Fencing for the blind and visually impaired is an emerging sub-discipline of fencing that creates unusual conditions for meaning-making through interaction between embodied endowments and worldly affordances. With the rules of fencing slightly adjusted to the needs of the blindfolded participants – regardless of their sightedness – the discipline requires the fencers to engage in a duel by relying on other than visual cues. This article explores what an autoethnographic account of experiences of participation in fencing for the blind and (...) visually impaired brings to debates on the embodied, and specifically sensory difference. The discussion of these experiences intersects with debates on affect, affordance, and habit, with all three having important roles in related semiotic processes. Presented vignettes draw upon the author’s lived experiences of participation in fencing for the blind and visually impaired and are analyzed as part of a mixed-method autoethnographic study, accompanied by sensory methodologies, with a focus on an inquiry beyond the visual. The vignettes elucidate how we make sense of our surroundings through a complex engagement with the ecology of sensory and affective processes. In addition to exploring the role of affective and pre-conceptual aspects of our experiences, the article seeks to understand how semiosis occurs through both exposure to as well as the active pursuit of specific environmental signs available to us. The article also derives from biosemiotics to examine the complex relationship between meaning-making processes and habits. Finally, the autoethnographic account provides an insight into how we habituate the world and our embodied differences and thus enable meaning-making processes. (shrink)

Vardanyan’s Theorems [36, 37] state that $\mathsf {QPL}(\mathsf {PA})$ —the quantified provability logic of Peano Arithmetic—is $\Pi ^0_2$ complete, and in particular that this already holds when the language is restricted to a single unary predicate. Moreover, Visser and de Jonge [38] generalized this result to conclude that it is impossible to computably axiomatize the quantified provability logic of a wide class of theories. However, the proof of this fact cannot be performed in a strictly positive signature. The system $\mathsf (...) {QRC_1}$ was previously introduced by the authors [1] as a candidate first-order provability logic. Here we generalize the previously available Kripke soundness and completeness proofs, obtaining constant domain completeness. Then we show that $\mathsf {QRC_1}$ is indeed complete with respect to arithmetical semantics. This is achieved via a Solovay-type construction applied to constant domain Kripke models. As corollaries, we see that $\mathsf {QRC_1}$ is the strictly positive fragment of $\mathsf {QGL}$ and a fragment of $\mathsf {QPL}(\mathsf {PA})$. (shrink)

Plans to attempt what has been called a head transplant, a body transplant, and a head-to-body transplant in human beings raise numerous ethical, social, and legal questions, including the circumstances, if any, under which it would be ethically permissible to attempt whole-body transplantation (WBT) in human beings, the possible effect of WBT on family relationships, and how families should shape WBT decisions. Our assessment of many of these questions depends partially on how we respond to sometimes centuries-old philosophical thought experiments (...) about personal identity. As with so much in bioethics, it is impossible to escape, or at least inadvisable to try to bypass, the relevant foundational philosophical concerns. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de argumentar cómo se manifiesta la generosidad en la vida y obra de José Martí. Muestra la necesidad e importancia de recurrir a sus obras para fortalecer este valor desde los escenarios familiares, escolares, comunitarios y sociales. Se concluyó que la generosidad constituye en la actualidad una tarea pedagógica de gran importancia y el legado martiano es una vía obligada a recorrer. This work has the objective of analyzing how the generosity in Marti's life and (...) work is expressed. It shows the need and importance of turning to his works to strengthen this value from the family, scholar, community and social scenes. It was concluded that generosity constitutes at the present time a pedagogical task of great importance and the Martian legate is an obligated way to travel. (shrink)

In this article, I explore the way in which Korsgaard’s approach to obligation as springing from the reflective rejection of that which threatens one’s own identity can account for obligations towards others, without making the latter relative to obligations to oneself. To this end, I begin by stressing the role of reflexivity in ethical relationships, and show how this reflexivity is mediated by reference to law, which applies both to the self and to the other. On this basis, I then (...) argue that Korsgaard’s account of the interplay between practical and moral identity reflects the very structure of practical reason, which requires both a particular and a universal premise in order to issue practical reasons for action– and the corresponding obligations. Within this framework, I argue that Korsgaard’s solution to the problem outlined above lies in having stressed the shareable character of reasons such that it is neither your reason nor my reason that obligates me, but rather reason as such. This solution, however, requires a further argument aimed at clarifying what makes your reasons different from my own. (shrink)

The expression “a culture of freedom” is unmistakably modern. Yet its meaning is not immediately clear. My purpose in this paper is to clarify the possible meaning of this expression by taking Kant’s practical philosophy as a point of reference. In order to do so, I will depart from Kant’s explicit conception of culture, and try to relate it to his own distinction between external and internal freedom, especially as it appears in the Metaphysics of Morals.

Concebir la nietzscheana voluntad de poder como amor es a la vez un desafío y un reconocimiento. A las páginas de esta obra se asoman las "Madres" de Fausto y los tristes héroes de Milan Kundera. Al fondo, quedamente y llena de gracia, se vislumbra la huella de Friedrich Hölderlin.

Although Kant is not usually counted among the forerunners of social sciences, any look at the work of the most prominent social theorists of the past century shows the pervasive influence of Kant's philosophy. This influence is obvious and crucial at the epistemological level, if only because Kant himself set the frame for subsequent discussion of the difference between human and natural sciences. Yet, Kant's work is also rich in substantive contributions to social theory, which may be articulated around his (...) conception of culture and cultural progress. (shrink)

Las Instituciones Nacionales de Derechos Humanos cumplen, fundamentalmente, con dos funciones: proteger a las personas a partir de recomendaciones, garantizándoles una reparación si se comente una violación a sus derechos, y prevenir futuras violaciones a los derechos humanos. Sobre esta base están llamadas a ser los organismos que guíen hacia una cultura ciudadana a favor de los derechos humanos. Para lograr la culturización en este campo, se requiere educar en derechos a través de la educación formal e informal. En el (...) caso de México, la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos es la institución encargada de realizar esta labor. Su posición flexible y dinámica, así como su autonomía dentro del Estado mexicano, le dan la posibilidad de propiciar esa cultura, ya que es una institución de configuración diferente al sistema tradicional de impartición de justicia, por lo que hace que mantenga una línea de investigación enfocada en los derechos humanos. La culturización empieza por el ámbito nacional o interno y se debe extender hacia el exterior, como un movimiento social internacional. (shrink)

Ana‐Carolina Gutiérrez‐Xivillé präsentiert eine neue Lesart zu Kants Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. Während ältere Studien die kantische Ethik als bloße Ausarbeitung von bereits in den 1760er Jahren vorliegenden Begriffen lesen, zeigt diese Studie eine Neubestimmung des Freiheitsbegriffs und bietet eine gewandelte Sicht auf das Verhältnis zwischen „Moralvermögen“, „moralischem Gefühl“ und „Moralprinzip“. Gutiérrez‐Xivillé betrachtet die Texte weder isoliert noch monolithisch. Ihre aus einem analytischen und einem exegetischen Moment bestehende Methode erfasst Kants bekannte Schriften ebenso wie in jüngerer Zeit neu edierte, (...) wenig erforschte Materialien. Dabei offenbaren sich strukturelle Brüche, die wegweisend von einer frühen Moralkonzeption in eine spätere überleiten. Die Ethik Kants erweist sich als Ergebnis eines allmählichen Heranreifens über mehrere Stationen hinweg. (shrink)

"Identidad personal y donación. La configuración del yo en la acción dramática", de Ana Álvarez Garrido, relata como un deseo de verdad y una intuición genuina, unidos a la insatisfacción acerca de las corrientes dominantes en el estudio de la identidad personal, llevaron a su autora a iniciar este trabajo. Con una pregunta casi infantil, por su atrevimiento y por la esperanza que la anima de una respuesta justa, se abre esta aventura de la búsqueda del yo, a la que (...) es invitado el lector desde la primera página: ¿Quién soy yo? Este interrogante nos conduce, atravesando el fuego positivo de la duda, a veces de tintes narrativos, hasta un espacio y un tiempo capaces de vestir al yo, de darle una voz y un gesto únicos, capaces de regalarle un nombre. Un teatro será ese lugar donde Yo puedo ser y donde vengo a ser Yo, porque en él se puede representar una acción esencial. Ésta, como el yo, se revelará al final de nuestra aventura investigadora, sorprendente y deliberadamente dramática. Como la vida misma. (shrink)

The proposed reflection intends to present the problem of judicial adjudication as a substantially-axiologically founded autonomous moment on the practical realization of law, and to explore this understanding in confrontation with external exigencies, mostly teleologically determined—hence, beyond strict deductive application, as a syllogistic reference of facts to norms, and finalistically determined decision, as an option among possible alternatives to achieve specific aims. The main objective is to enter into a discussion on the methodological meaning of “integrity”, “hard cases” and “right (...) answer”, as presented by Ronald Dworkin, and a critical reflection on the criticism of that approach levelled by Neil MacCormick, so as to confront the relevance of principle and policy arguments, in order to bring about a different methodological approach, an alternative jurisprudentialist conception of adjudication, incorporating a practical-normative constitutive dialectics between legal controversy and legal system, such as that presented by Castanheira Neves. The focus will, then, be the legitimacy of the connection of arguments of principle and consequentialist arguments in adjudication, its selection and its justification, stating, therefore, a specifically assumed judicium, a judicative decision, having the legal system as its horizon of normative reference and of substantial and institutional autonomy. (shrink)

This article explores one aspect of Kant's crucial contribution to the philosophy of culture. It does so by analysing two different approaches to the notion of culture, which are explicit in his work. The first, which may be called "genetical", presents culture almost as a result of a natural dialectic. The second, which I call "practical", regards culture as a task for the human being.

Renewable energy has gained much-deserved prominence on the world stage of sustainable development, yet despite the surging interest there is a notable lack of understanding regarding best practices in business – stakeholder relations. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2005) and drawing from complexity theory and social scientific theories of identity, our empirical study shows that core values and identity are strongly implicated in the formation and negotiation of stakeholder attitudes for both individuals and social groups. Specifically, we find (...) that personal and social identity are core drivers of community attitude development in a complex adaptive system, and that conflicts between strongly held identities are galvanized along bifurcated “axes of tension” that are also strongly implicated in community attitude formation processes. (shrink)

Nesta comunicação pretende-se desenvolver a relação entre violência e política enquadrada no pensamento de Hannah Arendt e a partir de duas obras fundamentais, On Revolution (1963) e On Violence (1970). Investigando-se sobre o que constitui cada experiência em particular, a da violência (ainda que sob a forma da guerra ou da revolução) e a da política, esta relação permitirá equacionar criticamente as possibilidades e os limites das sociedades democráticas actuais como o resultado da tradição política e das revoluções da modernidade.

Counting is a complex cognitive process that is paramount to arithmetical development at school. The improvement of counting skills of children depends on their understanding of the logical and conventional rules involved. While the logical rules are mandatory and related to one-to-one correspondence, stable order, and cardinal principles, conventional rules are optional and associated with social customs. This study contributes to unravel the conceptual understanding of counting rules of children. It explores, with a developmental approach, the performance of children on (...) non-routine counting detection tasks, their confidence in their answers, and their ability to change a wrong answer by deferring to the opinion of a unanimous majority who justified or did not justify their claims. Hundred and forty nine children aged from 5 to 8 years were randomized to one of the experimental conditions of the testimony of teachers: with or without justification. Participants judged the correctness of different types of counting procedures presented by a computerized detection task, such as pseudoerrors that are correct counts where conventional rules are violated, and compensation errors that are incorrect counts where logical rules were broken twice. Afterwards, children rated their confidence in their detection answer with a 5-point scale. Subsequently, they listened to the testimony of the teachers and showed either conformity or non-conformity. The participants considered both compensation errors and pseudoerrors as incorrect counts in the detection task. The analysis of the confidence of children in their responses suggested that they were not sensitive to their incorrect performance. Finally, children tended to conform more often after hearing a justification of the testimony than after hearing only the testimonies of the teachers. It can be concluded that the age range of the evaluated children failed to recognize the optional nature of conventional counting rules and were unaware of their misconceptions. Nevertheless, the reasoned justifications of the testimony, offered by a unanimous majority, promoted considerable improvement in the tendency of the children to revise those misconceptions. (shrink)

A growing number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are considering legalizing the growth of genetically modified organisms. Furthermore, several projects are underway to develop transgenic crops tailored to the region. Given the contentious nature of GMOs and prevalent anti-GMO sentiments in Africa, a robust ethical analysis examining the concerns arising from the development, adoption, and regulation of GMOs in sub-Saharan Africa is warranted. To date, ethical analyses of GMOs in the global context have drawn predominantly on Western philosophy, dealing with (...) Africa primarily on a material level. Yet, a growing number of scholars are articulating and engaging with ethical theories that draw upon sub-Saharan African value systems. One such theory, Ubuntu, is a well-studied sub-Saharan African communitarian morality. I propose that a robust ethical analysis of Africa's agricultural future necessitates engaging with African moral theory. I articulate how Ubuntu may lead to a novel and constructive understanding of the ethical considerations for introducing GMOs into sub-Saharan Africa. However, rather than reaching a definitive prescription, which would require significant engagement with local communities, I consider some of Ubuntu's broader implications for conceptualizing risk and engaging with local communities when evaluating GMOs. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of using local moral theory in bioethics by considering how one might negotiate between universalism and particularism in the global context. Rather than advocating for a form of ethical relativism, I suggest that local moral theories shed light on salient ethical considerations that are otherwise overlooked. (shrink)

BackgroundDecisions about limitations of life sustaining treatments are made for end-of-life patients in intensive care units. The aim of this research was to explore the professional and ethical attitudes and experiences of medical professionals on treatment of end-of-life patients in ICUs in the Republic of Croatia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians and nurses working in surgical, medical, neurological, and multidisciplinary ICUs in the total of 9 hospitals throughout Croatia using a questionnaire with closed and open type questions. Exploratory factor (...) analysis was conducted to reduce data to a smaller set of summary variables. Mann–Whitney U test was used to analyse the differences between two groups and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to analyse the differences between more than two groups.ResultsLess than third of participants stated they were included in the decision-making process, and physicians are much more included than nurses. Sixty two percent of participants stated that the decision-making process took place between physicians. Eighteen percent of participants stated that ‘do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitations’ orders were frequently made in their ICUs. A decision to withdraw inotropes and antibiotics was frequently made as stated by 22.4% and 19.9% of participants, respectively. Withholding/withdrawing of LST were ethically acceptable to 64.2% of participants. Thirty seven percent of participants thought there was a significant difference between withholding and withdrawing LST from an ethical standpoint. Seventy-nine percent of participants stated that a verbal or written decision made by a capable patient should be respected. Physicians were more inclined to respect patient’s wishes then nurses with high school education. Nurses were more included in the decision-making process in neurological than in surgical, medical, or multidisciplinary ICUs. Male participants in comparison to female, and physicians in comparison to nurses with high school and college education displayed more liberal attitudes about LST limitation.ConclusionsDNACPR orders are not commonly made in Croatian ICUs, even though limitations of LST were found ethically acceptable by most of the participants. Attitudes of paternalistic and conservative nature were expected considering Croatia’s geographical location in Southern Europe. (shrink)

O artigo visa a analisar como a Psicologia tem encarado os desafios colocados pelo desempenho escolar. Discute os princípios e as ferramentas q ue têm orientado as práticas psicológicas no campo do fracasso escolar. Faz um debate acerca da interface Psicologia e Educação, partindo dos princípios da ..

Además del concepto explícito de cultura como perfeccionamiento de la naturaleza, que podemos reconocer en muchos lugares del corpus kantiano, la entera empresa crítica puede considerarse cultura en un sentido más profundo: cultura como proyección de una subjetividad que busca en la naturaleza los indicios del destino racional y moral del hombre. Según esto, la filosofía kantiana puede verse como una filosofía de la cultura, posible, en última instancia, por la reflexividad de la razón, que advierte sus propios intereses, y (...) configura el mundo conforme a ellos. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza el fotolibro Monsanto®: a Photographic Investigation del fotógrafo documental Mathieu Asselin. En primer lugar, se abordan los fotolibros desde una perspectiva semiótica, especialmente empleando las funciones de Roman Jakobson, y después, en este caso, se entiende parcialmente la diferencia entre fotolibros y fotoperiodismo como una cuestión de tiempo, ya que los fotolibros suelen informar sobre hechos que no están de actualidad. Después, se considera Monsanto® en relación con la tradición de los fotolibros bélicos, especialmente Agent Orange: «Collateral (...) Damage» in Viet Nam, de Philip Jones Griffiths, y War against War!, de Ernst Friedrich. Asselin relaciona a las víctimas de la guerra con las víctimas de las corporaciones capitalistas, superando la diferencia colonial entre los soldados occidentales y las víctimas orientales, y profundizando en las causas del capitalismo bélico. Monsanto® también toma decisiones sobre los límites de la fotografía para presentar el mundo y, por ende, sobre la visibilidad. A diferencia de Friedrich, Asselin asume que la fotografía no tiene que representar visualmente todo lo que se cuenta en el libro, además, los pies de foto brindan información esencial y algunas fotografías solo pretenden mostrar lo que Asselin presenció. Finalmente, se utilizan las consideraciones de Nassim Nicholas Taleb sobre evidencias para comprender cómo la fotografía se destina a ser evidencia de hechos, lo que podría llevar a que las imágenes precedan y creen el evento relatado por ellas. (shrink)

Summary During the nineteenth century French chemistry was marked by an outstanding number of Alsation chemists whose scientific contributions cannot be ignored. Especially following the Franco-Prussian War, their regional origin was given a particular importance as a means of affirming their singularity on the French scientific scene. However, some questions may be raised: can we distinguish the Alsatians from other French chemists before 1870? Were they a homogeneous group sharing a common origin? The aim of this article therefore, is, to (...) show that by their theoretical options within chemistry, their personal and professional relationships, as well as by their participation in various common initiatives, they organized themselves both formally and informally within the Parisian scientific community. Amongst these forms of organization the research school of Charles Adolphe Wurtz (1817?84) emerges as the nucleus of what we may envisage as a network of Alsatian chemists working in Paris, in the second half of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

This paper offers an alternative theoretical consideration of ethnic identification in psychology. Mainstream social psychological theories are largely positivist and individualistic. New possibilities of theoretical understanding open up as the relational and symbolic nature of ethnicity enters psychological inquiry. This paper takes culture and self as two conceptual domains of social identification, following a meta-theoretical position of cultural psychology. The central focus is the cultural development of the person in social context of a given culture, specifically their ethnic identification, to (...) which end, it looks at several processual aspects. First, ethnic culture is approached as a guiding principle and practice in everyday understanding and experience of one?s own ethnicity. Second, ethnic identification is considered a social and personal act of meaning making, which happens in a given social context, through practical activity and the discursive positioning of a person. Third, since rather than considered a conscious aspect of belonging, ethnicity is assumed and taken for granted, ruptures are considered as destabilizing events that create an opportunity for ethnic meaning reinterpretation and developmental transition. In the meaning making process, symbolic resources are conceived of as primary self-configuring tools, which are also culture-configuring. Ethnic meaning making is theorized as a central social-psychological process through which ethnic culture and a person as an ethnic subject emerge in historical perspective. Finally, the uniqueness of a singular person in the shared ethnic culture is conceptualized based on symbolic distancing from the immediate social context, through the model of knitting personal and socio-historical semiotic threads. (shrink)

I examine all the occasions on which Aquinas uses a particular example, which goes back to Plato's Republic, to shed light on the controversial subject of the immutability of natural law. Aquinas usually transcribes it as depositum gladius non debet restitui furioso, although some variations also occur. We shall first look at the context in which Plato situates this idea, then go on to examine the occasions on which Aquinas draws on it: in the Summa, when discussing the question as (...) to whether the natural law is the same for everyone; in his Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, when he explains in what sense natural law may change, and in what sense it remains the same; and finally, where he examines the virtues of gnome and epieikeia, also in the Summa. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the third chapter of Fides et ratio, entitled Intellego ut credam This sentence is usually connected with the preambula fidei, truths which are supposed to prepare human mind to receive the gift of faith. But in this case, Pope John Paul II develops this sentence in a different, more existential way according to which the real preambula fidei are not so much a set of truths as the real man who seeks the truth with his entire (...) life. This interpretation remarks the practical dimmension of the relationship between man and truth. (shrink)

En este artículo se pretende poner de manifiesto las restricciones impuestas por el Estado español a la libertad de movimiento. Una vez descritas estas restricciones en las tres primeras olas de la pandemia de la Covid-19, se reflexiona sobre los posibles excesos del gobierno aumentando su control sobre una ciudadanía preocupada y con temor hacia la pandemia. Sin embargo, existe una consecuencia inesperada en las actitudes políticas de las personas: una reducción de las preferencias hacia la democracia, a favor del (...) autoritarismo. (shrink)

El uso habitual del lenguaje reconocía hasta hace todavía relativamente poco tiempo un sentido ético-normativo en los términos "natural" y "naturaleza". De un tiempo a esta parte, sin embargo, ha penetrado profunda¬mente en el sentido común epocal la idea de la diferenciación del hombre con respecto a la naturaleza. De ahí que, ante la invitación a secundar la naturaleza, no sea infrecuente escuchar la respuesta: "¿por qué? ¡si yo soy un ser racional, una persona!". Esta mentalidad coexiste culturalmente con la (...) cre¬ciente conciencia ecológica, que puede interpretarse como una invitación a considerarnos de nuevo como seres naturales. La invitación nos llega cuando ya hemos aprendido a vernos como seres libres, y a defender nuestra libertad; cuando en el discurso ético, términos como "dignidad" y "persona" han pasado a desempeñar el papel privilegiado que en otro tiempo desempeñaba el término "naturaleza": la fuerza retórica que en otro tiempo tenía el término "naturaleza", la tiene hoy el término "libertad". El reto es ahora conciliar el logro principal de la filosofía moderna –somos libertad– con la herencia clásica -somos naturaleza-. La tesis que se defiende en este trabajo es que, lejos de representar un obstáculo para la dignidad y la libertad real del hombre, la apelación a la naturaleza es lo único que garantiza que el término dignidad sea algo más que una palabra cargada de fuerza retórica para los occidentales. (shrink)

The main objective of this article is to reconstruct Iris Murdoch's criticism of the moral self as it was developed by liberalism, romanticism, existentialism and linguistic empiricism that interpreted the moral person as entangled either in a world of essences (Kant's view) or in a world of mere existence in which the interplay of both necessity and freedom is at stake. Thus what is missing from all these theories is a sufficient development of what it is to have a regard (...) for others through aesthetic perception, which is the most important aspect of the moral self. At the difference of these conceptions Murdoch offers an alternative view, both to liberal ethics in the Kantian tradition and to contemporary ethics, as she argues that to have regard for others demands responsiveness which can also be explained in terms of aesthetic sensibility. Murdoch's ethics rests on an analogy between aesthetic sensibility and moral sensibility based upon the model of the artist's unconditional love for his characters, which she interprets as being a matter of seeing and loving others. The author's thesis is that love is the crucial point of Murdoch's conception of the moral self where the moral and aesthetical sensibility, as well cognition, intersect each other, because seeing others incorporates emotions of respect and compassion that characterize love and such seeing is cognitive love. (shrink)

Resumen El artículo analiza los rituales conmemorativos de los asesinatos de dos miembros del Movimiento de Trabajadores Desocupados (MTD), Maximiliano Kosteki y Darío Santillán, ocurridos el 26 de junio de 2002. Específicamente, se examinan los cortes del Puente Pueyrredón -que une a la ciudad de Avellaneda, localizada en el conurbano bonaerense, con la Capital Federal- el 26 de cada mes, entre 2002-2008, en los que se desenvuelven los rituales conmemorativos de dichos asesinatos y los modos en que en éstos se (...) actualizan y conjugan las prácticas y los lenguajes de dos narrativas claves de la cultura política nacional: la retórica revolucionaria y de los derechos humanos. (shrink)