Which non-human animals are phenomenally conscious? In this paper I argue that the distribution of phenomenal consciousness in the animal world is ultimately an unsolvable issue, because of an underlying problem inherent in the field: what I call the Kinda Hard Problem. The Kinda Hard Problem arises because the grounds on which we base our consciousness attributions to humans third-personally are either unavailable or ambiguous once we move to the animal case. Its nature is that of an epistemic problem: we (...) cannot collect enough evidential grounds to justify attributions of phenomenal consciousness (and attributions of its lack) to non-human animals. Thus, it is impossible to ground rational belief one way or another regarding animal consciousness. This paper presents the problem and explains how it differs from other problems of consciousness. (shrink)

Intelligence, genius and mental ability were a cluster of traits that received much attention in eugenics discourse. Intelligence was regarded as one of the good qualities superior men possessed, in turn beneficial for society as a whole. On the other hand, the socially problematic or unproductive were identified as being of inferior mental quality: “feeble-minded”. By and large, eugenicists thought that (1) intelligence was a unitary psychological trait that could be measured, being quantified as an intelligence quotient (IQ); (2) intelligence (...) was paired with educational achievement, reputation, and economic success; (3) a certain degree of intelligence was necessary to act morally and to foresee the consequences of one’s actions. Despite the prominent role of intelligence in the history of eugenics, there is considerable lack of clarity in what this general mental ability was considered to be. (shrink)

In this article, I will try to explain the meaning of the word zihâr, translated as oath of the back, trying only to situate it in its context and to bring an elucidation of the subject`s origin. The zihâr is a type of repudiation used by a husband against his wife in the times of gâhiliyya (the ante-Islamic period), by using a solemn divorce formula which consists in saying: "let (her) be from now on as the back of my mother". (...) Therefore, backing up on this formula, I want to try to clarify this concept. (shrink)

In this article, I will try to explain the meaning of the word zihâr, translated as oath of the back, trying only to situate it in its context and to bring an elucidation of the subject`s origin. The zihâr is a type of repudiation used by a husband against his wife in the times of gâhiliyya (the ante-Islamic period), by using a solemn divorce formula which consists in saying: "let (her) be from now on as the back of my mother". (...) Therefore, backing up on this formula, I want to try to clarify this concept. (shrink)

This study examines the impact of board gender diversity on financial misconduct. The findings suggest firms with gender-diverse boards commit fewer financial reporting mistakes and engage in less fraud. The findings hold after accounting for the potentially endogenous nature of board demographic characteristics via instrumental variable approach. Furthermore, the findings are consistent in pre- and post-regulation periods and hold for firms with good and bad governance. The findings do not seem driven by differences in effort or quality, in terms of (...) independence and expertise, of female and male directors. The benefit derived from increasing the number of female directors on corporate boards seems to diminish at higher levels of gender diversity, indicating that impact of gender diversity on decreasing the likelihood of financial misconduct may be a result of a change to board group dynamics. (shrink)

The main thesis of Heyes' book is that all of the domain-specific learning mechanisms that make the human mind so different from the minds of other animals are culturally created and culturally acquired gadgets. The only innate differences are some motivational tweaks, enhanced capacities for associative learning, and enhanced executive function abilities. But Heyes' argument depends on contrasting cognitive gadgets with cognitive instincts, which are said to be innately specified. This ignores what has for some years been the mainstream nativist/anti-empiricist (...) view, which commits only to partially specified learning systems that become elaborated and built through domain-specific learning. (shrink)

In this paper, the ethics of otherness of Emmanuel Levinas, for whom the nudity of the Face (visage) is never a matter of style but moral conscience, encounters the theory of (cultural) dialogical action, foundation for Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed and its denunciation-enunciation of dehumanization and oppression. For both authors, violence gets the meaning of possession, way throughout an entity, although existing, is partially negated. Such partiality, when negating the independence of the entity, states oppression, as it negates (...) the oppressed vocation to be more. Oppression kills life. Whereas, it is through the conscience of such condition of beingfor-other that the proper possibility of humanity can be thought, because the relation to the other or to the collective is our relation, irreducible to understanding. To recognize such subversion, therefore, is to recognize that as the oppressed free themselves, they avoid to get back to an oppressive regime. In doing so, they free their prior oppressors, they inaugurate love. Is it not to assume, in essence, that ethics is a construction of sense of life since the encounter with the Other? KEY WORDS – Humanism. Freedom. Ethics of otherness. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Social transformation. (shrink)

Anhedonia is the diminished motivation and sensitivity to pleasurable stimuli. It has been reported to be more prevalent in patients with chronic pain as compared to healthy controls. Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory systemic disease with a significant psychosocial impact that compromises wellbeing and the day-to-day life of patients. Women with endometriosis show significant psychological distress, even more pervasive when chronic pelvic pain is present. In the current review we will discuss the role of anhedonia in endometriotic chronic pelvic pain. (...) We will also present new lines of research that could lead to more fully clarifying the psychological impact of endometriosis and its detrimental repercussions to quality of life and mental health. (shrink)

Chicana feminist writers have written eloquently about the condition of women in their communities. Many of them have aligned themselves with and participated in various political movements. This practice has infused their theorizing with various influences which makes them similar to other feminist theorists but also different. This paper provides an overview of how Chicana feminist writings address the ethnic specific ways in which gender oppression is imposed on them and their proposals for liberation.

Chicana feminist writers have written eloquently about the condition of women in their communities. Many of them have aligned themselves with and participated in various political movements. This practice has infused their theorizing with various influences which makes them similar to other feminist theorists but also different. This paper provides an overview of how Chicana feminist writings address the ethnic specific ways in which gender oppression is imposed on them and their proposals for liberation.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Cartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Space by Juan HerreraAída R. GuhlincozziCartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Spaceby juan herrera Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2022Juan Herrera’s historical recounting of Latino activism in Fruitvale, California, in Cartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Space is stellar. In fact, the case focused on by Herrera as an example of activism producing (...) space and creating change in the name of social justice is not the only top-quality contribution to Latinx geographies to be found in this book. Herrera’s conceptualization of “cartographic memory” builds on the intertwining of Latinx writers and historians with traditional spatial thought from the history of geography. His definition of “cartographic memory” as a “political remaking of urban geography and therefore a selective mapping” adds to the broader oeuvre of activism and space coming out in recent years (14).The geographic location for Cartographic Memory comes from the author’s long history of working in and around Fruitvale as both a volunteer and community member. As a new resident of the Oakland area, Herrera mistakenly navigated himself to Fruitvale, where he found the elements of the place clearly speaking to a cultural aesthetic of Latin-idad. Intrigued, Herrera began volunteering in the area, and learned more of the long activist history of the space. That activist history, Herrera argues, has long been under-studied, or even forgotten, in Chicano activist history, and merits recognition. Herrera’s efforts with [End Page 139] this book go a long way to gathering together that spatial history and reconstructing it for the reader through interviews and oral histories with numerous activists, extensive archival research, and ethnography focusing on the 1960s and 1970s Mexican-American activist mobilization in support of the Chicano movement.The power of the focus on Fruitvale must be recognized, as Herrera also makes space for intently peeling apart the layers of nonprofit funding, social movements, and community-building and support. The chapter, “Revolution Interrupted,” is about the funding situation of the Unity Council in Fruitvale and how the funding structure was constructed over time in the context of the political and economic opportunities of the 1960s. It speaks to how this had a profound effect on the organizers and community given the shift from grassroots to institutional funding. This chapter opens the book with a focus on the national scope of funding opportunities for organizations in the 1960s that focused on race and ethnicity. Through this lens are explored the effects of local political actions—such as the 1969 speech by San Antonio-based Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) leader Jose Angel Gutierrez—on funding at the federal level. Because of the perceived militancy of these remarks, the U.S. Congress became concerned, and eventually passed the 1969 Tax Reform bill, limiting the types of projects that could be funded philanthropically. This type of multi-scale understanding of Fruitvale activism is threaded throughout the entire book, from chapter 1, “Making Place,” in which Herrera summarizes activist perspectives on Fruitvale as emphasizing “not only how the neighborhood itself [produced] a geography of activism but also how it was interconnected to other places of struggle throughout the United States” (emphasis in original; 33).Herrera also navigates the interactions of race, ethnicity, and space, tracing how coalitions, influences on political efforts, and collaboration took place throughout Fruitvale and Oakland during this period. His second chapter, “The Other Minority,” identifies where Black Panther Party-related work occurred; the marketization that began to occur of a non-threatening, non-Black “Latino” identity; the effect that this had on activist efforts; and more. Importantly, in this chapter Herrera’s interviews reveal that part of the interest in these coalitions came from the clear organizational success Black activists had achieved in their [End Page 140] work, leading Mexican American activists in Oakland to pursue similar efforts. One interviewee, Herman Gallegos, a prominent activist at the time, spoke of recalling an event where Black men would gather monthly to focus on leadership. Thinking highly of them, he says that he recognized them as future “mayors, judges... [but] kept thinking... (shrink)

Publication date: 29 September 2016 Source: Author: Aida Cornelia Stoian This study highlights the results of an empirical research, whose purpose was to study the teachers` option of primary and preschool education to use learning situations for training pupils’ skills in relation to seniority in teaching and learning environment and to identify of the level of conceptual representation of the learning situations term in the opinion of teachers in primary and preschool education.We made a questionnaire in order to identify (...) the frequency teachers can organize learning situations and the teachers` conceptual representations of learning situation.The results have confirmed the conclusions to get teachers` adhesion to organize learning situations for pupils’ skills training, to develop teachers’ skills in harmonizing all the methods, means and teaching strategies with the objective and subjective factors determining the interaction between teachers and pupils. (shrink)

In recent years, autonomous systems have become an important research area and application domain, with a significant impact on modern society. Such systems are characterized by different levels of autonomy and complex communication infrastructures that allow for collective decision-making strategies. There exist several publications that tackle ethical aspects in such systems, but mostly from the perspective of a single agent. In this paper we go one step further and discuss these ethical challenges from the perspective of an aggregate of autonomous (...) systems capable of collective decision-making. In particular, in this paper, we propose the Caesar approach through which we model the collective ethical decision-making process of a group of actors—agents and humans, as well as define the building blocks for the agents participating in such a process, namely Caesar agents. Factors such as trust, security, safety, and privacy, which affect the degree to which a collective decision is ethical, are explicitly captured in Caesar. Finally, we argue that modeling the collective decision-making in Caesar provides support for accountability. (shrink)

In recent years, social networks have made significant progress and the number of people who use them to communicate is increasing day by day. The vast amount of information available on social networks has led to the importance of using friend recommender systems to discover knowledge about future communications. It is challenging to choose the best machine learning approach to address the recommender system issue since there are several strategies with various benefits and drawbacks. In light of this, a solution (...) based on the stacking approach was put out in this study to provide a buddy recommendation system in social networks. Additionally, a decrease in system performance was caused by the large amount of information that was accessible and the inefficiency of some functions. To solve this problem, a particle swarm optimization algorithm to select the most efficient features was used in our proposed method. To learn the model in the objective function of the particle swarm algorithm, a hybrid system based on stacking is proposed. In this method, two random forests and Extreme Gradient Boosting had been used as the base classifiers. The results obtained from these base classifiers were used in the logistic regression algorithm, which has been applied sequentially. The suggested approach was able to effectively address this issue by combining the advantages of the applied strategies. The results of implementation and evaluation of the proposed system show the appropriate efficiency of this method compared with other studied techniques. (shrink)

Se observan ciertos usos de dos palabras griegas para decir «tiempo» en el decir griego arcaico, especialmente en Homero y en Píndaro, constatándose que ambas palabras significan algo así como un trecho finito sin la noción presupuesta de un ilimitado. El acontecer «tiempo» se conecta, según tales usos, con las nociones griegas de «justicia» y «ser».

Name der Zeitschrift: Paragrana Jahrgang: 23 Heft: 2 Seiten: 153-164.

In verschiedenen Beiträgen dieses Bandes wird soziologisch und ästhetisch, kunst- und literaturwissenschaftlich erörtert, wie aus ästhetischen Erfahrungen Widerstandskraft gegen Zerstörung und Selbstzerstörung entwickelt wird. Es wird gezeigt, dass Kunst und Gesellschaft nicht ohne ästhetischen Widerstand zu machen sind. Dieser äußert sich nicht nur in der Produktion und in der Rezeption von Kunst, sondern auch in vielfältigen Praxen der Lebenswelt. Welche Rolle spielt ästhetische Erfahrung heute für die Fragen des guten Lebens und wie ist Ästhetik mit dem Leben selbst verbunden? Wie (...) kann das Verhältnis von Ethik und Ästhetik heute gesellschaftlich und politisch gedacht und vermittelt werden? Und vor allem: Wie kann der Destruktionsdynamik als Sucht und Sog gesellschaftlicher Selbstzerstörung durch ästhetischen Widerstand wirksam Einhalt geboten werden? (shrink)

This paper explores the way in which America—a cultural space produced by the world's largest media corporations and not the political entity called the United States— constructs, both discursively and spatially, zones of violence and zones of safety, contributing in the process to the maintenance and acclamation of political/symbolic global order. Through “thick descriptions” of three zones—EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World in Florida, as the ultimate safe zone; a day of media coverage of the Kosovo intervention in 1999, the (...) epitomy of a constructed zone of violence; and a reinterpretation of debates over media violence in the United States as the way of policing the zones of safety and zones of violence—the paper argues that zoning was the principal practice with which the self-content narrative of global economic success confronted the onslaught of alleged cultural violence in the 1990s. Zoning, to use Giorgio Agamben's analysis, is the forceful localization of an ever-expanding suspension of legal order; the practice that obfuscates the increasing frequency with which sovereign power encounters—and obliterates—bare life with impunity. Construction of boundaries between zones of safety and zones of violence is, therefore, more than performance of security—it is the way to affirm global order in face of its absence. (shrink)

El retorno de Odiseo no solo implica que el misterio del bosque ya ha empezado a aclararse; que monstruos y gigantes han sido dominados y vencidos; que la bruja ya se ha desembrujado y se ha tomado la medida al elemento sin medida que es el mar; más fundamental incluso es el hecho de que la Odisea identifique su retorno con el proyecto de apertura interna de la casa, así como con la génesis de dos esferas secundarias o derivadas: la (...) esfera de la representación «artística» y la esfera del «pensamiento», la «mente» o la «interioridad». La visión de la Odisea da vueltas en torno a la cuestión de en qué sentido todos los hallazgos, toda la frescura y la capacidad inventiva del personaje terriblemente sabio no solo son a la vez, e inseparablemente, crímenes y transgresiones; también son pérdidas irreparables y definitivas. Quizá la Odisea no tenga ese «final feliz» que se supone a veces; quizá el viaje o camino de Odiseo es en el fondo un viaje o camino sin retorno. (shrink)

Nitric oxide (NO) is involved in synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP) by multiple signaling pathways. Here, we show that LTP of synaptic transmission can be explained as a feature of signal transduction—bistable behavior in a chain of biochemical reactions with positive feedback, formed by diffusion of NO to the presynaptic site and facilitating the release of glutamate (Glu). The dynamics of Glu, calcium (Ca2+) and NO is described by a system of nonlinear reaction–diffusion equations with modified Michaelis–Menten (MM) kinetics. Numerical investigation (...) reveals that the chain of biochemical reactions analyzed can exhibit a bistable behavior under physiological conditions when production of Glu is described by MM kinetics and decay of NO is modeled by means of two enzymatic pathways with different kinetic properties. Our finding extends understanding of the role of NO in LTP: a short high-intensity stimulus is “memorized” as a long-lasting elevation of NO concentration. The conclusions obtained by analysis of the chain of biochemical reactions describing LTP can be generalized to other chains of interactions or for creating the logical elements for biological computers. (shrink)

Labor, producción y acción son las tres actividades que forman la vita activa para Hannah Arendt. En torno a acción construyó su pensamiento político y, por eso, es la más atendida por la literatura. Labor y producción han quedado relegadas a un segundo plano, obviando todo aquello que ambas retienen e iluminan. El artículo muestra las dificultades de una distinción que resulta un tanto resbaladiza, sobre todo cuando labor y producción se entienden como conceptos, cristalizaciones de los fenómenos que Arendt (...) pretendía capturar. Propone, en cambio, que labor y producción cobran su más hondo significado cuando se comprenden como experiencias, es decir, como las mentalidades y modos de vida del animal laborans y el homo faber¸ siempre dentro del esfuerzo arendtiano de comprensión de la Modernidad y el totalitarismo. (shrink)

An interpretation of the closing of the Iliad is outlined from what according to certain analyses of Hölderlin we can call the “ideal” path characteristic of the figure of Achilles. The rupture of that “ideal” through the “catastrophe” of the poem articulates a return to that “naiv” that at the end of the Iliad is linked with the imperative to assume the pain and to keep the difference between the spheres of the man and of the god, something that we (...) clarify by means of an analysis of the Isthmian VIII of Pindar and the reading of certain fragments of Hölderlin. (shrink)

There are persons with disabilities in each society. Theinclusion of PWDs by society, as supported by the United Nation’s sustainabledevelopment goals, could be encouraged by advertising. Advertising’sinfluence on one’s worldview is obvious with cultivation theory espousing thephenomenon that prolonged viewing of television could fashion audiences’worldview by making them believe that the images projected are accuratedepictions of reality. PWDs not only nurture compassion within us but provideus with a wealth of opportunities by coming up with inventions that improvetheir quality of life. (...) These inventions could empower PWDs by giving themgreater independence. The global brand, Apple, through its technologicaldevices, gives PWDs jobs, a platform for expression and dignity. Apple hascreated a series of video advertisements that depict its embrace of inclusionthrough its technological innovations. The study examines selected Apple’svideo advertisements using critical discourse analysis. The outcomeof the study is a framework for brands to use as a guide when incorporatingadvertising images on the inclusion of PWDs. (shrink)

This Special Issue of Intellectual Discourse contains seven articleson the theme of disability studies. The goal of the Special Issue isto create awareness of research studies on the area of disability.The inclusion of persons with disabilities in various areas such aseducation, healthcare, access to buildings and information meets theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals which arefundamental to the focus of the articles. The scope of the theme is wideas it encompasses several perspectives namely the extra costs of havinga disability, advertisements and (...) their depiction of inclusion and personswith disabilities, the inclusiveness of Malaysian urban cities, parentingchildren with hearing impairment, an examination of stress in parents ofchildren with autism, the costs of different types of caregivers and thedesign of a speech delay screening mobile application for Malaysianparents. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene por objeto el analizar la violencia obstétrica en el contexto de nuestras sociedades modernas, tomando como punto de referencia las relaciones que los sujetos y esas sociedades establecen con los cuerpos humanos. Para esto, se emplearán las herramientas ofrecidas por la filosofía, la bioética y la antropología (tanto la positiva como la negativa), entendiendo que la violencia obstétrica ni comienza ni se agota en el ámbito médico, sino que ha de atenderse también a sus dimensiones histórico-culturales y (...) de género. (shrink)

This article analyses the gendered nature of teachers’ views on schools and security. Current research on security emphasizes masculinity and the absence of femininity in relation to the security field – traditionally dominated by the military and emergency rescue services. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the areas of society that are new to the security field. Schools, pupils and teachers are gendered in many ways. What happens when security is added to this nexus? Existing, limited research suggests (...) that this relationship may be both complicated and gendered. A qualitative content analysis is conducted based on interviews with teachers and principals from two municipalities in Sweden. It shows that teachers hold gendered views of their roles as security actors; of pupils in relation to security, as subjects of risks and sources of threats; and of external security threats. Men are embodied as positive or negative actors, whereas women are embodied mostly as powerless actors. Teachers give voice to a discourse focused on everyday insecurities. This is important, as the role of teachers as promoters of democratic citizens risks becoming undermined, and individual perspectives of security risk becoming replaced by national perspectives. (shrink)

Research documents that many chronic non-malignant pain patients experience existential, spiritual and religious needs; however, research knowledge is missing on if and how physicians approach these needs. We conducted a systematic review to explore the extent to which physicians address these needs in their communication with chronic non-malignant pain patients and to explore the facilitators and challenges of this communication. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, searching Embase, Medline, Scopus and PsycINFO. The quality of (...) the included articles was assessed based on design-specific screening tools. We included four of 2337 screened articles and found the quality to be good. Physicians’ communication about existential, spiritual and religious needs was given low priority and depended on the patients’ own initiative, except when clinicians were interested in holistic care. Patient dissatisfaction with the physician’s attention to these needs was related to higher pain and depression. Physicians’ challenges for addressing these needs were their tendency to prioritize physiological aspects and close further elaboration of existential needs when addressed by the patients. The main facilitator was the individual physician’s willingness to listen with openness and empathy to the patients’ existential concerns. A tentative conclusion is that physicians rarely meet the existential, spiritual and religious needs of their chronic non-malignant pain patients. This might be due to higher priority of physical aspects, lack of time and a lack of knowledge about the importance of and training in the ability to address these needs. Further research is needed on physicians’ communication about existential, spiritual and religious needs and on their training in here. (shrink)

A partir de las experiencias vitales del Colectivo Les Pites se pueden observar una serie de estructuras y dinámicas normativas dentro del baile tradicional asturiano derivadas del sistema cisheteropatriarcal en el que se inscribe. Existe un discurso de normatividad de género imbricado en esta manifestación cultural a lo largo de su historia, comenzando con referencias en la obra de Jovellanos (siglo XVIII). Este discurso hegemónico continua durante la época franquista con Coros y Danzas de la Sección Femenina y el uso (...) del folclore al servicio de la transmisión ideológica del Régimen. Con el paso a la democracia, este discurso normativo adquiere otras formas de mantenerse imbuido en el baile tradicional, evidenciando la fragilidad de la cultura de la Transición que más tarde será cuestionada a partir del año 2008. La necesidad de encontrar nuevos caminos y posibilidades, además del hecho de reconocer la agencia de las personas y la disidencia inherentemente ligada a la norma, conduce a Les Pites a ofrecer una serie de adaptaciones metodológicas en sus talleres de baile tradicuir para poder utilizar el baile tradicional asturiano como un vehículo de comunicación e interacción que forme parte de los diversos espacios colectivos de ocio propios de la actual sociedad asturiana. (shrink)