En este trabajo se discuten los aportes de la teoría sociológica contemporánea al debate filosófico y científico de la ontología, para ello son cotejados los componentes ontológicos de la Teoría General de Sistemas Sociales de Niklas Luhmann, lla Teoría de la Acción Comunicativa de Jürgen Habermas y la Actor-Network Theory de Bruno Latour.

En este trabajo se examinan los escenarios sociales planteados por la pandemia de coronavirus desde la perspectiva de la Teoría de sistemas sociales. La indagación se realiza en dos pasos: en el primero de ellos, en diálogo con la virología, la epidemiología y la demografía, se analiza la forma comunicativa amenazante del virus SARS-CoV-2 y de la enfermedad COVID-19 así como su evolución en el tiempo mediante la distinción riesgo/peligro; y en el segundo paso, se observa la dinámica de las (...) interacciones, las organizaciones, los sistemas de protesta y de la sociedad mundial, enfocando algunos de sus sistemas funcionales como la religión, la política, la salud y la economía. (shrink)

Resumen: Este trabajo reconstruye la crítica general del conflacionismo hecha por Margaret Archer. En su programa de morfogénesis social la autora británica realizó un agudo diagnóstico acerca de los déficits fundamentales de las diversas construcciones del objeto sociológico y las cuestionó teórica y epistemológicamente a través de la figura crítica de conflacionismo, en la que distinguió tres modalidades. Aquí las reconstruiremos por separado y analizaremos en esa crítica general la formulación in nuce de las bases teóricas o fundamento operativo del (...) programa de realismo crítico morfogenético, que impulsará la autora con el ariete alternativo de establecer una sociología no-conflacionista, informada ontológica y epistemológicamente por el realismo crítico y metodológicamente por el dualismo analítico. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea asumimos la perspectiva sistemática de programas multinivelados y la categoría de estrategia de metateorización de tipo preludio de Ritzer.: This text reconstructs the general criticism to conflation formulated by Margaret Archer. In its social morphogenesis programme, Archer elaborates an acute diagnosis about the main deficits of different constructions of sociological object and she questioned them ontological and epistemologically through the figure of conflation, in which she distinguished three modes. Here we reconstruct each of them separately and we analyse the formulation in nuce the theoretical basis of critical and morphogenetic realism, a scientific research programme that she establishes as a non-conflation sociological way, supported by critical realism and analytical dualism. In doing so, we assume the systematic perspective of multileveled research programmes and the category of metatheorizing as prelude by Ritzer. (shrink)

In this paper we reconstruct the epistemological foundations of the symmetrical constructivism that underlies in the actor-network theory by Bruno Latour. The elements reconstructed are the diagnostics about the shrinking of sociology, the programmatic lines of his sociology of association and the epistemological components of the symmetrical constructivism assumed by the author. Results are discussed under the light of the differentiation of the programme in respect to the social constructivism of the strong programme by Bloor. En este trabajo reconstruimos las (...) bases epistemológicas del constructivismo simétrico que subyacen en la teoría del actor-red de Bruno Latour. Los ejes de la reconstrucción son el diagnóstico crítico sobre la contracción de la sociología, los lineamientos programáticos de su sociología de las asociaciones y los componentes epistemológicos del constructivismo simétrico asumido por el autor. Los resultados son discutidos a la luz de la diferenciación de este programa respecto del constructivismo social del programa fuerte de Bloor. (shrink)

In this paper we review the critical reception given by Niklas Luhmann's General Theory of Social Systems to the classical Information Theory, as basis of its postulation of a General Sociological Theory entirely founded on the Theory of Communication. Our hypothesis suggests that the formulation of the synthetic model of communication re-formulates the classical model of Shannon, through a replacement of tele-communicative accents by sociological accents. En este trabajo revisamos la recepción crítica dada por la teoría de sistemas sociales de (...) Niklas Luhmann a la teoría de la información clásica, en el marco de su postulación de una teoría general de la sociología fundada en la teoría de la comunicación. La hipótesis que defendemos es que la formulación del modelo sintético de la comunicación reformula el modelo clásico de Shannon, mediante una sustitución de los acentos telecomunicativos por acentos sociológicos. (shrink)

Resumen: Dada la multiplicidad de planos que acompañan a las observaciones de la actual pandemia, importa identificar aquellas que alcanzan una mayor resonancia. Así, observamos cómo los ciudadanos y los agentes de decisión han incrementado sus demandas de informaciones validadas por medio de la aplicación de la racionalidad, los métodos y los procedimientos de la ciencia de manera exponencial. En este trabajo desarrollamos en forma sintética un conjunto seleccionado de lineamientos sobre cómo se aborda la actual pandemia desde las ciencias (...) sociales sistémicas, para luego exponer algunas de sus propuestas respecto a las condiciones, a nivel organizacional, las cuales podrían permitir alcanzar los niveles de diálogo y cooperación requeridos para enfrentar la pandemia actual.: Given the multiplicity of perspectives that accompany the observation of the current pandemic, becomes relevant to identify those that achieve the greatest resonance. Thus, it is observed how citizens and decision makers have increased their demands for valid information by applying rationality, methods, and procedures of science in an exponential manner. In this paper we develop a synthetic set of selected guidelines on how the current pandemic is approached from systemic social sciences, and then present some of their proposals regarding the conditions, at the organizational level, which could enable the achievement of the levels of dialogue and cooperation required to address the current pandemic. (shrink)

There has been a growing interest within analytic philosophy in addressing political and social issues, which has been referred to as the “political turn” in the discipline. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it discusses the very characterization of the political turn. In particular, it introduces the definition proposed by Bordonaba-Plou, Fernández-Castro, and Torices, suggests that we should not consider the turn a form of activism, and explores an additional benefit of the ideal/nonideal distinction for characterizing the turn. (...) Second, it addresses the concern of what attitude we should take in the face of the different sensitivities we might have with respect to what constitutes an injustice. Which philosophical works should count as part of the political turn? The paper explores three different attitudes toward this dilemma, and favors what it calls the revisionist attitude, which emphasizes the fact that our perception of injustice is subject to error. (shrink)

We discuss the axiomatization of generalized consequence relations determined by non-deterministic matrices. We show that, under reasonable expressiveness requirements, simple axiomatizations can always be obtained, using inference rules which can have more than one conclusion. Further, when the non-deterministic matrices are finite we obtain finite axiomatizations with a suitable generalized subformula property.

Chromosomes are not randomly packed and positioned into the nucleus but folded in higher‐order chromatin structures with defined functions. However, the genome of a fertilized embryo undergoes a dramatic epigenetic reprogramming characterized by extensive chromatin relaxation and the lack of a defined three‐dimensional structure. This reprogramming is followed by a slow genome refolding that gradually strengthens the chromatin architecture during preimplantation development. Interestingly, genome refolding during early development coincides with a progressive loss of developmental potential suggesting a link between chromatin (...) organization and cell plasticity. In agreement, loss of chromatin architecture upon depletion of the insulator transcription factor CTCF in embryonic stem cells led to the upregulation of the transcriptional program found in totipotent cells of the embryo, those with the highest developmental potential. This essay will discuss the impact of genome folding in controlling the expression of transcriptional programs involved in early development and their plastic‐associated features. (shrink)

Definiciones de epistemología hay muchas, al igual que clases y estilos. Sin embargo, más allá de esta diversidad, es necesario contar con una definición básica que guíe nuestra comprensión del tema. Dos serán las preguntas que nos ayuden a ello en este artículo: a) ¿qué es la epistemología? y b) ¿para qué le sirve al científico?

This paper deals with the proposal of a person‐affecting version of the principle of Procreative Beneficence. Such a principle has been stated by Savulescu & Kahane in an impersonal form and balanced with a person‐affecting principle of harm to address the moral problem of the selection of future children. The paper aims to show some differences between Person‐affecting Procreative Beneficence and Savulescu & Kahane’s hybrid position, and to distinguish the former from other pro‐selection perspectives. Moreover, it explores the extension of (...) such a principle beyond selection to other issues of reproductive ethics. (shrink)

This article systematically reviews published studies of the association of pharmaceutical industry funding and clinical trial results, as well a few closely related studies. It reviews two earlier results, and surveys the recent literature. Results are clear: Pharmaceutical company sponsorship is strongly associated with results that favor the sponsors' interests.

Ethical concerns of Internet users continue to rise. Accordingly, several scholars have called for systematic empirical research to address these issues. This study examines the conceptualization and measurement of consumers' perceptions regarding the ethics of online retailers. Also, this research represents a first step into the analysis of the relationship between CPEOR, consumers' general Internet expertise and reported positive word of mouth. Results, from a convenience sample of 357 online shoppers, suggest that CPEOR can be operationalized as a second-order construct (...) composed of four dimensions: security, privacy, fulfillment, and non-deception. Our findings also indicate that consumers' general Internet expertise significantly improves CPEOR and CPEOR are strongly predictive of consumers' WOM. Managerial and research implications are offered. (shrink)

“Scientific theories are maps of the natural world.” This metaphor is often used as part of a deflationary argument for a weak but relatively global version of scientific realism, a version that recognizes the place of conventions, goals, and contingencies in scientific representations, while maintaining that they are typically true in a clear and literal sense. By examining, in a naturalistic way, some relationships between maps and what they map, we question the scope and value of realist construals of maps—and (...) by extension of scientific representations. Deflationary philosophy of science requires more variegated stances. (shrink)

In 2003, the pharmaceutical company Biovail received a spate of negative publicity around a program for its heart medication Cardizem LA. For a three-month period Biovail paid US doctors US$1000 (and their office managers US$150) for patient data when at least 11 of their patients renewed a prescription to Cardizem. Doctors who signed up for the trial but who did not keep 11 patients on the drug received US$250 for participation. According to Biovail, this was a research trial, meeting US (...) federal regulations for research trials – the consulting firm that had designed the trial had guaranteed that it would meet US criteria. The trial was expected to provide data that would help ‘in designing future clinical trial programs’, according to Biovail’s vice-president of finance. In addition, the results would eventually be published. However, the program was originally presented as a marketing campaign, and was being handled by Biovail’s sales department and sales force. According to ethicists who commented on the case, a US$1000 payment to doctors was unusually high for a post-marketing research trial, and a US$150 payment to office managers was thought to raise novel ethical conflicts. Cardizem is a drug intended for long-term use, so paying doctors to get patients started on a course of treatment could lead to substantial profits from these prescriptions. In line with this, immediate comments from professional ethicists and representatives of medical associations focused on questions about whether the Biovail campaign amounted to paying doctors to prescribe specific drugs. And that is a concern for the obvious reason that it has the potential to compromise doctors’ decisions about best care. Payments for prescriptions place doctors in ethically difficult situations: Peter Singer, a medical ethicist, says ‘There is clearly the potential for [physicians’] conflict of interest’ (Toronto Globe and Mail, 2003). Physicians’ decision-making is the most common locus of discussion in medical ethics.. (shrink)

It is by now no secret that some scientific articles are ghost authored – that is, written by someone other than the person whose name appears at the top of the article. Ghost authorship, however, is only one sort of ghosting. In this article, we present evidence that pharmaceutical companies engage in the ghost management of the scientific literature, by controlling or shaping several crucial steps in the research, writing, and publication of scientific articles. Ghost management allows the pharmaceutical industry (...) to shape the literature in ways that serve its interests. This article aims to reinforce and expand publication ethics as an important area of concern for bioethics. Since ghost-managed research is primarily undertaken in the interests of marketing, large quantities of medical research violate not just publication norms but also research ethics. Much of this research involves human subjects, and yet is performed not primarily to increase knowledge for broad human benefit, but to disseminate results in the service of profits. Those who sponsor, manage, conduct, and publish such research therefore behave unethically, since they put patients at risk without justification. This leads us to a strong conclusion: if medical journals want to ensure that the research they publish is ethically sound, they should not publish articles that are commercially sponsored. (shrink)

A educação básica é majoritariamente oferecida pelo Estado, mas estaticamente atinge números insatisfatórios nos índices do Pisa e IDEB, retratando a baixa qualidade do ensino e o distanciamento das metas pertinentes. O Estado, para alcançar o padrão de qualidade do ensino e ainda manter o dever constitucional da educação, reconhecendo sua incapacidade de prestação da educação, poderia outorgar às escolas particulares a possibilidade de oferta abrangente desse ensino. Esta pesquisa discorre sobre a alternativa de fomento do Poder Público às escolas (...) particulares através do repasse de crédito, vouchers, que seriam utilizados pelos pais para pagar escolas privadas de melhor qualidade. (shrink)

We propose a review of the theoretical assumptions of Social Policy as autonomous and normative science, in his history, doctrinal plurality and institutional diversity, especially on the current model of the Welfare State. Also, we discuss the impact on the same issue of a new social question, the integral human development, at the beginning of XXI century, in relation with the “social Europe”, the welfare society and the globalization.

Este artículo busca debatir las preguntas concernientes al campo de estudio de la comunicación, su objeto y el público objetivo de sus avances. Fuera de preguntarse sobre el qué y el porqué de la comunicación, cuestiona el rol de la medición bibliográfica como criterio suficiente para determinar la calidad de la investigación y propone abrir un debate público con los desarrollos investigativos del campo. El debate toma aspectos epistémicos del campo de estudio y confronta la visión positivista que limita actualmente (...) las políticas gubernamentales sobre ciencia y tecnología. Finalmente se propone una visión más amplia de los problemas atinentes a la comunicación y se abren algunos interrogantes a propósito de la cienciometría como criterio de medición de calidad. (shrink)

The cultivation of an organization’s moral resources has become a priority for many executives who understand that such resources are key to competitive advantage. Yet, traditional strategic management courses at both the undergraduate and MBA levels generally overlook these resources when discussing the resource-based view of the firm. We propose that moral resources be discussed in strategic management classrooms to provide additional insight for students about the critical nature of such resources. We also provide a simple tool for faculty to (...) use in the classroom to stimulate discussion and enhance student learning in this important area. (shrink)

In 1917 the Provisional Government of the Russian Empire orders to the soldiers to renew their oath of allegiance, not to the decayed Emperor but rather to the State. Many soldiers refuse to do so and proclaim: «If there is no more Gosudar, there is no Gosudarstvo». The elites understand: «If there is no Emperor, there is no State», even though the soldiers are saying «if there is no Master, there is no Master's domain». The immediate reason of this misunderstanding (...) lies in the polisemy of the two Russian concepts, but its temporal structure is problematic. The historical-conceptual analysis discovers a temporal relationship among concepts and states of things which is not visible from the social history's point of view. (shrink)

This article deals with a discussion of Savulescu’s impersonal version of the Principle of Procreative Beneficence and its relationship with a person-affecting Principle of Harm in order to evaluate the cases of selection of which child to have. It aims to show some problems in Savulescu’s attempt to arrange the two principles (the conflict between beneficence and harm, the limitation of beneficence to pre-conception selection, the extension of beneficence to different quantity people choice), and to propose an alternative version of (...) Procreative Beneficence (a narrow person-affecting version), in order to avoid these problems. (shrink)

Our commentary focuses, first, on Glover's proposal that only motor planning is sensitive to cognitive aspects of the target object, whereas the on-line control is completely immune to them. We present behavioural data showing that movement phases traditionally (and by Glover) thought to be under on-line control, are also modulated by object cognitive aspects. Next, we present data showing that some aspects of cognition can be coded by means of movement planning. We propose a reformulation of Glover's theory to include (...) both an influence of cognition on on-line movement control, and a mutual influence between motor planning and some aspects of cognition. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza el problema de la integración latinoamericana, que ha sido abordado a lo largo de dos siglos por distintas generaciones de pensadores, sean éstos intelectuales o políticos, generando un rico pensamiento que tiene un valor en si mismo. Sin embargo, el proyecto político no ha podido concluirse. Enfrentado además este pensamiento (desde 1989 en adelante) a una realidad internacional mucho más compleja, surge la pregunta por su vigencia. Se propone aquí una re-lectura de dicho pensamiento latinoamericano con arreglo (...) a las corrientes intelectuales y disciplinarias que han emergido en (o sobre) América Latina en las últimas décadas. Ya iniciado el siglo XXI nos encontramos con un gran volumen de obras de pensadores integracionistas elaborados en la región, pero que no son equivalentes a la realidad socio-política de América Latina. Si bien han surgido acuerdos políticos, donde los más relevantes han sido ALALC, Pacto Andino, ALADI, MERCOSUR, UNASUR, éstos no han podido transformarse en una comunidad continental efectiva. Esta contribución se adentra en la búsqueda de un nuevo pensamiento latinoamericano, que considere los actuales fenómenos internos de la región (producto de los procesos globalizadores y descentralizadores) y las nuevas formas de actuación internacional. (shrink)

This paper focuses on order-preserving logics defined from varieties of distributive lattices with negation, and in particular on the problem of whether these can be axiomatized by means Hilbert-style calculi that are finite. On the negative side, we provide a syntactic condition on the equational presentation of a variety that entails failure of finite axiomatizability for the corresponding logic. An application of this result is that the logic of all distributive lattices with negation is not finitely axiomatizable; we likewise establish (...) that the order-preserving logic of the variety of all Ockham algebras is also not finitely axiomatizable. On the positive side, we show that an arbitrary subvariety of semi-De Morgan algebras is axiomatized by a finite number of equations if and only if the corresponding order-preserving logic is axiomatized by a finite Hilbert-style calculus. This equivalence also holds for every subvariety of a Berman variety of Ockham algebras. We obtain, as a corollary, a new proof that the implication-free fragment of intuitionistic logic is finitely axiomatizable, as well as a new corresponding Hilbert-style calculus. Our proofs are constructive in that they allow us to effectively convert an equational presentation of a variety of algebras into a Hilbert-style calculus for the corresponding order-preserving logic, and vice versa. We also consider the assertional logics associated to the above-mentioned varieties, showing in particular that the assertional logics of finitely axiomatizable subvarieties of semi-De Morgan algebras are finitely axiomatizable as well. (shrink)

El sujeto cartesiano se constituye en la subordinación de todas las facultades a la inteligencia; ella ha de imponer en todo momento y situación sus condiciones, porque de lo que se trata es de asegurar el dominio de las cosas, algo que no se consigue sin interponer al deseo, a ese deseo, un entendimiento adecuado. Y Descartes sabe muy bien que no hay entendimiento que no sea de objetos. Los seres humanos están dotados de estas facultades, que habitualmente chocan y (...) no dejan de entrar en conflicto. En la sustitución de la confusión (y la superstición) por el método, Descartes lleva a su extremo la sujeción de las demás facultades por el entendimiento, injusticia que sublevará a muchos. En este artículo se aborda este problema. (shrink)

First of all, in this paper we provide some clarifications on the several meanings of the term ‘ethics’, above all in the light of contemporary discussions on this matter. Then we analyze an important ethical concept, i.e. the concept of moral responsibility, for the sake of clarifying some problems concerning the human-robot relationship. Finally, we try to develop a well defined pattern of “ethics of responsibility” in order to give a general background for resolving concrete dilemmas that may arise in (...) the artificial world. (shrink)

This article contains the Spanish translation of the entry “Staat”, of Hermann Heller, with an introduction to his political and juridical thought.

The purpose of the article is to discuss the cultural hindrances and assets that promote constructive self-to-others relationships and active citizenship. Building on Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction, we argue that in contemporary societies the public and the private dimensions of the enemy have conflated, as the result of two concurrent phenomena: the politicization of otherness and the privatization of enemies. An integrated framework including approaches of social psychology and semiotic cultural psychology is proposed to account for both phenomena. The notions (...) of symbolic universes and semiotic capital are introduced as key concepts to understand the current socio-political dynamics and to promote fairer, more inclusive societies. (shrink)

Esta investigación aborda un texto familiar: 1 Corin-tios 11,27-29, donde el apóstol Pablo habla de participar de la cena del Señor de forma digna. Comienza situando la correspondencia corin-tia en el contexto de la comunidad que recibe el texto original. Pablo, lejos de querer enfocarse en el mundo de lo introspectivo, exhorta a la incipiente comunidad corintia de seguidores del Señor a que viva, como ekklesia, según los valores del nuevo anfitrión, Jesús el Cristo, y no según las expectativas sociales (...) del entorno basadas en el honor y el privilegio. El estudio del banquete grecorromano, como institución, revela el cambio concreto que el apóstol espera de la comunidad corintia. (shrink)

In this work, we study the relational representation of the class of Tarski algebras endowed with a subordination, called subordination Tarski algebras. These structures were introduced in a previous paper as a generalisation of subordination Boolean algebras. We define the subordination Tarski spaces as topological spaces with a fixed basis endowed with a closed relation. We prove that there exist categorical dualities between categories whose objects are subordination Tarski algebras and categories whose objects are subordination Tarski spaces. These results extend (...) the known dualities for modal algebras. Finally, we are going to characterise some algebraic conditions written in the quasi-modal language by means of first-order conditions. (shrink)