Biannual journal of studies and research in the area of social philosophy and economics published by the Center for Studies in Economics and Culture of the Faculty of Economics of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. The Journal promotes intellectual exploration on the cultural and ethical implications of contemporary economic problems from a humanistic and interdisciplinary perspective. The volumes are published in the months of June and December of each year. This Journal was created in 1983 under the name of Revista Valores en la Sociedad Industrial until its change of name in 2007.
Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Centro de Economía y Cultura
Vico and the So-Called Contemporary Crisis of Democracy: A Possible Theoretical Framework
In the following article I would like to present an alternative explanation to the various theses that have been proposed regarding the so-called crisis of contemporary liberalism (Sloterdijk, Deneen, Levitsky and Ziblatt, etc.). I would like to specifically analyze the contemporary Western social and political situation (taking the term "Western" in a broad sense) using the conceptual framework proposed by the Neapolitan Giambattista Vico. After a preliminary review of some of the ideas he proposes in his book Scienza Nuova, I would like to try to explain the current political situation using his theoretical framework. In my view, Vico’s ideas are very useful to get a better understanding of the contemporary political situation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Álvaro Perpere Viñuales https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Giambattista Vico’s work is generally presented as a counterpoint to Cartesian rationalism and as a precursor of constructivism and historicism. However, Vico can also be interpreted from an ontological perspective, emphasizing a Christian approach that reconfigures metaphysics through history, in which God is the true knower of truth. In a postmodern era in search of certainty, Vico’s thought offers an “other face” of modernity that integrates the ontological, placing history and culture at the center of our interpretation of the world.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carlos Hoevel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The importance of Vico for contemporary philosophical education: Critique, rhetoric, and modern reason
This article offers a rereading of Giambattista Vico’s De nostri temporis studiorum ratione considering its relevance for contemporary philosophical education. Addressing the enduring tension between rationalism and humanism, critique and topics, it argues that Vico’s pedagogy articulates an integrative model of reason capable of overcoming dichotomies inherited from modern thought. The study situates Vico’s pedagogical project within its historical framework and examines modern receptions—by Gadamer, Grassi, and Hayden White—that reveal both the productivity and the limits of his legacy. Building on this discussion, it proposes an interpretation of Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy from a perspective that reconnects rhetoric, philosophy, and critique, following the insights of Vico’s approach. The article concludes that restoring the link between philosophy and rhetoric allows for a renewed understanding of philosophical education and of modern reason itself, opening a formative horizon in which critique, imagination, and a shared sense of community are brought into dialogue.
Copyright (c) 2025 Horacio Martín Sisto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Vico’s «eighth objections»: continuity and discontinuity with Cartesianism
The text explores Giambattista Vico's critique of Cartesian philosophy, emphasizing his opposition to Descartes’ ahistoricism. While Vico is often seen as anti-Cartesian, the analysis highlights his shared opposition with Descartes to libertinism, a skeptical and relativistic philosophy. This thesis of Augusto Del Noce’s seems to find support in more recent scholarship. Vico’s Scienza Nuova offers a moral alternative to Cartesianism, focusing on the human-made world and the role of divine Providence. Even though there is a tension within Vico’s bold theorizing, there is no irresoluble opposition between the verum factum principle and the guidance of Providence. Vico integrates metaphysics, history, and morality, emphasizing the order in human history and rejecting libertinism. His work bridges humanism and science, advocating for a practical, moral science of the human world that transcends Cartesian limitations while addressing the challenges of modernity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juan F. Franck https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Contemporary Relevance of Giambattista Vico’s Political Philosophy
The objective of this essay is to examine the current relevance of Giambattista Vico's political philosophy. To this end, I begin by raising the question of the current relevance of a philosophical system in general, and of Vico's science in particular. I then analyze the meaning Vico assigned to the term "political philosophy." Finally, I draw some conclusions about the relevance of his political philosophy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alberto Mario Damiani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Mansfield Park. Jane Austen. London–Penguin Classics, 1996. ISBN:9780140434149.
Mientras avanzaba por las páginas de esta novela no pude evitar la tentación, luego irresistible, de compararla con los otros libros de Jane Austen que ya habían acariciado mis torpes manos; esa ansia sin sentido de querer ordenar todo en un ranking, y luego hacerlo indefectiblemente y contra el consejo más sabio de Evelyn Waugh: “Don’t forget, quantitative judgments don’t apply”. Sucumbí, entonces, y escribí estas vanas palabras: “la mejor novela de Austen es Emma. Después vienen Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, y un poco más abajo, Persuasion”.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Insights into the Nationalization of Argentine Railways (1946-1948).
This paper analyzes the process of nationalization of the British railways in Argentina between 1946 and 1948, during the early years of the government of Juan Domingo Perón. Through a critical review of primary and secondary sources, this work examines the economic, political and international factors that influenced the decision of the Argentine government to directly acquire such railways. This research highlights the contrasts between planning and improvization, sovereignty and foreign influence and provides a broad view of this purchase in the context of post-war state interventionism and the economic relations between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
The Bounded Corporality. Anthropological essay on artificial intelligence.
The thesis of this essay suggests to acknowledge one of the difficulties of artificial intelligence in its attempt to surpass human intelligence. This difficulty is centered on the question of metaphor as a manifestation of an embodied mind. The essay starts from the observation of a kind of anthropological dualism underlying the mentality of the pioneers of artificial intelligence in the 1970s, according to the testimony and interviews conducted by MIT researcher Sherry Turkle. Then follows closely the theorization of metaphor by the cognitive linguistics of Georges Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This essay draws on the techno-optimism and techno-gloom of the thought of contemporary philosophers Andy Clark and Eric Sadin and the inescapable thought of Martin Heidegger.
University and Freedom: Reflections Based on the Thought of Roger Scruton and José Manuel Estrada.
This paper seeks to recover the Western intellectual tradition for contemporary reflection on the university— a tradition that authors like Roger Scruton so exemplarily defended. I will also offer some reflections inspired by the thought and work of Roger Scruton and the Argentine thinker José Manuel Estrada. The first reflection will focus on general aspects of university life in the 21st century. The second will address some specific challenges facing the Argentine university in the current context.
Scruton and human rights as a Secular Religion.
This article critiques the transformation of human rights, following the line of thought of Roger Scruton, who sees them today as a kind of “secular religion” that has lost its foundations in natural law. What were originally negative safeguards against state power have become demands for positive —and often contradictory— actions that, instead of limiting the state, end up reinforcing it. Scruton’s analysis is complemented by the discussions of Edward Feser on the need for a metaphysical grounding, John Finnis on the basic goods necessary for human flourishing, and Hannah Arendt, for whom the true issue is ensuring the “right to have rights” within a political community. The text concludes by proposing new paths to recover authority and social cohesion in the human rights discourse.
The Economy as an Order of Freedom: The Political Philosophy of the Social Market Economy.
This article analyzes the social market economy as a political-economic model that combines individual freedom with a regulatory framework designed to guarantee social justice and general well-being. Emerging as a response to the social crisis in interwar Germany and the rise of totalitarianism, this movement, driven by the Freiburg School and figures such as Walter Eucken, other thinkers such as Wilhelm Röpke and Alfred Müller-Armack, and politicians such as Ludwig Erhard, proposes overcoming both laissez-faire and excessive state interventionism through a strong state that guarantees clear rules and limits monopolies. Ordoliberalism maintains that regulated competition is the condition for freedom to avoid self-destruction, emphasizing individual responsibility and the ethical function of the economic order. Today, this model faces challenges such as the environmental crisis, financial speculation, and surveillance capitalism, which require updating its principles to keep human dignity at its core. The social market economy thus presents itself as a viable alternative that unites the market, democracy, and ethics in an order of responsible freedom.
Roger Scruton and the autonomy of the political.
This paper contains an overview of Roger Scruton’s political thought, taking as its unifying thread the autonomy of the political and its warnings regarding revolution and the moralization of the political.
Freedom in tension: State, Economy and Human Rights.
Freedom, a fundamental concept in contemporary democracies, is currently under strain. In a world marked by political crises, economic turmoil, and debates about ethics in governance, the intersection between the state, the economy, and human rights is becoming increasingly complex. This issue of Cultura Económica, issue 109, delves into this dilemma, exploring different perspectives that help us understand how these dimensions impact our daily lives and the social order. Some of the articles presented here offer in-depth analyses of the ideas of Roger Scruton and other contemporary thinkers, providing a critical context for reflecting on the role of freedom in today's world.
In this philosophical-literary essay, the author performs a Nietzschean reading of one of the main characters in the television series Succession, broadcast on HBO between 2019 and 2023. While collecting Shakespearean and economic interpretations of the series script, she wonders about which it is the true engine of capitalism and the role of money in that movement. Likewise, it reflects on some non-rational components of business decision-making, such as desire and the will to power. It ends –as a literary exercise– supposing that the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche –or his voice in the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra– drew up the character profile of Logan Roy, a fictitious media and entertainment mega-entrepreneur and embodying the idea of SuperMan or Áœbermensch of the German philosopher.
Copyright (c) 2023 Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina
Humanity and social friendship: a path towards worldwide peace
Currently, we live in a world where inequality is outstanding and where the individualism is part of the reality of the humankind. The States and international organizations have been part of this process that had affected all humanity. However, Pope Francisco and Karol Wojtyla, propose a pound to leave behind the idea of individualism and promote the concepts of love and friendship. In that sense, this article exposes their thoughts to encourage society to promote and think about universal brotherhood and common good.
The unwanted consequences of money from the point of view of psychology and the Economy of Happiness
Money is the central tool of many aspects of the economy, companies, individuals and governments give money a preponderant role in decision making. The main objective of this work was to analyze the consequences of money in society from various aspects, based on a review of the literature of various disciplines such as the Economics of Happiness, positive psychology and the psychology of motivation. The methodology used was of an analytical-conceptual nature. The advances in the different disciplines suggest that, sometimes, the use of money ends up causing unwanted consequences, often causing a result exactly opposite to the desired one. Indeed, monetary incentives can reduce the intrinsic motivation of employees, affecting the productivity of companies and the happiness of workers who, for their part, do not see the increase in their income reflected in an increase in happiness in the same proportion. The same is observed at the aggregate level, where despite the obsession of governments with the indicator of the gross domestic product, an increase in it is not equivalent to higher rates of happiness of the population, as explained, for a long time, by the Economics of happiness. We find ourselves, then, with companies willing to incur a cost to increase their productivity and employees willing to sell their time to the highest bidder, but sometimes neither some obtain the desired productivity nor others the happiness that, they believe, the increase in their income levels will bring.
Enrique Shaw, Christian humanism made life
The life of Enrique Ernesto Shaw (1921-1962) was crossed by the most significant destinies in Argentine and world history of the 20th century. This study will try to present Shaw's action as a passionate protagonist of a personal and collective itinerary that is undoubtedly part of the destiny of Argentina, since Enrique Shaw from his family environment and his social networks (as part of a business elite) was called to influence the national future. And although the cradle does not mark the possible horizon in a man's life, Shaw knew he was responsible from a young age for a vocation, for a “must be” which he never denied. We will divide this presentation into three parts: in the first section entitled The world and Argentina traveled by Enrique Shaw, we will explain those situations in the world and Argentine context that marked Shaw's life and business management, since the coup d'état of 1930, the irruption of Peronism and the challenges of developmentalism In the second section, The business history furrowed by the management of Enrique Shaw will be pondered – in light of academic studies on the history of companies and entrepreneurs in Argentina – Shaw's imprint as an entrepreneur, especially from his position as Managing Director of Rigolleau glassworks. In a third moment, the Catholic Church and the actions of Catholics will be analyzed, marked by the complexity around defining "the Catholic", in a context where the Social-Christian tradition born from the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum, the disputes arising from the identification of the so-called "Catholic nation", the distrust of certain liberal positions and mass democracy and the "new signs of the times" at the dawn of the Vatican Council II.
The diversity of meanings or applications of “wellbeing” fuel a discussion about its context-dependence or not. This article will first introduce this discussion. Next, it will present the classical logical notion of analogy considering it as a possible answer to the discussion. After that, Section 3 will apply analogy to wellbeing and will suggest its possible “primary meaning”. Finally, a short conclusion will follow.
Economy, business and happiness in post-pandemic times
Copyright (c) 2023 Carlos Hoevel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Andrés Rosler (2022). Estado o revolución. Carl Schmitt y el concepto de lo político
Copyright (c) 2023 Guillermo Jensen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Invisible totalitarianisms and identity crisis in the twenty-first century
This article is a written version of the lecture given in the forum Challenges for The New Generation 2022. From the general positive opinion about democracy in today´s world, inquiries about its basis. It mentions how from the relativism that is proposed by some authors and a controversial conception of respect of difference appear metaphysical and psychological conditions for the crisis of identity and a totalitarian domination that nowadays is not easily identifiable.
Copyright (c) 2022 Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina
This essay discusses the results of the World Happiness Report 2022. There are no surprises in the report. The happiest countries in the world have been the same for years: rich and relatively egalitarian countries. But we must not draw hasty conclusions, nor convert the subjective indicator of well-being into an exclusive objective of development. In fact, poor countries with marked social problems also show good results in the happiness index. In short, it is a useful indicator, but it is necessary to know its limits.
The impact of exchange rate volatility on economic growth and international trade
This paper summarizes several research works which deal with the different effects that the volatility of exchanges rates has on the economy. Among those effects, the most studied have been the effects on international trade and economic growth. Over the last five decades, there has been a debate at the theoretical level and different views at the empirical level on whether the gains from flexibility got under flexible exchange rates outweigh the losses from increased uncertainty which often prevails in such environment of flexible exchange rates. In particular, the impact of exchange rate volatility, both on international trade and economic growth, has been often discussed. This paper attempts to summarize some of the main results of these debates, concerning, in particular, the empirical evidence thus collected.
Disidentify. Postmodern critiques of identity
The classical paradigm, according to which the key to life consists in the development of one's own identity, must be overcome. The proposal for a progressive “identification” is an imposture that must be “denatured” and, therefore, “deconstructed”, since it depends on a historical project of power. J. RanciÁ¨re and P. B. Preciado, among others, promote, in response, an ethical model of “disidentification”. Human existence should advance, leaving behind at every step what until then was considered one's own identity. In these lines, the philosophical foundations of this idea are analyzed, its presence in some contemporary interdisciplinary debates is evaluated, and it is concluded that, in its most radical versions, it constitutes an "ontology of the impossible" (Preciado, 2019: 285).
For several years in Latin America philosophy and the humanities have been disappearing from middle and higher level education. This phenomenon is not strange in a utilitarian and global culture in which technical-practical knowledge prevails over philosophy, history, art or literature. The objective of this essay will be to briefly show that this knowledge, considered useless, is basically the most necessary for full personal (Ordine, 2013; Komar, 2021) and social (Nussbaum, 2010) development. And how certain values of this knowledge such as truth, beauty and goodness are demands of human nature (Komar, 2021).
Analogical hermeneutics and the humanities
The aim of this article is to show the applicability of an Analogic Hermeneutics in the field of Humanities. In fact, they operate interpreting texts, and that is what hermeneutics teaches to do. However, nowadays we find univocal hermenetics and aequivocal hermeneutics, struggling among them, and we need an analogical hermeneutics which can be an intermediate. This way we shall avoid the univocism of positivisms and the aequivocism of posmodernisms. This struggle has conducted to an impasse, and we need already another way to more fertile lands.
Patrick Deneen (2018). Why liberalism failed?