In this paper we examine Husserl’s ethics contribution to the understanding of human action determined by self-responsibility. We admit that self-responsibility is that ‘capacity’ of any subject to take a reflective stance on himself and his life. In this sense, the subject only experiences fully being responsible when guides his reason in the multidimensionality of his actions, aiming at a personal and cultural renewal. To show this, we firstly analyze the project of renewal of man and culture in the personalist (...) ethics proposed by Husserl, viewed from the history of parricide Karamazov. Secondly, we inquire about one of the two dimensions of human personality, self-awareness and presence of oneself, to approach the complex intentional act in which this selfconsciousness takes place. Thirdly, we analyze how the ability of self-determination, the other key dimension of the person, makes possible the self-appraisal by which the new man values his actions, motives, means and ends. We conclude that the self guides his life in full participation and emotional manifestation out of experiences that strengthen the ‘self’ and the ‘us’. (shrink)

El problema del diálogo entre interlocutores con distintas expresionesculturales es una de las difi cultades más notables que afrontan las actualessociedades democráticas. En el presente artículo se aborda dicho problemaen clave de los aportes fi losófi cos de Hans Georg Gadamer y Charles Taylor.Se plantea como pregunta central: ¿qué actitudes ameritan promover losinterlocutores con tradiciones culturales incompatibles para la construcciónde unidad política democrática y pluricultural? Se acoge como principiode argumentación la idea de que diálogo abierto y reconocimiento mutuoson dos actitudes (...) ineludibles de cualquier intento sano por construir unidadpolítica democrática y pluricultural. (shrink)

En este trabajo se presentan algunos de los elementos teóricos que fundamentanla dimensión interpretativa como parte del marco epistemológicoque nos permitirá entender la situación de tensión y conflicto entre la visiónde justicia del régimen imperante y la administración de justicia pensada yrealizada desde las etnias en Colombia. Después se reconstruyen tres aspectospropios de la dimensión interpretativa para mostrar que dicha situaciónde tensión y conflicto puede comprenderse por fuera de la alternativa deobjetividad y de subjetividad establecida por la concepción clásica del (...) conocimiento.Se concluye que la dimensión interpretativa nos posibilita comprendery reconocer que existe un espacio de la multiplicidad simbólica ycultural. Espacio que demanda de ciudadanos con disposición para arriesgary remover continuamente las mentalidades empleadas en la interacciónsocial. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se afirma que el lenguaje determinado por el seguimiento de reglas, por la intencionalidad de los estados mentales y por las expresiones con contenidos, tiene una preeminencia frente al planteamiento funcional ofrecido por la versión cognitiva en lo relacionado con el estudio de los procesos mentales. 1) Se reconstruye el modo como Searle entiende el lenguaje y la manera como están entrelazados sus rasgos constitutivos con el problema de los estados mentales. 2) Se muestra la característica (...) principal de cada uno de los rasgos del lenguaje. 3) Se concluye que los contenidos de la acción mental intencionada están siempre determinados por la infinita capacidad individual y por la generosa multiplicidad de perspectivas generales sobre el mundo, en lo referente con la continua creación y representación de los hechos institucionales determinados por el lenguaje. (shrink)

Este artículo tratará el problema del reconocimiento de las identidades colectivasen el marco del Estado democrático de derecho a partir de la interpretación sugerida por Jürgen Habermas. Se presenta, en primer lugar, el problemadel reconocimiento de las demandas de las identidades colectivas; en segundolugar, algunos presupuestos teóricos previos al debate con Taylorsobre la lucha por el reconocimiento en las sociedades modernas; y en tercerlugar, algunos de los elementos teóricos que estructuran la interpretación deJürgen Habermas en torno al reconocimiento de las (...) demandas no satisfechasde las identidades colectivas. Se concluye que el reconocimiento de lasidentidades colectivas puede articularse moral y políticamente si en el Estadodemocrático de derecho se crean condiciones de igualdad de derechos yparticipación. Condiciones fundamentales para que en el ámbito de lo públicolos actores sociales realicen el ejercicio de la autonomía ciudadana, el cualdebe estar orientado a visualizar con claridad los intereses colectivos y loscriterios justificados que permitan tratar de modo justo los diferentes interesesy necesidades de las identidades colectivas. (shrink)

RESUMEN Desde el planteamiento de Gadamer sobre diálogo se muestra que cuando los interlocutores efectúan la conversación en armonía con el proteger el derecho de opinión y el reconocer de modo recíproco los límites de los puntos de vista arriesgados, es factible configurar comunidad de vida humana en la mutua estima y aprobar la validez de otros juicios como respuestas que ayudan con el proceso interhumano de entendimiento común. Y en este realizar el diálogo así tiene lugar una creación nueva (...) de sentido que con la participación de la pluralidad lleva a cabo simultáneamente la actualización del habitual modo de efectuar la formación de comunidad de vida. En la medida en que los interlocutores ejercen el entender sus opiniones en relación con la pregunta orientadora del diálogo y reconocen la finitud de sus puntos de vista como posibilidades entre otras, se contribuye con el establecimiento de comunidad de vida humana en un sentido completamente distinto trasformando con ello de un modo u otro las prácticas habituales de relación e integración social. En primer lugar, se explica el vínculo entre experiencia comprensible y conversación; y, en segundo lugar, se establece el modo como Gadamer describe el presupuesto hermenéutico de la pertenencia y su relación con la creación de un nuevo sentido que incumbe a la experiencia comprensible del entendimiento interhumano en la conversación. ABSTRACT From Gadamer's approach to dialogue, it is shown that when the interlocutors carry out the conversation in harmony with protecting the right of opinion and reciprocally recognizing the limits of risky points of view, it is feasible to configure a community of human life in mutual estimate and approve the validity of other judgments as answers that help with the interhuman process of common understanding. And in this realization of the dialogue thus a new creation of meaning takes place that with the participation of the plurality simultaneously carries out the updating of the usual way of carrying out the formation of a community of life. To the extent that the interlocutors understand their opinions in relation to the guiding question of the dialogue and recognize the finiteness of their points of view as possibilities among others, it contributes to the establishment of a community of human life in a completely different sense, transforming with this, in one way or another, the usual practices of relationship and social integration. First, the link between understandable experience and conversation is explained; and, secondly, the way in which Gadamer describes the hermeneutical assumption of belonging and its relationship with the creation of a new meaning that concerns the comprehensible experience of interhuman understanding in conversation is established. (shrink)

El propósito del presente artículo es el de reflexionar sobre la relación política y legitimación del Estado en las sociedades modernas liberales, a partir del enfrentamiento ideológico entre los promotores del “estado de opinión” y los defensores del Estado de Derecho en Colombia. Considero que la participación, la comunicación deliberativa, el uso público de la razón práctica, la autonomía ciudadana y el respeto a los derechos fundamentales son supuestos ético-políticos inevitables sí queremos construir una cultura política democrática y pluralista en (...) Colombia. Para justificar mi punto de vista, procederé del siguiente modo. En primer lugar, introduciré la idea de que en la democracia deliberativa se privilegia el concurso de la pluralidad política en pleno respeto tanto del derecho como de los procedimientos institucionalizados de comunicación entre los ciudadanos y las instituciones públicas. En segundo lugar, sostendré que la democracia deliberativa implica un proceso democrático sujeto a principios generales imparciales de justicia. (shrink)

Patients who experience difficulty making medical decisions are often referred to as “ambivalent.” However, the current lack of attention to the nuances between a cluster of phenomena that resemble...

The capability approach to distributive justice, as defended by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, represents perhaps the most influential recent attempt to reconcile the competing demands of liberty and equality. Specifically, capability theorists have claimed that their insistence on the universal cultivation of a set of capabilities for basic human "functionings" is fully consistent with a liberal neutrality commitment. Their reason is that these capabilities are, like Rawls's primary goods, rational to want "whatever else one wants." This article suggests, in (...) contrast, that the capability approach fails to satisfy the neutrality requirement endorsed by both Sen and Nussbaum. It further suggests that the non-neutral character of the approach reflects its Rawlsian lineage, and raises serious doubts about the coherence of Rawls's account of primary goods. (shrink)

We agree with van der Pijl et al that the question of how to ensure consent is obtained for procedures which occur during labour and childbirth is vitally important, and worthy of greater attention.1 However, we argue that the modified opt-out approach to consent outlined in their paper may not do enough to protect the choice and agency of birthing people. Moreover, while their approach reflects a pragmatic attempt to facilitate legal clarity and certainty in this context, this is not (...) necessarily responsive to the messy realities of decision-making during labour (and beyond). We outline some of our concerns with their proposals and demonstrate how these illuminate some broader, longstanding tensions around consent and medical law. The authors place significant focus on the particularities of labour, outlining six ways in which maternity care is ‘unlike the usual healthcare setting’ (van der Pijl M et al,1p4). We support the need for attentiveness to these particularities and the problematic nature of consent in this context. Recent scholarly attention on the possible ‘political, ethical and theoretical implications and meanings of birthing embodiment’ (Chadwick R,2p2) has invited more nuanced conversation about consent, agency and decision-making during labour. However, while recognising the embodied particularities of labour, we must also avoid essentialising the differences of labouring bodies and thereby reinforcing exclusionary norms of consent. This points to a long-standing tension in feminist theory between the universal and the particular; between recognising and responding to the powerlessness of individuals without …. (shrink)

This paper excavates the practice-oriented background and therapeutic significance of emptiness in the Madhyamaka philosophy attributed to Nāgārjuna and Sengzhao. Buddhist emptiness unravels experiential and linguistic reification through meditation and argumentation. The historical contexts and uses of the word indicate that it is primarily a practical diagnostic and therapeutic concept. Emptiness does not lead to further views or truths but, akin to yet distinct from Ajñāna and Pyrrhonian skepticism, the suspension of assertion. This sense of emptiness as a practice can (...) be traced in the intercultural transmission of Madhyamaka from Nāgārjuna, its paradigmatic philosopher, to Sengzhao 僧肇, its first pivotal indigenous Chinese representative. (shrink)

Let me make it clear from the outset that my main point isnoteither of the following: one, that there should be more women economists and research on “women's issues”, or two, that women as a class do, or should do, economics in a manner different from men. My argument is different and has to do with trying to gain an understanding of how a certain way of thinking about gender and a certain way of thinking about economics have become intertwined (...) through metaphor – with detrimental results – and how a richer conception of human understanding and human identity could broaden and improve the field of economics for both female and male practitioners. (shrink)

Charles Pigden has argued for a logical Is/Ought gap on the grounds of the conservativeness of logic. I offer a counter-example which shows that Pigden’s argument is unsound and that there need be no logical gap between Is-premises and an Ought-conclusion. My counter-example is an argument which is logically valid, has only Is-premises and an Ought-conclusion, does not purport to violate the conservativeness of logic, and does not rely on controversial assumptions about Aristotelian biology or 'institutional facts.'.

In an unpublished manuscript of 1914 titled ‘Logic in mathematics’, Gottlob Frege offered a rich account of the paradox of analysis. I argue that Frege there claims that the explicandum and explicans of a successful analysis express the same sense and that he furthermore appreciated that this requires that one cannot conclude that two sentences differ in sense simply because it is possible for a (minimally) competent speaker to accept one without accepting the other. I claim that this is shown (...) by Frege’s suggestive remarks about a cloudy grasp of a sense. I then argue that this fact calls into question a key assumption behind Frege’s master argument for the sense/reference distinction. (shrink)

This paper defends the view, put roughly, that to think that p is to guess that p is the answer to the question at hand, and that to think that p rationally is for one’s guess to that question to be in a certain sense non-arbitrary. Some theses that will be argued for along the way include: that thinking is question-sensitive and, correspondingly, that ‘thinks’ is context-sensitive; that it can be rational to think that p while having arbitrarily low credence (...) that p; that, nonetheless, rational thinking is closed under entailment; that thinking does not supervene on credence; and that in many cases what one thinks on certain matters is, in a very literal sense, a choice. Finally, since there are strong reasons to believe that thinking just is believing, there are strong reasons to think that all this goes for belief as well. (shrink)

Once common, therapeutic privilege—the practice whereby a physician withholds diagnostic or prognostic information from a patient intending to protect the patient—is now generally seen as unethical. However, instances of therapeutic privilege are common in some areas of clinical psychiatry. We describe therapeutic privilege in the context of borderline personality disorder, discuss the implications of diagnostic non-disclosure on integrated care and offer recommendations to promote diagnostic disclosure for this patient population. There are no data in this work.

This is a transcript of a dialogue between Lisa Downing and Maggie Nelson about Nelson’s recent book, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (2021). The interlocutors discuss the rise of cultural authoritarianism, the role of care in shaping and delimiting freedom, the ways in which freedom and care signify differently according to the sex of the ‘free’ subject, and the vexed question of what freedom will mean in an uncertain future foreshadowed by the spectre of climate (...) change — and potential apocalypse. (shrink)

While it is not explicitly included in capacity assessment tools, “consistency” has come to feature as a central concern when assessing patients’ capacity. In order to determine whether inconsistency indicates incapacity, clinicians must determine the source of the inconsistency with respect to the process or content of a patient’s decision-making. In this paper, we outline common types of inconsistency and analyze them against widely accepted elements of capacity. We explore the question of whether inconsistency necessarily entails a deficiency in a (...) patient’s capacity. While inconsistency may count as prima facie evidence of incapacity—enough evidence to justify a closer look—when making such determinations, it is important for clinicians to slow down, inquire about the reasons underlying the inconsistency and clearly show which of the elements of capacity the patient fails to satisfy. (shrink)

The probabilistic analysis of functional questions is maturing into a rigorous and coherent research paradigm that may unify the cognitive sciences, from the study of single neurons in the brain to the study of high level cognitive processes and distributed cognition. Endless debates about undecidable structural issues (modularity vs. interactivity, serial vs. parallel processing, iconic vs. propositional representations, symbolic vs. connectionist models) may be put aside in favor of a rigorous understanding of the problems solved by organisms in their natural (...) environments. [Shepard; Tenenbaum & Griffiths]. (shrink)

The primary contribution of feminism to bioethics is to note how imbalances of power in the sex‐gender system play themselves out in medical practice and in the theory surrounding that practice. I trace the ten‐year history of feminist approaches to bioethics, arguing that while feminists have usefully critiqued medicine's biases in favor of men, they have unmasked sexism primarily in the arena of women's reproductive health, leaving other areas of health care sorely in need of feminist scrutiny. I note as (...) well that feminist bioethicists have contributed very little to bioethical theory. In the second part of the paper I suggest two future directions for feminist bioethics. The first is to expand its critique of gender bias beyond reproductive medicine, devoting attention to the same issues raised by advances in biomedical technology as are taken up by mainstream bioethicists. The second is to develop bioethical theory that is more responsive than are mainstream moral theories to the social practices that subordinate women and minority groups. (shrink)

Humanism in nursing: the emergence of the lightThis paper examines Western nursing practices by focusing on their spiritual aspect. The transformation of the informal and poorly trained nurse into the trained and uniform persona of the modern nurse is the subject of many nursing histories and part of nursing mythology. Using the work of Michel Foucault and Marcel Mauss, the nursing that preceded the 19th century reformers is re‐examined and continuities between current and quite ancient practices of nursing are explored. (...) The development of practices or technologies for care of the sick originated with the establishment of hospitals in the 4th century as part of pious Christian practice. Current practices of care and the discourse of holistic nursing are argued to have grown from these traditional Christian technologies of care. Humanist or holistic nursing represents the enshrinement of the Christian edios – freed of doctrine; the discourse of caring a redrafted Christian discipline of love. (shrink)

En el marco de los 800 años de la celebración del encuentro de San Francisco y el Sultán, convocado por la Orden Franciscana, el presente artículo pretende indagar sobre la concepción de la imagen del moro en la sociedad colonial y, particularmente reflejados en la serie de 54 cuadros de la vida de san Francisco del Museo de Arte Colonial de San Francisco, Santiago de Chile, confeccionada en el siglo XVII en un taller del Cuzco y cuyo destino fue el (...) Convento homónimo para la formación y contemplación de los religiosos, que nos permite descubrir su representación. El moro representa el signo del individuo o del territorio pagano, en acción o contexto de violencia, pero capaz de la conversión. Estos aspectos son comunes a los prejuicios traídos por los colonizadores, marcados por la larga lucha en la península contra ellos y las políticas de expulsión de esta comunidad desde España. El arte colonial, a su vez, fue un ejercicio de diálogo cultural que adaptó la cultura hispánica a la realidad del nuevo mundo, y, por tanto, permitió la lectura del moro trasladada a las dificultades y éxitos de la evangelización y a la violencia ejercida por los conquistadores. (shrink)

My final aim in this paper is to show that Descartes is not guilty, as is so often maintained, of circular argumentation in the Meditations. But first it is important to uncover and remove certain tenacious misconceptions and confusions concerning what goes on in the Meditations which lend credence to the charge of circular argumentation. In this connection Mr. Harry Frankfurt's recent article, “Memory and the Cartesian Circle,” is peculiarly instructive; for it presents not only a completely untenable defence of (...) Descartes but one that, implicitly at least, rests on the very misconceptions that give substance to the notion of a Cartesian Circle. With the intention, then, of clearing the ground for the construction of my own defence of Descartes, I shall spend the first part of this paper examining Frankfurt's central thesis, the errors contained in it, and their sources. This thesis is contained in his statement, which I shall henceforth designate by the letter “J,” “Descartes did not attempt to justify present clear and distinct perceptions.”. (shrink)