Transhumanism is a challenging movement that invites us to rethink what defines humanity, including what we value and regret the most about our existence. Vulnerability is a key concept that require thorough philosophical scrutiny concerning transhumanist proposals. Vulnerability can refer to a universal condition of human life or, rather, to the specific exposure to certain harms due to particular situations. Even if we are all vulnerable in the first sense, there are also different sources and levels of vulnerability depending on (...) concrete social circumstances. Recently, Michael Hauskeller argued about a fundamental incompatibility between transhumanism and vulnerability. He understands vulnerability as an existential category, linked to woundability and mortality. This idea is akin to ontological vulnerability, but it does not notice some important features of social vulnerability. On the other side, transhumanism is a complex and non-homogeneous movement. Here we distinguish between a strong and a weak version of transhumanism. We will propose that the salience of vulnerability is only diminished in the radical one, while a moderate version can reconcile vulnerability with human enhancement. Thus, vulnerability, a concept that has recently gained much importance as an anthropological category in contemporary ethics, is not necessarily at odds with any transhumanist project. (shrink)

In this article, I propose an ethical analysis of assistive domestic robots for older users. In doing so, I illustrate my inquiry with the example of ROB-IN assistive robot. ROB-IN is a Spanish project which is devoted to developing a robot that will perform in the private home of nondependent, aged users. It is aimed to help people in their daily activities and contribute to appropriate health monitoring. One of their potentially most useful features is related to data gathering and (...) sharing. For the inquiry on the ethical underpinnings of this case, I develop a framework for domestic assistive robots for competent older adults drawn on the ethics of care. I assess that this type of robots could be ethically appraised attending to their impact on the well-being and autonomy of users. I approach autonomy from a relational perspective, and I delve into the relationship between autonomy and well-being through the concept of paternalism. I argue that this type of assistive robots should never act paternalistically. Given ROB-IN great implications regarding privacy, I subsequently explore the ways in which the privacy of users should be respected in their interaction with assistive robots, focusing on the relation with autonomy and well-being. Lastly, I highlight the need for avoiding ageism. This investigation focuses on aged users, but it is suggested that the situation of caregivers should be also the object of further investigations. (shrink)

Care ethics has been advanced as a suitable framework for evaluating the ethical significance of assistive robotics. One of the most prominent care ethical contributions to the ethical assessment of assistive robots comes through the work of Aimee Van Wynsberghe, who has developed the Care-Centred Value-Sensitive Design framework (CCVSD) in order to incorporate care values into the design of assistive robots. Building upon the care ethics work of Joan Tronto, CCVSD has been able to highlight a number of ways in (...) which care practices can undergo significant ethical transformations upon the introduction of assistive robots. In this paper, we too build upon the work of Tronto in an effort to enrich the CCVSD framework. Combining insights from Tronto’s work with the sociological concept of _emotional labor_, we argue that CCVSD remains underdeveloped with respect to the impact robots may have on the emotional labor required by paid care workers. Emotional labor consists of the managing of emotions and of emotional bonding, both of which signify a demanding yet potentially fulfilling dimension of paid care work. Because of the conditions in which care labor is performed nowadays, emotional labor is also susceptible to exploitation. While CCVSD can acknowledge some manifestations of unrecognized emotional labor in care delivery, it remains limited in capturing the structural conditions that fuel this vulnerability to exploitation. We propose that the idea of _privileged irresponsibility,_ coined by Tronto, helps to understand how the exploitation of emotional labor can be prone to happen in roboticized care practices. (shrink)

The commons and care are two topics that have gained presence in public and political discourses in recent years and seem to have a special affinity to one another. In this article, I propose that there are two different approaches to the relationship between the commons and care, arguing in favor of one of them: care in common or community care. In this way, I claim that care can be defined as what is done to maintain certain commons, forging the (...) bonds that shape communities according to ethical standards. These standards can be established in accordance with the ethics of care and in continuity with the political tradition of the commons. (shrink)

Sorority has gained relevance in latest feminist discourses, in Spain and in the wide world. While in Spain its use is recent, other historical periods of feminism have already produced important reflections on the subject that can illuminate the contemporary analysis. The idea of sorority that is currently used can be examined through several components: the trust in the testimonies of all women, the appeal to emotionality, to care and to shared vulnerability, and the appreciation of the unity between women (...) over and above their differences. The political strength of the women's alliance, however, is not without drawbacks. All these aspects deserve a careful consideration in order to construct a politically fruitful concept of sorority. (shrink)

Transparency is a quality of corporate social responsibility communication that enhances the relationship between the investors and the company. The objective of this paper is to analyze if the transparency of the sustainability reports is affected by the relationship of companies in different industries with their stakeholders. If this were the case, it would indicate that the pressure of significant stakeholders determines the required level of transparency of the reports. We find that the pressure of some groups of stakeholders improves (...) the quality of transparency of the reports. We extend previous research by studying the effect of stakeholder group pressure on transparency when reporting sustainability. Our results show that transparency is affected by ownership, along with size and global region. (shrink)

With size, voting discipline, and technical resources superior to those of most Brazilian parties, in the last two decades, the support of the Agrarian Caucus has become crucial for the realization of presidents’ legislative agenda. In a country where 87 percent of the population is urban, how have representatives of the agrarian elites become key players in bargaining on nonagrarian issues? This article argues that Brazilian agrarian elites have been so successful because they have devised an electoral strategy that maximizes (...) their leverage in a fragmented party system with ideologically weak right-wing parties. Empirically, I show how agrarian elites in Brazil finance legislative campaigns, mobilize voters, and subsidize the legislative work of politicians from their ranks, independently of their partisan affiliation. Theoretically, I discuss the advantages of a candidate-centered electoral strategy: self-representation and multipartisanship. While self-representation has granted agrarian elites direct access to agenda-setting positions within Congress, having members in many parties has increased the number of agenda-setting positions they can control and guaranteed their presence in the legislative coalition of right- and left-wing presidents alike. (shrink)

Blanca Rodríguez López, Nuria Sánchez Madrid and Adriana Zaharijević, 2021, Rethinking Vulnerability and Exclusion. Historical and Critical Essays, Palgrave Macmillan, 232 pp.

Research on salesperson creativity remains as one of the most under-researched topics in the sales literature despite the evidence that encouraging creativity in the sales domain is a source of competitive advantage. This paper aims to fill this research gap by exploring the influence of perceived ethical climate on salesperson creative performance, paying special attention to the role that emotions play in this process. Data provided by 176 supervisor–salesperson dyads confirm that the trust/responsibility dimension of an ethical climate is positively (...) related to salesperson creative selling by increasing salespeople's organizational pride. Similarly, the perception of unethical selling practices negatively affects salesperson organizational pride, reducing the expression of creative behaviors. Moreover, the negative effect of unethical selling practices on creative performance is stronger (more negative) when salespeople's identification with an organization increases. Managerial implications and future research directions are also addressed. (shrink)

El objetivo de esta investigación es poner de manifiesto la importancia de las imágenes de vestir marianas y, también, las joyas y accesorios que presentan. Se plantearán las bases y claves de un lenguaje no verbal que actúa como testimonio de la devoción además de las relaciones sociales y económicas del momento que las marcan. Merced a los casos analizados, se comprobará cómo, con gran frecuencia, se une a la piedad popular de pueblos y de las culturas de determinados acontecimientos (...) de la zona. Los resultados demostrarán la importancia dada y valores atribuidos a este tipo de iconografía. (shrink)

This article analyses the determinants associated with the use of the Integrated Report as a corporate reporting model for sustainability information. IRs provide information regarding the use and interdependence of different company resources. The previous literature has identified determinants behind the presentation of IRs at the country level as well as at the company level. Our work contributes to the literature by using a novel statistical approach that addresses the likelihood of the non-independence of data: companies in the same country (...) are more similar to one another than are companies from different countries. Our results confirm significant inter-country variance, which may be partially explained by the existence of specific regulations and the individualism vs. collectivism dimension. Although we confirm the effect of company-level determinants, our results do not support the role of specific variables tested as determinants. (shrink)

Considering public moral attitudes is a hallmark of the anticipatory governance of emerging biotechnologies, such as heritable human genome editing. However, such anticipatory governance often overlooks that future morality is open to change and that future generations may perform different moral assessments on the very biotechnologies we are trying to govern in the present. In this article, we identify an ’anticipatory gap’ that has not been sufficiently addressed in the discussion on the public governance of heritable genome editing, namely, uncertainty (...) about the moral visions of future generations about the emerging applications that we are currently attempting to govern now. This paper motivates the relevance of this anticipatory gap, identifying the challenges it generates and offering various recommendations so that moral uncertainty does not lead to governance paralysis with regard to human germline genome editing. (shrink)

La educación patrimonial crítica es un enfoque didáctico que facilita al alumnado reconsiderar su relación con el entorno. Busca promover el sentido de pertenencia, la empatía y el respeto por la diversidad de perspectivas, empoderando a los estudiantes como agentes de cambio social, a través del ejercicio de la ciudadanía democrática. De este modo, favorece el cuestionamiento de narrativas dominantes y la recuperación de la memoria democrática, dándole voz a todas aquellas historias ocultas y sometidas al olvido. Con el presente (...) estudio se pretende contribuir a la reparación de pasados difíciles mediante una situación de aprendizaje que emplea métodos activos de enseñanza y se lleva a cabo en las aulas de Bachillerato de un centro educativo rural, localizado en la Ribeira Sacra ourensana. Los resultados que se muestran parecen indicar que además de recuperar patrimonializar la memoria democrática de la zona, se promovió el diálogo intergeneracional y se favoreció el desarrolló de pensamiento crítico en el alumnado. (shrink)

Disability has been traditionally understood as a medical condition. However, people with disabilities have claimed in recent decades for a dephatologized social model of disability—i.e. the functi...

Altruism and solidarity are concepts that are closely related to organ donation for transplantation. On the one hand, they are typically used for encouraging people to donate. On the other hand, they also underpin the regulations in force in each country to different extents. They are often used indistinctly and equivocally, despite the different ethical implications of each concept. This paper aims to clarify to what extent we can speak of altruism and solidarity in the predominant models of organ donation. (...) It also raises the ethical question of whether these categories are adequate as a basis for such models, bearing in mind that organs are a scarce resource and that a shortage of them may mean that fewer lives are saved or improved. (shrink)

Environmental protection presents a challenge for commodity-producing democracies. To account for the enforcement of environmental laws in decentralized systems, this article proposes a multilevel approach that highlights the importance of national laws and subnational implementation rules to the politics of enforcement. This approach contrasts with prominent scholarship that focuses on sanctions and the electoral incentives and bureaucratic resources of enforcers. The advantages of the multilevel approach are demonstrated by the enforcement of the native forest protection regime in the Argentine Chaco (...) Forest, which is shaped not only by whether sanctions on illegal deforestation are applied by subnational authorities but also by the design of both the national law and subnational regulations. The article employs quantitative data and case studies based on extensive fieldwork to show how affected subnational organized interests influenced the design of the NFPR and the provincial regulations that weaken or strengthen enforcement. (shrink)

Rationale, aims and objectives Given the increasing prevalence of cataract and demand for cataract extraction surgery, patients must often wait to undergo this procedure. We validated a previously developed priority scoring system in terms of clinical variables, pre-intervention health status, appropriateness of surgery and gain in visual acuity (VA) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).Methods Explicit prioritization criteria for cataract extraction created by a variation of the Research and Development (RAND) and University of California Los Angeles appropriateness methodology were retrospectively (...) applied to a prospective cohort of 5257 patients on waiting lists to undergo cataract by phacoemulsification at 17 hospitals in Spain. Demographic data, clinical data and data related to surgical technique were collected by trained ophthalmologists. Patients were evaluated by their ophthalmologist before the intervention and 6 weeks afterward. They also completed, by mail, the Visual Function Index (VF-14) before the intervention and 3 months afterward.Results High-priority patients experienced greater improvement in VA and HRQoL than those classified as intermediate or low-priority (P < 0.0001), even after adjusting by VA and the VF-14 score at baseline. The time to intervention was the same for high-priority patients as it was for intermediate and low-priority patients.Conclusions The priority score we developed identified patients most likely to experience the greatest improvements from cataract extraction. Use of this tool could provide a fairer and more rational way to prioritize patients for cataract extraction. (shrink)

The article reveals the ambivalence of the Hegelian interpretation of medieval philosophy. Hegel shares the «anti-medieval» prejudice prevailing in modern thought since the Renaissance and Reformation. In Hegel, the Protestant heritage is especially strong. Yet when he observes the subjectivist tendencies of modern Protestant theology, he proposes, as a counter-model, the more speculative and philosophical approaches of medieval thinkers.One can thus speak of a «vindication» of medieval philosophy in Hegel´s thought, despite his anti-medieval prejudice.

Goodstein’s principle is arguably the first purely number-theoretic statement known to be independent of Peano arithmetic. It involves sequences of natural numbers which at first appear to diverge, but eventually decrease to zero. These sequences are defined relative to a notation system based on exponentiation for the natural numbers. In this article, we provide a self-contained and modern analysis of Goodstein’s principle, obtaining some variations and improvements. We explore notions of optimality for notation systems and apply them to the classical (...) Goodstein process and to a weaker variant based on multiplication rather than exponentiation. In particular, we introduce the notion of base-change maximality, and show how it leads to far-reaching extensions of Goodstein’s result. We moreover show that by varying the initial base of the Goodstein process, one readily obtains independence results for each of the fragments $\mathsf {I}\Sigma _n$ of Peano arithmetic. (shrink)

Negar el libre albedrío implica que el ser humano no es libre por naturaleza, sino que puede llegar a serlo mediante un uso adecuado de su inteligencia; libertad que solo la consiguen los “sabios”. Por eso, cuando Spinoza entiende la democracia como la forma de gobierno que mejor defiende la libertad, esto vale para los “sabios”, pero no para el vulgo, que solo mediante el miedo y la esperanza es conducido a obrar según los dictados de la razón. ¿No será (...) esta indeseable consecuencia la que le impidió terminar su Tratado Político, precisamente cuando se aprestaba a estudiar la democracia? (shrink)

The revised Common Rule includes a new option for the conduct of secondary research with identifiable data and biospecimens: regulatory broad consent. Motivated by concerns regarding autonomy and trust in the research enterprise, regulators had initially proposed broad consent in a manner that would have rendered it the exclusive approach to secondary research with all biospecimens, regardless of identifiability. Based on public comments from both researchers and patients concerned that this approach would hinder important medical advances, however, regulators decided to (...) largely preserve the status quo approach to secondary research with biospecimens and data. The Final Rule therefore allows such research to proceed without specific informed consent in a number of circumstances, but it also offers regulatory broad consent as a new, optional pathway for secondary research with identifiable data and biospecimens. In this article, we describe the parameters of regulatory broad consent under the new rule, explain why researchers and research institutions are unlikely to utilize it, outline recommendations for regulatory broad consent issued by the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections, and sketch an empirical research agenda for the sorts of questions about regulatory broad consent that remain to be answered as the research community embarks on Final Rule implementation. (shrink)

This article analyzes the figure of Omar Khayyam by looking at his famous quatrains or rubayat,focusing on the reception and review of the Arab philosophies of his time, and the defense that he makes of Persian Archaic, Zoroastrian, Mazdean and Manichean culture and philosophy.

On the assumption that shame is a universal emotion, cross-cultural research on shame relies on translations assumed to be equivalent in meaning. Our studies here questioned that assumption. In three studies (Ns, 108, 120, 117),shamewas compared to its translations in Spanish (vergüenza) and in Malayalam (nanakedu). American English speakers usedshamefor the emotional reaction to moral failures and its use correlated positively withguilt, whereasvergüenzaandnanakeduwere used less for moral stories and their use correlated less with the guilt words. In comparison with Spanish (...) and Malayalam speakers’ ratings of their translations, American English speakers ratedshameandguiltto be more similar to each other. (shrink)

The sex chromosomes of many species differ in dosage but the total gene expression output is similar, a phenomenon referred to as dosage compensation. Previously, diverse mechanisms were postulated to account for compensation in distantly related taxa. However, two recent papers present evidence that dosage compensation in Drosophila, mammals and nematodes share the property that there is an approximately two‐fold upregulation of the single active X chromosome in each case.1,2 The results suggest that a common mechanism might operate in these (...) different cases. BioEssays 28: 565–568, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In Nicomachean Ethics 2.4 Aristotle distinguishes between virtuous action and acting virtuously: a virtuous action counts as virtuously performed if done with knowledge, chosen for its own sake, and from a stable character. Since the ‘same’ action can be performed virtuously or non-virtuously, interpreters have concluded that these ‘agential conditions’ are indifferent incidental features with no bearing on the virtuous character of the action. I propose that they are instead ‘perfections,’ i.e., constitutive features of virtuous action as such, admitting of (...) degrees. Unlike the alternative interpretation, my proposal fully harmonizes with three important Aristotelian doctrines: that action from virtue is prior to action merely in conformity with virtue; that character virtue is a perfection of human beings; and that practical life is not properly characterized in transitive, productive terms. My proposal still allows for a generic sense of ‘sameness’ in which the ‘same’ action may be virtuously or non-virtuously performed. (shrink)

We present a map of standard quantum mechanics onto a dual theory, that of the classical thermodynamics of irreversible processes. While no gravity is present in our construction, our map exhibits features that are reminiscent of the holographic principle of quantum gravity.

This book creates a conceptual schema that acts as a correlation between Epistemology and Epistemic Logic. It connects both fields and offers a proper theoretical foundation for the contemporary developments of Epistemic Logic regarding the dynamics of information. It builds a bridge between the view of Awareness Justification Internalism, and a dynamic approach to Awareness Logic. The book starts with an introduction to the main topics in Epistemic Logic and Epistemology and reviews the disconnection between the two fields. It analyses (...) three core notions representing the basic structure of the conceptual schema: “Epistemic Awareness”, “Knowledge” and “Justification”. Next, it presents the Explicit Aware Knowledge Schema, using a diagram of three ellipses to illustrate the schema, and a formal model based on a neighbourhood-model structure, that shows one concrete application of the EAK-Schema into a logical structure. The book ends by presenting conclusions and final remarks about the uses and applications of the EAK-Schema. It shows that the most important feature of the schema is that it serves both as a theoretical correlate to the dynamic extensions of Awareness Logic, providing it with a philosophical background, and as an abstract conceptual structure for a re-interpretation of Epistemology. (shrink)

At least for those who uphold the rationality of morality, ethics and practical reason are not two distinct topics: an ethically sound agent is one whose practical reason functions as it should. Take, for instance, the greatest historical figures. Aristotle claimed that no virtue of character can exist without practical wisdom—the excellence of practical, deliberative reason. And Kant thought that the categorical imperative, the ultimate moral principle that governs a good will, was at the same time the fundamental principlof practical (...) reasoning because the will simply ispractical reason. Even before any philosophical theory of the connection between acting well and the exercise of a rational power is in view, our moral practices strongly suggest that there is one. For we take it for granted that, in an important range of cases, when an agent fails to act as she should, something has gone awry with the agent and not just with her acts, and, furthermore, that the agent herself may be held responsible for this. In calling an agent who acts unethically "irrational," we are saying these two things. (shrink)

A hemi-implicative lattice is an algebra \((A,\wedge,\vee,\rightarrow,1)\) of type (2, 2, 2, 0) such that \((A,\wedge,\vee,1)\) is a lattice with top and for every \(a,b\in A\), \(a\rightarrow a = 1\) and \(a\wedge (a\rightarrow b) \le b\). A new variety of hemi-implicative lattices, here named sub-Hilbert lattices, containing both the variety generated by the \(\{\wedge,\vee,\rightarrow,1\}\) -reducts of subresiduated lattices and that of Hilbert lattices as proper subvarieties is defined. It is shown that any sub-Hilbert lattice is determined (up to isomorphism) by (...) a triple (_L_, _D_, _S_) which satisfies the following conditions: _L_ is a bounded distributive lattice, _D_ is a sublattice of _L_ containing 0, 1 such that for each \(a, b \in L\) there is an element \(c \in D\) with the property that for all \(d \in D\), \(a \wedge d \le b\) if and only if \(d \le c\) (we write \(a \rightarrow _D b\) for the element _c_), and _S_ is a non void subset of _L_ such that _S_ is closed under \(\rightarrow _D\) and _S_, with its inherited order, is itself a lattice. Finally, the congruences of sub-Hilbert lattices are studied. (shrink)

This study analyses journalistic images of the volcanic eruption of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) in 2021. We prioritized the perspective of image reception to find out the audience”s feelings and level of satisfaction. We also investigated the application of ethical recommendations and the presence of new trends in journalism in the coverage of this natural disaster. We surveyed a sample of individuals who were asked about their feelings, emotions, and level of satisfaction with the journalistic images of the event. (...) The results reveal that journalism driven by spectacle and emotion prevailed over preventive, constructive and solution-oriented journalism. A noteworthy conclusion highlights the need for the ethical training of journalists and newsroom managers to promote modern, quality journalism. This necessity arises due to the increasing numbers of natural disasters affecting populations. (shrink)

The current science publishing system is in need of a positive transformation for the good of scientists and society as a whole. Herein, we propose features that, in our view, will distinguish the science publishing system of the future.

This article reflects on transhumanism and its promise to achieve bodies which will be forever young, healthy, and highly useful. From a critical approach mainly based on feminist theory, it recalls different points against this promise, as they can work as criteria for exclusion and could end up in a denial of the body and its main features. The paper starts with some reflections on the application of biotechnologies in order to enhance human bodies. It also recalls the discussion on (...) virtual realities and their promises to erase the limits of the body and cancel materiality. Posthuman discourses end up in a proposal to leave behind the ‘burden’ of the body. Some feminist scholars have claimed against these arguments, and have asked for a ‘return to the body’ instead, as its denial can harm the vindications of equality, freedom and abolition of sexual discrimination. (shrink)

Pedro de Toledo’s translation, Enseñador e Mostrador delos Turbados, is the earliest and most extensive philosophical text to appear in Spanish. The first translation into a vernacular language of RaMBaM’s Guide for the Perplexed is presented in Ms. 10289 of the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. The text seems an intellectual battle-field. It presents some interesting and peculiar characteristics at once: a text covered with glosses of the translator himself, and comments, variant translations, philosophical and theological disagreements, the use of rabbinic and (...) scriptural sources, by an anonymous critical commentator. These discrepancies show how the sensitive nature of the Maimonides ideas demands a particular hermeneutics, and offers an interesting view about the Spanish Jewish controversy in the fifteenth century. (shrink)