Eduardo Garcia

Firm managers play an important role in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. Education is emerging as the key factor in developing a sense of moral responsibility amongst the business students who will eventually become company managers and decision makers. The aim of this research is, thus, twofold. First, to analyze the existence of a direct positive correlation between university students’ perception of CSR and its impact on business performance; and second, to examine the extent to which two factors (advantages brought by CSR and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforementioned correlation. The analysis was performed with a sample of 390 business‐related university students. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study we can highlight the possibility of knowing future managers’ way of thinking and of knowing the aspects where educational centers might improve their CSR teaching.

AbstractIn many cultures, interactions between humans and plants are rooted in what is called “relational values”—values that derive from relationships and entail reciprocity. In Mexico, biocultural diversity is mirrored in the knowledge and use of some 6500 plant species and the domestication of over 250 Mesoamerican native crop species. This research explores how different sets of values are attributed to plants and how these influence management strategies to maintain plant resources in wild and anthropogenic environments. We ran workshops in two communities in a highly biodiverse region in western Mexico, to ascertain the values and management activities related to important plant resources. The relationship between values attributed to plants and management activities was examined through redundancy analysis. A total of 180 plant resources were mentioned during the workshops, with a broad spectrum of values attributed to them, including material, non-material, and regulatory dimensions. We divided plant management strategies into three general categories of increasing intensity and complexity. We found that participants in the Indigenous community value and manage more wild plant resources than people in the non-Indigenous community. We also identified relationships between plant resource values and the type of management performed; for example, more intensive forms of management, such as sowing seeds, were used for seasonal plants that had a food value. By valuing and managing different sets of plant resources from forest, agricultural plots, and home gardens, people enabled multi-functional landscapes to form, illustrating a key feature of relational values in agroecosystems, which promotes both conservation and domestication of plants.

Las Comunidades de Castilla, como movimiento social y político, pueden caracterizarse como una tentativa de renovación de la monarquía carolina como forma de gobierno. El creciente conocimiento sobre la circulación de ideas políticas que informaron el corpus doctrinal comunero permite precisar conceptual y terminológicamente un debate revisitado con frecuencia sobre la naturaleza revolucionaria o no de tal proceso. Acudir a los textos de los principales sustentadores teóricos de las Comunidades, tanto como a los documentos de sus reivindicaciones, y no solo a una interpretación de síntesis ex post, contribuye a perfilar el alcance sobre sus pretensiones de reforma respecto a la forma del Estado o a la forma del gobierno, sobre la base de la participación y la igualdad. Apoyarse en las nociones de régimen político y sistema político a la luz de tales textos permite una mejor comprensión del movimiento como reformista más que como revolucionario.

Hegel’s theory of reflection plays both a logical and ontological role in Marx’s theory of labour and private property. What is the point of comparison between a Hegelian and a Marxian theory of reflection? The theory of alienation. In Hegel, one has the alienation of thought in reflective thinking – the understanding’s mode of operation; in Marx, the alienation of labour under private property. As an activity, labour has, according to Marx – like the activity of thinking, in Hegel – the structure of negativity: the structure of externalization and return to the self. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844), in particular, Marx developed a theory of the externalization of labour in which alienation prevents the latter from fulfilling its return to itself. Labour becomes alienated, leaves itself and remains outside of itself, for it is appropriated by private property.

The 2015–2017 programming cycle of The Comparison Project hosted two lectures on Santa Muerte: the first by Prof. Eduardo González Velázquez, a professor of history at Monterrey Tec National School of Social Sciences and Government, an international partner of Drake University; the second by Prof. Eduardo García-Villada, a professor of Spanish at Drake University. In this essay, we weave these two lectures into a composite picture of the role of the cult of Santa Muerte with regard to death and dying. Section one draws on Prof. García-Villada’s initial encounter of the cult and consequent exploration of its history and practices. Section two contains the majority of Prof. González’s lecture about how the cult serves migrants and other marginalized sectors of Central American society. Section three is an excerpt of Prof. García-Villada’s lecture on what the prayers to Santa Muerte reveal about her nature and the function of her cult vis-à-vis traditional power structures. Finally, section four contains the reflections of The Comparison Project’s director, Tim Knepper, about the relationship between the cult of Santa Muerte and the theme of the 2015–2017 programming cycle: medicalized dying. In a time when fear of death is a constant presence, the devotees of Santa Muerte have turned to her as a saint, if not a deity, who can protect and provide for them in a way that the state and church cannot, without regard for how marginalized or deviant they might be. In this sense, the cult of Santa Muerte serves an end not unlike that of bioethics: the attempt to control death.

En su más reciente libro, Eleonora Orlando nos presenta una provocadora propuesta que busca cuestionar el éxito de la tradición fregeana en filosofía del lenguaje siguiendo líneas contextualistas y relevantistas. Este libro constituye una valiosa aportación a la filosofía del lenguaje contemporánea. Es una lectura obligatoria para todo aquel interesado en entender el estado actual de la filosofía del lenguaje. Además, la gran variedad de textos y posturas que lo comprenden constituyen por sí mismos valiosas y en ocasiones controvertidas contribuciones a la discusión actual. De ahí que este libro sea también una extraordinaria invitación a continuar la ya centenaria discusión sobre la visión fregeana del lenguaje y si el contextualismo presenta una manera conveniente de mejorarla. En este artículo me propongo hacer un estudio crítico de este libro, particularmente de su desafío al fregeanismo. Para ello discutiré a detalle sus argumentos más antifregeanos, preguntándome al mismo tiempo si se trata de posturas incompatibles con la semántica fregeana o si, por el contrario, constituyen propuestas enteramente compatibles con esta.

Background. The study of entrepreneurial activity has undergone intense development in recent decades. Traditionally this topic has been addressed from three approaches: economic, sociological and psychological. In the study of enterprising personality, two fundamental perspectives stand out: the use of general personality traits, like the Big Five, and the use of more specific traits related to entrepreneurial spirit, such as self-efficacy, autonomy, innovation, optimism, and others. The objective of this study is to provide validity evidence for a new instrument for measuring eight specific dimensions of entrepreneurial personality (BEPE). Method. The sample was composed of 1,170 adults from the general population (59.9% women). The average age was 42.34 years with a standard deviation of 12.96. Of the sample, 13% were self-employed. Internal factorial structure and reliability of BEPE were examined. The relationships with other variables and the discriminative capacity of the BEPE between different groups of workers were analyzed. Results. First order factor analyses show the essential unidimensionality of each of the eight proposed sub-scales, with factorial weights ranging between 0.341 and 0.825. A second-order factor analysis was carried out, obtaining a general dimension of entrepreneurial personality. With regards to reliability, the eight BEPE sub-scales gave high alpha coefficient values, between 0.825 and 0.899, as did the total battery (0.97). BEPE sub-scales show a high canonical correlation with the Big Five personality factors (.795), and with the sub-scales of the Measure of Entrepreneurial Talents and Abilities questionnaire (.815). Conclusions. The BEPE questionnaire for the evaluation of the eight fundamental specific dimensions of the entrepreneurial personality presents adequate psychometric properties. Its relationships with other measures of personality traits are in line with what is expected. Therefore, the BEPE is a new measurement instrument that can be used with confidence both in the applied field and in research.

El “pensamiento universitario” puede analizarse desde un enfoque tridimensional psico-docencial-filosófico. La psicología ofrece sus aportes científicos facilitando la reflexión filosófica de varios aspectos que se viven en el ejercicio de la docencia universitaria. Siendo la universidad adalid del desarrollo de la nación, su pensamiento nace del conocimiento científico y enseñar a pensar es una de sus misiones, junto con la investigación. Si los pensamientos guían las acciones, entonces las acciones revelan los pensamientos que las alientan. Los pensamientos racionales, formales, propios de los universitarios, no serán racionales si solamente son lógicos, así como la ciencia no lo es si su fin no es el ser humano. La responsabilidad se asienta en la racionalidad, esta ha de ser la guía de las acciones universitarias, pues la lógica no excluye la locura. El peligro es que el universitario obedezca a la lógica y no a la racionalidad, que esté ocupado desentrañando conceptos pero olvidando su humanidad. La investigación, como su misión, requiere diferenciar entre lo real y lo teórico, vencer la tendencia a usar una mirada de túnel y abrirse a la interdisciplinariedad, a las investigaciones en equipo, en una relación científica cosmos-fisis-bios-antropos, que se perciba en la vivencia universitaria y en sus decisiones.

There is a long-standing discussion concerning the nature of moral discourse. Multiple views range from realism—according to which moral discourse is closer to scientific discourse than to fictional discourse—to anti-realism—according to which moral discourse is rather closer to fictional discourse. In this paper, I want to motivate a novel anti-realist account. On this view, there are no moral properties or truths, neither mind-independent nor mind-dependent ones (i.e., anti-realism). However, moral cognition results from the use of higher order cognitive abilities with enough resources to grant moral discourse with all the features of a realist talk (i.e., cognitive quasi-realism). I defend this view based on empirical evidence on human moral development and by showing that the resulting account can meet the demands of robust moral realism. The paper concludes by placing the proposed view within the metaethical landscape by comparing it against other forms of anti-realism, most significantly against expressivism.

En esta discusión abordo la hermenéutica analógica de Mauricio Beuchot comparándola con la hermenéutica filosófica de Hans-Georg Gadamer. Argumento que Beuchot vuelve a la idea clásica de la hermenéutica como método de interpretación y no la juzga, como Gadamer, como una fenomenología de la comprensión. Sin embargo, Beuchot no atiende las razones de Gadamer en contra de concebir la hermenéutica como una metodología. Si se considera como metodología centrada en la analogía, la hermenéutica analógica deja de lado otros recursos interpretativos importantes. Finalmente, Beuchot adopta una teoría correspondentista de la verdad contra la que argumenta Gadamer y que es incompatible con una hermenéutica filosófica. In this paper I analyze Mauricio Beuchot's analogical hermeneutics by contrasting it with Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. I argue that Beuchot goes back to the classical idea of hermeneutics as a method of interpretation, and does not see it, as Gadamer does, as a phenomenology of understanding. However, Beuchot does not address Gadamer's arguments against using hermeneutics as a methodology. Considered as a methodology centered on analogy, analogical hermeneutics overlooks other important interpretation resources. Finally, Beuchot adopts a correspondence theory of truth, which Gadamer objects and is incompatible with philosophical hermeneutics.

Fregeans follow Frege in accepting informativeness and substitution failure as reliable criteria for the existence of senses as objects of thought. In this paper I show that if we accept this, we must also accept the existence of an infinite hierarchy of senses as objects of thought. This is a bad result since it turns Fregeanism into a doctrine according to which object-related thoughts either have an infinite number of objects as contents or none at all. This shows, against the Fregean, that senses cannot themselves be constituents of thought. Los fregeanos aceptan, siguiendo a Frege, que los criterios de informatividad y falla de sustitución son guías confiables de la existencia de sentidos como objetos del pensamiento. En este artículo muestro que si aceptamos esta tesis también debemos aceptar la existencia de una jerarquía infinita de sentidos como objetos del pensamiento. Esta es una mala consecuencia pues convierte al fregeanismo en una doctrina según la cual los pensamientos dirigidos a objetos o bien tienen un número infinito de objetos como contenido o ninguno. Esto muestra, contra los fregeanos, que los sentidos no pueden ellos mismos ser objeto del pensamiento

Hay usos de nombres vacíos de los que no podemos justificadamente decir que el hablante está comprometido con la existencia de un referente para el nombre en cuestión. Estos usos aparecen dentro de construcciones lingüísticas de la forma ‘X no existe', donde ‘X es un nombre vacío. Sin embargo, los hablantes logran comunicar información no trivial e incluso verdadera mediante dichos usos. Según la tradición metalingüística iniciada por R. Stalnaker (1978), una aseveración de ‘X no existe' comunica que "‘X' no refiere". En este trabajo desarrollo una explicación hipotética que busca hacer avanzar esta tradición. De acuerdo con esta hipótesis, los actos de habla en cuestión son denegaciones metalingüísticas. Defiendo esta hipótesis comparándola con una propuesta metalingüística alternativa de L. Clapp (2008). There are uses of empty names where the speaker cannot justifiably be said to be committed to there being a referent for her use of the relevant name. These appear within negative existential constructions of the form ‘X doesn't exist' where ‘X' is an empty name. Yet, speakers manage to convey non-trivial and sometimes even truthful information with such uses. According to the metalinguistic tradition initiated by R. Stalnaker (1978) assertions of ‘X doesn't exist' convey the information that " ‘X doesn't refer". In this paper I develop a hypothetical account that purports to advance this tradition. On this view, these speech acts are understood as metalinguistic denials. I defend this hypothesis by comparing it against a recent metalinguistic proposal owed to L. Clapp (2008)

Ordinary use of empty names encompasses a variety of different phenomena, including issues in semantics, mental content, fiction, pretense, and linguistic practice. In this paper I offer a novel account of empty names, the cognitive theory, and show how it offers a satisfactory account of the phenomena. The virtues of this theory are based on its strength and parsimony. It allows for a fully homogeneous semantic treatment of names coped with ontological frugality and empirical and psychological adequacy