Social ontology focuses on questions about the reality of human categories. The typical examples are gender and race. Common questions about them are: Do they exist? What is their nature? Do they exist in the best possible way? Meanwhile, the philosophy of psychiatry has been discussing the reality of psychopathology, what is the best way to classify mental disorders, and whether it is possible to define them without normative vocabulary. I think there is something not only strange but inadequate about (...) these discussions being held apart. Particularly, I hold that by being held separately these discussions are philosophically incomplete. In this paper, I argue that these debates are parallel in crucial aspects, but more importantly that they can benefit from each other if they start a dialogue. I suggest some paths we can take to start fruitful discussions and offer examples of the kind of outcomes we can expect. However, my main contribution is to sketch a common framework to map current discussions, make comparisons between them, and, more importantly, guide new research. (shrink)

Can genetic testing and manipulation be done ethically? -- Is the use of human embryos in stem cell research ethical? -- Chapter 3:is assisted reproductive technology ethical?

The Thinking Critically series introduces students to the complex issues that dominate public discourse and challenges them to become discerning readers, to think independently, and to engage and develop their skills as critical thinkers. Chapters are organized in a pro/con format, in which a single author synthesizes predominant arguments for and against an issue into clear, accessible discussions supported by details and evidence including relevant facts, direct quotes, current examples, and statistical illustrations. All volumes include focus questions to guide students (...) as they read each pro/con discussion, a list of key facts, source notes, and an annotated list of related organizations and websites for conducting further research. Book jacket. (shrink)

One of the pleasures of watching Saturday Night Live (SNL) comes from knowing the show is live. The not‐ready‐for‐prime‐time‐players, their guest hosts, the unannounced walk‐on cameos, the house band, and the guest musicians are all in New York at the very moment the show airs, offering us a mocking, postmodern representation of reality through absurd (and sometimes very juvenile) humor. From guest hosts spoofing themselves in sketches, to the various impersonations of cultural figures, to the parody commercials to the pseudo‐news (...) of “Weekend Update,” SNL humorously captures the present and reflects it back to us, satirically revealing the hidden realities we all experience. This chapter explores if Plato (427–347 BCE) and his Cave Myth, and Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) and his conception of simulacra, can help us better understand the nature of SNL's reality. (shrink)

The susceptibility of online learning to cheating behavior remains a contentious and unresolved issue. A cross-sectional explanatory research design was utilized to test the hypothesized factors influencing academic cheating in online learning. Our study involved 562 participants, selected through a non-probability sampling technique, who were surveyed using online questionnaires designed to measure the identified factors. We tested the hypotheses by utilizing path analysis through the partial least square regression approach within the SMART-PLS software. The demographics such as gender and age (...) of the students, along with the roles of teachers and school administration significantly influenced the students’ instances of self-reported academic cheating. The students’ attitude toward academic cheating emerged as an important factor in predicting cheating behaviors. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research explorations into other potential factors that may contribute to academic dishonesty in online learning. (shrink)

Republican theorists have paid little attention to the normative problems of secession conflicts. So far, there is no such thing as a democratic republican theory of right of secession ; nor any comprehensive analysis of current TRS has ever been undertaken from a democratic republican point of view. This article tries to fill this second gap as a first step in order to fill that first one. In doing so, it shows how secession conflicts pose threats for two core democratic (...) republican values: freedom and inclusion. The threats are, concretely, those of exclusion, blackmailing minorities, arbitrary permanent majorities, and instability. The article also shows how, due to their respective pro-unionist or pro-secessionist biases, no current TRS seems to be able to handle those threats; and briefly outlines how a democratic republican TRS, based on a non-unilateralist logic, could be developed. (shrink)

This article answer what could be the distinction that the Stoics established between philosophy and the kata philosophian logos, according to the report by D.L., VII, 39-41. In this place I distance from the scholars who consider that the distinction is ontological, this is, that the kata philosophian logos refers to the discursive presentation of Stoic dogmas, whose nature is incorporeal, while the philosophy refers to a disposition of the soul, whose nature is corporeal. I rather propose that both are (...) dispositiones or states of the rational part of the soul and that the difference is in the degree of perfection that they have accomplished. (shrink)

In recent years, social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LINE has become common in the lives of the people in Asian countries. In this paper, we will examine ethical challenges related to social media from a perspective of normative theories. Many of the general ideas surrounding current social media belong to naturalistic optimism. They use it without any hesitation every time a new social medium is introduced, and believe that the society is getting better by doing so. It seems (...) too irresponsible if a social media company just provides a service and leaves it up to the judgment of users. Efforts to widely inform risks of social media should not target adults only. It should target minors as the most imminent issue. The laissez-faire system in social media can be considered as a laissez-faire system for companies managing social media. Among philosophical theories of technology, there is an idea of social constructivism. It is a theory that society can determine the future of technology. I will give a concrete example of social constructivism. The society must find a way to live with social media ahead of technology, not allowing the technology of social media to build a society. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explore the interaction between aesthetic properties and cognitive value in serial television. This study is based on a survey focused specifically on one television series: the second season of My Brilliant Friend, created by Saverio Costanzo. The survey was designed with the aim of getting respondents to express their perceptions of the relationship between the aesthetic qualities of the series and their assessment of it in cognitive terms. The responses obtained in the survey (...) offer a clear answer to the key question of concern for this article. The vast majority of respondents (more than 90% in almost all cases) believe that aesthetic and cognitive qualities mutually influence one another. Additionally the qualitative results invite us to further explore interactionism conceptually: the cognitive content is taken as a criterion for evaluating the season’s aesthetic value overall, suggesting a link between meaning and narrative form. (shrink)

In this paper I propose a series of arguments in order to show that it is preferable for analytic philosophy to be practiced in different languages. In the first section, I show that the analytic tradition includes people developing their philosophical work in different natural languages. In the second section, I will address the question of the role of language in thought, and more specifically in philosophical thought, concluding that it is preferable to allow for the use of different languages (...) as a vehicle for philosophical ideas. Finally, I make some suggestions regarding changes that could be made in academic practices to better allow a plurality of languages and voices within the analytic tradition. (shrink)

Resumen La argumentación es una forma de discurso en la que un hablante defiende una postura en una discusión. El presente trabajo se enfoca en la complejidad argumentativa y los recursos evaluativos y evidenciales que caracterizan las disputas de niños de diverso nivel socioeconómico. Se analizaron 94 disputas entre niños de 4 años y otros niños (5 a 10 años) en situaciones de juego espontáneo registradas en hogares de sectores socioeconómicos medio y bajo. El análisis identificó diferencias marginales en la (...) complejidad argumentativa entre los grupos. Por su parte se hallaron diferencias significativas en recursos de evaluativos de emocionalidad y en los evidenciales deónticos y exclamativos a favor de los sectores de nivel socioeconómico bajo. Los sectores medios registraron un mayor empleo de expresiones de causalidad y conectores. Los resultados se discuten a la luz de los hallazgos de investigaciones previas. Abstract Argumentation is a type of discourse in which a speaker defends a claim in a discussion. The present work focuses on the argumentative complexity and the evaluative and evidential resources that characterize the disputes of children of different socioeconomic levels. We analyzed 94 disputes between 4-year-old children and other children (5 to 10 years old) in situations of spontaneous play registered in homes of middle and low socioeconomic status (SES). The analysis identified marginal differences in argumentative complexity between the groups. On the other hand, significant differences were found in evaluative expressions of emotion and in deontic and exclamatory evidential markers, more frequently used by the low SES group. The mid SES group tends to use a higher number of expressions of causality and connectors. The results are discussed with reference to the findings of previous research. (shrink)

Resumen El objetivo fundamental de este artículo es el de analizar la representación que realiza la filósofa española María Zambrano del mito de Antígona y proyectarla en los debates contemporáneos en torno a la recuperación de los cuerpos de víctimas humanas en contextos post-violencia. Más allá del entramado lingüístico mítico-religioso en el que La tumba de Antígona parece situarse, desentrañaremos los diferentes estratos semánticos y filosóficos subyacentes a la relectura que Zambrano propone de la heroína tebana. Ello nos permitirá destacar (...) la potencialidad política subversiva del gesto de Antígona al abarcar a sujetos históricos tradicionalmente marginados del espacio público. Abstract This article aims to analyzing and projecting María Zambrano's representation of Antigone’s myth within contemporary debates about the recovery of the bodies of human victims in post-violence contexts. Beyond the mythic-religious framework in which The Tomb of Antigone seems to be located, it will be unraveled the different semantic and philosophical layers underlying Zambrano's re-reading of the Theban heroine. This will pave the way towards highlighting the subversive political potential of Antigone's gesture by embracing historical subjects traditionally marginalized from the public space. (shrink)

Cinema is commonly hailed as "the universal language," but how does it communicate so effortlessly across cultural and linguistic borders? Drawing on a lifetime's worth of viewing an reviewing, influential critic Gilberto Perez invokes a dizzying array of masters past and present includin Chaplin, Ford, Kiarostami, Eisenstein, Malick, Mizoguchi, Haneke, Hitchcock, and Godard--to explore the transaction between filmmaker and audience. The Eloquent Screen shows how cinema, as the consummate contemporary art form, establishes a thoroughly modern rhetoric in which different (...) points of view are brought into clear focus.". (shrink)

Despite the central presence of materialism in the history of philosophy, there is no universal consensus on the meaning of the word “matter” nor of the doctrine of philosophical materialism. Dictionaries of philosophy often identify this philosophy with its most reductionist and even eliminative versions, in line with Robert Boyle’s seventeenth century coinage of the term. But when we take the concept back in time to Greek philosophers and forward onto our own times, we recognize more inclusive forms of materialism (...) as well as complex interplays with non-materialist thought about the place of matter in reality, including Christian philosophy and German idealism. We define philosophical materialism in its most general way both positively (the identification of reality with matter understood as changeability and plurality) and negatively (the negation of disembodied living beings and hypostatized ideas). This inclusive approach to philosophical materialism offers a new light to illuminate a critical history of the concept of matter and materialism from Ancient Greece to the present that is also attentive to scientific developments. By following the most important connections and discontinuities among theoretical frameworks on the idea of matter, we present a general thread that offers a rich and plural, but highly cohesive, field of investigation. Finally, we propose building on rich non-reductionist materialist philosophies, such as Mario Bunge’s systemic materialism and Gustavo Bueno’s discontinuous materialism, to elaborate powerful theoretical alternatives to both physicalism and spiritualism. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Argentina Mexico The Southern Cone The Northern Part of South America and Central America Conclusion References Further Reading.

The influence of age and formal education on the development of moral reasoning in a Spanish sample of students was assessed by using a Spanish translation of Rest's Defining Issues Test. Our results support the hypothesis that moral development is highly related to both variables in our cultural context, although more so with formal education than with age.

This chapter explains some sort of feminist transformation from Snow White to Moana. There are four waves of feminist philosophy which can help us understand the progressing role of Disney princesses since Snow White's debut in 1937. Disney's three waves of princesses reflect the waves of feminism from which they emerge. In subtle but profound ways, Disney princesses have evolved as each wave of feminism has crashed upon the shores of culture. They shift people's focus from reinforcing patriarchy, to challenging (...) it, and finally turning it on its head, redefining their very understanding of what it means to be feminine and masculine. The implication is that equality is not based on making women and men equal to one another, but rather on making them balanced within themselves. Going forward, people can only imagine what the next batch of Disney princesses will offer. (shrink)

This is an interesting reinterpretation of masculine and feminine that speaks to contemporary perspectives on to what extent gender is a spectrum, especially when we consider the fates of all the so‐called "masculine" men in Dune. On one level, in Denis Villeneuve's Dune women become empowered, while the men become emasculated. Examining gender in Dune would be incomplete without a look at Baron Harkonnen, who, in both Frank Herbert's book and in David Lynch's 1984 film, is clearly depicted not just (...) as gay, but as embodying a sort of deviant sexuality. So, it appears that the traditional masculine/feminine gender binary is challenged throughout Villeneuve's part one, with many of the male characters embodying a feminized masculinity and with most of the female characters existing within a feminine imaginary to the point that Dune 's society borders on the androgynous. (shrink)

In The Empire Strikes Back, African American actor Billy Dee Williams turned the trio into a quartet as Lando Calrissian. Novelist and social activist Alice Walker coined and defined colorism as the “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same‐race people based solely on their color,” according to Kimberly Jade Norwood and Violeta Solonova Foreman. For Norwood and Foreman, colorism is concerned with the lightness and darkness of skin tone, with preference given to whiteness. Colorism in the United States took root during (...) the period of slavery, when “coalescence of needs, beliefs, justifications, and practices had the effect of placing white skin at a premium and dehumanizing black skin.” Jennifer Bloomquist writes that there is “a protracted history of Whites creating Black caricatures,” which includes “underdeveloped Black characters” in American entertainment. Boyega overlooks the presence of culture and the representation of other races and ethnicities throughout the Star Wars films and even throughout the various television series. (shrink)

Agent Ross's interrogation of Ulysses Klaue doesn't just explain the significance of vibranium, it frames vibranium as “the most valuable metal known to man,” which, in turn, establishes what ends up being a moral dilemma for T'Challa – when Agent Ross gets shot and, later, when T'Challa learns the truth about his father's past. The scene also adds to the fabled mystery that the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) narrative weaves throughout the other films. Although the metal's uses are fictional, (...) the concept and presence of vibranium in Black Panther and the depiction of Wakanda in the larger MCU narrative present some philosophical issues with regard to vibranium's value. While vibranium's use value is important to Wakandans and its exchange value is important to villains like Klaue, another way to understand the value of vibranium is to examine its cultural value. (shrink)

Blue is a significant color in science fiction: Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, Marvel, and DC all have aliens, mutants, and superheroes that come in shades from aqua to cerulean to cobalt. In Dune, however, blue is not a skin tone, it is an eye color – not for aliens, but for humans. Specifically, it is meant to visualize and symbolize the Fremen, and anyone who is either addicted to spice or has been around it long enough for their eyes (...) to change. Accordingly, the blue eyes of Zendaya and Duncan‐Brewster are not just visually striking, they are culturally striking, especially in light of contemporary philosophy of intersectionality and critical race theory. Thus, Denis Villeneuve's Dune is not just re‐colored, it is re‐contextualized to fit a twenty‐first‐century awareness regarding diversity and cultural pluralism. (shrink)

Diversas corrientes historiográficas han consolidado su investigación en torno a actores que no habían sido considerados como sujetos históricos. Éste es el caso de las mujeres. Sin embargo, tal avance disciplinar no se ha visto reflejado en el curriculum de Historia. Este trabajo centra su primera exposición en la ausencia de las mujeres como sujeto histórico en la asignatura de Historia de México en la educación secundaria. En un segundo momento, se propone el uso de archivos documentales como un recurso (...) para dar visibilidad a su participación. Finalmente se presenta, una experiencia didáctica aplicada en un grupo de secundaria en la Ciudad de México. (shrink)

En la actualidad hay una preocupación general por el uso eficiente de los recursos en empresas como en sociedad. Por lo que el presente estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la relación entre los negocios y la sostenibilidad con enfoque social y medio ambiental.Se realizó una revisión de la literatura de fuentes confiables que permitió analizar la importancia de sostenibilidad desde la perspectiva teórica con aplicación empresarial a partir de los principios de economía ambiental.El presente trabajo tuvo como resultados la importancia (...) del concepto de sostenibilidad en las organizaciones desde una visión de la Economía ambiental y Economía circular. (shrink)

Este trabajo persigue reflexionar sobre el estatuto ontológico de la comunidad en base a la figura de Nietzsche como arcano de la apuesta teórica tiqquniana. Así, a partir de las consideraciones que Nietzsche realiza sobre la vida, junto con los diagnósticos que Tiqqun despliega a partir de su _metafísica crítica_, se explorarán algunos de los pliegues del pensamiento de ambos autores tratando de iluminar una cartografía de la no pertenencia que sustituya la lógica identitaria de la comunidad moderna fundamentada en (...) el principio de humanismo. Dicha cartografía no solo persigue agotar el lenguaje político contemporáneo, sino que piensa en una forma política y comunitaria desarrollada desde el _pathos_ de la distancia, el éxtasis y la filosofía política an-árquica. El esfuerzo teórico aquí recogido ilumina y teje la presencia de Nietzsche en el pensamiento de Tiqqun manifestando el anhelo compartido entre ambos autores por desatar prácticas de libertad en la tarea de traer al mundo las vidas que aún están por venir. (shrink)

Background: Medical confidentiality underpins the doctor–patient relationship and ensures privacy so that intimate information can be exchanged to improve, preserve, and protect the health of the patient. The right to information applies to the patient alone, and, only if expressly desired, can it be extended to family members. However, it must be remembered that one of the primary tenets of family medicine is precisely that patient care occurs ideally within the context of the family. There may be, then, certain occasions (...) when difficulties will arise as to the extent of the information provided to family members.Objectives: This study aimed to describe family doctors’ attitudes to confidentiality and providing patient information to relatives as well as their justifications for sharing information.Method: A descriptive postal questionnaire was self-administered by family doctors.Results: Of 227 doctors, 95.1% provided information to a patient’s family and over a third disclosed information to others without prior patient consent.Conclusions: The findings reveal that family doctors should pay more attention to their patients’ rights to information, privacy, and confidentiality, and reflect very carefully on the fine balance between this and the occasional need for the support and collaboration of family members in delivery of care. Emphasis should be placed on ethics and legal problems during undergraduate education and in-service training of doctors. (shrink)

This paper defends the claim that pragmatic encroachment—the idea that knowledge is sensitive to the practical stakes of believing—can explain a distinctive kind of epistemic injustice: the injustice that occurs when prejudice causes someone to know less than they otherwise would. This encroachment injustice, as we call it, occurs when the threat of being met with prejudice raises the stakes for someone to rely on her belief when acting, by raising the level of evidential support required for knowledge. We explain (...) this notion of encroachment injustice, connect it to the empirical literature on implicit bias, and defend it against important objections. (shrink)

Background: Sharing information with relatives of elderly patients in primary care and in hospital has to fit into the complex set of obligations, justifications and pressures concerning the provision of information, and the results of some studies point to the need for further empirical studies exploring issues of patient autonomy, privacy and informed consent in the day-to-day care of older people.Objectives: To know the frequency with which “capable” patients over 65 years of age receive information when admitted to hospital, the (...) information offered to the families concerned, the person who gives consent for medical intervention, and the degree of satisfaction with the information received and the healthcare provided.Method: A descriptive questionnaire given to 200 patients and 200 relatives during the patients’ stay in hospital.Results: Only 5% of patients confirmed that they had been asked whether information could be given to their relatives. A significantly higher proportion of relatives received information on the successive stages of the care offered than did patients themselves. As the age of the patients increased, so the number who were given information, understood the information and were asked for their consent for complementary tests decreased. The degree of satisfaction with the information offered was high for both patients and relatives , despite the irregularities observed.Conclusions: The capacity of elderly patients to participate in the decision-making process is frequently doubted simply because they have reached a certain age and it is thought that relatives should act as their representatives. In Spain, the opinion of the family and doctors appears to play a larger role in making decisions than does the concept of patient autonomy. (shrink)

Laura Specker Sullivan (2022) makes a fairly compelling case for the value of the perspectives of Buddhist practitioners in neuroethics. In this study, Tibetan Buddhist monks have been asked, among other things, whether consciousness, in brain-injured patients in a minimally conscious state, entails a duty to preserve life. In our view, some of the participants’ responses could be used to inform the bioethical debate on death determination.

In Spain, any person under the age of 18 is a minor. Generally, minors lack the legal capacity to take legally binding actions because they are deemed incapable of legally binding consent. Spanish civil law recognises, however, that the child, in accordance with the law and being sufficiently mature, may act for himself. It stands, then, that consent, as expressed by the “sufficiently mature” minor, should be legally valid.

(2014). Cross-world luck at the time of decision is a problem for compatibilists as well. Philosophical Explorations: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 112-125. doi: 10.1080/13869795.2014.912673.

Background: By providing healthcare to adolescents, a major opportunity is created to help them cope with the challenges in their lives, develop healthy behaviour and become responsible healthcare consumers. Confidentiality is a major issue in adolescent healthcare, and its perceived absence may be the main barrier to an adolescent seeking medical care. Little is known, however, about confidentiality for adolescents in primary care practices in Spain.Objective: To ascertain the attitudes of Spanish family doctors towards the right of adolescents to confidentiality (...) in different healthcare situations and in the prescription of treatment.Method: A descriptive postal questionnaire was self-administered by family doctors.Results: Parents of patients under 18 years are always informed by 18.5% of family doctors, whereas parents of those under 16 years are informed by 38.8% of doctors. The patients are warned of this likelihood by 79.3% of doctors. The proportion of doctors supporting confidentiality for adolescents increases with the age and maturity of the patients, whereas workload and previous training has a negative effect.Conclusions: Spanish laws on adolescent healthcare are not reflected by the paternalistic attitude that Spanish primary care doctors have towards their adolescent patients. Doctors need to be provided with up-to-date and clinically relevant explanations on contemporary legal positions. In primary care, more attention should be paid to adolescents’ rights to information, privacy and confidentiality. Doctors should be more aware of the need to encourage communication between teenagers and their parents, while also safeguarding their patients’ rights to confidential care. (shrink)

Este texto sigue el movimiento de la palabra “anarquía” en De otro modo que ser. Este término que Lévinas despolitiza al acudir a su sentido estrictamente etimológico, viene al texto como un exceso que no puede recogerse bajo la unidad de un nombre o de un discurso. Lo que se busca con este texto es explorar la significación de esta anarquía, su relación con el orden discursivo y con el orden político, para preguntar finalmente si la anarquía no acaba de (...) alguna manera siendo neutralizada en una forma de poder soberano que dicta la orden ética desde una cierta bondad originaria y originante. (shrink)

Most technology is used properly for their intended purpose, but certain technological breakthroughs have a dual-use nature, pose risks or lead to unintended consequences when applied in some areas...

This is the first major work in English to explore at length the meaning, context, aims, and vital importance of Thomas Hobbes's concepts of the law of nature..