Examines the lived experience of social encounters drawing on phenomenological insights.

This book presents some of the challenges bioethics in Latin America faces today. It considers them through the lenses of vulnerable populations, those incapable of protecting their own interests, such as the illiterate, women in societies disrespectful of their reproductive rights, and research subjects in contexts where resources are scarce.

Black Feminist Sociology offers new writings by established and emerging scholars working in a Black feminist tradition. The book centers Black feminist sociology within the sociology canon and widens is to feature Black feminist sociologists both outside the U.S. and the academy. Inspired by a BFS lens, the essays are critical, personal, political and oriented toward social justice. Key themes include the origins of Black feminist sociology, expositions of BFS orientations to research that extend disciplinary norms, and contradictions of the (...) pleasures and costs of such an approach both academically and personally. Authors explore their own sociological legacy of intellectual development to raise critical questions of intellectual thought and self-reflexivity. The book highlights the dynamism of BFS so future generations of scholars can expand upon and beyond the book's key themes. (shrink)

Análisis de un corpus de textos míticos relatados por exmineros de la zona del carbón de la Región del Biobío (Chile). En primer lugar se observa en los textos seleccionados (casos y leyendas) la memoria sensorial como proceso de actualización psicológica cognitiva y semiótica. En segundo lugar se analizan los discursos míticos desde dos perspectivas: la teoría semiótica de los signos naturales de Umberto Eco y la semiosis de Charles Morris. Finalmente, el trabajo aporta diferencias estructurales entre estas dos superestructuras (...) discursivas orales utilizadas por los informantes: el caso y la leyenda. This article is related to the field of oral literature. It is focused on a theoretical and analytical approach in the corpus of mythical texts narrated by former miners from the Coal District of the Bío-Bío Region (Chile). Firstly, sensory memory is found in the texts as a process of updating (cognitive and semiotic psychology). Secondly, the mythical discourses are analyzed from two perspectives: the semiotics theory of natural signs of Umberto Eco and the semiosis of Charles Morris. Finally, this work shows structural differences between these two superstructures used by the informant miners: the case and the legend. (shrink)

In the context of multidimensional measures of well-being, a key question for policy is whether particular groups have differing priorities and are therefore likely to react differently to given economic or social shocks. We explore this issue by presenting the results of two related analyses that suggest positive answers on both counts. First, we apply reference class weights to unique data on adult capabilities in the UK and show that relative weights vary across some groupings. Furthermore, in some cases, deprivation (...) rankings of groups vary depending on which weights are used. Second, we explore possible behavioural consequences of different weights by examining the extent to which groups respond differently to three economic and social shocks (unemployment, widowhood and ill health). In this case, we find that weights and responses vary noticeably with age and region and sometimes with gender. We conclude that whilst equal weighting may be practically unavoidable when constructing indices of welfare in the absence of information on weights, their estimation from survey or experimental data is likely to be justified and may change views about policy needs or efficacy. (shrink)

¿Qué entendemos cuando hablamos de eutanasia? Etimológicamente, el término procede de las raíces griegas eu (bueno, buena) y thanatos (muerte). Sin embargo, una definición etimológica parece insuficiente, ya que la noción que se tiene de tal concepto ha variado a través de la historia, así como su misma práctica.Para comprender el por qué no se ha podido establecer un consenso acerca de lo que se entiende por eutanasia, podría ser útil mencionar algunas culturas y sus prácticas del “buen morir”. Ciertas (...) culturas nómadas, por ejemplo, dejaban atrás a enfermos y ancianos. Los espartanos abandonaban en la corriente de un río a los recién nacidos en caso de que éstos tuviesen alguna deformidad o poca probabilidad de seguir viviendo. En el mismo caso, los romanos los dejaban morir en la intemperie. Entre los battaki, es una práctica común que el padre de familia, ya viejo, suba a un árbol, y simbolizando un fruto maduro, se deje caer; posteriormente, sus familiares lo matan y se lo comen.Ahora bien, ¿cuál es la intuición que parecen tener estas culturas acerca de una muerte causada pero no mal intencionada? En principio, podríanse juzgar tales prácticas como inmorales e inhumanas, pero eso sería cometer imprecisiones contextuales acerca del carácter histórico y moral de tales actividades. La correspondencia más clara entre tales culturas y su concepción del final de la vida se muestra en pos de un respeto y aceptación de la muerte, es decir, una conciencia de la inevitabilidad de la muerte y nuestro artículo versa sobre todo ello. (shrink)

Si acudimos a los manuales de Historia de la Pedagogía y repasamos las definiciones de l término "educación" realizadas desde la antigüedad hasta nuestros días, veremos que muchas de ellas incluyen dentro de ese concepto dos ideas simultáneas: la contribución al perfeccionamiento de la persona y su preparación para formar parte de la sociedad.

Hace tan sólo unos meses se produjo en España un nuevo debate en relación con la educación, centrado en esta ocasión en el tema de la autoridad del profesorado. Tras anunciar la Comunidad de Madrid su propuesta de otorgar a los profesores el rango de autoridad pública, finalmente plasmada en la Ley 2/2010 de Autoridad del profesor, la controversia sobre la oportunidad de esta medida no se hizo esperar, poniéndose de manifiesto la existencia de opiniones encontradas en torno a la (...) misma. (shrink)

Las evaluaciones internacionales en el ámbito de la educación se han convertido en nuestros días en una cuestión de actualidad. A raíz de la elaboración de distintos estudios, sobre todo el conocido "Informe PISA", la información sobre el funcionamiento de los sistemas educativos en diferentes países ha dejado de ser asunto de pocos especialistas. Por el contrario, desde hace algún tiempo, los datos sobre los resultados de los estudiantes a escala internacional aparecen publicados, muchas veces con tintes sensacionalistas, en los (...) distintos medios de comunicación y se han convertido en objeto de comentarios y debates, tanto en la esfera política como e la sociedad en general. (shrink)

Si preguntáramos a la opinión pública sobre los cambio que se han producido en la educación española durante los últimos años es muy probable que nos encontráramos con una respuesta aparentemente paradójica.

This book investigates the concept of body shame and explores its significance when considering philosophical accounts of embodied subjectivity, providing phenomenological reflections on how the body is shaped by social forces.

This target article considers the ethical implications of providing prenatal diagnosis (PND) and antenatal screening services to detect fetal abnormalities in jurisdictions that prohibit abortion for these conditions. This unusual health policy context is common in the Latin American region. Congenital conditions are often untreated or under-treated in developing countries due to limited health resources, leading many women/couples to prefer termination of affected pregnancies. Three potential harms derive from the provision of PND in the absence of legal and safe abortion (...) for these conditions: psychological distress, unjust distribution of burdens between socio-economic classes, and financial burdens for families and society. We present Iran as a comparative case study where recognition of these ethical issues has led to the liberalization of abortion laws for fetuses with thalassemia. We argue that physicians, geneticists and policymakers have an ethical and professional duty of care to advocate for change in order to ameliorate these harms. (shrink)

En esta discusión abordo la hermenéutica analógica de Mauricio Beuchot comparándola con la hermenéutica filosófica de Hans-Georg Gadamer. Argumento que Beuchot vuelve a la idea clásica de la hermenéutica como método de interpretación y no la juzga, como Gadamer, como una fenomenología de la comprensión. Sin embargo, Beuchot no atiende las razones de Gadamer en contra de concebir la hermenéutica como una metodología. Si se considera como metodología centrada en la analogía, la hermenéutica analógica deja de lado otros recursos interpretativos (...) importantes. Finalmente, Beuchot adopta una teoría correspondentista de la verdad contra la que argumenta Gadamer y que es incompatible con una hermenéutica filosófica. In this paper I analyze Mauricio Beuchot's analogical hermeneutics by contrasting it with Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. I argue that Beuchot goes back to the classical idea of hermeneutics as a method of interpretation, and does not see it, as Gadamer does, as a phenomenology of understanding. However, Beuchot does not address Gadamer's arguments against using hermeneutics as a methodology. Considered as a methodology centered on analogy, analogical hermeneutics overlooks other important interpretation resources. Finally, Beuchot adopts a correspondence theory of truth, which Gadamer objects and is incompatible with philosophical hermeneutics. (shrink)

Interweaving personal narrative and theory, this essay frames the valorization of female virginity in Guatemalan ladino society within the context of ethnic conflict between ladinos and Mayan Indians. A consideration of what is at stake in the premarital loss of virginity for ladino women can illuminate interrelationships among nationalism, the engendering of ethnicity, and women’s bodies.

Interweaving personal narrative and theory, this essay frames the valorization of female virginity in Guatemalan ladino society within the context of ethnic conflict between ladinos and Mayan Indians. A consideration of what is at stake in the premarital loss of virginity for ladino women can illuminate interrelationships among nationalism, the engendering of ethnicity, and women’s bodies.

En 1967, Helmuth Plessner publica en Merkur una síntesis de su pensamiento titulado «El ser humano como ser vivo». Este trabajo de investigación ha consistido en realizar una traducción, con un gran número de aparato crítico en forma de notas, y con un estudio introductorio. En el texto, Plesner expone el carácter diferencial del viviente humano en comparación con los demás animales, carácter por el que trasciende el ámbito de lo zoológico, permaneciendo no obstante en él. Por eso, el estudio (...) introductorio, se centra tras las cuestiones historiográficas pertinentes, en las condiciones antropológicas de posibilidad de la posicionalidad diferencial del ser humano ante la realidad, también la propia. Condiciones que se descubren en la reflexividad, la interioridad y la exterioridad. (shrink)

This article examines the phenomenology of body shame in the context of the clinical encounter, using the television program ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ as illustrative. I will expand on the insights of Aaron Lazare’s 1987 article ‘Shame and Humiliation in the Medical Encounter’ where it is argued that patients often see their diseases and ailments as defects, inadequacies or personal shortcomings and that visits to doctors and medical professionals involve potentially humiliating physical and psychological exposure. I will start by outlining a phenomenology (...) of shame in order to understand more clearly the effect shame about the body can have in terms of one’s personal experience and, furthermore, one’s interpersonal dynamics. I will then examine shame in the clinical encounter, linking body shame to the cultural stigma attached to illness, dysfunction and bodily frailty. I will furthermore explore how shame can be exacerbated or even incited by physicians through judgment and as a result of the power imbalance inherent to the physician-patient dynamic, compounded by the contemporary tendency to moralise about ‘lifestyle’ illnesses. Lastly, I will provide some reflections for how health care workers might approach patient shame in clinical practice. (shrink)

La acidificación oceánica es un problema creciente que afecta el medio ambiente global, cuyas repercusiones son detectables ahora, que ponen en riesgo el recurso hídrico más extenso del planeta e incluyen en los cambios climáticos que se pueden documentar en todo el planeta. El presente artículo analiza la protección del medio marino como una medida para asegurar a las generaciones futuras un ambiente sano, que les garantice una mejor forma de vida. Se exponen los diferentes principios que rigen a la (...) bioética, y se establece su relación con los procesos de desarrollo sostenible y el incremento de la acidificación que ocurre en el océano y que afecta a una gran cantidad de comunidades de escasos recursos a nivel mundial. (shrink)

In this musing we consider how social distancing, the primary public health measure introduced to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, is creating social encounters characterized by a self-and-other-consciousness and an atmosphere of suspicion, leading to what we call “alienated embodied communication.” Whilst interaction rituals dominated by avoidance, fear and distrust are novel for many individuals who occupy positions of social privilege, Black and ethnic minority writers have demonstrated that the alienated bodily communication of COVID-19 social distancing is “nothing (...) new” for people who routinely experience marginalization as a result of racism. Our aim in this musing, then, is to reflect on how on-going experiences of stigma, shame, and marginalization can shape how social distancing is registered on an embodied and existential level, and therefore how social distancing may differentially impact individuals with lived experiences of racism. (shrink)

Experiences of shame are not always discrete, but can be recurrent, persistent or enduring. To use the feminist phenomenologist Sandra Lee Bartky’s formulation, shame is not always an acute event, but can become a “pervasive affective attunement” (Bartky, 1990 : 85). Instead of experiencing shame as a discrete event with a finite duration, it can be experienced as a persistent, and perhaps, permanent possibility in daily life. This sort of pervasive or persistent shame is commonly referred to as “chronic shame” (...) (Pattison, 2000 ; Nathanson, 1992 ; Dolezal, 2015 ). Chronic shame is frequently associated with political oppression and marginalization. In chronic shame, it is the potentiality of shame, rather than the actuality, that is significant. In other words, the anticipation of shame (whether explicit or implicit) comes to be a defining feature of one’s lived experience. Living with chronic shame has important socio-political consequences. Thus far, chronic shame has eluded simple phenomenological analysis, largely because chronic shame often does not have a clear experiential profile: it is frequently characterised by the _absence_ rather than the _presence_ of shame. The aim of this article is to provide a phenomenology of chronic shame, drawing from Edmund Husserl’s formulation of the ‘horizon’ as a means a to discuss structural aspects of chronic shame experiences, in particular how chronic shame is characterised by structures of absence and anticipation. (shrink)

In this article I focus on two issues concerning bioethics in Argentina: reproductive health and ethics in research. Although these topics are quite dissimilar, they share a particular feature: their special relationship with context.

In this article, the authors focus on Argentina's activity in the developing field of regenerative medicine, specifically stem cell research. They take as a starting point a recent article by Shawn Harmon (published in this journal) who argues that attempts to regulate the practice in Argentina are morally incoherent. The authors try to show first, that there is no such ‘attempt to legislate’ on stem cell research in Argentina and this is due to a number of reasons that they explain. (...) Second, by examining the role played by different values, conflicting legal and moral views, and the influence of various actors, they attempt to show that the legislative silence regarding stem cell research may not necessarily be a manifestation of a legal/moral disconnection but rather a survival strategy for navigating the long and heated battle on the moral status of the embryo and the kind of treatment it deserves. (shrink)

Through positing that our capacity for physical vulnerability is at the core of original shame, Sartre’s account in Being and Nothingness reveals shame as an essential structure of human existence. Reading Sartre’s ontological account of ‘pure shame’ alongside recent writing about shame in early child development, particularly Martha Nussbaum’s account of ‘primitive shame,’ this article will explore the inherent links between shame, the body and vulnerability, ultimately positing that our human need for belonging is the fundamental driving force behind shame, (...) and what gives it its ontological status. In short, this article will argue that shame is not merely about a painful awareness of one’s flaws or transgressions with reference to norms and others, but about a deeper layer of relationality through our bodily vulnerability. (shrink)

Jean-Paul Sartre's account of the Look in Being and Nothingness is not straightforward and many conflicting interpretations have arisen due to apparent contradictions in Sartre's own writing. The Look, for Sartre, demonstrates how the self gains thematic awareness of the body, forming a public and self-conscious sense of how the body appears to others and, furthermore, illustrates affective and social aspects of embodied being. In this article, I will critically explore Sartre's oft-cited voyeur vignette in order to provide a coherent (...) account of the Look and to illustrate the significance of intersubjectivity and self-consciousness in Sartre's work. Through considering Sartre's voyeur vignette and other examples of reflective self-consciousness, this article will examine epistemological, self-evaluative and ontological concerns in the constitution of reflective self-consciousness. It will be contended that Sartre's accounts of the Look and reflective self-consciousness within social relations can provide insight into the intersubjective nature of the shaping of the body and the significance of self-presentation within the social realm. (shrink)

This paper will examine the experience of and drive for bodily invisibility in women through the theoretical approaches of phenomenology and social constructionism. An examination of the social disruptions of bodily invisibility and the compulsive avoidance of such instances, particularly with respect to the fastidious maintenance of body comportment and appearance within the narrow parameters afforded by social norms, will lead to an exploration of the conflation of biomedicine with the beauty industry.

This article describes and analyzes the book by L. Novakovic, Resurrection, which studies the complex topic of the resurrection of Jesus and its consequences, including, primarily, the faith of Christians in their own resurrection. The Author presents the contents of the book, and indicates the merits and limits of the research and the value of its conclusions.

This paper analyzes a book on the afterlife, The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity, by the well known scholar Peter Brown, published in English in 2015 and translated into Italian in 2016. The Author proceeds by examining thoroughly Brown’s insights and conclusions.

Este artículo intenta ―desde la perspectiva de la moral social― poner en evidencia el giro antropológico de la Encíclica Caritas in veritate que, coherentemente con las contemporáneas filosofías de la alteridad y del don, reconoce la fragilidad como nota distintiva de lo humano y clave metodológica de la moral social. Asimismo, señala la necesidad de completar esta reflexión con una adecuada teoría de las emociones en la esfera pública. This article tries ―from the perspective of social― moral highlight the anthropological (...) turn of the Encyclical Caritas in veritate that, consistent with the contemporary philosophies of otherness and of the gift, recognizes the fragility of the human hallmark and key methodological of social morality. It also notes the need to complete this reflection with an adequate theory of emotions in the public sphere. (shrink)

Self-presentation is a term that indicates conscious and unconscious strategies for controlling or managing how one is perceived by others in terms of both appearance and comportment. In this article, I will discuss the phenomenology of self-presentation with respect to the phenomenological insights of Edmund Husserl and Merleau-Ponty regarding the visibility of the body within intercorporeal relations through ‘behaviour’ and ‘expression.’ In doing so, I will turn to the work of the Canadian sociologist and social theorist Erving Goffman. Goffman’s account (...) of self-presentation suggests why embodied subjects adopt certain styles of ordered bodily behaviour as determined by the broader social order, giving existential and social significance to the ontological structures of intercorporeal bodily communication. Following Goffman, I will suggest that the embodied subject is continuously—and constitutionally—engaged in implicit and explicit strategies to manage how the body is presented to others. In articulating self-presentation as a feature of intercorporeality, my aim in this article is to use Goffman’s insights to extend Husserl’s and Merleau-Ponty’s accounts of bodily communication by demonstrating that bodily communication that is instantiated at the level of intercorporeality is always expressed through social life with its various historical, cultural and linguistic dimensions. (shrink)

This article examines the problems that research ethics confronts in developing countries and the impact that research in developing countries has had on research ethics. In order to show this it analyzes the first paradigmatic cases that gave rise to the ‘classic’ analysis of research ethics. Hence, in this article, many of the ethical concerns apply wherever research is conducted and are not particular to developing countries. Secondly, the article describes the complex process of research by analyzing different research actors (...) and their interests in the current research process. Thirdly, it sketches some of the recent cases that have prompted fierce ethical debate surrounding research in developing countries. (shrink)

Antoine Cantin-Brault | Résumé : Il est bien connu que Hegel a fait d’Héraclite un jalon nécessaire de sa Logique. Mais Héraclite est plus qu’un penseur du devenir, de la contradiction et de l’infini logique, il est aussi le penseur du temps, du feu, de l’âme et de la vie. En ce sens, il est donc un penseur spéculatif de la nature et, plus précisément encore, Hegel aperçoit en lui les grands moments de sa Philosophie de la nature. Bien qu’abstraite, (...) cette présentation que fait Héraclite de la nature permet surtout de bien comprendre à quel point celle-ci est négativité, contradiction et éternel retour du même, articulation de la nature que Hegel fera sienne à travers ce qu’il appelle la « mauvaise infinité ». Cette influence héraclitéenne sur Hegel permet peut-être de jeter une nouvelle lumière sur la distance qui sépare Hegel de Schelling dans leur saisie respective de la nature. Héraclite fut donc d’une profondeur sans pareille pour Hegel en tant que véritable « germe » philosophique, il l’entraîne dans la négativité qui seule permet la vérité, mais sous des rapports différents, selon qu’il s’agit de la Logique ou de la nature. |: It is well-known that Hegel made Heraclitus a necessary step in his Logic. But Heraclitus is more than a thinker of becoming, contradiction and the logical infinite ; he is also the thinker of time, fire, soul and life. In that sense, he is therefore a speculative thinker of nature and, more precisely still, Hegel perceives in him the great moments of his Philosophy of Nature. Although abstract, the presentation of nature by Heraclitus helps above all to understand well to what extent it is negativity, contradiction and the eternal recurrence of the same, an articulation of nature which Hegel will make his own through what he calls the “spurious infinity.” This Heraclitean influence on Hegel may perhaps shed new light on the distance separating Hegel from Schelling in their respective grasp of nature. Thus, Heraclitus proved of unmatched depth for Hegel as a genuine philosophical seed, drawing him into that negativity which alone gives access to the truth, albeit in different respects for Logic or for nature. (shrink)

Antoine Cantin-Brault | : Après avoir établi le bien-fondé de la constitution onto-proto-logique de la métaphysique, trouvée dans les travaux de B. Mabille, cette constitution qui montre que la métaphysique est assurément onto-théo-logique mais aussi mé-onto-logique, l’article veut montrer que cette métaphysique est tout entière déjà présente dans la pensée d’Héraclite. Si les métaphysiciens comme Hegel et Heidegger ont plutôt eu tendance à s’installer dans une de ces deux pulsations métaphysiques en récusant l’autre, Héraclite est peut-être le seul à les (...) scander toutes les deux. L’article cherche donc, à partir d’un élargissement de la constitution heideggérienne de la métaphysique, à montrer quels sont les fragments de l’Obscur qui permettent d’y voir précisément cette métaphysique nouvellement constituée comme onto-proto-logie, et suggérer l’importance d’un contact avec Héraclite pour comprendre la métaphysique en son ensemble et son histoire. | : After having established the merits of the onto-proto-logical constitution of metaphysics as presented in the works of B. Mabille — a conception which demonstrates that metaphysics is at once onto-theo-logical as well as me-onto-logical — the following article will seek to demonstrate that this understanding of metaphysics is already present in its entirety in the thought of Heraclitus. If metaphysicians such as, for example, Hegel and Heidegger have tended to place their thought in one of the two metaphysical pulsations while rejecting the other, Heraclitus was perhaps the first to chant both of them. By means of a broadening of the Heideggerian constitution of metaphysics, this article thus seeks to examine those fragments of the Obscure which reveal precisely this understanding of a metaphysics newly constituted as onto-proto-logy and, furthermore, to suggest the importance of consideration of Heraclitean thought for a fuller understanding of metaphysics in its entirety and history. (shrink)

Résumé C’est un lieu commun de dire d’Héraclite qu’il est obscur, mais d’où vient précisément cette obscurité? Libérant la métaphysique à partir d’une constitution entendue comme onto-proto-logie, l’obscurité d’Héraclite semble participer à la fois d’une métaphysique déterminante qui cherche à dire l’étant suprême en un Logos totalisant, et d’une métaphysique indéterminante ne voulant que signifier le principe qui se situe au-delà de l’étant. Ces deux tendances sont illustrées par Hegel et Heidegger, en leurs interprétations respectives d’Héraclite ; chacun énonce quelque (...) chose de vrai, sans faire taire l’autre. Héraclite se découvre ainsi au carrefour de perspectives métaphysiques qui se préciseront plus tard, que son obscurité lui permet d’anticiper toutes deux.It is a commonplace to say that Heraclitus is obscure, but how exactly does one account for that obscurity? Paving the way to metaphysics thanks to what has aptly been termed an onto-proto-logy, Heraclitus’s obscurity seems to come both from a determinate metaphysics that seeks to express the Supreme Being through a totalizing Logos, and from an indeterminate metaphysics seeking only to suggest that principle situated beyond being. Those two tendencies are illustrated by Hegel and Heidegger, in their respective interpretations of Heraclitus ; each one says something true, without silencing the other. Heraclitus thus appears at the crossroads between metaphysical perspectives that will become clearer later, which his obscurity enables him to anticipate both. (shrink)

Véritable traumatisme de la modernité occidentale, le déracinement de la culture fut et demeure largement occulté par l’idée de progrès, laquelle, en raison de l’aveuglante fuite en avant qui la commande, compromet la possibilité même du recul nécessaire à sa mise en question. Cet essai se veut une contribution à la reconnaissance et à l’interprétation des conditions sociohistoriques d’un phénomène capital, au fondement des représentations les plus solidement ancrées de nous-mêmes et du monde. Si, pour tracer une telle « esquisse (...) », divers auteurs — philosophes, historiens ou sociologues — sont ici sollicités, trois d’entre eux jouissent cependant d’un statut privilégié quant à la mise au jour des enjeux fondamentaux du déracinement de la culture à l’époque moderne : Fernand Dumont, Simone Weil et Hannah Arendt. (shrink)