In the year 2002, I came across a manuscript by Jean-Pierre Dupuy that linked the work of Ivan Illich with that of René Girard. I immediately set about translating the text, which was published in Spanish as part of the essay collection The Other Titan: Ivan Illich.1 The original “Detour and Sacrifice” can be found in two books that pay tribute to the authors. The first was compiled by Lee Hoinacki and Carl Mitcham, Illich’s disciples;2 the second is a book (...) edited by Sandor Goodhart, Jorgen Jorgensen, Tom Ryba, and James G. Williams that celebrates Girard’s work.3The genesis of Dupuy’s text actually goes back to 1996 and was inspired by Ivan Illich’s seventieth birthday, which was celebrated with a series of... (shrink)

Background No studies have been conducted in Mexico to ascertain what ethical problems doctors working at hospitals deal with. This article aims to describe the ethical conflicts most commonly identified by Mexican internists and the importance they attribute to each of these conflicts. Methods Voluntary survey to the members of the Internal Medicine Association of Mexico. Results Responses were submitted by 347 internists. Half of those face ethical conflicts almost always or frequently. The most commonplace and relevant conflicts are those (...) resulting from the clinical relationship (communication, confidentiality, informed consent, assessment of mental capacity, decisions involving incapacitated patients, and conflicts with family members), and secondly those problems related with the end of life (palliative care, withholding or withdrawing treatment, and “No CPR orders”). To resolve conflicts they seek support through protocols, Institutional Ethics Committees (IECs), and consultations with colleagues and, occasionally, with bioethics experts. Protocols and IECs are the tools most in demand among them. Conclusions 1) the most frequent and relevant conflicts are those caused by the clinical relationship, above all those due to doctor–patient communication, and secondly those due to problems which arise at the end of life; 2) though nearly all of them have doubts about how to resolve conflicts, the vast majority are satisfied with the way in which they do so; 3) to deal with conflicts, they seek support mainly in protocols, IECs, and consultation with colleagues; and 4) in order to resolve them better, what they most demand are protocols and IECs, but also bioethics consultants. (shrink)

Entre los medios elegidos para el logro de los objetivos transhumanistas (TH) se encuentra el recurso a biotecnologías para incidir en la dotación genética de la descendencia. Ahora bien, el temor a una utilización desmesurada de las biotecnologías no puede significar una negación de los indudables avances para el bien de la vida humana que ellas han traído. Así, desde una perspectiva jurídica, es decisiva la cuestión de determinar los alcances de la libertad procreativa, es decir, cuáles son las opciones (...) legítimas que pueden adoptarse en relación con la transmisión de la vida humana. Esta comunicación se propone analizar este interrogante y enunciar los desafíos jurídicos implicados en esta cuestión. En tal sentido, mientras algunos sostienen una libertad procreativa absoluta y sin límites, otras posturas tienden a anular la libertad procreativa y a obligar a los padres a buscar “el mejor hijo posible” (beneficencia procreativa). Entre esas dos visiones extremas, esta comunicación propone una libertad procreativa respetuosa de la originalidad de la transmisión de la vida y enraizada en una concepción ontológica de la dignidad. Por otra parte, para que esa libertad procreativa realice los bienes propiamente humanos, se enuncian seis tópicos que el derecho debe afrontar para responder a los desafíos del TH en esta dimensión vinculada con la procreación: a) el comienzo de la existencia de la persona; b) la inviolabilidad de la vida humana; c) los límites jurídicos que deben ponerse a las técnicas de procreación artificial y sus finalidades de uso; d) si es admisible o no el uso de gametos de terceros en esas técnicas; e) el problema del diagnóstico preimplantatorio; f) los alcances de la edición genética humana aplicada a la línea germinal y la distinción entre terapia y mejora (enhancement). (shrink)

In the 10 years after the launch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC), there have been very few empirical assessments of the initiative in the academic literature. In this study, drawing from institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we examine motivations of business participants to adopt the GC principles in the Spanish context. Using survey data from Spain – the country reporting the highest volume of business participants in the GC – we find that external institutional (...) forces as well as internal organisational resources shape motivations for adopting GC principles. In particular, we find that early and late adopters are motivated similarly by the perceived opportunity of achieving image gains, while late adopters are motivated more by economic gains than early adopters. We further find that regardless of the extent of internal intangible resources possessed, firms are similarly motivated by economic gains. The results also show that companies with more intangible resources are motivated more by image gains than those with fewer resources. Our findings indicate that contrary to its earlier days, economic gains have emerged as an important motivator for the adopters of the GC principles with image gains still being an important motivator. (shrink)

Dynamic Theodicy (DT) is a broad concept we bring up to designate some modern Philosophical Theology attempts to reconcile the necessary and perfect existence of God with the contingent characteristics of human life. In this paper we analyze such approaches and discuss how they have become incomprehensible because the metaphysical assumptions implicit in these explanations have lost their intrinsic relation to the natural human desire for salvation. In the first part we show Charles Hartshorne's DT-model, arising from the modal logic (...) of perfection, and the modern rational problems of this position in making infinite-necessary Being (God) and finite-contingent being (human) compatible. We note that at the heart of the contradictions in this DT account is a dialectical mode of thinking that makes it difficult to find a correct solution to this dichotomy, and to assume a human desire that could be considered related to lifelong goals. In the second part, supported by the proposal of Hans Urs von Balthasar's DT, we develop the concepts of bodily vulnerability, corporeal intentionality, and natural desire for salvation, which come from an Aristotelian-Thomistic thought. This theory is established in order to build an argument, following Alasdair MacIntyre’s ethical framework, on how to make possible the recovery of a metaphysical and anthropological desire that transcends natural aging and goes beyond death. We conclude that both human dependence and the virtues that arise naturally when human beings decide to seek the good of their transcendent condition, make it possible to recover the natural desire for salvation through divine and human love. (shrink)

Much research into morphogenesis focuses on discovering mechanisms and models able to generate or describe the forms we can observe in nature. These studies all provide insights, even though they do not directly touch upon what is the focus of this article: the understanding of form. To this end a conceptual scheme based on the following ideas is proposed: understanding , emerging , persisting , selection , and the relation concerning complexity versus uncertainty , in particular, the relation between form (...) and function. This article is thus a contribution to both the epistemology and the ontology of nature and, in particular, of the living world. (shrink)

In the 10 years after the launch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC), there have been very few empirical assessments of the initiative in the academic literature. In this study, drawing from institutional theory and the resource‐based view of the firm, we examine motivations of business participants to adopt the GC principles in the Spanish context. Using survey data from Spain – the country reporting the highest volume of business participants in the GC – we find that external institutional (...) forces as well as internal organisational resources shape motivations for adopting GC principles. In particular, we find that early and late adopters are motivated similarly by the perceived opportunity of achieving image gains, while late adopters are motivated more by economic gains than early adopters. We further find that regardless of the extent of internal intangible resources possessed, firms are similarly motivated by economic gains. The results also show that companies with more intangible resources are motivated more by image gains than those with fewer resources. Our findings indicate that contrary to its earlier days, economic gains have emerged as an important motivator for the adopters of the GC principles with image gains still being an important motivator. (shrink)

INDIVIDUALITY has given philosophers considerable trouble. There are conflicting views as to how to understand it and even as to its intelligibility in spite of what appears to be its fundamental character in our experience. For, on the one hand, we seem to experience the world in terms of individuals, but when we try to explain what their individuality is we run into difficulties. Indeed, even a view which at first sight appears quite innocuous, defining individuality formally as a feature (...) which characterizes individuals as individuals, is strongly rejected by many. They argue that individuality cannot be a feature at all in the strict sense of the word, since its being a feature would presuppose that something else could share on it or have it, and that seems to contradict the very notion of individuality. At any rate, this is of no concern to us presently since it is an issue which pertains to the ontological status of individuality rather than its intension. It suffices to point out for the moment that there is ample disagreement concerning the proper understanding of individuality. (shrink)

A nonuniform superconducting loop poses a challenge to statistical mechanics: assuming thermal equilibrium and applying the accepted rules, we obtain that the heat flow does not vanish.

John Ackrill argued that Aristotelian bodies are conceptually promiscuous, since they fail to exemplify the modal relations that are expected to hold between their matter and their form. Although “potentially alive”, organic bodies are bound to be ensouled, on pain of lacking the required potential; but to the extent that they are ensouled, they are already actually alive. It seems odd to claim that a body may lack what it cannot help having. This paper claims that the standard solution falls (...) short of the strong unity living beings display, given that nothing in them can be accidentally alive. An alternative proposal is advanced, based on two distinctions Aristotle draws in his philosophical lexicon: both matter and form have a claim to being called “nature”; formal nature may be found in its subject either in actuality or in potentiality. It is argued that the characterization of organic bodies as “potentially alive” conforms to, a pattern that helps explain the specific way in which bodies share in the organisms’ life. Two possible instances of are finally considered by way of illustration. (shrink)

In spite of his deep insights, Hegel fails to grasp the specific character of the war waged by the French Revolution and the Empire. His theory of limited warfare turns out to be a peculiar Sollen, but it is precisely this gap between rationality and reality what makes his classical model an appealing antithesis to postmodern violence. Keywords.

El presente escrito ensaya la crítica al colonialismo en la filosofía de Enrique Dussel centrándose en tres tópicos relevantes que ayudarán a la explicación y argumentación expuestos: (i) el ego conquiro, sujeto colonial previo al ego cogito cartesiano; (ii) la propuesta del proyecto de pluriverso transmoderno como proyecto de superación de la unilateralidad del mundo colonial, y; (iii) la idea de Segunda Emancipación de América Latina que recuerda que en ella aún hay una deuda pendiente para socavar las relaciones neocoloniales. (...) Este recorrido está precedido por una introducción en la cual se pone un necesario énfasis en la importancia de la experiencia del propio Enrique Dussel en Europa y Medio Oriente durante los años sesenta del siglo pasado, en la cual la recepción de la obra de Leopoldo Zea juega un papel relevante. Finalmente, el escrito termina con un par de reflexiones que se derivan de la argumentación elaborada. (shrink)

The article aims to point out some of the interpretive horizons of Twilight of the Idols, especially the status in relation to philological literary project regarding Will to Power and the philosophical status within the texts of 1888. Among others, the central hypothesis that will guide our interpretation is the 'heuristic of necessity': the question about desires and needs that cause or force an artistic, politic, etc. production and, moreover, a hypothesis that is found through the book. Finally, it is (...) also to point out that how Nietzsche operates with a semantic distance in relation to concepts that were previously elaborated by him, for example, the concept of ‘genius'. These assumptions help to fill a gap into the research-Nietzsche, regarding a text that didn’t receive its real significance in Brazil. (shrink)

El artículo analiza la relación entre religión y política en el Leviatán de Hobbes. Primero, se recuerda la idea de religión en Hobbes y su lugar en su filosofía política; esto es, que sea una teología política. En segundo lugar, se examina la conformación de una república cristiana y su fundamento en las Escrituras. En tercer lugar, se explica por qué la mejor forma de gobierno para Hobbes es el absolutismo de los soberanos en la tierra, similar al de Dios (...) en los Cielos. Para terminar con una crítica a la recepción del cristianismo en Hobbes. (shrink)

Resumen: A la luz de la distinción elaborada por E. Tugendhat entre religión y mística, retomada a su modo por el teólogo J. Ratzinger, se examina la idea hegeliana según la cual la filosofía eleva la forma representativa propia de la religión a concepto. ¿Significa esto que la religión cristiana es..

La fenomenología marioniana ha recibido diversas críticas respecto de su lectura de la _Gegebenheit_ husserliana y heideggeriana. Este artículo se propone dar cuenta de la importancia fenomenológica de la concepción marioniana de la donación.

Green republicanism can be described as a subset of republican political theory that aims at promoting human flourishing by ensuring a non-dominating and ecologically sustainable republic. An essential aspect of green republicanism is the promotion of post-productivism while preserving or expanding republican freedom as non-domination. Post-productivism implies the promotion of personal autonomy rather than the pursuit of permanent economic growth and the promotion of labour as an intrinsically positive human activity, which for green republicans will have three positive aspects: reduced (...) ecological impact, more time available for civic participation, and the extension of democratic decision-making and norms to the sphere of production. An important aspect in the definition of a post-productivist society is the way welfare schemes are designed. In this article, I will thus compare the existing welfare regimes with a participation income and with an unconditional basic income, and analyse how they promote green republican goals. I conclude that the current systems are one of the elements of the productivist society and that would not answer the green republican conditions. A green participation income could have a positive ecological impact and contribute to a shift to post-productivism but would face serious challenges from a republican perspective, namely in terms of the non-arbitrariness of its attribution. Finally, I conclude that depending on how it is defined, an unconditional basic income could contribute to post-productivism while being non-arbitrary thus obeying the green republican conditions. (shrink)

The article presents a review of the role of language in Hobbes’ s philosophy and its relantionship with the nominalism of Occam. The article examines the relation of words with objects and finishes with a criticism of nominalism for its instrumental use of language and its confusion of logic with truth.El artículo presenta una revisión del rol del lenguaje en la filosofía de Hobbes y su relación con el nominalismo de Occam. El artículo examina la relación de las palabras con (...) los objetos y finaliza con una crítica al nominalismo por su uso instrumental del lenguaje y su confusión de la lógica con la verdad. (shrink)

THE AUDIENCE IS THE REAL or imaginary group of persons who are in fact acquainted, could be acquainted, or are meant to be acquainted with a given text. Etymologically, the term "audience" refers to a group of listeners. This meaning of the term goes back to a time when the primary form of acquaintance with the work of an author was through the spoken word. From the invention of the printing press, however, until the time when the use of the (...) radio became widespread, written texts were the primary way of learning about an author's work. Although contemporary media have changed this to a certain extent, in science and the humanities it is still true that the audience for an author's work consists largely of readers. For my present purposes, the distinction between readers and listeners is immaterial and, hence, I often refer to an audience as a group of readers, although what I say about it will apply, mutatis mutandis, to listeners as well. (shrink)

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.