In this provocative new work, Alfonso Gomez-Lobo proposes that the earliest Platonic writings, in particular Apology, Crito, and sections of Gorgias, contain an underlying moral philosophy that can be attributed to Socrates with some degree of assurance. His aim is to show that Socratic moral philosophy is a reasonably systematic construction generated by a small number of principles or axioms.

: This response to Nikolaus Knoepffler's paper in the same issue of the Journal agrees that if the arguments supporting the first two of the eight human embryonic stem cell research policy options discussed are unsound, as Knoepffler argues, then it seems natural to move to the increasingly permissive options. If the arguments are sound, however, then the more permissive options should be rejected. It is argued that three of the rejected arguments, taken together, constitute very good reasons to hold (...) that a human embryo is endowed with dignity from fertilization onward. Thus, countries that want their public policies to match the moral imperative of respect for human beings should refrain from allowing destructive human embryo research and should devote considerable energy and public funds to research and clinical trials using non-embryonic ("adult") stem cells. (shrink)

El artículo relaciona el nuevo orden narrativo con la técnica del “storytelling” y cómo se manifiestan en el periodismo actual. Se estudian los casos de tres periodistas: David Simon, Stieg Larsson y Ryzard Kapuscinski y cómo su obra muestra la difusa línea de los hechos, la recreación, la invención, la fábula, la historia, la apariencia y la verdad. Se contrastan estos casos con las aportaciones del paradigma narrativo de Fisher. Nos preguntamos también cómo se crean narraciones en Internet a partir (...) de los periodistas estudiados. El ámbito de la verdad periodística se entremezcla con una apariencia de verdad mientras la ficción que aparenta realidad se convierte en acercamiento a ésta. La aproxi-mación a este fenómeno, que se inicia a finales del siglo XX y se consolida en la primera década del siglo XXI, se lleva a cabo desde las aportaciones de la Teoría de la Comunicación. (shrink)

Departing from modal logic, Jean-Yves Girard, as a logician interested in philosophy, presented a distinction between essentialism and existentialism in logic. Carlos Lobo reflected about the Girard’s concept to reinterpret the Husserlian Platonism in regard of the status of logical modalities. We start rescuing the notion of modal logic in the Edmund Husserl’s works, especially Formal and Transcendental Logic and First Philosophy. Developing this reflexion, we propose a new contribution to this discussion, reinterpreting the platonic influence in the Husserlian (...) notions of eidos and science, light of some readings of Lee Hardy and Johanna M. Tito. As a conclusion of this dialogue between Husserl and Girard, the method of eidetic variation is presented as a tool to review the idea of science, in a manner consistent with the phenomenological approach. (shrink)

Frente a los riesgos del monopolio de significados sobre la vida en común, la sociedad civil puede actuar como fuente de reconocimiento y desarrollo de identidades, pero afirmarlo requiere que previamente se establezcan nuevos puntos de partida para el análisis sobre su significado. Apoyados en esta premisa, proponemos un cuestionamiento a la apropiación teórica y práctica que desde la dimensión política se ha hecho y establecemos la redefinición de lo cívico como el sustento para un tipo de pluralismo basado en (...) la capacidad para expresar y conocer por medio de la razón. (shrink)

In a recent article published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, David DeGrazia criticized the two pivotal assumptions that underlie President Bush’s policy on funding stem cell research. Those assumptions are that we originate as single-cell zygotes at the time of conception and that we have full moral status as soon as we originate.In this paper, I would like to concentrate on the first of those assumptions and show in light of recent findings in embryological development that DeGrazia’s (...) criticisms have to be rejected. I shall save my discussion of DeGrazia’s critique of the second assumption for a later article that can take into account DeGrazia’s further elaboration of his position. (shrink)

This article is a response to Frank Hindriks’ “Restructuring Searle’s Making the Social World.”.

The aim of the paper is to clarify what is properly common to the common good and to support its irreducibility as a guarantee of overcoming an atomistic conception of civil society. We begin by addressing the notion of individual freedom and the questioning of the selfish condition of the human being. Then, we delve into the normative possibilities offered by an ethical interpretation of the common good. The difference of the common good from other notions used in late-modern discourses (...) is key in determining the intrinsic commonality of social relations. In concluding, we argue for a conception of the common good that accommodates individual freedom, understanding it no longer in isolation, but as part of intersubjectivity. (shrink)

Using an international sample of banks, we study how differences in religiosity across countries affect earnings management. Given that religiosity is a major source of morality and ethical behavior, it may reduce excessive risk taking and act as deterrence for earnings manipulations. Therefore, we predict lower earnings management in societies that have higher religiosity. Consistent with expectations, our cross-country analysis indicates that religiosity is negatively related to income-increasing earnings management for loss-avoidance and just-meeting-or-beating prior year’s earnings. We also find that (...) religiosity reduces income-increasing earnings management through abnormal loan loss provisions. In additional tests, we document that religiosity increases the information value of bank earnings, with both earnings persistence and cash flow predictability being enhanced by higher religiosity. For the crisis period analysis, our evidence shows that banks in countries with higher religiosity exhibit lower probability of reporting asset deterioration and lower probability of having poor performance. (shrink)

This commentary considers the viability of ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) in the case of an adult who qualified for brain death. Although there has been some success with OTC in achieving pregnancy when the tissue is reimplanted in the original donor, attempting OTC in the case under discussion would have not been medically feasible.

Respect for human embryos is often defended on the basis of the potentiality argument: embryos deserve respect because they already possess potentially the features that in adults are fully actualized. Opponents of this argument challenge it by claiming that if embryos should be respected because they are potentially adults, then gametes should be respected because they are potentially embryos. This article rejects this reductio ad absurdum argument by showing that there are two different types of potentiality involved so that the (...) transitivity of potentiality does not hold up in this case. Respect for embryos does not logically entail respect for gametes. (shrink)

Educação estética em “Rua de mão única” e em “A idade da terra” 1 Resumo: O presente ensaio analisou o tema da educação estética a partir do texto literário “Rua de mão única” de Walter Benjamin e do filme “A idade da terra” de Glauber Rocha e buscou identificar semelhanças entre a forma alegórica presente nas duas obras, bem como descrever as potencialidades pedagógicas presentes nas imagens-pensamentos produzidas por elas junto ao receptor. Definimos como problematização a compreensão do potencial de (...) crítica e ensino da forma alegórica mediada pela literatura e pelo cinema. Nosso principal objetivo foi identificar as características alegóricas na construção das obras, entendendo as relações com os contextos históricos, econômicos e culturais em que foram produzidas. Como principais resultados de nossa investigação apontamos que o cinema e a literatura são espaços privilegiados de construção de imagens-pensamentos, que associados aos conceitos filosóficos potencializam a interpretação e a crítica da realidade histórica, econômica e cultural, derivando na dimensão pedagógica da imagem que acreditamos possa ser melhor explorada pelos educadores. Palavras-chave: Educação estética. Cinema. Literatura. Alegoria. Ensino. 1 Apoio FAPEMIG ao projeto de pesquisa APQ 02218-18: O Cinema Novo como experiência inovadora da formação cultural docente. Aesthetics education in "One-Way Street" by Walter Benjamim and in "The Age of the Earth" by Glauber Rocha: The present essay analyzed the topic aesthetics education from the literary text "One-Way Street", by Walter Benjamin, and the film "The Age of the Earth" by Glauber Rocha. It aimed to identify similarities between the allegorical constructions present in the two works, as well as, to describe the pedagogical potentialities present in the images-thoughts produced by them together with the receiver. We defined as questioning the understanding of criticism and teaching potential of the allegorical form mediated by literature and cinema. Our main objective was to identify the allegorical characteristics in creating the works, conceiving relationships with historical, economic and cultural contexts in which they were created. Our main results point out that cinema and literature are privileged spaces of images-thoughts construction, and that associated with the philosophical concepts they can potentiate the interpretation and the criticism of the historical, economic and cultural reality, deriving the educational dimension of the image that we believe educators may best explore. Keywords: Aesthetics education. Cinema. Literature. Allegory. Teaching. Educación estética en "Calle de sentido único” y en “La edad de la tierra ” Resumen: En este trabajo se analizó el tema de la educación estética del texto literario "Calle de sentido único" de Walter Benjamin y de la película “La edad de la tierra” de Glauber Rocha. Se buscó identificar semejanzas entre la forma alegórica presente en las dos obras, así como describir las potencialidades pedagógicas presentes en las imágenes-pensamientos producidas por ellas junto al receptor. Definimos como problematización la comprensión del potencial de crítica y enseñanza de la forma alegórica mediada por la literatura y el cine. Nuestro objetivo principal fue identificar las características alegóricas en la construcción de las obras, entendiendo las relaciones con los contextos históricos, económicos y culturales en que se produjeron. Los principales resultados de nuestras investigaciones señalan que el cine y la literatura son espacios privilegiados de construcción de imágenes-pensamientos, los cuales, asociados a los conceptos filosóficos, promueven la interpretación y la crítica de la realidad histórica, económica y cultural, derivando en la dimensión pedagógica de la imagen, y creemos que los educadores puedan sacar mejor provecho de ello. Palabras clave: Educación estética. Cine. Literatura. Alegoría. Enseñanza. Data de registro:09/06/2019 Data de aceite: 09/12/2019. (shrink)

Dans une étroite et longue terre semblable à une tresse, des fils (des) et (ins) tituants tissaient une trame politique tantôt opaque, tantôt brillante, ou bien encore, comme dans un scénario quantique, les deux à la fois. Nous ne dirions pas de cette trame qu’elle affirmait une (R)évolution, mais il nous semble bien qu’elle suggérait un assemblage miraculeux de (p)olitiques moléculaires. Les outillages rationnels étant en déphasage avec ces manières associatives et résurgentes d’être, ces assemblages (dés)orientaient sans doute nos argumentations (...) politiques de l’époque, mais elles déroutaient surtout nos manières de nous référer à cette activité terrestre. Ce qui se passait là-bas ne finissait en effet pas de se passer de singulier en singulier au travers des actions et d’affects impossibles de se réduire à une seule (M)ultitude affirmativement révolutionnaire. Et pourtant, on a vu dans ces contrées se lever un jour, de l’horizontale terrestre, une assemblée-age, un texte et un horizon chaosmopolitique d’aspirations communes. (shrink)

In order to understand the nature of human embryos I first distinguish between active and passive potentiality, and then argue that the former is found in human gametes and embryos (even in embryos in vitro that may fail to be implanted) because they all have an indwelling power or capacity to initiate certain changes. Implantation provides necessary conditions for the actualization of that prior, active potentiality. This does not imply that embryos are potential persons that do not deserve the same (...) respect as actual persons. To claim that embryos become persons is to understand the predicate person as a phase sortal, roughly equivalent to adult person. This entails that we would not be essentially persons. In order to explain the traditional understanding of person as a proper sortal rather than a phase sortal, the author distinguishes between proximate and remote potentiality, and shows that, unlike feline embryos, human embryos, by their genetic constitution, possess the remote potentiality to later exercise the typically human activities. It follows that they are already persons essentially. (shrink)

Nuestro trabajo se propone presentar el pensamiento paulino trabajado por Alain Badiou en San Pablo: La fundación del universalismo. Intentaremos clarificar las posiciones que toma Badiou en torno a la figura del apóstol. Consideramos que, explicitando las lecturas del autor en cuestión, es posible tejer puentes para la discusión en el campo de la teología política. Entendemos la lectura de Badiou como una lectura filosófica política, que busca dialogar con una comunidad política. Pablo, en Badiou, es presentado como «un teórico (...) antifilosófico de la universalidad» y el fundador del universalismo cristiano. A partir de esta interpretación la tarea de Badiou es buscar lo universal en lo particular. (shrink)