En este trabajo se hace un análisis aproximativo del estudio fenomenológico hermenéutico del dolor en la facticidad del vivir propio. Su objetivo es visualizar el dolor como determinante en la apertura a la existencia del ser, del ser-ahí, en perspectiva heideggeriana. Se expone la experiencia de la vida dolorosa como experiencia fáctica del vivir en sí mismo, y el conflicto ético que plantea la alteridad: la dificultad de comprender el dolor de los otros desde su propio experimentar dolor. Este conflicto (...) ético aparece en la conciencia del médico cuando éste asume el compromiso de ir más allá de la ayuda instrumental e intenta ver el sufrimiento del enfermo desde la realidad del otro como sí mismo. La hipótesis que subyace en este análisis es que el sufrimiento del dolor abre camino a la existencia propia; sin embargo, evidencia el obstáculo de comprensión del otro. Se concluye ratificando la idea de que el dolor tiene carácter de «existenciario» (término de Martin Heidegger, que significa un modo de ser-en-el-mundo). (shrink)

Este estudio de relaciones médico-paciente en Mexico involucró entrevistas realizadas a 1700 pacientes inmediatamente de.\pués de salir de su consulta clínica. Se llevó a cabo entre los años 2004-05 en León, More ha, Guanajuato y en Charleston, West Virginia, USA. Los propósitos fueron: 1) establecer un base de datos como punto de referencia para investigaciones futuras en instituciones del cuidado de la salud con referencia a la comunicación médico-paciente, a la satisfacción de los pacientes y al consentimiento infórmado y, 2) (...) hacer una comparación entre las relaciones medico-paciente en Mexico y los Estados Unidos de America. Hicimos varias conclusiones sobre la comunicación médico-paciente, participación del paciente en decisiones con respecto a su cuidado de salud y el ambiente social de la consulta médica. Ofi-ecemos los datos y los cuestionarios completos por internet a cualquier investigador interesado para estudios futuros de acuerdo con sus propios intereses. Además, encontramos que no huho ninguna diferencia importante en las relaciones médico-pacientes con respecto al consentimiento infórmado y la satisfáccián del paciente entre México y los EEUU. (shrink)

Many different arguments have been put forward in order to assign the best place for a given element within Mendeleev's Table: its spectroscopy, its chemical activity, the crystalline structure of its solid state, etc. We here propose another criterion; the nature of the few body corrections to the pairwise additive energy. This argument is used here to address a question often brought forward by Eric Scerri in Foundations of Chemistry, namely the rightful place of helium; either above the column of (...) the alkaline earths (beryllium, etc.) or rather above the noble gas elements. (shrink)

We access most of our most cherished beliefs via testimony. Philosophy is no exception. We treat spoken and written philosophical testimony as evidence for philosophical claims. Nonetheless, this paper argues that philosophical testimony is unable to justify philosophical beliefs. If testimony is the only evidence we have to justify philosophical beliefs, this entails skepticism about philosophy. Call this the testimony challenge. First, the paper argues that philosophical testimony does not meet the conditions under which evidence can justify our beliefs. Second, (...) it shows that philosophical testimony cannot provide preemptive epistemic reasons as science and mathematics do. Finally, it answers the self‐defeat objection and a set of objections aiming to block the thesis that philosophical testimony does not justify philosophical beliefs. The paper aims to rethink the role of philosophical testimony in philosophy and reinforce the skeptical worries raised by methodological and disagreement challenges. (shrink)

This paper explores the political awakening of the Chilean people that began in October 2019. It puts forward an alternative reading of the people’s claim for a new constitution. The first section briefly describes the October outcry and provides some context with regards to the nature of the social movement at its root. The two following sections examine two periods in Chilean recent history, the Pinochet regime and the period that has come after its overturn, focusing on two elements: the (...) neoliberal model set up by the dictatorship and the Constitution of 1980, which was designed to block the people’s political agency for the purpose of protecting the model. The final section works with these two elements in order to provide an alternative scheme by which to examine Chile’s awakening, the central question being: what does the claim for a new constitution mean? And critical for these purposes: what constitution is being overturned? Pinochet’s political project distorted constitutional ideas in such a way that only by clarifying the conceptual horizon is it possible to visualize how the concept of constitution and its relationship with the idea of a constituent power of the people can be of help to understand Chile’s constitutional awakening. (shrink)

Media ecology is not the theoretical stream of communication studies and it is not limited to Marshall McLuhan´s work and thinking; however, we focus on McLuhan’s approach to media ecology for this special issue on the philosophy of Marshall McLuhan. Media ecology is a complex and systemic metadiscipline whose object of study is the changes and effects that have occurred in society as a result of the evolution of technology and media throughout history.

The Periodic Table has the column of the noble gas atoms (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn) as one of its main pillars. Indeed the inert chemical nature of their closed shell structure is so striking that it is sometimes extended to all such structures. Is it true however that any closed shell, say a closed d-subshell will denote a lack of chemical activity? Take the noble metals for instance, so renowned for their catalytic capacity. Platinum has 10 electrons in (...) its valence shell which makes one of its excited states to be a closed 5d10–6s0 state. Surely this state would not be expected to be crucial to the catalytic activity of platinum, or would it? Or take palladium whose ground state is precisely the 4d10–5s0 state, should we expect that an isolated Pd atom at near zero-point temperature would attack a closed-shell hydrogen molecule efficiently? We shall here show that this is precisely the case; the closed-shell excited states of nickel and platinum are indeed crucial, through symmetry avoided crossings, for their reactivity. Other valuable catalysts as ruthenium depend on their excited states with maximal d-shell occupancy for their activity. The most notable confirmation of this new finding; that closed d-shells are vital to the catalytic activity of noble metals however, is the case of palladium whose closed-shell ground state is indeed capable of attacking hydrogen and hydrocarbon molecules even at temperatures well below 10 K as was predicted theoretically and immediately confirmed experimentally. (shrink)

Over the turn of the 21st century, the use of data from large electronic corpora has changed research on Spanish historical syntax, spurring interest in long-range evolutions and the shape of the correspondent diachronic curves. However, general reflections on diffusion and the factors that drive and influence it are still pretty much lacking. In this paper, I reflect on the research possibilities laid open by the availability of such large masses of data, focusing particularly on new knowledge on syntactic change (...) brought about by the study of low-frequency phenomena and of recessive changes, as well as on the exploration of changes conditioned by dialect contact and textual traditions. I conclude with some remarks on the general typology of diffusion in syntactic change. (shrink)

El propósito de este texto es tematizar la precariedad con las herramientas de la filosofía política. Buscaremos equilibrar horizontes conceptuales con prácticas políticas para pensar la acción democrática en nuestro contexto. Nuestro argumento se compone de cuatro premisas. Primero, que elfalso dilema entre teoría y práctica nos permite explorar una relación de tensión creativa entre ambas para conceptualizar la precariedad. Segundo, que la construcción teórica de la precariedad responde tanto a ideas y conceptos como a instituciones y discursos que configuran (...) las vidas de quienes la experimentan. Tercero, que los distintos usos del concepto de precariedad permiten reconocer una fuente común de vulneración de derechos relacionada con la configuración del trabajo en el orden neoliberal. Cuarto, que relacionar la conceptualización de lo plebeyo con la de lo precario nos permite pensar prácticas democráticas renovadas. (shrink)

Violence has long been assumed to be an intrinsic trait of female prostitution. However, it has been mostly associated with the locale in which the activity is exercised, i.e. with working time and space. In this article, based on data gathered by direct observations, in-depth interviews and the compilation of so-called time-budgets, the authors demonstrate that violence is as pervasive and omnipresent a feature of prostitutes’ ostensibly private ‘off-duty’ time and space, though it takes on varied and distinct forms and (...) configurations, compared to violence in the workplace. (shrink)

In this paper I explore the metaphilosophical consequences of deep disagree-ments in philosophy. I argue that deep philosophical disagreements imply a challenge for philosophy since deep philosophical disagreements hinder ratio-nal decision between philosophical theories. That makes demanding or offe-ring reasons for philosophical theory useless. To overcome this, I argue that philosophical argument is an end in itself and not a means to rational reso-lution of deep philosophical disagreements. I describe two theories that at-tempt to explain deep disagreements in general. Next, (...) I distinguish between intraphilosophical and interphilosophical disagreement. Thus, interphilosophical disagreements are those that are deep philosophical disagreements, while in-traphilosophical disagreements are disagreements between epistemic peers. Subsequently, I explore the consequences of deep philosophical disagreements and conclude that epistemic and practical reasons fail to provide a rational res-ponse to deep philosophical disagreements. Finally, I respond to two objections about argumentative language in philosophical debates and the impossibility of philosophical progress. (shrink)

As health policy-makers around the world seek to make progress towards universal health coverage, they must navigate between two important ethical imperatives: to set national spending priorities fairly and efficiently; and to safeguard the right to health. These imperatives can conflict, leading some to conclude that rights-based approaches present a disruptive influence on health policy, hindering states’ efforts to set priorities fairly and efficiently. Here, we challenge this perception. We argue first that these points of tension stem largely from inadequate (...) interpretations of the aims of priority setting as well as the right to health. We then discuss various ways in which the right to health complements traditional concerns of priority setting and vice versa. Finally, we set out a three-step process by which policy-makers may navigate the ethical and legal considerations at play. (shrink)

Tercer i últim volum de les memòries lliures i impertinents d’un dels filòsofs i educadors més influents de Catalunya En els dos primers volums de les seves memòries, el filòsof i pedagog Octavi Fullat s’ha revelat per a molts lectors com un dels intel·lectuals de referència del segle XX català. El seu estil, hereu de la profunda senzillesa d’Albert Camus, combina de manera inconfusible la memòria, l’assaig i la narració. Després de La meva llibertat i La meva veritat , en (...) aquest tercer i últim volum Octavi Fullat ens condueix pels secrets de l’art i la bellesa: l’emoció que pot despertar el cos d’una dona, la conversa a l’entorn d’un diàleg platònic acompanyat amb un bon vi francès o la rememoració d’una màgica nit africana. Per les pàgines d’aquest llibre hi transiten pensadors com Schopenhauer o Hegel, pintors com Van Gogh o Tintoretto, escriptors com Dante o Rilke, músics com Mozart o Beethoven i, com calia esperar, punyents al·lusions al nostre país i als seus polítics. Així, es tanca l’obra més personal d’un home que mai no ha buscat recer i que sempre ha viscut per la llibertat, per la veritat i per la bellesa. Compra La meva bellesa en E-book Web d'Octavi Fullat Octavi Fullat Nascut a Alforja (Baix Camp) el 1928, és doctor en Filosofia per la Universitat de Barcelona i catedràtic de Filosofia de l’Educació de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona des de 1986. Ha rebut diversos premis i, des de 1996, és membre numerari de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Ha estat deixeble de Lévi-Strauss, Michel Foucault i Jean Wahl, i doctor honoris causa a Mèxic i Xile. Ha impartit cursos a diferents universitats d’Europa i Amèrica. Ha estat president del Consell Escolat de Catalunya i del Consell Superior d’Avaluació del Sistema Educatiu de Catalunya. És autor de nombrosos estudis sobre pedagogia, filosofia, ètica, antropologia i història, entre els quals destaquen, La moral atea de Albert Camus (1963), Marx y la religión (1974), Filosofías de la educación (1992), Política de la educación (1994), Antropología y Educación (1997), Els valors d’Occident (2001), El siglo postmoderno (1900-2001) (2002), L’autèntic origen dels europeus (2005), La meva llibertat (2006) i La meva veritat (2008), aquests dos últims publicats per Angle Editorial. (shrink)