Este trabajo consta de tres partes: en un primer momento, partiendo de la definición de “vida” de I. Kant, explicitamos la fundamentación moral del deber de vivir y explicamos el porqué de la censura del suicidio y la eutanasia por parte de Kant. En la segunda parte, desde la fundamentación kantiana de la vida, subrayamos las insuficiencias y contradicciones de determinados planteamientos que, apelando al principio de autonomía, defienden el suicidio y la eutanasia. En una tercera parte, manteniéndonos fieles a (...) la fundamentación kantiana del valor de la vida, exploramos sin embargo la posibilidad de defender la legitimidad del suicidio y la eutanasia.This work has three parts. In the first one, if we use the meaning of life by I.Kant, we explain the moral base of the duty to live and why Kant censures suicide and euthanasia. Secondly, if we use the Kantian moral theory of life we highlight the lacks and contradictions of certain proposals that –referring to the principle of autonomy– defend suicide and euthanasia. In the third part, although following Kant’s approach of the value of life, we explore the possibility of defending the legitimacy of suicide and euthanasia. (shrink)

The current monopoly of psychology in the different facets of human life becomes psychological practice care increasingly suspect. And while it states legitimate targets, they are controversial. This paper highlights the lack of an agreed target between the professionals of psychological practice care. The first part argues that psychological practice care does not provide a clear and agreed target. This dissent is due to a disciplinary problem of psychology and it damages its image of responsible profession. In the second part, (...) we propose a goal that unifies various psychological practices care beyond their differences and through which its professional action is legitimate. The hypothesis presented is that the aim of psychological practice care is what begins it, that is, relief of suffering. However, to understand the nature of suffering, psychological practice care must regain its relationship with philosophy. (shrink)

This article questions the reason behind ethics in caregiving services for people with serious intellectual disabilities, the reasons changes have taken place in medicine, in the kinds of illnesses, social changes and changes in how hospitality is envisioned, which lead us to reconsider the usual way of doing things, the traditional morals on which their treatment has been based. However, the traditional ways of dealing with those disabled individuals have also become obsolete and are ethically reproachable: based on charity and (...) beneficence, goodwill and paternalism, if not on ignorance and vulnerability. (shrink)

Antonio Argandoña, Norbert Bilbeny, Victòria Camps, Miquel Calsina, Àngel Castiñeira, Cristian Palazzi, Ferran Requejo, Raimon Ribera, Begoña Román, Ferran Sàez, Miquel Seguró, Francesc Torralba, Josep Maria Vallès, Rosamund Thomas Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics 2012 3(3):9-16.

This article presents a view of bioethics in the Spanish context. We may identify several features common to Mediterranean countries because of their relatively similar social organisation. Each country has its own distinguishing features but we would point two aspects which are of particular interest¨: the Mediterranean view of autonomy and the importance of Catholicism in Mediterranean culture. The Spanish experience on bioethics field has been marked by these elements, trying to build a civic ethics alternative, with the law as (...) an important support. So, Spanish bioethics has been developed in two parallel levels: in the academic and policy maker field (University and Parliament) and in clinical practice (hospitals and healthcare ethics committees), with different paces and methods. One of the most important changes in the paternalistic mentality has been promoted through the recognition by law of the patient’s rights and also through the new generation of citizens, clearly aware on the exercise of autonomy. Now, the healthcare professionals have a new challenge: adapt their practice to this new paradigm. (shrink)

BackgroundThe Catalan Institute of Health is the largest health services public provider in Catalonia. “CIH Code of Ethics Virtual Forum”, was created within the Intranet of the CIH to facilitate participation among their employees. The current study aims to: a) Analyse the CIH workers’ assessment of their own, their colleagues’ and the organization’s observance of ethical values; b) Identify the opinions, attitudes, experiences and practices related to the ethical values from the discourse of the workers that contributed voluntarily to the (...) CEVF.MethodsMixed methods study with convergent parallel design:1.Cross sectional study by means of a self-administered, ad hoc, anonymous questionnaire to assess the observance of the ethical values of the CIH according to the participants. A total of 712 workers responded to the questionnaire. A descriptive, bivariate analysis of the results was carried out. 2.Qualitative study to determine the meaning for the workers of the ethical values put forward by the organization. Their individual opinions and experiences were explored by means of a thematic contents analysis of 225 comments posted in the CEVF. The study was conducted between May and December 2008.ResultsThe average score for observance of the CE by the respondents themselves was high, between 3.5-4/5 for the observance by their colleagues and close to 3/5 for the CIH management. These results do not change when we compare by gender, age group and professional discipline. The comments on the values are information-rich, they mirror the ethical environment of the institution and show various ethical dilemmas and suggestions.ConclusionsResults show that it is feasible for a publicly funded health care organization to develop a CE with the participation of employees and the support of the management. Results underscore the relevance of this strategy for the implementation, improvement and update of the CE as a responsibility shared by all workers. Practices consistent with ethical values are rewarded by social approval, enhance employee’s confidence and coherence in decision-making and improve public engagement and institutional policies. (shrink)

Antonio Argandoña, Norbert Bilbeny, Victòria Camps, Miquel Calsina, Àngel Castiñeira, Cristian Palazzi, Ferran Requejo, Raimon Ribera, Begoña Román, Ferran Sàez, Miquel Seguró, Francesc Torralba, Josep Maria Vallès, Rosamund Thomas Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics 2012 3(3):9-16.

Este trabajo es una aproximación a la labor desarrollado por el arzobispo sevillano con vistas a la formación permanente del clero. Se analiza la figura de Spínola, la organización de las cátedras eclesiásticas, la junta directiva diocesana, la organización de las instituciones de estudio en el arciprestazgo y los temas tratados en las mismas. Se estudian los modelos de estas conferencias en cuatro instituciones: San Bartolomé y San Román en Sevilla, Écija y El Puerto de Santa María. Finalmente, se ofrecen (...) algunas conclusiones. (shrink)

Antonio Argandoña, Norbert Bilbeny, Victòria Camps, Miquel Calsina, Àngel Castiñeira, Cristian Palazzi, Ferran Requejo, Raimon Ribera, Begoña Román, Ferran Sàez, Miquel Seguró, Francesc Torralba, Josep Maria Vallès, Rosamund Thomas Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics 2012 3(3):9-16.

Biological evolution provides a creative fount of complex and subtle adaptations, often surprising the scientists who discover them. However, because evolution is an algorithmic process that transcends the substrate in which it occurs, evolution’s creativity is not limited to nature. Indeed, many researchers in the field of digital evolution have observed their evolving algorithms and organisms subverting their intentions, exposing unrecognized bugs in their code, producing unexpected adaptations, or exhibiting outcomes uncannily convergent with ones in nature. Such stories routinely reveal (...) creativity by evolution in these digital worlds, but they rarely fit into the standard scientific narrative. Instead they are often treated as mere obstacles to be overcome, rather than results that warrant study in their own right. The stories themselves are traded among researchers through oral tradition, but that mode of information transmission is inefficient and prone to error and outright loss. Moreover, the fact that these stories tend to be shared only among practitioners means that many natural scientists do not realize how interesting and lifelike digital organisms are and how natural their evolution can be. To our knowledge, no collection of such anecdotes has been published before. This paper is the crowd-sourced product of researchers in the fields of artificial life and evolutionary computation who have provided first-hand accounts of such cases. It thus serves as a written, fact-checked collection of scientifically important and even entertaining stories. In doing so we also present here substantial evidence that the existence and importance of evolutionary surprises extends beyond the natural world, and may indeed be a universal property of all complex evolving systems. (shrink)

Die Frage nach der Seinsweise der realen Welt gehört zu den zentralen und am meisten umstrittenen Themen der europäischen Philosophie. Weder die Argumente des Idealismus noch die des Realismus haben das Problem gelöst. Auch die Frage nach dem Wesen und dem Schicksal des Menschen und seiner Stellung in der Welt ist nicht ablösbar von der Grundfrage nach dem Wesen der Natur und der Existenzweise der realen Welt. Eine kritische Prüfung der Problemsituation ergibt, daß die seit mehr als zweihundert Jahren herrschende (...) Neigung, das Problem der Existenz der Welt erkenntnistheoretisch aufzufassen, eine Verschiebung und Verfälschung des eigentlichen Problems mit sich gebracht hat, das kein erkenntnistheoretisches, sondern im Kern ein echt metaphysisches ist. Seine Lösung kann deshalb nur durch eine ontologische Untersuchung vorbereitet werden. Das ist das Ziel von Roman Ingardens »Streit um die Existenz der Welt«. (shrink)

The following article is an addendum to Reinhardt Brandt’s article included above, written for the needs of Polish readers. Brandt discusses the famous Longinus’ treatise while including its entire historic context. The substantial threads including the specifics Longinus’ piece as a treatise on the field of aesthetics that were contained in Brandt’s work have been, on the other hand, reminded in this article.

The article is an attempt not only to refer again, but also interpret some pivotal elements of the concept of sublimity presented in Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Kant presented a source interpretation of the category referring to sublime phenomena of nature or simple works of art, but such delineating of the field of interest was caused by the epistemological aims of the third Critique. In this presentation I would like to widen Kant’s interpretation of the conception and add some references (...) of the sense of freedom to the content of psychological character. This problems are a subject of intensive research among Torun aestheticians. (shrink)

The Polish philosopher Roman Ingarden is, with Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, one of the foremost representatives of the phenomenological movement founded by Edmund Husserl. The ideas of his most famous work, The Literary Work of Art, have made a powerful impact on contemporary aesthetics and literary theory. The present volume, a collection of essays all of which appear in English here for the first time, derives from the period towards the end of Ingarden's life when he turned from special problems (...) in aesthetics to the general theory of value and to the study of human nature. Six of the essays, including the longest piece, a masterly study of the problem of responsibility, were originally published in Polish as Little Book on Man. The remaining three essays: on the objectivity and relativity of values, on our knowledge of values and on the foundations of ethics, have been specially translated for this volume, which includes an introduction by the editor. The work is above all of interest to philosophers, who will find here an aspect of Ingarden's thought hitherto unknown to English readers. But the clear and forceful style of these pieces, which has been captured admirably by the translator, will also make the work of interest to the layman, to whom it offers an insight into the ways in which phenomenological philosophy may be put to work in solving problems which have a direct bearing upon his own life. Of interest to: Philosophers, anthropologists, aestheticians, students of these disciplines. (shrink)

En el Gorgias, Platón distingue el modo de ser y actuar propio del filósofofrente al modo de ser y actuar propio del retórico. Para esto, usa comocriterio a la misma retórica a partir de la distinción retórica aduladora – retóricacientífica. Frente a esto, Aristóteles realiza una toma de posición quereformula las críticas platónicas referentes a la posibilidad de una technêretórica. El presente texto confrontara las condiciones que según el Gorgiasdebe cumplir la retórica para llegar a ser technê con las características (...) que,según Aristóteles, tiene la retórica a partir de su relación con la dialéctica. (shrink)

This paper attempts to formalize and to address the 'leakproofing' of the Singularity problem presented by David Chalmers. The paper begins with the definition of the Artificial Intelligence Confinement Problem. After analysis of existing solutions and their shortcomings, a protocol is proposed aimed at making a more secure confinement environment which might delay potential negative effect from the technological singularity while allowing humanity to benefit from the superintelligence.

Although the theory of moral development is widely used in business ethics research to measure the quality of an ethical decision, there have been ongoingconcerns about certain aspects of the theory. These concerns include questions about the distinctness and sequentiality of the stages, the logic for claiming that the higher levels are morally superior, and the ability of the theory to incorporate the universality of the dominant ethical theories and the particularism of the ethics of care. This paper suggests that (...) many of these concerns can be addressed through recent research, most importantly through the application of the Lectical Assessment System (LAS) (Dawson, 2002, 2003; Dawson, Xie, & Wilson, 2003). (shrink)

Translated excerpts from works by various authors; original titles and names of the translators given in captions.

Il est arrivé que l’on compare Machiavel à La Boétie pour grossièrement les opposer, selon l’idée fausse que le premier serait du côté du prince, et le second du côté du peuple. Nous proposons, ici, une étude comparative de leurs pensées qui se concentre sur leur manière de lire les Anciens et de se situer vis-à-vis de la culture humaniste de leur époque, pour mieux saisir adéquatement leurs différences et leurs similitudes.

Although scholarship in philosophy of action has grown in recent years, there has been little work explicitly dealing with the role of time in agency, a role with great significance for the study of action. As the articles in this collection demonstrate, virtually every fundamental issue in the philosophy of action involves considerations of time. The four sections of this volume address the metaphysics of action, diachronic practical rationality, the relation between deliberation and action, and the phenomenology of agency, providing (...) an overview of the central developments in each area with an emphasis on the role of temporality. Including contributions by established, rising, and new voices in the field, _Time and the Philosophy of Action _brings analytic work in philosophy of action together with contributions from continental philosophy and cognitive science to elaborate the central thesis that agency not only develops in time but is shaped by it at every level. (shrink)

Between the zone of certainty beyond all doubt and the zone of incomprehensible uncertainty, the sources of which are nothing but chance, we need to use solid results from a vast interdisciplinarity. We wish to give here a sense of the factors in play and the state of the debate and advance in the territory of how interdisciplinarity may help to solve problems which are common in many areas of knowledge. Chaos and complexity certainly put limits on what we can (...) know. High complexity, asymmetry and/or non-linearity are universal types of imprecision. Can hazard have purpose and direction?The idea is that the more effort we put into project design to cover as many details and possible consequences as possible we can grasp in our in-depth analysis aiming to create the project (in art or science or society), the greater the chances that the random occurrence of the unpredictable event will settle on the project's purpose and direction and not on contrary to them. There is no vicious circle here. This kind of method can explain many good results already obtained in such circumstances. Simplicity, beauty, rationalistic optimism, are features of unshakeable scientific results We may call this feature of scientific theory or art _uniqueness. _Uniqueness is strongly correlated with _essentialization. _Science is working in that sense: to simplify a phenomenon to its essence in order to study it easily without losing anything important in the analysis. That is _essentialization. _Why and how complex systems move to the edge of chaos? And what do they do to stay there? They are in constant struggle to create or keep order in complexity. That is the pattern of self-organization, the specific feature of human nature. That is why our action is meant to build resilience to deal better with unpredictable events and prevent the emergence of a critical threshold. Uncertainty, indeterminacy, randomness, and contradictions appear, not as non-essential substances of debate to be eliminated by explanation, but as everlasting ingredients of our conception of reality. There are compelling reasons to believe that it is impossible to make accurate, nontrivial predictions concerning human behavior. Logic and reason are and remain priority, but unpredictability forces us to imagination and creative thinking. Indeed we are confronted with a new human landscape. The anomalies become the new normal. (shrink)

Praca nie zawiera żadnej proponowanej prz∈z autora d∈finicji ekst∈nsji i intensji wyrażeń w systemach semantycznych. Rozpatruje się dwie relacje równoważności ekstensjonalnej i intensjonalnej, które zachodzą między wyraż∈niami (zdaniami, termami) oraz funkcje gdzie e jest wyrażeniem, spelniające warunki. Każda para takich funkcji jest pewną reprezentacją ekstens ji i intensji wyrażeń.W pracy rozważa się ogólne własności reprezentacji ekstensji i intensji oraz podaje się przykłady takich reprezentacji. Wyróżnia się tzw. obiektywną reprezentację ekstensji i wprowadza się pojęcie tzw. semantycznego domknięcia modelu.Pokazuje się, że ekstensje (...) i intensje termów można zredukować do ekst∈nsji i intensji zdań.Rozważa się relacje strukturalnej równoważności ekstensjonalnej i int∈nsjonalnej wyrażeń. Relacje te redukują się w przypadku tzw. normalnych systemów semantycznych do syntaktycznej równoważności wyrażeń. Istnieje pewien związek tych relacji z pojęciem kodenotacji wprowadzonym przez K. Ajdukiewicza. (shrink)

Eliminativists about free will and moral responsibility argue that no action can be free and responsible because in order to be actions, our movements must be caused by features of our character or will. However, either the will is constituted by states that are themselves produced by events outside our control, or it is constituted by our own choices, which must themselves stem from our will in order to be up to us. Thus, any attempt to account for freedom and (...) responsibility seems to either run into an infinite regress or leave the ultimate causes of our actions up to something outside our agency. Compatibilists attempt to respond to this challenge by arguing that we need not have control over our will in order to be free, but only to have control of our actions on the basis of our will. Libertarians, on the other hand, argue that we can be free so long as our choices are caused indeterministically and chosen for reasons. -/- I argue that both approaches ultimately leave the constitution of the will up to non-agential factors because the dominant accounts view all choices—including those that constitute the will—as essentially events caused by other events, leaving no function for agents to perform. In response, I argue that we can avoid eliminativism if we take the will to be irreducible to events such as choices and also our own. Through an examination of recent non-volitionist approaches that allow for responsibility for non-deliberative action, I argue that such accounts presuppose a Heideggerian view of agency on which all action and deliberation occur on the basis of an underlying projection of possibilities into which we are thrown. Heidegger’s account of temporality in turn allows us to own ourselves in the present by retrieving our past as always already chosen in light of our self-projection into the future. Agents are thus self-constituting beings capable of owning themselves and independent of causation by prior events. Freedom and responsibility are therefore irreducible features of agency. (shrink)

«Ethnical renaissanse» has demonstrated ethnicity is one of the most important attributes of the individuum. However, unclear position of ethnical identity in individuum life and active usage of this concept contributes to every ethnical conflict leads to political conflict. It makes the basis for research which role identity plays in human`s life. The author explores beginnings of concepts of nation and ethnicity and considers comunitarians` and liberals` attitude towards them. Paradoxes of nation and ethnicity concepts and need of self-identity lead (...) to the concept of «cultural identity». The author concludes that both liberals either comunitarians have to settle for thesis of fundamental value of cultural identity for a human. (shrink)