En una primera aproximación a la obra de Leibniz, podemos tener la impresión de enfrentarnos a una metafísica que sostiene tesis, las cuales, aparte de su enorme dificultad para ser comprendidas, también parecen entrar en conflicto entre sí. Uno de esos casos, particularmente destacado, es el tema de la libertad. En efecto, un sistema que reivindica radicalmente el principio de razón suficiente parece no poder explicar de manera satisfactoria los conceptos de espontaneidad, elección y libertad que quiere atribuir a las (...) acciones humanas. Este ensayo busca aclarar esos conceptos que son fundamentales para una correcta comprensión de la noción leibniziana de libertad. En dicha noción se encuentran fuertemente interconectados tanto elementos provenientes de su metafísica, como sus hallazgos en física y dinámica. A pesar de que estas tesis sobre dinámica son fundamentales para comprender las afirmaciones del autor acerca del tema de la libertad, son precisamente ellas las que suelen pasarse por alto, haciendo que la propuesta de Leibniz aparente cierta inconsistencia. Por el contrario, cuando comprendemos las nociones leibnizianas de fuerza, espontanei dad y elección—y cómo ellas operan en el resto de su sistema metafísico—, entendemos por qué nuestro autor, a pesar de ser un racionalista coherente, ve necesario sostener la libertad humana. Con ello, se pretende mostrar que tal noción es totalmente consistente con el resto de su sistema y cómo ella tiene un buen grado de plausibilidad. (shrink)

Vulnerabilidad educativa en el Gran Córdoba. 2001.

Este artículo se propone describir la dinámica demográfica desde 1997 en Argentina y una provincia por cada región para considerar el impacto de la crisis de 2001-2002 y las etapas posteriores hasta 2016. Los marcos conceptuales elegidos son la transición demográfica y la vulnerabilidad sociodemográfica, a partir de los cuales se identifican perfiles demográficos que representan obstáculos para la mejora de las condiciones de vida (Torrado, 1995; Rodríguez Vignoli, 2001; CEPAL, 2002a y 2002b). A partir de proyecciones de la población (...) y registros de estadísticas vitales (nacimientos y defunciones), se calculan indicadores de mortalidad (esperanza de vida al nacimiento, mortalidad infantil y materna) y fecundidad (tasa global y tasa de fecundidad adolescente), para 1997 y cada año calendario del período 2001-2016. La principal contribución a los estudios de población es el cálculo y análisis de indicadores demográficos anuales, ya que el Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos sólo publica indicadores de fecundidad y mortalidad provinciales cada diez años, con cada censo de población.Los resultados muestran una evolución positiva de los indicadores demográficos en el país, desde 1997 y luego de la crisis socioeconómica de 2001-2002, aunque con persistencia de las brechas estructurales entre regiones. La esperanza de vida ha crecido en todas las jurisdicciones hasta 2015, cuando comienza a descender en todo el país. La mortalidad infantil disminuye rápidamente en todo el país, particularmente en las provincias más rezagadas. La mortalidad materna se ha reducido claramente en las poblaciones más rezagadas y se muestra inestable en las más avanzadas.La fecundidad general desciende suavemente; la fecundidad adolescente sólo disminuye en las provincias con mayores tasas.El avance en la transición demográfica en Argentina coexiste con situaciones de vulnerabilidad social en todo el país, especialmente en el noreste. Se advierte la sensibilidad de la mortalidad a las crisis económicas experimentadas desde 2008. (shrink)

Political theorists have recently sought to replace the liberal, contractual theory of the firm with a political view that models the authority relation of employee to firm, and its appropriate regulation, on that of subject to state. This view is liable to serious difficulties, however, given existing discontinuities between corporate and civil authority as to their coerciveness, entry and exit conditions, scope, legal standing, and efficiency constraints. I here inspect these, and argue that, albeit in some cases significant, such discontinuities (...) fail to undermine the firm/state analogy, either because they are not significant enough to do so or because the particular trait on which they hinge is not decisive for how authority, in the state and in the firm, should be regulated to be legitimate. A pro tanto requirement exists, I thus argue, that corporate authority be held to regulatory norms comparable to those legitimate states abide by, including civil liberties, rule-of-law constraints, and accountability to subjects. (shrink)

Taxa and homologues can in our view be construed both as kinds and as individuals. However, the conceptualization of taxa as natural kinds in the sense of homeostatic property cluster kinds has been criticized by some systematists, as it seems that even such kinds cannot evolve due to their being homeostatic. We reply by arguing that the treatment of transformational and taxic homologies, respectively, as dynamic and static aspects of the same homeostatic property cluster kind represents a good perspective for (...) supporting the conceptualization of taxa as kinds. The focus on a phenomenon of homology based on causal processes (e.g., connectivity, activity-function, genetics, inheritance, and modularity) and implying relationship with modification yields a notion of natural kinds conforming to the phylogenetic-evolutionary framework. Nevertheless, homeostatic property cluster kinds in taxonomic and evolutionary practice must be rooted in the primacy of epistemological classification (homology as observational properties) over metaphysical generalization (series of transformation and common ancestry as unobservational processes). The perspective of individuating characters exclusively by historical-transformational independence instead of their developmental, structural, and functional independence fails to yield a sufficient practical interplay between theory and observation. Purely ontological and ostensional perspectives in evolution and phylogeny (e.g., an ideographic character concept and PhyloCode’s ‘individualism’ of clades) may be pragmatically contested in the case of urgent issues in biodiversity research, conservation, and systematics. (shrink)

Agronomic science or technoscience has an important role in contemporary times and is the focus of necessary philosophical investigations. The present study aimed to relate Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics with the Laudanian concept of philosophy of science, also applied to the philosophy of technology within the agronomic context. The central question to be answered is: can Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics apply to the understanding of agronomy? Given this, central references and commentators were selected, dividing the dialogue between the authors and the argumentation (...) into the following points: sciences, technologies, and Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics; agronomic traditions and their Laudanian progress; reaching the final possibility of intersections between Gadamer and Laudan, when reflecting on agronomy, especially on the theme of traditions. (shrink)

Global Mental Health is a field of research and practice that addresses the expansion of universal and equitable mental health care worldwide. This article explores the ways the concept of culture is employed in Global Mental Health literature. Global Mental Health advocates and critics assume an ontological separation between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ to typify mental illness, linking it predominantly to one or the other of these two categories. Advocates of Global Mental Health view mental disorders as a nature–culture hybrid, while (...) critics see them as typically cultural phenomena. The cultural critique of Global Mental Health can be strengthened by a sociological approach to both the role of critique and the uses of the concept of culture within social sciences. As an alternative to the ontologization of culture, we propose a different theoretical approach to the social issues involved in the expansion of international public health care in mental health: Arthur Kleinman's and Didier Fassin’s moral anthropological approaches. (shrink)

We prove that Martin’s Axiom implies the existence of a Cohen-indestructible mad family such that the Mathias forcing associated to its filter adds dominating reals, while \ is consistent with the negation of this statement as witnessed by the Laver model for the consistency of Borel’s conjecture.

Neste artigo, demonstrei a relação entre a Memória, a História Oral e o Patrimônio Imaterial Afro-brasileiro. Apontei para os aspectos teóricos e para a práxis de uma História Oral capaz de oferecer algumas bases para a salvaguarda do Patrimônio Imaterial. Para tanto, propus um diálogo dinâmico com diferentes conceitos de Memória, sobretudo conforme compreendida por Joël Candau e Maurice Halbwachs. Apresentei diferentes conceitos em diálogo com autores especialistas em Patrimônio Imaterial, como: Maria Amélia Jundurian Corá, Chiara Bortolotto e Ulpiano Toledo (...) Bezerra de Menses. Além disso, identifiquei procedimentos construídos por José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy, Suzana Lopes Salgado Ribeiro e Fabíola Holanda no âmbito do Núcleo de Estudos em História Oral – NEHO/USP. Palavras-chave: Memória, História Oral, Patrimônio Imaterial, Teoria. (shrink)

The amount of information that is produced on a daily basis in the financial markets is vast and complex; consequently, the development of systems that simplify decision-making is an essential endeavor. In this article, several intelligent systems are proposed and tested to predict the closing price of the IBEX 35 index using more than ten years of historical data and five distinct architectures for neural networks. A multi-layer perceptron was the first step, followed by a simple recurrent neural network, a (...) gated recurrent unit network and two long-short-term memory (LSTM) networks. The results of the analyses performed on these models have demonstrated a powerful capacity for prediction. Additionally, the findings of this research point to the fact that the application of intelligent systems can simplify the decision-making process in financial markets, which is a substantial advantage. Furthermore, by comparing the predicted outcome errors between the models, the LSTM presents the lowest error with a higher computational time in the training phase. The LSTM was able to accurately forecast the closing price of the day as well as the price for the following one and two days in advance. In conclusion, the empirical results demonstrated that these models could accurately predict financial data for trading purposes and that the application of intelligent systems, such as the LSTM network, represents a promising advancement in financial technology. (shrink)

The search for mechanisms has been a common practice in scientific research. However, since the empiricist critique of causality, and especially during the second third of the twentieth century, other non-mechanistic perspectives—especially deductivism—gained predominance. But the sustained effort of authors such as Michael Scriven, Mario Bunge and especially Wesley Salmon contributed to restoring the respectability of causality and mechanisms in philosophy of science. Some members of the causal family, usually lumped under the name of “new mechanistic philosophy”, emphasize the description (...) of mechanisms, especially causal ones, as a central aspect of explanation and other research practices in several areas of science. This approach offers viable solutions to the various ontological and methodological objections that are opposed to the two traditional approaches. In this work the basic characteristics of three philosophies that highlight the description of mechanisms as a central element to explanation and their suitability for the science of ecology are discussed. (shrink)

Critical studies in higher education often embrace the ideas of the slowness movement to address time pressure. However, this desirable horizon presents some limitations. On the one hand, by emphasizing solutions at the individual level, boosting slowness may promote tactics incapable of producing changes to the underlying structural dynamics of time pressure. On the other hand, approaches based on slowness may also inadvertently foster a form of ethical paternalism within the context of ethical pluralism by prescribing substantive models of practice (...) ultimately based on ‘do this quickly or do it slowly.’ This theoretical research moves away from the temporal paradigm to that of the way of relating. Building upon the ethical concept of resonance, the approach focuses on a formal critique of the current socioeconomic and ethical dynamics of social acceleration, growth, and innovation that can contribute to projecting non-alienated relationships in higher education. (shrink)

Scientific understanding is a fundamental goal of science. However, there is currently no good way to measure the scientific understanding of agents, whether these be humans or Artificial Intelligence systems. Without a clear benchmark, it is challenging to evaluate and compare different levels of scientific understanding. In this paper, we propose a framework to create a benchmark for scientific understanding, utilizing tools from philosophy of science. We adopt a behavioral conception of understanding, according to which genuine understanding should be recognized (...) as an ability to perform certain tasks. We extend this notion of scientific understanding by considering a set of questions that gauge different levels of scientific understanding, covering information retrieval, the capability to arrange information to produce an explanation, and the ability to infer how things would be different under different circumstances. We suggest building a Scientific Understanding Benchmark (SUB), formed by a set of these tests, allowing for the evaluation and comparison of scientific understanding. Benchmarking plays a crucial role in establishing trust, ensuring quality control, and providing a basis for performance evaluation. By aligning machine and human scientific understanding we can improve their utility, ultimately advancing scientific understanding and helping to discover new insights within machines. (shrink)

Al intentar clarificar lo que Spinoza, Schopenhauer y Nietzsche entienden por deseo encontramos que este concepto está asociado en ellos a una particular acepción de la idea de voluntad. En Spinoza y en Schopenhauer se encuentra presente esta identificación. En Nietzsche el deseo se encuentra oculto, disimulado y encerrado en las figuras metafóricas de lo dionisíaco y lo melódico. Desire, Will and Pain in Spinoza, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche In attempting to clarify what Spinoza, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche understand by desire, we (...) find this concept to be associated, for them, to a particular meaning of the idea of will. This identification is present both, in Spinoza and Schopenhauer. In Nietzsche, desire is hidden, disguised and locked up in the metaphorical figures of the Dionysian and the melodic. (shrink)

O segundo cronista e guarda-mor da Torre do Tombo, Gomes Eanes de Zurara, notabilizou-se pela produção de crônicas acerca da conquista e manutenção da praça de Ceuta no século XV. Com a finalidade de explorar as impressões desse cronista, o presente trabalho abordará como Zurara fez um uso edificante de duas de suas fontes: o discurso do conde D. Pedro de Meneses e um reportatio do sermão do fr. João Xira. Mais precisamente, o alvo deste estudo é examinar em que (...) medida Zurara reproduziu as palavras dessas célebres figuras na expectativa de legitimar a incursão militar da Coroa no norte da África. Com ênfase na descrição do referido oficial da Torre do Tombo, o alvo consistirá em analisar a função da prédica de um religioso e de um cavaleiro para a exortação dos portugueses enviados a essa região em um período de fortalecimento das bases políticas e religiosas de Portugal. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo analizaremos la teoría de la sistematicidad propuesta por Paul Hoyningen-Huene desde una perspectiva crítica, anclada en el coherentismo, especialmente en la versión de Mario Bunge. La idea central es presentar algunos límites que posee la propuesta de Hoyningen-Huene para dar cuenta de la dinámica del progreso científico y también observar algunas dificultades en su instrumental analítico para demostrar la pseudocientificidad de algunas disciplinas de conocimiento. Se pretende también señalar algunas ideas complementarias que podrían utilizarse a fin (...) de superar tales límites. (shrink)

Feminist reflections on the sexual division of labour have given rise to a body of knowledge on the ethics of care from different disciplines, including philosophy, in which outstanding contributions to the topic have been formulated. This approach is applicable to the analysis of any phenomenon and particularly that of disasters. As various investigations have highlighted, the consequences on the population throughout all of a disaster’s phases (prevention, emergency, and reconstruction) require an analysis of differentiated vulnerabilities based on gender and (...) other identity categories, such as social class, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual identity, etc. The interrelation between all these variables gives rise to differentiated impacts that cannot be ignored in catastrophic contexts, where survival and sustaining life are at stake, so care becomes a central issue. Research on the topic has also identified that, along with the analysis of social vulnerability, we must consider the capacity for agency, both individual and collective, where care is once again of vital importance. Considering the gender approach and its multiple intersections is thus a fundamental theoretical-practical proposal for the study of disasters from philosophy, as it implies an unavoidable epistemic, ontological, and ethical reflection in the face of risk reduction. (shrink)

The present article investigates some consequences from the rapport ofthe creative and the sedimented language in Maurice Merleau-Ponty's works. It aims at analyzing the different positions adopted by the philosopher on that rapport by considering the image of a boiling liquid as the guide for such analysis. The heuristic power of this image will help, on one side, to comprehend the different standpoints used to interpret the phenomenon of language; on the other side, it will serve as an index to (...) follow the rectification and the radicalization of his philosophy. (shrink)

RESUMOO presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar os meandros da composição e suas intertextualidades na polêmica do samba entre Noel Rosa e Wilson Batista, observando o dialogismo na interação verbal e musical entre os autores e os diversos textos da década de 1930. Ao apurar os ouvidos sobre a "polêmica do samba" observa-se que as composições revelam tensões inexoráveis entre um mundo festivo do "malandro" e os limites da realidade da época. Desse modo, com suporte em estudos que tratam deste (...) tema, busca-se trazer à tona um insight sobre este "duelo" musical que está, certamente, muito mais disseminado na sociedade que restrito a questões puramente estéticas.ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the meanders of composition and their intertextuality in the samba controversy between Noel Rosa and Wilson Batista. We observe dialogism in the verbal and musical interaction between the samba writers and several texts of the 1930s. When ears are in tune with the "samba controversy," one observes that the compositions reveal inexorable tensions between the festive world of the "malandro" and the limits of the reality of the time. Accordingly, based on studies that address this theme, we aim to present an insight into this musical "duel," which is not restricted to purely aesthetics issues, but certainly disseminated in society. (shrink)

Para economistas como Arrow, Hahn y Tobin, por ejemplo, la expresión “mano invisible” es la contribución más importante hecha al pensamiento económico y es explicativa de los procesos económicos. En este artículo se proponen una serie de argumentos a fin de sostener que la expresión “mano invisible” de Adam Smith no es relevante en términos explicativos. En primer lugar, Smith es renuente a aceptar como explicativas expresiones que apelen a agentes invisibles e inteligentes para intentar explicar fenómenos naturales. Para analizar (...) esto, se sugiere una lectura humeana de Smith, así como también una interpretación de la crítica por parte de Smith de Kepler y Descartes. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that some human reproductive genome editing interventions can be therapeutic in nature, and thus that it is false that all such interventions just create healthy individuals. I do this by showing that the conditions established by a therapy definition are met by certain reproductive genome editing interventions. I then defend this position against two objections: (a) reproductive genome editing interventions do not attain one of the two conditions for something to be a therapy, and (b) (...) some reproductive genome editing interventions are therapeutic but in a nonstandard way. In the Conclusion I call for a more nuanced discussion of the nature of reproductive genome editing interventions. (shrink)

El estudio se propone el análisis de la última de las parábolas del evangelio de Mateo, examinando su lenguaje y elementos teológicos fundamentales; así como también su forma y composición en la obra. El trabajo se motiva por la designación que el Papa Francisco dio al texto, comprendiéndolo como recapitulación esencial del camino cristiano fundamental que debe emprender el discípulo que desea vivir las huellas del Maestro.

A recent stream of epistemology gives special relevance to ignorance within the framework of an epistemological theory. Indeed, some want to give a significant role to ignorance in epistemological theorizing. In this paper, we argue that a particular sort of ignorance, which involves recognition of the fact that one is ignorant, is central to the acquisition of knowledge given the epistemic structure of society. It is clear, we hold, that Socrates realized the relevance of what we call ‘Socratic ignorance’ in (...) the acquisition of knowledge and was aware of the division of epistemic and cognitive labor that we find in our society. We shall explain the way we understand this Socratic ignorance, as opposed to what we will call ‘stubborn ignorance’ and the role this ignorance of Socratic overtones and related character traits can play in the acquisition of knowledge from others and with others. (shrink)

Segundo o conceito de tímese parabólica formulado pelo filósofo brasileiro Mário Ferreira dos Santos, quando um ser humano responde com uma intensidade maior que a dos estímulos recebidos, ele compara sua situação atual com aquela que é capaz de alcançar. A comparação com uma perfeição virtual mostra ao homem algo melhor a ser feito e o estimula a buscar a melhoria de algo ou situação, ou mesmo de si mesmo e de outra pessoa. Quanto ao próprio ser humano, a filosofia (...) indica uma perfeição correspondente à natureza humana, que não se restringe ao exercício de papéis sociais ou tarefas específicas, mas ao cumprimento das potencialidades inerentes à dignidade humana. Ao contrário dos bens externos, cuja disponibilidade é limitada e cuja posse é rival, os bens internos são moldados por cada indivíduo de uma forma que beneficia toda a comunidade. As virtudes pessoais cultivadas pelo indivíduo têm uma repercussão social positiva. Temos o tempo parabólico intersubjetivo quando um percebe o potencial de outrem e estimula o outro a se desenvolver. Isto ocorre principalmente em relação a alguém que se ama ou cujo bem se deseja. Neste artigo, quero defender a afirmação de que a tendência à perfeição teleológica é uma qualidade inerente ao ser humano, que é melhor compreendida através da conjugação da corporeidade e da intersubjetividade: a disposição corpórea é naturalmente adequada ao processo de idealização e busca da perfeição humana específica, que necessariamente ocorre através do intercâmbio sincrônico com o aperfeiçoamento do outro. (shrink)

RESUMEN El uso de las intuiciones como evidencia es ubicuo en la epistemología, pero no poco controvertido. Por más de una década y media, algunos epistemólogos experimentales han cuestionado esta apelación a las intuiciones epistémicas. Estos filósofos explotan los métodos de la psicología experimental, en particular métodos de encuestas, para poner a prueba cuán ampliamente compartidas son algunas intuiciones. Dado su compromiso con la relevancia de la investigación empírica a la construcción de teorías filosóficas, estos filósofos califican como naturalistas metodológicos. (...) Pero algunos naturalistas metodológicos que también recomiendan renunciar a esa apelación de la intuición como evidencia no basan su caso en encuestas. En este artículo considero dos desafíos fundamentales a la práctica estándar de apelar a las intuiciones que estos filósofos naturalistas plantean y argumento que un proyecto epistemológico inspirado en el trabajo de Edward Craig le permite, en principio, al epistemólogo que comparte ese naturalismo metodológico lidiar con ellos. De todas formas concluyo que, independientemente del éxito del enfoque Craiguiano, las intuiciones tienen un rol que jugar en el teorizar epistemológico en relación a la adjudicación entre enfoques.ABSTRACT The use of intuitions as evidence is widespread in epistemology, but not uncontroversial. For over a decade and a half, some experimental epistemologists have called into question this appeal to epistemic intuitions. These philosophers bring the methods of experimental psychology, in particular survey methods, to bear on epistemological theorizing. Given their commitment to the relevance of empirical work to philosophical theory construction, they qualify as methodological naturalists. But some methodological naturalists who also recommend giving up appeals to intuition as evidence do not base their case on experimental surveys. In this article I consider two main challenges to the standard practice of appealing to intuitions posed by these naturalist philosophers and argue that a Craig-style epistemological project can allow the methodological naturalist to address them. Anyway I conclude that, regardless of the truth of the Craigian approach, intuitions still have a role to play in epistemological theorizing in the adjudication between approaches. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In contemporary epistemology, there are a number of particular internalism/externalism debates. My concern here is with the internalism/externalism controversy about some specific positive epistemic status required for knowledge which is normally understood in terms of epistemic responsibility. I argue that, given our pervasive epistemic interdependence, such particular debate needs to be reformulated in anti-individualistic terms if it is to be an interesting one.

Knowledge seems to need the admixture of de facto reliability and epistemic responsibility. But philosophers have had a hard time in attempting to combine them in order to achieve a satisfactory account of knowledge. In this paper I attempt to find a solution by capitalizing on the real and ubiquitous human phenomenon that is the social dispersal of epistemic labour through time. More precisely, the central objective of the paper is to deliver a novel and plausible social account of knowledge-relevant (...) responsibility and to consider the merits of the proposed combination of reliability and responsibility with respect to certain cases of unreflective epistemic subjects. O conhecimento parece precisar de uma combinação de confiabilidade de facto e responsabilidade epistêmica. Mas os filósofos têm tido grande dificuldade tentar combiná-las para alcançar uma teoria satisfatória do conhecimento. Este trabalho tenta encontrar uma solução baseada no fenômeno humano real e onipresente que é a dispersão social do trabalho epistêmico através do tempo. Mais precisamente, o objetivo central deste artigo é entregar uma teoria social de responsabilidade epistêmica nova e plausível e considerar os méritos de a combinação de confiabilidade e responsabilidade proposta relativas a certos casos de indivíduos epistemológicos não reflexivos. (shrink)

Algunos autores han sostenido que es posible que en el pasaje de la mano invisible, en La teoría de los sentimientos morales, Smith esté contestando a Rousseau. Esta hipótesis se basa en una fraseología similar que usan tanto Smith como Rousseau en el Discurso sobre el origen de la desigualdad. En esta nota se mostrará que es posible realizar una distinción importante con relación al período histórico que Smith está analizando en el pasaje de la mano invisible de TSM IV: (...) 10 y el que Rousseau está analizando en el Discurso sobre el origen de la desigualdad, a pesar de la fraseología similar con relación a las rudas selvas de la naturaleza. Some authors have contended that it is possible that Smith is answering Rousseau in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This hypothesis is based on a similar phraseology used both by Smith and by Rousseau in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. In this note, a clear distinction will be made. In the aforementioned works, Rousseau and Smith refer to different periods of time, in spite of the similar phraseology used in relation to "the rude forests of nature". (shrink)

In times of climate change and public debt, a concern for intergenerational justice should lead us to have a closer look at theories of intergenerational justice. It should also press us to provide institutional design proposals to change the decision-making world that surrounds us. This book provides an exhaustive overview of the most important institutional proposals as well as a systematic and theoretical discussion of their respective features and advantages. It focuses on institutional proposals aimed at taking the interests of (...) future generations more seriously, and does so from the perspective of applied political philosophy, being explicit about the underlying normative choices and the latest developments in the social sciences. It provides citizens, activists, firms, charities, public authorities, policy-analysts, students, and academics with the body of knowledge necessary to understand what our institutional options are and what they entail if we are concerned about today's excessive short-termism. (shrink)

The environment is a continuous source of matter and energy, which dynamizes the adaptive processes of biological systems, so that these systems emerge, persist or are extinguished as a consequence of their reactions to the environment. This perspective, forged from classical physics, gives way to multiple ecological theories, with evolution being the most prominent one. In all these cases, information would be both dependent and subsequent to matter and energy. Thus, the emergence and dynamics of genetic material or ecological attributes (...) such as abundance, richness or diversity depend mainly on the interaction of these two fundamental states. However, recent approaches from quantum physics and complexity views put forward the notion that information can be independent and prior to matter and energy, which allows us to see ecological processes from another perspective, i.e., as including complex biological systems as capable of showing emergent properties such as cognition. We proposed here a set of postulates and ideas that suggests how the ability to manipulate (internalize, integrate, store and generate) information can be developed by those systems, which would directly and non-randomly influence ecological attributes and their dynamics; i.e., how this property can possibly help replacing the notion of the environment as the ultimate cause of changes. Besides fully detailing the sources of knowledge and our rationale in this sense, we have also discussed how these thoughts and possibilities can be employed in devising better and more comprehensive approaches for biological conservation strategies. (shrink)

IntroductionTranscranial magnetic stimulation is a consolidated procedure for the treatment of depression, with several meta-analyses demonstrating its efficacy. Theta-burst stimulation is a modification of TMS with similar efficacy and shorter session duration. The geriatric population has many comorbidities and a high prevalence of depression, but few clinical trials are conducted specifically for this age group. TBS could be an option in this population, offering the advantages of few side effects and no pharmacological interactions. Therefore, our aim is to investigate the (...) efficacy of TBS in geriatric depression.Clinical trial registration[https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/], identifier [NCT04842929]. (shrink)

El presente artículo estudia las representaciones de mujeres con VIH/sida, en el libro Tiempos del SIDA. Relatos de la vida real, de Myriam Francis. El trabajo inicia con un análisis sobre la exclusión de los sujetos femeninos de la literatura “seropositiva” latinoamericana. Se plantea que las pocas representaciones que existen se enfocan en “mujeres sospechosas”, lo cual se repite, hasta cierto punto, en los textos de Francis seleccionados: “La última puerta”, “La viuda alegre” y “La chica alegre”. Luego, se ofrece (...) una explicación sobre el contexto en el que surgen las historias, un “pabellón-moridero” que se describe más bien como un espacio ameno, el cual, sin embargo, enfatiza la tragicidad que rodea a cada “caso”. Después, se estudian los tres relatos mencionados, en los que se mueven los símbolos primarios del mal (la mancilla, el pecado y la culpabilidad), de manera que una mujer es representada como una “víctima inocente” y otras, como “víctimas culpables” (fundamentalmente por sus “estilos de vida nocivos”). Finalmente, el trabajo concluye que la narrativa de Francis moviliza algunos principios de la “teoría de la degeneración”, para explicar las situaciones experimentadas por los personajes femeninos y ofrecer un mensaje didáctico-moralizante. (shrink)

Considering the challenges posed by populism and religiously motivated political engagement to liberal democracies, the present study sets out to examine, specifically, the role played by Pentecostal actors in the conflictive rearrangement of the democratic game in Brazil and worldwide. The engagement of Pentecostals in Brazil’s 2018 general election represented a milestone in that regard and constitutes, thus, the main focus of the present investigation. Given the novelty and nature of both phenomena in question, viz. Pentecostal political engagement and the (...) crisis of democracy, the analysis is carried out, methodologically, from a descriptive, theoretical vantage point, rather than a normative one. To that purpose, the study builds on Manow’s recent work on the current crisis of democracy so as to shed new light on this issue and engages with scholarly studies of Pentecostal political engagement in Brazil and Nigeria alike, where similar developments may be observed, thereby placing this predicament in a global perspective. The role played by Pentecostals can best be described as ambivalent, as, on the one hand, they contributed largely to democratizing contemporary democracies and, on the other, they played a significant part in undermining the very foundations of liberal democracies. (shrink)

Considering the challenges posed by populism and religiously motivated political engagement to liberal democracies, the present study sets out to examine, specifically, the role played by Pentecostal actors in the conflictive rearrangement of the democratic game in Brazil and worldwide. The engagement of Pentecostals in Brazil’s 2018 general election represented a milestone in that regard and constitutes, thus, the main focus of the present investigation. Given the novelty and nature of both phenomena in question, viz. Pentecostal political engagement and the (...) crisis of democracy, the analysis is carried out, methodologically, from a descriptive, theoretical vantage point, rather than a normative one. To that purpose, the study builds on Manow’s recent work on the current crisis of democracy so as to shed new light on this issue and engages with scholarly studies of Pentecostal political engagement in Brazil and Nigeria alike, where similar developments may be observed, thereby placing this predicament in a global perspective. The role played by Pentecostals can best be described as ambivalent, as, on the one hand, they contributed largely to democratizing contemporary democracies and, on the other, they played a significant part in undermining the very foundations of liberal democracies. (shrink)

Book reviews: HARRIS, Elizabeth J.; HEDGES, Paul; HETTIARACHCHI, Shanthikumar. Twenty-First Century Theologies of Religions : Retrospection and Future Prospects. Leiden: Brill; Boston: Rodopi, 2016. 396 p.. ISBN 978-90-04-3224-62.

This paper presents the foundation upon which the contemporary knowledge of body integrity dysphoria (BID) is built. According to the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11), the main feature of BID is an intense and persistent desire to become physically disabled in a significant way. Three putative aetiologies that are considered to explain the insurgence of the condition are discussed: neurological, psychological and postmodern theories. The concept of bodily representation within the medical context is highlighted, with (...) the concept of dysphoria, which was brought to the fore with the introduction of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), and the ICD-11. Contemporary issues of “justice” are addressed to identify ethically relevant distinctions between BID and sex reassignment surgery. It is argued that there is no ethically relevant difference between the BID actor’s desire for invasive surgical intervention and the wish of gender dysphoric individuals to undergo sex reassignment surgery procedures. Some BID actors self-mutilate, and this presents medical professionals with difficult choices regarding whether or not to intervene in order to satisfy the BID patient’s desire. Both abstention and intervention may lead to severe ethical complications for doctors and patients despite the positive outcomes in terms of quality of life for BID individuals who manage to undergo such procedures. (shrink)

Despite growing interest in workplace democracy, the question whether nonworker stakeholders, like suppliers and local communities, warrant inclusion in the governance of democratic companies, as workers do, has been largely neglected. We inspect this question by leaning on the boundary problem in democratic theory. We first argue that the question of who warrants inclusion in democratic workplaces is best addressed by examining why workplace democracy is warranted in the first place, and offer a twofold normative benchmark—addressing objectionable corporate power and (...) upholding efficiency—to assess the principles of democratic inclusion on offer. Against this benchmark, we next argue that the All-Affected Principle is unfit due to its over- and underinclusive extensional results, and that the All-Subjected Principle, whose variants we examine alongside their extensional results, holds more promise when coupled with independent considerations of justice or a constrained variant of the All-Affected Principle. These combinations need not entirely preclude, but speak against, nonworker stakeholder inclusion. (shrink)

The philosopher Byung-Chul Han affirms that the present age reduces the human being to a performance-machine, and that, because of this reduction, the type of disease that characterizes it this age is neuronal. In the present article, I argue that Han’s analysis is correct but incomplete. Behind this reductionism, which leads to neuropathologies of different types, lies another type of pathology that the philosopher Eric Voegelin calls ‘pneumopathology’—disease of the spirit. The transhumanist view of human enhancement deepens this reduction and (...) shows that the pneumopathology that blights today’s society is in a process of unprecedented chronification. To justify this thesis, I first explain the connection between human enhancement and the achievement imperative denounced by Han; I then analyze the Voegelian category of pneumopathology to show its value for an ontological-historical understanding of human enhancement. (shrink)

It is widely held that there is a distinctive norm of assertion. A plausible idea is that there is an analogous, perhaps weaker, norm for indirect communication via implicatures. I argue against this type of proposal. My claim is that the norm of assertion is a social norm governing public updates to the conversational record. Off the record implicatures are not subject to social norms of this type. I grant that, as happens in general with intentional actions, off the record (...) communicative acts may be subject to normative assessments on different levels (for instance, regarding their moral or prudential appropriateness). However, such assessments do not generate distinctive norms that apply to all cases of implicature. (shrink)

The new mechanistic philosophy seeks to identify and explain the mechanisms of various phenomena, including their overall organization and the interactions between the individualized components. This paper argues that among the phenomena that can be approached within the new mechanistic framework are near-death experiences, which can be included within the vast range of experiences that are grouped under the category of religious experience. Such experiences involve a complex set of cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes. Since studying such experiences is far (...) from methodologically simple, we try to show the feasibility of applying the mechanistic explanation to near-death experiences. While some scholars (such as Egil Asprem and Ann Taves) argue that mechanistic explanation can shed new light on the explanation of religion, we instead emphasize neglected limits of such an explanation, as well as its epistemic-methodological advantages in comparison with alternative explanatory models, especially the models proposed by Michael Marsh, Frederick S. Barrett and Roland R. Griffiths. (shrink)

The present work is developed within the frame of so-called critical neuroscience. The aim of this article is to explain the transition from a kind of neuroscience understood as a strict scientific discipline, possessing a methodology and a specific praxis, to a kind of neuroscience that has been transformed into a meta-narrative with totalizing claims. In particular, we identify and examine eleven catalysts for such a transition: 1) a lack of communication between scientists and journalists; 2) the abuse of information (...) by the sensational press; 3) the acceptance of specific philosophical approaches by a wide range of scientists; 4) the widespread transmission of two conceptual mistakes: a) an identification between methodological and ontological reductionism and b) the mereological fallacy; 5) the influence of post-Cartesian philosophical thinking in the scientific community; 6) an overwhelming scientific hyper-specialization; 7) the illegitimate transfer of authority from humanities to the sciences; 8) an inbuilt human preference for visual data; 9) economic interests; 10) scientific utopianism; and 11) the new self-help movements and their alliance with neuro-enhancement. Finally, our essay seeks to draw attention to the most damaging consequences for both science and human ways of living. (shrink)

Guillermo Lariguet, La urdimbre de la razón. Ensayos de filosofía teórica y práctica contemporáneos, Mar del Plata, Kazak Ediciones, 2017, 258 pp., ISBN 978-2673-5-2.

Os Cadernos do PET Filosofia da Universidade Federal do Piauí tem a imensa satisfação de apresentar o décimo segundo volume, número vinte e quatro, do dossiê temático intitulado Memória, História e Esquecimento, que reúne vários artigos filosóficos de professores, professoras, pesquisadores, pesquisadoras, alunos e alunas do Curso de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia da UFPI.