This thought-provoking book discusses the concept of progress in economics and investigates whether any advance has been made in its different spheres of research. The authors look back at the history, successes and failures of their respective fields and thoroughly examine the notion of progress from an epistemological and methodological perspective. The idea of progress is particularly significant as the authors regard it as an essentially contested concept which can be defined in many ways – theoretically or empirically; locally or (...) globally; or as encouraging or impeding the existence of other research traditions. The authors discuss the idea that for progress to make any sense there must be an accumulation of knowledge built up over time rather than the replacement of ideas by each successive generation. Accordingly, they are not concerned with estimating the price of progress, reminiscing in the past, or assessing what has been lost. Instead they apply the complex mechanisms and machinery of the discipline to sub-fields such as normative economics, monetary economics, trade and location theory, Austrian economics and classical economics to critically assess whether progress has been made in these areas of research. -/- Bringing together authoritative and wide-ranging contributions by leading scholars, this book will challenge and engage those interested in philosophy, economic methodology and the history of economic thought. It will also appeal to economists in general who are interested in the advancement of their profession. (shrink)

PURPOSE: There is an increasing demand for researchers to provide research results to participants. Our aim was to define an appropriate process for this, based on needs and attitudes of participants. METHODS: A multicenter survey in five sites in the United States and Canada was offered to parents of children with cancer and adolescents with cancer. Respondents indicated their preferred mode of communication of research results with respect to implications; timing, provider, and content of the results; reasons for and against (...) providing results; and barriers to providing results. RESULTS: Four hundred nine parents (including 19 of deceased children) and 86 adolescents responded. Most parents (n = 385; 94.2%) felt that they had a strong right to research results. For positive results, most wanted a letter or e-mail summary (n = 238; 58.2%) or a phone call followed by a letter (n = 100; 24.4%). If the results were negative, phone call (n = 136; 33.3%) or personal visits (n = 150; 36.7%) were preferred. Parents wanted the summary to include long-term sequelae and suggestions for participants (n = 341; 83.4%), effect on future treatments (n = 341; 83.4%), and subsequent research steps (n = 284; 69.5%). Understanding the researcher was a main concern about receiving results (n = 145; 35.5%). Parents felt that results provide information to support quality of life (n = 315; 77%) and raise public awareness of research (n = 282; 68.9%). Adolescents identified similar preferences. CONCLUSION: Parents of children with cancer and adolescents with cancer feel strongly that they have a right to be offered research results and have specific preferences of how and what information should be communicated. (shrink)

The article reveals the ambivalence of the Hegelian interpretation of medieval philosophy. Hegel shares the «anti-medieval» prejudice prevailing in modern thought since the Renaissance and Reformation. In Hegel, the Protestant heritage is especially strong. Yet when he observes the subjectivist tendencies of modern Protestant theology, he proposes, as a counter-model, the more speculative and philosophical approaches of medieval thinkers.One can thus speak of a «vindication» of medieval philosophy in Hegel´s thought, despite his anti-medieval prejudice.

O artigo apresenta uma visão de conjunto do pensamento de Lima Vaz, a partir de seu método original, caracterizado por seu cunho rememorativo, dialético e sistemático. Ele é aplicado particularmente na Antropologia Filosófica e na Ética, sintetizando a categoria de história com a de transcendência, superando assim a crise do pensamento moderno à luz da práxis ética.

Neste texto, refletimos acerca da educação escolar no meio rural brasileiro estabelecendo interface com os direitos humanos. Para alcançar este objetivo, fazemos uma retrospectiva histórica da educação oferecida pelo Estado à população rural, demonstrando que sistematicamente tem sido direito negado do ponto de vista do acesso, da continuidade e da qualidade social do ensino. Contudo, com o processo de democratização da sociedade na década de 1980 e da emergência de movimentos sociais, é reivindicado o direito universal à educação consignado na (...) Constituição Federal de 1988 como “direito de todos e dever do Estado”. A partir de meados de 1990, uma política educacional contra-hegemônica é construída por um conjunto de atores coletivos, constituindo o Movimento Nacional de Educação do Campo, denominada de Educação do Campo. Se a grande conquista reside no marco regulatório no qual se pode visualizar uma educação que considera a identidade, especificidade e diversidade dos sujeitos do campo, isso não significa a garantia desses direitos. Do ponto de vista metodológico, a abordagem analítica desta reflexão se orienta pela perspectiva epistemológica do materialismo histórico, tendo por base de pesquisa elementos da legislação educacional brasileira e o diálogo com autores que apontam para novos horizontes da educação como direito social. Como resultado desta investigação, apontamos desafios a serem enfrentados, entre eles o consórcio dos entes federados nem sempre afinado no cumprimento do marco regulatório da Educação do Campo; poucas iniciativas de formação inicial e continuada específica para professores da Educação do Campo; estrutura material precária das escolas; o material didático-pedagógico contempla conteúdos descontextualizados e inadequados às peculiaridades locais, às vivências e necessidades dos usuários da escola; ausência de Projeto Político Pedagógico, Currículo e calendário escolar capazes de, ao mesmo tempo, dar conta de oferecer o conhecimento socialmente produzido pela humanidade e atender a diversidade, especificidade dos sujeitos com direito ao acesso à escola onde vivem e uma educação omnilateral, que não dissocia a formação humana e profissional. Concluímos identificando uma profunda brecha entre o marco regulatório da Educação do Campo conquistado e a garantia real de uma educação cidadã e profissional de qualidade a ser ofertada à população do campo. Palavras chave: Educação do Campo. Direitos Humanos. Política Pública. (shrink)

Resumen En este trabajo presentamos una clasificación de las fuentes de procedencia y las estrategias que utilizan los autores de tesis y artículos de investigación para constatar el vacío de la investigación en Humanidades. Sobre la base de un estudio cualitativo, propusimos como objetivo determinar la variación de este acto comunicativo en Tesis y en Artículos de Investigación en Humanidades. A partir del análisis del corpus, los resultados muestran que la constatación del vacío se realiza en ambos géneros, aunque es (...) mucho más prominente en las Tesis, presumiblemente por su carácter evaluativo. Así también, independientemente del género, lo más frecuente es presentar un vacío propio. Por último, los datos evidencian que las estrategias específicas para constatar el vacío de investigación en Humanidades no son las mismas en los dos géneros analizados.In this paper we present a classification of sources and the strategies used by writers of theses and research papers in order to identify a research gap in Humanities. Based both on a qualitative study and a corpus analysis, we aim to determine the variation of such communicative act in theses and research papers in the Humanities. The results show that identifying a research gap is carried out in both genres, though it is more frequent in the theses, possibly due to its evaluative nature. Thus, regardless the genre, it is easy to present an own research gap. Finally, data show that specific strategies for identifying a research gap in the Humanities are not the same in both genres that are analyzed. (shrink)

This article is supposed to be an approximation to Eduard Gans´ conception of Europe, an author considered to be the most prominent disciple of Hegel by a growing number of scholars. In those times, the idea of Europe was a highly topical subject, due to both to the influence of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, but as well to the development of German idealism. Gans is closely related to these instances and formulates an idea of Europe that goes beyond (...) the conception of his teacher Hegel. He takes into account the new instances that arise from 1830 on in Europe, while he is also receptive to the views coming from America. (shrink)

Este artículo discute el papel que la ciencia social ha jugado en la evolución histórica de nuestras sociedades. La historia cíclica de las revoluciones es la historia cíclica de la deconstrucción-construcción de la Ciencia Social. En la actualidad, los acontecimientos ocurridos en el mundo durante la década de los ochenta e inicios de los noventa, pusieron al descubierto la debilidad de la ciencia social progresista para entender los interrogantes y problemáticas de nuestra realidad De este contexto surge un debate, que (...) tendrá su manifestación principal en la Declaración sobre la Ciencia y el uso del saber científico aprobada en la Conferencia Mundial sobre la Ciencia para el siglo XXI: un nuevo compromiso celebrada en Budapest en 1999, sobre la necesidad de dar una nueva dirección a la tecnología y las ciencias naturales, pero también a la ciencia social, que contribuya, desde una óptica crítica, a la construcción de un mundo mejor. (shrink)

This article aims to highlight the productivity of falsehood in the context of its asymmetrical position with truth. The core of the discussion can be summarized in the following statement: if only truths can be drawn from truths, it cannot be said that truth cannot be drawn from falsehood. The central thesis of the text is that the asymmetrical behavior of falsehood promotes the dissociation between the criterion (based on the conservation of truth) and the field of validity so that (...) the latter, broader than the former, incorporates the movement not only from truth to truth, but also from falsehood to falsehood and, above all, from falsehood to truth. The distinction between the symmetrical and asymmetrical fields allows understanding, for example, the emergence of certain logical fallacies, the separation between demonstration and deduction, the thesis of Popperian fallibilism, and the use of the hypothetical-deductive method. Truth does not have functions analogous to those of falsehood. (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)

En sus primeras lecciones de Friburgo, Heidegger planteó que una conceptuación originariamente filosófica debía tener un carácter indicativo-formal. Esto involucraba una transformación metodológica de la fenomenología hacia una hermenéutica de la vida fáctica. En este artículo se expone cómo la asunción de un procedimiento indicativo-formal permite a Heidegger superar ciertos problemas, apuntados por Natorp, que amenazaban la comprensión de Husserl de la fenomenología. Por otra parte, se hace también una consideración crítica del planteamiento fenomenológico original de Heidegger. In his first (...) Freiburg lessons Heidegger proposed that an original philosophical conceptualization had to have a formal-indicative character. This involved a deep methodological transformation of phenomenology towards a hermeneutics of factual life. This work expounds how the assumption of a formal-indicative procedure allows Heidegger to overcome certain problems of Husserl's understanding of phenomenology, which Natorp had pointed out. Besides, this paper makes a critical consideration of Heidegger's original phenomenological approach. (shrink)

El artículo examina el conflicto formal que se produce en la descripción de Odradek al interior de “La preocupación del padre de familia” de Franz Kafka. En la voz de su narrador, Kafka se vale de un lenguaje de extraordinaria precisión para describir a su criatura (Odradek), produciendo una serie de paradojas. Prestamos atención seria a estas paradojas, mostrando las consecuencias que ellas plantean para los conceptos de “historia” en Kant y Benjamin, en sus respectivas relaciones con el concepto de (...) “naturaleza” en estos autores. (shrink)

According to Pablo Oyarzun, Benjamin’s concept of history “is not about a war over the representation of history, but a war over history itself. Only in so far as this is its field, there can also be a struggle for its representation”. While Oyarzun’s observation refers to the first “thesis” of Benjamin’s «On the Concept of history», in this article I argue that it can be productively used to shed light onto a broader understanding of the Benjamin’s concept of history. (...) To that end, I elaborate on Oyarzun’s comment in order to analyze and to render explicit the relationship between 'Truth' and 'presentation' in Benjamin’s thought. In doing so, I highlight the relevance of this relationship for the concept of 'History' that Benjamin elaborated in the late ‘30s. (shrink)

A selection of essays on modernity and secularization by one of the most distinguished Italian thinkers of the mid-twentieth century.

The dichotomy between the qualitative and the quantitative has been a classic throughout the history of science. As will be seen, this dichotomy permeates all ontological levels of reality. In this work, phenomenological examples potentially related to semiosis are presented at the different levels established by Mario Bunge and Josep Ferrater Mora, contrasting the qualitative categorizations with the quantifiable physical reality. Likewise, the need to continue in the quantification of the biosemiotic and linguistic studies will be presented, while, in contrast, (...) the need to establish a qualitative framework in the little-addressed study of technosemiotics will be raised, of potential interest given the notable advances that are expected in communication systems for inert artifacts in the next years. In short, in the thesis defended here the qualitative precedes the quantitative in the defining path of science. (shrink)

Expressiveness and decidability are two core aspects of programming languages that should be thoroughly known by those who use them; this includes knowledge of their metalanguages a.k.a. formal grammars. The van Wijngaarden grammars (WGs) are capable of generating all the languages in the Chomsky hierarchy and beyond; this makes them a relevant tool in the design of (more) expressive programming languages. But this expressiveness comes at a very high cost: The syntax of WGs is extremely complex and the decision problem (...) for the generated languages is generally unsolvable. With this in mind, I provide here a short primer of the syntax of WGs, which includes syntactic restrictions that guarantee decidability for the corresponding generated languages. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza la denominada “violencia contra las mujeres” o “violencia de género” como tipo específico de violencia: manifestación de la discriminación basada en el sexo; de raíz ideológica en el sexismo y de carácter estructural, subrayando que para luchar contra ella es necesario un enfoque integral como el adoptado por la LO 1/2004. A continuación se examina dicha ley desde el punto de vista del principio constitucional de no discriminación basada en el sexo y se sostiene que, con carácter (...) general, los tratamientos jurídicos diferenciados en función del sexo de la LO 1/2004 estarían justificados desde el punto de vista de la finalidad perseguida; que, además, satisfacen el parámetro de la proporcionalidad los establecidos en los ámbitos de los derechos sociales y laborales y judicial y que sería posible una interpretación conforme a la Constitución de los tipos penales cualificados en la línea de exigir un fundamento adicional para la agravación (el carácter discriminatorio de la conducta) y la concurrencia de ese fundamento adicional en el caso concreto. (shrink)

En los tiempos que corren parece ser que se ha ido gestando un nuevo tipo de sociedad en la que el consumismo es el núcleo moral de la vida. Todo hoy está sometido a la lógica de un mercado que tiene como nota preponderante la seducción; de ahí que lo lúdico y lo estético pretendan operar hoy en día como ejes integradores de la cultura. Embellecerse exteriormente y divertirse han devenido deberes, tanto que la gente suele sentirse avergonzada de trabajar (...) mucho y no gozar más, de no disponer de más tiempo libre para disfrutar más, con lo cual resulta evidente que seguimos viviendo bajo el signo de la desmesura: en la Modernidad vivimos para trabajar, hoy trabajamos para consumir. (shrink)