This paper reveals the importance of stories associated to specific objects. The study argues that storytelling can infuse life and meaning into insignificant things. From a semiotic point of view, material objects become signs linked to particular people, experiences, desires, values, thus creating strong emotional bonds with the landscapes part of human daily routines. Beyond fetishism or consumerism, these significant objects could serve the purpose of eco-critical awareness. Through the lenses of a micro-narrative by British novelist Tom McCarthy, attached to (...) the insignificant object of a “Mermaid figurine”, the paper explores the ecology of little things in order to draw attention to sustainability concerns. (shrink)

This paper reveals the importance of stories associated to specific objects. The study argues that storytelling can infuse life and meaning into insignificant things. From a semiotic point of view, material objects become signs linked to particular people, experiences, desires, values, thus creating strong emotional bonds with the landscapes part of human daily routines. Beyond fetishism or consumerism, these significant objects could serve the purpose of eco-critical awareness. Through the lenses of a micro-narrative by British novelist Tom McCarthy, attached to (...) the insignificant object of a “Mermaid figurine”, the paper explores the ecology of little things in order to draw attention to sustainability concerns. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Jahrgang: 8 Heft: 2 Seiten: 7-22.

What is the role of the Social Sciences and Humanities in the journey to the Fourth Industrial Revolution? What is the impact of these disciplines for the challenges the world faces, supposedly defined by a highly dynamic phase of industrial and social restructuring, where the adaptive capacity of societies needs to be enhanced by specific skills and techno-social dependencies? What is the role of SSH in building cognitive competences, and new professional paths? This paper, part of the special focus of (...) the Annual Review of New Directions in the Humanities, seeks to unveil the importance of SSH disciplines to the major STEM disciplines. Although disciplines and research in Social Sciences and Humanities play a fundamental role in the production of knowledge relevant to society, the last decade of the 20th century has seen a continuous trend towards their devaluation. After a relatively glorious period during the first half of the century, when SSH disciplines still held a relative social influence, the arrival of digital technologies in 1990s, accelerated their decline. This article traces a brief overview of this decline and explores some of the causes as well as the challenges in valuing SSH. Focusing mainly on Europe, the paper presents the attempts, on behalf of the European Commission, to correct this decline. It also outlines some new ideas that could help a true integration and transfer of knowledge across STEM AND STEAM disciplines, such as the creation of specific 'missions'. Precisely, one of the diagnoses of the Horizon 2020 experience in Europe has been that investment in research is not effectively linked to the solution of specific problems. Thus, it is necessary to put in motion co-creation mechanisms among research disciplines and advance in the establishment of intersectoral bridges, bringing SSH research closer to the industry and other social sectors in order to solve the pressing challenges we face. (shrink)

Cross-cultural communication is about generating dialogical positions across cultural barriers. Communication is achieved when participants are able to construct meaning across varied sign systems. Oral communication makes use of a wide range of signs that contribute to make meaning, from eye contact to gestures and speech. In written/printed communication, together with the reproduction of visual images through painting, photography, etc., the most important resource is the textual format. Texts are grounded on a cognitive deictic basis and work alongside the cause-effect (...) relationship that links events in human working memory. This relationship frequently posits a hierarchical dependency between the understanding of visual images, textuality and narrativity. Although texts are vehicles of contextualized information and cultural positions are often presented in a historiographical way, culture is not just about textuality; it is also about multimodality, that is, the use of symbolic forms that employ simultaneously several material-semiotic resources to create a kind of common framework of socially acceptable behaviours and customs which arise both from individual personal experiences and from shared cultural and ethical values. Signs areused to represent these values and, in turn, these representations affect their further emotional interiorization. This creates particular strong moments of remembrance and recollection in human memory. In addition, the production, distribution and reception of culture has always been dependent on changing material formats and technologies, from manuscripts to printed books, from mural painting to photography, and from architecture to virtual recreations on a computer screen. In recent years, the interest in intertextual and intermedial configurations is mostly due to the growth of hypermedia paradigms, and is reflected in the increasing number of disciplinary publications and conferences devoted to the topic. This paper shall explore the reasons behind a renewed interest in intertextual and intermedial manifestations in cross-cultural communication. (shrink)

What is the role of the Social Sciences and Humanities in the journey to the Fourth Industrial Revolution? What is the impact of these disciplines for the challenges the world faces, supposedly defined by a highly dynamic phase of industrial and social restructuring, where the adaptive capacity of societies needs to be enhanced by specific skills and techno-social dependencies? What is the role of SSH in building cognitive competences, and new professional paths? This paper, part of the special focus of (...) the Annual Review of New Directions in the Humanities, seeks to unveil the importance of SSH disciplines to the major STEM disciplines. Although disciplines and research in Social Sciences and Humanities play a fundamental role in the production of knowledge relevant to society, the last decade of the 20th century has seen a continuous trend towards their devaluation. After a relatively glorious period during the first half of the century, when SSH disciplines still held a relative social influence, the arrival of digital technologies in 1990s, accelerated their decline. This article traces a brief overview of this decline and explores some of the causes as well as the challenges in valuing SSH. Focusing mainly on Europe, the paper presents the attempts, on behalf of the European Commission, to correct this decline. It also outlines some new ideas that could help a true integration and transfer of knowledge across STEM AND STEAM disciplines, such as the creation of specific 'missions'. Precisely, one of the diagnoses of the Horizon 2020 experience in Europe has been that investment in research is not effectively linked to the solution of specific problems. Thus, it is necessary to put in motion co-creation mechanisms among research disciplines and advance in the establishment of intersectoral bridges, bringing SSH research closer to the industry and other social sectors in order to solve the pressing challenges we face. (shrink)

There is a constructive method to define a structure of simple k -cyclic Post algebra of order p , L p , k , on a given finite field F ( p k ), and conversely. There exists an interpretation Φ 1 of the variety $${\mathcal{V}(L_{p,k})}$$ generated by L p , k into the variety $${\mathcal{V}(F(p^k))}$$ generated by F ( p k ) and an interpretation Φ 2 of $${\mathcal{V}(F(p^k))}$$ into $${\mathcal{V}(L_{p,k})}$$ such that Φ 2 Φ 1 ( B ) (...) = B for every $${B \in \mathcal{V}(L_{p,k})}$$ and Φ 1 Φ 2 ( R ) = R for every $${R \in \mathcal{V}(F(p^k))}$$. In this paper we show how we can solve an algebraic system of equations over an arbitrary cyclic Post algebra of order p, p prime, using the above interpretation, Gröbner bases and algorithms programmed in Maple. (shrink)

There is a constructive method to define a structure of simple k-cyclic Post algebra of order p, L p,κ, on a given finite field F, and conversely. There exists an interpretation Ф₁ of the variety V generated by L p,κ into the variety V) generated by F and an interpretation Ф₂ of V) into V such that Ф₂Ф₁ = B for every B ϵ V and Ф₁₂ = R for every R ϵ V). In this paper we show how we (...) can solve an algebraic system of equations over an arbitrary cyclic Post algebra of order p, p prime, using the above interpretation, Gröbner bases and algorithms programmed in Maple. (shrink)

RESUMEN El presente trabajo está dirigido a exponer elementos inherentes al modelo de superación profesional del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico desde la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio. Entre los métodos teóricos empleados, el analítico-sintético permitió la determinación de los fundamentos epistemológicos y praxiológicos del proceso de superación, el inductivo-deductivo posibilitó la determinación de las categorías que surgen en el proceso investigativo, el sistémico estructural funcional para fundamentar el carácter de sistema del modelo y la modelación con la finalidad (...) de construirlo. Se concluye que se establecen como subsistemas del modelo, la proyección profesional de las ciencias básicas biomédicas, la contextualización profesional de la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio y la valoración contextual de la integración en el proceso de superación, lo que explica el proceso de superación del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico. ABSTRACT This paper aims at setting out elements inherent to the health technologist in clinical laboratory’s professional training model from the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences. Among the theoretical methods used, analysis-synthesis allowed establishing the epistemological and praxeological basis of the training process; the inductive-deductive method made it possible to determine the categories that result from the research process and the systemic-structural-functional method was used to support the system-like nature of the model and modelling with the end of building it. In conclusion, subsystems of the model are established: basic biomedical sciences professionals’ aims, professional conceptualization of the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences and the contextual assessment of integration in the training process, which expounds the training process of the health technologist in clinical laboratory. (shrink)

La propuesta que nos hace Alfonso López Quintás, catedrático emérito de filosofía de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y uno de los grandes pensadores españoles, en La ética o es transfiguración o no es nada, es la de emprender un camino de crecimiento personal. Forma parte esencial de nuestra existencia el crecimiento en una doble vertiente: biológica y espiritual. El crecimiento natural impone sus propios límites, a través de unas reglas que limitan nuestra vida. Sin embargo, los límites de (...) nuestro crecimiento personal están íntimamente relacionados con el proceso mismo, que podemos llamar camino de la vida. Los límites de nuestro crecimiento irán apareciendo en el camino, pero el modo en el que recorremos nuestra senda vital es capital a la hora de determinar cómo recorreremos el camino que nos es propio. Esto es lo que nos plantea López Quintás en esta obra, cómo crecer a través del conocimiento de la propia realidad y de nuestra capacidad para transformarla. (shrink)

Belandria, Margarita Artículos La labor del filósofo The philosopher's paper Alonso, Ángel Castigo y derecho sin libre albedrío ni responsabilidad Punishment and law without free will and no responsibility López Corredoira, Martín De los metarrelatos a la "muerte de los intelectuales". Una mirada al "Humanismo impenitente" desde la reconstrucción neonietzscheana postmoderna From meta - reports to the "demise of intellectuals". A view of "impenitent humanism" from post-modern neo-Nietzschean deconstruction Mora García, José Pascual Kant y el método de trascender en (...) la filosofía de Karl Jaspers Kant and the transcendental method in the Karl Jaspers philosophy Portuondo Pajón, Gladys L. La creatio ex Nihilo y sus implicaciones fenomenológicas en Levitas La creatio ex Nihilo and it's phenomenology implications in Levinas Ramírez, Gustavo ¿Qué significa meditar? What does it mean to meditate? Ramis Muscato, Pompeyo Sobre la violencia: Orígenes y antídoto Regarding violence: Origens and antidotes Vasquez, Eduardo Interdisciplinares Louis Kahn: Filosofía, arte y arquitectura Louis Kahn: Philosophy, arte and architecture Arellano Spinetti, Leonardo La oligarquía venezolana en el siglo XXI: Del estereotipo al anacronismo The Venezuelan oligarchy in the XXI century: From the stereotype to the anachronism Varela Manrique, Luz Coromoto Traducciones El arte de pensar Maurois, André Friedrich Nietzsche. 1844-1900. (shrink)

La lectura que aquí se presenta quiere recoger los elementos que aparecen en la estructura formal compleja del _Eutidemo_ y comprender las razones autoriales para esa disposición. Para ello, analiza la parte final del diálogo y la vincula a la narración del encuentro de Sócrates con los hermanos. El juicio negativo del interlocutor final de Critón se revela así como una de las posibles impresiones que deja el diálogo socrático. Por su parte, la crítica ejercida inmediatamente sobre ese interlocutor permite (...) al autor descartar esa lectura del diálogo, planteando así la cuestión de cómo interpretarlo correctamente. La tesis que aquí se esboza es la de que el diálogo debe leerse en clave protréptica, pero no solo por las partes explícitamente protrépticas de Sócrates y Clinias, sino en todos sus niveles de interacción, incluyendo la complejidad formal en que el diálogo se dispone. (shrink)

Resumen: El presente trabajo investiga la forma en que las ciencias sociales, principalmente chilenas, están respondiendo a las dispares demandas que reciben actualmente y que consisten en aportar a la comprensión crítica de fenómenos relevantes para la sociedad y adecuarse a las recientes transformaciones en la forma de producir y comunicar conocimiento científico incorporando mayores niveles de internacionalización, globalización, especialización y complejización. Para ello se realiza una revisión sistemática de la producción científica publicada sobre el movimiento estudiantil chileno, que constituye (...) uno de los movimientos sociales más relevantes de la historia reciente de Chile. Se sistematizaron 149 publicaciones editadas entre el año 2000 y el 2016. Los resultados muestran que la capacidad de las ciencias sociales chilenas para abordar estas demandas contradictorias es parcial, pues sus análisis críticos tienden a ser uniformes y de alcance temporal limitado, mientras que sus estudios empíricos no siempre poseen los niveles de internacionalización y complejidad demandados actualmente para participar en los circuitos internacionales de publicación.: The present work investigates the way in which social sciences, mainly Chilean, are responding to different demands that they are currently receiving and that consist of contribute to the critical understanding of phenomena relevant to society and adapt to recent transformations in the way of producing and communicating scientific knowledge, incorporating higher levels of internationalization, globalization, specialization and complexity. To this end, a systematic review of the scientific production published on the Chilean student movement is made. This movement is one of the most relevant in Chile's recent history. 149 publications were systematized, published between 2000 and 2016. The results show that the capacity of the Chilean social sciences to deal with these contradictory demands is partial, since their critical analyzes tend to be uniforms and limited in time, while their empirical studies do not always have the levels of internationalization and complexity currently demanded in international publishing circuits. (shrink)

Pedro Alvares Cabral's ships left Portugal on 9 March 1500 en route for the territory that he first named Terra de Vera Cruz and that later came to be known as Brazil. On the 22 March they called at the island of São Nicolau [Caminha, 1500], one of the northernmost islands of the Cape Verde group; this was about forty years after the discovery of the archipelago in 1460-62 [Albuquerque, 1991]. It is known that Vasco da Gama had stopped at (...) the island of Santiago in 1498 on his voyage to India, and also in 1499 on the return journey. Straight after the discovery of Brazil Cabral sailed for India and on the way back also dropped anchor at Santiago. Indeed, our archipelago, which is situated off Cape Verde in Senegal (the place from which it appears to take its name), was to become an important stopover point for maritime traffic between Europe, Asia and the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, both to allow crews to rest and to take on water, wood and some food supplies. It also became important as a holding point for slaves (a large number of whom came from around thirty Guinean ethnic groups and subgroups). They were dispatched from Santiago, known then as Cape Verde island, to territories such as Brazil from the early sixteenth century onwards, since these territories, which had only recently been discovered and were little known, needed people to work and populate them. (shrink)

Resumen En este artículo analizaremos, a través de una serie de actividades diseñadas para implementar en el aula, el modo en el que un grupo de jóvenes gallegos co-construyen el conocimiento metalingüístico y metapragmático acerca de las diferentes variedades locales del español y gallego. La exposición de su trayectoria biográfica permite que afloren diversos saberes y conocimientos metalingüísticos que los estudiantes han ido adquiriendo a lo largo de su escolarización y, además, surgen diversas categorizaciones sobre lenguas y variedades que ponen (...) de manifiesto sus ideologías lingüísticas, pp. 157–174). A través del análisis de las prácticas metalingüísticas y metapragmáticas comprobaremos cómo se reproducen las ideologías lingüísticas de estos jóvenes; por una parte, las ideologías de la institución académica y escolar; y por otra, las ideologías lingüísticas de los jóvenes presentes en el aula, en donde etiquetan, clasifican y establecen jerarquizaciones y valoraciones de su repertorio comunicativo. Finalmente, se comprueba cómo las diferentes variedades del español y del gallego actúan como índices de identidad social diferente de la reconocida en el ámbito institucional y académico, con distintos valores en el mercado lingüístico. (shrink)

The Embodied Mind provides a unique, sophisticated treatment of the spontaneous and reflective dimension of human experience.

"Knowing how we know" is the subject of this book. Its authors present a new view of cognition that has important social and ethical implications, for, they assert, the only world we humans can have is the one we create together through the actions of our coexistence. Written for a general audience as well as for students, scholars, and scientists and abundantly illustrated with examples from biology, linguistics, and new social and cultural phenomena, this revised edition includes a new afterword (...) by Dr. Varela, in which he discusses the effect the book has had in the years since its first publication. (shrink)

In contrast to individualistic explanations of social injustice that appeal to implicit attitudes, structural explanations are unintuitive: they appeal to entities that lack clear ontological status, and the explanatory mechanism is similarly unclear. This makes structural explanations unappealing. The present work proposes a structural explanation of one type of injustice that happens in conversations, discursive injustice. This proposal meets two goals. First, it satisfactorily accounts for the specific features of this particular kind of injustice; and second, it articulates a structural (...) explanation that overcomes their unattractiveness. The main idea is that discursive injustice is not the result of biased interlocutors, but of problematic discursive norms. (shrink)

I discuss Aristotle’s opening argument against Platonic Forms in _Metaphysics_ A.9, ‘the Razor’, which criticizes the introduction of Forms on the basis of an analogy with a hypothetical case of counting things. I argue for a new interpretation of this argument, and show that it involves two interesting objections against the introduction of Forms as formal causes: one concerns the completeness and the other the adequacy of such an explanatory project.

Hinge epistemology is a family of views that offers a novel approach to avoiding skeptical conclusions about the possibility of a posteriori justification of our empirical beliefs. They claim that at the basis of our empirical beliefs lie certain commitments whose rational status is not determined by our evidence. These are called hinge commitments. Prominent hinge epistemologists have claimed that hinge commitments are either rational or arational but yet not beliefs. I argue that such views are subject to decisive objections. (...) I then offer what I consider to be the best version of hinge epistemology. On this view, hinge commitments are best understood as arational beliefs that contingently inform our worldview. I call this view the Arational Beliefs View. (shrink)

Why does social injustice exist? What role, if any, do implicit biases play in the perpetuation of social inequalities? Individualistic approaches to these questions explain social injustice as the result of individuals’ preferences, beliefs, and choices. For example, they explain racial injustice as the result of individuals acting on racial stereotypes and prejudices. In contrast, structural approaches explain social injustice in terms of beyond-the-individual features, including laws, institutions, city layouts, and social norms. Often these two approaches are seen as competitors. (...) Framing them as competitors suggests that only one approach can win and that the loser offers worse explanations of injustice. In this essay, we explore each approach and compare them. Using implicit bias as an example, we argue that the relationship between individualistic and structural approaches is more complicated than it may first seem. Moreover, we contend that each approach has its place in analyses of injustice and raise the possibility that they can work together—synergistically—to produce deeper explanations of social injustice. If so, the approaches may be complementary, rather than competing. (shrink)

The study of conscious experience per se has not kept pace with the dramatic advances in PET, fMRI and other brain-scanning technologies. If anything, the standard approaches to examining the 'view from within' involve little more than cataloguing its readily accessible components. Thus the study of lived subjective experience is still at the level of Aristotelian science, leading to a widespread scepticism over the possibility of a truly scientific study of conscious experience. Drawing on a wide range of approaches -- (...) from phenomenology to meditation -- The View From Within examines the possibility of a disciplined approach to the study of subjective states. The focus is on the practical issues involved. (shrink)

Tesis doctoral presentada en el departament de Lògica Història i Filosofia de la Ciencia de la Universitat de Barcelona per optar al títol de Doctor en Filosofia.

Se efectuó un estudio en dos fases: una observacional descriptiva y otra correlacional, para caracterizar psicológicamente al niño y adolescente con Retinosis Pigmentaria y su familia, en el Centro Provincial que atiende a este paciente en la ciudad de Camagüey. El estudio se hizo aplicando una encuesta elaborada a los efectos del trabajo y una batería de pruebas psicológicas para niños y otra para adolescentes. Se realizó un muestreo intencional puro, no probabilístico de 41 pacientes. Las Pruebas Psicológicas aplicadas fueron: (...) Encuesta, Dibujo Libre, Rotter, Wechller Bellevue, Test Gráfico de la Familia para ambos grupos e Historietas de Madelaine Thomas, 3 Alegrías, 3 Roñas y 3 Miedos para niños y Técnica de los 10 Deseos, Inventario de Problemas Juveniles, Escala de Autovaloración de Dembo Rubinstein, para los adolescentes. A todas las madres de los pacientes se les aplicó el Cuestionario FFSIL para determinar su funcionamiento familiar. En lo metodológico, se realizaron modificaciones a las pruebas psicológicas, adaptándolas al entorno sociocultural cubano. Se reportaron hallazgos típicos explicables por el tipo de enfermedad. Como resultado de este estudio, se confirmó lo expuesto por otros autores que más que la enfermedad misma, lo que influye en su formación personológica es el proceso de socialización que se efectúe An study was made to characterize psychologically the childs and adolescent suffering from pigmentary retinosis and their family, in the Provincial Center that assists those patients in Camagüey. The study was carried out applying a battery of psychological tests for children and another for adolescents. The applied Psychological Tests were: interviews, Free Drawing, Rotter, Graphic Test of the Family for both groups and Comics of Madelaine Thomas, 3 Happiness, 3 Dirts and 3 Fears for children and Technique of the 10 Desires, Inventory of Juvenile Problems and the Scale of Dembo Rubinstein, for the adolescents. Methodological modifications to the psychological tests were carried out, adapting them to the Cuban sociocultural environment. Accountable typical discoveries were reported by the illness type. As results of this study, the most important fact for the patients' personalities is the socialization process. (shrink)

Aristóteles parece negar el estatuto ontológico de los artefactos que no serían sustancias. Se analizan los textos básicos al respecto y sus principales interpretaciones. Se discute la opinión de R. Katayama, para mostrar que acierta en remarcar la importancia de la separabilidad de los compuestos, pero se equivoca en la noción de separación. Se sostiene que las formas no son separables de sus compuestos tanto naturales como artefactos, pero los primeros poseen un tipo de separación de otras formas o especies (...) que no poseen los segundos y, por ello, son substancias. Aristotle seems to deny the ontological status of artifacts which are not substances. In this paper I discuss the basic regarding this topic and its main intepretations. I discuss R. Katayama's opinion to show that he is right to underline the importance of the trait of separation, but he is wrong regarding the the notion of separation. My thesis is that neither the forms of natural things nor those of artifacts are separable from the composites, but the former possess a different kind of separation from other forms or species, which the latter do not possess. Hence, the former are substances. (shrink)

This paper responds to the issues raised by D. Chalmers by offering a research direction which is quite radical because of the way in which methodological principles are linked to scientific studies of consciousness. Neuro-phenomenology is the name I use here to designate a quest to marry modern cognitive science and a disciplined approach to human experience, thereby placing myself in the lineage of the continental tradition of Phenomenology. My claim is that the so-called hard problem that animates these Special (...) Issues can only be addressed productively by gathering a research community armed with new pragmatic tools for the development of a science of consciousness. I will claim that no piecemeal empirical correlates, nor purely theoretical principles, will really help us at this stage. We need to turn to a systematic exploration of the only link between mind and consciousness that seems both obvious and natural: the structure of human experience itself. In what follows I motivate my choice by briefly examining the current debate about consciousness at the light of Chalmer’s hard problem. Next, I outline the phenomenological strategy. Finally I conclude by discussing some of the main difficulties and consequences of this strategy. (shrink)

This article discusses the category of foreigner in the context of academia. In the first part I explore this category and its philosophical significance. A quick look at the literature reveals that this category needs more attention in analyses of dimensions of privilege and disadvantage. Foreignness has peculiarities that demarcate it from other categories of identity, and it intersects with them in complicated ways. Devoting more attention to it would enable addressing issues affecting foreigners in academia that go commonly unnoticed. (...) In the second part of the article I argue that current efforts to make academia a more inclusive environment should address the disadvantages that many foreign academics face. I focus on two senses of foreigner: working and living in a country that is not your country of origin, and being a nonnative speaker of the language in which you work. (shrink)

In this note, my aim is to point out a phenomenon that has not received much attention; a phenomenon that, in my opinion, should not be overlooked in the professional practice of philosophy, especially within feminist efforts for social justice. I am referring to the way in which being a non-native speaker of English interacts with the practice of philosophy.1 There is evidence that non-native speakers are often perceived in prejudiced ways. Such prejudiced perception causes harm and, more importantly, constitutes (...) wrongdoing. As in other cases of prejudiced perception and biased behavior, it would be pretentious and misguided to expect philosophers and the philosophy profession to be free from this vice. There are good reasons to think that this prejudiced perception is bad not only for the persons who are perceived in such a way, but also for the profession, for it might make us miss important things that could improve philosophy in general. I claim we should be more sensitive to this phenomenon, both out of concern for justice, and for the sake of doing better philosophy. (shrink)

This ambitious work aims to shed new light on the relations between Husserlian phenomenology and the present-day efforts toward a scientific theory of cognition—with its complex structure of disciplines, levels of explanation, and ...

abstract The possibility that organ sales by living adults might be made legal is morally distressing to many of us. However, powerful arguments have been provided recently supporting legalisation (I consider two of those arguments: the Consequentialist Argument and the Autonomy Argument). Is our instinctive reaction against a market of organs irrational then? The aim of this paper is not to prove that legalization would be immoral, all things considered, but rather to show, first, that there are some kinds of (...) arguments, offered in favour of legalisation, that are, in an important sense, illegitimate, and second, that even if legalisation might not be wrong all things considered, there are good reasons for our negative moral intuitions. Moreover, identifying these reasons will help highlight some features of moral decisions in non‐ideal situations, which in turn might be relevant to some other moral or policy choices. (shrink)

Some major leftist thinkers, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek and Terry Eagleton, have lately offered readings that claim the relevance of alternative interpretations of the Christian tradition in the face both of the conservative turn in the Catholic Church and of the contemporary secular oblivion of anything that has to do with religion. Furthermore, post-colonial studies have tended to blame the West en bloc for the disasters of past and present colonization, and have attacked the western endeavour to extend universal (...) truths as an ethnocentric device to facilitate and justify exploitation. In Holy Terror, Terry Eagleton both condemns western politics and questions its appeal to universals; but he also hears in this tradition a demand for a relationship with the other which offers an alternative to that established by current politics and capitalist exploitation. The other is the excluded, the oppressed, the exploited; the true material, rather than ideal, universal produced by global capitalist exploitation. As a consequence, anything that happens in any part of the planet belongs in our world and indicts us, though we tend to build barriers around an ideally safe and stable identity that ignores part of its own reality and that is therefore haunted by it. Texts like the Bacchae or the New Testament open the gates of the city and of the heart to the excluded. Terrorists — saints for their own communities and satanic for the rest — offer an example of the other that is impossible to comprehend within our conventional ways of life. Nevertheless, only if we hear in their violence a demand for justice can an exit be found from the vicious circle of violence and revenge. (shrink)

Some major leftist thinkers, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek and Terry Eagleton, have lately offered readings that claim the relevance of alternative interpretations of the Christian tradition in the face both of the conservative turn in the Catholic Church and of the contemporary secular oblivion of anything that has to do with religion. Furthermore, post-colonial studies have tended to blame the West en bloc for the disasters of past and present colonization, and have attacked the western endeavour to extend universal (...) truths as an ethnocentric device to facilitate and justify exploitation. In Holy Terror, Terry Eagleton both condemns western politics and questions its appeal to universals; but he also hears in this tradition a demand for a relationship with the other which offers an alternative to that established by current politics and capitalist exploitation. The other is the excluded, the oppressed, the exploited; the true material, rather than ideal, universal produced by global capitalist exploitation. As a consequence, anything that happens in any part of the planet belongs in our world and indicts us, though we tend to build barriers around an ideally safe and stable identity that ignores part of its own reality and that is therefore haunted by it. Texts like the Bacchae or the New Testament open the gates of the city and of the heart to the excluded. Terrorists — saints for their own communities and satanic for the rest — offer an example of the other that is impossible to comprehend within our conventional ways of life. Nevertheless, only if we hear in their violence a demand for justice can an exit be found from the vicious circle of violence and revenge. (shrink)