En este artículo se desarrollará un análisis, delimitado al contexto europeo, sobre cómo las expulsiones colectivas representan una vulneración de derechos humanos, cuál es su impacto y cuál su tratamiento jurídico y jurisprudencial. Para ello se analizarán tres aspectos concretos: en primer lugar, el devenir de la “securitización” de las políticas de control migratorio y su externalización. En segundo lugar, se realizará un estudio de las expulsiones en general, como política de control migratorio, para analizar el (...) caso específico de las expulsiones colectivas. Y, en tercer lugar, se analizará la política migratoria concretada a partir de la firma de convenios de readmisión de la UE o los Estados miembros con países de tránsito y origen, haciendo una breve mención al convenio bilateral firmado por España con Marruecos, con especial atención a la puesta en práctica y la regulación normativa de las devoluciones en caliente. (shrink)

El presente artículo presenta dos aproximaciones teóricas para entender, desde la criminología, el control punitivo del Estado sobre los flujos migratorios. Por un lado, bajo la idea que el control penal y el control migratorio son dos funciones esenciales de la soberanía del Estado, investigaciones recientes han mostrado un novedoso ensamblaje entre éstas, resultando en un control penal de la migración conocido como “crimigración”. Por otro, desde la criminología crítica se insiste en que el (...) class='Hi'>control punitivo de la migración no es algo novedoso, sino que representa una dimensión más de la regulación económica desde el Estado, sobretodo en relación al mercado del trabajo, sosteniendo con ello una mirada desde la economía política del castigo.En un contexto donde Chile ha duplicado la cantidad de población extranjera durante la última década, se discuten los resultados de una investigación reciente sobre aplicación de sanciones administrativas entre los años 2011 y 2014, en las cuatro regiones del país que presentan mayor proporción de migrantes. Así, con el objetivo de explorar y describir la cantidad y tipos de sanciones aplicadas por infracciones a la regulación de extranjería, así como su relación con características del infractor y aspectos procesales de la aplicación de sanciones, se analiza una muestra representativa de los actos administrativos que imponen sanciones durante este período en las regiones de Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta y Metropolitana, a través de pruebas chi-cuadrado y análisis de correspondencias múltiples.Se concluye que a pesar de ser aparentemente contradictorias, ambas pueden ser de gran utilidad en los estudios sobre control de la migración, sobretodo en relación al significativo flujo de migración latinoamericana que se observa en el país. (shrink)

Situações históricas produzem marcas físicas e/ou emocionais significativas na vida das pessoas que vivem no Brasil, causando desequilíbrios em toda a sociedade, com problemas sérios de convivência, sobretudo no que tange ao racismo estrutural. Com base nisso, esse estudo parte da seguinte questão geradora: considerando o Brasil um país composto por migrantes de diversas raças/etnias, por que prevalece o racismo? Para tanto possui como objetivo geral analisar a gênese do racismo a partir dos processos migratórios, especificamente, discutir legislações, mitos e (...) costumes para compreensão do processo de racismo à brasileira que coaduna com a intenção de seu combate, analisar as situações históricas de controle de “uns” sobre os “outros” inventariados nos encontros coloniais. Trata-se de uma revisão de literatura dissertativa e configura-se como uma pesquisa exploratória. Constata-se que a gênese do racismo, subjacente às legislações, mitos e costumes pretéritos, continua a se reproduzir. Portanto, é fundamental epistemologias descolonizadoras, educação no sentido da inclusão, pertença nas representações e construções de identidades para pôr fim ao racismo estrutural e à brasileira. (shrink)

La Europa de libertad, seguridad y justicia que pretende garantizarse para la ciudadanía, en principio, no iría dirigida a los millones de personas que residen legalmente en la UE sin ostentar la nacionalidad de ningún Estado miembro, y de ningún modo pensada para quienes se encuentran en situación irregular. A estas personas que forman parte de la población real de los Estados no se les califica de ciudadanos, ni se les otorgan derechos de ciudadanía. Por consiguiente, muestran la situación de (...) servidumbre que existe en el interior de los Estados europeos. Pero no sólo los nacionales de terceros Estados encuentran limitado el ejercicio de los derechos humanos. También la ciudadanía europea, como resultado de los necesarios ajustes institucionales y estructurales que demanda el modelo económico global, está viendo incrementarse los riesgos y la incertidumbres, debido a los cambios en el mercado de trabajo, en el sistema educativo y en el modelo de Estado. Todas estas reestructuraciones están gestando un nuevo orden social. En este nuevo modelo de sociedad, el control y la seguridad parecen haber usurpado el protagonismo hasta ahora detentado por la justicia social. La finalidad de esta investigación ha sido precisamente mostrar el doble impacto que el nuevo modelo económico y la sociedad del conocimiento y la información tienen en la ciudadanía y en quienes están fuera o en los límites de ella. Una comparación que permite sostener que en estos ajustes sólo ganan las mercancías y las instituciones, no las personas. (shrink)

Este artigo reflete sobre a relação entre os recentes processos de mobilidade regional da América Central, os aspectos de conformação das subjetividades que respondem e as ações de controle com as quais são feitas tentativas para impedir os processos migratórios. Ele aborda alguns ângulos da abordagem da autonomia da migração e especifica exemplos específicos nos quais esses relacionamentos estão presentes.

[EN] In this article we argue for a world in which open borders are the rule and not the exception. This argument is based on the general recognition of ius migrandi as a basic right of persons. An open-border immigration policy is preferable—at least from a normative standpoint—to the typical policies designed to control or block borders through the simplistic mode of constructing walls. On the basis of a global conception of distributive justice as suggested by cosmopolitan egalitarians, we (...) claim that open-door policies—or, failing in that, the implementation of a system of economic compensation for poor countries—provide powerful means to respond to the enormous inequalities that exist between countries and represent an appropriate way to order current migratory flows. [ES] En este artículo se arguye a favor de un mundo en donde las fronteras abiertas sean la regla y no la excepción. Para ello, se presentan dos tipos de argumentos. El primero se basa en el reconocimiento general del ius migrandi como un derecho fundamental de las personas. Además de un modo idóneo de ordenar los actuales flujos migratorios, una política migratoria de fronteras abiertas es preferible, al menos desde un punto de vista normativo, a las habituales políticas diseñadas para controlar o bloquear las fronteras mediante la construcción de muros. El segundo se asienta sobre una concepción global de la justicia distributiva desarrollada por los igualitaristas cosmopolitas, se sostiene que una política de puertas abiertas –o, en su defecto, un modelo de compensación económica– constituiría un modo de responder a las enormes desigualdades existentes entre los países. (shrink)

O artigo aborda historicamente a imigração internacional no sentido dos países do Sul aos países do Norte, apresentando indicativos recentes sobre o tema, a partir da perspectiva da atual globalização econômica, na fase da divisão sociotécnica do trabalho marcada pela difusão da tecnologia digital ou Indústria 4.0. São considerados dados da EUROSTAT (2020), e relatórios da International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2020) e da World Migration Report (2019). Os referenciais teóricos remetem ao materialismo histórico-dialético, centrando-se na relação entre expropriação e (...) exploração do trabalho contemporâneo e considerando o trabalho imigrante, em particular com maiores níveis de formação escolar e qualificação especialmente nos países do Norte, como mais um elemento econômico, ideológico e político, no âmbito das políticas públicas dos governos, para o controle do trabalho pelo capital. Ao fim, algumas questões metodologias são retomadas e indicativos políticos que atualmente se configuram são brevemente apresentados. Para a burguesia e governos neoliberais a imigração é uma estratégia política que, quando concernente à trabalhadores/as de baixa formação e qualificação se traduz em um “problema”, mas, se tratando daqueles melhores formados e qualificados, tem sido estimulada. Palavras-chave: Trabalho; Migração; Trabalhadores/as; Educação; Qualificação Profissional; Globalização. Education and professional qualification in the context of south-north migrant work Abstract: The article historically addresses international immigration, presenting recent indications on the topic, from the perspective of the current economic globalization, in the phase of the socio-technical division of labor marked by the diffusion of digital technology or Industry 4.0. Data from EUROSTAT (2020), and reports from the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2020) and from the World Migration Report (2019) are considered. Theoretical references refer to historical dialectic materialism, focusing on the relationship between expropriation and exploitation of contemporary work and considering immigrant work, with higher levels of school education and qualification, especially in Northern countries, as another economic element, ideological and political, within the scope of public policies of governments, for the control of labor by capital. At the end, some methodological issues are taken up and political indications that are currently configured are briefly presented. For the bourgeoisie and neoliberal governments, immigration is a political strategy that, when it comes to low-educated and qualified workers, translates into a “problem”, but, in the case of those better trained and qualified, it has been stimulated. Keyword: Work; Migration; Workers; Education; Professional qualification; Globalization. Educación y Cualificación Profesional en el Contexto del Trabajo Migratorio Sur-Norte Resumen: El artículo aborda históricamente la inmigración internacional de los países del Sur a los países del Norte, presentando indicios recientes sobre el tema, en la perspectiva de la actual globalización económica, en la fase de la división sociotécnica del trabajo marcada por la difusión de la tecnología digital o Industria 4.0. Se consideran datos de EUROSTAT (2020) e informes de la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM, 2020) y el Informe sobre las Migraciones en el Mundo (2019). Las referencias teóricas se refieren al materialismo histórico-dialéctico, centrándose en la relación entre expropiación y explotación del trabajo contemporáneo y considerando el trabajo de inmigrantes, en particular con mayores niveles de educación y calificación, especialmente en los países del Norte, como un elemento económico, ideológico y político más. en el ámbito de las políticas públicas de los gobiernos, para el control del trabajo por parte del capital. Al final, se retoman algunos temas metodológicos y se presentan brevemente los indicadores políticos que están configurados actualmente. Para los gobiernos burgueses y neoliberales, la inmigración es una estrategia política que, cuando se trata de trabajadores con baja formación y calificación, se traduce en un “problema”, pero, cuando se trata de los que están mejor educados y calificados, ha sido estimulada. Palabras llave: Trabajo; Migración; trabajadores; Educación; Calificación profesional; Globalización. Data de registro: 03/04/2022 Data de aceite: 26/10/2022. (shrink)

El debate sobre la relación entre migración y desarrollo ha estado hegemonizado por la visión que los países receptores y organismos internacionales tienen de ella. En la última década se ha consolidado el análisis de la migración internacional desde el enfoque de la seguridad nacional de los países receptores. En estos años ha tomado fuerza las posiciones políticas conservadoras que sustentan la criminalización de la migración indocumentada, y que impulsan diversas políticas de control inmigratorio. Frente a esta mirada, se (...) plantea pasar del enfoque del llamado “management of migration”, a uno de la así llamada “gobernanza de la migración”, que busca incluir los derechos e intereses de los migrantes en el centro del debate. Lo que nos interesa mostrar en este trabajo, es que la perspectiva hegemónica ha llevado a invisibilizar tanto las condiciones económicas y demográficas de los países de destino que sustentan y dan espacio a la inmigración, así como el aporte de estos inmigrantes a la dinámica de la economía y de la reproducción de estas sociedades. Nos interesa mostrar estimaciones sobre el aporte de los inmigrantes latinoamericanos a la dinámica económica y social de los Estados Unidos y España, principales destino de este flujo migratorio. Para ello, nos sustentaremos en el análisis de datos cuantitativos e información proveniente de estadísticas oficiales de ambos países y la elaboración de un modelo de análisis que busca ofrecer una visión comprehensiva del papel de la migración internacional en la reproducción social, demográfica y económica en las sociedades avanzadas. (shrink)

Higginbotham argued that certain linguistic items of English, when used in indirect discourse, necessarily trigger first-personal interpretations. They are: the emphatic reflexive pronoun and the controlled understood subject, represented as PRO. PRO is special, in this respect, due to its imposing obligatory control effects between the main clause and its subordinates ). Folescu & Higginbotham, in addition, argued that in Romanian, a language whose grammar doesn’t assign a prominent role to PRO, de se triggers are correlated with the subjunctive (...) mood of certain verbs. That paper, however, didn’t account for the grammatical diversity of the reports that display immunity to error through misidentification in Romanian: some of these reports are expressed by using de se triggers; others are not. Their IEM, moreover, is not systematically lexically controlled by the verbs, via their theta-roles; it is, rather, determined by the meaning of the verbs in question. Given the data from Romanian, I will argue, the phenomenon of IEM cannot be fully explained starting either from the syntactical or the lexical structure of a language. (shrink)

Self-control is integral to successful human agency. Without it we cannot extend our agency across time and secure central social, moral, and personal goods. But self-control is not a unitary capacity. In the first part of this paper we provide a taxonomy of self-control and trace its connections to agency and the self. In part two, we turn our attention to the external conditions that support successful agency and the exercise of self-control. We argue that what (...) we call moral security is a critical foundation for agency. Parts three and four explore what happens to agency when moral security is lacking, as in the case of those subject to racism, and those living in poverty. The disadvantages suffered by those who are poor, in a racial minority or other oppressed group, or suffering mental illness or addiction, are often attributed to a lack of individual self-control or personal responsibility. In particular, members of these groups are often seen as irresponsibly focused on short-term pleasures over long-term good, a view underwritten by particular psychological theories of self-control. We explore how narratives about racism and poverty undermine moral security, and limit and distort the possibility of synchronic and diachronic self-control. Where moral security is undermined, the connection between self-control and diachronic goods often fails to obtain and agency contracts accordingly. We close with some preliminary reflections on the implications for responsibility. (shrink)

It seems that we can be directly accountable for our reasons-responsive attitudes—e.g., our beliefs, desires, and intentions. Yet, we rarely, if ever, have volitional control over such attitudes, volitional control being the sort of control that we exert over our intentional actions. This presents a trilemma: (Horn 1) deny that we can be directly accountable for our reasons-responsive attitudes, (Horn 2) deny that φ’s being under our control is necessary for our being directly accountable for φ-ing, (...) or (Horn 3) deny that the relevant sort of control is volitional control. This paper argues that we should take Horn 3. (shrink)

I hope to show that, although belief is subject to two quite robust forms of agency, "believing at will" is impossible; one cannot believe in the way one ordinarily acts. Further, the same is true of intention: although intention is subject to two quite robust forms of agency, the features of belief that render believing less than voluntary are present for intention, as well. It turns out, perhaps surprisingly, that you can no more intend at will than believe at will.

Many conceive information and communications technologies (ICT) as providing a free space which bolsters the freedom of individuals. This is because the technologies, and the ways we use them, are thought to be grounded in consent given by individuals. However, it will be argued that individuals, by their own self-regulated consent-based actions when using ICT, are actually alleviating their own individual freedoms. This novel phenomenon, which Deleuze and Guattari have drawn our attention to, is a consequence of the de-territorialization and (...) re-territorialization of desires, shaped by power processes, and practiced within Control Societies. This process is disguised as ‘choices’ made by free and self-aware individuals who give their ‘consent’. (shrink)

It has been argued that the explanation of self-control requires positing special motivational powers. Some think that we need will-power as an irreducible mental faculty; others that we need to think of the active self as a dedicated and depletable pool of psychic energy or – in today more respectable terminology – mental resources; finally, there is the idea that self-control requires postulating a deep division between reason and passion – a deliberative and an emotional motivational system. This (...) essay argues that no such special motivational powers are necessary. Yet, at the same time, self-control does powerfully illustrate the importance of a feature of the mind. What it illustrates, I argue, is the importance of the mental activity of attention in the control of all action. It is by appeal to this mental activity that we can dispense with special motivational powers. If we think of Humeanism as the view that there is fundamentally only one kind of motivational system and that all action is based in that system, then this essay contributes to a defense of Humeanism. On the other hand, the essay also shows that any model of agency in terms of only beliefs and desires, motivational and representational states, or preferences and credences is incomplete. A different conception of Humeanism as the view that every mental state is either motivational, representational, or a combination of them, is false. (shrink)

Philosophical discussion on control has largely centred around control over our actions and beliefs. Yet this overlooks the question of whether we also have control over the reasons for which we act and believe. To date, the overriding assumption appears to be that we do not, and with seemingly good reason. We cannot choose to act for a reason and acting-for-a-reason is not itself something we do. While some have challenged this in the case of reasons for (...) action, these claims seem especially untenable regarding believing for a reason. And extending the scope of control in this way also faces the threat of regress. In the face of this orthodoxy, the present paper argues that we do in fact have control over both believing and acting for a particular reason. It also starts to develop an account of the way in which this would be possible. Given the broad importance of understanding control and agency, this paper bears on a number of topics in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and ethics. (shrink)

In this paper, I take it for granted both that there are two types of blameworthiness—accountability blameworthiness and attributability blameworthiness—and that avoidability is necessary only for the former. My task, then, is to explain why avoidability is necessary for accountability blameworthiness but not for attributability blameworthiness. I argue that what explains this is both the fact that these two types of blameworthiness make different sorts of reactive attitudes fitting and that only one of these two types of attitudes requires having (...) been able to refrain from φ-ing in order for them to be fitting. (shrink)

Akratic actions are often being thought to instantiate a paradigmatic self-control failure. . If we suppose that akrasia is opposed to self-control, the question is how akratic actions could be free and intentional. After all, it would seem that it is only if an action manifests self-control that it can count as free. My plan is to explore the relation between akrasia and self-control. The first section presents what I shall call the standard conception, according to (...) which akrasia and self-control are contraries, and introduces the puzzle that this conception raises. The second section turns to the arguments for and against the possibility of free and intentional akratic actions. The third section questions the claim that akratic actions are necessarily opposed to actions manifesting self-control. (shrink)

Mere capacity views hold that agents who can intervene in an unfolding movement are performing an agentially controlled action, regardless of whether they do intervene. I introduce a simple argument to show that the noncausal explanation offered by mere capacity views fails to explain both control and action. In cases where bodily subsystems, rather than the agent, generate control over a movement, agents can often intervene to override non-agential control. Yet, contrary to what capacity views suggest, in (...) these cases, this capacity to intervene does not amount to agential control or action. I illustrate this with a case study of how passive breathing, a mere behavior, is misclassified by mere capacity views. I end by revisiting the central alternative to mere capacity views: causal control views. Advances in our understanding of how agents exert control over unfolding movements indicate that the nature of control is characterized by ubiquitous, small-scale causal interventions. (shrink)

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a complex disorder characterised by self-starvation, an act of self-destruction. It is often described as a disorder marked by paradoxes and, despite extensive research attention, is still not well understood. Much AN research focuses upon the distorted body image that individuals with AN supposedly experience. However, based upon reports from individuals describing their own experience of AN, I argue that their bodily experience is much more complex than this focus might lead us to believe. Such research (...) often presents an overly cognitive understanding of bodily experience in AN, underplaying the affective, felt experience of individuals with AN, as well as descriptions of empowerment, strength and control reported in the early stages of AN. This paper seeks to enrich our understanding of bodily experience in AN as it progresses throughout the various stages of the disorder. I show how the classical phenomenological distinction between the body-as-subject and the body-as-object, as well as Leder’s conception of the visceral body, can inform our understanding of bodily experience in AN. I suggest that the project of self-starvation is an attempt to overcome the noisy demands of the visceral body, which are experienced as threatening the body-as-subject, through a process of objectifying the body-as-object. By cashing out AN as a project of radical bodily control that, tragically, comes to control the individual, we can capture important aspects of the bodily experience of AN and the temporal progression of the disorder. -/- . (shrink)

This paper discusses the idea that the concept of privacy should be understood in terms of control. Three different attempts to spell out this idea will be critically discussed. The conclusion will be that the Source Control View on privacy is the most promising version of the idea that privacy is to be understood in terms of control.

The last decade has witnessed the mass distribution and adoption of smart home systems and devices powered by artificial intelligence systems ranging from household appliances like fridges and toasters to more background systems such as air and water quality controllers. The pervasiveness of these sociotechnical systems makes analyzing their ethical implications necessary during the design phases of these devices to ensure not only sociotechnical resilience, but to design them for human values in mind and thus preserve meaningful human control (...) over them. This paper engages in a conceptual investigations of how meaningful human control over smart home devices can be attained through design. The value sensitive design (VSD) approach is proposed as a way of attaining this level of control. In the proposed framework, values are identified and defined, stakeholder groups are investigated and brought into the design process and the technical constraints of the technologies in question are considered. The paper concludes with some initial examples that illustrate a more adoptable way forward for both ethicists and engineers of smart home devices. (shrink)

We sometimes fail unwittingly to do things that we ought to do. And we are, from time to time, culpable for these unwitting omissions. We provide an outline of a theory of responsibility for unwitting omissions. We emphasize two distinctive ideas: (i) many unwitting omissions can be understood as failures of appropriate vigilance, and; (ii) the sort of self-control implicated in these failures of appropriate vigilance is valuable. We argue that the norms that govern vigilance and the value of (...) self-control explain culpability for unwitting omissions. (shrink)

Reestablishing feelings of control after experiencing uncertainty has long been considered a fundamental motive for human behavior. We propose that rituals (i.e., socially stipulated, causally opaque practices) provide a means for coping with the aversive feelings associated with randomness due to the perception of a connection between ritual action and a desired outcome. Two experiments were conducted (one in Brazil [n = 40] and another in the United States [n = 94]) to evaluate how the perceived efficacy of rituals (...) is affected by feelings of randomness. In a between-subjects design, the Scramble Sentence Task was used as a priming procedure in three conditions (i.e., randomness, negativity, and neutral) and participants were then asked to rate the efficacy of rituals used for problem-solving purposes. The results demonstrate that priming randomness increased participants' perception of ritual efficacy relative to negativity and neutral conditions. Implications for increasing our understanding of the relationship between perceived control and ritualistic behavior are discussed. (shrink)

The Shape of Agency offers interlinked explanations of the basic building blocks of agency, as well as its exemplary instances. The first part offers accounts of a collection of related phenomena that have long troubled philosophers of action: control over behaviour, non-deviant causation, and intentional action. These accounts build on earlier work in the causalist tradition, and undermine the claims made by many that causalism cannot offer a satisfying account of non-deviant causation, and therefore fails as an account of (...) intentional action. The second part turns to modes of agentive excellence—ways that agents display quality of form—providing a novel account of skill, including an account of the ways that agents display more or less skill. Shepherd discusses the role of knowledge in skill, and concludes that while knowledge is often important, it is inessential. This leads to a discussion of the way that knowledge of action and knowledge of how to act informs action execution. Knowledgeable action includes a unique epistemic underpinning: in knowledgeable action, the agent has authoritative knowledge of what she is doing and how she is doing it when and because she is poised to control her action by way of practical reasoning. (shrink)

The primary purpose of this chapter is to show that data generated in well‐known experiments by physiologist Benjamin Libet can be used to support the idea that an independently plausible thesis about the connection between motivational strength and intentional action leaves ample room for self‐control. Aspects of Libet's interpretation of his data are criticized, but Libet's work does give us a sense of how much time might elapse between the acquisition of a desire to do something straightaway and the (...) beginning of an overt action motivated by that desire. More important, it gives us a sense of possibilities for practically relevant motivational change during that span and adds to the extant case for the view that a plausible principle of the kind at issue does not place agents at the mercy of their strongest desires. (shrink)

The standard story about self-control states that self-control is limited, aversive, and that the function of self-control is to resist impulses or temptation. Several cases are provided that challenge this standard story. An alternative, future-oriented account of self-control is defended, where the function of self-control is to manage interference that arises from overlapping information processing pathways. This provides a computationally tractable account of self-control rooted in one’s being vigilant. Self-control manifests the maintenance dimension (...) of vigilance. This not only provides an attractive alternative to the standard story about self-control, but also indicates how the future-oriented aspects of self-control are more fundamental than the present-oriented aspects. (shrink)

Autophagy, an essential cellular process for maintaining cellular homeostasis and eliminating harmful cytoplasmic objects, involves the de novo formation of double‐membraned autophagosomes that engulf and degrade cellular debris, protein aggregates, damaged organelles, and pathogens. Central to this process is the phagophore, which forms from donor membranes rich in lipids synthesized at various cellular sites, including the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which has emerged as a primary source. The ER‐associated omegasomes, characterized by their distinctive omega‐shaped structure and accumulation of phosphatidylinositol 3‐phosphate (PI3P), (...) play a pivotal role in autophagosome formation. Omegasomes are thought to serve as platforms for phagophore assembly by recruiting essential proteins such as DFCP1/ZFYVE1 and facilitating lipid transfer to expand the phagophore. Despite the critical importance of phagophore biogenesis, many aspects remain poorly understood, particularly the complete range of proteins involved in omegasome dynamics, and the detailed mechanisms of lipid transfer and membrane contact site formation. (shrink)

Self-control, so important in the theory and practice of psychology, has usually been understood introspectively. This target article adopts a behavioral view of the self (as an abstract class of behavioral actions) and of self-control (as an abstract behavioral pattern dominating a particular act) according to which the development of self-control is a molar/molecular conflict in the development of behavioral patterns. This subsumes the more typical view of self-control as a now/later conflict in which an act (...) of self-control is a choice of a larger but later reinforcer over a smaller but sooner reinforcer. If at some future time the smaller-sooner reinforcer will be more valuable than the larger-later reinforcer, self-control may be achieved through a commitment to the largerlater reinforcer prior to that point. According to some, there is a progressive internalization of commitment in the development of self-control. This presents theoretical and empirical problems. In two experiments temporal patterning of choices increased self-control. (shrink)

This paper concerns a controversy between two compelling and popular claims in the theory of ability. One is the claim that ability requires control. The other is the claim that success entails ability, that is, that φ-ing entails that you are able to φ. Since actually φ-ing obviously does not entail that φ is in your control, these two claims cannot both be true. I introduce a new form of evidence to help adjudicate this controversy: judgments about the (...) possibility and probability of ability ascriptions. I argue that these judgments provide evidence in favor of the thesis that success entails ability, and against the thesis that ability requires control. Moreover, I argue that these judgments support an analysis of ability in terms of conditionals. (shrink)

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Some of the things we do intentionally we do halfheartedly. I develop and defend an account of halfheartedness with respect to action on which one is halfhearted with respect to an action A if one’s overall motivation to A is weak. This requires getting clear on what it is to have some level of overall motivation with respect to an action, and on what it means to say one’s overall motivation is weak or strong. After developing this account, I defend (...) the claim that one key functional expression of halfhearted action is the possession of impaired control over the action in question. Finally, I elucidate a puzzle that sometimes arises with respect to halfhearted action. The puzzle arises when an agent’s commitment in acting conflicts with an agent’s acceptance of poor performance. (shrink)

Plausibly, agents act freely iff their actions are responses to reasons. But what sort of relationship between reason and action is required for the action to count as a response? The overwhelmingly dominant answer to this question is modalist. It holds that responses are actions that share a modally robust or secure relationship with the relevant reasons. This thesis offers a new alternative answer. It argues that responses are actions that can be explained by reasons in the right way. This (...) explanationist answer comes apart from the modalist answer. For it holds that actions are responses to reasons if they are explained by those reasons even if they don’t share a modally robust relationship. Explanationism thus offers a novel way of vindicating the intuition that alternative possibilities don’t matter to responding to reasons and (consequently) free agency. The key dialectical position the thesis develops is that both modalism and explanationism constitute attempts to capture he core type of relationship encoded by the notion of a response. Responses to reasons, at core, involve a non-accidental relationship between reason and action. We can either understand non-accidentality as a modal phenomenon – as a modally robust tracking between two facts. Or we can understand non-accidentality as an explanatory phenomenon – as a special explanatory relationship between two facts. According to my rival explanationist proposal, two facts share a non-accidental relationship iff we can give a unified explanation of why both obtain. Unified explanations are explanations of why [p&q] that cannot be decomposed into two (or more) separate independent explanations of p and of q. Consequently, according to explanationism about responding to reasons, actions are responses to reasons iff those reasons offer a rational explanation of the action that cannot be decomposed into separate independent components. (shrink)

What is self-control and how does the concept of self-control relate to the notion of will-power? A widespread philosophical opinion has been that the notion of will-power does not add anything beyond what can be said using other motivational notions, such as strength of desire and intention. One exception is Richard Holton who, inspired by recent research in social psychology, has argued that will-power is a separate faculty needed for persisting in one's resolutions, what he calls 'strength of (...) will'. However, he distinguishes strength of will from self-control. In this paper I argue that will-power is essential also to a certain form of self-control. I support this claim by arguments showing that the traditional philosophical accounts of self-control run into difficulties because they pay insufficient attention to will-power as an independent source of motivation. (shrink)

The vital status of patients who are a part of controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) is widely debated in bioethical literature. Opponents to currently applied cDCD protocols argue that they violate the dead donor rule, while proponents of the protocols advocate compatibility. In this article, we argue that both parties often misinterpret the moral implications of the dead donor rule. The rule as such does not require an assessment of a donor’s vital status, we contend, but rather an assessment (...) of whether procurement of organs in cDCD cause the death of the donor or not. We then argue that commonly practiced cDCD protocols do not violate the dead donor rule, since the donation does not trigger or cause the death of the donors. (shrink)

The extensive involvement of nonconscious processes in human behaviour has led some to suggest that consciousness is much less important for the control of action than we might think. In this article I push against this trend, developing an understanding of conscious control that is sensitive to our best models of overt action control. Further, I assess the cogency of various zombie challenges—challenges that seek to demote the importance of conscious control for human agency. I argue (...) that though nonconscious contributions to action control are evidently robust, these challenges are overblown. (shrink)

El artículo se aproxima a la problemática de la subjetividad y experiencia cotidiana de las mujeres migrantes que ejercen como cuidadoras domésticas en dos destinos migratorios altamente feminizados y con una alta concentración de mujeres inmigrantes en el sector doméstico de cuidados (España y Chile). Con ello se pretende indagar comparativamente en dos flujos migratorios (sur-norte y sur-sur) sobre las expectativas y motivaciones que configuran los modelos migratorios femeninos, el significado del trabajo de cuidado en la inserción laboral de las (...) mujeres migrantes en las sociedades de destino, así como la valoración que esta labor tiene para sus protagonistas, tanto desde su dimensión emocional como de producción de bienes públicos. Los resultados presentados se basan en una investigación más amplia, cuya información primaria se obtuvo de la aplicación de 67 entrevistas en profundidad realizadas a distintos tipos de actores involucrados en la relación social de cuidado. (shrink)

The research addresses the effect of sense of control on perceived stress by controlling for the intervening effects of Religiosity and Materialism. A total of 609 emerging adults living in Dhaka city participated in the survey; surveyors used a 48-item structural closed-ended questionnaire to collect the responses. The elicited responses were quantified, and structural equation models were formulated to identify any associations among the variables of interest. The findings suggest that sense of control is a strong determinant of (...) perceived stress; neither religiosity nor materialism mediate the association. The study advances the transactional model of stress and coping. (shrink)

Active surveillance cultures and contact precautions is a strategy to control the transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) within healthcare facilities. Whether to implement this strategy to routinely screen and isolate inpatients with MRSA in non-outbreak (endemic) settings, or to remove it and use standard infection control precautions only is scientifically and ethically controversial, in view of the potential adverse effects of contact precautions on patients. To support the use of standard precautions only, it has been argued that (...) active surveillance to identify patients who are asymptomatically colonised with MRSA to place them in contact precautions is unjust or unfair to these patients in various ways. This paper will unpack and examine four distinct arguments, which are advanced from a medical ethics or quality improvement ethical framework, for why this is so. Our analysis shows that while these arguments highlight the injustice of current practices, they do not provide strong ethical reasons for justifying the removal of active surveillance and contact precautions to control MRSA transmission and infection. An implication of our arguments is that the ethical frame for evaluating prevention and control strategies for MRSA, a multi-drug resistant bacteria, should shift from healthcare to primarily public health. From a public health ethics perspective, whether a strategy is unjust, or how ethically significant its lack of fairness is, depends on assessing the evidence for its public health effectiveness and necessity in a given setting, and the extent of the harms and burdens patients with MRSA bear when they are on contact precautions, which remain matters of scientific debate or uncertainty. As an ethical consideration in the debate, the chief normative implication of justice is to provide us further reasons to revise current active surveillance-contact precautions practices, and for the need for research and interventions to minimise their potential adverse effects on patients. (shrink)