In this final edition of his classic study of St. Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson presents the sweeping range and organic unity of Thomistic philosophical thought. The philosophical thinking of Aquinas is the result of reason being challenged to relate to many theological conceptions of the Christian tradition. Gilson carefully reviews how Aquinas grapples with the relation itself of faith and reason and continuing through the existence and nature of God and His creation, the world and its creatures, especially (...) human beings with their power of intellect, will, and moral life. He concludes this study by discussing the life of people in society, along with their purpose and final destiny. Gilson demonstrates that Aquinas drew from a wide spectrum of sources in the development of his thought-from the speculations of the ancient Greeks such as Aristotle, to the Arabic and Jewish philosophers of his time, as well as from Christian writers and scripture. The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas offers students of philosophy and medieval studies an insightful introduction to the thought of Aquinas and the Scholastic philosophy of the Middles Ages, insights that are still revelant for today. (shrink)

Functional language is ubiquitous in ecology, mainly in the researches about biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, it has not been adequately investigated by ecologists or philosophers of ecology. In the contemporary philosophy of ecology we can recognize a kind of implicit consensus about this issue: while the etiological approaches cannot offer a good concept of function in ecology, Cummins’ systemic approach can. Here we propose to go beyond this implicit consensus, because we think these approaches are not adequate for ecology. (...) We argue that a sound epistemological framework to function in ecology is to be found in organizational approaches. In this line, we define function in ecology as a precise effect of a given constraint on the ecosystem flow of matter and energy performed by a given item of biodiversity, within a closure of constraints. We elaborate on this definition by developing a case study of a bromeliad ecosystem. (shrink)

Nursing research using concept analysis plays a critical role for knowledge development, particularly when concerning to broad and foundational concepts for nursing practice, such as dignity. This study aimed to synthesize research concerning concept analysis of dignity in nursing care. Based on a literature review, electronic databases were searched using the terms “dignity,” “human dignity,” “concept analysis,” and nurs*. Papers in Portuguese or English were included. The research synthesis was conducted independently by two reviewers. A total of 35 citations were (...) identified and seven papers were included. Six studies were elected using Walker and Avant concept analysis methodology while one applied the Beth Rodgers evolutionary model. The concept of dignity has been studied by nurses, and its attributes, antecedents, consequences, and similar concepts were synthesized into a definition. Dignity emerged as a fundamental concept in nursing ethics and the main attributes synthesized were personhood, sociability, respect, and autonomy. The antecedents identified were: facilitators—patient focus care, recognition, education, and ethical competence; threats—vulnerability and organizational environment. The consequences were positive coping, empowerment, and dignity preservation. The synthesis of these seven studies using concept analysis provided a clear definition of dignity. These findings challenge future research and education, particularly for the study of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education programs to enhance skills for preserving patient dignity in clinical practice. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe social marketing campaign is a value-laden communicative process aiming to change individual behavior and public policy. Due to its normative nature and implications, this process has t...

Several recent works in history and philosophy of science have re-evaluated the alleged opposition between the theses put forth by logical empiricists such as Carnap and the so-called "post-positivists", such as Kuhn. Although the latter came to be viewed as having seriously challenged the logical positivist views of science, recent authors maintain that some of the most notable theses of the Kuhnian view of science have striking similarities with some aspects of Carnap's philosophy. Against that reading, Oliveira and Psillos argue (...) that within Carnap's philosophy there is no place for the Kuhnian theses of incommensurability, holism, and theory-ladenness of observations. This paper presents each of those readings and argues that Carnap and Kuhn have non-opposing views on holism, incommensurability, the theory-ladenness of observations, and scientific revolutions. We note at the very end - without dwelling on the point, however - that they come apart on other matters, such as their views on metaphysics and on the context of discovery/justification distinction. (shrink)

This paper aims to understand the relationship between ignorance and vulnerability by drawing on recent work on the epistemology of ignorance. After elaborating how we might understand the importance of human vulnerability, I develop the claim that ignorance of vulnerability is produced through the pursuit of an ideal of invulnerability that involves both ethical and epistemological closure. The ignorance of vulnerability that is a prerequisite for such invulnerability is, I contend, a pervasive form of ignorance that underlies and grounds other (...) oppressive forms of ignorance. Thus, undoing such forms of ignorance requires working toward a particular form of vulnerability: epistemic vulnerability. (shrink)

This article deals with public manifestations of Catholic religious officials, members of the hierarchy and recognized laity, in the context of the discussion of the National Education Plan - PNE. The focus of the analysis is a condemnation of what they call "gender ideology", present in the proposal document. Such manifestations are the reaffirmation of a conception of human beings as subject to the inexorable "laws of nature" that determine a social order marked by the rigid distinction of roles assigned (...) to women and men. The texts published at the time reveal changes and continuities in the Catholic discourse in its reference to "nature", understood in its biological materiality, as an unswerving fact of human reality, consisting in two sexes must unite under the "natural order". Gender theories are blamed by family disintegration, for providing support to new understandings of humanity, no longer based on bipolarity: men / women. A non extensive dossier of these texts formed the basis for the proposed analyzes. (shrink)

In congenitally or prelingually deaf childrencochlear implantation is open to seriousethical challenge. The ethical dimension ofthis technology is closely related to both asocial standard of quality of life and to theuncertainty of the overall results of cochlearimplantation. Uncertainty with regards theacquisition of oral communicative skills.However, in the western world, available datasuggest that deafness is associated with thelowest educational level and the lowest familyincome. Notwithstanding the existence of aDeaf-World, deafness should be considered as ahandicap. Therefore, society should provide themeans for the (...) fulfilment of a deaf child'sspecific needs.For the time being there is no definitiveanswer with regard the best way to rehabilitatea particular deaf child. Therefore,communitarian values may be acceptable. If thedeaf child parents' decide not to implant,their decision should be respected. Guardiansare entitled to determine which standard ofbest interest to use in a specificcircumstance. They are the proper judges ofwhat (re)habilitation process is best for theirdeaf child. However, most deaf children areborn to two hearing parents. Probably, theywill not be acculturated in the Deaf-World. Itfollows that cochlear implantation is awelcomed (re)habilitation technology.If auditory (re)habilitation will in the futureprovide the necessary communicative skills, inparticular oral language acquisition, customs,values and attitudes of the hearing worldshould be regarded as necessary to accomplish adeaf child's right to an open future. Ifcochlear implantation technology will provideall deaf children with the capacity to developacceptable oral communicative skills –whatever the hearing status of the family andthe cultural environment – then auditory(re)habilitation will be an ethical imperative. (shrink)

Etienne Gilson Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages, first delivered as the Richard Lectures in 1937, was published in 1938 and became an immediate success. Not only does it contribute to a major question of debate in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic philosophy and religion in the medieval period but it also insists on the validity of truth obtainable through reason as well as revelation, on rational argument alongside religious faith. This message is as important in the twenty-first century (...) as it was in the fourth century of the young Augustine, the thirteenth of St Thomas Aquinas, and the twentieth of the mature Gilson. (shrink)

Nombreuse, infiniment ondoyante et diverse, cette pensee n'est qu'une charite toujours active dont le mouvement incessant tend vers des objets qui nous echappent ou vers les aspects inconnus de ceux que nous percevions deja. Comment suivre une telle pensee sans etre cette pensee meme (...)?. Le present ouvrage tente une reponse en meme temps qu'il pose la question. Considerant que les ecrits de Bonaventure dessinent moins une progression lineaire qu'ils ne suivent un ordre du coeur, Etienne Gilson propose ici, (...) apres un chapitre introductif de nature biographique qui cherche l'homme derriere l'oeuvre, un parcours circulaire autour du centre de la synthese bonaventurienne, le Verbe, incarne en la personne du Christ. C'est ainsi que se trouvent abordes les themes fondamentaux que sont la critique de la philosophie naturelle, l'evidence de l'existence de Dieu et le probleme de la science et de la volonte divines, mais aussi la creation, les corps inanimes, les animaux, l'ame humaine, les anges, ou encore l'illumination, la grace et la beatitude. Ces etudes convergent et culminent tout a la fois dans un dernier chapitre qui s'attache a saisir l'esprit de ce penseur. A l'encontre de l'argument qui consiste a qualifier Bonaventure de mystique pour le releguer hors de l'histoire de la philosophie, Etienne Gilson se propose de recourir precisement a cet argument pour l'y reintegrer: le sentiment mystique, penetrant en effet toutes les couches de l'edifice, est ce qui lui confere sa systematicite, et une systematicite telle que cette mystique speculative bonaventurienne partage seule avec la doctrine thomiste le titre de synthese de la pensee scolastique tout entiere. Tendant toujours vers une metaphysique de la mystique chretienne comme vers son terme ultime, cette pensee temoigne simultanement de la necessite de la science et de sa subordination aux ravissements mystiques, et se situe a la rencontre des influences de saint Francois, de saint Augustin et des exigences systematiques des Sommes de Thomas d'Aquin. L'oeuvre de Bonaventure marque ainsi un moment capital dans le long progres par lequel la theologie scolastique parvint a l'unite d'un systeme. (shrink)

Si l'histoire de la pensee medievale inclut celle de ses influences, comme l'histoire de la pensee moderne celle de ses sources, il est alors doublement legitime de se demander ce que peut nous apprendre sur la pensee cartesienne sa confrontation historique avec la pensee medievale, au contact de laquelle elle s'est formee, et a l'encontre de laquelle elle s'est developpee. Prenant la suite de travaux anterieurs, cet ouvrage d'Etienne Gilson envisage tout d'abord la confrontation dans une perspective genetique (en (...) cherchant dans certaines doctrines medievales les sources de theses cartesiennes comme l'inneisme, l'etude des meteores ou de la circulation sanguine), avant de considerer plus precisement le rapport de la metaphysique cartesienne et de la metaphysique medievale a travers l'examen de certains points de doctrine particulierement delicats. C'est ici notamment que sont rencontres et eclaircis les problemes de la critique cartesienne des formes substantielles, du dialogue de Descartes avec saint Augustin a l'occasion du cogito, avec saint Thomas dans la preuve de l'existence de Dieu par la causalite de l'idee, et avec saint Anselme dans la preuve dite ontologique. Le caractere novateur de la pensee cartesienne se trouve ainsi etabli avec une acuite inedite. (shrink)

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is defined as the conscious, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The greater the level of evidence the greater the grade of recommendation. This pioneering explicit concept of EBM is embedded in a particular view of medical practice namely the singular nature of the patient-physician relation and the commitment of the latter towards a specific goal: the treatment and the well being of his or her client. Nevertheless, (...) in many European countries as well as the United States, this integration of the best evidence from systematic research with clinical expertise and patient values appears to be re-interpreted in light of the scarcity of healthcare resources. The purpose of this paper is double. First, to claim that from an ethical perspective EBM should be a guideline to clinical practice; and second, that in specific circumstances EBM might be a useful tool in macro-allocation of healthcare resources. Methodologically the author follows Norman Daniels' theory of democratic accountability to justify this assumption. That is, choices in healthcare must be accountable by democratic procedures. This perspective of distributive justice is responsible for the scope and limits of healthcare services. It follows that particular entitlements to healthcare — namely expensive innovative treatments and medicines —may be fairly restricted as long as this decision is socially and democratically accountable and imposed by financial restrictions of the system. In conclusion, the implementation of EBM, as long as it limits the access to drugs and treatments of unproven scientific results is in accordance with this perspective. The use of EBM is regarded as an instrument to facilitate the access of all citizens to a reasonable level of healthcare and to promote the efficiency of the system. (shrink)

Neste texto analisamos blogs da Internet como espaços educativos nos quais se produzem/constroem as identidades juvenis de indivíduos que buscam se inserir no grupo cultural conhecido como nerd/geek. Inseridos nos Estudos Culturais, na sua vertente pós-moderna e pós-estruturalista, valemo-nos da noção de Representação Cultural para analisar como as identidades são constituídas com a escrita/leitura de blogs disponibilizados na web. Destacamos que a forma como se dá o agrupamento dos jovens que escrevem/leem os blogs é efêmera e espontânea, baseada no prazer (...) de estar junto, no consumo de alguns itens e no estabelecimento de alguns laços afetivos momentâneos. Tal compartilhamento tem semelhança com outras “tribos” urbanas deste início de século XXI. Destacamos, também, que não estamos associando a juventude a uma faixa etária particular, mas, isto sim, a um estilo de vida fortemente ligado ao lazer e ao consumo. Os blogs analisados, ao colocarem em circulação representações de identidades nerd/geek, contribuem para a produção discursiva dessas mesmas identidades em função dos modos como os/as integrantes desse grupo partilham formas de apropriar-se de saberes diversos, de utilizar equipamentos tecnológicos, de consumir produtos comerciais e textos midiáticos. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende caracterizar de forma geral os posicionamentos fisicalistas na filosofia da mente e indicar como a questão do livre-arbítrio surge e pode ser crucial para tal corrente de pensamento. Primeiramente pretende mostrar a diferença entre a posição reducionista e a não-reducionista e depois salientar suas potencialidades e dificuldades na abordagem da questão do livre-arbítrio. Enfim, mesmo que a questão ainda fique em aberto, verificar-se-á que o livre-arbítrio parece não encontrar espaço no cenário apresentado pelas correntes fisicalistas.

The paper identifies three recent lines of interpretation of the politics that can be derived from Deleuze and Guattari, all of which share a way of reading the dualisms in their work that can be traced back to how they understand the actual/virtual partition, and to an alleged pre-eminence of the virtual over the actual. It is argued that this reading is not only inaccurate, but obscures the political dimension of Deleuze and Guattari's work. Clarifying the latter requires a reinterpretation (...) of the dualisms involved (as dyads rather than binaries), of the relation between virtual and actual (as a formal distinction where one acts back upon the other), and the drawing of a clear distinction between what Deleuze calls a ‘transcendent exercise’ of thought and sensibility and the properly metaphysical exercise that sets up the distinction between virtual and actual. What then appears is an image of Deleuze's and Guattari's thought that is far more concerned with practical questions and with a situated political practice of intervention. (shrink)

**** A reprint of Gilson's estimable book of 1936 (Sheed and Ward) (endorsed by BCL3). These 20 lectures were delivered as Gifford Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The study of being was one of the main preoccupations of Gilson's scholarly and intellectual life. Being and Some Philosophers is at once a testament to the persistence of these concerns and an important landmark in the history of the question of being. The book charts the ways in which being is translated across history, from unity in Plato and substance in Aristotle to essence in Avicenna and the act of existence in Aquinas. It examines the vicissitudes of essence (...) and existence in Suarez and Christian Wolff, in Hegel and Kierkegaard, in order to uncover the metaphysical and existential foundations of modern thought. And yet Being and Some Philosophers remains not so much an historical investigation (although it could only have been written by a scholar steeped in the history of philosophy) but, in the words of its author, "a philosophical book, and a dogmatically philosophical one at that." Its passionate vigour has proven, over many years, at once fresh and provocative. Indeed, the appendix to this revised edition contains critiques of the book by two Thomists as well as Gilson's replies to their objections. (shrink)

In all countries where health care access is considered a social right, regulation is both a tool of performance improvement as well as an instrument of social justice. Both social (equity in access) and economical (promoting competition) regulation are at stake due to the nature of the good itself. Different modalities of regulation do exist and usually new regulatory cycles include the creation of stronger regulatory agencies. Indeed, health care regulation is rising steadily in most developed countries as a consequence (...) of the introduction of the New Public Management perspective to provide essential public goods.Health care is delivered by different organisations with very different cultural backgrounds—public and private (profit and non-profit)—that should be accountable for their decisions. Control by regulatory agencies is instrumental to accomplish this goal. However, there is some dispute with regards the degree of regulatory autonomy. The objective of this paper is to determine if independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) are effective in carrying out health care regulation. The authors apply Walshe’s analytical framework to the Regulatory Authority of Health (Portugal) to answer the question if independent regulation works.In conclusion, the two year experience of the Regulatory Authority of Health is important not only because the primary goals of independent regulation were achieved but also because this authority is now a full partner in the health care sector. However, independent agencies need to develop strong mechanisms of accountability because good regulatory governance is the paradigm of this institutional innovation. (shrink)

The received view in mainstream philosophy is that violence is an ‘act’, to be defined in terms of ‘force’ and ‘intentionality’. This approach regrettably and inexcusably tends to prioritise the agent performing the act of violence in question. This paper argues that we should resist this tendency, in order to prioritise the victim or survivor of violence, and her personal experience, not that of the perpetrator. Starting from an analysis of the devastating impact of violence that characterises the experience of (...) sexual violation and its aftermath, based on the memoirs of Susan Brison (philosopher) and Alice Sebold (novelist), we will then proceed to argue that violence should not be thought of merely in terms of an ‘act’, but also as an ‘experience’, the difference being that an act is temporally determinate while an experience is temporally indeterminate. With the help of a phenomenological approach, we will argue that violence has time-indeterminate intended and unintended consequences; these are the ripples of violence. Finally, some of the moral, legal and political implications of acknowledging the temporal indeterminacy of violence will be highlighted. (shrink)

The health sector is facing many challenges, and there is a need to maintain the delivery of high‐quality health‐care. Issues related to equity and access to health‐care have emerged in a context of an economic recession in which the sustainability of the health system depends on everyone, including the actions and decisions of professionals. Therefore, nurses and their skills may be the answer to ethical, professional and community health management, but this recession could lead to major problems in the education (...) of nurses in daily health‐care practice. Due to the limited availability of resources, nurses are increasingly taking leadership positions, continuing to develop their critical abilities and thinking skills, and considering sciences such as deontology and ethics. The main goals of this study were to reflect on the economic recession and its impact on health‐care and to demonstrate the contribution of nursing to the sustainability of health‐care and in the promotion of individuals' dignity. The authors conclude that health‐care depends on economic redistribution and, in this context, needs to be equitable and fair. Nurses have the responsibility to develop their profession according to the underlying sciences and can therefore strategically help the healthcare system. (shrink)

The potential of the computer methodologies for the sociology becomes more and more evident, as well as it is more and more evident that the same sociology is more and more immerse in a society of the knowledge whose main fuel is the information and its reflexive structuring and communicative. The i..

This dissertation aims to examine whether John Searle’s biological naturalism is a more viable alternative to current physicalist and functionalist positions in dealing with the issue of free will. Thus, my strategy is to identify the assumptions of these lines of thought and their philosophical consequences. In order to accomplish this goal the concept of intrinsic intentionality is taken as a guide. I begin by defining what is meant by free will and go on to broadly characterize physicalist and functionalist (...) positions in philosophy of mind. Then, I go on to show how the question of free will arises and can be crucial to such currents of thought. Subsequently, I summarize the biological naturalist position (especially regarding the ontology of consciousness and the question of intentionality) and oppose it to physicalism and functionalism in order to examine the possibility of free will. In this opposition, each theory is decomposed into its main tenets so that they can be critically analyzed. In this analysis, it appears that free will does not seem to find any room in the scenario presented by physicalism and functionalism. It is argued that Searlean biological naturalism is able to explain – better than the other two positions – how free action can be motivated by something that is external to the mental state which is itself performing the action. I then evaluate the ethical implications of these findings, articulating the issues of intrinsic intentionality, free will, strong artificial intelligence in order to conclude that current machines cannot be assigned moral responsibility, since they are not capable of intrinsic intentionality. Then, I argue for the evolutionary origin of intentionality and therefore morality. Finally, I argue that neuroscience does not eliminate moral responsibility since it does not prove that free will is an illusion, i.e., that this branch of science does not contradict John Searle’s biological naturalism. (shrink)

It has been argued by some authors that our reaction to deaf parents who choose deafness for their children ought to be compassion, not condemnation. Although I agree with the reasoning proposed I suggest that this practice could be regarded as unethical. In this article, I shall use the term “dysgenic” as a culturally imposed genetic selection not to achieve any improvement of the human person but to select genetic traits that are commonly accepted as a disabling condition by the (...) majority of the social matrix; in short as a handicap. As in eugenics, dysgenics can be achieved in a positive and a negative way. Positive dysgenics intends to increase the overall number of people with a particular genetic trait. Marriage between deaf people or conceiving deaf children through reproductive technology are examples of positive dysgenics. Negative dysgenics can be obtained through careful prenatal or pre-implantation selection and abortion (or discarding) of normal embryos and foetuses. Only deaf children would be allowed to live. If dysgenics is seen as a programmed genetic intervention that undesirably shapes the human condition – like deliberately creating deaf or dwarf people – the professionals involved in reproductive technologies should answer the question if this should be an accepted ethical practice because the basic human right to an open future is violated. (shrink)

Ce volume recueille des elements propres a eclairer l'oeuvre de Duns Scot et entend montrer que sa lecture n'est pas pas inutile pour comprendre Thomas d'Aquin. Gilson rappelle que le sens des principes dont use l'auteur ne se comprend bien que par l'usage qu'il en fait. Car le Docteur Subtil ne nous a pas laisse un systeme: la parole de Dieu, dont il cherche l'intellection, n'est pas un donne a reconstruire par mode de deduction. La philosophie, la sienne en (...) propre, doit etre traversee de themes fondamentaux ausquels il revient sans cesse pour eclairer les profondeirs de la foi. On trouvera dans cet ouvrage magistral des analyses fondees sur les Commentaires de Pierre Lombard par Duns Scot, ainsi que des etudes sur l'objet de la metaphysique, l'existence de l'etre infini, la nature divine, l'origine du contringent, la connaissance intellectuelle et la volonte. (shrink)

L'introduction proposee par Etienne Gilson a l'etude de saint Augustin a pour vocation de cerner l'esprit meme de l'augustinisme en relevant ce qui, dans la doctrine, a imprime a la pensee medievale l'impulsion dont tant d'oeuvres profondes sont les temoins. Cette etude se propose ainsi de degager les quelques theses essentielles qui, commandant l'ensemble de la doctrine, permettent d'en interpreter le detail. La table systematique des matieres annexee a ce volume permettra d'ailleurs au lecteur de l'utiliser a la maniere (...) d'un inventaire; la bibliographie raisonnee competant cette table l'aidera en outre a s'orienter dans une vaste litterature historique. Cependant, a la place de l'ordre synthetique et lineaire des doctrines qui suivent la norme de l'intellect, nous trouvons dans l'augustinisme un mode d'exposition necessairement autre, approprie a une doctrine dont le centre est dans la grace et dans la charite. La methode est digressive: l'ordre naturel de la doctrine augustinienne est ce rayonnement autour d'un centre, qui est l'ordre meme de la charite. Et s'il s'agit la moins de savoir que d'aimer, la tache propre du philosophe est moins de fiare connaitre que de faire desirer... On concoit alors que cet ouvrage, publie pour la premiere fois en 1929, promette aujourd'hui encore une decouverte originale de saint Augustin. (shrink)

Theology and the Cartesian Doctrine of Freedom, now for the first time available in English,was Étienne Gilson's doctoral thesis and part of a larger project to show the medieval roots of Descartes at a time when the very existence of medieval philosophy was often ignored. Young Descartes was sent to La Flèche, one of the Jesuits schools that offered a complete philosophical program, and Descartes would have had the same philosophical training as a Jesuit. There is some controversy about (...) the exact dates of Descartes's stay at La Flèche and consequently about his philosophy instructor. By Gilson's calculations François Véron taught Descartes for three years. Véron eventually left the Jesuits to be free to engage in extraordinarily aggressive anti-Calvinist polemics. If anything, Véron's overbearing manner may have contributed to Descartes antipathy toward Scholastic philosophy. (Whatever Descartes's objections to its philosophy curriculum, later in life he recommended la Flèche as the best school in France.) Descartes,s great intellectual mission in life was not his mathematics but his physics, which was understood as a part of philosophy. We see him navigate the shoals of heated theological and religious strife in his attempt to articulate the metaphysical foundations(and in particular a philosophical vision of God) for his physics or theory of nature. As a layman, he always pleaded ignorance in technically theological matters. He presented himself as a loyal Catholic, quite sincerely in the portrait Gilson paints. (shrink)

O direito à proteçāo da saúde tende hoje a ser considerado como uma conquista civilizacional, o que faz com que a salvaguarda deste direito seja sobretudo uma responsabilidade da sociedade e das suas instituições democráticas. Tal como noutros países ocidentais, a existência em Portugal de um sistema público de proteçāo da saúde enquadra-se nesta dinâmica, sendo esse um factor decisivo para a melhoria sustentada dos indicadores de saúde da população portuguesa. Nessa medida, defende o autor do artigo, a política de (...) saúde deve sempre tentar conciliar os princípios da equidade e da solidariedade com a vontade social, democraticamente determinada, atribuindo um carácter operacional a critérios de justiça social, fundamentais para uma política de protecção da saúde atenta às necessidades básicas dos cidadãos. Por outro lado, reconhece-se também que, não obstante o contributo fundamental do Serviço Nacional de Saúde para a protecção da saúde dos portugueses, a gestão estatal dos serviços públicos se tem revelado pouco eficiente. Daí a necessidade de se promover uma nova cultura na saúde fundada na convergência de dois factores aparentemente irreconciliáveis: a qualidade na prestação de cuidados de saúde e a optimização da utilização dos recursos disponíveis. Para isso, porém, é necessário perceber que a saúde e a sua protecgao são um bem económico altamente dispendioso e não "gratuito", ainda que frequentemente o seja no momento da utilização dos serviços. Daí se deriva também, segundo o autor, a necessidade de se promover a eficiência do ponto de vista económico através da adequada gestão dos recursos financeiros e dos meios humanos e materiais. De facto, mais do que um direito constitucional, a protecção da saúde deve ser considerada como um dos grandes pilares de uma sociedade democrática e plural. /// All countries face the issue of choice in health care. It is one of the main problems of pluralistic societies. Allocation of healthcare resources is clearly associated with the concept of distributive justice. But does justice, in this context, imply the existence of a right to healthcare? And if it does, is it a fundamental right? Moreover, does such a right, if it exists, include all types of healthcare services or should it be limited to selected types only? Thus, choices must be made and priorities must always be set. In the Portuguese Constitutional Law the right to healthcare services is regarded as a fundamental one. But in most European countries the right to healthcare is a social right, politically and not ethically determined. Hence, this issue is one of distributive justice the aim of which is to ensure that everyone has access to necessary care based on the substantive ethical principles of equity and solidarity. The article proposes that resource allocation is paramount in public policy particularly in regard to healthcare. But whatever the healthcare financing model, the problem is that the efficiency of the system might be related to the degree of state intervention on the healthcare market. Moreover, the ethical principles involved in the debate are associated to an agreed definition of human dignity. This concept implies that no citizen should be excluded from the health system due to lack of financial resources. In fact, the full achievement of personal liberty implies equal access to certain basic goods, namely to the healthcare services deemed necessary. (shrink)

ANDES, Stephen J.C.; YOUNG, Julia. Local Church, Global Church: Catholic Activism in Latin America from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II. Washington, DC, The Catholic University of America Press, 201 O livro em questão insere-se em uma perspectiva analítica, tentando mostrar o jogo de adaptação e de continuidade ao trabalho no continente americano. Apesar do reconhecimento das mudanças notáveis introduzidas pelo Vaticano II, a tese é que, ao contrário do que é sugerido por uma certa literatura de historiografia e teologia latino-americana, (...) o ativismo católico dos anos 60 e 80 teve suas origens no período anterior, tendo, em parte, como ponto de partida a encíclica Rerum Novarum. (shrink)