The evolution and biodiversity of ageing have long fascinated scientists and the public alike. While mammals, including long‐lived species such as humans, show a marked ageing process, some species of reptiles and amphibians exhibit very slow and even the absence of ageing phenotypes. How can reptiles and other vertebrates age slower than mammals? Herein, I propose that evolving during the rule of the dinosaurs left a lasting legacy in mammals. For over 100 million years when dinosaurs were the dominant predators, (...) mammals were generally small, nocturnal, and short‐lived. My hypothesis is that such a long evolutionary pressure on early mammals for rapid reproduction led to the loss or inactivation of genes and pathways associated with long life. I call this the ‘longevity bottleneck hypothesis’, which is further supported by the absence in mammals of regenerative traits. Although mammals, such as humans, can evolve long lifespans, they do so under constraints dating to the dinosaur era. (shrink)

The ethical issues concerning the use of PGD to select embryos of a particular HLA type are numerous. They arise from the potentially conflicting interests between those of the pre-existing child, the subject of a treatment which may be curative, and those of the sibling to be created, who cannot give consent to the donation, together with the problem of the destruction of potentially healthy embryos. This essay focuses on the web of vulnerabilities affecting the parents, the sick child and (...) the “saviour sibling,” while addressing three areas: science, bioethics and literature. The novel My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, provides the reader with an in-depth view of the conflicting interests and emotional problems that affect the Fitzgeralds, a family experiencing the pain of seeing one of their children dying while facing the tragic consequences of trying to save this child by having another offspring. (shrink)

The elite theory of Max Weber has recently been rediscovered by political scientists and political theorists who have sought to explore both the heuristic and the normative potential of plebiscitary leader democracy. Notwithstanding the merits of this wave of studies, this paper argues that attention should be shifted from Weber's context-specific defence of plebiscitary leadership in post-WWI Germany to his broader conception of charisma as an attempt to grasp the enigma of significant social and political change. Contemporary democratic theory, this (...) paper contends, can fruitfully draw on Weber to sink into the antinomies and ambiguities of a transformative democratic politics. (shrink)

Time passes iff: P and then Q, for any tensed P and Q. Mary sits; and then she stands. The view—dynamic succession—accommodates the intuition that time passes when events change their A-characteristics: my next birthday is 11 months future and then 10 months future and so on. The view implies an intimate connection between passage, persistence, and change. Persistence and change both presuppose passage. The view charts a path between A-theories (invoking past, present, future) and B-theories (invoking succession). A-theories of (...) passage fail to uncover what makes the passage process go (i.e., succession). B-theories negate tense and therefore mistakenly treat succession as a static relation. Genuine succession makes it so that what comes after replaces what came before. (shrink)

Despite recent progress in the identification of genes that regulate longevity, aging remains a mysterious process. One influential hypothesis is the idea that the potential for cell division and replacement are important factors in aging. In this work, we review and discuss this perspective in the context of interventions in mammals that appear to accelerate or retard aging. Rather than focus on molecular mechanisms, we interpret results from an integrative biology perspective of how gene products affect cellular functions, which in (...) turn impact on tissues and organisms. We review evidence suggesting that mutations that give rise to features resembling premature aging tend to be associated with cellular phenotypes such as increased apoptosis or premature replicative senescence. In contrast, many interventions in mice that extend lifespan and might delay aging, including caloric restriction, tend to either hinder apoptosis or result in smaller animals and thus may be the product of fewer cell divisions. Therefore, it appears plausible that changes in the number of times that cells, and particularly stem cells, divide during an organism's lifespan influence longevity and aging. We discuss possible mechanisms related to this hypothesis and propose experimental paradigms. BioEssays 30:567–578, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Este artigo, apoiado na perspectiva teórica sócio-histórico-cultural, discute a atividade na qual sujeitos se envolvem como constitutiva dos papeis sociais que exercem. Objetiva desencadear discussão acerca da dinâmica discursiva em contextos de formação crítico-colaborativa de professores, focalizando os discursos de autoridade e internamente persuasivo (BAKHTIN, 2010) e sua coocorrência nas situações de negociação de significados. Tal distinção constitui-se relevante por permitir compreender diferentes enunciados argumentativos ou não, proferidos por educadores em formação, que se proximam ou se distanciam daqueles proferidos por (...) seus formadores ou por vozes teóricas isoladas da prática, indicando possibilidades de criação ou diminuição da expansão dialógica. A partir da ênfase no discurso internamente persuasivo, procura-se destacar o papel crítico-colaborativo da argumentação na formação de educadores. Exemplos selecionados de um corpus de pesquisa coletado em escola pública de São Paulo subsidiará a discussão, por sua vez, apoiada em Bakhtin (2010) e Vygotsky (1998; 2001). (shrink)

Culling is used in traditional public health policies to control animal populations. These policies aim primarily to protect human interests but often fail to provide scientific evidence of effectiveness. In this article, we defend the need to move from a strictly anthropocentric approach to disease control towards a One Health ethics, using culling practices as an example. We focus on the recent badger culls in the UK, claiming that, based on data provided by the English Government, these culls may be (...) unjustified, all thing considered. We highlight the relevance of ethical reasoning rooted in One Health for this discussion, and make several suggestions including a moratorium on culling until data are provided to support the effectiveness of culling; to conduct a randomized trial to compare proactive culling with alternative methods; to apply deliberative democratic methods to assess public opinion towards the culls, and to find in Brexit an opportunity for aiming for more effective control measures. (shrink)

Presentism: Essential Readings contains writings—classic and contemporary—that acquaint the reader with different versions of presentism, standard philosophical and scientific objections to presentism, and their attempted solutions. Detailed introductions to each part of the book make the discussions accessible to students and those unfamiliar with this fascinating and controversial philosophy.

This article observes the imagination of the end of the world in the Anthropocene era and, at the same time, intends, from an anthropological turn that considers other possibilities of human existence on Earth, to imagine how Amerindian cosmovision can promote not only an ontological but also an epistemological turn in the field of contemporary law and politics. A conflicted but not impossible dialogue between the naturalistic matrix of Western thought and Amerindian multinaturalism, in search of “ideas to postpone the (...) end of the world”. (shrink)

This essay addresses the moral nature of corporate social media platforms through the lenses of Axel Honneth’s concept of justice, according to which relations of mutual recognition must be institutionalized into spheres of social freedom to claim a just society. This perspective allows us to observe how platforms configure a symmetrically inverted form of ethical sphere, in which users are led to formulate non-autonomous desires that can only be realized socially. We characterize this as social unfreedom. A just platform ought (...) to be the one in which rights and self-legislation capabilities enable users to have a stake in governing how these digital spaces can be designed to foster the practical realization of users’ autonomous aims, the essay argues. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta reflexões sobre o letramento literário a partir da recepção da obra O olho de vidro do meu avô, de Bartolomeu Campos de Queirós, por meio da análise de depoimentos de leitores comuns – a literatura no cotidiano dos indivíduos - e de trechos de artigos científicos sobre a obra – a literatura no campo acadêmico. Apresentamos também uma sequência didática desenvolvida com alunos do 6º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública de Itabirito, interior de Minas (...) Gerais, a partir da recepção do livro. Para a realização da prática pedagógica, usamos a proposta sugerida e experienciada por Rildo Cosson para o letramento literário, denominada pelo pesquisador como “Sequência Básica”, composta por quatro etapas: motivação, introdução, leitura e interpretação. Dessa forma, procuramos compreender a literatura, a leitura literária e o letramento literário na vida social e na escola, pois cabe a essa instituição proporcionar aos alunos experiências que desenvolvam essa competência para o letramento literário, a se perpetuar pela vida adulta. O principal objetivo desse processo no contexto escolar é formar um leitor que aprecie significações estéticas, capaz de se inserir em uma comunidade que faça suas próprias escolhas literárias, que saiba manipular seus instrumentos culturais e possa construir com eles um sentido para si e para o mundo em que vive. Dessa forma, é necessário reconhecer a importância de atividades que abarquem diferentes tipos de materiais escritos, mas que não sejam negligenciados os textos literários, multiplicando, dessa forma, os espaços de leitura e constituindo comunidades de leitores na escola e fora dela. (shrink)

Research suggested that developing mindfulness skills in children improves proximal outcomes, such as attention and executive functions, as well as distal outcomes, such as academic achievement. Despite empirical evidence supporting this claim, research on the benefits of mindfulness training in child populations is scarce, with some mixed findings in the field. Here, we aimed to fill in this gap, by examining the effects of a mindfulness training on third graders’ proximal and distal outcomes, namely, attention and executive functions (viz., inhibitory (...) control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) as well as literacy-related achievement (viz., handwriting fluency, text quality, Portuguese grades). These outcomes were measured with behavioral tasks and teacher ratings. Sixty-six Portuguese children were randomly allocated to an experimental group receiving mindfulness training (n= 29) or an active control group receiving relaxation training (n= 37). Both training programs were implemented by psychologists in two 30-min weekly sessions for 8 weeks. All students were assessed before and after the interventions. Three main findings are noteworthy: (a) mindfulness training enhanced teacher-rated cognitive flexibility and a performance-based composite score of executive functions among children with higher pretest scores; (b) relaxation training improved performance-based cognitive flexibility and the composite score of executive functions among children with lower pretest scores; (c) children receiving mindfulness training had higher handwriting fluency and better grades in Portuguese than those receiving relaxation training. These findings provide preliminary evidence on the benefits of mindfulness training in educational settings and highlight the moderating role of baseline performance on those benefits. (shrink)

ResumoAlguns leitores de Nietzsche podem admitir certa dificuldade em reconhecer os limites entre a crítica, a genealogia e o filosofar com o martelo. Tais limites existem e podem ser delineados se buscarmos o elemento no qual cada uma dessas investidas atua. Este artigo procura elaborar a ideia de que a noção nietzschiana de crítica envolve o desprezo afirmativo, o riso e a zombaria. Ligada, portanto, a uma condição valorativa, a crítica é mais ofensiva, exigente e assumidamente tendenciosa do que se (...) poderia conceber a partir da tradição kantiana.AbstractSome readers of Nietzsche may admit some difficulty in recognizing the boundaries between criticism, genealogy, and philosophizing with the hammer. However, such limits exist if one seek the element that produces each one. This article tries to elaborate the idea that the affirmative contempt, laughter, mockery, for Nietzsche, defines the critic. Related, therefore, to an evaluative (and physiological) condition, criticism is more virulent, offensive, demanding and biased than one might think from a Kantian tradition. (shrink)

Orphan drug policy often gives ‘special treatment’ to rare diseases, by giving additional priority or making exceptions to specific drugs, based on the rarity of the conditions they aim to treat. This essay argues that the goal of orphan drug policy should be to make prevalence irrelevant to funding decisions. It aims to demonstrate that it is severity, not prevalence, which drives our judgments that important claims are being overlooked when treatments for severe rare diseases are not funded. It shows (...) that prioritising severity avoids problems caused by prioritising rarity, and that it is compatible with a range of normative frameworks. The implications of a severity-based view for drug development are then derived. The severity-based view also accounts for what is wrong with how the current system of drug development unfairly neglects common diseases that burden the developing world. Lastly, the implications of a severity-based view for current orphan drug policies are discussed. There are no data in this work. (shrink)

In theory, a human rights framework should protect and guarantee the equal provision of care and rights of all people. In practice, however, the universality that underlies human rights is enacted through citizenship rights, which rely on the individual politically ‘belonging’ to a nation-state.

El artículo deriva de un estudio de caso cualitativo realizado en 2019 que analiza los testimonios de 30 mujeres bolivianas aymara empleadas mayormente en la agricultura o en el comercio agrícola en el valle de Azapa, en las inmediaciones de la ciudad chilena de Arica. Se enfoca específicamente en sus relatos sobre las relaciones de género en sus familias de origen, indagando sobre su impacto (o su vinculación) con los desplazamientos que las mujeres emprenden en sus vidas adultas. El objetivo (...) central es mostrar cómo las relaciones de género en estos entornos familiares ayudaron a configurar los procesos de movilidad transfronteriza femenina y cómo ambos elementos están atravesados por las múltiples desigualdades entre hombres y mujeres en las comunidades de origen de las migrantes. Los marcos conceptuales aplicados a este estudio devienen de dos grandes campos teóricos. Primero, para conceptualizar las relaciones de género y las desigualdades de poder que caracterizan las trayectorias familiares de nuestras entrevistadas en sus localidades de origen, nos apoyamos en las reflexiones antropológicas del feminismo crítico sobre los sistemas de dominación masculina. En segundo lugar, nos apoyamos también en la amplia producción antropológica sobre las asimetrías de género en los grupos sociales aymara, que permiten complementar el marco anterior desde las dimensiones simbólicas y relacionales propias de estos pueblos originarios. (shrink)

O anthropos de Protágoras: do singular ao comum Resumo: Com base no Teeteto de Platão, busca-se compreender a dimensão do termo ánthropos na famosa sentença de Protágoras. Segundo a crítica platônica, Protágoras parece entender corpo e alma como diferentes tipos de percipientes: os órgãos sensoriais corporais percebem a aparência imediata de algo que provoca a sensibilidade; a alma, por sua vez, ‘percebe’ por ter julgamentos admitidos pela aprendizagem e experiência. O homem-medida protagórico, do tema da realidade sensível, conduz-nos à formulação (...) do problema em termos de julgamento e opinião, e a medida, que inicialmente é atribuída a cada indivíduo, para além de cada ser humano, é reputada a cada cidade. Palavras-chave: Homem-medida; Protágoras; Paideia; Democracia; Teeteto. The ánthropos of Protagoras: from singular to common Abstract: Based on Plato's Theaetetus, we seek to understand the dimension of the term ánthropos in the famous sentence of Protagoras. According to Platonic criticism, Protagoras seems to understand body and soul as different types of percipients: the bodily sensory organs perceive the immediate appearance of something that provokes sensitivity; the soul 'perceives' by having judgments admitted by learning and experience. The protagorical measure-man, from the theme of sensible reality, leads us to formulate the problem in terms of judgment and opinion, and the measure, which is initially attributed to each individual, in addition to each human being, is reputed to each city. Keywords: Man-measure; Protagoras; Paideia; Democracy; Theaetetus. El antropos de Protágoras: del singular al común Resumen: Con base en el Teeteto de Platón, buscamos comprender la dimensión del término ánthropos en la famosa oración de Protágoras. Según la crítica platónica, Protágoras parece entender el cuerpo y el alma como diferentes tipos de perceptores: los órganos sensoriales corporales perciben la aparición inmediata de algo que provoca la sensibilidad; el alma, a su vez, "percibe" al admitir juicios mediante el aprendizaje y la experiencia. El hombre-medida protagórico, desde el tema de la realidad sensible, nos lleva a formular el problema en términos de juicio y opinión, y la medida, que inicialmente se atribuye a cada individuo, además de cada persona, se le atribuye a cada ciudad. Palabras clave: Hombre medida; Protágoras; Paideia; Democracia; Teeteto. Data de registro: 15/07/2021 Data de aceite: 15/03/2022. (shrink)

Sabendo que Cármides sofria com dores na cabeça pela manhã, Sócrates se oferece para curar a enfermidade do jovem e, em busca do fármaco para o tratamento, conta que, enquanto esteve em Potideia, recebera o ensinamento de certas práticas mágicas de um discípulo de Zalmoxis. Possíveis causas para as opressões na cabeça de Cármides já foram aventadas, como, por exemplo, a ressaca da embriaguez e a própria intemperança, objeto de análise do diálogo. O nosso propósito neste artigo é, além de (...) sugerir a hipótese de que a moléstia se deve à qualidade de seus sonhos, destacar, dentre algumas práticas caracterizadas como mágicas, aquela que visa a cura por intermédio da liberação da alma do corpo, o que é assinalado pela excursão alçada pelo sono. Para corroborar a nossa hipótese, abordaremos passagens da República em que Platão, ao tratar da transformação do homem democrático em tirânico, menciona a psicologia dos sonhos. (shrink)

Resumo Qual o papel da religião numa sociedade secularizada? Qual o papel da Igreja? O artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre essas questões a partir de um "diálogo virtual" entre o teólogo alemão Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) e o filósofo italiano contemporâneo Gianni Vattimo. Esses dois autores, separados pelo tempo e pela geografia, aproximam-se, no entanto, na forma de pensar o fenômeno da secularização - ambos a entendem como algo intrínseco ao Ocidente cristão. A dissolução do sacro e o movimento em direção (...) à autonomia humana foram percebidos por esses dois pensadores não como ameaças à religião cristã, mas como possibilidades de sua plena realização, concretizada por meio do engajamento social. Diante do fim das certezas e das verdades absolutas - quadro pós-moderno que já se delineava na década de 1940 e ganha contornos mais precisos no princípio do século XXI, tanto Bonhoeffer quanto Vattimo pensaram uma teologia capaz de abrir mão dos pressupostos metafísicos. Palavras-chave: Filosofia; Teologia; Pós-modernidade; Secularização; Eclesiologia.What is the role of religion in a secularized society? What is the role of the Church? This article suggests a reflection on these questions based on a "virtual dialogue" between German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) and contemporary Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo. Though separated by time and geography, those authors are close to each other in the way they view the secularization phenomenon - both understand it as intrinsic to the Christian West. The dissolution of the sacred and the movement towards human autonomy were perceived by the two thinkers not as threats to the Christian religion, but as possibilities of its full accomplishment, made real by social commitment. Facing the end of certainties and absolute truths - a postmodern framework that starts to take shape in the 1940s and acquires more definite contours in the beginning of the 21st century - Bonhoeffer and Vattimo were able to think a theology capable of giving up its metaphysical presuppositions. Key words: Philosophy; Theology; Postmodernity; Secularization; Ecclesiology. (shrink)