The article deals with the issue of initial impossibility of performance of an obligation and the influence of such impossibility of performance on the validity of the legal transaction that establishes such an obligation. The legal doctrine convincingly demonstrates that for Roman lawyers the rule Impossitionbilium nulla obligatio est merely meant that nobody can be obliged to perform something that cannot be performed; however, it did not necessarily follow that a contract establishing such an obligation was void. Modern (...) civil codifications overlook another significant feature of the Roman law – the uncontested application of the principle Impossibilium nulla obligatio est only in case of stipulatio, whereas modern contract law has its origins in the Roman law of consensual contracts. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta una lectura de los números 14 a 16 de la Constitución Dogmática Lumen gentium, sobre la posibilidad de salvación para los no-católicos, dentro del marco de la “hermenéutica de la reforma en la continuidad”, propuesta por el papa Benedicto xvi. En diálogo con los teólogos que han tratado este tema desde el Concilio Vaticano ii, se analiza aquí las líneas de continuidad e innovación que se encuentran en la Lumen gentium, identificando los elementos doctrinales esenciales del axioma (...) extra ecclesiam nulla salus y describiendo la nueva síntesis operada en el Concilio. (shrink)

En su famoso Tratado Teológico-Político, Spinoza ofrece un método de interpretación de las Escrituras con la finalidad de que, a través de su aplicación, el lector pueda capturar objetivamente el sentido de los textos y de ese modo no incurrir en el mismo error que los teólogos y filósofos cristianos o judíos que confunden el ámbito de la fe con el ámbito de la razón. Ahora bien, en la medida en que leemos los textos sagrados y los interpretamos utilizando el (...) método propuesto por Spinoza, también estamos utilizando la razón. De este modo, cabe preguntarse –siguiendo a Zac– ¿cómo es posible que aun utilizando un método elaborado por la razón se puedan mantener separados el dominio de la razón y la fe sin que esto implique una invasión del primero sobre el segundo? Así, nuestro objetivo en el presente trabajo es examinar el modo en que Spinoza entiende que se realiza la aplicación de la razón en el proceso hermenéutico. Con vistas a este fin, luego de presentar los rasgos generales del método hermenéutico spinoziano, examinaremos críticamente la lectura propuesta por Zac, lo cual nos servirá como trampolín para presentar nuestra propia interpretación. (shrink)

"Sets a standard for rigor, parsimony and theoretical elegance in cognitive modeling....Offers a coherent and predictive system for tackling both specific and general issues." --Science.

The human ability to live according to learned, shared rules of behavior requires cortical functions. Is the limbic system also necessary for culture or are its functions opposed to it, requiring cortical inhibition? The sizes of monkey and ape neocortical and major limbic structures scale with brain weight, but the neocortex expands more (has a steeper exponent) than limbic structures. As the human brain evolved it did not deviate from the scaling relationships found in nonhuman anthropoids. This evidence for conservation (...) in scaling supports the idea that limbic functions are necessary for human symbolism and culture. (shrink)

Digital energy platforms play a central role in the transition toward a more sustainable energy system. This research explores the effect of digital energy platforms on public values. We developed and tested a novel public value framework, combining values already embedded in energy and digitalization regulations and emerging values that have become more relevant in recent debates. We analyzed value changes and potential value tensions. We found that sustainability is prioritized, security is broadened to include cybersecurity, and values relevant for (...) digital technologies, such as control over technology, have also become relevant for the energy system. This has resulted in three value tensions: preserving a well-functioning energy system, self-determination, and ensuring a level playing field and public control. A sustainable energy system requires governments to address these value changes, value tensions, and connected societal and political challenges related to the implementation of digital energy platforms. (shrink)

The principle of respect for autonomy often dominates the bioethical discourse. Yet despite its prominence, the exact contours are not always well defined. Widespread disagreement about the nature of autonomy has led some to conclude that autonomy is hopelessly vague and therefore ought to be abandoned in contemporary bioethics. Despite calls to move beyond it, autonomy remains at the center of bioethical reflection. The challenge, then, if autonomy is to function as a bedrock of contemporary bioethics, is to define more (...) clearly the shape of autonomy, to mark more precisely its conceptual boundaries, and to delineate more carefully how best autonomy is put into practice in medical ethics. In this article, I raise questions about the ways autonomy is used in theory, as well as the ways that it is operationalized in practice. (shrink)

Timely public engagement in science presents a broad challenge. It includes more than research into the ethical, legal and social dimensions of science and state-initiated citizen’s participation. Introducing a public perspective on science while safeguarding its public value involves a diverse set of actors: natural scientists and engineers, technology assessment institutes, policy makers, social scientists, citizens, interest organisations, artists, and last, but not least, politicians.

The perception of semantic similarity derives from distinct processes of comparison and integration. A dual process model of conceptual combination claims that attributive combination (e.g., umbrella tree) entails comparison, while relational combination (e.g., pancake spatula) requires integration. The present research uses similarity as a test of this dual process model. Participants (N = 168) were presented attributive and relational conceptual combinations. Half of the participants interpreted the combinations before rating the similarity of their constituent concepts, while the other half provided (...) similarity ratings without interpreting the concepts together. The experiment revealed that attributive combination decreased the perceived similarity of the constituent concepts, whereas relational combination increased the similarity of the constituents. This result indicates that attributive and relational combination occur via distinct processes. Results of a post‐test (N = 60) suggested that these effects were specific to the particular concepts compared or integrated, and do not generalize to other concepts not compared or integrated. The present research thus supported a dual process model of conceptual combination by demonstrating differential effects of comparison and integration on the perception of semantic similarity. (shrink)

Many “liberal,” or libertarian, accounts of prostitution assert that prostitution is no more intrinsically wrong or harmful than any other type of service work.1 I believe that prostitution violates the Kantian “principle of humanity,” because it reflects a disrespectful attitude, which is expressed in the nonchalant use of the human body as a mere means to achieve some goal.2 I hope to convince my readers, who may not share my moral presuppositions, that prostitution defies the limits of respectful sexual relations, (...) because it proffers a monetary substitute for mutual desire and concern and, hence, that it is a morally questionable and harmful activity.3 In support of these claims, I offer: 1) a discussion of Kantian morality and sexual ethics, 2) an explanation of the minimum criteria for respectful sexual relations, 3) a description of the general dynamic of prostitution, 4) an analysis of the client’s objective, and 5) a phenomenology of prostituted sex. (shrink)

Los seres técnicos y toda su conceptualización deben incorporarse a nuestro estudio de la cultura y a nuestras preguntas filosóficas fundamentales. La filosofía de la técnica requiere una vocación abierta e interdisciplinaria, de la antropología a la semiótica, de la ingeniera a la cibernética. También exige desplazamiento por los discursos y los textos y el conocimiento de las cosas y las máquinas. Nuestro concepto de naturaleza se modifica históricamente como también nuestro ser se modifica junto con las estructuras o los (...) mecanismos que hacen factible el mantenimiento de la meta estabilidad, es decir, la adaptación e interacción con un medio tecnológicamente texturizado. Tarnbién se modifica la explicación que darnos sobre nuestros modos de intervención, dependientes de la construcción de nuestra imagen de la natural y de los artefactos que utilizamos para producirla e intervenirla Más allá de la réplica o la simple imitación, el proceso socio-tecnológico ha devenido el dispositivo de síntesis y renvención de la naturaleza. Una tarea fundamental de la filosofía de la técnica es revisar los postulados que dan cuenta de la relación hombre-naturaleza, para realizar un recorrido genealógico que nos permita definir el proceso de constitución de la técnica y la tecnología. Este ejercicio deberla no sólo encontrar respuestas a las necesidades teoréticas que definen su campo, su método y sus vínculos interdisciplinarios, deberla dar algunas respuestas a los problemas del llamado -mundo real-, explicando las dinámicas del cambio tecnológico y comprendiendo sus orígenes.Technical beings and their concepts should be incorporated to our cultural studies and our philosophical question. The philosophy of technology requires an open and interdisciplinary commitment, from Anthropology to Semiotics, from Engineering to Cybernetics. It also demands t he thorough insight of psyches and the understanding of thing and machines. Our concept of nature is historically modified. Similarly, our being is continuously altered along with the structures or the mechanisms that make the maintenances of our meta-stability feasible. There is a continuous adaptation and interaction between a technologically texturized environment and us. The intellectual tools that are used to explain our intervention in nature change with our concept of nature itself and which the devices that we use to produce and intervene nature. Beyond the replica or the simple imitation of the nature, socio-technological process has become the device of synthesis and reinvention of nature. A task for the Philosophy of Technology will be to revise the postulates that give rise to this relationship between man and nature and make a genealogical journey that should allow us to define the process of construction of technology. This exercise should not only find answers the theoretical necessities that define the fids, methods and interdisciplinary approach of philosophy of technology, bu1it should also shed light to the questions from the so-called real world, by explaining the dynamics of technological change and understanding its origins. (shrink)

We evaluate whether evidence from conceptual combination supports the relational priming model of analogy. Representing relations implicitly as patterns of activation distributed across the semantic network provides a natural and parsimonious explanation of several key phenomena observed in conceptual combination. Although an additional mechanism for role resolution may be required, relational priming offers a promising approach to analogy.

Panentheism and panpsychism do not entail one another. Nevertheless, the structural similarities are striking. While panentheism distinguishes without separating God and cosmos, panpsychism does the same with mind and matter. Both seem to mediate between dualism and monism. With the rise in popularity of panpsychism among analytic philosophers of mind, the time was ripe for a careful and critical interdisciplinary conversation. Panentheism and Panpsychism ably facilitates this meeting and mines the explanatory potential of combining two forms of unity metaphysics.The book (...) opens with an introductory chapter written by the editors. Their stated aim is "to examine the benefits which panpsychism and panentheism offer... (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Sexual Morality is a Required Course Morality and Sexuality Criteria of Mutually Respectful Sexual Interaction Moral Issues Associated with Specific Sexual Relationships and Activities Don't Flunk Your Test.