Constitutional law in the United States is, for most practical purposes, the product of ‘judicial review’, the power of judges to disallow policy choices made by other officials or institutions of government, ostensibly because those choices are prohibited by the Constitution. This extraordinary and unprecedented power, America's dubious contribution to the science of government, has made American judges the most powerful in the world, not only legislators but super-legislators, legislators with virtually the last word. Because lawmaking power divorced from popular (...) will is tyranny, most states have attempted to reconcile the lawmaking power of judges with representative self-government by subjecting all or some judges to some form of popular election. In all but four such states, judges, encouraged and supported by their fellow lawyers in the organized bar—would-be judges and beneficiaries of judicial power—have responded by adopting codes of judicial ethics that limit what candidates for election to judicial office are permitted to say. The effect is to undermine elections as a control on judicial power by limiting criticism of judicial activism, the misuse of judicial power. (shrink)

An undiscovered chapter in the history of architecture comes from the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia. Poetics of Architecture is the name given to the studioworkshop at the Georgian Technical University set up by the Georgian architect Shota Bostanashvili (1948–2013). From 1990 until his death he delivered insightful, playful and rather provocative lectures on architecture at this university. He preferred to call his architectural philosophy, critical discourse on architecture. Themes ranged from poetics to metapoetics of architecture. His philosophy of architecture is (...) illustrated by some of his designs and executed projects which demonstrate a drift from existentialism to the philosophy of play. This study includes reference to his last building, a project whose demolition Bostanashvili witnessed before passing away. Based on the concept of the return of the sacred, this edifice was a sort of counter movement to technogenic architecture. (shrink)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion.

Tras descartar el acercamiento metodológico a la historia de Doñana como un paso hacia la “conservación de la Naturaleza” con mayúscula, este artículo sitúa la historia del Parque en los contextos políticos, personales y científicos que lo hicieron posible. Estos contextos nos colocan en la escala internacional del desmantelamiento del imperio británico y de la transformación de la ornitología y la ecología como disciplinas. Las rutas migratorias de las aves de Doñana contribuyeron a la dimensión internacional en la que se (...) fraguó el acuerdo entre el World Wildlife Fund (WWF) y el Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) que llevó a la inauguración de la Reserva Biológica de Doñana en 1965. La posterior creación del Parque abrió la puerta a nuevos desencuentros entre diversos modos de entender el conservacionismo y entre diferentes categorizaciones científicas del territorio de Doñana. La resolución de estos conflictos dependió de fuerzas y alianzas, lo que permite concluir afinando el argumento metodológico de partida. (shrink)

Industrial (“white”) biotechnology promises to contribute to a more sustainable future. Compared to current production processes, cases have been identified where industrial biotechnology can decrease the amount of energy and raw materials used to make products and also reduce the amount of emissions and waste produced during production. However, switching from products based on chemical production processes and fossil fuels towards “biobased” products is at present not necessarily economically viable. This is especially true for bulk products, for example ethanol production (...) from biomass. Therefore, scientists are also turning to genetic modification as a means to develop organisms that can produce at lower costs. These include not only micro-organisms, but also organisms used in agriculture for food and feed.The use of genetic modification for “deliberate release” purposes, in particular, has met great opposition in Europe. Many industrial biotechnology applications may, due to their scale, entail deliberate releases of GM organisms. Thus, the biobased economy brings back a familiar question; is it ethically justifiable, and acceptable to citizens, to expose the environment and society to the risks associated with GM, in order to protect that same environment and to sustain our affluent way of life? For a successful innovation towards a biobased economy, its proponents, especially producers, need to take into account (take responsibility for) such issues when developing new products and processes. These issues, and how scientists can interact with citizens about them in a timely way, are further explored in projects at Delft University and Leiden University, also in collaboration with Utrecht University. (shrink)

Resumo Autores como os físicos Léon Rosenfeld, Gerald Holton e Franco Selleri, bem como o filósofo Miguel Reale perceberam já que, no interior da mecânica quântica, o princípio da complementaridade de Niels Bohr pode ser aproximado á noção filosófica de dialéctica. Além de buscar contribuir para robustecer tal linha de interpretaoção do famoso principío bohriano, neste paper tentaremos compreender dialecticamente a relaoção de Louis de Broglie e a de desigualdade de Werner Heisenberg. Por fim, argumentaremos a favor de um enfoque (...) realista do principío em causa. (shrink)

The paper analyzes the acceleration of the history we are witnessing in our time, which is evident in a series of events and crises that mark the world we live in, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, which have not occurred in such significant intensity and frequency since the end of the Second World War. Considering these events and crises, the paper discusses the thesis of a historian Eric Hobsbawm that the “short” 20th century that had lasted (...) as “the age of extremes” since the First World War ended with the fall of “communism” and the Berlin Wall, after which we in fact entered the 21st century. Contrary to this thesis and to the well-known thesis on the “end of history”, our paper presents the view that we are still “politically” in the 20th century, because in our time there are similar tensions between the great powers that marked the 20th century and which in general mark the modern world since Westphalian peace in the 17th century. This general thesis is explained by the observation of the most basic lines of the dialectics of modern European and world history. The paper concludes that we are not only “politically” living in the “long” 20th century, but we are still “politically” living in the “longest” classical Westphalian age, which has been lasting for three and a half centuries in the same dialectical contradictions of world politics. Ultimately, the paper also discusses the task of philosophy in the times of the so-called “acceleration of history”, such as ours, and concludes that philosophy as a discipline in these times is obligated to offer, with theoretical creativity, a fresh philosophy of history, explaining in wider perspective a series of actual international occurrences. (shrink)

This paper provides a discussion of Jacques Rancière’s former teacher at École Normale Supérieure, then famous for fashioning Marxism with the philosophical gauge of structuralism, Louis Althusser. Perhaps a brief discussion on the relation between the two would render context to the origins of Rancière's philosophico-political praxis, specifically the humble beginnings of conceptualizing an egalitarian method out of his philosophical rupture with Althusserianism. Meanwhile, to reduce the philosophical enterprise of Althusser into its practical shortcomings and silence during the revolutionary events (...) of May 1968 in France would do an injustice to the magnitude of his contribution to contemporary French political theory and his major revisions in the theoretical direction of the Parti communiste français. Thus, the following discussions focus on sketching Althusser's theoretical foundations, which possibly clarifies the political decision he has made during May '68: a demand for organization over spontaneous revolutionary activity based on the authority of theoretical practice over the ideological activities—a decision that became the point of departure for Rancière's subversion of both mastery and the structural inequality Althusserianism entail. The whole piece is guided by the following two-fold question—a question, perhaps, akin to Badiou's inquiry: What were the philosophico-political interventions of Louis Althusser, and why did Rancière move away from his direction? (shrink)

In the post-1945 world, constitutionalism has transcended the nation state, with an array of transnational arrangements now manifesting constitutional characteristics—so says a growing number of scholars. This article reveals an earlier but largely forgotten discourse of transnational constitutionalism: the constitutional theory of the British Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Focusing on the work of Albert Venn Dicey, the article shows that, when the Empire was at the height of its power and prestige, British constitutional scholars came (...) to see the Empire as a constitutional order and project. For Dicey, a committed constitutionalist and imperialist, the central dynamic of the imperial constitutional order was balancing British constitutional principles with imperial unity. This article focuses in particular on parliamentary sovereignty, a constitutional principle that, for Dicey, was both necessary for and dangerous to the Empire’s integrity. An exercise in intellectual history, the article rethinks Dicey’s work and the constitutional tradition in which Dicey has played such an integral part, seeking to reveal empire's forgotten significance. (shrink)

International law lacks many of the standard features of domestic law. There are few legislative or judicial bodies with exclusive authority over particular jurisdictions or subject matters, the subjects regulated by international law typically must affirmatively consent to be bound by it, and supranational authorities with the power to coerce states to comply with international obligations are rare. How can a legal system with these features generate changes in state behavior? For many theories, the ability of international law to inform (...) and change individual preferences provides the answer. When voters care that treaty commitments be kept, or that international norms be honored, the theory goes, leaders are more likely to be able to make choices consistent with international obligations. Over the last decade, a literature has emerged testing these theories using surveys and experiments embedded in surveys. Multiple U.S. studies find that international law and international norm arguments shift public opinion in the direction of greater compliance by 4 to 20 percentage points. However, studies in foreign contexts are more mixed, with some backlash reported in countries in which international law is highly politicized. This Article describes the state of current knowledge about whether international law actually does change preferences, explains the limitations with existing research, and proposes avenues for future study. (shrink)

BackgroundThe ARRIVE (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) guidelines are widely endorsed but compliance is limited. We sought to determine whether journal-requested completion of an ARRIVE checklist improves full compliance with the guidelines.MethodsIn a randomised controlled trial, manuscripts reporting in vivo animal research submitted to PLOS ONE (March–June 2015) were randomly allocated to either requested completion of an ARRIVE checklist or current standard practice. Authors, academic editors, and peer reviewers were blinded to group allocation. Trained reviewers performed outcome adjudication (...) in duplicate by assessing manuscripts against an operationalised version of the ARRIVE guidelines that consists 108 items. Our primary outcome was the between-group differences in the proportion of manuscripts meeting all ARRIVE guideline checklist subitems.ResultsWe randomised 1689 manuscripts (control: n = 844, intervention: n = 845), of which 1269 were sent for peer review and 762 (control: n = 340; intervention: n = 332) accepted for publication. No manuscript in either group achieved full compliance with the ARRIVE checklist. Details of animal husbandry (ARRIVE subitem 9b) was the only subitem to show improvements in reporting, with the proportion of compliant manuscripts rising from 52.1 to 74.1% (X2 = 34.0, df = 1, p = 2.1 × 10−7) in the control and intervention groups, respectively.ConclusionsThese results suggest that altering the editorial process to include requests for a completed ARRIVE checklist is not enough to improve compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines. Other approaches, such as more stringent editorial policies or a targeted approach on key quality items, may promote improvements in reporting. (shrink)

Desde hace décadas se viene hablando en América Latina y de manera muy particular en Venezuela sobre la necesidad de una transformación universitaria. Lo que, como es de esperar, genera gran debate entre quienes se aferran a las roídas estructuras de las instituciones de educación superior por los privilegios que consagran y los que apuestan por una nueva universidad. Este trabajo intenta contribuir al gran debate nacional que el proyecto de Ley de Educación Universitaria (2010) ha generado en Venezuela, para (...) ello hace énfasis en lo importante de la radicalización de la democracia universitaria y la introducción del pensamiento crítico en los planes de estudio. (shrink)

This ar ti cle is part of the anal y sis of the his tory of ideas in Latin Amer ica, which is a field of thought that con trib utes to re cov er ing con tri bu tions from di verse fields of knowl edge, and which has been fo cused on by in tel lec tu als who con sider our iden tity to be a theme..

This is an English translation of a very short and quite dense Spanish original in which Gustavo Bueno summarizes and updates his philosophy of science as presented in 5 volumes in the 1990s. From then onwards, Bueno and a number of authors have developed this philosophy through specific applications to fields as diverse as classic chemistry, quantum mechanics, chaos theory, cybernetics, Darwinism, ethology, geology, plate tectonics, anthropology, sociology, economics and psychology. This has resulted in a number of doctoral dissertations, books (...) and articles. Unfortunately, that wealth of literature is for the most part only available in Spanish, although some of it has been produced in English and French or has been later translated into German and Chinese. Therefore, this translation is a welcome step towards an overdue effort.Gustavo Bueno is known as the main developer of philosophical materialism, one of the few last efforts to construe a comprehensive and coherent philosophical s .. (shrink)

Law - Introduction, History, Philosophy And Sociology of Law. Philosophy. Politics. Democracy. Unger, Roberto Mangabeira, 1947-.

Ova četiri teksta prilagođena su izlaganja o knjizi Gordane Bosanac "Utopija i inauguralni paradoks", održana prigodom njezina predstavljanja.Predstavljanje se, uz raspravu, odvijalo u Klubu sveučilišnih nastavnika u Zagebu 24. listopada 2005.These four contributions are adapted talks on Gordana Bosanac’s book Utopija i inauguralniparadoks, delivered on the occasion of its presentation.This presentation took place at the Croatian University Teachers’ Club in Zagreb on 24th October2005.

Although the capacity to infect non-dividing cells is a hallmark of lentiviruses, nuclear import is still barely understood. More than 100 research papers have been dedicated to this topic during the last 15 years, yet, more questions have been raised than answers. The signal-facilitating translocation of the viral preintegration complex (PIC) through the nuclear pore complex (NPC) remains unknown. It is clear, however, that nuclear import is the result of a complex interplay between viral and cellular components. In this review, (...) we discuss the current knowledge on nuclear import. We focus on the controversies and pitfalls and discuss the interplay between virus and host. (shrink)

Resumo: Na contemporaneidade, observa-se grande prevalência de enfermidades crônicas sem possibilidade de cura, que se acompanham de significativa redução da qualidade de vida do paciente. Os cuidados paliativos têm como finalidade proporcionar ao paciente conforto físico e emocional na terminalidade da vida. Em momentos em que os CP são negligenciados de alguma forma e deixam de ser exercidos de maneira plena, pode ocorrer a prática da distanásia – procedimentos que apenas prolongam o processo de morrer. A reflexão de Emmanuel Lévinas (...) é caracterizada pelo desenvolvimento do projeto de uma Primeira Filosia, a qual aborda nova compreensão da subjetividade humana pela valoriza­ção da ética em detrimento da ontologia fundamental. Esse projeto tem como objetivo apresentar o conceito de responsabilidade em Emmanuel Lévinas e sua aplicação no estudo dos limites dos cuidados paliativos para que se evite procedimentos médicos distanásicos. Palavras-chave: Bioethics. Social Responsibility. Palliative Care. End-Life Care. Physician-patient relations. (shrink)

This work studies the philosophical and political meaning of the concepts of pardon and promise as a remedy for preserving human affairs from their constant fragility, according to the premises of Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition. The function of pardon is analyzed as that which redeems us ..

This paper brings studies around the poetic dimension of language to approach the relationship between teaching in preschool education and the experience of being open and listening as an aesthesic way of coexisting in the world. The approximation of philosophy, arts and preschool education from the reunion between music and education highlights that listening refers to the sound of meaning, and not to the meaning of the sound to be interpreted. The dialog with the thinking of Jean-Luc Nancy, stating that (...) the sensible sense/meaning arouses the intelligible sense/meaning and in a constant movement that is not completed or finalized, producing signification or information, appears as a philosophical resistance to the privilege of the theoretical record founded upon the western prevalence of the optical model. To be open and listening implies the resonance as the sound of sense, as the body's first or last depth. The music as a play between sound and noise, as a poetic production of ordering sound senses provoked by resonance – as a gesture of listening to the listening, contributes to question the education of babies and small children based on a body that can play with the worlds' sounds to experience the poetics of making noise as the musical power of playing with sounds and noises. Children's sonic appetite calls them to make noise for the esthesia of listening to the world in the plurality of coexistence. The gesture of being open and listening in the teaching of babies and small children points out to educative actions that consider the experience constituted by resonances and reverberations of meanings implied in the sound, a feeling of feeling, as share and sharing of voices, signs, gestures, shapes, of the felt meaning and the sensible meaning that gather ones-with-others in human coexistence.key words: music; listenin; early childhood education; jean-luc nancy.estar à escuta: música e docência na educação infantilresumoO ensaio aproxima estudos em torno da dimensão poética da linguagem para abordar a relação entre docência na educação infantil e experiência de estar à escuta como modo estésico de coexistir no mundo. A aproximação entre filosofia, artes e educação infantil, desde o encontro entre e música e educação, sublinha que a escuta é o som do sentido e não o sentido do som a ser interpretado. A interlocução com o pensamento de Jean-Luc Nancy, ao permitir afirmar que o sentido sensível suscita o sentido sensato ou inteligível e o faz num movimento constante que não se completa ou finaliza produzindo uma significação ou uma informação, emerge como resistência filosófica ao privilégio do registro teórico fundado na primazia ocidental do modelo óptico. Estar à escuta implica a ressonância como o som do sentido, como profundidade primeira ou última do corpo. A música como jogo entre som e ruído, como produção poética de ordenação de sentidos sonoros provocados pela ressonância – como gesto de escutar a escuta, contribui para interrogar a educação de bebês e crianças pequenas a partir de um corpo que pode brincar com a sonoridade do mundo para viver a poética do barulhar como potência musical de jogar com sons e ruídos. O apetite sonoro das crianças as convocam a barulhar pela estesia de escutar o mundo na pluralidade da coexistência. O gesto de estar à escuta na docência com bebês e crianças pequenas aponta para ações educativas que consideram a experiência constituinte de ressonâncias e reverberações de sentidos imbricamos no som, um sentir se sentir, como partição e partilha das vozes, dos signos, dos gestos, das formas, do sentido sentido e do sentido sensato que nos situam sendo-uns-com-os-outros na coexistência mundana.palavras chave: música; escuta; educação infantil; jean-luc nancy.estar a la escucha: música y docencia en la educación infantilresumenEl ensayo aproxima estudios acerca de la dimensión poética del lenguaje para abordar la relación entre docencia en la educación infantil y experiencia de estar a la escucha como modo sensible de coexistir en el mundo. La aproximación entre filosofía, artes y educación infantil, desde el encuentro entre música y educación, destaca que la escucha es el sonido del sentido y no el sentido del sonido a ser interpretado. La interlocución con el pensamiento de Jean-Luc Nancy, al permitir afirmar que el sentido sensible suscita el sentido sensato o inteligible y lo hace en un movimiento constante que no se completa o finaliza produciendo una significación o una información, emerge como resistencia filosófica al privilegio del registro teórico fundado en la primacía occidental del modelo óptico. Estar a la escucha implica la resonancia como el sonido del sentido, como profundidad primera o última del cuerpo. La música como juego entre sonido y ruido, como producción poética de ordenación de los sentidos sonoros provocados por la resonancia -como gesto de escuchar la escucha, contribuye para interrogar la educación de bebés, niños y niñas pequeñas a partir de un cuerpo que puede jugar con la sonoridad del mundo para vivir la poética del hacer ruido como potencia musical del jugar con sonidos y ruidos. El apetito sonoro de los niños y niñas las llama hacer ruidos por la sensibilidad de escuchar el mundo en la pluralidad de la coexistencia. El gesto de estar a la escucha en la docencia con bebés, niños y niñas pequeñas apunta para acciones educativas que consideran la experiencia constituyente de resonancias y reverberaciones de sentidos solapados en el sonido, un sentir sentirse, como participación y intercambio de voces, de signos, de gestos de las formas, del sonido sentido y del sentido sensato que nos sitúan siendo-unos-con-los-otros en la coexistencia mundana.palabras clave: música; escucha; educación infantil; jean-luc nancy. (shrink)

The article discusses how the emergence of the term "minor" in Brazilian society, from the mid-nineteenth century, forged mainly by the practice of legal and medical discourse, outlined a path of institutionalization for poor children; first, in the post-abolition period of enslavement until the thirties of the last century and, later, until the period of democratization of Brazil, considering the promulgation of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The analysis for the proposed periods was based on the concept of disciplinary power (...) and biopower, both coined by Foucault. Furthermore, the emergence of the black child was discussed, based on its status as a citizen child, contained in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent created in the 1990s. From this period up to the present day, the text deals with the new devices created by the Brazilian State, which have ensured unequal conditions for black children and mainly promoted the increase of homicides among them.The analysis of the last period presented was based on the concept of “necropolitics,” developed by Achille Mbembe. Finally, we defend the principle that another childhood for black child will only be possible through a becoming-other, a new opening of the world and, above all, a decolonization of childhood for children belonging to the black ethnic-racial group. (shrink)

El presente trabajo propone, desde una perspectiva crítica, revisar los cuestionamientos que desde el pensamiento crítico latinoamericano, en especial desde la obra de Arturo Roig, se hacen a la hegemonía del pensamiento de la modernidad occidental que con su pretensión de universalizar su visión de..

Al penetrar en el tiempo histórico y en la figura de Simón Rodríguez, Arturo Uslar Pietri esboza una explicación del problema originario de la identidad de América; su conflicto consigo misma, las trampas de la libertad, las dificultades dramáticas con las que tropieza el proyecto civilizatorio de la América republicana. Esta visión conflictiva de lo americano aparece prefigurada magistralmente en la propia vida del hombre Simón Rodríguez, por la desmesura de su figura, tanto intelectual como humana, por encarnar de la (...) forma más intensa posible la utopía de la fraternidad y la libertad. En este trabajo nos aproximamos a la visión uslariana de Simón Rodríguez y a la simbología de su figura como representación del problema esencial de Hispanoamérica. (shrink)

Albert Einstein je svojom specijalnom teorijom relativnosti definitivno opovrgao svaku mogućnost znanstvenog legitimiranja mehanicističkog pogleda na svijet, što implicira i opovrgnuće one metafizike materijalističkog predznaka koja se temelji na koncepciji razdvojenosti prostora i vremena. On je u specijalnoj teoriji relativnosti zasnovao pojam vremena i prostora kao jedinstvenog zbivanja, a taj je pojam oslobođen i od ravne metrike kakva obilježuje još i koncepciju Hermanna Minkowskog. Mnoštvenost jedinstvena vremena-prostora ukida i Galilejeve i Newtonove pojmove kao što su: apsolutni prostor, apsolutno vrijeme, apsolutno (...) mirovanje, te nepromjenjivost mase, a jednako tako i apsolutnost činjenice koja sadrži istodobnost dva prostorno udaljena zbivanja. Time su uspostavljene pretpostavke za razvoj tzv. postmoderne kozmologije. Autor postavlja pitanje otvara li postmodernizam ukozmologiji put za obnovu raznovrsnih onto-teokozmo-antropologija kojima je zajedničko htijenje da se ukine ideja povijesnosti, ili pak, naprotiv, Einsteinovo ukidanje pravocrtnosti otvara prostor afirmacije autentične povijesnosti. A upravo se u toj antitezi između metafizike i povijesnog mišljenja sastoji temeljni prijepor današnje filozofije,suočene i s lažnom alternativom iracionalizma i hiperracionalizma.Albert Einstein hat durch seine Spezielle Relativitätstheorie jegliche Möglichkeit der wissenschaftlichenLegitimierung einer mechanizistischen Weltanschauungdefinitiv widergelegt.Diesimpliziert ebenfalls die Widerlegungeiner Metaphysik materialistischer Art,die auf derKonzeptionder getrenntenExistenz von Zeit und Raum begründet ist. In der Speziellen Relativitätstheoriehat Einstein den Begriff der Einheitlichkeit von Zeit und Raum als einheitlichenGeschehensgeprägt. Dieser Begriff ist befreitvon platter Metrik, die noch die Konzeption vonHermannMinkowski charakterisiert. Durchdie Vielfältigkeitder Einheitlichkeit von Zeit undRaumentfallen die Begriffe von Galilei und Newton . Damitwerdendie Voraussetzungenfür die Entwicklung der sog. postmodernen Kosmologie aufgestellt.Der Autorfragt, ob der Postmodernismus in der Kosmologie einen Wegzur Erneuerungdifferenzierter Onto-Theo-Kosmo-Anthropologieneröffnet, dergleichartigdem Verlangenist, die Idee der Geschichlichkeit aufzuheben, oder ob EinsteinsAufhebungder Linearität einen Raum für die Affirmierungauthentischer Geschichlichkeit eröffnet. Gerade in dieserAntithesezwischen Metapysik und geschichtlichem Denken liegt eine wichtige StreitfragederzeitgenössischenPhilosophie, die auch durchdie falsche Alternativezwischen Irrationalismusund Hyperrationalismus gekennzeichnet wird. (shrink)

Globalizacija nema alternativu. U temeljima procesa višestranog objedinjavanja svijeta koji se objelodanjuje u najnovije vrijeme leže tendencije evidentirane još u 19. stoljeću. Proces je u međuvremenu definitivno postao ireverzibilan, tako da su svi pokušaji njegova zaustavljanja unaprijed osuđeni na neuspjeh i mogu se usporediti sa svojedobnim otporima industrijalizaciji. Istovremeno se faktički lik globalizacije – bitno ovisan o neoliberalnoj ideologiji i o konstelacijama interesa i moći kojima spomenuta ideologija služi – u sve većoj mjeri očituje kao višestruko problematičan, a u nekim (...) dimenzijama i kao autodestruktivan. U tom se kontekstu kritičkom mišljenju, mogućem posredstvom produktivne suradnje filozofije i interdisciplinarnih i multidisciplinarnih pristupa kompleksnoj problematici globalizacije, nameće zadaća propitivanja mogućnosti emancipacije globalizacijskih procesa od njihovih današnjih neoliberalnih okvira i ograničenja, kako bi se profilirala alternativa faktičkom liku globalizacije. Važnu dimenziju te zadaće čini pitanje o odgovornosti, koje se, međutim, ne može primjereno postavljati ukoliko se ono svede na moralističku korekciju faktičkih konstelacijâ, koja odustaje od kritičkog propitivanja samih korijena autodestruktivnosti tih konstelacija.Die Globalisierung hat keine Alternative. In den Gründen des Prozesses der mehrseitigen Gleichschaltung der Welt, welches in der rezenten Zeit bekanntgemacht wird, liegen die Tendenzen, die noch im 19 Jahrhundert registriert worden sind. Der Prozess wurde letzlich irreversibel. Deswegen sind alle Versuche, die Globalisierung aufzuhalten sinnlose, wie ehemaligen Widerstände gegen Industrialisierung. Doch zeigt die faktische Gestalt der Globalisierung – die wesentlich durch die neoliberalen Ideologie und durch die Konstellationen diejeniger Mächte und Interessen determiniert wird, den diese Ideologie bedient – in die Höhe schießenden Anzahl von problematischen und gar selbstzerstörerischen Dimensionen. In diesem Kontext sollte das kritische Denken – das nur durch eine produktive Zusammenarbeit der Philosophie mit dem interdisziplinaren und multidisziplinaren Zutritt zur umfasenden Globalisierungproblematik möglich ist – die Aufgabe aufnehmen, die Möglichkeiten der Emanzipierung der Globalisierungprozessen von ihrer gegenwärtigen neoliberalen Rahmen und Begrenzungen überzuprüfen. Dadurch wird eine Alternative zur gegenwärtigen faktischen Gestalt der Globalisierung gebildet. Eine wichtige Dimension dieser Aufgabe stellt die Frage über die Verantwortlichkeit dar. Diese Frage darf doch keineswegs auf die moralistische Verbesserung der faktischen Konstellationen reduziert wird, sondern sollte die wirkliche Würzeln der selbstzerstörerischen Tendenzen dieser Konstellationen ernst im Betracht nehmen. (shrink)

The notion of freedom was in ancient philosophy formed in the sense of the privileges belonging to adult free citizens, and thus foreigners, minors, women, and slaves were deprived of the possibility of freedom. This definition of freedom was also adopted by Roman law, unlike Stoic philosophy and the New Testament Christianity, where freedom was extended to belong to all human beings. In comparison, the Stoics condemn slavery, while Christianity eschatologises freedom. The Middle Ages built on such a concept of (...) freedom. Still, in that period the secular concept of freedom was formulated, which especially comes to the fore in the Magna charta libertatum. The modern concept of freedom was shaped in the Modern Age, from Locke’s definition of life, freedom, and property as inalienable civil rights, through Voltaire’s request for the freedom of thought and Rousseau’s identification of freedom with the essence of human being, to Kant’s understanding of freedom that is possible only through the mind. The ideals of French Revolution, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, are concretised in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. John Stuart Mill formulated the classical liberal concept of freedom. Today freedom is discussed, on the one hand, at the level of questions about individual freedom, and on the other hand, at the level of the problematisation of social presumptions regarding the freedom of human being. (shrink)

In this paper the author tries to explore the problem of the social function of philosophy in the contemporary world. This world is characterized by universal modernization and in the last decades by globalization and unification, but at the same time also by controversies and contradictions which reveal tendencies of human regression and degeneration. Philosophy must remain a study of general and fundamental nature of a human-produced world. As such philosophy produces potentialities of critical thinking, provides social investigations, and—at least (...) in principle—gives people the power of an adequate understanding of our world, its fundamental characteristics and main tendencies. Thus philosophy is a ground for a reasonable social practice and adequate policies. (shrink)

El presente artículo examina situaciones y problemas planteados por ciertas características del predominio de la racionalidad occidental en la vida de nuestro planeta, y con base en una crítica a dicha racionalidad, contempla la necesidad y posibilidad de postular una ética intercultural, fundamentada teóricamente en autores como Dussel, Hinkelammert, y otros que han hecho de esa crítica y esa preocupación el tema de su reflexión filosófica.

Desde la perspectiva de la teoría de la complejidad "de Edgar Morin" y de la filosofía intercultural "de Raúl Fornet Betancourt" el presente estudio procura presentar algunas de las criticas a las que el debate contemporáneo viene sometiendo a la racionalidad occidental surgida a raíz de la modernidad. Este análisis encuentra entre ambas reflexiones un elemento en común, representado por la preocupación ética que procura la construcción de un nuevo saber que hace de la vida el centro de la reflexión. (...) Se trata pues de la vuelta al sujeto, del respeto a la naturaleza y al reconocimiento del derecho de otros pueblos a tener un discurso reflexivo particular y diferente al elaborado por occidente. (shrink)

BackgroundMedia have increasingly reported on the difficulties associated with end-of-life decision-making in patients with Disorders of Consciousness (DOC), contextualizing such dilemma in detailed accounts of the patient’s life. Two of the first stories debated in the scientific community were those related to the cases of two women, one American, the other Italian, who captured attention of millions of people in the first years of this third millennium.MethodsMuch has been written about the challenges of surrogate decision-making for patients in DOC, but (...) less has been written comparing these challenges across legal systems and cultures. In our paper, we propose a systematic analysis of the final legal documents written by the American and Italian Courts in relation to the two cases, developing our discussion around three areas: the level of certainty/reliability of diagnosis and prognosis, the reconstruction of self-expression, time of illness and time of care. They are examples of the typical issues discussed by legal authors and allow us to understand the link and the difference between the legal and ethical perspectives.ResultsThe legal approach to the two cases has some common elements: the need to be certain about the diagnosis and prognosis and the fact that the clinical criteria are necessary in determining the most appropriate treatments, although these criteria are not sufficient unless they are supplemented by the patient’s will. The issue of relations takes on importance both from a legal and an ethical point of view, but from two different perspectives. While ethics safeguards relationships by guaranteeing their differences and makes them reconcilable, law safeguards relationships by guaranteeing the cold forms of respect, equality, impartiality, symmetry, reciprocity, and irreversibility. In this perspective, the link between the time of care and the decision of the family members assumes importance.ConclusionsThe most interesting point that emerges from our analysis is the issue of relationships and how they affect decisions, both from a legal and ethical point of view. For this reason, during the patients’ hospitalization, it is necessary to identify ways in which they might give their opinion about the moral issues underlying their choices. (shrink)