Kantian Dignity and Marxian Socialism

This paper offers an account of human dignity based on a discussion of Kant's moral and political philosophy and then shows its relevance for articulating and developing in a fresh way some normative dimensions of Marx’s critique of capitalism as involving exploitation, domination, and alienation, and the view of socialism as involving a combination of freedom and solidarity. What is advanced here is not Kant’s own conception of dignity, but an account that partly builds on that conception and partly criticizes it. The same is the case with the account of socialism in relation to Marx’s work. As articulated, Kantian dignity and Marxian socialism turn out to be quite appealing and mutually supportive

Miguel de Unamuno and Heraclitus: from ‘The Eternal Elegy’ (‘La elegía eterna’) to ‘The Cut Flower’(‘La flor tronchada’)

Podeu consultar la versió en castellà del document a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/33131The aim of this brief article is to demonstrate and analyze the influence of Heraclitus’s thought on some of the poems written by Miguel de Unamuno, in particular ‘La elegía eterna’ and ‘La flor tronchada’. At times –as in ‘La elegía eterna’– Heraclitus merely serves as a sort of a walking stick, an aid to his efforts to poetically reveal his anxieties. On other occasions –as in ‘La flor tronchada’– he genuinely needs Heraclitus’s philosophy to illustrate his view of human life and its relation to God as unending warfare

Ability and Volitional Incapacity

The conditional analysis of ability faces familiar counterexamples involving cases of volitional incapacity. An interesting response to the problem of volitional incapacity is to try to explain away the responses elicited by such counterexamples by distinguishing between what we are able to do and what we are able to bring ourselves to do. We argue that this error-theoretic response fails. Either it succeeds in solving the problem of volitional incapacity at the cost of making the conditional analysis vulnerable to obvious counterexamples to its necessity. Or, it avoids the counterexamples to its necessity but fails to solve the problem of volitional incapacity

Workforce contracting and performance in knowledge intensive services: An intellectual capital view

Objeto: El desempeño de las actividades de servicios de las empresas manufactureras, de la misma forma que las de los servicios intensivos en conocimiento, puede verse afectada por las formas de contratación de la mano de obra utilizadas en ellas. Se estudia el impacto del uso de trabajo contingente (temporal y autónomo) sobre la productividad del trabajo en las empresas de servicios intensivos en conocimiento. Para desarrollar las hipótesis, desde el punto de vista teórico se tiene en cuenta el impacto potencial del trabajo contingente sobre el capital intangible de la empresa, así como los resultados de la literatura empírica. Diseño/metodología: Se analizan los datos de una muestra de 279 empresas de servicios intensivos en conocimiento localizadas en Cataluña, mediante dos modelos de regresión lineal. Aportaciones y resultados: Los resultados muestran que el empleo de formas de trabajo no permanentes, como el trabajo temporal y los trabajadores autónomos, tiene un impacto negativo en la productividad del trabajo. No existe, en cambio, una relación cuadrática entre estas variables. Limitaciones: La muestra utilizada procede exclusivamente de Cataluña (España), no es perfectamente extrapolable al conjunto de empresas de servicios intensivos en conocimiento y se obtuvo en la fase alcista del ciclo económico. El diseño del estudio es transversal. La clasificación de las empresas como intensivas en conocimiento es dicotómica, en función del sector al que pertenecen. Implicaciones prácticas: Las decisiones sobre la contratación de mano de obra en actividades de servicios de alto valor añadido deberían minimizar las formas de trabajo contingentes, si quieren mejorar su productividad. Implicaciones sociales: Un modelo productivo que pretenda potenciar los servicios de mayor valor añadido no puede descansar sobre la base de un mercado laboral en el que las empresas utilizan una elevada proporción de trabajo contingente en su mano de obra. Valor añadido: Este artículo ofrece nuevos datos para a la escasa literatura que relaciona el uso de trabajo contingente con la productividad en el sector de los servicios intensivos en conocimiento. La creciente importancia de los servicios de alto valor añadido, tanto en empresas de servicios como manufactureras, y el interés por conocer los determinantes de su productividad justifican la necesidad de realizar estudios como el que se presenta.Purpose: The performance of service activities of manufacturing companies, in the same way as those of knowledge-intensive services can be affected by the hiring of labor used in them. We study the impact of the use of contingent work (temporary and autonomous) on labor productivity in enterprises of knowledge-intensive services. To develop hypotheses, from the theoretical point of view is taken into account the potential impact of contingent work on intangible capital of the company, as well as the results of the empirical literature. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a sample of 279 companies in knowledge-intensive services located in Catalonia are analyzed with two linear regression models. Findings and Originality/value: The results show that the use of non-permanent forms of employment, such as temporary employment and self-employed, have a negative impact on labor productivity. However, there is no quadratic relationship between these variables. Research limitations: The sample used comes exclusively from Catalonia (Spain), it is not perfectly extrapolated to all businesses with knowledge-intensive services and was obtained during the raising phase of the economic cycle. The design of the study is cross-section. The classification of knowledge-intensive companies is dichotomous, based on the sector they belong to. Practical implications: Decisions on hiring labor in services with high added value should minimize contingent forms of work, if they want to improve their productivity. Social implications: A production model that seeks to enhance the services added value services cannot rest on the basis of a labor market in which firms use a high proportion of contingent labor in its workforce. Value added: This study offers new data to the scant literature that links the use of contingent labor with productivity in the sector of knowledge-intensive services. The growing importance of high-value-added services, both in services and manufacturing companies, and the interest to know the determinants of their productivity justify the need for studies like the one presented.Peer Reviewe

Greek by Steven Berkoff (1980): The Risky Transformation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex into a Love Story

Podeu consultar la versió en català a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/63636 i la versió en castellà a: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/63638[eng] Can Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex really be transformed into a love story, as in Steven Berkoff’s drama entitled Greek? This article will show that, although Greek may be viewed by some critics as simply a provocative drama by no means intended to justify incest, directors, actors and critics in the end become enthralled by the powerful love story that ensues between Eddy and his wife and mother. This perspective reveals that Berkoff’s adaptation, intended to portray the social degradation of 1980s Great Britain, is in reality a quite risky proposition since it represents a flat denial of the tragic awareness of contemporary men and women. However, if this is the case, the audience, apart from enjoying the performance of Berkoff’s drama, might question, even from a non-fundamentalist perspective within the classical tradition, to what degree it makes sense to take inspiration from a text by Sophocles that precisely illustrates the great tragic awareness of the ancient Greeks