Moral asepsis in education Abstract: The purpose of this article is to question the alleged dissociation between ethics and morals and its consequences for the education, from a hermeneutic perspective. Starting from the hypothesis that theorizations and educational and pedagogical ramifications have been disregarding the discussions on morals and their normative, prescriptive and even pragmatic demands, for the adoption of a posture of permanent suspension, relativization and criticism, at theoretical and practical levels. Such a perspective, in educational contexts, would lead (...) to the abandonment and refusal of reasonable and minimally stable values, which are essential to the justification of the very reason for educating. Consequently, these writings have three key purposes: to understand the causes of the controversial, although necessary, dissociation between ethics and morals; to question the relationship between human becoming, its educational capacity and the moral subject; and to demonstrate the correspondence between ethics, morals and education. Keywords: Ethics; Moral; Education; Human Condition. De la asepsia moral en la educación Resumen: El presente artículo problematiza, a la luz de una perspectiva hermenéutica, el supuesto de la disociabilidad entre la ética y la moral y sus consecuencias para la educación. Parte de la hipótesis que las teorizaciones y desdoblamientos educativos y pedagógicos han pasado a través de los debates sobre la moral y sus demandas normativas, prescriptivas y hasta pragmáticas, en el nombre de la adopción, tanto a nivel teórico como práctico, una postura de permanente suspensión, relativización y crítica. En contextos educativos, tal perspectiva conduciría al abandono y rechazo de valores razonables y mínimamente estables, indispensables para la justificación de la propria razón para educar. Ante esto, estos escritos se orientan según tres propósitos fundamentales: comprender las causas de la controvertida, aunque necesaria, disociación entre ética y moral; problematizar la relación entre el devenir humano, su educabilidad y la cuestión moral; y demostrar la copertenencia entre ética, moral y educación. Palabras clave: Ética; Moral; Educación; Condición humana. Da assepsia moral na educação Resumo: O presente artigo problematiza, à luz de uma perspectiva hermenêutica, o suposto da dissociabilidade entre ética e moral e suas consequências para a educação. Parte da hipótese de que as teorizações e os desdobramentos educacionais e pedagógicos têm preterido as discussões sobre a moral e as suas demandas normativas, prescritivas e até pragmáticas, em nome da adoção, tanto em nível teórico quanto prático, de uma postura de permanente suspensão, relativização e crítica. Em contextos educativos, tal perspectiva estaria conduzindo ao abandono e à recusa de valores razoáveis e minimamente estáveis, indispensáveis à justificação da própria razão de educar. Diante disso, estes escritos orientam-se segundo três propósitos fundamentais: compreender as causas da controversa, apesar de necessária, dissociação entre ética e moral; problematizar a relação entre o devir humano, a sua educabilidade e a questão moral; e demonstrar a copertença entre ética, moral e educação. Palavras-chave: Ética; Moral; Educação; Condição Humana. Data de registro: 21/05/2020 Data de aceite: 29/09/2021. (shrink)

O tema da ética tem ganhado espaço em praticamente todos os campos e setores da nossa sociedade, sejam eles acadêmicos, educacionais, profissionais, empresariais, políticos e científicos. Contudo, as discussões em seu entorno têm se pulverizado numa variedade imensa de abordagens, pautadas em distintas e até mesmo contraditórias bases teóricas, perspectivas e interpretações. Diante disso, estes escritos objetivam distinguir, problematizar e relacionar as noções de moral, ética e deontologia no intuito de preservar tanto o sentido filosófico das proposições éticas quanto o (...) rigor argumentativo das discussões emergentes tanto de contextos teóricos não-filosóficos como e de situações vivenciais. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta a pesquisa como princípio formativo e destaca a sua relevância para a dimensão do conhecimento e da aprendizagem, trazendo evidências que ela é o modo humano de conhecer e compreender. Objetiva-se chamar a atenção para diferentes dimensões formativas da pesquisa e que, em certo sentido, podem ser situadas como pressupostas ou anteriores a quaisquer modalidades, métodos, tipos ou estratégias de sua realização específica. Nessa direção, a pesquisa pode ser compreendida, em termos gerais, como constituidora do modo de (...) ser humano e, em termos específicos, do modo de ser estudantil e, também, docente. Para tanto, argumenta-se que a linguagem é um traço distintivo dos humanos que lhes permite simbolizar, interpretar, compreender e transformar; tais aspectos permitem dizer que a constituição do mundo humano é uma autocriação. Por fim, destaca-se a pesquisa como esforço em compreender as situações práticas mediante o recurso a categorias teóricas e/ou interpretativas e como uma atividade humana de fundamental importância e que tem nas instituições educativas um lugar privilegiado para a sua otimização, na medida em que inter-relaciona o ensino, a pesquisa e a experiência prática da vida. (shrink)

White matter tracts are known to be susceptible to injury following concussion. The objective of this study was to determine whether contact play in sport could alter white matter metabolite levels in female varsity athletes independent of changes induced by long-term exercise. Metabolite levels were measured by single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the prefrontal white matter at the beginning and end of season in contact and non-contact varsity athletes. Sedentary women were scanned once, at a time equivalent to (...) the Off-Season time point. Metabolite levels in non-contact athletes did not change over a season of play, or differ from age matched sedentary women except that non-contact athletes had a slightly lower myo-inositol level. The contact athletes had lower levels of myo-inositol and glutamate, and higher levels of glutamine compared to both sedentary women and non-contact athletes. Lower levels of myo-inositol in non-contact athletes compared to sedentary women indicates long-term exercise may alter glial cell profiles in these athletes. The metabolite differences observed between contact and non-contact athletes suggest that non-contact athletes should not be used as controls in studies of concussion in high-impact sports because repetitive impacts from physical contact can alter white matter metabolite level profiles. It is imperative to use athletes engaged in the same contact sport as controls to ensure a matched metabolite profile at baseline. (shrink)

When it originated in the late 19th century, psychometrics was a field with both a scientific and a social mission: psychometrics provided new methods for research into individual differences, and at the same time, these psychometric instruments were considered a means to create a new social order. In contrast, contemporary psychometrics - due to its highly technical nature and its limited involvement in substantive psychological research - has created the impression of being a value-free discipline. In this article, we develop (...) a contrasting characterization of contemporary psychometrics as a value-laden discipline. We expose four such values: that individual differences are quantitative (rather than qualitative), that measurement should be objective in a specific sense, that test items should be fair, and that utility of a model is more important than its truth. Our goal is not to criticize psychometrics for employing these values, but rather to bring them into the open and to show that these values are not inevitable and are in need of systematic evaluation. (shrink)

I argue that epistemic failings are a significant and underappreciated moral hazard in the financial services industry. I argue further that an analysis of these epistemic failings and their means of redress is best developed by identifying policies and procedures that are likely to facilitate good judgment. These policies and procedures are “best epistemic practices.” I explain how best epistemic practices support good reasoning, thereby facilitating accurate judgments about risk and reward. Failures to promote and adhere to best epistemic practices (...) contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. I identify and discuss some of the ways in which best epistemic practices were violated in the events that led to the crisis, with a focus on the role of the credit rating agencies. I go on to discuss some of the ways in which these failings have been redressed. I conclude by observing how proactive regulation for best epistemic practices might help us to anticipate and avoid future crises. (shrink)

Broadly speaking, a naturalistic approach to epistemology seeks to explain human knowledge – and justification in particular – as a phenomenon in the natural world, in keeping with the tenets of naturalism. Naturalism is typically defined, in part, by a commitment to scientific method as the only legitimate means of attaining knowledge of the natural world. Naturalism is often thought to entail empiricism by virtue of this methodological commitment. However, scientific methods themselves may incorporate a priori elements, so empiricism does (...) not follow from the methodological commitments of naturalism alone. And given a suitably-naturalistic conception of the a priori, a priori forms of justification may be compatible with naturalism generally. A priori justification is, in principle, compatible with naturalism – and hence naturalistic epistemologies – if the a priori is understood in a way that is free of some of the inessential properties that have been associated with the concept. I argue that some of the more prominent strategies for accommodating normative notions within a naturalistic framework allow for the possibility of a priori justification. These include reliabilism, instrumental rationality, and nonfactualism about justification. A priori justification thus need not be seen as standing in opposition to all naturalistic epistemologies. It is only with nonnormative naturalistic epistemologies that a priori justification per se is incompatible, and this only because the notion of justification itself has no role to play within a nonnormative approach to epistemology. (shrink)

This is a selection of essays on moral responsibility that represent the major components of John Martin Fischer's overall approach to freedom of the will and moral responsibility. The collection exhibits the overall structure of Fischer's view and shows how the various elements fit together to form a comprehensive framework for analyzing free will and moral responsibility. The topics include deliberation and practical reasoning, freedom of the will, freedom of action, various notions of control, and moral accountability. The (...) essays seek to provide a foundation for our practices of holding each other (and ourselves) morally and legally accountable for our behavior. A crucial move is the distinction between two kinds of control. According to Fischer, "regulative control" involves freedom to choose and do otherwise ("alternative possibilities"), whereas "guidance control" does not. Fischer contends that guidance control is all the freedom we need to be morally responsible agents. Further, he contends that such control is fully compatible with causal determinism. Additionally, Fischer argues that we do not need genuine access to alternative possibilities in order for there to be a legitimate point to practical reasoning. Fischer's overall framework contains an argument for the contention that guidance control, and not regulative control, is associated with moral responsibility, a sketch of a comprehensive theory of moral responsibility (that ties together responsibility for actions, omissions, consequences, and character), and an account of the value of moral responsibility. On this account, the value of exhibiting freedom (of the relevant sort) and thus being morally responsible for one's behavior is a species of the value of artistic self-expression. (shrink)

Há meses a população mundial enfrenta a pandemia causada pelo COVID-19, uma situação ímpar e talvez a mais desafiadora que rememoramos. Para a maioria dos sujeitos, esta crise junta-se às demais emergências e reforça injustiças, violências, discriminações e sofrimento, uma vez que são considerados _invisíveis_ e sobrevivem em espaços desprovidos de higiene, saúde, educação e segurança e repletos de outras manifestações de _renúncia_ e _impossibilidade_. Considerando que a própria estrutura social é a responsável por chegarmos onde estamos, precisamos nos contrapor (...) à inconsciência de uma realidade que se mostra normativa e imutável, apreendendo-a em perspectivas críticas e transformadoras. Dessa forma, este texto parte da seguinte problematização: quais alternativas poderemos vislumbrar no pós-pandemia, visto que as desigualdades e as injustiças aumentam? Delineamos prognósticos do tempo presente a partir do diálogo entre Adorno e Horkheimer (2006) e Santos (2007), utilizando como categorias de análise: racionalidade instrumental, pensamento abissal, pensamento pós-abissal e educação emancipatória. A racionalidade tornou-se o cânon da sociedade esclarecida, fundamentando as estruturas e relações sociais em uma percepção universal, totalitária e homogênea, que despreza e invisibiliza as diferenças. Defendemos uma educação para a contestação, a inquietude e a resistência, que desvele e problematize as linhas abissais a fim de pensarmos e agirmos para além delas, vislumbrando alternativas, novas práticas e perspectivas solidárias e sustentáveis, pois quaisquer ideais de progresso e desenvolvimento serão ilusórios enquanto persistirem a invisibilidade “do outro lado da linha”. A reflexão da realidade, em suas estruturas históricas e sociais, se efetiva como possibilidade de novos caminhos para a compreensão dos obstáculos e potencialidades emancipatórias. (shrink)

A new theory of how the brain constructs emotions that could revolutionize psychology, health care, law enforcement, and our understanding of the human mind Emotions feel automatic, like uncontrollable reactions to things we think and experience. Scientists have long supported this assumption by claiming that emotions are hardwired in the body or the brain. Today, however, the science of emotion is in the midst of a revolution on par with the discovery of relativity in physics and natural selection in biology--and (...) this paradigm shift has far-reaching implications for us all. Leading the charge is psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, whose theory of emotion is driving a deeper understanding of the mind and brain, and shedding new light on what it means to be human. Her research overturns the widely held belief that emotions are housed in different parts of the brain and are universally expressed and recognized. Instead, she has shown that emotion is constructed in the moment, by core systems that interact across the whole brain, aided by a lifetime of learning. This new theory means that you play a much greater role in your emotional life than you ever thought. Its repercussions are already shaking the foundations not only of psychology but also of medicine, the legal system, child-rearing, meditation, and even airport security. Why do emotions feel automatic? Does rational thought really control emotion? How does emotion affect disease? How can you make your children more emotionally intelligent? How Emotions Are Made answers these questions and many more, revealing the latest research and intriguing practical applications of the new science of emotion, mind, and brain. (shrink)

Dr Jardine finds a unifying principle in Bacon's preoccupation with 'method', the evaluation and organisation of information as a procedure of investigation or ...

Essays discuss euthanasia and the medical, legal, and ethical controversies surrounding it.

O presente texto relata a experiência docente em uma oficina de música com crianças do ensino fundamental numa escola pública de Araraquara-SP. O foco teórico dessa prática foi o Programa Filosofia para Crianças a qual promoveu todo o significado desse cotidiano escolar.

The imposition of telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it the need for individuals to readjust their work-non-work boundaries. In this crisis situation, individuals’ needs to manage these boundaries may have been influenced by contextual factors, such as family-supportive supervisor behaviors and macro-structural aspects, such as the country to which the teleworkers belong. This study tests the mediating effect of boundary control on the relationship between FSSB and satisfaction with life and examines the moderating effect of the country (...) in the relationship between FSSB and boundary control. With a sample of 108 Portuguese and 118 Pakistani individuals, the results were analyzed using Process tool. FSSB was found to be important for teleworkers to control their boundaries and for their satisfaction with life and this control was also seen to contribute to higher levels of life satisfaction. Differences between the two countries were observed: boundary control mediates the relationship between FSSB and satisfaction with life for Pakistani teleworkers and these workers are more dependent on FSSB to exercise boundary control than Portuguese teleworkers. This study highlights the importance of considering contextual factors when implementing telework. Practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

O presente relato busca introduzir a discussão sobre o filosofar em sala de aula como uma importante possibilidade de fazer emergir do grupo um pensamento novo, construído a partir de uma reflexão aberta a esta novidade latente. Para isso, o professor deve estar ciente de que não é o único detentor do saber em uma sala de aula.

Epistemic practices are an important but underappreciated component of business ethics; good conduct requires making epistemically sound as well as morally principled judgments. Well-founded judgments are promoted by epistemic virtues, and for organizations, epistemic virtues are arguably achieved through organizational good epistemic practices. But how are such practices to be developed? This paper addresses this normative and practical challenge. The first half of the paper explains what organizational good epistemic practices are and outlines a means for their construction. The second (...) half of the paper demonstrates how specific good epistemic practices could be developed by considering a case of corporate epistemic failings: JPMorgan’s notorious 2012 ‘London Whale’ trading losses. Following this, the paper briefly surveys the institutional epistemic failings of the 2008 global financial crisis and the remedial actions that they suggest. Although the discussion is focused on the banking industry, the main ideas, and some of the epistemic practices, generalize to organizations in other industries. (shrink)

Lisa Tessman's Burdened Virtues is a deeply original and provocative work that engages questions central to feminist theory and practice, from the perspective of Aristotelian ethics. Focused primarily on selves who endure and resist oppression, she addresses the ways in which devastating conditions confronted by these selves both limit and burden their moral goodness, and affect their possibilities of flourishing. She describes two different forms of "moral trouble" prevalent under oppression. The first is that the oppressed self may be (...) morally damaged, prevented from developing or exercising some of the virtues; the second is that the very conditions of oppression require the oppressed to develop a set of virtues that carry a moral cost to those who practice them--traits that Tessman refers to as "burdened virtues." These virtues have the unusual feature of being disjoined from their bearer's own well being. Tessman's work focuses on issues that have been missed by many feminist moral theories, and her use of the virtue ethics framework brings feminist concerns more closely into contact with mainstream ethical theory. This book will appeal to feminist theorists in philosophy and women's studies, but also more broadly, ethicists and social theorists. (shrink)

Prolonged solitary confinement has become a widespread and standard practice in U.S. prisons—even though it consistently drives healthy prisoners insane, makes the mentally ill sicker, and, according to the testimony of prisoners, threatens to reduce life to a living death. In this profoundly important and original book, Lisa Guenther examines the death-in-life experience of solitary confinement in America from the early nineteenth century to today’s supermax prisons. Documenting how solitary confinement undermines prisoners’ sense of identity and their ability to (...) understand the world, Guenther demonstrates the real effects of forcibly isolating a person for weeks, months, or years. -/- Drawing on the testimony of prisoners and the work of philosophers and social activists from Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis, the author defines solitary confinement as a kind of social death. It argues that isolation exposes the relational structure of being by showing what happens when that structure is abused—when prisoners are deprived of the concrete relations with others on which our existence as sense-making creatures depends. Solitary confinement is beyond a form of racial or political violence; it is an assault on being. (shrink)

Good epistemic practices are essential to the well-functioning of organizations. Epistemic practices are adopted norms, policies, procedures, and general methodologies that further our epistemic aims or realize our epistemic values. This chapter argues for the importance of organizational good epistemic practices through an analysis of the failures of risk management implicated in JPMorgan’s notorious ‘London Whale’ trading losses, which roiled the financial markets in 2012. A number of these failures of risk management exemplified ways in which we, as fallible reasoners, (...) may be prone to error individually and collectively. Good epistemic practices inter alia anticipate and endeavor to correct for erroneous patterns of reasoning. They help guard against future epistemic failings, and they support good reasoning within and on the part of organizations. In so doing, they constitute some of the key structural elements of organizational epistemic virtues. (shrink)

Moral enhancements aim to morally improve a person, for example by increasing the frequency with which an individual does the right thing or acts from the right motives. Most of the applied ethics literature on moral enhancement focuses on moral bioenhancement – moral enhancement pursued through biomedical means – and considers examples such as the use of drugs to diminish aggression, suppress implicit racial biases, or amplify empathy. A number of authors have defended the voluntary pursuit of moral bioenhancement, or (...) the development of technologies that would enable it. They have highlighted the need for humans to morally improve themselves in order to address moral failures such as the oppression of women, the mistreatment of animals, and anthropogenic climate change. They have also emphasised the moral similarities between moral bioenhancement and more familiar forms of moral enhancement, such as that achieved through childhood education, introspective reflection, and engagement with literature. Critics of moral enhancement have argued that it may undermine our freedom to ‘fall’ (i.e. be immoral), and therefore our moral agency, or exacerbate the domination of individuals by political authorities. They have also questioned the potential for biomedical interventions to produce the deepest and most valuable forms of moral improvement, and have highlighted the risks that technologies for moral bioenhancement might misfire or be intentionally misused, thereby producing moral deterioration. Underlying some of these worries is the observation that there is little agreement on which psychological transformations would constitute moral improvements, and in which contexts. Defenders of moral enhancement have made various proposals for resolving or side-stepping these disagreements, but it remains unclear how far these proposals can take us beyond establishing consensus on the worst types of moral failure. (shrink)

Moral Failure: On the Impossible Demands of Morality asks what happens when the sense that "I must" collides with the realization that "I can't." Bringing together philosophical and empirical work in moral psychology, Lisa Tessman here examines moral requirements that are non-negotiable and that contravene the principle that "ought implies can.".

This work introduces a two-dimensional modal logic to represent agents' Concurrent Common Knowledge in distributed systems. Unlike Common Knowledge, Concurrent Common Knowledge is a kind of agreement reachable in asynchronous environments. The formalization of such type of knowledge is based on a model for asynchronous systems and on the definition of Concurrent Knowledge introduced before in paper [5]. As a proper semantics, we review our concept of closed sub-product of modal logics which is based on the product of modal logics. (...) The key idea is to reason about Concurrent Knowledge under a two-dimensional approach, regarding asynchronous runs and consistent global states as dimensions. We present an axiomatic system for the logic and issue the corresponding soundness and completeness proofs. (shrink)

Estamos reunidos, futuros professores de 1º e 2º graus, em um espaço institucional: a escola, que pretendemos discutir, e em cujo interior interessa-nos particularmente a questão do ensino da Geografia. Quem institucionalizou a escola? Por quê? As mesmas perguntas (e outras) devem se voltar à nossa questão central. Ao mesmo tempo, a escola é aquela instituição social em que parte da população (nem todos têm acesso a ela), em um dado período, assinala, de uma maneira específica, a sua participação na (...) sociedade mais ampla. Ora, participamos da vida social no sentido lato através do trabalho. Nesse sentido, ainda que soe como paradoxo, a escola é também um espaço de trabalho. Certamente, não é o espaço da fábrica, mas exige disciplina (intelectual); nem o do folguedo, embora às vezes se transforme no “jogo de ensinar”. […] Será que estamos negando o conhecimento, que, sob a forma de conteúdos “didaticamente” selecionados e distribuídos, parece ter sustentado a escola durante muito tempo? […] Palavras-chave: Ideologia; Geografia; Escola; Instituição social; Espaço da fábrica; Ensino. (shrink)

It is often thought that the numerous contradictory perspectives in Margaret Cavendish's writings demonstrate her inability to reconcile her feminism with her conservative, royalist politics. In this book Lisa Walters challenges this view and demonstrates that Cavendish's ideas more closely resemble republican thought, and that her methodology is the foundation for subversive political, scientific and gender theories. With an interdisciplinary focus Walters closely examines Cavendish's work and its context, providing the reader with an enriched understanding of women's contribution to (...) early modern scientific theory, political philosophy, culture and folklore. Considering also Cavendish's ideas in relation to Hobbes and Paracelsus, this volume is of great interest to scholars and students of literature, philosophy, history of ideas, political theory, gender studies and history of science. (shrink)

Stem cell research. Drug company influence. Abortion. Contraception. Long-term and end-of-life care. Human participants research. Informed consent. The list of ethical issues in science, medicine, and public health is long and continually growing. These complex issues pose a daunting task for professionals in the expanding field of bioethics. But what of the practice of bioethics itself? What issues do ethicists and bioethicists confront in their efforts to facilitate sound moral reasoning and judgment in a variety of venues? Are those immersed (...) in the field capable of making the right decisions? How and why do they face moral challenge -- and even compromise -- as ethicists? What values should guide them? In The Ethics of Bioethics, Lisa A. Eckenwiler and Felicia G. Cohn tackle these questions head on, bringing together notable medical ethicists and people outside the discipline to discuss common criticisms, the field's inherent tensions, and efforts to assign values and assess success. Through twenty-five lively essays examining the field's history and trends, shortcomings and strengths, and the political and policy interplay within the bioethical realm, this comprehensive book begins a much-needed critical and constructive discussion of the moral landscape of bioethics. (shrink)

This volume presents cutting-edge theory and research on emotions as constructed events rather than fixed, essential entities. It provides a thorough introduction to the assumptions, hypotheses, and scientific methods that embody psychological constructionist approaches. Leading scholars examine the neurobiological, cognitive/perceptual, and social processes that give rise to the experiences Western cultures call sadness, anger, fear, and so on. The book explores such compelling questions as how the brain creates emotional experiences, whether the "ingredients" of emotions also give rise to other (...) mental states, and how to define what is or is not an emotion. Introductory and concluding chapters by the editors identify key themes and controversies and compare psychological construction to other theories of emotion. (shrink)

Der Band zeichnet Kants Weg zur kritischen Ausarbeitung der Gottesfrage nach, reflektiert seinen Übergang von der Physikotheologie zur Ethikotheologie und bedenkt den Zusammenhang von Kants Kritik der Theologie und seinem Gottespostulat. Der Gottesbegriff in Kants "Religionsschrift" wird ebenso durchleuchtet wie die Beziehung zwischen philosophischer Gotteslehre und Offenbarungstheologie sowie die trinitätstheologischen Ansätze in Kants Philosophie.