Historians and political theorists have long been interested in how the principle of people’s power was conceptualised during the French Revolution. Traditionally, two diverging accounts emerge, one of national and the other of popular sovereignty, the former associated with moderate monarchist deputies, including the Abbé Sieyes, and the latter with the Jacobins. This paper argues against this binary interpretation of the political thought of the French Revolution, in favour of a third account of people’s power, Sieyes’ idea of pouvoir constituant. (...) Traditionally, constituent power has been viewed as a variation of sovereignty, but I show it to be an independent conceptualisation of people’s power. Sieyes’ political theory led him to criticise and refuse contemporary theories of sovereignty in favour of what he understood as a fully modern account of people’s power. Based on extensive research in the archives, I show how Sieyes opposed the deployment of sovereignty by the revolutionary Assemblies and reco... (shrink)

Sustainability reporting and assurance of sustainability reports have been used by organizations in an attempt to provide accountability to their stakeholders. A better understanding of current practices is important to provide a base for comparative and trend analyses. This paper aims to consolidate and provide information on sustainability reporting, assurance of sustainability reports and types of assurance providers. Another aim of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of these practices for a global sample, comparing results with previous studies, (...) and suggesting opportunities for future research. To accomplish these objectives, a literature review was performed, an analysis of the organizations included in the Fortune Global 500 2010 was completed, and results were presented and consolidated by country. These results demonstrate that all organizations analysed provided some type of information in relation to their social or environmental performance in their official website. The percentage of organizations issuing a sustainability report has been increasing in the last few years. However, the percentage of organizations assuring their sustainability report has stagnated. Types of assurance engagements include those performed by accountants and non-accountants, and new practices have emerged, namely the “mixed approach” and the “stakeholder or specialist review”. The analysis also shows that the practices of issuing sustainability reports and having them assured have become a world-wide phenomenon, occurring in developed, and emerging economies around the world. (shrink)

This study addresses the question of normative analysis of the value‐based aspects of nursing. In our perspective, values in science may be distinguished into (i) epistemic when related to the goals of truth and objectivity and (ii) non‐epistemic when related to social, cultural or political aspects. Furthermore, values can be called constitutive when necessary for a scientific enterprise, or contextual when contingently associated with science. Analysis of the roles of the various forms of values and models of knowledge translation provides (...) the ground to understand the specific role of values in nursing. A conceptual framework has been built to classify some of the classical perspectives on nursing knowledge and to examine the relationships between values and different forms of knowledge in nursing. It follows that adopting a normative perspective in the analysis of nursing knowledge provides key elements to identify its proper dimension. (shrink)

El estudio plantea una recuperación de la categoría de ley natural, desde los aportes de la teología feminista. La problemática de la ley natural que estructura y fundamenta la ética teológica del magisterio católico, se fue entretejiendo en el tiempo y su gran sistematizador fue Santo Tomas De Aquino. La teología feminista, surgida de las teorías feministas sustenta como principio crítico la promoción de la plena humanidad de las mujeres y asume que los textos y las tradiciones de la comunidad (...) cristiana o las marcas de su recepción a lo largo de la historia, funcionan a partir de una concepción errónea de la mujer. Esto ha configurado para ellas un ethos a partir de una visión estática y esencialista de su naturaleza. La teología feminista es consciente de la necesidad de reflexionar a partir de una antropología igualitaria que incluya y haga partícipes a las mujeres del bien humano de la misma manera que a los varones, y a la vez permita visualizar las diferentes maneras en que varones y mujeres experimentan sus vidas. Esta reflexión encarnada sobre los bienes a los que estamos dirigidos y el descubrimiento de los medios necesarios para lograrlos integra la comprensión de la ley natural. (shrink)

En la obra de Arturo Roig, el lenguaje es entendido como una de las formas de objetivación del ser humano, en su estrecha relación con la vida cotidiana. Los sistemas de símbolos en interacción articulan así toda la experiencia, y es través de las formas de mediaciones simbólicas que comprendemos nuestras experiencias de vida. Por ello es preciso indagar las diversas formas y lenguajes en que se manifiesta una comunidad y así, a partir de su universo discursivo, acceder a la (...) dinámica de sus discursos desde la conflictividad que en ellos se explicita, desde la diversidad de voces y jerarquizaciones axiológicas operadas por los miembros del grupo que en ellos se expresa. El a priori antropológico postulado por Roig, que implica asumirnos como valiosos desde el nosotros en la propia cotidianidad, requiere reconocernos integrados en la naturaleza y compartir con ella la dignidad por la que luchamos desde el nosotros latinoamericano. In the work of Arturo Roig, language is understood as one of the forms of objectification of human beings, in their close relationship with daily life. In interaction, the systems of symbols articulate this way all the experience, and it is through the forms of symbolic mediation that we understand our life experiences. For that reason it is precise to investigate the diverse forms and languages in which a community pronounces itself, and this way, from its discursive universe, to accede to the dynamics of its discourses since the conflict that is explicit in them, from the diversity of voices and axiological hierarchies produced by the members of the group that is in them expressed. The anthropological a priori postulated by Roig, which implies assuming ourselves as valuable from our own commonness, requires to recognize ourselves integrated in nature and sharing with it the dignity for which we fight from Latin America. (shrink)

Introduction: Law and Philosophy—Moral, Legal and Political Perspectives Content Type Journal Article Pages 237-239 DOI 10.1007/s11158-008-9068-9 Authors Massimo Renzo, University of Stirling Department of Philosophy Stirling 4LA FK9 UK Bjarke Viskum, University of Århus Department of Jurisprudence Langelandsgade 110, 3 tv. 8000 Arhus C Denmark Journal Res Publica Online ISSN 1572-8692 Print ISSN 1356-4765 Journal Volume Volume 14 Journal Issue Volume 14, Number 4.

Nursing knowledge stems from a dynamic interplay between population‐based scientific knowledge (the general) and specific clinical cases (the particular). We compared the ‘cascade model of knowledge translation’, also known as ‘classical biomedical model’ in clinical practice (in which knowledge gained at population level may be applied directly to a specific clinical context), with an emergentist model of knowledge translation. The structure and dynamics of nursing knowledge are outlined, adopting the distinction between epistemic and non‐epistemic values. Then, a (moderately) emergentist approach (...) to nursing knowledge is proposed, based on the assumption of a two‐way flow from the general to the particular and vice versa. The case of the ‘placebo effect’ is analysed as an example of emergentist knowledge. The placebo effect is usually considered difficult to be explained within the classical biomedical model, and we underscore its importance in shaping nursing knowledge. In fact, nurses are primarily responsible for administering placebo in the clinical setting and have an essential role in promoting the placebo effect and reducing the nocebo effect. The beliefs responsible for the placebo effect are as follows: (1) interactive, because they depend on the relationship between patients and health care professionals; (2) situated, because they occur in a given clinical context related to certain rituals; and (3) grounded on higher order beliefs concerning what an individual thinks about the beliefs of others. It is essential to know the clinical context and to understand other people's beliefs to make sense of the placebo effect. The placebo effect only works when the (higher order) beliefs of doctors, nurses and patients interact in a given setting. Finally, we argue for a close relationship between placebo effect and nursing knowledge. (shrink)

It has often been asserted that burnout is primarily linked to occupational-context factors, and only secondarily to individual-level (e.g., personality) and non-work (or general) factors. We evaluated the validity of this view by examining the links between burnout and an array of 22 work-situated (effort-reward imbalance, unreasonable work tasks, unnecessary work tasks, weekly working hours, job autonomy, skill development, performance feedback, and support in work life), work-unrelated (sentimental accomplishment, familial accomplishment, number of child[ren], leisure activities, residential satisfaction, environmental quality, security (...) in daily life, and support in personal life), dispositional (neuroticism, sex, age, and physical condition), and intersecting (work–non-work conflict and non-work–work conflict) variables. The study involved schoolteachers from three different countries: France (N= 4,395), Spain (N= 611), and Switzerland (N= 514). Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators. Most of our predictors were assessed based on widely used measures (e.g., neuroticism was assessed with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory). In order to assess sentimental accomplishment and familial accomplishment, we created two self-reported measures, namely, the Sentimental Accomplishment Inventory (SAI; 9 items) and the Familial Accomplishment Inventory (FAI; 9 items). The SAI and the FAI both showed strong reliability and high factorial validity. Exploratory structural equation modeling bifactor analysis and Mokken scaling suggested that both instruments could be considered essentially unidimensional. The study results showed that neuroticism, job strain, skill development, security in daily life, and work–non-work conflict were consistently associated with burnout across the three samples. Sample-specific predictors of burnout included sex, age, unreasonable work tasks, weekly working hours, job autonomy, support in work life, sentimental accomplishment, leisure activities, support in personal life, and non-work–work conflict. Relative weight analysis indicated that neuroticism was the best predictor of burnout in each sample. Our findings suggest that burnout’s nomological network may not be primarily job-related. We conclude that the tendency to de-emphasize individual-level and non-work factors in burnout research is unwise. This tendency may constitute a roadblock in the development of effective interventional strategies. The implications of our findings for burnout’s conceptual status are discussed. The neuroticism-burnout link should be further examined in longitudinal studies. (shrink)

This article provides a strategic history of the role assigned by modern historians to visual representation in early modern science, an aspect of historiography that is largely ignored in the scholarly literature. Despite the current undervaluation of images and visual reasoning, historians in the 1940s and 1950s who established the 20th century concept of the Scientific Revolution, also assigned a conspicuous role to images, claiming 15th century art as a chapter in the history of science and identifying the first modern (...) scientists in artists such as Brunelleschi and Leonardo. My analysis of the writings that shaped the discourse on visual representation---by giants such as George Sarton, Herbert Butterfield, and Alexandre Koyré---shows that the handful of concepts introduced in these early discussions formed the foundations of the subsequent scholarly approach to early modern scientific images. However, close scrutiny during the 1970s defined these concepts as interesting but not as key elements for the emergence of modern science proposed earlier. The wave of social studies of science in the 1980s further diminished the importance of images, to the point that recent surveys of early modern science neither consider the role of visual representation nor include figures in their narratives. Several recent publications with suggestive titles such as The Power of Images in Early Modern Science promise to recover a significant role for images in the Scientific Revolution. The present inquiry into the earlier discourse seeks to clarify the historiographic framework into which these new efforts fit. (shrink)

Diagnostic frameworks are essential to many scientific and technological activities and clinical practice. This study examines the main fundamental aspects of such frameworks. The three components required for all diagnoses are identified and examined, i.e. their normative dimension, temporal nature and structure, and teleological perspective.The normative dimension of a diagnosis is based on (1) epistemic values when associated with Hempel's inductive risk concerning the balance between false‐positive and false‐negative outcomes, leading to probabilistic judgements; and (2) non‐epistemic values when related to (...) ideas such as well‐being, normality, illness, etc, as idealized norms or ideal points of reference.It should be noted that medical diagnoses match the three necessary components, while some essential diagnostic frameworks – the taxonomies ofGordon andNANDA– in nursing lack some components. The main lack is normative as the most popular frameworks in nursing diagnosis seem to be descriptions of observed reality rather than normative and value‐based judgements in which both epistemic and non‐epistemic values may coexist. (shrink)

En Tauroética, Fernando Savater pretende ofrecer una refutación tanto de los argumentos que se esgrimen para condenar (moralmente) las corridas de toros como de las razones que suelen aducirse para justificar una mayor consideración moral hacia los animales. Este intento de refutación se basa en varias tesis: los seres humanos no tenemos obligaciones morales con los animales, los animales no tienen "intereses", la argumentación antitaurina estriba en una equiparación equivocada de los animales con los seres humanos, quienes condenan las corridas (...) sostienen una postura ética muy contradictoria y prohibir las corridas sería atentar contra la libertad personal. El presente ensayo proporciona un análisis crítico de estos argumentos con el objetivo de demostrar que son muy defectuosos. In Tauroética Fernando Savater aims to offer a refutation of both the arguments used to condemn bullfighting on moral grounds and the reasons that are commonly cited to justify greater moral consideration for animals. Savater's attempted refutation rests on a number of distinct claims: human beings have no moral obligations toward animals; animals do not have interests; anti-bullfighting arguments illegitimately equate animals with human beings; those who condemn bullfighting maintain a contradictory moral position; and the prohibition of bullfighting would constitute an unjust curtailment of personal freedom. This essay provides a critical analysis of these claims and demonstrates that all of them are in fact untenable. (shrink)

Fierce debates surround the conceptualization and measurement of job-related distress in occupational health science. The use of burnout as an index of job-related distress, though commonplace, has increasingly been called into question. In this paper, we first highlight foundational problems that undermine the burnout construct and its legacy measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Next, we report on advances in research on job-related distress that depart from the use of the burnout construct. Tracing the genesis of the burnout construct, we observe (...) that burnout’s definition was preestablished rather than derived from a rigorous research process and the MBI has little in the way of a theoretical or empirical foundation. Historical analysis suggests that the burnout construct was cobbled together from unchallenged personal impressions and anecdotal evidence before getting reified by the MBI. This state of affairs may account for many of the disconcerting problems encountered in burnout research. We close our paper by presenting the Occupational Depression Inventory, a recently developed instrument reflective of a renewed approach to job-related distress. The ODI has demonstrated robust psychometric and structural properties across countries, sexes, age groups, occupations, and languages. The instrument addresses job-related distress both dimensionally and categorically. A dimensional approach can be useful, for instance, in examining the dynamics of etiological processes and symptom development. A categorical approach can serve screening and diagnostic purposes and help clinicians and public health professionals in their decision-making. It is concluded that the ODI offers occupational health specialists a promising way forward. (shrink)

This book presents a broad overview of succession law, encompassing aspects of family law, testamentary law and legal history. It examines society and legal practice in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present from both a legal and a sociological perspective. The contributing authors investigate various aspects of succession law that have not yet been thoroughly examined by legal historians, and in doing so they not only add to our knowledge of past succession law but also provide a valuable (...) key to interpreting and understanding current European succession law. Readers can explore such issues as the importance of a father’s permission to marry in relation to disinheritance, as well as inheritance transactions and private, dynastic and cross-border successions. Further themes addressed by the expert contributors include women’s inheritance rights, the laws of succession for the prince in legal consulting, and succession in the Rota Romana’s jurisprudence. (shrink)

En Humanismo burgués y humanismo proletario, publicado por primera vez en 1938, Aníbal Ponce examina dos concepciones contrapuestas del humanismo. Entre los muchos méritos del estudio de Ponce se pueden destacar tres en particular. En primer lugar, el análisis de Ponce pone de manifiesto que el huma..

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels believed that their political project involved a commitment to democracy, and many subsequent Marxists have claimed that Marxism’s conception of socialism and communism represents a supremely democratic social arrangement. Many of Marxism’s critics, however, reject this belief, holding that the Marxist conception of socialism and communism entails anti-democratic policies, practices and institutions. While the position of Marxism’s critics is, without question, the predominant view today, it turns out that the arguments used to support this position (...) are highly problematic, insofar as they proceed from certain liberal-democratic assumptions about democracy that Marxists can reasonably reject. (shrink)

The term “political prisoner” plays an important role in contemporary affairs. But how coherent is the concept behind the term, and is use of this term essentially unobjectionable? As it turns out,...

This book offers a philosophically-informed exploration of Che Guevara’s most important contributions to radical political and social theory.