This review provides an overview of the ethics of extinctions with a focus on the Western analytical environmental ethics literature. It thereby gives special attention to the possible philosophical grounds for Michael Soulé’s assertion that the untimely ‘extinction of populations and species is bad’. Illustrating such debates in environmental ethics, the guiding question for this review concerns why – or when – anthropogenic extinctions are bad or wrong, which also includes the question of when that might not be the case (...) (i.e. which extinctions are even desirable). After providing an explanation of the disciplinary perspective taken (section “Introduction”), the concept of extinction and its history within that literature are introduced (section “Understanding extinction”). Then, in section “Why (or when) might anthropogenic extinctions be morally problematic?”, different reasons for why anthropogenic extinctions might be morally problematic are presented based on the loss of species’ value, harm to nonhuman individuals, the loss of valuable biological variety and duties to future generations. This section concludes by also considering cases where anthropogenic extinctions might be justified. Section “How to respond to extinctions?” then addresses a selection of topics concerning risks and de-extinction technologies. Finally, the section on “Extinction studies” introduces other viewpoints on the ethics of extinction from the extinction studies literature, followed by the “Conclusion”. (shrink)

In this concise and accessible introductory text, Gómez-Lobo and Keown introduce a "human goods" approach to bioethics as an alternative to the dominant principle-based method in the field (best illustrated by Beauchamp and Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, OUP). Following Aristotle and the natural law tradition, the authors demonstrate how an emphasis on human goods--such as health, life, family, friendship, work and play, the experience of beauty, knowledge, and integrity--provides a necessary context for medical decisions and can help us understand (...) critical issues at the beginning and end of life. The manuscript includes two parts: Foundations and Issues. In the Foundations section the authors explain how one can think about bioethics, offering definitions of ethics and ontology (the study of being) and prudential reasoning. In the Issues section they address genetics, abortion, infanticide, suicide and physician-assisted suicide, nutrition and hydration, and transplantation ethics. The book includes appendices featuring personal statements by Gómez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and criteria for the determination of death. (shrink)

El término flexible 5 de acuerdo con el diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española, significa "que tiene disposición para doblarse fácilmente" o "para acomodarse al dictamen de otro". En Colombia se viene usando este término, desde mucho antes de la reforma al Régimen Laboral que concluyó con la expedición de la Ley 50 de 1990, y se ha seguido utilizando de manera continua cada vez que se plantea la necesidad de una reforma en este campo. Pero nos (...) hemos preguntado, ¿para qué sirve la llamada "Flexibilización Laboral" en nuestro país?. (shrink)

El interrogante que se hace, sobre si en Colombia nos estamos viendo abocados a tener dos sistemas de justicia diferentes, o, por el contrario, es sólo un sistema de justicia protectora de los derechos con una nueva interpretación de las disposiciones, dándole su verdadero sentido y alcance conforme con la Constitución Política a partir de 1991, tiene plena actualidad, y es de gran linportancia siempre que abotdemos cualquiera de los temas del derecho, en especial, los correspondientes al derecho laboral y (...) a la seguridad social integral, puesto que estos últimos conllevan implícitamente el respeto por los derechos y la dignidad humana. (shrink)

Students sometimes profess moral relativism or skepticism with retorts like ‘how can we know?’ or ‘it’s all relative!’ Here I defend a pedagogical method to defuse moral relativism and moral skepticism using phenomenal conservatism: if it seems to S that p, S has defeasible justification to believe that p; e.g., moral seemings, like perceptual ones, are defeasibly justified. The purpose of defusing moral skepticism and relativism is to prevent these metaethical views from acting as stumbling blocks to insightful ethical inquiry (...) in the classroom. This approach puts the burden of proof on the relativist or skeptic (to justify their view, contrary to appearances), and makes their views costlier: if we reject moral seemings as a kind, we must reject other less objectionable seemings too (e.g. intellectual seemings). Finally, this approach improves learning outcomes by ‘hooking onto’ student familiarity with seemings, e.g. seeing is (defeasibly justified) believing. (shrink)

Neuroscience research has shown that meditation practices have effects on brain structure and function. However, few studies have combined information on the effects on structure and function in the same sample. Long-term daily meditation practice produces repeated activity of specific brain networks over years of practice, which may induce lasting structural and functional connectivity changes within relevant circuits. The aim of our study was therefore to identify differences in FC during the resting state between 23 Sahaja Yoga Meditation experts and (...) 23 healthy participants without meditation experience. Seed-based FC analysis was performed departing from voxels that had shown structural differences between these same participants. The contrast of connectivity maps yielded that meditators showed increased FC between the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex but reduced FC between the left insula and the bilateral mid-cingulate as well as between the right angular gyrus and the bilateral precuneus/cuneus cortices. It thus appears that long-term meditation practice increases direct FC between ventral and dorsal frontal regions within brain networks related to attention and cognitive control and decreases FC between regions of these networks and areas of the default mode network. (shrink)

‘Situational Analysis’ constitutes Popper's methodological proposal for the social sciences. There is an apparent inconsistency in the fact that, on the one hand, Popper maintains that we lear...

doi: 10.5294/pebi.2015.19.2.1 Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio pierden vigencia en el 2015. La ONU ya tiene preparado el paso siguiente: los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, que adoptó en su Asamblea General en cuya apertura estuvo como invitado el papa Francisco...

Paulino Garagorri fue un discípulo muy próximo a Ortega y Gasset después de la vuelta a España de este último tras la Guerra Civil. En su obra, no demasiado extensa, pero de gran nivel intelectual, interpreta de manera rigurosa el pensamiento de Ortega y Gasset. Dos tesis fundamentales centran su estudio sobre la reforma de la filosofía llevada a cabo por Ortega. Primero, la nueva idea de realidad y; segundo, la nueva idea de conocimiento en el pensamiento orteguiano. Otros temas (...) que trató Garagorri fueron: las relaciones entre Ortega y Unamuno; segundo, la realidad de la muerte desde la perspectiva de la vida humana; por último, el concepto de “ideas enteras”, en contraposición a las ideas especializadas y a las ideas generales.Paulino Garagorri was a disciple very close to Ortega y Gasset, after his return to Spain, after the Civil War. In his work, not too extensive, but of great intellectual level, interprets rigorously the thinking of Ortega y Gasset. Two fundamental theses center their study on the reform of the philosophy carried out by Ortega. First, the new idea of reality and; second, the new idea of knowledge in Ortega's thinking. Other topics dealt with by Garagorri were: the relations between Ortega and Unamuno; second, the reality of death from the perspective of human life; finally, the concept of "whole ideas", as opposed to specialized ideas and general ideas. (shrink)

En este artículo analizo como, dadas algunas tesis filosóficas compartidas, comparar a Searle y Descartes crea un efecto déjà vu. La primera tesis es la mente consciente que existe en primera persona. La segunda es que aquella se define mediante un concepto primitivo. La tercera es que la intencionalidad implica condiciones de satisfacción internistas. La cuarta es el cuerpo-máquina. Segundo, argumento que ambos hablan desde cosmovisiones incompatibles –la metafísica deísta versus los “hechos básicos”; y como un hecho “básico” biológico indica (...) la no separabilidad entre mente y cuerpo (cerebro)–, Searle ni es dualista cartesiano ni de propiedades. Palabras clave: dualismo cartesiano; dualismo de propiedades; Searle; mente consciente primitiva; intencionalidad; hechos básicos. (shrink)

a doubtful law does not bind -- Second corollary : uncertain law cannot impose certain obligation -- Commentary on the Treatise on conscience.

Can philosophy elaborate a discourse on hope? This question leads the monographic issue of the Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica that we introduce in this article. Its intent is to explore the relationship between philosophy and political reality not (only) in the light of a critique of the present, but (also) of a generative variant of the inaugural gesture of thinking.

The environmental damage that has been generated by human activity is a cause for concern, so pro-environmental behavior has been identified as one of the possible solutions. However, it has been seen that there are psychological barriers that prevent or hinder this behavior. For this reason, in order to have an instrument to evaluate these psychological barriers in our context, the objective of this research was to adapt the Dragons of Inaction Psychological Barriers scale to the Colombian population. The sample (...) was made up of 810 university students from Bogotá and Chía, Colombia; 367 males and 443 females between 15 and 48 years of age. In general, an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis were carried out, which demonstrated the existence of a five-factor structure with 20 items. Item and reliability analyses were performed, which demonstrated that the instrument has a high internal consistency; and two invariance studies were carried out, which showed that the factor structure is invariant for all study groups. In addition, the total instrument was scored. In conclusion, this adaptation of the DIPB presents adequate validity and reliability, and allows guiding future research on inaction barriers in the Latin American context, while providing an input for a first diagnosis of this construct in Colombia. (shrink)

Se muestra como las tesis de la filosofía de la historia de Benjamin, permiten que pensemos la historia y la acción política en forma distinta a como han sido concebidas en la historiografía y la política tradicional. Así mismo, en contra de lo que podría sugerir una lectura inicial de la tesis, lo que Benjamin denomina como la acción política revolucionaria, necesitaría de una acción desligada de la violencia para poder romper con el continuo de la historia. Por último, señalamos (...) como los límites de pensar la política desvinculada de la noción del progreso histórico, permite que ésta pueda contribuir al reconocimiento de las víctimas y olvidados de la historia. (shrink)

En la tradición filosófica, la preocupación fundante de la filosofía de la ciencia se expresaba con estas palabras: salvar los fenómenos. Ninguna teoría científica explicativa podía dejar de lado a los fenómenos observados, sino que tenía que dar cuenta de ellos. La urgencia de hoy en la filosofía de la ciencia es notablemente diversa, sin, por supuesto, haber renunciado del todo a lo que significaba aquel espquema de pensamiento. Las reducciones de un mundo cerrado (cuando se supone que nuestro pensamiento (...) llegará a conocer por entero la realidad hasta agotarla) ahogan la fantasía de lo real, su largueza, su sima de complejidad, su potencia propositiva. Sólo la hipótesis de un mundo abierto (en donde la realidad es irreductuble a todo conocer del pensamiento) parece coherente en filosofía de la ciencia. Por eso, su más urgente preocupación hoy es la que se expresa en el título: salvar lo real. (shrink)

Pensar epistémico, educación popular e investigación participativa es un testimonio intelectual acerca de tres figuras emblemáticas del pensamiento crítico latinoamericano: Orlando Fals Borda, Paulo Freire y Hugo Zemelman. Alfonso Torres Carrillo, educador popular colombiano, expone su propia interpretación, nutrida por el diálogo con estos tres pensadores, sobre la vigencia (y trascendencia) de sus propuestas críticas y de acción social. Redimensiona, así, estas tres vertientes teóricas y metodológicas en América Latina: el pensar epistémico, la educación popular y el modelo de (...) la investigación participativa. Acerca del autor: Alfonso Torres Carrillo. Educador popular e investigador social colombiano. Profesor del Departamento de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Magíster en Historia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) y doctor en Estudios Latinoamericanos (UNAM, México), es autor de varios libros y numerosos artículos sobre educación popular, movimientos sociales e investigación alternativa. (shrink)

Philosophy plausibly aims at knowledge; it would thus be tempting to hold that much of the value of doing philosophy turns on securing knowledge. Enter the agnostic challenge: suppose that a philosophical agnostic (named 'Betsy‘) wants to discover only fundamental philosophical truths. However, the intractable disagreement among philosophical experts gives her pause. After reflecting on expert disagreement, she decides that doing philosophy, for her truth-seeking error-avoiding purposes, is irrational. In this paper, I argue that the agnostic challenge isn‘t easily overcome. (...) Although there are many reasons to do philosophy, the agnostic challenge implies there is less value to doing philosophy than many philosophers may have believed. (shrink)

El siguiente ensayo rastrea las reflexiones de Friedrich Hölderlin en torno a lo mítico. El argumento, expuesto una y otra vez en su correspondencia, sus ensayos y poemas, continuamente refinado y corregido, es que, expresado en lenguaje poético, el mito permite recuperar una visión del mundo fragmentada con el ímpetu analítico finisecular. El concepto de lo mítico de Hölderlin no solo está profundamente influido por el contexto histórico e intelectual en los lindes del Frühromantik, la filosofía de Fichte, la estética (...) de Schiller y la Revoluciónfrancesa como notas principales, sino también por las experiencias de la niñez, las lecturas de los colegios conventuales o los encuentros en Tubinga o Fráncfort. Finalmente, el texto muestra cómo estas indagaciones cristalizan en distintos motivos de su producción lírica. (shrink)

There is a solid empirical evidence for moral mediocrity: people aim to be about as morally good, and as morally bad, as those around them. This can be good if most people are saints, and very bad if most people are moral monsters. And here we derive an important insight: we can have a just society without just citizens--that is, citizens who act just only from peer pressure, and not from moral reason--provided most people in that society, for whatever reason, (...) happen to act justly. Even though Kant wouldn't approve, the resulting society would be just. (shrink)

Why disdain replicated art? If art is valuable because it evokes experiences of beauty, they should be comparable. In chapter 11 of the Elephant in the Brain, Simler and Hanson argue we actually care about the extrinsic properties of art—e.g. who made it—to signal our intelligence and taste. Here I defend a different explanation for the evidence cited by S&H: the extrinsic properties of art are central to what constitutes art, play a bigger role fixing the value of art than (...) S&H allow, and the potential for diminishing marginal utility on the value of the intrinsic properties of art—seeing the original Mona Lisa is rare; seeing a copy isn’t—explains why we assign such value to the extrinsic properties of art. And thus we have a non-signaling explanation of art consumption, which may or may not complement signaling theory. (shrink)

This paper examines the social and organizational innovation processes undertaken by small-scale producers engaged in short food supply chains in the North Swedish region of Västerbotten. The study uses the notion of proximity to empirically analyse and conceptually explore these phenomena. The paper illustrates the ‘new associationalism’ mobilized by producers in order to promote knowledge exchange and learning and highlights the role of translocal practices in sustaining this transition. The study found that open and trusted interactions with consumers are central (...) to the development of ‘quasi-organic’ practices, and that producers belong to numerous motley associations of food professionals facilitating the creation of collective meanings about near-produced quality food. The paper contributes to the rapprochement between agri-food studies and human geography to understand the formation of local food systems from an evolutionary and relational perspective. (shrink)