This article will explore a clinical case study of a home visit carried out by the case manager nurse. In this case, we will discuss the dilemma of finding the balance between autonomy and beneficence from the perspective of principlist ethics, virtue ethics and the ‘ethics of care’. The main conflict in this case study deals with all proposals are unsuitable and it is not necessary for a nurse to pay him a home visit, whereas for the healthcare system it (...) is considered necessary. We could conclude that, during the home visit, the case manager aspires to achieve excellence, and throughout his clinical relationship with Francesc, searches for a series of virtues, respecting certain fundamental principles. In this way, the case managers ensure that Jaume’s care is more humanised. The case has been anonymised and confidentiality maintained. (shrink)

The monoidal t-norm based logic MTL is obtained from Hájek''s Basic Fuzzy logic BL by dropping the divisibility condition for the strong (or monoidal) conjunction. Recently, Jenei and Montgana have shown MTL to be standard complete, i.e. complete with respect to the class of residuated lattices in the real unit interval [0,1] defined by left-continuous t-norms and their residua. Its corresponding algebraic semantics is given by pre-linear residuated lattices. In this paper we address the issue of standard and rational completeness (...) (rational completeness meaning completeness with respect to a class of algebras in the rational unit interval [0,1]) of some important axiomatic extensions of MTL corresponding to well-known parallel extensions of BL. Moreover, we investigate varieties of MTL algebras whose linearly ordered countable algebras embed into algebras whose lattice reduct is the real and/or the rational interval [0,1]. These embedding properties are used to investigate finite strong standard and/or rational completeness of the corresponding logics. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate whether the ordinal judgments of high math-anxious and low math-anxious individuals differ. Two groups of 20 participants with extreme scores on the Shortened Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale had to decide whether a triplet of numbers was presented in ascending order. Triplets could contain one-digit or two-digit numbers and be formed by consecutive numbers, numbers with a constant distance of two or three or numbers with variable distances between them. All these triplets were also presented unordered: (...) sequence order in these trials could be broken at the second or third number. A reverse distance effect of equal size was found in both anxiety groups. However, HMA participants made more judgment errors than their LMA peers when they judged one-digit counting ordered triplets. This effect was related to worse performance of HMA individuals on a symmetry span test and might be related to group differences on working memory. Importantly, HMAs were less accurate than LMA participants at rejecting unordered D2 sequences. This result is interpreted in terms of worse cognitive flexibility in HMA individuals. (shrink)

El concepto de “maquinación” (Machenschaft) ocupa un lugar central en la obra de Heidegger durante el período comprendido entre 1936 y 1940. En su análisis de la esencia de la época moderna, el filósofo checo de orientación marxista Karel Kosík se apropia de importantes elementos conceptuales procedentes de esta etapa del pensamiento de Heidegger. En concreto, emplea nociones análogas a la de “maquinación”, como “sistema de manipulabilidad”. Ponemos de relieve las semejanzas y puntos de fricción en la descripción de la (...) esencia de la época moderna de ambos pensadores, así como sus respectivas propuestas para poner coto a la primacía técnica y al pensamiento calculador y las resonancias políticas derivadas de sus análisis. (shrink)

Globalisation has given rise to a new field of debate due to the growing mobility of the workers and the consequent cultural diversity inside companies. In this sense, a complex world like ours demands a review of the professional profile which should include the so called intercultural competences as a structuring element of companies’ policy and strategic plan. Subsequently it is suggested that, as the intercultural competences affect the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects, they actually imply a transformation of the (...) person’s identity. (shrink)

Residuated fuzzy logic calculi are related to continuous t-norms, which are used as truth functions for conjunction, and their residua as truth functions for implication. In these logics, a negation is also definable from the implication and the truth constant $\overline{0}$ , namely $\neg \varphi$ is $\varphi \to \overline{0}$. However, this negation behaves quite differently depending on the t-norm. For a nilpotent t-norm (a t-norm which is isomorphic to Łukasiewicz t-norm), it turns out that $\neg$ is an involutive negation. However, (...) for t-norms without non-trivial zero divisors, $\neg$ is Gödel negation. In this paper we investigate the residuated fuzzy logics arising from continuous t-norms without non-trivial zero divisors and extended with an involutive negation. (shrink)

The concept of the Noosphere is of great importance when looking at the values underpinning the technocratic artifacts and technocracies (human physical technological objects and knowledge processes) by which Humans relate to the Geosphere through other human beings. In this sense, the Noosphere may inform geoethics as an environmental, social, and spiritual praxis and thinking aiming at ecological justice. The concept of the Noosphere represents the coexistence and coevolution of Humans and the Geosphere, overcoming the dichotomy between instrumental materialistic and (...) intrinsic ecocentric values but considering the meaning of a constitutive dimension. Thus, the Noosphere becomes a concept for reconnection with the human community, the natural world, and the Divine, and develops into an ecological mysticism that, in turn, unfolds in resistance in hope as a kind of spiritual activism. The theoretical framework is illustrated with the case study of the Terres de L’Ebre in Catalonia (Spain). (shrink)

Neuroimaging evidence, both within and between research strategies, is largely heterogeneous. This results from the way the construct of interest (i.e., intelligence) is measured. Every single available measure comprises several cognitive abilities, although the so-called g factor is always present. Here I suggest that studies must always control for this empirical fact to arrive at solid conclusions.

This article aims to find out the relation between secular and atheistic spiritualties underlining the only one that seems to be able to suit the knowledge society. We analyze several texts of main classical personalities of both spiritualities, such as Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Comte Sponville, among others. Some of the essential elements of an atheistic spirituality are specifically discussed: critical spirit and rationality, centrality and sufficiency of human beings and their release from submission and exploitation, and a will without (...) limits instead of laziness. However, the main objective is to highlight that there is a culture of absolute dimension of reality beyond the religious traditions. We also intend to point out that culture, in changing societies, requires, as Corbí suggests, a new anthropology, of an animal who talks, with a dual access to reality. We also point to the existence of a new epistemology, beyond the previous mythical paradigms, allowing the merely free and symbolic use of mankind wisdoms. Finally, it is a question of survival of humankind and of its environment. (shrink)

Coherence is today a source of moral authority. Being coherent frees us from external influences and gives us the capacity to decide for ourselves, but also places us in a privileged position with regard to others. We will turn our attention now to coherence as a foundation of authority in organisations. And to do that, organisations must be divided into different levels and different dimensions. Coherence will only be possible when the worker is capable of weighing up the distance between (...) the organisation's specific vision and the operational processes that effectively take place within it. All companies, as a sum of possibilities, respond to the intention of those who govern them insofar as their assets permit it, and their ultimate value resides therein; the possibility of being recognised for their way of being, their corporate ethos. (shrink)

El trabajo parte de la distinción teórica entre nación en sentido jurídico-político y nación en sentido histórico-cultural. Sobre esa base, se trata de averiguar cuál es el concepto de nación que utiliza la Constitución española. Del análisis jurídico-constitucional efectuado, se concluye que la palabra nación se utiliza en el sentido jurídico-político y se equipara a pueblo, a patria, a España o a Estado, aunque cabe hacer la distinción entre nación-constituyente y nación-constituida para encontrar el significado preciso de todos estos términos. (...) En cambio, el concepto de nación en sentido histórico-cultural es utilizado parcialmente en la Constitución —si nos fundamos en la voluntad del constituyente— bajo el término nacionalidades o regiones, aunque limitando las aspiraciones de éstas —por ello decimos parcialmente— al derecho a la autonomía y no al derecho a la soberanía. (shrink)

What are financial institutions' social responsibilities in developing countries? On the one hand, these institutions share the generic responsibilities of all human organizations and business enterprises. However, their specific social responsibility is the performance of the social function of financial intermediaries, which, in the case of emerging countries, consists mainly of contributing to economic growth and solving the problem of poverty. This paper describes a number of technical-economic and moral problems that take us to a consideration of the performance of (...) banking operations in microfinancing, with special reference to Latin America. The paper also provides a series of recommendations that, in addition to contributing to solving the development and poverty problems in emerging countries, help define financial institutions' social responsibility in such countries. (shrink)

This conceptual paper explores and compares the ethical dimension of Islamic and so-called ethical banks. The investigation is made in two succeeding steps. First, an individual analysis as regards the respective level of correspondence between ethical principles and business practice. For the latter, a time-based perspective is adopted. Second, a side-by-side comparison of their overall “ethical coherence gap”. The results show that this gap is wider in the case of Islamic banks. The final part of the paper draws up three (...) different scenarios for future development of these financial institutions where their ethical coherence is enhanced. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss some of the best practices of financial industry, in three emerging economies: Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The main thesis is that, notwithstanding the importance of certain specific deficiencies, such as an inadequate regulatory context or the lack of financial education among the population, the main factor that explains the low banking levels in emerging and developing economies, affecting mostly lower-income segments, is the use of inefficient financial service distribution models. In (...) connection with this thesis, we will try to show that traditional financial institutions, both in developing countries and in the advanced economies have a special social responsibility to help create an efficient financial system that makes saving and borrowing instruments available to the greatest possible number of citizens. (shrink)

The expression ψυχαγωγεῖ Σωκράτης used by Aristophanes in Birds has been interpreted in different ways. However, the fact that the comediographer compares the action of invoking the souls of the dead to Odysseus, ὥσπερ Οὑδυσσεύς, suggests that book 11 of the Odyssey was the model that inspired the scene. Many platonic passages from Protagoras, Republic, Gorgias, Phaedo and Apology explain which could have been the cause of the aristophanic parody: Socrates’ propensity to mention Odysseus in his descriptions of what is (...) awaiting for the souls in Hades after the death. (shrink)

Aquí se presenta la colección de volúmenes que recogen las ponencias y discusiones de los, hasta hoy, nueve Encuentros Internacionales organizados por el Centro de Estudio de las Tradiciones de Sabiduría de Barcelona. Un requisito principal en la realización de los Encuentros ha sido un marcado carácter interdisciplinar, interreligioso y espiritual. El objetivo general que alumbra las diferentes ediciones ha sido abordar el papel vital, para la especie y para el medio, de la cualidad humana profunda o espiritualidad en sociedades (...) de cambio continuo. Todo ello bajo la preocupación por la crisis religiosa con consecuencias sobre los valores, que se sufre en Europa, que se extiende a todos los países, a medida que se incorporan a la sociedad que vive de la innovación y el cambio continuo. A pesar de que los países de procedencia de los diferentes participantes sufren la crisis religiosa en diverso grado, gracias al intenso trabajo realizado en las diferentes ediciones, se ha conseguido aunar el interés de los participantes en torno al objetivo general. También se ha conseguido llegar a ciertos acuerdos sobre las bases teóricas desde las cuales cada uno construye sus aportaciones a los temas concretos de cada edición. Así pues, podemos decir que se ha conseguido generar un equipo estable de doce investigadores, muchos de ellos profesores universitarios de España así como de México, Costa Rica, Brasil, Colombia, que trabaja para ir construyendo una respuesta al cambio epistemológico que sufren las sociedades actuales y que crea la inadecuación de la religión. (shrink)

The framework presented by Bayefsky and Berkman is based on having clear and accurate genetic information to offer parents, for them to either decide to prepare for birth or to terminate the...

En el particular contexto filosófico de la Alemania de entreguerras, el joven H. Marcuse llevó a cabo una original recepción en clave marxista de la fenomenología existencial y de la Lebensphilosophie (I). En sus primeros artículos, «Contribuciones a una fenomenología del materialismo histórico» (1928) y «Sobre filosofía concreta» (1929), esa recepción se orientó al proyecto de elaboración de una fenomenología dialéctica y, vinculado con ello, al intento de fundamentar la acción radical en el concepto ontológico de historicidad (Geschichtlichkeit) sin descuidar (...) su componente material (II, III, IV). Asimismo, en la situación de caída (Verfallen) del Dasein, Marcuse va a otorgar una misión primordial a la filosofía concreta (V). (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende dilucidar los motivos fundamentales de la recepción de F. W. J. Schelling en los jóvenes hegelianos (I), el marxismo (II) y la Teoría Crítica (III) estableciendo ciertos paralelismos y divergencias respecto al modo en que fue acogida su obra en el seno de estas tres tradiciones. En el primer apartado se toma en consideración el alcance de este influjo en la obra de L. Feuerbach, así como en algunos escritos de juventud de F. Engels. A continuación, (...) se examinan los aspectos centrales de su recepción en G. Lukács y, en menor medida, en la obra de otros autores como E. Bloch o E. Dussel. Por último, vienen a apuntarse las temáticas principales de esa recepción en la Teoría Crítica, especialmente allí donde es más pronunciada, en los casos de H. Marcuse, J. Habermas y Th. W. Adorno. (shrink)

El filósofo checo Karel Kosík (1926-2003) llevó a cabo en su obra una recepción crítica del pensamiento de Martin Heidegger. En determinados capítulos de "Dialéctica de lo concreto" (1963), así como en otros ensayos tardíos, elaboró una crítica de la analítica existencial heideggeriana, principalmente a la concepción de la estructura del ser del Dasein como “preocupación” o “cuidado” (Sorge). Nos ocupamos aquí de dilucidar el sentido y el alcance de esta crítica a "Ser y tiempo" (1927).