Bioethics has become a field of new challenges for Ibero-America and the Caribbean. A seeming uniformity in the region hides a rich heterogeneous society. A brief survey of bioethical developments in different Ibero- American countries is provided as well as the bioethical problems and approaches peculiar to the region. Some of the unique features of bioethics in this region, it is suggested, could infuse new life into the U.S. and European bioethics discussion. Finally, a bibliography of Ibero-American bioethics literature is (...) provided for North American and European readers. (shrink)

José Antonio Valdivia Fuenzalida | Résumé : Pendant le xiiie siècle, plusieurs auteurs scolastiques ont adopté des théories aristotéliciennes pour expliquer la connaissance humaine. Ces théories supposent que l’homme est capable d’acquérir la science en se servant de ses forces naturelles. Notre âme est capable de saisir l’essence des choses en obtenant une connaissance certaine à leur propos. Pourtant, un bon nombre de ces auteurs estimaient que, même en admettant les théories mentionnées, on ne saurait se passer de l’assistance (...) de Dieu afin d’expliquer l’acquisition des connaissances scientifiques. Cet article s’interroge sur les raisons qui ont conduit lesdits auteurs à adopter une telle position. L’analyse de certains textes de saint Bonaventure permet de comprendre ce que la doctrine de l’illumination divine veut expliquer, à savoir : que nous pouvons obtenir de la certitude malgré le fait que les choses créées ne possèdent qu’une « nécessité conditionnelle ». En effet, même l’essence des choses créées n’aurait pas le degré minimum de nécessité qui est requis pour fonder la certitude absolue présupposée dans le concept médiéval de scientia. |: During the 13th century, several scholastic authors adopted Aristotelian theories to explain human knowledge. These theories assume that man is capable of acquiring science by using his natural powers. Our soul is able to grasp the essence of things by obtaining a knowledge that is certain about them. Yet, many of these authors believed that even admitting those theories, God’s assistance could not be dispensed with in order to explain the acquisition of scientific knowledge. This paper examines the reasons that led these authors to such a position. The analysis of several texts by St. Bonaventure allows one to understand what the doctrine of divine illumination aims to explain : namely that we can obtain certainty in spite of the fact that created things only possess a “conditional necessity”. Indeed, even the essence of created things would not have the minimum level of necessity that is required to be the foundation of the absolute certainty presupposed in the medieval concept of Scientia. (shrink)

Ce travail propose une analyse détaillée d’un argument de Pierre de Jean Olivi utilisé dans l’article 19 de son Impugnatio quorundam articulorum Arnaldi Galliardi (1282) contre une thèse professée par Thomas d’Aquin à propos de la connaissance que l’âme humaine a d’elle-même. Le texte d’Olivi cherche à prouver que l’homme peut connaître directement des réalités immatérielles, dont son âme. Le but de cette analyse est double. D’une part, il s’agit de mettre en évidence une difficulté suscitée par la théorie thomasienne (...) de la connaissance que l’âme humaine a d’elle-même, tout du moins selon la façon dont cette théorie apparaît dans les textes disponibles ; d’autre part, de comparer l’argument et la thèse olivienne à l’interprétation que certains thomistes ont élaborée à propos de la doctrine thomasienne. Cette comparaison révèle une similitude qui suscite un questionnement critique à propos de telles interprétations. (shrink)

This study is an attempt to show that demonstration was conceived by medieval commentators as an instrument for advancing knowledge of the world. Although the theory of demonstration is not a “logic of discovery”, its specific aim would be to describe the characteristics that should have a discourse to be able to express the causal articulation of things belonging to the same genre. From the analysis of some texts by Thomas Aquinas on the distinction between knowledge propter quid and knowledge (...) quia, it will be shown that the causal articulation represents the very novelty which is supposed to be acquired by a demonstrative syllogism. This conclusion will be confirmed by the analysis of some texts of the al-Ghazālī’s Logica which seem to reveal presuppositions of the writings of Latin commentators like Thomas Aquinas. (shrink)

John Searle defiende el «realismo directo», el cual sostiene que el objeto directo de la percepción es la realidad extra-mental. En conformidad con esta teoría, no hay ningún tipo de entidad intermediaria entre el acto perceptivo y la cosa percibida, como una «representación», «semejanza» o «especie». De hecho, Searle desarrolla sistemáticamente una teoría de la percepción que despliega las posibilidades explicativas de la tesis mencionada. En el presente artículo, se comentan ciertos aspectos de esta con el propósito de compararlos con (...) teorías del conocimiento propuestas por pensadores medievales. Se intenta poner de manifiesto que la teoría de Searle no ofrece nada radicalmente nuevo y que cae en ciertos errores que pudo evitar de haber conocido los trabajos de la historiografía medieval que se ocupan de estos temas. Así, se reivindica la importancia de la historia de la filosofía. (shrink)

Bajo el presupuesto de que la gnoseología medieval es realista, este artículo examina una de sus características. A través del estudio de Tomás de Aquino Suma de Teología, I, q. 84, a. 1 y Enrique de Gante, Suma, a. 1, q. 1, se intenta mostrar cómo algunos problemas gnoseológicos son resueltos utilizando el argumento que asume que nuestras facultades cognitivas sirven para conocer la realidad tal cual es. Nos enfocamos especialmente en Enrique de Gante, por emplearlo para deslegitimar la pregunta (...) por la posibilidad del conocimiento. (shrink)

Frente al déficit de visión territorial a escala nacional, que devele el patrón de los conflictos ambientales vigentes en Chile, se propone la construcción de un índice sintético de vulnerabilidad social, con soporte en la unidad de análisis político-administrativa de administración local, junto a la localización de los conflictos ambientales denunciados por ONG’s. Ello posibilitará estudiar la relación espacial existente, de modo de determinar qué perfil de unidades territoriales soportan mayor carga de externalidades negativas generadas por proyectos de inversión privada. (...) Asimismo, el planteamiento adoptado posibilita cuantificar los niveles de justicia ambiental en el país. (shrink)

Thomas d’Aquin défend, contre saint Augustin, la thèse selon laquelle l’homme peut enseigner sa propre science à quelqu’un d’autre. Sa théorie sur l’enseignement de la science est développée dans la Somme de théologie, I, q. 117, a. 1 et dans les Questions disputées sur la vérité, q. 11, a. 1. À la lumière de cette doctrine, la présente étude explique pourquoi saint Thomas admet la thèse aristotélicienne du livre I de la Métaphysique selon laquelle la marque distinctive de la science (...) est qu’elle peut être enseignée. On soutient que, selon Thomas, la science peut être enseignée, d’une part, à cause de son caractère dérivatif et, d’autre part, parce qu’elle est fondée sur des principes vrais, évidents et certains. (shrink)

Este libro nace de la experiencia docente del autor, en donde él considera que la comprensión histórica de los orígenes del cristianismo comporta la necesidad de conocer los temas elementales del pensamiento judío. Sin embargo, esta obra no pretende ser una historia de Palestina, ni una historia de los pueblos circundantes de la civilización judía, quiere más bien ilustrar, enmarcar y discutir ciertos aspectos del pensamiento judío precristiano que pueden servir para mejorar nuestra comprensi..

In 'Een handvol filosofen' staan de filosofen centraal die sinds de oprichting van de Vrije Universiteit in 1880 aan deze instelling verbonden zijn geweest. Het gaat hierbij niet alleen om de inhoud van hun werk, maar ook om de personen zelf. Er waren filosofiedocenten die zich met de universiteit identificeerden en zich volledig konden ontplooien. Er waren er echter ook voor wie dit niet gold, die geïsoleerd of in gewetensnood raakten. Veel filosofiestudenten waren actief betrokken bij wat er in hun (...) faculteit gebeurde. Zij namen initiatieven, protesteerden soms tegen de gang van zaken en kozen partij in conflictsituaties. Sinds het eind van de jaren zestig van de twintigste eeuw verloor de Vrije Universiteit geleidelijk haar christelijk karakter. Tegenwoordig werken alle stafleden vanuit hun eigen motivatie mee aan een hoofdzakelijk seculier geworden universiteit, die ruimte biedt voor religieuze en levensbeschouwelijke diversiteit. (shrink)

Recent visits to five Latin American nations indicate that some medical professionals are eager to increase the role of bioethics in their countries. Conversations with key figures there point up similarities and differences among Latin nations, and between Latin countries and the United States, in their approaches to ethics. Opportunities exist for U.S. bioethicists to help get bioethics teaching and research off the ground in Latin America.

In this philosophically sophisticated and historically significant work, John H. Zammito reconstructs Kant's composition of The Critique of Judgment and reveals that it underwent three major transformations before publication. He shows that Kant not only made his "cognitive" turn, expanding the project from a "Critique of Taste" to a Critique of Judgment but he also made an "ethical" turn. This "ethical" turn was provoked by controversies in German philosophical and religious culture, in particular the writings of Johann Herder and the (...) Sturm und Drang movement in art and science, as well as the related pantheism controversy. Such topicality made the Third Critique pivotal in creating a "Kantian" movement in the 1790s, leading directly to German Idealism and Romanticism. The austerity and grandeur of Kant's philosophical writings sometimes make it hard to recognize them as the products of a historical individual situated in the particular constellation of his time and society. Here Kant emerges as a concrete historical figure struggling to preserve the achievements of cosmopolitan Aufkl-rung against challenges in natural science, religion, and politics in the late 1780s. More specifically Zammito suggests that Kant's Third Critique was animated throughout by a fierce personal rivalry with Herder and by a strong commitment to traditional Christian ideas of God and human moral freedom. "A work of extraordinary erudition. Zammito's study is both comprehensive and novel, connecting Kant's work with the aesthetic and religious controversies of the late eighteenth century. He seems to have read everything. I know of no comparable historical study of Kant's Third Critique."-Arnulf Zweig, translator and editor of Kant's ;IPhilosophical Correspondence, 1759-1799;X "An intricate, subtle, and exciting explanation of how Kant's thinking developed and adjusted to new challenges over the decade from the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason to the appearance of the Critique of Judgment. "--John W. Burbidge, Review of Metaphysics "There has been for a long time a serious gap in English commentary on Kant's Critique of Judgment Zammito's book finally fills it. All students and scholars of Kant will want to consult it."--Frederick Beiser, Times Literary Supplement. (shrink)

Introduction: Platonic dramatology -- The political and philosophical problems. Using pre-Socratic philosophy to support political reform: the Athenian stranger ; Plato's Parmenides: Parmenides' critique of Socrates and Plato's critique of Parmenides ; Becoming Socrates ; Socrates interrogates his contemporaries about the noble and good -- Paradigms of philosophy. Socrates' positive teaching ; Timaeus-Critias: completing or challenging Socratic political philosophy? ; Socratic practice -- The trial and death of Socrates. The limits of human intelligence ; The Eleatic challenge ; The trial (...) and death of Socrates -- Conclusion: Why Plato made Socrates his hero. (shrink)

This article presents a response to Richard Rorty's paper "Is Philosophy Relevant to Business Ethics?" The author questions Rorty's views on the depreciation of the role of philosophy in applied ethics, and outlines four reasons why philosophy retains its relevance. The author addresses the role of moral reasoning in the development of the moral imagination. The author also concludes that humans have the means necessary to make moral progress and are capable of moral reasoning, and need only to develop a (...) strong moral imagination. (shrink)

Abstract:During recent years, the principle and practice of employment-at-will have been under attack. While progress has been made in eroding the practice, the principle still governs the philosophical assumptions underlying employment practices in the United States, and, indeed, EAW has been promulgated as one of the ways to address economic ills in other countries. This paper will briefly review the major critiques of EAW. Given the failure of these arguments to erode the underpinnings of EAW, we shall suggest new avenues (...) for approaching employment issues to achieve the desirable goal of employee dignity and respect. (shrink)

This groundbreaking volume casts light on the long shadow of naturalistic monism in modern thought and culture. When monism's philosophical proposition - the unity of all matter and thought in a single, universal substance - fused with scientific empiricism and Darwinism in the mid-nineteenth century, it led to the formation of a powerful worldview articulated in the work of figures such as Ernst Haeckel. The compelling essays collected here, written by leading international scholars, investigate the articulation of monism in science, (...) philosophy, and religion and its impact on a range of social movements, from socialism and early feminism to imperialism and eugenics. The result is a broad and comprehensive chronological, disciplinary, and geographic map of a century of monism, as well as a bellwether for innovative new directions in the interdisciplinary study of science, religion, philosophy, and culture. (shrink)

Human nature is enigmatic. Are we cruel, selfish creatures or good merciful Samaritans? This book takes you on a journey into the complexities of human mind and kind, from altruism, sharing, and large-scale cooperation, to cheating, distrust, and warfare. What are the building blocks of morality and sociality? Featuring contributions from leading researchers, such as Christophe Boesch, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, Azar Gat, Dennis Krebs, Ara Norenzayan, and Frans B. M. de Waal, this fascinating interdisciplinary reader draws on evolutionary (...) and comparative perspectives, and is essential reading for any students interested in the unique characteristics that define humanity and society. (shrink)

This is the first sustained, whole-Bible treatment on the theme of meeting God face to face. Starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation, the author systematically covers the major events in salvation history, all of which reveal the beauty of encountering God's grace in abundance.

In this book, Phillip Wiebe examines religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences, assessing how these experiences appear to implicate a spiritual order. Despite the current prevalence of naturalism and atheism, he argues that experiences purporting to have a religious or spiritual significance deserve close empirical investigation. Wiebe surveys the broad scope of religious experience and considers different types of evidence that might give rise to a belief in phenomena such as spirits, paranormal events, God, and an afterlife. He demonstrates that there (...) are different explanations and interpretations of religious experiences, both because they are typically personal accounts, and they suggest a reality that is often unobservable. Wiebe also addresses how to evaluate evidence for theories that postulate unobservables in general, and a Theory of Spirits in particular. Calling for more rigorous investigation of these phenomena, Wiebe frames the study of religious experience among other accepted social sciences that seek to understand religion. (shrink)

The introduction of novel diagnostic techniques in clinical domains such as genomics and radiology has led to a rich ethical debate on how to handle unsolicited findings that result from these innovations. Yet while unsolicited findings arise in both genomics and radiology, most of the relevant literature to date has tended to focus on only one of these domains. In this article, we synthesize and critically assess similarities and differences between “scanning the body” and “sequencing the genome” from an ethical (...) perspective. After briefly describing the novel diagnostic contexts leading to unsolicited findings, we synthesize and reflect on six core ethical issues that relate to both specialties: terminology; benefits and risks; autonomy; disclosure of unsolicited findings to children; uncertainty; and filters and routine screening. We identify ethical rationales that pertain to both fields and may contribute to more ethically sound policies. Considerations of preserving public trust and ensuring that people perceive healthcare policies as fair also support the need for a combined debate. (shrink)

The article examines philosophical conceptions of responsibility found in the contributions of Martin Buber, Hans Jonas and Emmanuel Levinas. It argues that, despite the significant differences of these contributions, they all share important goals, significant structural features, and corresponding challenges. All three thinkers try to overcome the solipsistic limitations of Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as well as the egocentrism of Heidegger’s concept of "solicitude" or "self-care." All three try to overcome the Kantian subject-object dichotomy. All three understand responsibility as a bipolar (...) relation only. In consequence, all of them face similar challenges resulting from new forms of dichotomies and the exclusion of “thirdness” that are the result of their conceptual decisions. (shrink)

Both Carnap and Quine made significant contributions to the philosophy of mathematics despite their diversedviews. Carnap endorsed the dichotomy between analytic and synthetic knowledge and classified certainmathematical questions as internal questions appealing to logic and convention. On the contrary, Quine wasopposed to the analytic-synthetic distinction and promoted a holistic view of scientific inquiry. The purpose of thispaper is to argue that in light of the recent advancement of experimental mathematics such as Monte Carlosimulations, limiting mathematical inquiry to the domain of (...) logic is unjustified. Robustness studies implemented inMonte Carlo Studies demonstrate that mathematics is on par with other experimental-based sciences. (shrink)