The Purpose in Life Test is a measure of purpose in life widely used in many cultures and countries; however, cross-cultural assessments are scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the PIL in the general population of seven Latin American countries. A total of 4306 people participated, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, where Uruguay has the highest mean age ; while Ecuador has the lowest mean age. Furthermore, in each country, there is a higher proportion (...) of women than men. Using Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the factorial structure does not show evidence of invariance among the included countries. However, based on the Multi-Group Factor Analysis Alignment, there is evidence that a three-dimensional structure of the PIL is the same in the participating countries. Results based on item response theory indicate that most PIL items can significantly differentiate responses according to the level of life purpose. In addition, people with low life purpose will tend to choose the lower response alternatives on the PIL; while people with higher life purpose will choose higher response alternatives. The findings indicate that the PIL has the potential to increase knowledge about how people conceive and experience their purpose in life in different countries. (shrink)

The study of ethical behavior in the field of leadership began in the 1990s when Murphy et al. (1992) responded to a call by Randall and Gibson (1990) to develop more rigorous methodologies in empi...

Sartre fits fully within the phenomenological tradition inaugurated by Husserl, although he somewhat reelaborates it in an original way, on the basis of Heidegger’s philosophy, with the aim of outlining, in a first stage of his thoughts dating back to the publication of Being and Nothingness, the features stemming from his peculiar atheistic existentialism. Subsequently, in the mature stage of his intellectual itinerary, Sartre will attempt to combine the existentialist ideas with the basic principles of Marxism, a synthesis that will (...) create important works such as Search for a Method and Critique of Dialectical Reason. This chapter analyses time from the phenomenological perspective of the Sartrean ontology of temporality. This analysis allows to conceive the typically human “existential time” as a permanent existence out of oneself. For this purpose, we will retrace the fundamentals of Sartre’s phenomenological ontology outlined in his most important work of 1943, Being and Nothingness, focusing in particular on the structures of consciousness understood as “être-pour-soi”, i.e. the conditions of man’s “absolute freedom”, which Sartre refers to when he shows the one “pour-soi” as the being who is pure nothingness. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la relación entre subjetividad y acción política, enfatizando en la necesidad de comprender al sujeto en su forma histórica capitalista. Se argumenta que el trabajo es fundamental para la vida social, actuando como mediación entre el sujeto y su entorno. A través de un análisis del ser social, se sostiene que el conocimiento científico actual no aborda adecuadamente las determinaciones que caracterizan al sujeto moderno. Se establece que el capital es el sujeto dominante en la vida social (...) por lo que la acción política requiere producir un conocimiento científico que trascienda sus limitaciones y trascienda de sí mismo. Esta investigación pretende dar luces hacia una aproximación más profunda de las fuerzas que moldean la vida social y las posibilidades de su transformación, subrayando el papel central en la organización del trabajo social como aquello que configura a la subjetividad humana. Al final, se propone que el conocimiento dialéctico es la mediación de la superación del capital, ya que muestra las potencias inmanentes que porta el desarrollo capitalista hacia su necesaria superación. (shrink)

A compilation of lectures by the liberal thinker Armando P. Ribas, which reflect the political philosophy in his historical, ethical, political and economic analysis. Dr. Ribas exposes the correct axiological order, thus demonstrating that the economy is merely consequential and dependent on ethics, politics, and the legal system derived from them.

In the evolution of criminally relevant action in modern crime theory, social action has assumed a particular significance as a dogmatic element that enables the effective protection of legal assets in a society beset by risks. In the vast array of theories regarding the role of the guarantor and its legal and doctrinal development, as well as the jurisprudential extension of equivalence clauses of improper omissions that serve as amplifier devices of the criminal statue through an indirect adaptation, there is (...) a need to identify the most effective means to shield legal assets, which allows for an imputation of passive conducts, despite having an active typical description. This introduces the controversial figure of the improper omission, which is used with the function of perfecting all of the structural elements of the criminal conduct. When an individual knows he is in a position of guarantor and is aware of the potential consequences, but fails to take action, having the means to prevent a foreseeable outcome, this device serves to enhance the criminal protection of legal assets, fostering social solidarity as the basis of the criminal justice system. This system, by satisfying the function of general prevention of the punishment, ideally dissuades the individual from committing crimes with the threat of penalty. These theories are fundamental to understanding criminal responsibility by improper omission in the context of the objective imputation theory. By guiding the evolution and delimitation of its application, they serve as a significant factor in criminal social control in Colombia. (shrink)

Phillips & Silverstein (P&S, 2003) propose that NMDA-receptor dysfunction may be the fundamental neurobiological mechanism underlying and associating impaired holistic perception and cognitive coordination with schizophrenic psychopathology. We discuss how the P&S hypothesis shares different aspects of the weak central coherence account of autism from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Specifically, we believe that neither those persons with autism nor those with schizophrenia integrate visuo-perceptual information efficiently, resulting in incongruous internal representations of their external world. However, although NMDA-hypofunction may be (...) responsible for perceptual impairments in schizophrenia and possibly autism, we suggest that it is highly unlikely that NMDA-hypofunction is specifically responsible for the autistic behavioral symptomology, as described by P&S in their target article. (shrink)

The complete description of the interaction between an external electromagnetic field and a charged particle causing it to radiate is one of the most fundamental problems in classical electrodynamics. Here we provide a simple coupled model that describes via the Lagrangian of the physical system the full radiation reaction process resulting from the particle–field interactions which simulate the electromagnetic ones. The particle and field evolution equations obtained from the Lagrangian are studied as an initial value problem giving rise to the (...) particle's radiation reaction equation, which includes the complete interaction with the field. Using stability theory we analyze this equation and prove that every solution is global uniform asymptotically stable, evidencing that the particle coupled to the field radiates. The model proves to be interesting, for it clearly illustrates the particle–field interaction process and shows the radiation's origin. (shrink)

En Hugo de San Víctor, el amor es la raíz y el motivo fundamental del autoconocimiento. Con el conocimiento de sí no sólo procura el alma conocer lo que es, sino también y principalmente amar más. La confluencia del conocimiento y el amor expresan la estructura de la interioridad. Esta urdimbre interior es la que permite que las almas se eleven a las alturas de la mística. Sin autoconocimiento no sería posible recibir los dones del Espíritu Santo ni la contemplación (...) mística. (shrink)

The article deals with the nature of the mind and its act, according to Nicholas of Cusa: it is a main philosophical problem in his thought because of the centrality of the mens as an essential category between God and the world, and in order to grasp what is life, principie and being.

This article draws on Gloria Anzaldúa's philosophy to analyze Latina/o cultural forms as responses to the lawful violence that renders migrants and other minoritarian peoples as disposable subjects. The article turns to Latina/o playwrights and undocumented poets whose art forms, produced under the deportation regime, express a desire for freedom from terrorizing governance. Focusing on Lydia, a play by Mexican American playwright Octavio Solis, and poetry by an undocumented artist, Yosimar Reyes, it links these representations of “illegal” migrants to understand (...) how minoritarian aesthetic practices respond to racial terror and lawful violence. It argues that if we are to map the present beyond terrorizing forms of law, we must center our philosophical thought on “illegal” imaginaries of freedom, not on the cultural forms sanctioned by legality—the latter risk reproducing the logic of state-sponsored violence, whereas the former enact freedom as a practice of everyday life. (shrink)

Ao trazer a público o 8.o volume da obra 'Teoria do Conhecimento Científico', o Instituto Piaget presta homenagem a um investigador de prestígio reconhecido e a um colaborador de vários dos seus colóquios culturais e científicos. Armando Castro continua aqui o ambicioso projecto, iniciado em 1975, de elaboração de uma 'ciência do conhecimento científico', com o qual procurava - numa intenção que permanece oportuna - clarificar a especificidade das abordagens científicas face a outras modalidades cognitivas e não cognitivas. Escrito (...) em 1993, este texto é, na sequência dos anteriores, uma consideração de diferentes aspectos epistémicos como a previsibilidade em ciência, a objectividade/subjectividade das suas representações teóricas e uma análise de outras categorias epistemológicas essenciais. O tema fulcral é, no entanto, uma apreciação da especificidade da racionalidade científica e uma valorização do seu significado diante de uma certa tentação contemporânea pelo irracionalismo. Jean-Michel Besnier, professor agregado e doutorado em Filosofia, é actualmente investigador no Laboratório de Comunicação e Política do CNRS. (shrink)

Here I pursue a deconstructive reading of astrobiology, the emerging science dedicated to a double quest: solving the mystery of life's origin and discovering life beyond Earth. Astrobiology, I argue, is organized as a response to the aporetic formulation assumed by the origin of life in modern molecular biology, where (as Derrida's argues in Life Death) it becomes the origin of textuality. Because all Earth life shares a single genetic code, astrobiologists are seeking a second; hoping that a sort of (...) multi-planetary comparative genomics may reveal the secret to life's origin. But the aporia repeats in the figure of the biosignature, the trace of life. (shrink)

A sociedade não se iniciou com a civilização grega, porém fundamentou a civilização ocidental. Pretende-se fazer uma reflexão sobre as questões econômicas do mundo antigo, quando Aristóteles anteviu crescente inserção mercantilista na sociedade e tratará a polis com uma grande autonomia humana. A sociedade grega clássica está centrada na cidade-estado, a polis, a qual era, para os gregos, o estágio final e completo da vida social, a única forma possível de existência civilizada. O conceito aristotélico de economia como ação/política do (...) “cuidar”, como a ciência que busca o melhor uso das riquezas destinadas a manutenção e aperfeiçoamento da vida social, auxilia o mundo moderno à construção de um pensamento econômico. (shrink)

I criticize Laudan's constraints on cognitive aims as presented in Science and Values. These constraints are axiological consistency and non-utopianism. I argue that Laudan's prescription for non utopian aims is too restrictive because it excludes ideals and characterizes as irrational or non-rational numerous human contingencies. We aim to ideals because there is no cogent way to specify in advance what degree of deviation from an ideal is acceptable. Thus, one cannot dispense with ideals. Laudan does not distinguish difficult from impossible (...) goals, making his injunction against utopianism imprecise. It is "semantically utopian" and, furthermore, a prescription for conservatism and mediocrity. Goals often contradict each other or are at least partially incompatible. Since Laudan does not say how to prioritize incompatible aims, axiological consistency is an utopian desideratum. Thus, his constraints on cognitive aims contradict one another. Finally,, Laudan's axiological constraints are too weak and in order to strengthen them, he must invoke without justification some implicit pre-philosophical cognitive aims. This opens the logical possibility of axiological relativism, which Laudan attempted from the beginning to avoid. (shrink)