The field of genetics has seen major advances in recent decades, particularly in research, prevention and diagnosis. One of the most recent developments, the genomic editing technique Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9, has opened the possibility for genetic therapies through genome modification. The technique marks an improvement on previous procedures but poses some serious ethical conflicts. Bioethics is the discipline geared at finding answers to ethical challenges posed by progress in medicine and biology and examining their repercussions for (...) society. It can also offer a conceptualization of these ethical dilemmas. The aim of this paper is to offer a map of the ethical dilemmas associated with this technique by way of a critical analysis of current literature. The main issues can be grouped in four areas: efficacy and security; the types of cells which can be targeted by the technique (somatic, embryonic and gametes); the goal of the therapy; and accessibility and justice. (shrink)

This study explored the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived health behaviors; physical activity, sleep, and diet behaviors, alongside associations with wellbeing. Participants were 1,140 individuals residing in the United Kingdom, South Korea, Finland, Philippines, Latin America, Spain, North America, and Italy. They completed an online survey reporting possible changes in the targeted behaviors as well as perceived changes in their physical and mental health. Multivariate analyses of covariance on the final sample revealed significant mean differences regarding perceived physical (...) and mental health “over the last week,” as well as changes in health behaviors during the pandemic by levels of physical activity and country of residence. Follow up analyses indicated that individuals with highest decrease in physical activity reported significantly lower physical and mental health, while those with highest increase in physical activity reported significantly higher increase in sleep and lower weight gain. United Kingdom participants reported lowest levels of physical health and highest increase in weight while Latin American participants reported being most affected by emotional problems. Finnish participants reported significantly higher ratings for physical health. The physical activity by country interaction was significant for wellbeing. MANCOVA also revealed significant differences across physical activity levels and four established age categories. Participants in the oldest category reported being significantly least affected by personal and emotional problems; youngest participants reported significantly more sleep. The age by physical activity interaction was significant for eating. Discussed in light of Hobfoll conservation of resources theory, findings endorse the policy of advocating physical activity as a means of generating and maintaining resources combative of stress and protective of health. (shrink)

This two-wave study investigated the temporal interplay between motivation and the intensity and reported impact of athletes’ emotions in training settings. In total, 217 athletes completed self-report measures of motivational climate, motivation regulations, emotional states (i.e., pleasant states, anger, and anxiety) experienced before practice at two time points during a 3-month period. Latent change score modeling revealed significantly negative paths from task-involving climate at time 1 to the latent change in the intensity of dysfunctional anxiety and anger, and significantly positive (...) paths from ego-involving climate at time 1 to the latent change in dysfunctional anger (i.e., intensity and reported impact). The paths from controlled motivation at time 1 to the latent change in the intensity of dysfunctional anxiety and vice versa were significantly positive. The path from controlled motivation at time 1 to the latent change in the intensity of functional anger was significantly positive, but not vice versa. In addition, the paths from dysfunctional anger (i.e., intensity and reported impact) at time 1 to the latent change in motivation regulations were significant, but not vice versa. Overall, evidence provided suggested that the temporal interplay of motivation and emotions is contingent on the specific emotions. The findings highlight the role of coach-created motivational climate and the importance of identifying high levels of controlled motivation to help athletes better adapt to psychological stress. (shrink)

This paper inquires into the conceptual nature of self-deception. I shall afford a theory which links SD to wishful thinking. First I present two rival models for the analysis of SD, and suggest reasons why the interpersonal model is flawed. It is necessary for supporters of this model to work out a strategy that avoids the ascription of inconsistency to the self-deceiver in order to fulfill the requirements of the charity principle. Some objections to the compartmentalization strategy are put forward, (...) and a motivational theory is advanced. This theory diverges from Mele (1997)'s account of SD in that it (i) establishes as a necessary condition for SD the existence of a causal link between a desire and a belief unacknowledged by the self-deceived subject, who is unaware also of the counterevidential nature of his belief (the 'focused inferential blindness' thesis), (ii) allows only 'weak SD' cases and offers methodological reasons against the seemingly intentional and dissociative nature of SD and (iii) stresses the deception-SD asymmetry. /// El presente artículo intenta investigar la naturaleza conceptual del autoengaño. Presentaré dos modelos rivales de análisis y ofreceré razones contra la teoría interpersonal frente a la motivacional, alegando las dificultades que comporta seguir alguna de sus estrategias de compartimentación para evitar la atribución de inconsistencia simple al sujeto autoengañado. Defenderé una teoría que vincula el autoengaño con la creencia desiderativa. Se trata de una teoría motivacional que difiere de la de Mele (1997) en que (i) establece como condición necesaria para el autoengaño que se dé una relación causal entre el deseo y la creencia pertinentes, relación cuya existencia desconoce el sujeto, que ignora también el grado en que su creencia es incompatible con los datos empíricamente disponibles (tesis de la ceguera inferencial focalizada), (ii) acepta sólo casos de autoengaño débil y ofrece razones metodológicas contra la supuesta naturaleza intencional y disociativa del autoengaño y (iii) subraya la asimetría autoengaño/engaño. (shrink)

Engineering ethics is usually focused on engineers’ ethics, engineers acting as individuals. Certainly, these professionals play a central role in the matter, but engineers are not a singularity inside engineering ; they exist and operate as a part of a complex network of mutual relationships between many other people, organizations and groups. When engineering ethics and engineers’ ethics are taken as one and the same thing the paradigm of the ethical engineer which prevails is that of the heroic engineer, a (...) certain model of the ideal engineer: someone both quite individualistic and strong enough to deal with all the moral challenges that could arise. We argue that this is not the best approach, at least today in our interrelated world. We have achieved a high degree of independence from nature by means of technology. In exchange for this autonomy we have become increasingly tied up with very complex systems to which we constantly delegate new tasks and powers. Concerns about safety keep growing everywhere due to the fact that now we have a sensitive awareness of the huge amount of power we are both consuming and deploying, thus, new forms of dialogue and consensus have to be incorporated at different levels, in different forums and at different times. Within these democratic channels of participation not just the needs and interests, but also the responsibilities and mutual commitments of all parties should be taken into account. (shrink)

Even the most Parmenidean-minded of people recognize that quotidian objects somehow undergo change. This claim, nonetheless, is as clearly intuitive as it is apparently incompatible with one of our most widely believed logical principles, namely, Leibniz's Law. This paper focuses briefly on the metaphysical issue underlying this alleged incompatibility in order to provide elements for exploring its semantical counterpart: the analysis of the logical form of sentences attributing complementary temporal properties to current objects. Four analyses are presented, and the ability (...) of each to account for the linguistic data is explained. The semantical issue is preceded by some introductory remarks on the role of temporal references in the evaluation of declarative sentences. (shrink)

De Bie et al. (2023) introduces a framework to conceptualize ethical issues based on four different domains, but the problem lies in the domains being falsely bounded. Apart from the step from doma...

The framework presented by Bayefsky and Berkman is based on having clear and accurate genetic information to offer parents, for them to either decide to prepare for birth or to terminate the...

Este trabajo pretende demostrar que, en la filosofía de Bruno, la vicisitud universal es la explicación metafísica del devenir cósmico y su constitutiva movilidad. La materia infinita del universo es una unidad vital al amparo de la ley de la mutación cíclica, cuya consecuencia ineludible es la armonía de los contrarios. El destino del hombre es hallar la verdad subyacente en el ritmo vícisitudinario de lo real, y para ello deberá alcanzar la sabiduría y transcenderla por el amor heroico.

El manuscrito 2461 de la Biblioteca General de Rabat conserva un tercer zi)3 del astrónomo Muhammad ibn al-Raqqám al-Andalusí (m. 1315): al-Ziy al-Mustawfa. Los cánones (capitulo 18) y la tabla del movimiento del apogeo de al-Mustawfa están relacionados con el trabajo de Ibm Isháq al-Túnisí (1193-1222), quien compiló, probablemente, un conjunto de tablas carentes de cánones. Ibn al-Raqqám conocía bien el ziy de Ibn Isháq del que realizó dos recensiones conocidas hasta ahora: al-Ziy al- amil y al-Ziy al-Qawim. En al-Mustawfó, (...) tercera recensión de la misma obra, Ibn al-Raqqám aclara cuál era la opinión de Ibn Isl3áq sobre el movimiento de los apogeos planetarios y la división que existía, a este respecto, entre los astrónomos de la escuela andaluso-magrebí. (shrink)

El tasyīr o «prorrogación» es un procedimiento astrológico por el que se hace avanzar de forma imaginaria un indicador para conocer las influencias celestes. El tasyīr fue una de las herramientas fundamentales del astrólogo en el levantamiento de un horóscopo. Este artículo analiza la información que contiene el capítulo “Sobre el tasyīr” de la obra al-Bāri‘ de Ibn Abī-l-Riŷāl : los métodos, las técnicas y los recursos que utilizaba. Su estudio nos muestra las vías por las que la ciencia se (...) transmitía, el modo en el que el astrólogo elaboraba su obra, la importancia del al-Bāri‘ como introductor en el Magreb y en la Europa medieval de fuentes y conocimientos nuevos importados de Oriente y la vigencia de su astrología hasta el siglo XV. El cotejo del capítulo mencionado con su traducción castellana nos da pruebas de la forma de trabajar de los traductores de Alfonso X. (shrink)

Decision-making capacity in children and adolescents in healthcare requires thorough assessment: the minor's maturity, understanding of the decision, risk of the situation and contextual factors needs to be explored. The intention was to design and validate a test—the Maturtest—to assess the maturity of minors in decision-making processes in healthcare. A reasoning test on moral conflicts for adolescents was designed to infer the degree of maturity of minors applied to decision-making regarding their own health. The test was completed by a sample (...) of 441 adolescents aged from twelve to sixteen, with a corresponding analysis of their psychometric skills to measure feasibility, viability, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. Psychometric test results showed viability, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change. High correlation between the test score and the reference method were notable. A high stability was obtained with an intraclass correlation coefficient. The average response time of the test was twenty-three minutes. This test measures the moral maturity of adolescents. It is presented as an objective, useful, valid, reliable tool, easy to fill out, edit and apply in a healthcare context. It helps to assess the maturity of minors faced with a decision. (shrink)

Resumen: Diez años después de la muerte de Franco, la escritora catalana Maria Barbal publicó Pedra de tartera, una novela sobre la trayectoria vital de una campesina del Pirineo marcada por la Guerra Civil española. El objetivo de este artículo es demostrar que el éxito local e internacional de la obra reside en la capacidad de la voz narrativa por rememorar el pasado desde el posicionamiento ético en contra de los seculares poderes patriarcales y el compromiso con la denuncia de (...) la condición de la mujer. La obra de Barbal ha merecido una atención académica poco significativa, que además no ha profundizado en su dimensión de relato de guerra. Con el fin de situar Pedra de tartera en el corpus de narrativas de la memoria que abordan la Guerra Civil, proponemos una exégesis que pone el foco en el reconocimiento de la violencia patriarcal, bélica y postbélica que sufre la protagonista.: Ten years after Franco’s death, the Catalan writer Maria Barbal published Stone in a Landslide, a novel about the life story of a peasant woman of the Pyrenees marked by the Spanish Civil War. The aim of this paper is to prove that local and international success of the work lies in the ability of the narrative voice to remember the past from the ethical stance against the secular patriarchal powers and commitment to denouncing the woman’s condition. The work of Barbal still has not had the academic attention that it deserves, especially as a war narrative. In order to place Stone in a Landslide in the corpus of the narrative of memory addressing Civil War, we propose an exegesis that places the focus on the recognition of patriarchal, war and postwar violence suffered by the protagonist. (shrink)

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic people have endured potentially stressful challenges which have influenced behaviors such as eating. This pilot study examined the effectiveness of two brief interventions aimed to help individuals deal with food cravings and associated emotional experiences. Participants were 165 individuals residing in United Kingdom, Finland, Philippines, Spain, Italy, Brazil, North America, South Korea, and China. The study was implemented remotely, thus without any contact with researchers, and involved two groups. Group one participants were requested (...) to use daily diaries for seven consecutive days to assess the frequency of experience of their food cravings, frequency of giving in to cravings, and difficulty resisting cravings, as well as emotional states associated with their cravings. In addition to completing daily food diaries, participants in group two were asked to engage in mindful eating practice and forming implementation intentions. Participants assessed their perceived changes in eating, wellbeing, and health at the beginning and end of the intervention. Repeated measures MANOVAs indicated that participants experienced significantly less food cravings, as well as lower intensities of unpleasant states associated with cravings across time. In contrast to our hypothesis, the main effects of the group were not significant. Participants reported less eating and enhanced wellbeing at the end of the study. Our findings can be used to inform future remote interventions to manage food cravings and associated emotions and highlight the need for alternative solutions to increase participant engagement. (shrink)

The doctor-patient relationship is a crucial aspect of primary-care practice Research on associations between quality of care provision and burnout and empathy in a primary care setting could improve this relationship. Cross-sectional study of family physicians and nurses of twenty-two primary care centers in the health district of Lleida, Spain. Empathy and burnout were measured using the Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, while quality of care delivery was evaluated using Quality Standard Indicator scores. JPSE and MBI (...) results were grouped into low, medium, and high scores to analyze associations with QSI scores and sociodemographic variables. The mean QSI score recorded for the family physicians and nurses was 665. Higher, albeit insignificant, QSI scores were observed for practitioners with high burnout. No differences were observed according to level of empathy. The differences with respect to sex, age, and area of practice were not significant. Practitioners with low empathy had higher QSI scores than those with high empathy while those with high burnout had higher scores than those with low burnout. Burnout and empathy did not significantly influence quality of care delivery scores in 22 primary care centers. More studies, however, are needed to investigate the unexpected trend observed that suggests that physicians and nurses with higher levels of burnout provide higher quality care. (shrink)

The purpose of this cross-sectional investigation was to examine the item characteristics, factor structure, reliability, convergent validity, and construct validity of the Psychobiosocial States in Physical Education (PBS-SPE) scale. In Study 1, a sample of 1,030 students (582 girls and 448 boys, 10 to 19-year-olds), drawn from middle or high schools, rated the intensity of the 20 items version of the PBS-SPE scale thinking about the feelings they had usually experienced in physical education classes. In Study 2, an additional sample (...) of 1,025 students (578 girls, 447 boys, 10 to 19-year-olds), rated the 16 items of the final version of the scale. Two subsamples also completed an affective-related measure (i.e., the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale) and two motivation scales often used in the physical education domain (i.e., the Teacher-Initiated Motivational Climate in Physical Education Questionnaire and the Situational Motivation Scale). Exploratory structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analyses of the data showed that a two-factor, 16-item solution (i.e., 8 pleasant/functional items and 8 unpleasant/dysfunctional items) of the PBS-SPE scale reached satisfactory fit indices. Multi-group comparisons provided support for measurement and structural invariance across samples, gender, and age. Convergent and construct validity was also upheld. Overall, the findings offer support for the use of a new instrument in the assessment of psychobiosocial states in physical education settings. (shrink)

This essay intersects literature and epistemology in order to understand what it means to take “The left hand of darkness”, as proposed by the author Ursula K. Le Guin, as a thought experiment. As we look at Science Fiction as a literary genre and how it relates to the notion of thought experiment, we conclude that Science Fiction authors, through the imaginary displacement they perform as they create people, worlds, political organizations, and explore the relations between subjects within these imaginary (...) structures, also draw thought experiments that are able to deal with important aspects of the human experience. (shrink)

Resenha: SANTOS, Boaventura de Sousa. A difícil democracia: reinventar as esquerdas. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2016. ISBN 978-85-7559-509-1.

Apoiado nas fórmulas dos próprios jovens hegelianos, este trabalho procura caracterizar a principal oposição no interior do movimento. Tal oposição aparece agora como uma entre uma crítica pesadamente construtiva, a favor da comunidade como um universal estabelecido fora da consciência dos homens, e outra a favor da primazia do sujeito, “liberal”, e potencialmente “dissolvedora”.

COM BASE NA TESE DE QUE DEVEMOS ENTENDER A “DEMOCRACIA RADICAL” COMO O NÚCLEO NORMATIVO DE SOCIEDADES EMANCIPADAS, O ARTIGO EXPÕE A CRÍTICA DE HABERMAS AO PARADIGMA “PRODUTIVISTA” COMO ORIENTAÇÃO EMANCIPATÓRIA DA ESQUERDA.

Mais difícil que a compreensão teórica e a justificação política do fim do socialismo é a sua elaboração interior como perda, como luto, como ilusão, como engano e como culpa. Este livro dá um roteiro possível, uma agenda plausível para o trabalho de luto das esquerdas pelo viés da relação entre utopia e melancolia.

Pelo menos desde o século XIX, a relação entre o pessimismo e a política tem suscitado o debate entre diversos filósofos, cujas leituras têm apontado para compreensões bastante opostas. Por um lado, há a leitura tradicional, que aproxima Schopenhauer, o fundador do pessimismo moderno, de uma concepção política conservadora, como é o caso das críticas feitas por Lukács. Por outro lado, há uma apropriação crítica, por parte de uma assim chamada “esquerda schopenhaueriana”, de aspectos desse pessimismo, como fazem Mainländer, (...) Lütkehaus, Horkheimer e a escola de Teoria Crítica. Neste artigo, buscamos analisar algumas categorias de pensamento político, social e econômico de Schopenhauer e as distintas leituras de sua filosofia. (shrink)

Esse artigo espera contribuir para a compreensão da relação entre a religião e a política. Por meio da análise tipológica e do recurso metodológico da história oral temática elaboramos o seu ambiente teórico. Estudamos os jovens inseridos na Pastoral da Juventude do Meio Popular entre meados das décadas de 1980 e 1990, na região industrial de Belo Horizonte – Brasil. Estes jovens são representantes do grande movimento religioso conhecido como cristianismo da libertação de larga e profunda repercussão na história política (...) e religiosa da república brasileira da segunda metade do século XX. Nossa compreensão situa-se na passagem do catolicismo tradicional para o catolicismo internalizado experimentado por esses jovens e suas famílias no processo de migração das áreas rurais para a jovem área urbana. Vale dizer que os fragmentos de entrevistas citadas foram realizadas por nós para a pesquisa que deu vaga a esse artigo. Palavras-chaves : Juventude. Religião e política. Esquerda católica brasileira. CatolicismoThis article aims to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between religion and politics. The theoretical environment of this research has been prepared by analyzing typological and methodological resource of oral history. For this purpose, we studied the young participants of the Youth Ministry of the "lower middle class" between the mid 1980s and 1990 in the industrial region of Belo Horizonte - Brazil. These young people represent a religious movement known as liberation Christianity, with profound repercussions in the political and religious history of the Brazilian republic of the second half of the twentieth century. The scope of this study lies in the transition from traditional Catholicism to the form of Catholicism internalized and experienced by these young people and their families in the process of migration from rural to urban areas. The fragments of interviews cited were conducted for research that allowed this article. Keywords : Youth. Religion and politics. Brazilian Catholic left. Catholicism. (shrink)

O dossiê estoicismo desta edição contém trabalhos apresentados no 1 Colóquio Epicteto, que ocorreu em Aracaju em fevereiro de 2016. Na capa desta edição temos foto de defesa de dissertação de Valter Duarte (à direita), sendo questionado por Antônio Tarquínio (à esquerda).