J. Martinez

The aims of this research were twofold: first, to compare the levels of organisational harmony between family and non-family firms and, second, to study the influence of organisational harmony on family firms’ performance (profitability, longevity and group cohesion). Starting from a definition of organisational harmony as a value and considering the importance of the management of organisational values, we use the main topics indicated by the general literature (organisational climate, trust and participation) to analyse organisational harmony, as well as three other topics for performance (profitability, survival and group cohesion). Results indicate that family firms have higher levels of these three qualities than non-family firms, and that the levels of trust, participation and organisational climate have a positive and significant influence on the performance of family firms. These results can be understood as a consequence of the influence of family social capital on organisational social capital and so on the performance of family businesses. From the perspective of institutionalism, the higher levels of harmony existing in family businesses are a reflection of the pressures that the owning family as an institution exercises on the organisational social capital in its companies

The Interrogatory of the year 1755 is the document which had to carry out the city of Lorca to elaborate the "Catastro de la Ensenada". lt has been possible to know, through it, the productive structure of a rural, gremial and conservative country where the political powder was kept by the oligarchy. In this paper we have studied the division and use of the land, its production, yields, prices and taxes as well as the manufacturing, comercial and industrial activities. Also, this paper allow us tho know the distribution of the employed people and their rentallevel, and also show the way in which the burocracy gives to this rural country sorne urban character. We have tried to carry out an approach to a pre-industrial society of the "Old Regimen" which has an important density of population and where the guilds gave to this society gremial character

Resumen Este artículo examina el papel de la ficción como laboratorio mental, que ayuda al filósofo a plantear y discutir los diferentes análisis creados en el campo de la filosofía de la mente. De manera particular se enfoca en algunos de los cuentos que Daniel Dennett ha contado acerca del problema de la conciencia. Es por eso que este artículo también intenta responder preguntas como: ¿Cuál es la relación entre la conciencia y el Centro de Gravedad Narrativo propuesto por Dennett? ¿La mente está hecha de historias? ¿Puede haber un uso semántico en el habla de una inteligencia artificial que no posee experiencia corporal del mundo? Palabras clave: ficción; cuerpo; mente; conciencia; self; creencias; semántica. Fiction, Body and Mind: The Dennett CaseThis paper examines the role of fiction as a mental laboratory that helps the philosopher to pose and discuss the various analyses created in the philosophy of mind. It focuses particularly on some of the tales that Daniel Dennett has told about the problem of consciousness. That is why this paper also attempts to answer questions such as: What is the relation of consciousness to Dennett’s Center of Narrative Gravity? Is the mind made of stories? Can there be a semantic use in speech of an artificial inteligence that does not have a bodily experience of the world? Keywords : Fiction; Body; Mind; Consciousness; Self; Beliefs; Semantics

La evidencia comparativa reciente sugiere que algunas especies no humanas sienten empatía hacia otros congéneres, la cual es una capacidad necesaria para la presencia y evolución de la moralidad. Por otro lado, la Hipótesis del Cerebro Social plantea relaciones entre la evolución de la neocorteza cerebral en primates y el tamaño de sus grupos sociales. Este artículo vincula estas ideas al señalar que: (i) la empatía y la moralidad son subproductos de la expansión de la neocorteza cerebral, y (ii) la función de tales capacidades es facilitar la cooperación entre individuos, aumentando su cohesión social. Recent comparative evidence suggests that some nonhuman species feel empathy towards fellow group members and empathy is a necessary capacity for the presence and evolution of morality. On the other hand, the Social Brain Hypothesis suggests relationships between the evolution of brain's neocortex in primates and the size of their social groups. This paper links these ideas by suggesting that (i) empathy and morality are by-products of the expansión of brain's neocortex, and that (ii) the function of such capacities is to facilitate cooperation between individuals, increasing their social cohesion

The debate about stem cells research and its implications in the field of regenerative medicine confronts us in a very special way with the issue of moral pluralism: we live in societies that are ethically plural in which there are no "ethical parliaments" that produce legislation on moral matters, and in which no longer exists a Church that exercises a moral magisterium for society as a whole. If we deem it important that society plays an active role in moral decisions based upon sound information, then it is necessary to find ways of proceeding in order to make the debate truly interdisciplinary and plural. The present article defends that the legislative changes of the reactive kind and based not on solid ethical agreements, but on changeable parliamentary majorities are prone to generate moral confusion. The author of the article also sustains that with such confusion and uncertainty about the ethical boundaries the ones, that always tend gain are those that represent certain interests while the part that seriously looses is human dignity. Moreover, the article also defends that this ethical pluralism within each society becomes ever more complex and difficult when it happens in the context of situations like the one pertaining to the European Union, a situation in which each country must count not only with its own internal situation of pluralism but also with the ethical and legal pluralism at the transnational level, a fact that is derived from the different ways of producing laws in each one of the States that integrate the European Union. The article, thus, takes as starting point the debate in Spain, but makes clear that its ultimate horizon is Europe as a whole. /// O debate sobre as células mãe ou células troncais (stem cells) embrionárias e as suas implicações colaterais em medicina regenerativa coloca sobre a mesa-como muito poucos outros temas-a realidade do pluralismo moral: nós vivemos, de facto, em sociedades eticamente plurais, nas quais não existem "parlamentos éticos" que "legislem" sobre questões morais, nem uma Igreja que exerça um magistério moral para a sociedade no seu conjunto. Se julgamos importante que a sociedade participe activamente e com boa informação, urge encontrar procedimentos para canalizar o debate interdisciplinar e plural. O artigo defende que as mudanças legislativas bruscas de tipo reactivo não apoiadas em acordos éticos sólidos, mas sim em maiorias parlamentares efémeras, tendem a gerar confusão moral nos cidadãos. Ora com a confusão e a incerteza sobre os limites éticos tendem sempre a ganhar aqueles que têrn determinados interesses, sendo a causa da dignidade humana aquela que mais perde. O artigo defende também que este pluralismo ético dentro de cada sociedade se torna cada vez mais complexo e difícil de gerir em situações como a da União Europeia, em que cada país tem que contar com a sua própria situação de pluralismo e, ao mesmo tempo, com o pluralismo ético e legal a nível transnational, facto este que deriva dos diferentes modos de legislar vigentes em cada um dos Estados da União. Assim, o presente estudo tem como ponto de partida o debate na Espanha, mas o seu horizonte é a Europa no seu conjunto.