Henrich et al. provide a compelling argument about a bias in the behavioral sciences to study human behavior primarily in WEIRD populations. Here we argue that brain scientists are susceptible to similar biases, sampling primarily from WEIRD populations; and we discuss recent evidence from cultural neuroscience demonstrating the importance and viability of investigating culture across multiple levels of analysis.

Recent evidence from the social neuroscience of empathy suggests that there is core neural circuitry underlying empathy in humans, and important roles for top—down and bottom—up processes in the production and regulation of empathic experience. Less well understood is how cultural and genetic forces give rise to empathy and prosocial behavior within and across groups. Here I argue that culture-gene coevolutionary theory may play an important role in understanding how and when empathy is experienced, and that future research in cultural (...) neuroscience is needed to understand how cultural and genetic factors shape empathic neural response. (shrink)

Classical theories of emotion have long debated the extent to which human emotion is a universal or culturally constructed experience. Recent advances in emotion research in cultural neuroscience highlight several aspects of emotional generation and experience that are both phylogenetically conserved as well as constructed within human cultural contexts. This review highlights theories and methods from cultural neuroscience that examine how cultural and biological processes shape emotional generation, experience, and regulation across multiple time scales. Recent advances in the neurobiological basis (...) of culture-bound syndromes, such as Hwa-Byung (fire illness), provide further novel insights into emotion and mental health across cultures. Implications for emotion research in cultural neuroscience for population health disparities in psychopathology and global mental health will be discussed. (shrink)

Affect control theory posits that emotions are constructed by social and cultural forces. Rogers, Schröder, and von Scheve introduce affect control theory as a conceptual and methodological “hub,” linking theories from different disciplines across levels of analysis. To illustrate this further, we apply their framework to cultural priming, an experimental technique in cultural psychology and neuroscience for testing how exposure to cultural symbols changes people’s behavior, cognition, and emotion. Our analysis supports the use of affect control theory in linking different (...) levels of analysis while leaving some opening questions for improving such a framework in future research. (shrink)

Lindquist et al. argue that emotional categories do not map onto distinct regions within the brain, but rather, arise from basic psychological processes, including conceptualization, executive attention, and core affect. Here, we use examples from cultural neuroscience to argue that psychological constructionism, not locationism, captures the essential role of emotion in the social and cultural brain.

Presenting evidence from the social brain, we argue that neural reuse is a dynamic, socially organized process that is influenced ontogenetically and evolutionarily by the cultural transmission of mental techniques, values, and modes of thought. Anderson's theory should be broadened to accommodate cultural effects on the functioning of architecturally similar neural systems, and the implications of these differences for reuse.

Philosophical inquiries into the nature of consciousness have long been intrinsically tied to questions regarding the nature of the self. Although philosophers of mind seldom make reference to the role of cultural context in shaping consciousness, since antiquity culture has played a notable role in philosophical conceptions of the self. Western philosophers, from Plato to Locke, have emphasized an individualistic view of the self that is autonomous and consistent across situations, while Eastern philosophers, such as Lao Tzu and Confucius, have (...) argued for a collectivistic view of the self, one that is interconnected to others and embedded within specific social contexts and situations. Here we argue that a comprehensive theory of consciousness needs to account for the role of cultural context and its bidirectional interaction with neural and genetic mechanisms in shaping a variety of conscious phenomena, from visual perception to self- awareness. We review recent evidence of cultural variation in neurobiological mechanisms underlying these phenomena and discuss the implications of these cultural neuroscience findings for the study of consciousness. (shrink)

El presente estudio analiza los recientes discursos sobre las guerras actuales. Hemos podido identificar dos tipos de argumentaciones, una proveniente del ámbito belicista y otro del ámbito humanitarista. El primero de estos discursos defiende explícitamente las intervenciones militares y recurre a nociones como el poder y la hegemonía. El segundo en cambio apela a la defensa de valores universales, la democracia y los derechos humanos. No obstante, aun partiendo de posturas teóricas opuestas (incluso enfrentadas), finalmente confluyen en la normalización y (...) legitimación de los conflictos actuales. Así pues, en ambos casos, quedan legitimadas las guerras desde posiciones teóricas opuestas, y además bajo esas teorizaciones quedan relegadas otras opciones no bélicas. Por ello el propósito del presente texto es realizar un repaso y balance de esas teorizaciones, puesto que, aparte de animar el debate intelectual actual, tienen una importante influencia práctica en la forma de concebir los conflictos internacionales (e incluso los conflictos sociales), en los que se juegan la vida de miles de personas. (shrink)

Freely falling point-like objects converge toward the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum mechanical object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number state, i.e. a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly than a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height above the Earth’s surface. This indicates that, apart from transitions between (...) quantum states, the atom exhibits a kind of quantum mechanical incompressibility during free fall in inhomogeneous, tidal gravitational fields like those of the Earth.A superconducting ring-like system with a persistent current circulating around it behaves like the circular Rydberg atom during free fall. Like the electronic wavefunction of the freely falling atom, the Cooper-pair wavefunction is quantum mechanically incompressible. The ions in the lattice of the superconductor, however, are not incompressible, since they do not possess a globally coherent quantum phase. The resulting difference during free fall in the response of the nonlocalizable Cooper pairs of electrons and the localizable ions to inhomogeneous gravitational fields is predicted to lead to a charge separation effect, which in turn leads to a large Coulomb force that opposes the convergence caused by the tidal gravitational force on the superconducting system.A “Cavendish-like” experiment is proposed for observing the charge separation effect induced by inhomogeneous gravitational fields in a superconducting circuit. The charge separation effect is determined to be limited by a pair-breaking process that occurs when low frequency gravitational perturbations are present. (shrink)

We reconsider the consequences of the observed violations of Bell's inequalities. Two common responses to these violations are (i) the rejection of realism and the retention of locality and (ii) the rejection of locality and the retention of realism. Here we critique response (i). We argue that locality contains an implicit form of realism, since in a worldview that embraces locality, spacetime, with its usual, fixed topology, has properties independent of measurement. Hence we argue that response (i) is incomplete, in (...) that its rejection of realism is only partial. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 6, June 2020, Page 22-24.

We respond to Morgan and Feeley’s critique on our article “Mass Media in Organ Donation: Managing Conflicting Messages and Interests.” We noted that Morgan and Feeley agree with the position that the primary aims of media campaigns are: “to educate the general public about organ donation process” and “help individuals make informed decisions” about organ donation. For those reasons, the educational messages in media campaigns should not be restricted to “information from pilot work or focus groups” but should include evidence-based (...) facts resulting from a comprehensive literature research. We consider the controversial aspects about organ donation to be relevant, if not necessary, educational materials that must be disclosed in media campaigns to comply with the legal and moral requirements of informed consent. With that perspective in mind, we address the validity of Morgan and Feeley’s claim that media campaigns have no need for informing the public about the controversial nature of death determination in organ donation. Scientific evidence has proven that the criteria for death determination are inconsistent with the Uniform Determination of Death Act and therefore potentially harmful to donors. The decision by campaign designers to use the statutory definition of death without disclosing the current controversies surrounding that definition does not contribute to improved informed decision making. We argue that if Morgan and Feeley accept the important role of media campaigns to enhance informed decision making, then critical controversies should be disclosed. In support of that premise, we will outline: (1) the wide-spread scientific challenges to brain death as a concept of death; (2) the influence of the donor registry and team-huddling on the medical care of potential donors; (3) the use of authorization rather than informed consent for donor registration; (4) the contemporary religious controversy; and (5) the effects of training desk clerks as organ requestors at the Department of Motor Vehicles offices. We conclude that organ donation is a medical procedure subject to all the ethical obligations that the medical profession must uphold including that of transparency and truthfulness. (shrink)

Mass media campaigns are widely and successfully used to change health decisions and behaviors for better or for worse in society. In the United States, media campaigns have been launched at local offices of the states’ department of motor vehicles to promote citizens’ willingness to organ donation and donor registration. We analyze interventional studies of multimedia communication campaigns to encourage organ-donor registration at local offices of states’ department of motor vehicles. The media campaigns include the use of multifaceted communication tools (...) and provide training to desk clerks in the use of scripted messages for the purpose of optimizing enrollment in organ-donor registries. Scripted messages are communicated to customers through mass audiovisual entertainment media, print materials and interpersonal interaction at the offices of departments of motor vehicles. These campaigns give rise to three serious concerns: (1) bias in communicating information with scripted messages without verification of the scientific accuracy of information, (2) the provision of misinformation to future donors that may result in them suffering unintended consequences from consenting to medical procedures before death (e.g, organ preservation and suitability for transplantation), and (3) the unmanaged conflict of interests for organizations charged with implementing these campaigns, (i.e, dual advocacy for transplant recipients and donors). We conclude the following: (1) media campaigns about healthcare should communicate accurate information to the general public and disclose factual materials with the least amount of bias; (2) conflicting interests in media campaigns should be managed with full public transparency; (3) media campaigns should disclose the practical implications of procurement as well as acknowledge the medical, legal, and religious controversies of determining death in organ donation; (4) organ-donor registration must satisfy the criteria of informed consent; (5) media campaigns should serve as a means of public education about organ donation and should not be a form of propaganda. (shrink)

RESUMEN:Este trabajo tiene por objeto analizar la articulación entre la afirmación del carácter racional de la fe, esto es, su dimensión latitudinaria, el escepticismo epistemológico, y su derivación práctica en un concepto de tolerancia restringido al interior del protestantismo. Se subrayará, en este sentido, el carácter estratégico de la articulación entre racionalidad de la fe y escepticismo, en cuanto permite apelar a la ignorancia con vistas a la tolerancia, sin por ello dejar de sostener la interpretación protestante del cristianismo, en (...) detrimento de la interpretación católica.PALABRAS CLAVE:LOCKE - LATITUDINARISMO - ESCEPTICISMO - TOLERANCIA - PROTESTANTISMOABSTRACT:This paper aims to analyze the articulation between faith rationality assertion, i.e. its latitudinarian aspect, its epistemological skepticism, and its practical implication in a restricted concept of tolerance within Protestantism. In this regard, we will emphasize the strategic feature of the link between faith rationality and skepticism, as it allows appealing to ignorance towards tolerance, without dropping the Protestant interpretation of Christianity, to the detriment of Catholic interpretation.KEYWORDS:LOCKE - LATITUDINARIANISM - SKEPTICISM - TOLERATION - PROTESTANTISM. (shrink)

This paper proposes an introduction to the Kierkegaardian relation between freedom and truth. In order to do this, mainly paying attention to his Philosophical Fragments, it begins with the Socratic problem of acquiring truth. After this, it focuses on truth as the fruit of God’s free love, whence emerges the topic of freedom. Finally, this theme leads to the Kierkegaardian account of becoming, and specifically to the relation between possibility and reality. Throughout this exposition, the central concept that articulates this (...) itinerary is the “instant”, understanding it as the point of convergence between the eternal and the temporal, stressing the paradox therein. (shrink)

In this paper I deal with Armstrong's last theory of states of affairs and its relation to truthmakers for sentences and the problem of uní versáis. More specifically, I discuss his truthmaker principie, rejecting some of the objections that has been raised against it. However, I also try to show that Armstrong's answer to the problem of the negative existencial sentences in terms of totality states of affairs is mistaken. Finally, I rebut Oliver's slinghot argument against truthmakers and also discuss (...) Armstrong theory of states of affairs as truthmakers. /// Este artículo trata de la última teoría de los estados de cosas de Armstrong, así como de su relación con los hacedores de verdad de los enunciados y con el problema de los universales. En particular, se discute su principio del hacedor de verdad, y se rechazan algunas de las objeciones que se han presentado al mismo. Por otra parte, se intenta mostrar también que la respuesta de Armstrong al problema de los enunciados existenciales negativos en términos de estados de cosas de totalidad es errónea. Finalmente, también se objeta la versión de Oliver del argumento de la honda y se discute la teoría de los hacedores de verdad como los estados de cosas. (shrink)

El humanismo, asociado históricamente a la educación –la paideia griega- merece ser repensado y recuperado para la educación en un momento de cambio tecnológico tan acelerado y tan influyente en la condición humana que ya hay quien habla de “transhumanismo”. Se analiza la riqueza polisémica de la noción de humanismo y el valor de la formación humanística al servicio de la justicia; y finalmente, su valor como aprendizaje del goce mismo de vivir. En suma, su alto valor educativo. Palabras clave: (...) Humanismo, educación, transhumanismo, justicia, goce de vivir. (shrink)

Se pretende indagar sobre la consideración de Comenio y Descartes como dos de los principales impulsores de la modernidad, pedagógica en el caso de Comenio y filosófica en el caso de Descartes. Para ello, en primer lugar, se analizan las bases filosóficas del proyecto pedagógico de Comenio, centradas en la idea de Ciencia Universal. En segundo lugar, se explica por qué este proyecto aparentemente configura la modernidad pedagógica pero no la filosófica. En tercer lugar, se presentan las líneas básicas de (...) lo que podría ser el proyecto pedagógico cartesiano, proyecto en cualquier caso no expuesto por Descartes en ninguna obra específicamente dedicada al tema. Finalmente, se defiende, a partir de la comparación entre Comenio y Descartes, que la modernidad pedagógica se configuró a partir de una didáctica proporcionada por Comenio, pero con un marco programático cartesiano. Ello fue posible, entre otros factores, porque ambos comparten un principio básico de la nueva pedagogía: la democratización de la enseñanza. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el liberalismo político de John Rawls a la luz de la crítica republicana que Quentin Skinner hace, a partir del análisi de los Discursos de Maquiavelo, sobre el concepto de libertad. La idea sostenida por Skinner, que el concepto de libertad empleado por el liberalismo no es suficientemente robusto y que no incluye las obligaciones y responsabilidades necesarias para su propio mantenimiento, resulta inapropiada, al menos en cuanto a la teoría de Rawls. En (...) efecto, la arquitectura conceptual del liberalismo político ya tiene en cuenta esta cuestión, de manera que no hay una divergencia fundamental entre una perspectiva y la otra. En todo caso, más que un desacuerdo en el contenido, la crítica republicana vendría a expresar una cierta insatisfacción con la manera de hacer teoría política, la cual ha tendido en ciertas ocasiones a desvincularse del funcionamiento real de los sistemas políticos y a concentrarse en exceso en hacer teoría ideal. El artículo concluye, con todo, que una y otra perspectiva tienen al final más motivos para trabajar conjuntamente que para darse la espalda. (shrink)

From a careful reading of P. Levis’s three books on Auschwitz, this study draws an outline of the different types of silence that can be detected in the “Lager”, as well as the silence required for us to be attentive to the most unbearable and shocking of all, the Muslims’ and the victims’ silence. Then we analyze the presence and functions of the music performed in such places, highlighting its odious and degrading appearance (the bands for the prisoners parade) and (...) its expressive and solidary face (the folk singers and songs). Keywords: silence, music, dehumanization, humanism, art, freedom. (shrink)

The left ventricular assist device was originally designed to be surgically implanted as a bridge to transplantation for patients with chronic end-stage heart failure. On the basis of the REMATCH trial, the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved permanent implantation of the left ventricular assist device as a destination therapy in Medicare beneficiaries who are not candidates for heart transplantation. The use of the left ventricular assist device as a destination therapy (...) raises certain ethical challenges. Left ventricular assist devices can prolong the survival of average recipients compared with optimal medical management of chronic end-stage heart failure. However, the overall quality of life can be adversely affected in some recipients because of serious infections, neurologic complications, and device malfunction. Left ventricular assist devices alter end-of-life trajectories. The caregivers of recipients may experience significant burden (e.g., poor physical health, depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder) from destination therapy with left ventricular assist devices. There are also social and financial ramifications for recipients and their families. We advocate early utilization of a palliative care approach and outline prerequisite conditions so that consenting for the use of a left ventricular assist device as a destination therapy is a well informed process. These conditions include: (1) direct participation of a multidisciplinary care team, including palliative care specialists, (2) a concise plan of care for anticipated device-related complications, (3) careful surveillance and counseling for caregiver burden, (4) advance-care planning for anticipated end-of-life trajectories and timing of device deactivation, and (5) a plan to address the long-term financial burden on patients, families, and caregivers. Short-term mechanical circulatory devices (e.g. percutaneous cardiopulmonary bypass, percutaneous ventricular assist devices, etc.) can be initiated in emergency situations as a bridge to permanent implantation of ventricular assist devices in chronic end-stage heart failure. In the absence of first-person (patient) consent, presumed consent or surrogate consent should be used cautiously for the initiation of short-term mechanical circulatory devices in emergency situations as a bridge to permanent implantation of left ventricular assist devices. Future clinical studies of destination therapy with left ventricular assist devices should include measures of recipients' quality of end-of-life care and caregivers' burden. (shrink)

In 1968, the Harvard criteria equated irreversible coma and apnea with human death and later, the Uniform Determination of Death Act was enacted permitting organ procurement from heart-beating donors. Since then, clinical studies have defined a spectrum of states of impaired consciousness in human beings: coma, akinetic mutism, minimally conscious state, vegetative state and brain death. In this article, we argue against the validity of the Harvard criteria for equating brain death with human death. Brain death does not disrupt somatic (...) integrative unity and coordinated biological functioning of a living organism. Neurological criteria of human death fail to determine the precise moment of an organism’s death when death is established by circulatory criterion in other states of impaired consciousness for organ procurement with non-heart-beating donation protocols. The criterion of circulatory arrest 75 s to 5 min is too short for irreversible cessation of whole brain functions and respiration controlled by the brain stem. Brain -based criteria for determining death with a beating heart exclude relevant anthropologic, psychosocial, cultural, and religious aspects of death and dying in society. Clinical guidelines for determining brain death are not consistently validated by the presence of irreversible brain stem ischemic injury or necrosis on autopsy; therefore, they do not completely exclude reversible loss of integrated neurological functions in donors. The questionable reliability and varying compliance with these guidelines among institutions amplify the risk of determining reversible states of impaired consciousness as irreversible brain death. The scientific uncertainty of defining and determining states of impaired consciousness including brain death have been neither disclosed to the general public nor broadly debated by the medical community or by legal and religious scholars. Heart-beating or non-heart-beating organ procurement from patients with impaired consciousness is de facto a concealed practice of physician-assisted death, and therefore, violates both criminal law and the central tenet of medicine not to do harm to patients. Society must decide if physician-assisted death is permissible and desirable to resolve the conflict about procuring organs from patients with impaired consciousness within the context of the perceived need to enhance the supply of transplantable organs. (shrink)

Organ donation after cardiac or circulatory death (DCD) has been introduced to increase the supply of transplantable organs. In this paper, we argue that the recovery of viable organs useful for transplantation in DCD is not compatible with the dead donor rule and we explain the consequential ethical and legal ramifications. We also outline serious deficiencies in the current consent process for DCD with respect to disclosure of necessary elements for voluntary informed decision making and respect for the donor's autonomy. (...) We compare two alternative proposals for increasing organ donation consent in society: presumed consent and mandated choice. We conclude that proceeding with the recovery of transplantable organs from decedents requires a paradigm change in the ethics of organ donation. The paradigm change to ensure the legitimacy of DCD practice must include: (1) societal agreement on abandonment of the dead donor rule, (2) legislative revisions reflecting abandonment of the dead donor rule, and (3) requirement of mandated choice to facilitate individual participation in organ donation and to ensure that decisions to participate are made in compliance with the societal values of respect for autonomy and self-determination. (shrink)

Partiendo de una reflexión sobre las limitaciones que enfrenta la democracia en el contexto de la globalización actual, el autor analiza las posibilidades de una nueva relación entre las personas, los colectivos y las instituciones del Estado. Los desafíos que enfrenta la humanidad, a escala mundial, no pueden seguir siendo enfrentados con las formas sociales y políticas propias del marco del Estado-Nación territorial. La democracia continuaría siendo la mejor alternativa a esta crisis epocal, pero aquella que surja de una profunda (...) transformación de la relación entre gobernados y gobernantes, y que de cuenta de las nuevas formas de participación que exigen los diversos actores sociales sin necesidad de retornar al rígido centralismo estatista. (shrink)

Guizot aprendió el oficio de historiador preparando con su esposa,Pauline de Meulan, una edición crítica en francés de _Decline and Fall_ de Gibbon. Las personalidades históricas de Gibbon y Guizot fueron muy distintas. También sus respectivos “estilos de historia”. Pero en las obras de Guizot, en especial en su _Historia de la civilización en Europa_, es reconocible el legado de Gibbon. Así, en la eliminación de la barrera entre historia civil y historia religiosa, en la amplitud temática, en la ambición (...) cronológica y en una idea de Europa concebida como algo más que la suma de sus partes. Asimismo en la adopción de la misma palabra _civilización_ y en el hecho de que la interpretación guizotiana de la historia europea hunda sus raíces en tres factores presentes en Gibbon: lo que sobrevivió de las instituciones romanas, el impacto del cristianismo y el aporte germánico. (shrink)

El sentido común es un concepto controvertido en filosofía y ciencias sociales. Por lo general, se entiende como una intencionalidad compartida, un conjunto de intuiciones y creencias autoevidentes que guían nuestras ideas y conductas. Cuando se tiende a discrepar es al discutir el origen y el alcance de dicha intencionalidad. A partir de una lectura crítica de diferentes planteamientos contemporáneos del sentido común (G. E. Moore, C. Geertz, A. Gramsci, E. Laclau, C. Mouffe, y C. Pérez), en este artículo presento (...) dos concepciones arquetípicas de este conjunto de intuiciones y creencias y dos críticas al respecto con una finalidad de síntesis para la filosofía práctica. El objetivo general es mostrar la relevante correlación entre nuevas tecnologías y sentido común y la necesidad de entender dicha correlación críticamente para la reflexión ética y política. (shrink)