We point out the need to clarify some of the ideas related to the connection between development and sustainability in the Report of the Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development. In particular, the meaning of ‘sustainable’ is not clear when applied to specific areas of human activity. A more detailed explanation of the kind of equality sought for in the proposal is also needed. Because of potential conflicts between goals, we miss some considerations on the impact (...) of population increase both on development and on sustainability. A distinction is made here between two kinds of goals included in the Report. Some of the proposed 17 goals can then be seen as ends in themselves, whereas others seem to be means for the first set. The two sets thereby established should be seen in theory and dealt with in practice in a differentiated manner. (shrink)

More often than not, theories of belief and of belief ascription restrict themselves to conscious beliefs, thus obliterating a vast part of our mental life and offering extremely incomplete, unrealistic theories. Indeed, conscious beliefs are the exception, not the rule, as far as human doxastic states are concerned, and a naturalistic, realistic theory of knowledge that aspires to completeness has to take unconscious beliefs into consideration. This paper is the elaboration of such a theory of belief.

As far as we are aware, this study presents the first comparative analysis of the stock picking and market timing abilities of managers of conventional and socially responsible (SR) pension funds, and of their use of superior information. For the United Kingdom, the results obtained show a slight stock picking ability on the part of SR pension fund managers (although it disappears if multifactorial models are considered), and a negative market timing ability on the part of both SR and conventional (...) pension fund managers (these results hold for multifactorial models controlled by home bias). In relation to the management styles, both conventional and SR pension funds usually invest in small cap and growth values, although it is the SR pension funds that are the most exposed to these styles. We also observed that, while conventional pension fund managers make certain use of superior information to follow stock picking strategies, managers of SR pension funds use superior information to follow market timing strategies. (shrink)

The present article review some implications of the second order research in Social Sciences. Through the concepts of ambivalence, otherness and paradox, challenges that the new paradigm demands to the social researcher are discussed.

This collection of articles provides an overview of current generative theorizing and empirical work on the nature, origin and scope of parameters of linguistic variation. Often taking diverging views, the papers in the volume address some or all of the main debated topics in parametric syntax.

Las críticas contra Martin Heidegger por su supuesto suprahistoricismo o el desarraigo empírico de su ontología fundamental han sido abundantes y de diverso tipo. El presente artículo pretende confrontarlas con el estudio minucioso de la analítica del acontecer del Dasein, por cuanto el autor encuentra en ella justo la base teórica de una filosofía consciente de los límites infranqueables de la existencia histórica y de la forma como la realidad empírica articula significados, valores, pautas de comportamiento, narrativas… en definitiva, un (...) sentido. De esta forma encontramos en la analítica del acontecer del Dasein el suelo teórico sobre el que cabe pensar el proyecto de una ontología del presente. En favor de esta segunda tesis, se desarrollan algunas reflexiones sobre lo específico de nuestra realidad contemporánea buscando medir el alcance de las tesis heideggerianas. Lo que este artículo halla finalmente es la existencia de un componente crítico inherente a la filosofía heideggeriana, a partir del cual puede comprenderse sin misticismos la idea del Destino. (shrink)

The present paper intends to place “Lo que queda de Auschwitz” in the Homo Sacer’s proyect started by Giorgio Agamben in 1995. In order to do so, we must point out, in the first place, the need of understanding this proyect as a political ontology, then the relation between this proyect and the philosophy of language of his youth, along with its ethical claims, and, finally, we must identify some of his fundamental moves, as the formation of ontological categories created (...) from historical figures which are able to show the “arcanum imperii” of the political system to which they belong. As a result, the paper shows the metaphysical foundation of the analysis of the subject carried out in “Lo que queda de Auschwitz”, and the way it affects the author’s ideas on ethics, leading to a open way to critics and posible reformulations. (shrink)

Conceito oriundo do debate a respeito do movimento, o conatus, entendido como inclinação ou esforço, será um dos temas centrais da física seiscentista. Este artigo pretende explicitar o contexto de elaboração do conceito de conatus no século XVII, ou pelo menos na obra de três de seus principais filósofos: Descartes, Hobbes e Espinosa. Em Descartes, o conceito de conatus ainda se separa do conceito de movimento propriamente dito. Tal separação desaparece em Hobbes, para quem o conatus será apresentado como um (...) movimento ínfimo, com consequências não só para a Física, mas também para a Ética e a Política. Com Espinosa, por sua vez, o conceito ganhará contornos nitidamente ontológicos, tornando-se a chave para entender a essência das coisas singulares. (shrink)

It is becoming ever more accepted that investigations of mind span the brain, body, and environment. To broaden the scope of what is relevant in such investigations is to increase the amount of data scientists must reckon with. Thus, a major challenge facing scientists who study the mind is how to make big data intelligible both within and between fields. One way to face this challenge is to structure the data within a framework and to make it intelligible by means (...) of a common theory. Radical embodied cognitive neuroscience can function as such a framework, with dynamical systems theory as its methodology, and self-organized criticality as its theory. (shrink)

Sustainable development is often framed as a social issue to which corporations should pay attention because it offers both opportunities and challenges. Through the use of institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we shed some light on why, more than 20 years after sustainable development was first introduced, we see neither the adoption of this business model as dominant nor its converse, that is the total abandonment of the model as unworkable and unprofitable. We focus on multinational (...) corporations (MNCs) because they were among the organizations first called to take action. In order to illustrate the institutional pressures MNCs face and their strategic response to these pressures, we analysed four major oil and gas multinationals subject to similar sustainable development pressures – climate change, biodiversity, renewable energy development and social investment. We argue that normative and coercive isomorphism does not occur at the global level because sustainable development is largely a stakeholder-driven rather than a broad social pressure. That is, host country interpretation of sustainable development pressures varies across an MNC’s subsidiary network. Based on the analysis of the four major MNCs’ annual reports from 2000 to 2005, we argue that mimetic isomorphism may occur, but since it implies the use of complex and intangible resources, mimetic processes are slow, rare and discretionary. (shrink)

Es, quiza, la coleccion mas abierta que existe en cuestiones de etica, aunque se ha ocupado tambien de antropologia, estetica, ontologia, teoria del conocimiento e historia de la filosofia. El primer titulo que se publico en la coleccion fue la gran Historia de la filosofia y de la ciencia en tres volumenes de Ludovico Geymonat. A este le han seguido obras de A. J. Ayer, A. MacIntyre, Ernst Tugendhat, Antoni Domenech, Anna Estany, Agnes Heller, F. Fernandez Buey, Carlos Paris, Emilio (...) Lledo, Manuel Sacristan, John Rawls o Ludwig Wittgenstein. Victoria Camps ha dirigido, ademas, una gran Historia de la etica, en tres volumenes, en la que han colaborado los mejores especialistas espanoles. Manual al dia y de lectura agil y amena sobre valores y conceptos como el de igualdad y prioridad, fundamentales en los estudios de la filosofia de hoy. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Institutional History of Colonial Philosophy The Conquest of America: Some Epistemological and Ethical Questions Post Conquest Indigenous Perspectives Creole Perspectives: Two Seventeenth‐Century Intellectuals The American Experience of the Enlightenment Colophon References.

Ao percorrermos as páginas das histórias da educação e da pedagogia não podemos ficar surpreendidos ao verificar que não existe nelas lugar para Spinoza. O que neste breve ensaio se vai tentar descobrir é que a questão pedagógica em geral e a do ensino da filosofia não são tratadas com desprezo pelo pensador de Amsterdão, nem em relação a elas existem sinais de indiferença. Pretende-se mostrar de que modo algumas atitudes do filósofo juntamente com tópicos do seu pensamento servem para (...) explicar a ausência de efetiva preocupação com a temática pedagógica. No entanto, o sistema espinosano encerra princípios pedagógicos de primordial relevância para o processo educativo. (shrink)