EULABOR) has carried out the first comparative analysis of ethics regulation systems for biomedical research in seven countries in Europe and Latin America, evaluating their roles in the protection of human subjects. We developed a conceptual and methodological framework defining ‘ethics regulation system for biomedical research’ as a set of actors, institutions, codes and laws involved in overseeing the ethics of biomedical research on humans. This (...) framework allowed us to develop comprehensive national reports by conducting semi-structured interviews to key informants. These reports were summarised and analysed in a comparative analysis. The study showed that the regulatory framework for clinical research in these countries differ in scope. It showed that despite the different political contexts, actors involved and motivations for creating the regulation, in most of the studied countries it was the government who took the lead in setting up the system. The study also showed that Europe and Latin America are similar regarding national bodies and research ethics committees, but the Brazilian system has strong and noteworthy specificities. (shrink)

Job satisfaction is a core variable in the study and practice of organizational psychology because of its implications for desirable work outcomes. Knowledge of its antecedents is abundant and informative, but there are still psychological processes underlying job satisfaction that have not received complete attention. This is the case of employee emotion regulation. In this study, we argue that employees’ behaviors directed to manage their affective states participate in their level of job satisfaction and hypothesize that employee affect-improving and -worsening (...) emotion regulation behaviors increase and decrease, respectively, job satisfaction, through the experience of positive and negative affect. Using a diary study with a sample of professionals from diverse jobs and organizations, for the most part, the mediational hypotheses were supported by the results albeit a more complex relationship was found in the case of affect worsening emotion regulation. This study contributes to expanding the job satisfaction and emotion regulation literatures and informs practitioners in people management in organizations about another route to foster and sustain positive attitudes at work. (shrink)

El pensamiento de Kierkegaard impide de suyo el acercamiento a la realidad del ser humano desde una actitud meramente especulativa; puesto que el hombre es espíritu, la libertad está siempre presente, haciendo inadecuado cualquier acercamiento que ignore dicha condición. El ser humano no es una realidad estática, y por ello, para comprender su dinamismo propio, es necesario adentrarse en la aparente contradicción de ser misterio y tarea para sí mismo. El presente artículo seguirá esa misma dirección, a partir de las (...) descripciones recogidas en El concepto de angustia y La enfermedad mortal. (shrink)

A Computable Universe is a collection of papers discussing computation in nature and the nature of computation, a compilation of the views of the pioneers in the contemporary area of intellectual inquiry focused on computational and informational theories of the world. This volume is the definitive source of informational/computational views of the world, and of cutting-edge models of the universe, both digital and quantum, discussed from a philosophical perspective as well as in the greatest technical detail. The book discusses the (...) foundations of computation in relation to nature. It focuses on two main questions: What is computation? How does nature compute? The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and their philosophical implications. The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays representing a field that takes information and computation to be key to understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's "Calculating Space", and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts (including a Nobel prize) in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity.A Computable Universe is a collection of papers discussing computation in nature and the nature of computation, a compilation of the views of the pioneers in the contemporary area of intellectual inquiry focused on computational and informational theories of the world. This volume is the definitive source of informational/computational views of the world, and of cutting-edge models of the universe, both digital and quantum, discussed from a philosophical perspective as well as in the greatest technical detail. The book discusses the foundations of computation in relation to nature. It focuses on two main questions: What is computation? How does nature compute? The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and their philosophical implications. The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays representing a field that takes information and computation to be key to understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's "Calculating Space", and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts (including a Nobel prize) in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity. (shrink)

In his The Uses of Argument (Cambridge University Press, 1958), S. Toulmin presents serious charges against ordinary logical theory, e.g., that it does not distinguish between analytic or formally valid or conclusive or warrant-using arguments, that the distinction between premises and conclusion is a bad oversimplification, that "major premise" conceals the distinction between inference-warrant and inference-backings, that logicians have been mistakenly working under an ideal of geometrical form. The paper argues that none of the charges is proven, that most of (...) them cannot be proven, that Toulmin's new logic is at best only vaguely hinted at and that his suggestions are positively obscure or mistaken. (shrink)

Desde hace ya bastante tiempo existe una tendencia a afirmar que el derecho o las normas de diferente tipo no son adecuadas o aplicables para las diferentes nuevas tecnologías que van apareciendo de forma continua. Este trabajo intentará dar la vuelta a ese razonamiento y, centrándose en la inteligencia artificial, tratará de plantear criterios adecuados para que esa tecnología y muchas otras sean desarrolladas y aplicadas de forma adecuada a los derechos fundamentales en general y a la privacidad en particular. (...) Dentro de esos criterios se analizará lo que debe aportar la explicabilidad de la tecnología mencionada y se profundizará en algunos conceptos adicionales como la posibilidad y la necesidad de controlar y de auditar sistemas de inteligencia artificial. Para realizar la mencionada profundización se recurrirá a lo que se conoce como objetivos de protección y a los principios de la ciberética, incluyendo una referencia especial a la sostenibilidad y a la resiliencia de este tipo de sistemas. (shrink)

Inter-organizational models are both a well-documented phenomena and a well-established domain in management and business ethics. Those models rest on collaborative capabilities. However, mainstream theories and practices aimed at developing these capabilities are based on a narrow set of assumptions and ethical principles about human nature and relationships, which constrain the very development of capabilities sought by them. This article presents an Aristotelic–Thomistic approach to collaborative entrepreneurship within and across communities of firms operating in complementary markets. Adopting a scholarship of (...) integration approach and evaluating the six studies of communities of organizations, we contribute an inter-organizational network model based on the assumptions about human motives and choice offered by Aristotle. We argue that the sustainability of inter-organizational communities depends on how rich is the set of assumptions about human nature upon which they are based. In order to develop and sustain collaborative capabilities in inter-organizational communities, a set of assumptions that takes both self-regarding and others’-regarding preferences as ends is required to avoid any kind of instrumentalization of collaboration, which is an end in itself. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (shrink)

The ‘participatory turn’ in science and technology governance has resulted in the growth of initiatives designed to engage lay people in consultation and decision-making on controversial matters. Almost from the start there has been both enthusiasm and serious critique of these exercises, from scholars and activists. The gaps and challenges are well known. In this paper we indicate the limitations of deliberative mechanisms as regards how they cope with familiar forms of people’s engagement with a given matter. We examine how (...) this phenomenon unfolded at the Barcelona Citizen Conference on the Digitalization of Society; a participatory exercise inspired by the model of consensus conferences that took place in 2014 in Barcelona. Our perspective on the topic is inspired by Sociology of Engagements. Focusing on how participants and organizers deal with individual anecdotes, worries and testimonies reported during the conference, the analysis shows how these formats are ignored, externalized, banned and re-formed during deliberations. This phenomenon is seen as supporting a civic-liberal regime of engagement. (shrink)

The psychological work environment is composed of both stressful and motivational work conditions at different levels of analysis. However, most relevant theory and research lack an integrative conceptualization and appropriate instrumentation to account for this work context structure. These limitations are particularly present in non-mainstream populations, such as the Spanish community of researchers and practitioners. In this study, based on the job demands–resources model, we present an updated conceptualization in which stressful and motivational psychosocial factors are integrated and defined at (...) the job, the group, and the organizational level of analysis into a single conceptualization. Furthermore, derived from this conceptualization, we present a study of the development and validation of a questionnaire to account for the psychosocial work environment in Spanish, labeled Psychosocial Factors Questionnaire 75, which provides measures for 23 different psychosocial factors. The results of this study supported the questionnaire’s construct, convergent, divergent, and predictive validity, together with its reliability. Thus, this conceptualization and questionnaire provides researchers and partitioners with a more comprehensive approach to the assessment of the psychosocial work environment and promises benefits for interventions in the workplace. (shrink)

Child-to-parent violence is a growing public health problem with consequences for perpetrators and families. Most research has focused on individual and family risk factors. However, little is known about its links with individual outcomes. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between CPV and psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and self-concept in school-aged adolescents, taking into account the gender perspective. A study was conducted with a sample of 8,115 adolescents, aged between 11 and 16 years from the State (...) of Nuevo León, Mexico. A MANOVA 3 × 2 was performed to analyze the data. The results revealed that adolescents involved in CPV showed higher levels of psychological distress and suicidal ideation and lower levels of family and social self-concept. It was also observed that girls with higher levels of CPV scored the lowest levels of psychological distress and suicidal ideation, as well as the lowest levels of family self-concept. The findings highlight that adolescents and especially girls involved in CPV also report internal maladjustment outcomes. Finally, the results and their implications for research and intervention with adolescents involved in CPV are discussed. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza, de una manera introductoria, el concepto de prejubilación. A partir de una perspectiva psicosocial, se señalan los problemas derivados de esa expulsión prematura del mercado laboral que padecen personas mayores de cincuenta y cinco años. Son trabajadores cualificados, con una experiencia acumulada que, para muchas empresas, deja de ser un valor añadido y se convierte en una carga. La identificación con el trabajo y la percepción de la nueva situación son los factores principales que determinan la adaptación (...) positiva o negativa de esas personas prejubiladas, en un mundo global donde los antiguos esquemas de sentido se han derrumbado. (shrink)

The essay aims to offer some thoughts about the configuration of the subject as a category of analysis for the understanding of citizenship. For this purpose, two key dimensions are outlined: ideal and empirical. The arguments presented allow an understanding of citizenship as a symbolic construct fraught with tension, beyond the legal and administrative dimension; for example, through its links with migration, racism and identity. Finally, it presents what we have called the ideal-empirical subject, as a construct that contributes to (...) the understanding of social reality from the perspective of the subject as irreducible singularity. The central thesis of this essay is that citizenship, as a construct supported in the inclusion exclusion dichotomy, operates as a shaping element of the ideal-empirical subject in modern societies, and more specifically in globalized post-industrial societies. El ensayo tiene por objetivo exponer algunas reflexiones relativas a la configuración del sujeto como categoría de análisis para la comprensión de la ciudadanía. Para estos efectos se plantean dos dimensiones claves, la ideal y la empírica. Los argumentos que se presentan permiten captar la ciudadanía como un constructo simbólico cargado de tensiones, más allá de la dimensión jurídica y administrativa; por ejemplo, por medio de su articulación con las migraciones, el racismo y la identidad. Finalmente se expone lo que hemos denominado el sujeto ideal-empírico, como constructo que contribuye a la comprensión de la realidad social desde la perspectiva del sujeto, en tanto singularidad irreductible. La tesis central de este ensayo es que la ciudadanía en tanto constructo sustentado en la dicotomía inclusión exclusión opera como elemento modelador del sujeto ideal-empírico en el escenario de las sociedades modernas y más específicamente en las sociedades postindustriales globalizadas. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre los conceptos de fetichismo y lucha de clases en el particular marxismo de Slavoj Žižek. Žižek comprende el fetichismo marxiano a través del psicoanálisis y en el marco de la concepción de Marx de la religión en dos sentidos: como ideología y como fundamento. Esto le permite mostrar que el fetichismo y en general el hecho religioso, no es únicamente «falsa conciencia» sino que también funciona como el elemento constitutivo e insuperable de (...) lo real, lo que, a su vez permite repensar la lucha de clases. (shrink)

Hablar de adolescentes consumidores de drogas supone deducir automáticamente conductas delictivas, violentas, faltas de respeto en la escuela, marginalidad, etc. Todo ello haciéndonos eco de la experiencia social que relaciona consumo y conductas desadaptadas. Esto si no nos ponemos a generalizar y clasificamos a todos los adolescentes como realizadores de estas conductas inadecuadas. Es como si de repente hubiésemos perdido a toda una generación, de hecho hemos llegado a inventarnos un nombre en función de los que no saben hacer y (...) no de lo que son: "generación ni-ni". Partir de esta premisa es un grave error, implica asumir que los adolescentes que hacen as cosas bien (la inmensa mayoría de ellos), son seres extraños e inadaptados que sólo ocuparán su puesto en la sociedad si se dedican a realizar estas conductas. (shrink)