In this paper, I argue that brain death is death because, despite the appearance of genuine integration, the brain-dead body does not in fact possess the unity that is proper to a human organism. A brain-dead body is not a single entity, but a multitude of organs and tissues functioning in a coordinated manner with the help of artificial life support. In order to support this claim, I first lay out Hoffmann and Rosenkrantz’s ontological account of the requirements for organismal (...) unity and summarize an earlier paper in which I apply this account to the brain death debate. I then further support this ontological argument by developing an analogy between the requirements for the unity of an organism and the requirements for the unity of an orchestra. To do so, I begin by examining the role that a conductor plays in unifying a traditional orchestra, and then go on to show that the human organism functions like a traditional orchestra that relies upon a conductor for its unity. Next, I consider the conditions required to achieve orchestral unity in conductorless orchestras and show that, in contrast to simpler organisms like plants, the postnatal human organism lacks those conditions. I argue, in other words, that although conductorless orchestras do exist, the human organism is not one of them. Like a traditional orchestra without a conductor, the brain-dead body is not a unified whole. (shrink)

In this essay, I outline fundamental anthropological and moral principles related to human sexuality and gender identity and then apply these principles to analyze and evaluate the views of several authors who attempt to carve out a “middle way” between liberal and traditionalist approaches to these issues. In doing so, I engage especially with the claim that gender dysphoria, rather than being a psychological issue, is a type of biological intersex condition in which one’s “brain sex” is out of line (...) with one’s genital and chromosomal sex. I argue that understanding the human person as a unity of body and soul and recognizing human sexuality as ordered toward the human good of marriage understood as inseparably unitive and procreative reveals the flaws in this position and helps to show why hormonal or surgical gender reassignment therapy is not a medically or ethically appropriate response to gender dysphoria. I also offer an alternative characterization of gender dysphoria and suggestions for responding with true compassion to those who suffer from it. (shrink)

In this article, I explore difficult and sensitive questions regarding the nature of transgender identity claims and the appropriate medical treatment for those suffering from gender dysphoria. I first analyze conceptions of transgender identity, highlighting the prominence of the wrong-body narrative and its dualist presuppositions. I then briefly argue that dualism is false because our bodily identity is essential and intrinsic to our overall personal identity and explain why a sound, nondualist anthropology implies that gender identity cannot be entirely divorced (...) from sexual identity. Finally, I make the case that arguments in favor of hormonal and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria rest on this mistaken dualist anthropology, and that these treatments therefore give false hope to those suffering from gender dysphoria, while causing irreversible bodily harm and diverting attention from underlying psychological problems that often need to be addressed. I also briefly discuss how these philosophical claims relate to empirical studies on the outcomes of hormonal and surgical treatments for gender dysphoria and to testimonies of transgender individuals who regret having undergone these treatments. (shrink)

This article explains the problems with Alan Shewmon’s critique of brain death as a valid sign of human death, beginning with a critical examination of his analogy between brain death and severe spinal cord injury. The article then goes on to assess his broader argument against the necessity of the brain for adult human organismal integration, arguing that he fails to translate correctly from biological to metaphysical claims. Finally, on the basis of a deeper metaphysical analysis, I offer a revised (...) rationale for the validity of the neurological criterion of human death. (shrink)

The dominant philosophical view of gamete donation as morally permissible rests on two premises: parental obligations are triggered primarily by playing a causal role in procreation, not by genetic ties, and those obligations are transferable—that is, they are obligations to make adequate provision for the child’s needs, not necessarily to raise the child oneself. Thus while gamete donors are indeed agent causes of the children that their donation helps to bring into existence, most think that donors’ obligations are discharged insofar (...) as they know that competent others intend to care for those children. In this article, I call into question this dominant view by challenging both of its premises. Challenging the first premise, I argue that genetic parenthood is what primarily triggers parental obligations. Challenging the second premise, I claim that those obligations are non-transferable—i.e., that they are obligations not simply to ensure that someone will raise one’s genetic child, but to raise that child oneself . The implication of my argument is that gamete donation is inherently wrong insofar as it involves acquiring non-transferable obligations that one has no intention of fulfilling. (shrink)

As is clear in the 2008 report of the President's Council on Bioethics, the brain death debate is plagued by ambiguity in the use of such key terms as ‘integration’ and ‘wholeness’. Addressing this problem, I offer a plausible ontological account of organismal unity drawing on the work of Hoffman and Rosenkrantz, and then apply that account to the case of brain death, concluding that a brain dead body lacks the unity proper to a human organism, and has therefore undergone (...) a substantial change. I also show how my view can explain hard cases better than one in which biological integration is taken to imply ontological wholeness or unity. (shrink)

This statement summarizes the conclusions of the Symposium on the Definition of Death, held at The Catholic University of America in June 2014. After providing the background and context for contemporary debates about brain death and describing the aims of the symposium, the statement notes points of unanimous and broad agreement among the participants, and highlights areas for further study.

Irene Alexander’s article in last spring’s issue of this journal criticizes the new natural law account of sexual ethics, including Melissa Moschella’s defense of that view in a previous article also in this journal. Alexander claims that the NNL account adopts an empiricist view of nature and that NNL’s rejection of the perverted faculty argument is contrary to the Magisterium. Here Moschella responds to Alexander’s criticisms by clarifying NNL theorists’ understanding of the distinction between speculative and practical reason (...) through an explanation of Aquinas’s account of the four orders, correcting Alexander’s erroneous portrayal of NNL arguments against contraception, and arguing that the NNL account of sexual ethics is not only in line with magisterial teaching, but offers a better philosophical defense of that teaching than the view Alexander proposes. (shrink)

The major difference between “new” and “old” natural law approaches to sexual ethics is that for new natural law theorists the moral evaluation of sex acts is always determined with reference to that basic form of human flourishing which is called marriage; old natural law theorists determine the morality of sex acts also with reference to the natural purpose of the sexual faculties. Ultimately, the old approach relies implicitly on prior value judgments to distinguish biological facts that are axiologically or (...) morally relevant from those that are not. It also appeals to values to ground the wrongness of immoral sex acts. In its pure form, the old natural law approach to sexual ethics lends itself to a misunderstanding of the unitive aspect of marriage. More broadly, an accurate understanding of new natural law does not run afoul of the correct interpretation of “nature” in natural law. (shrink)

Michael Nair-Collins and Franklin Miller are right to emphasise that, in order to deliberate responsibly about ethical and legal questions related to brain death and organ donation, it is crucial to answer the question of whether or not ‘brain death’i does indeed mark the biological death of the organism. Nonetheless, I disagree with the authors’ conclusion that brain death does not indicate the death of the human organism. Death can never be defined in merely biological terms, because any biological conception (...) of death relies on metaphysical presuppositions regarding what it means to be an ‘organism as a whole’, rather than an aggregate of cells and tissues. Death is a change in substance —that is, a change from one type of entity to another — not the cessation of all biological life. Organismal death occurs well before all of the organism’s parts irreversibly cease vital activity and decompose into inorganic matter. Biological life in some form can and usually does continue after organismal death at least for a time, with recent evidence indicating that animal cell networks continue to perform complex functions like stress response, immune response and inflammation response up to several days postmortem.1 With external support, many cells and tissues can continue to perform their functions ex vivo for long periods of time or even indefinitely.2 Henrietta Lax died in 1951, but cells derived from her cancerous cervical cells …. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of authors – such as Kershnar and Kelly, Steinhoff, and Scanlon – have criticized the doctrine of double effect (DDE) as incoherent, lacking an underlying rationale, or leading to counterintuitive conclusions. These critiques, however, rest on a failure to understand the DDE’s broader theoretical context and presuppositions. This paper aims to clarify and advance the debate regarding the DDE by, first, outlining a contemporary version of the broader normative theory (i.e. the Aristotelian-Thomistic natural law tradition) (...) within which the DDE finds its proper context, and explaining the rationale for the DDE within this context; second, clarifying the DDE’s proportionality condition to avoid common misinterpretations; and, third, showing how the DDE, when properly formulated and understood within the appropriate theoretical context, can withstand the recent criticisms that have been raised against it. (shrink)

Does the ability of some brain dead bodies to maintain homeostasis with the help of artificial life support actually imply that those bodies are living human organisms? Or might it be possible that a brain dead body on life support is a mere collection of still-living cells, organs and tissues which can coordinate with one another, but which lack the genuine integration that is the hallmark of a unified human organism as a whole? To foster further study of these difficult (...) and timely questions, a Symposium on the Definition of Death was held at The Catholic University of America in June 2014. The Symposium brought together scholars from a variety of disciplines—law, medicine, biology, philosophy and theology—who all share a commitment to the dead donor rule and to a biological definition of death, but who have differing opinions regarding the validity of neurological criteria for human death. The papers found in this special issue are among the fruits of this Symposium. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Conceiving People: Genetic Knowledge and the Ethics of Sperm and Egg Donation by Daniel GrollMelissa MoschellaGROLL, Daniel. Conceiving People: Genetic Knowledge and the Ethics of Sperm and Egg Donation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 256 pp. Cloth, $74.00In Conceiving People, Daniel Groll argues that, generally speaking, those intending to conceive with the help of donor gametes have a moral obligation to use an open donor rather than (...) an anonymous one. This obligation is grounded on the likelihood that their children will have a significant future interest in acquiring genetic knowledge, defined as "knowledge of who one's genetic progenitors are." Groll labels this view the significant interest view, which he argues for largely on empirical grounds.Before beginning his defense of the significant interest view, Groll dedicates chapter 2 to arguing that parents who conceive with the help of donor gametes should not keep this a secret from their children. His position on this point reflects the current consensus on the subject, but he offers a novel argument for it, based on the claim that keeping "the secret" in itself harms the parent–child relationship by inherently compromising the intimacy proper to that relationship.Chapter 3 presents the significant interest view in greater detail, distinguishing it from two other approaches: (1) the "Profound Prudential Good view," taken from the work of David Velleman, according to which "genetic knowledge is a profound prudential good and people who lack it will have tremendous trouble figuring out who they are," and (2) the view that "people have a right to genetic knowledge." Unlike these competing approaches, Groll's view "does not directly depend on claims about the value of genetic knowledge" but is based primarily on the fact that "many donor-conceived people are subjectively interested in having genetic knowledge," combined with the claim that parents have an obligation to promote their children's well-being by satisfying their worthwhile significant subjective interests. Because Groll's argument depends on the worth and significance of genetic knowledge, it is vulnerable to what he calls the "sideshow objection"—that is, that the significant interest view is just a sideshow, and the worth of genetic knowledge is what actually does the important normative work. At the same time, Groll's view that the interest in genetic knowledge is worthwhile and significant also leaves him open to the "bionormativity objection," according to which the interest in genetic knowledge "is morally problematic in virtue of evincing and entrenching a kind of bionormative prejudice" that sees the biological family as a normative ideal. [End Page 141]Responding to these two objections is the task of chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 argues that genetic knowledge is an objective but "prudentially optional good," meaning that "its value is not fungible, but a life that lacks it is not thereby impoverished." This distinguishes Groll's view from the profound prudential good view, which he characterizes as a form of "genetic chauvinism." Groll argues that genetic knowledge is valuable because it can provide insight into personal identity by answering questions about how I came to be and who I am like, but that the genetic knowledge is not the only or best way to answer these questions (thus explaining why it is optional, and why the significant interest view is not just a sideshow).Chapter 5 addresses the "bionormativity objection," which includes both "heteronormativity" (privileging families headed by a mother and father) and "biogenetic normativity" (privileging genetically related families). Groll ultimately responds to this objection by arguing that, even if (as Groll believes) our current society overemphasizes the importance of genetic relationships, "the interest in genetic knowledge is rationally intelligible quite apart from the bionormative social milieu that surrounds it."Chapters 6 through 8 present the implications of the preceding argument. Chapter 6 argues that the reasons to use an open donor are generally conclusive, because most reasons parents might have to use an anonymous donor do not outweigh the child's significant interest in obtaining genetic knowledge. Chapter 7 considers the responsibilities of gamete donors, arguing that gamete donation is not morally objectionable because it is permissible for donors to transfer prospective parenthood responsibilities... (shrink)

Using cell lines like HEK 293 or their products—like many of the COVID-19 vaccines—involves no cooperation with evil strictly speaking, but it does involve appropriation of the benefits of past evil. Applying M. Cathleen Kaveny’s framework for assessing the permissibility of appropriating the benefits of evil, the duty to avoid using cell lines like HEK 293 or their products is weak and defeasible. Proper interpretation of Dignitas personae requires recognizing the crucial moral differences between the use of these cell lines—which (...) does not perpetuate the injustice of abortion, imply approval of abortion, or involve significant risks of corrupting moral character or provoking scandal—and the direct use of fetal tissue or human embryos in research. (shrink)

As Malinowsky states, myth is closely related to rite, presenting the social and moral values that rite asserts in each cyclical repetition. Rite marks the threshold between the sacred and profane, allowing access to myth as an art form, as a narrative expression both of the sacred – in the extension of meaning Emile Durkheim introduced with the term ‘collective consciousness’ – and of the ‘collective unconscious’ as Jung defined it. If it is true that the rite of passage to (...) the adult world, the initiation rite, is one of the most archaic rites in aiming to protect society against the risk of cultural innovation inherent in the younger generations, then it is legitimate to ask what our new myths are regarding education. When technology accelerates the mechanisms eroding collective memory, which rites renew educational myths in everyday practice? When technology dematerializes the devices on which rite and its inherent techniques of control are based, what new forms does mythological narration assume? What roles do new media play in creating a direct channel between the collective consciousness and individual experience, between the nervous system and our environment, enveloping individuals in the telematic embrace Roy Ascott described in 2003, and which not only explains the concept of the Global Village that Marshall McLuhan introduced in 1966, but also delineates the space – time of students in contemporary learning processes? Reading the contemporary educational system through the lens of myth and rite, where new technologies play a central role, allows us to follow a path that traces the progressive impact of media on cognitive processes from the initial emergence of the concept ‘collective consciousness’ onwards, and that offers one of the most interesting interpretations of the ‘open school’ experience in Derrick de Kerkhove’s concept of ‘connective intelligence’ (analysed in my Ph.D. thesis). But myth also allows us to observe those cracks, breaks and discontinuities that mark the places in which contemporary knowledge is created, which is why we find Nietzsche (who dedicated much of his work to myth), Michel Foucault and Ivan Illich at the centre of International Debate on Education for the last decade due to their critical approach to institutions. (shrink)

This article defends the morality of heterologous embryo transfer (HET) against those who claim that HET is wrong because it makes a woman a mother through someone other than her spouse. I contrast genetic parenthood with gestation to show that gestation alone does not make someone a mother in the focal sense. Genetic parenthood gives rise to the full obligations of parenthood—i.e., makes someone a parent in the focal sense—because the child’s relationship to his genetic parents is (1) permanent, (2) (...) identity-defining, and (3) initially (at conception) the child’s closest human relationship. While the gestational relationship importantly influences the child’s identity, it lacks the unique closeness, permanence, and identity-defining nature that characterize the genetic parent-child relationship, and therefore gives rise only to temporary obligations akin to those of a foster parent. Recognizing these crucial differences between gestation and procreation helps to show that HET is not inherently immoral. (shrink)

This article defends the morality of heterologous embryo transfer against those who claim that HET is wrong because it makes a woman a mother through someone other than her spouse. I contrast genetic parenthood with gestation to show that gestation alone does not make someone a mother in the focal sense. Genetic parenthood gives rise to the full obligations of parenthood—i.e., makes someone a parent in the focal sense—because the child’s relationship to his genetic parents is permanent, identity-defining, and initially (...) the child’s closest human relationship. While the gestational relationship importantly influences the child’s identity, it lacks the unique closeness, permanence, and identity-defining nature that characterize the genetic parent-child relationship, and therefore gives rise only to temporary obligations akin to those of a foster parent. Recognizing these crucial differences between gestation and procreation helps to show that HET is not inherently immoral. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that liberal proponents of mandatory autonomy education tend to overlook or underestimate the potential threats that such an education poses to the overall well-being of children (including, ironically, threats to the development of genuine autonomy). They do so by paying insufficient attention to the importance of moral virtue as a constitutive element of and precondition for genuine autonomy, and by failing to recognize how the development and consolidation of moral virtue may be undermined by the (...) sort of autonomy education they recommend. I develop my argument through engagement with the work of Eamonn Callan and Ian MacMullen, drawing on Aristotelian ethics to highlight the shortcomings in their accounts. (shrink)

Analogue Gravity Phenomenology is a collection of contributions that cover a vast range of areas in physics, ranging from surface wave propagation in fluids to nonlinear optics. The underlying common aspect of all these topics, and hence the main focus and perspective from which they are explained here, is the attempt to develop analogue models for gravitational systems. The original and main motivation of the field is the verification and study of Hawking radiation from a horizon: the enabling feature is (...) the possibility to generate horizons in the laboratory with a wide range of physical systems that involve a flow of one kind or another. The years around 2010 and onwards witnessed a sudden surge of experimental activity in this expanding field of research. However, building an expertise in analogue gravity requires the researcher to be equipped with a rather broad range of knowledge and interests. The aim of this book is to bring the reader up to date with the latest developments and provide the basic background required in order to appreciate the goals, difficulties and success stories in the field of analogue gravity. Each chapter of the book treats a different topic explained in detail by the major experts for each specific discipline. The first chapters give an overview of black hole spacetimes and Hawking radiation before moving on to describe the large variety of analogue spacetimes that have been proposed and are currently under investigation. This introductory part is then followed by an in-depth description of what are currently the three most promising analogue spacetime settings, namely surface waves in flowing fluids, acoustic oscillations in Bose-Einstein condensates and electromagnetic waves in nonlinear optics. Both theory and experimental endeavours are explained in detail. The final chapters refer to other aspects of analogue gravity beyond the study of Hawking radiation, such as Lorentz invariance violations and Brownian motion in curved spacetimes, before concluding with a return to the origins of the field and a description of the available observational evidence for horizons in astrophysical black holes. (shrink)

El lenguaje ha sido desde sus orígenes y en sus variadas formas el instrumento privilegiado para transmitir el conocimiento. Por ello, en los contextos teóricos de la gnoseología y la metafísica, la historia del pensamiento se ha cuestionado incesantemente la relación entre lenguaje, conocimiento y realidad. En el siglo VI d.C., Damascio de Siria, último escolarca de la Academia platónica de Atenas, plantea la paradoja de un principio o fundamento metafísico inaccesible al conocimiento y a la vez un uso (...) del lenguaje que, desde la conciencia de la propia construcción, remite a la instancia inaccesible para elaborar una representación simbólica de lo inefable. El presente trabajo analiza esa paradoja en el tratado De principii (Περὶ ἀρχῶν), donde Damascio niega la identidad entre el conocimiento y su objeto en favor de una trascendencia unitaria que se despliega como Verdad y Bien. Se examina por último la posibilidad de considerar esta última afirmación como un antecedente para la doctrina medieval de los conceptos trascendentales del ser. (shrink)

Phenomena as immigration or refugee flows are usually present in the media agenda in a globalized world. The processes to get the integration between personal and social believes depend on the collective imaginary created through social media in an audience society. Journalistic photography characterized by spectacularization and drama provoke punctual informative increases and structural unfocused informative treatment on the immigration and refugees question. The turning point about the way journalism addresses these questions is conditioned by the phenomena of spectacularization and (...) emotivism. As a example, it can be seen in the information about the Syrian conflict that has caused the biggest refugees crisis in the XXI century. The information about the evolution of the conflict had a daily basis presence in the social media. (shrink)

In a 2019 article and a 2022 article published in this journal, Melissa Moschella argues that new natural law (NNL) sexual ethics is sound and that old natural law sexual ethics fails. In her view, all non-reproductive type sexual acts are morally wrong because they are both contrary to the basic good of marriage and involve degrading the body as a mere instrument for pleasure. She also critiques the perverted faculty argument (PFA) as found within the work of Edward (...) Feser as unsound. Here I argue that a proper understanding of the PFA as found within the writings of Thomas Aquinas easily avoids her objections and that the argument of Thomas has a distinct advantage over the pleasure argument insofar as it can ground the badness of such actions universally. (shrink)

Este trabajo propone una lectura de la Vida admirable y prodigiosas virtudes de la sierva de Dios Doña Ana Guerra de Jesús (Guatemala, 1716) del jesuita Antonio de Siria, texto escrito para sustentar la posible canonización de Ana Guerra de Jesús. Aun cuando la hagiografía sea un género didáctico de propósito religioso y, por ende, sin una intencionalidad “estética”, su estudio permite entender los procesos culturales del momento. El análisis de los dispositivos narrativos y estilísticos, muestra la fina escenificación (...) de la subjetividad desde la visión de una Iglesia católica preocupada en contener el reto de cultura secular moderna. En este relato se ilustra la importancia estratégica del sacramento de la confesión como una tecnología del yo privilegiada para definir y controlar lo que entonces se dio en llamar el “fuero interno”. (shrink)

El éxodo de más de 5.6 millones de venezolanos representa un fenómeno migratorio con múltiples facetas, cada una merecedora de atento análisis y profundización. Ante la dimensión del movimiento de millones de seres humanos, se corre el riesgo de subestimar tragedias que ocurren dentro del drama migratorio. Una de ellas, es el exilio de científicos y académicos. Este libro resume la vision acerca de la inaccion de la sociedad y orden mundial hacia la perdida de talento academico. Es un trabajo (...) continuado de 4 anos que pretende mostrar que esta banalidad no es nueva. A traves de la historia, los ojos inmoviles del mundo han visto repetirse el mismo escenario: Italia, Espana, Siria, Yemen, Afganistan entre otros tantos han sufrido impotentes la desaparicion de sus talentos pensantes en distitnos periodos historicos. Venezuela se ha sumado recientemente a esta lista. En las siguientes paginas intento resumir a la mirada publica la imperiosa necesidad de preservar y proteger el talento academico. Resumidamente, abordo tres ejes temáticos: 1) Causas y consecuencias de la Ciencia en Riesgo, 2) Instrumentalización de la Ciencia en Riesgo y 3) Efectividad de programas dirigidos a científicos en riesgo. El primer eje temático, está fundamentado en analizar las causas y consecuencias de la Diáspora científica venezolana, bajo una reconstrucción histórica del exilio científico de Italia y España, para luego hacer un análisis comparativo. El segundo eje establece, desde el marco filosófico, la conveniente preservación del statu quo de la Ciencia en riesgo, a través de instrumentalización y unidimensionalidad del quehacer científico en países en vías de desarrollo por parte de programas internacionales financiados por organismos privados y gubernamentales. El tercer y último enfoque tiene como punto de partida la situación actual de la diáspora científica y la exposición de soluciones eficaces que rompan la inercia presente, enmarcando las ideas dentro de la actual crisis de la posmodernidad. (shrink)

Salomón de la Selva (1893-1959) was a Nicaraguan writer/activist who authored many books of verse in Spanish, but only one in English: TropicalTown, And Other Poems (1918). Published in New York by John Lane–and regarded by Silvio Sirias as the first book of English verse published in the U.S.by a Latin American–Tropical Town exhibits a curious dynamic of avantgarde impulse: radically subversive in invoking counter-politics resisting U.S. colonial transnationalism, yet tending toward inherited, traditional aesthetic forms of poetry meant to legitimize (...) Selva’s Latin American identity with an impression of authority that contiguous Modernist experimental poetries could not. Through its sympathy for the U.S. immigrant’s nostalgia for homeland, coupled with express disapproval of U.S. international affairs, Tropical Town leaves a poetic record that challenges presuppositions about the integral relationships between ethos, aesthetics, and consciousness vis-à-vis assumed understandings of what constitutes radical poetry in the Modernist moment. (shrink)

La relación entre la teoría y la práctica en el derecho islámico puede ser examinada desde distintos puntos de vista. Por lo que se refiere a la sustancia del derecho islámico, se puede plantear la pregunta de cómo las normas de la šarī‛a son o pueden ser aplicadas. Otra pregunta relativa a los aspectos externos de la šarī‛a es hasta qué punto la situación política, la administración judicial, el sistema educativo y otros factores sociopolíticos permiten la existencia de una jurisdicción (...) conforme a la šarī‛a. Los cadíes que no tienen las cualificaciones necesarias, cuya competencia se ve limitada por los gobernantes o cuyos juicios se ven influidos por los intereses políticos, no pueden ejercer el cadiazgo en el contexto de la šarī‛a. El análisis llevado a cabo en este artículo tiene como objetivo reconstruir el contexto socio-político de los cadíes en Siria durante los siglos VIII/XIV. A partir de los datos de varios diccionarios biográficos que contienen descripciones auténticas y detalladas de más de doscientos cadíes sirios, se demuestra que existían las pre-condiciones esenciales para ejercer el cadiazgo en aquella época y región. Se argumenta que los cadíes, junto con otros ulemas, formaban un cuerpo específico dentro del sistema estatal mameluco que, por una parte, era lo suficientemente fuerte como para resistir intervenciones políticas y, por otro lado, suministraba un alto nivel de formación legal y se beneficiaba al tiempo de él. (shrink)

Nombrar al mal: soberanía, seguridad y guerra ilegal Este artículo defiende la importancia fundamental del "nombrar al mal" como operación constitutiva del discurso político moderno. Para lograr este objetivo, el artículo llama primero la atención sobre cómo los discursos institucionales y públicos globales, y aparentemente consensuados, han definido al Estado Islámico de Irak y Siria como una forma contemporánea del "mal" y cómo la comunidad internacional ha concebido su posicionamiento de cara a esta entidad. Basándose en este análisis y (...) en la historia de las luchas de los primeros tiempos de la modernidad contra los piratas y los "enemigos de la humanidad", el artículo muestra que la modernidad política no ha logrado borrar la práctica "arcaica" de nombrar al mal, sino que se ha apoyado constantemente en ella. Para fundar esta afirmación, el artículo identifica los patrones discursivos y los efectos prácticos de la nominación del mal, y destaca la relación ambivalente entre la nominación del mal y la soberanía y la seguridad como piedras angulares de la modernidad política. El artículo concluye abordando la cuestión de si, y hasta qué punto, el concepto del mal puede ser criticado y descartado, como han argumentado algunos estudiosos. (shrink)

Este artículo estudia una corta narración en árabe muy conocida a través de diversas versions populares documentadas en manuscritos de diferentes orígenes (Siria, Egipto y Norte de África), comenzando en el siglo XVII. La narración describe cómo un peque.o gorrión queda atrapado en la trampa de un cazador y cómo, mediante todo tipo de estratagemas y usando su ingenio, logra escapar de su terrible destino. Si bien esta narración aparece frecuentemente en los círculos tardíos más populares, muchos de sus (...) elementos esenciales, se pueden rastrear en los escritos árabes medievales clásicos de los orígenes islámicos de Oriente y Occidente, en la mayoría de los casos como dos fábulas distintas. La historia de esta narración se mueve así entre la literatura clásica medieval y la popular premoderna. Incluso toca los márgenes de la historia de las Mil y una noches. En un artículo reciente se ha examinado un manuscrito datado en el siglo XVII que presenta toda la narración tal y como se encuentra con el ritmo y metro del dialect egipcio en el mawwāl. El presente estudio, basado en un manuscrito, analiza en cambio la adaptación de la narrative popular a la prosa. (shrink)

AM Hendropriyono 2021, Filsafat Intelijen. Sebuah Esai ke Arah Landasan Berpikir, Strategi, serta Refleksi Kasus-kasus Aktual, Jakarta: PT Hedropriyono Strategic Consulting. Bagi seorang "filosof emeritus" ("filosof afkiran") seperti penulis buku Hendropriyono menarik karena menjadi kelihatan bagaimana seorang 0tokoh yang profesinya jauh dari filsafat dapat memanfaatkan pendekatan filosofis. Yang dimaksud Hendropriyono dengan "filsafat Intelijens" memang bukan filsafat seperti filsafat moral atau filsafat politik atau filsafat manusia. Melainkan filsafat sebagai cara seorang tokoh inteligens Indonesia menjalankan tugasnya, mengumpulkan pengetahuan tentang ancaman-ancaman tersembunyi yang (...) dihadapi suatu negara, dalam kasus ini, Indonesia. Dalam definisi Hendropriyono: "Filsafat intelijen memahami keamanan sebagai suatu kebebasan dari bahaya yang mengancam personal, informasi, komunikasi, pernaskahan fisik dan non-fisik serta lingkungan hidup manusia" h. 103). Hendropriyono memperlihatkan bagaimana ketajaman filosofis dapat membantu melihat realitas dari pelbagai segi, menghindar misalnya dari tiga sikap keliru klasik yang sudah diangkat oleh para filosof Yunani, sofisme, paralogisme dan sikap echolalian (h. 56), sadar akan perangkap logical fallacies seperti argumentasi ad hominem, sikap latah (bandwagon), kesimpulan yang tergesa-gesa (hasty generalization), menganggap A disebabkan B hanya karena terjadi sesudah B (post hoc, bukan propter hoc), dikotomi keliru, circular reasoning dan membiarkan diri dibawa sesat karena mengikuti suatu red herring (h. 133 s.). Pendekatan filosofis akan membuat was-was terhadap "pemikrian konspirasi", informasi top-down dan hoaks. Dalam bukunya Hendropriyono membawa pendekatan filosofis itu pada kejadian-kejadian di dekade-dekade terakhir. Msalnya Arab spring dengan pergolakan-pergolakan luar biasa yang mengikutinya: Mesir dengan semangat demokrasi yang justru membawa Ikhwanul Muslimen ke puncak kekuasaan, hanya untuk kemudian digulingkan oleh Jendral Siwi dengan dukungan Al Azhar dan Gereja Koptik. Kekacauan luar biasa di Siria dan Irak di mana Amerika Serikat mendukung gerakan demokratis dengan harapan bisa menggulingkan diktator Bashar al-Assad, hanya untuk akhirnya malah menjadi pendukung ISIS - yang menyingkirkan gerakan demokratis - karena Assad didukung oleh Rusia dan Iran. Sebelumnya Amerika Serikat juga dengan logika kepentingannya membuat kacau Haiti: Sesudah Amerika mendukung Jean-Bertrand Aristide, presiden pertama Haiti yang dipilih secara demokratis, yang menggantikan diktator "Baby Doc" Duvalier, tetapi karena Aristide dianggap terlalu kiri, Amerika mendukung penggulingannya; sampai sekarang Haiti kacau. Dan ada contoh logical dan political fallacies lain yang dianalisa, misalnya perang proxy di Afganistan. Tentu Hendropriyono juga memakai pendekatan filsafat untuk melihat pekembangan di Indonesia. Amendemen UUD 1946 pasca reformasi, masalah Papua, gejala populisme, keberhasilan deradikalisasi seperti misalnya terwujud dalam Pondok Pesantren Al-Zaitun. Sama dengan alm. Romo Nikolaus Drijarkara Hendropriyono menunjukkan bahwa "Sila Pancasila yang Ke II, Kemanusiaan yang Adil dan Beradab, merupakan landasan bagi implementasi seluruh sila-sila dalam Pancasila" (142). Tentu ada juga beberapa kesalahan. Perang Napoleon tentu berlangsung di abad ke-18 dan permulaan abad ke-19 (h. 29), Hitler berkuasa di Jerman tahun 1933 (h. 38), demonstrasi dua Desember (212) terjadi di tahun 2017, bukan 2016 (56), dan PD II bukannya diadakan untuk menjatuhkan Hitler, melainkan yang memulainya memang Hitler (146). Buku ini sekaligus membuat pembaca paham bagaimana Hendropriyono melihat realitas politik, baik di Indonesia maupuan situasi internasional. Ia bermaksud menunjukkan bagaimana "kacamata" filsafat membantu untuk memahami apa yang terjadi dalam dimensi politik, dimensi utama yang mau dilindungi dari kejahatan oleh aparat inteligence. Suatu buku yang cukup khas. Franz Magnis-Suseno. (shrink)

Durante la expansión del Islam por Oriente Medio, los primeros autores calcedonianos que tuvieron conocimiento de las ideas religiosas que los invasores árabes traían, pusieron de relieve ciertas nociones que ellos entendían como confusas o negativas sobre Cristo. A mediados del siglo VIII, los araboparlantes calcedonianos de Siria-Palestina (que pronto serían denominados «Melquitas» por sus adversarios), comenzaron a citar el Corán con la intención de explotar el potencial probatorio de la lengua para propósitos apologéticos, especialmente en Cristología. Este artículo (...) rastrea ese enfoque en la Cristología y el Corán, que se mantiene de forma continuada en el desarrollo de la teología calcedoniana en lengua árabe, en los trabajos de los más importantes autores de la tradición melquita temprana. Este análisis nos hace pensar que ese «combate» de la comunidad melquita como reacción al desafío religioso del Islam, con el paso del tiempo, hace necesaria una ortodoxia árabe-cristiana reconocible que vendría a ser designada con el término Melquita. (shrink)

Se aborda en este trabajo el estudio de un precioso manuscrito de la Biblioteca Nacional de París, el n.º 2849 de los fondos árabes. Se trata de un manuscrito de origen andalusí que contiene la traducción al árabe de la Materia Medica de Dioscórides, escrito en Siria a principios del siglo XIII, cuyos márgenes están repletos de glosas de naturaleza sinonímica, relativas a los nombres griegos que reciben las plantas descritas por la farmacología griega. Estas glosas son de orígen (...) andalusí, y ofrecen una gran riqueza terminológica que se inscribe en un amplio movimiento árabe, y más concretamente andalusí, de revisión y comentario de la traducción árabe de la Materia Medica. En la primera parte de este estudio se ofrece una presentación general del manuscrito, mostrando su valor para una reedición crítica de la obra, de las glosas que contiene y particularmente de las glosas botánicas andalusíes, insistiendo en su valor sinonímico y su contribución terminológica. En la segunda parte, el autor propone una edición crítica anotada de 44 glosas extraídas de la primera maqala de la obra. (shrink)

Charles Tilly (1929-2008), sociólogo, historiador y politólogo norteamericano, es un autor imprescindible para la comprensión de la contienda política y el conflicto social. Sus investigaciones muestran cómo las bases sociales organizadas en diversas formas de acción colectiva pueden influir y condicionar la marcha de la historia. Sus estudios sobre las revoluciones, la formación y evolución de los Estados y su teoría de la acción colectiva giran en torno a su gran preocupación: la defensa de derechos ciudadanos y la búsqueda de (...) sistemas políticos atentos a las condiciones de vida de los más débiles. Esta obra presenta la mayor recopilación de reflexiones sobre su trabajo publicada hasta la fecha. Cada capítulo analiza sus textos, sus teorías y diseños metodológicos, y algunos añaden investigación de casos. Este libro ayuda a comprender un tiempo marcado por intensas movilizaciones populares, algunas con consecuencias muy relevantes, como las protestas que se extienden en 2011 desde Túnez a Egipto, Yemen, Libia, Siria, etc.,la llamada "primavera árabe" y distintas movilizaciones en el occidente democrático reclamando más atención a las demandas ciudadanas, como el Movimiento 15 de Mayo (15 M) en España replicado en otros países, las protestas en Grecia, Reino Unido, etc. (shrink)

La obra al-D_aji-ra al-saniyya fi- ta�ri-j aldawla al-mari-niyya, que aborda la historia de los Banu- Mari-n, incluye una serie de noticias referentes a otras tierras de la Da-r al-Islam, como Egipto, Siria o al-Andalus. La autoría de la misma no ha sido determinada, por lo que señalaremos las noticias más destacadas sobre este asunto. De la información que ofrece esta obra acerca de al-Andalus, este artículo se centra en el análisis de los fragmentos relativos a los territorios conquistados por (...) Castilla durante el s. XIII, que no había sido aprovechada hasta el momento, y que contribuye a ampliar nuestro conocimiento acerca de este período histórico, muy especialmente por lo que respecta a la suerte que corrieron las poblaciones musulmanas y a la cronología de la conquista. Abordamos las actitudes adoptadas por los dirigentes políticos de al-Andalus y el Magreb, ante el avance de los cristianos, desde la resistencia hasta la conversión, y la importancia que este grupo concedió a las luchas contra los cristianos, que fueron un elemento de legitimación del poder político de los Banu- Mari-n, objetivo destacado del autor de la obra. (shrink)

Este estudio pasa revista a la política oficial del estado bizantino con respecto a la región situada entre Antioquía y el Monte Sinaí, haciendo énfasis en la prudencia adoptada por lo general en la estrategia imperial así como, a partir de finales del siglo X, en la voluntad del gobierno a favor de una coexistencia pacífica con el califato fatimí y el respeto a las relaciones comerciales. La destrucción de la iglesia del Santo Sepulcro por el califa al- H.a-kim en (...) 1009 no alteró este estado de cosas, en el que la piedra angular de la política de contención entre el Cairo y Constantinopla estaba representada por la ciudad de Alepo, y no por Jerusalén. Incluso en esta, los dos poderes estaban inclinados a dejar la iniciativa a los partidos locales, más que en reivindicar el control directo. Las comunicaciones entre los territorios gobernados por musulmanes o bizantinos fueron así por lo general bastante regulares. Durante el parón relativo que experimentaron en la primera mitad del siglo XI, los peregrinajes a tierra santa aumentaron, y puede haber sido esencialmente para impresionar a los peregrinos (tanto los procedentes de Bizancio como, especialmente, aquellos que viajaban desde el Occidente cristiano) por lo que los emperadores invirtieron abundantes recursos en la reconstrucción de la iglesia del Santo Sepulcro entre las décadas de 1030- 1040. La intervención militar a favor de las poblaciones cristianas de Siria meridional y Palestina no estaba en su agenda. Estas conclusiones se obtienen a partir del cotejo de evidencias diversas, que eran ya bien conocidas por separado, pero que raramente habían sido contrastadas en conjunto. El estudio resalta el valor del comercio para los fatimíes y los bizantinos a la vez, la veneración por los Santos Lugares entre los bizantinos y occidentales, así como el deseo del emperador de hacer patente su preocupación por el Santo Sepulcro sin poner en riesgo sus relaciones con los fatimíes. (shrink)