El respeto a las decisiones autónomas de las personas se ha impuesto en la práctica médica diaria como norma reguladora de las relaciones entre profesionales y pacientes, y esto, en opinión de Alfred I. Tauber, ha puesto a la relación asistencial en una encrucijada. La ética basada en la autonomía —que es el producto de un tiempo y lugar determinados: el liberalismo inglés clásico— ha resultado tremendamente exitosa y ha sido crucial en el desarrollo de las democracias occidentales, pero a (...) juicio de Tauber es muy conflictiva en ámbitos como la medicina. El mero «traslado» de esa autonomía jurídica y liberal, casi exclusivamente preocupada por la protección de los derechos individuales, no hace sino originar un sinfín de problemas en ambos polos de la relación asistencial: genera por un lado profesionales sanitarios a la defensiva y, por otro, se convierte en muchos casos en una abstracción de dudosa utilidad para la persona enferma, pues puede hacernos olvidar la situación de desvalimiento y vulnerabilidad en que al individuo le coloca la situación de enfermedad. El objeto de este breve escrito es dejar apuntados algunos de los conflictos que surgen cuando entendemos el encuentro entre doctor y paciente en términos excesivamente «autonomistas». (shrink)

Reseña de Nys, T., Denier, Y., Vandevelde, T. (eds.): 2007, Autonomy and Paternalism. Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Health Care. Lovaina: Peeters.

In recent years, several studies have advocated the need to expand the concept of patient autonomy beyond the capacity to deliberate and make decisions regarding a specific medical intervention or treatment (decision-making or decisional autonomy). Arguing along the same lines, this paper proposes a multidimensional concept of patient autonomy (decisional, executive, functional, informative and narrative) and argues that determining the specific aspect of autonomy affected is the first step towards protecting or promoting (and respecting) patient autonomy. These different manifestations of (...) autonomy are not mutually dependent; there may be patients who have problems in one dimension, while at the same time being fully autonomous in others. Nevertheless, a close interaction has been observed between the various dimensions and indeed, a phenomenological analysis shows that damage to or a reduction in one aspect of people’s capacity for self-government generally affects other aspects of their autonomy, which in turn disrupts their identity and the way in which they see themselves and are seen by others. In this paper, I shall examine some of these interactions and show how they may lie at the heart of the problem of poor treatment adherence (where adherence is defined as being the extent to which a patient’s behavior over time coincides with the recommendations made by and agreed with their health professional). One example given is that of psoriasis, a chronic skin disease with a very poor adherence record. In Spain, it is calculated that 85% of patients diagnosed with mild to moderate psoriasis fail to comply properly with their treatment, and figures from other parts of the world are similar. Although there are many possible causes for non-adherence among psoriasis patients, assessing their decisional, executive and narrative capacities and taking appropriate action based on the results may help increase adherence rates. (shrink)

Filosofoek, ia ahobatez, bi egia moten arteko bereizketa onartu ohi dute. Alde batetik egia beharrezkoak eta egia kontingenteak bereizi eta bereizten dira. Lan honetan aipatutako bereizketaz ari gara, batez ere txanponaren alderdi bat jorratuz, egia beharrezkoak zertan diren aztertuz hain zuzen ere. Irakurleak bereizketaren jarraipen historikoa ere aurkituko du. Horrez gain, hiru testu berri-klasikoen itzulpena burutu dugu: Quineren enpirismoaren bi dogma, Tarskiren egia eta froga eta Kripkeren identitatea eta beharrezkotasuna.

In this paper, we argue for an objectivist pluralist interpretation of Hume’s moral philosophy. We begin by approaching the pluralist/relativist distinction in aesthetics. Then we move to ethics, and present some reasons which justify considering Hume a normative pluralist, and, in particular, an objectivist pluralist. Our argument will make use of Hume’s idea that there are foru sources of value, and of his notion of artificial lives/moralities.

Ion Soteropoulos reconciles the contradiction between the finite and infinite and transforms this reconciliation into the founding principle of motion. This book will appeal to readers interested in the logical mechanics of the physical universe, the hidden powers of our finite brain, and the utility of robots in the future.

David Wong has introduced the notion of moral ambivalence in the philosophical debate. In this paper, we focus on the nature of moral ambivalence and on its interpretation. We hold that moral ambivalence is not a phenomenon that provides evidence for relativism, as Wong claims, and as relativism is usually understood. Rather, ambivalence denotes a pluralist attitude, an attitude characterized by the thought that two different, even incompatible, courses of action can both be permissible when considered from a single perspective. (...) We distinguish pluralism from relativism and argue that it is more appropriate to consider Wong’s position as an objectivist pluralism. We also highlight the similarity between Wong and Hume’s accounts. (shrink)

Pensar el asunto del deber moral en la ética profesional es el objetivo central de este trabajo, el cual es llevado a cabo, partiendo del análisis y desarrollo de los conceptos que lo fundan como problema filosófico; el concepto de profesión a través de la historia, la deontología como ética profesional y el concepto de deber moral en la praxis profesional, son los tres momentos lógicos que guían este estudio.

[opening paragraph]: An intriguing element of Paul Cezanne's legacy is that while he aligned his paintings with the classical Renaissance tradition of Western art, his innovative body of work ushered in a decisive break with the standards of that tradition in the twentieth century. The many ways in which Cezanne's representational system deviates from the pluralistic art of the twentieth century suggests that probing his allegiance to classicism offers a unique vantage point for studying visual art, perception, and consciousness. It (...) is for this reason that this paper examines Cezanne's contributions from both the painterly and the cognitive science perspectives, asking what artists in fact contribute to our studies in these areas. [A response to this article from Semir Zeki is published in Trends in Cognitive Science.]. (shrink)

ResumenEn este trabajo tratamos de esclarecer en qué sentido Hume es relativista con relación a la ética y a la estética. El sentimentalismo inherente a su ética y estética hace que, desde el punto de vista de algunos intérpretes, Hume sea un relativista radical con respecto a dichos ámbitos. Sin embargo, tanto el innegable sentimentalismo de Hume como su supuesto relativismo requieren un profundo estudio. Nos valdremos del concepto de regla general para analizar las relaciones entre sentimentalismo y relativismo, y (...) finalmente argumentaremos que si bien tiene sentido calificar a Hume como relativista, su relativismo es moderado y sensato.Palabras claveRelativismo, Hume, regla general, Ética, EstéticaAbstractIn this paper we will try to elucidate in what sense Hume is a relativist concerning ethics and aesthetics. According to some interpreters’ views, Hume’s sentimentalism with respect to ethics and aesthetics implies that Hume is what we could call a radical relativist. However, both Hume’s sentimentalism and his alleged relativism need a deep analysis. We will analyze the relationship between sentimentalism and relativism based on the concept of general rule. Finally we will argue that, even though Hume may be labelled as a relativist, his relativism is moderate and sensible.Keywords Relativism, Hume, general rule, Ethics, Aesthetics. (shrink)

My purpose in this paper is to show the evolution of the relationship between nonmonotonic logic and logic programming. I think that there are two periods in the evolution of this relationship. The first one isthe point of contact between these two fields that had been developed independently. In the second period, as I will show, the motivation to propose three-valued nonmonotonic logic comes from the study of the relationship between these two fields, and not from the study of nonmonotonic (...) logic itself. (shrink)

El presente trabajo pretende aportar una serie de recomendaciones prácticas consonantes con el respeto de los derechos humanos para el trabajo periodístico al momento de abordar el fenómeno de la inmigración. Para ello se recogen aportes teóricos y conceptuales acerca del análisis de discurso, la teoría del framing y teoría de los derechos humanos, y con ello evidenciar la importancia que tienen los enfoques periodísticos al momento de exponer noticias relacionadas con el fenómeno de la inmigración.

Nuestro objetivo es examinar el tratamiento que ofreció Ludwig Wittgenstein en Sobre la certeza al problema escéptico del mundo externo, el cual consiste en la imposibilidad de conocer el mundo empírico. Reconstruiremos este problema a partir del argumento del sueño de René Descartes. Wittgenstein responde que la existencia de un mundo circundante al observador forma parte de las asunciones de los juegos del lenguaje, de modo que el problema es inadmisible. Evaluaremos el abordaje wittgensteiniano y lo entenderemos como una propuesta (...) contextualista que disuelve el problema mediante una reconsideración de sus presupuestos. La lectura contextualista que ofreceremos defiende que los estándares de atribución de verdad, significado y sentido son sensitivos a un contexto de enunciación, que en la obra wittgensteiniana toma el nombre de juego de lenguaje. (shrink)

In his last book about Locke{\textquoteright}s philosophy, E. J. Lowe claims that Frege{\textquoteright}s arguments against the Lockean conception of number are not compelling, while at the same time he painstakingly defines the Lockean conception Lowe himself espouses. The aim of this paper is to show that the textual evidence considered by Lowe may be interpreted in another direction. This alternative reading of Frege{\textquoteright}s arguments throws light on Frege{\textquoteright}s and Lowe{\textquoteright}s different agendas. Moreover, in this paper, the problem of singular sentences (...) of number is presented, and Frege{\textquoteright}s and Lowe{\textquoteright}s views are confronted with it. (shrink)