This paper argues that the challenges posed by climate change and the need to quickly move toward a sustainable low-carbon future require the contributions of development ethics. I propose four tasks for development ethics. The first relates to unpacking the urgency posed by climate change by showing how, from an ethical perspective, the impacts of climate change are extremely dangerous risks, especially for those most vulnerable, and thus require immediate attention. The second relates to a better understanding of the components (...) of well-being. The third relates to concerns regarding the global commons and to the need to reframe key components of socio-ecological balance as public goods. The fourth and last task of development ethics refers to the multiple trade-offs and dilemmas in the processes leading to a low-carbon and equitable future arguing for strengthening public deliberation and democracy. (shrink)

Economist-philosopher Amartya Sen's writings on social and political issues have attracted wide audiences. Section 2 introduces his contributions on: how people reason as agents within society; social determinants of people's (lack of) access to goods and of the effective freedoms and agency they enjoy or lack; and associated advocacy of self-specification of identity and high expectations for ‘voice’ and reasoning democracy. Section 3 considers his relation to social theory, his tools for theorizing action in society, and his limited degree of (...) attention to work by sociologists and to capitalism and power structures. Section 4 characterizes a style marked by conceptual refinement, emphases on complexity and individuality, including personal individuality, and reformist optimism. Section 5 shows the features from Sections 3 and 4 at work in his conception of personhood that advocates freedom to make a reasoned composition of personal identity. Similarly, Section 6 addresses his conception of public reasoning and neglect of the sociology of democracy. It contrasts the ideal of a reasoning polity with features in many countries. Sen's programmes for critical autonomy in personhood and for reasoned politics play, nevertheless, a normic role, while his analytical formats help investigation of obstacles to more widespread agency, voice, and democratic participation. (shrink)

This paper suggests that lessons from the field of environmental ethics and sociological perspectives on knowledge are important tools for rethinking what type of ethical analysis is needed for building up further the field of development ethics and, more generally, for addressing some of the most fundamental ethical problems related to global poverty and development. The paper argues for a methodologically pragmatist approach to development ethics that focuses on the interplay between facts, values, concepts and practices. It views development ethics (...) as a hybrid between a public moral?political philosophy and a public conception of social science. Ethical analyses of poverty and development must lead to fundamental changes in the ways knowledge is produced and justified and must challenge the dominance of global institutions and orthodox economics as the single sources of expert knowledge for development. Two of the main tasks of ethical analysis is to provide tools for the formulation of alternative knowledge for development centred on the equal moral worth of all human beings, and to influence global policy making as well as multilateral institutions' goals and policies. The last section of the paper argues that Amartya Sen's version of the Capability Approach is already methodologically pragmatist and points to some convergence between Sen's work and John Dewey's. Further sociological and methodologically pragmatist analysis of the approach is needed to assess the ways in which it is influencing debates on human development and leading to policy changes, and the possible distortions it suffers when adopted by multilateral agencies and policy makers. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the international conference on Ethics and Development at Michigan State University, East Landing (USA) 8?15 April 2005. The section on methodological pragmatism draws from an unpublished paper written with Andrew Light called ?A Pragmatist Methodology for Development Ethics,? presented at the American Philosophical Association (APA) meeting in New York, December 1999. I have updated, transformed and used some parts and insights developed with Light in a way he may not recognize. (shrink)

Time is a fundamental domain of experience. In this paper we ask whether aspects of language and culture affect how people think about this domain. Specifically, we consider whether English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently. We review all of the available evidence both for and against this hypothesis, and report new data that further support and refine it. The results demonstrate that English and Mandarin speakers do think about time differently. As predicted by patterns in language, Mandarin speakers (...) are more likely than English speakers to think about time vertically (with earlier time-points above and later time-points below). (shrink)

Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de conocer acerca de personalidades científicas cubanas y sus obras en el ámbito de la microbiología, para ampliar y profundizar los conocimientos de médicos generales y microbiólogos. En síntesis, se describe la vida de quienes efectuaron contribuciones trascendentales a la medicina cubana y universal. A literature review was made aiming at learning about Cuban scientific personalities and their works in the field of Microbiologyin order to broaden and deepen the knowledge of general (...) practitioners and microbiologists. In short, it describes the life of those who made momentous contributions to Cuban and universal medicine. (shrink)

Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de profundizar los conocimientos sobre el cólera y su historia. Se tratan aspectos relacionados con la etiología de la enfermedad, patogenia, cuadro clínico, tratamiento, epidemiología y prevención. El cólera es una enfermedad de origen multicausal donde intervienen factores biológicos, ambientales, sociales, políticos y culturales, la cual está resurgiendo como un problema sanitario de primera magnitud en muchos países. Para su erradicación es necesario desarrollar una fuerte promoción de salud en el seno de (...) la sociedad, garantizar atención rápida a enfermos y contactos e impedir la desorganización de la estructura social y económica en pro de la calidad de vida del ser humano. A bibliographical revision with the objective of deepening in the knowledge on cholera and its history was carried out. Some aspects related with its aetiology, pathology, clinical picture, treatment, epidemiology and prevention are considered. Cholera is an illness of multicausal origin where biological, environmental, social, political and cultural factors intervene. This disease is resurging as a sanitary problem of first magnitude in many countries. It is necessary to develop a strong promotion of health in the society to eradicate it, to guarantee a quick attention to sick and contacts and to impede the disorganization of the social and economic structure in favour of the quality of the human being life. (shrink)

Across cultures people construct spatial representations of time. However, the particular spatial layouts created to represent time may differ across cultures. This paper examines whether people automatically access and use culturally specific spatial representations when reasoning about time. In Experiment 1, we asked Hebrew and English speakers to arrange pictures depicting temporal sequences of natural events, and to point to the hypothesized location of events relative to a reference point. In both tasks, English speakers (who read left to right) arranged (...) temporal sequences to progress from left to right, whereas Hebrew speakers (who read right to left) arranged them from right to left, replicating previous work. In Experiments 2 and 3, we asked the participants to make rapid temporal order judgments about pairs of pictures presented one after the other (i.e., to decide whether the second picture showed a conceptually earlier or later time-point of an event than the first picture). Participants made responses using two adjacent keyboard keys. English speakers were faster to make “earlier” judgments when the “earlier” response needed to be made with the left response key than with the right response key. Hebrew speakers showed exactly the reverse pattern. Asking participants to use a space-time mapping inconsistent with the one suggested by writing direction in their language created interference, suggesting that participants were automatically creating writing-direction consistent spatial representations in the course of their normal temporal reasoning. It appears that people automatically access culturally specific spatial representations when making temporal judgments even in nonlinguistic tasks. (shrink)

El microscopio constituye un instrumento de vital importancia para la Microbiología y para muchas otras ramas de la Medicina. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de profundizar los conocimientos sobre el microscopio, sobre la historia de este en el período comprendido desde su creación hasta la actualidad a nivel mundial y más brevemente en Cuba. El trabajo aborda también, con una corta descripción, los diferentes tipos existentes, así como algunas de las aplicaciones más importantes en la Microbiología. This (...) bibliographic review was carried out with the objective to deepen the existing knowledge about the history of the microscope since its origin up to date worldwide which and in Cuba, taking into account that it constitutes an instrument of vital importance for microbiology and for many other branches of medicine. This work also deals with a brief description of the different types of microscopes as well as some of the most important applications in microbiology. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Jahrgang: 8 Heft: 2 Seiten: 7-22.

How are we to understand the notion of concept, the very concept of concept itself? One natural way, it seems to me, is to take Fregean sense as a model, and imposing similar constraints on a theory of concepts. This approach has the advantage, among others, of allowing for a distinction to be made between publicly shared, objective concepts, on the one hand, and private, subjective mental representations on the other - a distinction which, I believe, is desirable for various (...) reasons. One problem with Frege. (shrink)

Euthanasia has become the subject of ethical and political debate in many countries including Mexico. Since many physicians are deeply concerned about euthanasia, due to their crucial participation in its decision and implementation, it is important to know the psychological meaning that the term ‘euthanasia’ has for them, as well as their attitudes toward this practice. This study explores psychological meaning and attitudes toward euthanasia in 546 Mexican subjects, either medical students or physicians, who were divided into three groups: a) (...) beginning students, b) advanced students, and c) physicians. We used the semantic networks technique, which analyzed the words the participants associated with the term ‘euthanasia’. Positive psychological meaning, as well as positive attitudes, prevailed among advanced students and physicians when defining euthanasia, whereas both positive and negative psychological meaning together with more ambivalent attitudes toward euthanasia predominated in beginning students. The findings are discussed in the context of a current debate on a bill proposing active euthanasia in Mexico City. (shrink)

Euthanasia has become the subject of ethical and political debate in many countries including Mexico. Since many physicians are deeply concerned about euthanasia, due to their crucial participation in its decision and implementation, it is important to know the psychological meaning that the term ‘euthanasia’ has for them, as well as their attitudes toward this practice. This study explores psychological meaning and attitudes toward euthanasia in 546 Mexican subjects, either medical students or physicians, who were divided into three groups: a) (...) beginning students, b) advanced students, and c) physicians. We used the semantic networks technique, which analyzed the words the participants associated with the term ‘euthanasia’. Positive psychological meaning, as well as positive attitudes, prevailed among advanced students and physicians when defining euthanasia, whereas both positive and negative psychological meaning together with more ambivalent attitudes toward euthanasia predominated in beginning students. The findings are discussed in the context of a current debate on a bill proposing active euthanasia in Mexico City. (shrink)

Resumen Todas las estrategias corteses que refuerzan la imagen o el territorio de los dos polos del proceso comunicativo, emisor y receptor, o que mitigan la vulneración de ambos, se ponen en la retórica publicitaria editorial al servicio de la venta de los productos editoriales y librescos. La cortesía es recurrida, por tanto, en este ámbito comercial como modo de acercamiento al posible comprador mediante los refuerzos valorizantes de la imagen y del territorio, propios o ajenos, y atenuadores, en el (...) caso de los actos descorteses. En este estudio nos acercamos a ocho maneras en las que la retórica editorial recurre a la cortesía para conseguir incrementar sus ventas mediante los usos lingüísticos intensificadores o mitigadores con los que las editoriales construyen y proyectan su mejor identidad. (shrink)

There is an old joke about a theoretical physicist who was charged with figuring out how to increase the milk production of cows. Although many farmers, biologists, and psychologists had tried and failed to solve the problem before him, the physicist had no trouble coming up with a solution on the spot. “ First,” he began, “we assume a spherical cow... ” [Tenenbaum & Griffiths].

What is the role of language in constructing knowledge? In this article, we ask whether learning new relational language can create new ways of thinking. In Experiment 1, we taught English speakers to talk about time using new vertical linguistic metaphors, saying things like “breakfast is above dinner” or “breakfast is below dinner”. In Experiment 2, rather than teaching people new metaphors, we relied on the left–right representations of time that our American college student participants have already internalized through a (...) lifetime of visuospatial experience reading and writing text from left to right. In both experiments, we asked whether the representations are susceptible to verbal interference. We found that learning new metaphors created new space–time associations that could be detected in a nonlinguistic implicit association task; these newly learned representations were not susceptible to verbal interference; and with respect to both verbal and visual interference, representations newly learned from linguistic metaphor behaved just like those on the left–right axis that our participants had acquired through years of visuospatial experience. Taken together, these results suggest that learning new relational language can be a powerful tool in constructing new representations and expanding our cognitive repertoire. (shrink)

Plato’s Phaedrus is a dialogue in which rhetoric is not only discussed, but also displayed. The first half of the plot depicts a rhetorical contest in which Socrates himself offers two opposite speeches on love, a kind of dissoi logoi. The current paper tries to explain that the second half of the dialogue offers the necessary keys to understand that for Plato true rhetoric is nothing but dialectic and that beyond the apparent antilogic exercise carried out by Socrates there can (...) be found philosopher’s dialectical practice itself. Last but not least, the article defends that dialectic does not necessarily deal with Forms. (shrink)

What we plose in this article is the need to think through the sexual diference as one of the main keys to hte understanding of our relationship to others. From that perspective, that relationship has been mostly determined by exclusion and domination. We think that philosophy can make an important contribution to this cause. We have to deal with rethinking the problem of sexual difference once more, reformulating it in other terms. However, what we specifically raise in this article, is (...) the way we women can contribute to such aim. In order to do so we turn to the words of those women who from their activity as thinkers or writers have attempted to force their way thorugh the rather masculine world of philosophy and literature. Finally what we conclude from this refelction is that thinking through the sexual difference as key to the relationship to the other, is basically an ethical question. This ethical point of view means at the same time both the need for a new and original theory, and a real practical compromise as well ethical as political. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende mostrar la necesidad de pensar un concepto de justicia global que vaya más allá de los paradigmas tradicionales de la filosofía. Si queremos una justicia global que incluya a cada sí mismo, es necesario repensar la perspectiva tradicional que domina la discusión sobre derecho internacional. Necesitamos una reflexión crítica sobre la modernidad y la globalización actual. Esta crítica permitirá proponer una nueva Ilustración donde lo global pueda vincularse con el cosmopolitismo y el universalismo moral. El reto será (...) construir una globalización justa con todos y cada uno de los individuos que conforman la nueva ciudadanía global. (shrink)

La puesta en escena del Laques es sencilla: el diálogo tiene lugar en la palestra, donde se han reunido Melesias y Lisímaco, ciudadanos atenienses y padres de dos jóvenes adolescentes, con los generales Laques y Nicias, a fin de debatir sobre la conveniencia del entrenamiento con armas del que un tal Estesíleo ofrece una exhibición. A ellos se les une Sócrates. A partir de allí el diálogo deriva hacia el tratamiento de otras importantes cuestiones, como son el objeto de la (...) educación, las características que debe reunir el buen educador, la naturaleza unitaria de la virtud o la naturaleza de la valentía. Y también, la importancia de la indagación y debate en común. En este sentido, el Laques constituye una potente herramienta propedéutica de la que Platón se sirve, no tanto en vista a transmitir doctrinalmente su propio pensamiento, cuanto a caracterizar cómo entiende la filosofía y a despertar en el lector la reflexión sobre cuestiones filosóficamente pertinentes y la revisión crítica de sus propias opiniones. (shrink)

Se realizó la revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de que los jóvenes profesionales de la salud conozcan acerca de la historia, origen y significado del distintivo que representa a la Medicina en todos sus campos con un carácter humanista y elevados valores éticos y morales: el emblema de Esculapio, al que se le atribuyen dotes para calmar o apaciguar. Esta imagen del bastón con la serpiente es la que ha quedado como un atributo del dios curativo y ha llegado hasta (...) la actualidad como símbolo de la Medicina. The literature review was made in order to young health professionals know about the history, origin and meaning of the emblem that represents the Medicine in all fields with humanist and high ethical values and moral character : the Aesculapius emblem, the feats attributed to him to calm or appease. This image of the snake with the cane has remained as a healing attribute of God and has come to the present as a symbol of medicine. (shrink)

En este artículo intentaré mostrar el discurso moralista empleado por Persson y Savulescu en su obra _¿Preparados para el futuro? La necesidad del mejoramiento moral_. La primera parte del trabajo expondrá la necesidad de demarcar claramente las cuestiones de justicia de la idea de bien, considerando que esta es una distinción central para el filósofo moral y el bioeticista. Intentaré responder a una cuestión: en la actualidad, ¿el filósofo moral emplea un discurso moralista? En la segunda parte del artículo, relacionaré (...) la propuesta de Persson y Savulescu con la novela de Stanislaw Lem _Congreso de futurología_. (shrink)

La metodología empleada en este trabajo, con el fin de argumentar mi propuesta, será un análisis hermenéutico de conceptos filosóficos y de alguna obra literaria. Mi propuesta intentará mostrar la necesidad de un nuevo concepto de justicia. El concepto tradicional de justicia en las sociedades occidentales es antropocéntrico y, por tanto, ha excluido a la naturaleza y a los animales no humanos. En la primera parte del artículo, mostraré, desde la deliberación ética, la necesidad de un concepto diferente de justicia (...) y progreso que incluya a la naturaleza. En la segunda parte, analizaré una novela de George R. Stewart, La tierra permanece. El análisis de esta obra literaria me conducirá a mostrar las injusticias cometidas contra la tierra y sus consecuencias. (shrink)