Recommender Systems (RecSys) have been around since the early days of the Internet, helping users navigate the vast ocean of information and the increasingly available options that have been available for us ever since. The range of tasks for which one could use a RecSys is expanding as the technical capabilities grow, with the disruption of Machine Learning representing a tipping point in this domain, as in many others. However, the increase of the technical capabilities of AI-powered RecSys did not (...) come with a thorough consideration of their ethical implications and, despite being a well-established technical domain, the potential impacts of RecSys on their users are still under-assessed. This paper aims at filling this gap in regards to one of the main impacts of RecSys: personal autonomy. We first describe how technology can affect human values and a suitable methodology to identify these effects and mitigate potential harms: Value Sensitive Design (VSD). We use VSD to carry out a conceptual investigation of personal autonomy in the context of a generic RecSys and draw on a nuanced account of procedural autonomy to focus on two components: competence and authenticity. We provide the results of our inquiry as a value hierarchy and apply it to the design of a speculative RecSys as an example. (shrink)

Phylogeography, a relatively new subdicipline of evolutionary biology that attempts to unify the fields of phylogenetics and population biology in an explicit geographical context, has hosted in recent years a highly polarized debate related to the purported benefits and limitations that qualitative versus quantitative methods might contribute or impose on inferential processes in evolutionary biology. Here we present a friendly, non-technical introduction to the conflicting methods underlying the controversy, and exemplify it with a balanced selection of quotes from the primary (...) biological literature, to invite the philosophy of biology community to pay attention to the elements that have played a primary role in its presumed resolution. We also present the basic features of our own metascientific take on the debate, and point out—as a preliminary step in preparation for upcoming, more detailed treatments—the importance that appeals to authority in fields external to phylogeography per se have played in the current status of this highly visible evolutionary biology dispute. (shrink)

Although there is increasing recognition that theory and practice in science are often inseparably intertwined, discussions of scientific controversies often continue to focus on theory, and not practice or methodologies. As a contribution to constructing a framework towards understanding controversies linked to scientific practices, we introduce the notion of borrowed epistemic credibility, to describe the situation in which scientists exploit fallacious similarities between accepted tenets in other fields to garner support for a given position in their own field. Our proposal (...) is based on the analysis of a recent controversy in phylogeography, a biological subdiscipline concerned with the study of the historical causes of variation in genetic diversity within species in concrete biogeographical locations. Through a review of the arguments that support the two conflicting phylogeographic schools, we show that ‘theory’ plays essentially no role as a foundation of the controversy, whereas both sides borrow epistemic credibility from sources such as formal logic, similarity of results to those in other scientific areas, the authority of prominent scientists, or the presumed superiority of quantitative vs. verbal reasoning. Our case study underscores the indivisibility of theory and practice and provide a means to re-examine important philosophical issues such as the meaning of inference, rationality, justification, and objectivity in scientific practice. (shrink)

Although there is increasing recognition that theory and practice in science are often inseparably intertwined, discussions of scientific controversies often continue to focus on theory, and not practice or methodologies. As a contribution to constructing a framework towards understanding controversies linked to scientific practices, we introduce the notion of borrowed epistemic credibility, to describe the situation in which scientists exploit fallacious similarities between accepted tenets in other fields to garner support for a given position in their own field. Our proposal (...) is based on the analysis of a recent controversy in phylogeography, a biological subdiscipline concerned with the study of the historical causes of variation in genetic diversity within species in concrete biogeographical locations. Through a review of the arguments that support the two conflicting phylogeographic schools, we show that ‘theory’ plays essentially no role as a foundation of the controversy, whereas both sides borrow epistemic credibility from sources such as formal logic, similarity of results to those in other scientific areas, the authority of prominent scientists, or the presumed superiority of quantitative vs. verbal reasoning. Our case study underscores the indivisibility of theory and practice and provide a means to re-examine important philosophical issues such as the meaning of inference, rationality, justification, and objectivity in scientific practice. (shrink)

Philosophical treatments of scientific controversies usually focus on theory, excluding important practice related aspects. However, scientists in conflict often appeal to extra-theoretical and extra-empirical elements. To understand better the role that non-empirical elements play in scientific controversies, we introduce the notion of borrowed epistemic credibility, illustrating our proposal with a recent controversy in a field of evolutionary biology known as phylogeography. Our analysis shows how scientific controversies that spring from disagreements about methodological issues potentially involve deeper debates regarding what constitutes (...) good science, prompting the re-examination of more general issues, such as the nature of inference, rationality, and objectivity. (shrink)

La obra de Harari es una proyección hacia el futuro de la situación actual de la humanidad. Está fundada en tres supuestos básicos: materialismo, cientificismo y ateísmo. Debido al fuerte reduccionismo de sus supuestos, su explicación de lo humano y del futuro de lo humano queda en una especulación interesante de conocer pero que carece de objetividad.

La Allgemeine Psychopatologiede Karl Jaspers es una obra clave del pensamiento del siglo XX. Une de forma interdisciplinar la medicina, la psicología y la filosofía existencial. De entre los conceptos que trata, este ensayo verá la función del concepto de símbolo y a través de él la función de la Filosofía como guía de la Psiquiatría y de la Psicopatología en general. En la Psiquiatría contemporánea cada vez se da más importancia a la “simbolización” como concepto clave bajo el que (...) el sujeto humano interpreta su existencia. El símbolo es un esquema de realidad que se construye y reconstruye continuamente a través de las experiencias del ser humano. Puede decirse entonces que, a través del símbolo, el ser humano construye su mundo. En esa construcción, la Filosofía puede suponer una ayuda si se plantea como “ansia de saber” o, en su lugar, como una rémora si se presenta como una totalidad omnicomprehensiva inflexible bajo la que subsumen todas las experiencias de la vida. (shrink)

Este trabajo hace un estudio de la pasión en tanto que la pasión nos ofrece una evaluación cognoscitiva de la realidad. Esta evaluación muestra lo que se puede llamar intencionalidad del cuerpo, que tiene una finalidad evolutiva en el ser humano como ser vivo y que es diferente de la intencionalidad que posee la razón. La pasión nos ofrece un juicio corporal desde una perspectiva subjetiva mientras que el juicio de la razón se refiere a un marco objetivo.

Se estudia la conveniencia de incluir el concepto de histéresis en las disciplinas humanistas, así como la necesidad de incorporar el análisis de los fenómenos donde aquél participa. La histéresis se produce en los más diversos campos de la acción y el pensamiento humanos, y su estudio contribuiría a completar y perfeccionar la visión que tenemos de los mismos. Al realizar la inclusión que aquí se propone, se operan varios cambios de orden epistemológico, operativo y conceptual. En las disciplinas humanistas, (...) los conceptos vienen asumiendo por tradición el papel de herramientas analíticas en bastante mayor medida que el de contenidos sobre los que efectuar el análisis. La histéresis manifiesta su alcance como hecho a analizar y también como herramienta de análisis, pero en el caso presente hemos tenido en cuenta más aspectos del segundo enfoque que del primero. De aquí que nos hayamos centrado en ubicar su campo epistemológico. (shrink)

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the approach to the health-disease system, raising the question about the principles of bioethics present in physician–patient relations. The principles while widely accepted may not be sufficient for a comprehensive ethical analysis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the perception of these principles and the physician–patient relationship during a hospital stay through a qualitative approach. Method Sixteen semi-structured interviews took place to know the patients’ perception during their 2020 hospitalization for COVID-19. (...) The data was analyzed through the constant comparison method, creating categories and comparing them. In the end, seven categories were established and were grouped in three: bioethical principles (dignity, charity, vulnerability, autonomy), doctor-patient relationship (participant commitment, informed consent, health staff-patient relationship) and the experience of the disease (illness, the role of the family). Results The research found that most patients described a positive experience, with the feeling of having been well cared for with no sense of discrimination or injustice done. The majority also reported that their autonomy was respected in the treatment decisions. The evaluation of these attitudes is an area of opportunity, especially when the patients' vulnerability is at risk. Conclusions The ethics of virtue offers a better reflection of how human beings manifest themselves by emphasizing the development of virtuous character and behaviors that allow them to realize their values in life. Authorized by the Research Ethics Committee with registration: DI/18/105-B/3/308. (shrink)

Background: Pain has been associated with structural changes of the brain. However, evidence regarding white matter changes in response to acute pain protocols is still scarce. In the present study, we assess the existence of differences in brain white matter related to pain intensity reported by patients undergoing surgical removal of a mandibular impacted third molar using diffusion tensor imaging analysis.Methods: 30 participants reported their subjective pain using a visual analog scale at three postsurgical stages: under anesthesia, in pain, and (...) after the administration of an analgesic. The diffusion data were acquired prior to surgery.Results: DTI analysis yielded significant positive associations of fractional anisotropy in white matter areas related to pain processing with the differences in pain between the three postsurgery stages. Extent and location of these associations depended on the magnitude of the subjective pain differences. Tractography analysis indicated that some pain–tract associations are significant only when pain stage is involved in the contrast, while others are only when anesthesia is involved in the contrast.Conclusions: The association of white matter fractional anisotropy and connectivity, measured before the pain stages, with subjective pain depends on the magnitude of the differences in pain scores. (shrink)

En el campo de los estudios sociales del arte, numerosas investigaciones indagan la sexualidad y el erotismo de distintas danzas en Argentina (por ejemplo, tango, música electrónica, cuarteto, etc.). Sin embargo, identificamos un área de vacancia respecto de la danza contemporánea. De este modo, en el siguiente trabajo reponemos los sentidos nativos de los erotismos en el mundo de la danza contemporánea independiente en el Valle de Paravachasca (Córdoba, Argentina), a partir de una investigación etnográfica colaborativa. Realizamos un trabajo (...) de participación observante entre 2018 y 2022 desde un enfoque corpóreo. Asimismo, para el presente estudio entrevistamos a ocho bailarinas que performan diferentes identidades de género (cis, bisexual y trans). Empleamos un proceso de construcción de datos reflexivo y colaborativo de co-interpretación y co-teorización, con el aporte de la teoría fundamentada. Identificamos un erotismo ampliado que se caracteriza por la pluralidad, el placer y la no reducción a lo sexual. Distinguimos analiticamente tres tipos de erotismos (sexuales, sensuales y estéticos) que toman cuerpo de forma singular y dinámica en cada bailarina. Los erotismos se organizan bajo un régimen de ocultamiento y de discreción, en función del ethos y la micropolítica de este mundo del arte, que configura una cultura afectiva, donde una de las líneas de composición es una ética del cuidado relacionada a una ética feminista. Este análisis aporta al estudio del erotismo en la danza contemporánea, específicamente desde el interior provinciano. (shrink)

Este artículo trata, en un primer momento, de presentar los puntos fundamentales de la propuesta de Deleuze y Guattari en torno a la literatura menor, para pasar, en un segundo momento, a mostrar cómo, en Tirano Banderas, Del Valle-Inclán crea una literatura menor que permite al lector experimentar distintas maneras de enunciación que rompen formas tradicionales de creación literaria y expresan intensidades y rupturas en el mecanismo maquínico de ejercicio del poder en América Latina. De esta manera, Tirano Banderas, (...) como obra de arte, vuelve sensible preceptos y afectos autónomos en el marco de una metamorfización de la forma en la que se presentan los personajes, los contenidos y los acontecimientos. (shrink)

El proceso de despoblación rural en el Valle del Genal se ha visto agravado en las últimas décadas, provocado en parte por el éxodo de sus habitantes en la búsqueda de oportunidades laborales o mejores servicios y equipamientos. La proximidad de la Costa del Sol, en continuo crecimiento turístico desde los años 60, ha sido un fuerte atractor de población activa, favoreciendo esta dinámica. La interrelación entre ambos territorios supone una temática de sumo interés y una oportunidad como laboratorio (...) de estudio e investigación en el marco de la asignatura “Patrimonio, Turismo y Territorio” de la Escuela de Arquitectura de Málaga. (shrink)

Francisco Valles, also known as ‘The Divine Valles’, was most probably the greatest Spanish physician of the Renaissance and succeeded Andreas Vesalius, whom he knew well, as the personal doctor of Philip II of Spain. Valles studied in Alcalá and wrote several works, among which the influential Controversiarum medicarum et philosophicarum. The importance of Valles’s contribution to the debate concerning the number, the specific tasks, and the localization of the internal senses in Aristotle and in Galen is attested by (...) Pedro da Fonseca’s appreciation of his contribution and by the relevance of Valles’s works to the study of the history of philosophy and of anatomy, in antiquity, in the Renaissance and in scholasticism. (shrink)

In this paper I describe the context and goals of Francisco Vallés' In IV librum Meteorologicorum commentaria. Vallés' work stands as a landmark because it interprets a work of Aristotle's natural philosophy specifically for medical doctors and medical theory. Vallés' commentary is representative of new understandings of Galenic-Hippocratic medi-cine that emerged as a result of expanding textual knowledge. These approaches are evident in a number of sixteenth-century commentaries on Meteorologica IV; in particular the works of Pietro Pomponazzi, Lodovico Boccadiferro, (...) Jacob Schegk, and Francesco Vimercati. Vallés' conviction that Meteorologica IV is relevant to medical knowledge depends on his understanding of Aristotle's theory of homeomerous substances and their relation to composite substances. The application of Meteorologica IV to medical topics became commonplace in the following years, and this Aristotelian book became widely known as a bridge between natural philosophy and medicine. (shrink)

La siguiente es una reseña del estudio realizado por el profesor Francisco Rodríguez Valls de la Universidad de Sevilla respecto a la incertidumbre que supone la naturaleza y la condiciónn de la realidad humana. El análisis se avoca a una visión paranorámica del trabajo del profesor Valls, y de manera introductoria apunta los aspecto claves de su texto a fin de que el lector pueda hacerse una idea clara y concisa de la propia postura del autor.