The management of patients suffering from chronic disorders of consciousness inevitably raises important ethical questions about the end of life decisions. Some ethical positions claim respect of human life sacredness and the use of good medical practices require allowing DOC patients to live as long as possible, since no one can arbitrarily end either his/her or others’ life. On the other hand, some currents of thought claim respect of human life dignity, patients’ wishes, and the right of free choice entail (...) allowing the withdrawal of life sustaining therapy. This could happen when patients believe their own life to be not worth living, or if therapy is not very beneficial, excessively burdensome, or even futile. Indeed, the decision to withdraw therapies in a DOC patient should be guided by reliable information about DOC diagnosis and prognosis and on how the patient would wish to be treated in such a condition. Taking into account such issues, it would be possible to make the decision that more adequately fits a DOC patient’s best interest. This review aims to overview the range of ethical issues referring to end-of-life decisions in DOC patients, with regard to the thorny debate on the sacredness and dignity of human life. (shrink)

This article examined the personal profiles of the Heads of Government of countries in South/North America and how they communicated with their audiences on institutional measures to contain COVID-19. Analyses were carried out on data collected from Twitter from November-2019 to November-2020. This study includes: i)quantitative analysis, measuring categories and emphases in the communication of tweets, retweets, likes, and comments on matters relevant to the pandemic; ii)qualitative analysis that allowed evaluating speeches to identify political interference and the effectiveness of communication (...) at critical moments of the pandemic. It was possible to infer that each president has his singularities and understanding about Social Media’s use as a more direct communication tool with his audience. It was also found that successful communication is not directly proportional to the volume of messages on Twitter, but to socio-political aspects and institutional leadership that can make a difference in Social Media in combating COVID-19. (shrink)

El artículo plantea algunas condiciones que permitan superar las dos posiciones en las que parece alternativamente preso el debate actual sobre la inmigración: la visión instrumental, torpemente pragmática, y la "humanitaria", anclada en la conmiseración o la piedad. Para alcanzar la dimensión política es preciso superar un análisis de los flujos migratorios erróneo, el que esta en la base de ambas posiciones. Y si se supera esa visión, se superaran los actuales instrumentos jurídicos de política de inmigración, que no son (...) acordes con el reconocimiento pleno y la garantía de los derechos humanos fundamentales, pero tampoco con el necesario reconocimiento de la condición de sujeto del espacio publico a los inmigrantes que residen establemente, es decir, con las exigencias de una democracia plural e inclusiva, que es el reto, pero también la oportunidad que nos ofrece otro análisis de la inmigración, que recupere la dimensión política profunda de este fenómeno, en el orden interno y en el internacional. (shrink)

El Anuario de Filosofía del Derecho es una muestra significativa de la vitalidadde nuestra disciplina. La revisión del dogmatismo iusnaturalista dominante ydel positivismo jurídico que le dio respuesta ha permitido la incorporación deestudios en el campo del razonamiento jurídico que han contribuido a concebir elDerecho como práctica argumentativa. En este sentido, la interpretación es esencialen el trabajo de todo jurista. Nuestra razón de ser es buscar y ofrecer solucionesútiles a problemas sociales. Ser buen profesional en este ámbito exige dar voza (...) quienes no la tienen y a contribuir en la garantía de los derechos humanos, en elderecho a tener derechos. La reflexión filosófico jurídica entendida en términos derazón práctica se encuentra con nuevos desafíos, de los cuales tres son analizadoscon mayor detenimiento: la amenaza global sobre la vida del planeta, la ampliaciónde las exigencias de justicia a otros seres no humanos, y la superación de unmodelo de gestión migratoria que paradójicamente reduce las vías legales, segurasy ordenadas para la entrada y acogida de personas desplazadas conformeaumentan las causas que fuerzan dicha movilidad humana. (shrink)

El objetivo de este estudio se plantea, en términos de filosofía jurídica. la siguiente cuestión:¿Cómo debería reaccionar nuestro sistema judicial ante la presencia de otros sistemas regulativos obligatorios para grupos sociales distintos de la mayoría? Previamente el artículo erige un concepto viable de pluralismo cultural evitando los reduccionismos subyacentes: el reduccionismo que identifica pluralismo cultural con el impacto de corrientes migratorias en la Unión Europea; el reduccionismo que deriva del mantenimiento de la imposibilidad de existencia de derechos de grupo; el (...) reduccionismo que considera patológica la diversidad; el reduccionismo que equipara el pluralismo cultural con el pluralismo de valores; etc. Se llega así a la conclusión de que, en primer lugar, la cultura es conflicto, de juicio, y en segundo lugar, que la búsqueda de "una identidad cultural propia'' es un proyecto sin pretensiones. La parte final de este análisis explicita el problema en la Unión Europea y enfrenta las relaciones entre pluralismo y relativismo desde el punto de vista de la Teoría de los Derechos Humanos. (shrink)

Este trabajo aborda el fenómeno de involución que se ha producido en los últimos años en el entendimiento de las relaciones entre libertad y seguridad en la tradición democrática. Tras el 11 de septiembre de 2001, la estrategia de guerra contra el terrorismo sustituye la lógica del Estado de Derecho por la del Estado de sitio y difunde el viejo recurso del miedo al otro y el paradójico repliegue en un nosotros cada vez más reducido, incluso en sociedades que hacen (...) bandera del universalismo. Entre el miedo a la amenaza exterior y el miedo al enemigo interno, se acrecienta el rechazo a la inmigración, construida de nuevo como un problema-obstáculo. El autor muestra, además, como la actual crisis económica se ha convertido en un factor añadido que ha multiplicado los discursos acerca de la urgencia de ofrecer respuestas adecuadas frente a la inmigración en las que se opta por una lógica jurídica de la excepcionalidad, de derogación o al menos suspensión de alguno de los principios y reglas del Estado de Derecho cuando se trata de regular el status jurídico de quienes son identificados como amenaza. (shrink)

Following the traces of some references to pre-existing matter in the Septuagint, the article analyses the interpretation of Gen 1, 2a in Philo of Alexandria’s De opificio mundi with a focus on his omission of the ἀκατασκεύαστος character of the earth. Philo’s interpretation is closely linked to his conception of emptiness and to his pioneering defence of a creation ex nihilo. In his cosmology, which is articulated as a dual interpretation of the Genesis and Plato’s Timaeus, the matter plays an (...) essential role. Philo justifies its existence on Aristotelian-Stoic grounds, highlighting the process of gradual refinement whereby matter passes from being a rough ὕλη to being an elaborate type of οὐσία. (shrink)

Thomas Kuhn’s relativistic position is usually expounded in terms of its subjectivist and irrationalist consequences and, accordingly, as a contribution to anti-scientificism. This paper explains his pluralism in semantics and ontology and shows in it a kind of relativism from which those consequences do not follow. It is also argued that, despite that, this version does not converge to empiricism or scientific realism.

La presente ponencia trata de esclarecer de qué hablamos cuando hablamos de dominio. Para ello se escrutará la noción hobbesiana de soberanía y su relación con los fundamentos de la política. Hecho esto, se discutirá la vigencia de la misma en la teoría y la praxis políticas contemporáneas.

Background Italy was the first European country to be involved with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many healthcare professionals were deployed and suddenly faced end-of-life care management and its challenges. Aims To understand the experiences of palliative care professionals deployed in supporting emergency and critical care staff during the COVID-19 first and second pandemic waves. Research design A qualitative descriptive design was adopted, and in-depth interviews were used to investigate and analyse participants’ perceptions and points of view. Participants and (...) research context Twenty-four healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, and spiritual support) from the most affected areas of Italy were recruited via the Italian society of palliative care and researchers’ network. Ethical considerations The University Institutional Board granted ethical approval. Participants gave written informed consent and agreed to be video-recorded. Findings The overarching theme highlighted participants’ experience supporting health professionals to negotiate ethical complexity in end-of-life care. Crucial topics that emerged within themes were: training emergency department professionals on ethical dimensions of palliative and end-of-life care, preserving dying patients’ dignity and developing ethical competence in managing end-of-life care. Conclusions Our study showed palliative care teams’ challenges in supporting health professionals’ ethical awareness in emergencies. However, while they highlighted their concerns in dealing with the emergency staff’s lack of ethical perspectives, they also reported the positive impact of an ethically-informed palliative care approach. Lastly, this study illuminates how palliative care professionals’ clinical and ethical competence might have assisted a cultural change in caring for dying patients during COVID-19 and future emergencies. (shrink)

The legal instruments for migration and asylum policies implemented by the European Union and its member States as part of th_e New European Agenda on Migration_ introduced by the European Commission in May 2015 has turned out to be not only ineffective, but also highly questionable in what concerns their consistency with the protection of Human Rights, the principles of liberal democracy, and even with those of egalitarian liberalism. As the author sees it, the problem derives from the challenges posed (...) by the management of cultural diversity (especially, _deep diversity_). Particularly, the demands made by migrants and asylum seekers cannot be met by using those instruments, which should be improved by means of the contributions made by the _Politics of Recognition and Constitutional Pluralism_. _Received_: 25 July 2016 _Accepted_: 30 November 2016 _Published online_: 11 December 2017. (shrink)

The autho r , after pointing out the reasons w h y the debate in the EU and in Spain continue to ignore w hat he calls the radical l y political meaning of the phenomenon of mig ration, tries to a r gue that the conditions and the consequences of the re c o gnition of immigration are a political question ( e v en the political question). He focuses in pa r ticular on the pro b lem of (...) immi g rants ' access to citizenship, to propose, li k e Rubio or Carens, a g radual g ranting (in time and space) but mere l y temporary -based on sta b le residence- of citizenship to immi g rants that is understood as pa r t of a plural multiple and inclus i v e concept of citizenship. (shrink)

Although wonder has been the subject of much discussion within the philosophy and cognitive science of emotions concerning its perceptual and spiritual aspects, its cognitive aspects are not as clear. The main effort has been to clarify the effects this emotion has on cognition, notably aa broadening of its structures to accommodate a perceptual content marked by beauty, vastness, and complexity of detail. However, emotions can have the same effect on cognition without thereby being cognitive emotions themselves. In an attempt (...) to demarcate the emotion of wonder, we will advance a thesis that aims at specifying its cognitive dimension, namely: wonder is an emotion that is a constitutive part of a metacognitive process by which the agent becomes sensitive to the limits of her conceptual apparatus. What results from this process are precisely the typical sensations which accompany this emotion, such as belonging and reverence. The paper is structured as follows. First, we will bring to the fore the problems inherent in understanding the cognitive emotion of wonder. Second, we will evince a pertinent case of metacognition and show in what way that capacity can be constituted by emotions. Third, we will elucidate the metacognitive character of wonder. Finally, we will offer a case to make clear the explanatory potential of our analysis, namely, the role of wonder in the formation and maintenance of religious belief. (shrink)

É amplo o estudo sobre Leibniz hoje: conhecemo-lo como o filósofo metafísico de tendências religiosas, como opositor de Descartes, como vitalista, matemático etc.; mas a pergunta que orienta nossa pesquisa busca deslindar novos horizontes: é possível encontrar elementos em sua metafísica que nos permitam pensar o cenário social contemporâneo? A partir das ferramentas conceituais criadas pelo filósofo pensamos que a resposta seja positiva.

ResumenEl presente artículo busca describir y analizar, desde un enfoque multimodal (Kress y van Leeuwen, 2001; Kress, 2005, 2009; Jewitt, 2009), las relaciones entre los marcadores del discurso (Martín Zorraquino y Portolés, 1999) y los memes (Knobel y Lankshear, 2005; Varis y Blommaert, 2015), a partir de una selección de memes que fueron compartidos en dos grupos de Whatsapp de estudiantes de dos escuelas secundarias de Buenos Aires. Para ilustrar esta relación, nos detendremos en el marcador ahre, marcador de gran (...) frecuencia de uso en el habla de los estudiantes, con el fin de, en primer lugar, describir las funciones comunicativas que mantiene en los memes, y, en segundo lugar, indagar en qué medida este marcador desempeña solo una función discursiva verbal dentro del meme, o si se configura de manera autónoma como marcador-meme. Esta categoría novedosa y aporte de esta investigación nos permitirá evidenciar cómo un marcador oral puede constituirse en meme y, simultáneamente, cómo un meme puede funcionar como marcador en los intercambios en línea. Por último, discutiremos los resultados en torno al modal ontinuum (Tannen, 1982), y cómo los marcadores conversacionales en géneros digitales se inscriben como un recurso dentro del repertorio lingüístico de los estudiantes. (shrink)

https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v40-lucas.

Esta obra es una reivindicación de la figura de Giner de los Ríos como uno de los más grandes hitos de la historia del pensamiento español al anticipar teorías filosóficas, científicas, políticas, morales, legales que se desarrollarán en el siglo XX, ocupando en todos los casos el hombre y lo humano un puesto central: un hombre, en torno al cual se contextualiza el mundo ético del krausismo, en el que cada uno de nosotros está abocado al bien como deber vital. (...) Concilia la autonomía del ciudadano con valores universales, desarrollando todo un sistema humanista racional, liberal y abierto a lo social. Otro rasgo de su pensamiento es su modernidad: su objetivo es reformar las estructuras del país a través de la educación: el aspecto más conocido de su obra y cuyo punto de partida es su antropología. El resultado será la transformación social (en un país tan necesitado de ella), un cambio de la persona no por la razón técnica sino moral: individuos libres en una sociedad que la garantiza. Con ello busca la creación de un pueblo adulto por medio de la aplicación de su concepto de Humanidad. Y así, en su búsqueda de una nación de hombres justos y virtuosos nos puso en contacto con el pensamiento europeo: introdujo en nuestro país el krausopositivismo y los avances de la nueva ciencia que se desarrolla desde la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, limitados por la moral. La Institución Libre de Enseñanza sería el intento de realizar la transformación del hombre, según unos valores de plena vigencia en el presente. Giner fue, en definitiva, el impulsor del èthos de la civilidad, cuyo núcleo central reside en el imperativo categórico kantiano: hacer el bien por el bien mismo. (shrink)

Between 1940 and 1945, while still a student of theoretical physics and without any contact with the history of science, Thomas S. Kuhn developed a general outline of a theory of the role of belief in science. This theory was well rooted in the philosophical tradition of Emerson Hall, Harvard, and particularly in H. M. Sheffer’s and C. I. Lewis’s logico-philosophical works—Kuhn was, actually, a graduate student of the former in 1945. In this paper I reconstruct the development of that (...) general outline after Kuhn’s first years at Harvard. I examine his works on moral and aesthetic issues—where he displayed an already ‘anti-Whig’ stance concerning historiography—as well as his first ‘Humean’ approach to science and realism, where his earliest concern with belief is evident. Then I scrutinise his graduate work to show how his first account of the role of belief was developed. The main aim of this paper is to show that the history of science illustrated for Kuhn the epistemic role and effects of belief he had already been theorising about since around 1941.Keywords: Intension; Belief; Causality; Thomas Kuhn; Clarence Irving Lewis; Henry Sheffer. (shrink)

This study was aimed at predicting individual differences in text reading fluency. The basic proposal included two factors, i.e., the ability to decode letter strings (measured by discrete pseudo-word reading) and integration of the various sub-components involved in reading (measured by Rapid Automatized Naming, RAN). Subsequently, a third factor was added to the model, i.e., naming of discrete digits. In order to use homogeneous measures, all contributing variables considered the entire processing of the item, including pronunciation time. The model, which (...) was based on commonality analysis, was applied to data from a group of 43 typically developing readers (11- to 13-year-olds) and a group of 25 chronologically matched dyslexic children. In typically developing readers, both orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components contributed significantly to the overall prediction of text reading fluency. The model prediction was higher (from ca. 37% to 52% of the explained variance) when we included the naming of discrete digits variable, which had a suppressive effect on pseudo-word reading. In the dyslexic readers, the variance explained by the two-factor model was high (69%) and did not change when the third factor was added. The lack of a suppression effect was likely due to the prominent individual differences in poor orthographic decoding of the dyslexic children. Analyses on data from both groups of children were replicated by using patches of colours as stimuli (both in the RAN task and in the discrete naming task) obtaining similar results. We conclude that it is possible to predict much of the variance in text-reading fluency using basic processes, such as orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components, even without taking into consideration higher-order linguistic factors such as lexical, semantic and contextual abilities. The approach validity of using proximal vs distal causes to predict reading fluency is discussed. (shrink)