Phillips & Silverstein (P&S, 2003) propose that NMDA-receptor dysfunction may be the fundamental neurobiological mechanism underlying and associating impaired holistic perception and cognitive coordination with schizophrenic psychopathology. We discuss how the P&S hypothesis shares different aspects of the weak central coherence account of autism from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Specifically, we believe that neither those persons with autism nor those with schizophrenia integrate visuo-perceptual information efficiently, resulting in incongruous internal representations of their external world. However, although NMDA-hypofunction may be (...) responsible for perceptual impairments in schizophrenia and possibly autism, we suggest that it is highly unlikely that NMDA-hypofunction is specifically responsible for the autistic behavioral symptomology, as described by P&S in their target article. (shrink)

Phillips & Silverstein (P&S, 2003) have proposed that NMDA-receptor hypofunction is the central reason for impaired cognitive coordination and abnormal gestalt-like perceptual processing in schizophrenia. We suggest that this model may also be applicable to non-pathological (or normal) aging given the compelling evidence of NMDA-receptor involvement during the aging process that results in age-related change in higher-level perceptual performance. Given that such deficits are present in other neurological disorders such as autism, an argument for a systematic assessment of perceptual functioning (...) in these conditions may be posited. (shrink)

The concept of “self-realization” plays a central role in philosophy, since it summarizes the idea that a good life is a flourishing life, that is, an existence in which a person makes the best of what she is. A long tradition has understood this in terms of actualizing one’s potential or fulfilling one’s highest and most worthy aspirations. The aim of this paper is to analyze Hegel’s Logic and Philosophy of Right, in order to show that they outline an alternative (...) and valuable account of self-realization that conceives of human flourishing as tied to the flourishing of the world. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo fazer um diálogo entre os direitos humanos à democracia e à internet, dando ênfase ao surgimento da democracia digital, como forma de participação política dos cidadãos. Assim, parte-se do seguinte questionamento: é possível haver participação política dos cidadãos através da relação entre democracia e internet? Tem-se como hipótese que a internet se trata de uma ferramenta capaz de viabilizar a participação política dos cidadãos. Para averiguá-la, são utilizadas as técnicas de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, (...) bem como um estudo realizado pela rede Technology for Transparency da organização não governamental denominada Global Voices. (shrink)

This article undertakes a deconstructive reading of astrobiology’s search for extraterrestrial life. Taking its lead from Derrida’s ‘White Mythology’, it explores ‘metaphor in the text of astrobiology’—and includes within the astrobiological ‘text’ not only scientific publications and work on astrobiology in the philosophy of science, but also ‘life detection technologies’. I situate astrobiology in the tradition of a metaphysical analogy that goes back through the enlightenment and early modern astronomy to the ancient Atomists’ notion of the ‘plurality of worlds’. This (...) analogy, which constitutes an identification of life with being and therefore serves as the conceptual basis for the notion that life must exist on other worlds, experiences a mutation in the middle of the twentieth century when molecular biology refigures life in terms of a scriptural metaphor as text. The result is an aporia whose logic Derrida formalised in ‘White Mythology’. (shrink)

Recent discussions about global justice have focused on arguments that favor the inclusion of political and social rights within the set of human rights. By doing so, these discussions raise the issue of the existence of specific rights enjoyed exclusively by citizens of a given community. This article deals with the problem of distinguishing between human and citizen rights. Specifically, it proposes a new concept of citizen rights that is based on what I call ‘the stockholder principle’: a principle of (...) solidarity that holds within a specific country. This concept, the paper goes on to argue, is compatible with a broad idea of human rights defined by international law and enforced according to territorial authority. The stockholder principle is further compatible with the psychological concept of citizenship based on a specific collective identity and it leads to fair consequences at the domestic and global levels. (shrink)

En estas líneas se quiere mostrar que la obra de Feijoo puede interpretarse en su conjunto como un proyecto político-científico. Para Feijoo, el escepticismo científico es la clave para la construcción de una comunidad ilustrada que, al dedicarse al verdadero conocimiento del mundo físico, no amenaza la religión católica ni el incipiente despliegue del Estado moderno. La ciencia (o filosofía natural) se presenta como el antídoto de las fuerzas centrífugas del error y la disgregación, en todas sus formas. Feijoo no (...) tiene reparo en recibir y propagar las aportaciones de científicos protestantes y sí intención de generar una cultura científica que constituya un cimiento sólido para una sociedad bien organizada. Feijoo promueve la formación científica porque es útil para el _progreso_ social, para la fundación de una comunidad propiamente católica, que incluya a todas las personas cultivadas, al margen de las incipientes unidades nacionales y de los distintos bandos confesionales. (shrink)

A sociedade não se iniciou com a civilização grega, porém fundamentou a civilização ocidental. Pretende-se fazer uma reflexão sobre as questões econômicas do mundo antigo, quando Aristóteles anteviu crescente inserção mercantilista na sociedade e tratará a polis com uma grande autonomia humana. A sociedade grega clássica está centrada na cidade-estado, a polis, a qual era, para os gregos, o estágio final e completo da vida social, a única forma possível de existência civilizada. O conceito aristotélico de economia como ação/política do (...) “cuidar”, como a ciência que busca o melhor uso das riquezas destinadas a manutenção e aperfeiçoamento da vida social, auxilia o mundo moderno à construção de um pensamento econômico. (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)

Here I pursue a deconstructive reading of astrobiology, the emerging science dedicated to a double quest: solving the mystery of life's origin and discovering life beyond Earth. Astrobiology, I argue, is organized as a response to the aporetic formulation assumed by the origin of life in modern molecular biology, where (as Derrida's argues in Life Death) it becomes the origin of textuality. Because all Earth life shares a single genetic code, astrobiologists are seeking a second; hoping that a sort of (...) multi-planetary comparative genomics may reveal the secret to life's origin. But the aporia repeats in the figure of the biosignature, the trace of life. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la relación entre dos autores, Lord Acton y Balmes, en lo que entendemos que ha sido la gran cuestión de la política moderna: la nación y el problema del nacionalismo. Se citan los textos estrechamente relacionados con el tema y se han descartado aquellos más generales o, en el caso de Balmes, de carácter más dogmático o teológico. En el caso del autor español se han seleccionado sus escritos políticos aparecidos en los diferentes medios de prensa en (...) los que colaboró a lo largo de su prolífica carrera. Ambos autores trataron de superar por elevación la dialéctica absolutismo-liberalismo, y propusieron, cada uno a su manera, un modelo de Monarquía Constitucional que no cediese ni al nacionalismo, ni al autoritarismo. Asumieron como propias ideas renovadoras acerca de la libertad política, adaptaron a sus circunstancias las formas políticas propias del federalismo estadounidense, y defendieron la tradición, la religión y el Estado frente a los que ellos entendían que eran las dos grandes amenazas de su época que crecían al amparo del nacionalismo: el individualismo racionalista y el autoritarismo estatalista. (shrink)

Sartre fits fully within the phenomenological tradition inaugurated by Husserl, although he somewhat reelaborates it in an original way, on the basis of Heidegger’s philosophy, with the aim of outlining, in a first stage of his thoughts dating back to the publication of Being and Nothingness, the features stemming from his peculiar atheistic existentialism. Subsequently, in the mature stage of his intellectual itinerary, Sartre will attempt to combine the existentialist ideas with the basic principles of Marxism, a synthesis that will (...) create important works such as Search for a Method and Critique of Dialectical Reason. This chapter analyses time from the phenomenological perspective of the Sartrean ontology of temporality. This analysis allows to conceive the typically human “existential time” as a permanent existence out of oneself. For this purpose, we will retrace the fundamentals of Sartre’s phenomenological ontology outlined in his most important work of 1943, Being and Nothingness, focusing in particular on the structures of consciousness understood as “être-pour-soi”, i.e. the conditions of man’s “absolute freedom”, which Sartre refers to when he shows the one “pour-soi” as the being who is pure nothingness. (shrink)

Providing up-to-date and comprehensive information, this practical guide uses clinical case examples and professional codes of ethics to help addiction counselors learn and apply ethical standards. Real-life examples of ethical dilemmas in clinical practice illustrate potential pitfalls and the actions needed when faced with a dilemma.Since most ethical decisions are not clear cut, the author explores the grey area of each dilemma and provides guidelines on how to determine the best course of action when the best course is unclear. This (...) book emphasizes ethics as a set of guidelines aimed at protecting the client, the clinician, and the profession as a whole. (shrink)

La inmunización en adultos es una estrategia de salud pública que se ha desarrollado e impulsado en los últimos años como consecuencia del envejecimiento poblacional. El aumento de la proporción de personas adultas en la población y la manifiesta preocupación por promover un envejecimiento saludable de la población plantean la premura de aportar evidencia científica sobre los factores que se asocian a la vacunación de adultos. La prevalencia de inmunizaciones en adultos está por debajo de las metas planteadas por el (...) Ministerio de Salud, por ello se propone como objetivo explorar e identificar los factores asociados a la vacunación de adultos en Argentina, teniendo en cuenta las recomendaciones del calendario nacional de inmunizaciones. Se trata de un estudio cuantitativo, exploratorio y correlacional, cuya fuente de datos es la Encuesta Nacional de Factores de Riesgo de 2013. En la metodología se desarrollan modelos logísticos individuales usando como variables explicativas sexo, nivel de instrucción, cobertura de salud, situación conyugal y si accedió a información sobre vacunas de adultos en algún medio masivo de comunicación. La unidad de análisis son las personas mayores de 18 años y se analizan las subpoblaciones objetivo de las siguientes vacunas: doble bacteriana o triple acelular del adulto, influenza y neumococo. Como contribución puede mencionarse que los resultados indican que haber visto o escuchado información sobre vacunas de adultos resultó el factor que más aumenta las probabilidades de estar inmunizados de los adultos argentinos. (shrink)

En las últimas décadas un sector de la Iglesia católica latinoamericana ha impulsado la idea de conformar una Iglesia con rostro indígena, en la cual los indígenas se incorporen a la estructura eclesiástica a través de algunos cargos como catequista o diácono. Algunos incluso han propuesto la ordenación de sacerdotes indígenas que, de acuerdo a la cosmovisión de los indígenas, deben ser casados. El presente artículo tiene el objetivo revisar, desde la perspectiva de la historización de los conceptos propuesta por (...) Ellacuría, el aporte teóricopráctico realizados por la Compañía de Jesús, en particular tres religiosos ignacianos —Xavier Albó, Manuel Marzal y Bartomeu Melià— a dicho proceso. Como se verá a lo largo del texto, ha sido un camino lleno de avances y retrocesos. En el ámbito teórico, los jesuitas han defendido la idea de que la inculturación es el mejor camino para que la Iglesia logre una verdadera inserción en la realidad de las comunidades indígenas. En el terreno práctico se explora la experiencia de los diáconos indígenas en dos regiones: en la zona aymara de los Andes —especialmente en Bolivia— y en la Misión de Bachajón, Chiapas. Ambas experiencias con resultados disimiles, pero que enriquecen el caminar de la Iglesia con rostro indígena. (shrink)

The article describes the peculiar modality in which design combines predictable and unpredictable elements, and places different disciplinary contributes hosted in this number inside an ordering scheme about possible forms of future’s knowledge.The scheme is built on the intersection of two criteria: the first regards the ways in which the action of invention (expansion of reality) and the action of discovering (expansion of truth) are combined; whilst the second one regards the way in which the unpredictable of the subjects and (...) the predictable of the objects is kept separated (truth explains reality from an external position) or weaved (truth is immanent to reality).Inside this general scheme of combination between predictable and unpredictable, the architectural project has a specific position. The promise of effect that characterizes each architectural project is an action’s strategy that builds programs on predictable elements and produces and exchanges inventions about what is unpredictable. (shrink)

Critical and pancritical rationalism were mainly debated in the second half of the XXth century, however a new important paper on pancritical rationalism has been published recently, and hence a critical commentary of this recent publication is required, one is offered here.

This article engages with Johann Arnason’s approach to the entanglements of culture and power in comparative civilizational analysis by simultaneously reframing the themes of the civilizing process and the public sphere. It comments and expands upon some key insights of Arnason concerning the work of Norbert Elias and Jürgen Habermas by adopting an ‘Islamic perspective’ on the processes of singularization of power from its cultural bases and of reconstruction of a modern collective identity merging the steering capacities and the participative (...) ambitions of an emerging urban intelligentsia. The Islamic perspective provides insights into the interplay between civilizing processes and the modes through which cultural traditions innervate a modern public sphere. By revisiting key remarks of Arnason on Elias and Habermas, the Islamic perspective gains original contours, reflecting the search for a type of modernity that is eccentric to the mono-civilizational axis of the Western-led, global civilizing process. While this eccentric positioning entails a severe imbalance of power, it also relativizes the centrality of the modern state in the civilizing process and evidences some original traits of the public sphere in a non-Western context. (shrink)

This study articulates the leitmotif of civilizational analysis (the interaction of power and culture) with regard to the relation between religion and the state within the Islamic civilization or ‘Islamdom’. In a first step, it clarifies, by reference to Marshall Hodgson, the extent to which his view of Islamdom as a transcivilizational ecumene can fit into a comparative type of civilizational analysis. The comparative approach to civilizational analysis can be enriched by reevaluating the specific Islamic pattern of mild legitimization of (...) power through culture, and by integrating into the analysis the resulting field of tension vis-à-vis Western power and its supporting normative paradigms. In a second step, in order to better grasp the forms of power governing this field of tension, the article critically reconsiders Rémi Brague’s characterization of Western European civilization as the outcome of an expansive ‘Roman road’ that matched culture with power by investing into the charisma of corporate entities: first, the church, then the state. Against this double background, the study shows that the culture—power syndrome that is proper to Islamdom as a transcivilizational ecumene does not consecrate a separation of ‘religion’ from the body politic, but promotes the building of expansive patterns of connectedness. (shrink)

«(...)En el célebre debate de Valladolid (1550), como hemos dicho, se confrontan posiciones que, en cierto sentido, sobrepasan el delicado objeto del debate de aquella particular circunstancia histórica para convertise en método y criterio de valor en la relación con el otro, con referencia a su participación en la comunidad de comunicación, (...)No hay duda de que los debates que se refieren al descubrimiento del nuevo mundo son, aun hoy, por un lado, dramáticamente actuales por la situación en la que (...) se encuentra aquel continente latinoamericano, sea en el plan de la ética de la comunicación, sea en el de la liberación, frente al que asumen un papel fundamental las nociones de libertad, justicia y bien.». (shrink)

The problem of God is addressed by Zubiri on the basis of anthropological, epistemological and metaphysical assumptions. A central role is represented by the atheistic and agnostic attitudes with which Zubiri confronts himself in the light of an original philosophy of religion.