When we judge an action as morally right or wrong, we rely on our capacity to infer the actor's mental states. Here, we test the hypothesis that the right temporoparietal junction, an area involved in mental state reasoning, is necessary for making moral judgments. In two experiments, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt neural activity in the RTPJ transiently before moral judgment and during moral judgment. In both experiments, TMS to the RTPJ led participants to rely less on the (...) actor's mental states. A particularly striking effect occurred for attempted harms : Relative to TMS to a control site, TMS to the RTPJ caused participants to judge attempted harms as less morally forbidden and more morally permissible. Thus, interfering with activity in the RTPJ disrupts the capacity to use mental states in moral judgment, especially in the case of attempted harms. (shrink)

Aquinas seems to hold following theses on moral autonomy. «Nobody imposes his acts the law»: there is no perfect, no radical autonomy. Natural law is defined as participation in the eternal law. That means «theonomy» which for Kluxen is not primordial, but adventitious metaphysical interpretation. We could speak of «cognitive autonomy»: human reason is competent to formulate norms and moral judgements. But the cognitive acts are accompanied by voluntary consent: which is natural and necessary in first principles; becomes worlds consens (...) in the natural law conclusions ; and becomes correct desire in prudence and, especially, in «gnome» judgments. (shrink)

Ya en su tesis doctoral, Malabou (1996) empieza a elaborar, a partir de una relectura de Hegel, una noción que recorrerá toda su obra: el concepto de “plasticidad”. En este artículo analizamos las principales apariciones de dicho concepto en los primeros trabajos de la autora francesa. En ella, dialoga especialmente, y de manera declarada, con Hegel, Heidegger y Derrida, prometiendo un concepto de la esencia o la forma que incorpore la diferencia sin negarla. Si bien el concepto de “plasticidad” en (...) la obra de Malabou ha sufrido un giro, según el cual ha entrado en un diálogo abierto con la biología y, más concretamente, con las neurociencias contemporáneas, en el presente artículo veremos su estatuto antes de dicho giro. (shrink)

Edició d'una important sèrie de treballs sobre el pensament i la literatura de Ramon Llull que es compten entre les peces fonamentals per a la moderna interpretació de Llull. La primera part recull íntegrament «El microcosmos lul lià», una obra ben coneguda.

This study examines whether character strengths predict resilience (operationalized as stable or higher mental health and subjective well-being despite an adverse event) over a period of approximately one month during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain. Using a longitudinal design, participants (N = 348 adults) completed online measures of sociodemographic data, information regarding their situation in relation to the COVID-19, character strengths, general mental health, life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. All variables were measured at Time 1 and Time (...) 2, except for sociodemographic and most COVID-related information (Time 1 only). Time 1 data collection was conducted between March 21, 2020 and April 2, 2020, i.e., approximately the second week of lockdown in Spain. Time 2 data collection was conducted between April 24, 2020 and May 18, 2020, after the Spanish government announced ita intention to progressively release the lockdown. A principal component analysis of character strengths was conducted. Five character strength factors were extracted: fortitude, goodness, intellectual, interpersonal, and restraint. Factor structures at Times 1 and 2 were highly consistent. All character strength factors at Time 1 correlated positively with life satisfaction and positive affect, and negatively with negative affect and mental health at T2 (higher scores in the mental health measure indicate poorer mental health). Fortitude strengths showed the highest correlations. We conducted a series of regression analyses with strength factors at Time 1 as predictors, and mental health, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect as dependent variables, controlling for their baseline levels. To test the directionality of the relationship between strengths and the dependent variables, all analyses were reversed. All character strength factors predicted an increase in mental health. They also predicted positive affect, with the exception of strengths of restraint. Fortitude, intellectual and interpersonal strengths predicted an increase in life satisfaction. Finally, fortitude strengths, interpersonal strengths, and strengths of restraint, predicted a decrease in negative affect. None of the reversed analyses yielded significant effects. Limitations, implications, and possible character strengths-based interventions aimed at promoting mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. (shrink)

In this article, we empirically assess the impact of corporate ethical identity (CEI) on a firm's financial performance. Drawing on formulations of normative and instrumental stakeholder theory, we argue that firms with a strong ethical identity achieve a greater degree of stakeholder satisfaction (SS), which, in turn, positively influences a firm's financial performance. We analyze two dimensions of the CEI of firms: corporate revealed ethics and corporate applied ethics. Our results indicate that revealed ethics has informational worth and enhances shareholder (...) value, whereas applied ethics has a positive impact through the improvement of SS. However, revealed ethics by itself (i.e. decoupled from ethical initiatives) is not sufficient to boost economic performance. (shrink)

Summary The aim of this paper is to analyse the scientific relations between Germany and Spain during the Entente Boycott (1919–1926) and the German academic policy that fostered it. The study of the international relations of German science during the 1920s has been carried out using as a basis the archives of scientific institutions. Personal initiatives by individual scientists to establish relations have therefore not been taken into account. The relations between the scientific communities of Germany and Spain during the (...) 1920s indicate the importance of such personal relationships and from their transcendence at a political level. They also offer an example of how political strategies could dictate the politics of academic recognition. This paper is based on the analysis of sources found at the Foreign Office Archives in Berlin. It gives us a clear idea about the role of scientific relationships between the two countries in shaping their scientific policies. (shrink)

The Second Taiwan IUD Follow-up Survey, reported on here, is a representative sample of all IUD acceptors in Taiwan up to the middle of 1966. The data show that 30 months after insertion, 36% of acceptors are continuing users, on a first segment basis, and that if reinsertions are taken into account, the proportion increases to 45%. Compared with extensive clinic data from the city of Taichung, the island-wide termination rates are about 5% higher at 30 months, for first segments, (...) but the all segment rates show little difference at this duration. (shrink)

Vorwort der Herausgeber mit Schriftenverzeichnis Albert Mues - H. SEubert: Transzendentalphilosophie und Metaphysik heute. EIne Skizze - M. SCherbaum: Philosophie als Lebensform - oder: Die Krise des Nihilismus und die Validitat transzendentaler Argumentation. SYstematische Reflexionen zu Letztbegrundung, Grenze und Bedeutung von Philosophie - M. GErten: Der Charakter der Transzendentalphilosophie als fundamentaler Geltungsreflexion. HIstorische und systematische uberlegungen mit besonderem Blick auf den spaten Fichte - L. MOckl: Zur logischen Position der Hypothese - I. RAdrizzani: Die Zeitfiguration in der Transzendentalphilosophie. REinhard (...) Lauths Appositionslehre als Aktualisierung von Fichtes Zeitmodell - K. POllok: Kants Begriff der Normativitat im Kontext der fruhneuzeitlichen Philosophie - C. LOtz: Gewissen und Widerstand - M. FUchs: "Freiheit, die sich Dasein gibt". INdividuum und Staat bei Platon und Hegel - B. DIeckmann: Reich der Freiheit und Kreuzestheologie. OPfer bei Johann Gottlieb Fichte - W. KLausnitzer: Christentum versus Islam. uBerlegungen zum Thema der Gewalt in beiden Religionen - M. FAmula: Zwischen Grenzenlosigkeit und Ausgrenzung. LIebe als Kultivierungsprozess in Adalbert Stifters Brigitta. (shrink)

The Third Covenant explores the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, and Albert LaChance, revealing through the lens of spirituality, science, and ecology, their understanding of human origin and evolution. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an early twentieth century geologist and priest, devoted his life as a scientist, clergyman, and mystic, to reuniting the artificial fracture between science and religion. Thomas Berry, a follower of Teilhard de Chardin and a highly respected cultural historian, furthered this reunification by repositioning (...) the human in the unfolding of an evolving universe, integrated and interdependent with the rest of the life systems of the planet. Albert LaChance, himself a six-year, face-to-face student of Berry, brought this new paradigm into his work as a poet, psychologist, addiction recovery professional, and most importantly, as a mystic and scholar of religion. Along with his daughter, Rebecca LaChance Goodwin, LaChance explores the development of this crucial shift in human understanding and its implications for the future. Parts I and II explore the elements of polarized thinking that makes us believe that we are separate from each other and the life systems of the planet. Thomas Berry's list of twelve principles for understanding the universe and the role of the human in the universe process describes the creative unfolding of our place in the universe. Part III introduces practical steps for achieving personal, familial, and cultural change. LaChance outlines his Twelve Steps of Ecological Spirituality to help us move from powerlessness and isolation to a state of reawakening to self, to humanity, to all species, to the planet, and to the universe. (shrink)

How much by way of economic reward is due to health care providers?Although this problem usually presents itself as a practical matter of policy, it has buried within it a number of philosophical issues, for it can be regarded as a question in the theory of economic justice. The formal principle of justice is that we should render persons what is due to them. But on what consideration in the case of health care providers can we make an assessment of (...) what is due?The answer we give to this question has significant implications for the ethical appraisal of the allocation of resources in the health care system. Some of the most difficult issues of ethical appraisal emerge when we consider the problems of allocating potentially life-saving resources between different groups of patients. Many of the most significant current issues in medical ethics—the role of QALYs, the meaning of equality and the economic evaluation of life—find their point of reference in the ‘tragic choices’ that are created when there are insufficient resources to meet apparently legitimate medical need. Yet, as Robert Evans has pointed out, it is a simple matter of accounting identity that health care expenditures must equal health providers' incomes. So, in asking how we limit or allocate costly health care resources, we are implicitly offering an answer to the question of how much we should pay providers. I hope by seeking an answer explicitly to that question to throw light on the problems that are raised when considering ethically the allocation of health care resources. (shrink)

This book describes how medieval Jewish Bible scholars sought to answer the question of what is meant by the Angel’s message from God to Abraham: ‘Now I Know’, as written in Genesis 22 verse 12. It examines these scholars’ comments on the nineteen verses in Genesis that tell the story of Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his own son Isaac, the Aqedat Yiṣḥaq. It explores the answers they found to the question of what, indeed, this story is trying to tell us. (...) Is it a drastic way to condemn the practice of child sacrifice? Does it call for replacing human sacrifices with animal sacrifices? Is it a trial by which the Almighty tests the fidelity of one of His followers? Or is it His way to show the world the nature of true belief? The book starts with an introduction to familiarize readers with the many and varied manifestations of the Aqedah theme in Jewish culture and with the developments of medieval Jewish Bible exegesis in general. Next, it offers translations and analyses of the classical medieval Jewish Bible commentaries that deal with the exegesis of Genesis 22, exploring the many angles from which the Aqedah story has been understood. No less than five centuries of medieval Aqedah exegesis are reviewed, from Saadya to Isaac Abrabanel. These texts from the commentaries are combined with hermeneutical key passages by Moses Maimonides, Joseph Ibn Kaspi, Ḥasdai Crescas, and others, which were familiar to the minds of the exegetes, or which, conversely, reflect the impact of biblical Aqedah exegesis on religious thought. Together, the passages discussed illustrate the growth and development of Jewish Bible exegesis in dialogue with the rabbinic sources and with the various trends of thought and theology of their times. The consistent focus on the Aqedah constitutes a unifying theme, while the insights presented here greatly advance our understanding of the various developments in medieval Jewish Bible exegesis. (shrink)

This is a complete exposition of a tight version of a fundamental theorem of computational complexity due to Levin: The inherent space complexity of any partial function is very accurately specifiable in a Π1 way, and every such specification that is even Σ2 does characterize the complexity of some partial function, even one that assumes only the values 0 and 1.

Die nachfolgenden Texte sind ein Vorabdruck aus dem Buche "Der Naturwissenschaftler vor der religiösen Frage", welches vom Verfasser unter Förderung durch einen Forschungsauftrag der Klopstock-Stiftung zur Zeit bearbeitet wird. Teil I und II gehören zum Kapitel "Naturerkenntnis als Glaubensanfechtung" ; Teil III gehört zum Kapitel "Die Physik im 20..Jahr-hundert". - Das Buch soll im Herbst 1963 erscheinen.