Internal misconduct is a universal problem in prisons and affects the maintenance of social order. Consequently, correctional institutions often develop rehabilitation programs to reduce the likelihood of inmates committing internal offenses and criminal recidivism after release. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the profile of each offender, both for the appropriate indication of a rehabilitation program and the level of internal security to which he must be submitted. In this context, this work aims to discover the most significant characteristics in (...) predicting inmate misconduct from ML methods and the SHAP approach. A database produced in 2004 through the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities in the United States of America was used, which provides nationally representative data on prisoners from state and federal facilities. The predictive model based on Random Forest performed the best, thus, we applied the SHAP to it. Overall, the results showed that features related to victimization, type of crime committed, age and age at first arrest, history of association with criminal groups, education, and drug and alcohol use are most relevant in predicting internal misconduct. Thus, it is expected to contribute to the prior classification of an inmate on time, to use programs and practices that aim to improve the lives of offenders, their reintegration into society, and consequently, the reduction of criminal recidivism. (shrink)

Dans cet article, je propose une exploration du phénomène du témoignage. Mon but est de montrer que la perspective phénoménologique rend possible une approche intégrative du témoignage, compris comme un phénomène qui engage la structure existentielle du sujet, articulant les relations entre langage, présence, mémoire, vérité et temporalité. Le témoin n’est pas seulement celui qui témoigne, mais d’abord celui qui affronte, dans sa présence expérientielle, un événement dont le sens est bouleversant et institue ainsi le sujet comme témoin : soit (...) comme « témoin endurant » si l’enjeu est d’abord le soi le plus propre du témoin, ou comme « témoin oculaire»s’il s’agit principalement de l’autre. Le témoignage trouve sa signification particulière dans la tension qui se creuse entre le pôle ontologique, où le témoin est compris comme « être là » en présence de l’événement sur le plan expérientiel, et le pôle herméneutique, où le témoin est convoqué devant les autres au niveau du langage. Une autre différence doit être tracée entre le « témoin-confessant », lorsque le témoignage porte précisément sur ce que le témoin a enduré soi-même, et le « témoin-tiers », dont le témoignage porte sur ce que l’on a principalement observé sans le subir soi-même. (shrink)

BREVES PONDERAÇÕES ACERCA DO INSTITUTO DA DELAÇÃO PREMIADA APÓS A LEI Nº 12.850/2013.

O presente trabalho reflete sobre a significativa e desigual morte de jovens negros no País. Para tanto, a produção traz uma discussão sobre o teórico martinicano Frantz Fanon que, com suas ideias sobre racismo e colonialismo, nos ajuda a reconhecer o racismo brasileiro e a condição em que vivem os jovens negros do Brasil. Apesar de Fanon afirmar que suas considerações se referem apenas ao momento histórico em que escreve e aos estudos de colonialismo, acreditamos ser fácil fazer um paralelo (...) entre sua obra e o momento histórico brasileiro quanto à morte de jovens negros. Analisamos as três formas de violência trazidas pelo teórico: psicológica, estrutural, e física, dentro das quais vivem e morrem tais jovens. Buscamos, ainda, refletir sobre a construção das identidades e juventudes negras para compreender, onde e de que forma, estão inseridas na sociedade brasileira. Para tanto, acreditamos ser necessário analisar de que modo se dá o racismo brasileiro e conhecer o que denominamos de falso mito da igualdade racial, contra o qual lutamos constantemente, em busca de reconhecimento do problema, para que possamos buscar soluções. O trabalho aborda a Lei n. 10.639/2003 que versa sobre a obrigatoriedade de se trabalhar na escola a cultura africana e afro-brasileira. Consideramos a lei uma importante política pública na promoção de igualdade racial, através da valorização da cultura vinda do continente africano. Acreditamos que a implementação efetiva dessa lei apoia a construção de identidades negro-positivas tanto para negros quanto para não negros e que essa valorização das identidades serve como importante ferramenta na luta contra a significativa morte de jovens negros no País. (shrink)

Background: The internationalization of clinical studies requires a shared understanding of the fundamental ethical values guiding clinical studies. It is important that these values are not only embraced at the legal level but also adopted by clinicians themselves during clinical studies. Objective: Our goal is to provide an insight on how clinicians in Germany and Poland perceive and identify the different ethical issues regarding informed consent in clinical studies. Methods: To gain an understanding of how clinicians view clinical studies in (...) the countries they work in, we carried out semi-structured problem-centered interviews per telephone in Poland (n = 6) and Germany (n = 6). Our interviewees concentrated on three main topics: an appraisal of the normative framework, challenges in the information process and the protection of all participants in clinical studies. Results: Clinicians generally supported the normative framework, even though they considered it quite complex. In the two study countries, a widely noted dilemma in the information process was whether to overburden participants with extensive information or risking leaving out important facts. Clinicians were ready to exclude larger population groups from participating in clinical studies when the information process could not be carried out with standard procedures or when their inclusion was ethically sensitive. Conclusion: Clinicians need to gain a better understanding of the consequences of excluding larger population groups form participating in clinical studies. They should seek assistance in improving the information process for the inclusion of underrepresented groups in clinical studies. (shrink)

Après l’analyse du problème du corps dans les écrits levinassiens de jeunesse, problème que nous avons exposé dans un précédant numéro de la revue ( Les Études Philosophiques, vol. 113 (2013), n o 2, pp. 201-219), nous nous focalisons dans cet article sur la période moyenne de l’œuvre de Levinas, et notamment sur Totalité et Infini. La corporéité est ici caractérisée constamment par une sorte d’ambivalence, la dimension incarnée du sujet étant souvent placée dans une certaine ambiguïté. Nous essayerons de (...) montrer comment la corporéité, toujours équivoque, fait intimement partie de la relation originaire du sujet avec le monde, avec soi-même et avec l’autre. Pour cela, nous étudierons plusieurs rapports essentiels où intervient le problème de la chair : entre le corps et la conscience, entre le corps et l’élément, entre le corps et l’habitation, entre le corps et le travail, et, finalement, entre le corps et l’autre. (shrink)

A formação docente brasileira foi marcada por interlocuções epistêmicas, mudanças e transformações estruturais e conjunturais, atreladas aos âmbitos sociais, culturais, econômicos, jurídicos e políticos, influenciando e configurando as dimensões do ser professor. Sua configuração, como um ser social, permite a transposição dicotômica entre conhecimentos científicos e senso comum, possibilitando reflexões a uma análise conjuntural acerca da realidade posta, efetivando a essencialidade do processo formativo elucidada a partir do rompimento alienado efetivado por meio dos princípios ideológicos que regem, fragilizam e fragmentam (...) essa formação. Propomos analisar evidências delineadas na Resolução CNE n. 6/2018, acerca da implementação nacional de políticas institucionalizadas neoliberais para formação docente em Educação Física. Para tal feito, nos ancoramos em características investigativo-descritivas com pressupostos de análise de conteúdo e documental, sustentados pelo subentendimento da teoria da alienação trazidas por Konder. Diante das análises, destacam-se indicadores dos ideários neoliberais, transcritos por meio de orientações com vistas à formação docente para atuação no mundo do trabalho. A partir das orientações normatizadas em prol de um processo formativo com competências e habilidades, delineadas nos indicadores destinados à “área de estudo e pesquisa”; “área de conhecimento específico para educação”, “atividade acadêmica para prática pedagógica”; e “componente curricular”, evidenciando os pressupostos de uma formação sistêmica e linear, subscrevendo a formação humana do futuro professor a determinados interesses e com viés que diverge dos pressupostos educacionais, suscitando uma possibilidade de alienação, induzindo à formação docente por meio de uma ideologia prescrita subliminarmente, à qual o profissional em formação será submetido, dificultando, por vezes, a construção de um conhecimento que propicie sua emancipação de forma crítica e reflexiva acerca da realidade social. Palavras-chave: Educação Física. Formação docente. Neoliberalismo. Alienação. (shrink)

Com este breve artigo, prendemos fazer um estudo sobre os Sodomitas “de cor” perseguidos pela Inquisição Portuguesa na Bahia do século XVII. Inicialmente, faz-se uma reflexão sobre a Sodomia, delito contra a fé católica, crime que estava sob a alçada do Tribunal do Santo Ofício e que fora praticado pelos negros escravizados e a partir dos documentos inquisitoriais, discorremos sobre a trajetória dos desviantes: o cativo lisboeta Jeronimo Soares, que fora acusado de sodomita e “alcoviteiro” e o mulato ator cômico (...) Bugio, denunciado por praticar sodomia, por fim, procuramos evidenciar as andanças, força, formas de repressão utilizadas contra esses sodomitas no contexto baiano, assim com a influência da religião – Igreja Católica – e as ferramentas de controle utilizadas para “convencer” a sociedade colonial a seguir o caminho correto da fé e da moral. As fontes utilizadas são os registros de depoimentos dos “hereges” e das testemunhas, produzidas pelo Santo Ofício, localizadas no Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo : Sumário de culpa nº 12257 e Caderno do Promotor nº 29. Palavras-chave: Escravidão, Sodomia, Inquisição, Brasil Colônia. (shrink)

The development of new methods in the field of prenatal testing leads to an expansion of information that needs to be provided to expectant mothers. The aim of this research is to explore opinions and attitudes of gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia towards access to prenatal testing and diagnostics in these countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with n = 18 gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia. The interviews were analyzed using the methods of content analysis and thematic analysis. Visible (...) in all three countries is a connection of prenatal medicine with the politically and socially contentious issue of pregnancy termination. Respondents in Poland and Russia concentrated on the topic of inadequate resources. Quality of information for expectant mothers is an important point in all three countries. Only in Germany was the issue of language barriers in communication raised. With regard to non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) respondents in Germany focused on the ethical issues of routinization of testing; in Poland and Russia they concentrated on fair access to NIPT. Challenges in all three countries arise from structural factors such as imprecise and prohibitive regulations, lack of resources or organization of healthcare services. These should be addressed on a political and medico-ethical level. (shrink)

Este trabalho é um estudo observacional descritivo retrospectivo, com análise de dados quantitativos de abril a julho de 2019 no Hospital Universitário de Canoas. Foram avaliados 419 prescrições e dados de pacientes quanto a sexo, idade, patologias prévias, vias de administração e medicamentos mais prescritos no CTI. Para análise, foi elaborado um Instrumento de Coleta de Dados, no qual foram transferidos para uma planilha do software Microsoft Excel para análise de frequência. Os resultados encontrados foram que a maioria dos pacientes (...) era do sexo masculino (59%), com idade entre 40 e 69 anos (47%). As patologias mais frequentes foram Hipertensão Arterial (31%), Diabetes Mellitus (18%) e outras como infecções bacterianas, fraturas ou cirurgia cardíaca (46%). A via de administração mais utilizada foi a parenteral (63%). Os medicamentos mais prescritos foram analgésicos / antipiréticos (n = 175), analgésicos narcóticos (n = 126) e antieméticos (n = 126). A caracterização do perfil farmacoterapêutico permitiu definir estratégias de avaliação da prescrição e propor o serviço de farmácia clínica para contribuir com o conhecimento de outros profissionais relacionados aos medicamentos. (shrink)

Hans-Georg GADAMER, Hermeneutische Entwürfe. Vorträge und Aufsätze ; Pascal MICHON, Poétique d’une anti-anthropologie: l’herméneutique deGadamer ; Robert J. DOSTAL, The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer ; Denis SERON, Le problème de la métaphysique. Recherches sur l’interprétation heideggerienne de Platon et d’Aristote ; Henry MALDINEY, Ouvrir le rien. L’art nu ; Dominique JANICAUD, Heidegger en France, I. Récit; II. Entretiens ; Maurice MERLEAU-PONTY, Fenomenologia percepţiei ; Trish GLAZEBROOK, Heidegger’s Philosophy of Science ; Richard WOLIN, Heidegger’s Children. Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas (...) and Herbert Marcuse ; Ivo DEGENNARO, Logos – Heidegger liest Heraklit ; O. K. WIEGAND, R. J. DOSTAL, L. EMBREE, J. KOCKELMANS and J. N. MOHANTY, Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic ; James FAULCONER and Mark WRATHALL, Appropriating Heidegger. (shrink)

Hans-Georg GADAMER, Hermeneutische Entwürfe. Vorträge und Aufsätze ; Pascal MICHON, Poétique d’une anti-anthropologie: l’herméneutique deGadamer ; Robert J. DOSTAL, The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer ; Denis SERON, Le problème de la métaphysique. Recherches sur l’interprétation heideggerienne de Platon et d’Aristote ; Henry MALDINEY, Ouvrir le rien. L’art nu ; Dominique JANICAUD, Heidegger en France, I. Récit; II. Entretiens ; Maurice MERLEAU-PONTY, Fenomenologia percepţiei ; Trish GLAZEBROOK, Heidegger’s Philosophy of Science ; Richard WOLIN, Heidegger’s Children. Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas (...) and Herbert Marcuse ; Ivo DEGENNARO, Logos – Heidegger liest Heraklit ; O. K. WIEGAND, R. J. DOSTAL, L. EMBREE, J. KOCKELMANS and J. N. MOHANTY, Phenomenology on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic ; James FAULCONER and Mark WRATHALL, Appropriating Heidegger. (shrink)

Antonio Argandoña, Norbert Bilbeny, Victòria Camps, Miquel Calsina, Àngel Castiñeira, Cristian Palazzi, Ferran Requejo, Raimon Ribera, Begoña Román, Ferran Sàez, Miquel Seguró, Francesc Torralba, Josep Maria Vallès, Rosamund Thomas Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics 2012 3(3):9-16.

In this paper, we raise two points. First, any rights‐based theory should provide a method by which to guide reasoning in addressing conflicts of rights. The reason, we argue, is that these theories must provide guidance on what should be done. Second, this method must contain two key recommendations: (1) We should try to find a deliberative mechanism through which none of the rights is simply eliminated from the scene; (2) these rights may be balanced against each other to define (...) which right should prevail, but without considering non‐rights‐interests as if they were rights in the process. These recommendations instantiate two crucial principles that underlie our common intuitions on rights, namely, the principle that rights deserve equal respect and the principle that rights should be taken seriously. (shrink)

Contemporary Information Systems management incorporates the need to make explicit the links between semiotics, meaning-making and the digital age. This focus addresses, at its core, pure rationality, that is, the capacity of human interpretation and of human inscription upon reality. Creating the new real, that is the motto. Humans are intrinsically semiotic creatures. Consequently, semiotics is not a choice or an option but something that works like a second skin, establishing limits and permeable linkages between: human thought and human's infinite (...) world of imagination; and human action, with its correspondent infinite world of intentionality, of desire and of unexplored possibilities. Two instances are contrasted as two reading lenses of current business reality: IS governance and industry 4.0. These phenomena correspond to the need to take accountability, transparency and responsibility into account, when designing IS and when using such systems through the ecology of connectivity, Big Data and the Internet of Things. Political, social and cultural dimensions are brought into the equation, when addressing the question of the relevance and adequateness of IS theory and practice to respond to contemporary challenges. The message is that what has already been achieved is but a shadow, a pale vision, of what might be achieved in the age of the new Renaissance. (shrink)

Traz depoimentos dirigidos de filósofos brasileiros sobre temas clássicos e contemporâneos da filosofia, processos de formação intelectual e a vida cultural brasileira. Ao final, apresenta breve biografia do depoente e lista das suas principais publicações.

Um marco sobre a questão do tempo na História da Filosofia, o livro XI das Confissões de Agostinho de Hipona (354–430) ainda hoje recebe interpretações. O presente artigo menciona pontos que já apresentei noutro texto sobre o tempo como espelho da alma, no entanto ele recebe o acréscimo de dois pontos que mudam a ênfase de minha interpretação prévia: (1) a citação a Josué e (2) a escolha de Deus creator ominum para exemplificar a relação, via tempo, entre ser humano, (...) Deus e o mundo. Mediante a análise textual do livro XI, a seguinte conclusão será encaminhada: embora Agostinho não recuse a existência do tempo como uma realidade independente das vivências humanas, ele privilegia outro aspecto do tempo, medular nas Confissões, a saber, a relação humana com o tempo em correspondência com a intenção da vontade pela qual a vida humana é governada. Em Agostinho, o tempo da vida se compromete com a ética, e reflete o modo como a vontade habita a vida. Tempo e alma, nas Confissões, são interdependentes a ponto de a experiência humana do tempo ser um espelhamento da vontade. (shrink)

Is it justified to hold that an agent S has a (moral) right to P if the duty-bearer is not specified? There is an intense ongoing debate on this question. There are two positions in the literature. On the one hand, O´Neill´s much-discussed account of rights holds that it is justified to say that an agent S has a right to P if and only if the duty-bearer is sufficiently determined – i.e. if and only if it is clear against (...) whom S may claim her right to P (O’Neill 1986, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2005, 2016). Call this, the ‘claimability condition’. On the other hand, interest-based theorists argue that it can be justified to say that an agent S has a right to P even if the duty-bearer is not sufficiently determined (Caney 2007; Griffin, 2008; Raz 1988; Tasioulas 2007; see also: Etinson, 2013; Ypi 2010). Who (if anyone) is correct in this fundamental discussion about the very nature of rights? In this paper, I provide an answer to this crucial question. Neither O´Neill nor interest-based theorists provide good reasons to justify their positions. However, I argue, the claimability condition is an existence condition of rights justified on the basis of their action-guiding character. The reason is that if the duty-bearer is not specified, the content of the right (its correlative obligation) does not sufficiently guide what the agent should do because it is indeterminate who is required to act (or refrain from acting). (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

The much-discussed “claimability objection” holds that it is unjustified to believe that all individuals have a human right to subsistence because the bearers of the correlative duties are not sufficiently determined. This argument is based on the so-called “claimability-condition”: S has a right to P if and only if the duty-bearer is sufficiently determined. Practice-based theorists defend the human right to subsistence by arguing that if we take the existing human rights practice seriously, there is no indeterminacy about the allocation (...) of duties. In this paper, I challenge this (apparently compelling) defense of the human right to subsistence with a dilemma. If the claimability condition is true, the practice-based defense fails to undermine the claimability objection because the duty-bearer is determined in some, but not all, cases. If practice-based theorists reject the claimability condition, they generate an account of human rights that is problematic from the practical perspective because it may contain duties that are unable to guide action. (shrink)

The organizational account of biological functions interprets functions as contributions of a trait to the maintenance of the organization that, in turn, maintains the trait. As has been recently argued, however, the account seems unable to provide a unified grounding for both intra- and cross-generation functions, since the latter do not contribute to the maintenance of the same organization which produces them. To face this ‘ontological problem’, a splitting account has been proposed, according to which the two kinds of functions (...) require distinct organizational definitions. In this article, we propose a solution for the ontological problem, by arguing that intra- and cross-generation functions can be said to contribute in the same way to the maintenance of the biological organization, characterized in terms of organizational self-maintenance. As a consequence, we suggest maintaining a unified organizational account of biological functions. (shrink)

Intellectual property regimes necessarily create artificial scarcity leading to wastage, both by blocking follow-up research and hindering access to those who are only able to pay less then the actual retail price. After revising the traditional arguments to hinder access to people’s intellectual labour we will examine why we should be more open to allow free-riding of inventive efforts, especially in cases where innovators have not secured the widest access to the fruits of their research and failed to cooperate with (...) follow-up innovators. We will do so by questioning the voluntariness involved in consumption of objects of innovation, restating the positive social externalities that arise when wider access to the fruits of innovation is assured, and examining the eventual harms innovators face. (shrink)

Entre 1843 y 1844, uno de los conceptos centrales del pensamiento de Karl Marx es el de ser genérico. Es indudable en este concepto la herencia terminológica feuerbachiana, cuya principal referencia es el concepto de género. Sin embargo, este trabajo muestra que en su funcionamiento el ser genérico, lejos prolongar el concepto feuerbachiano, implica su refutación. Esto permite comprenderlo en una problemática más amplia de la obra de Marx: el proceso histórico de sustitución de las interrelaciones fundantes de los cuerpos (...) por su forma representada. (shrink)

El presente texto tiene como propósito analizar teórico-conceptualmente las prácticas pedagógicas de la ética implementadas por los docentes en la universidad tradicional y la universidad popular en los años 2010 – 2020. Teniendo en cuenta, primero, las características inherentes de la universidad tradicional tanto en sus orígenes y principios fundamentales; segundo, las practicas pedagógicas de la ética en el rol docente; y tercero, el advenimiento, desarrollo y propuesta de la Universidad popular. Mediante este análisis fue posible develar los paralelismos entre (...) sus divergencias y puntos de encuentro con base en la ética-práctica del rol docente, para el mejoramiento continuo tanto de esta área del conocimiento como de los demás saberes en general. (shrink)

En este artículo defendemos la existencia de un perspectivismo ontológico pluralista inherente a la filosofía de Baruch Spinoza. Indispensable para la constitución de esta noción es la relación establecida entre su teoría general de composición de los cuerpos y los conceptos de “afecto”, “inmanencia”, “potencia” y “multitud”. El objetivo de este análisis es una fundamentación interior del concepto de “puntos de vista”: es imposible pensarlo como una característica epistemológica de un individuo aislado, pero tampoco es posible unificarlo mediante el postulado (...) de una propiedad común. En consecuencia, el perspectivismo ontológico espinosista implica una teoría del punto de vista pluralista que elude los problemas planteados por la clausura del modelo Uno-Todo. (shrink)

This paper argues for a revised concept of authenticity entailing two demands that must be balanced. The first demand moves authenticity from the position of a strictly self-regarding virtue towards the position of a fully social virtue, acknowledging the crucial feature of steadiness, i.e. self-consistency, as being precisely what we ‘naturally’ lack. Nevertheless, the value of personal authenticity in a modern, open society comes from the fact that it brings about not only steadiness, but also the public development of a (...) variety of existential options that can be understood as Millian ‘original experiments in living’. Thus the second demand of authenticity is a demand for ‘experimental’ authenticity which covers the whole spectrum of technologies of the self, from Nietzschean ‘brief habits’, to the use of enhancement technologies. (shrink)

Agostinho de Hipona recebeu uma formação intelectual nos moldes da cultura clássica, tendo sido educado segundo o ciclo disciplinar varroniano. Provém dessa educação sua apreciação da dialética como arte que instrui argumentar corretamente e que permite discernir, nos discursos, os elementos que geram a falsidade da conclusão. É a dialética que permite conectar proposições verdadeiras para alcançar conclusões também verdadeiras e é elaa ciência que deflagra a falsidade e a dissimulação nos argumentos. Ora, na obra Contra Crescônio, gramático e donatista, (...) Agostinho defende-se da acusação descabida de ser ele um homo dialecticus que, por sua habilidade de argumentar, falsearia o verdadeiro e tornaria o verdadeiro falso. Crescônio, para acusar Agostinho, acusa a dialética. Em sua réplica, Agostinho defenderá a eminência e importância dessa ciência para, a partir desse fundamento, atacar o donatismo e, finalmente, liquidar Crescônio. É precisamente essa apreciação positiva da dialética que este artigo pretende destacar, ressaltando assim a importância do estudo de Contra Crescônio para o estudo da dialética agostiniana. Abstract:Augustine of Hippo received an intellectual formation in the molds of the classical culture, having been educated according to Varro’s disciplinary cycle. This educational background provided him an appreciation of Dialectics as the liberal art which instructs to reason correctly, and allows discerning, in discourses, the elements that generate false conclusions. It is Dialectics that allows connecting true propositions to reach true conclusions, and it is the science that deflagrates falsehood and dissimulation in arguments. In his work, Against Cresconius, grammarian and Donatist, Augustine defends himself against the unreasonable charge of being a homo dialecticus, who, by his ability to argue, would falsify the truth and turn it false. Cresconius, to accuse Augustine, charges dialectics. In his reply, Augustine will defend the eminence and importance of this science to, from this foundation, attack Donatism and, finally, liquidate Cresconius. It is precisely this positive appreciation of Dialectics that this article intends to highlight, thus highlighting the importance of studying Contra Cresconius for the study Augustinian Dialectics. (shrink)

Resumen: El siguiente artículo parte reconociendo el carácter protector de la téchne y sus momentos constitutivos. De acuerdo a esta determinación es posible advertir el límite de la téchne a partir de la cuestión socrática de la virtud. La virtud, en la medida que no es un asunto análogo a los objetos de la téchne, precisa de un especial acceso. Desde la constatación del diálogo como el único modo de conocer la virtud, se pone de relieve su sentido comunitario y (...) el carácter del examen socrático. En el diálogo socrático se anuncia, así, que la virtud no es nunca algo técnicamente clausurado ni epistémicamente conceptualizado, sino el mayor bien humano que se cumple en su aproximación a través del examen conjunto de la propia vida.: This article starts by recognizing the protective nature of téchne and its development. It is thereby possible to understand the limits of téchne based on the Socratic question of virtue. Virtue, insofar as it is not a matter analogous to the objects of téchne, requires a special access. The communitarian sense and the character of the Socratic inquiry are made plain, given dialogue as the only way of knowing virtue. Socratic dialogue discloses that virtue is never technically closed or epistemically conceptualized, but that this greatest human good is fulfilled through the joint examination of life itself. (shrink)

Aunque el contenido del Eutifrón se revela en saber qué es la piedad, este diálogo, pese a una inevitable apariencia, no tiene como fin último proporcionar una definición proposicional de este fenómeno. La piedad se pone al descubierto a partir de la dialéctica de Sócrates, cuya insistencia en volver al principio del problema no proviene de una incapacidad del interlocutor de definir el asunto, sino de la debilidad misma del discurso. La necesidad de plantear otra vez desde el principio la (...) cuestión suscita en el intérprete advertir la importancia de la ejecución misma del diálogo como testimonio y acreditación de su propio contenido. De acuerdo a esta ejecución se podrá comprender en qué medida el sentido de la piedad se encuentra en relación al carácter principiante de Sócrates. (shrink)

What are the main conditions that any theory of human rights should satisfy to guide action? If agents must take action for a fairer world as human rights discourse suggests, this is a crucial question to reflect upon. In this paper, I make a proposal. I argue that any theory of (moral) human rights that guides action on the basis of correlative duties must satisfy three key conditions. The first condition is focused on the specification of act-types, the second concerns (...) the distribution of correlative duties, and the third is focused on the resolution of (resolvable) conflicts of human rights. I show that this proposal has substantive implications because it implies to reject, challenge and, in some cases, resist ideas that are commonly accepted in the literature on human rights. (shrink)

Barnes (2014) has argued in this journal for the following conditional: If there is any metaphysical indeterminacy, this must be at the most fundamental level of reality. To argue for this claim, Barnes relies on two principles that I shall call bivalent completeness and determinate link. According to the former, a complete description is a bivalent assignment of truth values to every sentence. The determinate link, instead, establishes that the determination relation between levels of reality preserves determinacy from one level (...) to another. In response to Barnes’ conclusion, Eva (2018) has recently pointed out that bivalent completeness is question begging. In this paper, I will first show why Eva's line of reasoning can be resisted. My aim will then be to present a stronger case against Barnes’ argument by challenging the determinate link. In the presence of metaphysical indeterminacy, the link between fundamental and derivative facts might itself be the locus of indeterminacy. I will conclude by showing that Barnes and Eva make many unwarranted assumptions regarding both indeterminacy and fundamentality. The logical space around the connection between these two notions appears to be much wider than what they seem to be aware of, or so I will argue. (shrink)

De ce a fost fondată Uniunea Europeană? Un prim răspuns ar fi dorinţa de pace după un război devastator şi umilitor. Un al doilea răspuns ar fi realizarea importanţei unităţii. O unitate care se va caracteriza printr-o diversitate a culturilor şi a limbilor. Statele europene nu au dorit să renunţe la suveranitatea lor, au vrut să devină un corp comun pentru a nu a mai putea fi călcate în picioare de iureşul istoriei. Ca orice unitate, UE avea nevoie de un (...) cadru de reglementare oferit de instituţii şi politici europene. De asemenea, pentru a armoniza ceva trebuie să poţi pune împreună anumite elemente separate. Armonizarea Uniunii a fost realizată prin fondarea instituţiilor şi a reglementărilor acestora (structura instituţională a UE este prezentată în Anexa nr. 1). Instituţionalizarea Uniunii Europene este cheia de boltă a construcţiei istorice europene. Început în anul 1957, acest proces a lăsat urme adânci în conştiinţa politică europeană. Dacă la început a fost privită cu reticenţă, acum Uniunea nu poate exista fără instituţii. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to examine the problematic frontier that separates the phenomenology of the body and the phenomenology of animality. The main difficulty is to differentiate phenomenologically not only between embodiment and animality, but also between specifically human embodied experience and what is accessible to us through empathy in relation to the corporeality of the animal. I will tackle these questions by considering relevant textual material from the writings of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. On the one (...) hand, I will show that although embodiment and animality are convergent on the level of the naturalistic attitude in Husserl’s Ideas II, they are divergent as soon as we place ourselves in the personalistic attitude, where the body enters into a different conjunction—namely, with the idea of person and of the spiritual world. On the other hand, Heidegger claims that, in spite of the abysmal bodily kinship with the animal, there is an essential difference between the human body and the animal organism, thus opposing the tendencies to humanize the animal and to animalize the human. (shrink)

Food security brings a number of benefits to humanity from which nobody can be excluded and which can be simultaneously enjoyed by all. An economic understanding of the concept sees food security qualify as a global public good. However, there are four other ways of understanding a public good which are worthy of attention. A normative public good is a good from which nobody ought to be excluded. Alternatively, one might acknowledge the benevolent character of a public good. Others have (...) argued that public goods demand being public in the sense of being visible to all. Finally, it has also been argued that public goods are those goods which need joint action to be produced and maintained. This chapter discusses these five understandings of the public good in relation to food security and highlights the advantage of assessing policies from each of these perspectives. (shrink)

The mixture of political, social, cultural and economic environments in Latin America, together with the enormous diversity in climates, natural habitats and biological resources the continent offers, make the ethical assessment of agricultural policies extremely difficult. Yet the experience gained while addressing the contemporary challenges the region faces, such as rapid urbanization, loss of culinary and crop diversity, extreme inequality, disappearing farming styles, water and land grabs, malnutrition and the restoration of the rule of law and social peace, can be (...) of great value to other regions in similar latitudes, development processes and social problems. This chapter will provide a brief overview of these challenges from the perspective of a continent that is exposed to the consequences of extreme inequality in multiple dimensions and conclude by arguing for the need to have a continuous South-South dialogue on the challenges of establishing socially and environmentally sustainable food systems. (shrink)

Kitcher has proposed an ideal-theory account—well-ordered science (WOS)— of the collective good that science’s research agenda should promote. Against criticism regarding WOS’s action-guidance, Kitcher has advised critics not to confuse substantive ideals and the ways to arrive at them, and he has defended WOS as a necessary and useful ideal for science policy. I provide a distinction between two types of ideal-theories that helps clarifying WOS’s elusive nature. I use this distinction to argue that the action-guidance problem that WOS faces (...) remains even under the aims/means distinction, because the WOS’s failure is more basic than critics have suggested. (shrink)

We reply to Artiga and Martinez’s claim according to which the organizational account of cross-generation functions implies a backward looking interpretation of etiology, just as standard etiological theories of function do. We argue that Artiga and Martinez’s claim stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about the notion of “closure”, on which the organizational account relies. In particular, they incorrectly assume that the system, which is relevant for ascribing cross-generation organizational function, is the lineage. In contrast, we recall that organizational closure refers (...) to a relational description of a network of mutual dependencies, abstracted from time, in which production relations are irrelevant. From an organizational perspective, ascribing a function to an entity means locating it in the abstract system that realizes closure. In particular, the position of each entity within the relational system conveys an etiological explanation of its existence, because of its dependence on the effects exerted by other entities subject to closure. Because of the abstract relational nature of closure, we maintain that the organizational account of functions does not endorse a backward looking interpretation of etiology. As a consequence, it does not fall prey of epiphenomenalism. (shrink)