Esta investigación, se efectuó en un aula del centro de desarrollo integral de la familia (DIF) en el municipio de Durango, México. En este lugar, se capacitan personas para el trabajo artesanal; ahí fueron seleccionadas 13 madres adolescentes con un rango de edad que fluctúa entre los 15 y 23 años de edad, todas ellas víctimas de maltrato infantil. En este grupo de personas se implementó la propuesta filosófico-pedagógica denominada “Filosofía para Niños y Adolescentes” del filósofo norteamericano Matthew Lipman. El (...) principal objetivo fue conformar una “comunidad de indagación”, donde, a través del dialogo razonado las participantes desarrollaron habilidades cognitivas, posibilitándolas a departir de manera ética y moral sobre sus experiencias de vida dentro de un entorno democrático. Los resultados obtenidos se dan a conocer a través de las revelaciones expresadas por las participantes durante los diálogos filosóficos, además, fueron registradas las habilidades cognitivas detectadas durante 20 sesiones. Los resultados fueron contrastados con las teorías para demostrar el cambio cognitivo de las participantes en las comunidades de diálogo. También se registraron ciertos hallazgos inesperados en otras áreas académicas que favorecen el pensamiento ético y moral. (shrink)

Las estadísticas muestran que la tasa neta de escolarización en los estudios de grado en España aumenta significativamente. En esta investigación se pretende explorar la evolución de la cuenta de resultados y balance de aquellas empresas españolas de educación universitaria privada. Empleando los datos publicados en la base de datos SABI se han analizado las empresas con mayor volumen de facturación y total de activos. Como hallazgos principales se ha observado un incremento de la cifra de negocios y del resultado, (...) del orden del 40% y 20% respectivamente. No así la inversión en activos que se ha mantenido. (shrink)

Retraction note: Moreno López, W. (2022). Dispossession of land in Colombia: the infamous face of the economic reprimarization. To find the structural causes of the spoliation. HUMAN REVIEW. International Humanities / Revista Internacional De Humanidades, 12(6), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.37467/revhuman.v11.4106 The Editorial Office of Eurasia Academic Publishing Group has retracted this article. An investigation carried out by our Research Integrity Department has found a group of articles, among which this one is found, that are not within the thematic scope of (...) the journal. We believe that the editorial process was manipulated and, furthermore, acceptance decisions were made under possibly inappropriate peer review. (shrink)

Menos conocidas que la expropiación de tierras, perpetrada por paramilitares en Colombia desde finales del siglo anterior, son las relaciones de causalidad en que tal fenómeno subyace; en la perspectiva de contribuir a la discusión para identificar esas causas estructurales, este trabajo ausculta en el modelo neoliberal que, instaurado en el país desde 1990, obra consecuentemente con una nueva división internacional de la producción que deriva en reprimarización de la economía colombiana, escenario donde la tierra representa el medio de producción (...) más preciado que, como tal, alienta el despojo, según concluye esta investigación cualitativa tras una ponderada revisión documental. (shrink)

Background: Serious games have shown positive results in increasing motivation, adherence to treatment and strengthening the therapeutic alliance in multiple psychiatric disorders. In particular, patients with impulse control disorders and other disorders in which the patient suffers from inhibitory control deficits have been shown to benefit from serious games.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and to evaluate the usability of a new serious videogame, e-Estesia. This serious videogame was designed to improve emotion regulation in patients (...) with gambling disorder. Preliminary results from a pilot sample are also reported.Method: A pilot sample of 26 patients undergoing treatment for GD was recruited. Participants used e-Estesia on a tablet, which was connected to a thoracic band that sent heart rate and heart rate variability data to the videogame platform in order to provide biofeedback. The System Usability Scale was completed by patients to determine the usability of e-Estesia.Results and Discussion: e-Estesia performed comparatively well for all the explored groups. Around 84.6% of the patients endorsed that it was easy to use. Female patients with GD presented higher HRV during the use of the serious videogame compared to men. (shrink)

Researchers have studied the athletes' dual careers with the aim of helping them to combine the sport and the academic–vocational sphere. Most of this research has addressed the study–sport combination, but there is a lack of studies on the work–sport combination. The main objective of this research was to explore the subjective perceptions of Spanish elite athletes when attempting to combine their careers as professional athletes with a second profession or trade. Further, this study aims to identify the access to (...) facilitating resources and the perception of obstacles and barriers to the development of a dual career. A qualitative approach was chosen to address these research questions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out on a sample of 18 elite athletes, and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews based on a set of superordinate and subordinate categories. The results showed that the athletes interviewed possessed valuable resources such as the transference of sports values to the work sphere. However, important barriers were highlighted such as the perception of sport institutions as absent entities in the work–sport combination. Thus, the study of this type of dual career seems to be one of the challenges facing the interested scientific community for the coming years. (shrink)

Resumo: As elites econômicas intervieram historicamente no sistema educacional chileno e, nos últimos tempos, consolidaram sua posição no quadro da extrema privatização promovida pela reforma neoliberal. O poder corporativo na educação aparece hoje como um poder paraestatal que afeta a organização e os rumos que os sistemas educacionais tomam, no atual contexto de globalização capitalista. No Chile, o princípio constitucional da liberdade de ensino permitiu a organização de um mercado educacional, que finalmente reproduz o poder da elite sobre o próprio (...) sistema. No contexto de apresentação de propostas para uma nova constituição, o poder corporativo se mostra próprio. Quais são os principais elementos que defende nesta conjuntura? Como é possível estabelecer limites? Palavras Chave: Educação Pública; Debate Constitucional; Poder Corporativo; Reforma Educacional Neoliberal. Corporate power in the constitutional educational debate in Chile Abstract: Economic elites have historically intervened in the Chilean education system, and in recent times they have consolidated their position in the framework of extreme privatization promoted by the neoliberal reform. Corporate power in education appears today as a parastatal power that affects the organization and meaning taken by educational systems, in the current context of capitalist globalization. In Chile, the constitutional principle of freedom of education has made it possible to organize an educational market, which ultimately reproduces the power of the elite over the system itself. In the context of presenting proposals for a new constitution, corporate power shows its own. What are the main elements you defend at this juncture? How is it possible to set limits on them? Key Words: Public Education; Constitutional Debate; Corporate Power; Neoliberal Education Reform. El poder corporativo en el debate educativo constitucional en Chile Resumen: Las élites económicas han intervenido históricamente en el sistema educativo chileno, y en el último tiempo han consolidado su posición en el marco de extrema privatización promovida por la reforma neoliberal. El poder corporativo en educación aparece hoy como un poder para-estatal que incide en la organización y sentido que toman los sistemas educativos, en el actual contexto de globalización capitalista. En Chile, el principio constitucional de libertad de enseñanza ha permitido organizar un mercado educativo, el cual finalmente reproduce el poder de la élite sobre el propio sistema. En el contexto de presentación de propuestas para una nueva constitución el poder corporativo muestra las suyas. ¿Cuáles son los principales elementos que defienden en esta coyuntura? ¿Cómo es posible ponerles límites? Palabras clave: Educación Pública; Debate Constitucional; Poder Corporativo; Reforma Educativa Neoliberal. Data de registro: 27/06/2022 Data de aceite: 26/10/2022. (shrink)

The objective of the research is focused on the study of the evolution of sexism as a cultural parameter in the Roma population whose people maintain recognition as an ethnic minority in Europe. The design selected for this study is descriptive. This study involves testing the reliability of the reduced version of the ambivalent sexism inventory (ASI; Glick and Fiske, 1996) scale among a representative group of the Roma population belonging to the city of Toledo. A representative sample of 44 (...) people aged between 16 and 40 years was selected, with an average of 27.3. The results confirm the reliability of the scale and provide little differentiation and sex-disaggregated results. The responses on the items show a high degree of sexism among the participants. The obtained results give a better understanding of the scope of gender roles and, therefore, can help us to reorient interventions in the prevention of gender inequalities or early school dropouts among Roma girls. (shrink)

Quality of Life Reach in Medical Care Alcance da qualidade de vida no atendimento médico The term quality of life has increasingly widespread use in biomedical practice, especially in end-of-life situations. Experience shows that the expression is often used with very different —and sometimes conflicting— scopes. The present article presents the results of a literature review that show diverse positions, while delimitating the subject. The analysis compares the terms “quality of life,” “human dignity,” and “value of human life.” Para citar (...) este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Páez G, López-Gabeiras MP, Moreno-D’Anna M. Alcance de la “calidad de vida” en atención médica. Pers Bioet. 2020;24:14-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.1.2 Recibido: 06/11/2019 Aceptado: 04/03/2020 Publicado: 07/05/2020. (shrink)

Uno de los componentes más importantes del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudios de Arquitectura Técnica es la realización de un proyecto final que aglutina todos los conocimientos y competencias desarrollados en las diferentes disciplinas que configuran el Plan de Estudios. El objetivo de esta propuesta es visualizar la evolución del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje en el Proyecto Fin de Grado en los estudios de Arquitectura Técnica e Ingeniería de Edificación de la Universidad de Burgos, mostrando las diferentes adaptaciones (...) de los contenidos y la tipología elegida para su desarrollo. (shrink)

The experience of losing a child to cancer represents an emotional burden for the parents with extreme individual, family and social effects that do not end with death. This integrative review is intended to identify key aspects in the experience of losing a child to cancer. The results show a pattern surrounding six moments in the mourning process These can serve as elements of intervention to accompany parents as they try to cope. It is concluded this pattern is an important (...) phenomenon for the development of palliative care at the end of life and afterwards. (shrink)

En oposición a la recalcada objetividad que demanda el sistema de ciencia convencional, la propuesta epistémico-metodológica de Zemelman propugna por la restitución del sujeto en el proceso investigativo, tal acción se produce a la par con el abordaje de la problematización del objeto de investigación, pero requiere que, previamente, el individuo haya identificado su relación de conocimiento, esa afectación emocional subjetiva, mediadora entre él y el mundo y desde la cual entiende la realidad; para Zemelman, ésta es dinámica, articulada por (...) procesos y, como sea que creación de la sociedad, susceptible de cambiar por los individuos que la integran, razón que justifica la intervención del sujeto en la problematización de la realidad, devenida así en objeto de investigación. (shrink)

This paper presents an experience in developing professional ethics by an approach that integrates knowledge, teaching methodologies and assessment coherently. It has been implemented for students in both the Software Engineering and Computer Engineering degree programs of the Technical University of Madrid, in which professional ethics is studied as a part of a required course. Our contribution of this paper is a model for formative assessment that clarifies the learning goals, enhances the results, simplifies the scoring and can be replicated (...) in other contexts. A quasi-experimental study that involves many of the students of the required course has been developed. To test the effectiveness of the teaching process, the analysis of ethical dilemmas and the use of deontological codes have been integrated, and a scoring rubric has been designed. Currently, this model is also being used to develop skills related to social responsibility and sustainability for undergraduate and postgraduate students of diverse academic context. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly viewed as a strategic management tool for companies to draw in candidates. In this arena, international responsible rankings such as ‘The Great Place to Work’, ‘Family Responsible Employer Index (FREE)’ or ‘The Best Companies for Working Mothers’ put emphasis on the value of responsible behaviours, not only for surviving in the market, but also to ‘win the war for talent’. Using a sample of Spanish University students, this research aims to analyse the process of (...) selecting responsible organizations to work and whether there is a possible future conflict of interest by students between their own and organizational values. Surprisingly, the university students assessed two opposing situations with the highest values: of looking to change employer and of letting time pass in order to ignore the conflict. The implications of the students’ assessments and the related factors which affect their decision-making criteria are explored in this article. (shrink)

From March to September 2020, researchers working at a biomedical scientific campus in Spain faced two lockdowns and various mobility restrictions that affected their social and professional lifestyles. The working group “Women in Science,” which acts as an independent observatory of scientific gender inequalities on campus launched an online survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on scientific activity, domestic and caregiving tasks, and psychological status. The survey revealed differences in scientific performance by gender: while male researchers participated in (...) a larger number of scientific activities for career development, female researchers performed more invisible scientific tasks, including peer review or outreach activities. Mental impact was greater in researchers caring for children or dependents, and this was aggravated for women. Results spot a disproportionate impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on female scientific career development, and urges for equity measures to mitigate the consequences of an increase in the gender gap in biomedical sciences for current and future pandemics. (shrink)

Abstract“The Book of Secrets in the Results of Ideas”, usually called “The Book of Secrets” is a codex containing drawings and descriptions of thirty-one artifacts attributed to the engineer Alī Ibn Khalaf al-Murādī, who lived in Andalusia in southern Spain at the beginning of the 11th century. This manuscript is one of the first written testimonies that describe medieval mechanisms with complex precision. The aim of this work is to reconstruct and study from a historical and technological point of view (...) two of the ancient artifacts contained in the “Book of Secrets”, the “Fortress Demolisher” and the “Magic Well”. The “Fortress Demolisher” is a war machine designed to demolish the upper part of the walls or towers and consists of a battering ram mounted on a platform that can be raised several meters above the ground using a scissor mechanism. The “Magic Well” is a mechanism with several pulleys whose purpose is to raise water several meters from the bottom of a well by collecting a small portion of rope. To reconstruct the two artifacts, a digital model and a detailed study of the geometry and operation of the mechanisms, were first carried out. 3D printing, using the Fused Deposition Modelling technology, made the physical reproduction. The digitization and physical reproduction by 3D printing of the mechanisms represent an update of the traditional ways of transmitting knowledge. The use of these new technologies makes the knowledge more accessible, understandable and attractive. (shrink)

The COVID‐19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented health crisis that impacted healthcare systems worldwide. This study explores how Spanish healthcare workers learned, internalised and integrated values and work behaviours during the COVID‐19 pandemic and their impact on the personal sphere. This documentary research, using images, narratives and audiovisual content, was framed within the interpretative hermeneutic paradigm. Categories and subcategories emerged after a final theoretical sampling that focused on the analysis. Data triangulation between researchers favoured theoretical saturation. A total of 117 images (...) and 27 texts were selected. The analysis identified three stages: bewilderment, seeking functionality in the chaos and integrating chaos into care. The data reflects how the need for security and knowledge, and the exhaustion and frustration caused by the initial working conditions, prompted adaptive responses. These responses involved focusing on problem‐solving and strengthening group sentiments and solidarity. Subsequently, the data indicates the acceptance of new structural, organisational and communication aspects. The findings of the analysis will contribute towards finding a framework that can help understand community health crisis events. (shrink)

The acquisition and evolution of speech production, discourse and communication can be negatively impacted by brain malformations. We describe, for the first time, a case of developmental dynamic dysphasia (DDD) in a right-handed adolescent boy (subject D) with cortical malformations involving language-eloquent regions (inferior frontal gyrus) in both the left and the right hemispheres. Language evaluation revealed a markedly reduced verbal output affecting phonemic and semantic fluency, phrase and sentence generation and verbal communication in everyday life. Auditory comprehension, repetition, naming, (...) reading and spelling were relatively preserved, but executive function was impaired. Multimodal neuroimaging showed a malformed cerebral cortex with atypical configuration and placement of white matter tracts bilaterally and abnormal callosal fibers. Dichotic listening showed right hemisphere dominance for language and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) additionally revealed dissociated hemispheric language representation with right frontal activation for phonology and bilateral dominance for semantic processing. Moreover, subject D also had congenital mirror movements (CMM), defined as involuntary movements of one side of the body that mirror intentional movements of the other side. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and fMRI during voluntary unimanual (left and right) hand movements showed bilateral motor cortex recruitment and tractography revealed a lack of decussation of bilateral corticospinal tracts. Genetic testing aimed to detect mutations that disrupt the development of commissural tracts correlating with CMM (e.g., Germline DCC mutations) was negative. Overall, our findings suggest that DDD in subject D resulted from the underdevelopment of the left inferior frontal gyrus with limited capacity for plastic reorganization by its homologous counterpart in the right hemisphere. Corpus callosum anomalies probably contributed to hinder interhemispheric connectivity necessary to compensate language and communication deficits after left frontal involvement. (shrink)

Nowadays, the quality standards of higher education institutions pay special attention to the performance and evaluation of the students. Then, having a complete academic record of each student, such as number of attempts, average grade and so on, plays a key role. In this context, the existence of missing data, which can happen for different reasons, leads to affect adversely interesting future analysis. Therefore, the use of imputation techniques is presented as a helpful tool to estimate the value of missing (...) data. This work deals with the academic records of engineering students, in which imputation techniques are applied. More specifically, it is assessed and compared to the performance of the multivariate imputation by chained equations methodology, the adaptive assignation algorithm based on multivariate adaptive regression splines and a hybridization based on self-organisation maps with Mahalanobis distances and AAA algorithm. The results show that proposed methods obtain successfully results regardless the number of missing values, in general terms. (shrink)

El presente artículo determina cómo una empresa ética, convertida en escuela de virtudes morales, puede contribuir a mejorar la sociedad. La empresa sólo puede mejorar la sociedad y generar un impacto positivo en la misma desde la ejemplaridad de todas y cada una de sus personas. Se entiende la empresa como una comunidad de personas en la que ha de existir un equilibrio esencial entre lo individual y lo colectivo. Se parte de la premisa de que la empresa es, también, (...) un espacio ético que puede llegar a convertirse en una escuela de valores y virtudes en la que los profesionales desarrollen sus capacidades humanas en interrelación con los demás. Se argumenta la relevancia de la virtud empresarial, desde la perspectiva de la transformación del ethos individual, de los hábitos de las personas que forman la organización. Se considera que la empresa puede llegar a convertirse en una “escuela de valores y virtudes”. La forja del ethos ético y virtuoso de los profesionales es, a su vez, la esencia de la construcción del ethos ético de la empresa que tendrá su correspondiente impacto en el ethos de una buena sociedad. A partir de estas aseveraciones nos hacemos las siguientes preguntas en nuestra investigación: ¿De qué manera puede influir el ethos de la empresa en la configuración de los ethos particulares de los profesionales que forman parte de ella? y ¿cómo puede la empresa contribuir al desarrollo de las virtudes morales de sus personas? Asumiendo estas dos cuestiones como base de la investigación, se argumenta que la empresa puede llegar a ser, a través del trabajo, una ‘escuela’ para el desarrollo de las virtudes morales y, desde ahí, contribuir a la construcción de una sociedad más humana. (shrink)

Esta obra colectiva expone diversas concepciones teóricas, ontológicas, epistemológicas, axiológicas y prácticas sobre el origen, sentido, problemáticas, ventajas, detrimentos, alternativas y desafías de la filosofía de la innovación y su incidencia en la educación; reflexiona sobre las contribuciones de la tecnología y responde a interrogantes como: ¿Cuáles son los aporte de la tradición filosófica, del pensamiento ilustrado, de la postmodernidad y de la teoría crítica para la filosofía de la innovación educativa?; ¿Cuál es la función de la filosofía para la (...) comprensión de la innovación?; ¿Cómo se explica el progreso tecno-científico desde la epistemología contemporánea?; ¿Cuál es el componente pedagógico de la innovación?; ¿Cuáles son las aportaciones del Laudato Si para la innovación educativa?. Además, plantea la necesidad de repensar algunos aspectos relacionados con la educación, el Estado y la identidad latinoamericana para determinar las posibilidades, las limitaciones y los retos de la innovación, entendida como un fenómeno en permanente construcción. Este tomo se encuentra conformado por ocho capítulos en los que los autores formulan un conjunto de contribuciones para la generación de nuevas investigaciones. Además, evidencia a la innovación como un procesos que exige reformulaciones. La innovación sigue siendo una de las tareas pendientes de la filosofía. (shrink)

El filósofo mexicano Emilio Uranga (1921-1988) es recordado por su Análisis del ser del mexicano (1952) y por su labor como periodista político y asesor de López Mateos, Díaz Ordaz, Echeverría y López Portillo. Es posible tender un puente entre los dos aspectos, gracias a su concepción ontologizante de la Revolución Mexicana, leitmotiv de su producción teórica.

This article collects quotes on Homer made by Tertullian throughout his works. The textual analysis aims to explain the reasons for these references and thus to disclose their theological value. Moreover, this study will offer an insight into Tertullian’s understanding of and access to Homer. The article therefore offers a new perspective that confirms Tertullian’s highly noteworthy theological, philosophical and literary background.

In this article we are concerned with an analysis of «methodological individualism » that is on the ground of weberian work, as himself states in “Die «Objetivität» sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpolitischer Erkenntnis”. This individualism means, not only a scientific methodology , but a accurate subjectivity scheme: the subject is constrained in its ability to provide a thorough meaning to life. Also, this study claims that the German Methodensreit was a central discusión in the weberian theory. The global aim of this article (...) is to emphasize the value of methodological individualism as a way of understanding the society in the scheme of the social action drawn by Max Weber. (shrink)

En este artículo tratamos el “romance do Comandante Moreno” como parte de la música de tradición oral gallega y de la memoria histórica en relación a la Guerra Civil española. Metodológicamente trabajamos con análisis de corte etnomusicológico que se centran en parámetros musicales, literarios y de contexto, además de trabajar con referencias bibliográficas y audiovisuales. Así, nos encontramos con características propias de la música de tradición gallega y una descripción concisa de los hechos, siendo este romance un testigo fidedigno (...) de los asesinatos ocurridos en 1937 y, por ello, un elemento con oportunidades didácticas para la creación de proyectos interdisciplinares. (shrink)

Against attempts to vacate silence of the possibility of expression, and empty the expression of its own silence, this article proposes as a task for our contemporary world that we should be silence-trackers. This task is not easy, since the decisive silence cannot be heard, but it is treasured within the words and works as their last and most inspired truth. To that end, it is taken as a guide the famous Letter of Lord Chandos (Hofmannsthal), who claims his silence-in-transit (...) (exceeded by a new experience of the overwhelming richness of reality), as well as Blanchot’s reflections on the relationship between silence and inspiration. In the second part, the article “tracks”, as “exemplary” examples, the silences of A. López (Dream of Light) and the one involved in the secret of “Rosebud” (Citizen Kane, Welles).Keywords: silence, inspiration, expression, Chandos, Hofmannsthal, Blanchot. (shrink)

El siguiente artículo tiene por finalidad explorar el concepto de exilio desde el enfoque filosófico. Se trata de un examen de la construcción teórica del concepto, a partir del análisis situado en pasajes de dos obras centrales en la cultura de Occidente: La Il íada de Homero y Las leyes de Platón. Se atiende a estas obras a la luz del exilio, para esclarecer una problemática que subyace a la propia constitución de la comunidad política en la historia jurídica, (...) ética y política. La construcción conceptual se ve procedida, en el artículo, por la propuesta final en la aproximación crítica del exiliado con otras figuras como el indigente, el vagabundo, el paria o el refugiado; las cuales comparten rasgos cercanos, en su situación jurídico-política y existencial cualitativa, que en el exilio se esperaba generar: el abandono de la comunidad respecto a quien formó parte de ella. (shrink)

The developed cities are product of a very complex sequence of factors. This is in this way in the process of constitution of the classical polis in Greece. All it involved institutionals and representationals conflicts reflected in the struture of the urban space. The most important is the development of the love to the monetary richness in itself and the development of the agora as urban center. The reaction to this caused the Plato and Aristotle's educational, urban and political project, (...) across a conjunito of word, music, dance and uban space even nowadays reinterpretable. (shrink)

Cognitive scientists distinguish between automatic and controlled mental processes. Automatic processes are either innately involuntary or become automatized through extensive practice. For example, reading words is a purportedly automatic process for proficient readers and the Stroop effect is consequently considered the “gold standard” of automated performance. Although the question of whether it is possible to regain control over an automatic process is mostly unasked, we provide compelling data showing that posthypnotic suggestion reduced and even removed Stroop interference in highly hypnotizable (...) individuals. Drawing on a large sample of highly hypnotizable participants, we examined the effects of suggestion on Stroop performance both with and without a posthypnotic suggestion to perceive the input stream as meaningless symbols. We show that suggestion administered to highly hypnotizable persons significantly reduced Stroop interference and derailed a seemingly automatic process. (shrink)

This paper argues that our modern concept of biological heredity was first clearly introduced in a theoretical and practical setting by the generation of French physicians that were active between 1810 and 1830. It describes how from a traditional focus on hereditary transmission of disease, influential French medical men like Esquirol, Fodéré, Piorry, Lévy, moved towards considering heredity a central concept for the conception of the human bodily frame, and its set of physical and moral dispositions. The notion of heredity (...) as a natural force, with a wide ranging capabilities of transmitting differentially both fundamental and accidental characters was generalized by that generation of physicians with the help of contemporary naturalists and physiologists. By 1830 the term hérédité was widespread, and it shared the explanatory and semantic qualities of traditional medical concepts like constitution and temperament. An analysis is given of the main developments that led to the conception of biological (including human) bodies as consisting of a layered, hierarchical organization of characters, differentially affected by the laws of conservation (Heredity) and change (Inneity, Variation). The mid-century work of the French physician Prosper Lucas, Traité Philosophique et Physiologique de L'Hérédité Naturelle, is shown to be the culmination of the efforts of several generations of French physicians towards having a feasible, complexly structured notion of how heredity works. (shrink)