ObjectivesTo examine implicit and explicit attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women among heterosexual undergraduate and graduate psychology and nursing students.MethodsImplicit attitudes were measured via the Implicit Association Test and explicit attitudes via the Attitudes Toward Lesbian Women and Gay questionnaire.Main resultsAll groups held negative implicit attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Among undergraduates, nursing students reported holding more negative explicit attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women than psychology students.ConclusionThe curricula in both nursing and psychology studies need to (...) address the medical and paramedical needs and issues of sexual minorities. (shrink)

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between moral self, moral integrity, and moral sensitivity in decision-making among nurses. Background: nurses face moral dilemmas almost on a daily basis. Studies have demonstrated that nurses with high moral sensitivity make thoughtful decisions and exhibit professional responsibility. The current study seeks to examine personality variables that may be related to moral sensitivity among nurses. Design: A cross-sectional study. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the IRB of the authors University’s ethics (...) committee (number: AU-HEA-LO-20220317). Written consent was obtained from all participants. Methods: A structured questionnaires were administered to a sample of 187 Israeli nurses. Results: The degree of nurses’ moral self, moral integrity and moral sensitivity was relatively high. “Patient-centered care” was found to be the most significant component of moral sensitivity. The next component is “Using knowledge bases,” followed by “Exercising professional judgment.” While the concept of patient-centered care was found to be related to the nurses’ moral self, the other components were found to be related to their moral integrity. The mediation model found that moral integrity mediates and even strengthens the moral self in its connection with moral sensitivity. Conclusions: Understanding the role of moral self and moral integrity in explaining moral sensitivity, can contribute to achieving a desirable combination of “the good and the right” in nursing practice, thereby enhancing nurses’ work. From a practical perspective, these findings are also relevant to nursing education. Nursing education plays a pivotal role in fostering moral and ethical decision-making in both clinical aspects and ethical moral sensitivity. Strengthening the moral self and moral integrity among nursing students can aid in making balanced and morally sensitive decisions while also building moral and ethical support systems to assist students in distressing and emergency situations. (shrink)

The ultimate source of explanation in biology is the principle of natural selection. Natural selection means differential reproduction of genes and gene combinations. It is a mechanistic process which accounts for the existence in living organisms of end-directed structures and processes. It is argued that teleological explanations in biology are not only acceptable but indeed indispensable. There are at least three categories of biological phenomena where teleological explanations are appropriate.

In this article, I argue that the main contribution of Hegel's philosophy of right to the contemporary political debate is that it opens a window on the idea that liberalism and individual freedom are incompatible. My main thesis is that the liberal conception of the State and law, structured from a nonrelational account of singularity, ends up denying the individual freedom that it claims to defend. I begin by reconstructing the Hegelian concept of freedom from its most general lines, showing (...) that being free consists in wanting to become someone and not so much in wanting to do something. After showing that the purpose of becoming someone can only be fulfilled in a social medium, I focus on Hegel's critique of the liberal state (as expounded in the section on “civil society”). I argue that civil society structurally impedes individuals from realizing their purpose of becoming someone: the economical interactions of civil society give rise to impersonal and inscrutable mechanisms, which take the social conditions of people's individuation beyond their control. Finally, I claim that (rational) individual freedom consists in being able to thematize and democratically control the very social conditions of individuation through the State and law. (shrink)

The question whether ethical behavior is biologically determined may refer either to thecapacity for ethics (e.i., the proclivity to judge human actions as either right or wrong), or to the moralnorms accepted by human beings for guiding their actions. My theses are: (1) that the capacity for ethics is a necessary attribute of human nature; and (2) that moral norms are products of cultural evolution, not of biological evolution.Humans exhibits ethical behavior by nature because their biological makeup determines the presence (...) of the three necessary, and jointly sufficient, conditions for ethical behavior: (i) the ability to anticipate the consequences of one's own actions; (ii) the ability to make value judgements; and (iii) the ability to choose between alternative courses of action. Ethical behavior came about in evolution not because it is adaptive in itself, but as a necessary consequece of man's eminent intellectual abilities, which are an attribute directly promoted by natural selection. (shrink)

Should the philosophy of biology deal with organismic, or with molecular aspects , or with both ? We are, of course, not the first to appreciate the ...

The question whether ethical behavior is biologically determined may refer either to the capacity for ethics (i.e., the proclivity to judge human actions as either right or wrong), or to the moral norms accepted by human beings for guiding their actions. I herein propose: (1) that the capacity for ethics is a necessary attribute of human nature; and (2) that moral norms are products of cultural evolution, not of biological evolution. Humans exhibit ethical behavior by nature because their biological makeup (...) determines the presence of three necessary conditions for ethical behavior: (i) the ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s own actions; (ii) the ability to make value judgments; and (iii) the ability to choose between alternative courses of action. Ethical behavior came about in evolution not because it is adaptive in itself, but as a necessary consequence of man’s eminent intellectual abilities, which are an attribute directly promoted by natural selection. That is, morally evolved as an exaptation, not as an adaptation. Since Darwin’s time there have been evolutionists proposing that the norms of morality are derived from biological evolution. Sociobiologists represent the most recent and most subtle version of that proposal. The sociobiologists' argument is that human ethical norms are sociocultural correlates of behaviors fostered by biological evolution. I argue that such proposals are misguided and do not escape the naturalistic fallacy. The isomorphism between the behaviors promoted by natural selection and those sanctioned by moral norms exist only with respect to the consequences of the behaviors; the underlying causations are completely disparate. (shrink)

Este trabajo plantea un ejercicio de interpretación del relato bíblico de los macabeos, su rebelión y resistencia religiosa, política y militar frente a la imposición imperial desde algunas perspectivas recogidas de los escritos de Walter Benjamin sobre la juventud. Se ponen de relieve temas como la situación religiosa ante el horizonte de la Ilustración; la relevancia que tiene la religión en los movimientos sociales juveniles; el mesianismo reinterpretado por el movimiento romántico de los intelectuales judíos de la Mitteleuropa, según lo (...) ha estudiado el académico Michael Löwy para, finalmente, ensayar una reflexión sobre la ideología de la soberanía militar en contraste con el mesianismo utópico. (shrink)

Metabolomics, including lipidomics, is emerging as a quantitative biology approach for the assessment of energy flow through metabolism and information flow through metabolic signaling; thus, providing novel insights into metabolism and its regulation, in health, healthy ageing and disease. In this forward‐looking review we provide an overview on the origins of metabolomics, on its role in this postgenomic era of biochemistry and its application to investigate metabolite role and (bio)activity, from model systems to human population studies. We present the challenges (...) inherent to this analytical science, and approaches and modes of analysis that are used to resolve, characterize and measure the infinite chemical diversity contained in the metabolome (including lipidome) of complex biological matrices. In the current outbreak of metabolic diseases such as cardiometabolic disorders, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, metabolomics appears to be ideally situated for the investigation of disease pathophysiology from a metabolite perspective. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to analyze the explanatory level of the variables advertising influence, verbal messages, social models and social situations as regards body dissatisfaction, weight worry, and bodily discomfort. The study was conducted in a convenience sample of 206 Mexican women with an average age of 22.12 years. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the direct and indirect effects of the independent variables on the dependent ones in three hypothetical models proposed. In the case of the (...) model proposed for body dissatisfaction, it was found that the set of variables had 79% of variance explained and showed adequate goodness-of-fit indices. The model for weight worry had 62% of variance explained and an acceptable goodness of fit. Finally, the model for bodily discomfort had 72% of variance explained and showed adequate goodness of fit. It is concluded that social influences have a significant impact on body image. Verbal messages had the strongest impact on the variables studied. (shrink)

Corruption is a more important idea for Hobbes than has been recognized: a state of nature can result from corruption of the people, corruption of counsellors and corruption of legal processes. Hobbes often uses a 'cognitive' conception of corruption — the distortion of mental processes, by faulty reasoning or improper attitudes. Corruption means that citizens think they benefit from sedition, counsellors advise with self-interested rhetoric rather than impartial logic, witnesses lie and judges settle cases by bribes or pity. Although corruption (...) is often thought to involve the pursuit of private gain, Hobbes only talks about corruption in terms of misjudged private gain, where an individual is motivated by his apparent, short-tem self-interest, rather than his real, long- term self-interest. That is why corruption can lead to a state of nature. (shrink)

The set-theoretic and individual-theoretic analyses of collections make the same mistake: their ontologies are far removed from language. Our basic notion, the collector, has a clear linguistic counterpart: the definite article. Our theory furnishes a theory of definite descriptions as a special case. We use 3-valued valued logic in order to come to grips with the existential presuppositions of the collections.

Why do many postpositivists caricature contemporary social science? Why make incorrect claims, for instance about social scientists avoiding values? Why discuss features that often no longer matter, such as seeking laws or predictions? Why reject extreme forms of social science without discussing more sensible forms? Why say little or nothing about scientific methodology, which is a great strength of recent social science? To explain such oversights and caricatures, philosophical analysis will not suffice. These are not isolated intellectual errors, but systematic (...) ones, made by numerous scholars and fostered by social practices and institutional conventions. We thus need ideological analysis, which specializes in explaining institutionalized systems of belief. Speculative explanations are offered for postpositivist caricatures, including not only psychological factors, but also external ones (for example, the arrogance of many social scientists), limitations of language (for example, the ambiguity of the term ‘methodology’), rhetorical strategies (for example, genealogical approaches), and conventions (for example, bad citation practices). (shrink)

Individuals can do a broad variety of things with their words and enjoy different degrees of this capacity. What moderates this capacity? And in cases in which this capacity is unjustly disrupted, what is a good explanation for it? These are the questions I address here. I propose that speech capacity, understood as the capacity to do things with your words, is a structural property importantly dependent on individuals' position in a social structure. My account facilitates a non-individualistic explanation of (...) cases in which speech capacity is undermined due to speaker's perceived social identity, e.g. episodes of silencing. Instead of appealing to interlocutors' implicit bias against speaker's identity, a structural approach refers to the positions interlocutors occupy in the social structure and the discursive conventions operating upon those positions. I articulate my proposal drawing on the notion of affordances. Each position within a social structure is associated with its own range of speech affordances. Thus, speech capacity is a function of the probability distribution of speech affordances across positions in the structure. (shrink)

Tras la lectura de esta obra, reconocemos que su autora, Stephanie Graf, mantiene una signatura o estilo constante en cada parte, capítulo y subtítulo, pues le interesa plantear una trama, un tablero para dialogar con el trabajo de Walter Benjamin y de Theodor W. Adorno, ante uno de los desafíos más urgentes de nuestro tiempo: ¿Cómo entender la supervivencia de la teología en un mundo secular? En específico, ¿de qué forma el escándalo del mal, sobre todo del mal excesivo en (...) Auschwitz, nos remite inevitablemente a la metafísica, a la creación, la revelación, la redención, aun cuando estos pensadores judíos se ubican en el campo del materialismo histórico y la sola responsabilidad humana? De ahí el llamado a la inversión. (shrink)

The article is devoted to Miguel Servet (Michael Servetus, Spain – Miguel Serveto, also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel Serveto, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve) – the XVI century Spanish thinker who was recognized as a heretic and burnt at the stake in Geneva in 1553.The author discusses the specifics of Servet’s philosophical system, the scientific background of his system, and his key ideas that have become a matter for auto-da-fė. The author argues that Servet’s concept was aimed to reconstruct (...) the “pure” Christian dogma, although he was not a professional theologist. The author claims that Servet used the deep knowledge in geography, astronomy, medicine, linguistics to create his complex system which was aimed to rescue the mankind from total destruction (Apocalypse). The author claims that Servet’s system could be considered as an example of interdisciplinary approach in the pre-disciplinary epoch. Moreover, Servet’s approach to the problem of personal salvation and the transformation of the humane nature is based on empirical scientific data. Hence, it is appropriate to consider his philosophical system as a mixture of theology, natural science and humanities. (shrink)

The article examines the conquest of the New World in the focus of interaction of different types of thinking in the clash and conflict of two civilizations, which develop in different ways and which are at different levels of social and economic development. The result of this clash was the destruction of the material, spiritual and intellectual traditions of indigenous cultures that existed on the American continent. The conquest of America is one of the most revealing examples of the clash (...) of civilizations, analyzing which, with particular clarity, one can observe contradictions between different types of world perception. The answer to questions about what kind of knowledge Nahua-speaking people possessed, what role knowledge played in their society, who was the creator, carrier and translator of knowledge about the world, reveals one of the main reasons that led to a rapid and irretrievable destruction of culture of “metaphors and numbers.” The author reveals the role of Catholic monks in preserving the spiritual, scientific and philosophical heritage of the Mexican culture, thanks to which we have the opportunity to touch the thought of the Nahua people, existing not in the form of traditional texts but in the form of an oral tradition, which accompanied visual images of graphic semantic writing. It shows how important the system of education and upbringing in the society of pre-Columbian Mexico was, how it solved the tasks of preparing young people for the performance of social functions. The destruction, as a result of the con- quest, of the system that regulated the daily life of each person and determined the ultimate destiny of the people in the shortest possible time led to the death of the entire civilization. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se aborda el pensamiento de E.M. Cioran desde la perspectiva de un sinsabor vital denominado sentimiento de muerte. El término, aunque aparece solo en su primer escrito, es transversal a toda su obra, puesto que para el autor los seres humanos nos intuimos como posesos de la muerte en cada momento de nuestra existencia. Esto cambia el tono normal de la vida, al poner frente a la persona una realidad carente de sentido y dominada por circunstancias radicales y limitantes (...) como el dolor y la agonía, que culmina en una atmósfera gobernada por la intuición trágica de la vida. ABSTRACT The article addresses the thought of E.M. Cioran from the perspective of that vital uneasiness known as the sentiment of death. Although the term appears only in his first book, the idea cuts across his entire work given that, for Cioran, human beings intuit themselves as possessed by death at every moment of their lives. When persons are faced with a meaningless reality, dominated by radical and limiting circumstances such as pain and agony, the whole tenor of life changes until it becomes a tragic intuition of life. (shrink)

Magnífico libro ha tenido a bien reeditar la editorial madrileña Encuentro, situándolo como el primer volumen de la colección Mínima Política. En él, además de realizar algunas correcciones y estructurar la obra de forma más manejable para el lector, se ha encargado del estudio preliminar el profesor Jerónimo Molina, como ya hiciera con otras obras del mismo autor, Teoría y sistema de las formas políticas e Introducción al Derecho político actual, hace unos pocos años. En esta introducción, se nos ofrece (...) un recorrido biográfico, intelectual y político por Francisco Javier Conde, sencillo, directo y profundo. Propio de quien tiene un riguroso conocimiento del autor y de su obra. Con su lectura conseguiremos enmarcar correctamente este libro en la trayectoria vital e intelectual de Conde, entre la actitud intelectual del realismo político, el fracaso en la vida de actividad política y el olvido arrastrado hasta casi nuestros días. Y digo casi, porque, según lo que hemos dicho, no son pocos los que honran a Conde y su trabajo intelectual, de gran mérito. No en vano señala el profesor Molina que este libro es un pequeño clásico contemporáneo. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este artículo presenta una reconstrucción argumentativa del primer capítulo de la tercera sección de la Doctrina de la Esencia de la Ciencia de la Lógica de Hegel, el cual lleva como título "Lo Absoluto". Su hipótesis es que la critica de la metafísica contenida en este capítulo no solo aboga por una ontología relacional del proceso, sino que también establece implícitamente una distinción entre una teoría de lo absoluto de primer orden y una de segundo orden. La teoría de (...) lo absoluto de primer orden tiene como objetivo una exposición de lo absoluto libre de contradicciones analíticas. Por su parte, la teoría de lo absoluto de segundo orden no solo expone en qué consiste lo absoluto, sino que pretende también incluir el pensamiento y la teoría de lo absoluto en lo absoluto mismo. ABSTRACT This paper aims to reconstruct the arguments of the first chapter within the third section of the Doctrine of Essence, namely "The Absolute". Its hypothesis is that the critic of metaphysics within this chapter not only champions a relational process-ontology, but also states an implicit distinction between first and second order theories of the Absolute. The first-order theory of the Absolute purports to present a definition of the Absolute without analytic contradictions. The second-order theory of the Absolute not only sets out the nature of the Absolute, but also seeks to include the thought and the theory of the Absolute within the Absolute itself. (shrink)

The comparative study of synchronic occurrences of a particular construction in interactional corpora from different languages can provide a complete understanding of the development of the construction as a response to some basic intimately associated set of interactional moves and cognitive demands. A comparative formal analysis of lists in Spanish and English conversations shows that in both languages the construction has developed a stylized intonation pattern based on the holding of tones by means of lengthening of nuclear syllables, a durable (...) syntactic organization based on parataxis and an almost identical inventory of lexicalized expressions to index the end of the list. A parallel analysis of lists in their interactional contexts shows that in both English and Spanish conversation the formal properties of lists emerge as adaptations to a recurrent set of communicative tasks. The first type of `framing' lists is used for its incremental structure in the negotiation of common background between interlocutors, whereas the second type of `demonstrative' lists is used for its rhetorical structure to provide evidence for a claim and is directed to obtaining agreement. (shrink)

This paper builds upon Mary Kate McGowan’s analysis of the mechanisms of harm in conversations (McGowan 2004; 2009). McGowan describes how a speaker’s intervention might constitute harm by enacting what is permissible to do in the conversation thereafter. We expand McGowan’s analysis in two ways: first, we use her account to argue for the potential of interlocutor’s silence, not only speaker’s intervention, to enact harm; second, we introduce a new party into the picture: observers of the conversation. We propose that (...) not only interlocutors who contribute to harm through action, but also those who do so by omission are morally responsible for that harm. We focus on one aspect of conversations: introduction of presuppositions. We argue that when the presupposition is morally problematic (e.g., sexist, ableist, racist, homo-, trans- or xeno-phobic), interlocutors have a moral responsibility to block it. This responsibility comes in degrees, and, importantly, depends on whether the interlocutor’s speech capacity is diminished by the harmful presupposition (i.e. whether the interlocutor is being silenced). Unlike common approaches to harm in speech, which take the unit of analysis to be the speaker-interlocutor relationship, we take as unit of analysis the relationship between the pair speaker-interlocutor and an observer. Problematic presuppositions introduced in conversations can harm observers overhearing these conversations (as well society as a whole), and prevention of such harm motivates our proposal for attribution of responsibility to interlocutors. We proceed as follows. First we review the dynamics of presupposition introduction. Second, we briefly introduce McGowan’s analysis of conversational pragmatics, subscribing to her account that some conversational moves constitute a special type of harm related to oppression, and outline a taxonomy of the pathways through which harm can be inflicted upon observers and the society as a whole. In the third part we articulate our argument that in the cases of presupposition introduction considered here, interlocutors are not merely allowing harm, but actively doing it, and put forward our proposal for responsibility attribution. Finally, we address potential objections, and situate our proposal within a broader project to fight oppressive speech. (shrink)

Given the importance of the principle of causality for the demonstration of God’s existence, this paper attempts to justify the evidence and necessity of the principle of causality, by following Fr. Fabro’s Thomistic defense—based on the notion of participation—but adding a particular emphasis on the notion of “being which is not per se,” this latter as an explanatory notion of the notion of “being which is by participation.” The introductory remarks touch upon two misunderstandings regarding the notion of participation employed (...) as a subject of the principle of causality: the first, considering “participated being” as a synonym of “received being,” and the second, the confusion, regarding the notion of being by participation, between its notional dependence on the notion of being as a whole and its real dependence on the real intensive Being. Then, in the first point, the defense of the principle of causality is distinguished from other related problems, like the particular applications of this principle. In the second and main point, we try to justify the necessity of being caused in the being which is experienced as being by participation, as follows: 1) that which is something by participation is not this something per se; 2) now, that which is not per se, either is not or is per aliud, 3) Therefore, that which is something by participation is per aliud. In the third and last point, we endeavor to justify the Thomism of our defense and of our emphasis on this notion of “being which is not per se” by considering two texts of St. Thomas. (shrink)

These thirteen paragraphs portray epistemology as the study, not directly of knowing as a human action (which could be considered the object also of anthropology) but as the study of the mode of being of the object in the subject and, in this sense, of intentional being. Moreover, intentional being is not understood as the being of the cognitional species or representation, which is real and subjective, but as the being of the known, as the presence of the known to (...) the knower (obviously, through the species but a being not reduced to the subjective being of the species): this kind of being is the proper object of epistemology. Other considerations regarding the distinction between metaphysics and epistemology take place as well. As regards the method, this essay attempts to apply Aquinas’ four steps of scientific reasoning to epistemology, in the following fashion and order: 1- Solution of the problem of the universals by recourse to the theory of the agent intellect (resolutio secundum rem); 2- Definition of knowledge as intentional possession of being (res. sec. rationem); 3- Judgment of value regarding the different instances of human knowledge or critique of knowledge (compositio secundum rem) and 4- Reinterpretation (in the light of the previous path) of common notions of epistemology, such as truth, certainty, evidence, and error (comp. sec. rationem). (shrink)

Se ofrece una interpretación teórico-política de la fusión de horizontes de Gadamer. Se argumenta que el diálogo político, desde un punto de vista hermenéutico, debe entenderse como el proceso de cuestionamiento y disputa de los horizontes de sentido en donde descansan las prácticas sociales. Asimismo, se sostiene que el diálogo instituye una pregunta-escenario-común que abre el horizonte social de sentido hacia la contingencia e incertidumbre, así como que este nunca busca un consenso procedimental o sustancial que subsane los conflictos y (...) concilie las diferentes perspectivas en un punto de vista homogéneo. (shrink)

"Blau not only charts how the American government's embrace of laissez-faire ideology has wreaked havoc...he tells us what can be done to undo the damage. Must reading for anyon who cares about what's happening to the average American."--Charles Noble, Professor of Political Science, CSU Long Beach.

A direct path that has been missed for 100 years leads from the oldest paradoxes straight to mysticism, via (the concept of) logical and mathematical truth, since the purely formal truth is an absolutely univocal, absolutely timeless and absolutely unbounded reference. I present three theses in passing: (1) logicians fail to fully appreciate the basic mathematical idea of truth and consequently push the semantic paradoxes aside. Otherwise they would have come to adopt the reflexive logic LR* right after Cantor (more (...) on this briefly in Sect. 4. For a more precise elaboration see my Logik der Unbestimmtheiten und Paradoxien (Blau 2008)). (2) Mathematicians fail to fully appreciate the basic mathematical concept of number and push Zeno’s paradoxes aside. Otherwise they would have come to adopt linear arithmetic ${\mathbb{L}^{*}}$ right after Cantor (more on this briefly in Sects. 1 and 5, for further elaboration see my planned Grundparadoxien und grenzenlose Arithmetik. The technical parts are complete, yet philosophically it is as incomplete as Sect. 6). (3) Philosophers fail to fully appreciate the paradox of subject and object and push the Darwinian argument for Cartesian (mind–body)-interaction aside, otherwise they would have been en route towards mysticism since Darwin’s times (more on this in Sect. 6, for a little more precise elaboration see Blau in Die Logik der Unbestimmtheiten und Paradoxien. Synchron Publishers, Heidelberg, 2008, Ch. 1.5). (shrink)

Este artículo propone una revisión crítica sobre los alcances del transhumanismo en la esfera de la Psicología. Para ello, se expondrán antecedentes y se definirá lo que se entiende por transhumanismo y el resultado de éste, denominado poshumanismo. A través de características humanas tan básicas y diversas como la cognición, el sufrimiento y la identidad, se discute sobre los inéditos cambios que la ejecución y logro de las propuestas transhumanistas significarían para la sociedad, el cómo la psicología podría prever y (...) anticipar un escenario así de radical, y la necesidad y urgencia de nuevas teorías éticas que ayuden a comprender los fenómenos en cuestión. (shrink)

This article documents and provides explanations for levels of and trends in earnings inequality, with a central focus on international differences in these outcomes. It concentrates on OECD countries, which are largely advanced industrialized nations, and typically have similar levels of labour productivity but often very different labour market institutions and changes in the supply of or demand for labour of various skill levels. As a result, one can use international differences to test hypotheses about the role of supply and (...) demand and institutions in influencing levels and trends in earnings inequality. The article first provides an analytical framework for understanding earnings inequality in which labour earnings are distinguished from wage rates. It then places inequality of wage rates in a supply and demand framework, augmented by consideration of labour market institutions. Next, after providing some data on the extent of earnings and wage inequality across countries and over time, it discusses evidence on the determinants of differences and changes in earnings inequality. (shrink)

Coleman states that social phenomena cannot be directly accounted for by their social antecedents without analyzing three intervening steps: what motives the antecedents create, how these affect individual behavior, and the transition from the acts of interdependent individuals to social phenomena. The last is most important. I agree, but Foundations has its causal link upside down. Reanalyzing some of his cases, I try to show that macrostructures are not the product of microfoundations but the existential conditions that circumscribe individuals’ choices.

We explore the distinctive characteristics of Mexico's society, politics and history that impacted the establishment of genetics in Mexico, as a new disciplinary field that began in the early 20th century and was consolidated and institutionalized in the second half. We identify about three stages in the institutionalization of genetics in Mexico. The first stage can be characterized by Edmundo Taboada, who was the leader of a research program initiated during the Cárdenas government (1934-1940), which was primarily directed towards improving (...) the condition of small Mexican farmers. Taboada is the first Mexican post-graduate investigator in phytotechnology and phytopathology, trained at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, in 1932 and 1933, respectively. He was the first investigator to teach plant genetics at the National School of Agriculture and wrote the first textbook of general genetics, Genetics Notes, in 1938. Taboada's most important single genetics contribution was the production of "stabilized" corn varieties. The extensive exile of Spanish intellectuals to Mexico, after the end of Spain's Civil War (1936-1939), had a major influence in Mexican science and characterizes the second stage. The three main personalities contributing to Mexican genetics are Federico Bonet de Marco and Bibiano Fernández Osorio Tafall, at the National School of Biological Sciences, and José Luis de la Loma y Oteyza, at the Chapingo Agriculture School. The main contribution of the Spanish exiles to the introduction of genetics in Mexico concerned teaching. They introduced in several universities genetics as a distinctive discipline within the biology curriculum and wrote genetics text books and manuals. The third stage is identified with Alfonso León de Garay, who founded the Genetics and Radiobiology Program in 1960 within the National Commission of Nuclear Energy, which had been founded in 1956. The Genetics and Radiobiology Program rapidly became a disciplinary program, for it embraced research, teaching, and training of academics and technicians. The Mexican Genetics Society, created by de Garay in 1966, and the development of strains and cultures for genetics research were important activities. One of de Garay's key requirements was the compulsory training of the Program's scientists for at least one or two years in the best universities of the United States and Europe. De Garay's role in the development of Mexican genetics was fundamental. His broad vision encompassed the practice of genetics in all its manifestations. (shrink)

In this note, my aim is to point out a phenomenon that has not received much attention; a phenomenon that, in my opinion, should not be overlooked in the professional practice of philosophy, especially within feminist efforts for social justice. I am referring to the way in which being a non-native speaker of English interacts with the practice of philosophy.1 There is evidence that non-native speakers are often perceived in prejudiced ways. Such prejudiced perception causes harm and, more importantly, constitutes (...) wrongdoing. As in other cases of prejudiced perception and biased behavior, it would be pretentious and misguided to expect philosophers and the philosophy profession to be free from this vice. There are good reasons to think that this prejudiced perception is bad not only for the persons who are perceived in such a way, but also for the profession, for it might make us miss important things that could improve philosophy in general. I claim we should be more sensitive to this phenomenon, both out of concern for justice, and for the sake of doing better philosophy. (shrink)

El presente artículo problematiza el sentido de una “estética” en la obra de Félix Guattari. A diferencia de la bibliografía existente que se centra en la obra de Deleuze, en el trabajo conjunto de Deleuze y Guattari y en la tardía noción guattariana de paradigma estético, aquí proponemos alternativamente ocuparnos del período temprano del militante francés. Dado que las referencias al arte atraviesan la totalidad de sus escritos, se trata aquí de un doble movimiento: acotar las múltiples indicaciones sobre el (...) arte (y la estética), tanto como vincular estas con el resto del universo discursivo guattariano. Nuestra pregunta de investigación es, por tanto, la siguiente: ¿qué conceptualización del arte se vislumbra para él entre 1955 y 1980? Para esto dividimos el texto en tres apartados: una introducción problematizadora, un cuerpo donde visitamos cronológicamente los textos para obtener los sentidos de una posible “estética” y un cierre a modo de conclusión. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to analyze Foucault's work from an epistemological point of view, starting from the admittedly political notion of “regime of truth”. To do so, we will start from a comparison with Kuhn's work to emphasize the epistemological function of this concept. Thus, we will argue that Foucault's project is not only analogous to Kuhn's, but also complementary to it, since with Foucault it is possible to broaden the theoretical considerations on science, especially those linked to (...) the epistemology of the social sciences, including political factors, such as values and beliefs, which influence the development of social knowledge. (shrink)