ENTREVISTA COM PROFESSORAS (ES) DE FILOSOFIA DO ENSINO SUPERIOR DO CEARÁ – BLOCO IICom: Cristiane Maria Marinho, Francisco José da Silva, Camila do Espírito Santo Prado de OliveiraPor: Antônio Alex Pereira de Sousa, Paulo Willame Araújo de Lima.

In this paper a tentative explanation of the competence of argumentation from an evolutionary point of view is offered. Because in contemporary argumentation theory and the informal logic approach the evolutionary perspective has been neglected, this paper gives an initial overview on the matter with the hope that core aspects of the argumentative faculty—such as argumentative normativity, the function of arguments, or fallacious moves, among others—can be seen differently afterwards. In order to specify the proposal, the main concepts considered are (...) the notion of collective intentionality, cooperation, reputation, niche construction and, of course, basic evolutionary terms. (shrink)

Our most current experience of violence is not predominantly violence “given in the flesh,” but violence given through the mediation of the image. The phenomenon of real violence is therefore modified through the imagistic experience, involving first of all its emotional, embodied and intersubjective dimensions. How is the emotion constituted in the face of depicted violence, in contrast to the lived experience of real violence? Is the intersubjectivity modified when violence appears pictorially? What specific embodied dimensions are particularly engaged when (...) violence is lived as an image, and not as a real phenomenon? The phenomenon of imagistic violence can also be understood in contrast with the experience of violence lived in phantasy, memory, or dreaming. Also, since each type of image puts into play certain possibilities of depicting violence, making possible various subjective experiences of violence, it crucial to explore how this experience fundamentally depends on the type of image by which the phenomenon of violence is depicted, be it painting, photography, fiction film, documentary or media image. (shrink)

Este artículo se propone argumentar por qué la reivindicación o el relego del término campesino constituye una apuesta política por excelencia. En esta dirección, se sostiene que la ambigüedad de aquella categoría, lejos de ser una debilidad, puede tornarse una potencia en la medida que el discurso sobre la diferencia específica sea desplazado por la problematización de la (des)igualdad. En efecto, el interrogante sobre qué es lo que distingue a un campesino cede lugar a la pregunta ¿qué relaciones sociales son (...) puestas en cuestión o reinventadas a partir de la identificación como tal? Para ello, la reflexión teórica adopta un anclaje empírico en el surgimiento del Movimiento Campesino de Santiago del Estero (MOCASE), el cual, pese a los múltiples conflictos y divisiones internas, tiene en común haber acuñado la categoría campesino en un sentido positivo, en el marco de la disputa por la tierra. Cabe aclarar que no es la intención explicitar presuntos núcleos duros de la identidad; tampoco concebirla como etapa anterior o posterior de la acción colectiva, sino examinarla como un proceso dialógico. Asimismo, se aborda el lugar de lo campesino en Argentina y su tensión con el concepto de agricultura familiar. (shrink)

En este artículo defendemos la existencia de un perspectivismo ontológico pluralista inherente a la filosofía de Baruch Spinoza. Indispensable para la constitución de esta noción es la relación establecida entre su teoría general de composición de los cuerpos y los conceptos de “afecto”, “inmanencia”, “potencia” y “multitud”. El objetivo de este análisis es una fundamentación interior del concepto de “puntos de vista”: es imposible pensarlo como una característica epistemológica de un individuo aislado, pero tampoco es posible unificarlo mediante el postulado (...) de una propiedad común. En consecuencia, el perspectivismo ontológico espinosista implica una teoría del punto de vista pluralista que elude los problemas planteados por la clausura del modelo Uno-Todo. (shrink)

Entre 1843 y 1844, uno de los conceptos centrales del pensamiento de Karl Marx es el de ser genérico. Es indudable en este concepto la herencia terminológica feuerbachiana, cuya principal referencia es el concepto de género. Sin embargo, este trabajo muestra que en su funcionamiento el ser genérico, lejos prolongar el concepto feuerbachiano, implica su refutación. Esto permite comprenderlo en una problemática más amplia de la obra de Marx: el proceso histórico de sustitución de las interrelaciones fundantes de los cuerpos (...) por su forma representada. (shrink)

The organizational account of biological functions interprets functions as contributions of a trait to the maintenance of the organization that, in turn, maintains the trait. As has been recently argued, however, the account seems unable to provide a unified grounding for both intra- and cross-generation functions, since the latter do not contribute to the maintenance of the same organization which produces them. To face this ‘ontological problem’, a splitting account has been proposed, according to which the two kinds of functions (...) require distinct organizational definitions. In this article, we propose a solution for the ontological problem, by arguing that intra- and cross-generation functions can be said to contribute in the same way to the maintenance of the biological organization, characterized in terms of organizational self-maintenance. As a consequence, we suggest maintaining a unified organizational account of biological functions. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This work aims to reflect on possible meanings for the evangelical faith based on utterances produced by three evangelical ministers in their social networks when they enunciate on themes that are linked, directly or indirectly, to political agendas. Based on the theoretical scope of studies in Applied Linguistics and on Bakhtinian conceptions of language, our analyzes point to three predominant meanings, which mean the evangelical faith as: i) reaffirmation of identity; ii) exercise of otherness and respect to the other; (...) and iii) political practice. Such meanings demonstrate that there are contradictions within the religious discursivity, which allows the beating between hate speeches and respect and empathy ones within the realm of the evangelical faith. Thus, looking for cracks in religious discourse that oppose fundamentalist and authoritarian discourses is an ethical duty of a religious leader who recognizes his social and discursive role as influential in taking positions and, therefore, in the lives of the members of their congregation. (shrink)

El presente texto tiene como propósito analizar teórico-conceptualmente las prácticas pedagógicas de la ética implementadas por los docentes en la universidad tradicional y la universidad popular en los años 2010 – 2020. Teniendo en cuenta, primero, las características inherentes de la universidad tradicional tanto en sus orígenes y principios fundamentales; segundo, las practicas pedagógicas de la ética en el rol docente; y tercero, el advenimiento, desarrollo y propuesta de la Universidad popular. Mediante este análisis fue posible develar los paralelismos entre (...) sus divergencias y puntos de encuentro con base en la ética-práctica del rol docente, para el mejoramiento continuo tanto de esta área del conocimiento como de los demás saberes en general. (shrink)

In postmodern society, many of the perceptions that people had about them, their lives, the values ​​that define them and the strategies that they can use to achieve their ideals have changed. Specifically, today we can talk about new paradigms, such as health, lifestyle focused on personal well-being, obtained through fitness and wellness, respectively wellbeing that adds the spiritual component, in an holistic interdependence. An important role in the changes we are talking about has been played by the media, which (...) promote living standards built on hedonistic principles, specific to the consumer society. The consequence is that more and more teenagers and young people want to look good and feel good, but only a small part of them reach the specialists, who are best able to provide individualized guidance, support, and programs to prevent any negative consequences of uninspired choices or poorly dosed enthusiasm The stakes of choice are high, because a healthy lifestyle, which should not be limited to body aesthetics, but also aims to develop the spiritual side, can support a more effective adaptation to the dynamics of changes in society. The last year, marked by a new challenge, the pandemic, has fully demonstrated the need to assume on a personal level a balanced and responsible lifestyle, which offers new values ​​of quality of life, as well as complementing proactive management with that managed by specialists. (shrink)

During the last twenty years in Latin America, there has been a rise in governments drawn from self-defining progressive political currents. Consequently a revitalization is underway of the debate on the viability, pertinence, and characteristics of the welfare state in the twenty-first century. In this context, the present article explores emerging social practices that redefine the various senses of the public space; practices that go beyond nation states, situated in a global territoriality, articulating languages and eliciting emotions capable of producing (...) new socialities. The multitude is discussed as a social subject capable of generating transformative practices. Specifically, the article analyzes the way in which the singularities of occupations raise further questions for nation states. The analysis focuses on global movements such as #Occupy camping out on squares. (shrink)

O presente trabalho reflete sobre a significativa e desigual morte de jovens negros no País. Para tanto, a produção traz uma discussão sobre o teórico martinicano Frantz Fanon que, com suas ideias sobre racismo e colonialismo, nos ajuda a reconhecer o racismo brasileiro e a condição em que vivem os jovens negros do Brasil. Apesar de Fanon afirmar que suas considerações se referem apenas ao momento histórico em que escreve e aos estudos de colonialismo, acreditamos ser fácil fazer um paralelo (...) entre sua obra e o momento histórico brasileiro quanto à morte de jovens negros. Analisamos as três formas de violência trazidas pelo teórico: psicológica, estrutural, e física, dentro das quais vivem e morrem tais jovens. Buscamos, ainda, refletir sobre a construção das identidades e juventudes negras para compreender, onde e de que forma, estão inseridas na sociedade brasileira. Para tanto, acreditamos ser necessário analisar de que modo se dá o racismo brasileiro e conhecer o que denominamos de falso mito da igualdade racial, contra o qual lutamos constantemente, em busca de reconhecimento do problema, para que possamos buscar soluções. O trabalho aborda a Lei n. 10.639/2003 que versa sobre a obrigatoriedade de se trabalhar na escola a cultura africana e afro-brasileira. Consideramos a lei uma importante política pública na promoção de igualdade racial, através da valorização da cultura vinda do continente africano. Acreditamos que a implementação efetiva dessa lei apoia a construção de identidades negro-positivas tanto para negros quanto para não negros e que essa valorização das identidades serve como importante ferramenta na luta contra a significativa morte de jovens negros no País. (shrink)

Se ofrece una respuesta inicial a la pregunta sobre el recorrido evolutivo de la competencia argumentativa. Se asume decididamente la hipótesis de la intencionalidad colectiva y la cooperación como rasgos estructurales que permiten entender la argumentación como un fenómeno normativo. Se concluye que la argumentación fue producto de una presión selectiva para la multiplicación de representaciones alternativas provenientes de una mayor cantidad de agentes de un mismo o diferente grupo. La presión evolutiva seleccionó la comunicación de buenas razones a través (...) del conflicto verbal y permitió, al agente individual, generar reputación, lo que va en su directo beneficio reproductivo. (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

This chapter explores the implications of moral vagueness for non-naturalist metaethical theories like those recently championed by Shafer-Landau, Parfit, and others. It characterizes non-naturalism in terms of its commitment to seven theses: Cognitivism, Correspondence, Atomism, Objectivism, Supervenience, Non-reductivism, and Rationalism. It starts by offering a number of reasons for thinking that moral predicates are vague in the same way in which “red,” “tall,” and “heap” are said to be. It then argues that the moral non-naturalist seeking to countenance moral vagueness (...) faces a dilemma: are moral properties vague, or perfectly sharp? On either horn of the dilemma, serious problems arise for some of the central tenets of non-naturalism: vague properties seem to threaten Objectivism, Supervenience, and Non-reductivism; on the other hand, sharp properties raise problems for Supervenience and Rationalism. The difficulties on each horn of the dilemma are real, and while they may not be insuperable, they do, at the very least, drastically limit the things non-naturalists can consistently say about moral properties, facts, and reasons. (shrink)

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objeto el estudio de la legislación penal en la República de Colombia desde 1890 hasta la actualidad con la ley 599 de 2000, este último conocido como el vigente Código Penal. Lo anterior, conforme a la siguiente pregunta problémica ¿se ha dado un desarrollo oportuno de la legislación penal colombiana que otorgue soluciones fehacientes a las necesidades de una política criminal sólida desde sus inicios hasta la actualidad? Con ello, se pretende analizar las (...) diversas escuelas que han influido en los legisladores a la promulgación y tipificación de los delitos y sus penas en el marco jurídico penal colombiano. Se destaca ante todo, el análisis que a lo largo del desarrollo del ordenamiento jurídico colombiano abarca el contexto constitucional, doctrinal y jurisprudencial, los cuales, han logrado evidenciar el carácter de un óptimo “derecho penal” a lo largo del contexto histórico del país en mención. Se destaca así, la gran influencia de las Escuelas Clásica, Positivista y Finalista, que a hoy han venido a establecerse con fuerza en Colombia a lo largo de su codificación, desde 1980 hasta la actual ley 599 del año 2000. (shrink)

Tanto la obra de Hegel en la modernidad como la obra de Tomás de Aquino en el medioevo, representan dos de los mayores esfuerzos que se han realizado en el pensamiento filosófico por dar explicación a las grandes interrogantes y problemas de la metafísica. No cabe duda de que la presencia o inmanencia de lo Absoluto en lo finito, como así también la concepción de la nada, son temas de particular profundidad en la reflexión especulativa y ocupan un lugar de (...) privilegio en la misma. En este escrito se analizarán de forma concisa ambas cuestiones, siguiendo la lectura e interpretación de los dos autores antes mencionados llevada a cabo por el filósofo italiano Cornelio Fabro. (shrink)

Many features of quantum mechanics (QM) suggest that, at the microscopic level, objects sometimes fail to determinately instantiate their properties. In recent years, many have argued that this phenomenon indicates the existence of an ontological kind of indeterminacy, often called metaphysical indeterminacy, which is supposed to affect the ontology of QM. As insisted by Glick ('Against Quantum Indeterminacy), however, once we look at the major realist approaches to QM we learn that the indeterminacy disappears from the description of the world (...) at its most fundamental level. This absence might be taken as a good reason for adopting some form of eliminativism towards quantum mechanical indeterminacy. The aim of this paper is to distinguish three ways of defending eliminativism, and to argue that none of them eventually succeeds. The upshot is that QM does in fact suggest the existence of metaphysical indeterminacy, although only as an emergent phenomenon. (shrink)

En este artículo se examina el uso que Spinoza hace del concepto _utilis_. El término utilidad se lo ha apropiado la filosofía utilitarista y liberal, formando juntos una amalgama discursiva y práctica. Spinoza, calificado por algunos intérpretes como pensador liberal, hace uso abundante de los conceptos de utilidad, libertad e individuo. Sin embargo, un examen riguroso basado en la totalidad de su obra nos permite comprender que la utilidad spinozista debe interpretarse desde el valor otorgado a la vida, lo colectivo (...) y afectos como la firmeza y la generosidad. Nuestra conclusión es que lo útil es el fundamento de la sociablidad y, por lo mismo, que el término _multitudo _sintetiza la necesidad ontológica de lo colectivo en la filosofía de Spinoza. (shrink)

This article aims to critically analyze the epistemological foundations of artificial intelligence (AI). By examining works that explain how this technology works, it is understood that its epistemological basis is made up of the inductive method and statistics based on a mathematization of reality. It is these elements that allow machines to learn by recognizing patterns and to make predictions and provide answers. However, these foundations have limitations and problems that have been discussed by philosophers throughout history. In this article (...) we will present how induction and mathematization function as the epistemological basis of artificial intelligence and how some of the limitations of this technology can be explained through the weaknesses of the methods that support it. (shrink)

El objetivo de la investigación es interpretar el discurso de psicólogos/as que ejercen docencia para la carrera de Psicología en una(s) Universidad(es) Estatal, Privada con Aporte y Privadas de la V Región, Chile, desde un enfoque de subjetividad laboral. Se realizan 6 entrevistas en profundidad a Psicólogos/as y análisis de discurso. El capitalismo académico produce un elevado número de docentes con flexibilidad laboral contractual o trabajo no decente, pues no existe: estabilidad laboral, derecho a sindicalización, vacaciones periódicas pagadas, ni protección (...) social. Estas condiciones son invisibilizadas en el debate sobre la calidad de la Educación. En este contexto, la subjetividad laboral del malestar docente se expresa como: agotamiento, estrés e incertidumbre vital que hace más difícil el trabajo de formación de futuros/as psicólogos/as en la V Región y en el país. (shrink)

El objetivo de la investigación es interpretar el discurso hegemónico (icónico-lingüístico) de los Fundamentalismos Religiosos de Iglesia Católica y grupos ligados a ella, respecto al aborto, junto a las protestas realizadas por movimientos de ciudadanas y ciudadanos por la defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos de las mujeres en países de la Subregión Andina. La metodología utiliza un análisis de discurso. En conclusión: El discurso y penalización del aborto es ideológico, dominación patriarcal que hace adoptar a las mujeres el (...) aborto inseguro como resistencia paralegal, pudiendo enfermar o morir para obtener la libertad sobre su cuerpo, un derecho reproductivo. (shrink)

The general idea of this investigation is to emphasize the elusiveness of the concept of terrorism and the pitfalls of the so-called “War on Terror” by way of confronting, roughly, the reflections made in the immediate following of 9/11 by Habermas and Derrida on the legacy of Enlightenment, globalization and tolerance, with Foucault’s concept of biopolitics seen as the modern political paradigm and Agamben’s understanding of “the state of exception” in the context of liberal democratic governments. The main argument will (...) state that the modern Western individual and the modern terrorist are in a way linked together as products of the same biopolitical network. So I shall argue that religious fundamentalism and international terrorism are not external factors to the Western civilization, nor even some radical late forms of ‘Counter-Enlightenment’ threatening the Western ‘way of life,’ but phenomena revealing what we could call, borrowing J. Derrida’s biological metaphor, a “crisis of autoimmunization” of Western neo-liberal democracies. The only long-term solution to the threat of global terrorism would have to involve the “deconstruction” of our common notion of tolerance and the experience of an unconditional hospitality that is actually the inversion of the terrorist action that is threatening us “from within,” according to Derrida. But we cannot reasonably hope for this radical change in our relationship to others unless we aren’t really trying to modify the relationship to the self that is prevalent in contemporary Western societies: a vision of us as self-encapsulated monads or ‘nuclear’ selves, for whom genuine community life is, at the most, only a nostalgic evocation of a past long gone, and the respect for the others, a strategic name for moral indifference. (shrink)

The intellectual property regimes we have currently in place are heavily under attack. One of the points of criticism is the interaction between two elements of article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the widely discussed issue of being able to benefit from scientific progress and the less argued for position of having a right to take part in scientific enterprises. To shine light on the question if we should balance the two elements or prioritize one of them, (...) an exploration will be offered on how benefiting from scientific progress and the ability to participate in the advancement of science relate to securing human capabilities. A different perspective to the question will be gained by identifying the problem as an issue of misrecognition, especially the failure to recognize many willing collaboration partners in scientific research as peers. Lastly, I will argue that cooperative justice requires that if we have an innovation incentive system that disproportionally benefits one particular group, a certain duty to counterbalance this advantage exists when we are relying on mutual cooperation for the recognition of intellectual property rights. (shrink)

A widespread view in physics holds that the implementation of time reversal in standard quantum mechanics must be given by an anti-unitary operator. In foundations and philosophy of physics, however, there has been some discussion about the conceptual grounds of this orthodoxy, largely relying on either its obviousness or its mathematical-physical virtues. My aim in this paper is to substantively change the traditional structure of the debate by highlighting the philosophical commitments underlying the orthodoxy. I argue that the persuasive force (...) of the orthodoxy can benefit from a relational metaphysics of time and a by-stipulation view on symmetries. Within such philosophical background, I submit, the orthodoxy of time reversal in standard quantum mechanics could find a fertile terrain to lay the groundwork for a more thorough conceptual justification. (shrink)

The forfeiture thesis is posed as an independent thesis in moral philosophy according to which agents forfeit (or lose) rights if they perform certain act-types. According to many, this thesis plays a crucial role in the justification of (legal) punishment. In this paper, I argue that the forfeiture thesis is unnecessary – we can simply dismiss it without any substantive loss. Echoing an aspect of the specificationist approach to rights, the reason is that we may replace the forfeiture thesis with (...) an exception clause in the very content of the right not to be subjected to hard treatment: P has no right not to be subjected to hard treatment simpliciter, but a right not to be subjected to hard treatment unless P performs an act-type φ – e.g., murdering an innocent person. This alternative has substantive advantages over the forfeiture thesis, which, in turn, shows that the former cannot be reduced to the latter. (shrink)

What are the main conditions that any theory of human rights should satisfy to guide action? If agents must take action for a fairer world as human rights discourse suggests, this is a crucial question to reflect upon. In this paper, I make a proposal. I argue that any theory of (moral) human rights that guides action on the basis of correlative duties must satisfy three key conditions. The first condition is focused on the specification of act-types, the second concerns (...) the distribution of correlative duties, and the third is focused on the resolution of (resolvable) conflicts of human rights. I show that this proposal has substantive implications because it implies to reject, challenge and, in some cases, resist ideas that are commonly accepted in the literature on human rights. (shrink)

Motivational enhancement of any kind can be conceived of either as a way to reduce the need for effort, or as a change in the subjective perception of effort. However, in both cases, effort is not all that matters. In the evaluation of praiseworthy conduct, the practical goals pursued by the subject, their dedication, and the discernment they exercise are equally important. I further argue that not only in terms of the general purpose, but also in terms of the means (...) employed for human enhancement, we cannot, in fact, establish significant differences between the traditional technology of the self and biomedical technologies for enhancing motivation. There are two key features they all share. The traditional techniques of the self also aim at the gradual reduction of effort through their steady practice, and they are all mental conditioning and self-conditioning techniques based on repetition and training. (shrink)

Currently, humanity is experiencing an explosive growth in technological objects designed to improve the body and mind. The main objective of this article is to review two recent classificatory and explanatory systems to cognitive enhancement cybernetic technologies, including both wearable and implantable artifacts that reorganize human embodiment or extend the mind. I argue that an outdated model of the cognitive sciences serves as the basis for these revised systems and taxonomies. Taking an embodied approach to the cognitive sciences, I propose (...) an alternative focus to classify cognitive enhancement cybernetic technologies. Specifically, by adopting a non-orthodox enactive approach to embodied cognition, I propose a new classificatory system that redefines the notion of the cybernetically enhanced human, restricting it to a purely cognitive context. Finally, I evaluate some philosophical implications of my system. (shrink)

In various responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can observe insufficient sensitivity towards the needs and circumstances of poorer citizens. Particularly in a context of high inequality, policy makers need to engage with the wider public in debates and consultations to gain better insights in the realities of the worst-off within their jurisdiction. When consultations involve members of traditionally underrepresented groups, these are not only more inclusive, which is in itself an ethical aim, but pool ideas and observations from a (...) much more diverse array of inhabitants. Inclusivity increases the odds to identify a larger range of weak spots for health security and to design health interventions that are less burdensome on those worst-off. (shrink)

En este artículo sostengo que muchos países deudores tienen el derecho moral de incurrir en cesación de pagos de sus deudas soberanas. Muestro que deben hacerse excepciones a la afirmación general de que los gobiernos tienen la obligación de devolver préstamos contraídos por gobiernos que le antecedieron.

The standard strategy involves evaluating whether economic classifications meet criteria derived from a general theory of natural kinds. The first objective of this article is to show the implementation of this strategy by various relevant authors. We argue that the standard strategy has failed due to its lack of a greater sensitivity to the role played by human interests in the design of different types of natural kinds. The second objective is to outline a new strategy for investigating economic classifications. (...) Our departure from the standard strategy can be described as a shift from assessing economic classifications based on general theories of natural kinds to examining specific cases with the aim of theorizing about their design and application. The cases of the cost-of-living index and race are used to succinctly discuss the objectivity of economic classifications and implications for the relationship between science and democracy. (shrink)

This paper examines the profile of the Albatros Publishing House in Bucharest (specialising in youth literature) and the activity of its director, writer Mircea Sântimbreanu. He held this position for almost two decades and recounted his experience in a volume of memoirs. I tried to explore these memoirs mainly in parallel with accounts from archival documents and secondary literature. The Albatros Publishing House was a micro-universe for assessing the impact of successive ideological offensives by the Romanian Communist Party on book (...) production and on the youth in general (mainly the July 1971 Theses and the other party directives of the 1970s, as well as the Mangalia Theses of 1983). By the 1980s, the regime’s propaganda had acquired ultra-nationalistic nuances. This paper will also exemplify such developments by discussing the scandal generated by the 1983 publication of Saturnalii by Corneliu Vadim Tudor, a volume of poems with strong antisemitic tenor. Using mainly diaries, journals, secondary literature and archival documents, this article also analyses the strategies deployed by the communist regime in order to coerce the young generation – through the agency of publishing houses – to assume the new literary-political ideology of revolutionary humanism (the Socialist Realism of the Ceaușescu era). (shrink)

This paper argues for a revised concept of authenticity entailing two demands that must be balanced. The first demand moves authenticity from the position of a strictly self-regarding virtue towards the position of a fully social virtue, acknowledging the crucial feature of steadiness, i.e. self-consistency, as being precisely what we ‘naturally’ lack. Nevertheless, the value of personal authenticity in a modern, open society comes from the fact that it brings about not only steadiness, but also the public development of a (...) variety of existential options that can be understood as Millian ‘original experiments in living’. Thus the second demand of authenticity is a demand for ‘experimental’ authenticity which covers the whole spectrum of technologies of the self, from Nietzschean ‘brief habits’, to the use of enhancement technologies. (shrink)

Kitcher has proposed an ideal-theory account—well-ordered science (WOS)— of the collective good that science’s research agenda should promote. Against criticism regarding WOS’s action-guidance, Kitcher has advised critics not to confuse substantive ideals and the ways to arrive at them, and he has defended WOS as a necessary and useful ideal for science policy. I provide a distinction between two types of ideal-theories that helps clarifying WOS’s elusive nature. I use this distinction to argue that the action-guidance problem that WOS faces (...) remains even under the aims/means distinction, because the WOS’s failure is more basic than critics have suggested. (shrink)

We routinely speak of Newton’s laws in classical mechanics without really knowing how Newton understood such laws. This article clarifies some of the ontological, epistemological, and theological presuppositions underpinning his conception of the laws of nature. After introducing the Cartesian background (2), we examine the Newtonian view of laws of nature in three respects, namely: the character of laws of nature in the context of the rules for natural philosophy (3); the emanative conception of space and time in _De Gravitatione_; (...) (4); and the interpretation of laws of nature in terms of Leibnizian mechanisms or Berkeleyan principles (5). Our analysis highlights crucial philosophical elements of Newton’s view of laws of nature, which contributed to shape the directions that predominated in successive investigations (6). (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article aims to analyze the process of mutual understanding from the perspective of Discursive Neurolinguistics. As a methodology, a case study was carried out on a child with a linguistic profile of verbal restriction, which concerns the dimension of utterances involving words and their morphology. Data interpretation was based on the Bakhtinian perspective, which addresses ‘understanding’ as an active-responsive process and meaning as emerging from the relationship between utterances. The results showed that the interlocutors’ common ground allowed the (...) joint construction of meaning even in the face of verbal restrictions, and aspects such as nonverbal elements and the recognition of the child’s active-responsive role also favored mutual understanding. As a conclusion, the attention to different multimodal resources as legitimate modes of expression allows children with verbal restrictions to fulfill the role of “speakers” regardless of their modes of expression. (shrink)

Agriculture is one of the dimensions where climate change is having its most devastating effects. As the impact of climate change affects disproportionally those who have contributed the least to it, i.e., the smallholder farmers in the Global South, and who at the same time are the ones with the least disposable income to adapt to these changes, it leads to a major challenge for global justice. This chapter introduces different forms of inequality that are aggravated by climate change, discusses (...) the implications of emphasizing on mitigation and adaptation to the new climatic conditions, argues for the need to reduce the multiple wastages in agriculture and food consumption and the importance of building resilient farming systems, presents the challenges of innovating fairly to respond to the climate emergency, and analyzes the ethical implication of changing landscapes and land uses. It concludes by listing the main challenges of compensating for climate injustices. (shrink)

This article elaborates local selective realism in view of the shifting from classical to quantum electrodynamics. After some introductory remarks, we critically address what we call global selective realism, hence setting forth the background for outlining local selective realism. When examining the transition from classical to quantum electrodynamics, we evaluate both continuities and discontinuities in observational features, mathematical structures, and ontological presuppositions. Our argument leads us to criticise the narrow understanding of limiting-case strategies, and to reject the claim that we (...) need a fully coherent theoretical framework to account for the transition from one theory to its successor in the case of electrodynamics. We close with a few remarks on the scope of local selective realism. (shrink)

Taking people’s longevity as a measure of good life, humankind can proudly say that the average person is living a much longer life than ever before. The AIDS epidemic has however for the first time in decades stalled and in some cases even reverted this trend in a number of countries. Climate change is increasingly becoming a major challenge for food security and we can anticipate that hunger caused by crop damages will become much more common. -/- Since many of (...) the challenges humanity faced in the past were overcome by inventive solutions coming from the life sciences, we are compelled to reconsider how we incentivize science and technology development so that those in need can benefit more broadly from scientific research. There is a huge portion of the world population that is in urgent need for medicines to combat diseases that are currently neglected by the scientific community and could immensely benefit from agricultural research that specifically targets their environmental conditions. At the same time efforts have to be made to make the fruits of current and future research more widely accessible. These changes would have to be backed by a range of moral arguments to attract people with diverging notions of global justice. This article explores the main ethical theories used to demand a greater share in the benefits from scientific progress for the poor. Since life sciences bring about a number of special concerns, a short list of conflictive issues is also offered. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine to what extent can a more or less uncontroversial list of human rights ground a liberal notion of toleration that would have as its object nonliberal states. Although it is sometimes taken for granted that respect for human rights should draw the limits of toleration, I argue that the Rawlsian argument for it does not fully work. More exactly, I defend the idea that, although he tries to warrant positive toleration for non-liberal peoples, the concept (...) of human rights can provide an argument only for a negative type of toleration. According to his reasoning, positive toleration would require an argument from the 'primacy of peoples', which unfortunately is implausible. Last but not least, I raise the question regarding the grounding of human rights as a vindicating tool for toleration. Here I argue that such an argument is necessary and propose one to the effect that human rights proper can justify toleration in the same way the harm principle does. Since the harm principle can justify non-interference only, the notion of human rights can ground a negative type of toleration. (shrink)