During the 2007–2008 global food crisis, the prices of primary foods, in particular, peaked. Subsequently, governments concerned about food security and investors keen to capitalize on profit-maximizing opportunities undertook large-scale land acquisitions (LASLA) in, predominantly, least developed countries (LDCs). Economically speaking, this market reaction is highly welcome, as it should (1) improve food security and lower prices through more efficient food production while (2) host countries benefit from development opportunities. However, our assessment of the debate on the issues indicates critical (...) voices in both the media and academic discourse. This article aims to provide a philosophical law and economics analysis. We draw on John Rawls’s Theory of Justice, focusing on Rawls’s background institutions for distributive justice (§43) to evaluate LASLA form an ethical angle. Approaching LASLA into Sub Saharan LDCs as a socio-economic reform redistributing land from the local population of LDCs to investors, we acknowledge that they bear a highly desirable potential. Often, though, they cannot be regarded as ethically correct in practice as the insignificant improvements for local populations and sometimes even human rights violations contradict Rawls’s principles of justice. Then investigating whether and how international law can help overcome the shortcomings, we conclude that even though respective mechanisms exist in the current state of international law, it is hardly possible that it will produce more just outcomes in the near future. (shrink)

The practice of physical activity (PA) contributes to the prevention of chronic diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome or cardiovascular diseases, being also directly related to the individual’s physical fitness. Therefore, it is necessary to measure and monitoring the levels of PA in childhood and adolescence, since it may be useful to describe their current health status and the association with physical fitness, as well as to reveal putative consequences in the future. Within the educational field, it has been shown (...) that physical education (PE) classes are a favorable context for the creation of healthy physical-sports habits and self-determined motivation could be a key for explaining the level of PA practice. For this reason, the purpose of this research was to study the mediating role of integrated regulation (IR) on the relationship between PA and physical fitness in children and adolescents. A total of 325 students between 11 and 14 years old participated in the study. The level of PA was estimated through the specific Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C), while motivation and IR were measured by using the Perceived Locus of Causality scale (PLOC-2). In addition, physical fitness was measured through the Eurofit fitness battery of tests, composed of three body composition measures and seven tests of different physical capacities. The physical fitness score showed no differences when genders were compared. After regression analysis, the resulti... (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Institutional History of Colonial Philosophy The Conquest of America: Some Epistemological and Ethical Questions Post Conquest Indigenous Perspectives Creole Perspectives: Two Seventeenth‐Century Intellectuals The American Experience of the Enlightenment Colophon References.

La vida y obra de José Luis Aranguren siguen siendo válidas no sólo desde el punto de vista del pensamiento ético, sino también de la toma de conciencia del papel de los laicos en la Iglesia. La utilización por Aranguren de las ideas filosóficas de Zubiri para el estudio de la ética es una de las aportaciones más relevantes del pensamiento contemporáneo. A Aranguren hay que reconocerle la persistente relevancia que la Filosofía Moral tiene en nuestra tradición cultural.

A partir del análisis de tres crónicas de Carlos Monsiváis incluidas en la antología Los rituales del caos de 1995 respondemos a la pregunta por el tipo de discurso que constituyen dichas crónicas, es decir, ¿de qué hablan las crónicas de Monsiváis?, ¿están criticando algo?, y si es así ¿qué tipo de crítica establecen los textos del cronista mexicano?. A partir de los conceptos teóricos de Manuel Asensi, Slavoj Zizek o Julio Ramos abordamos la crónica monsivaisiana como una repolitización del (...) discurso literario. En ese sentido, retomamos el concepto de discurso y ponemos entre comillas el de “literariadedad” entendiendo, siguiendo a Asensi, que una maquinaria semiótica o discursiva opera desde distintas manifestaciones culturales, ya sea para consolidar una ideología dominante o para cuestionarla, quedando con ello de manifiesto que la interpelación hacia los sujetos por parte del texto, texto en un sentido amplio, tiene lugar no solamente desde el tratado político o filosófico. A partir de esto último, interpretamos que las crónicas monsivaisinas, como maquinarias discursivas, constituyen un cuestionamiento a la ideología dominante en el contexto en donde se encuentran operando, a decir, a la ideología nacionalista mexicana corporativista creada en los años treinta y perpetuada hasta la actualidad, al mismo tiempo que un cuestionamiento epistemológico al proyecto literario mismo. (shrink)

Resumen El artículo muestra la relación estructural entre el testimonio y el juicio estético, y cómo la mentira estructural se implica irreductiblemente como la posibilidad de la verdad. Se explica la necesaria imposibilidad del testimonio como condición de su posibilidad, argumento anticipado por J. L. Borges: “No hay una sola hermosa palabra, con la excepción dudosa de testigo, que no sea una abstracción”. La argumentación se apoya en la teoría husserliana del syncategorema y en los deícticos ; asimismo, se toma (...) de I. Kant el papel de la imaginación y los efectos del “como si”.This essay demonstrates the structural relationship between testimony and aesthetic judgment. The implications of this discovery are several, the most important being the relationship between the lie and truth, implicating that lie indicates the irreducible possibility of truth. The essay explains the necessary impossibility of the testimony as a condition of its possibility, an argument anticipated in Jorge Luis Borges’ beautiful phrase, “There is not a single beautiful word, with the dubious exception of witness, that is not an abstraction”. The argument is based on Husserl’s theory of the syncategorem and on deictic words ; as well, it takes from Kant, the role of the imagination and the effects of the “as if”. (shrink)

The current COVID-19 crisis may have an impact on the mental health of professionals working on the frontline, especially healthcare workers due to the increase of occupational psychosocial risks, such as emotional exhaustion and secondary traumatic stress. This study explored job demands and resources during the COVID-19 crisis in predicting emotional exhaustion and STS among health professionals. The present study is a descriptive and correlational cross-sectional design, conducted in different hospitals and health centers in Spain. The sample consisted of 221 (...) health professionals with direct involvement in treating COVID-19. An online survey was created and distributed nationwide from March 20 to April 15 which assessed: sociodemographic and occupational data, fear of contagion, contact with death/suffering, lack of material and human protection resources, challenge, emotional exhaustion, and STS. Descriptive findings show high levels of workload, contact with death/suffering, lack of MHPR and challenge, and are moderately high for fear of contagion, emotional exhaustion, and STS. We found an indirect significant effect of lack of MHPR on predicting emotional exhaustion through the workload and on STS through fear of contagion, contact with death/suffering, and workload. To conclude, this study examines the immediate consequences of the crisis on health professionals' well-being in Spain, emphasizing the job demands related to COVID-19 that health professionals are facing, and the resources available in these health contexts. These findings may boost follow-up of this crisis among health professionals to prevent them from long-term consequences. (shrink)

In this paper we study the axiomatic system proposed by Bourbaki for the Theory of Sets in the Éléments de Mathématique. We begin by examining the role played by the sign \(\uptau \) in the framework of its formal logical theory and then we show that the system of axioms for set theory is equivalent to Zermelo–Fraenkel system with the axiom of choice but without the axiom of foundation. Moreover, we study Grothendieck’s proposal of adding to Bourbaki’s system the axiom (...) of universes for the purpose of considering the theory of categories. In this regard, we make some historical and epistemological remarks that could explain the conservative attitude of the Group. (shrink)

Are philosophy and literature allies or enemies in Jorge Luis Borges's fictions? In this paper, I argue that Borges can satisfy membership in the allies camp because his fictions provide the imaginative scenarios the allies believe are so necessary to this coalition; however, because his stories question philosophy's hold on reality, they can also seem to fall into the enemies camp by countervailing any claim philosophy has on reality and truth; although, ultimately, the manner in which Borges forges an (...) alliance between philosophy and literature will be for reasons not traditionally accepted by those in either the allies or enemies camps. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to identify the elements that can be implemented to achieve an ethical infrastructure, in small and medium enterprises. The ethical infrastructure is considered as a set of formal and informal systems, leadership, climate and culture, related to ethical issues. The research was carried out through interviews and focus groups with managers from 28 companies in Madrid, all signatories to the Global Compact. The identified key elements in SMEs are leadership, informal managerial and formal communication. (...) This study also explores different factors that influence the effectiveness, implementation, and sustainability of the ethical infrastructure in SMEs, discovering some factors that can act as both accelerators and barriers such as pressure from customers. Additional findings regarding the concepts of ethics and corporate social responsibility in SMEs, dilemmas and characteristics of the culture and climate are also presented. (shrink)

Se ha sostenido tradicionalmente que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas son análogos. Pero, ¿qué es la analogía? Varios filósofos han pensado que la analogía debe ser considerada como una forma de ambigüedad. Argumentamos aquí que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas no son ambiguos o vagos. Siguiendo algunas sugerencias de McDaniel, proponemos una concepción de la analogía donde el fenómeno semántico está asociado con el carácter más o menos natural de la propiedad o (...) propiedades que instancian las entidades que satisfacen el predicado análogo. Un predicado "θ" es análogo si y sólo si, la propiedad Θ, que algo instancia, si y sólo si es θ, es menos natural que cualquier propiedad Ξ tal que todo lo que instancie Ξ, instancia Θ. Además, se requiere que las entidades de las cuales el término análogo es predicado deban ser ontológica o epistémicamente dependientes unas de otras. || It has been traditionally sustained that predicates attributed to God and to the creatures are analogical predicates. But, what is analogy? Several philosophers have thought that analogy should be taken as a form of ambiguity. Here we argue that predicates attributed to God and to creatures are neither ambiguous nor vague. Following some suggestions given by McDaniel, we propose a view of analogy in which the semantic phenomenon is associated with the more or less natural character of the property or properties that the entities that satisfy the analogous predicate instantiate. A predicate "θ" is analogous if and only if the property Θ, which something instantiates, if and only if it is θ, is less natural that any property Ξ so that anything that instantiates Ξ, instantiates Θ. Furthermore, it is required that the entities of which the analogous term is predicated should be either ontologically or epistemically dependent on each other. (shrink)

AntecedentsPrevious research on citizens’ reactions after terrorist events has shown that positive reactions can also emerge alongside pain and horror. Positive emotions have been widely associated with an abstract style of thinking. In the context of the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, we explored Spanish citizens’ positive reactions – empathic concern, positive emotional climate, and esteem for humanity – and examined the relationships of these responses with an abstract style of thinking.MethodA longitudinal study was designed involving an online questionnaire that (...) was administered 10 days, 3 weeks, and 2 months after the attacks.ResultsEmpathic concern and personal distress toward Parisians decreased from the weeks following the attacks to 2 months later, with empathic concern always being more intense than personal distress. Emotional climate was perceived as more hostile than positive, although positive feelings persisted. People reported moderately positive esteem for humanity. Individuals with a more abstract style of thinking reported greater empathic concern, a more positive emotional climate, and more esteem for humanity.ConclusionsOur results support and extend previous research showing that abstraction enhances people’s resilience, even under traumatic circumstances such as those surrounding a terrorist attack. (shrink)

El discurso de la innovación social se construyó, en otras épocas, en torno a la articulación de proyectos colectivos; sin embargo, en la actualidad se ha consolidado un nuevo imaginario simbólico en el que la noción de cambio personal, muy permeable a las explicaciones psicológicas y a la fascinación por lo emocional, se ha convertido en la variable central sobre la que gira la explicación de lo social. En este sentido, el discurso del management, hegemónico en la actualidad, representa esta (...) tendencia actual a la perfección, por cuanto construye el éxito en el mundo laboral en torno al dominio de un conjunto de competencias de personalidad. En este texto, nuestro objetivo es analizar críticamente las prescripciones que plantean estos nuevos y poderosos discursos manageriales, a la vez que se discuten posibles alternativas a los mismos desde ópticas como la de los Critical Management Studies. (shrink)

El artículo plantea una reflexión acerca del alcance y el impacto de las políticas de desarrollo rural en la juventud andaluza, a través de los resultados que arroja la línea de investigación en ese ámbito que los autores han desarrollado en los últimos años. Esta ilustra sobre el contexto, las expectativas y las representaciones de la juventud —a menudo negativas—, desde los tiempos posteriores a la gran recesión iniciada en el 2008 hasta la actualidad. Asimismo, se recoge la perspectiva de (...) los gestores de tales políticas y se muestran los resultados de dos experiencias dirigidas a aumentar la participación de la juventud y su integración con las estructuras del desarrollo rural. Todo ello evidencia el limitado impacto que percibe la juventud, así como las dificultades y las inconsistencias a las que se enfrentan las políticas de desarrollo rural para revertir tal situación, pese al potencial que encierran y a sus logros en otros momentos y ámbitos. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es examinar los contraejemplos más importantes formulados por Keith Donnellan frente a la teoría descriptiva de la referencia de los nombres propios, así como presentar una réplica a los mismos. La versión de la teoría descriptiva de la referencia que tomamos en consideración es la propuesta por Searle y Strawson, y en nuestra réplica a los contraejemplos más importantes de Donnellan hacemos hincapié en dos de los tipos de descripciones o propiedades a las que estos (...) autores apelan, a saber, las propiedades involucradas en la capacidad de reconocimiento asociada con un nombre y las descripciones parásitas. The aim of this paper is to examine the most important counterexamples put forward by Keith Donnellan against the description theory of the reference of proper names, as well as to present a reply to them. The version of the description theory of reference we take into consideration is the one proposed by Searle and Strawson, and in our reply to Donnellan's most important counterexamples we emphasize two of the sorts of descriptions or properties these authors resort to, that is, the properties involved in the capacity of recognition associated with a name and the parasitic descriptions. (shrink)

A partir del concepto existencial de rehumanización el presente estudio intenta un nuevo pensamiento utópico para una Filosofía de la Historia futura en clave de esperanza. Establece el marco del discurso, de un lado, en la "des-humanización" del siglo XX ejemplificada en dos paradigmas relevantes como son las guerras en la primera mitad y las adicciones en la segunda mitad, y, de otro, en un nuevo paradigma generador de "re-humanización", una actitud que se espera del siglo XXI superadora de anteriores (...) paradigmas reduccionistas. Se concluye con algunas ideas prospectivas sobre el sentido utópico de la historia. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende dar cuenta del rol de los libros, los copistas y la circulación de textos en la obra de Libanio, y especialmente en su Autobiografía. Sobre la base de las referencias a la cultura libresca, por lo demás, se establecen vínculos con la cultura griega anterior, en particular con la segunda sofística; contemporánea y cristiana; y posterior, de los períodos medio y tardo-bizantino. This article tackles the role of books, scribes and text circulation in the oeuvre of Libanius, (...) especially in his Autobiography. On the basis of his references to scriptorial culture, I underline his links to previous Greek culture -mainly to the Second Sophistic -; to contemporary Christian paideia; and to later Byzantine erudition. (shrink)

The gene regulation function (GRF) provides an operational description of a promoter behavior as a function of the concentration of one of its transcriptional regulators. Behind this apparently trivial definition lies a central concept in biological control: the GRF provides the input/output relationship of each edge in a transcriptional network, independently from the molecular interactions involved. Here we discuss how existing methods allow direct measurement of the GRF, and how several trade‐offs between scalability and accuracy have hindered its application to (...) relatively large networks. We discuss the theoretical and technical requirements for obtaining the GRF. Based on these requirements, we introduce a simplified and easily scalable method that is able to capture the significant parameters of the GRF. The GRF is able to predict the behavior of a simple genetic circuit, illustrating how addressing the quantitative nature of gene regulation substantially increases our comprehension on the mechanisms of gene control. (shrink)

Este artículo intentará explicar por qué, en un sistema narrativo como el homérico, donde no predominan los segundos planos ni los detrás de escenas, no existe un suspenso ligado a la incertidumbre sobre un desenlace; ligará este fenómeno a la llamada “ley de Zielinski” (I). Inspeccionará tentativas recientes de encontrar baches de suspenso en Homero (II). Finalmente, propondrá una explicación alternativa para el suspenso, que se centra en la empatía por un personaje y la inmersión en el mundo narrativo (III).

Kripke holds the thesis that identity statements containing natural kind terms are if true, necessarily true; these statements can be denominated theoretical identities. Kripke alleges that the necessity of theoretical identities grounds on the linguistic feature that natural kind terms are rigid designators. Nevertheless, I argue that the conception of natural kind terms as rigid designators, in one of their most natural views, hinders the establishment of the truth of theoretical identities and thus of their necessity. However, in Kripke’s works (...) another proposal, not linguistic but metaphysical, is found to justify the presumed necessity of theoretical identities; it grounds on essentialism concerning natural kinds. In this regard, I question some of Kripke’s main claims, focusing on one of the main examples of theoretical identities put forward by Kripke, i.e., “Water is H2\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$_2$$\end{document}O”. I challenge his a priori claims concerning what should be the essence of a natural kind like water. Furthermore, I adduce that the character of that theoretical identity is not that claimed by Kripke, since in the term flanking the right side of the identity sign it has to be resorted to the notion of similarity or it should have the form of a disjunction of a cluster of substances. (shrink)

Es werden zwei Einwände Putnams gegen die semantische Konzeption der Wahrheit untersucht. Pumam behauptet, nach dieser Wahrheitskonzeption seien die Äquivalenzen der Form (W) logisch notwendig oder logisch wahr, und die Wahrheit eines Satzes hänge von seiner syntaktischen Struktur und davon ab, wie die Welt ist, aber nicht von der Bedeutung des Satzes. Bei der Untersuchung dieser Einwände wird gegen Putnam geltend gemacht, daß Camaps Bestimmung einer Sprache durch semantische Regeln nicht tautologisch ist, und es werden wichtige Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen (...) der Semantik Tarskis und Camaps festgestellt. (shrink)

El presente artículo intenta dar cuenta de la función constructiva del doblez, la contradicción y la inversión en Alcestis de Eurípides. Para ello, define los principales términos en discusión, explora la obra en busca de sus manifestaciones y señala por qué los múltiples elementos contradictorios de esta tragedia, lejos de ser distracciones o descuidos, ponen en primer plano -y de un modo que habría sido impensable en un discurso monológico- la complejidad del universo narrativo e ideológico de Eurípides. This article (...) sets out to tackle the constructive function of the fold, the contradiction and the inversion in Euripides' Alcestis. To this end, it defines the main terms under consideration, explores the tragedy in search of their manifestations, and indicates why the manifold contradictory elements present in the play, far from being distractions, underline the complexity of Euripides' ideological and narrative universe. (shrink)

En este artículo, nos preguntamos si es pertinente un análisis del personaje de Medea de Eurípides, y más concretamente, de su filicidio, a la luz de la doctrina aristotélica de la acción. Resulta dudoso, y quizás equívoco, hablar de "responsabilidad" (en sentido aristotélico) en el caso de la heroína, ya que sus motivaciones, como las de todo héroe trágico, tienen un doble signo: enfrentado a una ἀνάγκη superior, también desea lo que está forzado a hacer. Además, Medea no es una (...) mujer común: es un personaje ontológicamente complejo que participa, más de lo que frecuentemente se ha enfatizado, del plano divino. In this article we wonder if it is pertinent to analyse the character of Euripides' Medea and, more precisely, her filicide, in the light of Aristotle's doctrine of action. With regard to the heroine, it is doubtful and perhaps confusing to talk about "responsibility" (in Aristotelian terms) because her motivations, as all tragic heroes', are two-sided: faced to a superior ἀνάγκη he wants what he is forced to do as well. In addition, Medea is not an ordinary woman: she is an ontologically complex character that has a share in the divine level, a share which is more crucial than what has usually been emphasized. (shrink)

The Florilegium Coislinianum, a largely unpublished Byzantine spiritual anthology, provides a fuller perspective on an intriguing exegetical work attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria, the Fragmenta in Matthaeum. The authenticity of the work has been contested. However, while it is certain that it was not written in toto by Athanasius, the possibility remains that it contains traces of now-lost texts of the Alexandrian theologian.

This paper aims to propose a version of the description theory of reference –for short, descriptivism– on natural kind terms. This version is grounded on some proposals of descriptivists, such as Searle and Strawson, about proper names, which will be extended to natural kind terms. According to Searle and Strawson the reference of a proper name is determined by a sufficient number of the descriptions that speakers associate with the name, but among the sorts of descriptions admitted by these authors (...) are those in which the average speaker defers the reference of a term to other speakers. In this regard, descriptivism can accept Putnam’s thesis of the division of linguistic labour and claim that some of the descriptions associated by non-experts have the function of deferring the reference of natural kind terms to their reference in the use by experts. Thus, descriptivism can maintain that the reference of a natural kind term is determined by a sufficient number of the descriptions that experts concerning a natural kind associate with the term. I will argue that this version of descriptivism, which grants more weight to social links than to historical links, can explain better than Kripke’s theory the reference of the use of natural kind terms by the average speaker. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza las tres críticas que Paul B. Preciado le realiza a Michel Foucault, según las cuales el filósofo francés no habría comprendido la modificación epistémica luego de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la constitución de una sociedad enmarcada en lo que llama “era farmacopornográfica”, que implica el desarrollo de una nueva modalidad de poder (sexopolítico) a partir de nuevas tecnologías de la existencia. Nuestra hipótesis sostendrá que, por el contrario, Foucault sí es consciente de esta transformación luego de (...) 1945, sólo que su perspectiva política no es convergente con la de Preciado. (shrink)