The ultimate utility of science is widely agreed upon: the comprehension of reality. But there is much controversy about what scientific understanding actually means, and how we should proceed in order to gain new scientific understanding. Is there a method for acquiring new scientific knowledge? Is this method unique and universal? There has been no shortage of proposals, but neither has there been a shortage of skeptics about these proposals. This article proffers for discussion a potential scientific method that aspires (...) to be unique and universal and is rooted in the recent and ancient history of scientific thinking. Curiously, conclusions can be inferred from this scientific method that also concern education and the transmission of science to others. (shrink)

We draw from upper echelons theory to investigate whether the presence of a chief sustainability officer (CSO) is associated with better corporate environmental performance in highly polluting industries. Such firms are under strong pressure to remediate environmental damage, to comply with regulations, and to even exceed environmental standards. CSOs in these firms are likely to be hired as legitimate agents to lead and successfully implement environmental strategy aimed at reducing pollution levels. Interestingly and contrary to our expectations, we found that (...) the presence of a CSO is associated with higher levels of pollution emissions. Nonetheless, we found that the CSO has a positive influence on a firm’s environmental performance if faced with strict environmental regulations. We argue that the enforcement of environmental regulations enhances monitoring and accountability of pollution emissions. The sample for this study comprised all the S&P 500 firms required by the Environmental Protection Agency to annually report their toxic emissions to the Toxic Release Inventory. Data were collected for a 6-year period from 2006 to 2011. We used a panel data regression and employed propensity score matching to correct for potential endogeneity problems. (shrink)

Este artículo busca demostrar que, a partir de los lineamientos presentes en el capítulo II del reciente _Reprise du donné_ es posible proponer cuatro niveles de hermenéutica que nos permiten resolver algunos de los problemas de la fenomenología marioniana lúcidamente planteados por Christina Gschwandtner.

La llamada _nouvelle phénoménologie_ ¿practica efectivamente una fenomenología? Este artículo se propone demostrar, a partir de un análisis de las propuestas de sus dos autores más representativos: Jean-Luc Marion y Claude Romano, que las obras de estos filósofos constituyen una auténtica fenomenología si se tiene en cuenta el particular estatuto que le otorgan a la instancia antepredicativa.

El presente texto se centra en la crítica que el pensamiento decolonial ha dirigido a la cultura occidental, focalizada en la modernidad, como intrínsecamente violenta y respecto de la cual las culturas que sufrieron la colonización debieran cortar radicalmente. Con el objetivo de poner en cuestión algunos aspectos centrales de este planteamiento se analizan críticamente sus conceptos de modernidad, de geopolítica del conocimiento y de cultura.

In the 10 years after the launch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC), there have been very few empirical assessments of the initiative in the academic literature. In this study, drawing from institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we examine motivations of business participants to adopt the GC principles in the Spanish context. Using survey data from Spain – the country reporting the highest volume of business participants in the GC – we find that external institutional (...) forces as well as internal organisational resources shape motivations for adopting GC principles. In particular, we find that early and late adopters are motivated similarly by the perceived opportunity of achieving image gains, while late adopters are motivated more by economic gains than early adopters. We further find that regardless of the extent of internal intangible resources possessed, firms are similarly motivated by economic gains. The results also show that companies with more intangible resources are motivated more by image gains than those with fewer resources. Our findings indicate that contrary to its earlier days, economic gains have emerged as an important motivator for the adopters of the GC principles with image gains still being an important motivator. (shrink)

Versión previa de un capítulo del libro inédito Interdependientes y ecodependientes. Iniciación a la ética ecológica , que publicará Ed. Proteus (Barcelona) en 2012.

Se espera que una revista científica cumpla la función de dar a conocer resultados de investigación, difundir escritos y nuevas ideas y, ahora más que antes, abrir espacios para un fructífero intercambio entre instituciones, bajo el lema de “internacionalización del conocimiento”. En honor a su compromiso como revista académica de filosofía, el presente número de Aoristo - International Journal of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Metaphysics, cumple con las tres misiones antes mencionadas, haciendo énfasis en la última.

One can expect a scientific journal to fulfill the purpose of disseminating research results, spreading works and new ideas and, now more than ever, franking space for the fruitful exchange among institutions under the dictum of the knowledge’s internationalization. Honoring its commitment as an academical philosophy journal, the present issue of the Aoristo - International Journal of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Metaphysics assumes the three afore mentioned missions, with emphasis on the last one.

I argue for the view that the scientific model which Plato consistently had in mind when sharpening his main ethical theory was medicine. Moreover, I ascribe to Plato a “medical model of ethics”. A careful examination of this model reveals how Plato appropriates several medical concepts and ideas by employing two central methodological devices in his thought: dialectical transposition and analogical characterisation. In discussing them, I identify different kinds of medical references in the dialogues –not all medical references in Plato (...) have the same methodological status– and draw greater attention to the most recurrent medical analogies in them. More generally, the paper is also meant to provide a case study of the complex relationship between medicine and philosophy in Antiquity by examining in a new light the various ways in which the former served as an epistemological and ethical model for the latter. (shrink)

This volume provides a superb introduction to the philosophical, social, and political elements of Hispanic/Latino identity. It is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in issues that concern Hispanics/Latinos, social policy, and the history of thought and culture.

The following paper will take the polemic between social sciences and natural sciences. I will argue that although social sciences are immersed in the subjective and natural sciences in the objective, it does not implicate that objective knowledge is exclusive of natural sciences. I will show the..

A general mathematical framework, based on countable partitions of Natural Numbers [1], is presented, that allows to provide a Semantics to propositional languages. It has the particularity of allowing both the valuations and the interpretation Sets for the connectives to discriminate complexity of the formulas. This allows different adequacy criteria to be used to assess formulas associated with the same connective, but that differ in their complexity. The presented method can be adapted potentially infinite number of connectives and truth values, (...) therefore, it can be considered a general framework to provide semantics to several of the known logic systems (eg, LC, L3 LP, FDE). The presented semantics allow to converge to different standard semantics if the separation complexity procedure is annulled. Therefore, it can be understood as a framework that allows greater precision (in complexity terms) with respect to formula satisfaction. Naturally, because of how it is built, it can be incorporated into non-deterministic semantics. The presented procedure also allows generating valuations that grant a different truth value to each formula of propositional language. As a positive side effect, our method allows a constructive proof of the equipotence between N and N^n for all Natural n. (shrink)

Vivimos dentro de sistemas socioeconámicos humanos demasiado grandes en relación con la biosfera que los contiene, por una parte; y sistemas mal adaptados, sistemas humanos que encajan mal en los ecosistemas naturales. El problema de escala reclama un movimiento de autolimitación por parte de las sociedades humanas, que podríamos concebir bajo la idea de gestión global de la demanda; el problema de estructura exige una reconstrucción de la tecnosfera de acuerdo con principios de biomímesis.

El libro recoge siete artículos, cuatro sobre temas de la filosofía de Descartes y tres sobre la de Spinoza, algunos ya publicados y otros inéditos, como lo señalan los Créditos Editoriales, pero con versiones revisadas, corregidas y ampliadas. Aunque cada uno de los capítulos puede ser leído de manera independiente, hay un hilo conductor que los integra, y que no es otro que la confrontación entre el racionalismo moderado del pensador francés y el racionalismo radical del judío de Ámsterdam: “Spinoza (...) quiere acabar con el misterio que rodea la razón o que le subyace –leemos en la contraportada–, misterio que hace afirmar a Descartes en la Meditación tercera: «es propio de la naturaleza del infinito que mi naturaleza, que es finita y limitada, no pueda comprenderlo»”. Se trata así de una de las tensiones básicas que atraviesan todo el pensamiento moderno. (shrink)

Negar el libre albedrío implica que el ser humano no es libre por naturaleza, sino que puede llegar a serlo mediante un uso adecuado de su inteligencia; libertad que solo la consiguen los “sabios”. Por eso, cuando Spinoza entiende la democracia como la forma de gobierno que mejor defiende la libertad, esto vale para los “sabios”, pero no para el vulgo, que solo mediante el miedo y la esperanza es conducido a obrar según los dictados de la razón. ¿No será (...) esta indeseable consecuencia la que le impidió terminar su Tratado Político, precisamente cuando se aprestaba a estudiar la democracia? (shrink)

El profesor Dinu Garber nació en Rumania, el 26 de octubre de 1938, en el seno de una familia de origen judío, que, por los avatares de la guerra, debió emigrar, vía Francia e Italia, para radicarse finalmente en Venezuela. En Caracas terminó sus estudios de primaria y bachille-rato, y se trasladó luego a Brasil, donde cursó la carrera de Arquitectura. Al regresar a Venezuela, organizó, con algunos colegas, una firma de arquitectos, en la que trabajó unos años con gran (...) éxito. En el año 1970 contrajo matrimonio con su esposa Doris Halle. (shrink)

Research on Augmented Reality in education has demonstrated that AR applications designed with diverse components boost student motivation in educational settings. However, most of the research conducted to date, does not define exactly what those components are and how these components positively affect student motivation. This study, therefore, attempts to identify some of the components that positively affect student motivation in mobile AR learning experiences to contribute to the design and development of motivational AR learning experiences for the Vocational Education (...) and Training level of education. To identify these components, a research model constructed from the literature was empirically validated with data obtained from two sources: 35 students from four VET institutes interacting with an AR application for learning for a period of 20 days, and a self-report measure obtained from the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey. We found that the following variables: use of scaffolding, real-time feedback, degree of success, time on-task and learning outcomes are positively correlated with the four dimensions of the ARCS model of motivation: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Implications of these results are also described. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo examinaré las observaciones críticas que se presentan en este volumen a las ideas que he defendido en mi libro Teoría Analítica del Derecho (en adelante TAD). Carla Huerta Ochoa ha controvertido algunos puntos de mi enfoque sobre la caracterización del derecho. María Beatriz Arriagada, por su parte, ha formulado interesantes interrogantes sobre mi caracterización de las normas, la normatividad de las reglas constitutivas y mi reconstrucción de los conceptos jurídicos básicos. Mauricio Maldonado Muñoz ha refinado algunas (...) de mis observaciones sobre conflictos normativos y discutido algunos puntos sobre jerarquías normativas. Sebastián Agüero-San Juan ha relevado mi reconstrucción de la dinámica jurídica y puntualizado diferencias sobre el concepto de sistema dinámico, la operación de reforma de normas y el criterio de lex specialis. Finalmente, María Gabriela Scataglini ha planteado cuestionamientos a mi enfoque del dilema del seguimiento de reglas y la derrotabilidad del derecho. Trataré aquí de responder sus comentarios centrales. (shrink)

This article examines Aristotle's views concerning the possibility of friendship between human beings and nonhuman animals. The suggestion that he denies this possibility is rejected. I reassess the textual evidence adduced by scholars in support of this reading, while adding new material for discussion. Central to the traditional reading is the assumption that animals, in Aristotle's view, cannot be friends in virtue of their cognitive limitations. I argue that Aristotle's account of animal cognition is perfectly consistent with the possibility of (...) friendship between human beings and nonhuman animals. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo, analizamos el cuento El Inmortal de Borges prestándole principal atención a las situaciones donde se entrelazan, o se tratan sin diferenciar demasiado, cuestiones vinculadas con la animalidad y la divinidad. Sostenemos que esta especie de confusión o falta de precisión al tratar cuestiones que se alejan tanto de la identidad personal y del Yo, como la inmortalidad, no es un elemento casual ni sin fundamento, sino que puede ser analizado filosóficamente adentrándonos la otredad animal. El Inmortal (...) nos manifiesta que la filosofía podría no haber sido lo suficientemente precisa al tratar la otredad, permitiendo que animalidad y divinidad, o más bien ciertas propiedades características de cada una, puedan amalgamarse dentro de los lindes de este concepto. Que el cuento de Borges haga convivir de forma tan característica la inacción con la inmortalidad hace de esta obra un objeto de reflexión obligatorio para todos los interesados en el concepto de otredad. (shrink)

La mayor parte de análisis de las actuales sociedades cibernéticas basados en la obra de Deleuze y Guattari las suelen concebir como sociedades de control y servidumbre maquínica. Esta caracterización se debe a que su concepto de cibernética se reduce a la cibernética de primer orden. Este artículo expone cómo las máquinas no-triviales concebidas por la cibernética de segundo orden permiten desarrollar los aspectos más socialmente emancipadores de la ontología maquínica deleuzoguattariana, sin necesidad de oponerse a las sociedades cibernéticas.

This article pretends to provide a reading of the Seventh Letter focused on the role that medical terminology plays in it. Leaving aside the unsolvable enigma of Plato’s authorship, the letter shows evident connections with fundamental topics from the “last” Plato, particularly in its political aspects. In many passages of the Seventh Letter, the figure of the philosopher as an educator appears covered with medical aspects, and the political situation is defined as a pathology that we must treat according to (...) a therapeutic methodology. (shrink)

O artigo aborda a produção historiográfica sobre a presença de escravos em Portugal. Começa por destacar o facto de os primeiros trabalhos realizados sobre este tema, contemporâneos do movimento abolicionista do século XIX, terem sido motivados pela preocupação de demonstrar a universalidade da escravatura, defendendo o país da acusação de ter iniciado a escravidão moderna. Refere-se também à renovação, operada já nas últimas décadas de Novecentos, dos estudos sobre os escravos, que acompanhou a própria actualização da historiografia portuguesa sob a (...) influência científica de outros países, mas que foi também favorecida pela sua libertação da necessidade de justificar o comportamento luso, após a implantação do regime democrático e o fim do império colonial. Procura igualmente sintetizar a historiografia mais recente sobre esta matéria. (shrink)

El artículo se interroga acerca de las posibilidades de alcanzar arreglos institucionales, al menos en el “espacio de gobernanza y de democracia local”, que aproximen nuestras democracias liberales al horizonte normativo del republicanismo moderno. Un reciente trabajo de Pedro Ibarra Güell (2008) servirá de base para nuestras reflexiones. Se expondrán los dilemas a los que se enfrenta su propuesta de una “democracia relacional”, se precisarán las condiciones que ésta debe satisfacer y, a la luz de diversas observaciones empíricas, se juzgará (...) su plausibilidad. (shrink)