Purpose This paper aims to examine whether there are morally defensible reasons for using or operating websites that offer distributed denial-of-service attacks on a specified target to users for a price. Booters have been linked to some of the most powerful DDoS attacks in recent years. Design/methodology/approach The authors identify the various parties associated with booter websites and the means through which booters operate. Then, the authors present and evaluate the two arguments that they claim may be used to justify (...) operating and using booters: that they are a useful tool for testing the ability of networks and servers to handle heavy traffic, and that they may be used to perform DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience on the internet. Findings The authors argue that the characteristics of existing booters disqualify them from being morally justified as network stress testing tools or as a means of performing civil disobedience. The use of botnets that include systems without the permission of their owners undermines the legitimacy of both justifications. While a booter that does not use any third-party systems without permission might in principle be justified under certain conditions, the authors argue that it is unlikely that any existing booters meet these requirements. Practical/implications Law enforcement agencies may use the arguments presented here to justify shutting down the operation of booters, and so reduce the number of DDoS attacks on the internet. Originality/value The value of this work is in critically examining the potential justifications for using and operating booter websites and in further exploring the ethical aspects of using DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience. (shrink)

This book explores the epistemic side of racial and sexual oppression. It elucidates how social insensitivities and imposed silences prevent members of different groups from listening to each other.

Efforts to embed anti-heterosexist curriculum at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) can become confused and contradictory because of the persistent subjection of the student to the curriculum, and by maintaining sex as a subject of danger and prohibition. Examples from the new TDSB anti-discrimination curriculum resource that were perceived as politically controversial in 2011 are briefly assessed with the popular queer(ed) theories of Foucault (1978/1990), Butler (1990; 1993), and Rubin (1984/1993). Deleuze's (1988) interpretation of Spinoza’s work is also plumbed (...) to explain the consequences of heterosexist discourse in schools. The Deleuzian-Spinozan example of the caricatures of the “moralist trinity” shows that heterosexist discourses promote the production of “sad passions” throughout social relationships by creating “sad” characters within each individual. Finally, anti-heterosexist action in schools is described as modelling consent in curriculum and exposing relationships of subjection. (shrink)

NAVEGAR É PRECISO; VIVER NÃO É PRECISO: A LIBERDADE DE LOCOMOÇÃO NA INTERNET.

A pesquisa demonstra que a nova magia na contemporaneidade se dá por meio da ritualização de programas, que são estruturados com a clara intenção de programar o comportamento idolátrico da sociedade. A partir da teorização de Vilém Flusser examina-se o processo idolátrico das imagens que transforma as pessoas em sombras das imagens, presas ao desejo da imortalidade. O problema reside em saber como o ser humano se ocupará de símbolos, códigos, sistemas e como será sua vida nesse ambiente imaterial. Até (...) que nível a sociedade atual está programada? Os aparelhos vão resolver os problemas, ou seja, eles funcionarão em função da sociedade? Em primeiro lugar, explicita-se a lógica do funcionamento dos aparelhos. Depois, como a ciência se automatizou e transformou o programador em programado: de sujeito a objeto do processo ao transferir ao programa do aparelho todo o seu poder, tornando a sociedade em massa programada, que funciona em função dos aparelhos. O processo de idolatrização está em curso, entretanto o que se percebe é que a humanidade caminha para um totalitarismo programador. (shrink)

O texto tem por objetivo analisar e desenvolver uma crítica filosófica sobre o sistema capitalista globalizado, que atinge a vida de muitos no mundo todo influenciando não apenas o campo econômico, mas a vida concreta das pessoas, tendo como base teórica pensadores da Escola do DEI, Costa Rica. Trata-se de um processo injusto apadrinhado pelas teorias econômicas e pela realidade da escassez dos bens econômicos, que articula dois polos opostos: um que ao mesmo tempo domina, explora e exige sacrifícios, provoca (...) a adesão e fascínio das pessoas através do consumo de mercadorias; e outro cuja fundamentação mítica impõe como legítimo a exigência de sacrifícios humanos. Ao mesmo tempo que fascina e seduz, envolve a sociedade num caráter sacrifical, sedutor e de injustiça social. Assim, é possível destacar que nem o Estado, nem o mercado se apresentam capazes de evoluir para uma sociedade mais humana, justa e democrática. Atualmente a democracia e a justiça econômica amparam, sobretudo, os favorecidos e satisfeitos, cujo modelo prioriza a política do imediatismo da acomodação do pensamento econômico e político, levando a sociedade à regressão social e antropológica. (shrink)

A pesquisa apresenta o fenômeno da “idolatria” através de um diálogo interdisciplinar entre teologia e a filosofia. O aporte conceitual examina a idolatria enquanto expressão da divindade que oprime e exige a imolação de sacrifícios humanos. O problema consiste em saber se a idolatria acontece somente através do culto aos ídolos ou pode se desenvolver mesmo sem imagens? A idolatria consiste em qualquer realidade divinizada pelo homem. Ela constitui-se ao substituir o divino por algo que a represente. Enfim, a idolatria (...) esconde e legitima a opressão, especialmente, dos mais pobres, causando assimetrias e exclusão social. (shrink)

Introduction -- Historical perspectives of medical ethics -- The medical ethics Renaissance: a brief assessment -- Risk disclosure/'informed consent' -- Consent, control and minors: Gillick and beyond -- Sterilisation/best interests: legislation intervenes -- The end of life: total abrogation -- Medical ethics in government-commissioned reports -- Conclusion.

Book ARAÚJO, João Pedro Gonçalves. Histórias, tradições e pensamentos batistas. São Paulo: Fonte Editorial, 2015. 208p. ISBN 978-85-6825-209-3.

Resenha: CRUZ, Eduardo Rodrigues da. Religião e ciência. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2014.

Resenha do livro: REIMER, Haroldo. Liberdade Religiosa na História e nas Constituições do Brasil. São Leopoldo: Oikos, 2013.

This paper defends a contextualist approach to epistemic injustice according to which instances of such injustice should be looked at as temporally extended phenomena (having developmental and historical trajectories) and socially extended phenomena (being rooted in patterns of social relations). Within this contextualist framework, credibility excesses appear as a form of undeserved epistemic privilege that is crucially relevant for matters of testimonial justice. While drawing on Miranda Fricker's proportional view of epistemic justice, I take issue with its lack of attention (...) to the role that credibility excesses play in testimonial injustices. I depart from Fricker's view of the relation between credibility excesses and credibility deficits, and I offer an alternative account of the contributions that undeserved epistemic privileges make to epistemic injustices. Then, through the detailed analysis of To kill a mockingbird, I elucidate the crucial role played by the social imaginary in creating and sustaining epistemic injustices, developing an analysis of the kind of social blindness produced by an oppressive social imaginary that establishes unjust patterns of credibility excesses and deficits. (shrink)

The Legal Knowledge Engineering is a new topic of investigationof Artificial Intelligence. This paper discusses some relevant problems relatedto this new area in a summarized way. Within the Normative Law Theory,one question that arises naturally is that of contradiction, like for example:articles conflicting with other articles inside the same code, codes conflictingwith codes, codes conflicting with jurisprudence, and in general, treatmentswith conflicting propositions in Normative Law Theory. This paper suggeststo treat directly inconsistencies in the Legal Knowledge Engineering; thisengineering has as (...) underlying logic a paraconsistent annotated deontic logic.There are three main approximations in Legal Knowledge Engineering basedon: cases, rules and logic. In this paper, we consider the approximationbased on logic. It is considered a paraconsistent annotated deontic logic.Based on this logic, it is established a new proposal that is called Paraconsistent Legal Knowledge Engineering. For this proposal, it it is suggested ameta-interpreter to support the deontic operators as well as inconsistency —entitled on this paper Paralog D that can be used as a base to handle withthe issues discussed. (shrink)

In this paper we present an overview of Professor Newton C. A. da Costa’s work in logic, emphasizing the main results obtained by him in the several areas of his research activity. The text furnish a detailed bibliographic reference of his works, which are listed in the last section.

Robert Kilwardby on the Human Soul examines Kilwardby’s role in conciliating Aristotelian and Augustinian views on the soul, soul-body relation, and cognition.

For philosophy to criticize the concept of reality requires self-criticism. Throughout history many thinkers that have systematized a critique of both reality and philosophy. In this article we will analyze the Kantian and Hegelian systems by showing the failure in their respective critique to exercise sufficient self-criticism, resulting in unfinished critiques. Going a step further, Tanabe’s proposal was to plunge philosophy into a kind of «absolute disruption» that would drive thought beyond itself by means of an absolute critique in which (...) being and nothingness are seen to interpenetrate each other, thus opening up the possibility of positing absolute nothingness as «a foundation that is not a foundation.». (shrink)

In this chapter, I outline what philosophers working on the ethics of immigration have had to say with regard to invidious discrimination. In doing so, I look at both instances of direct discrimination, by which I mean discrimination that is explicitly stated in official immigration policy, and indirect discrimination, by which I mean cases where the implementation or enforcement of facially “neutral” policies nonetheless generate invidious forms of discrimination. The end goal of this chapter is not necessarily to take a (...) side, but to outline the terrain and provide the reader with an adequate entryway into these philosophical discussions over discrimination and immigration. (shrink)

Un análisis ameno e inteligente sobre los testimonios de los grandes pensadores del progreso: E. Fromm, F. Nietzsche, K. Popper, E. Morin, C.G. Jung, M. Ferguson, A. Finkielkraut, Ortega y Gasset, entre otros.

In this work we present some reflections about the interaction of preschool children (between 3 and 5 years old) with sound-producing objects. We implemented the phenomenological approach of Alfred Schutz, who under the influence of Edmund Husserl, elaborated his own notions concerning the Lebenswelt or life-world. We present some situations of interaction with musical instruments by children that have been documented in different research on musical education in early childhood, the same ones we use to exemplify possible analyses from the (...) perspective of the phenomenology of the social world. We conclude with some remarks that conceive of Schutz’s theory as a relevant perspective for the analysis of children’s experiences with sound-producing objects. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we outline a version of non‐descriptivism, ‘minimal expressivism’, leaving aside certain long‐standing problems associated with conventional expressivist views. Second, we examine the way in which familiar expressivist results can be accommodated within this framework, through a particular interpretation that the expressive realm lends to a theory of meaning. Expressivist theories of meaning address only a portion of the classical problems attributed to this position when they seek to explain why the expressions they (...) deal with have a given meaning. A position can nevertheless be termed ‘expressivist’ – in the minimal sense that we favor – based simply on the following key features of the meaning of these expressions: they can be used as functions of propositions, and they are not used to describe the way the world is. (shrink)

Background The Regional Committee for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 expressed concern that some health-related studies undertaken in the Region were not subjected to any form of ethics review. In 2003, the study reported in this paper was conducted to determine which Member country did not have a national research ethics committee (REC) with a view to guiding the WHO Regional Office in developing practical strategies for supporting those countries. Methods This is a descriptive study. The (...) questionnaire was prepared and sent by diplomatic pouch to all the 46 Member States in the WHO African Region, through the WHO country representatives, for facilitation and follow up. The data were entered in Excel spreadsheet and subsequently exported to STATA for analysis. A Chi-Squared test (χ 2) for independence was undertaken to test the relationship between presence/absence of Research Ethics Committee (REC) and selected individual socioeconomic and health variables. Results The main findings were as follows: the response rate was 61% (28/46); 64% (18/28) confirmed the existence of RECs; 36% (10/28) of the respondent countries did not have a REC (although 80% of them reported that they had in place an ad hoc ethical review mechanism); 85% (22/26) of the countries that responded to this question indicated that ethical approval of research proposals was, in principle, required; and although 59% of the countries that had a REC expected it to meet every month, only 44% of them reported that the REC actually met on a monthly basis. In the Chi-Squared test, only the average population in the group of countries with a REC was statistically different (at 5% level of significance) from that of the group of countries without a REC. Conclusion In the current era of globalized biomedical research, good ethics stewardship demands that every country, irrespective of its level of economic development, should have in place a functional research ethics review system in order to protect the dignity, integrity and safety of its citizens who participate in research. (shrink)

The question of how psychiatric classifications are made up and to what they refer has attracted the attention of philosophers in recent years. In this paper, I review the claims of authors who discuss psychiatric classification in terms referring both to the philosophical tradition of natural kinds and to the sociological tradition of social constructionism — especially those of Ian Hacking and his critics. I examine both the ontological and the social aspects of what it means for something to be (...) a mental disorder, and how the ontological status of these disorders hinges on social causation. Finally, I conclude by suggesting a way in which the biological and the social may be reconciled in an integrative model of variation in psychiatric disorder. (shrink)

v. 1. Edad Media. 4. ed. -- v. 2. La época del Renacimiento. 2. ed. -- v. 3. El siglo del Barroco. 3. ed.

How precisely to understand and evaluate counterfactuals can be an intricate issue. The aim of this article is to examine a new set of difficulties for evaluating counterfactuals that arise in the context of the dynamical spacetimes described by the theory of general relativity (GR). The initial value formulation provides us with a methodology to pin down the specific combination of features of the theory at the origin of the difficulties, namely, non-linearity and certain non-local aspects (typically captured by ellipticity (...) at the analytical level), in particular when combined with the global and/or quasi-local character of physical quantities in GR. Finally, we connect the philosophical question about counterfactuals with concrete applied physical issues in GR about extracting meaningful predictions by constructing appropriate initial data sets, leading us to question the very suitability of the Cauchy approach to fully account for the explanatory power of the theory. (shrink)

This text aims to show that the way of aesthetic knowledge in Schopenhauer functions as a critic to the instrumetnal rationality of the science under the regency of the principle of suffciente reason.O presente texto intenta mostrar que o modo de conhecimento estético em Schopenhauer funciona como um poder de crítica à racionalidade instrumental da ciência regida pelo princípio de razão.