El cosmopolitismo, esto es, la representación del conjunto de los seres humanos como una sociedad universal, tiene una larga historia: las doctrinas y propuestas cosmopolitas atraviesan lo siglos. Pero hoy el cosmopolitismo suscita un renovado e intenso interés, debido tanto a la intensificación de la comunicación e interdependencia económica, cultural y política entre los habitantes y pueblos de la Tierra como a los presupuestos universalistas de los principales planteamientos morales y políticos actuales. Este libro examina los variados aspectos y expresiones (...) del cosmopolitismo -cultural, económico, moral, jurídico, político-, atendiendo siempre a su relación, explícita o implícita, con la política. Trata igualmente de hacerse cargo de las principales críticas a las que se enfrenta, ya se trate de las que lo consideran una fantasía bienintencionada, ajena a la realidad conflictiva y plural de la política, y por tanto de imposible realización, o bien de aquellas que ven en el cosmopolitismo una máscara ideológica que encubre la dominación y la represión de las diferencias por parte de los poderosos. Teniendo en cuenta todo eso, aquí se concluye sin embargo que la política del siglo XXI ha de ser comprendida necesariamente desde un punto de vista cosmopolita, es decir, teniendo en cuenta el horizonte mundial de los problemas y propuestas de cualquier signo. Al mismo tiempo, se sostiene que el cosmopolitismo ha de ser concebido como un proyecto político para ser real y eficaz, por difícil o lejana que nos parezca su realización. Javier Peña Echeverría (San Sebastián, 1951) es catedrático de Filosofía Moral de la Universidad de Valladolid. Sus líneas de investigación fundamentales son la historia del pensamiento político moderno, la ciudadanía, el republicanismo y el cosmopolitismo, temas sobre los que ha publicado varios libros, artículos y contribuciones a obras colectivas. Cabe destacar los libros La filosofía política de Espinosa (1989) y La ciudadanía hoy. Problemas y propuestas (Universidad de Valladolid, 2000). (shrink)

En cierto sentido, la ética es hoy un valor en alza. Hay una demanda generalizada de ética o –para ser más exactos–, de moralidad: por todas partes se exigen y se echan en falta, actitudes y comportamientos morales en los distintos campos de la vida social: en la política, en los negocios, en la actividad profesional, en la investigación científica y sus aplicaciones, en la comunicación, etc.; y a esa preocupación moral le acompaña a su vez la demanda de reflexión (...) y orientación sobre cuestiones morales: es decir, de ética propiamente dicha. (shrink)

This volume features essays that detail the distinctive ways authors and researchers in Spanish speaking countries express their thoughts on contemporary philosophy of technology. Written in English but fully capturing a Spanish perspective, the essays bring the views and ideas of pioneer authors and many new ones to an international readership. Coverage explores key topics in the philosophy of technology, the ontological and epistemological aspects of technology, development and innovation, and new technological frontiers like nanotechnology and cloud computing. In addition, (...) the book features case studies on philosophical queries. Readers will discover such voices as Miguel Ángel Quintanilla and Javier Echeverría, who are main references in the current landscape of philosophy of technology both in Spain and Spanish speaking countries; José Luis Luján, who is a leading Spanish author in research about technological risk; and Emilio Muñoz, former head of the Spanish National Research Council and an authority on Spanish science policy. The volume also covers thinkers in American Spanish speaking countries, such as León Olivé, an influential researcher in ethical issues; Judith Sutz, who has a very recognized work on social issues concerning innovation; Carlos Osorio, who focuses his work on technological determinism and the social appropriation of technology; and Diego Lawler, an important researcher in the ontological aspects of technology. (shrink)

This paper evaluates an argument for immigration restrictions that appeals to the costs that immigration imposes on the citizens of a recipient state. According to this argument, citizens have associative duties to protect each other’s interests, immigration can damage these interests in certain cases, and the associative duties between compatriots justify immigration restrictions in these cases. Call this: the partiality argument for immigration restrictions. I argue that the partiality argument is unsound. Immigration restrictions violate negative duties to refrain from interfering (...) with people’s liberties and these duties silence compatriots’ associative duties to one another. Furthermore, I argue that compatriots lack associative duties to one another in virtue of the fact that the relationships between compatriots reliably cause injustice to outsiders. (shrink)

This article defends a selective eliminativist position with respect to the concept of “biological lineage” as used in certain areas of contemporary evolutionary biology. We argue that its primary epistemic roles in these contexts—explaining social evolution and cumulative selection—clash with empirical evidence, and that enforcing the concept of “lineage” even obstructs fruitful research avenues in several biological research fields, including phylogenetic research. Drawing on this, we suggest that, in many instances, it would be best to get rid of the concept (...) of “lineage” and think in terms that are more closely aligned with the empirical complexity of the biological world. Specifically, this entails that, instead of looking for the lineage that may have given rise to the entities possessing certain biological characteristics, biologists should generally look for any potential process allowing such possession, with the formation of a lineage just one possibility among many. (shrink)

According to the cohabitation account, all the persons that result from a fission event cohabit the same body prior to fission. This article concerns a problem for this account. Suppose Manuel and Jimena are suffering from an equally painful migraine. Unlike Jimena, however, Manuel will undergo fission. Assuming you have a spare painkiller, whom should you give it to? Intuitively, you have no more reason to give it to one or the other. The problem is that the cohabitation account suggests (...) otherwise. According to the account, there are two persons cohabiting Manuel’s body, in which case you should arguably give them the pill, since doing so alleviates the pain of more beings. One response argues that the two persons cohabiting Manuel’s body share one pain. Thus, giving them the pill alleviates no more pain than giving it to Jimena, and therefore you have no more reason to do one or the other. The goal of this article is to show that this response fails. (shrink)

Mereological Nominalism, as traditionally understood, states that properties are mereological wholes and that instantiation is mereological. Thus defined, this view faces a number of well-known issues, which make it virtually untenable. Recently, Effingham :160–185, 2020) has offered an alternative account of Mereological Nominalism, which intends to avoid these problems by accepting while rejecting. In this paper, we argue that this theory is not viable for two main reasons. First, it faces a threat of circularity. Second, the various non-mereological accounts of (...) instantiation envisioned by Effingham in order to replace seem inconsistent with. (shrink)

Several noted economists and prominent international organizations have recently advocated for the implementation of guest worker programs in developed states. Their primary argument is that guest worker programs would serve as a powerful mechanism for reducing global poverty and inequality. For example, economist Dani Rodrik estimates that guest worker programs in wealthy states would generate $200 billion or more annually for poor countries. According to Rodrik, liberalizing the temporary movement of workers would “produce the largest possible gains for the world (...) economy and for poor countries in particular,” in comparison with other policies, such as trade liberalization. (shrink)

En este artículo se plantea una reconsideración de la elección del reduccionismo de Parfit en Razones y personas como la posición que mejor explica el vínculo de dos sucesos mentales separados en el tiempo. Sin embargo, veremos cómo Parfit basa dicha elección en la consideración de la noción de persona como una sustancia, lo que en principio deja fuera cualquier otra perspectiva. El problema aparece cuando éste no considera apropiadamente el origen histórico de la pregunta en Locke, donde la noción (...) de “persona” se caracteriza en función de la “conciencia de sí”, lo que abre la posibilidad de entender dicha noción a partir de su naturaleza modal en vez de sustancial. En esta medida, se verá cómo esta tercera alternativa incluye una explicación de la conciencia de sí que podría considerarse más razonable bajo los propios términos de Parfit. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze a specific way in which a scientific programme or area can, in Lakatosian terms, degenerate: namely, through a developmental process of intellectual inflation. Adopting a pluralist approach to the notion of scientific progress, we propose that the historical development of a particular scientific area can be analyzed as being intellectually inflationary during a bounded period of time if it has considerably increased its productive output (thus displaying productive progress) while the overall semantic or epistemic value (...) of those products have not improved in a significant fashion (thus lacking progress in a semantic or epistemic sense). Then, we apply this concept to thoroughly assess whether there are some intellectually inflationary patterns in the development of two areas of research: (i) information-theoretical evolutionary biology in 1961-2023, and (ii) ensemblist non-equilibrium statistical mechanics in 1938-2023. And finally, we argue that tracking and analyzing intellectually inflationary patterns in the history of sciences might contribute to vindicate a non-productivist picture of current scientific research. (shrink)

Robert Brandom’s theory of discursive practice regards all linguistic activity as taking place within a social normative framework. The normative structure of this framework is described by means of an ideal model of linguistic game: the game of giving and asking for reasons. The main elements of this model account for the fundamental relations that characterise linguistic practice: responsibility and authority. Although the semantic development of the theory is inferentialist and hence deflationist about truth, it is useful to use this (...) concept to distinguish an elementary precondition for discursive practice. On the basis of this conceptual expedient, it is possible to analyse the transformation of such practice induced by the emergence of social networking services with particular rules and the speech production through the use of artificial intelligence in the context of those media. Thus, the aim of this paper is to outline the general features of the transformation in the normative vocabulary of Brandom’s communication model in order to achieve a better understanding of the phenomenon and to suggest possible consequences for discursive practice. (shrink)

El universo que conocemos es un producto de la mente humana. En la experiencia fenomenológica primordial, que el hombre tiene de si mismo, se imponen dos hechos fenomenológicos: la experiencia de un mundo estable de objetos y la experiencia de un mundo de campos de realidad. El ejercicio de la razón, que le viene dada al hombre evolutivamente, lleva a preguntar cuáles son las causas reales que producen esos dos mundos. Igualmente, cuál es la verdad última del universo. La ciencia (...) moderna produce un conocimiento racional (científico) que ofrece la base para responder esas preguntas. La mecánica clásica explica qué es y cómo se produce un mundo macroscópico de objetos estables. La mecánica cuántica qué son y cómo se producen los campos de realidad, a los que accede el hombre desde su psique humana. Todo ello nos lleva a entender que el universo tiene una ontología (un modo de ser real) holístico. El hombre, ya por su auto-experiencia primordial, pero también por los resultados de la ciencia, queda abierto al conocimiento del holismo cósmico. La naturaleza holística del universo es la clave para abordar las preguntas en torno a su verdad última. El holismo sigue haciendo posible la hipótesis atea de un universo sin Dios. Pero también es verdad que, más allá del reduccionismo decimonónico, el holismo hace hoy mucho más verosímil la hipótesis de la existencia de Dios. A modo de sugerencia, el artículo concluye con una referencia a la imagen de Dios, y de la creación del universo en Dios, según el discurso alegórico de la kabala judía. (shrink)

El trabajo tiene como objetivo explorar la formación profesional de los docentes desde una filosofía transdisciplinar, para promover la comprensión del mundo por una ciudadanía que debe enfrentar el cambio global del Antropoceno. A partir de una metodología cualitativa, se explora y analiza la evolución del comercio internacional en los últimos siglos, así como su relación con la extinción de la biodiversidad planetaria, el cambio climático y la salud de nuestro planeta. Se trata de un ensayo filosófico que aborda las (...) áreas de economía, comercio internacional, geopolítica, inteligencia artificial y formación docente desde los fundamentos epistemológicos de la metodología transdisciplinar de Nicolescu y la Teoría de la Complejidad de Morin. Como resultado, se discute cómo las TIC, software y aplicaciones (twitter, facebook, instagram, tiktok, etc.) recolectan los datos personales de los usuarios mediante algoritmos matemáticos usados por la inteligencia artificial. Se concluye que la formación transdisciplinar contribuye a la creación de escuelas regenerativas que enseñan a los estudiantes a actuar críticamente frente al cambio global actual. (shrink)

Some bioethicists and political philosophers argue that rich states should restrict the immigration of health workers from poor countries in order to prevent harm to people in these countries. In this essay, I argue that restrictions on the immigration of health workers are unjust, even if this immigration results in bad health outcomes for people in poor countries. I contend that negative duties to refrain from interfering with the occupational liberties of health workers outweighs rich states' positive duties to prevent (...) harm to people in sending countries. Furthermore, I defend this claim against the objection that health workers in poor countries acquire special duties to their compatriots that render them liable to coercive interference. (shrink)

Monitoring health is one of the basic principles of Occupational Health and Safety. The main objective of this monitoring will be the detection of possible damage to health arising from work. They try to discover the effects that the inherent risks with the work may cause the worker, which will show, given the case, through an alteration of health or the state of organic and functional state, both physically and mentally. Regarding the monitoring of health, there are many and varied (...) issues to be raised concerning the right to personal privacy. Thus, notably, whether there was effective consensus, and whether, in particular, the object and the purpose of the medical examination meant a disregard of the statutory scheme, an excess or even a failure to comply with the terms of the Spanish Constitution. The limits imposed by the law makers to the productive unit will play a key role in identifying the content of the company obligation to monitor health, being in many cases guarantees of constitutional rights. Therefore, the methods of health monitoring and control of workers will always be carried out respecting the privacy and dignity of the worker as well as the confidentiality of all information related to their health. (shrink)

La sociedad mediática y “multitasking” (Piscitelli, 2009) demanda al empresario tener en cuenta la relación e impacto de lo que comunica su marca en el entorno. El diseño de estrategias comunicativas on line, y su vinculación a modelos de consultoría (Pfefferman, N., 2011) se convierte en fortalezas en la comunicación de la marca de la organización (Capriotti, P, 2009). En el texto se exponen los resultados de una investigación con pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes) de Medellín y Bogotá (Colombia), realizada (...) como un estudio cualitativo, que se propone indagar por las capacidades de las organizaciones para la apropiación de las oportunidades que representa la comunicación digital. Finalmente, se plantea una propuesta de consultoría a los empresarios de pymes, desde el enfoque que reconoce a la “Empresa como signo y semiosis”, es decir, lo que no se comunica no genera recordación en el cliente. (shrink)

An argument is presented against the claim by Eduardo Barrio and Federico Pailos according to which “to characterize a logic, not only the inferential level, but also every metainferential level is necessary”.

In this paper, we discuss how to conceptual engineer ‘entropy’ and ‘information’ as they are used in information theory or statistical mechanics. Initially, we evaluate the extent to which the all-pervasive entangled use of entropy and information notions can be somehow defective in these domains, such as being meaningless or generating confusion. Then, we assess the main ameliorative strategies to improve this defective conceptual practice. The first strategy is to substitute the terms ‘entropy’ and ‘information’ by non-loaded terms, as it (...) was first argued by Bar-Hillel (1955). A second strategy is to prescribe how these terms should be correctly used to be meaningful, as it was pioneered by Carnap (1952 [1977]) in Two Essays on Entropy. However, the actual implementation of these two ameliorative strategies has been historically unsuccessful due to the low credentials that philosophers as conceptual prescribers have among scientists. Finally, to try to solve these obstacles, we propose a third strategy based on leveraging evidence from the contribution of ‘Philosophy in Science’ (à la Pradeau et al. 2024) to integrate conceptual prescriptions and analyses of entropy and information as part of the scientific practices in which these notions are used. (shrink)

O artigo apresenta resultados iniciais de uma investigação sobre o modo como os jovens pesquisadores do Conicet utilizam e vivenciam o tempo em suas práticas cotidianas. O ponto de partida é que a inserção de lógicas competitivas de avaliação e acreditação tem como efeito o aumento dos níveis de produtividade necessários para alcançar e sustentar postos de trabalho, o que em termos temporais se traduz numa racionalização da equação tempo/resultados e em diferentes formas, ambas objetivas e subjetivo, da pressão do (...) tempo. Como o fenômeno não foi estudado anteriormente na Argentina, a pesquisa tem caráter exploratório e se limita ao grupo potencialmente mais exposto a essa dinâmica, o dos jovens em início de carreira. O principal resultado é que esses jovens precisam enfrentar e resolver quatro grandes tensões temporárias: aquela que contrasta o trabalho com outros aspectos da vida; aquela que contrasta as demandas de longo prazo da graduação com as da agenda diária ou de curto prazo; aquela que surge das exigências de diferentes aspectos do trabalho; aquele que opõe o interesse de fazer bem à necessidade de fazer rapidamente. Após apresentar sua abordagem teórico-metodológica, o artigo expõe as diferentes formas como essas tensões são vivenciadas e gerenciadas. (shrink)

This paper analyses the right to repair (R2R) movement through the lens of radical democracy, elucidating the opportunities and limitations for advancing a democratic repair ethics against a backdrop of power imbalances and vested interests. We commence our analysis by exploring broader political-economic trends, demonstrating that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly shifting towards asset-based repair strategies. In this landscape, hegemony is preserved not solely through deterrence tactics like planned obsolescence but also by conceding repairability while monopolizing repair and maintenance (...) services. We further argue that the R2R serves as an ‘empty signifier’, whose content is shaped by four counter-hegemonic frames used by the R2R movement: consumer advocacy, environmental sustainability, communitarian values, and creative tinkering. These frames, when viewed through Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy, reveal different potentials for sustaining dissent and confronting OEMs' hegemony in the field of repair. Analysed in this way, an emerging business ethics of repair can be understood as driven by the politics of repair beyond repair. This notion foregrounds the centrality of non-violent conflict and antagonism for bringing radical democratic principles to repair debates, looking beyond narrow instrumentalist conversations, where repairability is treated as an apolitical arena solely defined by concerns for eco-efficiency and resource productivity. (shrink)

Las democracias distan mucho de ser perfectas, como lo demuestra el hecho de que una parte de la población se encuentra en situación de exclusión y vulnerabilidad. Condición que, cuando menos, les impide participar de la vida pública y, por tanto, de contribuir a formar las políticas públicas que, en materia de derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, habrían de darse para paliar esos déficits en la protección de los derechos, que son también déficits de la propia democracia. Este contexto, obliga (...) a adoptar un enfoque basado en derechos humanos para realizar un diagnóstico de los principales problemas a los que se enfrentan las democracias en la actualidad y hacia el futuro. Razón por la cual ha de atenderse al tipo de ciudadanía que genere las menores dificultades para acceder a dichos derechos, y, en consecuencia, permita construir una estructura democrática y social evitando las causas de dominación. No bastaría esta reflexión si no se propusiesen cauces y campos de participación, en procesos, como los presupuestarios, ya que afectan e impactan en la protección y garantía de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, fundamento del disfrute de los demás derechos. (shrink)

En este texto estudiamos en qué medida La religión gnóstica, obra de juventud de Hans Jonas, determinó su obra cumbre, El principio de responsabilidad. Por un lado, Jonas habló del existencialismo como un nuevo gnosticismo, pues en ambos movimientos se habla de estar arrojado, de la angustia de vivir, etc. Su propuesta ética es, de hecho, una lucha contra las antiguas éticas verticales, y contra la visión “acósmica”. Sin embargo, algunas de las ideas gnósticas le sirvieron a su vez de (...) inspiración para el desarrollo de conceptos clave de su principio de responsabilidad: el “retrato eterno” ante el que la humanidad debe mirarse al espejo; la extralimitación del poder propio como causa de la debacle; el temor como “primer deber”; etc. El modo de alcanzar nuevas éticas que respondan a los retos del futuro debe pasar –como en el caso de Jonas– por redescubrir imaginarios alternativos al occidental, que nos inspiren y nutran con conceptos hoy olvidados. (shrink)

Contemporary moral philosophy has different approaches to provide justice and equality to groups that are traditionally discriminated on the grounds of gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc. On the other hand, functionally diverse (disabled) people have had a parallel approach to their discrimination, excluded from mainstream diversities. Including functional diversity and the diversity model in modern recognition and redistribution theories, as another human diversity, provides an extended ethical approach: diversity ethics. This general framework also includes other fundamental ideas for equality (...) such as human fragility, social domination logics, self-respect and auto-recognition. Diversity ethics provides sound foundations to defend justice and equality for all human diversities and an alternative to other approaches that broaden the moral community, excluding some humans, like Peter Singer’s ethics. (shrink)

Ortega y Gasset pidió al filósofo la cortesía de la claridad. Las circunstancias del momento presente, en continua transformación, añaden al requerimiento orteguiano otro segundo no menos acuciante: la brevedad. Quien auténticamente sabe algo, acierta a decirlo de forma luminosa y en breve espacio, por ejemplo mil palabras. Y este es el espíritu que anima a Javier Gomá en esta colección de ensayos, o microensayos, que se resume así en su título: Todo a mil. El objetivo es, en un (...) millar de palabras, introducir al lector en la almendra de la reflexión filosófica. Así, por ejemplo, alguno de estos microensayos se arriesgan a definir con precisión cuestiones normalmente difusas como la sabiduría frente a la inteligencia o la dignidad humana; hay unos que abogan por actitudes contracorriente, como los beneficios de estar sentado, el desdén hacia las novedades, las ventajas del chisme o la afirmación gozosa de nuestro tiempo; otros critican ideas recibidas tan asentadas como el prestigio de la transgresión, la noción tradicional de 'vida privada', o la molesta tendencia a la sinceridad excesiva; otros más toman posición respecto a la responsabilidad de la crisis o el significado profundo de la paz social conquistada por el Estado de derecho; mientras otros, en fin, expresan la voz más personal del autor. Con este libro, Javier Gomá da un paso más en su decidida voluntad de hacer una filosofía mundana, abierta a todos, y ofrece así la mejor introducción posible, en mil palabras, a los más serios y perennes problemas filosóficos. (shrink)

Este libro es un estudio sobre las teor as del desarrollo social y un an lisis de las estrategias, instituciones y pol ticas econ micas de los ltimos tiempos en varios pa ses.

This paper introduces a natural extension of Kolchin's differential Galois theory to positive characteristic iterative differential fields, generalizing to the non-linear case the iterative Picard—Vessiot theory recently developed by Matzat and van der Put. We use the methods and framework provided by the model theory of iterative differential fields. We offer a definition of strongly normal extension of iterative differential fields, and then prove that these extensions have good Galois theory and that a G-primitive element theorem holds. In addition, making (...) use of the basic theory of arc spaces of algebraic groups, we define iterative logarithmic equations, finally proving that our strongly normal extensions are Galois extensions for these equations. (shrink)

La tesis defendida en este artículo es que la teoría reflexiva del pensamiento consciente es realmente inconsistente. Según la teoría, sería posible introducir la noción de un cuasi-pensamiento de segundo-orden a partir de la noción, de S. Shoemaker, de un cuasi-recuerdo. Por un lado, un cuasi-pensamiento de segundo-orden, pero no necesariamente un cuasi-recuerdo, entraña un uso de “yo” como sujeto. Por otro lado, Shoemaker concibe el uso de “yo” como sujeto en términos de la noción de una inmunidad al error (...) por un fallo de identificación. Ahora bien, tanto la noción de un cuasi-recuerdo como la noción de un cuasi pensamiento de segundo-orden están sujetas a dar entrada a casos de fisión personal y psicológica donde la serie causal entre sucesos pertenecientes a uno y el mismo sujeto está rota y, de este modo, no hay inmunidad al error por un fallo de identificación. Entonces, ¡la noción de un cuasi-pensamiento de segundo orden daría entrada a casos donde un uso de “yo” como sujeto no es inmune al error por un fallo de identificación! (shrink)

The method of metaphysics of scientific practice consists in developing metaphysical claims on the basis of empirical information from and about scientific practice. This method stands in the tradition of naturalistic or scientific metaphysics on the one hand, and philosophy of science in practice on the other. In this chapter we draw on some of our own research to specify the method at work. We argue that the method is typically carried out in four steps: identifying the available empirical information (...) that might be relevant to the metaphysical topic of interest; selecting the relevant empirical information; developing a preliminary metaphysical claim that the relevant empirical information supports; mutually adjusting empirical information and metaphysics. We reveal some major methodological challenges and present ways to overcome them. We conclude that when drawing metaphysical claims from scientific practicewe need to: first, make sure that our previous metaphysical views do not influence the empirical information or its selection in problematic ways; second, explain in what sense we are doing metaphysics, countering for instance the idea that metaphysical claims must be highly general and transdisciplinary. We end the chapter by pointing to the advantages of the method of metaphysics of scientific practice. (shrink)

Epistemology had to come to terms with “the social” on two different occasions. The first was represented by the dispute about the epistemological status of the “social” sciences, and in this case the already well established epistemology of the natural sciences seemed to have the right to dictate the conditions for a discipline to be a science. But the social sciences could successfully vindicate the legitimacy of their specific criteria for scientificity. More recently, the impact of social factors on the (...) construction of our knowledge (including scientific knowledge) has reversed, in a certain sense, the old position and promoted social inquiry to the role of a criterion for evaluating the purport of cognitive (including scientific) statements. But this has undermined the traditional characteristics of objectivity and rigor that seem constitutive of science. Moreover, in order to establish the real extent to which social conditionings have an impact on scientific knowledge one must credit sociology with a sound ground of reliability, and this is not possible without a preliminary “epistemological” assessment. These are some of the topics discussed in this book, both theoretically and with reference to concrete cases. (shrink)