This article proposes complementing actor-network theory (ANT) with Niklas Luhmann’s communication theory, in order to overcome one of ANT’s major shortcomings, namely, the lack of a conceptual repertoire to describe virtual processes such as sense-making. A highly problematic consequence of ANT’s actualism is that it cannot explain the differentiation of economic, legal, scientific, touristic, religious, medical, artistic, political and other qualities of actual entities, assemblages and relationships. By recasting Luhmann’s theory of functionally differentiated communication forms and sense-making as dealing with (...) different types of virtual attractors calling for actualizations in concrete assemblages, I propose a symmetrical understanding of societal differentiation processes as based on the co-production of virtual attractors and actual assemblages. (shrink)

Tyler Burge is famous for defending primitivist naturalism about mental representations, according to which mental representations are primitive natural states. Primitivist naturalism contrasts with semantic reductionism, according to which mental representations are reducible to more fundamental natural states. Burge developed the most compelling and influential attack on semantic reductionism from a primitivist naturalist point of view. My goal in this paper is to defend semantic reduc- tionism from Burge’s attack. I assess and refute his objection to the motivations for semantic (...) reductionism and his objection to the semantic reductionist theory that he takes to be the most promising one, namely, teleosemantics. I argue that in spite of the ingenuity of Burge’s objections, they fail to show that there is no motivation for taking representational states as reducible to more fundamental natural states or that the core thesis of teleosemantics is flawed. (shrink)

In the deep joint work Deleuze-Guattari there is the demand of consider it as a political theory of literature, a literary politics. The following paragraphs, to some extent respond to that demand, enroll the Deleuze-Guattari micropolitics in a concatenation between the revolutionary and artistic machines, in this case, literary. Considering this conjecture, in this article we propose to address the relationships between the concept of minor literature, the spatial dynamics and the informative order.

Nietzsche uses many of the arguments used by himself against metaphysics in general to criticize the Cartesian cogito. The affinity indicated by Descartes himself between cogito and conscience means that the study focuses on the Nietzschean analysis of the problem of conscience, paying special attention to its anthropological implications. Faced with Cartesian reasoncentrism, Nietzsche maintains that, given that conscience is not an entity removed from the natural world, it is possible to present a strictly naturalist anthropology, eliminating the need to (...) resort to dualist hypothesis drawn from metaphysics or theology. (shrink)

Most research studying the corporate social performance –corporate financial performance link has utilized developed country samples. Also, this literature has generally focused on a wide variety of industries, ignoring the fact that certain sectors – such as controversial industries – have graver social and environmental issues. Hence, a gap exists in this tradition when it comes to emerging markets and controversial industries. This paper attempts to fill this void by providing preliminary evidence and insight on the matter. Based on an (...) exploration in six Latin American countries and five controversial industries, we find a negative bidirectional association between CSP and CFP. These results tend to contradict the mainstream conclusion of a positive bidirectional link, suggesting that institutional and market-level forces play a major role in shaping this relationship. (shrink)

The certification-based Fair Trade initiative has been steadily growing during the last two decades. While many scholars have analyzed its main characteristics and developments, only a few have assessed it against a concept of justice. And those exceptional cases have only focused on distributive justice, proving unable to grasp the important ethical elements that Fair Trade integrates in its project. In reaction to this, this article intends to critically examine what the Fair Trade movement proposes to be ‘fair’ by resorting (...) to the thought of the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. To accomplish this goal, a new understanding of his conception of justice is presented, one that seeks to overcome the limitations that the two most common interpretations in the literature suffer. The idea of Lévinas’ ‘dialectics of justice’ is used to discuss Fair Trade’s relation of alterity, its appropriation of the notion of ‘face’ and its commitment to and responsibility for marginalized producers and workers. This analysis shows that Fair Trade operates with what could be described as a fetishized understanding of Levinasian ethics that justifies a deeply unjust praxis. (shrink)

El impacto de los movimientos emancipatorios en las sociedades contemporáneas es incuestionable; alcanza incluso al ámbito académico, donde se busca comprender las experiencias que los motivan y se llega a tomar partido por sus causas. Sin embargo, estos movimientos están orientados a la consecución de derechos para identidades concretas, como las personas no binarias, de forma que se consiga paliar o incluso eliminar la situación de desigualdad que las oprime. Así, podría parecer que las causas de los grupos oprimidos resultan (...) «ajenas» para los grupos dominantes, los cuales no tienen que luchar por sus derechos, pues ya disfrutan de ellos, lo que confinaría el discurso acerca de las reivindicaciones y las experiencias que las motivan exclusivamente a los colectivos oprimidos. Abordaremos la polémica cuestión de hablar de una causa ajena desde la epistemología feminista del punto de vista y las literaturas sobre opresión e injusticia epistémica. A grandes rasgos, siguiendo la línea iniciada por Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1988), quien se distancia de autores como Michel Foucault o Gilles Deleuze, a quienes acusa de rechazar el hablar por otros asumiendo falsamente que las personas oprimidas pueden representar de manera transparente sus propios intereses, entenderemos el hablar de una causa ajena como un hablar con. Frente a la oposición escuchar versus hablar por, apostaremos por un informado hablar con que no participe de la esencialización de los oprimidos como sujetos no ideológicamente construidos. (shrink)

Pricing policies and fair-trade practices are critical for sustaining commercial relationships between firms and customers. Nevertheless, in current business practices, fairness has been mistakenly reduced to a minimalistic ethic wherein justice only demands legal and explicit norms to which commercial parties voluntarily agree. Aimed at giving a different explanation of commercial agreements, this paper will introduce a Virtue Ethics (VE) explanation of the relationship between pricing and the common good by taking up classical concepts related to justice in commerce. In (...) particular, we will explore three principles associated with the notion of fairness in commerce as defined in Neo-Aristotelian ethics towards a relationship between a common good and justice in pricing, i.e., proportionality, benevolence and well-being. To exemplify how these criteria of justice apply to decision-making in commercial practices, we will discuss several cases of fair and unfair commercial relationships. (shrink)

El presente trabajo se propone argumentar que el proyecto sociopolítico enunciado por Alberdi en Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina contribuyó a imposibilitar la constitución del moderno estado nacional cuya existencia buscó promover. El logro de dicho objetivo sólo resultará posible a partir de explicitar los supuestos alrededor de los que se estructura el razonamiento que permite alcanzar dicha conclusión; hacerlo implicará, en primer lugar, señalar las reflexiones de Aníbal Quijano en torno a (...) la constitución de los modernos estados nacionales y al eurocentrismo, en segundo lugar, establecer el carácter eurocéntrico de Las Bases y, por último, reconstruir el razonamiento que sustenta la idea directriz que atraviesa al trabajo. This paper intends to argue that the sociopolitical project enunciated by Alberdi on Bases and starting points for the political organization of Argentina contributed to preclude the constitution of the modern national state of which existence it sought to promote. Achieving this goal will only be possible by making explicit the assumptions from which the reasoning that allows to reach such conclusion are structured; it will involve, first, to point out Quijano's reflections about the constitution of modern national states and the eurocentrism, secondly, to establish The Bases's eurocentric nature and, finally, to rebuild the reasoning behind the leading idea running through the work. (shrink)

Resumen En el presente artículo repasaremos someramente algunos de los hitos más reseñables de la historia militar del Imperio Romano Tardío, haciendo hincapié en el papel de los bárbaros que luchaban junto a los romanos, puesto que la barbarización del ejercito romano ha sido uno de los puntos de referencia en las investigaciones acerca de la decadencia y caída del Imperio Romano. En este sentido, haremos referencia al papel integrador que tuvo el ejército romano durante buena parte de la historia (...) del Imperio Romano, y señalaremos los principales hechos que condujeron al final de dicho papel; esbozando también las desastrosas consecuencias que tuvo este hecho para el futuro del Imperio, especialmente del Occidental. Palabras clave: Bárbaros, ejército, integración, migración, godos, reclutamiento.In this article we will briefly review some of the most important milestones in the military history of the Late Roman Empire. In it we will emphasize the role of the barbarians who fought with the Romans, since the barbarización of the Roman army is one of the points of reference in the investigations about the decay and fall of the Roman Empire. In this sense, we will refer to the role played by the Roman army in the integration of foreigners during a large part of the history of the Roman Empire. In addition, we will point out the main events that led to the end of this integrating role; we will also indicate the disastrous consequences this fact had for the future of the Empire, especially for the Western part. Key words: Barbarians, army, integration, migration, goths, recruitment. (shrink)

It is the aim of this paper to trace, firstly, how far Epicurus is indebted to pre-Socratic physiology regarding the axiom of nihil ex nihilo, which the Samian philosopher accepts in toto; secondly to prove that physics, with this axiom as a ground, is a requisite for a both natural and mental framework where ἀταραξία can be achieved. In the first part of this writing, the aforementioned principle is presented as a struggle against myth, for a new interpretative structure of (...) the world. Afterwards, a path is defined, that goes from Parmenides and Melissus of Samos, as a necessary conceptual link, to the first ancient atomism. In the second part of this research effort, the role of atomistic materialistic physics is presented as an essential explanatory foundation for achieving, in the Epicurean way, a happy life without fear or mental disturbance. Accordingly, the study of nature, and the rational assumption of its conclusions, becomes a tool for soul care. (shrink)

This doctoral dissertation deals with the psychotherapeutic factor that permeates the whole Epicurean philosophical program. It is the aim of this study to research and to rehabilitate its healing function. Since the Garden’s philosophy is a very systematic one, the question about the natural reality, φύσις, had to be addressed firstly. Anti-nihilism, materialism, eternal atoms, infinite void, perpetual movement, clinamen and the plurality worlds are key notions of the axiomatic and scientific Epicurus’ physics. Once we had gained clarity about those (...) core concepts, the central role of human beings in the system was to be discussed. As natural, yet exceptional, atomic compounds, men and women do have flesh and soul and are, therefore, completely mortal. Nevertheless, they possess numerous qualities, originating in their ψυχή, which render them unique : freedom, rationality and even a material community with the gods. According to Epicurus, there is a fourth element constituting the souls of both people and deities, so that a physical continuity and material formation are preserved through the entire nature. Gods are studied from a naturalistic physiologic perspective and at the very same time they act exemplary and, freed from any providential, governing tasks, they provide a regula uitae in order to achieve a pleasant, authentic happiness. In fact, this research tries to demonstrate that complete curation is not to be linked to an eternal extra-corporeal soul, but arises from the removal of pain and fear, aponia and ataraxia. These two are the paramount pleasures, far distant from a gross hedonism. Ethics are, then, presented as a soothing practice, having a nuclear medical purpose. Taking this into account, it was necessary to explore the historical connections between philosophy and rational Hellenic medicine before Epicurus. After that, multiple therapeutic forms conceived or applied by the Samian philosopher were analyzed. The λόγος proved to be the unifying element among them and involved not only human reason but also analogy. Epicurus’ diagnose is very sad: we are in pain. To reverse that, he presented exercises such as meditation, confession, self-examination, laugh therapy, emotional intelligence, intrusive thoughts control, companionship, solidarity and friendship. There are still two additional therapies completing the above mentioned: an Epicurean thanatology, because we miss the point when considering (im)mortality and forget about sensation as the ground of any life; and an ars desidrandi, because we should accept only natural and necessary desires, instead of chasing whimsy dreams with vain hopes. All this will help us regain our primal bodily and mental health and happiness, our essential, frugal and glad wellbeing. By means of prudence and reflection, governing our body and cultivating our mind we will liberate ourselves and taste a durable, profound, stable joy, comparable to that of the gods. (shrink)

Cognitive Science is a promising field of research that deals with one of the most fundamental questions ever: how do beings know? However, despite the long and extensive tradition of the field it has not yet become an area of knowledge with scientific identity. This is primarily due to three reasons: the lack of boundaries in defining the object of study, i.e. cognition, the lack of a precise, robust and consistent scientific methodology and results, and the inner problems derived from (...) its interdisciplinary nature. This paper presents a background review, a theoretical frame and a humble reflection on these topics in order to arouse the internal debate among readers once more. (shrink)

Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2019, Page 42-44.

Leading scholars in the field of religious studies show that scholasticism as a comparative category is useful in the analysis of a variety of religious and philosophical traditions and even in the task of cultural criticism.

Este ensayo presenta una reflexión sobre las limitaciones del medio digital para la enseñanza de disciplinas teóricas como la filosofía. Se quiere contrarrestar, hasta cierto punto, el entusiasmo prematuro que despierta la virtualidad en algunos estamentos universitarios. El texto se nutre de mi experiencia pedagógica en la pandemia y traza una mirada fenomenológica sobre lo que implica la pérdida del entorno de la presencia para la enseñanza filosófica. Al reflexionar sobre dicha pérdida, el ensayo también esboza algunas reflexiones dispersas sobre (...) lo que significa aprender y enseñar filosofía. (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

This paper introduces the hypothesis that boredom may be a decisive factor in the social outbreak that took place in Chile in 2019. It is based on another hypothesis that postulates that boredom can become a political emotion capable of unleashing a revolution when it affects an entire community. The main objective of the work is to explain the theoretical, philosophical framework in which the second hypothesis is inscribed and to give reasons why, if this is true, it could be (...) applied to the specific case of Chile. In this sense, an unpublished definition of the concept of boredom is first outlined and the literature that describes boredom as a reactive and political emotion is examined. Then, the Chilean socio-political context of the last forty years is analyzed in search of isolatable factors that may be related to the experience of boredom. Lastly, an original line of research is proposed on which to work to test both hypotheses in a broader project that aims to be able to predict when a social system is on the verge of collapse because of boredom. (shrink)

La filosofía puede desenredar problemas humanos que obscurecen los misterios revelados. Este trabajo, primero de una serie sobre ese tema, presenta la noción de dar mediante un conocido texto agustiniano sobre la gracia. Y, tras confrontarlo con textos de autores semipelagianos, propone entender la gracia en clave donal, no causal. Si la actividad de la gracia fuera causal, quedarían imposibilitadas la libertad y el mérito; en cambio, ejercida según el dar, incluye a ambos. Ni pelagianos ni semipelagianos entendieron esto; s. (...) Agustín, empero, descubrió dicha donalidad: los méritos derivan, conjuntamente, de los dones divinos y de nuestra colaboración con ellos. (shrink)

Un presente compartido implica, al menos en parte, un pasado compartido. Si es compartido, debiera haber sido antes conocido. El patrimonio (cultural) edificado, en la actualidad, suele ser una barrera que se define por el desconocimiento que lleva a ignorar tal realidad antes que derribarla. En el caso particular de la condición de aquellas personas con discapacidad visual se suma, además, el hecho de no poder establecer (persona-edificio) una relación visual.El presente artículo expone los primeros avances de una investigación en (...) curso que busca brindarles a personas con discapacidad visual los recursos necesarios para que, en el transcurso de una visita al patrimonio edificado de la ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina, puedan imaginar cómo es la realidad que tienen de frente y que los contiene, aspirando a que cada uno gestione su propio recorrido. La experiencia aquí presentada se propuso para un determinado grupo de personas en un edificio en particular, pero se considera, además, la posibilidad de generar nuevas iniciativas para otros grupos de visitantes con diferentes discapacidades, para el público en general como así también el desarrollo en otros edificios de Córdoba.Es una investigación de carácter cualitativo que, como modalidad metodológica, propone el Estudio-Acción desde una lógica experiencial de conservación activa. El objetivo es profundizar en la comunidad el enriquecimiento de la memoria colectiva a partir de los bienes edificados, el reconocimiento de su autenticidad y sus valores cambiantes, y su apropiación por parte de quienes los habiten. (shrink)

Resumen El artículo expone la noción de temporalidad discontinua implícita formalmente en la fenomenología de la conciencia interna del tiempo de Husserl y las correspondencias equivalentes que se encuentran en una lectura atenta de la obra de Marcel Proust. Para eso se reconstruye la peculiar noción de tiempo implícita en la obra de ambos autores mostrando el sentido diferencial y discontinuo que la misma reviste. A partir de dicha reconstrucción se desarrollan las implicaciones críticas que la misma acarrea respecto de (...) las concepciones tradicionales de memoria, subjetividad y corporalidad. Finalmente se hacen algunas consideraciones respecto de las influencias recíprocas entre filosofía y arte.The article exposes the notion of a discontinuous temporality formally implied in Husserl's phenomenology of internal time consciousness and its corresponding equivalencies found in an attentive reading of the work of Marcel Proust. To this end, the peculiar notion of time implicit in the work of both authors is reconstructed showing the differential and discontinuous sense that this notion has. It is developed the critical implications that this reconstruction carries with it regarding the traditional conceptions of memory, subjectivity and corporeality. Finally, some considerations are made regarding the reciprocal influences between philosophy and art. (shrink)

The paper first examines the difference between Wolff’s demonstration of my present existence and Descartes’ intuitive connection of my thinking with my existence. The results of this investigation enable us to analyse two controversial answers to the question of the knowledge of existence in Wolff’s works. The first answer is from Jürgen Stolzenberg, who discusses Wolff’s proof of the statement: I am. The second is written by Luigi Cataldi Madonna, who investigates the concept of contingent existence in Wolff’s works. The (...) problems of the interpretations they propose are different. The first uses in his analysis meanings of central terms that were foreign to Wolff. The second does not pay attention to Wolff’s framework and aims. These difficulties in their interpretations distort what Wolff does and plans in his treatment of the knowledge of existence. Wolff builds a demonstration to prove how we know that we are, because for Wolff there is only science if we prove all that we claim. According to him, philosophy is a science. With this paper I plan to clarify the context of Wolff’s demonstration of my present existence as well as the demonstration itself, to which the analysis of the above two interpretations can contribute. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo propone una reflexión acerca de la noción de progreso. Una noción que recibió una contribución especial de Immanuel Kant, quien le otorgó la condición de finalidad y objetivo de las conciencias y de la historia humana. Esta condición, un poco más tarde, fue cuestionada y reformulada por Charles Darwin, quien, desde una ciencia de la vida, concibió tanto para los organismos vivos como para la humanidad un progreso con el fin de su conservación y reproducción, como resultado (...) de lo que él llamó “variación ciega”. Por último, esta querella recibió de Georges Canguilhem cuidados y desarrollos que resultaron en una nueva y distinta noción de progreso que tiene como contenido principal el concepto de normatividad biológica, aplicable tanto a los organismos vivos como a las organizaciones sociales. Un concepto que, a la manera bachelardiana, “niega y complementa” la noción de progreso de sus antecesores. Abstract: This article offers a reflection on the notion of progress. A notion that received a special contribution from Immanuel Kant, who gave it the condition of purpose and objective of consciences and human history. A little later, this condition was questioned and reformulated by Charles Darwin who, from a science of life, conceived both for living organisms and for humanity a progress with no other purpose than that of their conservation and reproduction, as a result of what he called “blind variation”. Finally, this quarrel received from Georges Canguilhem care and development that resulted in a new and distinct notion of progress that has as its main content the concept of biological normativity, applicable both to living organisms and to social organizations. A concept that, in the Bachelardian manner, “denies and complements” the notion of progress of its predecessors. (shrink)

Cada vez está más cerca el 1 de enero de 2005, fecha en la cual, según lo dispone el Acto Legislativo 03 de diciembre 19 de 2002, debe entrar a regir el nuevo sistema de procesamiento penal: el sistema acusatorio. En el acto legislativo y en el proyecto de Código de Procedimiento Penal que desarrolla dicho sistema de procesamiento, si bien es cierto el Jurado de Conciencia se enuncia como uno de los órganos llamados a administrar justicia, no se le (...) asigna esquema de funcionamiento alguno -número de integrantes, forma de elección, posesión, instalación, operatividad, etc.- como tampoco se señala qué delitos estarían sometidos al juzgamiento con participación de dicha Institución. (shrink)

Es wird versucht, die Camapsche Definitions- und Begriffslehre darzustellen, die er bei der Entwicklung seiner Konstitutionstheorie aufstellte. Camap unterscheidet zwei Hauptteile der Definitions- und Begriffslehre: den Abschnitt, der zum Konstitutionssystem gehört, und den Abschnitt, der nicht dazu gehört. Die Definitionslehre besteht wiederum aus zwei zentralen Definitionsarten: der Strukturbeschreibung, mit der das Konstitutionssystem aufgebaut wird, und der impliziten Definition, die außerhalb des Konstitutionssystems steht. Auch die Begriffslehre läßt sich in zwei Hauptgruppen unterteilen: in die eigentlichen Begriffe, die die Begriffe des Konstitutionssystems (...) bilden, und in die uneigentlichen, die nicht zum Konstitutionssystem gehören. (shrink)

This essay explores the contact between the Italian and Argentine cultures during the period of mass immigration by pointing out and commenting on a series of translations and artistic creations made by Italian artists in Buenos Aires: musical, literary, theatrical and pictorial works. In order to understand how the semiotic frontier was composed, we approached the question from a methodology that arises at the intersection of the phenomenon of translation and the semiotic theory of cultural interaction. Thinking about translation in (...) this way highlights its sociological dimension given the links that the source-text establishes with the programs of certain trends in the organization of a culture. The methodology consists on the description of the semiotic frontier showing which texts are of interest to whom and for what. In this way, we seek to understand how a certain tendency was positioned in relation to the project of sustaining italianità in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th Century. The path proposed shows the frontier between the Italian and Argentine cultures as a bilingual mechanism of mediation from which a cultural group of immigrants developed actions to propose the textual and metatextual guidelines of c. (shrink)

This article analyzes the problem of preference imputation in rational choice political science. I argue against the well-established practice in political science of assuming selfish preferences for purely methodological reasons, regardless of its empirical plausibility (this I call a preference for selfish preferences). Real motivations are overlooked due to difficulties of imputing preferences to agents in a non-arbitrary way in the political realm. I compare the problem of preference imputation in economic and political markets, and I show the harmful consequences (...) of the preference for selfish preferences in the field of collective action. Key Words: rational choice theory • preference • functionalism • collective action. (shrink)

La solución de los problemas biojurídicos depende fundamentalmente de la concepción del derecho y de la valoración de la vida humana de la que se disponga. La supresión de la perspectiva de la justicia, unida a la consideración de la vida humana como mera propiedad inmanente de un ser vivo que, en el caso del hombre, permitirá la libre disposición de ella, conducirá necesariamente a una degradación de la protección jurídica de la vida. Por el contrario, la vinculación del derecho (...) con la moral, a través de la justicia, propia de la concepción óntico-valorativa o, al menos, de una concepción del derecho que aúne las tres dimensiones, conducirá a una más firme defensa jurídica de la vida. Desde esta perspectiva se analiza la desprotección jurídica, y por tanto moral, de la vida en la regulación del aborto en la legislación española. (shrink)

Lukacs participation in the establishment and running of the Theater Company Thalia will reflect on his reflection on the modern drama in his first book (History of the evolution of modern drama". Our study is based on the correspondence between Lukacs and his companions and analysis of the early writings of Lukács, usually in Hungarian.