Il breve saggio sul concetto di lex in Suárez evidenzia come la nota definizione di Tommaso d’Aquino, pur rappresentando un punto di riferimento imprescindibile nel dibattito giuridico, morale e teologico, possa esser riscritta. E l’innovazione del gesuita spagnolo si delinea in una definizione di legge, ove i termini intelletto e volontà sono posti in modo differente e il dialogo tra questi concetti generi una costruzione morale, che tenga conto della libertà della volontà dall’intelletto e da un ordo precostituito.

Para John Stuart Mill prazer e felicidade não são a mesma coisa, pois uma determinada quantidade de prazer desfrutado não significa necessariamente que a pessoa alcance a felicidade na mesma proporção. A felicidade seria um apanhado geral de bem estar presente não apenas no indivíduo, mas em toda a sociedade na qual ele vive. Desta forma Mill compreende que não pode haver uma sociedade onde todos os indivíduos tenham uma quantidade ilimitada de prazeres e que sendo assim existiram pessoas sofrendo (...) e infelizes dentro da sociedade. Contudo essa situação se alterna com o tempo entre os indivíduos, e seu ponto de vista valoriza o somatório do bem estar presente entre todas as pessoas, levando ao seu princípio da maior felicidade. Felicidade esta que não é igual a presente na escola das virtudes ou mesmo na deontológica, ela se diferencia por abordar outras questões como a razão para promover o bem, a implementação do princípio da prevenção de danos, da ajuda aos inocentes e a consideração de que os números efetivamente contam, ou seja, sua preocupação vai além do aspecto individual. Para tanto, a felicidade não pode estar desvinculada da moralidade, assim a análise das consequências das ações em pro da maior felicidade não deve contrapor os princípios morais da sociedade humana. Esses princípios morais servem como um guia para o julgamento das ações humanas, que por sua vez se são considerados corretos e bons, tendem ao caminho do prazer e consequentemente da felicidade do ponto de vista utilitarista de Mill. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Nanotechnologies are an expression of the human ability to control and manipulate matter on a very small scale. Their use will enable an even and constant monitoring of human organisms, in a new and perhaps less invasive way. Debates at all levels – national, European and international – have pointed out the common difficulty of giving a complete, clear definition of nanotechnologies. This is primarily due to the variety of their components, to the fact that there is not just (...) one technology but several. The most significant medical applications of nanotechnologies are in the diagnostic and the therapeutic fields, eg biosensors and molecular imaging, providing diagnosis and drug delivery with no invasive methods involved. Like any other emerging field, such technologies imply new possibilities for improving health but, on the other hand, they are still at an experimental stage and therefore should be implemented under rigorous safety testing before going on general release. For this purpose, the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of nanotechnologies have been elaborated by study groups, in order to develop solutions before the results of the tests are diffused into medical practice. The aim of this paper is to define some of the ethical issues concerning biomedical applications and to evaluate whether there is a need for new or additional guidelines and regulations. (shrink)

De Interpretatione is among Aristotle's most influential and widely read writings; C. W. A. Whitaker presents the first systematic study of this work, and offers a radical new view of its aims, its structure, and its place in Aristotle's system. He shows that De Interpretatione is not a disjointed essay on ill-connected subjects, as traditionally thought, but a highly organized and systematic treatise on logic, argument, and dialectic.

Conscientious objection in the health care field—that is, refusal on the part of a medical professional to perform or cooperate in a procedure when it violates his or her conscience—is a growing concern for international legislators and a source of contentious debates among ethicists and the general public. Recognizing a general right to conscientious objection based on individual liberty, and thus a subjective right, could have negative consequences. Conscientious objection in health care settings should be fully protected, however, when the (...) objection is based on principles that are fundamental to the medical profession and the legal system. Examples from Italy and other nations show how protections there safeguard conscientious objection when a health professional objects to taking a human life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12.4 (Winter 2012): 611–620. (shrink)

A Second level Master in “Clinical Bioethics Consultation” has been organized in Italy to offer an opportunity to offer an adequate training to carry out an ethics consultation in different health fields. The master has been promoted and realized by different institutions: Catholic University of Sacred Hearth in Rome, Insubria University in Varese, “Federico II” University in Naples, Lanza Foundation in Padua and the Local Health and Social Care Unit n.7 in Veneto Region. The aim of the master is train (...) ethics consultants to offer help regarding a correct decision, which will take by others. The choice must be as much as possible shared between patient, family and health care team. Ethics consultation can be primarily request by the physicians, nurses and health care staff such as support about a choice that wants to be the most appropriate and to clarify a dilemma between different options. Secondly an ethics consultation can be demand by the patient and the family members to find a clarification about their dilemmas and future choices. Also the administrative staff could ask the consultation, when it need to better explain ad example about a specific clinical case or a question concerned the health policy. (shrink)

El presente articuLo pretende encuadrar y definir las implicaciones éticas reLativas a La aplicación biomédica de las nanotecnologías, a través de La vaLoración deL estado del arte.Las nanotecnologías, expresiÓn de La habilidad humana de manipuLar la materia a escala atómico/molecular se presentan como un instrumento capaz de modificar la investigaciÓn científica y la medicina de manera radicaL.Debates a todo nivel han subrayado las dificultades de darles una definición clara y unívoca, a causa de la convergencia de diversos ámbitos del saber (...) comprendidos en ellas.No obstante que Las nanotecnoLogías estén ya presentes en las ciencias computacionaLes y en La eLectrÓnica, es en eL ámbito médico-sanitario que se proyectan Las aplicaciones más entusiastas: instrumentos de diagnóstico y suministración de fármacos menos invasivos y más eficaces. Estas tecnoLogías se presentan al mismo tiempo como terapias pero también como instrumentos de prevención únicos, Las mismas características que hacen peculiar eL empLeo de las nano tecnologías en medicina, sugieren también precauciones: por una parte la dimensión mínima de las nanopartículasfacilita su ingreso en el organismo humano, traspasando las defensas naturales del organismo, agilizando una distribuciÓn de los fármacos altamente precisa. Por otra parte, estas mismas características pueden revelarse dañinas para el organismo humano .Dado que se trata de tecnología en rápida progresiÓn cuyos adelantos no son fáciles de predecir. los riesgos, aunque sÓlo aquellos potenciales, deben ser cuidadosamente valorados ya sea para las aplicaciones presentes como para aquellas futuras.Por tanto, encuadrar las implicaciones bioéticas de las nanotecnologías significa comprender y valorar su impacto sobre la salud humana. (shrink)

Introduction -- Australia : 1788-2001 -- Kelsen : authorised constitutional change -- Application of Kelsen's account -- Raz : continuity of social form -- Application of Raz's account.

El artículo pone en evidencia la dimensión ético-antropológica de la historia de la medicina. En el pasado podemos encontrar aquellos elementos de relevancia ética que están en estrecha continuidad con el presente. Desde los orígenes el médico ha experimentado el conflicto entre el mundo del deseo y el mundo del límite. El cuidado de los enfermos comienza desde ahí, de la consciencia de compartir el mismo deseo, el mismo límite, el mismo destino. El artículo mira la historia de la medicina (...) como historia de la humanidad; dentro está toda la vida humana, según la definición del historiador Fielding Garrison . En esta perspectiva la dimensión ético-antropológica emerge sobre todo en las múltiples figuras de médicos ejemplares caracterizados por valores como el valor, la dedicación, la empatía, pero sobre todo por un gran sentido de humanidad y de solidaridad por sus enfermos. En fin, una lectura ético-social puede emerger del arte y de la literatura. Ellas son no sólo testimonio de una época sino también un sismógrafo de las dimensiones éticas de la medicina.This article highlights the ethical-anthropological level of the history of medicine. It explores the close connection between past and present regarding those elements of ethical relevance in medicine. Since the beginning, the physician experienced the conflict between hopes and limits. Medical care springs exactly from the awareness of sharing the same desire, the same limit, and the same destiny. This article regards the history of medicine as history of mankind; according to the historian Fielding Garrison, the history of medicine embodies the entire human life . In this perspective, the ethical-anthropological dimension emerges particularly in many exemplary figures of physicians, distinguished for courage, commitment, empathy, humanity and solidarity towards their patients. Finally, arts and literature can be regarded as instruments to get a cultural perspective, as well as guidelines for social and ethical key of interpretation. They are not only historical documents, but also a seismograph, registering the fundamental historical dimension of medicine. (shrink)

Si bien es cierto que la aparición de la representación política se ha ligado con un cauce histórico particularmente fértil para el sobrevenir del liberalismo, no lo es menos que los efectos políticos e históricos que se desprenden de aquella pueden ser calibrados con otras piezas que las liberales. Aunque parezca contradictorio y paradójico apelar a la teoría rousseauniana para reflexionar sobre los dilemas de la representación, consideramos altamente sugestivo que, pese a Rousseau mismo, bajo la forma naturalmente particular del (...) gobierno, en sus páginas también se cuela el fantasma de la representación.  . (shrink)

Las biotecnologías son ciencias destinadas a incidir en manera profunda en la sociedad. El alcance de los cambios que a través de ellas será posible realizar es notable, pero sobre todo se aleja de las ciencias de ingeniería, de las alimentarias, de las médicas. La bioética está decididamente llamada a acoger el reto representado por las biotecnologías. La presente contribución parte precisamente de aquí: captar los aspectos característicos y peculiares de algunas de las posibles aplicaciones biotecnológicas para encuadrar la singularidad (...) de las problemáticas bioéticas que de estas aplicaciones pueden derivar con el fin de leer tales contribuciones a la luz del valor al cual se refieren y por el cual están pensadas: la persona En lo específico, los autores se detienen en tres específicas aplicaciones biotecnológicas que representan sectores cuyas potencialidades preanuncian grandes promesas y, en ciertos aspectos, algunos retos verdaderamente cautivadores; en particular: los OGM, las nanotecnologías y la farmacogenética, temas en diversos modos considerados en la revista en el curso de los años.Biotechnologies, the use of living organisms or their products to modify human environment, are flourishing very rapidly. They cover many fields: from engineering science, to food, to medicine. Bioethics is therefore called to face the challenge given by biotechnologies. The present contribution takes advantage from this: it catches all the scientific peculiarities showed by these technologies and their application to outline the peculiarities of their ethical issues and to read them in the light of their end: the human persono In fact, thanks to them, it will be possible to realize many transformations within the society. In particular, the authors evaluate three main aspects of biotechnologies OGM, Nanotechnologies and pharmacogenetics, topics covered in the journal on several occasions over the years. (shrink)

Both Carnap and Quine made significant contributions to the philosophy of mathematics despite their diversedviews. Carnap endorsed the dichotomy between analytic and synthetic knowledge and classified certainmathematical questions as internal questions appealing to logic and convention. On the contrary, Quine wasopposed to the analytic-synthetic distinction and promoted a holistic view of scientific inquiry. The purpose of thispaper is to argue that in light of the recent advancement of experimental mathematics such as Monte Carlosimulations, limiting mathematical inquiry to the domain of (...) logic is unjustified. Robustness studies implemented inMonte Carlo Studies demonstrate that mathematics is on par with other experimental-based sciences. (shrink)

This volume contains the selected discourses of four seventeenth-century philosophers, carefully chosen to illustrate the tenets characteristic of the influential movement known as Cambridge Platonism. Fundamental to their beliefs is the statement most clearly voiced by Benjamin Whichcote, their leader by common consent, that the spiritual is not opposed to the rational, nor Grace to nature. Religion is based on reason, even in the presence of 'mystery'. Free will and Grace are not mutually exclusive. The editor's comprehensive introduction delineates the (...) main principles of the Cambridge Platonists, in the light of their heritage. It compares their attitude to contemporary thought, stressing their mistrust both of institutionalised religion and of the rising tide of materialism. The sermons are reprinted from the original texts and fully annotated with comparisons and references to a wide range of works. The editor also includes a useful list for further reading, biographical notes and a comprehensive index. (shrink)

As part of the seminar Re-reading Petrarch in the Digital Age –taught at the University of Oregon in Winter 2014– a digital close reading of Francesco Petrarca’s Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta led to a series of parallel and entwined activities and projects. Deeply integrated with the Oregon Petrarch Open Book Project, the course was oriented towards the encoding of Petrarca’s masterpiece based on the implementation of a network of different themes. The various occurrences and data obtained from the encoding were collected (...) into an online database that is still operating and updatable. The results of this qualitative data collection were also compared with a quantitative computer-based research of selected keywords extracted from the various themes. From the beginning of the seminar, the class was divided into groups and each of them read the Rvf focusing on one of themes chosen while at the same time paying attention to the others. The different groups considered these themes as interrelated and interdependent. The poet is the sphere in which all the topics emerge in their specific connotations. However, his sphere is related to, dependent on and intersected with the other four spheres. The encoding allowed measuring the different manifestations, levels and meanings of the intersecting relationships. The study of the visual interpretation of the Rvf in the Inc. Queriniano G V 15 paralleled the close reading and encoding activity and helped students to develop a visual rendering of their themes and a pointed and original and creative interpretation of Petrarca’s masterpiece. (shrink)

Yellow sun in a blue sky. Green leaves caressed by the wind. Open the shutters of the eye, that window of the soul, and all such things are revealed. Nothing is more apparent than that things have colors, and that we have immediate perceptual access to those colors.

An analysis of two heuristic strategies for the development of mechanistic models, illustrated with historical examples from the life sciences. In Discovering Complexity, William Bechtel and Robert Richardson examine two heuristics that guided the development of mechanistic models in the life sciences: decomposition and localization. Drawing on historical cases from disciplines including cell biology, cognitive neuroscience, and genetics, they identify a number of "choice points" that life scientists confront in developing mechanistic explanations and show how different choices result in divergent (...) explanatory models. Describing decomposition as the attempt to differentiate functional and structural components of a system and localization as the assignment of responsibility for specific functions to specific structures, Bechtel and Richardson examine the usefulness of these heuristics as well as their fallibility—the sometimes false assumption underlying them that nature is significantly decomposable and hierarchically organized. When Discovering Complexity was originally published in 1993, few philosophers of science perceived the centrality of seeking mechanisms to explain phenomena in biology, relying instead on the model of nomological explanation advanced by the logical positivists (a model Bechtel and Richardson found to be utterly inapplicable to the examples from the life sciences in their study). Since then, mechanism and mechanistic explanation have become widely discussed. In a substantive new introduction to this MIT Press edition of their book, Bechtel and Richardson examine both philosophical and scientific developments in research on mechanistic models since 1993. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social and emotional learning skills and resilience in explaining mental health in male and female adolescents, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three self-report questionnaires were administered to 778 participants aged between 11 and 16 years and recruited from 18 schools in Northern Italy. The SSIS-SELb-S and the CD-RISC 10 assessed SEL and resilience skills respectively, while the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to measure mental health in terms of (...) internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior. We found that SEL and resilience skills were positively and significantly associated with each other, negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, and positively related to prosocial behavior. Three linear regression analyses showed the significant role of resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of internalizing problems; the significant role of SEL skills, resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of externalizing problems; and the role of SEL skills, age, and gender in explaining prosocial behavior. Importantly, we found that resilience fully mediated the relationship between SEL skills and internalizing problems, partially mediated the relationship between SEL skills and externalizing problems and didn't mediate the relationship between SEL skills and prosocial behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study as well as its practical implications. (shrink)

Biologists studying complex causal systems typically identify some factors as causes and treat other factors as background conditions. For example, when geneticists explain biological phenomena, they often foreground genes and relegate the cellular milieu to the background. But factors in the milieu are as causally necessary as genes for the production of phenotypic traits, even traits at the molecular level such as amino acid sequences. Gene-centered biology has been criticized on the grounds that because there is parity among causes, the (...) “privileging” of genes reflects a reductionist bias, not an ontological difference. The idea that there is an ontological parity among causes is related to a philosophical puzzle identified by John Stuart Mill: what, other than our interests or biases, could possibly justify identifying some causes as the actual or operative ones, and other causes as mere background? The aim of this paper is to solve this conceptual puzzle and to explain why there is not an ontological parity among genes and the other factors. It turns out that solving this puzzle helps answer a seemingly unrelated philosophical question: what kind of causal generality matters in biology? (shrink)

Postcolonial science studies entails ostensibly contradictory critical and empirical commitments. Science studies scholars influenced by Bruno Latour and Isabelle Stengers embrace forms of realist, radical empiricism, while postcolonial studies scholars influenced by Jacques Derrida trace the limits of the knowable. This essay takes their common use of the term cosmopolitics as an unexpected point of departure for reconciling Derrida’s program with Stengers’s and Latour’s. I read Derrida’s critique of hospitality and Stengers’s and Latour’s ontological politics as necessary complements for conceiving (...) a care-oriented subalternist cosmopolitics, a process of composing common worlds that remains attentive to the limits of representation. (shrink)

Bazzocchi disposes the text of the Tractatus in a user-friendly manner, exactly as Wittgenstein's decimals advise. This discloses the logical form of the book by distinct reading units, linked into a fashioned hierarchical tree. The text becomes much clearer and every reader can enjoy, finally, its formal and literary qualities.

The widespread use of stimulants among healthy individuals to improve cognition has received growing attention; however, public attitudes toward this practice are not well understood. We determined the effect of framing metaphors and context of use on public opinion toward cognitive enhancement. We recruited 3,727 participants from the United States to complete three surveys using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk between April and July 2017. Participants read vignettes describing an individual using cognitive enhancement, varying framing metaphors (fuel versus steroid), and context of (...) use (athletes versus students versus employees). The main outcome measure was the difference in respondent-assigned level of acceptability of the use of cognitive enhancement by others and by themselves between the contrasting vignettes. Participants were more likely to support the use of cognitive enhancement by others than by themselves and more when the use of enhancement by others was framed with a fuel metaphor than with a steroid metaphor. Metaphoric framing did not affect participants’ attitudes toward their own use. Participants supported the use of enhancement by employees more than by students or athletes. These results are discussed in relation to existing ethical and policy literature. (shrink)

This paper investigates the emotional import of literary devices deployed in fiction. Reflecting on the often-favored approach in the analytic tradition that locates fictional characters, events, and narratives as sources of readers’ emotions, I attempt to broaden the scope of analysis by accounting for how literary devices trigger non-cognitive emotions. I argue that giving more expansive consideration to literary devices by which authors present content facilitates a better understanding of how fiction engages emotion. In doing so, I also explore the (...) somatic dimension of reading fiction. (shrink)

This paper investigates what molecular biology has done for our understanding of the gene. I base a new account of the gene concept of classical genetics on the classical dogma that gene differences cause phenotypic differences. Although contemporary biologists often think of genes in terms of this concept, molecular biology provides a second way to understand genes. I clarify this second way by articulating a molecular gene concept. This concept unifies our understanding of the molecular basis of a wide variety (...) of phenomena, including the phenomena that classical genetics explains in terms of gene differences causing phenotypic differences. (shrink)

This reconsideration of Hume’s classic essay “Of Miracles” via the lens of American pragmatist ways of thinking about history and power shifts our attention from Hume’s epistemic concerns about the legitimacy of witnesses and testimony to his distaste for sacred history, his critical stance regarding the social force of revelation, and his disdain for religious authority. To view Hume’s essay both as an articulation of a critical philosophy of history and as an exercise in moral dynamism (social power or, authority, (...) is a result of epistemic transactions), is to intervene in both Hume studies and Contemporary Pragmatism. (shrink)

Just as humans can draw conclusions responsibly or irresponsibly, so too can computers. Machine learning systems that have been trained on data sets that include irresponsible judgments are likely to yield irresponsible predictions as outputs. In this paper I focus on a particular kind of inference a computer system might make: identification of the intentions with which a person acted on the basis of photographic evidence. Such inferences are liable to be morally objectionable, because of a way in which they (...) are presumptuous. After elaborating this moral concern, I explore the possibility that carefully procuring the training data for image recognition systems could ensure that the systems avoid the problem. The lesson of this paper extends beyond just the particular case of image recognition systems and the challenge of responsibly identifying a person’s intentions. Reflection on this particular case demonstrates the importance (as well as the difficulty) of evaluating machine learning systems and their training data from the standpoint of moral considerations that are not encompassed by ordinary assessments of predictive accuracy. (shrink)

Under what circumstances if ever ought we to grant that Artificial Intelligences (AI) are persons? The question of whether AI could have the high degree of moral status that is attributed to human persons has received little attention. What little work there is employs western conceptions of personhood, while non-western approaches are neglected. In this article, I discuss African conceptions of personhood and their implications for the possibility of AI persons. I focus on an African account of personhood that is (...) prima facie inimical to the idea that AI could ever be ‘persons’ in the sense typically attributed to humans. I argue that despite its apparent anthropocentrism, this African account could admit AI as persons. (shrink)

What proper role should considerations of risk, particularly to research subjects, play when it comes to conducting research on human enhancement in the military context? We introduce the currently visible military enhancement techniques (1) and the standard discussion of risk for these (2), in particular what we refer to as the ‘Assumption’, which states that the demands for risk-avoidance are higher for enhancement than for therapy. We challenge the Assumption through the introduction of three categories of enhancements (3): therapeutic, preventive, (...) and pure enhancements. This demands a revision of the Assumption (4), alongside which we propose some further general principles bearing on how to balance risks and benefits in the context of military enhancement research. We identify a particular type of therapeutic enhancements as providing a more responsible path to human trials of the relevant interventions than pure enhancement applications. Finally, we discuss some possible objections to our line of thought (5). While acknowledging their potential insights, we ultimately find them to be unpersuasive, at least provided that our proposal is understood as fully non-coercive towards the candidates for such therapeutic enhancement trials. (shrink)

Darwinians are realists about the force of selection, but there has been surprisingly little discussion about what form this realism should take. Arguments about the units of selection in general and genic selectionism in particular reveal two realist assumptions: (1) for any selection process, there is a uniquely correct identification of the operative selective forces and the level at which each impinges; and (2) selective forces must satisfy the Pareto-style requirement of probabilistic causation. I argue that both assumptions are false; (...) we must temper realism about the force of selection and revise the way we think about probabilistic causation. (shrink)

In this paper I want to do the following things. First I want to show that in the part of the Theaetetus where the relationship between knowledge and perception is examined, the concept of knowledge that is in question is very clearly characterized. We are left in no doubt as to what is to count as knowing. Secondly I want to unravel in some detail the case that Socrates puts on Protagoras’ behalf where he draws on what Protagoras actually wrote (...) (151 E-152C); as opposed to what he may have taught secretly to his pupils (152C-160D). Thirdly I wish to argue that if we let the dialogue speak for itself, it is manifest that this case put up on Protagoras’ behalf at 151 E-152C is not overthrown; it is not even shaken. (shrink)

Former discussions of biological generalizations have focused on the question of whether there are universal laws of biology. These discussions typically analyzed generalizations out of their investigative and explanatory contexts and concluded that whatever biological generalizations are, they are not universal laws. The aim of this paper is to explain what biological generalizations are by shifting attention towards the contexts in which they are drawn. I argue that within the context of any particular biological explanation or investigation, biologists employ two (...) types of generations. One type identifies causal regularities exhibited by particular kinds of biological entities. The other type identifies how these entities are distributed in the biological world. (shrink)

We all experience loneliness at some time in our lives and it often motivates people, consciously or otherwise, to enter treatment. Yet it is rarely explicitly addressed in psychoanalytic literature. Loneliness and Longing rectifies this oversight by thoroughly exploring this painful psychological state. In this book contributors address the inner sense of loneliness âe" that is feeling alone even in the company of others âe" by drawing on different aspects of loneliness and longing. Topics covered include: loneliness in the consulting (...) room the relationship between loneliness and love the effects of social networking and the internet how loneliness changes throughout the life-cycle healing the analystâe(tm)s loneliness. Loneliness and Longing draws on both theory and practice to discuss ways to help people to understand and cope with this important emotional state, encouraging them to make loneliness and longing less pervasive in their lives. This will be ideal reading for analysts, psychotherapists, and related practitioners facing the challenges of loneliness in their consulting rooms. (shrink)