Jose Garcia

Este artículo es un breve aviso de un proyecto de investigación más ambicioso, aún en curso, sobre la relación entre nihilismo y postmodernismo. Recoge algunas ideas de Heidegger y de sus comentaristas más recientes, muy especialmente del llamado "pensamiento débil", buscando una respuesta al nihilismo contemporáneo en una sociedad que se caracteriza por secularizar todo lo trascendente. Por lo tanto, este ensayo puede considerarse como un intento de definir el contexto del problema desde un punto de vista "postnihilista"

Les traités Physique et Métaphysique d’Aristote exposent la thèse de Parménide selon deux approches différentes, voire contradictoires. Je soutiens que Parménide est, dans le premier, présenté en partisan de l’immutabilité, tandis que dans le second il est présenté comme tenant du relativisme. Cette différence répond dialectiquement aux fins de la discussion de chaque traité. Je soutiens que la thèse du monisme, à savoir ‘‘toutes les choses sont une’’, comprise, d’une part, d’un point de vue ontologique et, d’autre part, d’un point de vue épistémologique permet à Aristote de brosser des images assez distinctes de Parménide.

El presente trabajo trata de componer una ontología política, teórica y práctica, que puede considerarse como una aportación al desarrollo de lo que se viene conociendo, desde hace algún tiempo, como «izquierda heideggeriana» y que no ha expuesto de forma clara ni sus fundamentos ni su viabilidad. Así pues, este intento por establecer dichos fundamentos toma como punto de partida algunos de los existenciarios, que pueden dan lugar a esa deriva política, cuya particularidad es su distanciamiento de toda ideología al uso, por cuanto su horizonte «ontológico» es lo político en tanto que posibilidad de la política, es decir, la correlación pre-ontológica entre el «ser-con» (mit-sein), que es la posibilidad de apertura a la vida en común, y el régimen — si es que ello es posible— que pudiera establecerse a raíz de ello.

This study aimed to explore the role of two models of well-being in the prediction of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, namely PERMA and mature happiness. According to PERMA, well-being is mainly composed of five elements: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning in life, and achievement. Instead, mature happiness is understood as a positive mental state characterized by inner harmony, calmness, acceptance, contentment, and satisfaction with life. Rooted in existential positive psychology, this harmony-based happiness represents the result of living in balance between positive and negative aspects of one's life. We hypothesized that mature happiness would be a more prominent protective factor during the present pandemic than the PERMA composite. A total of 12,203 participants from 30 countries responded to an online survey including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), the PERMA-Profiler, and the Mature Happiness Scale-Revised (MHS-R). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that PERMA and mature happiness were highly correlated, but nonetheless, they represented two separate factors. After controlling for demographic factors and country-level variables, both PERMA Well-being and MHS-R were negative predictors of psychological distress. Mature happiness was a better predictor of stress, anxiety, and general distress, while PERMA showed a higher prediction of depression. Mature happiness moderated the relation between the perceived noxious effects of the pandemic and all markers of distress (depression, anxiety, stress, and total DASS-21). Instead, PERMA acted as a moderator in the case of depression and stress. These findings indicate that inner harmony, according to the mature happiness theory, is an essential facet of well-being to be taken into consideration. The results of this study can also orient policies aimed to alleviate the negative effects of the pandemic on mental health through the promotion of well-being.

Este trabajo es una reflexión sobre la situación actual de la Filosofía desde el marco en el que se plantea una revisión de las llamadas "humanidades". Se ha intentado trasladar el sentido original del pensamiento, desde la definición aristotélica de Filosofía a su situación fenomenológica actual, teniendo en cuenta la fragmentación moderna de la Ciencia y la crisis del espíritu filosófico desde la llamada 'postmodernidad'. No se trata de un trabajo exhaustivo pero sí lleno de sugerencias en la medida en que se limita a establecer las ideas que subyacen a esta posible decadencia de la llamada filosofía.

Automated legal reasoning and its application in smart contracts and automated decisions are increasingly attracting interest. In this context, ethical and legal concerns make it necessary for automated reasoners to justify in human-understandable terms the advice given. Logic Programming, specially Answer Set Programming, has a rich semantics and has been used to very concisely express complex knowledge. However, modelling discretionality to act and other vague concepts such as ambiguity cannot be expressed in top-down execution models based on Prolog, and in bottom-up execution models based on ASP the justifications are incomplete and/or not scalable. We propose to use s(CASP), a top-down execution model for predicate ASP, to model vague concepts following a set of patterns. We have implemented a framework, called s(LAW), to model, reason, and justify the applicable legislation and validate it by translating (and benchmarking) a representative use case, the criteria for the admission of students in the “Comunidad de Madrid”.

La historiografía jurídico-política precedente ha tendido a presentar a la Escuela de Salamanca como un grupo de catedráticos salmantinos que comentan las distintas partes de la _Summa theologiae_ de Tomás de Aquino, dando preferencia en particular a los comentarios _De legibus_ y _De iustitia et iure_. Éstas son, por ejemplo, las partes del legado vitoriano mejor conocidas y estudiadas, junto a sus relecciones _De indis_ y las dedicadas a la potestad civil y eclesiástica. En un intento de ampliar estas perspectivas clásicas, el presente artículo presenta un elenco de algunas de las obras de teología sacramental redactadas por diversos maestros salmantinos hasta comienzos del siglo XVII y reflexiona sobre la importancia epocal y contemporánea de este patrimonio un tanto olvidado de la escolástica salmantina, en el que se encuentran materiales muy interesantes para la reflexión filosófica, jurídica y política. En las secciones finales del artículo se estudian los escritos _Summa sacramentorum ecclesiae_ (1560) de Francisco de Vitoria y Tomás de Chaves, un texto que conoció al menos 80 ediciones hasta comienzos del siglo XVII, y la _Relectio de sacramentis in genere_ (1550) de Melchor Cano, mostrando la estrecha conexión existente entre teología sacramental y pensamiento jurídico-político.

The article aims to show, first of all, that the transcendental approach that is at the base of the conceptions of the deliberative and hegemonic politics of Habermas and Laclau-Mouffe, respectively, have the consequence of neutralizing the pluralism of political practices, asumming a conception Historicist in the sense that Dipesh Chakravarty has given the term, as a unified process destined to reproduce everywhere in the same way, ultimately Eurocentric. Moreover, to hold that, in the manner in which Emil Lask thinks the categories, there is a way to avoid historicism. These are determined temporally and historically, and there is no realm of validity that is autonomous or subsistent in itself, in which knowing is having before a category in a perspective, in a disposition or a bias, in a turn or aspect. This implies that truth and diversity, or truth and pluralism, as well as truth, power and cultural content cease to be incompatible.

El artículo, teniendo como referencia el libro de Oliver Marchart El pensamiento político postfundacional. La diferencia política en Nancy, Lefort, Badiou y Laclau, sostiene que la brecha óntico-ontológico, que es ‒de acuerdo con dicho autor‒ el concepto que da unidad a la llamada izquierda heideggeriana, tiene la fuerte consecuencia de que la política sea impotente para definir lo político, a más de implicar concepciones sustantivas ‒en último término fundacionalistas‒, sobre la historia, el acontecimiento, la decisión, como muestran las obras de Nancy, Badiou y Laclau, respectivamente. Enseguida, afirma que Marchart tiene una suerte de punto ciego que le impide ver la no reversibilidad de lo óntico y lo ontológico y, por implicación de la política y lo político en el pensamiento de Heidegger, al tiempo que sostiene su necesidad. Finalmente, el artículo argumenta que pensar la reversibilidad de la política y lo político implica una concepción pragmática, que hace innecesario “fundamentar” la falta de fundamento.

The island of Ibiza is a western Mediterranean destination known internationally for its nightlife. The aim of this paper is to make a proposal to classify the different types of premises in the Ibiza nightlife offer. This involves making a first definition that allows to delimit which businesses are parts of the sector. The methodology used is based on the case study and specifically, on the review of the promotional actions and activities carried out, completed with the visit to the premises. The classification has been made based on the offer marketed and not only on the legal forms used, as innovation goes ahead of the existing legal classifications. Although it is a particular application, due to the international importance of Ibiza, it is a good starting point to classify the nightlife offer of many other tourist destinations. The resulting typology divides the sector into two large groups: nightclubs and other premises. While nightclubs have musical parties as their main activity declared, the other premises have accommodation or catering as their main activity, with music being an element of differentiation. Nightclubs are divided into several subgroups, depending on their size and relevance. The other premises are subdivided into Beach Clubs, Hotel Clubs, Party Boats, Lounge Clubs, Disco Pubs, among others.

The theory of separation assumes, with provocation, that an organization cannot reconcile profits and social function. Organizations can reconcile these two, apparently contrasting, missions, by considering emotions, especially moral emotions, to create a genuine motivation for focusing on goals beyond simple economic earnings and protecting organizations or groups of people from dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors, as well as considering the important role of the stakeholder accountability. Using the PRISMA method, we created a review of records using keywords relating to a socio-emotional value within organizations, with a particular focus on the last 20 years. We used the SCOPUS database and, after removing irrelevant records, we used the VOSviewer tool to create a cluster map of different areas in this topic. Some records cite the socio-emotional value that is related to organizational and employee suffering, while other articles consider it a positive factor that improves performance and prevents problems in organizations.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Defending a Phenomenological–Behavioral Perspective: Culture, Behavior, and ExperienceMarino Pérez-Álvarez (bio), José M. García-Montes (bio), Adolfo J. Cangas (bio), and Louis A. Sass (bio)KeywordsBehavior, contextual phenomenology, culture, experienceWe should like to express our sincere thanks to all the authors for their commentaries on our articles. Given the restrictions of space (a limitation they too had to contend with), we can only respond to a few aspects of their interesting remarks. We shall reply of course on the basis of our own approach—an approach that sets out to integrate culture, behavior, and experience, and that might be termed contextual phenomenology, phenomenological behaviorism, or perhaps most accurately (albeit more awkwardly), the phenomenological–behavioral perspective.In her commentary, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008), referring to the target articles “Phenomenology and behaviorism” (Pérez-Álvarez, Sass, and Cangas 2008) and “The role of superstition in psychopathology” (García-Montes et al. 2008), wonders whether our maintaining of the spirit of Skinner, as well as our recourse to phenomenology, might not themselves represent forms of superstitious behavior. She points out that it is not always a good idea to put new wine in old barrels. For her, the new wine and new barrels would be represented by social constructivism, of which she is reminded by some aspects of our work. But in making her own case, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008) reveals certain common prejudices concerning behaviorism, prejudices that have apparently persisted even after reading our article. Thus, for example, she does not see operant behavior as incorporating intentionality (what, in the target article, is presented in terms of final causality), because she assumes that intentionality would necessarily imply a mentalist and dualist notion involving a supposed internal mental entity that causes behavior. Skinner (1974) himself noted and rejected this very assumption in a passage that clearly distinguishes his own approach from what he calls a “stimulus-response formula”: “Possibly no charge,” he wrote,is more often leveled against behaviorism or a science of behavior than that it cannot deal with purpose or intention. A stimulus-response formula has no answer, but operant behavior is the very field of purpose and [End Page 281] intention. By its nature it is directed toward the future: a person acts in order that something will happen, and the order is temporal.(pp. 55–6)The place Skinner gives to intentionality and purpose is elaborated in our target article.Furthermore, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008) assumes that, on methodological grounds, Skinner rejects all that is not observable, or at least that cannot be operationalized. This, however, is simply incorrect, at least as regards Skinner’s radical behaviorism. As the reader may recall, radical (as opposed to methodological) behaviorism is neither operationalist nor does it reject private or subjective events because of their unobservability. Indeed, Skinner specifically acknowledges that such events are in fact observable—at least for one person: the subject him- or herself. The question for Skinner is to understand how the part of the world that is only observable and experiential for oneself is constructed or formed. In the end, it turns out that radical behaviorism is more radical, in the Aristotelian ontological sense (see Pérez-Alvarez, Sass, and García-Montes 2008), than post-modern constructionism. Indeed, as we remarked, radical behaviorism can still surprise us today. Similarly, phenomenology is starting to be missed in the clinical context (Andreasen 2007). We believe that radical behaviorism and phenomenology, mutually readjusted, are in fact excellent wines for the times we live in—if only we knew how to appreciate them.In their commentary on “Phenomenology and behaviorism: A mutual readjustment,” Fletcher and Hayes (2008) argue that the philosophy and theory of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)/Relational Frame Theory (RFT) already contain the salutary aspects of phenomenology that we highlight in our target article. Their insistence on reducing the affinities we find between phenomenology and behaviorism to ACT/RFT consists, in our view, in a scientific–technical argument that is more scientistic than strictly philosophical in nature. Their insistence on the scientific–technical argument itself implies an unclarified philosophical assumption. On what grounds do experimental data constitute the last word? Has...

Language employs various coordinators to connect propositions, a subset of which are “logical” in nature and thus analogous to the truth operators of formal logic. We here focus on two linguistic connectives and their negations: conjunction _and_ and (inclusive) disjunction _or_. Linguistic connectives exhibit a truth-conditional component as part of their meaning (their semantics), but their use in context can give rise to various implicatures and presuppositions (the domain of pragmatics) as well as to inferences that go beyond semantic/pragmatic properties (the result of reasoning processes). We provide a comprehensive review of the role of the logical connectives in language and argue that three sets of factors—semantic, pragmatic, and those related to reasoning—are separate and separable, though some details may differ cross-linguistically. As a way to showcase the argument, we present two experiments in language comprehension in Spanish wherein pragmatic content was minimised and reasoning processes neutered, thus potentially highlighting what might be the default meanings of the connectives under study. In Experiment 1 we show that the conjunctive reading of inclusive disjunction is available in positive contexts other than in syntactically intricate cases such as downward entailing and free choice contexts, contrary to what has been claimed in the literature. In Experiment 2 we show that negated conjunctions and disjunctions in Spanish can easily receive the same interpretation when contrasted against the same context and, moreover, that these interpretations match those available in English, despite claims from the literature that linguistic connectives and local negation interact differently in English and Romance languages.

Universities increasingly play an important role in entrepreneurship, which has contributed to gender equality in the business world. The aim of this study is to establish a causal model of entrepreneurial intentions and explore it by gender, based on the dimensions of the Theory of Planned Behavior, and how these are mediated by the individuals’ resilience and psychological well-being. The previous work experience was considered as one of the control variables, in order to analyze whether this influence the entrepreneurial intention. With a convenience sample of 644 Portuguese students, Structural Equation Modeling was used. For a better understanding, multivariate analyses were performed and each one was individually reported, and for appropriate comparisons by gender, the t-student test was used. The comparison of means, between genders, showed that there are differences only between perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and entrepreneurial intention, with women scoring the highest values, and psychological well-being, with men scoring the higher. A serial mediation path was performed, and psychological resilience was found to mediate a significant effect between perceived behavioral control and intention in females, but not in males. It also mediates a significant effect between attitude and intention in females, but not in males. These results show that attitude is a determining factor for females to become entrepreneurs. Finally, after discussing the results, theoretical and practical contributions are analyzed, with regard to the field of entrepreneurship in Portugal, and alternatives are pointed out for a more entrepreneurial future, reinforcing the role of higher education institutions.