Emmanuel Mounier busca um possível diálogo entre o personalismo e o marxismo. Este diálogo é ciente dos pontos de contato e de afastamento entre as duas teorias. Mounier não aceita o que ele chama de redução materialista do ser pessoal e insiste na consideração do espírito como constituinte da pessoa tanto quanto a matéria. Um reforma da sociedade precisa estar atenta tanto ao aspecto material como espiritual e moral da pessoa e da sociedade em que ela está situada. No projeto (...) de revolução personalista e comunitária Mounier afirma ser fundamental que a questão do homem singular nunca seja considerada adiável, mas como uma preocupação simultânea às de ordem política e econômica. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta a proposta de Emmanuel Mounier e a crítica de Louis Althusser em relação à educação capitalista e articula um contato entre essas duas posições. Não é um contato que tem como objetivo um consenso entre os dois autores, mas que procura apontar como podemos aliar a consciência do perigo de alienação na educação com a esperança que a educação pode representar se for desenvolvida com os devidos cuidados e tendo em vista uma concepção integral da pessoa, o (...) que se alcança se a educação é entendida não só como instrução, mas também como formação. Com este enfoque é possível que a pessoa cresça não apenas numa instrução para a profissão, mas numa formação para a liberdade. (shrink)

Dentro do pensamento arenditiano, a experiência da solidão é uma das formas mais radicais de afastamento do ser humano da própria humanidade. Para Arendt existem caminhos que podem apontar e conduzir à solidão, e que devem ser vigiados e evitados. Arendt entende que esta experiência tão radical atinge seu ápice no contexto do totalitarismo, em especial nos campos de concentração. A solidão se torna estrutural e é fabricada continuamente no contexto totalitário. Como experiencia onde a pessoa se perde do mundo, (...) dos outros e de si mesma, a solidão é usada pelo regime totalitário como antecipação do aniquilamento final, onde a pessoa se torna um mero feixe vital, um morto vivo, sem expressão do ser pessoa, restando apenas o aniquilamento nos campos. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca apresentar a perspectiva educativa de Paulo Freire a partir da relação com o personalismo de Emmanuel Mounier. O ponto de destaque em tal relação é a visão da construção de uma educação pautada na autonomia e na abertura à comunidade, uma educação não meramente técnica, mas que seja capaz de preparar o ser humano para o fazer e para o ser. Esta educação, segundo Paulo Freire, não pode esquecer a importância do Protagonismo do educando no processo (...) educativo, deve ser fundamentada no diálogo e sempre aberta a refletir a vida concreta que se manifesta no ambiente onde o processo educativo está se desenvolvendo. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Nanotechnologies are an expression of the human ability to control and manipulate matter on a very small scale. Their use will enable an even and constant monitoring of human organisms, in a new and perhaps less invasive way. Debates at all levels – national, European and international – have pointed out the common difficulty of giving a complete, clear definition of nanotechnologies. This is primarily due to the variety of their components, to the fact that there is not just (...) one technology but several. The most significant medical applications of nanotechnologies are in the diagnostic and the therapeutic fields, eg biosensors and molecular imaging, providing diagnosis and drug delivery with no invasive methods involved. Like any other emerging field, such technologies imply new possibilities for improving health but, on the other hand, they are still at an experimental stage and therefore should be implemented under rigorous safety testing before going on general release. For this purpose, the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of nanotechnologies have been elaborated by study groups, in order to develop solutions before the results of the tests are diffused into medical practice. The aim of this paper is to define some of the ethical issues concerning biomedical applications and to evaluate whether there is a need for new or additional guidelines and regulations. (shrink)

Classification learning is a preeminent human ability within the animal kingdom but the key mechanisms of brain networks regulating learning remain mostly elusive. Recent neuroimaging advancements have depicted human brain as a complex graph machinery where brain regions are nodes and coherent activities among them represent the functional connections. While long-term motor memories have been found to alter functional connectivity in the resting human brain, a graph topological investigation of the short-time effects of learning are still not widely investigated. For (...) instance, classification learning is known to orchestrate rapid modulation of diverse memory systems like short-term and visual working memories but how the brain functional connectome accommodates such modulations is unclear. We used publicly available repositories (openfmri.org) selecting three experiments, two focused on short-term classification learning along two consecutive runs where learning was promoted by trial-by-trial feedback errors, while a further experiment was used as supplementary control. We analyzed the functional connectivity extracted from BOLD fMRI signals, and estimated the graph information processing in the cerebral networks. The information processing capability, characterized by complex network statistics, significantly improved over runs, together with the subject classification accuracy. Instead, null-learning experiments, where feedbacks came with poor consistency, did not provoke any significant change in the functional connectivity over runs. We propose that learning induces fast modifications in the overall brain network dynamics, definitely ameliorating the short-term potential of the brain to process and integrate information, a dynamic consistently orchestrated by modulations of the functional connections among specific brain regions. (shrink)

This paper introduces a formal concept of ideology and ideological system. The formalization takes ideologies and ideological systems to be situated in agent societies. An ideological system is defined as a system of operations able to create, maintain, and extinguish the ideologies adopted by the social groups of agent societies. The concepts of group ideology, ideological contradiction, ideological dominance, and dominant ideology of an agent society, are defined. An ideology-based concept of social group is introduced. Relations between the proposed formal (...) concept of ideology and the classical concepts of ideology elaborated in social sciences are examined. A computational notation is presented, to support the realization of ideological systems in computationally implemented agent societies. The adequacy of the approach for the formal modeling and analysis of ideological issues is illustrated through three case studies. (shrink)

The paper introduces the concept of relativistic ontological realism, and the corresponding notion of relativistic realization of objects. The conditions that allow for the relativistic realization of objects are determined. In particular, the paper indicates the way the imposition of organizational structures on already existent objects supports the relativistic realization of new, more complex ones. A type-theoretic presentation of the principles of relativistic ontological realism is given in the language of predicate calculus, making use of the notion of typed world (...) and the condition of effectiveness in the determination of the existence of objects. Two case studies illustrating the way the notion of relativistic ontological realism supports ontological analysis are presented, both concerning the ontology of computations, more specifically, the relativistic realization of computational levels in computational systems. The first case study deals with the realization of logical circuits through structural arrangements of electrical circuits. The second, with the realization of software systems through computer programming. A conception of the mechanics of the relativistic realization of objects, taking the imposition of organizational structures on previously extant objects as its basis, is proposed and briefly analyzed. (shrink)

Este artigo traz uma apresentação operatória formal da derivação do conceito Ser para si apartir do conceito Finito, derivação que está desenvolvida na Doutrina do Ser, da Ciência da Lógica deHegel. Mostra-se que a derivação do conceito intermediário Infinito Verdadeiro requer, além damacrooperação progressão de etapa, com que se dão todas as etapas de derivação do conceito Finito,uma operação adicional, que é identificada como a operação de determinação do menor ponto-fixo demicrorrelações. Já a derivação do conceito Ser para si a (...) partir do conceito Infinito Verdadeiro requersomente a microoperação suprassunção. O método geral de execução do primeiro momento damacrooperação progressão de etapa é detalhado, evidenciando um dos papéis que desempenha, nodesenvolvimento da Lógica de Hegel, a análise lógica das representações do Entendimento. (shrink)

It is an experimental fact that \ -decays produce in a cloud chamber at most one track and that this track points in a random direction. This seems to contradict the description of decay in Quantum Mechanics: according to Gamow a spherical wave is produced and moves radially according to Schrödinger’s equation. It is as if the interaction with the supersaturated vapor turned the wave into a particle. The aim of this note is to place this effect in the context (...) of Schrödinger’s Quantum Mechanics. We shall see that the properties of the initial wave function suggest the introduction of a semiclassical formalism in which the \ -wave can be described as a collection of semiclassical wavelets; each of them interacts with an atom and forms an entangled state. The interaction can be regarded as a semiclassical inelastic scattering event. The measurement selects the wave function of one of the ions, with a probability given by Born’s rule. This ion interacts with the atoms nearby leading to the formation of a droplet. One can reasonably assume that also the wavelet entangled with the selected ion has probability one to remain as part of the description of the system. The measurement process is therefore represented by a unitary operator. The wavelet remains sharply localized on a classical path \ It is still a probability wave: it determines the probability that another atom be ionized. This probability is essentially zero unless the atom lies on \ . This gives the visible track. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a formal interpretive account of Jean Piaget’s theory of the morality that regulates social exchanges, which we call interactional morality. First, we place Piaget’s conception in the context of his epistemological and sociological works. Then, we review the core of that conception: the two types of interactional moralities that Piaget identified to be usual in social exchanges, and the role that the notion of respect-for-the-other plays in their definition. Next, we analyze the main features of (...) social exchanges that are subject to each of those two types of interactional moralities. Following, we formalize Piaget’s account of how the two types of interactional moralities can be put to regulate social exchanges in which values, norms, beliefs, and goals are exchanged, so that interactional commitments can be established among the participants. Then, we sketch a moral reasoning system able to support formal reasonings about interactional moralities. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of the overall formal model of interactional moralities that resulted from our study by applying it to the explication of some of the conclusions achieved by Piaget in his moral studies about children games. (shrink)

Este artigo traz, desde uma perspectiva lógico-hegeliana, uma proposta de articulação operatória das noções de interseccionalidade e lugar de fala, com as quais, muitas vezes, se realizam análises de discursos e de situações sociais. O fundamento da proposta é a sequência de silogismos de ideias que, derivados da Lógica de Hegel, estratificam a noção de mundo em três níveis: mundo do sujeito, mundo do gênero e mundo do espírito. O artigo complementa esse fundamento introduzindo duas operações, particionamento de ideias e (...) superposição de partições de ideias, com as quais é derivado o conceito geral mundo setorial. O artigo mostra, então, como as noções de interseccionalidade e lugar de fala podem ser articuladas operatoriamente pelas três formas particulares e estratificadas desse conceito geral: mundo do sujeito setorial, mundo do gênero setorial e mundo do espírito setorial. (shrink)

The phenomenon of size constancy is defined as the apparent perceptual invariance of the linear dimensions of a seen object as this approaches the eye or recedes from it. It has been interpreted as resulting from the application by the brain of a size correction, made possible by the subject's apprehension of distance cues present in the image. We present several observations which, by dissociating accommodation from distance of the seen object and by suppressing the optic effects of accommodation on (...) the visual image itself, show that this interpretation is incorrect, and that in fact the size correction of the visual image is a function of the central effort of accommodation, not of the distance of the seen object. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 7, July 2022.

Conscientious objection in the health care field—that is, refusal on the part of a medical professional to perform or cooperate in a procedure when it violates his or her conscience—is a growing concern for international legislators and a source of contentious debates among ethicists and the general public. Recognizing a general right to conscientious objection based on individual liberty, and thus a subjective right, could have negative consequences. Conscientious objection in health care settings should be fully protected, however, when the (...) objection is based on principles that are fundamental to the medical profession and the legal system. Examples from Italy and other nations show how protections there safeguard conscientious objection when a health professional objects to taking a human life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12.4 (Winter 2012): 611–620. (shrink)

A Second level Master in “Clinical Bioethics Consultation” has been organized in Italy to offer an opportunity to offer an adequate training to carry out an ethics consultation in different health fields. The master has been promoted and realized by different institutions: Catholic University of Sacred Hearth in Rome, Insubria University in Varese, “Federico II” University in Naples, Lanza Foundation in Padua and the Local Health and Social Care Unit n.7 in Veneto Region. The aim of the master is train (...) ethics consultants to offer help regarding a correct decision, which will take by others. The choice must be as much as possible shared between patient, family and health care team. Ethics consultation can be primarily request by the physicians, nurses and health care staff such as support about a choice that wants to be the most appropriate and to clarify a dilemma between different options. Secondly an ethics consultation can be demand by the patient and the family members to find a clarification about their dilemmas and future choices. Also the administrative staff could ask the consultation, when it need to better explain ad example about a specific clinical case or a question concerned the health policy. (shrink)

The contribution describes a case report addressed in 2011 by the clinical ethics consultation service team of the Institute of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the “Agostino Gemelli” School of Medicine of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome. The clinical case regards ethical dilemmas about the patient’s prospects for receiving an orthotopic liver transplant, because she was a non-resident and lacked a caregiver to assist her during the follow-up period, as well as a place to stay after liver transplant (...) surgery. DOI: 10.5294/pebi.2016.20.1.7. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of recent contributions to the debate on the ethical use of previously collected biobank samples, as well as a country report about how this issue has been regulated in Spain by means of the new Biomedical Research Act, enacted in the summer of 2007. By contrasting the Spanish legal situation with the wider discourse of international bioethics, we identify and discuss a general trend moving from the traditional requirements of informed consent towards new models more (...) favourable to research in a post‐genomic context. (shrink)

This paper introduces a formal concept of ideology and ideological system. The formalization takes ideologies and ideological systems to be situated in agent societies. An ideological system is defined as a system of operations able to create, maintain, and extinguish the ideologies adopted by the social groups of agent societies. The concepts of group ideology, ideological contradiction, ideological dominance, and dominant ideology of an agent society, are defined. An ideology-based concept of social group is introduced. Relations between the proposed formal (...) concept of ideology and the classical concepts of ideology elaborated in social sciences are examined. A computational notation is presented, to support the realization of ideological systems in computationally implemented agent societies. The adequacy of the approach for the formal modeling and analysis of ideological issues is illustrated through three case studies. (shrink)

This paper begins with a discussion of the scientia sexualis/ars erotica distinction, which Foucault first advances in History of Sexuality Vol. 1, and which has been employed by many scholars to do a variety of analytical work. Though Foucault has expressed his doubts regarding his conceptualization of the differences between Western and Eastern discourses of desire, he never entirely disowns the distinction. In fact, Foucault remains convinced that China must have an ars erotica. I will explore Foucault’s sources of authority. (...) To this end, I introduce the work of famous Dutch sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik, who published the tremendously influential Sexual Life in Ancient China in 1961, and also explore Joseph Needham’s view on Chinese sex. I argue that, Foucault, in his fierce polemic against the “Repressive Hypothesis”, himself imagined a utopian Other where pleasure and desire were organised differently. I end on a discuss on Orientalism and the project of “Sinography” of comparative literature scholars Haun Saussy, Eric Hayot and others. (shrink)

This work adopts H. Kelsen’s concept of legal system, proposes a formal definition for such notion, and introduces an operational semantical framework for legal systems that are situated in agent societies. Agent societies are defined. Relevant formal properties of situated legal systems are discussed; the way they are exposed in the operational semantical framework is explained, and their truth formally proved. Also, for the sake of a better understanding of the legal-theoretic assumptions of the paper, recurring issues regarding Kelsen’s theory (...) of law are briefly reviewed. They are put in confrontation with the points of view of R. Dworkin, H. Hart, and J. Raz, and an attempt is made to clarify them from the perspective of the provided formalization. A brief case study in agent-based modeling and simulation of public policy processes is presented, as an illustration of the way of using situated legal systems, and the proposed operational semantical framework, in a practical application. (shrink)

This paper introduces a formal concept of ideology and ideological system. The formalization takes ideologies and ideological systems to be situated in agent societies. An ideological system is defined as a system of operations able to create, maintain, and extinguish the ideologies adopted by the social groups of agent societies. The concepts of group ideology, ideological contradiction, ideological dominance, and dominant ideology of an agent society, are defined. An ideology-based concept of social group is introduced. Relations between the proposed formal (...) concept of ideology and the classical concepts of ideology elaborated in social sciences are examined. A computational notation is presented, to support the realization of ideological systems in computationally implemented agent societies. The adequacy of the approach for the formal modeling and analysis of ideological issues is illustrated through three case studies. (shrink)

Although bioethics is a lively and expanding interdisciplinary field, there is not enough research about the patient‐doctor relationship, a central issue in philosophy of medicine. This article surveys the state of the field, paying attention to recent work by Alfred Tauber, and supplementing it with insights from Hans Jonas's philosophy of technology in order to propose a principle of responsible autonomy for health care. Based on a comparative look across different sub‐fields in bioethics, the resulting model claims that physician responsibility (...) is essential to professional integrity, providing an alternative to other active trends emphasizing patient autonomy, such as Robert Veatch's contractual model. (shrink)

This paper presents an exercise in the formalization of political principles, by taking as its theme the concept of distributive justice that Karl Marx advanced in his Critique of the Gotha Programme. We first summarize the content of the Critique of the Gotha Programme. Next, we transcribe the core of Marx’s presentation of the concept of distributive justice. Following, we present our formalization of Marx’s conception. Then, we make use of that formal analysis to confront Marx’s principle of distributive justice (...) with John Rawls’ conception of justice as fairness, and the principles of distributive justice that derive from it. Finally, we discuss methodological issues relative to, and implications of, the way of formalizing political principles introduced here. (shrink)

Foucault, the Family and Politics presents a rich account of the politics and power relations that organize family and intimate life, advancing with and beyond Foucault's classic and more recently-published writings. The obligation to attend school, to go to work, to stay healthy, to follow the law – 'being a good son, a good husband, and so on' as Foucault wryly remarks – are frequently organized through the family. Including contributions from a range of well-known scholars and an essay by (...) Foucault himself, translated here in English for the first time, this volume is of interest to scholars in sociology, politics, history, philosophy, gender theory, literary criticism and cultural studies. (shrink)

The fateful entanglements of psychoanalysis, cybernetics and digital media Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-4 DOI 10.1007/s11016-011-9570-0 Authors Leon Antonio Rocha, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RH UK Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

Biobanks challenge the traditional model in research ethics, in which the autonomy of subjects donating samples for biomedical research is to be protected by means of informed consent. This paper identifies a global trend towards governance models more favourable to research, in which a single act of consent is used to authorize a wide range of research projects. It argues that the protection of autonomy is often understood just as the requirement to sign an informed consent form; but the autonomy (...) of research subjects is neither an isolated decision nor a purely individual one, as it affects groups of people along time. Some ways out of this problem are discussed, both by re-conceptualizing autonomy and by expanding the informed consent process. Taking into account the relationship between public trust and donor participation, the possibility of respecting autonomy by means of narrative is suggested, with the aim of promoting the scientific culture of a population and debating the ethical issues raised by biobanks. (shrink)

En la intersección entre la ética aplicada y los estudios sobre divulgación científica en los medios, este trabajo propone un concepto de «cultura bioética» y lo aplica a la exitosa serie de televisión House. Nuestro análisis de la serie muestra la relación existente entre la tensión entre autonomía del paciente y paternalismo médico presente en la teoría bioética y la práctica asistencial, por un lado, con el debate abierto en filosofía de la medicina entre posiciones naturalistas y normativistas sobre los (...) conceptos de salud y enfermedad, por el otro. Se propone también una ampliación del concepto de autonomía que permita avanzar en la resolución de esta tensión, tanto a nivel teórico como práctico. (shrink)

This paper aims to study from the perspective of bioethics the controversy about door-to-door waste collection (DtD). Three goals are pursued: (1) to provide terms of comparison between different systems of urban waste management, (2) to distinguish the specifically ethical issues introduced by DtD, and (3) analyze its innovative character as a social technology. After briefly considering the state of the art, in which a bibliographical revision shows that the ethics literature has relatively neglected this topic, Siurana’s “moral compass” is (...) applied to the question concerning waste. Next this proposal is used to describe and assess the two main models being discussed. After introducing the most innovative features of DtD, some recommendations are issued and plausible objections answered. (shrink)

Tras una revisión bibliográfica, el artículo proporciona una presentación de la filosofía política de Henry D. Thoreau, enfatizando en su obra un concepto de autodeterminación cívica que Habermas descompone en una autonomía pública y otra privada. Sostengo que Thoreau no era un anarquista antisocial, ni tampoco un mero liberal individualista, sino que su liberalismo presenta elementos propios de la teoría democrática e incluso del comunitarismo político. Finalmente, identifico y describo una tensión entre esos temas liberales y democráticos, tanto en la (...) obra de Thoreau como en la vida política de las sociedades occidentales, mostrando así la relevancia de este autor. (shrink)