We propose another positive illusion that fits with McKay & Dennett's (M&D's) criteria for adaptive misbeliefs. This illusion is pervasive in adult reasoning but we focus on its prevalence in children's developing theories. It is a strongly held conviction arising from normal functioning of the doxastic system that confers adaptive advantage on the individual.

Belief in souls is only one component of supernatural thinking in which individuals infer the presence of invisible mechanisms that explain events as paranormal rather than natural. We believe it is important to place greater emphasis on the prevalence of supernatural beliefs across other domains, if only to counter simplistic divisions between rationality and irrationality recently aligned with the contentious science/religion debate.

In two studies we investigated whether people evidence an effect of moral contamination with respect to hypothetical organ transplants. This was achieved by asking participants to make judgements after presenting either positive or negative background information about the donor. In the first study, positive/negative background information had a corresponding effect on three judgements with attitudes to a heart transplant most pronounced by negative background information relative to good information and controls. This effect was replicated in the second study with both (...) heart and liver transplantation. Negative effects were stronger than positive effects in all conditions consistent with a negativity bias, but again stronger with regards to organs than controls. These results confirm findings from surveys that reveal real patients are concerned about moral contamination following organ transplantation and show that this bias in evident even in hypothetical, non-life-threatening scenarios. In a third study we found a significantly stronger moral contagion effect in Japanese relative to English participants, suggesting that concerns about moral contagion may be moderated by culture. (shrink)

El cristianismo incorpora la creación a partir de la nada para romper con la concepción antigua del mundo eterno, no creado. Sin embargo, los distintos filósofos de los primeros tiempos cristianos comprenden esta creación de diversas maneras. En este artículo daremos cuenta de la originalidad de la comprensión que realiza de esta fórmula Juan Escoto Eriúgena (s. IX), haciendo referencia a algunas de sus fuentes. Seguidamente daremos lugar al análisis de tres obras de historia de la filosofía de la Modernidad, (...) que supieron ser fuentes para el idealismo alemán, en lo referente a la presentación de este punto del pensamiento del autor medieval. Los tres historiadores de la filosofía, pertenecientes a diversas corrientes filosóficas, son J. J. Brucker (1696-1770), W. G. Tennemann (1761-1819) y T. A. Rixner (1766-1838). (shrink)

Professionalization and political engagement are usually placed as incompatible in the case of journalism and the mainstream press, resulting in an identification of cultural resistance exclusively with alternative/amateur vehicles. I will use the concept of journalistic field as introduced by Pierre Bourdieu to review these assumptions and to discuss a form of political resistance that acts in one’s own area of knowledge, is not overtly political and whose effects are not immediately accountable for.Drawing examples from my research on two literary (...) newspapers published in the 1950s in Brazil and Uruguay, this paper will focus on the implications of didacticism for literary criticism as a genre of newswriting. The analysis of these newspapers will lead to a reflection on two main issues: a) the conflict between the professionalization and democratization of literature; and b) the definition of resistance as necessarily an action that is against something. The article will reconsider education in journalism as a form of resistance, taking into account its risks of becoming political indoctrination and commercial manipulation, but emphasizing its potential as a way of expanding access to literature. (shrink)

Animals have always been important for human life due to the ecological, cultural and economic functions that they represent. This has allowed building several kinds of relationships that have promoted different emotions in human societies. The objective of this review was to identify the main emotions that humans show towards wildlife species and the impact of such emotions on animal populations’ management. We reviewed academic databases to identify previous studies on this topic worldwide. An analysis of the emotions on wildlife (...) and factors causing them is described here. We identified a controversy about these emotions. Large predators such as wolves, coyotes, bears, big felids, as well as reptiles such as snakes and geckos promote mainly anger, fear, and disgust. This is likely due to the perceptions, beliefs and experiences that societies have historically built around them. However, in some social groups these animals have promoted emotions such as happiness due to their values for people. Likewise, sadness is an emotion expressed for the threatening situations that animals are facing nowadays. Furthermore, we associated the conservation status of wildlife species identified in the study with human emotions to discuss their relevance for emerging conservation strategies, particularly focused on endangered species promoting ambiguous emotions in different social groups. (shrink)

Clinical bioethics plays a significant role in hospital settings through bioethics consultations, which focus on providing ongoing assistance in complex situations within the doctor-patient dynamic. These consultations entail regular interaction between physicians and clinical bioethicists. This situation prompts an exploration into how bioethics consultations affect physicians. The current research aims to understand the influence of bioethics consultations on physicians’ bioethical knowledge by analyzing the lexical content in their patients’ medical records. Medical records are a synthesis carried out by physicians, often (...) reflecting collaborative efforts, and capturing verbal statements indicative of thought processes suggestive of learning. The study is a sequential mixed-methods design with a retrospective descriptive approach, comparing medical records from the early years of the Department of Humanism and Bioethics’ operation (2013–2015) to the more recent ones (2019). Technical bioethical terminology such as “therapeutic effort limitation,” “futility,” “beneficence,” and “respect for autonomy” is more prevalent in recent medical records. This trend may stem from the positive impact of bioethics consultations conducted by the Department, with haptic communication serving as a particularly effective form of interaction with others during experiences of moral distress. This appears to be characteristic of cultures like those in Latin America. (shrink)

In contributions elsewhere to this volume, we considered the histories of Colombia and South Africa and how some of the values indigenous to those locales might plausibly bear on transitional justice in them. We advanced broadly relational and constructive (non-retributive) approaches to the social conflicts that had taken place there, ones that make victim compensation central. In this chapter we consider how Metz’s ubuntu-based reconciliatory approach to reparations might be relevant to Colombia in ways he did not consider, after which (...) we reflect on how the kinds of communitarian practices advanced by Bautista might apply to South Africa. We conclude that these cross-applications are revealing, pointing out how economic compensation in Colombia should plausibly be influenced by cultural factors, and how considerations of culture in South Africa call for compensation beyond economic factors. (shrink)

The scope of this research is to study the zine, which is a handmade booklet. The purpose is to reflect on what the zine is, discussing its format, reflecting on where it is inserted in the publishing market and what its cultural relevance is. This study is a theoretical and bibliographic research with a qualitative approach. We analyze three zines – Geração Beat, by Renato Alessandro dos Santos, O Ceifador de Privilégios, by Arthus Mehanna, and Libertemo-nos, by Melina Bassoli – (...) in order to understand their format, the ways of production, where they are inserted, and their themes. Afterwards, we notice characteristics that contribute to the dissemination of culture and democratic values, thus becoming an object of great cultural relevance.Keywords: Zine. Marginal Literature. Publishing market. (shrink)

Na tragédia de Eurípides, Electra, ganha relevo um embate discursivo entre Electra e sua mãe Clitemnestra, no qual ocorre uma subversão do contrato parresiástico, segundo Foucault (2007). Focalizando precisamente essa subversão, propomo-nos retornar a uma história das mulheres na Grécia Antiga, a fim de compreendermos os atravessamentos que essas mulheres têm em suas relações com as verdades, rituais, preceitos e condutas que, por sua vez, são indicativos de suas construções enquanto sujeitos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Discurso, História das Mulheres, Parresía.

Solving poverty is a laudable public policy goal. While there are many approaches, one that has gained popularity is the conditional cash transfer that requires recipients to satisfy conditions imposed on them such as requiring regular medical checkups. Another approach, which is gaining interest is unconditional cash transfers that do not impose conditions. The question we ask in this paper is: what do these past and current attempts tell us about the implications for gender? To answer this question, we explore (...) two programs using a gendered framework: Brazil's Bolsa Familia,which is a conditional cash transfer, and Manitoba's Mincome experiment, which was an unconditional cash transfer in Canada. We then consider how this information might be used by states, particularly as it relates to ending social marginalization. Broadly, this research contributes to academic discussions of public policy, income, gender and social vulnerability. (shrink)

OBJECTIVES: To study the ethical reasoning of nurses and physicians, and to assess whether or not modified focus groups are a valuable tool for this purpose. DESIGN: Discussion of cases in modified focus groups, each consisting of three physicians and three nurses. The discussion was taped and analysed by content analysis. SETTING: Five departments of internal medicine at Danish hospitals. SAMPLE: Seven discussion groups. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Ethical content of statements, style of statements, time used by each participant. RESULTS: Danish physicians (...) and nurses do not differ in the kind of ethical reasoning they use, but physicians use more of the discussion time than nurses, they use a more assertive style of argumentation, and the solutions chosen are usually first put forward by physicians. CONCLUSION: The results and informal comparisons with similar data from long qualitative interviews indicate that groups of this kind are a useful tool for gathering data on ethical reasoning. (shrink)

O presente artigo possui como tema a análise da separação dos poderes e a regra da democracia, além da possibilidade do Tribunal Constitucional ser composto por indivíduos nomeados pelo Presidente da República, não cumprindo a regra democrática, e fazer o controle de constitucionalidade das leis, criadas através de um processo democrático. Serão respondidos: a separação dos poderes obedece à regra democrática? Quando o Poder Legislativo deixa de cumprir sua função típica de legislar, abre a oportunidade para o Supremo Tribunal Federal, (...) como Tribunal Constitucional que é, criar, através do ativismo judicial, as normas lacunosas? Isso fere a regra democrática? (shrink)

Moral philosophers agree that welfare matters. But they disagree about what it is, or how much it matters. In this vital new work, Wayne Sumner presents an original theory of welfare, investigating its nature and discussing its importance. He considers and rejects all notable theories of welfare, both objective and subjective, including hedonism and theories founded on desire or preference. His own theory connects welfare closely with happiness or life satisfaction. Reacting against the value pluralism that currently dominates moral philosophy, (...) he advances welfare as the only basic ethical value. He concludes by discussing the implications of this thesis for ethical and political theory. Written in clear, non-technical language, and including a definitive survey of other work in this area, Sumner's book is essential reading for moral philosophers, political theorists, and welfare economists. (shrink)

AbstractIn this article, I examine the pedagogical practices of La Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia, a grassroots national organization that works towards the construction of seed sovereignty. Using participant observation and interviews, I show the epistemic, territorial, and gender dimensions of these practices. I draw from extant scholarship on seed struggles, decolonial feminism, and feminist political ecology to analyze two specific practices: experimentation and demonstration and, visual technology creation, including drawings. I demonstrate how these practices organize territories through collective (...) epistemic gendered labor around seeds. These territories are spaces for community-based power creation that have the potential to advance agrarian and environmental agendas from below. However, they also reflect and embody the enduring character of patriarchy and the challenges it presents to achieve systemic transformations in the Colombian countryside. (shrink)

We employ the support vector machine classifier, over different types of kernels, to investigate whether observable variables of individuals and their household information are able to describe their consumption decision of film at theaters in Brazil. Using a very big dataset of 340,000 individuals living in metropolitan areas of a whole large developing economy, we performed a Knowledge Discovery in Databases to classify the film consumers, which results in 80% instances correctly classified. To reduce the degrees of freedom for SVM (...) and to learn the more important determinants of film consumption, we apply the Linear Discriminant Analysis that allows us to identify the key determinants of this consumption. The main individual characteristics are age, education, income, and preferences for cultural goods. Regarding the main geographic characteristics, these are the timing of sample, population concentration, and supply of movie theaters. The results point to an ineffective policy for the sector at the time investigated. (shrink)

This book closely examines our commonly held beliefs about human suffering, and offers unique insights into God's role in why we suffer. Dr. Perri critically examines what it means to be human from a Judeo-Christian perspective, and extrapolates from the work of Carl Gustav Jung showing a deeply complex development of human transcendence in human suffering. On an interpersonal level, Dr. Perri elaborates on the work of Martin Buber and Emanuel Levinas and shows how our suffering can be shared and (...) lessened by our unconditionality and presence for the other. Scriptural passages are quoted from both the Hebrew and New Testament texts, and are used to depict the suffering of humankind as seen in the face of Job. It was this face, according to Perri, that Jesus saw in the faces of those He came to redeem, and that ultimately brought Him to the crucifix of redemption. Dr. Perri challenges Sartre's position that our existence precedes our essence, and draws on the work of Abraham Joshua Heschel and Christian theology in this regard. He further elaborates a neurodevelopmental paradigm that creates essence as the basis of our freedom to choose. This book can be read and studied by both professionals in the helping and healing professions, and lay persons seeking to better understand our suffering, and how to better help those who suffer. Dr. Perri offers specific ways in how to be present for those who suffer, how to read and receive the hidden language of human suffering, and how to use silence as a communication skill. (shrink)

Critics of contemporary metaphysics argue that it attempts to do the hard work of science from the ease of the armchair. Physics, not metaphysics, tells us about the fundamental facts of the world, and empirical psychology is best placed to reveal the content of our concepts about the world. Exploring and understanding the world through metaphysical reflection is obsolete. In this paper, I will show why this critique of metaphysics fails, arguing that metaphysical methods used to make claims about the (...) world are similar to scientific methods used to make claims about the world, but that the subjects of metaphysics are not the subjects of science. Those who argue that metaphysics uses a problematic methodology to make claims about subjects better covered by natural science get the situation exactly the wrong way around: metaphysics has a distinctive subject matter, not a distinctive methodology. The questions metaphysicians address are different from those of scientists, but the methods employed to develop and select theories are similar. In the first section of the paper, I will describe the sort of subject matter that metaphysics tends to engage with. In the second section of the paper, I will show how metaphysical theories are classes of models and discuss the roles of experience, common sense and thought experiments in the construction and evaluation of such models. Finally, in the last section I will discuss the way these methodological points help us to understand the metaphysical project. Getting the right account of the metaphysical method allows us to better understand the relationship between science and metaphysics, to explain why doing metaphysics successfully involves having a range of different theories, to understand the role of thought experiments involving fictional worlds, and to situate metaphysical realism in a scientifically realist context. (shrink)

I defend a one category ontology: an ontology that denies that we need more than one fundamental category to support the ontological structure of the world. Categorical fundamentality is understood in terms of the metaphysically prior, as that in which everything else in the world consists. One category ontologies are deeply appealing, because their ontological simplicity gives them an unmatched elegance and spareness. I’m a fan of a one category ontology that collapses the distinction between particular and property, replacing it (...) with a single fundamental category of intrinsic characters or qualities. We may describe the qualities as qualitative charactersor as modes, perhaps on the model of Aristotelian qualitative (nonsubstantial) kinds, and I will use the term “properties” interchangeably with “qualities”. The qualities are repeatable and reasonably sparse, although, as I discuss in section 2.6, there are empirical reasons that may suggest, depending on one’s preferred fundamental physical theory, that they include irreducibly intensive qualities. There are no uninstantiated qualities. I also assume that the fundamental qualitative natures are intrinsic, although physics may ultimately suggest that some of them are extrinsic. On my view, matter, concrete objects, abstract objects, and perhaps even spacetime are constructed from mereological fusions of qualities, so the world is simply a vast mixture of qualities, including polyadic properties (i.e., relations). This means that everything there is, including concrete objects like persons or stars, is a quality, a qualitative fusion, or a portion of the extended qualitative fusion that is the worldwhole. I call my view mereological bundle theory. (shrink)

Justo antes de la pandemia por COVID-19, la Organización Mundial de la Salud definió unas prioridades de trabajo para la década 2020-2030. Un grupo interdisciplinario de profesionales de la salud reflexiona sobre estas prioridades, determinando unas categorías de análisis y, desde una perspectiva bioética, analiza cada una de ellas, ve su pertinencia, algunos eventos causales, las implicaciones que pueden tener si no son enfrentadas adecuadamente y hace sugerencias sobre la forma de llevarlas a cabo. En esta primera entrega se analiza (...) el primer grupo de prioridades estratégicas: “poblaciones más sanas”. En las conclusiones se destaca la conveniencia de acometer cada una de ellas de una manera colaborativa, gubernamental y privada; de reestructurar el sector salud con base en estas prioridades, aprovechando la experiencia obtenida en la lucha contra el COVID-19. La relación del ser humano con el medio ambiente también debe cambiar, apelando a la responsabilidad humana por el cuidado del planeta. (shrink)

Over the course of its first seven editions, Principles of Biomedical Ethics has proved to be, globally, the most widely used, authored work in biomedical ethics. It is unique in being a book in bioethics used in numerous disciplines for purposes of instruction in bioethics. Its framework of moral principles is authoritative for many professional associations and biomedical institutions-for instruction in both clinical ethics and research ethics. It has been widely used in several disciplines for purposes of teaching in the (...) classroom, during conferences, etc. (shrink)

I summarize the main argument of Transformative Experience (OUP 2014). The book develops familiar examples from classical philosophical debates, as well as original examples, to argue that an agent’s decision to undergo a transformative experience—an experience constituted by radical personal and epistemic change for the agent—must either be authentic or irrational, but not both. The Precis of Transformative Experience walks the reader through the main ideas involved in epistemically and personally transformative experiences, the problems they pose for rational decision-making, and (...) discusses a number of key original examples of transformative experiences. (shrink)

I address two related questions: first, what is the best theory of how objects have de re modal properties? Second, what is the best defence of essentialism given the variability of our modal intuitions? I critically discuss several theories of how objects have their de re modal properties and address the most threatening antiessentialist objection to essentialism: the variability of our modal intuitions. Drawing on linguistic treatments of vagueness and ambiguity, I show how essentialists can accommodate the variability of modal (...) intuitions while holding that objects have their modal properties independently of contexts. (shrink)

Este trabalho analisa a importância da disciplina Filosofia no Ensino Médio em vista das atuais políticas públicas educacionais brasileira. Abordamos a Filosofia no Ensino Médio de acordo a Lei n.13.415/17 que alterou o Artigo 36 da Lei n. 9. 394/96 da Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional-LDBEN, Lei n.11.648 de 2008, Resolução de n° 04 de 2010, as denominadas Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para o Ensino Médio e a Base Nacional Comum Curricular – BNCC/2017. Nesta pesquisa bibliográfica de caráter (...) qualitativo, conclui-se que os referidos documentos oficiais revelam além das alterações quanto ao lugar legado da Filosofia na formação integral do aluno, por ser colocada em segundo plano, a desvalorização de um conhecimento crítico e reflexivo com vistas a emancipação humana, pois a proposição do ensino está mais centrado em uma concepção de conservação da ordem dominante. (shrink)

The draft Code of Conduct for Research is an important initiative towards assisting the scientific community in complying with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). However, its approach towards cross-border data sharing should be reconsidered to clarify the ambiguities inherent in the legal requirements for the cross-border sharing of health data in the POPIA. These ambiguities include the concept of ‘transfer of information’, the application of adequacy as a legal mechanism for transfer, the (...) nature of consent for cross-border sharing and the scope of the recipient third party. We suggest that the draft Code of Conduct for Research can be improved by: Explaining or defining the concept of ‘transfer of information’ and when it applies to cross-border sharing in research Clarifying the application of adequacy as a legal mechanism for transfer vis-à-vis the other alternatives Expanding on the interpretation and application of consent as a legal mechanism for cross-border transfers Expanding the category of persons who may be recipients of personal information in a third country. (shrink)

This chapter offers an overview of the phenomenological approach to delusions, emphasizing what Karl Jaspers called the "true delusions" of schizophrenia. Phenomenological psychopathology focuses on the experience of delusions and the delusional world. Several features of this approach are surveyed, including emphasis on formal qualities of subjective life and questioning of standard assumptions about delusions as erroneous belief. The altered modalities of world-oriented and self-oriented experience that precede and ground delusions in schizophrenia, especially the experiences of revelation that Klaus Conrad (...) termed the outer and inner apophany, are then discussed. The chapter first considers the famous "delusional mood", then the role of ipseity-disturbance. In both cases it is explained how delusions can develop out of these distinctive alterations of perception and feeling. The classic question of the understandability or comprehensibility of schizophrenic delusion, together with the related issues of wish-fulfillment and rationalizing motives are then considered. The chapter addresses the crucial but neglected issue of the felt reality-status of delusions or the delusional world, discussing derealization, "double bookkeeping", and "double exposure". The chapter concludes by discussing delusions typically found in paranoid and affective psychoses, and monothematic delusions found in certain organic conditions. (shrink)

O presente trabalho objetiva fazer uma análise sobre algumas das principais temáticas elaboradas pelo pensador argentino Luis Alberto Warat, quais sejam: o antropofagismo waratiano, o reencontro com a subjetividade perdida e a carnavalização. Para isso, analisou- se uma das obras mais caras do pensamento waratiano: A ciência jurídica e seus dois maridos. Buscou-se através da análise empreendida, elaborar uma crítica sobre paradigmas tradicionais de ciência, incluindo aqui, a própria Ciência do Direito. Sobreleva-se o caráter de indisciplina das atividades artístico-literárias para (...) insinuar as falhas históricas das disciplinas bem instituídas, do pensamento e da cultura dominantes. Visa-se, portanto, maior interação entre aquilo que se entende como ciência e a subjetividade humana como um todo. (shrink)

A humane and respectful treatment of patients by the staff has inspired the creation of the Department of Humanism and Bioethics at the University Hospital of Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá which not only has met, but even surpassed established goals. Since 2013, the Department has developed different activities that have made it possible to respond more ethically to the daily needs of patients and to strengthen other humanization processes. Currently, the Department of Humanism and Bioethics addresses five lines of (...) work: a continuing education program, an assistance advisory program, support, and strengthening of existing committees, support for the activities of our institutional humanization program and research activities. This article updates the experience of this Department, specifically focusing on notable changes in the last years. (shrink)

Language, like other human traits, could only have evolved during one or more stages of development. We enlist the theoretical framework of human life history to account for certain aspects of linguistic evolution, with special reference to initial phases in the process. It is hypothesized that selection operated at several developmental stages, the earlier ones producing new behaviors that were reinforced by additional, and possibly more powerful, forms of selection during later stages, especially adolescence and early adulthood. Peer commentaries have (...) provided opportunities to explain human life history more comprehensively, and to add details to our account of spoken language. We made no attempt to explain syntax in the target article, but we propose here that selection for “vocal plumage” may have increased our species’ capacity for utterance complexity, a development that would have benefited all levels of language. (shrink)