The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitudes and experiences of Spanish nurses in relation to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. In an online questionnaire completed by 390 nurses from Andalusia, 59.1% adequately identified a euthanasia situation and 64.1% a situation involving physician-assisted suicide. Around 69% were aware that both practices were illegal in Spain, while 21.4% had received requests for euthanasia and a further 7.8% for assisted suicide. A total of 22.6% believed that cases of euthanasia had (...) occurred in Spain and 11.4% believed the same for assisted suicide. There was greater support (70%) for legalisation of euthanasia than for assisted suicide (65%), combined with a greater predisposition towards carrying out euthanasia (54%), if it were to be legalised, than participating in assisted suicide (47.3%). Nurses in Andalusia should be offered more education about issues pertaining to the end of life, and extensive research into this area should be undertaken. (shrink)

Classical epistemic logic describes implicit knowledge of agents about facts and knowledge of other agents based on semantic information. The latter is produced by acts of observation or communication that are described well by dynamic epistemic logics. What these logics do not describe, however, is how significant information is also produced by acts of inference— and key axioms of the system merely postulate "deductive closure". In this paper, we take the view that all information is produced by acts, and hence (...) we also need a dynamic logic of inference steps showing what effort on the part of the agent makes a conclusion explicit knowledge. Strong omniscience properties of agents should be seen not as static idealizations, but as the result of dynamic processes that agents engage in. This raises two questions: (a) how to define suitable information states of agents and matching notions of explicit knowledge, (b) how to define natural processes over these states that generate new explicit knowledge. To this end, we use a static base from the existing awareness literature, extending it into a dynamic system that includes traditional acts of observation, but also adding and dropping formulas from the current ' awareness' set. We give a completeness theorem, and we show how this dynamics updates explicit knowledge. Then we extend our approach to multi-agent scenarios where awareness changes may happen privately. Finally, we mention further directions and related approaches. Our contribution can be seen as a ' dynamification' of existing awareness logics. (shrink)

The confinement of the population into their homes as a result of COVID-19 has entailed a notable increase in the consumption of diverse media. This exploratory study aimed to examine how the increase in media consumption was related to subjective happiness and psychological well-being. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of Spanish adults to assess their consumption of different media before and during confinement. Moreover, participants were evaluated for hedonic, eudaimonic, social, and experienced happiness by using (...) the Pemberton Happiness Index. The results underlined the great increase in the consumption of TV for entertainment and social networking sites during confinement. Furthermore, it was found that higher consumption was negatively correlated with the level of happiness, so that, people who reported greater well-being, both subjective and psychological, spent less time watching TV and using SNS. In contrast, no association was found between the level of happiness and the consumption of news and radio. Therefore, it seems that far from cultivating greater happiness, those who engaged in heavy consumption of TV entertainment and SNS during confinement were less happy than those who did so more moderately and spent more time using other media or performing other activities. (shrink)

This book provides both an introduction to the philosophy of scientific modeling and a contribution to the discussion and clarification of two recent philosophical conceptions of models: artifactualism and fictionalism. These can be viewed as different stances concerning the standard representationalist account of scientific models. By better understanding these two alternative views, readers will gain a deeper insight into what a model is as well as how models function in different sciences. Fictionalism has been a traditional epistemological stance related to (...) antirealist construals of laws and theories, such as instrumentalism and inferentialism. By contrast, the more recent fictional view of models holds that scientific models must be conceived of as the same kind of entities as literary characters and places. This approach is essentially an answer to the ontological question concerning the nature of models, which in principle is not incompatible with a representationalist account of the function of models. The artifactual view of models is an approach according to which scientific models are epistemic artifacts, whose main function is not to represent the phenomena but rather to provide epistemic access to them. It can be conceived of as a non-representationalist and pragmatic account of modeling, which does not intend to focus on the ontology of models but rather on the ways they are built and used for different purposes. The different essays address questions such as the artifactual view of idealization, the use of information theory to elucidate the concepts of abstraction and idealization, the deidealization of models, the nature of scientific fictions, the structural account of representation and the ontological status of structures, the role of surrogative reasoning with models, and the use of models for explaining and predicting physical phenomena. (shrink)

Ensayos-homenaje en el primer centenario del nacimiento del fil sofo espa ol, que abordan diversos aspectos de la obra de Ortega. Los cuatro trabajos dibujan con rigor algunos de los horizontes planteados por el maestro y respetan la debida modernidad conceptual. la compilaci n estuvo a cargo de Fernando Salmer n, Alejandro Rossi, Luis Villoro y Ram n Xirau.

This paper delves into the deconstruction of the notion of responsibility, drawing a correlation with the process of decomposition of the concept of sovereignty as discussed by Derrida in his last research works. We explore Derrida’s consideration of absolute responsibility as no longer passing through the figure of the sovereign. Derrida’s thought takes its distance from the philosophical and hegemonic determination of the notion of responsibility, for the conceptual system of its axiomatic defines responsibility based on the sovereign individual’s freedom (...) and makes responsibility the effect of his power. Yet, this definition condemns ethics to failure, since it does not account for the other supposed in the idea of response. Derrida incorporates absolute singularity, and consequently secrecy, into the structure of responsibility, enabling thought to encounter the absolute other. The text outlines the influence of Nietzsche and Celan in Derrida’s thought and develops an approach that sees in his work the effort to create a poetic revolution in the history of philosophy and knowledge by opening thought to radical alterity. (shrink)

It is not yet clear which response behavior requires self-regulatory effort in the moral dilemma task. Previous research has proposed that utilitarian responses require cognitive control, but subsequent studies have found inconsistencies with the empirical predictions of that hypothesis. In this paper we treat participants’ sensitivity to utilitarian gradients as a measure of performance. We confronted participants (N = 82) with a set of five dilemmas evoking a gradient of mean utilitarian responses in a 4-point scale and collected data on (...) heart rate variability and on utilitarian responses. We found positive correlations between tonic and phasic HRV and sensitivity to the utilitarian gradient in the high tonic group, but not in the low tonic group. Moreover, the low tonic group misplaced a scenario with a selfish incentive at the high end of the gradient. Results suggest that performance is represented by sensitivity correlated with HRV and accompanied with a reasonable placement of individual scenarios within the gradient. (shrink)

In this essay I revise, based on the notion of the ‘enlightened ruler’ or mingzhu and his critique of the literati of his time, the common belief that Han Fei was an amoralist and an advocate of tyranny. Instead, I will argue that his writings are dedicated to advising those who ought to rule in order to achieve the goal of a peaceful and stable society framed by laws in accordance with the dao.

La teoria della conoscenza può essere intesa in due modi diversi, a seconda di che cosa si intende per conoscenza. In un primo senso, per conoscenza si intende il processo mediante cui conosciamo. In un secondo senso la conoscenza è intesa come il risultato di tale processo, ossia come sinonimo di sapere. Questi due significati sono riflessi nei diversi termini con cui vengono denotati in altre lingue. Mentre una teoria della conoscenza intesa come sapere non ha relazioni significative con le (...) neuroscienze (ma piuttosto con discipline filosofiche come la logica, la metodologia, la semiotica, l'ontologia), una teoria dei processi conoscitivi ha rapporti significativi con le neuroscienze, e fin dall'antichità i filosofi hanno riconosciuto nel cervello il supporto fisico delle attività cognitive superiori. Con ciò, tuttavia, le neuroscienze non possono presentarsi come surrogato di una teoria filosofica del conoscere, in quanto i processi cognitivi debbono essere preliminarmente definiti in sede filosofica, al fine di poter studiare le loro correlazioni (bidirezionali) con fenomeni nervosi. (shrink)

Civic Humanism is one de most relevant theories in present day political philosophy. Its main characteristics are the rejection of radical individualism, the emphasis on the social and political responsibility of citizens, and the consideration that the realisation of a mature personality is only possible through communities on pre-political and pre-economical levels. The author of this paper maintains that there is a continuity from the start of Civic Humanism in Renaissance until its revival in XX Century. He defends as well (...) that the philosophical roots of Civic Humanism can be found in the aristotelian practical philosophy, especially in the notions of good citizen, good life, common good and teleological praxis. (shrink)

The basic aim of this work is to highlight the structure which Thomas Aquinas finds in Aristotle's Politics on natural servitude, trying to recover the doctine defended by the Philosopher and commented by St. Thomas.

En su intervención en el debate alemán de finales del siglo XVIII sobre el significado de la ilustración, Moses Mendelssohn asigna a la ilustración (Auflkärung) y a la cultura (Kultur), componentes teórico y práctico respectivamente de la formación (Bildung) de un pueblo, una función de profilaxis recíproca. El desarrollo de cada una constituye el mejor medio para prevenir la corrupción que produce el mal uso de la otra. Dado que la “manera de destruir” de cada una se contrapone a la (...) de la otra, la felicidad de una nación depende de su avance equilibrado. La intención de este artículo es determinar la posición de Mendelssohn respecto a los límites de la ilustración así como clarificar el vínculo profiláctico entre ilustración y cultura. (shrink)

Epistemic Utility Theory is often identified with the project of *axiology-first epistemology*—the project of vindicating norms of epistemic rationality purely in terms of epistemic value. One of the central goals of axiology-first epistemology is to provide a justification of the central norm of Bayesian epistemology, Probabilism. The first part of this paper presents a new challenge to axiology first epistemology: I argue that in order to justify Probabilism in purely axiological terms, proponents of axiology first epistemology need to justify a (...) claim about epistemic value—what I label ‘Downwards Propriety’—much stronger than any they have offered justification. The second part of this paper offers an argument that this challenge cannot be met: that there is no hope for providing a purely axiological justification of Downwards Propriety, at least given widely accepted assumptions about epistemic value. (shrink)

The literary genesis of Einbahnstraße by Walter Benjamin represents a very special case of the use of the procedures of surrealism in the philosophical-literary production of the author. The process of evolution of thinking that ended up in the writing of this piece is unveiled throughout the present analysis. This is a sign of both waiver and restart; the opening for a new productive dimension in the career of one of the most important —and misunderstood— philosophers of the 20th century. (...) More than enlightening a small master piece of philosophy from a literary perspective, or analyzing a small master piece of literature from the philosophy, what is being problematized here is the division, cultivated or figured throughout the years, between both disciplines. This work is intended to recover what is insoluble from the philosophical-literary labor of Walter Benjamin, besides tracing a possible reconfiguration for an interdisciplinary field of work to come up and contribute in the understanding of the problem called The Retreat of Metaphor by Jacques Derrida. (shrink)

In "Machiavelli’s Art of Politics" Alejandro Bárcenas offers a reexamination of Niccolò Machiavelli’s political thought in order to propose a concise and historically accurate portrayal of his ideas and intellectual context. -/- This study provides a nuanced view of the complexities of Machiavelli’s thought by analyzing his classical background, taking into particular consideration the influence of Xenophon, and his view of the ideal ruler as someone who creates the conditions for a flourishing human life. In addition, Bárcenas explains why (...) Machiavelli defends a republican political order that encourages citizens to live according to their own laws while serving a common good and revises his legacy through the writings of Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin and Maurizio Viroli. (shrink)

This book provides the first full account, explanation, and critique of extraterritorial punishment in international law.

Patagonia: Land of Giants captures the wonders of the Patagonian landscape in hundreds of stunning color photographs by famed Argentine nature photographer Daniel Rivademar.

I argue that Husserl’s concept of position-taking, Stellungnahme, is adequate to understand the idea of second nature as an issue of philosophical anthropology. I claim that the methodological focus must be the living subject that acts and lives among others, and that the notion of second nature must respond to precisely this fundamental active character of subjectivity. The appropriate concept should satisfy two additional desiderata. First, it should be able to develop alongside the biological, psychological, and social individual development. Second, (...) it should be able to underlie the vast diversity of human beings within and across communities. As possible candidates, I contrast position-taking with two types of habit-like concepts: instinct and habitus, on the one hand, and customary habits, on the other. I argue that position-taking represents the active aspect of the subject while the habit-like concepts are passive. A subject’s position-takings and ensuing comportments are tied together by motivations, which evince a certain consistency, and for this reason are expression of the subject’s identity. I conclude by nuancing the relation between Stellungnahme and passivity. Passivity is deemed necessary to action but subservient to it; position-taking is thought to be prior to passivity. (shrink)

This paper deals with the question of whether uncertainty regarding model structure, especially in climate modeling, exhibits a kind of “chaos.” Do small changes in model structure, in other words, lead to large variations in ensemble predictions? More specifically, does model error destroy forecast skill faster than the ordinary or “classical” chaos inherent in the real-world attractor? In some cases, the answer to this question seems to be “yes.” But how common is this state of affairs? Are there precise mathematical (...) results that can help us answer this question? And is dependence on model structure “sensitive” in that arbitrarily small errors can destroy forecast skill? We examine some efforts in the literature to answer this last question in the affirmative and find them to be unconvincing. (shrink)

El artículo se propone indagar en la concepción de la «realidad» que tiene la sofística, como referente fundamental para entender mejor su propuesta crítica ante el avance que en esa época está teniendo la «filosofía dogmática» de tipo metafísica. En particular centrando el análisis en la invectiva que al respecto realiza Gorgias de Leontinos en los fragmentos conservados de dos de sus obras fundamentales: el tratado De lo que no es o de la naturaleza y el discurso Encomio de Helena. (...) Aquí se considera que esta es una posible ruta que permite reconstruir parte de su sediciosa propuesta filosófica. El núcleo fundamental que impulsa la reflexión gorgiana es la infranqueable distancia que separa la concepción de una supuesta «realidad en sí» del pensamiento y lenguaje; ante esta prerrogativa es factible entender el poder que le atribuye al logos para influir en las almas y acciones de los seres humanos, pero también en la capacidad del discurso para «hacer diciendo»; en este sentido perfila su perspectiva extrema de que las palabras estrictamente humanas en su fuerza performativa hacen factible «crear la realidad». (shrink)

Fifteen papers of a 1992 symposium on historical themes of both a hemispheric and a universal level, including new world perceptions, African philosophy and Columbus in textbooks.

Proponents of enactivism should be interested in exploring what notion of action best captures the type of action-perception link that the view proposes, such that it covers all the aspects in which our doings constitute and are constituted by our perceiving. This article proposes and defends the thesis that the notion of sensorimotor dependencies is insufficient to account for the reality of human perception, and that the central enactive notion should be that of perceptual practices. Sensorimotor enactivism is insufficient because (...) it has no traction on socially dependent perceptions, which are essential to the role and significance of perception in our lives. Since the social dimension is a central desideratum in a theory of human perception, enactivism needs a notion that accounts for such an aspect. This article sketches the main features of the Wittgenstein-inspired notion of perceptual practices as the central notion to understand perception. Perception, I claim, is properly understood as woven into a type of social practices that includes food, dance, dress, music, etc. More specifically, perceptual practices are the enactment of culturally structured, normatively rich techniques of commerce of meaningful multi- and inter-modal perceptible material. I argue that perceptual practices explain three central features of socially dependent perception: attentional focus, aspects’ saliency, and modal-specific harmony-like relations. (shrink)

Recently, it has been proposed to understand a logic as containing not only a validity canon for inferences but also a validity canon for metainferences of any finite level. Then, it has been shown that it is possible to construct infinite hierarchies of "increasingly classical" logics—that is, logics that are classical at the level of inferences and of increasingly higher metainferences—all of which admit a transparent truth predicate. In this paper, we extend this line of investigation by taking a somehow (...) different route. We explore logics that are different from classical logic at the level of inferences, but recover some important aspects of classical logic at every metainferential level. We dub such systems meta-classical non-classical logics. We argue that the systems presented deserve to be regarded as logics in their own right and, moreover, are potentially useful for the non-classical logician. (shrink)

Este artículo se propone analizar las “trampas” de la comunidad en la perspectiva de Bourdieu. Para ello, primero, se señala el legado de Tönnies para la sociología respecto del vínculo entre la comunidad y las relaciones desinteresadas (pasadas, escasas en el presente y emancipatorias futuras). Segundo, se rastrean las profundas críticas de Bourdieu a tal legado, desde su estudio del “interés por el desinterés” enmarcado en sus reflexiones sobre la dominación social y sus eufemismos. Esto se observa en su interpretación (...) tanto de las sociedades no modernas como del desinterés moderno del Estado, con pretensiones de universalidad (por ejemplo, en la lengua unificada y la educación), y de los campos autonomizados y desinteresados de bienes simbólicos, entre los cuales se incluye a la sociología. Por último, las “trampas” que la comunidad encierra emergen en las últimas obras de Bourdieu. Allí, él propugna una intervención política explícita en la cual aparecen tópicos comunitarios y del desinterés, por ejemplo en su llamado a la colaboración entre militantes e intelectuales. Entonces, se vuelve patente una tensión en el autor entre una sociología crítica y reflexiva y la emancipación social. Así, este artículo pretende contribuir a una teoría sobre la comunidad y la dominación social, que tiene implicancias sugerentes para la actualidad. (shrink)

Ao desenvolver a ciência biológica, o ser humano logrou obter novas variedades de animais e de plantas, a partir das silvestres. Quando as técnicas de engenharia genética se aplicaram a êstes organismos, obtiveram-se êxitos que se traduziram em dezenas de animais e de plantas com modificações genéticas agora hereditárias. Segundo o artigo, da análise bioética dos organismos modificados geneticamente e da sua utilizaçéo surgem várias propostas: 1) o direito do consumidor a ser informado em termos que possa entender acerca da (...) natureza das mudanças genéticas realizadas nos alimentos, 2) o direito do consumidor a decidir livremente se os quer consumir ou não e, 3) os deveres morais e científicos dos cientistas e das indústrias agro-alimentares para demonstrar a inocuidade destes animais e plantas transgénicos para o ser humano, o meio ambiente e a biodiversidade. /// Through the development of biological science, humankind was able to obtain new varieties of animals and plants in a process beginning with the wild species. When genetic engineering techniques were applied to these organisms, several dozens of transgenic organisms were obtained including plants and animals with specific inheritable changes, which are now transgenic foods. From the bioethical analysis of genetically modified organisms the article argues in favor of the right of the consumer to be informed in terms he or she can understand on the nature of genetic changes induced in foods, as well as in favor of the right of consumers to choose between standard or modified food. Finally, the article also argues in favor of the moral and scientific duties of scientists and food industries to demonstrate that genetically modified foods are not dangerous to human beings or noxious to the environment or biota. (shrink)

In the beginning of Star Trek Into Darkness, Mr. Spock descends into the heart of a raging volcano on the planet Nibiru. His mission: to detonate a cold fusion device that will solidify the bubbling magma before it erupts and destroys an entire civilization. Meanwhile, Captain James T. Kirk is on the bridge of the Enterprise facing a dilemma. He's duty‐bound never to violate the Prime Directive. One way to address the problem of the Prime Directive is to follow the (...) criteria used by Vulcans: reason and logic. This approach has been highly revered in the history of moral philosophy, and was most convincingly articulated by Immanuel Kant. Confucius and Aristotle would agree that while the Prime Directive is usually correct, there will be cases where it's wrong not to break it. The Prime Directive symbolizes just how difficult making good moral decisions can be. (shrink)

Classical epistemic logic describes implicit knowledge of agents about facts and knowledge of other agents based on semantic information. The latter is produced by acts of observation or communication that are described well by dynamic epistemic logics. What these logics do not describe, however, is how significant information is also produced by acts of inference—and key axioms of the system merely postulate “deductive closure”. In this paper, we take the view that all information is produced by acts, and hence we (...) also need a dynamic logic of inference steps showing what effort on the part of the agent makes a conclusion explicit knowledge. Strong omniscience properties of agents should be seen not as static idealizations, but as the result of dynamic processes that agents engage in. This raises two questions: (a) how to define suitable information states of agents and matching notions of explicit knowledge, (b) how to define natural processes over these states that generate new explicit knowledge. To this end, we use a static base from the existing awareness literature, extending it into a dynamic system that includes traditional acts of observation, but also adding and dropping formulas from the current ‘awareness’ set. We give a completeness theorem, and we show how this dynamics updates explicit knowledge. Then we extend our approach to multi-agent scenarios where awareness changes may happen privately. Finally, we mention further directions and related approaches. Our contribution can be seen as a ‘dynamification’ of existing awareness logics. (shrink)

This article focuses on the role played by the critique of political economy and Marxian philosophy in the redefinition of Gramsci’s political philosophy during his intellectual moment known as the “return to Marx’’. On the one hand, we show the theoretical importance of the concept of mercato determinato in the formation of notions such as “civil society” and “relations of forces”. On the other hand, the Italian philosopher’s prison revisitation of some of Marx’s works are evaluated; as well as its (...) effects on the revision of certain topics such as the relationship between structure-superstructure or the theory of hegemony. Through an original interpretation of the critique of political economy; and also re-examining the theoretical principles of “historical materialism” in a “philosophy of praxis”, the final aim is to present an interpretation of Gramscian social ontology able to provide a theory on the genesis, reproduction and crisis of a given social formation. (shrink)

El presente artículo evalúa la legislación argentina sobre servicios de comunicación audiovisual a partir de la teoría política republicana. El abordaje se centró en dos normas de nivel federal: la Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiovisual (Ley 26.522) y el Decreto 267/2015. Este trabajo se enmarca en la filosofía práctica de orientación analítica y los métodos utilizados son el equilibrio reflexivo y el análisis conceptual. De esta manera, se hizo una breve reconstrucción del concepto de libertad republicana para, a partir (...) de allí, establecer qué barreras institucionales establece esta tradición y qué marcadores indican el funcionamiento de estas barreras. Luego, se usaron estos marcadores para medir el cumplimiento de las exigencias de esta teoría por parte de la legislación argentina en materia audiovisual. Tras un abordaje de estas instituciones, se concluyó que las normas sancionadas por el gobierno nacional de Cambiemos implicaron un retroceso en términos republicanos. (shrink)

This article aims to illustrate the development of physiognomy following one of its central themes: moral characterisation. This work deals with the origins of the discipline until the proliferation of works that, during the 16th and 17th centuries, approached the so-called «passions of the soul» from such seemingly disparate points of view as philosophy, optics, comparative anatomy, astrology and medicine. To conclude, two opposite perspectives on the treatment of emotions or «passions of the soul» are discussed: one by René Descartes (...) and another by philosopher-physician Marin Cureau de La Chambre. (shrink)

This article aims to illustrate the development of physiognomy following one of its central themes: moral characterisation. This work deals with the origins of the discipline until the proliferation of works that, during the 16th and 17th centuries, approached the so-called «passions of the soul» from such seemingly disparate points of view as philosophy, optics, comparative anatomy, astrology and medicine. To conclude, two opposite perspectives on the treatment of emotions or «passions of the soul» are discussed: one by René Descartes (...) and another by philosopher-physician Marin Cureau de La Chambre. (shrink)

Despite impressive technological developments, there is something that does not seem to have changed in the future of the Alien saga: capitalist society. The capitalist mode of production was largely triggered by an important event in the history of humanity: the Industrial Revolution. In the Alien films the worst tendencies of capitalism seem to drive the Weyland‐Yutani Corporation's decisions, confirming Karl Marx's fears that people would not be at the center of the process of capitalist production. It is clear the (...) Weyland‐Yutani Corporation has taken its goal of acquisition of profit at all costs very seriously, as demonstrated by Special Order 937. Alienation is one of Marx's key ideas. This chapter mainly focuses on alienation as it is described in a series of notebooks written in 1857‐1858, also known as the Grundrisse. Marx concludes, based on insights from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, that the good life should be one of active self‐realization and autonomy. (shrink)

Argumentation represents a way of reasoning over a knowledge base containing possibly incomplete and/or inconsistent information, to obtain useful conclusions. As a reasoning mechanism, the way an argumentation reasoning engine reaches these conclusions resembles the cognitive process that humans follow to analyze their beliefs; thus, unlike other computationally reasoning systems, argumentation offers an intellectually friendly alternative to other defeasible reasoning systems. LogicProgrammingisacomputationalparadigmthathasproducedcompu- tationallyattractivesystemswithremarkablesuccessinmanyapplications. Merging ideas from both areas, Defeasible Logic Programming offers a computational reasoning system that uses an argumentation engine (...) to obtain answers from a knowledge base represented using a logic programming language extended with defeasible rules. This combination of ideas brings about a computationally effective system together with a human-like reasoning model facilitating its use in applications. (shrink)