El intranquilo mundo de las ciencias sociales

Las ciencias sociales han nacido todas en medio de grandes debates metodológicos. Si tales debates estuvieron presentes ya en las abundantes formas precientíficas que las ciencias sociales tomaron en sus inicios, su presencia continúa atormentándonos en nuestros días. Este trabajo intenta poner cierto orden en la multiplicidad de argumentos y contraargumentos mediante su reducción a cinco grandes figuras argumentales. Primero se expone el contenido de dichas figuras argumentales en términos generales, tratando de mostrar que en la raíz de ellos está la insalvable distancia entre las inclinaciones cognitivas con que la evolución ha dotado a los seres humanos y la actitud científica que sería de cuño especialmente reciente en el caso de las ciencias sociales, al menos según un prejuicio popular. Luego se procede a analizar dos textos recientes en que se ventilan aspectos de estos debates, con lo cual puede verse que los siglos no han aminorado su vitalidad.ITESO, A.C

Max Weber como profesor de teoría económica

Estamos acostumbrados a pensar en Max Weber como un jurista convertido en sociólogo histórico que toda su vida estudió cuestiones económicas. Podría sorprender entonces que durante algunos años de su carrera académica, de 1894 a 1898, haya sido nombrado profesor de economía teórica y que en efecto haya programado y dictado cátedra con el contenido nominal de la teoría económica. Es bien sabido que en el Methodenstreit, el cual había estallado una década antes de esta actividad docente, Weber se había declarado a favor de los teóricos y contra los historicistas. La reciente publicación de todos los materiales existentes de sus cátedras nos permite examinar la medida real de su compromiso con la teoría económica. El resultado de ese examen confirma tanto lo que salta a la vista en sus obras publicadas como el juicio de aquellos teóricos de la economía que lo habían conocido personalmente, a saber que Weber nunca entendió de qué trata la teoría económica o cómo usarla.We are used to think of Max Weber as a lawyer-turned-historical-sociologist who dedicated his life to study economic questions. It can come as a surprise that during a few years of his academic career, from 1894 to 1898, he was nominated professor of theoretical economics and actually planned and delivered ex cathedra series of lectures that were nominally about economic theory. It is well known that in the Methodenstreit, which had erupted a decade earlier than this lecturing activity, Weber came publicly in favor of the theorists and against the historicists. The recent publication of all extant materials related to his lectures allows us to examine the real measure of his commitment to economic theory. The result of such examination confirms what is plain from his published works as well as the judgment of those economic theorists who knew him personally, namely that Weber never understood what the theory of economics is about or how to use it

La lectura y los trastornos en su aprendizaje

1 archivo PDF (12 páginas). fhtrigintadu

Los economistas bajo la esvástica

Not availableLa RIS tiene la satisfacción de incluir en su sección de Personalia un ensayo del profesor mexicano Femando Leal Carretero en el que analiza el trabajo de los economistas alemanes durante un periodo histórico de gran trascendencia, como fue el protagonizado por el partido nacionalsocialista en Alemania en los años 30 y 40 del pasado siglo XX

Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia in Spanish University Students

A recent concern in the field of dyslexia studies is the lack of awareness and attention to university students suffering from this condition. If this problem is serious in countries where the relative opacity of the writing system allows for an early detection and, therefore, effective interventions, it is most critical in countries where transparent spelling makes such detection difficult, except in the most severe cases. In Spain, the diagnosis of dyslexia is rare among university-level adults. The present study pursues three aims: (a) to put forward a screening instrument for the detection of university students at risk of dyslexia, (b) to determine the ratio of university students that could be at risk of dyslexia by means of two different procedures, and (c) to create awareness for a disorder that causes hitherto unrecognized difficulties for an important subgroup of the college population. Six hundred and eighty-six university students in four different fields of study within the general area of Social Sciences from a public University in Madrid completed a Spanish-adapted version of a protocol including stress assignment, spelling words and nonwords, and timed phonological working memory of reading and writing task. Results showed that between 1.6% and 6.4% of this population could be at risk of suffering dyslexia. Such risk is not evenly distributed across the four fields of study. As for gender, the first criterion used yields 1.8 males at risk for every female, but the second criterion has as many males as females at risk. Women were significantly better than men in word spelling. Spelling was best predicted by the timed phonological working memory task of reading and writing

Impact of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the outcome of neurosurgical patients: A nationwide study in Spain

Objective To assess the effect of the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the outcome of neurosurgical patients in Spain. Settings The initial flood of COVID-19 patients overwhelmed an unprepared healthcare system. Different measures were taken to deal with this overburden. The effect of these measures on neurosurgical patients, as well as the effect of COVID-19 itself, has not been thoroughly studied. Participants This was a multicentre, nationwide, observational retrospective study of patients who underwent any neurosurgical operation from March to July 2020. Interventions An exploratory factorial analysis was performed to select the most relevant variables of the sample. Primary and secondary outcome measures Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of mortality and postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results Sixteen hospitals registered 1677 operated patients. The overall mortality was 6.4%, and 2.9% (44 patients) suffered a perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of those infections, 24 were diagnosed postoperatively. Age (OR 1.05), perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 4.7), community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) (OR 1.006), postoperative neurological worsening (OR 5.9), postoperative need for airway support (OR 5.38), ASA grade =3 (OR 2.5) and preoperative GCS 3-8 (OR 2.82) were independently associated with mortality. For SARS-CoV-2 postoperative infection, screening swab test <72 hours preoperatively (OR 0.76), community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) (OR 1.011), preoperative cognitive impairment (OR 2.784), postoperative sepsis (OR 3.807) and an absence of postoperative complications (OR 0.188) were independently associated. Conclusions Perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection in neurosurgical patients was associated with an increase in mortality by almost fivefold. Community COVID-19 incidence (cases/10 5 people/week) was a statistically independent predictor of mortality. Trial registration number CEIM 20/217

Ética y economía: el caso del tercer sector

Hay tres sectores en la sociedad (el mercado, el gobierno y el tercer sector o la sociedad civil), cada uno de los cuales tiene su propio papel y función, así como también tiene su propio tipo de falla. Hasta ahora ha sido mérito de la economía descubrir y articular las teorías sobre fallas de mercados (sobre cuya base se ha construido el Estado de bienestar) y sobre fallas de gobierno (que han mostrado los límites de las democracias y las constituciones). Podría ser ya hora de comenzar a pensar sobre las fallas del tercer sector, y eso especialmente porque los tres tipos de falla tienen una dimensión ética. La economía puede ayudar a mejorar la calidad del pensamiento ético en relación con la sociedad civil y el tercer sector mostrándonos que, a menudo, no bastan las buenas intenciones. En efecto, la teoría económica nos puede proporcionar las herramientas para analizar los efectos a largo plazo de nuestras decisiones éticas, y eso no solamente en relación con tal o cual grupo particular de presuntos benefi ciarios, sino con relación a todos los grupos de la sociedad

On theory

The noun ‘theory’ and the adjective ‘theoretical’\ua0derived thereof, with which we construct phrases\ua0like ‘theoretical framework’, ‘theoretical discussion’ or\ua0‘theoretical concept’, pervade everyday talk in social\ua0science texts and classrooms. Yet the necessary conceptual\ua0precision is sadly missing from that talk, at least\ua0in the author’s experience. Students in particular suffer\ua0from this state of affairs. The present paper has been\ua0written as a contribution to alleviate the problem, first\ua0of all by making the term ‘theory’ as precise as possible,\ua0and then by briefly describing the misunderstandings\ua0and the faults of exposition consequent upon conceptual\ua0imprecision