Las ideas expuestas por José Eusebio Caro en su obra inconclusa intitulada Mecánica social o Teoría del movimiento humano, considerado en su naturaleza, en sus efectos y en sus causas, en 1836, recoge aspectos característicos del pensamiento de las primeras décadas del Siglo XIX, con raíces algunas de ellas en ápocas anteriores. La riqueza intelectual de la obra en mención indujo la investigación analítica, de la cual da cuenta este documento, según la siguiente pregunta de investigación: ¿Cuáles son los rasgos (...) epistemológicos predominantes en las tesis filosóficas y sociológicas de José Eusebio Caro, en su obra póstuma inconclusa intitulada Mecánica social o teoría del movimiento humano, considerado en su naturaleza, en sus efectos y en sus causas? El estudio en torno a esta obra se concentra en precisar aspectos epistemológicos de una propuesta que comparte honores con el positivismo y con el surgimiento de la teoría social cuyas tesis dan paso al surgimiento de la sociología. Esto, en un particular siglo caracterizado por la búsqueda de la originalidad ideológica y política del continente americano, que esperaba resurgir lejos de la dominación española y cerca de los teóricos franceses y de los desarrollos ideológicos de Inglaterra. (shrink)

In his celebrated_ Essay on Population_, Thomas Malthus raised the puzzle of why a benevolent Creator would permit material scarcity in human existence. Albino Barrera revisits this question using Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysics of participation and Sacred Scripture’s invitation to covenant fidelity and kingdom discipleship as analytical lenses with which to examine the seeming incongruity of scarcity in God’s providence. Barrera concludes that scarcity turns out to be a signal opportunity for economic agency to receive, internalize, and communicate God’s (...) goodness and righteousness within the human community. Written for theologians, philosophers, social scientists, and policymakers interested in the theological and philosophical foundations of economics, this study argues that precarious, subsistence living is not an immutable law of nature. Rather, such a chronic, dismal condition reflects personal and collective moral failure. In this carefully researched study, Barrera argues that scarcity serves as an occasion for God to provide for us through each other and that there are strong metaphysical and scriptural warrants for enacting progressive social policies for a better sharing of the goods of the earth. "This is a very big, very important work that takes up a large and urgent issue and follows it through with vigorous, meticulous study." —_Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary_ "Professor Barrera addresses an important theological question: 'Why would a benevolent God create a world of material scarcity with all the suffering accompanying this fact?' He goes beyond answering this question by showing that the sacrifices demanded to deal with the challenge of scarcity create virtues and situations that are deeply Christian. Barrera's well-written, jargon-free book will capture the attention of anyone interested in this topic." —_Wilfried Ver Eecke, Georgetown University_. (shrink)

Resumen Esta investigación aborda el “texto autoetnográfico” entendido como una indagación epistémica que realiza un sujeto respecto de procesos vitales que busca dar sentido. Estos textos se caracterizan por integrar diferentes voces o puntos de vista que crean y representan un significado moral y, que, en el marco de una perspectiva pos/decolonial, actúan combinando o infiltrando elementos y conceptos indígenas para crear autorrepresentaciones destinadas a intervenir en los modos metropolitanos de comprensión y representación del “otro”.Desde este punto de vista, este (...) trabajo sostiene que estos tipos de textos emergen como una nueva estrategia del discurso artístico y literario indoamericano en respuesta al imaginario colonial, cuyos mecanismos de reificación se invierten mediante complejos procesos retóricos, desestabilizando los significados legitimados por la institucionalidad colonial. Para observar este proceso se analiza el discurso visual y poético del pueblo mapuche, abriendo una discusión acerca de los nuevos procesos de representación del arte indígena actual.This investigation addresses the “autoethnographic text”, understood as an epistemic enquiry that a subject provides about vital processes that it seeks to give meaning to. These texts are characterized by the integration of different voices and/or points of view, that create and represent a moral meaning and that, within the framework of a post/decolonial perspective, act by combining or infiltrating indigenous elements and concepts to create self-representations designed to intervene in the metropolitan modes of understanding and representation of the “other”. From this point of view, this work maintains that these types of texts emerge as a new strategy of Indo-American artistic and literary discourse in response to the colonial imaginary, whose mechanisms of reification are reversed by complex rhetorical processes, destabilizing the meanings legitimized by colonial institutionality. In order to observe this process, the visual and poetic speech of the Mapuche people is analyzed, opening up a discussion about the new processes of representation of current indigenous art. (shrink)

Resumen: La sociedad requiere de forma creciente la realización efectiva de instancias participativas dirigidas a fomentar la colaboración entre distintos ámbitos organizacionales, disciplinarios y socio-culturales. Los desafíos intrínsecos a este tipo de instancias requieren el desarrollo de metodologías que permitan insertar reflexividad dentro del ámbito dialógico y orientar el mismo hacia la creación de “boundary objects” que pueda servir de referente entre las distintas perspectivas involucradas, constituyéndose en un facilitador para la colaboración futura. Para responder a estas necesidades, el artículo (...) elabora, a partir del concepto de metálogo originariamente propuesto por Gregory Bateson, una propuesta sistémico-constructivista de observación e intervención contextual, dirigida a fomentar reflexividad a partir de la promoción de observación de segundo orden. En este contexto de mayor reflexividad, se promueve la co-construcción de documentos donde se coordinen las perspectivas de los participantes y las expectativas de los arreglos estructurales y organizacionales en los que estos operan. El artículo justifica teóricamente y describe la técnica del metálogo, además de destacar aprendizajes, buenas prácticas y reflexiones derivadas de su aplicación en diversas experiencias transdisciplinarias en Chile.: Contemporary society shows an increasing demand for participatory instances able to effectively foster the collaboration of diverse organizational, disciplinary and socio-cultural areas. The challenges intrinsic to such participatory instances require the development of methodologies that may allow for the insertion of reflexivity within the dialogical interaction, while also promoting the collective construction of "boundary objects": such objects, in turn, by serving as a common reference for the different perspectives involved in the dialogue, have the potential of facilitating the future collaboration among such perspectives. To respond to these demands -and inspired by the notion of metalogue originally introduced by Gregory Bateson- this paper elaborates a systemic-constructivist proposal of observation and contextual intervention, aimed at fostering reflexivity within dialogical-participatory instances by inducing their participants to perform a second-order observation of the distinctions mobilized within the interaction. Building upon this reflexivity, the metalogue pursues the co-construction of documents able to coordinate the perspectives of the participants and the expectations of the structural and organizational arrangements in which they operate. In addition to justifying and describing the technique of the metalogue, the paper highlights some lessons learned, good practices and proposals derived from its application in various transdisciplinary experiences in Chile. (shrink)

Resumen: La sociedad requiere de forma creciente la realización efectiva de instancias participativas dirigidas a fomentar la colaboración entre distintos ámbitos organizacionales, disciplinarios y socio-culturales. Los desafíos intrínsecos a este tipo de instancias requieren el desarrollo de metodologías que permitan insertar reflexividad dentro del ámbito dialógico y orientar el mismo hacia la creación de “boundary objects” que pueda servir de referente entre las distintas perspectivas involucradas, constituyéndose en un facilitador para la colaboración futura. Para responder a estas necesidades, el artículo (...) elabora, a partir del concepto de metálogo originariamente propuesto por Gregory Bateson, una propuesta sistémico-constructivista de observación e intervención contextual, dirigida a fomentar reflexividad a partir de la promoción de observación de segundo orden. En este contexto de mayor reflexividad, se promueve la co-construcción de documentos donde se coordinen las perspectivas de los participantes y las expectativas de los arreglos estructurales y organizacionales en los que estos operan. El artículo justifica teóricamente y describe la técnica del metálogo, además de destacar aprendizajes, buenas prácticas y reflexiones derivadas de su aplicación en diversas experiencias transdisciplinarias en Chile. (shrink)

Si l’« explosion sociale » chilienne a rassemblé une série de mouvements sociaux, il est certain que les féminismes ont joué un rôle fondamental dans l’établissement de revendications contre les abus, les inégalités et la précarité de la vie. Malgré l’échec du rejet de la nouvelle Constitution, cet article approfondit deux normes minimales historiques que les féministes ont réussi à établir au niveau institutionnel et social : la parité dans la participation politique et la condamnation généralisée de la violence à (...) l’égard des femmes. (shrink)

This work approaches views on the preservation of industrial housing heritage in Malaga, Spain, and the pressure caused by its recent urban renovation. The aims of the research include geographic space analysis and assessing how archaeological recording and archaeometry, specifically archaeometallurgy, can contribute to the preservation of information about structures and materials that continuously disappear from urban contexts. The results constitute an initial beginning to expand a comparative archaeological database for the city. The ideas and procedures presented here are expected (...) to provide some guidance for generating further research from urban, architectural, archaeological, and geographical perspectives. (shrink)

En este paper examinamos la idea de la solidaridad como aquella actitud que consiste en la determinación firme en empeñarse por el bien común. Para lograr nuestro cometido analizamos el camino de profundización en los conceptos de solidaridad y bien común que la tradición fenomenológica nos muestra. En este caso particular analizamos a Karol Wojtyla �y en un cierto sentido a Juan Pablo II, quien, no obstante, en cuanto pontífice habla desde otra sede, la de Pedro�. Sin embargo, pensamos que (...) no hay discontinuidad en su pensamiento y el método fenomenológico, en cuanto método, tampoco está ausente de las reflexiones del pontífice, aunque la primacía aquí sea teológica y no filosófica. (shrink)

En este estudio intentamos aportar una clarificación sobre la constitución del objeto estético a partir de un análisis de dicho objeto en general (basado en las investigaciones fenomenológicas de R. Ingarden). Luego, indagamos cómo ocurre esta constitución en el caso concreto de La Tierra Baldía con toda su riqueza poética y sus valores estéticos. Particularmente, investigamos cómo es dado concretamente a nuestra conciencia el fenómeno estético de esta obra de arte literaria.

Abstract. This paper argues that the “Argument from Moral Peer Disagreement” fails to make a case for widespread moral skepticism. The main reason for this is that the argument rests on a too strong assumption about the normative significance of peer disagreement (and higher-order evidence more generally). In order to demonstrate this, I distinguish two competing ways in which one might explain higher-order defeat. According to what I call the “Objective Defeat Explanation” it is the mere possession of higher-order evidence (...) that explains defeat. I argue that this type of explanation is problematic and that it at best collapses into another explanation I call the “Subjective Defeat Explanation”. According to this explanation, it is coming to believe that one’s belief fails to be rational that explains defeat. Then I go on to argue that the Subjective Defeat Explanation is able to provide a straightforward explanation of higher-order defeat but that it entails that peer disagreement (and higher-order evidence more generally) only contingently gives rise to defeat, and importantly, that the condition it is contingent upon is very often not satisfied when it comes to moral peer disagreement specifically. As a result, it appears that moral knowledge is seldom threatened by moral peer disagreement. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende examinar questões centrais no particularismo moral de Jonathan Dancy a partir de uma comparação de suas principais teses com a ética aristotélica. Embora Dancy não reivindique uma linhagem aristotélica, será argumentado que tal comparação pode ser esclarecedora para o particularismo moral, bem com o para a ética aristotélica, especialmente no que concerne às regras que parecem não admitir qualquer exceção, como a proibição moral de agir com crueldade, ou o assassinato.

In Unfit for the Future, Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu present a sophisticated argument in defense of the imperative of moral enhancement. They claim that without moral enhancement, the future of humanity is seriously compromised. The possibility of ultimate harm, caused by a dreadful terrorist attack or by a final unpreventable escalation of the present environmental crisis aggravated by the availability of cognitive enhancement, makes moral enhancement a top priority. It may be considered optimistic to think that our present moral (...) capabilities can be successfully improved by means of moral education, moral persuasion, and fear of punishment. So, without moral enhancement, drastic restrictions on human freedom would become the only alternative to prevent those dramatic potential outcomes. In this article, I will try to show that we still have reason to be less pessimistic and that Persson & Savulescu’s arguments are fortunately unconvincing. (shrink)

Although ethical decision‐making theory has evolved over the years, within the field of management, research still revolves around James Rest’s (1986) four‐step framework, dominated by a positivist epistemology and a quantitative methodology. Given that currently there is a call for a theoretical, epistemological, and methodological renovation for the enlargement and enrichment of knowledge about how decisions are morally made in organizations, this paper has a double aim. First, by showing the models’ main flaws and limitations, it critically assesses the prominent (...) theoretical models of Rest, Trevino, and Jones. Then, for decision making in organizations, the paper aims to posit a fresh moral theory that addresses the phenomenon from a comprehensive epistemological perspective. To do so, it steps back from those prominent models in order to review John Dewey’s “theory of moral life.” At the core of the proposed comprehensive theoretical framework are Dewey’s concepts of a “moral standard” and “valuation.” Finally, the paper shows how the Dewey‐based framework can both overcome the flaws and limitations that are identified in those prominent models and can enrich empirical research, therefore contributing to developing as a whole the ethical decision‐making field. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analiza las posibilidades de la teoría de las Representaciones Sociales (RS) para, desde la perspectiva de los sujetos, analizar los elementos cognitivos implicados y socialmente construidos que sustentan las acciones de gestión micro y macro institucional, y de coordinación entre varias municipalidades de un mismo territorio, lo que la literatura de gestión denomina trabajo asociativo o asociativismo. Interesan específicamente las representaciones sociales de la asociatividad en el tema educativo, desde actores político-administrativos y profesionales implicados en (...) la mejora de la educación municipal. Se postula y fundamenta que el estudio de las Representaciones Sociales del Asociativismo Municipal en Educación es pertinente desde los elementos conceptuales de la perspectiva Procesual, dado que el objeto de Representación –el Asociativismo Municipal en Educación- y las técnicas para su análisis se ajustan a las estrategias de implementación del trabajo asociativo en los distintos niveles de organización municipal en el tema educativo. (shrink)

Pretende-se, nesse texto, argumentar sobre a centralidade da justiça na teoria moral de Santo Anselmo. Para tanto, adota-se a seguinte estrutura: em primeiro lugar, falar-se-á da teoria moral de Anselmo e da centralidade da sua teoria da justiça em seu interior; em segundo lugar, dar-se-á tratamento à questão da justiça nos escritos do Monologium e do Proslogium, nos quais fala-se da justiça como atributo de Deus; num terceiro momento, abordar-se-á a questão da justiça, tal como é desenvolvida no De Veritate, (...) no qual a justiça em questão diz respeito ao ser humano e, em última instância, à Deus, suma justiça ; por fim, em quarto lugar, desenvolver-se-á uma reflexão na qual serão cotejados aspectos da justiça relacionados à dimensão prática da moralidade humana, de tal forma que a ação justa deve ser realizada em vista da própria retidão, isto é, a consciência da retidão para que seja moralmente correta e justa. (shrink)

Two-thirds of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions over the past two centuries can be traced to the activities of a handful of companies ('carbon majors'). Based on their direct contribution to climate change in terms of carbon emissions and on a number of morally relevant facts, this article proposes a normative framework to establish the responsibilities that carbon majors have in relation to climate change. Then, the analysis articulates these responsibilities in the form of two duties: a duty of decarbonisation (...) and a duty of reparation. The duty of decarbonisation entails a large-scale transformation that carbon majors ought to undergo in order to reduce and eventually eliminate carbon emissions from their entire business model. The duty of reparation implies rectification through disgorgement of funds for the wrongful actions of carbon majors, which resulted in negative climate impacts, starting from the most socially vulnerable groups affected by climate change. Finally, the article indicates possible practical implications of these duties. (shrink)

The essay investigates the relationship between humanity and catastrophe in Davi Kopenawa’s shamanic cosmology, which is compared by approximation to Lucretius’ venusian cosmology and by contrast to Kant’s moral eschatology. It considers the thesis of the structural and dynamic instability of the sky and the problem of the cosmic void. So it seeks to develop the question about the origin and the end of humanity through the catastrophe, both in its ancestral, extra-human dimension, and in its connection with the current (...) socio-environmental destruction, of anthropic origin. In conclusion, it speculates about the role played by the critical thinking in the catastrophe’s eruption. (shrink)

In discussions on moral responsibility for actions, a commonly discussed case is one in which an agent is manipulated into performing some action. On some views, such agents lack responsibility for those actions partly because they issue from attitudes that were acquired in an inappropriate way. In this paper, it is argued that such views are in need of revision. After introducing a new problematic case of a manipulated agent, revisions are offered for specific views. The paper concludes with a (...) discussion of the views in a broader context, as well as some potential implications of the revisions. (shrink)

Resumen: La impronta colonial en el pueblo mapuche llevó a gran parte de sus producciones culturales al borde de la extinción; una de ellas es el tallado monumental en madera, vinculado a procesos ceremoniales en la cultura ancestral. No obstante, desde la década de los noventa, este reaparece junto con los procesos de recuperación y fortalecimiento de la identidad cultural, y adquiere una rápida expansión en el antiguo territorio mapuche dinamizando la frontera política y cultural de este pueblo bajo dos (...) vertientes, como práctica cultural tradicional o como expresión de un arte moderno mayoritariamente urbano. En este marco, este trabajo indaga cómo la instalación del tallado monumental resignifica los espacios urbanos y rurales del Güllumapu. Se sostiene que estas producciones culturales actúan semiotizando el espacio de contacto cultural, refundando el antiguo wallmapu o territorio mapuche, proceso que se realiza al inscribir una fuerte carga simbólica que convoca un nuevo sentido del tiempo-espacio histórico en el territorio mediante una “producción de localidad”, articulando categorías de identidad cultural y nacional, y colaborando en la recuperación de las fronteras al construir una narrativa de la identidad cultural y nacional en un contexto adverso.: The colonial stamp on the Mapuche people led their cultural productions in large part to the brink the extinction. One of these is monumental wood carving, linked to ceremonial processes in the ancestral culture. However, since the 1990s, this has reappeared together with the processes of recovery and strengthening of the cultural identity, and has rapidly expanded into the old Mapuche territory, invigorating the political and cultural border of this people with two main focuses: as a traditional cultural practice or as an expression of mainly urban modern art. In this framework, this study investigates how the installation of monumental carving is redefining the urban and rural spaces of Güllumapu. It is maintained that these cultural productions act by semiotizing the cultural contact space, refounding the old wallmapu or Mapuche territory, a process done by inscribing a strong symbolic power that summons a new sense of the historical time-space in the territory through a “production of place”, articulating categories of cultural and national identity and collaborating in the recovery of the borders by constructing a narrative of the cultural and national identity in an adverse context. (shrink)

La impronta colonial en el pueblo mapuche llevó a gran parte de sus producciones culturales al borde de la extinción; una de ellas es el tallado monumental en madera, vinculado a procesos ceremoniales en la cultura ancestral. No obstante, desde la década de los noventa, este reaparece junto con los procesos de recuperación y fortalecimiento de la identidad cultural, y adquiere una rápida expansión en el antiguo territorio mapuche dinamizando la frontera política y cultural de este pueblo bajo dos vertientes, (...) como práctica cultural tradicional o como expresión de un arte moderno mayoritariamente urbano. En este marco, este trabajo indaga cómo la instalación del tallado monumental resignifica los espacios urbanos y rurales del Güllumapu. Se sostiene que estas producciones culturales actúan semiotizando el espacio de contacto cultural, refundando el antiguo wallmapu o territorio mapuche, proceso que se realiza al inscribir una fuerte carga simbólica que convoca un nuevo sentido del tiempo-espacio histórico en el territorio mediante una “producción de localidad”, articulando categorías de identidad cultural y nacional, y colaborando en la recuperación de las fronteras al construir una narrativa de la identidad cultural y nacional en un contexto adverso. (shrink)

In the theoretical literature on moral responsibility, one sometimes comes across cases of manipulated agents. In cases of this type, the agent is a victim of wholesale manipulation, involving the implantation of various pro-attitudes (desires, values, etc.) along with the deletion of competing pro-attitudes. As a result of this manipulation, the agent ends up performing some action unlike any that she would have performed were it not for the manipulation. These sorts of cases are sometimes thought to motivate historical views (...) of responsibility, on which the agent’s past is relevant to whether she is responsible for a specific action. In a recent paper, Daniel Sharp and David Wasserman bring these theoretical discussions on moral responsibility to bear on practical issues regarding neurological modifications of individuals. After proposing and arguing for a historical view, Sharp and Wasserman offer some insight into how such a view may help us in determining the responsibility of subjects who have undergone Deep Brain Stimulation. This paper aims to join this discussion, by arguing that the correct historical view to be applied will also appeal to the agent’s control over her mental life and the fact that this was bypassed. I conclude with some brief comments on the practical implications of such a historical view. (shrink)

Narratives are ever-present in medicine and care: patients, relatives, doctors, nurses and pastoral workers tell quite different stories. The present volume examines the question of the significance of narratives for the ethical judgement in medicine and care and illustrates what theological reflection can contribute to the current discussion about the ethics of medicine and care. The focus of the volume is on the theological discussion on the ethical issues of medicine and care which is enriched by contributions from literary studies, (...) philosophy, nursing science and the ethics of medicine and care. (shrink)

The legitimacy of conscientious objection to abortion continues to fuel heated debate in Italy. In two recent decisions, the European Committee for Social Rights underlined that conscientious objection places safe, legal, and accessible care and services out of reach for most Italian women and that the measures that Italy has adopted to guarantee free access to abortion services are inadequate. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health states that current Italian legislation, if appropriately applied, accommodates both the right to conscientious objection and (...) the right to voluntary abortion. One empirical argument used to demonstrate that conscientious objection does not create barriers to abortion is the “no correlation” argument, which the Italian Committee for Bioethics employed to demonstrate that no association exists between conscientious objection and waiting times for voluntary abortion in Italy and to support the weak form of conventional comprise adopted by the Italian legislation to balance the conflict between women’ autonomy and healthcare professionals’ moral integrity. Conversely, we showed how the “no correlation” argument fails to demonstrate the absence of a relationship between the number of conscientious objectors and waiting times for voluntary abortion, and that the limitations of the “no correlation” argument itself demonstrate how it is still difficult to describe the real effect of conscientious objection on the access to abortion services and to evaluate the suitability of conventional compromise to effectively balance conflicting moral principles. Further studies are needed to better describe the relationship between conscientious objection and waiting times for voluntary abortion. If new evidence would show that the increasing proportion of objectors does undermine the efficacy of the Italian law and the right of a woman to freely obtain a voluntary abortion, new ways will need to be found to address the conflict between moral principles and restrict the protection accorded to the principle of moral integrity. This would inevitably imply the need to constrain and to redefine the terms and conditions for claiming conscientious objection. (shrink)

Background The legitimacy of conscientious objection to abortion continues to fuel heated debate in Italy. In two recent decisions, the European Committee for Social Rights underlined that conscientious objection places safe, legal, and accessible care and services out of reach for most Italian women and that the measures that Italy has adopted to guarantee free access to abortion services are inadequate. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health states that current Italian legislation, if appropriately applied, accommodates both the right to conscientious objection (...) and the right to voluntary abortion. Main body One empirical argument used to demonstrate that conscientious objection does not create barriers to abortion is the “no correlation” argument, which the Italian Committee for Bioethics employed to demonstrate that no association exists between conscientious objection and waiting times for voluntary abortion in Italy and to support the weak form of conventional comprise adopted by the Italian legislation to balance the conflict between women’ autonomy and healthcare professionals’ moral integrity. Conversely, we showed how the “no correlation” argument fails to demonstrate the absence of a relationship between the number of conscientious objectors and waiting times for voluntary abortion, and that the limitations of the “no correlation” argument itself demonstrate how it is still difficult to describe the real effect of conscientious objection on the access to abortion services and to evaluate the suitability of conventional compromise to effectively balance conflicting moral principles. Conclusion Further studies are needed to better describe the relationship between conscientious objection and waiting times for voluntary abortion. If new evidence would show that the increasing proportion of objectors does undermine the efficacy of the Italian law and the right of a woman to freely obtain a voluntary abortion, new ways will need to be found to address the conflict between moral principles and restrict the protection accorded to the principle of moral integrity. This would inevitably imply the need to constrain and to redefine the terms and conditions for claiming conscientious objection. (shrink)

Cultured meat is a lab grown product that aims to tackle the cravings of omnivores who struggle to switch to a plant-based diet, while still being friendly to animals and the environment. Possibly, in time, the curiosity to apply this technology towards human meat production will emerge. However, when presented with the thought of eating cultured human meat potential consumers’ reaction greatly varies from pure disgust to indifference to excitement. This instinctive response indicates a lack of preformed judgements towards the (...) topic. Without a clear vision on the possibility of cultured human meat, scattered and uncertain regulations will fail to uphold paramount moral values. The risk is that we would either dig into this option out of excitement, or ban it without convincing motivations. The ethical theories of deontology and consequentialism can be followed to investigate this divisive issue. With an evaluation based on disgust I argue that the deontological perspective is mostly concerned with values of identity and humanness, while with a chain-reaction reasoning I argue that consequentialism would be concerned with health safety, privacy and equality. I conclude that cultured human meat is not acceptable. (shrink)

Debates on the moral status of human embryos have been highly and continuously controversial. For many, these controversies have turned into a fruitless scholastical endeavor. However, recent developments and insights in cellular biology have cast further doubt on one of the core points of dissent: the argument from potentiality. In this article we want to show in a nonscholastical way why this argument cannot possibly survive. Getting once more into the intricacies of status debates is a must in our eyes. (...) Not merely intellectual coherence but the standing and self-understanding of current stem cell research might profit from finally taking leave of the argument from potentiality. (shrink)

Humans are normative beings through and through. This capacity for normativity lies at the core of uniquely human forms of understanding and regulating socio-cultural group life. Plausibly, therefore, the hominin lineage evolved specialized social-cognitive, motivational, and affective abilities that helped create, transmit, preserve, and amend shared social practices. In turn, these shared normative attitudes and practices shaped subsequent human phylogeny, constituted new forms of group life, and hence structured human ontogeny, too. An essential aspect of human ontogeny is therefore its (...) reciprocal nature regarding normativity. This chapter reviews recent evidence from developmental psychology suggesting that, from early on, human children take a normative attitude toward others’ conduct in social interactions, and thus a collectivistic and impersonal perspective on norms. We discuss to what extent our closest living primate relatives lack normative attitudes and therefore live in a non-normative socio-causal world structured by individual preferences, power relationships, and regularities. (shrink)

Munch-Jurisic’s book thoroughly describes several cases of severe distresses reported and expressed by perpetrators of tremendous acts such as mass murders. Arguing against a simplistic reading according to which these signs of distress are straightforward manifestations of some innate moral nature, and against the optimistic reading according to which they will lead to prosocial behaviors, Munch-Jursic offers compelling reasons to adopt a more complex theory of emotion. In this commentary, I aim to stress the implications of her book for the (...) debate on moral enhancement and for emotion theory in general. However, while I concur with Munch-Jurisic that emotion theory must make room for complexity and indeterminacy, I challenge her claim that motivational theories of emotion are ill-equipped to face the challenges she poses. (shrink)

Jesse Prinz (2006, 2007) claimed that emotions are necessary and sufficient for moral judgments. First of all, I clarify what this claim amounts to. The view that he labels emotionism will then be critically assessed. Prinz marshals empirical findings to defend a series of increasingly strong theses about how emotions are essential for moral judgments. I argue that the empirical support upon which his arguments are based is not only insufficient, but it even suggests otherwise, if properly interpreted. My criticism (...) is then extended to his sentimentalist theory, that accounts for how emotions are integrated into moral judgments. The central problem is that Prinz’s view fails to capture the rational aspect of moral evaluation. I make this failure explicit and defend that some version or other of neosentimentalism is a more promising route. (shrink)

Neste artigo, mostramos que a apresentação da constituição da consciência moral moderna, em Hegel, resultante da reformulação dialético-especulativa da autonomia moral kantiana, é essencialmente crítica e se condensa numa "dialética negativa".

“Virtue theory for moral enhancement” is a solid article with a valuable proposal. In general, it succeeds in presenting virtue theory as the best framework for moral enhancement. I agree with the...

The marketplace is a remarkable social institution that has greatly extended our reach so shoppers in the West can now buy fresh-cut flowers, vegetables, and tropical fruits grown halfway across the globe even in the depths of winter. However, these expanded choices have also come with considerable moral responsibilities as our economic decisions can have far-reaching effects by either ennobling or debasing human lives. Albino Barrera examines our own moral responsibilities for the distant harms of our market transactions from (...) a Christian viewpoint, identifying how the market's division of labour makes us unwitting collaborators in others' wrongdoing and in collective ills. His important account covers a range of different subjects, including law, economics, philosophy, and theology, in order to identify the injurious ripple effects of our market activities. (shrink)

Manicheism is founded in two world originating ontological principles: Good or Light, presented by the sun and Evil or Darkness, personinified in the matter. From this ontological dualism proceeds the idea which man is not responsible to the evil he practices according to, but this-one (evil) is to be blamed to his bad nature, in other words evil is inherent to his corporal nature. Hence, strictly speaking, there is no real evil in manicheism, but only natural evil. However, paradoxally, manicheism (...) refers to a duty Moral, which through the man good part (the soul) must struggle in order to be liberated from matter´s bonds (the boddy), through an ascetical rigorous life, materialized in three commandments observance, the to called three seals: mouth, hands and breast seals. (shrink)

The second essay of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals introduces the ‘sovereign individual’ as ‘responsible’, ‘autonomous’ and ‘free’. Does this affirmative use of moral terminology reveal an unexpected affinity between Nietzsche’s thought and philosophical modernity? In the last decades, this issue has been at the heart of a vast and controversial debate. My analysis shows that, rather than throwing light on Nietzsche’s general position, the specific use of Kantian terms in this passage of GM is due to a polemical intention. Implicitly, (...) Nietzsche rejects Eduard von Hartmann’s criticism of the ‘absolute sovereignty of the individual’. The author of the Phänomenologie des sittlichen Bewusstseins (1879) sees the most radical herald of this ‘sovereignty’ in Max Stirner. From Nietzsche’s point of view, Hartmann’s rejection and Stirner’s affirmation share a reductive conception of ‘sovereignty’. Reinterpreting and ‘revaluing’ Kant’s moral terminology, Nietzsche aims to give an interpretation of individual sovereignty that is at the same time antithetical to Stirner’s and wholly at odds with Hartmann’s ethical views. In showing this, the paper gives a new answer to an old question; for already in the 1890s, Hartmann himself, accusing Nietzsche of plagiarizing Stirner, raised the issue of the historical relationship between the two philosophers. More generally, the paper shows that Nietzsche employs a specific textual strategy, which consists in taking Kantian terms in an ‘anti-Kantian’ sense and systematically cultivating the art of using ‘a moral formula in a supramoral sense’. (shrink)

In the development of Roman Catholic social thought from the teachings of the scholastics to the modern social encyclicals, changes in normative economics reflect the transformation of an economic terrain from its feudal roots to the modern industrial economy. The preeminence accorded by the modern market to the allocative over the distributive function of price broke the convenient convergence of commutative and distributive justice in scholastic just price theory. Furthermore, the loss of custom, law, and usage in defining the boundaries (...) of economic behavior led to a depersonalization of economic relationships that had previously provided effective informal means of protecting individual well-being. Hence, recent economic ethics has had to look for nonprice, nonmarket mechanisms for distributive justice. This is reflected, for example, in the shift in attitude from the medieval antipathy toward unions to the contemporary defense of organized labor on moral grounds. (shrink)

Richard Rowland has recently argued that considerations based on moral disagreement between epistemic peers give us reason to think that cognitivism about moral judgments, i.e., the thesis that moral judgments are beliefs, is false. The novelty of Rowland’s argument is to tweak the problem descriptively, i.e., not focusing on what one ought to do, but on what disputants actually do in the light of peer disagreement. The basic idea is that moral peer disagreement is intelligible. However, if moral judgments were (...) beliefs, and beliefs track perceived evidence, then moral peer disagreement would not be intelligible. Hence, moral judgments are not beliefs. The argument is both novel and interesting, but this paper argues that it fails to establish the conclusion. Beliefs are plausibly analyzed as constituted by dispositions to respond to what is perceived as evidence, but dispositions can always be interfered with. Provided a background explanation of why the disposition is not manifested, peer intransigence is quite intelligible. (shrink)

The paper aims to clarify the interpretation of Kantian morality and Hegelian ethical life given by Honneth and Habermas; it try in particularly to explain the several meanings and forms of Honneth’s relaunch of Hegel’s conception of Sitt- lichkeit. The Author aims at the same time to show some structural limits of this neo-Hegelian ethical perspective from a political point of view, also in relation to the concept of «immanent critique» adopted by Honneth, and differentiated by him from the concept (...) of «internal criticism» developed by Michael Walzer. The Author observes that the immanent approach of Honneth’s normative reconstruction and social critique seems to have some problems to take in account the plurality of different and con icting ethical-political orientations. (shrink)

Os prólogos dos comentários de Tomás de Aquino às obras de Aristóteles são de suma importância, porque neles o autor apresenta o que se poderia denominar “o marco conceptual” do trabalho que está empreendendo. No caso do Comentário à Política, o conceito fundamental é o conceito de natureza. A afirmação de que existe uma “imitação da natureza” significa, para Tomás, muito mais do que representou para seus antecessores. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Tomás de Aquino. Comentário. Política. Natureza. Imitação. ABSTRACT The prologs of (...) Thomas Aquinas to the works of Aristotle are of main importance, because in these prologs the author presents what could be called “the conceptual mark” of the tasks he is undertaking. In the case of the Comments to the Politics, the fundamental concept is the concept of nature. The statement that there is an “imitation of nature” means, for Thomas, much more that it had represented for his antecessors. KEY WORDS – Thomas Aquinas. Comment. Politics. Nature. Imitatio. (shrink)