El autor intenta probar la tesis enunciada tanto en el título como en el subtítulo. La primera parte del ensayo estudia cómo el papel estratégico que cumple la educación cívicopolítica en los regímenes democráticos se remonta al mito de Prometeo según la versión del Protágoras. De hecho, así lo han entendido los regímenes republicanos, aunque no los liberales conservadores (representación indirecta). La segunda parte presenta una aplicación al caso español a partir del Texto Constitucional.

La tesis de este trabajo es que las notas del narrador revelan la importancia y centralidad de la muerte de Jesús en el evangelio de Juan. Estas notas guían al lector para que descubra su significado y sus consecuencias. En primer lugar, se define el concepto de nota del narrador. A continuación se describen aquellas notas que se refieren a la muerte de Jesús en el relato. En un tercer momento se analiza el lugar que ocupan en la trama del (...) evangelio y el papel que desempeñan en ella. Por último, se explica cómo el narrador interpreta en estas notas la muerte de Jesús y relee de forma nueva y creativa visiones tradicionales, mostrando así una visión específica de la misma en el evangelio joánico. (shrink)

La valoración moral del aborto voluntario no sólo es un delicado y complejo problema bioético, sino que se ha convertido en las últimas décadas en piedra de escándalo. Por eso me he decidido a abordar su estudio justamente para intentar poner un poco de orden, sosiego y claridad de ideas en el debate, con independencia de la postura personal que presento, en todo caso avalada por razonamientos. De todos modos, es indudable que se presentan casos de difícil resolución, casos que (...) se ofrecen incluso como dilemas, abiertos como tales al pluralismo moral. Las cuestiones legales y la necesaria despenalización se tratan al final. (shrink)

Las dos columnas sobre las que se asienta la democracia liberal, la libertad individual y los mecanismos de decisión pública, no se dejan conciliar fácilmente. Buena parte de la reflexión moderna sobre la vida publica se orienta a tratar de solucionar esa tensión. El presente artículo plantea el problema en sus términos precisos y repasa los principales intentos recientes de solución.

En 1998 se cumplió el bicentenario de la muerte, a manos de la dominación otomana, del héroe y precursor de la revolución nacional griega. Este trabajo es un comentario crítico de su pensamiento político, en especial de su propuesta de "Nueva Constitución Política", que es una traducción adaptada, con pocas variaciones personales, de la constitución francesa de 1793 o constitución jacobina, fuertemente influenciada por el pensamiento democrático asambleario de Rousseau.

RESUMENEl modelo democrático vigente, en especial el latino, adolece de un grave defecto de diseño: la excesiva hegemonía de los partidos políticos, sin cuya mediación –y mediatización– no es posible participar en la vida política. El autor traza la genealogía histórica del modelo partidocrático, con especial atención al caso español, y apunta las principales reformas constitucionales y legislativas que considera imprescindibles para conseguir una regeneración del modelo democrático.PALABRAS CLAVEPARTIDOCRACIA, REFORMA CONSTITUCIONAL, REVISION LEGISLATIVAABSTRACTThe essay reviews the current-day implications of the democratic (...) model. It argues that this model, particularly the Latin one, is subjected to important design failures, particularly the immoderate hegemony of political parties. Secondly, the author sketches the historical evolution of that model, with particular attention to the Spanish case, and shows the main constitutional and legal amendments that he estimates necessary in orden to attain the regeneration of the democratic pattern.KEY WORDSPOLITICAL PARTIES, CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS, LEGAL REFORMS, SPANISH DEMOCRATIC MODEL. (shrink)

El modelo democrático vigente, en especial el latino, adolece de un grave defecto de diseño: la excesiva hegemonía de los partidos políticos, sin cuya mediación –y mediatización– no es posible participar en la vida política. El autor traza la genealogía histórica del modelo partidocrático, con especial atención al caso español, y apunta las principales reformas constitucionales y legislativas que considera imprescindibles para conseguir una regeneración del modelo democrático.

Las cuestiones éticas vuelven a ocupar un lugar central en la preocupacioes del hombre contemporáneo. Se trata de la eclosión de una sensibilidad renovada que lleva a enfocar todos los asuntos humanos y sociales desde el punto de vista moral.

resumenEn 1998 se cumplió el bicentenario de la muerte, a manos de la dominación otomana, del héroe y precursor de la revolución nacional griega. Este trabajo es un comentario crítico de su pensamiento político, en especial de su propuesta de «Nueva Constitución Política», que es una traducción adaptada, con pocas variaciones personales, de la constitución francesa de 1793 o constitución jacobina, fuertemente influenciada por el pensamiento democrático asambleario de RosseauPALABRAS CLAVEVELESTINLIS-CONSTITUCIÓN-NACIONALISMO-ROUSSEAUABSTRACT1998 marked the bicentennary of Rigas Velestinlis' death by the Otoman (...) domination. This paper critically examines the political thought of the hero and forerunner of Greece's national revolution. In particular, his project for a «New Political Constitution». The document faithfully adapts that of the French Constitution of 1793: the so-called Jacobin Constitution, strongly influenced by Rousseau's direct democratic thoughtKEYWORDSVELESTINLIS-CONSTITUTION.NATIONALISM-ROUSSEAU. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to critically assess John Rawls' theory of interntional justice, by examining its evolution from A Theory of Justice to The Law of Peoples. Under its latest version, Rawls' theory turns maximalist in its justification, though in its application it turns minimalist. His minimalism proves basically correct as long as it considrs human rights, free from their liberal cover, as the fundamental core of morals and politics in international relations. Nonetheless, his maximalism is not convincing (...) when justifying human rights by arguing them as the common result of the deliberations held at the Original Position by the representatives both of liberal societies and of hierachical societies. (shrink)

[1] Los griegos y nosotros -- 2. Los semitas y nosotros.

In the context of a public health emergency it is imperative to conduct research studies that will produce evidence rapidly while upholding ethical standards. The Ebola and Zika outbreaks highlighted the importance of devising agile processes for ethics review in emergencies, and international research ethics guidelines stress the duty to depart from standard processes for ethics review in emergency circumstances. However, before the COVID-19 pandemic it was not entirely clear what emergency procedures should look like. An additional challenge is that (...) while the same substantive ethical standards apply in emergency and non-emergency settings, deciding what these standards entail in the specific circumstances of a pandemic may be difficult. During the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges included identifying thresholds of social and scientific value, along with duties towards research participants, given the absence of therapeutic options; assessing continually changing risk–benefit profiles of studies, given rapidly emerging new evidence; developing appropriate informed consent processes, given lockdown scenarios; and even addressing the ethics of offering unproven interventions outside research settings. Additional issues raised during epidemics include devising feasible and meaningful community engagement strategies, mechanisms to ensure fairness in the distribution of the benefits that may result from research, and equitable and effective data-sharing plans that will inform pandemic response. Learning from these procedural and substantive challenges encountered in the ethics review of COVID-19 research is important for enhancing ethics preparedness for future emergencies. It can also potentially contribute to improving the ethics review of research in non-emergency circumstances. The seven cases in this chapter highlight ethical issues associated with ethics approval of multi-centre studies in pandemics, the need for careful consideration of the social and scientific value of research and challenges encountered when interventions are being transitioned from research to rollout, and issues that can arise when existing regulations and policies may limit capacities to appropriately adapt research to pandemic contexts. (shrink)

BackgroundResearch has been an essential part of the COVID-19 pandemic response, including in Latin American (LA) countries. However, implementing research in emergency settings poses the challenge of producing valuable knowledge rapidly while upholding research ethical standards. Research ethics committees (RECs) therefore must conduct timely and rigorous ethics reviews and oversight of COVID-19 research. In the LA region, there is limited knowledge on how countries have responded to this need. To address this gap, the objective of our project is to explore (...) if LA countries developed policies to streamline ethics review and oversight of research in response to the pandemic while ensuring its adherence to ethical standards, and to analyze to what extent these governance frameworks are in accordance with international guidance.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive and exploratory study assessing the COVID-19 research ethics governance frameworks of 19 LA countries, considering 4 dimensions based on international COVID-19 ethics guidance documents: (i) ethics review organizational model adopted, (ii) measures to coordinate between RECs and other research stakeholders, (iii) operational guidance for RECs, and (iv) key ethical issues for review and oversight of COVID-19 research.Results10 out of 19 LA countries have some policy to streamline ethics review of COVID-19 research. Of these countries only 6 issued comprehensive documents following international guidance that contemplate strategies with recommendations for concrete actions for a timely and rigorous review.ConclusionLA countries adopted partial strategies and operational guidance that may demonstrate a lack of a comprehensive view of research ethics for the review and oversight of COVID-19 research. Continuing efforts should be directed to strengthen LA countries' research capacity to respond timely and ethically to future health emergencies. Past lessons and the ones from this pandemic should be the basis to develop international standards and operational guidelines for ethics review and oversight of any research for public health emergencies. (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)

Este artículo aborda el antiguo problema de la diferencia entre filosofía y poesía partiendo de una interpretación del arte narrativo personificado por Ulises en la Odisea. Una lectura del episodio de las Sirenas permite reconstruir la trama de voces diversas que compone el relato homérico y comprender la significación de esta estructura polifónica en el imaginario odiseico. Frente a la neta oposición entre autofonía y alofonía que propone la filosofía platónica, la poesía homérica implica una idea de heterofonía que apunta (...) más allá de una lógica binaria y sugiere la irreductibilidad de la voz poética a un juego entre extremos contrarios. La heterofonía consiste más bien en una voz figural que crea la «lógica difusa» del mundo ficcional mediante la neutralización de las diferencias entre sujetos enunciativos. (shrink)

Based on published works and unpublished materials, this article analyses how cybernetics was received by two Spanish thinkers exiled in Mexico: José Gaos (1900–1969) and Eduardo Nicol (1907–1990). This reception is particularly intriguing especially when considering the substantial presence and social impact that Norbert Wiener had in Mexican society because of his friendship with Arturo Rosenblueth. Gaos and Nicol are the first philosophers to develop a complex and original diagnosis of cybernetics in Mexico. It will be shown how the (...) exiled thinkers take on the philosophical implications of this science in the light of their respective theoretical projects, and finally, it will be defended how the critical perspective they develop is particularly significant for Mexico’s political and academic context since it illuminates some negative aspects of cybernetics that Wiener did not foresee and that had not been reported there until then. (shrink)

In this paper I will argue that when Aristotle uses the word ‘ἀρχή’ he is often referring to what we call a condition, whether necessary, sufficient or necessary and sufficient. To this end I will discuss how conditions for being, change, and knowledge, as identified by Aristotle, can be equated to ontological, physical and noetic principles, respectively.