En El puesto del hombre en el cosmos, Scheler presenta el instinto como una conducta predominante en el actuar de los animales y, de igual modo, observa que el hombre, en cuanto ser psicofísico, también lo posee y realiza acciones instintivas. La diferencia entre el hombre y el animal es el espíritu, ausente en el segundo y presente en el primero, por lo cual puede actuar racionalmente. Este artículo investiga la presencia del instinto en la constitución del hombre en cuanto (...) ser vivo, analizando cómo este se verfica en la conducta humana inteligente. (shrink)

En las Enéadas, Plotino traza su visión sobre el alma y el cuerpo. Existe una lectura tradicional de Plotino, que encuentra en el pensador una desvaloración del cuerpo; esta lectura está basada en el protagonismo que posee el alma en relación con el cuerpo en el pensamiento plotiniano, y en la interpretación literal del texto del pensador; al contrario, se quiere trazar una valoración positiva del cuerpo en el filósofo. El objetivo de este trabajo es delimitar el concepto de cuerpo (...) en Plotino, entendiendo que este posee su indiscutible importancia y valoración positiva en el texto mismo del filósofo neoplatónico. (shrink)

Thomas Jefferson is among the most important and controversial of American political thinkers: his influence (libertarian, democratic, participatory, and agrarian-republican) is still felt today. A prolific writer, Jefferson left 18,000 letters, Notes on the State of Virginia, an Autobiography, and numerous other papers. Joyce Appleby and Terence Ball have selected the most important of these for presentation in the Cambridge Texts series: Jefferson's views on topics such as revolution, self-government, the role of women and African-American and Native (...) Americans emerge to give a fascinating insight into a man who owned slaves, yet advocated the abolition of slavery. The texts are supported by a concise introduction, suggestions for further reading and short biographies of key figures, all providing invaluable assistance to the student encountering the breadth and richness of Jefferson's thought for the first time. (shrink)

Volume Eight of the project documenting Thomas Jefferson's last years presents 591 documents dated from 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815. Jefferson is overjoyed by American victories late in the War of 1812 and highly interested in the treaty negotiations that ultimately end the conflict. Following Congress's decision to purchase his library, he oversees the counting, packing, and transportation of his books to Washington. Jefferson uses most of the funds from the sale to pay old debts (...) but spends some of the proceeds on new titles. He resigns from the presidency of the American Philosophical Society, revises draft chapters of Louis H. Girardin's history of Virginia, and advises William Wirt on revolutionary-era Stamp Act resolutions. Jefferson criticizes those who discuss politics from the pulpit, and he drafts a bill to transform the Albemarle Academy into Central College. Monticello visitors Francis W. Gilmer, Francis C. Gray, and George Ticknor describe the mountaintop and its inhabitants, and Gray's visit leads to an exchange with Jefferson about how many generations of white interbreeding it takes to clear Negro blood. Finally, although death takes his nephew Peter Carr and brother Randolph Jefferson, the marriage of his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph is a continuing source of great happiness. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions. (shrink)

A literatura chamada de “apocalíptica” tem recebido uma renovada apreciação nos últimos anos. Entretanto, percebe-se certa confusão terminológica que, por fim, leva a uma classificação equivocada do gênero de certos escritos. O presente artigo tem por finalidade analisar as conceituações e as expressões literárias da apocalíptica, com o intuito de se chegar a uma definição mais clara do tema, distinguindo apocalipse enquanto gênero literário e apocalíptica enquanto mentalidade , com as formas básicas de expressão literária do gênero e seus paralelos (...) antigos. Assim sendo, o artigo é dividido em duas partes: primeiramente, verificam-se as definições e características atribuídas ao gênero apocalíptico pelos principais autores do tema, especialmente no que se refere aos escritos judaico-cristãos produzidos entre 250 a.C. e 100 d.C.; em seguida, verificam-se os paralelos antigos presentes na literatura de outros povos, como os sumérios, os persas e os gregos. Por fim, faz-se uma breve análise da ocorrência dessa literatura nos Manuscritos do Mar Morto. Isto posto, chega-se à conclusão de que é possível fazer a distinção acima proposta, a qual traz maior clareza na definição e classificação dos escritos ao gênero atribuídos. (shrink)

Slippery slope arguments are frequently dismissed as fallacious or weak arguments but are nevertheless commonly used in political and bioethical debates. This paper gives an overview of different variants of the argument commonly found in the literature and addresses their argumentative strength and the interrelations between them. The most common variant, the empirical slippery slope argument, predicts that if we do A, at some point the highly undesirable B will follow. I discuss both the question which factors affect likelihood of (...) slippage and the relation between the strength of the prediction and the justificatory power of the argument. (shrink)

I defend an instrumentalist account of moral responsibility and adopt Manuel Vargas’ idea that our responsibility practices are justified by their effects. However, whereas Vargas gives an independent account of morally responsible agency, on my account, responsible agency is defined as the susceptibility to developing and maintaining moral agency through being held responsible. I show that the instrumentalism I propose can avoid some problems more crude forms of instrumentalism encounter by adopting aspects of Strawsonian accounts. I then show the implications (...) for our understanding of responsibility: my account requires us to adopt a graded notion of responsibility and accept the claim that certain individuals may not be responsible because they are not susceptible to being influenced by our moral responsibility practices. Finally, I discuss whether the account is committed to allowing the instrumentalization of non-responsible individuals in cases where blaming them may benefit others’ moral agency. (shrink)

The challenges facing us today require practical wisdom to allow us to react appropriately. In this paper, we argue that at a group level, we will make better decisions if we respect and take into account the moral judgment of agents with diverse styles of cognition and moral reasoning. We show this by focusing on the example of autism, highlighting different strengths and weaknesses of moral reasoning found in autistic and non-autistic persons respectively.

In this paper, I address the question whether mental disorders should be understood to be brain disorders and what conditions need to be met for a disorder to be rightly described as a brain disorder. I defend the view that mental disorders are autonomous and that a condition can be a mental disorder without at the same time being a brain disorder. I then show the consequences of this view. The most important of these is that brain differences underlying mental (...) disorders derive their status as disordered from the fact that they realize mental dysfunction and are therefore non-autonomous or dependent on the level of the mental. I defend this view of brain disorders against the objection that only conditions whose pathological character can be identified independently of the mental level of description count as brain disorders. The understanding of brain disorders I propose requires a certain amount of conceptual revision and is at odds with approaches which take the notion of brain disorder to be fundamental or look to neuroscience to provide us with a purely physiological understanding of mental illness. It also entails a pluralistic understanding of psychiatric illness, according to which a condition can be both a mental disorder and a brain disorder. (shrink)

The question of whether psychopaths are criminally and morally responsible has generated significant controversy in the literature. In this paper, we discuss what relevance a psychopathy diagnosis has for criminal responsibility. It has been argued that figuring out whether psychopathy is a mental illness is of fundamental importance, because it is a precondition for psychopaths’ eligibility to be excused via the legal insanity defense. But even if psychopathy counts as a mental illness, this alone is not sufficient to show the (...) insanity defense is applicable; it must also be shown that, as a result of the illness, specific deficits in moral understanding or control are present. In this paper, we show that a diagnosis of psychopathy will generally not indicate that a defendant is eligible for an insanity defense. This is because the group of individuals subsumed under the diagnosis is so heterogeneous that while some psychopaths do show significant impairments in affect and control which may impact on their responsibility, many psychopaths are not incapacitated in a way relevant to responsibility. (shrink)

Este trabalho tem como foco a filosofia de Schopenhauer em comparação com a proposta salvífica do cristianismo. Os grandes filósofos metafísicos que precederam Schopenhauer identificaram o objetivo maior do espírito com a realização de sua plenitude. Esta é indicada, paralelamente, no campo religioso, a partir da aproximação do homem com Deus. A novidade que este texto pretende apontar é que, diferentemente da tradição filosófica e religiosa do Ocidente, Schopenhauer realizou em sua metafísica um caminho para o espírito humano no qual (...) a sua “libertação” não coincide com a plenitude do espírito. Para este filósofo a libertação é atingida a partir de uma ascese radical, na medida em que propõe a mortificação/ aniquilação do ser como um todo. É um caminho que passa pela busca da nulidade da Vontade, visando sua suprema aniquilação. (shrink)

The present work includes a discussion about the Kantian ideal of progress and its repercussions in the construction of a cosmopolitan education, by virtue of weighing its validity and the challenges it faces in contemporary times. The manuscript analyzes the Kantian postulates about progress to clarify the guidelines of a cosmopolitan education. The document is structured thanks to the bibliographic study and the consequent systematic review of an exploratory type and the help of the hermeneutical method. The approach to the (...) subject begins with the analysis of the enlightened ideals of a cosmopolitan, universal, humanizing education project aimed at fulfilling the ultimate purposes of reason, as the preferred path for human improvement and social progress. At the end of this work, the incompatibility between that ideal of Kantian cosmopolitan education, which promised freedom and self-control, and the current system that promotes an idea of ​​progress far from these principles is made evident. (shrink)

Sin orden moral no puede darse desarrollo de la civilización o verdadero progreso. Ahora bien, el orden moral supone la existencia de un valor moral absoluto que no puede ser otro que el amor que Dios se tiene a sí mismo. La ética balmesiana es una ética del amor: la corrección moral de los actos humanos viene definida por su fidelidad al amor y el cumplimiento del deber. Se trata de una ética profundamente humanista que trata de evitar cualquier sombra (...) de egoísmo y utilitarismo. (shrink)

Opponents of biomedical enhancement frequently adopt what Allen Buchanan has called the “Personal Goods Assumption.” On this assumption, the benefits of biomedical enhancement will accrue primarily to those individuals who undergo enhancements, not to wider society. Buchanan has argued that biomedical enhancements might in fact have substantial social benefits by increasing productivity. We outline another way in which enhancements might benefit wider society: by augmenting civic virtue and thus improving the functioning of our political communities. We thus directly confront critics (...) of biomedical enhancement who argue that it will lead to a loss of social cohesion and a breakdown in political life. (shrink)

Introduction to a special issue on unrealistic optimism.

Esta investigación se emprende motivada por la necesidad de desentrañar la progresión delos modelos de aprendizaje, los cuales se han ido adaptando para responder a las demandas de lasociedad en su dinámica constante de fluctuación y transformaciones. El objetivo de este trabajo es examinar de forma sistemática la evolución de los modelos de aprendizaje, destacando los cambios paradigmáticos que han favorecido la transición de enfoques de aprendizaje tradicionales hacia propuestas más innovadoras y transdisciplinarias. Para lograrlo, se lleva a cabo un (...) análisis bibliográfico apoyado en el método hermenéutico para la interpretación contextual de la literatura y los discursos, a fin de desentrañar las complejidades inherentes en la evolución de los modelos de aprendizaje. Los resultados resaltan la influencia limitante del paradigma de la simplicidad en laformación educativa tradicional y la necesidad de un giro hacia la dialogicidad y la colaboración eintegración disciplinaria para avanzar hacia la complejidad. Se concluye argumentando a favor de la adopción del paradigma de la complejidad, abogando por una epistemología transdisciplinariay un enfoque de aprendizaje interestructurante, que permitan el desarrollo humano integral.El reconocimiento de la complejidad humana en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje exige una transformación radical de la educación hacia prácticas más holísticas y transformadoras, esenciales para construir una sociedad equitativa y justa. (shrink)

People hold wildly opposing and very strong views on the question whether mental disorders are brain disorders, and the disagreement is primarily a conceptual one, not one about whether there are,...

This chapter contains sections titled: Analogy and the Principle of Justice The Logical Form of Analogical Inference Limitations of Analogical Reasoning Challenges to Traditional Theory Analogical Reasoning and Normative Legal Theory References.

Does a diagnosis of brain dysfunction matter for ascriptions of moral responsibility? This chapter argues that, while knowledge of brain pathology can inform judgments of moral responsibility, its evidential value is currently limited for a number of practical and theoretical reasons. These include the problem of establishing causation from correlational data, drawing inferences about individuals from group data, and the reliance of the interpretation of brain findings on well-established psychological findings. Brain disorders sometimes matter for moral responsibility, however, because they (...) change an individual’s moral psychology in a way that is beyond their control. While control over psychological changes is not an excusing factor, brain disorders can mitigate moral responsibility because they confront individuals with new psychological deficits or urges for which their previous moral education and existing external and internal moral resources have not prepared them. (shrink)

This paper contributes to the debate over the so-called “easy argument for numbers”, an argument that uses evidence from natural language to support the metaphysically significant claim that numbers exist. It presents novel data showing that critical examples in the literature are ambiguous between two readings, contrary to previous assumptions. It then accounts for these data using independently motivated linguistic theory. The account developed rescues the easy argument from the primary challenges leveled against it in the literature and sets the (...) agenda for future work to determine whether or not the argument is valid. (shrink)

The distributed temporal logic (DTL) is a logic for reasoning about temporal properties of distributed systems from the local point of view of the system’s agents, which are assumed to execute sequentially and to interact by means of synchronous event sharing. Different versions of DTL have been provided over the years for a number of different applications, reflecting different perspectives on how non-local information can be accessed by each agent. In this paper, we propose an automata-theoretic model checking algorithm for (...) DTL. To this end, we propose a notion of distributed transition system that will be used to specify the system to be verified. The properties that the system should meet are specified in DTL. In order to capture the models of these properties, we propose the notions of generalized distributed Büchi automaton and of distributed Büchi automaton. With these concepts, we are able to adapt results from automata-theoretic approaches to model checking in LTL to the distributed case. (shrink)

Con el nombre de política de la justa memoria el pensador francés Paul Ricoeur elabora un ambicioso proyecto filosófico sobre la representación del pasado. Es un proyecto estructurado alrededor de tres elementos: deber de memoria, trabajo de la historia y deber de justicia. Este artículo de reflexión recoge algunas propuestas de Ricoeur alrededor de esta política de la justa memoria, la cual implica recuperar y usar el pasado, pero también pensar críticamente sobre sus abusos en el presente, además de encontrar (...) el sentido de justicia y de promesa en la memoria justa. (shrink)

El artículo reflexiona teóricamente sobre cómo a través del prisma de una experiencia históricamente desgarradora como fue la Gran Guerra (1914–1918) el sociólogo y filósofo Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) y el literato y biógrafo Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), recrean algunos de los dispositivos centrales al estudio social y filosófico de la memoria: el olvido, el silencio y el recuerdo. El texto revisa, en esa dirección, algunos de los aportes filosóficos, sociológicos y literarios de dos de los textos principales de estos autores: Los (...) marcos sociales de la memoria y El mundo de ayer. Memorias de un europeo. A lo largo del artículo se muestra que el objetivo de dicha revisión no es inventariar con exactitud lo propuesto por ambos autores alrededor de la memoria. Más bien, buscamos recrear como sus visiones sobre la memoria de la Gran Guerra resultan seductoras en su momento y de mucha actualidad hoy en día no solo por lo que dicen sino también por lo que omiten sobre este gran acontecimiento disruptivo.AbstractThis article of theoretical reflection aims at showing how through the prism of a historically harrowing like the Great War (1914-1918), the sociologist and philosopher Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) and the writer and biographer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), recreate some of the central devices to the social and philosophical study of memory: oblivion, silence and remembrance. The paper reviews some of the philosophical, sociological and literary contributions of two major works by these authors: Social Frames of Memory, and the World of Yesterday. Memoirs of a European. Throughout the article I show that the views of these two authors about the memory of the Great War are seductive in their time and very current today not only for what they say but for what they omit about this great disruptive event. (shrink)

Se pretende en este artículo, desde la revisión de los llamados textos éticopolíticos de I. Kant, aventurar a lo largo de tres rutas temáticas la comprensión de los posibles cruces entre política y ética. Para ello, en primer término se aborda el problema de la libertad como condición de posibilidad no sólo de la moral sino de la política. Seguidamente se enfoca la discusión al enfrentamiento de Kant con el realismo político y su defensa de la emancipación político - moral (...) de los hombres. Finalmente la reflexión conduce a la comprensión del cruce entre política y moral bajo la tutela de una óptica política del derecho denominada por Kant Republicanismo. (shrink)

The question of whether mental disorders are disorders of the brain has led to a long- running and controversial dispute within psychiatry, psychology and philosophy of mind and psychology. While recent work in neuroscience frequently tries to identify underlying brain dysfunction in mental disorders, detractors argue that labelling mental disorders as brain disorders is reductive and can result in harmful social effects. This book brings a much- needed philosophical perspective to bear on this important question.

Should moral blame stop at the grave? We often blame the dead for the bad things they did while alive. But blaming the dead poses a prima facie challenge to accounts which take our blaming practices to aim at communicating moral disapproval to wrongdoers or at improving their moral agency. If these kinds of aims are made definitional for blame, blaming the dead becomes impossible. But even on accounts which say that paradigmatically, blame is a form of moral engagement which (...) aims to effect changes in the wrongdoer, blaming the dead may seem unjustified, pointless or even irrational. In this paper, I explain how blaming the dead can be made sense of and justified. However, not all cases of blaming the dead fit this explanation, because blaming the dead is not a homogenous practice. (shrink)

In everyday confabulation and rationalisation of behaviour, agents provide sincerely believed explanations of behaviour which are ill-grounded and normally inaccurate. In this paper, I look at the commonalities and differences between confabulations and rationalisations and investigate their moral costs and benefits. Following Summers and Velleman, I argue that both can be beneficial because they constrain future behaviour through self-consistency motivations. However, I then show that the same features that make confabulations and rationalisations beneficial in some cases can also make them (...) morally costly, when behaviour is explained and justified through the endorsement of bad moral principles. I show that these effects are most likely to occur where the central element of confabulation, self-explanation, and the central element of rationalisation, self-justification, coincide. (shrink)

Esse artigo teórico tem como objetivo discutir o problema do suicídio praticado por homens e suas implicações para os serviços de atenção básica à saúde. Utilizou-se o método da revisão narrativa, uma forma de pesquisa que visa contribuir para a reflexão e a discussão sobre um assunto sem pretender reproduzir dados ou responder questões quantitativas específicas. Tendo como base os descritores “suicídio”, “homem” e “saúde”, identificou-se a partir das plataformas Scielo e Pubmed 56 artigos produzidos nos últimos cinco anos em (...) português e inglês, dentre os quais seis foram selecionados. A análise dos resultados indica que no Brasil as ocorrências de suicídio são mais elevadas nas Regiões Sul e Centro Oeste, onde cerca de 70% dos casos são de homens jovens que optam pelo enforcamento. Pode-se identificar como causa aspectos sociais, econômicos, relacionais, psicológicos e aspectos culturais que implicam transformações nas formas como a sociedade vê os homens e na necessidade de que eles reconheçam suas fragilidades. As masculinidades tradicionais precisam ser revistas a fim de que lhes seja possível reconhecer suas limitações diante da vivência de problemas emocionais, buscando-se superar sua recusa a buscar ajuda nos momentos de fragilidade e intenso sofrimento. Conclui-se que os serviços básicos precisam dinamizar suas ações e promover campanhas preventivas, participação da comunidade, facilitação do acesso a profissionais da saúde mental e diversificação de abordagens, compreendendo o suicídio praticado por homens em suas especificidades. Enquanto problema de saúde pública, o suicídio precisa ser abordado de forma preventiva com ações voltadas para o público em geral, sendo importante compreender sua complexidade no que se refere às questões das masculinidades. (shrink)

Ecological accounts of responsible agency claim that moral feedback is essential to the reasons-responsiveness of agents. In this paper, we discuss McGeer’s scaffolded reasons-responsiveness account in the light of two concerns. The first is that some agents may be less attuned to feedback from their social environment but are nevertheless morally responsible agents – for example, autistic people. The second is that moral audiences can actually work to undermine reasons-responsiveness if they espouse the wrong values. We argue that McGeer’s account (...) can be modified to handle both problems. Once we understand the specific roles that moral feedback plays for recognizing and acting on moral reasons, we can see that autistics frequently do rely on such feedback, although it often needs to be more explicit. Furthermore, although McGeer is correct to highlight the importance of moral feedback, audience sensitivity is not all that matters to reasons-responsiveness; it needs to be tempered by a consistent application of moral rules. Agents also need to make sure that they choose their moral audiences carefully, paying special attention to receiving feedback from audiences which may be adversely affected by their actions. (shrink)