This paper inspects the relationship between problem analysis—a fundamental part of many therapeutic approaches—and meaning. In the first part, I argue that problem analysis emerges from the representational theory of meaning. I introduce Wittgenstein’s version of this theory as presented in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and examine its difficulties. Later, I focus on two fundamental themes of late Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: private language and rule-following. I argue that the rule-following paradox has disproven the representational theory of meaning. I briefly describe the (...) private language argument and rule-following paradox—a sceptical paradox. Then I provide my reading of Kripke’s sceptical solution to it. I present its implications regarding the meaning and how this is relevant to problem analysis and therapeutic conversations in general. (shrink)

Critical congenital heart disease screening is rapidly becoming the standard of care in the United States after being added to the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel in 2011. Newborn screens typically do not require affirmative parental consent. In fact, most states allow parents to exempt their baby from receiving the required screen on the basis of religious or personally held beliefs. There are many ethical considerations implicated with allowing parents to exempt their child from newborn screening for CCHD. Considerations include the (...) treatment of religious exemptions in our current legal system, as well as medical and ethical principles in relation to the rights of infants. Although there are significant benefits to screening newborns for CCHD, when a parent refuses for religious or personal beliefs, in the case of CCHD screening, the parental decision should stand. (shrink)

Psychology related to areas such as gender, language, education and violence has provided scientific knowledge that is contributing to reducing coercive social relationships and to expanding freedom in sexual-affective relationships. Nonetheless, today there are new challenges that require additional developments. In the area of consent, professionals from the fields of law, gender, education and others, are in need of evidence about conditions in human communication that produce consent differentiating them from conditions that coerce. Up to now, consent has been focused (...) on verbal language, for example, “no means no” or “anything less than yes is no”. Despite the fact that focusing consent on verbal language is a very important part of the problem, and has meant a huge advance, it does not solve most of the issues currently raised, like the famous case of “La Manada” in Spain. This article presents the most recent results of a new line of research, which places the problem and the solution in communicative acts, and not only in speech acts. Even though there might be a “yes” in a sexual-affective relationship, there might be no consent, and it is indeed a coercive relationship if that “yes” has been pronounced in a relationship determined by institutional power or by interactive power. Institutional power may occur if who made the proposal for the relationship is a person in charge of the process of selecting personnel in a company and one of the candidates is the person who received the proposal. Interactive power may occur if who makes the proposal is situated in an equal or inferior position for instance in the company to the person receiving it, but the former threatens to make sextortion to the latter. The potential social impact of this research has been already shown in the cases analyzed for this study. (shrink)

Transcending reviewed proximate theories, Van Lange et al.'s CLASH model attempts to ultimately explain the poleward declension of aggression and violence. Seasonal cold is causal, but, we contend, principally as an ecologically relevant evolutionary pressure. We further argue that futurity and restraint are life history variables, and that Life History Theory evolutionarily explains the biogeography of aggression and violence as strategic adaptation.

In recent decades, Total Quality Management (TQM) has become an important phenomenon in the world of business, but the implications and scope of quality programs are quite different everywhere. Since different explanations have been given, most authors agree that management commitment and leadership are indispensable elements for a successful TQM implementation. Nevertheless, the study of the literature reflects a terminological confusion on this point. The authors of this paper argue that commitment and leadership are not synonymous terms.While committed managers may (...) lead the process of quality using exclusively their formal authority, those who are leaders generate a kind of influence that goes further than that. This paper suggests a multidimensional perception of leadership and upholds that only by considering the ethical dimension of leadership, together with technical and psycho-emotive ones, it is possible to explain more accurately interpersonal influences beyond the scope of power. As an illustrative example of the importance of considering each dimensions, the authors present two case studies of TQM implementation. (shrink)

This article analyses 1,073 e-mails that were hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in November 2009. The incident was popularly dubbed 'Climategate', indicating that the e-mails reveal a scientific scandal. Here we analyse them differently. Rather than objecting to the exchanges based on some idea about proper scientific conduct, we see them as a rare glimpse into a situation where scientists collectively prepare for participation in heated controversy, with much focus on methodology. This allows (...) us to study how scientists communicate informally about framing propositions of facts in the best possible way. Through the eyes of science and technology studies, the e-mails provide an opportunity to study communication as part of science in the making across disciplines and laboratories. Analysed as 'written conversation' the e-mails provide information about processes of consensus formation through 'agonistic evaluations' of other scientists' work and persuasion of others to support one's own work. Also, the e-mails contain judgements about other groups and individual scientists. Consensus-forming appeared as a precarious activity. Controversies could be quite resilient in the course of this decade-long exchange, probably reflecting the complexity of the methodological challenges involved. (shrink)

Belief systems of human societies are deeply related with animals, which are symbolised in traditional narratives. Here we review reported cases from around the world and our own ethnographic observations from southern Chile, to analyse beliefs associated with owls. In particular, we explore the role that owls play in traditional narratives and the likely reasons of their saliency, including their connections with the extraordinary. For the latter, we utilise the concept of “the uncanny” to analyse how owls generate a feeling (...) of something not simply mysterious but, more specifically, something strangely familiar. Owls trigger unsettling experiences of the “normal,” with the ensuing feelings of unhomeliness, which may explain their saliency across human societies. Finally, we discuss that the uncanny nature of owls is precisely what locates them in a culturally stimulating position and what should be considered by conservationists and politicians to tackle a more integrative approach to owl conservation. (shrink)

_ This scholarly article delves into the significance of international collaboration in mitigating global environmental challenges. By examining case studies and collaborative efforts, the paper underscores the necessity of unified action, shared responsibility, and global partnerships in safeguarding the planet's ecological integrity._.

We find problems with Vaesen's treatment of the primatological research, in particular his analysis of foresight, function representation, and social intelligence. We argue that his criticism of research on foresight in great apes is misguided. His claim that primates do not attach functions to particular objects is also problematic. Finally, his analysis of theory of mind neglects many distinctions.

In the half-century that elapsed between 1830 and 1880, the city of Barcelona, while industrializing and tripling its population, saw how rich scientific collections (mainly naturalistic, archeological, and anatomical) could be created or lost, opened to the public or forgotten. The complexity and variety of the movements of these collections go beyond the narrow historiographical framework defined by a supposedly linear evolution towards greater accumulation and openness to the public. On the contrary, the examples examined in this article reveal a (...) variety of paths and vicissitudes. (shrink)

este trabajo considera la viabilidad de la teoría de los mundos posibles como universales estructurales máximos en relación con las conocidas críticas contra concepciones actualistas de los mundos posibles. En una primera parte se expone brevemente la teoría modal basada en universales. Luego se presentan las diferentes dificultades. Dos de éstas parecen especialmente relevantes para la teoría que aquí se defiende: (i) la confusión de posibilidades indiscernibles diferentes, y (ii) la explicación de la naturaleza de la representación de las posibilidades. (...) Luego de examinadas estas dificultades se muestra cómo la teoría modal basada en universales puede responder estos dos problemas. (shrink)

RESUMENEl autor resume la situación del os estudios relativos a la unidad de la Metafísica aristotélica, desde Jaeger a Düring; expone los motivos por los que le parece superada la fragmentación del pensamiento del filósofo griego defendida durante decenios, y propone una solución especulativa al problema, con base en la consideración de la metafísica como una realidad viva y dinámica.PALABRAS CLAVEARISTÓTELES-METAFÍSICAABSTRACTThe author offers a summary of the studies on the unity of Aristotle's Methaphysics from Jaegger to Düring; he defends the (...) thesis that the treaty is not completely fragmented, but offers a certain degree of cohesion. Finally, he proposes a theoretical solution for the question bases on the consideration of metaphysics as something alive and dynamic.KEYWORDSARISTOTLE-METHAPHYSICS. (shrink)

We find that the nature and origin of the proposed “dialogical cognitive representations” in the target article is not sufficiently clear. Our proposal is that (triadic) bodily mimesis and in particular mimetic schemas – prelinguistic representational, intersubjective structures, emerging through imitation but subsequently interiorized – can provide the necessary link between private sensory-motor experience and public language. In particular, we argue that shared intentionality requires triadic mimesis.

Traditionally, it has been supposed that the central object of Biology are ‘organisms’. The expression “organism” is relatively recent in the use that it has nowadays –it was introduced by the authors of the German Idealism– but corresponds to a very traditional notion. An ‘organism’ is a substance composed by a plurality of materials organized by the same substance that acts upon itself to persist in time, in order to a finality that is the organism itself. To make intelligible an (...) organism seems indispensable its order to an end. This teleological perspective, nevertheless, is unacceptable for the reductivist perspective of Biology, prevalent since the triumph of what has been called the “Modern Synthesis” the first half of last century. It has been proposed, for that reason, to substitute the traditional idea of ‘organism’ by that of ‘Darwinian individual’ (cf. Godfrey-Smith, 2009), that could offer a more adequate perspective of the object of Biology. The object of this science could not be organisms, but individuals that can enter the Darwinian evolutionary drift. In this work it is explained why a hiatus persists between organisms teleologically oriented and a Darwinian individual. The Darwinian perspective leaves aside the central character of the object of Biology: life. (shrink)

Se ha sostenido tradicionalmente que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas son análogos. Pero, ¿qué es la analogía? Varios filósofos han pensado que la analogía debe ser considerada como una forma de ambigüedad. Argumentamos aquí que los predicados atribuidos a Dios y a las criaturas no son ambiguos o vagos. Siguiendo algunas sugerencias de McDaniel, proponemos una concepción de la analogía donde el fenómeno semántico está asociado con el carácter más o menos natural de la propiedad o (...) propiedades que instancian las entidades que satisfacen el predicado análogo. Un predicado "θ" es análogo si y sólo si, la propiedad Θ, que algo instancia, si y sólo si es θ, es menos natural que cualquier propiedad Ξ tal que todo lo que instancie Ξ, instancia Θ. Además, se requiere que las entidades de las cuales el término análogo es predicado deban ser ontológica o epistémicamente dependientes unas de otras. || It has been traditionally sustained that predicates attributed to God and to the creatures are analogical predicates. But, what is analogy? Several philosophers have thought that analogy should be taken as a form of ambiguity. Here we argue that predicates attributed to God and to creatures are neither ambiguous nor vague. Following some suggestions given by McDaniel, we propose a view of analogy in which the semantic phenomenon is associated with the more or less natural character of the property or properties that the entities that satisfy the analogous predicate instantiate. A predicate "θ" is analogous if and only if the property Θ, which something instantiates, if and only if it is θ, is less natural that any property Ξ so that anything that instantiates Ξ, instantiates Θ. Furthermore, it is required that the entities of which the analogous term is predicated should be either ontologically or epistemically dependent on each other. (shrink)

Se ha destacado recientemente que la Fórmula de Barcan y la Conversa de la Fórmula de Barcan para lógica modal cuantificacional de orden superior parecen válidas. Si se interpreta que los cuantificadores tienen como rango propiedades, la validez de y de orden superior parece implicar la existencia de universales trascendentes, esto es, universales que no requieren estar instanciados para existir en un mundo posible. Este trabajo discute esta línea de argumentación. En primer lugar, se sostiene que la semántica en la (...) que los resultados de validez se siguen no requiere que las ‘intensiones’ asignadas a las variables de orden superior estén instanciadas en un mundo posible para que la intensión exista ahí. El defensor de universales inmanentes objetaría esta suposición. En una semántica modificada, más neutral, y de orden superior ya no son válidas. En segundo lugar, se sostiene que, incluso si se concediese la validez de y de orden superior, no se obtendrían resultados metafísicos sustantivos, pues diferentes formas de nominalismo y diferentes teorías de tropos no tendrían dificultades en aceptar y de orden superior. (shrink)

Resumen: Husserl propone dos descripciones fenomenológicas diferentes de los universales: la primera en Investigaciones lógicas y la segunda en Experiencia y juicio. En este trabajo se presentan y discuten estas dos descripciones fenomenológicas. Resulta que la perspectiva de Experiencia y juicio parece tener que ver con un acceso hermenéutico a los universales, mediado por un lenguaje y una tradición cultural, mientras que la perspectiva de Investigaciones lógicas parece estar centrada en un fenómeno pre-lingüístico más originario. Este segundo fenómeno de los (...) universales parece ser más fundamental. En ambas perspectivas, sin embargo, los universales son dados en nuestras experiencias ordinarias. Entonces, uno debería aceptar universales en principio –dada la evidencia fenomenológica– a menos que otras razones de orden teórico recomienden lo contrario. (shrink)

Dealing with phonological variations is important for speech processing. This article addresses whether phonological variations introduced by assimilatory processes are compensated for at the pre-lexical or lexical level, and whether the nature of variation and the phonological context influence this process. To this end, Swedish nasal regressive place assimilation was investigated using the mismatch negativity component. In nasal regressive assimilation, the coronal nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following segment, most clearly with a velar or labial place (...) of articulation, as in utan mej “without me” > [ʉːtam mɛjː]. In a passive auditory oddball paradigm, 15 Swedish speakers were presented with Swedish phrases with attested and unattested phonological variations and contexts for nasal assimilation. Attested variations – a coronal-to-labial change as in utan “without” > [ʉːtam] – were contrasted with unattested variations – a labial-to-coronal change as in utom “except” > ∗[ʉːtɔn] – in appropriate and inappropriate contexts created by mej “me” [mɛjː] and dej “you” [dɛjː]. Given that the MMN amplitude depends on the degree of variation between two stimuli, the MMN responses were expected to indicate to what extent the distance between variants was tolerated by the perceptual system. Since the MMN response reflects not only low-level acoustic processing but also higher-level linguistic processes, the results were predicted to indicate whether listeners process assimilation at the pre-lexical and lexical levels. The results indicated no significant interactions across variations, suggesting that variations in phonological forms do not incur any cost in lexical retrieval; hence such variation is compensated for at the lexical level. However, since the MMN response reached significance only for a labial-to-coronal change in a labial context and for a coronal-to-labial change in a coronal context, the compensation might have been influenced by the nature of variation and the phonological context. It is therefore concluded that while assimilation is compensated for at the lexical level, there is also some influence from pre-lexical processing. The present results reveal not only signal-based perception of phonological units, but also higher-level lexical processing, and are thus able to reconcile the bottom-up and top-down models of speech processing. (shrink)

El presente proyecto se enmarca en la actual línea revisionista vinculada al período de las «independencias». Como ya es habitual, las conmemoraciones y efemérides marcan en un alto porcentaje el calendario científico y la producción historiográfica, y ahora estamos inmersos tanto en el proceso de los Bicentenarios (Guerra hispano-francesa de 1808, emancipaciones americanas en torno al simbólico año de 1810, y Cortes de Cádiz en 1812), como en el de rescatar las celebraciones de los «Centenarios» de hace un siglo. Este (...) número monográfico intenta sumar un aporte que pudiera servir de basamento para quienes pretendan una aproximación a temas vinculados con el citado proceso historiográfico. En la construcción iconográfica de las naciones americanas (y no solamente «nacionales» sino también regionales) las temáticas y las tipologías resultan de lo más variadas y cada una cumple un papel de mayor o menor relevancia, pero siempre plausible de un análisis particularizado y global. El paisaje, las costumbres, el retrato, las alegorías, la pintura de historia y la de temática social en el caso de las primeras, y la arquitectura, escultura, pintura, gráfica, dibujo, fotografía, artes decorativas y un variadísimo cúmulo de objetos dentro de la segunda, determinan un amplio panorama analítico que ha hecho aumentar el interés y la atención de los especialistas, sobre todo del XIX, con una avidez sin parangón respecto de décadas anteriores. (shrink)

Philosophers and educators come together to address contemporary issues in education.

This article includes a study about the preface of Moreh ha-Moreh, a philosophical commentary on Guide for the Perplexed written by Sem Tob ibn Falaquera at the end of XIIIth century. In this introduction Sem Tob ibn Falaquera defends Maimonides and his works. In addition, he exposes his opinion about different subjects, like the nature, the determining factors and limits of philosophical labour or the harmony between reason and faith.