While philosophical questions about health and disease have attracted much attention in recent decades, and while opinions are divided on most issues, influential accounts seem to embrace negativism about health, according to which health is the absence of disease. Some subscribe to unrestricted negativism, which claims that negativism applies not only to the concepts of health and disease as used by healthcare professionals but also to the lay concept that underpins everyday thinking. Whether people conceptualize health in this manner has (...) implications for medical care and public health, and so we set out to examine this claim in two studies. Participants were asked to assess and compare the health states of two people presented in two vignettes. We found that both lay people and medical students conceptualize health as something more than the absence of disease. We argue that our findings highlight a need to rethink unrestricted negativism and indicate a need to rethink the way the debate has traditionally focused on disease. (shrink)

“Pueblo” puede tener múltiples significados. Para el derecho moderno, es el significante que intenta justificar la existencia y obediencia del régimen legal vigente. Como apelación a una particular filosofía política, el “pueblo” que fundamenta lo jurídico se determina por la mera coexistencia en un territorio regido por una soberanía. Una noción de “pueblo” divergente, y que por tanto se rehúsa a confirmar sobre sí el estado de cosas actual, es posible y, en términos de conflicto político, necesaria. Por eso, presentamos (...) al concepto de pueblo desde Ernesto Laclau y Enrique Dussel como esencia de lo político y como potencialidad de organización de los excluidos contra el orden social vigente. (shrink)

We sometimes fail unwittingly to do things that we ought to do. And we are, from time to time, culpable for these unwitting omissions. We provide an outline of a theory of responsibility for unwitting omissions. We emphasize two distinctive ideas: (i) many unwitting omissions can be understood as failures of appropriate vigilance, and; (ii) the sort of self-control implicated in these failures of appropriate vigilance is valuable. We argue that the norms that govern vigilance and the value of self-control (...) explain culpability for unwitting omissions. (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify the nature of understanding in medicine. The first part describes in more detail what it means to understand something and links a type of understanding (i.e., objectual understanding) to explanations. The second part proceeds to investigate what objectual understanding of a disease (i.e., biomedical understanding) requires by considering the case of scurvy from the history of medi- cine. The main hypothesis is that grasping a mechanistic explanation of a condi- tion is necessary for a biomedical (...) understanding of that condition. The third part of the paper argues that biomedical understanding is necessary, but not sufficient for understanding in a clinical context (i.e., clinical understanding). The hypothe- sis is that clinical understanding combines biomedical understanding of a disease or pathological condition with understanding illness, which involves some degree of personal understanding of the patient. It is argued that, in many cases, clinical understanding necessitates adopting a particular second-personal stance and using cognitive resources in addition to those involved in biomedical understanding. (shrink)

Neil Levy (2007) argues that empirical data shows that psychopaths lack the moral knowledge required for moral responsibility. His account is intriguing, and it offers a promising way to think about the significance of psychopaths for work on moral responsibility. In what follows we focus on three lines of concern connected to Levy's account: his interpretation of the data, the scope of exculpation, and the significance of biological explanations for anti-social behavior.

The importance of socio-economic impacts from the introduction and use of genetically modified crops is reflected in increasing efforts to include them in regulatory frameworks. Aiming to identify and understand the present knowledge on SEI of GM crops, we here report the findings from an extensive study of the published international scientific peer-reviewed literature. After applying specified selection criteria, a total of 410 articles are analysed. The main findings include: limited empirical research on SEI of GM crops in the scientific (...) literature; the main focus of the majority of the published research is on a restricted set of monetary economic parameters; proportionally, there are very few empirical studies on social and non-monetary economic aspects; most of the research reports only short-term findings; the variable local contexts and conditions are generally ignored in research methodology and analysis; conventional agriculture is the commonly used comparator, with minimal consideration of other substantially different agricultural systems; and there is the overall tendency to frame the research upon not validated theoretical assumptions, and to over-extrapolate small-scale and short-term specific results to generalized conclusions. These findings point to a lack of empirical and comprehensive research on SEI of GM crops for possible use in decision-making. Broader questions and improved methodologies, assisted by more rigorous peer-review, will be required to overcome current research shortcomings. (shrink)

Our EcoDialogue Center is an educational space for human sustainability within the University of Veracruz. We propose that creating sustainable knowledge requires re-thinking how we conceive ourselves as human beings. This requires paying attention to what we call “the quality of being,” which means caring about and attending to the physical–emotional–mental–spiritual as the foundation of education. This way we can create a space where we can dialogue contemplatively where all dimensions of our lives interact; the physical, the emotional, the communitarian, (...) the social politic, the planetarium, and the spiritual being act with social–environmental responsibility. (shrink)

It is common to distinguish between “holist” and “reductionist” views of brain function, where the former envisions the brain as functioning as an indivisible unit and the latter as a collection of distinct units that serve different functions. Opposing reductionism, a number of researchers have pointed out that cortical network architecture does not respect functional boundaries, and the neuroanatomist V. Braitenberg proposed to understand the cerebral cortex as a “great mixing machine” of neuronal activity from sensory inputs, motor commands, and (...) intrinsically generated processes. In this paper, we offer a contextualization of Braitenberg’s point, and we review evidence for the interactions of neuronal activity from multiple sensory inputs and intrinsic neuronal processes in the cerebral cortex. We focus on new insights from studies on audiovisual interactions and on the influence of respiration on brain functions, which do not seem to align well with “reductionist” views of areal functional boundaries. Instead, they indicate that functional boundaries are fuzzy and context dependent. In addition, we discuss the relevance of the influence of sensory, proprioceptive, and interoceptive signals on cortical activity for understanding brain-body interactions, highlight some of the consequences of these new insights for debates on embodied cognition, and offer some suggestions for future studies. (shrink)

I discuss the ontology and normativity of affordances by suggesting that their ontology can be dualist and that their normativity, although socioculturally shaped, has an affective biological value….

Este artículo explora algunas de las relaciones entre dialéctica y filosofía dentro del programa de una dialéctica modificada de Theodor W. Adorno ¿Cómo pensar la tensión entre las categorías dialécticas y la filosofía desde el prisma de una dialéctica negativa? ¿Qué significa desde el pensamiento de Adorno a liberar a la filosofía y a la dialéctica de su carácter afirmativo? Elaborar estas preguntas es el objetivo de este trabajo.

Nomy Arpaly rejects the model of rationality used by most ethicists and action theorists. Both observation and psychology indicate that people act rationally without deliberation, and act irrationally with deliberation. By questioning the notion that our own minds are comprehensible to us--and therefore questioning much of the current work of action theorists and ethicists--Arpaly attempts to develop a more realistic conception of moral agency.

Body checking, characterized by the repeated visual or physical inspection of particular parts of one’s own body (e.g. thighs, waist, or upper arms) is one of the most prominent behaviors associated with eating disorders, particularly Anorexia Nervosa (AN). In this paper, we explore the explanatory potential of the Recalcitrant Fear Model of AN (RFM) in relation to body checking. We argue that RFM, when combined with certain plausible auxiliary hypotheses about the cognitive and epistemic roles of emotions, is able to (...) explain key characteristics of body checking, including how body checking behavior becomes habitual and compulsive. (shrink)

Este artículo de reflexión plantea la decisión implícita en el acto educativo y, sobre todo, evaluativo: ¿comprender o juzgar? Á partir de un hecho educativo cotidiano se plantea la alternativa filosófica e irresoluble entre el determinismo y la libertad, proponiendo un enfoque compatibilista que significa que pese a que la acción humana individual hace parte de cadenas causales, somos libres de quebrar o innovar en cualquiera de los eslabones de dichas cadenas, posibilitando así la responsabilidad moral y la ética, y (...) permitiendo un acto realmente formativo. Los aportes de Descartes y Kant, así como de Pestalozzi y Makarenko permitirán proponer la educación como anticipación en un contexto preciso. (shrink)

Este trabajo presenta como objetivo revelar la influencia de los contextos socioeconómicos en las maneras de afrontamiento al cáncer como enfermedad. Se muestra un análisis sobre el cáncer como problema social y de salud; se analiza el papel de algunos entes sociales involucrados, el acceso de los enfermos a las terapias y de los productores de fármacos a las nuevas tecnologías. Se reflexiona acerca de la sobreevaluación de los fármacos que dificulta el acceso a novedosas y efectivas terapias; la supeditación (...) del saber tecnocientífico a los intereses del capital; la creciente contaminación ambiental como detonante al incremento de casos; y la escasez de tecnologías para la prevención y el saneamiento en países subdesarrollados. Finalmente se refiere el programa cubano de lucha contra el cáncer, su situación actual y proyecciones. This paper aimes at revealing the influence of the socioeconomic contexts on the way cancer is faced as a disease. An analysis about cancer as a social and health problem is presented; the role of some social organizations involved the sick's access to therepies and drug producers' access to new technologies. It is reflected on the over-asessment of drugs which makes access to new and effective therapies difficult; the subordination of the technoscientific knowledge to the interests of the capital; the growing environmental pollution as a trigger for cases increase; and the limited technological resources for prevention and cleanup in underdeveloped countries. Finally, it is made reference to the Cuban cancer fighting program, its current status and scope. (shrink)

En este capítulo se analiza la figura de la obtención vegetal: su alcance, dimensión, requisitos y caracterización frente a otros derechos de propiedad intelectual, para así abordar su ámbito de protección y su tratamiento en el ámbito internacional. Se pretende en este sentido plantear que la tendencia regulatoria en materia de obtenciones vegetales en Colombia no sólo va en contravía de los intereses de los pueblos indígenas, sino además de su patrimonio colectivo que les ha garantizado una gran diversidad que (...) hoy por hoy es sustento de su alimentación. Con lo anterior se lleva a cabo un singular esfuerzo para tratar de forma comprensiva este asunto, buscando la primacía del consentimiento libre, previo e informado de las comunidades potencialmente afectadas. (shrink)

RESUMEN: El presente trabajo pretende estudiar la cuestión de los universales tal como Tomás de Aquino la aborda en su trabajo De ente et essentia. Busca dilucidar el modo de ser propio de los universales en tanto que accidente de la esencia absoluta presente en el entendimiento. Esto no conduce a un nominalismo ya que la esencia entendida es idéntica a la naturaleza existente en el individuo particular, desde el punto de vista de su ser absoluto. Es, en efecto, el (...) ser absoluto de la esencia y su indiferencia con respecto a su darse, ya sea en el particular, ya sea en el entendimiento, lo que posibilita la posesión intencional del ser de lo otro que es precisamente aquello en lo que el conocer consiste en cuanto tal. ABSTRACT: The following work attempts to review the issue of the universals such as Thomas Aquinas did in his work De ente et essentia. It pretends to elucidate the specific way of being of the universals as an accident of the absolute essence present in the mind. This does not lead to nominalism because the understood essence is identical to the nature existing in the particular. This way of being of the essence is what precisely allows knowledge as an intentional possession of reality. (shrink)

Between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s, the quotidian dimension took political centrality in Japan thanks to the leading role of the New Left movement and its ideology. This went hand in hand with an appreciation of the philosophical approaches of Marxist intellectuals such as Jun Tosaka and Gorō Hani, who saw the quotidian as a fundamental space for historical transformation. We know how Tosaka and Hani developed an everyday-centred philosophy of history through their writings, but we know little about (...) how formats other than the written word – such as cinema – contributed to thinking historical reality from the same ideological approach. To address this gap in our understanding, this article analyses the intersection of two highly representative films with Tosaka and Hani’s historical thought: Secrets Within Walls ( Kabe no naka no himegoto, Kōji Wakamatsu, 1965) and Ceremonies ( Gishiki, Nagisa Ōshima, 1971). These films’ cinematic allegorisation of post-war Japan’s everyday relationships was a way to reflect on the political character of that period. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo tiene por finalidad indagar sobre las representaciones sociales que se tejen en torno de la educación religiosa escolar (ERE). Para ello, se empleó una investigación cualitativa amparada en una perspectiva hermenéutica y un método narrativo desarrollado a través de redes semánticas naturales y análisis de contenido. El trabajo de campo se realizó con una población de estudiantes de dos instituciones educativas de carácter privado, en la ciudad de Popayán. El análisis permitió identificar los aportes de la ERE (...) a los sujetos abordados, la descripción de sinónimos con los cuales se asocia la ERE y algunas temáticas que se deberían abordar en esta área. Estos tránsitos permitieron analizar las variaciones y tendencias que posibilitan la inferencia de su articulación con la dimensión espiritual. Abstract: The purpose of this article is to investigate the social representations that are woven around school religious education (SRE). To do this, the researchers developed a qualitative research based on a hermeneutical perspective and a narrative method developed through natural semantic networks and content analysis. The fieldwork was carried out with a population of students from two private educational institutions in the city of Popayán, Colombia. The analysis made it possible to identify the contributions of the SRE to the subjects approached, the description of synonyms with which the SRE is associated, and some issues that should be addressed in this area. These transits allowed us to analyze the variations and tendencies that make possible the inference of its articulation with the spiritual dimension. (shrink)

Performance-based epistemology conceives the normativity involved in epistemic evaluation as a special case of a pattern of evaluation that can be applied to any domain where there are agents that carry out performances with an aim. This volume presents new essays by leading epistemologists who discuss key issues concerning the foundations and applications of this approach. The essays in Part I examine some foundational issues in the conceptual framework. They address questions central to the debate, including the compatibility of apt (...) success with some forms of luck; the connection between aptness and a safety condition for knowledge; the fallibility of perceptual recognitional abilities; actual-world reliabilism and reliabilism about epistemic justification; the nature of the agency required to make a cognitive success truly one's own; the basic conceptual framework of performance-based epistemology. Part II explores Sosa's epistemology of a priori intuition; internalist objections to Sosa's views on second-order knowledge; the roles that epistemic agency is meant to play in performance-based epistemology; the value that second-order reflection may have; epistemic incompetence; and the problem of epistemic circularity and criticises Sosa's alternative solution. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In Mexico informed consent is a legal requirement that ensures that patients who are invited to participate in clinical trials are provided with all the information needed to decide whether to participate, or not, in a research protocol. To improve our understanding of the problems physicians in developing countries encounter, when obtaining informed consent (IC), we examined their opinion on the importance of IC in clinical research, the quantity and quality of the information provided to the participant, and the (...) conditions in which the IC is obtained. Investigators considered that IC was useful to the patients, providing information that helped the patient to make a decision about his/her participation. Nevertheless, they felt that for some aspects of the research, like drug development in general, the use of placebos, and the randomization process, many of the patients were not capable of fully understanding the information provided, referring to the complexity of the information and illiteracy as the main reasons. Many investigators were not acquainted with some of the guidelines established in the Mexican General Law of Health,1 36% of them admitting to not having completed their IC letters. Most investigators gave only minutes to the patient to make a decision and 20% of ICs were obtained while the patient was hospitalized. Except for one investigator, all of them considered that specific training in medical ethics would be useful for the daily clinical work. (shrink)

Los mecanismos de participación ciudadana se refieren a los espacios de diálogo legalmente constituidos para deliberar o negociar con las instituciones públicas. Aquí se ofrecen los resultados parciales de una investigación más amplia de esos mecanismos frente al gobierno de México entre 2019 y 2022. Se señalan los mecanismos que prevalecen en México, con sus características principales.

En la segunda mitad del siglo xx en Colombia surgió una concepción de los derechos humanos crítica del contexto sociopolítico y auspiciadora de las teorías modernas de los derechos como gramáticas del conflicto político. Guillermo Hoyos-Vásquez desplegó su formación filosófica, en especial a través de autores como Marx, Marcuse y Ricoeur, para ejercer la crítica de la situación de derechos humanos en el contexto del Estatuto de Seguridad Nacional, en medio del estado de sitio, las torturas sistemáticas y la represión (...) estatal y paraestatal (1978-1982). Esta investigación tiene por objetivo analizar esta concepción en la que la referencia al mundo concreto, la lucha política y el carácter ideológico de los derechos era ineludible, a partir de la reconstrucción de las fuentes filosóficas que el autor puso en juego. (shrink)

It is notable that all of the leading theories of blame have to employ ungainly fixes to deflect one or more apparent counterexamples. What these theories share is a content‐based theory of blame's nature. Such approaches overlook or ignore blame's core unifying feature, namely, its function, which is to signal the blamer's commitment to a set of norms. In this paper, we present the problems with the extant theories and then explain what signaling is, how it functions in blame, why (...) appealing to it resolves the problems in other theories, what the signaling function implies for a wider range of gray‐area cases, and what the larger significance is of blame's core function for interpersonal interactions in a variety of (non‐moral) normative domains. (shrink)

El tema religioso, y la relación del hombre con Dios, es algo de lo que el ser humano no ha logrado desprenderse. Los ateísmos y agnosticismos de todas las épocas —bien sean individuales o grupales, filosóficos o científicos— no han logrado que el ser humano, en cuanto tal, archive definitivamente su preocupación por Dios y su consiguiente actitud religiosa. Hoy las corrientes de "ateología" están haciendo un esfuerzo ingente por lograrlo: "Es muy probable que Dios no exista, deja ya de (...) preocuparte y disfruta de la vida"; tal es el eslogan que, autores como Dawkins, han lanzado a la calle en pancartas de medios masivos de transporte. El Tratado de Ateología de Michel Onfray , ha encontrado eco en nuestro medio cultural colombiano en el reciente libro Manual de Ateología , que recoge los testimonios de dieciséis notables personalidades de la sociedad colombiana. Pero, es un hecho que tanto la afirmación de un Ser Supremo, como su negación o incognoscibilidad, han convivido a lo largo de la historia humana, como un eterno interrogante, y siguen conviviendo en el día de hoy. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the situation generated by the unequal distribution of vaccines that -at the international level- has occurred in the framework of the epidemic generated by COVID-19. For this, the concepts of «act» and «word» derived from the theoretical-political theses of Hannah Arendt (1993) are used, with which it was sought to evidence the situation of neocolonialism of vaccines derived from this situation, from the philosophical deconstruction to raise the urgent consequence of neocolonialism in health, which allowed us to (...) infer how Human Rights are not the central axis of the national and state discourses or praxis of the government systems of countries with more stable and stronger economies, since the decisions and behaviors reflect the interests of the main actors of the National States that have economic support for the large-scale purchase of vaccines against COVID-19. Which in turn are the protagonists of a sociopolitical phenomenon that can be categorized as global health neocolonialism, which is presented as a phenomenon of neocolonialism that began with the confidentiality agreements signed between the States of the countries and the pharmaceutical corporations, inside or outside COVAX in the year 2020. Concluding that the massive purchase of vaccines was subject to an exclusivity character to acquire the batches, where some factors of discrimination or non-inclusion are revealed, affirming that COVAX did not comply with the purpose for what was initially created. (shrink)

Este trabajo esboza una forma de justificar el principio estructurador central de una teoría veritista de la evaluación epistémica, en respuesta a críticas planteadas por Eleonora Cresto a mi defensa del veritismo frente a una serie de objeciones en el sentido de que no es capaz de explicar la naturaleza y el valor del entendimiento. La primera sección presenta el esbozo de justificación del núcleo de una teoría veritista; la segunda responde a críticas más específicas de Cresto. This paper sketches (...) a way to justify the central tenet of a veritistic theory of epistemic evaluation, in response to problems raised by Eleonora Cresto concerning my defense of veritism, against a series of objetions to the effect that veritistic epistemology is uncapable of explaining the nature and value of understanding. The first section presents the sketch of justification of the nucleus of a veritistic theory, the second responds to some of Cresto's more specific criticisms. (shrink)

The problem of epistemic bootstrapping requires explaining, in a principled manner, why a subject who engages in bootstrapping fails to know the conclusion of her reasoning. Existing proposed solutions to the problem provide unsatisfactory explanations regarding the bootstrapper's ignorance. This paper puts forward a novel solution and argues that it satisfactorily explains the ignorance of the bootstrapper, while avoiding the difficulties that other proposals face. Section 1 explains what epistemic bootstrapping is, defines the problem it poses for a theory of (...) knowledge, and outlines the basic desiderata demanded of any acceptable solution to the problem. Section 2 explicates the proposal I defend throughout the rest of the paper. Here, I contend that the wrong−making feature of bootstrapping which ultimately explains the bootstrapper's ignorance is a failure to use an independent source in checking the accuracy of the reports of a given source. I call this explanation the “Independence proposal.” Section 2 also argues that the phenomenon of bootstrapping is broader than is usually assumed; there are cases of bootstrapping that do not fit the superficial structure of the prototypical cases discussed in the literature, and any good proposal should apply to these as well. Section 3 argues that the independence proposal does better than other current proposals in fulfilling the desiderata identified in Section 1. Section 4 sums up the central contributions of the paper. (shrink)

Esta crisis se expresa en una cultura fundada en la ideología de la corrupción dentro de los valores del neoliberalismo. Los dirigentes de la derecha participaron en la corrupción de la dictadura militar, en la democracia se siguió con la misma práctica argumentando que así se lograba mantenerla. El empresariado intenta eludir los impuestos.Las instituciones sociales fundamentales han participado de esta cultura: gobierno, partidos, iglesias, universidades, empresariado y ejército. El control ha fracasado y excepcionalmente hay un par de jueces eficaces.Los (...) proyectos del gobierno son la repetición de la Ley de Probidad y Transparencia de 1994 que sacralizó el relativismo ético. La corrupción debe ser derrotada con la ética de los principios y su estudio por las universidades, la definición de las iglesias, los jueces y las organizaciones de los trabajadores públicos. La alternancia política sólo implicaría que un partido corrupto sería reemplazado por otro similar en el poder. (shrink)

La reciente ley sobre el lobby en Chile es el resultado de un proceso de varios años durante los cuales se ha discutido el tema sin mucha profundidad, y casi con exclusiva referencia a la experiencia norteamericana. Ahora surge la necesidad que los cientistas sociales empiecen a investigar esta área, y en especial cómo aplicar este instrumento en la actividad política de Chile, aunque se utiliza desde hace décadas sin siquiera identificarlo. El libro de Rodríguez es una buena introducción al (...) .. (shrink)

El autor postula que a partir de la dictadura militar de Pinochet, la corrupción empieza a aparecer en el sector público subrepticiamente hasta generalizarse, y que con el retorno a la democracia se pensó que la probidad seguirá siendo una característica nacional, pero la corrupción se mantuvo y sigue desarrollándose, pasando de una corrupción de acuerdo a las normas a una corrupción hipócrita, hasta llegar a una corrupción justificada y cada vez más masiva. El artículo fundamenta estas propuestas.

Este artículo aborda, desde la relectura del trabajo de Alfred Schütz “La ejecución musical conjunta” (“Makingmusictogether”), la idea de intersubjetividad como sintonía en las relaciones sociales explorando en los elementos señalados por el autor, como la dimensión temporal, el cara a cara y la sincronización con el Otro. Se abre así una posibilidad de comprensión de los procesos intersubjetivos, en la perspectiva del reconocimiento de la alteridad (Levinas) como constitutiva de intersubjetividad, y se plantea la pregunta de si es posible, (...) en contextos de exclusión, avanzar hacia la constitución de sintonía entre sociedad y Estado. (shrink)

La llegada del Tratado de Libre Comercio a Colombia sella la unión entre el Estado y el modelo económico neoliberal, en el que irónicamente se propone la reducción del mismo a la mínima expresión. Como consecuencia de este postulado se avecina una supresión de lo público quedando en manos de los particulares el manejo de las necesidades de los ciudadanos como meros aspectos de mercado. ¿Qué se globaliza? y ¿qué no se globaliza? Son los interrogantes que academia y sociedad debemos (...) responder antes de determinar si conviene o no a nuestros intereses, hacer parte de este modelo civilizatorio dominante. (shrink)

Gesellschaftskritik, or social philosophy that aims to provide firm criticism of pathological social practices, requires normatively grounded evaluative principles. In this article, we assess different possibilities for such principles with focus on a model that takes specific patterns of intersubjective interaction as its point of reference. We argue that in order to understand the full significance of this ‘intersubjective turn’ for social philosophy, and to strengthen the normative foundation of social philosophy, we need to distinguish several levels of intersubjectivity and, (...) in particular, focus on the somewhat neglected level of primary intersubjectivity. The article will discuss the account of primary intersubjectivity in Honneth’s work. We show that Honneth’s account runs into difficulties, and drawing on recent findings in developmental psychology, we suggest a rethinking of elementary recognition in terms of ‘affective proximity’. This both renders the account less susceptible to criticism and provides a normative perspective that can effortlessly enter into interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)