Our present moral traits are unable to provide the level of large-scale co-operation necessary to deal with risks such as nuclear proliferation, drastic climate change and pandemics. In order to survive in an environment with powerful and easily available technologies, some authors claim that we need to improve our moral traits with moral enhancement. But this is prone to produce paradoxical effects, be self-reinforcing and harm personal identity. The risks of moral enhancement require the use of a safety framework; such (...) a framework should guarantee practical robustness to moral uncertainty, empirical adequacy, correct balance between dispositions, preservation of identity, and be sensitive to practical considerations such as emergent social effects. A virtue theory can meet all these desiderata. Possible frameworks incorporate them to variable degrees. The social value orientations framework is one of the most promising candidates. (shrink)

A new argument has been made against moral enhancement by authors who are otherwise in favour of human enhancement. Additionally, they share the same evolutionary toolkit for analysing human traits as well as the belief that our current morality is unfit to deal with modern problems, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation. The argument is put forward by Buchanan and Powell and states that other paths to moral progress are enough to deal with these problems. Given the likely costs (...) and risks involved with developing moral enhancement, this argument implies moral enhancement is an unpromising enterprise. After mentioning proposed solutions to such modern problems, I will argue that moral enhancement would help implement any of them. I will then detail Buchanan and Powell’s new argument disfavouring moral enhancement and argue that it makes too bold assumptions about the efficacy of traditional moral progress. For instance, it overlooks how that progress was to achieve even in relatively successful cases such as the abolition of slavery. Traditional moral progress is likely to require assistance from non-traditional means in order to face new challenges. (shrink)

I will argue that deep moral enhancement is relatively prone to unexpected consequences. I first argue that even an apparently straightforward example of moral enhancement such as increasing human co-operation could plausibly lead to unexpected harmful effects. Secondly, I generalise the example and argue that technological intervention on individual moral traits will often lead to paradoxical effects on the group level. Thirdly, I contend that insofar as deep moral enhancement targets higher-order desires, it is prone to be self-reinforcing and irreversible. (...) Fourthly, I argue that the complex causal history of moral traits, with its relatively high frequency of contingencies, indicates their fragility. Finally, I conclude that attempts at deep moral enhancement pose greater risks than other enhancement technologies. For example, one of the major problems that moral enhancement is hoped to address is lack of co-operation between groups. If humanity developed and distributed a drug that dramatically increased co-operation between individuals, we would likely see a paradoxical decrease in co-operation between groups and a self-reinforcing increase in the disposition to engage in further modifications – both of which are potential problems. (shrink)

How individuals tend to evaluate the combination of their own and other’s payoffs—social value orientations—is likely to be a potential target of future moral enhancers. However, the stability of cooperation in human societies has been buttressed by evolved mildly prosocial orientations. If they could be changed, would this destabilize the cooperative structure of society? We simulate a model of moral enhancement in which agents play games with each other and can enhance their orientations based on maximizing personal satisfaction. We find (...) that given the assumption that very low payoffs lead agents to be removed from the population, there is a broadly stable prosocial attractor state. However, the balance between prosociality and individual payoff-maximization is affected by different factors. Agents maximizing their own satisfaction can produce emergent shifts in society that reduce everybody’s satisfaction. Moral enhancement considerations should take the issues of social emergence into account. (shrink)

Certain problems with standard two-dimensional semantics are addressed and cases in which these problems arise explored. In such cases the primary intension cannot be univocally mapped in one and only one indexical world, thus standard two-dimensional semantics cannot efficiently address the problems presented. Subsequently, a modified model is presented which leads these problems to be averted in the replicated cases. This modified model admits primary intensions that are not univocally mapped. The conclusion discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the modified (...) model and analyzes its possible consequences for the philosophy of mind. (shrink)

If we accept both that human enhancement could produce beings with higher moral status than our own (i.e. supra-persons), and that this scenario may be detrimental to unenhanced persons, then there are still several ways that the creation of supra-persons could be defended. I will argue that some of these defences fail. Their justification for the permissibility or unlikelihood of harms to the unenhanced is weakened once we consider that those who enhance may be undermining their own individual interests. Enhancements (...) that are substantial enough to increase moral status may also be substantial enough to affect psychological continuity. Certain individual interests are sensitive to loses of psychological continuity. I will consider three scenarios: the creation of supra-persons within one generation, the enhancement of persons into supra-persons, and the generational replacement of persons by supra-persons. The arguments for the first scenario fail on intuitive grounds. A thorough consideration of individual interests undermines the arguments for the other two scenarios. I conclude that although the creation of drastically morally better persons may be desirable and likely to help realise most of what we currently value, this realisation is undermined by the fact that the beings enjoying this future scenario might not be our psychological continuants. (shrink)

Many would intuitively agree with the claim that human morality is complex. I will formalise this claim, give three strong reasons for believing in it, address objections and tentatively list consequences of the unusual complexity of human morality. I will argue that a proper account of human moral traits will have an unusually large degree of complexity. I will present as support for this claim the intricate causal history of moral traits, their propensity to paradoxical effects and various epistemic difficulties. (...) The complexity of human morality has bleak consequences for hopes of manipulating our moral traits using biomedical interventions, be it in the treatment of diseases or in the prospect of fixing our moral failings. (shrink)

This book highlights some of the most pressing safety, ethical, legal and societal issues related to the diverse contexts in which robotic technologies apply. Focusing on the essential concept of well-being, it addresses topics that are fundamental not only for research, but also for industry and end-users, discussing the challenges in a wide variety of applications, including domestic robots, autonomous manufacturing, personal care robots and drones.

Contemporary political ecological problems reduce possibilities for future human and non-human life. These problems are the result of modern capitalist humans’ attempt to break away from multispecies bonds and turn non-humans into resources to be appropriated. These bonds are crucial for the continued generation of life, which can only result from intergenerational and interspecies shared time, effort, and energy. By expanding the works of Mauss’ intellectual heirs and Levinas towards multispecies interactions, this gift of life can be better understood. Life (...) received by newborn humans entangles them in a multispecies gift cycle that obligates them to reciprocate the gift of life’s potentiality. This requires acknowledging humans’ ethical responsibilities for all others, human and non-human, currently alive or potentially born in the future. In turn, this responsibility can only unfold as political ecologically sustainable actions that keep multispecies communities healthy enough to keep giving life’s potentiality to future generations. (shrink)

Les études qui constituent cet ouvrage mettent en scène des trajectoires interprétatives de l'opéra afin de faire ressortir la plasticité de cet objet culturel qui est, dès sa naissance au XVIIème siècle, le symbole de l'altérité ...

Este artigo será dividido em três tópicos: “I. Os conflitos antinômicos da razão consigo mesma”, “II. Reconstrução dos argumentos da Terceira antinomia e da solução crítica” e “III. Liberdade transcendental e liberdade prática”. O primeiro exporá em que consiste os problemas antinômicos. O segundo irá se deter no Terceiro problema antinômico e na solução crítica promulgada por Kant. O terceiro, finalmente, apresentará um embate entre Kant e Schopenhauer, salientando o por quê da solução schopenhauriana à Terceira antinomia ser recusada, ao (...) passo que a kantiana deve ser aceita. (shrink)

Nietzsche's metaphor of the spider that spins its cobweb expresses his critique of the metaphysical use of language - but it also suggests that ‟we, spiders‟, are able to spin different, life-affirming, healthier, non-metaphysical cobwebs. This book is a collection of 12 essays that focus not only on Nietzsche's critique of the metaphysical assumptions of language, but also on his effort to use language in a different way, i.e., to create a ‟new language‟. It is from this viewpoint that the (...) book considers such themes as consciousness, the self, metaphor, instinct, affectivity, style, morality, truth, and knowledge. The authors invited to contribute to this volume are Nietzsche scholars who belong to some of the most important research centers of the European Nietzsche-Research: Centro Colli-Montinari (Italy), GIRN (Europhilosphie), SEDEN (Spain), Greifswald Research Group (Germany), NIL (Portugal). In 2011 João Constâncio and Maria João Mayer Branco edited Nietzsche on Instinct and Language, also published by Walter de Gruyter. The two books complement each other. (shrink)

Conteúdo - A realidade Social como Realidade Historicamente "Instituída". O Direito como Realidade Social; Para uma noção de Direito; Grandes linhas estruturais do Sistema Jurídico; A Tuela do Direito e a Garantia dos Direitos; Fontes de Direito e Vigência das Normas; Interpretação e Integração da lei; A Aplicação da Lei no Tempo e no Espaço; O Direito e as Ciências Sociais; Prolegómenos do Discurso Legitimador; A Ciência Jurídica.

O presente artigo abordará a construção do conhecimento em Giambattista Vico embasando-se no discurso De Nostri Temporis Studiorum. Com a troca da “imaginação” pela “racionalidade”, colocou-se de lado a engenhosidade humana, anulando assim a verossimilhança que fora negada por não apresentar verdades factuais levando à atrofia do engenho. O intuito aqui é analisar o desenvolvimento imaginativo proposto por Vico, gerando uma nova crítica. Conclui-se sobre uma possível epistemologia das humanidades, na qual cada sujeito possa, com seus próprios instrumentos, desenvolver um (...) conhecimento menos “dogmático” e mais humano, partindo de um solo estável, qual seja, a história. (shrink)

This Open Access book addresses the epistemological and ontological significance as well as the scope of new mechanism. In particular, this book addresses the issues of what is "new" about new mechanism, the epistemological and ontological reasons underlying the adoption of mechanistic instead of other modelling strategies as well as the possibility of mechanistic explanation to accommodate a non-trivial notion of emergence. Arguably, new mechanism has been particularly successful in making sense of scientific practice in the molecular life sciences. But (...) what about other sciences? This book enlarges the context of analysis, addressing the issue of the putative compatibility between the current ways of conceiving new mechanism and actual scientific practices in quantum physics, chemistry, biochemistry, developmental biology and the cognitive sciences. (shrink)

In this paper, we intend to discuss how, according to Peirce’s semiotics, gestures can be conceptualized and described as diagrams. We are not concerned with answering when, why or how gestures emerged as semiotic motor activities. As a prerequisite for the very formulation of these problems, we are rather interested in discussing the theoretical conditions which should be fulflled for gestures to be characterized as iconic processes - and more specifcally as diagrammatic processes. The frst step is to summarize a (...) systematic analysis of the variety of iconic signs, elaborated by Peirce, followed by his typology of hypoicons in order to describe the hypoiconic class of diagrams. After that, we present some tentative answers to the question of how to describe gestures as diagrammatic signs. (shrink)

The objective of this work is to reconstruct the concepts of constellation, parataxis and essay, from the perspective of Theodor Adorno, in order to approach them by affinity, but demonstrating the way that each one expresses within its specificities the Adorno’s insistence in a model of thought in which the non-identical: 1) resists conceptual subsumption by arranging itself in a constellatory configuration; 2) it does not succumb to subordinate juxtapositions typical of merely communicative language; and, 3) finds its best philosophical (...) expression in the essay form. In order to do so, we will take as a starting point the adornian reconstruction of the constellation category as a legacy of Walter Benjamin’s thought, so that later we can present the expansion of this category in Adorno’s thought, relating it both to the conception of parataxis as in the conception of the essay form, but aiming to understand these categories as way of thinking philosophically aiming to elucidate the place of the non-identical in the scope of dialectical thinking of Theodor Adorno. (shrink)

The epoch of Augustine is marked by several crises that settled in the Roman society. These crises did not escape from the sharp look of Saint Augustine. He showed how the political action of his contemporaries was something excessively ineffective to answer the wishes of a fair society, integrated by several people and races. This society, that had conquered in history, with mistakes and cleverness, power and glory, booth in the field of science and technology, for itself, the ways that (...) make sure to its citizens a prosper life, gradually succumbed. Thus, this article aims to exposes to the reader some aspects experienced by this society and make note that when policy is practiced by men who possess as premises the power and his own advantages, there is no richness or organization that will sustain such state or nation. (shrink)

O homem contemporâneo vive um mundo de incertezas, onde muitos dos antigos paradigmas que o senso comum considerava como absolutos se desmoronam com incrível velocidade. Esta volatilidade de sentidos é observada com ampla nitidez na busca do sagrado: as religiões tradicionais são deixadas de lado ou misturadas a práticas esotéricas, místicas e ocultas, tentativa humana de explorar o mundo através de um enfoque holístico, que reimprima na vida a magia outrora perdida. Neste contexto de construção de uma nova realidade, a (...) percepção e manifestação do sagrado não desaparecem, mas, seguindo a mentalidade de seu tempo, transformam-se. A religiosidade assume um caráter individualista, imediatista e descompromissado, restaurando conceitos e práticas da antigüidade, em uma tentativa clara de reencantamento do mundo, agora sob a perspectiva da sociedade globalizada. Filosofias orientais invadem a dimensão religiosa do mundo ocidental, numa mistura explicitamente paradoxal. Deste epicentro nasce a cultura da Nova Era, movimento que busca restaurar a tradição sagrada do homem postulando um saber místico, pretendendo conectar o ser humano ao transcendente partindo não de instituições específicas, mas de conhecimentos e práticas do esoterismo, ocultismo e magia. Palavras-chave: Nova Era; Subjetivismo; Consumismo. ABSTRACT Contemporary man lives in a world of uncertainties, where many of the old paradigms that common sense used to consider absolute are falling apart with incredible speed. Such volatility of senses is clearly noticed in the search for the sacred: traditional religions are left behind or mingled with esoteric, mystical and occult practices, in a human attempt to explore the world from a holistic viewpoint capable of rescuing life’s lost magic. In that context of construction of a new reality, the perception and manifestation of the sacred do not disappear; they rather change, following the mentality of the times. Religion assumes an individualistic, immediate and uncommitted feature, restoring old concepts and practices, in an attempt to render the world enchanted once more, now in the perspective of globalized society. Oriental philosophies invade the religion scope of the Western world, in an explicitly paradoxical blend. From that epicenter is born the New Age culture, a movement that tries to restore human sacred tradition by postulating a mystical dimension and connecting man to the transcendent, not through specific institutions, but through the knowledge and practice of esoterism, occultism and magic. Key words: New age; Subjectivism; Consumerism. (shrink)

As questões sobre a vida -- A Ecologia -- A Ética e o cuidado -- Educação da ética -- A Ética e o mundo da informação.

This article intent to bring some notes to understand the role of religion in the work of Slavoj Žižek. Is quite clear that religion is a big problem that Žižek faces in some of his book and to us is quite clear that his concern about this theme is extremely important to his view on politics and psychoanalysis. This article points out some insights about the main themes that Žižek works in his book about religion. We have no intent to (...) encompass all the repercussion of Žižek’s thought about religion, but we believe that this article opens a good aproximation to the theme of religion in Zizek’s work. Keywords: Christianism, Religion, Atheism, Death of God. (shrink)

Este artigo discute o conceito de "panóptico digital" e seu papel na sociedade contemporânea. O filósofo Byung-Chul Han introduz a idéia do "panóptico" - inicialmente desenvolvido por Jeremy Bentham no século 18 - para descrever uma forma de controle e vigilância presente na sociedade moderna. São discutidos os efeitos das tecnologias digitais no acompanhamento e controle do comportamento individual, bem como a ameaça que isso representa para a privacidade e a autonomia. Também discute o conceito de "psicopolítica" e como ele (...) está relacionado ao uso das tecnologias digitais para vigilância e controle. Por fim, destaca a importância de proteger a liberdade e a privacidade individual, ao mesmo tempo em que considera os impactos potenciais das tecnologias digitais nas relações sociais. (shrink)

O estatuto do realismo em Foucault, apesar de elaborado insistentemente, permanece elíptico – em parte graças à sua associação a proposições que poderíamos denominar ficcionalistas. Através dos textos onde Foucault aborda os nexos de pertencimento entre ficção, universalidade e facticidade, o artigo propõe uma leitura não-realista de suas pesquisas, caracterizada pela recusa não do real enquanto objeto, mas de sua evidência ontológica. Inicialmente, trata da apresentação das insuficiências das interpretações que exigem uma ontologia – como a de Paul Veyne –, (...) bem como das que a substituem pela excepcionalidade da criação – como a de Michel de Certeau. Em seguida, detalha a questão da literatura como paradigma metodológico, especialmente nas referências de Foucault à obra de René Char. Enfim, mostra em que sentido a enunciação do discurso da arqueogenealogia está mais próximo do (não-)realismo de Fichte – no seu improvável encontro com Blanchot – do que da dialética hegeliana. (shrink)

Cause-related marketing has risen to become a popular strategy to increase business value through profit-motivated giving. Despite the growing number of articles published in the last decade, no comprehensive analysis of the most discussed constructs of cause-related marketing is available. This paper uses an advanced Text Mining methodology to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 246 articles published in 40 different journals between 1988 and 2013 on the subject of cause-related marketing. Text Mining also allows quantitative analyses to be performed on (...) the literature. For instance, it is shown that the most prominent long-term topics discussed since 1988 on the subject are “brand-cause fit”, “law and Ethics”, and “corporate and social identification”, while the most actively discussed topic presently is “sectors raising social taboos and moral debates”. The paper has two goals: first, it introduces the technique of CTM to the Marketing area, illustrating how Text Mining may guide, simplify, and enhance review processes while providing objective building blocks to be used in a review; second, it applies CTM to the C-RM field, uncovering and summarizing the most discussed topics. Mining text, however, is not aimed at replacing all subjective decisions that must be taken as part of literature review methodologies. (shrink)

A história da relação equívoca entre Nietzsche e Wagner revela as dimensões de sua frágil tensão, se considerada segundo os elementos com base nos quais ambos conceberam o problema da cultura e sua renovação como missão política e teórica. O presente artigo pretende, a partir da leitura de documentos testemunhais, sublinhar a distância ideológica que o filólogo e o compositor, estrategicamente, tiveram de ignorar. Mostram-se, através desta análise, as diferenças normalmente pouco abordadas entre os projetos de reforma da cultura elaborados (...) pelos dois autores – tanto no que se refere à atuação política, quanto no que diz respeito a uma visão de mundo. (shrink)

O governo do presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso teve papel relevante na consolidação de políticas voltadas ao campo e ao processo de reforma agrária no Brasil. O objetivo do artigo é refletir sobre o perfil e as tensões envoltas na política de reforma agrária do governo FHC, e os desdobramentos dessa política face ao número de famílias assentadas e áreas obtidas para fins de reforma agrária no Brasil. Utiliza-se como fonte textos de pesquisadores que estudaram os caminhos e descaminhos da reforma (...) agrária brasileira e dados do “Banco de Dados da Luta Pela Terra”. Compreende-se que, no Governo FHC, apesar do número de famílias assentadas e áreas obtidas terem avançado de forma considerável em relação a governos anteriores, a reforma agrária foi tratada de forma marginal, e o governo, por vezes, negou as lutas e o protagonismo dos movimentos sociais do campo. (shrink)

este texto refleja la intención de ver las crisis como operadoras de cambios de orden, cambios estructurales. Si estos cambios son lo suficientemente profundos se pueden catalogar como rupturas. Las rupturas dependen, en una medida importante, del azar; no pueden ser buscadas concretamente ni de forma explícita. Durante las crisis, el azar juega un papel particularmente importante, por ser momentos de mayor incertidumbre y aleatoriedad. En ámbitos incontrolables, probablemente sea lo mejor actuar no muy lejos de la inmediatez.

Revisando la Investigación sobre el conocimiento humano de DavidHume, encontramos una idea poco humeana: La división entre Relaciones de ideas y cuestiones de hecho. Es, al menos, mucho más importante que esa división, ciertamente equívoca, la diferencia que puede haber entre dos proposiciones según la cantidad y la fiabilidad de la información de que disponemos sobre cada una. Por otra parte, he querido resaltar las cercanías con Nietzsche en su aversión al extremo orgullo de los hombres respecto de su intelecto.

Revisando la Investigación sobre el conocimiento humano de DavidHume, encontramos una idea poco humeana: La división entre Relaciones de ideas y cuestiones de hecho. Es, al menos, mucho más importante que esa división, ciertamente equívoca, la diferencia que puede haber entre dos proposiciones según la cantidad y la fiabilidad de la información de que disponemos sobre cada una. Por otra parte, he querido resaltar las cercanías con Nietzsche en su aversión al extremo orgullo de los hombres respecto de su intelecto.

ABSTRACT This study observes oral poetry as an aesthetic manifestation and attention, especially to poems that recall childhood in which the inspiration is the oral collection. Coordinates favor following the poetic and creative properties of the aforementioned poetic genre, from which verses from the book Batata cozida, mingau de cará [Cooked Potato, Yam Porridge], written by Eloí Bocheco (2006), are analyzed. Thus, it can be said that the poetics for childhood understood by the writer’s proposal allows the little reader to (...) transit, in the same creation, through the known, that is, throughout the elements of oral poetry almost always recovered from the popular tradition; and for what he knows at the same opportunity: the poem of declared authorship, which presupposes a work woven basically in writing. In addition, such verses can be understood as a variation of the oral tradition, renewed on the threshold between orality and writing, in a playful game with both codes. (shrink)

O trabalho analisa, por meio da cobertura do diário A Tarde, de Salvador, a convivência entre a delegação alemã de futebol e a população local de Santa Cruz Cabrália, no sul da Bahia, que serviu de base para a seleção que conquistou a Copa do Mundo de futebol em 2014. A partir dos critérios de identidade cultural, globalização e seleção jornalística, mostra que a estratégia de aproximação com os moradores marcou a cobertura de A Tarde e criou um clima simpático (...) à seleção alemã. (shrink)

Although the primary locus for analyzing the role of desire in Hegel’s self-consciousness has been set upon the Phenomenology of Spirit, by moving toward the texts of his youth, especially the theological fragments written between 1794 and 1798, we find a series of tensions between desire, positivity, and totality that inform us about the deadlocks that the Hegelian system must have faced in order to be constituted. This confrontation, looked at from the point of view of the emphasis on identity, (...) and not, as the commentators who base themselves on Phenomenology claim, on otherness, is constituted as an enterprise not only of self-formation, but of erotic self-fruition. The article proposes, through a detailing of what, in Hegel, would lead us to Freud, an investigation into the meanings of desirant suffering in the prehistory of speculative philosophy. (shrink)

O artigo procura avaliar a consolidação e os desdobramentos da função heurística e simbólica ocupada pelo Ungeheuer [o monstro ou o monstruoso] na filosofia kantiana, tendo em vista a emergência do horizonte da racionalidade moderna. Uma reconfiguração dessas imagens do Monstro e da Monstruosidade parece ter lugar no momento mesmo em que a filosofia moderna procurou pensar sua identidade e seus limites. O pensamento de Kant, que ocupa - de fato ou de direito - um lugar central nessa ruptura, apresentaria (...) de modo exemplar, embora não evidente, o percurso dessa transformação. This work intends to evaluate the origins and developments of the symbolic and heuristic function at stake in the term Ungeheuer [the monster or the monstrous] within Kant's philosophy, regarding the rising horizon of modern rationality. A reconfiguration of the Monster and Monstrous imagery seems to take place right at the moment when modern philosophy had to reflect upon its own identity and limits. Kant's thought, that occupies - de jure or de facto - a central place within this rupture could exemplarily, but not obviously, show the path of such transformation. (shrink)