A partir de 1695-96 la monadología de Leibniz adquiere un fuerte carácter energético y biológico que lleva al filósofo hasta extremos nunca alcanzados por otros autores. En esta metafísica biológica, la doctrina de los archei de J. B. Van Helmont y sus sucesores, F. M. Van Helmont y Lady Conway, juega un papel mucho más profundo de lo que el filósofo nunca quiso admitir: donde materia y espíritu se encuentran.

El último, quizás, de los Antiguos y uno de los primeros entre los Modernos, Leibniz (1646-1716) concibió arriesgadamente el universo, y la ciencia que lo describe, como una explanada infinita, aquella ciudad simbólica, llena de calles y de plazas, desde las que se puede salir y a las que se puede acceder desde cualquier rincón, una ciudad bulliciosa, poliédrica, poblada de vibraciones, resonancias y ecos producidos por sujetos únicos, irrepetibles e inviolables. Para ello, formuló técnicamente la imposible noción de lo (...) infinito en términos finitos manejables, elaboró una potente ontología de las correspondencias entre sistemas, su ley de la continuidad, que hace operativamente idénticos los contrarios, y describió el inagotable e indiferenciado caudal de energía que conforma la secreta esencia de este mundo estallando o expresándose de las formas concretas más variadas, que a nuestra inteligencia es dado medir en los fenómenos que observamos. Analogías de analogías# in infinitum. (shrink)

En trabajos anteriores he tratado de mostrar que la lectura que hemos de hacer de la ciencia natural de Leibniz ha de ser una lectura holística, esto es, un recorrido transversal por todos los niveles ontológicos del ser y por todos los caminos epistémicos del pensar, de manera que puede argumentarse de unos a otros con perfecta legitimidad siempre que, guiados por la forma lógica de la razón, podamos encontrar alguna estructura común que los anude. En este escrito ofrezco un (...) primer ejemplo de este modo de razonar. En el prefacio de los NE Leibniz reconstruye todo su sistema científico y metafísico a partir de las “petites perceptions” (GP V, 46-53). El texto principal de mi escrito será el discurso de Leibniz, que comentaré en notas a pie de página. (shrink)

El trabajo confronta la postura de Charles Taylor y de Isaiah Berlin en torno a la cuestión de la libertad y sus sentidos negativo y positivo. El cotejo de ambas posiciones muestra las diferencias entre los autores en la concepción del liberalismo y la democracia. Las críticas que Taylor dirigió a B..

Anna Smajdor’s proposal of whole body gestational donation (WBGD) states that female patients diagnosed as brain-dead should be considered for use as gestational donors. In this response, Smajdor’s proposal is rejected on four different accounts: (a) the debated acceptability of surrogacy despite women's autonomy, (b) the harm to dead women ́s interests, (c) the interests of the descendants, and (d) the symbolic value of the body and interests of relatives. The first part argues that WBGD rests on a particular conception (...) of the instrumentalization of bodies that cannot be circumvented simply by the patient’s consent and relinquished autonomy. The second part argues the importance of avoiding any harm to dead women’s interests. The third part identifies the importance of the interest of the foetus in the light of Procreative-Beneficence principle that Smajdor overlooks. And finally, the fourth part considers the symbolic value of the human body and the interest of relatives. The main goal of this commentary is not to show that WBGD cannot be implemented; rather, it is to show that there are not any good arguments in favour of doing so. (shrink)

Computer vision research involving street and road detection methods usually focuses on driving assistance and autonomous vehicle systems. In this context, street segmentation occurs in real-time, based on images centered on the street. This work, on the other hand, uses street segmentation for urban planning research to classify pavement types of a city or region, which is particularly important for developing countries. For this application, it is needed a dataset with images from various locations for each street. These images are (...) not necessarily centered on the street and include challenges that are not common in street segmentation datasets, such as mixed pavement types and the presence of faults and holes on the street. We implemented a multi-class version of a state-of-the-art segmentation algorithm and adapted it to perform street pavement classification, handling navigation along streets and angle variation to increase the accuracy of the classification. A data augmentation approach is also proposed to use preliminary results from the test instances as new ground truth and increase the amount of training data. A dataset with more than 300,000 images from 773 streets from a Brazilian city was built. Our approach achieved a precision of 0.93, showing the feasibility of the proposed application. (shrink)

Critical psychiatry has recently echoed Szasz’s longstanding concerns about medical understandings of mental distress. According to Szaszianism, the analogy between mental and somatic disorders is illegitimate because the former presuppose psychosocial and ethical norms, whereas the latter merely involve deviations from natural ones. So-called “having-it-both-ways” views have contested that social norms and values play a role in _both_ mental and somatic healthcare, thus rejecting that the influence of socio-normative considerations in mental healthcare compromises the analogy between mental and somatic disorders. (...) This paper has two goals. Firstly, I argue that having-it-both-ways views fail to provide a compelling answer to Szasz’s challenge. The reason is that what is essential to Szasz’s argument is not that mental disorder attributions involve value judgements, but that mental attributions _in general_ do. Mental disorders are thus doubly value-laden and, _qua_ mental, only metaphorically possible. To illustrate this, I construe Szasz’s view and Fulford’s having-it-both-ways approach as endorsing two different kinds of expressivism about mental disorders, pointing out their different implications for the analysis of delusions. Secondly, I argue, against Szaszianism, that Szasz’s rejection of the analogy is relatively irrelevant for discussions about the appropriateness of medicalizing mental distress. Specifically, I draw from socio-normative approaches to the psychopathology/social deviance distinction and mad and neurodiversity literature to argue that a) it is still possible to distinguish social deviance from psychopathology once we reject the analogy; and b) that _both_ medicalizing and normalizing attitudes to mental distress can harmfully wrong people from relevant collectives. (shrink)

As result of the ongoing doctoral research, this paper composes the Communication delivered at the First National Post-Graduate Meeting in Philosophy of the University of Brasilia. The thesis relates to the real political action arising from liberty and immanent power. Structured in two moments of the Gramscian thought, that is: a) the juvenile phase (1914-1919), correspondent to the initial period of political engagement towards adherence to the Turin labor movement; and b) the analysis of the 48th § of Volume 3 (...) Prison Notebooks (Q 3, 48, 197) about the real political action. The whole problematic of the research relies in the investigation about Gramscian philosophical demands of the real political action that distinguishes it from the utopian idealism. In this sense, which are Gramscian´s contributions towards the Philosophy of praxis? The research indicates that the praxis requires a critical consciousness – passed through intellectual action in the formation of the people –, since the historical conditions are already given. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende un doble objetivo. En primer lugar, poner en valor la antropología religiosa del pensador español, Gonzalo Puente Ojea (1924-2017) que no ha contado aún con la atención académica merecida. En segundo lugar, analizar una tesis que podemos considerar como audaz en la medida que reivindica la recuperación del animismo de E. B. Tylor. Para conseguirlo, tras una breve introducción que contextualiza el problema que abordamos, se comienza por trazar una cartografía del pensamiento sobre la religión de nuestro (...) autor. A continuación, se realiza un recorrido por su lectura del animismo tyloriano, valorando sus principales tesis en correspondencia con las teorías y los resultados de la investigación etnográfica recientes. Tras esto, extendemos nuestra lectura crítica a los principales diálogos que mantuvo con autores contrarios a la teoría animista y, de forma particular, con la teoría angular de la religión de Gustavo Bueno. Se concluye con unas consideraciones finales sobre los límites de neoanimismo como hipótesis explicativa del origen de la religiosidad y su sentido en el ámbito de la concepción irreligiosa de la realidad propia de Puente Ojea. (shrink)

Background:The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of qualified nurses in Spain. As a result, the government authorized the hiring of senior students.Objectives:To explore the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts experienced by final-year nursing students who worked during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.Research design:A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a question guide. Interviews took place via a private video chat room platform. A thematic, inductive (...) analysis was performed of the information gathered.Participants and research context:Eighteen nursing students were recruited from two universities of Madrid, aged between 18 and 65 years old, enrolled in the fourth year of nursing studies and who were hired under a relief contract for health professionals during the pandemic.Ethical considerations:The present study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.Results:Three specific themes emerged: (a) coping with patient triage, (b) difficulties in providing end-of-life care, and (c) coping with patient death. Nursing students participated in the process of patient selection for resource allocation and ICU bed occupancy. They were shown how to care for patients who were not admitted to the ICU, in their last moments and were faced with the difficulties of applying end-of-life care. Finally, the nursing students were confronted with the death of their patients, in overwhelming numbers and under adverse conditions.Conclusions:These findings can help shed light on the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts faced by novice nursing students, incorporated into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it was described that students may normalize the death due to the exhaustion and overwhelmed routine. (shrink)

RESUMEN En el libro X de la Metafísica se trazan las líneas generales de una henología. La reconstrucción de la argumentación debe hacerse desde dos pilares fundamentales: (a) la guía de problemas o aporías que proporciona el libro iii y (b) el proyecto ontológico anunciado en el libro iv, donde se señala la relación entre ontología y henología. El rasgo fundamental de dicha henología sería su subordinación a la ontología. El artículo argumenta que para Aristóteles el rol de la henología (...) es ante todo destructivo, pues con dicha doctrina se pretende establecer -ante todo- la imposibilidad de considerar al "uno" (τὸ ἓν) como principio de los entes. ABSTRACT In the Metaphysics, especially in Book X, are drawn the general lines of a henology. For the proper understanding of this doctrine it is necessary to reconstruct its argumentation from two fundamental basis: (a) the guide of puzzles or aporias that book iii provides and (b) the ontological project announced in book IV where the relationship between ontology and henology is indicated. Once the explanations of Book X are framed a theory about unity (τὸ ἓν) can be systematically assembled, whose fundamental feature would be the following: henology as a science is a subordinate part of ontology. The role of henology is for Aristotle primarily destructive, that is, with this doctrine it is intended to establish the impossibility of considering the 'one' (τὸ ἓν) as a principle of the entities. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Resumo : Central na chamada doutrina ética de Epicuro, o tema da amizade é neste artigo analisado sob três aspectos: a) vinculado aos princípios tradicionais (denominados de regra de ouro ) com os quais várias culturas buscaram reger as relações amistosas; b) de como Epicuro, num sentido diferente do da Academia de Platáo, levou para o Jardim a prática da philía como um teste de reconstituiçáo da pólis ; c) de como o conceito (...) de utilidade (da opheleía ) se vincula ao de interesse e ao de reciprocidade. (shrink)

The problem to be discussed in this paper is what it could have meant, in Epicurus’ words, to call oneself "autodidact", a term which in various philosophers is applied in a similar sense. As will be shown, with regard to Epicurus, autodidaxía has various meanings: a) the philosophical area within which the proper doctrine is made and conceived; b) the requirement of originality in one’s own thinking; c) that knowledge of oneself is without a master, as is also well-doing in (...) moral acting; d) that self-knowledge requires autárkeia; e) that Epicurus, in this respect, cannot be separated from Socrates. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene por objeto subyacente abordar un nuevo diálogo entre derecho y ciencia basado en la aplicación de las teorías del caos y de la complejidad al ámbito jurídico. Para ello se sirve, a modo introductorio, de los diversos artículos en los que el estadounidense John B. Ruhl se ha ocupado de esta materia. Así, además de una descripción breve de las teorías, se discute acerca de la aplicabilidad directa o analógica de las mismas y se presentan los elementos (...) que, a juicio del Ruhl, permiten considerar al derecho como un sistema adaptativo complejo, además de su propuesta normativa. (shrink)

Book Z of the Metaphysics of Aristotle focuses on the idea of the subject, which is one of the senses in which the term “substance” is used. Z is an important book, because it establishes how substance relates to change and matter. One school of interpretation of Z considers one sense of form to be prior to and more important than matter, and has proposed a different reading of the book. I will call this the “formalistic” approach to substance. Supporters (...) of this school hold that the form comprises itself as a whole individual which may be considered as independent of matter. This school focuses especially on Z 3, 1029a-b, where Aristotle seems to challenge the status of matter as an essential part of substance. This paper deals with two formalist approaches, and stresses some difficulties in understanding Z when following the ideas of D. W. Ross. (shrink)

El artículo analiza la noción de Procesos, como parte de la discusión relativa a la Filosofía del Proceso. Se sostiene la posición de que sólo existen objetos con procesos, con lo que, bajo una descripción naturalista, se omite de la realidad a entidades inmóviles, eternas y sin cambios. Como consecuencia, cabe preguntarse: (a) si hay procesos sin objetos; (b), en qué sentido los objetos universales y abstractos podrían prescindir de la noción de procesos, es decir, si habría objetos abstractos sin (...) procesos, asumiendo que por su parte los objetos particulares siempre están asociados a procesos; (c) el de si los procesos son teleológicos; y (d), y si el concepto de procesos implica el de flujo continuo, como se desprende de, por ejemplo, la filosofía del proceso de Whitehead. (shrink)

Resumen: La problematización de la relación entre individuo y sociedad ha atravesado la historia de las ciencias sociales. El objetivo de este escrito es mostrar la originalidad de los planteamientos de Freud sobre el tópico, a través de un análisis comparativo con las aproximaciones propias de las corrientes socioantropológicas de la escuela de Cultura y Personalidad y de la Sociología Francesa. Nuestra investigación se basó en un análisis bibliográfico tanto de algunos textos socioantropológicos claves sobre dicho debate, como de la (...) producción freudiana pertinente. La interpretación del material freudiano se organizó según tres tópicos: a) la afirmación de la determinación simbólica del síntoma, b) la borradura metodológica de la distinción individuo sociedad, y c) la teorización de una eficacia mítica, transindividual y transhistórica. Concluimos subrayando los aportes del pensamiento de Freud a la discusión: la afirmación de la determinación simbólica ofrece las condiciones para la superación de la relación de externalidad entre el polo del individuo y el de la sociedad, y el consecuente rechazo a una relación especular entre ambos. (shrink)

Resumen: La problematización de la relación entre individuo y sociedad ha atravesado la historia de las ciencias sociales. El objetivo de este escrito es mostrar la originalidad de los planteamientos de Freud sobre el tópico, a través de un análisis comparativo con las aproximaciones propias de las corrientes socioantropológicas de la escuela de Cultura y Personalidad y de la Sociología Francesa. Nuestra investigación se basó en un análisis bibliográfico tanto de algunos textos socioantropológicos claves sobre dicho debate, como de la (...) producción freudiana pertinente. La interpretación del material freudiano se organizó según tres tópicos: a) la afirmación de la determinación simbólica del síntoma, b) la borradura metodológica de la distinción individuo sociedad, y c) la teorización de una eficacia mítica, transindividual y transhistórica. Concluimos subrayando los aportes del pensamiento de Freud a la discusión: la afirmación de la determinación simbólica ofrece las condiciones para la superación de la relación de externalidad entre el polo del individuo y el de la sociedad, y el consecuente rechazo a una relación especular entre ambos.: The relation between individual and society has been a main topic across the history of social sciences. The aim of this paper is to show the originality of Sigmund Freud's ideas about the topic, through a comparative analysis with the approaches of the socio-anthropological currents of the school of Culture and Personality and of French Sociology. Our research was based on a bibliographical analysis of some key socio-anthropological texts on this debate, as well as the relevant Freudian production. The interpretation of the Freudian material was organized according to three topics: a) the affirmation of the symbolic determination of symptoms, b) the methodological erasure of the individual society distinction, and c) the theorization of a mythical, transindividual and transhistorical efficacy. We conclude by emphasizing the contributions of Freud's thought to the discussion: the affirmation of symbolic determination offers the conditions for overcoming the externality relation between the pole of the individual and that of society, and the consequent rejection of a specular relationship between the two. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO (...) discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate. (shrink)

Digital COVID certificates are a novel public health policy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. These immunity certificates aim to incentivize vaccination and to deny international travel or access to essential spaces to those who are unable to prove that they are not infectious. In this article, we start by describing immunity certificates and highlighting their differences from vaccination certificates. Then, we focus on the ethical, legal, and social issues involved in their use, namely autonomy and consent, data protection, equity, and (...) international mobility from a global fairness perspective. The main conclusion of our analysis is that digital COVID certificates are only acceptable if they meet certain conditions: that they should not process personal data beyond what is strictly necessary for the aimed goals, that equal access to them should be guaranteed, and that they should not restrict people’s autonomy to access places where contagion is unlikely. We conclude that, if such conditions are guaranteed, digital COVID certificates could contribute to mitigating some of the most severe socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO (...) discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate. (shrink)

In their recent article, Brown et al analyse several ethical aspects around immunity passports and put forward some recommendations for implementing them. Although they offer a comprehensive perspective, they overlook two essential aspects. First, while the authors consider the possibility that immunological passports may appear to discriminate against those who do not possess them, the opposite viewpoint of immune people is underdeveloped. We argue that if a person has been tested positive for and recovered from COVID-19, becoming immune to it, (...) she cannot be considered a hazard to public health and, therefore, the curtailment of her fundamental rights is not legitimate. Second, they omit that vaccine distribution will create similar problems related to immunity-based licenses. Vaccine certificates will de facto generate a sort of immunity passport. In the next phases of the pandemic, different immunity statuses will be at stake, because the need to identify who can spread COVID-19 is unavoidable. If a person does not pose a threat to public health because she cannot spread the infection, then her right to freedom of movement should be respected, regardless of how she acquired that immunity. (shrink)

The notion of the human embryo is not immutable. Various scientific and technological breakthroughs in reproductive biology have compelled us to revisit the definition of the human embryo during the past 2 decades. Somatic cell nuclear transfer, oocyte haploidisation and, more recently, human stem cell-derived embryo models have challenged this scientific term, which has both ethical and legal repercussions. Here, we offer a legal perspective to identify a universally accepted definition of ‘embryo’ which could help to ease and unify the (...) regulation of such entities in different countries. (shrink)

Should we use human germline genome modification only when serious diseases are involved? This belief is the underlying factor in the article written by Kleiderman, Ravitsky and Knoppers to which I now respond. In my opinion, the answer to this question should be negative. In this paper, I attempt to show that there are no good reasons to think that this technology should be limited to serious diseases once it is sufficiently proven to be safe and efficient. In fact, opting (...) otherwise would negatively harm human beings’ right to the highest standard of health that unmodified embryos could promote. Therefore, the issue should not be so much to define adequately what a serious disease is, but rather to elucidate whether this concept should play any role beyond the context of preimplantation genetic testing. This paper argues that we should not accept the similarity between technologies such as PGT and HGGM because they face different challenges and offer totally different possibilities. Therefore, we are in urgent need to build a completely new ethical architecture that covers the application of germline editing in human embryos. As a part of that process, a much deeper debate on the necessity of distinguishing different disease types is required. (shrink)

The application of genetic editing techniques for the prevention or cure of disease is a highly promising tool for the future of humanity. However, its implementation contains a number of ethical and legal challenges that should not be underestimated. On this basis, some sectors have already asked for a veto on any intervention that modifies the human germ line, while supporting somatic line editing. In this paper, I will support that this suggestion makes no sense at all, because the somatic/germ (...) line disjunctive has no moral relevance and, therefore, it should not play any role in legal terms. I will provide a number of reasons to hold this assumption, such as the non‐sacred nature of the germ line, the difference between germ line and human genome modification, or the moral importance of the presence of a will to create modified descendants. While doing so, I will provide some examples of the different approaches to germ line editing adopted by different regulations so as to demonstrate that, contrary to what is sometimes stated, a general ban on this practice is not the rule, but the exception. Additionally, I will show how alternative options which currently exist, such as a selective ban based on criteria different to the germ line/somatic line distinction, match better with the need to conciliate research needs and legitimate ethical concerns. Finally, I will introduce some further suggestions to this same purpose. (shrink)