Neste estudo abordaremos algumas etapas da concepção holística que caracteriza as relações entre o homem, o cosmo e a sociedade na época das Antiguidades Arcaica e Clássica; a transformação da visão holística como consequência da alteração da concepção antropológica ao longo da época moderna; para terminar com uma reflexão que destaque a necessidade de voltar à humanização. Na introdução, nossa atenção estará direcionada, especificamente, para a perspectiva holística com a qual a filosofia e a medicina inauguraram o estudo propriamente antropológico. (...) Em seguida, será examinado o momento de passagem da visão holística para uma concepção mecanicista do homem e das práticas sociais que o veem como objeto de estudo e de cuidado. Por fim, gostaríamos de destacar os esforços que estão sendo efetuados para voltar a uma visão global na qual o homem, a sociedade e a natureza fazem parte de um único e mesmo sistema orgânico. (shrink)

This project seeks to highlight the benefits of the implementation and management of the teaching digital portfolio. In today's world full of technology and tools that facilitate daily activities, education and its various processes must also embrace the digital tools available and make them the basis for any innovation and improvement process. The teaching portfolio in physics has long been the means by which teachers have organized the processes, evidence, and other results of educational work. Nowadays, all that range of (...) evidence and productions, which signify the achievement and advances in each group of students, has been able to be integrated into technology. (shrink)

This article focuses on emergency medical care in black urban populations, suggesting that the classification of a "community" within clinical trial language is problematic. The article references a cultural history of black Americans with pre-hospital emergency medical treatment as relevant to contemporary emergency medicine paradigms. Part I explores a relationship between "autonomy" and "community." The idea of community emerges as a displacement for the ethical principle of autonomy precisely at the moment that institutionalized medicine focuses on diversity. Part II examines (...) a clinical trial for the blood substitute PolyHeme® (Northfield Laboratories, Inc., Evanston, IL). It illustrates the ways in which bias in research paradigms and Institutional Review Board decisions attach to the notion and utility of the language of "community." The conclusion's contemporary anecdote makes apparent the vitality of the issues of prehospital emergency medical care and the ways in which decisions and practices fall too easily into a narrative of culturally biased treatment. (shrink)

We welcome Blumenthal-Barby’s et al. (2022) plaidoyer for the integration of philosophy in bioethics because of a perceived mutual benefit. Drawing on experience from a collaborative project, funde...

Targeted modifications of the human epigenome, epigenome editing (EE), are around the corner. For EE, techniques similar to genome editing (GE) techniques are used. While in GE the genetic information is changed by directly modifying DNA, intervening in the epigenome requires modifying the configuration of DNA, for example, how it is folded. This does not come with alterations in the base sequence (‘genetic code’). To date, there is almost no ethical debate about EE, whereas the discussions about GE are voluminous. (...) Our article introduces EE into bioethics by translating knowledge from science to ethics and by comparing the risks of EE with those of GE. We, first (I), make the case that a broader ethical debate on EE is due, provide scientific background on EE, compile potential use-cases and recap previous debates. We then (II) compare EE and GE and suggest that the severity of risks of novel gene technologies depends on three factors: (i) the choice of an ex vivo versus an in vivo editing approach, (ii) the time of intervention and intervention windows and (iii) the targeted diseases. Moreover, we show why germline EE is not effective and reject the position of strong epigenetic determinism. We conclude that EE is not always ethically preferable to GE in terms of risks, and end with suggestions for next steps in the current ethical debate on EE by briefly introducing ethical challenges of new areas of preventive applications of EE (III). (shrink)

Targeted modifications of the human epigenome, epigenome editing (EE), are around the corner. For EE, techniques similar to genome editing (GE) techniques are used. While in GE the genetic information is changed by directly modifying DNA, intervening in the epigenome requires modifying the configuration of DNA, for example, how it is folded. This does not come with alterations in the base sequence (‘genetic code’). To date, there is almost no ethical debate about EE, whereas the discussions about GE are voluminous. (...) Our article introduces EE into bioethics by translating knowledge from science to ethics and by comparing the risks of EE with those of GE. We, first (I), make the case that a broader ethical debate on EE is due, provide scientific background on EE, compile potential use-cases and recap previous debates. We then (II) compare EE and GE and suggest that the severity of risks of novel gene technologies depends on three factors: (i) the choice of an ex vivo versus an in vivo editing approach, (ii) the time of intervention and intervention windows and (iii) the targeted diseases. Moreover, we show why germline EE is not effective and reject the position of strong epigenetic determinism. We conclude that EE is not always ethically preferable to GE in terms of risks, and end with suggestions for next steps in the current ethical debate on EE by briefly introducing ethical challenges of new areas of preventive applications of EE (III). (shrink)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo revisar el concepto de emancipación en la obra de J. Rancière, particularmente como aparece desarrollado en El maestro ignorante y El espectador emancipado. De esta forma, se muestra que la emancipación no es el fin de un proyecto histórico sino un punto de partida a través de la igualdad de las inteligencias, y por lo tanto, cualquiera puede tener acceso a esta experiencia sin un proceso de concientización o un maestro explicador. Por último, reflexionamos sobre (...) los posibles retos y posibilidades del método de la igualdad. (shrink)

This article focuses on emergency medical care in black urban populations, suggesting that the classification of a “community” within clinical trial language is problematic. The article references a cultural history of black Americans with pre-hospital emergency medical treatment as relevant to contemporary emergency medicine paradigms. Part I explores a relationship between “autonomy” and “community.” The idea of community emerges as a displacement for the ethical principle of autonomy precisely at the moment that institutionalized medicine focuses on diversity. Part II examines (...) a clinical trial for the blood substitute PolyHeme® (Northfield Laboratories, Inc., Evanston, IL). It illustrates the ways in which bias in research paradigms and Institutional Review Board decisions attach to the notion and utility of the language of “community.” The conclusion's contemporary anecdote makes apparent the vitality of the issues of prehospital emergency medical care and the ways in which decisions and practices fall too easily into a narrative of culturally biased treatment. (shrink)

We systematically study the completion of choice problems in the Weihrauch lattice. Choice problems play a pivotal rôle in Weihrauch complexity. For one, they can be used as landmarks that characterize important equivalences classes in the Weihrauch lattice. On the other hand, choice problems also characterize several natural classes of computable problems, such as finite mind change computable problems, non-deterministically computable problems, Las Vegas computable problems and effectively Borel measurable functions. The closure operator of completion generates the concept of total (...) Weihrauch reducibility, which is a variant of Weihrauch reducibility with total realizers. Logically speaking, the completion of a problem is a version of the problem that is independent of its premise. Hence, studying the completion of choice problems allows us to study simultaneously choice problems in the total Weihrauch lattice, as well as the question which choice problems can be made independent of their premises in the usual Weihrauch lattice. The outcome shows that many important choice problems that are related to compact spaces are complete, whereas choice problems for unbounded spaces or closed sets of positive measure are typically not complete. (shrink)

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) served as a test case for determining the role of extant vocabulary knowledge, endogenous attention, and phonological working memory abilities in cross-situational word learning. First-graders (Mage = 7 years; 3 months), 44 with typical development (TD) and 28 with DLD, completed a cross-situational word-learning task comprised six cycles, followed by retention tests and independent assessments of attention, memory, and vocabulary. Children with DLD scored lower than those with TD on all measures of learning and (...) retention, a performance gap that emerged in the first cycle of the cross-situational protocol and that we attribute to weaknesses in initial encoding. Over cycles, children with DLD learned words at a similar rate as their TD peers but they were less flexible in their strategy use, demonstrating a propose-but-verify approach but never a statistical aggregation approach. Also, they drew upon different mechanisms to support their learning. Attention played a greater role for the children with DLD, whereas extant vocabulary size played a greater role for the children with TD. Children navigate the problem space of cross-situational learning via varied routes. This conclusion is offered as motivation for theorists to capture all learners, not just the most typical ones. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 2, February 2022.

O foco deste trabalho repousa sobre um certo caminho histórico percorrido pela ciência, como um todo, no sentido desta se despir de qualquer revestimento metafísico e que teve como marco incontornável a criação, em 1929, do Círculo de Viena. Abordamos algumas tendências e limitações desse movimento e argumentamos que o metafísico terá sempre um espaço no seio mais íntimo da reflexão científica. Este trabalho foi realizado no âmbito da disciplina de Filosofia das Ciências I, parte do curso de Filosofia da (...) Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Portugal. (shrink)

Neste trabalho abordamos a obra de Francis Bacon e as suas contribuições para a Filosofia da Ciência, incluindo a sua proposta de método científico e o seu posicionamento crítico face à anterior versão aristotélica e a influência que o pensamento baconiano exerceu na promoção de um novo quadro filosófico para o desenvolvimento científico na modernidade. Este trabalho foi realizado no âmbito da disciplina de Filosofia das Ciências I, parte do curso de Filosofia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, (...) Portugal. (shrink)

This article presents an impact assessment framework that allows for the evaluation of positive and negative local-level impacts that have resulted from "responsible trade" interventions such as fair trade and ethical trade. The framework investigates impact relating to (1) livelihood impacts on primary stakeholders; (2) socio-economic impacts on communities; (3) organizational impacts; (4) environmental impacts; (5) policies and institutional impacts; and (6) future prospects. It identifies relevant local-level stakeholders and facilitates the analysis of conflicting interests. The framework was developed in (...) the context of, and is applied in this article to, the fair trade coffee industry in northern Nicaragua. It was designed, however, so that it can be applied across commodity sectors and responsible trade initiatives. It is able to do this by accommodating for differences in the social, environmental, political and institutional contexts of different areas, and by taking into account the distinct nature of an initiative's overall objectives, different levels of intervention, and the full range of stakeholders involved. (shrink)

Neste breve ensaio, exploramos alguns caminhos de uma controvérsia milenar em torno do estatuto dos entes matemáticos e apresentamos alguns argumentos a favor de uma posição platonista, aproximadamente clássica, sobre o tema. Este trabalho foi realizado no âmbito da disciplina de Filosofia das Ciências II, parte do curso de Filosofia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

On pp. 47-51, "Fifth Scenario: The Nazi and His Jew", discusses Adorno's theory of mimesis applied to the phenomenon of Nazi antisemitism. Influenced by Freud's theory, Adorno discussed in "Dialektik der Aufklärung" (1947) the Nazi phobic and distorted image of the Jew. In Adorno's interpretation, the imaginary portrait of the Jew created by the Nazis is in fact their self-portrait, expressing their longing for unlimited power and identification with an imaginary aggressor in order to be themselves the real aggressor.

In this article I argue that most biases in argumentation and decision-making can and should be counteracted. Although biases can prove beneficial in certain contexts, I contend that they are generally maladaptive and need correction. Yet critical thinking alone seems insufficient to mitigate biases in everyday contexts. I develop a contextualist approach, according to which cognitive debiasing strategies need to be supplemented by extra-psychic devices that rely on social and environmental constraints in order to promote rational reasoning. Finally, I examine (...) several examples of contextual debiasing strategies and show how they can contribute to enhance critical thinking at a cognitive level. (shrink)

Neste trabalho abordamos as contribuições de Larry Laudan para a questão do progresso científico. O modelo proposto, baseado na eficácia das teorias na resolução de problemas, serve de ponto de partida para uma breve reflexão sobre a influência contemporânea que as dificuldades de visão do mundo exercem sobre o desenvolvimento das ciências. Este trabalho foi realizado no âmbito da disciplina de Filosofia das Ciências II, parte do curso de Filosofia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

Slightly modified excerpt from the section 13.4 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick (translated into englisch): This chapter is based on an analysis of ethical debates on epigenetics and genome editing, debates, in which ethical arguments relating to future generations and justice play a central role. The analysis aims to contextualize new developments in genetic engineering, such as genome and epigenome editing, ethically. At the beginning, the assumptions of "genetic determinism," on which "genetic essentialism" is based, of "epigenetic determinism" as well as "genetic" (...) and "epigenetic exceptionalism" are analyzed and critically discussed. The remarks on the ethical discourse on epigenetics show that the notion of "epigenetic determinism" can sometimes be discerned not only in popular scientific discourse but also in ethical discourse. Ethical debates on epigenetics, however, have distanced themselves from this deterministic understanding. As a result, the focus in the ethical discourse on epigenetics shifts from responsibility for one's own health and that of subsequent generations to justice. What is meant here is justice, for example, in terms of access to healthy environmental conditions, regardless of whether these contribute to health with or without epigenetic agency. An analysis of the discourse on genome editing reveals that it is primarily germline interventions that are being ethically examined, with a concentration on the aspect of inheritance. The question is whether this is accompanied by an implicit "genetic determinism" or even a "genetic essentialism": the determinism could lie in the centrality of the aspect of heritability, since only genetic information is inherited. Does the aspect of heritability and genome modification play a more decisive role in debates on genome editing than the safety issue? Is the problem of embryos and their potential offspring not being able to consent to germline intervention given such a high priority because it is a genetic intervention? Under such a premise of "strong genetic determinism" supplemented by "epigenetic determinism," not only genome editing but also epigenome editing would be ethically relevant precisely because it too would have an influence on the genome. How this influence of genome editing and epigenome editing is ethically evaluated in each case therefore depends initially on whether the assumptions of "genetic" and "epigenetic determinism" are advocated. These assumptions are increasingly viewed critically in ethical discourse because they cannot be confirmed from a scientific perspective. In popular scientific debates in particular, however, they seem to persist, which ultimately also influences the public discussion. Since a broad public discussion is required especially on genome editing, a reflective approach to the various "-isms" analyzed in this chapter is central. DOI: 10.5771/9783748927242. (shrink)

En el siguiente trabajo expondré las características principales del materialismo de Alfred Schmidt, el cual, debe ser entendido en su vertiente: no dogmática, crítica y dialéctica. Me refiero a la primera característica, en el sentido de que Schmidt, deja de lado la lectura marxista ortodoxa de la ..

In this article, we propose to question the accuracy of Jean Wahl’s definition of Vladimir Jankélévitch’s Philosophie Première (1953) as one of the “ultimate efflorescences of negative theology.” In fact, we maintain that—although conceiving the apophatic discourse as a necessary (but insufficient) stepping-stone to the absolute—the aforementioned work constitutes, if anything, an effort to overcome it by means of what we shall call a tesiphatic philosophy, i.e., one that identifies the first principle, not as the absolute negation of being, but (...) as the absolute position of being. To defend our thesis, we shall start by discussing the meaning of the five divine names that Jankélévitch bestows upon his absolute, namely, (1) the “totally-other-order,” (2) the “super-truth,” (3) “the itself,” (4) the “I-know-not-what,” and (5) the “almost-nothing.” In this section of our paper, we will try to show how Jankélévitch’s discourse is, in fact, shaped by the whole negative theology tradition (from Plotinus to Nicholas of Cusa). Finally, in the last part of our paper, we will strive to reflect upon Jankélévitch’s interpretation of the limits of a apophatic metaphysical discourse, questioning whether his Philosophie Première effectively overcomes negative theology’s conception of the absolute. (shrink)

As palavras que se seguem constituem uma tentativa de explorar os diversos sentidos que revestem a figura do «com» [mit], tal como surge configurada ao longo dos §§ 25–27 de Sein und Zeit 2 . Escutaremos atentamente aquilo que Heidegger tem a dizer a respeito da necessária determinação do ser-no-mundo [in-der-Welt-sein] como ser-com [Mitsein] e veremos, depois, em que medida a sua analítica existencial faz (ou não) depender a constituição do ser-si-mesmo [Selbstsein] da figura do outro. Por último, e em (...) jeito de conclusão, tentaremos mostrar como Heidegger articula a interrogação pela ipseidade ou pelo «quem?» [Wer?] do ser-aí quotidiano [alltägliche Dasein], com uma breve reflexão acerca da inautenticidade [Uneigentlichkeit] fáctica em que o mesmo muitas vezes parece soçobrar. Será então, estamos em crer, o momento apropriado para debatermos o significado da controversa noção heideggeriana de «eles» [das Man], aproveitando também o ensejo para lançarmos a questão relativa à responsabilidade (ética?) do Dasein. Metodologicamente, contornaremos (sempre que possível) os tradicionais comentários a respeito das infinitas modalidades alternativas de tradução do jargão filosófico heideggeriano. (shrink)

In this paper we study a new approach to classify mathematical theorems according to their computational content. Basically, we are asking the question which theorems can be continuously or computably transferred into each other? For this purpose theorems are considered via their realizers which are operations with certain input and output data. The technical tool to express continuous or computable relations between such operations is Weihrauch reducibility and the partially ordered degree structure induced by it. We have identified certain choice (...) principles such as co-finite choice, discrete choice, interval choice, compact choice and closed choice, which are cornerstones among Weihrauch degrees and it turns out that certain core theorems in analysis can be classified naturally in this structure. In particular, we study theorems such as the Intermediate Value Theorem, the Baire Category Theorem, the Banach Inverse Mapping Theorem, the Closed Graph Theorem and the Uniform Boundedness Theorem. We also explore how existing classifications of the Hahn—Banach Theorem and Weak Kőnig's Lemma fit into this picture. Well-known omniscience principles from constructive mathematics such as LPO and LLPO can also naturally be considered as Weihrauch degrees and they play an important role in our classification. Based on this we compare the results of our classification with existing classifications in constructive and reverse mathematics and we claim that in a certain sense our classification is finer and sheds some new light on the computational content of the respective theorems. Our classification scheme does not require any particular logical framework or axiomatic setting, but it can be carried out in the framework of classical mathematics using tools of topology, computability theory and computable analysis. We develop a number of separation techniques based on a new parallelization principle, on certain invariance properties of Weihrauch reducibility, on the Low Basis Theorem of Jockusch and Soare and based on the Baire Category Theorem. Finally, we present a number of metatheorems that allow to derive upper bounds for the classification of the Weihrauch degree of many theorems and we discuss the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem as an example. (shrink)

Dupras and Bunnik’s strong statement against the normative approach of genetic exceptionalism, which can no longer be justified in the midst of multi-omic research, is of great importance fo...

In this paper we study a reducibility that has been introduced by Klaus Weihrauch or, more precisely, a natural extension for multi-valued functions on represented spaces. We call the corresponding equivalence classes Weihrauch degrees and we show that the corresponding partial order induces a lower semi-lattice. It turns out that parallelization is a closure operator for this semi-lattice and that the parallelized Weihrauch degrees even form a lattice into which the Medvedev lattice and the Turing degrees can be embedded. The (...) importance of Weihrauch degrees is based on the fact that multi-valued functions on represented spaces can be considered as realizers of mathematical theorems in a very natural way and studying the Weihrauch reductions between theorems in this sense means to ask which theorems can be transformed continuously or computably into each other. As crucial corner points of this classification scheme the limited principle of omniscience LPO, the lesser limited principle of omniscience LLPO and their parallelizations are studied. It is proved that parallelized LLPO is equivalent to Weak Kőnig's Lemma and hence to the Hahn—Banach Theorem in this new and very strong sense. We call a multi-valued function weakly computable if it is reducible to the Weihrauch degree of parallelized LLPO and we present a new proof, based on a computational version of Kleene's ternary logic, that the class of weakly computable operations is closed under composition. Moreover, weakly computable operations on computable metric spaces are characterized as operations that admit upper semi-computable compact-valued selectors and it is proved that any single-valued weakly computable operation is already computable in the ordinary sense. (shrink)

The investigation of computational properties of discontinuous functions is an important concern in computable analysis. One method to deal with this subject is to consider effective variants of Borel measurable functions. We introduce such a notion of Borel computability for single-valued as well as for multi-valued functions by a direct effectivization of the classical definition. On Baire space the finite levels of the resulting hierarchy of functions can be characterized using a notion of reducibility for functions and corresponding complete functions. (...) We use this classification and an effective version of a Selection Theorem of Bhattacharya-Srivastava in order to prove a generalization of the Representation Theorem of Kreitz-Weihrauch for Borel measurable functions on computable metric spaces: such functions are Borel measurable on a certain finite level, if and only if they admit a realizer on Baire space of the same quality. This Representation Theorem enables us to introduce a realizer reducibility for functions on metric spaces and we can extend the completeness result to this reducibility. Besides being very useful by itself, this reducibility leads to a new and effective proof of the Banach-Hausdorff-Lebesgue Theorem which connects Borel measurable functions with the Baire functions. Hence, for certain metric spaces the class of Borel computable functions on a certain level is exactly the class of functions which can be expressed as a limit of a pointwise convergent and computable sequence of functions of the next lower level. (shrink)

Abstract: This working paper focuses on the question whether there is a therapeutic imperative that, in specific situations, would oblige us to perform genome editing at the germline level in the context of assisted reproduction. The answer to this central question is discussed primarily with reference to specific scenarios where preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) does not represent an acceptable alternative to germline genome editing based on either medical, or ethical, or – from the perspective of the potential parents – moral (...) or religious grounds. This article deals with four different types of case constellations that result from these possible reasons against PGD as well as from the necessity or dispensability of a subsequent “control PGD.” These cases are discussed based on hypotheses concerning contextual factors and theoretical assumptions. In conclusion, we point out that if our assumptions are correct, there is probably no therapeutic imperative for genome editing at the germline level. We draw this rationale from the fact that germline interventions are likely not person-affecting. However, we caution the reader that our result is preliminary and needs to be more carefully examined in future work in light of the bioethical debate and potential objections. -/- // Abstract: Im Zentrum dieses Working Papers steht die Frage, ob es einen therapeutischen Imperativ geben kann, der uns, in bestimmten Situationen, verpflichten würde, eine Genomeditierung (genome editing) auf Keimbahnebene im Rahmen der assistierten Befruchtung vorzunehmen. Die Antwort auf diese zentrale Frage wird insbesondere mit Bezug auf Fälle diskutiert, in denen das Verfahren der Präimplantationsdiagnostik (PID) keine aus entweder medizinischen oder ethischen oder – aus Sicht der potentiellen Eltern – moralischen bzw. religiösen Gründen akzeptable Alternative zu einem Keimbahneingriff darstellt. Die möglichen Gründe gegen die PID sowie die Erforderlichkeit oder Verzichtbarkeit einer nachfolgenden «Kontroll-PID» ergeben vier verschiedene Fallkonstellationen, denen sich der Beitrag zuwendet. Auf Grundlage von Hypothesen zu kontextuellen Faktoren und theoretischen Annahmen diskutieren wir diese Fälle. Im Ergebnis verweisen wir darauf, dass es, wenn unsere Annahmen zutreffen, vermutlich keinen therapeutischen Imperativ zum genome editing auf Keimbahnebene gibt. Dies begründet sich daraus, dass der Keimbahneingriff vermutlich nicht als personenbezogen (person-affecting) zu bezeichnen ist. Wir weisen jedoch darauf hin, dass unser Ergebnis vorläufig ist und unter Berücksichtigung der bioethischen Debatte und möglicher Einwände genauer geprüft werden muss. -/- // Résumé: Ce Working Paper se concentre sur la question de l’existence d’un impératif thérapeutique qui, dans des situations spécifiques, nous obligerait à réaliser une édition du génome au niveau de la lignée germinale dans le cadre de la procréation assistée. Afin de répondre à cette question centrale nous développons quatre scénarios spécifiques dans lesquels le diagnostic préimplantatoire (DPI) ne représente pas une alternative acceptable à l’édition du génome germinal pour des raisons médicales, éthiques ou – du point de vue des futurs parents – morales ou religieuses. Cet article traite de quatre constellations différentes de cas résultant des raisons mises en avant pour s'opposer au DPI ainsi que de la nécessité ou de l’inutilité d’un ultérieur « DPI de contrôle » Ces cas sont discutés sur la base d’hypothèses portant sur les facteurs contextuels et sur les présupposés théoriques. En conclusion, nous soulignons que si nos hypothèses sont correctes, il n’y a probablement aucun impératif thérapeutique justifiant l’édition du génome au niveau de la lignée germinale. Nous arrivons à cette conclusion parce qu’une intervention au niveau de la lignée germinale n’est probablement pas susceptible d’affecter la personne. Cependant, nous mettons en garde le lecteur sur le fait que notre conclusion est préliminaire et qu’elle doit être examinée avec soin dans des futurs travaux instruits par le débat bioéthique et par les éventuelles objections. (shrink)

In a previous work, we have shown that the null result of the Michelson–Morley experiment in vacuum is deeply connected with the notion of time. The same is true for the postulate of constancy of the two-way speed of light in vacuum in all frames independently of the state of motion of the emitting body. The argumentation formerly given is very general and has to be true not only within Special Relativity and its “equivalence” of all inertial frames, but as (...) well as in Lorentz-Poincaré scenario of a preferred reference frame. This paper is the second of a trilogy intending to revisit the foundations of Special Relativity, and addresses the question of the constancy of the one-way speed of light and of the differences and similarities between both scenarios. Although they manifestly differ in philosophy, it is debated why and how the assumption of a “special system of reference experimentally inaccessible” is indeed compatible with Einstein’s Special Relativity, as beautifully outlined and discussed by Bell [Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988)]. This rather trivial statement is still astonishing nowadays to a big majority of scientists. The purpose of this work is to bring such assertion into perspective, widening the somewhat narrow view of Special Relativity often presented in textbooks and scientific papers. (shrink)

This article names some of the human under standings and ways of being that are fundamental to teaching and learning, which new educational tech nologies, especially the computer, tend to remake, reduce, or replace altogether in K-12 classrooms. The article asks questions and tells stories about students, teachers, and the authors themselves using computers for educational purposes, investigating three particular uses of technology in detail. The authors argue that new educational technologies change the meaning of words common to teachers' vocabularies, (...) especially words such as classroom community, knowing, and coming to know. The authors also argue that human senses used in learning are nullified, if not assaulted, by new educational technologies. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo consiste en abordar algunos argumentos de la filosofía de J. Rancière relacionados con la necesidad de repensar el comunismo. La hipótesis de trabajo insiste en señalar que Rancière no defiende ningún proyecto comunista. Esto al menos por tres razones: no hay igualdad de las inteligencias, el comunista funge como profesor explicador en aras de concientizar a los embrutecidos, el comunismo pertenece a una temporalidad histórica teleológica, lo que a su vez supone un aplazamiento de la (...) emancipación. Finalmente, cerramos este diálogo con las posibilidades presentes de esta otra forma de concebir la igualdad y la emancipación. (shrink)

Excerpt: 1. Introduction This chapter provides insight into the diverse ethical debates on genetics and epigenetics. Much controversy surrounds debates about intervening into the germline genome of human embryos, with catchwords such as genome editing, designer baby, and CRISPR/Cas. The idea that it is possible to design a child according to one’s personal preferences is, however, a quite distorted view of what is actually possible with new gene technologies and gene therapies. These are much more limited than the editing and (...) design metaphors suggest. Such metaphors are therefore highly problematic phrases in the context of new gene technologies, for two reasons. On one hand, to design a child of choice by modifying the genome would require modifying any gene of choice, which is more than can be done with current gene technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas. On the other hand, a modification of genes would need to be enough to create any characteristic of choice in the future child. The latter presupposes the assumption of genetic determinism. Moreover, the CRISPR/Cas technology can not only be used in a potentially therapeutic manner at the germline level. In addition, there is the (more likely) scenario of a future clinical therapeutic use of these new gene technologies for modifying the DNA sequence of other cells of the body (somatic genome editing). There is also the option of modifying the epigenome, that is, the spatial configuration of DNA (epigenome editing) (see table 1). Like genetics and genome editing, epigenetics has been at the center of recent popular scientific and ethical discourse as well as scientific debates. The concept of epigenetics has given rise to very different notions of inheritability and responsibility for health, which, however, are oftentimes based on scientifically controversial basic assumptions. That there continues to be covert genetic determinism in the form of epigenetic determinism (see table 2) in debates about epigenetics has been pointed out in ethical analyses of epigenetics. Neither genetic determinism nor epigenetic determinism has been confirmed scientifically. It is therefore important to recognize the concepts that are discussed (and sometimes harshly criticized) in debates about genome editing and epigenetics—for example, concepts about the causal role of DNA for our own life course. This importance is based on the fact that if we understand such controversial concepts, we will be able to remain critical when evaluating scientific knowledge and ethical arguments about genome editing and epigenetics. This chapter, therefore, explains some of these concepts. For an ethical analysis of epigenetics as well as of genome editing, it is necessary to understand and critically reflect upon the underlying concepts of genetic determinism and other, related -isms. The following section offers a detailed introduction to these -isms (section 2; see also table 2). Section 3 provides an ethical analysis of genome editing and epigenetics based on the explanations in section 2. Section 3 focuses on inheritability and responsibility, justice, safety, the problem of consent, and the effects of genome editing and epigenetics on embryos and future generations. This section does not discuss in detail further points that can be found in ethical debates about epigenetics as well as in ethical debates about genome editing. These points include (among others): • fear that the findings of epigenetics and that the methods of genome editing are misused—this also with respect to eugenics and enhancement; • naturalness—an issue we mention in passing a few times in the following analysis; • a possible connection between the genome/epigenome and the concept of human dignity, and the derived danger of instrumentalization and infringement of autonomy when intervening in the genome or epigenome. Since current discourse about ethical issues associated with genome editing focuses mainly on germline interventions, which are, for instance, interventions into a human embryo’s genome, we mainly focus on germline interventions when comparing the debates on genome editing and on epigenetics in section 3. (shrink)

The classical Hahn–Banach Theorem states that any linear bounded functional defined on a linear subspace of a normed space admits a norm-preserving linear bounded extension to the whole space. The constructive and computational content of this theorem has been studied by Bishop, Bridges, Metakides, Nerode, Shore, Kalantari Downey, Ishihara and others and it is known that the theorem does not admit a general computable version. We prove a new computable version of this theorem without unrolling the classical proof of the (...) theorem itself. More precisely, we study computability properties of the uniform extension operator which maps each functional and subspace to the set of corresponding extensions. It turns out that this operator is upper semi-computable in a well-defined sense. By applying a computable version of the Banach–Alaoglu Theorem we can show that computing a Hahn–Banach extension cannot be harder than finding a zero in a compact metric space. This allows us to conclude that the Hahn–Banach extension operator is ${\bf {\Sigma^{0}_{2}}}$ -computable while it is easy to see that it is not lower semi-computable in general. Moreover, we can derive computable versions of the Hahn–Banach Theorem for those functionals and subspaces which admit unique extensions. (shrink)

Sex has become to-day a sort of secular religion, i.e. a mass-belief in a new world entirely redeemed from its evils by revolution. Hope in revolution presupposes the ideas of man's original innocence and of society'sresponsibility for evil. As no political or economical revolution can entirely liberate man from his aggressiveness, the sexual revolution isproposed as the basic step towards the new world. But a totally free sexuality, breaking the dialectics between Eros and Thanatos, gives way to the deathinstinct and (...) therefore to a world of struggle for domination, not of liberty. (shrink)