Two ways of thinking can be distinguished. The accurate way, based on causality and explanation, recognizes its ignorance on many items, but tries to organize and foster its knowledge on a solid basis. The innacurate way, based on indeterminacy, chance and free will, assumes with resignation there are segments of reality which cannot be known at all and does not try to go further on those items. Moral and legal discourses run the second way. That assumption tends to prevent them (...) from fostering knowledge and leads normative sciences to irrationality and perplexity. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the relevance of adequate decision making at both public health and healthcare levels. A bioethical response to the demand for medical care, supplies and access to critical care is needed. Ethically sound strategies are required for the allocation of increasingly scarce resources, such as rationing critical care beds. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the so-called ‘last bed dilemma’. In this paper, we examine this dilemma, pointing out the main criteria used to solve it and (...) argue that we cannot face these ethical issues as though they are only a dilemma. A more complex ethical view regarding the care of COVID-19 patients that is focused on proportional and ordinary treatments is required. Furthermore, discussions and forward planning are essential because deliberation becomes extremely complex during an emergency and the physicians’ sense of responsibility may be increased if it is faced only as a moral dilemma. (shrink)

Any plausibly just market exchange must balance two conflicting moral considerations: non-worseness (Wertheimer, 1999) and euvoluntariness (true voluntariness; Munger, 2011). We propose an analytical theory of just market exchange that partly resolves this conflict.

Objectives To develop and test two educational programmes (interactive and passive) aimed at improving family doctors' (FD) prescribing practices and patient's knowledge and use of non-opioid analgesics (NOA).Methods The educational programmes were conducted in two family medicine clinics by using a three-stage approach: baseline evaluation, design, and implementation of educational activities, and post-programme evaluation. An interactive educational programme (IEP) was compared with a passive educational programme (PEP); both were participated by FDs and patients. The IEP for FDs comprised of workshops, (...) discussion groups, in-service training and guidelines, while for patients the IEP consisted of an interactive session with a video, leaflets and a discussion. The PEP consisted in delivering the guidelines to the FDs and the leaflets to patients. The effect of the programmes on the FDs was measured through the appropriateness of prescriptions and analysed using the differences-in-differences estimator (D-in-D), and on patients through changes in self-medication and in their knowledge about the proper use and adverse events by analysing the inter- and intra-group differences before and after the programmes.Results The IEP obtained better results to improve appropriate FDs prescription of NOA than PEP (D-in-D = 15%). Regarding the patients, the PEP group reached higher reduction of self-medication than the IEP group (13.4% vs. 9.1%); the knowledge of proper NOA use increased by 8.5% in both groups, whereas knowledge of NOA-related adverse events was better in the IEP (39.6%) than in the PEP group (9.2%).Conclusions The IEP was better to improve the doctors' abilities to prescribe NOAs, and both programmes improved patients' knowledge. (shrink)

Se nos juízos científicos ou empíricos a objetividade é possível pela existência de entidades independentes, que tipo de fatos poderiam assegurar a objetividade de julgamentos ético-morais? Tanto para Habermas como para Putnam os valores éticos têm uma certa objetividade que emana do “reconhecimento intersubjetivo de standars de avaliação para os quais podemos encontrar boas razões” no contexto de um estilo de vida particular. No entanto, para Habermas, essa validade não é mais suficiente na situação das sociedades contemporâneas, onde é preciso (...) regular os conflitos e as relações entre diversos grupos com ideais muitas vezes conflitantes. Os objetivos deste trabalho são: 1) reconstruir os argumentos básicos desta controversia 2) adotar uma concepção sobre alguns dos pontos em questão, indicando uma forma de integrar os aspectos de ambas as visões, à qual poderia chegar ao alvo que eles compartilham, a saber, fundar a possibilidade de uma ética cognitivista que contorna os problemas do relativismo sem cair nas dificuldades de realismo metafísico. (shrink)

The following article is a contribution to the history of Fichte’s Publicum „Moral für Gelehrte“ (Jena – 1794–1795). Its purpose is to elucidate some misunderstandings about the chronology, the thematic articulation, and even the letter and spirit of these wellknown lectures.

The main claim of this study is that, contrary to Latour’s view about the need to leave aside epistemology to deal with anything valuable about science, Mario Bunge has consistently built up a detailed and thorough epistemology. The argumentative strategy will be to show that (a) it is not true that we have never been modern (b) epistemology is here to stay, and (c) Mario Bunge endorses a strong scientific realism, a brand of materialism, systemism and emergentism, including a moral (...) dimension (there are objective values like, truth, peace and justice that deserve to be respected). Then, Bunge’s realism rejects axiological neutrality making scientists responsible for their actions. Bunge has always been modern and keeps enriching his own views. (shrink)

Ethical theory examines human action in general terms, whereas moral judgment takes place in particular situations. These situations often cannot be subsumed easily under general norms and call for a delicate balance of norms and circumstances. I describe situations where opposing courses of action seem morally reasonable and I call them states of deliberative equilibrium. I review Aristotle’s and Kant’s conceptions of moral judgment and I offer a rule for stepping from deliberation to judgment in many situations of equilibrium.

The article intends to analyze Nietzsches concept of conscience (Gewissen), in order to show its connection to the will to power. This relation inscribes in its interior, as derived from it, the bad conscience (schlechtes Gewissen), and thus opens a phenomenological horizon of interpretation of the will to power.

The so-called Ricardian trade model of contemporary economic textbooks is not a rational reconstruction of Ricardo's famous numerical example in chapter seven of the Principles. It differs from the latter in terms of the definition of the four numbers, relevant cost comparison, rule for specialisation, assumptions and theoretical implications. Thus, the widespread critique regarding the unrealistic assumptions of the textbook trade model does not apply to Ricardo's original proof of comparative advantage.

Animal replaceability is supposed to be a feature of some consequentialist theories, like Utilitarianism. Roughly, an animal is replaceable if it is permissible to kill it because the disvalue thereby caused will be compensated by the value of a new animal’s life. This is specially troubling since the conditions for such compensation seem easily attainable by improved forms of raising and killing animals. Thus, grounding a strong moral status of animals in such theories is somewhat compromised. As is, consequently, their (...) position as an alternative to rights-based theories in animal ethics. Recognising this, some utilitarians tried to disassociate utilitarianism and replaceability. I will here add my voice to this project. However, instead of seeing the culprit in the usual suspects (hedonism, maximisation or the total view), I advance a new proposal. After identifying that the compensating value for a disvaluable action has to be its consequence, I present a restriction on consequences: consequences of sequences of actions cannot be consequences of the isolated actions in the sequences. Given this, the main argument is simple: killing an animal is permissible only if the the value of the new animal’s life is a consequence of the killing; but this value is a consequence of a sequence of actions which involves the killing plus some additional actions; therefore, since, via the restriction, such value is not a consequence of the killing, it is irrelevant to its normative status. I then present two further motivations for the restriction: firstly, it prevents the value of conditional actions from trivially influencing the value of the actions on which they are conditional; secondly, it is useful – even if not a complete solution – to reply other objections to consequentialism: the accordion effect of action and the cluelessness problem. I finally consider a couple of objections. (shrink)

O trabalho procura revisitar o materialismo histórico, as considerações marxianas sobre a “intimidade burguesa” e, por consequência, suas conclusões sobre a incidência dos imperativos sistêmicos e da lógica do Capital na condução da vida cotidiana. O argumento central do trabalho é que a crítica marxiana à intimidade hipostasiada pela sociedade fundada pelo Capital não está reduzida aos elementos dados a priori por sua teoria econômica, mas sintetiza um percurso teórico impulsionado pela antropologia filosófica presente nos Manuscritos de 1844. Desse modo, (...) o trabalho afirma que, sobretudo porque estabelece uma clara distinção entre natureza e cultura, Marx pôde divorciar-se da moralidade hegeliana e afirmar o caráter histórico, ideológico e contingente das relações familiares. Nesse sentido, será demonstrado que ao afirmar a primazia do individualismo possessivo da família burguesa, o autor identifica o “proprietário privado” e o “marido burguês” - no sentido de que a intimidade burguesa é configurada, antes de tudo, pelo sentimento de apropriação do outro. Por fim, discute-se o modo como essas relações assimétricas são trabalhadas n'O Capital, onde a esfera íntima aparece com uma dupla função: a alimentação material do sociometabolismo do capital e a alimentação moral do sistema. (shrink)

Ubico indicios de mitos nacionales analizando obras narrativas (de Borges y algunos otros autores), y dichos acerca de Borges, centrándome en cómo se verifica, en la narrativa de Borges, (y también en sus intervenciones públicas y en lo que se dice sobre su figura) la irrupción del peronismo. Propongo un cambio de escala: sin intentar interpretar los grandes momentos constitutivos entendiéndolos como mitos de origen, intento constituir series, de características cuasi-míticas, a partir de poner en relación a breves sintagmas que (...) se reiteran en distintas unidades narrativas. Elementos transversales, que van de un relato a otro. Sintagmas que se analizan tomando al conjunto de la obra de Borges como paradigma, y no sólo relatos aislados. En primer término, exploro ciertas constantes en algunos relatos del período 1945-54. Luego me detengo en una serie de versiones contemporáneas sobre un Borges ciego a quien un joven peronista ayuda a cruzar la calle. En tercer lugar. el tema de la aparición de relatos oníricos, literariamente enunciados, sobre personas con garra de pájaro, vinculándolos a los dilemas morales de la élite intelectual en los tiempos del primer peronismo. En tanto estos conjuntos tienen mucho en común con los mitos al ser reelaboraciones sucesivas de un elemento narrativo, podrían ser abordadas con métodos de análisis míticos propios de la antropología estructural. No obstante, el material utilizado tiene diferencias con las mitologías clásicas: a) tiene versiones orales, pero también escritas; b) hechos ficcionales, pero también históricos; c) admiten un orden cronológico verificable. Por lo tanto, arriesgo aquí una exploración metodológica y teórica más bien experimental, aunque deudora de Lévi-Strauss. Concluyo que en estos dos conjuntos se verifica el funcionamiento un sistema ideológico, que es el de la formación nacional argentina, con sus tensiones y crisis. (shrink)

O artigo discute uma tese de Xavier Léon sobre a atitude de Schiller em relação a Fichte e procura mostrar sob quais condições as cartas Sobre a educação estética do homem podem ser lidas como uma resposta a Algumas preleções sobre a destinação do erudito.

Using the case of Ebola Virus Disease as an example, this paper shows why patients at high risk for death have a defensible moral claim to access unregistered medical interventions, without having to enrol in randomized placebo controlled trials.A number of jurisdictions permit and facilitate such access under emergency circumstances. One controversial question is whether patients should only be permitted access to UMI after trials investigating the interventions are fully recruited. It is argued that regulatory regimes should not prioritise trial (...) recruitment over patient access, even if this results in drug research and development delays.We describe how the moral duty to rescue impacts on others' duties to oblige patients seeking emergency access to unregistered medical interventions. The view that eligible patients are owed the provision of access to UMI regardless of their willingness to enrol in a randomised controlled trial is defended. (shrink)

We describe a number of conscientious objection cases in a liberal Western democracy. These cases strongly suggest that the typical conscientious objector does not object to unreasonable, controversial professional services—involving torture, for instance—but to the provision of professional services that are both uncontroversially legal and that patients are entitled to receive. We analyse the conflict between these patients' access rights and the conscientious objection accommodation demanded by monopoly providers of such healthcare services. It is implausible that professionals who voluntarily join (...) a profession should be endowed with a legal claim not to provide services that are within the scope of the profession's practice and that society expects them to provide. We discuss common counterarguments to this view and reject all of them. (shrink)

En Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard defiende la conclusión de que el imperativo categórico rige la acción humana porque es el único principio que permite alcanzar la unidad psíquica plena, la cual, según Korsgaard, es un prerrequisito esencial para la acción efectiva. Para los agentes humanos, alcanzar esa unidad -que consiste en hacer coherentes distintos impulsos hacia la acción- es una actividad constante, denominada "autoconstitución". De acuerdo con Korsgaard, ésta es la fuente originaria de la normatividad y (...) de las identidades prácticas e incluso de la identidad personal. Después de exponer las ideas centrales del libro, presento dos objeciones: primero, critico la equiparación del imperativo categórico con la autoconstitución exitosa, pues no toda falla de auto-constitución es una falla moral. Segundo, argumento que la tesis de que la identidad personal es producto de la autoconstitución es problemática y que, al defenderla, Korsgaard confunde identidad práctica con identidad personal. In Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard argues that the categorical imperative rules human action because it is the sole principle that allows us to reach the complete psychic unity that, Korsgaard thinks, is an essential prerequisite for effective action. Reaching this unity -which consists in making cohere diverging impulses for action- is for human agents a constant activity called "self-constitution." According to Korsgaard, this activity is the source of normativity, of human practical identities and even of personal identity. After explaining the main ideas of the book, I present two objections. First, I criticize the linkage of the categorical imperative to successful self-constitution, for not every failure of the latter counts as a moral failure. Second, I argue that the thesis that personal identity is a product of self-constitution is problematic and that it betrays a confusion between practical identity and personal identity. (shrink)

Em analogia com outras discriminações, como o racismo ou o sexismo, o especismo é concebido como uma forma de discriminação moral com base na espécie. Em grande medida, a discussão contemporânea sobre a importância moral dos animais surgiu e desenvolveu-se em torno da crítica e da defesa do especismo. Este artigo oferece uma visão da discussão filosófica contemporânea sobre o especismo. Após uma breve introdução, apresenta-se uma definição de especismo e caracterizam-se vários tipos de especismo, sendo o Antropocentrismo o mais (...) relevante. Depois, expõe-se um argumento proeminente contra o Antropocentrismo: o argumento dos casos marginais. Por fim, algumas posições antropocêntricas são criticamente discutidas. (shrink)

Singer’s much-discussed replaceability argument states that non-self-conscious animals may be killed and replaced by new animals that will lead equally valuable lives. If sound, this argument can be used to justify the cycle of raising and killing animals for food. Thus, many have argued that Singer’s theory, and utilitarianism in general, while committed to this argument, offers inadequate protection to animals. However, some utilitarians reject the argument and Singer himself was rather tentative in preventing its additional application to self-conscious beings. (...) This tension, within utilitarianism, about how to best deal with the argument is the core of what I call ‘the problem of replaceability’. My main goal here is to provide a precise description of this problem. Firstly, I distinguish between the general question of replacement permissibility and the specific question of whether (a certain version of) utilitarianism implies the replaceability argument. Focusing on the specific question I set the problem apart from other known objections to utilitarianism, like the value receptacles objection and some replacement-like difficulties. I also compare two versions of the replaceability argument and advance a better one. Finally, I point out how different interpretations of the argument affect the way out of the problem. I hope this understanding of the problem offers helpful insight to possible solutions and to further investigate its importance to animal food production and animals’ moral status. (shrink)

En este trabajo se recorre las relaciones entre la fe y la razón en la modernidad. Constatando el conflicto inicial el autor recuerda el reconocimiento que la fe y la teología han tenido siempre hacia la razón, pero también apunta a las dificultades que tenía la reflexión teológica para hacerse entender por el pensamiento ilustrado. La crisis actual del pensamiento ilustrado, que es sobre todo una crisis moral, apunta a unas nuevas relaciones entre fe y razón. Así lo apunta el (...) papa actual y algunos pensadores contemporáneos como Habermas. En una segunda parte del trabajo se presentan a la fe y a la razón como dos dimensiones de la persona humana, que se implican mutuamente, y están llamadas a cooperar en la elaboración de un nuevo humanismo. (shrink)

Segundo Rousseau, no estado de natureza o homem é solitário e independente e, ao se sociabilizar, converte-se num ser moral. Para Sartre, a angústia caracteriza a existência subjetiva do homem ao tomar decisões. Em ambos, o despertar da intersubjetividade depende do reconhecimento do outro e é determinante para a moral. According to Rousseau, in the state of nature man is isolated and independent, but as he becomes a social being, he becomes also a moral being. Sartre thinks that anguish caracterizes (...) the subjective existence of man while making decisions. To both, the beginning of intersubjectivity depends on recognition of the other and is essential to morals. (shrink)

This work aims at elucidate the reasons for appropriating the sentiments and emotions in the approach of moral dilemmas. Therefore, first it will start with an analysis of Williams in his article Ethical Consistency where the author approaches de role of the emotions such as remorse and regret, and also introduces the idea of “moral remainder” in moral dilemmas. In a second moment, this work will be concentrated in the analysis of Statman in his article The debate over the so-called (...) reality of moral dilemmas and his systematization of the “sentiments argument” in favor of moral dilemmas. In a third moment, the analysis will focus on the article Sentiment and Value, of D’arms and Jacobson which approaches important questions concerning the possibility of a moral sentimentalism with a rational basis. Finally, the focus will be in the question if in such approaches the appeal of “moral facts” could possibly justify the feelings of regret, guilty or remorse experienced by the agent in moral dilemmas, then these feelings cannot be disregarded in a more intuitive and broader approach of the issue. (shrink)

Cette étude défend l’idée que, contrairement à l’opinion de Latour sur la nécessité de laisser de côté l’épistémologie pour traiter de tout ce qui a de la valeur pour la science, Mario Bunge a systématiquement construit une épistémologie détaillée et approfondie. La stratégie argumentative consistera à montrer (a) qu’il est faux que nous n’avons jamais été modernes (b) que l’épistémologie est là pour de bon et (c) que Mario Bunge soutient un réalisme scientifique fort, une version du matérialisme, du systémisme (...) et de l’émergentisme, comportant une dimension morale (il existe des valeurs objectives comme la vérité, la paix et la justice qui méritent d’être étudiées). Ensuite, le réalisme de Bunge rejette la neutralité axiologique rendant les scientifiques responsables de leurs actions. Bunge a toujours été moderne et continue à enrichir ses propres positions. (shrink)

There are three main claims in the paper: first, there is sufficient evidence for affirming that Ricardo adhered to Smith's productivity theory; second, Ricardo's original demonstration of the comparative- advantage proposition is indeed compatible and complementary with respect to the latter; and third, Ricardo agreed with Smith's multifactorial explanation of the pattern of trade, which includes increasing returns and economies of scale. These results suggest that the level of compatibility between the international trade theories of Smith and (...) Ricardo is significantly higher than it is currently reflected in the economic literature. They also add a new perspective to the ongoing process of reassessment of Smith's contributions to international trade theory, further strengthening the view that he was indeed an outstanding international trade theorist. (shrink)

Foundations of Economic Personalism is a series of three book-length monographs, each closely examining a significant dimension of the Center for Economic Personalism's unique synthesis of Christian personalism and free-economic market theory. In the aftermath of the momentous geo-political and economic changes of the late 1980s, a small group of Christian social ethicists began to converse with free-market economists over the morality of market activity. This interdisciplinary exchange eventually led to the founding of a new academic subdiscipline under the rubric (...) of economic personalism. These scholars attempt to integrate economic theory, history, and methodology with Christian personalism's stress upon human dignity, humane social structures, and social justice. This volume presents the methodological and theoretical foundations for economic personalism through a detailed investigation of human action from two different, yet complementary perspectives: from the personalist perspective of Karol Wojtyla in the Acting Person , and the free-market perspective of Ludwig von Mises in Human Action . By comparing and contrasting the viewpoints of Wojtyla and Mises, the authors develop a comprehensive praxeology capable of analyzing human action from moral and economic perspectives. Beyond Self-Interest illustrates how a unified praxeology could encourage more sustained analysis of the moral dimensions of economic activity while simultaneously softening the utilitarian prejudice of contemporary economic analysis. (shrink)

La obra de Karl Marx ha sido objeto de examen en relación con su posible perspectiva ética. Los distintos académicos han divergido en gran manera en tal análisis, resultando que en unos supuestos se ha rechazado cualquier tipo de propósito normativo en Marx y en otros, en cambio, se ha destacado su fuerte compromiso moral. Para contrastar los resultados de unos y otros en sus investigaciones, el presente artículo ha hecho balance de los principales títulos, panfletos y volúmenes del pensador (...) alemán a lo largo de toda su trayectoria, concluyendo que no disponía de ningún tipo de teoría normativa en su obra, pero que no por ello ha de deducirse inmoralismo alguno en su escritura. Por el contrario, en ella residen una serie de elementos fundamentales para entender su visión de la Historia y de la actuación humana en su seno. (shrink)