The use of evidence in medicine is something we should continuously seek to improve. This book seeks to develop our understanding of evidence of mechanism in evaluating evidence in medicine, public health, and social care; and also offers tools to help implement improved assessment of evidence of mechanism in practice. In this way, the book offers a bridge between more theoretical and conceptual insights and worries about evidence of mechanism and practical means to fit the results into evidence assessment procedures.

We propose a multi-step evaluation schema designed to help procurement agencies and others to examine the ethical dimensions of autonomous systems to be applied in the security sector, including autonomous weapons systems.

In this article, we present results from a literature review of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values of nature conducted for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as part of the Methodological Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuations of Nature. We identify the most frequently recurring meanings in the heterogeneous use of different value types and their association with worldviews and other key concepts. From frequent uses, we determine a core meaning for each value type, which is (...) sufficiently inclusive to serve as an umbrella over different understandings in the literature and specific enough to help highlight its difference from the other types of values. Finally, we discuss convergences, overlapping areas, and fuzzy boundaries between different value types to facilitate dialogue, reduce misunderstandings, and improve the methods for valuation of nature's contributions to people, including ecosystem services, to inform policy and direct future research. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. (shrink)

L'articolo analizza alcune opere di Pietro Prini, noto studioso di Rosmini, sulla questione dell'essere.

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, on the basis of a re-examination of the sources and with new arguments, it discusses the meaning of a verse-fragment quoted anonymously by Servius ad Aen. 4.638 (Enn. Ann. Dub. Fr. V Sk. = Inc. 31 blänsdorf, p. 434 courtney), and supports the attribution of this fragment to Ennius’ “Annales”. Second, it demonstrates that this attribution is not undermined by the presence, in the fragment, of a parenthetical phrase that is “in apposition”, (...) a stylistic feature which, though commonly believed to date back to Virgil’s time, may, in fact, be also attested in another Ennian fragment from the “Annales” (Enn. Ann. 22 Sk.). (shrink)

Este artigo recorda os principais aspectos e motivações da Expedição Langsdorff, missão de reconhecimento do interior do Brasil iniciada em 1821, composta pelo cônsul russo barão Langsdorff, o pintor alemão Moritz Rugendas, Aimé-Adrien Taunay, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, o polígrafo Hercules Florence e o especialista em mapas Néster G. Rubtsov. Busca diferenças entre esta expedição e iniciativas outras, a título de exemplo, as dos bandeirantes e jesuítas, bem como a expedição indigenista de Rondon, e propõe o aprofundamento das investiga­ções. Apresenta atributos (...) resgatados pela poesia brasileira contemporânea e elementos cons­titutivos da identidade cultural brasileira presentes na Expedição Langsdorff, os quais os auto­res sugerem ser relevantes para pesquisadores do tema e para a inserção do Brasil no contexto internacional político, diplomático e econômico nos tempos hodiernos. (shrink)

Manipulationism holds that information about the results of interventions is of utmost importance for scientific practices such as causal assessment or explanation. Specifically, manipulation provides information about the stability, or invariance, of the relationship between X and Y: were we to wiggle the cause X, the effect Y would accordingly wiggle and, additionally, the relation between the two will not be disrupted. This sort of relationship between variables are called 'invariant empirical generalisations'. The paper focuses on questions about causal assessment (...) and analyses the status of manipulation. It is argued that manipulationism is trapped in a dilemma. If manipulationism is read as providing a conceptual analysis of causation, then it fails to provide a story about the methods for causal assessment. If, instead, manipulationism is read as providing a method for causal assessment, then it is at an impasse concerning causal assessment in areas where manipulations are not performed. Empirical generalisations are then reassessed, in such a way that manipulation is not taken as methodologically fundamental. The paper concludes that manipulation is the appropriate tool for some scientific contexts, but not for all. (shrink)

In this paper I explore the heuristic limits ofhuman genetics, in particular the claim that itis possible to manipulate human germcells in a pre-ordinate way (Gordon, 1999). I arguethat this claim is unrealistic based ongenetic reductionism and a wrong concept ofgenetic diseases.

ABSTRACTHow accurate are insights compared to analytical solutions? In four experiments, we investigated how participants' solving strategies influenced their solution accuracies across different types of problems, including one that was linguistic, one that was visual and two that were mixed visual-linguistic. In each experiment, participants' self-judged insight solutions were, on average, more accurate than their analytic ones. We hypothesised that insight solutions have superior accuracy because they emerge into consciousness in an all-or-nothing fashion when the unconscious solving process is complete, (...) whereas analytic solutions can be guesses based on conscious, prematurely terminated, processing. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that participants' analytic solutions included relatively more incorrect responses than timeouts compared to their insight responses. (shrink)

Sentido ontológico de la paz. -- Sé lo que eres. -- Univresidad, humanidades, humanismo. -- Luces de Heráclito el oscuro. -- Bergson : psicología, moral, religión. -- Tolstoi, un hombre humanizado. -- Porras : el hombre venicó al ministro.

Causal analysis in the social sciences takes advantage of a variety of methods and of a multi-fold source of information and evidence. This pluralistic methodology and source of information raises the question of whether we should accordingly have a pluralistic metaphysics and epistemology. This paper focuses on epistemology and argues that a pluralistic methodology and evidence don’t entail a pluralistic epistemology. It will be shown that causal models employ a single rationale of testing, based on the notion of variation. Further, (...) I shall argue that this monistic epistemology is also involved in alternative philosophical theories of causation. (shrink)

En este trabajo nos proponemos analizar los efectos que tienen en la genética y la microbiología la aplicación de las leyes de propiedad intelectual, en su forma de derechos de patentes. A través del estudio de la historia de estas áreas de la biología, argumentamos porque nos parece errónea, desde el punto de vista jurídico y filosófico, la patentabilidad de los genes y genomas que provienen total o parcialmente de la naturaleza. Demostraremos cómo esta práctica legal acarrea una gran cantidad (...) de valores no-epistémicos y concepciones ético-políticas que afectan de lleno a las investigaciones biológicas que forman parte del negocio biotecnológico y generan un desmesurado choque de cosmovisiones con culturas ajenas al sistema liberal-capitalista. (shrink)

In this paper I address the conflict of interest (CoI) issue from a legal point of view at a European level. We will see that the regulatory framework that exists in Europe does state the need for the independence of ethics committee involved in authorisation of research and clinical trials. We will see that CoI is an element that has to be closely monitored at National and International level. Therefore, Member States and Newly Associated States do have to address CoI (...) in the authorisation process of research and clinical protocols of biomedicine. (shrink)

A worthwhile approach to Fichte’s both cosmopolitan and nationalist tenets must take into account his idea of Europe. Accordingly, the present paper attempts to locate the European argument as a recurrent thread in the whole of Fichte’s thought. The theoretical traits of the Doctrine of Science which Fichte summons in his historical analyses (intersubjectivity, cultural interaction) are therefore highlighted. Besides, this paper reconstructs the origins and development of Fichte’s idea of Europe, coupling it to the populist-nationalist drive towards the federalist (...) scope of a “European republic of states”. (shrink)

A partir de una breve reconstrucción de la teoría de la justicia como imparcialidad desarrollada por John Rawls, elaboramos un recorrido por algunas de las más importantes críticas a la teoría rawlsiana desde la óptica del feminismo, reconociendo y destacando sus distintos matices y soluciones propuestas para hacer frente a las deficiencias del universalismo moral. Luego, nos proponemos analizar si las críticas que se disparan desde distintos posicionamientos teóricos dentro del feminismo pueden tener efectos extensibles hacia otros sujetos desaventajados estructuralmente, (...) subrepresentados e invisibilizados por la propuesta epistemológica del universalismo. Por último, intentaremos brindar una conclusión en torno a la incompatibilidad de la propuesta teórica rawlsiana con la complejidad y pluralidad de las sociedades actuales. (shrink)

Reflection Principles are commonly thought to produce only strong axioms of infinity consistent with V = L. It would be desirable to have some notion of strong reflection to remedy this, and we have proposed Global Reflection Principles based on a somewhat Cantorian view of the universe. Such principles justify the kind of cardinals needed for, inter alia , Woodin’s Ω-Logic.

How should probabilities be interpreted in causal models in the social and health sciences? In this paper we take a step towards answering this question by investigating the case of cancer in epidemiology and arguing that the objective Bayesian interpretation is most appropriate in this domain.

We argue that the health sciences make causal claims on the basis of evidence both of physical mechanisms, and of probabilistic dependencies. Consequently, an analysis of causality solely in terms of physical mechanisms or solely in terms of probabilistic relationships, does not do justice to the causal claims of these sciences. Yet there seems to be a single relation of cause in these sciences - pluralism about causality will not do either. Instead, we maintain, the health sciences require a theory (...) of causality that unifies its mechanistic and probabilistic aspects. We argue that the epistemic theory of causality provides the required unification. (shrink)

Scientific and philosophical literature on causality has become highly specialised. It is hard to find suitable access points for students, young researchers, or professionals outside this domain. This book provides a guide to the complex literature, explains the scientific problems of causality and the philosophical tools needed to address them.

When solving a problem with insight, people suddenly become aware of the solution (Mayer, 1995). Insight is often accompanied by a feeling of pleasure and certainty, known as an “Aha! moment” (Gick...

Questo libro suggerisce d'inserire il nome di Arthur Schopenhauer nella tradizione della filosofia come stile di vita. Sulla scia dei pioneristici lavori di Paul Rabbow, Michel Foucault e soprattutto Pierre Hadot, si argomenta come anche nei libri di Schopenhauer questa tradizione sia viva. In particolare, è negli "Aforismi sulla saggezza della vita", contenuti nei "Parerga e paralipomena", che è possibile trovare traccia di quelle pratiche che Hadot ha proposto di chiamare esercizi spirituali. Ciò che ne emerge è un "altro" Schopenhauer. (...) Non più, non tanto, non solo il grande campione del pessimismo, il negatore della volontà di vita, il filosofo del dolore e della noia. Ma un prezioso suggeritore su come sia possibile vivere una vita se non proprio più felice, certamente il meno infelice possibile. (shrink)