Happy the elephant is intelligent, social, and self-aware--and considered a thing in the eye of the law. Led by lawyer Steven M. Wise, the Nonhuman Rights Project has filed cases on behalf of captive nonhuman animals like Happy since 2013, arguing that their autonomy entitles them to certain legal rights. In Thing: Inside the Struggle for Animal Personhood, comic artists Sam Machado and Cynthia Sousa Machado bring together Wise's groundbreaking work and their own illustrations in the first graphic (...) nonfiction book about the animal personhood movement. Beginning with Happy's story and the central ideas behind animal rights, Thing then turns to the scientists that are revolutionizing our understanding of the minds of such nonhuman animals as great apes, elephants, dolphins, and whales. Combining legal and social history, innovative science, and illustrated storytelling, Thing presents a visionary new way of relating to the nonhuman world. (shrink)

A compilation of lectures by the liberal thinker Armando P. Ribas, which reflect the political philosophy in his historical, ethical, political and economic analysis. Dr. Ribas exposes the correct axiological order, thus demonstrating that the economy is merely consequential and dependent on ethics, politics, and the legal system derived from them.

Più studiosi hanno ritenuto che Il principe sia un’opera priva di unità composta da più tronconi redatti in momenti diversi. Altri a tutt’oggi sostengono che il suo significato resta segreto, sfuggente ed enigmatico. Questo commento al testo di Machiavelli mostra invece come Il principe sia animato da una logica che dà vita a un discorso coerente e lo compone in unità. Ne svela altresì il segreto mostrando che quel discorso approda a delineare un nuovo tipo umano non identificabile con alcuna (...) figura definita, tantomeno, come comunemente inteso, con quella di Cesare Borgia. Infine, questo commento mostra che Machiavelli subordina la realizzazione di tale tipo a un rinnovamento del modo di pensare degli esseri umani fondato sulla distinzione tra “vedere” e “sentire”, la quale allude a una teoria della conoscenza discosta dal razionalismo, dall’empirismo e dal visionarismo. Rinnovamento che costituisce la condizione di una politica volta al fine, oggi più che mai attuale, di scongiurare la scomparsa del mondo umano. (shrink)

The Venezuelan-Chilean humanist Andrés Bello has been recognized as one of the most distinguished intellectuals of the 19th century—one of the last polymaths of the stature of figures such as Athanasius Kircher, Gottfried Leibniz or Benjamin Franklin. Indeed, his numerous contributions span fields such as grammar, poetry, civil law, diplomacy, education, political theory, philology and philosophy. However, despite having composed one of the most important philosophical treatises ever written in Spanish, his philosophical proposals have not been engaged with a substantial (...) way by scholars of the Anglophone world. Only a few scholars such as... (shrink)

Resumo No Manifesto surrealista, de 1924, Breton explicita o produto da atividade surrealista como uma “luz de imagem”, gerado pela aproximação involuntária de duas realidades distantes. Essa estrutura dupla da imagem surrealista tem um caráter disruptivo, que rompe com a nossa percepção da realidade cotidiana. Com isso, abre-se a possibilidade de um espaço para a crítica social e histórica, bem como para uma intervenção estético-política justamente em uma sociedade na qual as formas tradicionais de crítica parecem estar neutralizadas. Essa experiência (...) surrealista e esse espaço aberto por ela Walter Benjamin caracteriza respectivamente com a fórmula “iluminação profana” e “espaço de imagem”. Ambos apresentam uma grande semelhança com alguns pontos e consequências, em seus conceitos, tanto de “imagem do pensamento”, como de “imagem dialética”, sobretudo na medida em que esses conceitos também são formulados em meio à crise cultural da sociedade europeia, nos 1920, e buscam uma saída revolucionária para a mesma. Trata-se de investigar aqui, por meio de uma análise comparativa dessas concepções de imagem, até onde vai a influência e a relevância do surrealismo para o pensamento figurativo-dialético de Benjamin e para sua compreensão da história.In the Surrealistic manifest from 1924, Andre Breton explains the product of surrealistic action as a “light of image” resulting from an arbitrary approach of two distant realities. This double structure of surrealistic image has a disrupting character that breaks our common perception of reality. Thus can open a space for social and historical criticism as well as for an aesthetical-political intervention in a society where traditional forms of criticism seem to be neutralized. Walter Benjamin defines this surrealistic experience and its opened space respectively with the expressions “profane illumination” and “image space”. Both have similarities with Benjamin’s ideas of “thought image” and “dialectical image”, especially because they were elaborated amidst the cultural european crisis in the 1920ies looking to find a revolutionary way out of it. Through a comparative analysis of these notions of image, this paper proposes to investigate the influence and the relevance of surrealism for Benjamin’s dialectical-figural way of thinking and his comprehension of history. (shrink)

This article aims to highlight the theoretical and philosophical debate on hospitality underlining the normative elements of framing migrants and refugees as individual agents in the light of hospitality theory and migration governance. It argued the critiques of the neo-Kantian hospitality approach and the EU welcome culture with regard to refugees in the EU from a philosophical perspective. The “No human being is illegal” motto is proposed to be conceived as a principle of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The (...) cosmopolitan right to visit and the universal right to reside were discussed in the context of human rights and co-responsibility. Linking the hospitality approach with migration governance enables the reconstruction of reception policies and practices, diversification of non-state actors that engage in migration governance mechanism, and polarization of political initiatives (e.g., politics of allocation and dispersal, readmission negotiations, convergence/divergence of priorities and strategic interests). The research findings highlight that the EU adopted a neo-Kantian hospitality approach that combines both “co-responsibility” and “vertical/heterarchical relations.” The EU’s “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” was considered proof of how the EU follows neo-Kantian hospitality that is manifested in dualism and contradictory approach. The study presents a typology that splits co-responsibility into individual/institutional actions and human rights/migration governance. (shrink)

In this essay, a brief analysis of the diplomatic efforts to achieve an accord in re- lation to the climatic change process is made. Particularly, it will analyze the two past Climate Summits (Copenhagen and Cancun). It emphasizes the growing social articulation of climatic politics. Finally, it aims to the birth of a new global responsibility of societies in relation to the human relation towards the planet. Also, it explores the impact of this responsibility on the environment global changes.

Although it is commonly believed that the concept of brain death was developed to benefit organ transplants, it evolved independently. Transplantation owed its development to advances in surgery and immunosuppressive treatment; BD owed its origin to the development of intensive care. The first autotransplant was achieved in the early 1900s, when studies of increased intracranial pressure causing respiratory arrest with preserved heartbeat were reported. Between 1902 and 1950, the BD concept was supported by the discovery of EEG, Crile’s definition of (...) death, the use of EEG to demonstrate abolition of brain potentials after ischaemia, and Crafoord’s statement that death was due to cessation of blood flow. Transplantation saw the first xenotransplant in humans and the first unsuccessful kidney transplant from a cadaver. In the 1950s, circulatory arrest in coma was identified by angiography, and the death of the nervous system and coma dépassé were described. Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant. In the 1960s, the BD concept and organ transplants were instantly linked when the first kidney transplant using a brain-dead donor was performed; Schwab proposed to use EEG in BD; the Harvard Committee report and the Sydney Declaration appeared; the first successful kidney, lung and pancreas transplants using cadaveric donors were achieved; Barnard performed the first human heart transplant. This historical review demonstrates that the BD concept and organ transplantation arose separately and advanced in parallel, and only began to progress together in the late 1960s. Therefore, the BD concept did not evolve to benefit transplantation. (shrink)

La física durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX experimentó una silenciosa pero profunda revisión de sus fundamentos. A pesar de su importancia para los desarrollos posteriores de la física, los estudios históricos y filosóficos sobre dicho periodo son escasos comparados con aquellos de principios del siglo XX. Este trabajo reconstruye algunos aspectos de la física de este periodo usando dos herramientas conceptuales: espacios controversiales de Oscar Nudler y estilo de razonamiento científico de Ian Hacking. El objetivo es mostrar los (...) elementos que produjeron el desbloqueo conceptual de la controversia sobre el determinismo durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. (shrink)

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a natureza ontológica e epistemológica do conceito de informação, focalizando inicialmente a Filosofia e Ética da Informação (EI), propostas por Floridi (1999; 2002; 2004; 2011; 2016), cujo fundamento teórico servirá de suporte para reflexões acerca da inteligência artificial generativa (IAGen), mais especificamente, o ChatGPT. O conceito de informação será abordado a partir de três vertentes na perspectiva filosófico-interdisciplinar: (1) realismo informacional, (2) ecologia informacional e (3) semântica informacional, segundo Gonzalez, Nascimento & Haselager (2004). A (...) partir dessa abordagem, direcionamos nosso estudo para propostas de Floridi (2004), indicando os seus possíveis problemas. Procuraremos entender a Filosofia da Informação, a partir da perspectiva da Ética da Informação (EI), analisando como a EI pode contribuir para reflexões acerca do uso de IA generativa. Problematizamos a EI a fim de construir uma ponte com a Ética Intercultural da Informação (EII) proposta por Capurro (2010). (shrink)