Eloy Fernández Porta contra el esencialismo blockbuster: Herramientas para una crítica de la concepción humanista de las relaciones humanas

In this article we will delve into, and focus, upon a specific aspect of Eloy Fernández Porta’s thinking as displayed in his essayistic production: namely, his criticism towards thinkers and sociologists who portray human relations from the humanist perspective. In order to accomplish this task, we will begin with an introduction which reflects upon the aforementioned author’s essayistic genre. Furthermore, we will determine the constituent of Fernandez Porta’s opposition through an exposition of the fundamental theses of said thinkers, whom he faces. Only after this will we be able to display, for one, the concrete objections directed towards each one of the theses. Moreover, we will illustrate the general framework from which Fernández Porta perceives capitalism, as well as the subjectivity and manner in which, through the doctrine, he criticizes humanist philosophers and sociologists from a globalist perspective.En el presente artículo trataremos de centrarnos en un aspecto del pensamiento de Eloy Fernández Porta desplegado en su producción ensayística: a saber, su crítica a los pensadores y sociólogos de corte humanista de las relaciones humanas. Para ello, comenzaremos con una introducción en la que se reflexionará sobre el género ensayístico en el mencionado autor. A continuación, fijaremos el elemento de oposición de Fernández Porta a través de la exposición de las tesis fundamentales de los pensadores a los que se va a enfrentar. Solo después estaremos en disposición de exponer, por una parte, las objeciones concretas a cada una de las tesis y, por otra, el marco general desde el cual Fernández Porta piensa el capitalismo y la subjetividad y la manera en que, a partir de él, critica desde una perspectiva global a los sociólogos y filósofos humanistas

Ecological justice as if life matters

La siguiente comunicación tiene como objetivo principal pensar en torno al concepto de justicia ecológica. Se ha elegido hacerlo en relación con el concepto de capitalismo en vez de con el de Derechos Humanos, por razones que serán desarrolladas a lo largo de la exposición: este, por tanto, es el corolario del objetivo principal. Los objetivos secundarios de la comunicación podrían ser resumidos en dos: argumentar que el capitalismo es incompatible tanto con la igualdad y justicia como con la sostenibilidad del planeta, por una parte; y tratar de dar algunas pinceladas de cómo sería una sociedad regida por un principio de justicia ecológica, por otra. La comunicación es un resultado de una investigación interdisciplinar por parte de personas de distinta formación académica. En su elaboración han participado una teórica de la educación, una periodista, una filóloga francesa y tres filósofos. Así, es la conclusión de un proceso de discusión de distintas perspectivas sobre un mismo problema. A todas ellas, por cierto, subyace una intuición común: el capitalismo es esencialmente incompatible con cualquier forma de justicia ecológica (atendiendo a la caracterización que de ella se va a hacer en la exposición)The following lecture has the main objective of thinking about the concept of ecological justice. It has been chosen to do it in relation of the concept of capitalism instead of the concept of Human Rights, for reasons that will be developed in the exposition: this is, therefore, the corollary of the principal goal. The secondary objectives of the lecture could be synthesized in the following two: to argue that capitalism is compatible neither with equality and justice nor with the sustainability of the planet, on one hand; and to try to perform some traces of how a society regulated with an ecological justice principle would be, on the other. The lecture is a result of an interdisciplinary research done by people of different academic training. A theorist of education, a journalist, a French philologist and three philosophers have participated in its elaboration. So, the lecture is the result of a discussion process of different perspectives of a common problem. Beneath all these perspectives there is a shared intuition: capitalism is essentially incompatible with any form of ecological justice (attending to the characterization that it’s going to be done in the exposition

Comparative assessment of satellite- and drone-based vegetation indices to predict arthropod biomass in shrub-steppes

Arthropod biomass is a key element in ecosystems functionality, and basic food item for many species, which must be estimated through traditional costly field sampling in normally just a few sampling points. Arthropod biomass and plant productivity should be narrowly related, as a great majority of arthropods are herbivorous, and others depends on these. Quantifying plant productivity with satellite or aerial vehicles imagery is an easy and fast procedure already tested and implemented in agriculture and field ecology. However, the ability of satellite or aerial vehicles imagery for quantifying arthropod biomass and its relationship with plant productivity has been scarcely addressed. Here, we used Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and satellite Sentinel-2 (S2) imagery to establish relationship between plant productivity and arthropod biomass estimated through ground-truth field sampling in shrub-steppes. We UAV sampled 7 plots of 47.6-72.3 ha at 4 cm pixel resolution, and afterwards downscaling spatial resolution to 50 cm resolution. In parallel, we used S2 imagery from same and other dates and locations at 10 m spatial resolution. We related several vegetation indices (VI) with arthropod biomass (epigeous, coprophagous, and four functional consumer groups: predatory, detritivore, phytophagous and diverse) estimated in 41-48 sampling stations for UAV flying plots, and in 67-79 sampling stations for S2. VI derived from UAV were consistently and positively related with all arthropod biomass groups. Three out of seven, and six out of seven S2-derived VI were positively related with epigeous and coprophagous arthropod biomass, respectively. BNDVI and ENDVI showed consistent and positive relationships with arthropod biomass, regardless of the arthropod group and the spatial resolution. Our results point out that UAV and S2-VI imagery data may be a viable and cost-efficient alternative to quantify arthropod biomass at large scales in shrub-steppes. The relationship between VI and arthropod biomass is probably habitat-dependent and thus, future research should address this relationship including several habitats to validate vegetation indices as proxies of arthropod biomass.This study was partially supported by the European Commission (Life Ricotí project LIFE15-NAT-ES-000802 and Life Connect Ricotí project LIFE20-NAT-ES-000133) and the BBVA Foundation (BBVA-Dron Ricotí project). This paper contributes to project REMEDINAL-3 from CAM

La crítica de Rousseau al concepto de civilización

La noción de progreso ha funcionado como el motor impulsor de toda la civilización occidental. En efecto, la idea de progreso tuvo una gran influencia en la sociedad humana y en su historia. Pensar en la idea de progreso significa pensar que la civilización se ha movido, se mueve y se seguirá moviendo en la dirección que es deseable. Esta idea necesitó de un clima intelectual para ser albergada y esta atmósfera no se creó sino hasta el siglo XVI con la modernidad, cuando de la mano de las ideas de libertad, individualidad, autonomía, racionalidad, se fue forjando la cultura burguesa en detrimento del poder teocrático, y alcanzó su mayor auge y esplendor en el siglo XVIII . Así, se originó el llamado “proyecto ilustrado” que significó el triunfo y maduración de estas ideas: se consideraba que la razón llevaría al progreso económico y moral del hombre, entonces, surgió una idea nueva, la concepción de “civilización” en Francia. Para Jean Jacques Rousseau la Francia moderna no se encontraba frente al progreso de su civilización, por el contrario, consideraba que la llamada “civilización” había sido creada por el hombre, sólo con el fin de corromperlo y que unos pocos obtuvieran ganancias. Así, pues, el verdadero progreso no es económico y aparente, sino, que viene de la mano de la educación y perfeccionamiento moral del hombre

LUMBRERAS SANCHO, Sara (2020). Respuestas al Transhumanismo. Cuerpo, autenticidad y sentido. Madrid: Digital Reasons, 202 pp.

Reseña de: LUMBRERAS SANCHO, Sara (2020). Respuestas al Transhumanismo. Cuerpo, autenticidad y sentido. Madrid: Digital Reasons

Reseña de: Immanuel Kant, Lecciones de filosofía moral. Mrongovius II. Traducción, introducción, notas al texto y estudio conclusivo de Alba Jiménez Rodríguez. Ediciones Sígueme, Salamanca 2017

Estudios morales kantianos sobre la cuestión de la imputación en los tiempos de la Fundamentación de la metafísica de las costumbres Kantian moral studies about the matter of the imputation in the times of statement of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Jesús Pinto Freyre y Adrián Santamaría Pérez Universidad Autónoma de Madrid / Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, España Reseña de: Immanuel Kant, Lecciones de filosofía moral. Mrongovius II. Traducción, introducción, notas al texto y estudio conclusivo de Alba Jiménez Rodríguez. Ediciones Sígueme, Salamanca 2017, colección “Hermeneia”. 155 páginas. ISBN: 978-84-301-1954-7

Aerodynamic Performance of VAWT Airfoils: Comparison between Wind Tunnel Testing Using a New Three-Component Strain Gauge Balance and CFD Modelling

Vertical axis wind turbines are an emerging and in-development wind energy technology which are characterized by their complicated aerodynamics. Detached flow conditions, which are typically developed at operational tip speed ratios, demand a rigorous characterization of the airfoils for an accurate prediction of the turbine performance. In this work, a custom-built, three-component external strain gauge balance, specifically developed for airfoil testing, is validated. The physical reasons responsible for discrepancies with reference data are also analyzed. Two- and three-dimensional flat plates, as well as the DU06-W-200 airfoil, are tested in a wind tunnel. Lift and drag coefficients and pitching moments are obtained for a wide angular range at Re = 200,000. The results are compared with data from the bibliography and CFD simulations, performed with the recently developed GEKO (generalized k-omega) turbulence model, achieving remarkable agreement. Instantaneous forces are also analyzed with both experimental and CFD techniques, providing interesting results of the unsteady fluid dynamics. Finally, critical factors affecting the measurements are identified and enhancements are proposed for future works. In summary, a thorough evaluation of this new balance design is provided, showing its valuable potential for VAWT applications

Survival vs. growth trade-off in early recruitment challenges global warming impacts on Mediterranean mountain trees

© 2015 Geobotanisches Institut ETH, Stiftung Ruebel. Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of many plant species worldwide. However, there is still no clear evidence showing a generalised direction and magnitude of these distribution shifts. Here, we have surveyed, in nine mountainous regions in Spain, an array of tree species along entire elevational ranges, as surrogates of their global climatic ranges, to test for elevational shifts towards cooler locations. We analysed the distribution recruitment patterns of five dominant tree species, recording the abundance and measuring the primary growth of juveniles in 306 plots. Three of the species have a temperate-boreal distribution with populations at their southern edge in the Mediterranean mountain ranges: Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata and Fagus sylvatica; and the other two species have a Mediterranean distribution: Quercus ilex and Pinus nigra. Despite the contrasting phylogenies and biogeographies, we identified a similar pattern in recruitment abundance across species, with an asymmetric distribution of juveniles (more recruits in the middle-upper elevation of their range), but higher annual growths at lower elevations. This survival-growth trade-off at the early recruitment stage may potentially counterbalance at population level the negative effect of global warming on recruit survival at the lower edge of species ranges. These findings suggest a demographic stabilisation process at the early recruitment stage of these tree species, and highlight the importance of considering the different demographic stages across the whole climatic range to understand the effects that climate change may exert on species distributions and population dynamics.Funding also was provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science with the grant Consolider-Montes (CSD2008 00040), VULGLO (CGL201022180 C03 03), MOUNTAINS (CGL-2012-38427), the Community of Madrid grant REMEDINAL 2 (CM S2009 AMB 1783) and the European Union with the projects BACCARA (CE: FP7-226299, 7FP) and FunDivEUROPE (CE: FP7-ENV-2010. 265171).RB was funded by a MarieCurie IEF fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF).Peer Reviewe