Microcredit has emerged as an effective instrument for achieving financial inclusion, stimulating productive activities, and with this support, reinforcing economic growth. This study aims to examine the characteristics of microcredit financing in Ecuador and to quantify its impact on economic growth. The study employs quarterly data from 2013 to 2023. An Error Correction (VEC) model was utilized to ascertain the short- and long-term effects of microcredit and investment on GDP. The findings indicate that microcredit and investment do not exert a (...) significant short-term influence on GDP. However, in the long term, a 1% change in investment is associated with a 0.11% positive impact on GDP. Similarly, a 1% shift in microcredit is linked to a 1.17% favorable effect on GDP. Ultimately, there is a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP and microcredit. (shrink)

Science is popularly understood as being an ideal of impartial algorithmic objectivity that provides us with a realistic description of the world down to the last detail. The essays collected in this book—written by some of the leading experts in the field—challenge this popular image right at its heart, taking as their starting point that science trades not only in truth, but in fiction, too. With case studies that range from physics to economics and to biology, _Fictions in Science_ reveals (...) that fictions are as ubiquitous in scientific narratives and practice as they are in any other human endeavor, including literature and art. Of course scientific activity, most prominently in the formal sciences, employs logically precise algorithmic thinking. However, the key to the predictive and technological success of the empirical sciences might well lie elsewhere—perhaps even in scientists’ extraordinary creative imagination instead. As these essays demonstrate, within the bounds of what is empirically possible, a scientist’s capacity for invention and creative thinking matches that of any writer or artist. (shrink)

This study examines the concept of argumentation empirically, to correct the normative conception of argumentation adopted by most scholars since Aristotle. They are not interested in what argumentation is, but in what it ought to be. The pre-Aristotelian approach is preferable, because it recognizes that argumentation, although it includes persuasion, also embraces other eristic techniques in which the speaker does not necessarily seek to persuade, but simply to prevail. This broader descriptive and pragmatic analysis explains the different ways in which (...) discourse actually occurs and particular arguments succeed, leaving in a secondary place the opinion of each author on how they should be. (shrink)

This article considers whether there exists today a movement of similar strength to the synthetic 'new theoretical movement' of the mid-1980s. The author argues that one main trend in sociological theory today is the notion of creativity and efforts to understand it conceptually. The contemporary growth of contingency, it is claimed, is closely related to this creative perspective. After examining Parsons's notion of 'double contingency', the article suggests that neither rationality nor normativity alone is able to dampen recognition of the (...) vicissitudes attached to both personal destinies and social evolution. The author analyses the axis of structure and action, theories of history and evolution, together with the relationship between modernity and reflexivity, in order to substantiate the claim that creativity constitutes a trend today. This trend is then related to another, the cognitive approach, and the author proposes some ideas to bring them closer. Finally, a hypothesis to explain the current stress on creativity is suggested. (shrink)

The commemorative edition of the 80th anniversary of Casa Grande & Senzala, the founding book of Brazilian modern sociology written by Gilberto Freyre and published in 2013, shows on its cover a glamorous ‘Casa Grande’, lit like an architectural landmark, ready to serve as the set for a film or a TV soap opera. What happened to the ‘Senzala’ that appeared on the covers of the dozens of previous editions? This paper investigates, following some changes in Brazilian Visual Culture in (...) the twentieth century, how such an astonishing disappearance could take place. The paper examines the image of the slave quarters as part of a racial trope: a foundational and colonial trope, one that is capable of institutionalizing subjects and producing a subaltern mode of subjectivity. It also explores connections between critical legal studies and visual and cultural studies to question how and why knowledge produced over the status, nature and function of images contributes to institute—and institutionalize subjectivity. In order to explain this disappearance we propose a legal-iconological experiment. We will enunciate, and attempt to enact, the Statute of Image-nation: the laws of the image that constitute subjectivity in Brazilian racial tropes. In doing so, we might be able to point out the ways in which law and image function together in institutionalizing subjectivity—and subjection. (shrink)

We offer a review of some of the most influential views on the status of Reichenbach’s Principle of the Common Cause (PCC) for genuinely indeterministic systems. We first argue that the PCC is properly a conjunction of two distinct claims, one metaphysical and another methodological. Both claims can and have been contested in the literature, but here we simply assume that the metaphysical claim is correct, in order to focus our analysis on the status of the methodological claim. We briefly (...) review the most entrenched or classical positions, including Salmon’s ‘interactive forks’, van Fraassen’s scepticism, and Cartwright’s generalisation of the fork criterion. We then go on to review the results of the ‘Budapest school’ on the existence of formally defined screening-off events for any correlation —by means of the ideas of probability space extensibility and (Reichenbachian common cause) completability. We distinguish the Budapest doctrine clearly from any of the classical conceptions, and thus present an overall framework for discussions of causal inference in quantum mechanics. The framework, however preliminary, is essential work for a thorough assessment of the conditions under which PCC may be a reliable tool for causal inference in a genuinely probabilistic (indeterministic) context. (shrink)

Spoken language consists of a linear sequence of units, from which the existence of particular underlying hierarchical processing mechanisms is inferred. Uddén et al. use graph theory to provide a framework for describing the possible structural relationships that may underlie a linear output sequence. Being more explicit in defining different structures can help identifying and testing for such structures in AGL experiments, as well as help showing how behavioral and neuroimaging data reveals signatures of hierarchical processing in humans.

This book investigates modern global civilization, offering an alternative to post-colonial theories and the "multiple modernities" approach (as well as the civilizational theory linked to it). It argues that modernity has become a global civilization that is heterogeneous and intertwined with other civilizations, and also aims at a renewal of critical theory that is not US-centric and Eurocentric, focusing instead on China, South Asia (India) and Latin America (Brazil). Dealing with the themes of centre-periphery relations, complexity (including culture and religion), (...) democracy and emancipatory possibilities, this book is based on general theoretical ideas such as collective subjectivity, the interplay of memory and creativity, and the concept of "modernizing moves," so as to deal with historical contingency. (shrink)

Aurelio Arturo constituye un poeta de una singularidad única en el conjunto de la poesía latinoamericana, con una voz sosegada, pero al ritmo de las concreciones universales, le canta al hombre de siempre, narrando no solo paisajes, sino recreando el escenario donde la humanidad hace su curso. Este ensayo muestra facetas de su vida, el manejo del símbolo en su contexto creativo, su lucha por exponer desde la poesía su sentimiento de hombre que debe dar el paso de lo provinciano (...) a lo citadino, para finalmente mostrar quizá la faceta menos conocida de su obra: sus poemas con carácter social. (shrink)

Resumo: O Livro II da República de Platão se inicia com um desafio de Gláucon para Sócrates, onde este deve provar que o homem justo é, de toda maneira, melhor do que o injusto. Para isso, pedirá que Sócrates defenda a justiça por si mesma e censure a injustiça. O discurso de Gláucon pode ser dividido em três partes, sendo a primeira dedicada à origem e à natureza da justiça; a segunda irá indicar a justiça como algo necessário, mas não (...) como um bem; e a terceira, na qual ele irá tentar provar que a vida do injusto é melhor do que a do justo. Neste trabalho, iremos nos centrar em seu primeiro argumento e de que maneira Gláucon defende a justiça através de um contrato.: Book II of Plato's Republic opens with Glaucon's challenge to Socrates, where the latter must prove that the just man is in all ways possible better than the unjust one. Glaucon asks Socrates to advocate justice for it's own sake and to censor injustice. Glaucon's discourse can be divided into three parts. The first is dedicated to the origin and nature of justice; the second argues that justice is something necessary, but is not a good. In the third part, he tries to prove that the unjust life is better than the just one. This work focuses on the first speech and on how Glaucon defends justice by means of a contract. (shrink)

According to Glaucon’s conception of justice, the government is constituted by a contract which determines the legal and the just. From its constitution the ruler may control the subjects’ justice without being subject to the contract himself. To reinforce Thrasymachus’ speech Glaucon will offer Socrates a challenge where the latter has to prove that justice is superior to injustice. Thus, it is Socrates’ task to show this under any counterfactual circumstance, always bringing benefit to the one who acts justly. The (...) difficulty in responding to the challenge proposed by Glaucon is shown by the case in the Republic where the fulfillment of justice seems not to bring benefits, but penalty to the agent. This is precisely the case of the Philosopher Ruler and his coercion to rule. For that one must understand the reason why the philosopher is coerced to rule, not as a matter of choice, but something whose denial is made impossible due to justice. Socrates’ solution to the challenge of justice starts from the definitions of political justice, where each citizen is compelled to do his own duty, and psychic justice, defined as a harmony between the parts of the soul. Our argument shows that the justice within the philosopher’s soul itself is justified by the necessity of fulfilling the justice in Kallipolis, as well as allowing good government. (shrink)

El texto que aquí presentamos invita a considerar la relación que puede ser establecida entre la tragedia ática y la tradición mítica griega. Luego de describir las condiciones culturales que hacen posible dicha relación, pasamos a formular la idea de que la fiesta religiosa dionisíaca organizada en forma de concurso teatral se fundamenta en un proceso de reaprehensión mítica que sirve de sustento al drama en general, y a la tragedia en particular. Solo que, a nuestro juicio, y tal es (...) la conjetura que formulamos, la reaprehensión del mito que conduce al nuevo ordenamiento poético denominado tragedia entraña tres fases: a) de selección y modificación; b) de reestructuración; y c) de codificación. La consideración de los aspectos sociales y artísticos de cada una de estas fases contribuye a dotar de sentido la conjetura expuesta. (shrink)

The holist and inferential condition that, according with Davidson, defines imperatively the cognitive process collides with the existence of the intuitive believes, that is to say, those believes that are of themselves the fundamentum and that, thus, don’t require other belief for their grounds. Nonetheless, if, for one part, is adopted the way in which Peirce understands the term “intuition” and, for another, is accepted the extension of inferential holism, is allowed, even so, to admit the existence of intuitive believes, (...) without transgressing the Davidsonian prohibition. Indeed, if the inferential basis of supported belief is located beyond of the individual agency of who support that belief, the very belief would count as intuition of the agent and would respect the Davidsonian holist constraint, in the sense that such a belief would be a belief whose basis would be in another belief, even when that belief was one that was in an external agency. The key for to accomplish this purpose is to sustain a reasoning extended theory —analogous to the Clark and Chalmers (1998) extended theory of mind—, by virtue of which the agent can obtain, from an intuitive assistant —as alien inferential authorship — what he cannot get by his own inferential authorship. Precisely, in this work we will expound a Davidsonian type of linguistic interaction model —namely, dialogic and triangular—, for cognitions persuasive transfer, by means of one’s reasons (the assistant) become other’s intuitions (the assisted). (shrink)

Este artículo presenta algunos de los principales ejemplos que caracterizan la histórica aversión del bloque en el poder a la construcción de la columna vertebral del Estado: un contrato fiscal sólido. Los esfuerzos de algunos gobiernos y de algunos funcionarios interesados en fortalecer la capacidad infraestructural del Estado se han tropezado regularmente con los intereses de unas fracciones de la élite que, adversas a la redistribución, han sido exitosas en bloquear el fortalecimiento fiscal del Estado. La persistencia de la larga (...) guerra civil colombiana no es independiente de la falta de recursos necesarios para poner fin la guerra y financiar una paz sostenible. (shrink)

Al amparo de una observación del fresco de Rafael Sanzio titulado la Stanza della Segnatura, se procura adelantar en el texto una reflexión sobre la práctica del diálogo entre los griegos de la antigüedad. Dicha reflexión pasa por un prurito de caracterización del género conocido con el nombre de "diálogo socrático". La conclusión a la que se llega no por ser conocida es irrelevante: un diálogo, en rigor, nunca termina. Al final se establece una serie de correspondencias entre la significación (...) del acto de contemplación o el acto de recepción en aquel sujeto que, a distancia del tiempo y el espacio griegos, obra como observador o lector de una obra humana. (shrink)

One of the most significant natural phenomena in the evolution of living beings occurs when a certain number of like individuals construct a new collective individuality. The ideal conditions for this arise when the probability of collective survival is greater than that of individual survival in interaction with environmental uncertainty. In this article, we propose a mechanism whereby a local fluctuation between individuals may have a global impact in creating an innovation that can prove favorable or detrimental to collective survival. (...) This latter case is a situation in which the likelihood of a critical number of influential individuals of a coincident truth falls much more rapidly than a coincident untruth as the number of individual adherents to such unanimities rises. We term this phenomenon the collective misunderstanding syndrome, and it may explain rare collective behaviors such as the so-called ant mills. (shrink)

Electronic health records (EHRs) serve as repositories of documented data collected in a health care encounter. An EHR records information about who receives, who provides the health care and about the place where the encounter happens. We also observe additional elements relating to social relations in which the healthcare consumer is involved. To provide a consensus representation of common data and to enhance interoperability between different EHR repositories we have created a solution grounded in formal ontology. Here, we present how (...) an ontology for the obstetric and neonatal domain deals with these general elements documented in health care encounters. Our goal is to promote the interoperability of information among EHRs created in different specialties. To develop our ontology, we used two main approaches: one based on ontological realism, the other based on the principles of the OBO Foundry, including reuse of reference ontologies. (shrink)

El artículo indaga en la reemergencia de ciertos principios que la Edad Media vinculó al pensamiento de Averroes en pensadores contemporáneos como Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, Emanuele Coccia y Jean Baptiste Brenet. La eternidad del mundo y la separación del itnelecto vuelven a aparecer como sustento de una filosofía capaz de poner en tela de juicio ideas fundamentales de la modernidad como la de sujeto o persona, sin por ello entramparse en el nihilismo.

Neste artigo encontra-se resumido e comentado o método de estudo da história das ideias desenvolvido por José Esteves Pereira. Mostra-se o diálogo que ele estabeleceu com nomes importantes da cultura portuguesa, como Silva Dias, Miranda Barbosa, Joaquim de Carvalho, e anglo-americana, resumida na leitura crítica e interpretação do livro The History of Ideas. An introduction to Method. Também se comenta o afastamento da chamada Nouvelle Histoire e a proximidade do método desenvolvido com aspectos da filosofia culturalista brasileira e da segunda (...) etapa do pensamento orteguiano sistematizado na tese da razão vital. Finalmente se considera a contribuição de Esteves Pereira nos estudos que fez da história das ideias em Portugal e no Brasil, destacando sua contribuição nos colóquios Antero de Quental e Tobias Barreto nas quase três décadas em que se estende esse trabalho. (shrink)

Este artículo detalla la labor realizada dentro del proyecto de innovación docente El Ágora que se desarrolla en la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de Castilla-la Mancha con la colaboración del Ente Publico Radiotelevisión de Castilla-La Mancha. Semanalmente, los estudiantes elaboran un programa de radio de 30 minutos que se emite en la radio pública. Además, generan contenidos audiovisuales para otros canales y plataformas. A lo largo de tres años (2019-), 168 estudiantes han participado en el proyecto. Sus valoraciones (...) son positivas tanto sobre la adquisición de conocimientos como a nivel experiencial. (shrink)

A editora Losada publicou uma série de conferências de Karl Jaspers pronunciadas na Universidad de laBasilea a convite da Fundação Acadêmica livre e da Faculdade de História da Filosofia daquela Instituição. Esse conjunto de conferências importantes para entender como o filósofo pensava o significado da Filosofia foi reunido em livro com o título de La fe filosófica. O livro integra a coleção da editora argentina denominada Obras Maestras delPensamiento e ainda não teve edição em português. Portanto, La fe filosófica não (...) foi inicialmente concebida como livro, mas como reflexões sobre aspectos fundamentais da Filosofia e mais tarde reunidas numa obra. (shrink)

James Prescott Joule’s (1818–1889) bicentenary took place in 2018 and commemorated by the IDTC with a Symposium—‘James Joule’s Bicentenary: Scientific and Pedagogical Issues Concerning Energy Conservation’—at the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS & BSHS), 14th–17th September, 2018, in London. This symposium had three main objectives: It aimed specifically to celebrate James Joule’s achievements considering the most recent historiographical works with a particular focus on the principle of conservation of energy; It served the purpose of discussing the scientific (...) and pedagogical issues related to heat, energy and work and how they are presented in textbooks and worked out in classrooms; It also provided discussions on the present situation of teaching and learning science through the use of History of Science, both in K-12 and college level with an emphasis on energy and related concepts. In the following, the Introduction of this Special Issue on Joule is presented. (shrink)

An outstanding reference source to this fast-growing area and is the first volume of its kind. Essential reading for students and scholars of philosophy of science, formal epistemology, and philosophy of social science, and for those in related fields such as computer science and information technology.

The purpose of this paper is to present a formalization of the language, semantics and axiomatization of justification logic in Coq. We present proofs in a natural deduction style derived from the axiomatic approach of justification logic. Additionally, we present possible world semantics in Coq based on Fitting models to formalize the semantic satisfaction of formulas. As an important result, with this implementation, it is possible to give a proof of soundness for $\mathsf{L}\mathsf{P}$ with respect to Fitting models.

No es un sinsentido decir que para el obispo de Hipona como, paro los neoplatónicos, el tiempo es imagen de la eternidad. Pero esa relación tiempo-eternidad tiene para Agustín un significado particular. Agustín busca demostrar en los libros XI a XIII de las Confesiones que el libro del Génesis es el Timeo de los cristianos. A la luz de las primeras líneas del Génesis, últimos libros de las Confesiones tienen por tarea alcanzar una comprensión del origen del universo que haga (...) ver cómo lo eterno obra continuamente sobre lo temporal, de tal modo que Agustín pueda fundar su dogma de la salvación en la relación tiempo-eternidad. Aquí la autora sigue el curso de las reflexiones del libro XI de las Confesiones para señalar al final, tanto la condena agustiniana de lo temporal como la problemática del concepto de eternidad. (shrink)

In this commentary, we support a complex, mosaic, and multimodal approach to the evolution of intelligence. Using the arcuate fasciculus as an example of discontinuity in the evolution of neurobiological architectures, we argue that the strict dichotomy of modules versus G, adopted by Burkart et al. in the target article, is insufficient to interpret the available statistical and experimental evidence.

The present paper analyses the topic of scientific discovery and the problem of the existence of a logical framework involved in such endeavour. We inquire how several non-monotonic logic frameworks and other formalisms can account for such a task. In the same vein, we analyse some key aspects of the historical and theoretical debate surrounding scientific discovery, in particular, the context of discovery and context of justification context distinction. We present an argument concerning the weakening of the discovery/justification context dichotomy (...) based on the descriptive accent contained in the non-monotonic logic perspective together with its epistemological concerns. (shrink)

Neste artigo, estudamos as características que o filósofo espanhol Ortega y Gasset atribuiu à vida. Mostramos que o essencial de sua meditação girou em torno do assunto. No entanto, o tema ganhou densidade metafísica somente no final dos anos 1920, quando suas considerações foram inseridas na tradição filosófica do ocidente. Foi quando ele apontou a insuficiência do realismo e do idealismo na abordagem do fundamento pretendido pela Filosofia e apresentou a filosofia da razão vital como um passo adiante das duas (...) grandes perspectivas filosóficas que marcaram a história da metafísica. In this article, we study the characteristics that the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset attributed to life. We show that the essence of his meditations revolved around the subject. However, the issue gained metaphysical density only in the late 1920s, when his remarks were inserted into the philosophical tradition of the West. That is when he pointed out the failure of realism and idealism in the approach to foundations pretended by philosophy, and presented the philosophy of vital reason as a step forward from the two great philosophical perspectives that have marked the history of metaphysics. (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene el propósito de aclarar el sentido del realismo que suscribe Charles Sanders Peirce desde su pragmaticismo. Dado que este realismo tiene sus bases en los planteamientos peirceanos concernientes a la lógica de la investigación y a su propuesta metafísica, el primer objetivo es ubicarlo en el marco de la discusión alrededor de diferentes propuestas realistas epistemológicas y ontológicas. Con base en esto, en un segundo momento, se precisará la propuesta realista que se desprende de su doctrina (...) de la continuidad o sinequismo. Finalmente, se expondrán los rasgos generales de la teleología evolutiva en la que desemboca dicha propuesta. (shrink)

Despite the importance of human blood to clinical practice and research, hematology and blood transfusion data remain scattered throughout a range of disparate sources. This lack of systematization concerning the use and definition of terms poses problems for physicians and biomedical professionals. We are introducing here the Blood Ontology, an ongoing initiative designed to serve as a controlled vocabulary for use in organizing information about blood. The paper describes the scope of the Blood Ontology, its stage of development and some (...) of its anticipated uses. (shrink)

Aquí se reflexiona sobre el vínculo entre las nociones de vida buena, dignidad y reconocimiento. Para este propósito se ha dividido el presente ensayo en los siguientes apartados: 1. La idea de una vida buena y la búsqueda de la felicidad. 2. La indigencia de lo real y la pregunta por el sentido de la vida. 3. Los filósofos y la idea de una vida buena. 4. Vida buena, reconocimiento y el concepto kantiano de dignidad.