The Scottish philosopher David Hume had a major influence on the Founding Fathers. While Hume was friends with Benjamin Franklin (who stayed at Humes home on one of his visits to Edinburgh), his real influence came from the fact that his works were widely read and passionately discussed in what would become the United States. Chapters include a biography of the affable Scot, a discussion of the philosophical schools that he is most associated with, an in-depth examination of his seminal (...) "A Treatise of Human Nature," and a discussion of his importance to early American history. (shrink)

A partir de la afirmación de que el capitalismo prosigue su expansión, el autor se pregunta cómo llevar a cabo una lucha anticapitalista en esas condiciones. Rescata que éste fue el contexto de los primeros socialistas, pre-marxistas o utópicos, y que esta radicalidad anticapitalista se encuentra hoy en la protesta ecologista. Introduce el concepto de "discrepancia radical" con el derroche capitalista, que amenaza para la vida de la especie humana y de la naturaleza. Acude el autor en su tesis al (...) Segundo Tratado sobre el Gobierno Civil, de John Locke, para luego postular los elementos políticos de una discrepancia radical y la necesidad de redefinir el papel militante de la izquierda. (shrink)

El autor recupera el planteamiento de Jacques Maritain respecto de la presencia que deben tener en la teoría democrática los pequeños grupos dinámicos libremente organizados, o “minoría de choque” que desatan luchas de emancipación y materializan su crítica, a través de una acción práctica, movimientista y asambleísta, orientada al autogobierno. Analiza el artículo su legitimidad en las condiciones actuales del neoliberalismo y la globalización.

La oposición entre dos grupos de valores, como nos muestran determinantes casos del mapa geopolítico actual, sugiere los límites de las expectativas modernizadoras tanto del viejo imperialismo como de sus opositores: los nuevos pueblos parecen tan reacios a la administración racional colonial como a la autóctona, y exigen formas de dirección y encuadramiento acordes con la propia cultura. Todo ello parece abrir de nuevo el problema de la tradición, ante el cual, desde la perspectiva de la cultura occidental, parece necesario (...) un proceso reflexivo y crítico sobre la diversidad de valores y lenguajes. Reticentes ante los esquemas de la conciencia moderna, hemos de proceder de manera análoga a la que Geertz advierte en minorías pertenecientes a culturas no occidentales, identificadas con los valores modernos de racionalidad crítica y ética autónoma: atender a las "voces mezcladas" de las tradiciones, demorarnos en esa babel que es el suelo, movedizo pero real, de los valores ilustrados. En el presente trabajo se ofrece, siguiendo algunas ideas de Isaiah Berlin, un acercamiento a la tradición, desde el que examinar dos estrategias cruciales en su constitución: las de De Maistre y Burke. (shrink)

Nynfa Bosco (1929-2013) was an interesting, important and eccentric character in Italian post-World War II philosophy studies. She was one of the first women to successfully pursue a university career, capable of mastering several languages when few in Italy could decently speak one, and gifted with an agile and compelling writing style. Nynfa Bosco published in 1959 the first Italian monograph on Peirce and in 1977 a translation of some important articles of the founder of pragmatism. Despite the (...) technical approximation, mainly determined by the texts available at that time, Bosco understood the original ethical and metaphysical dimension of Peirce's logical writings, anticipating some readings that would emerge only many years later. (shrink)

Es proverbial el orgullo que sentía el cardenal Marcelo Spínola por Don Bosco y su obra, la primera obra (1884) escrita en español sobre el santo sacerdote y educador de Turín. El inesperado hallazgo de cuarenta cartas dirigidas a los salesianos es una buena excusa para darlas a conocer, pues Spínola -como obispo de Coria y luego como arzobispo de Sevilla- las escribió para exponer con detalle los motivos de su profundo afecto a la Congregación Salesiana. La edición crítica (...) de las cartas va precedida de una breve, pero necesaria introducción. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se propone un estudio comparativo de las producciones de algunos referentes de la Investigación Participativa. Se revisan algunos de los textos de Orlando Fals Borda, Paulo Freire, João Bosco Guedes Pinto, Michel Thiollent, María Teresa Sirvent y Joel Martí. Este trabajo se inscribe en el proceso reciente de transformación universitaria en Uruguay, en particular, en una de sus iniciativas: la de la integración curricular de la extensión a través de lo que se ha denominado “prácticas (...) universitarias integrales”. En este marco, la reflexión teórico-metodológica sobre la extensión crítica y las prácticas de investigación-acción conectadas con ella resultan fundamentales para dotar las iniciativas en curso de mayor pertinencia académica y potencial transformador. (shrink)

The article discusses infinitism, the view that a belief is justified for a subject only if she possesses an infinite chain of available reasons for that belief. In its most recent and sophisticated version, the view allegedly escapes the problems that trouble its main competitors, foundationalism and coherentism, while avoiding the traditional objections which relegated it to a marginal place. The article argues that despite these improvements, sophisticated versions of infinitism face a pressing problem, viz. they are unable to appropriately (...) articulate propositional and doxastic justification. (shrink)

Moderate epistemic akrasia is the state a subject is in when she believes that p and suspends judgment about whether her evidence supports p. In this article it is argued that, given a certain understanding of the attitude of suspension of judgment, moderate epistemic akrasia is doxastically irrational. The paper starts with a brief introduction that makes explicit some background notions and clarifies the dialectics of the debate. Second, the well-known distinction between propositional and doxastic rationality is introduced and some (...) cases of improper basing are discussed. Third, two different cases are considered in which one might argue that moderate epistemic akrasia is doxastically rational, and it is argued that none is successful. Fourth, several objections are presented and answered. Finally, some conclusions are drawn. (shrink)

The spread and publicity given to questionable practices in the corporate world during the last two decades has fostered an increasing interest about the importance of ethical work for organizations, practitioners, scholars and, last but not least, the wider public. Relying on the Social Identity Approach, we suggest that the effects of different ethical climates on employee behaviors are driven by affective identification with the organization and, in parallel, by cognitive moral (dis)engagement. We compared the effects of two particular ethical (...) climates derived from the literature: An ethical organizational climate of self-interest, and an ethical organizational climate of friendship. Three hundred seventy-six workers completed measures of Ethical Climate, Organizational Identification, Moral Disengagement, Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, and Counterproductive Work Behaviors. Structural equation modelling confirmed that the two ethical climates considered were independently related to organizational identification and moral disengagement. These, in turn, mediated the effects of ethical climates on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Counterproductive Work Behaviors. We discuss results in light of the social identity approach, and present some practical implications of our findings. (shrink)

This study explores linkages between what Chinese managers generally know about environmental issues, how strongly they value environmental protection, and different types of behaviours/actions they may take within their organizations on behalf of the environment. From a sample of 305 managers in Guangzhou and Beijing, it was found that both environmental knowledge and values are more predictive of more personal managerial behaviours, such as keeping informed of relevant company issues and working within the system to minimize environmental impacts, than more (...) overt behaviours. Moreover, for these more personal actions, environmental knowledge and values were found to have both main and interactive effects. By comparison, it was found that both environmental values and knowledge had additive effects on managerial tendencies to initiate new programs within their domain of responsibility. Only environmental values was found to have a modest influence environmental advocacy. (shrink)

Environmental philosophy is one of the exciting new fields of philosophy to emerge in the last forty years. "Understanding Environmental Philosophy" presents a comprehensive, critical analysis of contemporary philosophical approaches to current ecological concerns. Key ideas are explained, placed in their broader cultural, religious, historical, political and philosophical context, and their environmental policy implications are outlined. Central ideas and concepts about environmental value, individual wellbeing, ecological holism and the metaphysics of nature set the stage for a discussion of how to (...) establish moral rules and priorities, and whether it is possible to transcend human-centred views of the world. The reader is also helped with an annotated guide to further reading, questions for discussion and revision as well as boxed studies highlighting key concepts and theoretical material. A clear and accessible introduction to this most dynamic of subjects, "Understanding Environmental Philosophy" will be invaluable for a wide range of readers. (shrink)

Neutral Counterpart Theories of slurs hold that the truth-conditional contribution of a slur is the same as the truth-conditional contribution of its neutral counterpart. In, DiFranco argues that these theories, even if plausible for single-word slurs like ‘kike’ and ‘nigger’, are not suitable for complex slurs such as ‘slanty-eyed’ and ‘curry muncher’, figurative slurs like ‘Jewish American Princess’, or iconic slurring expressions like ‘ching chong’. In this paper, we argue that these expressions do not amount to genuine counterexamples to neutral (...) counterpart theories of slurs. We provide a positive characterization of DiFranco's examples that doesn't deviate from the core of those theories. (shrink)

Philosophy of language has been witnessing for the last fifteen years or so, if not a turn, at least the rising of a new trend, with its usual methods applied to new non-semantic phenomena linked to language use in the context of politics, and with new methods arising from the distinctive features of the new subject matter. Among these phenomena, dogwhistles have taken somewhat of a center stage (other phenomena include ethnic slurs, testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, propaganda and gender-inclusive language, (...) among others). This special issue is devoted to their study. In this brief introduction, we seek to succinctly review the key aspects of the phenomenon. First, we present some intuitive examples; second, we put forward a preliminary characterization of dogwhistles; then we discuss some of the main issues raised by these examples, as well as some basic notions found in the literature. We close by presenting an overview of the articles to be found in the current issue. (shrink)

In this paper, we discuss Armstrong’s account of attachment-based claims to natural resources, the kind of rights that follow from attachment-based claims, and the limits we should impose on such claims. We hope to clarify how and why attachment matters in the discourse on resource rights by presenting three challenges to Armstrong’s theory. First, we question the normative basis for certain attachment claims, by trying to distinguish more clearly between different kinds of attachment and other kinds of claims. Second, we (...) highlight the need to supplement Armstrong’s account with a theory of how to weigh different attachment claims so as to establish the normative standing that different kinds of attachment claims should have. Third, we propose that sustainability must be a necessary requirement for making attachment claims to natural resources legitimate. Based on these three challenges and the solutions we propose, we argue that attachment claims are on the one hand narrower than Armstrong suggests, while on the other hand they can justify more far-reaching rights to control than Armstrong initially considers, because of the particular weight that certain attachment claims have. (shrink)

As a theoretical extension of other previous studies, this work represents an improvement of the notions about the relationship between adolescence and Mafia. The research has been aiming at exploring teenagers’ universe within specific social contexts where the presence of criminal organizations is significant, focusing the attention on the modalities through which evolutionary tasks are coped with in contexts with high Mafia density and often characterized by a perception of social space that makes personal, financial, and political development problematic. The (...) research has involved 93 teenagers who live in southern regions where the presence of Mafia organizations is significant. Six focus groups have been carried out, recorded, and transcribed. Verbalizations were analyzed through appropriate qualitative templates, which allowed detecting of three thematic macro-areas: representations of Mafia, emotions connected to it, and planning skills. The qualitative analy.. (shrink)

Group‐based slurs are words that express derogatory attitudes toward some group demarcated by a property that has historically caused social antagonism, for example, gender or ethnicity, among others. Reclamation, in turn, is the process whereby a slur starts being used non‐derogatorily by members of the target group to express a positive attitude. Some content‐based theories of slurs (which pin the derogatory force of such terms on their conventional meaning) account for reclamation by arguing that it involves a change in meaning (...) so that reclaimed slurs are ambiguous. But these theories face a challenge, namely to account for the difference between reclaimed slurs and run‐of‐the‐mill ambiguous terms, whose felicitous uses do not seem to be restricted to in‐group speakers. In this article, we argue that the Reclamation Worry is not a problem for content‐based theories of slurs by advancing an account of reclamation that is compatible with such views. As we shall argue, such a theory must rely on the sociolinguistic dimension of such terms. (shrink)

Director Kivu Ruhorahoza’s film Europa: ‘Based on a True Story’ is a blend of fiction, quasi-ethnography and autobiography. In this article, built in part on the foundations of Judith Butler’s conceptualizations of precariousness, precarity and assembly, Europa is read as a refusal to be relegated to the marginal spectrality of bare life. Simultaneously, this article considers the draft-like provisionality of the film as a hallmark of its precarity. Framed as an essay film about the fate of an African director who (...) attempts to make a film ‘out of Africa’, Europa provides a meditation on belonging and the precarious conditions of filming in Europe with an African passport. As Nandini Sikand writes, ‘the assumption of ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation is that by living and learning for an extended period alongside our informants, we are able to document and analyze their experience more accurately’ (2015: 45). Ruhorahoza’s film compels us to think about the position of the participant observer when the ‘extended period’ involves an agonizingly long asylum case, and when that observer is relegated to a space of unbelonging. (shrink)