Providing the first English translation of Análisis del ser del mexicano, this book features a full biography of Uranga, a detailed overview of the translated text, and discussion of Uranga's relevance to contemporary debates in the phenomenology of culture, the philosophy of liberation, Latin American philosophy and phenomenology itself. Reading Uranga's brilliant words expertly translated and introduced by Carlos Alberto Sánchez finally allows us to understand why this Mexican philosopher is considered one of the most fearless and original thinkers of (...) the 20th century. (shrink)

Stakeholder engagement and dialogue have a central role in defining the relations between organisations and their internal and external interlocutors. Drawing upon the analysis of dialogic motifs, power–conflict dynamics and sociopolitical perspectives, and based on a set of interviews with the stakeholders of a consumer-owned cooperative, the research explores the dialogic potential of stakeholder engagement. The analysis revealed a fragmented picture where the co-design and co-implementation aspects were mainly related to the non-business areas of cooperative life, while business logic dominated (...) the most central aspects. Stakeholder engagement was mainly related to consensus building, while dialogic engagement based on a pluralistic understanding was only partially considered and then neglected. The social capital in the local area, the growing size of the organisation and the related power structure embrace stakeholder engagement, influencing the orientation of the dialogic dynamic. The analysis indicates that a dialogic exchange is a relative concept which depends on the interests involved and the topics discussed. It also reveals that the key factors in the democratisation of stakeholder engagement are a mutual understanding and long-term opportunities. Common sociopolitical aspects are also important, but they do not necessarily guarantee the creation of dialogism paths. The research contributes to the critical dialogic literature in revealing whether and how stakeholder engagement has been implemented in a specific setting. It also shows the limitations of voluntarist stakeholder engagement initiatives. (shrink)

Includes articles about Origen, Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Blondel, Teilhard de Chardin, Barth, Heidegger, Gadamer, postmodernism.

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

In this article I show why investment practices matter for a property-owning democracy (POD) and how political philosophers can analyse them. I begin by documenting how investment practices influence income distribution. Empirical research suggests that investments that force corporations to maximise shareholder value, which I refer to as ‘shareholder value investing/ increase income inequality. By contrast, there is evidence that socially responsible investing (SRI) could bring society closer to a POD. Following that., I sketch how financial regulation fosters investment practices (...) and discuss how SRI could be boosted if regulation attempted to influence investment decisions, although many people in the public discourse would see this as exceedingly patronising. Finally, I outline how political philosophers can evaluate financial regulation. I argue that drawing on Hegel or Rawls helps to justify efforts to influence investment decisions and that proponents of a POD should therefore develop and support regulatory ideas which foster SRI. (shrink)

According to a popular aphorism, biometrics are turning the human body into a passport or a password. As usual, aphorisms say more than they intend. Taking the dictum seriously, we would be two: ourself and our body. Who are we, if we are not our body? And what is our body without us? The endless history of identification systems teaches that identification is not a trivial fact but always involves a web of economic interests, political relations, symbolic networks, narratives and (...) meanings. Certainly there are reasons for the ethical and political concerns surrounding biometrics but these reasons are probably quite different from those usually alleged. (shrink)

We present a preliminary high-level formal theory, grounded on knowledge representation techniques and foundational ontologies, for the uniform and integrated representation of the different kinds of (quali- tative and quantitative) knowledge involved in the designing process. We discuss the conceptual nature of engineering design by individuating and analyzing the involved notions. These notions are then formally charac- terized by extending the DOLCE foundational ontology. Our ultimate purpose is twofold: (i) to contribute to foundational issues of design; and (ii) to support (...) the development of advanced modelling systems for (qualitative and quantitative) representation of design knowledge. (shrink)

With a preface by Gianni Vattimo, this book offers both an overview of contemporary Italian philosophy and a new interpretation of Nietzsche’s ‘God is Dead’ in connection with the notion of freedom as the original dynamic of the will to power.

In its broadest sense, cohesion is an ultimate goal for Europe. In a study about long term future scenarios for Europe it appears that deepening of the integration process may induce decreasing cohesion, unless measures are taken to promote regional diversity as a vector of development. The widening of Europe also raises threats to cohesion, but a well prepared scenario for a Development Belt surrounding the EC may positively enhance the cohesion process.

Schelling’s philosophy can be seen as a unitary project of dynamic philosophy in which the philosophy of nature is the theoretical core within a general frame of a philosophy of identity. According to this assumption, that is developed and argued in the first section, this essay shows moreover as Schelling’s philosophy is a sort of process philosophy capable of integrating the standard definition of it, given for example by Nicholas Rescher, introducing the ‘necessary’ ungroundedness of being which frees ‘actions’ and (...) ‘creativity’ from the necessary chain of the process of nature. Thus described, the process indeed guaranties in particular that freedom that must be at the basis of moral action, seen by Schelling as that action capable of reactivating and freely reproducing that ‘love’ that guides Copula (the bond of the bonds) in its original and steady movement towards the concretedness of what exists. (shrink)

Estudio del término sakīna en su evolución postcoránica en el que se muestra, en primer lugar, lo que la investigación ha dicho sobre él, para, a continuación, presentar, traducir y analizar cinco textos pertenecientes al ámbito islámico y al filosófico en donde aparece dicho término y que no habían sido tenidos en cuenta hasta ahora. Estos textos proceden de: Ibn Ḥabīb, al-Tawḥīdī, traducción árabe de los Versos áureos, y Comentarios de Jámblico y de Proclo a estos Versos áureos. La sakīna (...) coránica evoluciona en estos autores pasando a connotar una pacificación en los animales violentos en Ibn Habib y un estado cercano a la divinidad de caracteres próximos al de los sufíes en al-Tawhidi, mientras que en los Versos áureos se emplea sakīna para traducir daímōn, con sus efectos de eliminación de los males originados por la discordia innata a los hombres. En los Comentarios a los Versos áureos se dan explicaciones, de corte religioso y racionalista a la vez, de dicho término. (shrink)

Se trata de una reseña del libro de Fabiana Erazun y Mariana Castillo Merlo (editoras) (2021) _Pensar la política en clave republicana: Debates sobre igualdad y libertad_, Neuquén, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, 180 páginas.

El artículo presenta y comenta las catequesis de Benedicto XVI en las audiencias públicas de los miércoles. A lo largo de los años los temas tratados son: los salmos y cánticos litúrgicos de laudes y vísperas; la Iglesia, su naturaleza e identidad; los Padres de la Iglesia; San Pablo (en el Año Paulino, 2008). En 2009, Benedicto XVI lanza una serie dedicada al Año Sacerdotal. En los últimos años de pontificado (2009-2011), presenta figuras de la historia de la Iglesia en (...) la Edad Media en los siglos XII y XIII, y a continuación personalidades femeninas de la historia eclesial de la Edad Media, y Moderna. Una última nueva serie está dedicada a los Doctores de la Iglesia. Estas catequesis dirigidas a todos los fieles constituyen un significativo momento de formación. (shrink)

La noción de emergencia acompaña a la Filosofía de la Biología desde finales del siglo XIX, afirmando que las propiedades de los sistemas biológicos no pueden deducirse de las de sus componentes. A lo largo del siglo XX las caracterizaciones de este concepto se han apoyado en cuatro pilares, impredecibilidad, novedad, restricción y causación descendente, pilares ligados a la asunción de una jerarquización de la realidad en niveles de organización. En este trabajo intento demostrar que puede explicarse la naturaleza de (...) las propiedades biológicas sin hacer referencia a la emergencia utilizando como herramienta la noción de cuasi-descomponibilidad propuesta originariamente por Herbert Simon. (shrink)

Nuclear warfare threat has been one of the main driver for cultural, political, economical and social changes in the late twentieth century, biological warfare threat is about to take it over. However, while nuclear warfare was a concrete possibility, biological warfare is just an elusive risk. This paper will explore some reasons for this apparent inconsistency by discussing biowarfare from a symbolic point of view, looking for its inner meanings and philosophical implications.

Ethical questions about information and communications technologies have been debated since World War II. Western democracies have had more than 50 years of experience in addressing and organising the ethical, social and legal aspects of scientific and technological developments. However, this expertise, tradition and experience are not enough to manage the most urgent ethical and social issues and contemporary challenges involving ICT. A systematic and institutional organisation of social values in the context of modern ICT tools is needed.This paper focuses (...) on four major areas: developing a specific approach to ethical issues raised by ICT; describing in more detail the age-related digital divide in Europe; identifying technology trends and emerging challenges; and defining the legal framework for inclusion of senior citizens in the digital society. The paper then concludes with a summary of its key points on the basis of which it makes three proposals as a contribution to efforts aimed at overcoming the exclusion of senior citizens from today's Information Society. (shrink)

L’article étudie plusieurs aspects des sortilèges divinatoires des papyrus magiques de l’Égypte romaine. D’abord, il soutient que les limites entre la magie et la divination sont estompées, la divination étant une pratique magique comme les autres. Ensuite, il analyse la complexité des éléments qui configurent ces sortilèges et recettes divinatoires, ainsi que la pratique magique en général : les prêtres et l’activité des temples, les risques d’un entourage hostile, la considération positive de ces prêtres pendant ces siècles en certains milieux, (...) le nouveau profil des « prêtres-lecteurs » et les types de divination pratiqués. Il ajoute quelques remarques à propos des particularités de deux textes complexes, la « Liturgie de Mithra » et la « Kosmopoiia de Leiden ». (shrink)

The aim of this text is to develop an epistemological-technique approach which permit analyze the work of Juan Downey, and his use of technical medias and also include the struggle against the State in the political and cultural model of the primitive societies of the Yano- mani, particularly by the work of Pierre Clastres and Jacques Lizot, and also their point of view of the methods of production in the societies of abundance, as theorized the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, considering these (...) anthropological paradigms as a medium to understand the mediatic interaction and the technique development in the works of Juan Downey. (shrink)

Durante las últimas tres décadas, la Neurociencia ha logrado avances espectaculares, pero la investigación tiene ante sí graves retos. Comentamos proyectos actuales de investigación neurocientífica, como el Proyecto Conectoma, el Proyecto Brain, y el Human Brain Proyect. Estudiamos la confluencia de las tecnologías biomédicas e ingeniería genética con la inteligencia artificial y computación, y el impacto que tienen en el conocimiento del mundo exterior y de nosotros mismos. Identificamos potencialidades y amenazas de las nuevas tecnologías y la contribución a la (...) conformación del pensamiento posthumanista. (shrink)

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

Information entities are used in ontologies to represent engineering technical specifications, health records, pictures or librarian data about, e.g., narrative fictions, among others. The literature in applied ontology lacks a comparison of the state of the art, and foundational questions on the nature of information entities remain open for research. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, to compare existing ontologies with both each other and theories proposed in philosophy, semiotics, librarianship, and literary studies in order to understand how (...) the ontologies conceive and model information entities. Second, to discuss some open research challenges that can lead to principled approaches for the treatment of information entities, possibly by getting into account the variety of information entity types found in the literature. (shrink)

Se trata de una reseña del libro de Jacques Rancière. Disenso. Ensayos sobre estética y política, primera edición en español. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 275 páginas.

The introduction looks at the constitutional situation in Chile since the demand for a new Constitution erupted in demonstrations all across the country, and argues that the notion of ‘constitutional moment’ is inadequate to capture the radicality of the popular mobilisation that is sweeping the country as a pure expression of constituent power.

1. These first two decades of the xxi century have witnessed an authentic Schelling Renaissance, a rebirth of interest in the Leonberg philosopher, occurring in English speaking area, thanks to numerous translations, collective volumes and important monographs. It meant and actually still means a rebirth that has in some cases been an out and out discovery of a long-forgotten author, overshadowed by more successful philosophers, that has in general aroused international interest in Schelling...

Se presenta en este trabajo la doctrina de la šafā‘a, esto es, la intercesión escatológica del Profeta por su comunidad, desde la perspectiva de los nuevos vínculos de cohesión social de la sociedad religiosa instaurada por el islam que sustituían a la aṣabiyya tribal, constituyéndose la šafā‘a en el colofón y broche final de esos nuevos vínculos. Tras estudiar dicha doctrina se constata la seguridad de la salvación final que ofrece, elemento valiosísimo de cohesión social, y se destaca la exclusividad (...) de la šafā‘a para solo el musulmán a través de la comparación de La disputa entre los animales y el hombre de los Ijwān al-Ṣafā’ con La disputa de l’ase de Turmeda y a través de la verdadera causa de la muerte de al-Ḥallāŷ según al-Rūmī. Hay, sin embargo, una excepción a esa exclusividad ya que existen musulmanes que quedan excluidos de la šafā‘a. Son estos, los herejes, quienes con la divulgación de sus nuevas doctrinas ponen en peligro la unidad y la cohesión de la comunidad. Se termina sugiriendo el posible calco de esta doctrina islámica en la devoción a la intercesión de la Virgen, pues la devoción mariana que con tanta fuerza irrumpe en el Occidente cristiano a partir del siglo XII, y que aparece reflejado en la Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio y en los Milagros de Nuestra Señora de Gonzalo de Berceo, es un fenómeno cuyo origen es todavía discutido. (shrink)

In this article I will use Husserlian tools in order to elaborate a phenomenology of ludic experience. Following Fink, my aim here is to present what Husserl could have elaborated in a more systematic manner concerning the specificity of what he calls the ludic praxis (Spielpraxis) and the ludic construct (Spielgebilde). Firstly, I analyze the temporality of ludic experience. Play has a dilative temporal structure: it involves a momentary captivation in the present and a momentary suspension of the architectonic goals (...) of the agent. Secondly, play has its own artifacts. I begin by analyzing what I call the impermanent construct, i.e., the object whose elaboration is motivated by a self-referential interest of the poietic subject. Thirdly, play does not only erect singular entities, but also ludic worlds as a whole. My objective is to scrutinize the mode of being of these normative spaces. I conclude with a description of the ludic object par excellence, namely the toy (Spielzeug). (shrink)