J. Martin

Tato studie si klade za cíl představit antropologické a kosmologické názory ruského myslitele Nikolaje Fjodorova (1829 – 1903). Fjodorov nabízí fantastickou futuristickou vizi, v níž jsou nejen odstraněny války, nemoci a hlad, ale člověk ve snaze o své zdokonalení přemůže také smrt. Bratrství a láska povede podle Fjodorova sjednocené lidstvo k tomu, že životu vrátí všechny zemřelé předky. Tito vzkříšení lidé zabydlí zemi a později i celý vesmír. Fjodorov bývá považován za zakladatele filozofie ruského kosmismu. Mezi jeho žáky lze zařadit i Konstantina Ciolkovského, který jako první uvažoval o možnosti dobytí vesmíru pomocí raket. Na Ciolkovského přímo navazují zakladatelé sovětského vesmírného programu. Autor této studie předkládá hypotézu, že myšlenka pilotovaných kosmických letů vznikla v pseudovědeckém prostředí ruského kosmismu. Přestože byly pilotované lety do vesmíru během dvacátého století tohoto svého z vědeckého hlediska problematického zdůvodnění zbaveny, dosud nikdo žádné vědecké zdůvodnění pilotovaných vesmírných letů nenabídl.

In this paper we argue that ecological evolutionary developmental biology accounts of cognitive modernity are compatible with cultural evolution theories of language built upon iterated learning models. Cultural evolution models show that the emergence of near universal properties of language do not require the preexistence of strong specific constraints. Instead, the development of general abilities, unrelated to informational specificity, like the copying of complex signals and sharing of communicative intentions is required for cultural evolution to yield specific properties, such as language structure. We argue that eco-evo-devo provides the appropriate conceptual background to ground an account for the many interconnected genetic, environmental and developmental factors that facilitated the emergence of an organic system able to develop language through the iterated transmission of information. We use the concept of niche construction to connect evolutionary developmental accounts for sensory guided motor capacities and cultural evolution guided by iterated learning models. This integrated theoretical model aims to build bridges between biological and cultural approaches.

This article analyses and discusses dilemmas, ambivalences and problematic issues related to research ethics. This is done firstly by making a distinction between procedural research ethics and particularistic research ethics. Such a distinction reflects a theoretical construction and generalization. In practice, there can be a very close correlation between the two types. In the following, the distinction will therefore be used as a starting point for the presentation of a pragmatic-dualist research ethics. The approach is dualist because it draws on the presence of two independent, contrasting understandings, which are essentially different yet equal aspects of good research ethics; it is pragmatic because this dualism is structural and institutional by nature, and designed with an eye to what can realistically and expediently be done in practice. Thus the intention of the article is to both analyze and discuss two different understandings of research ethics and simultaneously qualify a research ethics that draws on both of these understandings. Furthermore, the intention is to visualize a different understanding of research ethics which others can address and elaborate on or qualify. Even at this point, this research ethic can be included in a catalogue of understandings of ethical research practice an can be exploited in ethical research practice.

Empirical research on mental representation is challenging because internal representations are not available to direct observation. This chapter will show how empirical results from developmental studies, and insights from computational modelling of those results, can be combined with existing research on adults. So together all these research perspectives can provide convergent evidence for how visual representations mediate object recognition. Recent experimental studies have shown that development towards adult performance levels in configural processing in object recognition is delayed through middle childhood. Whilst part-changes to animal and artefact stimuli are processed with similar to adult levels of accuracy from 7 years of age, relative size changes to stimuli result in a significant decrease in relative performance for participants aged between 7 and 10. Two sets of computational experiments were run using the JIM3 artificial neural network with adult and ‘immature’ versions to simulate these results. One set progressively decreased the number of neurons involved in the representation of view-independent metric relations within multi-geon objects. A second set of computational experiments involved decreasing the number of neurons that represent view-dependent object attributes in JIM3’s surface map. The simulation results which show the best qualitative match to empirical data occurred when artificial neurons representing metric-precision relations were entirely eliminated. These results therefore provide further evidence for the late development of relational processing in object recognition and suggest that children in middle childhood may recognise objects without forming structural description representations.

ABSTRACTNo longer capable of serving as a nodal point of a single coherent narrative or as a marker for parallel events across national borders, “1968” is best understood in a tense relation to “1967”. Juxtaposed rather than reconciled, they can only be brought together in a dynamic field of conflicting forces still in play even after a half century has passed. Such an approach alerts us to the relativization of what seems to be a punctual moment in a single historical space–time continuum. To understand the role of the Frankfurt School in the German “1968” is therefore to situate its history in the expanded field that includes the very different events of “1967”, which resist incorporation into a unified narrative. It is to register the importance of 1967 in generating its negative relationship to aspects of the German 1968, and in colouring its attitude towards post-colonial struggles and the discourse they have spawned. By expanding the field in this way, we will avoid turning 1968 into an isolated monument on a pedestal that masks its connection to the multiple historical contexts that can set it into motion and help us understand its importance today.

En 1594 el padre Suárez escribe en castellano un memorial destinado al público lego donde da cuenta y razón de la polémica de auxiliis. El memorial desata las iras de los dominicos y otras órdenes porque según ellos se están vulgarizando tendenciosamente problemas que debían reservarse a los teólogos. Por ello el dominico Domingo Báñez escribe en el mismo año una refutación del memorial de Suárez, también en castellano, dirigido a la Inquisición. Este artículo estudia ambos documentos especialmente relevantes para el hispanismo filosófico por varias razones: están pensados y escritos en castellano, lengua vehicular además del latín de las altas especulaciones teológicas de la época; constituyen un momento de aclaración conceptual por parte de Suárez en la configuración de su propio sistema: el congruismo; funcionaron como embrión de la Apología de Bañez; y son una espléndida y sintética introducción al problema para el no iniciado.

The aim of our research is to analyze how different religions influence business ethics. We develop an index of practices in the field of business ethics, made up of 19 items containing practices related to workers, consumers, products, human rights, management of ethical conflicts, and crime prevention. Also, we consider a wide range of religion affiliations. To undertake this research, we use a panel data sample composed of 11,956 firm‐year observations from 18 countries. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we posit some hypotheses based on the religions considered. The results obtained show that a higher percentage of religious adherents in the country where a company does business usually involve the implementation of more ethical practices in the corporate field. These findings are obtained for Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu religions. In contrast, this does not stand for Buddhist and folk religions. Also, countries where there is no predominant religion do not show a confluence between religion and ethical corporate practices.

Corruption in higher education has raised concern among governments, citizens, and the education community worldwide. However, few papers have sought to explore the students’ willingness to engage in corrupt practices at the university level. The present study aimed to examine the influence of different corrupt behaviours and perceived corruption among peers on the corrupt intention of university students. 120 undergraduate students participated in a quasi-experimental design divided in 3 treatments to rate their willingness to engage in favouritism and embezzlement behaviours. Results pointed out that students were more prone to committing a non-monetary behaviour favouritism– than a monetary behaviour –embezzlement–. Furthermore, there were not significant differences between the groups of control and high-corruption acceptance; while only the group of low-corruption acceptance showed significant lower rates when compared to the control and the high-corruption acceptance’s group. Practical recommendations need to address students’ perceptions of different corrupt practices, focusing on designing ethical training programmes aimed to raise awareness on the negative consequences of non-monetary activities. Future research directions could generate empirical support to prove if students are able to recognize the underlying mechanisms of subtle corrupt practices.

The goal of this research is to analyze the heterogeneity of family firms in the normative attention to their non-family stakeholders. With this aim, we suggest that the psychological process of top family managers in terms of individual affective commitment to their firms is a key variable to explain that heterogeneity. However, we also suggest a moderator effect of the family stakeholder salience in the relationship between the managers' affective commitment to the firm and the establishment of firm goals toward non-family stakeholders. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis on data obtained from 207 family executives show a significant positive influence of managers' affective commitment on the establishment of goals related both to internal and external non-family stakeholders. In addition, we can observe a negative moderator effect of the family utilitarian power—as an indicator of the family stakeholder salience—on the relationship between the family managers' affective commitment and the goals related to non-family employees.

El objetivo de este estudio es examinar hasta qué punto es válido incluir el pensamiento de Tomás de Aquino, junto al de Aristóteles y Kant, en la estructura filosófica que Heidegger llama, en Ser y tiempo § 44, “concepto tradicional de la verdad”. Partiendo de la definición de la verdad como adecuación del intelecto y la cosa, se somete a discusión la equivalencia entre el concepto aristotélico de ὁμοίωσις, el tomista de adaequatio y el kantiano de Übereinstimmung. Para ello se examina detenidamente la noción de adaequatio, se la distingue de otras nociones cercanas, y se muestra cómo los diferentes sentidos del movimiento de adecuación dan lugar, a su vez, a distintos sentidos de la verdad. Se concluye que no hay equivalencia entre los conceptos de verdad de Aristóteles, Tomás y Kant, y se profundiza en la noción de verdad ontológica.

This book presents a history of the correspondence principle from a new perspective. The author provides a unique exploration of the relation between the practice of theory and conceptual development in physics. In the process, he argues for a new understanding of the history of the old quantum theory and the emergence of quantum mechanics. The analysis looks at how the correspondence principle was disseminated and how the principle was applied as a research tool during the 1920s. It provides new insights into the interaction between theoretical tools and scientific problems and shows that the use of this theoretical tool changed the tool itself in a process of transformation through implementation. This process, the author claims, was responsible for the conceptual development of the correspondence principle. This monograph connects to the vast literature in the history of science, which analyzed theoretical practices as based on tacit knowledge, skills, and calculation techniques. It contributes to the historical understanding of quantum physics and the emergence of quantum mechanics. Studying how physicists used a set of tools to solve problems, the author spells out the ‟skillful guessing” that went into the making of quantum theoretical arguments and argues that the integration and implementation of technical resources was a central driving force for the conceptual and theoretical transformation in the old quantum theory.

Un año después de la publicación de Discursos legitimadores de la conquista y la colonización de América, estas Visiones vienen a completar la divulgación allí iniciada del contenido de los encuentros americanistas promovidos por la universidad de Alcalá y el Instituto “Benjamin Franklin” de Estudios Norteamericanos, que tienen en el editor de ambos libros, Francisco Castilla, su alma. Diferencia de título de la que no cabe deducir, pues, una radical diferencia de orientación. Y no sólo por razón de su origen académico. Como sugiere el editor al final de su amplia introducción, en la occidentalización americana resulta muy a menudo difícil separar nítidamente visiones y discursos legitimadores, el aspecto descriptivo más o menos declaradamente subjetivo y el normativo que reclama universal aquiescencia.

El artículo presenta las distintas interpretaciones que se han dado acerca de la recepción de F. Nietzsche por parte de M. de Unamuno. A continuación se estudian directamente las fuentes de dicha recepción, planteándose una hipótesis original. En tercer lugar se presenta la figura de Nietzsche por parte de Unamuno y sus temas preferidos: el sobrehombre, el anticristianismo y el pangermanismo, la vuelta eterna y el afán de inmortalidad. Por último, se delinean algunas convergencias y divergencias entre ambos autores.

Political theorists disagree on the origin of justice. According to the cosmopolitan conception of justice, duties of justice are pre-political and universal. According to the political conception of justice, on the other hand, full duties of justice arise within and only within the context of a political community. Which one of these conceptions one adopts will have a comprehensive impact on ethical issues concerning global justice, such as migration ethics and foreign assistance. In this paper I argue that the political conception is problematic, since it cannot be applied in cases of anarchy. Since anarchic societies are not politically organized, the political conception implies that they are not bound by full duties of justice. Thus, the political conception is unable to criticize some rival theories of justice, such as anarchistic libertarianism, for being unjust. Reversely, if one does find anarchic societies unjust, this intuition speaks against the political conception of justice, but in favor of the cosmopolitan conception. I illustrate my argument by applying it in the case of liberal egalitarianism.

This article presents the feasibility of teaching generic competences through Sciencelessons at university level. The authors have implemented a new instrumentcalled “Moral Cross Dilemma” which involves the use of argumentationand moral reasoning within the students of Primary EducationDegree. This tool seems to be an effectivepedagogical resource in Higher Education Levels. It is a step forward fromthe well-known dilemma, a consolidated strategy for the development ofethical competences based on argumentative and discursive methodologies.This paper is focused on the description of this technique and applies itfor the first time on experimental data.Moral Cross Dilemma is applicable to environmental conflicts andcan be used as a discursive technique for improving the personal ethiclevel. This work shows empirical evidences from the preliminary implementationwithin university students. experience was carried out on a 47-student sample. They wereprospective teachers learning Natural Sciences. The main results revealedno difference and were observed between self-perceived and peer evaluationof the moral status, although the environmental-friendly argumentationposition clearly set out higher scoring in the moral reasoning level.

The traditional approach to determine the human’s death was based on evidence of cessation of breathing and circulation. There has been significant progress in the field of resuscitation during the twentieth century. Since the physicians were able to provide an artificial blood circulation and respiration, it turned out that the current cardiopulmonary standard of human death is insufficient. It was therefore replaced by brain death. Even this position has many problems. One of them is the question which part of the brain must be non-functional. The prevailing definition speaks about the whole brain death. An alternative definition considers determining of the death by non-functioning of higher brain, which is linked to the existence of consciousness. Thus, death is defined as the irreversible cessation of consciousness. As a promising starting point of access to the death appears the understanding of life as a system of mutually reinforcing and conditioning processes. All approaches are linked to a number of ethical issues and, last but not least, to the question what we consider a life worthy of living.

El presente texto tiene un origen muy concreto. El día 15 de marzo de 2002, con motivo de la Cumbre Europea de Barcelona, Jorge Semprún reflexionaba, en las páginas de un conocido diario madrileño, sobre el significado que para él tenía ser europeo. Para ello emprendía tres "viajes intelectuales" a Viena, Praga y Buchenwald, los tres de gran significado histórico y cultural. Dado el interés del texto y del momento, me pareció entonces oportuno glosar algunos aspectos de aquel artículo, primero, para subrayar el valor de la aportación de Semprún, luego para corregir alguna inexactitud de carácter biográfico, debida posiblemente a la rapidez de la traducción, y, tercero, para ampliar con algún comentario la valiosa contribución de Sempnín, sobre todo en lo que concierne al sentido de Europa. En este texto se toma aquel comentario como punto de partida.The origins of this text are very specific. On 15 March 2002, on the occasion of the European Summit in Barcelona, and on the pages of a well-known Madrid newspaper, Jorge Semprún reflected on the meaning that being European had for him. To do this, he embarked on three "intellectual journeys" to Vienna, Prague and Buchenwald, all three of great historical and cultural significance. Given the interest of the text and of the moment, I considered it appropriate to comment on aspects of the article -firstly, to underline the value of Semprún's contribution; secondly, to correct certain biographical inaccuracies, possibly due to a hasty translation; and thirdly, to complement Semprún's valuable contribution, essentially concerning the meaning of Europe. This text takes that comment as its starting point.