Two ways of thinking can be distinguished. The accurate way, based on causality and explanation, recognizes its ignorance on many items, but tries to organize and foster its knowledge on a solid basis. The innacurate way, based on indeterminacy, chance and free will, assumes with resignation there are segments of reality which cannot be known at all and does not try to go further on those items. Moral and legal discourses run the second way. That assumption tends to prevent them (...) from fostering knowledge and leads normative sciences to irrationality and perplexity. (shrink)

In this paper, I outline Kant’s philosophy of culture in relation to teleological judgments, chiefly as exposited in the Critique of Judgment, and I show what roles teleological judgment in general and culture in particular play in Kant’s philosophy of moral action. I begin with Kant’s view of nature as organic, i. e., as possessing a systematic purposive unity even with regard to apparently contingent particulars. Nature is organic in at least two senses for Kant. First, it contains organisms, living (...) beings whose parts (organs) stand in a purposive relation to the whole being and its survival. Second, and by extension, Kant holds that nature as a whole may be viewed as having an organic unity, such that the various species of life (and even the arrangements of inorganic matter) are regarded as standing in systematic relations of purposiveness with one another. I argue here that interpreting nature organically is instrumental for the work that judgment performs, according to Kant, in applying the moral law to lived experience through culture. (shrink)

Objectives To develop and test two educational programmes (interactive and passive) aimed at improving family doctors' (FD) prescribing practices and patient's knowledge and use of non-opioid analgesics (NOA).Methods The educational programmes were conducted in two family medicine clinics by using a three-stage approach: baseline evaluation, design, and implementation of educational activities, and post-programme evaluation. An interactive educational programme (IEP) was compared with a passive educational programme (PEP); both were participated by FDs and patients. The IEP for FDs comprised of workshops, (...) discussion groups, in-service training and guidelines, while for patients the IEP consisted of an interactive session with a video, leaflets and a discussion. The PEP consisted in delivering the guidelines to the FDs and the leaflets to patients. The effect of the programmes on the FDs was measured through the appropriateness of prescriptions and analysed using the differences-in-differences estimator (D-in-D), and on patients through changes in self-medication and in their knowledge about the proper use and adverse events by analysing the inter- and intra-group differences before and after the programmes.Results The IEP obtained better results to improve appropriate FDs prescription of NOA than PEP (D-in-D = 15%). Regarding the patients, the PEP group reached higher reduction of self-medication than the IEP group (13.4% vs. 9.1%); the knowledge of proper NOA use increased by 8.5% in both groups, whereas knowledge of NOA-related adverse events was better in the IEP (39.6%) than in the PEP group (9.2%).Conclusions The IEP was better to improve the doctors' abilities to prescribe NOAs, and both programmes improved patients' knowledge. (shrink)

Ethical theory examines human action in general terms, whereas moral judgment takes place in particular situations. These situations often cannot be subsumed easily under general norms and call for a delicate balance of norms and circumstances. I describe situations where opposing courses of action seem morally reasonable and I call them states of deliberative equilibrium. I review Aristotle’s and Kant’s conceptions of moral judgment and I offer a rule for stepping from deliberation to judgment in many situations of equilibrium.

O trabalho procura revisitar o materialismo histórico, as considerações marxianas sobre a “intimidade burguesa” e, por consequência, suas conclusões sobre a incidência dos imperativos sistêmicos e da lógica do Capital na condução da vida cotidiana. O argumento central do trabalho é que a crítica marxiana à intimidade hipostasiada pela sociedade fundada pelo Capital não está reduzida aos elementos dados a priori por sua teoria econômica, mas sintetiza um percurso teórico impulsionado pela antropologia filosófica presente nos Manuscritos de 1844. Desse modo, (...) o trabalho afirma que, sobretudo porque estabelece uma clara distinção entre natureza e cultura, Marx pôde divorciar-se da moralidade hegeliana e afirmar o caráter histórico, ideológico e contingente das relações familiares. Nesse sentido, será demonstrado que ao afirmar a primazia do individualismo possessivo da família burguesa, o autor identifica o “proprietário privado” e o “marido burguês” - no sentido de que a intimidade burguesa é configurada, antes de tudo, pelo sentimento de apropriação do outro. Por fim, discute-se o modo como essas relações assimétricas são trabalhadas n'O Capital, onde a esfera íntima aparece com uma dupla função: a alimentação material do sociometabolismo do capital e a alimentação moral do sistema. (shrink)

Using the case of Ebola Virus Disease as an example, this paper shows why patients at high risk for death have a defensible moral claim to access unregistered medical interventions, without having to enrol in randomized placebo controlled trials.A number of jurisdictions permit and facilitate such access under emergency circumstances. One controversial question is whether patients should only be permitted access to UMI after trials investigating the interventions are fully recruited. It is argued that regulatory regimes should not prioritise trial (...) recruitment over patient access, even if this results in drug research and development delays.We describe how the moral duty to rescue impacts on others' duties to oblige patients seeking emergency access to unregistered medical interventions. The view that eligible patients are owed the provision of access to UMI regardless of their willingness to enrol in a randomised controlled trial is defended. (shrink)

The so-called Ricardian trade model of contemporary economic textbooks is not a rational reconstruction of Ricardo's famous numerical example in chapter seven of the Principles. It differs from the latter in terms of the definition of the four numbers, relevant cost comparison, rule for specialisation, assumptions and theoretical implications. Thus, the widespread critique regarding the unrealistic assumptions of the textbook trade model does not apply to Ricardo's original proof of comparative advantage.

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a instabilidade dupla da tolerância liberal, uma ligada à necessária provisoriedade de sua adequação e outra derivada da insuficiência da sua justificação, a fim de defender a desejabilidade da primeira e propor uma superação da segunda. Para isto, será apresentada uma noção da tolerância como ideal moral, diferenciando-a das noções fronteiriças indiferença, aceitação e intolerância. Em seguida, será mostrado como a tolerância deixa de ser a resposta adequada a certos casos, em que se mostrará (...) mais apropriado adotar uma daquelas três possibilidades. Por último, nos casos em que a resposta liberal apropriada continuar sendo a tolerância, será sugerida a necessidade de justificá-la através de um cesto de justificações, epistemológicas, prudenciais e morais, que fracassam isoladas, mas podem funcionar reunidas. (shrink)

Animal replaceability is supposed to be a feature of some consequentialist theories, like Utilitarianism. Roughly, an animal is replaceable if it is permissible to kill it because the disvalue thereby caused will be compensated by the value of a new animal’s life. This is specially troubling since the conditions for such compensation seem easily attainable by improved forms of raising and killing animals. Thus, grounding a strong moral status of animals in such theories is somewhat compromised. As is, consequently, their (...) position as an alternative to rights-based theories in animal ethics. Recognising this, some utilitarians tried to disassociate utilitarianism and replaceability. I will here add my voice to this project. However, instead of seeing the culprit in the usual suspects (hedonism, maximisation or the total view), I advance a new proposal. After identifying that the compensating value for a disvaluable action has to be its consequence, I present a restriction on consequences: consequences of sequences of actions cannot be consequences of the isolated actions in the sequences. Given this, the main argument is simple: killing an animal is permissible only if the the value of the new animal’s life is a consequence of the killing; but this value is a consequence of a sequence of actions which involves the killing plus some additional actions; therefore, since, via the restriction, such value is not a consequence of the killing, it is irrelevant to its normative status. I then present two further motivations for the restriction: firstly, it prevents the value of conditional actions from trivially influencing the value of the actions on which they are conditional; secondly, it is useful – even if not a complete solution – to reply other objections to consequentialism: the accordion effect of action and the cluelessness problem. I finally consider a couple of objections. (shrink)

The article intends to analyze Nietzsches concept of conscience (Gewissen), in order to show its connection to the will to power. This relation inscribes in its interior, as derived from it, the bad conscience (schlechtes Gewissen), and thus opens a phenomenological horizon of interpretation of the will to power.

We describe a number of conscientious objection cases in a liberal Western democracy. These cases strongly suggest that the typical conscientious objector does not object to unreasonable, controversial professional services—involving torture, for instance—but to the provision of professional services that are both uncontroversially legal and that patients are entitled to receive. We analyse the conflict between these patients' access rights and the conscientious objection accommodation demanded by monopoly providers of such healthcare services. It is implausible that professionals who voluntarily join (...) a profession should be endowed with a legal claim not to provide services that are within the scope of the profession's practice and that society expects them to provide. We discuss common counterarguments to this view and reject all of them. (shrink)

Singer’s much-discussed replaceability argument states that non-self-conscious animals may be killed and replaced by new animals that will lead equally valuable lives. If sound, this argument can be used to justify the cycle of raising and killing animals for food. Thus, many have argued that Singer’s theory, and utilitarianism in general, while committed to this argument, offers inadequate protection to animals. However, some utilitarians reject the argument and Singer himself was rather tentative in preventing its additional application to self-conscious beings. (...) This tension, within utilitarianism, about how to best deal with the argument is the core of what I call ‘the problem of replaceability’. My main goal here is to provide a precise description of this problem. Firstly, I distinguish between the general question of replacement permissibility and the specific question of whether (a certain version of) utilitarianism implies the replaceability argument. Focusing on the specific question I set the problem apart from other known objections to utilitarianism, like the value receptacles objection and some replacement-like difficulties. I also compare two versions of the replaceability argument and advance a better one. Finally, I point out how different interpretations of the argument affect the way out of the problem. I hope this understanding of the problem offers helpful insight to possible solutions and to further investigate its importance to animal food production and animals’ moral status. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the relevance of adequate decision making at both public health and healthcare levels. A bioethical response to the demand for medical care, supplies and access to critical care is needed. Ethically sound strategies are required for the allocation of increasingly scarce resources, such as rationing critical care beds. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the so-called ‘last bed dilemma’. In this paper, we examine this dilemma, pointing out the main criteria used to solve it and (...) argue that we cannot face these ethical issues as though they are only a dilemma. A more complex ethical view regarding the care of COVID-19 patients that is focused on proportional and ordinary treatments is required. Furthermore, discussions and forward planning are essential because deliberation becomes extremely complex during an emergency and the physicians’ sense of responsibility may be increased if it is faced only as a moral dilemma. (shrink)

The following article is a contribution to the history of Fichte’s Publicum „Moral für Gelehrte“ (Jena – 1794–1795). Its purpose is to elucidate some misunderstandings about the chronology, the thematic articulation, and even the letter and spirit of these wellknown lectures.

Se nos juízos científicos ou empíricos a objetividade é possível pela existência de entidades independentes, que tipo de fatos poderiam assegurar a objetividade de julgamentos ético-morais? Tanto para Habermas como para Putnam os valores éticos têm uma certa objetividade que emana do “reconhecimento intersubjetivo de standars de avaliação para os quais podemos encontrar boas razões” no contexto de um estilo de vida particular. No entanto, para Habermas, essa validade não é mais suficiente na situação das sociedades contemporâneas, onde é preciso (...) regular os conflitos e as relações entre diversos grupos com ideais muitas vezes conflitantes. Os objetivos deste trabalho são: 1) reconstruir os argumentos básicos desta controversia 2) adotar uma concepção sobre alguns dos pontos em questão, indicando uma forma de integrar os aspectos de ambas as visões, à qual poderia chegar ao alvo que eles compartilham, a saber, fundar a possibilidade de uma ética cognitivista que contorna os problemas do relativismo sem cair nas dificuldades de realismo metafísico. (shrink)

Any plausibly just market exchange must balance two conflicting moral considerations: non-worseness (Wertheimer, 1999) and euvoluntariness (true voluntariness; Munger, 2011). We propose an analytical theory of just market exchange that partly resolves this conflict.

La obra de Karl Marx ha sido objeto de examen en relación con su posible perspectiva ética. Los distintos académicos han divergido en gran manera en tal análisis, resultando que en unos supuestos se ha rechazado cualquier tipo de propósito normativo en Marx y en otros, en cambio, se ha destacado su fuerte compromiso moral. Para contrastar los resultados de unos y otros en sus investigaciones, el presente artículo ha hecho balance de los principales títulos, panfletos y volúmenes del pensador (...) alemán a lo largo de toda su trayectoria, concluyendo que no disponía de ningún tipo de teoría normativa en su obra, pero que no por ello ha de deducirse inmoralismo alguno en su escritura. Por el contrario, en ella residen una serie de elementos fundamentales para entender su visión de la Historia y de la actuación humana en su seno. (shrink)

Em filosofia é comum o empenho em uma busca normativa, normatividade esta que aparece nos processos perceptivos quando o sujeito entra em relação com realidades de uma ordem de magnitude diferente da sua . Não acontece de outra maneira quando se trata de filosofar sobre a técnica – com efeito, em que ordem ou nível de magnitude em relação a nós ela – a técnica – se situa? Pensamos que a primeira condição para responder a tal pergunta é formulá-la em (...) termos políticos. A tese a ser desenvolvida neste trabalho, portanto, é a de que a percepção filosófica da técnica contemporânea, de um modo geral, está permeada pelo preconceito de que a técnica é algo destrutivo e que se encontra fora de controle, demandando uma filosofia moral-normativa capaz de impor-lhe os devidos limites: no entanto, não é preciso permanecer pensando assim; através da articulação entre o conceito estético-político de partilha do sensível , e os conceitos de individuação psíquica e individuação coletiva e psicopoder , pretende-se demonstrar, não a ineficácia de uma filosofia moral-normativa, mas a necessidade anterior de uma compreensão política da questão da técnica, para que, assim, tal problema possa ser recolocado de forma mais adequada em uma constelação teórica favorável à sua resolução. Tratar-se-á aqui de explicitar a relevância de uma maior sensibilização política dos sujeitos em seu processo de individuação para o caso de haver um real interesse em garantir os meios materiais de manutenção da vida no planeta. (shrink)

En Towards a genealogy of pharmaceutical practice, sostuvimos que la práctica farmacológica daba lugar a un nuevo tipo de biopoder, con tecnologías y racionalidades propias, que lo distinguían del biopoder que había reconocido Michel Foucault en su trabajo tardío. Pero también sostuvimos que su contracara era la generación de nuevas formas de resistencia. En este artículo presentaremos dos modelos específicos de resistencias producidos por el dispositivo del poder farmacológico: uno, que tiene como caso básico el de los movimientos pro-anorexia, que (...) operan resignificando la categoría misma de la patología “anoréxica” en base al fármaco Xenical; otro, que tiene referencia en la experiencia relatada por Beatriz Preciado en su libro Testo yonqui y que actúa superando los límites legales, médicos y morales, para arrojarse a la producción de una nueva identidad jamás antes trazada al consumir dosis no permitidas de testosterona en gel. (shrink)

La nueva era de exploración espacial ha sopesado una y otra vez las posibilidades que tiene nuestro planeta de ser el lugar cósmico en el que las únicas formas de vida inteligentes del universo se hayan desarrollado. La astrofísica y la astrobiología lo ha hecho con números. Esta inquietud existencial se ha plasmado en una serie de escalas científicas que miden la importancia relativa del posible impacto sobre nuestra civilización de un encuentro con vida extraterrestre inteligente. Lamentablemente las consecuencias medidas (...) se han limitado a factores científicos y un hipotético control de daños, y a la credibilidad para con estos por parte de la opinión pública. Han olvidado sin embargo su trascendencia antropológica, moral y filosófica para nuestra especie. (shrink)

Resumen: En Towards a genealogy of pharmaceutical practice, sostuvimos que la práctica farmacológica daba lugar a un nuevo tipo de biopoder, con tecnologías y racionalidades propias, que lo distinguían del biopoder que había reconocido Michel Foucault en su trabajo tardío. Pero también sostuvimos que su contracara era la generación de nuevas formas de resistencia. En este artículo presentaremos dos modelos específicos de resistencias producidos por el dispositivo del poder farmacológico: uno, que tiene como caso básico el de los movimientos proanorexia, (...) que operan resignificando la categoría misma de la patología “anoréxica” a base del fármaco Xenical; otro, que tiene referencia en la experiencia relatada por Beatriz Preciado en su libro Testo yonqui y que actúa superando los límites legales, médicos y morales, para arrojarse a la producción de una nueva identidad jamás antes trazada al consumir dosis no permitidas de testosterona en gel.: In a previous work, we have argued that pharmacological practice has given rise to a new type of biopower, with specific technologies and rationalities, distinguishing it from the biopower that Michel Foucault recognised in his later work. However, we also argued that another effect has been the creation of new forms of resistance. In this article, we present two specific models of resistance created by the apparatus of pharmacological power: one, inspired by pro-anorexia movements, which operates by resignifying the pathological categorization of anorexia using the drug Xenical; another, based on the experience outlined by Beatriz Preciado in her 2008 book Testo Junkie, which operates by overcoming legal, medical and moral limits to create a ground-breaking new identity by consuming prohibited doses of gel testosterone. (shrink)

This work aims at elucidate the reasons for appropriating the sentiments and emotions in the approach of moral dilemmas. Therefore, first it will start with an analysis of Williams in his article Ethical Consistency where the author approaches de role of the emotions such as remorse and regret, and also introduces the idea of “moral remainder” in moral dilemmas. In a second moment, this work will be concentrated in the analysis of Statman in his article The debate over the so-called (...) reality of moral dilemmas and his systematization of the “sentiments argument” in favor of moral dilemmas. In a third moment, the analysis will focus on the article Sentiment and Value, of D’arms and Jacobson which approaches important questions concerning the possibility of a moral sentimentalism with a rational basis. Finally, the focus will be in the question if in such approaches the appeal of “moral facts” could possibly justify the feelings of regret, guilty or remorse experienced by the agent in moral dilemmas, then these feelings cannot be disregarded in a more intuitive and broader approach of the issue. (shrink)

En este trabajo se recorre las relaciones entre la fe y la razón en la modernidad. Constatando el conflicto inicial el autor recuerda el reconocimiento que la fe y la teología han tenido siempre hacia la razón, pero también apunta a las dificultades que tenía la reflexión teológica para hacerse entender por el pensamiento ilustrado. La crisis actual del pensamiento ilustrado, que es sobre todo una crisis moral, apunta a unas nuevas relaciones entre fe y razón. Así lo apunta el (...) papa actual y algunos pensadores contemporáneos como Habermas. En una segunda parte del trabajo se presentan a la fe y a la razón como dos dimensiones de la persona humana, que se implican mutuamente, y están llamadas a cooperar en la elaboración de un nuevo humanismo. (shrink)

The ‘value-free ideal’ has been called into question for several reasons. It does not include “epistemic values”—viewed as characteristic of ‘good science’—and rejects the so-called ‘contextual’, ‘non-cognitive’ or ‘non-epistemic’ values—all of them personal, moral, or political values. This paper analyzes a possible complementary argument about the dubitable validity of the value-free ideal, specifically focusing on social sciences, with a two-fold strategy. First, it will consider that values are natural facts in a broad or ‘liberal naturalist’ sense and, thus, a legitimate (...) part of those sciences. Second, the paper will not reject the value-free ideal; rather, it will construe this ideal in a special way, not casting values aside in sciences, but bringing them to the table and rationally discussing them. Today’s predominant naturalistic view has tended to ‘naturalize’ values by looking for physicalist explanations for them—a move resisted by defenders of normativism in social sciences. At the same time, a contending ‘liberal naturalist’ stream has emerged, claiming that not all natural entities can be explained by the methods and concepts of physical sciences, and favors a non-materialist naturalism which includes mind, consciousness, meaning and value as fundamental parts of nature that cannot be reduced to matter. Hence, it may be posited that non-epistemic values could be ‘naturally’ included in the field of human sciences. (shrink)

There are three main claims in the paper: first, there is sufficient evidence for affirming that Ricardo adhered to Smith's productivity theory; second, Ricardo's original demonstration of the comparative- advantage proposition is indeed compatible and complementary with respect to the latter; and third, Ricardo agreed with Smith's multifactorial explanation of the pattern of trade, which includes increasing returns and economies of scale. These results suggest that the level of compatibility between the international trade theories of Smith and (...) Ricardo is significantly higher than it is currently reflected in the economic literature. They also add a new perspective to the ongoing process of reassessment of Smith's contributions to international trade theory, further strengthening the view that he was indeed an outstanding international trade theorist. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to illuminate today’s economic science with the light of Aristotle’s philosophy of economics. The author first describes Aristotle’s thoughts about the economy. Then, he distinguishes and discusses three Aristotelian principles: (a) economics should be a classical practical or moral science, (b) economics should not look for an unlimited wealth, but for the wealth necessary for the good life, and (c) economics should be aimed at the common good.

La cultura de la sociedad global habitualmente asocia la palabra animal con vertebrados. Paradójicamente, la mayor parte de la diversidad animal está compuesta por pequeños organismos que permanecen invisibles en la cultura global y están sub-representados en la filosofía, las ciencias y la educación. La ciencia del siglo veintiuno ha desentrañado que muchos invertebrados tienen conciencia y capacidad de sentir dolor. Estos descubrimientos apelan a los filósofos de la ética animal a ser más inclusivos y reevaluar la participación de los (...) invertebrados en la comunidad moral. La ciencia también ha advertido sobre la desaparición de los pequeños co-habitantes animales en medio de la sexta extinción masiva. Esta extinción “invisible” apela a los filósofos ambientales a visibilizar a los invertebrados, cuya existencia es preciosa en sí misma y para el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas de los cuales dependen la biodiversidad y las sociedades humanas. Con un enfoque biocultural que integra dimensiones biofísicas y culturales de la biodiversidad, investigo las raíces del chovinismo taxonómico asociado con la sub-representación y la subordinación de los invertebrados en la filosofía y las ciencias modernas. Las malas noticias son que constatamos un marcado vertebratismo en el imaginario animal. Las buenas noticias son que David Hume, Charles Darwin y la ética biocultural proporcionan bases conceptuales para cultivar un aprecio por los pequeños co-habitantes con quienes compartimos nuestros hábitats locales y la biosfera global. (shrink)