This article aims to pay heed to the rational and deliberative dimensions of moral agency within the project of moral enhancement. In this sense, it is presented how the technique of neurofeedback might contribute to the enhancement of moral deliberations and autonomy. Furthermore, this brain-computer interface is thought as a possible element of a Socratic moral assistant interested in improving moral enhancement within a model of full interaction between moral agents and such a moral assistant. This proposal does not embrace (...) the project of moral bioenhancement, centred in the improvement of moral emotions through neuropharmacology. Moreover it rejects the delegation of moral decision-making to moral artificial agents because this would mean that there is continuity between moral human and artificial moral agents. (shrink)

Background The birth plan is a tool that allows the self-learning and thoughtful analysis of the women during the birthing process, facilitating their making of decisions and participation, in agreement with the bioethical principles of autonomy and no malfeasance. Goal: To understand the perception and satisfaction of women who presented a birth plan. Methodology: Qualitative, descriptive, observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study. The population of the study was composed of 21 women who presented a birth plan regulated in a Hospital ever (...) since the recording of the presentation of the birth plan was started until 2015. Place: Cartagena. Techniques/methods: Semistructured interview. Results-Discussion: Most women considered the plan as a useful self-learning tool on the meaning of the birthing process, as it favored the communication between the expectant mothers/health professionals. Our informants sought information related to the birthing process from informal sources; most perceived a level of respect of their wishes during the process of giving birth. The use of the birth plan did not imply the perception of loss of the degree of control during the birth, although attention to the written document could be improved. Conclusions The use of the birth plan is a very satisfactory and useful experience for their involvement in their self-care, although in some cases, the births did not proceed according to their plans. Nevertheless, the prevalence of the principle of Non-Malfeasance over Autonomy was evidenced. (shrink)

The emergence of AI is posing serious challenges to standard conceptions of moral status. New non-biological entities are able to act and make decisions rationally. The question arises, in this regard, as to whether AI systems possess or can possess the necessary properties to be morally considerable. In this chapter, we have undertaken a systematic analysis of the various debates that are taking place about the moral status of AI. First, we have discussed the possibility that AI systems, by virtue (...) of its new agential capabilities, can be understood as a moral agent. Discussions between those defending mentalist and anti-mentalist positions have revealed many nuances and particularly relevant theoretical aspects. Second, given that an AI system can hardly be an entity qualified to be responsible, we have delved into the responsibility gap and the different ways of understanding and addressing it. Third, we have provided an overview of the current and potential patientist capabilities that AI systems possess. This has led us to analyze the possibilities of AI possessing moral patiency. In addition, we have addressed the question of the moral and legal rights of AI. Finally, we have introduced the two most relevant authors of the relational turn on the moral status of AI, Mark Coeckelbergh and David Gunkel, who have been led to defend a relational approach to moral life as a result of the problems associated with the ontological understanding of moral status. (shrink)

en este trabajo, tutorizado por el Dr. Juan José Padial Benticuaga, Paloma García Briones y María Benítez Hidalgo analizan dos vías distintas y opuestas en las que puede derivar la crisis de los valores: el nihilismo y el auge de la importancia de la afección subjetiva.

Background:The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of qualified nurses in Spain. As a result, the government authorized the hiring of senior students.Objectives:To explore the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts experienced by final-year nursing students who worked during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.Research design:A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a question guide. Interviews took place via a private video chat room platform. A thematic, inductive (...) analysis was performed of the information gathered.Participants and research context:Eighteen nursing students were recruited from two universities of Madrid, aged between 18 and 65 years old, enrolled in the fourth year of nursing studies and who were hired under a relief contract for health professionals during the pandemic.Ethical considerations:The present study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.Results:Three specific themes emerged: (a) coping with patient triage, (b) difficulties in providing end-of-life care, and (c) coping with patient death. Nursing students participated in the process of patient selection for resource allocation and ICU bed occupancy. They were shown how to care for patients who were not admitted to the ICU, in their last moments and were faced with the difficulties of applying end-of-life care. Finally, the nursing students were confronted with the death of their patients, in overwhelming numbers and under adverse conditions.Conclusions:These findings can help shed light on the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts faced by novice nursing students, incorporated into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it was described that students may normalize the death due to the exhaustion and overwhelmed routine. (shrink)

Este artículo explora los artilugios conceptuales que utiliza la teoría de Bruno Latour para comprender y explicar la realidad natural y social. Asimismo, se exponen cuáles son los límites a su principio de “indeterminación radical” o principio de simetría generalizado. Este análisis muestra la posibilidad de un estudio normativo de la realidad social y tecnocientífica compatible con la evolución que se encuentra en el mismo Latour respecto del significado y funcíon políticos de la ciencia.This article explores the conceptual tools which (...) philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour uses to understand and also to explain natural and social realities investigated by the sciences and by the philosophy of science. This text also sets the limits to Labour’s principle of radical indeterminacy, also known as the principle of generalized symmetry. As a result of this, the possibility of a normative study of social and techno-scientific realities is emphasized as a type of technoscientfic and social research, which is compatible with Latour’s own evolution of thought concerning the meaning and function of the politics of science. (shrink)

En este artículo analizo ciertos problemas que se derivan de los principios que se utilizan en el discurso ético sobre la «mejora humana», y que guardan relación con el positivismo. Comienzo esbozando las dos posiciones principales que configuran el debate sobre la mejora humana: la posición creativa, post-humanista o pro-mejora frente a la postura bio-conservadora u orientada a la gratitud. Mi objetivo es mostrar, primero, que el debate ético sobre la mejora humana proviene, especialmente en el bando pro-mejora, de una (...) visión demasiado optimista, casi ingenua, de la ciencia y de la tecnología; y segundo, que este debate ha prestado poca atención a las cuestiones epistemológicas, sociales y políticas que están en juego. (shrink)

¿Se puede pensar la verdad desde trascendentales antropológicos? Sí, se puede, y el resultado es una verdad que inspira, que refiere a un buscar no meramente lógico, sino libre, donde lo que se encuentra moviliza en lugar de extasiar en la contemplación sosegada; una verdad que no es fin, sino inicio. La inspiración es un momento propiamente significativo y caracterizador de la verdad: la verdad es esencialmente inspiración cuando se la observa en su ser algo propiamente humano.

Delusions are one of the most classical symptoms described in schizophrenia. However, despite delusions are often emotionally charged, they have been investigated using tasks involving non-affective material, such as the Beads task. In this study we compared 30 patients with schizophrenia experiencing delusions with 32 matched controls in their pattern of responses to two versions of the Beads task within a Bayesian framework. The two versions of the Beads task consisted of one emotional and one neutral, both with ratios of (...) beads of 60:40 and 80:20, considered, respectively, as the “difficult” and “easy” variants of the task. Results indicate that patients showed a greater deviation from the normative model, especially in the 60:40 ratio, suggesting that more inaccurate probability estimations are more likely to occur under uncertainty conditions. Additionally, both patients and controls showed a greater deviation in the emotional version of the task, providing evidence of a reasoning bias modulated by the content of the stimuli. Finally, a positive correlation between patients’ deviation and delusional symptomatology was found. Impairments in the 60:40 ratio with emotional content was related to the amount of disruption in life caused by delusions. These results contribute to the understanding of how cognitive mechanisms interact with characteristics of the task in the context of delusional thinking. These findings might be used to inform improved intervention programs in the domain of inferential reasoning. (shrink)

The present article is the third part of a trilogy of papers, devoted to analysing the influence of semantic Platonism on contemporary philosophy of language. In Part I (Picazo 2021), the discussion was set out by examining a number of typical traces of Platonism in semantic theory since Frege. In Part II (Picazo 2021a), additional illustrations of such traces were provided, taken from a collection of recent commissioned essays on the philosophy of language (Schantz 2012). The present part (...) is devoted to providing yet additional illustrations of such traces, taken from a collection of classic essays on the subject: the book Modern Philosophy of Language, edited by Maria Baghramian in 1998. We shall, thus, describe a number of examples in which the influence of semantic Platonism on these essays can be felt. Prominent among these examples are the confusion between sentences and propositions (and related confusions), the avoidant attitude with respect to basic aspects of linguistic meaning, the overuse of analytic methodology for semantic research, the adoption of a background Platonic metaphysics of meanings and the overreaction against semantic Platonism and germane views, witnessing an inverse influence (‘by opposition’) from these views. (shrink)

The paper considers how the logic of settler colonialism, the active and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples, shapes scholarship on migration, race and citizenship in Canada. It draws on the insights of settler colonial theory and critiques of methodological nationalism to do so. The concept of differential inclusion and assemblages methodology are proposed as a way to understand the relationship between Indigeneity and migration in a settler colonial context. The paper develops this conceptual proposal through an analysis of a single (...) place over time: Scarborough, Ontario. Authors present portraits of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada to understand how migration and Indigenous sovereignty are narrated and regulated in convergent and divergent ways. Together, the portraits examine historical stories, media discourses, photography and map archives, fieldwork and interviews connected to Scarborough. They reveal how the differential inclusion of migrant, racialized and Indigenous peoples operates through processes of invisibilization and hypervisibilization, fixity and erasure, and memorialization. They also illustrate moments of disruption that work to unsettle settler colonial dispossession. (shrink)

Theoretical reflections on anthropological method, arguing that it is, above all, result of a tacit pact among members of "scientific" tribe on object of and approach to study. Refers to unconventional sources such as Peirce, Wittgenstein, Winnicott and Ricoeur to argue that there is room for alternative epistemology of anthropology.

The study presented is the result of a field survey conducted in Latvia in 1991. The brief of this research was to trace the role of the ‘private’ farm sector that has begun to emerge in the wake of the transition from a central-command to a market-oriented economy. Thus a look at the legislative acts embodying the agrarian reform is ccompanied by an analysis of the recent developments in local production systems. The study of ‘production systems’, or that part of (...) economic analysis that comes under the rubric of ‘farm systems’, was employed here for the first time to analyze a Soviet-type economic system in transition. The first and second sections, which focus on the historical evolution of Latvia's agriculture and the economics underpinning it, range in compass from the ‘first’ agrarian reform to collectivization and on to the present situation. This is followed by a look at the current, or ‘third’, land reform initiative (section 3), particular emphasis being accorded the emergence of new production structures and the problems posed by the transformation of the old ones (sections 4 and 5). The next section includes a discussion of the links between the farms of the socialized sector and of the nascent private one (section 6). The concluding remarks provide a recapitulation of the study's main findings. (shrink)

Desde que 1975 fue declarado por las Naciones Unidas Año Internacional de las Mujeres, han sido numerosas las medidas legales y políticas para asegurar la participación de las mujeres en todos los ámbitos de acción de la sociedad. Sin embargo, los logros no se sitúan solamente en un incremento cuantitativo de mujeres en sectores como el laboral o los procesos de toma de decisiones. La integración de la igualdad de género en la estructuración de la sociedad abre interrogantes sobre la (...) nueva lectura del poder, de la ciudadanía y de las relaciones personales. Y al mismo tiempo, cuestiona si las medidas de apoyo a la participación de las mujeres están teniendo o no un efecto positivo en favor de la igualdad. (shrink)

El doble filo crítico que caracteriza la posición de Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui ayuda a hacer un tratamiento de la modernidad hegemónica y sus expresiones por medio de dos movimientos reflexivos simultáneos: el epistemológico y el político. Silvia no realiza su trabajo de investigación a través de las categorías y las herramientas tradicionales, nacidas en la academia elitista que promueve la esterilización política de las reflexiones gracias a investigaciones hiperespecializadas, o realizadas bajo la lógica del mercado de saberes y que es (...) la lógica imperante en las instituciones universitarias. La pensadora andina se dedica a usar instrumentos teóricos cuya base política sea ya de por sí crítica, es decir, no aborda al colonialismo o al patriarcado sólo como temas, sino que lo hace con posiciones anticolonialistas y antipatriarcales. Palabras clave: sociología de la imagen, epistemología ch’ixi, anticolonialismo. (shrink)

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by dysfunctional processing of nociceptive stimulation. Neuroimaging studies have pointed out that pain-related network functioning seems to be altered in these patients. It is thought that this clinical symptomatology may be maintained or even strengthened because of an enhanced expectancy for painful stimuli or its forthcoming appearance. However, neural electrophysiological correlates associated with such attentional mechanisms have been scarcely explored. In the current study, expectancy processes of upcoming laser stimulation (painful and non-painful) and (...) its further processing were explored by event-related potentials (ERPs). Nineteen fibromyalgia patients and twenty healthy control volunteers took part in the experiment. Behavioral measures (reaction times and subjective pain perception) were also collected. We manipulated the pain/no pain expectancy through an S1–S2 paradigm (cue-target). S1 (image: triangle or square) predicted the S2 appearance (laser stimulation: warmth or pinprick sensation). Laser stimuli were delivered using a CO2 laser device. Temporal and spatial principal component analyses were employed to define and quantify the ERP component reliability. Statistical analyses revealed the existence of an abnormal pattern of pain expectancy in patients with fibromyalgia. Specifically, our results showed attenuated amplitudes at posterior lCNV component in anticipation of painful stimulation that was not found in healthy participants. In contrast, although larger P2 amplitudes to painful compared to innocuous events were shown, patients did not show any amplitude change in this laser-evoked response as a function of pain predictive cues (as occurred in the healthy control group). Additionally, analyses of the subjective perception of pain and reaction time indicated that laser stimuli preceded by pain cues were rated as more painful than those signaling non-pain expectancy and were associated with faster responses. Differences between groups were not found. The present findings suggest the presence of dysfunction in pain expectation mechanisms in fibromyalgia that eventually may make it difficult for patients to correctly interpret signs that prevent pain symptoms. Furthermore, the abnormal pattern in pain expectancy displayed by fibromyalgia patients could result in ineffective pain coping strategies. Understanding the neural correlates of pain processing and its modulatory factors is crucial to identify treatments for chronic pain syndromes. (shrink)

Un pequeño grupo de vasos apulios de la segunda mitad del siglo IV a.C. representan el descenso de Orfeo a los Infiernos, su llegada ante el palacio de Hades y Perséfone, donde logró con su canto conmover a los dioses infernales. El programa iconográfico de estos vasos, pleno de relatos míticos y de enseñanzas religiosas destinadas a proporcionar consuelo y esperanza de vida más allá de la muerte, nos permite conocer el imaginario del reino subterráneo y a esta figura religiosa (...) que intercede ante los dioses del inframundo para obtener de ellos la salvación de los mortales, su ingreso en un allende beatífico y paradisíaco. (shrink)

In this paper I draw a distinction between a special and a general version of the Gettier problem. I argue that the special problem is partially a logical problem, as well as an epistemological one, and I show that it is very easy to solve. This is interesting, since most of the Gettier-style examples that appear in the literature fall under the special problem, and hence as they stand they too are very easy to solve.

El objetivo de este artículo es caracterizar los intercambios discursivos mediatizados entre dos figuras públicas, Ana Rosenfeld y Florencia Freijo, en programas de espectáculos y en redes sociales en torno a un juicio familiar de celebridades en Argentina en 2022. A partir del análisis, identificamos la presencia de demandas feministas históricas en las tematizaciones de las interlocutoras sobre el proceso legal. El metalenguaje que empleamos en este trabajo retoma los aportes de la sociosemiótica y los estudios de la cultura de (...) la celebridad. La estrategia metodológica que implementamos recupera la propuesta de Carlón (2020) para indagar la circulación discursiva. Utilizamos también sus desarrollos sobre el estatuto de les enunciadores relacionando este enfoque con la noción de celebridad. A través de esta articulación, planteamos el concepto de identidad mediática para reforzar la repercusión de estas voceras. Además, caracterizamos las interlocuciones presentes en los discursos según las posiciones enunciativas de Verón (1987). Considerando los soportes desde donde se consolidan estas personalidades públicas, y analizando la circulación de sus enunciaciones, podemos identificar las diferencias en sus discursos. De esta manera, vemos cómo se genera un diálogo indirecto entre ellas en el que la abogada de una de las partes, Ana Rosenfeld, adopta una postura informativa y pedagógica hacia “las mujeres”, mientras que la activista feminista, Florencia Freijo, realiza un llamado a la acción a sus prodestinataries. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Truth-conditions are systematically determined when they are the output of an algorithmic procedure that takes as input a set of semantic and contextual features. Truth-conditional sceptics have cast doubts on the thesis that truth-conditions are systematic in this sense. Against this form of scepticism, Schoubye and Stokke : 759–793) and Dobler : 451–474.) have provided systematic analyses of utterance truth-conditions. My aim is to argue that these theories are not immune to the kind of objections raised by truth-conditional sceptics. (...) In particular, I argue that the use of Questions Under Discussion and ways of being is problematic. (shrink)

One way to silence the powerless, Langton has taught us, is to pre-emptively disable their ability to do things with words. In this paper I argue that speakers can be silenced in a different way. You can let them speak, and obscure the meaning of their words afterwards. My aim is to investigate this form of silencing, that I call retroactive distortion. In a retroactive distortion, the meaning of the words of a speaker is distorted by the effect of a (...) subsequent speech act by a different speaker. After introducing this notion, I explore some reasons why retroactive distortions can be difficult to challenge and argue that, besides constituting a communicative injustice, they can eliminate topics from public consideration and therefore erode public debate. (shrink)

The hypothesis that terrorism often emerges when mass collective action declines and radicals take up arms to compensate for the weakness of a mass movement has been around for some time; however, it has never been tested systematically. In this article the authors investigate the relationship between terrorist violence and mass protest in the context of the Spanish transition to democracy. This period is known for its pacts and negotiations between political elites, but in fact, it was accompanied by high (...) levels of terrorist violence and popular mobilization. To test the hypothesis, the authors have created two data sets, one on victims of terrorism and another on participation in demonstrations. The data clearly confirm that terrorism erupted in Spain when participation in demonstrations started to decline. This result sheds new light on the nonstructural conditions associated with the onset of terrorist violence. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analizan los cambios habidos en la situación de las mujeres dentro de las instituciones científicas con la llegada y consolidación de la democracia en España. Utilizando una perspectiva sociohistórica se hace un recorrido mostrando los datos de presencia y estatus de las mujeres desde la década de los setenta hasta el momento actual en el Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

La referencia a un orden anterior-posterior es parte de la definición del tiempo ofrecida por Aristóteles. De ahí que sea razonable suponer que, además del habi­tual sentido temporal, el par conceptual anterior-pos­terior debe tener también un sentido distinto, del que pueda depender el sentido temporal. Tal idea parece corroborada por la tesis de Aristóteles según la cual el tiempo sigue al movimiento y el movimiento sigue a la magnitud recorrida. De acuerdo a ello, el orden an­terior-posterior del tiempo se originaría (...) en un orden anterior-posterior del movimiento, el cual a su vez se originaría en un orden anterior-posterior de la magni­tud. Este artículo examina con detención aquella tesis, atendiendo especialmente a las dificultades que pre­senta la comprensión de lo anterior y posterior en la magnitud, nivel del que parece depender en última ins­tancia la posibilidad de explicar la existencia de un antes y un después en el tiempo. La interpretación que se propone aquí busca confirmar y hacer comprensible dicha dependencia. (shrink)

Pragmatic modulation makes contextual information necessary for interpretation. This poses a problem for homophonic reports and inter-contextual communication in general: of co-situated interlocutors, we can expect some common ground, but non-co-situated interpreters lack access to the context of utterance. Here I argue that we can nonetheless share modulated contents via homophonic reports. First, occasion-unspecific information is often sufficient for the recovery of modulated content. Second, interpreters can recover what is said with different degrees of accuracy. Homophonic reports and inter-contextual communication (...) are often successful because the reporting context does not demand full accuracy. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose an account of metaphor identification on the basis of contextual coherence. In doing so, we build on previous work by Nicholas Asher and Alex Lascarides that appeals to rhetorical relations in order to explain discourse structure and the constraints on the interpretation of metaphor that follow from it. Applying this general idea to our problem, we will show that rhetorical relations are sometimes insufficient and sometimes inadequate for deciding whether a given utterance is a case (...) of metaphor. They are insufficient, since rhetorical relations fall short at times of providing a basis for disambiguating between literal and metaphorical interpretations. In such cases, contextual information other than previous discourse needs to enter the picture. To this effect, we bring the idea of external consistency into play. Beyond that, though, we will argue that rhetorical relations are sometimes inadequate to account for coherence, if conceived as relations among sentences only. The reason is that extra-linguistic elements of the situation in which the sentence is uttered may be crucial for getting at the preferred interpretation. To account for these cases, we allow rhetorical relations to connect both with previous discourse and with extra-linguistic situations. In our final refinement of the notion of contextual coherence, we forfeit any appeal to rhetorical relations in favour of Questions Under Discussion (QUD). We defend the view that this account does not only explain the same sort of cases. What is more, it solves the issue of metaphor identification in impoverished contexts. (shrink)