The anecdote of Zhuangzi and Hui Shi's brief discussion on a bridge above the Hao river gives us a nice piece of reasoning in ancient Chinese texts that may serve as a platform for a productive philosophical exchange between the East and the West. The present study examines Hansen's inferential analysis of Zhuangzi and Hui Shi's discussion in this spirit. It is argued that Hansen's analysis founders. To do justice to both Hui Shi and Zhuangzi, the present study proposes that (...) we apply the logic developed in the later Mohist text, the Lesser Pick, to an analysis of their discussion. The re-analysis shows that the intricate dialectic of the reasoning in which Zhuangzi and Hui Shi engage, neatly accords with the pattern of discourse expounded in the Lesser Pick, and gives us global insight into Zhuangzi's final statement in the anecdote, which is notoriously recondite, or confusing. (shrink)

Searle's Chinese room argument is analyzed from a cognitive point of view. The analysis is based on a newly developed model of conceptual integration, the many space model proposed by Fauconnier and Turner. The main point of the analysis is that the central inference constructed in the Chinese room scenario is a result of a dynamic, cognitive activity of conceptual blending, with metaphor defining the basic features of the blending. Two important consequences follow: (1) Searle's recent contention that syntax is (...) not intrinsic to physics turns out to be a slightly modified version of the old Chinese room argument; and (2) the argument itself is still open to debate. It is persuasive but not conclusive, and at bottom it is a topological mismatch in the metaphoric conceptual integration that is responsible for the non-conclusive character of the Chinese room argument. (shrink)

Tye argues that visual mental images have their contents encoded in topographically organized regions of the visual cortex, which support depictive representations; therefore, visual mental images rely at least in part on depictive representations. This argument, I contend, does not support its conclusion. I propose that we divide the problem about the depictive nature of mental imagery into two parts: one concerns the format of image representation and the other the conditions by virtue of which a representation becomes a depictive (...) representation. Regarding the first part of the question, I argue that there exists a topographic format in the brain but that does not imply that there exists a depictive format of image representation. My answer to the second part of the question is that one needs a content analysis of a certain sort of topographic representations i n order to make sense of depictive mental representations, and a topographic representation becomes a depictive representation by virtue of its content rather than its form. (shrink)

This paper attempts to clarify and critically examine Fodor's language of thought (LOT) hypothesis, focusing on his contention that the systematicity of language use provides a solid ground for the LOT hypothesis. (edited).

Tye argues that visual mental images have their contents encoded in topographically organized regions of the visual cortex, which support depictive representations; therefore, visual mental images rely at least in part on depictive representations. This argument, I contend, does not support its conclusion. I propose that we divide the problem about the depictive nature of mental imagery into two parts: one concerns the format of image representation and the other the conditions by virtue of which a representation becomes a depictive (...) representation. Regarding the first part of the question, I argue that there exists a topographic format in the brain but that does not imply that there exists a depictive format of image representation. My answer to the second part of the question is that one needs a content analysis of a certain sort of topographic representations in order to make sense of depictive mental representations, and a topographic representation becomes a depictive representation by virtue of its content rather than its form. (shrink)

What are thought experiments? How and why do they work? What do they reveal about the nature of rationality? These are the problems that I attempt to solve in my inquiry. ;Regarding the first problem, my preliminary answer can be stated as follows: Thought experiments are our imaginative explorations of new ways to experience and understand our world. It is my conviction that the ability to try out new ways of experiencing and understanding various phenomena is essential to the growth (...) of our knowledge and is constitutive of our sense of meaningfulness in our world. This conviction is the guiding idea of my study. ;This conviction is debatable. It cannot be the starting point of my argument. My tactic, rather, is to select and examine certain kinds of thought experiments, to show how and why they work, and to uncover the rationality that supports their implementation. I will show that the rationality is not specific to thought experimentation but is constitutive of all sorts of human organizing activities. The importance of a proper analysis of thought experiment is that it can give us an insight into human rationality in general. ;Thought experiments have played a central role in scientific development in human history. Yet almost nobody has any insight into how and why they work. But now recent research on cognition, especially research on meaning, imagination, concepts, reasoning, and cognitive development has begun to shed light on the imaginative structure of thought experiments. Therefore, we now have a means to begin to analyze the central mechanism of thought experimentation. My inquiry suggests what such an analysis would look like. (shrink)

Richard Norman examines justifications for war that are rooted in the right of self-defence.

This monograph treats the important topic of the epistemology of diagrams in Euclidean geometry. Norman argues that diagrams play a genuine justificatory role in traditional Euclidean arguments, and he aims to account for these roles from a modified Kantian perspective. Norman considers himself a semi-Kantian in the following broad sense: he believes that Kant was right that ostensive constructions are necessary in order to follow traditional Euclidean proofs, but he wants to avoid appealing to Kantian a priori intuition (...) as the epistemological background for these constructions.Norman's main argument is limited to the thesis that certain Euclidean arguments—in particular, that of Proposition 1.32, the internal-angle-sum theorem—require inferences from diagrams. Interestingly, Norman is not committed to the view that these arguments are proofs. This becomes clear only quite late in the book, when he distinguishes argument from proofs, remarking that the argument he has been focusing on is not rigorous, and so is not a proof. Norman does not, however, explicitly classify all Euclidean arguments as non-proofs. His view is that diagrammatic reasoning can in principle feature in rigorous proofs, but he is not committed to the thesis that any particular argument, Euclidean or otherwise, provides an example of this. Rather than proofs in particular, Norman is more interested in the general issue of justification in mathematics.The argument has three components. First, Norman argues against competing accounts of Euclidean arguments such as empiricism, and ‘Leibnizianism’—the view that diagrams play only a heuristic role. Second, he provides a more direct, or positive, argument that the way we actually follow the standard argument for 1.32 does appeal to the diagram. This is an appeal to the phenomenology of following the argument. Third, he articulates and defends his semi-Kantian position against some objections.The book has a very careful and …. (shrink)

Background The use of lengthy, detailed, and complex informed consent forms is of paramount concern in biomedical research as it may not truly promote the rights and interests of research participants. The extent of information in ICFs has been the subject of debates for decades; however, no clear guidance is given. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the perspectives of research participants about the type and extent of information they need when they are invited to participate in (...) biomedical research. Methods This multi-center, cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted at 54 study sites in seven Asia-Pacific countries. A modified Likert-scale questionnaire was used to determine the importance of each element in the ICF among research participants of a biomedical study, with an anchored rating scale from 1 to 5. Results Of the 2484 questionnaires distributed, 2113 were returned. The majority of respondents considered most elements required in the ICF to be ‘moderately important’ to ‘very important’ for their decision making. Major foreseeable risk, direct benefit, and common adverse effects of the intervention were considered to be of most concerned elements in the ICF. Conclusions Research participants would like to be informed of the ICF elements required by ethical guidelines and regulations; however, the importance of each element varied, e.g., risk and benefit associated with research participants were considered to be more important than the general nature or technical details of research. Using a participant-oriented approach by providing more details of the participant-interested elements while avoiding unnecessarily lengthy details of other less important elements would enhance the quality of the ICF. (shrink)

In the Cairo Genizah were manuscripts with Gregorian notation and Hebrew script. They also appeared documents that point to author of the scores at Giovanni-Obadiah, a twelfth century Christian monk, born in southern Italy, who converted to Judaism. Until now, the study of this personage has been realized almost exclusively from the Jewish point of view. Nevertheless, like Obadiah synthesizes the traditions Christian and Jewish in its notation when copying Hebrew melodies with Christian notation, also it does in his texts. (...) Obadiah transcribed a Latin appointment of Joel to Hebrew characters. This article pretends to oppose his conversion to Judaism with his ordination as a Christian monk through the prophecy of Joel, which implies an intense dialogue between the two traditions. (shrink)

George Annas serves a critical function as an incisive commentator on the interactions between law and medicine and law and public health. Along with Alex Capron, Dena Davis, Rebecca Dresser, and Larry GostinProfessor Annas analyses legal aspects of a spectrum of medicolegal issues both in a forum and in a manner that makes them accessible and understandable to a broad community of healthcare providers. His latest book, SomeChoice, continues that valuable tradition. The bulk of the volume (17 out of 22 (...) chapters) is drawn from essays originally published as the feature of the NewEnglandJournalofMedicine. The topics include such staples of patients' rights debate as the boundaries of informed consent, authorization of medical experiments, and physician-assisted suicide. A treat is the inclusion of less frequently covered issues, such as access to health information concerning presidential candidates and constitutional bounds of limits on cigarette advertising. (shrink)

There are two well-developed formalizations of discrete time dynamic systems that evidently share many concerns but suffer from a lack of mutual awareness. One formalization is classical systems and automata theory. The other is the logic of actions in which the situation and event calculi are the strongest representatives. Researchers in artificial intelligence are likely to be familiar with the latter but not the former. This is unfortunate, for systems and automata theory have much to offer by way of insight (...) into problems raised in the logics of action. This paper is an outline of how the input-output view of systems and its associated solution of state realization may be applied to the formalization of dynamics that uses a situation calculus approach. In particular, because the latter usually admits incompletely specified dynamics, which induces a non-deterministic input-output system behavior, we first show that classical state realization can still be achieved if the behavior is causal. This is a novel systems-theoretic result. Then we proceed to indicate how situation calculi dynamic specifications can be understood in systems-theoretic terms, and how automata can be viewed as models of such specifications. As techniques for reasoning about automata are abundant, this will provide yet more tools for reasoning about actions. (shrink)

Varios teóricos del derecho han propuesto el uso de umbrales o estándares de prueba más flexibles y más finamente discriminados. En la medicina es común utilizar estándares que poseen estas características en los procedimientos diagnósticos y en los exámenes médicos. Esta ponencia ofrece un marco probabilístico para establecer estándares de prueba múltiples en cualquier disciplina. La tesis principal es que la evidencia es un concepto umbral con respecto a la probabilidad. Múltiples umbrales pueden ser establecidos en un marco de intervalos (...) de probabilidad para la hipótesis que está siendo puesta a prueba, los cuales reflejan los diferentes grados de apoyo que la evidencia le provee a la hipótesis. Examinando los mecanismos utilizados para establecer los umbrales en medicina, sugiero una manera para establecer umbrales múltiples de prueba en derecho de una manera no arbitraria. (shrink)

A principios del siglo XX Maquiavelo ya es un autor celebrado por Ortega y Gasset, que aborrece el siglo XIX como conclusión de una época, pero que admira sobremanera el Renacimiento. Solo veinte años después –en España invertebrada– la admiración hacia Maquiavelo, se plantea de forma específica y las páginas de El Príncipe se interpretan como el comentario genial “de un italiano a los hechos de dos españoles”, Fernando el Católico y César Borja. La postura de D’Ors es muy diferente. (...) A pesar de que él, en 1920, abogue en favor de Maquiavelo contra el “juicio vulgar” –en cuanto “venganza simbólica y perdurable de la Inteligencia contra la Astucia”–, por cierto concluye colocándose entre los críticos más radicales: según D’Ors, Maquiavelo reitera en la Modernidad el paganismo del emperador Juliano, y anticipa –contra Dante y su teoría del imperio– el destino de una Europa fragmentada, donde pelean ideas y naciones, sin referencia alguna a una autoridad de alcance universal. (shrink)

Conferencia inaugural impartida en el V Coloquio Nacional "Los valores en el siglo XXI", Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Chilpancingo, México, 24 de noviembre de 2010. El texto se refiere a la relación entre vida y valores y desarrolla la tesis sobre los fundamentos vitales de los valores humanos, para lo cual se indaga en las premisas evolutivas del vínculo entre la vida y las relaciones de significación que los seres vivos establecen con su entorno.

El objetivo de este ensayo es hacer una defensa de la exigibilidad de los derechos económicos y sociales. Esta noción se refiere a “la posibilidad de reclamar ante un juez o tribunal de justicia el cumplimiento, al menos, de algunas de las obligaciones que se derivan [de estos derechos]”. Para realizar este objetivo, procederé de la siguiente manera. En la sección II, haré una reconstrucción de uno de los argumentos más tradicionales que se han ofrecido en contra de la exigibilidad (...) de los derechos económicos y sociales. En la sección III, haré una reconstrucción de la interpretación institucional de los derechos humanos, presentada por el filósofo Thomas Pogge, en su libro La pobreza en el mundo y los derechos humanos. La relevancia de esta interpretación consiste en que pretende trascender la crítica libertariana que sostiene que los derechos económicos y sociales no son derechos humanos. En la sección IV, me ocuparé de los derechos económicos y sociales incluidos en la Constitución nacional y en varios instrumentos internacionales. En la sección V, haré algunas reflexiones sobre la exigibilidad de estos derechos. Finalmente, en la sección VI, extraeré algunas conclusiones de las secciones previas. (shrink)

Se presenta una sistematización de las diez respuestas que, desperdigadas, podemos encontrar en la obra de Ortega y Gasset a la pregunta ¿por qué filosofa el hombre?: por naturaleza, amor, asombro, curiosidad, placer, felicidad, para estar en lo cierto, para jugar, para evadirse y para orientarse. Si todas estas pueden integrarse y adquieren una nueva significación en función de la última respuesta, correspondiente a las reflexiones de su tercer periodo que concibe la filosofía como orientación, esta será, además, la primera (...) tesis de su sistema filosófico, la realidad radical. De este modo, su filosofía quedará justificada; obligación que todo filósofo tiene para con su obra, a juicio de Ortega. ENGLISH: The article provides a systematization of the ten answers that can be found in the work of Ortega y Gasset to the question of why human beings philosophize: by nature, out of love, astonishment, curiosity, pleasure, or happiness, to be right, to play, to evade oneself, and to obtain guidance. If all of these can be integrated and acquire a new meaning with respect to the last response, which corresponds to Ortega's reflections during his third period, in which philosophy is understood as guidance, this will also be the first thesis of his philosophical system, radical reality. In this way, his philosophy would be justified, an obligation that according to Ortega, applies to all philosophers. (shrink)

En los reproches que José Ortega y Gasset le hace a Martin Heidegger sobre el problema del ser, al afirmar que este no puede ser un ciego punto de partida, una creencia, se evidencia la distancia entre dos perspectivas unidas por el horizonte real que pretenden explorar: la vida humana. Sin embargo,..

Tuberculosis en América Latina y el Caribe: reflexiones desde la bioética Tuberculose na América Latina e no Caribe: reflexões da bioética The objective of this article is to analyze the conditions of access to health services by people with tuberculosis in Latin America and the Caribbean, reflecting on the public health aspects involved from a bioethical perspective. A literature review of the context of tuberculosis in LAC based on epidemiological data was performed. The results were analyzed from its relationship with (...) the social determinants of health and the ethical principles that guide medical practice. Tuberculosis is a pressing public health problem in the region because of its family, social, economic and health impact. It mainly affects vulnerable individuals and populations. Health services violate ethical principles. Tuberculosis is a serious ethics and public health problem in the region that causes death, disability and increased poverty. It is imperative to ensure the right to health services and to understand the individual and public health consequences of non-adherence to treatment. It is important that national tuberculosis control strategies include principles of dignity and non-discrimination of the sick, changes in the social determinants of the disease, and respect for the ethnicity, language culture and identity of patients. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Muñoz del Carpio-Toia A, Sánchez-Pérez HJ, Verges de López C, López-Dávila LM, Sotomayor-Saavedra MA, Sorokin P. Tuberculosis en América Latina y el Caribe: reflexiones desde la bioética. pers. bioét. 2018; 22: 331-357. DOI: 10.5294/pebi.2018.22.2.10. (shrink)

El discurso de individuos diagnosticados con trastorno del lenguaje como en el caso de la esquizofrenia, ha sido alta y comúnmente estudiado desde enfoques que observan el procesamiento cognitivo en la memoria, la atención o el acceso léxico o la localización y funcionamiento neuronal. El presente artículo en cambio, presenta y propone una reflexión y análisis de la forma de la información en las representaciones mentales a partir de una Semántica Conceptualista que incluye la combinatoria de interfaz físicas/perceptivas y de (...) inferencia o razonamiento para la formación del pensamiento y del lenguaje. A partir de un método de análisis deductivo indirecto sobre las sustituciones que operan en las estructuras conceptuales mediatizadas por las interfaces de la percepción, y el proceso de recursividad en la reparación de la referencia, se infiere que no necesariamente se trata de un trastorno del lenguaje o del pensamiento sino más bien de procesos relacionados directamente con la racionalización de los conceptos en las estructuras conceptuales; donde la sustitución es una forma común de representar la identidad de objetos. Identidad que resulta abstracta e inteligible a los oyentes en tanto que no se han satisfecho las necesidades de referencialidad. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta un estudio sobre la terminología empleada para referirse al período histórico del Golpe y Dictadura Militar en los textos escolares de enseñanza media de historia de Chile. Los términos representan los conceptos especializados de una disciplina y reflejan la conceptualización particular de la realidad por parte de una determinada comunidad disciplinar en un contexto socio-temporal. Por ello, influyen en la manera en que el receptor accede al conocimiento. Este estudio tuvo por objetivo describir el punto de vista (...) sobre el Golpe y la Dictadura Militar transmitido a través de la terminología en los manuales de historia chilenos, y determinar si esta ha evolucionado con el paso de los años. Para ello, se analizaron las variantes terminológicas de los conceptos principales que configuran el periodo histórico en la unidad didáctica sobre el tema en textos escolares de 2º y 3º Medio, licitados por el Mineduc entre el 2002 y 2014. Luego, a partir del análisis de la información conceptual reflejada en cada variante y el nivel de abstracción de la categoría seleccionada, se interpretó si las variantes reflejaban un punto de vista negativo, neutro o positivo del concepto. Los resultados demostraron que las denominaciones son relativamente estables a lo largo de los años y transmiten puntos de vista mayormente neutros. Estos resultados contrastan con la perspectiva pluralista de los hechos que promulga el Mineduc en sus bases curriculares. (shrink)

Este estudio examina las relaciones entre política, poder, comunicación y cultura y el impacto de las nuevas tecnologías en esas relaciones. En él se destaca la función de la universidad en la producción de conocimiento útil al ciudadano en sus prácticas político-sociales, en la interpretación del m..

El estudio del bilingüismo es una de las áreas más dinámicas en la investigación en psicolingüística . A pesar de la gran cantidad de estudios realizados en esta disciplina, sigue habiendo relativamente poca investigación que analice el procesamiento del lenguaje figurado. Esta misma falta de estudios se encuentra también en la glotodidáctica, puesto que la mayoría de estudios conciernen la enseñanza de idioms en inglés como lengua extranjera . Tras una revisión de los principales debates sobre el estudio del procesamiento (...) de expresiones idiomáticas y su comprensión en la L2, el presente trabajo analiza las estrategias empleadas por usuarios de un foro lingüístico virtual en la comprensión y producción de expresiones no literales en castellano e italiano como lenguas extranjeras, valorando especialmente la importancia de la conciencia metalingüística del hablante. Se esbozarán finalmente algunas posibilidades para la aplicación de los resultados del estudio a la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se estudia la crítica que Charles Taylor ha formulado al modelo del liberalismo procedimental y a la concepción de racionalidad práctica moderna. El punto de partida es que la crítica de Taylor se sustenta en los aportes de la tradición filosófica sustantiva, la cual posibili..

La recepción de Ortega en México, siguiendo la mirada gaosiana acerca de Caso, Ramos y Vasconcelos.

En este escrito quiero mostrar que la relación entre la memoria y el deber moral de recordar implica la intermediación necesaria del interés y el análisis de las consecuencias que de allí se siguen, para una concepción más incluyente y pragmática de las relaciones entre ética y moral. Comienzo señalando, mediante ejemplos, que sí hay exigencias morales relacionadas con el deber de recordar. Luego, entro a considerar la naturaleza de estas exigencias morales y su vinculación con lo que entendemos como (...) interés, para finalmente establecer una caracterización fluida y no excluyente de las interacciones entre ética y moralidad. El punto de partida de estas reflexiones son las lecciones sobre La ética del recuerdo (2002) de Avishai Margalit. El problema que Margalit se plantea es el siguiente: ¿Existe una ética de la memoria? ¿Bajo que circunstancias podemos afirmar que estamos obligados a recordar personas y acontecimientos del pasado? ¿De qué tipo de obligación estamos hablando aquí? ¿Quiénes están sujetos a la obligación: los individuos o los colectivos sociales? (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es a nalizar el Dialogo Social y el Tripartismo en Venezuela, explanando los distintos elementos que conforman cada uno de estos conceptos, al mismo tiempo se presentan los antecedentes del proceso de diálogo social y tripartismo en Venezuela. La metodología utilizada se encuentra enmarcada en una investigación tipificada como aplicada, documental y descriptiva, se tipificó el diseño de la investigación bibliográfico, las técnicas e instrumentos de recolección de datos utilizados fueron la selección y verificación de (...) documentación escrita. De los resultados se desprende que las funciones del dialogo social, pueden observarse desde distintas perspectivas, para lograr consensos, para a través de la discusión puedan evitarse situaciones de conflicto, para debatir en torno a temas vinculados a lo económico, laboral y social. Hoy en día en la Ley Orgánica del Trabajo, los trabajadores, y las trabajadoras queda excluida la participación de la Comisión Tripartita Nacional, y por ende, toda intervención en la toma de decisiones o recomendaciones en virtud de la fijación del salario minino. Es la razón por la cual, se sostiene el hecho de que son necesarios estos mecanismos de concertación para crear una sociedad justa y democrática. (shrink)

Following González Vergara (2006a, 2009, 2012), the presence of the morpheme se in Spanish is explained by a lexical phenomenon that modifies the logical structure of sentences in which it appears. This phenomenon decreases the importance of the Actor and favors the Undergoer. According to this proposal, this phenomenon expresses itself, in most of the Spanish sesentences, as a lexical rule that makes unspecific the highest ranking argument. Taking the above as a basis, this paper explores and proposes explanations for (...) se alternating verbs of the type of matar(se), morir(se), dormir(se), despertar(se), terminar(se), adelgazar(se), engordar(se), envejecer(se), mejorar(se), controlar(se), crecer(se) y aparecer(se) in the framework of the Role and Reference Grammar. (shrink)

Aberrant consumer behaviour costs firms millions of pounds a year, and the Internet has provided young techno-literate consumers with a new medium to exploit businesses. This paper addresses Internet related ethics and describes the ways in which young consumers misdemean on the Internet and their attitudes towards these. Using a sample of 219 generation Y consumers, the study identified 24 aberrant behaviours which grouped into five factors; illegal, questionable activities, hacking related, human Internet trade and downloading. Those perceived as least (...) wrong were; "Downloading movie and music files from the Internet for free". The consequences of these behaviours have implications for educators, consumer policy and marketers. (shrink)

The present study examines student perception of protagonist behavior in three case vignettes. One demographic group consists of professionally employed MBA students who show characteristics of Generation X. The second cohort consists of Generation Y business undergraduates. Differences emerge between the groups. Even when they propose similar action, their respective rationale differs. Generation Xers show themselves to be astute pragmatists whose focus is on self rather than society. Yet the younger cohort, in its quest to find fulfillment, may give short (...) shrift to some seasoned tenets of corporate conduct, including organizational mission, organizational politics, and organizational loyalty. (shrink)

Generation Y is a cohort of the population larger than the baby boom generation. Consisting of approximately 80 million people born between 1981 and 2000, Generation Y is the most recent cohort to enter the workforce. Workplaces are being redefined and organizations are being pressed to adapt as this new wave of workers is infused into business environments. One critical aspect of this phenomenon not receiving sufficient research attention is the impact of Gen Y ethical beliefs and ethical conduct in (...) workplace contexts. It is widely accepted that distinct generational experiences shape ethical ideologies and ethical ideologies in turn affect the way people function in the workplace. Thus, Gen Y’s unique cohort experiences are likely to shape their ethical ideologies and consequent workplace judgments and actions. In this article, we examine Gen Y’s ethical ideology and study its impact on workplace functioning regarding leadership style, teamwork, and judgments about ethical violations. Our analyses indicate that Gen Y’ers tend toward situationalism (high idealism and high relativism), and their socially connected orientation produces more lenient judgments of collaborative vs. unilateral ethical violations. However, Gen Y’ers do exhibit individual variation. Relativist Gen Y’ers are more tolerant of ethical violations, whereas, Gen Y Idealists are less tolerant of ethical violations. High Idealists also show stronger teamwork and leadership characteristics. In addition, Gen Y’ers possessing servant leader traits exhibit incrementally better teamwork, and greater perceived unacceptability of ethical violations. We conclude by discussing implications of these findings for managing ethical climates and conduct. (shrink)

Many journals and publishers employ online submission systems to process manuscripts. In some cases, one “template” format exists, but it is then molded slightly to suit the specific needs of each journal, a decision made by the editor-in-chief or editors. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of cases in which OSSs have been abused, mostly by the authorship, either through the creation of fake identities or the use of false e-mail accounts. Although the (...) abusive or fraudulent authors are at fault in such cases, the fact that such cases remained undetected for so long is of concern. Moreover, the current OSSs are imperfect, have security issues and may not be able to detect false information, except through post-submission verification. Sting operations, which involve the submission of false manuscripts with false identities and false affiliations, are no less unethical, and those who abuse the publishing protocol deserve to be as reprimanded as those who abuse OSSs. Finally, I question the ethics of editors or publishers creating OSS accounts on behalf of reviewers prior to obtaining their explicit permission. doi: 10.5294/pebi.2016.20.2.3. (shrink)