The chapter offers a philosophical account of the capacity to recognise moral considerations to be used in investigating whether psychopaths are amoral, as opposed to immoral. The author criticizes Simon Baron-Cohen and James Blair et al., who maintain that psychopaths are amoral insofar they lack empathy, for endorsing a sentimentalist account of moral understanding. Moreover, the author criticizes Kant's version of rationalism for assuming an impersonal notion of moral rationality that is unconstrained by specific human features. He (...) offers, instead, an account of moral rationality in the spirit of Philippa Foot's Aristotelian inspired proposal. According to this view, moral rationality is a type of rationality that depends on the capacities for empathy, developing feelings of benevolence and resistance to causing harm. Although some psychopaths are irrational in other ways, the author suggest that central to psychopathy is a failure of moral rationality. (shrink)

Challenges to Legal Theory offers the reader a fascinating journey though a variety of multi-disciplinary topics, ranging from law and literature, and law and religion, to legal philosophy and constitutional law. The collection reflects some of the challenges that the field of legal theory currently faces. It is compiled by a selection of international and Spanish scholars, whose essays are made available in English translation for the first time. The volume is based on a collection of essays, published in Spanish, (...) in honour of Professor José Iturmendi Morales, of Complutense University, Madrid, and brings the rich scholarship of pre-eminent Spanish scholars of law and legal theory to an international audience. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es realizar una revisión del estado de la cuestión sobre el concepto de estado de naturaleza en el pensamiento de Thomas Hobbes. Dicha revisión permite articular una comprensión de la naturaleza humana, puesto que a diferencia del realismo político el estado de naturaleza en Hobbes no tiene un rol meramente hipotético. Precisamente, la idea de naturaleza humana articula una proto-moralidad que permite comprender la transición hacia el estado civil. Las investigaciones Kavka, Gauthier y Hampton han (...) construido una compleja compresión de la naturaleza humana, la cual permite entender cierto sustrato de proto-moralidad en el pensamiento hobbesiano. (shrink)

Current frameworks on ethical decision-making process have some limitations. This paper argues that the consideration of moral competencies, understood as moral virtues in the workplace, can enhance our understanding of why moral character contributes to ethical decision-making. After discussing the universal nature of four moral competencies (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance), we analyse their influence on the various stages of the ethical decision-making process. We conclude by considering the managerial implications of our findings and proposing further (...) research. (shrink)

Este texto se centra en la génesis de las ciencias sociales a través de una reflexión analítico- descriptiva sobre la sistematización de la ciencia. La ciencia es una creación del ser humano y constituye la mejor herramienta para adquirir conocimientos acerca de su entorno, de sí mismo, del universo... Debe ser interdisciplinaria y para dar soporte a este empeño, hemos tenido que elegir, y hemos optado por comparar la sociología con la filosofía buscando aportaciones (implícitas o explícitas) de prestigiosos pensadores.

The author's conversation with his daughter, Maya, on Philosophy and rights.

Los Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte de 1844 de Marx establecen las bases del proyecto marxista de superación del capitalismo. Para ello, desarrolla una crítica al trabajo asalariado desde el concepto de alienación procedente de la dialéctica hegeliana y de la crítica de Feuerbach a la religión. Este análisis le sirve para establecer otros conceptos como los de una alteridad materialista o la reducción a la animalidad, desde los cuales sería posible construir otro marxismo alternativo al de Das Kapital.

This original and compelling book argues that previous studies of John Stuart Mill's work have neglected his egalitarianism and thus seriously misunderstood his views. Morales demonstrates that Mill was fundamentally concerned with how the exercise of unjust or arbitrary power by some individuals over others sabotages the possibility of human well-being and social improvement. Mill therefore believed that 'perfect equality'--more than liberty--was the foundation of democracy and that democracy was a moral ideal for the organization of human life in (...) all of its dimensions. By reinterpreting Mill, Morales also challenges twentieth-century views of liberalism, and addresses its contemporary communitarian and feminist critics. (shrink)

Since some AI algorithms with high predictive power have impacted human integrity, safety has become a crucial challenge in adopting and deploying AI. Although it is impossible to prevent an algorithm from failing in complex tasks, it is crucial to ensure that it fails safely, especially if it is a critical system. Moreover, due to AI’s unbridled development, it is imperative to minimize the methodological gaps in these systems’ engineering. This paper uses the well-known Box-Jenkins method for statistical modeling as (...) a framework to identify engineering pitfalls in the adjustment and validation of AI models. Step by step, we point out state-of-the-art strategies and good practices to tackle these engineering drawbacks. In the final step, we integrate an internal and external validation scheme that might support an iterative evaluation of the normative, perceived, substantive, social, and environmental safety of all AI systems. (shrink)

In recent years, character traits in general and virtue-related concepts in particular have been of considerable interest to philosophers, psychological researchers, and practitioners in the business ethics field. Three approaches to character traits can be used to incorporate ethics into organizations: virtues, character strengths, and competencies. The aim of this article is to clarify the concept of character traits, or virtues, and provide a unified operational version of it for incorporation into management. To this end, we first discuss the analogy (...) among virtues, character strengths, and competencies. Then, we propose a list of moral competencies that can be implemented in competency-based human resource management. (shrink)

Background: In Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services professionals experience situations in which they face difficulties or barriers to know patient’s advance directives and implement them. Objectives: To analyse the barriers, facilitators, and ethical conflicts perceived by health professionals derived from the management of advance directives in emergency services. Research design, participants, and context: This is a qualitative phenomenological study conducted with purposive sampling including a population of nursing and medical professionals linked to Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical (...) Services. Three focus groups were formed, totalling 24 participants. We performed an inductive-type thematic discourse analysis. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by ethical committees of Ethical Commitee of Clínic Hospital (Barcelona) and Comittee of Emergency Medical Services (Barcelona). The participants received information about the purpose of the study. Patients’ anonymity and willingness to participate in the study were guaranteed. Findings: There were four types of barriers that hindered the proper management of patients’ advance directives in Hospital Emergency Department and Emergency Medical Services: personal and professional, family members, organisational and structural, and those derived from the health system. These barriers caused ethical conflicts and hindered professionals’ decision-making. Discussion: These results are in line with those of previous studies and indicate that factors such as gender, professional category, and years of experience, in addition to professionals’ beliefs and the opinions of colleagues and family members, can also influence the professionals’ final decisions. Conclusion: The different strategies described in this study can contribute to the development of health policies and action protocols to help reduce both the barriers that hinder the correct management and implementation of advance directives and the ethical conflicts generated. (shrink)

Este trabajo se ocupa de algunas ideas éticas del filósofo latinoamericano Andrés Bello (1781-1865), en especial de su “teoría de los sentimientos morales”. En la polémica del siglo XIX entre el llamado racionalismo ético (representado por Théodore Jouffroy) y el utilitarismo (Bentham), Bello adopta una postura intermedia, que pudiera calificarse de “hedonismo moderado” o de “eudemonismo”. Sus puntos de vista sobre la motivación moral o la manera en que la razón y el sentimiento se entrelazan para formar nuestras creencias (...) morales, se revelan como muy próximos a las doctrinas de Aristóteles y de algunos autores contemporáneos. (shrink)

Once a term used primarily by moral philosophers, “moral distress” is increasingly used by health professionals to name experiences of frustration and failure in fulfilling moral obligations inherent to their fiduciary relationship with the public. Although such challenges have always been present, as has discord regarding the right thing to do in particular situations, there is a radical change in the degree and intensity of moral distress being expressed. Has the plight of professionals in healthcare practice (...) changed? “Plight” encompasses not only the act of pledging, but that of predicament and peril. The author claims that health professionals are increasingly put in peril by healthcare reform that undermines their efficacy and jeopardizes ethical engagement with those in their care. The re-engineering of healthcare to give precedence to corporate and commercial values and strategies of commodification, service rationing, streamlining, and measuring of “efficiency,” is literally demoralizing health professionals. Healthcare practice needs to be grounded in a capacity for compassion and empathy, as is evident in standards of practice and codes of ethics, and in the understanding of what it means to be a professional. Such grounding allows for humane response to the availability of unprecedented advances in biotechnological treatments, for genuine dialogue and the raising of difficult, necessary ethical questions, and for the mutual support of health professionals themselves. If healthcare environments are not understood as moral communities but rather as simulated marketplaces, then health professionals’ moral agency is diminished and their vulnerability to moral distress is exacerbated. Research in moral distress and relational ethics is used to support this claim. (shrink)

Las ideas expuestas por José Eusebio Caro en su obra inconclusa intitulada Mecánica social o Teoría del movimiento humano, considerado en su naturaleza, en sus efectos y en sus causas, en 1836, recoge aspectos característicos del pensamiento de las primeras décadas del Siglo XIX, con raíces algunas de ellas en ápocas anteriores. La riqueza intelectual de la obra en mención indujo la investigación analítica, de la cual da cuenta este documento, según la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿Cuáles son los rasgos (...) epistemológicos predominantes en las tesis filosóficas y sociológicas de José Eusebio Caro, en su obra póstuma inconclusa intitulada Mecánica social o teoría del movimiento humano, considerado en su naturaleza, en sus efectos y en sus causas? El estudio en torno a esta obra se concentra en precisar aspectos epistemológicos de una propuesta que comparte honores con el positivismo y con el surgimiento de la teoría social cuyas tesis dan paso al surgimiento de la sociología. Esto, en un particular siglo caracterizado por la búsqueda de la originalidad ideológica y política del continente americano, que esperaba resurgir lejos de la dominación española y cerca de los teóricos franceses y de los desarrollos ideológicos de Inglaterra. (shrink)

A new variational method, the principle of least radix economy, is formulated. The mathematical and physical relevance of the radix economy, also called digit capacity, is established, showing how physical laws can be derived from this concept in a unified way. The principle reinterprets and generalizes the principle of least action yielding two classes of physical solutions: least action paths and quantum wavefunctions. A new physical foundation of the Hilbert space of quantum mechanics is then accomplished and it is used (...) to derive the Schrödinger and Dirac equations and the breaking of the commutativity of spacetime geometry. The formulation provides an explanation of how determinism and random statistical behavior coexist in spacetime and a framework is developed that allows dynamical processes to be formulated in terms of chains of digits. These methods lead to a new foundation for Lorentz transformations and special relativity. The Parker-Rhodes combinatorial hierarchy is encompassed within our approach and this leads to an estimate of the interaction strength of the electromagnetic and gravitational forces that agrees with the experimental values to an error of less than one thousandth. Finally, it is shown how the principle of least-radix economy naturally gives rise to Boltzmann’s principle of classical statistical thermodynamics. A new expression for a general nonequilibrium entropy is proposed satisfying the Second Law of Thermodynamics. (shrink)

University students will be our future business leaders, and will have to address social problems caused by business by implementing solutions such as social entrepreneurship ventures. In order to facilitate the learning process that will foster social entrepreneurship, however, a more holistic pedagogy is needed. Based on learning theory, we propose that students’ social entrepreneurship actions will depend on their learning about CSR and their absorptive capacity. We propose that instructors and higher education institutions can enhance this absorptive capacity by (...) exploiting Web 2.0 technologies. We tested our proposition with a sample of 425 university students using structural equation modeling and found support for the proposed relationships. (shrink)

El presente trabajo trata sobre responsabilidad extracontractual y toma como objeto de análisis un caso real que no quiere ser revisado por el Gobierno boliviano, desde la perspectiva de la responsabilidad, puesto que él mismo adquirió carga por culpa sobre un accidente aéreo de una nave y que, con el evento fatídico provocado, involucró a tres países: Bolivia, Colombia y Brasil; este último como principal afectado puesto que los pasajeros que fallecieron en el accidente eran de dicha nacionalidad. El trabajo (...) concluye señalando, a nuestro parecer, al culpable del evento dañoso. (shrink)

El largometraje La llorona (Jayro Bustamante, 2019) persigue contribuir a la restitución de una deuda histórica con el pueblo indígena guatemalteco; una deuda no satisfecha plenamente con los acuerdos de paz de 1996. El pasado espectral viene encarnado en Alma, la sirvienta maya kaqchikel que entra a trabajar en la casa del general Monteverde, responsable del genocidio de las comunidades indígenas cuando era presidente del país centroamericano. Al invertir la idea del haunting, o tormento, son el torturador y su familia (...) lxs que se ven acosados por sus acciones pasadas, que hasta ahora habían quedado impunes, no solo a nivel jurídico, sino también a nivel moral. La figura metafórica de “La Llorona”, que llora desconsolada más allá de la muerte porque sus hijos han sido asesinados frente a ella, desencadena el terror que vivirá la familia protagonista, obligada a enfrentarse al pasado en el contexto del juicio popular contra Monteverde. La lujosa mansión del expresidente, una casa tomada, rodeada de manifestantes clamando por sus desaparecidxs, se volverá un espacio asfixiante capaz de atentar contra sus habitantes como respuesta a las demandas de justicia. Este artículo se interroga sobre tres aspectos fundamentales de la película. En primer lugar, cómo se elabora audiovisualmente el contra-archivo del juicio de Ríos Montt en 2013, de quien Monteverde es trasunto en la ficción. En segundo lugar, de qué manera se movilizan las politics of haunting negociando un discurso que transciende el género de terror y entronca con el de denuncia social. Y finalmente, cuáles son los procedimientos que utiliza el filme para presentar la resistencia indígena y la decolonialidad como opciones para construir el presente democrático en Guatemala. (shrink)

Linguistic justice is about institutions distributing material and symbolic resources fairly when they are faced with linguistic diversity. However, no theory of linguistic justice has developed a systematic and comprehensive account of the moral dilemmas that take place in interpersonal linguistic relationships, in particular the power dynamics leading to (linguistic) domination. The aim of this article is to start building a general theory of linguistic domination, one that offers new conceptual tools for both empirical and normative analyses of linguistically (...) diverse societies. Using the republican tradition of thought, I argue that there is linguistic domination whenever someone is subject to the uncontrolled capacity for interference over their linguistic uses, ideology and acquisition by another agent. This article tests under what conditions this phenomenon takes place and the parties involved in it (both in terms of individuals and political institutions). (shrink)

RESUMEN El objetivo de este trabajo consiste en resaltar y rescatar la apropiación que Gadamer hace del concepto de la amistad, la philía griega. Se intentará ver su sentido específico en una suerte de exhortación, una contribución que no se hace bajo el título de experto ni de especialista sino de ciudadano que interpreta su propia realidad. En primer lugar, observaremos cómo este llamado se puede identificar como una tendencia propia de los análisis que Gadamer realiza sobre problemáticas sociales de (...) actualidad. Luego, se verá en la noción de amistad una forma de hacerle frente, según nuestro autor, a la evasión de sí al rescatar del olvido los vínculos auténticos con los otros que siempre están presentes como posibilidad abierta, pero que es necesario hacer efectiva en el involucramiento activo de cada uno de nosotros. ABSTRACT The aim of the present article is to emphasize and revive Gadamer's appropriation of the concept «friendship». I will try to construe its specific sense as a sort of exhortation, a contribution made, not by an expert or specialist, but by a citizen that interprets his own reality. First we will see how this call can be identified as a characteristic tendency of Gadamer's analysis of actual social problems. Then we will see in the notion of friendship a way to face the evasion of the self by recovering from the oblivion the authentic links with the others which are always present as an open possibility, but which need to be made effective in the active involvement of each and everyone of us. (shrink)