All of the attempts to date to find a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for life, in order to provide an essential definition of life, have failed. We only have at our disposal series of lists that contain diverse characteristics usually found in living beings. Some authors have drawn from this fact the conclusion that life is not a natural kind. It will be argued here that this conclusion is too hasty and that if life is understood as a (...) natural kind in the non-essentialist sense of a homeostatic property cluster, it is easy to see why the attempts to find a unique and essentialist definition of life have failed. Understanding life in this way would imply that the pretension to find such a type of definition should be abandoned. (shrink)

The paper shows how the Bohmian approach to quantum physics can be applied to develop a clear and coherent ontology of non-perturbative quantum gravity. We suggest retaining discrete objects as the primitive ontology also when it comes to a quantum theory of space-time and therefore focus on loop quantum gravity. We conceive atoms of space, represented in terms of nodes linked by edges in a graph, as the primitive ontology of the theory and show how a non-local law in which (...) a universal and stationary wave-function figures can provide an order of configurations of such atoms of space such that the classical space-time of general relativity is approximated. Although there is as yet no fully worked out physical theory of quantum gravity, we regard the Bohmian approach as setting up a standard that proposals for a serious ontology in this field should meet and as opening up a route for fruitful physical and mathematical investigations. (shrink)

Charity, as a social construct, is considered in various interpretative contexts, in a subjectively manner, social progress. The meta-narration about charity as Christian duty, by passing through the secular interpretive and atomizer context of postmodernity, becomes a narrative about social responsibility and equity in ethical dimension, and is translated into restorative community practices in social action plan. We will pursue the constructive interpretive contexts that generated the idea of social policies and social work practice as a contemporary deconstruction of charity. (...) The thesis of the article is that the process of deconstruction of charity, as a religious value which regulates in a Christian manner the reference to the other, is the foundation of restorative social policies and professionalized social work as a social action. We will analyze the deconstruction of Christian idea of charity from two perspectives, namely the secularization of charitable practices and constructive foundation of a particular meta-story of our times which we call secular society and/or knowledge society. (shrink)

This article integrates previously missing components of government quality into the governance-piracy nexus in exploring governance mechanisms by which global obligations for the treatment of IPRs are effectively transmitted from international to the national level in the battle against piracy. It assesses the best governance tools in the fight against piracy and upholding of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The instrumentality of IPR laws (treaties) in tackling piracy through good governance mechanisms is also examined. Findings demonstrate that: (1) while all governance (...) tools under consideration significantly decrease the incidence of piracy, corruption-control is the most effective weapon; (2) but for voice and accountability, political stability and democracy, IPR laws (treaties) are instrumental in tackling piracy through government quality dynamics of rule of law, regulation quality, government effectiveness, corruption-control, and press freedom. Hence, the need for a policy approach most conducive to expanding development is to implement an integrated system of both IPRs and corollary good governance policies. Moreover, our findings support the relevance of good governance measures in developing countries wishing to complement their emerging IPR regimes. (shrink)

In the last decade Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has started to focus attention on forms of persuasive interaction where computer technologies have the goal of changing users behavior and attitudes according to a predefined direction. In this work, we hypothesize a strong connection between logical fallacies (forms of reasoning which are logically invalid but cognitively effective) and some common persuasion strategies adopted within web technologies. With the aim of empirically evaluating our hypothesis, we carried out a pilot study on a sample (...) of 150 e-commerce websites. (shrink)

Ethical dilemmas raised by the use of nanotechnology in medical practice can be viewed from several perspectives: religious spiritualist perspective, the perspective of human dignity (nanotechnologies can be thought of as an affront to human dignity), the issue of controversial choice. The article aims to expose some bioethical dilemmas in using synthetic biology and nanotechnologies. Nowadays is often brought into discussion the fact it is possible to appear in the future new human species resulted not via natural selection and evolution, (...) but through the demiurgic effect of technology development in areas such as: synthetic biology, genetics, neurobiology and neurosciences, prosthesis technology and not least of artificial intelligence research. We will also refer into this paper at the possible raised challenges to ethicists who are oriented towards an ethics of species. Those challenges are raised right from the dawn of a consciousness of species, a social construction generated by changes of the meaning of belonging to humanity. During our article we argue that medical technology, especially genetics, medical assisted human reproduction and not least synthetic biology, require a rethinking ethical meanings of applying those technologies in everyday practices. (shrink)

The “Morbid Fear of the Subjective” (copyright by Roy Wood Sellars) represents a key-element of the American naturalist debate of the Mid-twentieth century. On the one hand, we are witnessing to the unconditional trust in the objectivity of scientific discourse, while on the other (and as a consequence) there is the attempt to exorcise the myth of the “subjective” and of its metaphysical privateness. This theoretical roadmap quickly assumed the shape of an even sociological contrast between the “democraticity” of natural (...) sciences and the fanaticism implicit in supernatural metaphysical systems. In between these two extremes stood phenomenology, in its early days on American soil. Its notion of “evidence”, which is less easily to naturalize than it might seem, was in fact hardly consistent with the widespread concept of “natural experience” of the world. (shrink)

Facebook, the second largest social network on the Web with around 60 million members, is one of the fastest-growing and best-known sites on the Internet today. With the U.S. now accounting for only about a third of all Facebook users, we are starting to see a gradual shift away from its original demographic of college-age users. Very surprisingly, indeed, in the past months Facebook has been literally invaded by Italians, Which is the reason for this huge success of Facebook? One (...) of the reasons is that clearly young Italians' discontent and frustration with the current political situation and with their political representatives is finding in the Web a channel to let youth voice be heard. Facebook is also a media for channelling Italians' emotions, self representation, and symbolic environment at the same speed of their telefonino : indeed Facebook not only provides multimedia content and a high interactive environment, but it also provides personalised features. In other words, it is my personal content which is available on the web and it make me feel as if I was in the centre of a virtually worldly networked stage. We will argue Facebook is realizing what Guy Debord calls "the invasive forces of the 'spectacle' - "a social relation between people that is mediated by images": Facebook is seen as an alternative tool able to amplify an individual's alienation and narcissism, which, are a consequence of the mercantile form of social organization which has reached its climax in capitalism. Under Marxist theory, Facebook does not appear what Jaron Lanier claims to be collaborative communities. We finally argue that Facebook is not a promising example of a new shift from capitalism to a new form of economy based on openness, peering, sharing and global action -- which they called Wikinomics; but rather new disguised forms of advanced capitalism aimed at eroding space to more challenging modes of Internet collectivism. (shrink)

This is a critical assessment of today presentations of Jesus of Nazareth’ Kingdom of God in so-called historical-exegetical books. Three of them are selected for a minute criticism. It follows a brief exegesis of all then important Gospel texts about the Kingdom of God as a «future event» or as «present» and «already come» in Jesus ministry. After a close scrutiny, only one Gospel passage (Luke 17:20-21) can be used with some doubts for sustaining that Jesus has proclaimed a Kingdom (...) of God already present. The article concludes with a brief exposition of the conceptions of the historical Jesus view about the Kingdom, and some consequences for the modern transpositions of his view. (shrink)

Este texto es el producto de un intercambio que parte del reconocimiento de una profunda crisis cultural de la Educacion e intenta, desde los bordes de los saberes institucionalizados localizar lugares compartidos de deflexión situada ...

In this paper we intend to present briefly the way Fonseca deals with the doctrine of causation in his Commentaries on the Metaphysics of Aristotle. We shall begin with the presentation of the map of the disputations on causation in that work (I), then will refer to the position of Fonseca on the definition of cause (II), the relation between cause and principle (III) and, finally, his defense of the Aristotelian four causes (IV).

o presente ensaio traz uma breve reflexao sobre a perspectiva habermasiana de sistematlzacao do "mundo vital", examinada no quadro histórico da questao da "pós-modernidade". Esta trata da relacao, apontada por HABERMAS (03:t II), entre as esferas do "sistema" e do "mundo vital", aplicada em termos de uma teoria da sociedade que se coloca frente a ideia de uma "nova ordem mundial".

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Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} O presente trabalho trata da relaçáo entre o conceito de crítica e o contexto da Modernidade como forma de introduçáo à metacrítica da razáo instrumental de Habermas. Estabelece a interface do núcleo de significaçáo nacional da metacrítica em Habermas com a (...) compreensáo do desenvolvimento histórico do conceito de crítica a partir do horizonte do problema da racionalizaçáo. Mostra a indissociabilidade da metacrítica com o conceito moderno de crítica e a reelaboraçáo deste último pela primeira a partir do eixo de compreensáo da tradiçáo do ESCLARECIMENTO.  . (shrink)

A ideia central deste texto é de discutir as condições de compreensáo da bioetica, a partir da hipotese de um quadro referendal que residiria no proprio entendimento do conceito. Assim, o texto inicia por uma analise da compreens áo do conceito, para depois apontar para um quadro referendal derivado do mesmo, e, finalmente, apresentar a ideia de uma metabioetica, enquanto uma perspectiva de compreens áo da bioetica que pode ser estruturada a partir do principio da complexidade, aplicado as Ciencias Humanas (...) (Morin), e fundamentado na concepç áo do pensamento transversal (Deleuze/Guattari). (shrink)

En este libro se sostiene que lo que suele llamarse verdad y justicia consisten en cierta forma de ocultar o descontar todo aquello que se resiste al ajuste, persuadiendo de que no ha habido ocultamiento ni descuento. Quien actúa en el teatro del mundo finge siempre una adecuación consigo mismo tan irónicamente como la de quien secunda a la clac o mira de reojo al apuntador.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1808-1711.2009v13n3p371 Este artigo defende a hipótese de que Ernst Mach (1838-1916) recorreu ao naturalismo (termo que ele não usou) — atitude derivada da sua aceitação da teoria da evolução de Darwin — como arma contra a metafísica (aqui compreendida como uma atitude em favor da busca por fundamentação última, fixa e definitiva), já que procuraria estabelecer critérios de avaliação, incluindo os relativos à escolha de teorias científicas, efetivamente capazes de serem usados pelos seres humanos.

Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Tendo como referência 0 pensamento de Ernst Bloch, analisaremos 0 significado da filosofia marxiana a partir Teses sobre Feuerbach. Em tais Teses podem ser observados elementos importantes para a compreensáo dos pressupostos marxianos de filosofia, como o conceito [homem], a relaçáo (...) teoria-prática, o conceito de trabalho e, fundamentalmente, a posiçáo relativa à Filosofia da práxis, repondo em pauta o problema do humanismo real e concreto. (shrink)

The teaching of business in a business school is discussed, with special reference to the possibility of both learning and changing ethical abilities (virtues), the need of ethics in business, how to teach business ethics, and the contents of the course.

A new critical reading of Aristotle’s Poetics help us to focus in a different way the debate about Aritotleism and anti-Aristotleism in XX century’s theatre. The Author thinks that a new reading of Poetics could help to understand that contemporary theatre is going towards a “neodramatic” stage and not a “postdramatic” one, that the theory of «essential actions» could not be referred only to prose and realistic theatre, and, first of all, that the question concerning the dynamic arts should be (...) considered as a central educational topic. (shrink)

La definición hegeliana de la música como Kunst des Gemüts no alude a la simple expresión de sentimientos, sino al hecho de que únicamente la música se dirige al yo, al sí mismo como tal, absolutamente. Que la música no sea solamente expresión de sentimientos particulares, sino del sentimiento puro o la subjetividad en sí, se fundamenta en el rasgo más determinante que comparten la música y el alma: la temporalidad. La música expresa al yo en su esencia radicalmente temporal. (...) No es necesario apostillar la función esencialmente metafísica que desprende de esta concepción de la música. Muy distante de los orígenes románticos de un Wackenroder, un E.T.A. Hoffmann o un F. Schlegel, Hegel mantiene una concepción de la música inconfundiblemente romántica. (shrink)

Durante la primera década del siglo XX el 90% de los migrantes provenía de Europa y se dirigía a cinco países: EEUU, Argentina, Canadá, Brasil y Australia. Hoy esa misma proporción de migrantes proviene de tres continentes: Asia, África y Latinoamérica y se dirige a cuatro grandes regiones: Europa, Norteamérica, Asia Pacífico y El Golfo Pérsico. Las migraciones se han mundializado no tanto por la magnitud de los flujos, que sigue estando por debajo del 5% de la población mundial, sino (...) por el .. (shrink)

El presente artículo recorre una amplia gama de premisas, ideas fuerza y problematizaciones sobre las dificultades cognitivas y prácticas de la actual coyuntura histórica, entrega y profundiza preguntas, provoca reflexiones, todo orientado a motivar una respuesta de salida a la crisis, y a generar condiciones para la sostenibilidad. Se abordan temas como la contradicción entre crecimiento ilimitado y los límites planetarios, la incapacidad de la racionalidad instrumental de reconocer la “racionalidad sustantiva”, la orientación destructiva hacia la diversidad, y las búsquedas (...) de salida a través de los cambios de creencias. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca explicitar o conceito de ironia na Teoria do romance. A explicitação do conceito de ironia se desdobrará num desenvolvimento duplo: como exigência normativo composicional e como radicalização subjetiva que excede a normatividade. No primeiro sentido, a ironia configura subjetivamente uma totalidade na obra épica, partindo da sua fragmentação objetiva nas relações sociais modernas. Nessa acepção, a ironia se apresenta como uma manobra subjetiva a serviço da normatividade épica do romance, pois sua finalidade é harmonizar o ideal (...) subjetivo com a objetividade histórica burguesa. Seu paradigma é representado, neste artigo, por Goethe. O outro sentido pelo qual a ironia romântica aparece é demarcado pela forma extremada da subjetividade. Esta, reconhecendo uma impossibilidade de realização de seu ideal harmônico na modernidade, porque o mundo moderno se lhe apresenta como uma efetividade oposta aos anseios subjetivos, refugia-se na própria interioridade e se distancia do mundo presente, buscando refúgio em tempos e lugares mais propícios à realização poética. Novalis é o modelo dessa ironia radicalizada. Essa forma irônica, ao contrário da “cadência irônica” de Goethe, aniquila a forma romance, uma vez que o aspecto subjetivo da pura reflexão, a lírica, se sobrepõe à objetividade histórica presente que o romance também necessariamente deve encerrar. (shrink)