The emergence of COVID-19 places the economy at risk of recession or worst, depression. A sharp decline in the country’s economic growth is primarily caused by the weak consumption of locals and non-existence of foreign tourists in the country. On the other hand, disruptions of the supply chain in the manufacturing and retails sectors make the situation much worse. With clear uncertainties in mind, government agencies must lay down economic policies, monetary and fiscal, that would boost the confidence of the (...) consumers and producers. Lastly, a clear and coordinated efforts of the national and local government together with economic agencies of the country must be present at this time of the pandemic. (shrink)

University program dropout is a problem that has important consequences not only for the student that leaves but also for the institution in which the withdrawal occurs. Therefore, higher education institutions must study the problem in greater depth to establish appropriate prevention measures in the future. However, most research papers currently focus primarily on the characteristics of students who leave university, rather than on those who choose to pursue alternative courses of study and therefore fail to take into account the (...) different kinds of abandonment. The aim of this paper is to identify the different types of dropout to define their characteristics and propose some recommendations. Thus, an ex post facto study was carried out on a sample of 1311 freshmen from a university in the north of Spain using data gathered using an ad-hoc designed questionnaire, applied by telephone or an online survey, and completed with data available in the university data warehouse. A descriptive analysis was performed to characterize the sample and identify five different groups, including 1. Students persisting in their initiated degree 2. Students who change of program (within the same university) 3. Students transferring to a different university 4. Students enrolling in non-higher-education studies 5. Students that quit studying. Also, data mining techniques (decision trees) were applied to classify the cases and generate predictive models to aid in the design of differentiated intervention strategies for each of the corresponding groups. (shrink)

This study examines the ethical dilemmas and difficulties encountered by Portuguese school psychologists. As part of a larger survey, participants were asked about ethical issues faced in daily practice and asked to describe ethical incidents. Of the 477 respondents, 274 reported 441 ethically troubling or challenging situations. Responses were coded into a six-category system based on the code of ethics of Portuguese psychologists. Most of the reported dilemmas concerned privacy and confidentiality principles. Results are discussed in light of relevant literature (...) and international findings. Implications for the development of the profession and future research are provided. (shrink)

The transition and adaptation of students to higher education involve a wide range of challenges that justify some institutional practices promoting skills that enable students to increase their autonomy and to face the difficulties experienced. The requirements for this adaptation were particularly aggravated by the containment and sanitary conditions associated with coronavirus disease 2019. With the aim of promoting academic success and preventing dropout in the first year, a support program was implemented for students enrolled in two courses in the (...) area of education at a public university in northern Portugal during the first semester of 2020/2021. Three sessions of 50/60 min were implemented, namely, the first session focused on the verbalization of the demands, challenges, and difficulties of the transition, and the second and third sessions focused on the difficulties of academic adaptation and academic performance. Data from a dropout risk screening instrument and from the activities performed during sessions were analyzed. The main results point to student satisfaction with the content and the activities of the sessions and their usefulness. Students report not only high satisfaction levels with HE attendance, but also some emotional exhaustion due to academic activities. The continuity of the program is recommended with some improvements in its planning to ensure a more definitive version of the program in the next two years. (shrink)

Higher education in the 21st century faces the challenge of changing the way in which knowledge is conveyed and how teachers and students interact in the teaching-learning process. The current pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has hastened the need to face up to this challenge and has furthered the need to approach the issue from the perspective of digitalisation. To achieve this, it is necessary to design training programmes geared towards teaching staff and which address both the use of technology and (...) instructional design aimed at promoting the development of self-regulated learning and automatic feedback systems. In this study, work was carried out with 23 teachers in a training programme conducted through Moodle. The aims were: to test whether there were any significant differences between the behaviour patterns of new teachers compared to experienced teachers, to determine whether clusters of behaviour patterns corresponded to the type of teacher and to ascertain whether the level of teacher satisfaction with the training activity in digital teaching will depend on the type of teacher. A quantitative as well as a qualitative design was applied. Differences were found in the behaviour patterns in the training activities for the development of rubrics and use of learning analytics systems in virtual learning environments. It was also found that the type of teacher did not correspond exactly to the behaviour cluster in the learning platform. In addition, no significant differences were found in the level of satisfaction between the two kinds of teacher. The main contribution this study makes is to provide a detailed description of the training stage as well as the materials required for its repetition. Further analytical studies are required on teacher perception of training programmes in digital teaching in order to provide personalised training proposals that lead to an effective use of teaching in digital environments. (shrink)

IntroductionTranscranial magnetic stimulation is a consolidated procedure for the treatment of depression, with several meta-analyses demonstrating its efficacy. Theta-burst stimulation is a modification of TMS with similar efficacy and shorter session duration. The geriatric population has many comorbidities and a high prevalence of depression, but few clinical trials are conducted specifically for this age group. TBS could be an option in this population, offering the advantages of few side effects and no pharmacological interactions. Therefore, our aim is to investigate the (...) efficacy of TBS in geriatric depression.Clinical trial registration[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/], identifier [NCT04842929]. (shrink)

Taxa and homologues can in our view be construed both as kinds and as individuals. However, the conceptualization of taxa as natural kinds in the sense of homeostatic property cluster kinds has been criticized by some systematists, as it seems that even such kinds cannot evolve due to their being homeostatic. We reply by arguing that the treatment of transformational and taxic homologies, respectively, as dynamic and static aspects of the same homeostatic property cluster kind represents a good perspective for (...) supporting the conceptualization of taxa as kinds. The focus on a phenomenon of homology based on causal processes (e.g., connectivity, activity-function, genetics, inheritance, and modularity) and implying relationship with modification yields a notion of natural kinds conforming to the phylogenetic-evolutionary framework. Nevertheless, homeostatic property cluster kinds in taxonomic and evolutionary practice must be rooted in the primacy of epistemological classification (homology as observational properties) over metaphysical generalization (series of transformation and common ancestry as unobservational processes). The perspective of individuating characters exclusively by historical-transformational independence instead of their developmental, structural, and functional independence fails to yield a sufficient practical interplay between theory and observation. Purely ontological and ostensional perspectives in evolution and phylogeny (e.g., an ideographic character concept and PhyloCode’s ‘individualism’ of clades) may be pragmatically contested in the case of urgent issues in biodiversity research, conservation, and systematics. (shrink)

Global Mental Health is a field of research and practice that addresses the expansion of universal and equitable mental health care worldwide. This article explores the ways the concept of culture is employed in Global Mental Health literature. Global Mental Health advocates and critics assume an ontological separation between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ to typify mental illness, linking it predominantly to one or the other of these two categories. Advocates of Global Mental Health view mental disorders as a nature–culture hybrid, while (...) critics see them as typically cultural phenomena. The cultural critique of Global Mental Health can be strengthened by a sociological approach to both the role of critique and the uses of the concept of culture within social sciences. As an alternative to the ontologization of culture, we propose a different theoretical approach to the social issues involved in the expansion of international public health care in mental health: Arthur Kleinman's and Didier Fassin’s moral anthropological approaches. (shrink)

We prove that Martin’s Axiom implies the existence of a Cohen-indestructible mad family such that the Mathias forcing associated to its filter adds dominating reals, while \ is consistent with the negation of this statement as witnessed by the Laver model for the consistency of Borel’s conjecture.

Considering the challenges posed by populism and religiously motivated political engagement to liberal democracies, the present study sets out to examine, specifically, the role played by Pentecostal actors in the conflictive rearrangement of the democratic game in Brazil and worldwide. The engagement of Pentecostals in Brazil’s 2018 general election represented a milestone in that regard and constitutes, thus, the main focus of the present investigation. Given the novelty and nature of both phenomena in question, viz. Pentecostal political engagement and the (...) crisis of democracy, the analysis is carried out, methodologically, from a descriptive, theoretical vantage point, rather than a normative one. To that purpose, the study builds on Manow’s recent work on the current crisis of democracy so as to shed new light on this issue and engages with scholarly studies of Pentecostal political engagement in Brazil and Nigeria alike, where similar developments may be observed, thereby placing this predicament in a global perspective. The role played by Pentecostals can best be described as ambivalent, as, on the one hand, they contributed largely to democratizing contemporary democracies and, on the other, they played a significant part in undermining the very foundations of liberal democracies. (shrink)

Considering the challenges posed by populism and religiously motivated political engagement to liberal democracies, the present study sets out to examine, specifically, the role played by Pentecostal actors in the conflictive rearrangement of the democratic game in Brazil and worldwide. The engagement of Pentecostals in Brazil’s 2018 general election represented a milestone in that regard and constitutes, thus, the main focus of the present investigation. Given the novelty and nature of both phenomena in question, viz. Pentecostal political engagement and the (...) crisis of democracy, the analysis is carried out, methodologically, from a descriptive, theoretical vantage point, rather than a normative one. To that purpose, the study builds on Manow’s recent work on the current crisis of democracy so as to shed new light on this issue and engages with scholarly studies of Pentecostal political engagement in Brazil and Nigeria alike, where similar developments may be observed, thereby placing this predicament in a global perspective. The role played by Pentecostals can best be described as ambivalent, as, on the one hand, they contributed largely to democratizing contemporary democracies and, on the other, they played a significant part in undermining the very foundations of liberal democracies. (shrink)

This paper presents the foundation upon which the contemporary knowledge of body integrity dysphoria (BID) is built. According to the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11), the main feature of BID is an intense and persistent desire to become physically disabled in a significant way. Three putative aetiologies that are considered to explain the insurgence of the condition are discussed: neurological, psychological and postmodern theories. The concept of bodily representation within the medical context is highlighted, with (...) the concept of dysphoria, which was brought to the fore with the introduction of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), and the ICD-11. Contemporary issues of “justice” are addressed to identify ethically relevant distinctions between BID and sex reassignment surgery. It is argued that there is no ethically relevant difference between the BID actor’s desire for invasive surgical intervention and the wish of gender dysphoric individuals to undergo sex reassignment surgery procedures. Some BID actors self-mutilate, and this presents medical professionals with difficult choices regarding whether or not to intervene in order to satisfy the BID patient’s desire. Both abstention and intervention may lead to severe ethical complications for doctors and patients despite the positive outcomes in terms of quality of life for BID individuals who manage to undergo such procedures. (shrink)

Este texto aborda la última parte de la producción teórica de León Rozitchner, en donde se tematiza el mito estructurante de nuestra cultura: el cristianismo. Mediante una interpretación freudiana de las Confesiones de San Agustín, Rozitchner retoma con originalidad la idea marxista que considera a la crítica de la religión como el presupuesto de toda crítica. Se ponen de relieve los núcleos religiosos encubiertos en la secularización moderna que el capitalismo obstaculiza y se arriba a una idea de cuerpo que (...) permite revisar críticamente antiguas dicotomías transidas de religión, para abrir espacio a nuevos modos de contar la Historia. Desde la perspectiva del materialismo histórico, se intenta aquí dar cuenta del pasaje de la crítica de la ideología a la crítica de la mitología. Esta última propicia la reflexión sobre los fundamentos simbólicos que podrían dar lugar a procesos emancipatorios. Finalmente, se muestra que la voluntad de construir una teoría del sujeto y una crítica cultural es, en la obra de Rozitchner, el correlato de una permanente reflexión sobre la propia identidad. This text focuses on the last part of the theoretical production of León Rozitchner, in which he assesses the structuring myth of our culture: Christianism. By means of a Freudian interpretation of Saint Augustin’s “Confessions”, Rozitchner retakes in an original way the Marxist idea of criticism of religion as the presumption of every criticism. The religious core hidden by modern secularization, hindered by capitalism, is revealed, and the notion of a corpus emerges, which allows critical revision of ancient dichotomies beset by religion, in order to open paths towards new ways of telling History. From the perspective of historical materialism, we try to put forward the passage from criticism of ideology to criticism of mythology. The latter promotes a reflection on the symbolic foundations that may give way to emancipatory processes. Finally, we show that in Rozitchner´s work, the will to construct a theory of the subject and the criticism of culture is the result of a perennial reflection on identity in itself. (shrink)

The philosopher Byung-Chul Han affirms that the present age reduces the human being to a performance-machine, and that, because of this reduction, the type of disease that characterizes it this age is neuronal. In the present article, I argue that Han’s analysis is correct but incomplete. Behind this reductionism, which leads to neuropathologies of different types, lies another type of pathology that the philosopher Eric Voegelin calls ‘pneumopathology’—disease of the spirit. The transhumanist view of human enhancement deepens this reduction and (...) shows that the pneumopathology that blights today’s society is in a process of unprecedented chronification. To justify this thesis, I first explain the connection between human enhancement and the achievement imperative denounced by Han; I then analyze the Voegelian category of pneumopathology to show its value for an ontological-historical understanding of human enhancement. (shrink)

The new mechanistic philosophy seeks to identify and explain the mechanisms of various phenomena, including their overall organization and the interactions between the individualized components. This paper argues that among the phenomena that can be approached within the new mechanistic framework are near-death experiences, which can be included within the vast range of experiences that are grouped under the category of religious experience. Such experiences involve a complex set of cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes. Since studying such experiences is far (...) from methodologically simple, we try to show the feasibility of applying the mechanistic explanation to near-death experiences. While some scholars (such as Egil Asprem and Ann Taves) argue that mechanistic explanation can shed new light on the explanation of religion, we instead emphasize neglected limits of such an explanation, as well as its epistemic-methodological advantages in comparison with alternative explanatory models, especially the models proposed by Michael Marsh, Frederick S. Barrett and Roland R. Griffiths. (shrink)

En este trabajo presentamos una reflexión filosófica y psicoanalítica acerca de la democracia basándonos fundamentalmente en el legado de Sigmund Freud. En el segmento primero, intentamos fundamentar por qué el psicoanálisis es incompatible con el fascismo y, de modo inverso, por qué esta disciplina sólo puede trabajar bajo la forma de gobierno de un Estado de Derecho. Simultáneamente, el núcleo democrático del psicoanálisis revela su coherencia con la voluntad científica que su creador manifiesta, sin dejar de poner a prueba las (...) representaciones canónicas y de derribar algunas ilusiones idealistas acerca de la "democracia" y la "ciencia". En la segunda parte, pretendemos extraer del psicoanálisis y de cierta filosofía vinculada al mismo algunas claves para repensar la cultura democrática contemporánea. Los desarrollos freudianos conducen a radicalizar la idea básica de la libertad de expresión poniendo en evidencia algunas amenazas que pueden transformarla en una declaración narcótica de principios que se agote en sí misma. In this work we present a psychoanalytical and philosophical reflection on democracy, based mainly on Sigmund Freud's legacy. In the first section, we try to fundament why psychoanalysis is incompatible with fascism and, conversely, why this discipline only works in the environment of the Rule of Law. Simultaneously, the democratic core of psychoanalysis reveals its coherence with the scientific will manifested by its maker, even while testing canonical representations and demolishing some idealistic illusions about "democracy" and "science". In the second part, we aim at extracting from psychoanalysis, and from some philosophy related to it, some clues to re-think contemporary democratic culture. Freudian developments lead to a radicalization of the basic idea of freedom of speech, disclosing some threats that may turn it into a narcotic declaration of principles which would be exhausted in itself. (shrink)

Entre los intérpretes que problematizan la cuestión del sujeto moral en el pensamiento de David Hume, Pauline Chazan ha defendido la existencia de ciertas tensiones entre el sujeto de carácter pasional que Hume tematiza en el libro 2 del Tratado de la Naturaleza Humana y el posterior ingreso de dicho sujeto al campo de la moralidad, elaborado en el libro 3. Este trabajo ofrece una lectura novedosa de la teoría humeana de la subjetividad que permite reconsiderar y resolver este supuesto (...) conflicto entre el sujeto pasional y el sujeto moral. Para ello, desarrolla una concepción multidimensional de la subjetividad que permite concebir la formación del sujeto como un proceso complejo y gradual que involucra simultáneamente varios niveles distintos que, aunque puedan estudiarse de forma independiente, se encuentran estrechamente vinculados. Among the commentators who problematize the issue of the moral self in David Hume's thought, Pauline Chazan has argued for the existence of some tensions between the passionate self that Hume thematizes in Book 2 of A Treatise of Human Nature and how this self subsequently gets in the moral domain, which Hume elaborated in Book 3. This paper offers an innovative reading of Hume's theory of subjectivity, which allows reconsidering and resolving this apparent conflict between the passionate self and the moral self. To do so, it develops a multidimensional conception of the subjectivity allowing to conceive the formation of the self as a complex and gradual process involving simultaneously different levels that, even though may be studied separately, are closely connected. (shrink)

From the book Difference and Repetition, I intend to discuss the extent to which Deleuze's proposal to restore difference in sensibility, preventing difference from being confused with the diverse, as proposed by Kant, in order to remove difference from submission to representation in the ambit of sensibility. This sets up a new perspective to think about the issue of difference in sensitivity, reformulating notions of transcendental thinking and ontology, through an unusual alliance between science and philosophy. Therefore, the proposed objectives (...) are: I) expose Deleuze's critique of Kant's transcendental philosophy, regarding difference as the diverse in sensibility and question the very concept of transcendental as a condition for experience; II) to argue Deleuze's way out of the problem of the representation of difference in sensitivity from the notion of being of the sensible; III) explore Deleuze's appropriation of Gilbert Simondon's concept of individuation: IV) to express why the notions of will to power and eternal return, from Nietzsche's philosophy, contribute, together with individuation, to compose the concept of difference in response to the limits of transcendentalism. (shrink)

The replacement of the Heideggerian Idea of Being-toward-Death with the Gadamerian notion of Being-for-the-Text imposes important changes in the Philosophical Hermeneutics. The present paper analyses the “principle of unavailability of language” taking into account the idea of a fusion of horizons regarding text interpretation. It considers the function of this last idea for different natural languages, and ends with the thesis that Gadamer’s Hermeneutics has in fact two possible meanings.

The present article investigates some consequences from the rapport ofthe creative and the sedimented language in Maurice Merleau-Ponty's works. It aims at analyzing the different positions adopted by the philosopher on that rapport by considering the image of a boiling liquid as the guide for such analysis. The heuristic power of this image will help, on one side, to comprehend the different standpoints used to interpret the phenomenon of language; on the other side, it will serve as an index to (...) follow the rectification and the radicalization of his philosophy. (shrink)

RESUMENA partir de las problemáticas desarrolladas por Charles Taylor y su explí­cita adhesión al programa gadameriano de la hermenéutica se intentará desarrollar la noción de fusión de horizontes con respecto a dos cuestiones inherentes a ella. Por un lado el papel que cumple en el entendimiento entre esquemas comprensivos diferentes; y por otro lado, la ambigüedad del carácter de la misma fusión. Esto en referencia a lo siguiente: o bien se trata de la fusión de horizontes distintos o bien se (...) trata de una fusión interna en un solo horizonte, con lo cual lo primero resulta ser sólo una mera apariencia.PALABRAS CLAVEHERMENÉUTICA, GADAMER, FUSIÓN DE HORIZONTES, ALTERIDADABSTRACTIn this paper I analyse Charles Taylor’s notion of horizons fusion, which comes from Gadamer’s Hermeneutics (as Taylor avows). Two problems are discussed: on the one hand, the role of this notion regarding the understanding between different comprehensive schemes and, on the other hand the ambiguity of fusion in itself, insofar as it can be seen either as the fusion of different horizons, or as an internal fusion in the context of one horizon. Thus the first possibility becomes a mere appearance.KEY WORDSHERMENEUTICS, GADAMER, HORIZONS FUSION, OTHERNESS. (shrink)

RESUMENA partir de las problemáticas desarrolladas por Charles Taylor y su explí­cita adhesión al programa gadameriano de la hermenéutica se intentará desarrollar la noción de fusión de horizontes con respecto a dos cuestiones inherentes a ella. Por un lado el papel que cumple en el entendimiento entre esquemas comprensivos diferentes; y por otro lado, la ambigüedad del carácter de la misma fusión. Esto en referencia a lo siguiente: o bien se trata de la fusión de horizontes distintos o bien se (...) trata de una fusión interna en un solo horizonte, con lo cual lo primero resulta ser sólo una mera apariencia.PALABRAS CLAVEHERMENÉUTICA, GADAMER, FUSIÓN DE HORIZONTES, ALTERIDADABSTRACTIn this paper I analyse Charles Taylor’s notion of horizons fusion, which comes from Gadamer’s Hermeneutics (as Taylor avows). Two problems are discussed: on the one hand, the role of this notion regarding the understanding between different comprehensive schemes and, on the other hand the ambiguity of fusion in itself, insofar as it can be seen either as the fusion of different horizons, or as an internal fusion in the context of one horizon. Thus the first possibility becomes a mere appearance.KEY WORDSHERMENEUTICS, GADAMER, HORIZONS FUSION, OTHERNESS. (shrink)

This book shows how participatory research can provide tools to overcome the current epistemic and ethical challenges faced by traditional scientific approaches. Ever since Funtowicz and Ravetz proposed the notion of post-normal science, there has been a growing awareness of the limits of a form of knowledge production based only on the traditional scientific peer communities that excludes other social groups affected by its results and applications. The growing uncertainty and complexity posed by socio-ecological issues in the interactions between science, (...) society and decision making has revealed the importance of a social quality control over crucial decisions that rely on scientific research and the necessary democratization of knowledge to tackle sustainability and health concerns. Departing from a reinterpretation of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this volume shows how participatory research can contribute to reconnect science and society by extending peer communities through the incorporation of different forms of knowledge and different social actors into research projects. To do so, the author presents a critical review of different participatory research approaches, identifying the elements that distinguish a true participatory research from a traditional one, and proposing a taxonomy of the various participatory methodologies. The volume also analyzes a diversity of social practices and understandings that deal with an ecology of knowledge and its systemic characteristics. Moreover, it demonstrates that uncertainties can be integrated in dialogical processes that open possibilities for a myriad of outcomes. Participatory Research in the Post-Normal Age - Unsustainability and Uncertainties to Rethink Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed will be of interest to researchers working with participatory approaches in different fields like health, environmental sciences, and education, as well as to practitioners of action research concerned with scientific dilemmas and counter-hegemonic strategies. (shrink)

We shall place ourselves beside Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to shed light on the notion of concrete, which brings in it the fact and the essence, the particle and the universal, in doing so we shall be opposed to the theoretical attitude, named by Merleau-Ponty “small rationalism”, of the early twentieth century. Firstly, we shall remember how the philosopher characterizes the theoretical attitude that reduces everything that can be said about the world to the scientific. After, we shall briefly insist upon the (...) fact that this theoretical attitude is not far from a highly naïf political attitude which is unaware of the world it belongs to. According to Merleau-Ponty, in order to understanding the rapports between the sense and the non-sense it is necessary a new conception of reason: not a reason which operates by concepts on the background of an unquestionable rationality, but a reason that considers its origins. (shrink)

RESUMO: A peça de teatro As moscas, de Sartre, será abordada com o intuito de acompanhar o modo como seu autor reinventa o mito de Orestes, presente na tragédia grega. Sartre subscreve pontos de partida que nos fazem perceber que, em seu diálogo com a tradição, ele trabalha com a liberdade no avesso da necessidade, o que termina invertendo a tradição. Ele adota certa concepção da relação entre o passado e o mundo atual que nos permite ler o mito de (...) Orestes de tal forma que ele não exclui o passado, antes, o exige. Orestes não se faz do nada, sua ação não se estabelece através de uma simples continuidade com o passado. Trata-se de investigar a importância que o passado desempenha no interior dessa peça, assim como indicar, a partir desse ponto de vista, o lugar que nossas aquisições devem ocupar no mundo atual. ABSTRACT: The aim of the present article is to shed some light on how Sartre recreates Orestes myth in his play The flies. Sartre show us that his dialogue with the tradition works with freedom as the other side of necessity, which leads to the inversion of tradition. He works with such a conception of the relation between past and present which enable us to consider Orestes in a way that the past is not excluded; on the contrary, it is demanded. Orestes is not out of nowhere, and at the same time his actions are not simply the continuation of the past. The present article intends to analyze the role played by the past in Sartre’s The flies, as well as to point, from this particular standpoint, the place off human acquisitions should have in our present world. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se analizan desde un punto de vista metateórico los modelos animales y su uso en la investigación en el ámbito de las ciencias de la vida. A partir de la evaluación de una nutrida literatura científica que denuncia un sesgo sexual en las prácticas de investigación que utilizan dichos modelos, se buscan los supuestos teóricos implícitos que les dan fundamento y se argumenta que lejos de suponer una torpeza metodológica forman parte de una extensa tradición ubicua (...) en la historia de la biología. Por otra parte, se exponen los motivos teóricos para el reemplazo de los mencionados supuestos, a partir del análisis filosófico e histórico de la teoría estándar de la diferenciación sexual (la hipótesis activacional-organizacional). (shrink)

La pragmática trascendental del lenguaje de Karl-Otto Apel ha sido principalmente una reconstrucción (y fundamentación) de los presupuestos irrebasables del discurso argumentativo. Ella no se ha extendido sobre las acciones en principio no discursivas de los hombres. En el presente trabajo se expone cómo debería entenderse a este tipo de acciones en el marco de dicha pragmática. Así, se presentan aquí las implicancias que tiene para la constitución y explicación de las acciones el ser comprendidas bajo un aspecto central de (...) la pragmática de Apel como es la crítica trascendental del sentido. Con este objetivo, se desarrollan (I) las características generales y esquemáticas que presenta el lenguaje en su rol de “dador” de sentido en la obra de Apel. Luego (II), el artículo se extiende sobre este rol aplicado ahora a las acciones en general de los individuos. Finalmente, y mediante una reflexión sobre la validez implicada en toda articulación lingüística (III), se extraen algunas conclusiones sobre cómo debería entenderse a las acciones en el marco de la pragmática trascendental del lenguaje (IV). Karl-Otto Apel’s transcendental pragmatics of language has been mainly a reconstruction (and justification) of the inevitable assumptions of argumentative discourse. This pragmatic has said barely anything about non argumentative action of men. This paper shows what implies for the constitution and explanation of non-argumentative actions of men to be understood under a central aspect of that pragmatic as the transcendental critic of sense (Sinn). To this end, it develops (I) the general and schematic characteristics that language presents in its role of meaning “giver” in the work of Apel. Then (II), the article spreads over this role now applied to the actions of individuals in general. Finally, through a reflection on the validity involved in all linguistic articulation (III), draws some conclusions about how the actions should be understood within the framework of transcendental pragmatics of language (IV). (shrink)

Resumen: En este artículo se aborda el argumento elaborado por Ludwig Wittgenstein en las Philosophische Untersuchungen acerca de la imposibilidad de un lenguaje privado. El objetivo de dicho abordaje reside en la presentación de una serie de argumentos, reconstruidos a partir de la pragmática trascendental del lenguaje, que demuestran también de una manera acabada la imposibilidad de concebir un lenguaje semejante. La importancia de los razonamientos de la pragmática trascendental consiste en que explicitan una forma de tener en cuenta el (...) propio proceso argumentativo que está ausente en los planteos de Wittgenstein. Así, luego de presentar la importancia y las particularidades del argumento de Wittgenstein se desarrolla la interpretación que es posible esgrimir desde la pragmática, así como una distinción que debe establecerse cuando se abordan cuestiones referidas al lenguaje. Por último se extraen algunas conclusiones.: This article addresses the argument developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein in Philosophische Untersuchungen about the impossibility of a private language. The objective of this approach is to present a series of arguments, reconstructed from the point of view of transcendental pragmatics of language, which also demonstrate in a finished way the impossibility of such a language. The importance of the transcendental pragmatics reasonings is that they explicitly state a way of considering the very process of argumentation that is absent in Wittgenstein’s statements. After presenting the importance and particularities of Wittgenstein’s argument, the interpretation that can be employed from pragmatics is developed, as well as a distinction that must be made when dealing with issues related to language. Finally, some conclusions are drawn. (shrink)

Giorgio Agamben and Ludwig Wittgenstein seem to have very little in common: the former is concerned with traditional ontological issues while the latter was interested in logics and ordinary language, avoiding metaphysical issues as something we cannot speak about. However, both share a crucial notion for their philosophical projects: form of life. In this paper, I try to show that, despite their different approaches and goals, form of life is for both a crucial notion for thinking ethics and life in-common. (...) Addressing human existence in its constitutive relation to language, this notion deconstructs traditional dichotomies like bios and zoé, the cultural and the biological, enabling both authors to think of a life which cannot be separated from its forms, recognizing the commonality of logos as the specific trait of human existence. Through an analogical reading between both theoretical frameworks, I suggest that the notion of form-of-life, elaborated by Wittgenstein to address human production of meaning, becomes the key notion in Agamben's affirmative thinking since it enables us to consider the common ontologically in its relation to Human potentialities and to foresee a new, common use of the world and ourselves. Giorgio Agamben e Ludwig Wittgenstein parecem ter muito pouco em comum: o primeiro se ocupa de questões ontológicas tradicionais, enquanto o segundo estava interessado na Lógica e na linguagem corrente, evitando os problemas metafísicos como algo de que não podemos falar. No entanto, ambos partilham um conceito crucial para seus projetos filosóficos respectivos: forma de vida. Este artigo tento mostrar que, apesar de seus diferentes enfoques e objetivos, a noção de forma de vida é fundamental no momento de pensar a ética e a vida em-comum. Abordando a existência humana em sua relação constitutiva com a língua, essa noção desconstrói dicotomias tradicionais como bios e zoe, o cultural e o biológico, permitindo-lhes pensar uma vida que não pode ser separada de suas formas, e reconhecendo o caráter comum do logos como o traço específico da existência humana. Através de uma leitura analógica entre ambos quadros teóricos, sugiro que a noção de forma-de-vida, elaborada por Wittgenstein para abordar a produção humana de significados, tornase o conceito-chave do pensamento afirmativo de Agamben, já que nos permite considerar o comum ontologicamente em sua relação com as potencialidades humanas e vislumbrar um uso novo e comum do mundo e de nós mesmos. (shrink)

This paper explores Thomas Kuhn’s intellectual history by examining sources that have been understudied so far: the Lowell Lectures of 1951 (The Quest for Physical Theory) and the hitherto unpublished Notre Dame Lectures of 1980. The analysis of these texts aims to reconstruct Kuhn’s development of a semantics that can account for scientific progress. This analysis will show that the alleged “linguistic turn” attributed to the author is actually a renewed interest in problems that existed well before publishing The Structure (...) of Scientific Revolutions. (shrink)

Esta reflexión plantea el problema que se da al querer dar cuenta del individuo, como existencia, de manera sistemática en el terreno de las tendencias lógicas de la ética. Sören Kierkegaard, será la guía para plantear que tal pretensión es dañina y se presenta como la imposibilidad para la afirmación de la subjetividad como vitalidad abierta siempre a las posibilidades que ofrece la condición humana. Para el desarrollo de este planteamiento trataremos de confrontar algunos planteamientos de Kierkegaard -sobre todo el (...) de la irreductibilidad de la existencia a sistema- con la eticidad hegeliana en particular, para mostrar cómo se revienta el postulado de un sistema de la existencia. Este reventarse se debe entender no como destrucción de lo dado sino como enfrentamiento de ello y conducción hasta sus últimas consecuencias donde se hace manifiesta la imposibilidad de encerrar la existencia en la estrecha posición de la ética como ciencia normativa, es decir como imperativo de comportamiento y direccionamiento moral de la subjetividad por los carriles del pensamiento que absorbe al ser y que postula a la razón como la directriz de todo proyecto vital. (shrink)

In this paper, we explore some links between deliberative democracy, natural testimony, and epistemic injustice. We hope to highlight the exclusionary effects of some cases of testimony-related epistemic injustice within the deliberative democratic framework and, in particular, two subtle ways of epistemic injustice that are not often highlighted in the political domain. In other words, we hope to highlight two specific mechanisms of epistemic exclusion within the democratic deliberative process that are not explicitly noticed in the relevant literature. In section (...) 1, we present the deliberative model of democracy and the deliberative process. We then introduce the notion of epistemic (dis)enfranchisement, which we distinguish from formal enfranchisement, and explain the role that natural testimony plays in establishing citizens‘ epistemic enfranchisement. In section 2, we introduce Fricker‘s notion of testimonial injustice and two further testimony-related forms of epistemic injustice which seem to have been largely neglected in the debate so far, namely, discursive injustice and testimonial void. We also point out negative epistemic consequences of positive identity-prejudicial stereotypes. In section 3, we argue that these testimony-related forms of epistemic injustice can lead to epistemic disenfranchisement, which, we note, is an obstacle to deliberative democracy that warrants serious consideration. (shrink)

El presente texto intenta establecer algunas bases de la filosofía social de Søren Kierkegaard. Para ello, toma el concepto de lo demoníaco, que se desarrolla en Sobre el concepto de ironía y El concepto de la angustia. En ellas, Kierkegaard señala las determinaciones de este concepto y lo enmarca dentro de las posibilidades de la subjetividad en su relación con los otros y consigo misma. En la primera, la figura de Sócrates da cuenta de lo demoníaco en el sentido del (...) surgimiento y repliegue de la subjetividad que no participa de los asuntos públicos de la polis griega. En la segunda, Kierkegaard trata la situación demoníaca como un estado psicológico donde la conciencia da cuenta de su relación forzada con el bien y de su mantenimiento en la posición del mal, que lleva al individuo a un estado de endemoniamiento caracterizado por su incomunicación, vacuidad y aburrimiento. Este diagnóstico establece, pues, que los demonios kierkegaardianos son tanto la imposibilidad de la configuración social de los individuos, como su posibilidad a través de la formación de una fuerte subjetividad. (shrink)

In this review, I highlight the valuable contributions of Wendy Wolford’s latest book, which rest on her extensive understanding of the diversity of the Brazilian countryside and her acute ability to weave together the impact that land-tenure patterns, labour regimes and regional cultures have had upon settlers of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement. It also assesses the central claim of the book which suggests that the MST is often unable to retain its membership because the leadership reproduces an understanding of (...) peasant agriculture that is specific to the South of Brazil. The review argues that Wolford’s main argument falls foul of four shortcomings related to her methodology, her understanding of the MST’s ideology, her choice of not including the process of encampment and the MST’s commitment to radical social change in her analysis, and finally her problematic interpretation of the relationship between the grassroots membership and the leadership of the movement. (shrink)

“Postularse como un ser radicalmente autogenerado, ser el autor de la propia voluntad y conocimiento, es negar que uno está constituido en y por lo que es infinitamente más grande que el individuo humano. Kierkegaard llamará a esta fuente más grande que todo lo humano 'Dios' o 'el infinito'. Negar que uno está constituido en lo que es más grande que uno mismo es, para Kierkegaard, estar en una especie de desesperación”.

This article aims to analyze some important categories of Lima Vaz’s ethics, such as: recognition, consensus, achievement, dignity and moral person, in order to prove the idea that there is no ethical act in the community ethics rather than recognizing that ethical subjects need to reciprocally recognize the dignity of every human being and consent to the pursuit of the good. Therefore, we seek to articulate the text in three moments. First, it seeks to argue that the human being, as (...) structural being and being relational, seeks to fulfill itself as such. Second, it is a matter of showing that ethical action is dialectically effective in the bosom and in the life of the community that takes as its end the horizon of the Good in which the ethical subject achieves its fulfillment. And, third, to present the category of moral person as the crowning achievement of Lima Vaz’s ethics, since realizing one’s own life fundamentally supposes an appeal to the human being to become on the plane of duty to be, that is, on the plane of ethics, that which is already on the ontological plane, namely, person. Keywords: Lima Vaz. Consensus. Realization. Dignity. Moral person. (shrink)

A semiótica de Peirce, por sua abrangência e rigor lógico, guarda possibilidades de aplicação que vão além da linguagem e dos processos comunicativos, estendendo-se à ciência como um todo, o que possibilita a organização de uma nova epistemologia. O presente artigo visa analisar as bases dessa proposta epistemológica, verificando seus pressupostos e seu impacto na constituição de uma ciência aberta e voltada para a complexidade.: Peirce's semiotics, in scope and logical rigor, guard application possibilities that go beyond the language and (...) communicative processes, extending to science as a whole, which enables the organization of a new epistemology. This article aims to analyze the basis of this epistemological proposal, checking their assumptions and their impact on the creation of an open and focused science to the complexity. Keywords: sign, science, paradigm. (shrink)

In this text, we propose to examine the ways in which Nancy’s thought of catastrophe, indebted to Heidegger’s questioning of ontology and its history, embarks on a reading of the contemporary world marked by the passage of the “with” (Mitdasein) from the existential plane to the plainly categorial one. Thus, the ontological constitution of the existing slides into pure juxtaposition, as this appears in his analysis of the “proliferation of ends” and their incessant transformation into means.We also dedicate our attention (...) to the ruin, saturation and rupture of the “construction” model. It is in the infinitization of each and every action, through the unpredictable technical architecture in the base of its design, that the catastrophic penetrates the world with its constitutive multiplicity and the state of “suspension” that defines it. The life of waste in its dispersion is exemplary in this context: the catastrophe thus unfolds in lapses thrown into the environment and the psyche of the subjects, something that can be seen as the introjection of the temporality of struction.The anomie that today shelters the catastrophes that intertwine before our eyes, apparently “scandalous” in a paradigm of action, takes place in a «present that never fulfills itself as presence» (Nancy) and that finds itself in the impossibility of expressing the meaning of the world. The disorder of struction, which characterizes what some inappropriately call the Anthropocene, does not happen as a reversal or a destruction of an order, but rather as a disconnection of the imperative character of the order. From this question, a discussion opens on the meaning of the community that is on the verge of catastrophe. (shrink)

Este artigo trata da possibilidade de renovar o entendimento da eugenia no mundo contemporâneo. A biologia e a genética são fontes científicas da eugenia, mas não fazem parte de seu núcleo filosófico. Essa é a razão pela qual vemos a ontologia subjacente à eugenia como nossa principal preocupação. O estatuto da eugenia como uma prática está mudando rapidamente e a vida é tanto o objeto como a dimensão oculta dessa mudança. Entendida por meio da história dos seres, a dispersão da (...) ontologia permite um entendimento renovado tanto da humanidade quanto da animalidade. Como se pode entender que uma ciência completamente reconhecida no início do século XX se tenha tornado uma prática silenciosa no século XXi? A disseminação das novas técnicas genéticas e a discrição atual acerca da eugenia parecem estar ligadas ao avanço de sua reabilitação. Ainda estamos em um estágio inicial de nosso entendimento da genética humana. Não há razão para pensar que esse conhecimento não será explorado pela eugenia. A plasticidade de nossa condição humana encontra nisso uma de suas possibilidades. This article is about the possibility of renewing the understanding of eugenics in contemporary world. Biology and genetics are scientific resources of eugenics, but they are not alone at its philosophical core. This is the reason why we regard the ontology behind eugenics as our main concern. The status of eugenics as a practice is rapidly changing, and life is both the object and the hidden dimension of this change. Understood through the history of being(s), ontology's dispersion allows a renewed understanding of both humanity and animality. How can we understand that a fully recognized science at the beginning of the twentieth century became a silent practice of the twenty-first century? The dissemination of new genetic techniques and today's discretion with respect to eugenics appear to be connected within steps towards its rehabilitation. We are still at an early stage of our understanding of human genetics. There's no reason to think that such knowledge will not be explored through eugenics. After all, the plasticity of our human condition finds in it one of its possibilities. (shrink)

In this review, I highlight the valuable contributions of Wendy Wolford’s latest book, which rest on her extensive understanding of the diversity of the Brazilian countryside and her acute ability to weave together the impact that land-tenure patterns, labour regimes and regional cultures have had upon settlers of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement. It also assesses the central claim of the book which suggests that the MST is often unable to retain its membership because the leadership reproduces an understanding of (...) peasant agriculture that is specific to the South of Brazil. The review argues that Wolford’s main argument falls foul of four shortcomings related to her methodology, her understanding of the MST’s ideology, her choice of not including the process of encampment and the MST’s commitment to radical social change in her analysis, and finally her problematic interpretation of the relationship between the grassroots membership and the leadership of the movement. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic induced an overexposure of migrant farmworkers’ poor working and living conditions in Costa Rica’s northern border area and underscored the country’s dependence on migrant labor. This created a unique opportunity to position pro-migrant concerns and demand actions from the state. In this article, we assess if and to what extent the actions of the Costa Rican state were influenced by migrant demands, or whether other priorities guided policy. Based on a novel database on protest and collective action (...) (Protestas-IIS) that is fed with national and local newspaper articles, we analyze the demands made by migrants, the private sector and NIMBY movements, and state responses. Our findings suggest that the latter prioritized market concerns and antiimmigrant interests, thereby underscoring lessons from the literature that migrants are among the politically most disenfranchised in society. Their demands were only partially responded to by the state, and only concerning issues that aligned directly with public concerns, in this case related to health. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The focus of this essay is Kant's argument in the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals III that regarding oneself as rational implies regarding oneself as free. After setting out an interpretation of how the argument is meant to go, I argue that Kant fails to show that regarding oneself as free is incompatible with accepting universal causal determinism. However, I suggest that the argument succeeds in showing that regarding oneself as rational is inconsistent with accepting universal causal determinism (...) if one accepts a certain, plausible view of the explanation of events. RESUMEN El ensayo se enfoca en el argumento de Kant en la Fundamentación de la metafísica de las costumbres III según el cual considerarse racional implica verse a uno mismo como libre. Se interpreta la forma en que debe entenderse el argumento y se afirma que Kant no logra demostrar que considerarse libre es incompatible con la aceptación del determinismo casual universal. No obstante, se sugiere que el argumento sí logra demostrar que considerarse a uno mismo como racional es incompatible con la aceptación del determinismo casual universal, si se acepta una cierta versión plausible de la explicación de los eventos. (shrink)