ON THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY: THE LATIN AMERICAN CASE [abstract]

There is very little study of Latin American philosophy in the English-speaking philosophical world. This can sometimes lead to the impression that there is nothing of philosophical worth in Latin American philosophy or its history. The present article offers some reasons for thinking that this impression is mistaken, and indeed, that we ought to have more study of Latin American philosophy than currently exists in the English-speaking philosophical world. In particular, the article argues for three things: (1) an account of cultural resources that is useful for illuminating the fact of cultural differences and variations in cultural complexity, (2) a framework for understanding the value of philosophy, and (3) the conclusion that there is demonstrable value to Latin American philosophy and its study

Vigilance and control

We sometimes fail unwittingly to do things that we ought to do. And we are, from time to time, culpable for these unwitting omissions. We provide an outline of a theory of responsibility for unwitting omissions. We emphasize two distinctive ideas: (i) many unwitting omissions can be understood as failures of appropriate vigilance, and; (ii) the sort of self-control implicated in these failures of appropriate vigilance is valuable. We argue that the norms that govern vigilance and the value of self-control explain culpability for unwitting omissions

Model-Checking Process Equivalences

Process equivalences are formal methods that relate programs and system which, informally, behave in the same way. Since there is no unique notion of what it means for two dynamic systems to display the same behaviour there are a multitude of formal process equivalences, ranging from bisimulation to trace equivalence, categorised in the linear-time branching-time spectrum. We present a logical framework based on an expressive modal fixpoint logic which is capable of defining many process equivalence relations: for each such equivalence there is a fixed formula which is satisfied by a pair of processes if and only if they are equivalent with respect to this relation. We explain how to do model checking, even symbolically, for a significant fragment of this logic that captures many process equivalences. This allows model checking technology to be used for process equivalence checking. We show how partial evaluation can be used to obtain decision procedures for process equivalences from the generic model checking scheme.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2012, arXiv:1210.202

Comparative What? Latin American Challenges to Philosophy-as-Worldview

Attention to the details of putatively obvious examples of philosophy-as-worldview within Latin America give us reasons to be skeptical about the taxonomy that gives us the category of philosophy-as-worldview. Among the examples that suggest difficulties for this way of thinking about the philosophical enterprise are 19th century Mexican ethnolinguistics, contemporary efforts to reconstruct historical and contemporary Indigenous thought, and 20th century efforts to articulate regional ontologies within Latin America. However, reflection on these cases also point to a different project worth considering, namely, a taxonomy of wisdom- and knowledge-focused practices that might allow a different way of drawing distinctions between kinds of “philosophies”

Responsibility in a World of Causes

A familiar chain of reasoning goes like this: if everything is caused, then no one is genuinely free; if no one is genuinely free, then no one can be morally responsible for anything; so if everything is caused, then no one can be morally responsible for anything. This paper will challenge the part of this reasoning that concerns moral responsibility. What is at stake for us when we ascribe moral responsibility to ourselves and others? This paper will argue that we can reconcile the idea of moral responsibility with a broadly scientific worldview

Como convertir la Sound Blaster en un instrumento virtual

Peer Reviewe

Structure Of Latent Factors In The Learning Of Statistics

Today, almost all curricula in the social sciences contain at least one course in statistics, given its importance as an analytical tool. This work identifies the latent factors relating to students’ motivation and attitudes toward statistics and tests their covariance structure. Specifically using a structural equations model, the work confirms that the evaluative factors affect the affective factors and the interest variable affects the level of anxiety. The findings obtained using the partial least squares method allow the authors to confirm the proposed relations and validate the model

Comparación de parámetros de atención en una escala de triage de 5 niveles con los parámetros estándar

Introducción: La escala de severidad en emergencias es una herramienta que ofrece seguridad a pacientes en servicios de urgencias. Este trabajo evalúa la aplicación de la escala ESI 4.0 en términos de oportunidad de atención y consumo de recursos en la Fundación Santa Fé de Bogotá, para comparar los resultados con parámetros estándar. Metodología Estudio observacional analítico de corte transversal. Se incluyeron 385 pacientes aleatorizados por nivel de atención. Se tomaron datos demográficos y variables como consumo de recursos y destino del paciente para su descripción y análisis. Resultados: El promedio de edad fue 44.9 años IC95%42.9–46.9, el 54.5% fueron mujeres. Se encontró un tiempo promedio de espera para nivel 1 de 1.39 min, para el nivel 2 de 22.9 min 2, para el nivel 3 de 41.9 min, para el nivel 4 de 56.9 min y para el nivel 5 de 52.1 min. El tiempo promedio de estancia en urgencias fue 5.9 horas y el 78.9% consumió recursos. Al comparar los tiempos con estándares mundiales en el nivel 1, 2 y 3 son significativamente mayores (P<0,05), en el nivel 4 es similar (p0,51) y en el nivel 5 es significativamente menor (p=0,00) Discusión: La escala ESI 4.0 es una herramienta segura, con un comportamiento similar en oportunidad de atención y consumo de recursos con respecto a los estándares de cuidado en los servicios de urgencias.Introduction: Emergency Severity Index 4.0 (ESI) is a triage tool that offers a good safety scope for patients in Emergency departments. Our aim is to evaluate the application of the ESI score in Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá emergency department, in terms of time of attention and, resource consumption compare these results with actual standard parameters. Methodology: Observational analytical cross-sectional study 385 randomized patients were included according level of triage. Data on demographics, number of resources needed and destination were collected and analyzed. Results: An average of age was 44.9 IC95%42.9 – 46.9, 54.5% were women. We found an average waiting time of 1.39 min for level 1, 22.9 min for level 2, 41.9 min for level 3, and 56.9 min for level 4 y 52.1 min for level 5. Visit time was 5.9 hours and 78.9% of consults needed resources. Comparing waiting times with standards, time of attention since assignation level was measured and compared with standards and found for the level 1,2 and 3 significant higher levels (p<0,05), for level 4 is similar (p0,51) y for level 5 is significantly lower (p=0,00) Discussion: Emergency Severity Index 4.0 (ESI), has a similar behavior in terms of waiting times and resources consumption compared with literature reports and according to care standards worldwide

Environmental Impact And Business Management In Rural Tourism

The growth in rural tourism and the importance of the environment to its sustainability have given rise to a growing interest in analyzing the impact of tourist activity and in studying how the environmental resource fits into business management in the industry. But the economic characteristics of rural tourism businesses and the diversity and complexity of their environmental impacts have made it difficult for a generally accepted framework for such analyses to emerge. There is wider agreement on the key role played by entrepreneurs&rsquo; environmental awareness in the adoption of eco-friendly management practice. In this context, and within the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha, this paper undertakes a questionnaire-based study of the environmental awareness of entrepreneurs in rural tourism using the partial least squares (PLS) method to estimate its latent dimensions and the environmental impacts perceived