In Westworld, Maeve Millay's narrative in the show gives rise to classic philosophical questions surrounding what it means to be free, the relationship of freedom to personhood, and whether an artificial intelligence could ever be considered free in the sense that humans are. Maeve's mysterious change of mind in the season finale made it seem like she was experiencing a genuine dilemma. Maeve's dilemma is something would expect a Frankfurtian person to experience, and her final choice reveals a preference between (...) different desires. Maeve decided to organize her life around being reunited with her daughter. So, she reflected upon what she was doing and opted to stay because of who she wanted to become as a person, not a mother who would leave her daughter behind if she could help it. Thus, Maeve shows a substantial change of attitude regarding her own desires. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 As relações entre a Igreja Católica e o Estado Novo foram, de uma forma geral, caracterizadas pela sua estreita proximidade. No entanto, na década de 60, um sector católico começa a afastar-se das directrizes do Governo, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à sua política colonial, tornando-se protagonistas de iniciativas de oposição à guerra e ao carácter ditatorial do regime. Os ventos (...) de mudança que, na época, atravessavam os corredores da Santa Sé movidos pelo Concílio Vaticano II não foram alheios a esta situação, estando relacionados, em termos cronológicos, tácticos e ideológicos, com o fenómeno da oposição católica portuguesa. De facto, os católicos portugueses não poderiam ficar indiferentes às reflexões motivadas por documentos como a Constituição Pastoral Gaudium et Spes ou mesmo pela anterior Carta Encíclica Pacem in Terris , que em muito se adequavam à situação nacional. As orientações contraditórias da Igreja e do Estado português obrigaram, assim, alguns católicos a marcar a sua posição, impedindo-os de “ servir a dois senhores ”. Palavras-chav e: Portugal; Vaticano II; Estado Novo; Oposição católica.The relationship between the Catholic Church and the Estado Novo was a very close one. Nevertheless, in the sixties, a sector of the Catholic Church began parting from the government’s prime directives, in particular the ones concerning the colonial policy, becoming protagonist of actions against the war and the regime’s dictatorial character. The winds of change provoked by Vatican II that, at the time, ran through the Holy See were not indifferent to the whole situation, being related to the Portuguese Catholic opposition chronologically, tactically and ideologically speaking. In fact, the Portuguese Catholics could not stay indifferent to the reflections motivated by documents as the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes or the previous encyclical Pacem in Terris , that were perfectly adapted to the national situation. The Church’s and the Portuguese colonial policy’s opposing guidelines made some Catholics to make a stand, preventing them of “serving two masters”. Key words: Portugal; Vatican II; Estado Novo; Catholic opposition. (shrink)

Peroxisomal matrix proteins are synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes and rapidly transported into the organelle by a complex machinery. The data gathered in recent years suggest that this machinery operates through a syringe-like mechanism, in which the shuttling receptor PEX5 − the “plunger” − pushes a newly synthesized protein all the way through a peroxisomal transmembrane protein complex − the “barrel” − into the matrix of the organelle. Notably, insertion of cargo-loaded receptor into the “barrel” is an ATP-independent process, whereas extraction (...) of the receptor back into the cytosol requires its monoubiquitination and the action of ATP-dependent mechanoenzymes. Here, we review the main data behind this model. The peroxin PEX5 is the peroxisomal matrix protein receptor. It shuttles between the cytosol and the organelle membrane, where it gets inserted into the docking/translocation module, thus pushing the cargo-protein into the peroxisome lumen. Resetting the system involves PEX5 monoubiquitination and its extraction from the membrane by the AAA-ATPases, PEX1/PEX6. (shrink)

Este artigo analisa a poética da obra Tempo de Espalhar Pedras, de Estevão Azevedo, lendo nela estruturas de violência colonial presentes em práticas sociais brasileiras. A partir de uma reflexão sobre os arquivos cognitivos tocados pela narrativa, um exercício de diálogo com obras de diferentes genealogias da literatura brasileira do século XX é proposto, em especial com o que se passou a chamar de romance regionalista. Por fim, possíveis vertentes da obra de Azevedo surgem, num passeio por eixos (...) temáticos dohorizonte literário contemporâneo nacional. Palavras-chave: Literatura brasileira. Estudos culturais. Estudos brasileiros. (shrink)

Reunião de ensaios em comemoração aos 90 anos de vida de Ana Maria Araújo Freire, viúva de Paulo Freire. Ana Maria Araújo Freire é reconhecida por seus esforços e seu êxito na divulgação do pensamento do Patrono da Educação Brasileira. Nita, como é carinhosamente conhecida, tem também uma prestiogosa trajetória: é mestre e doutora em Educação pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, época em que foi orientada por Paulo Freire. Em 1986, ambos já viúvos, os então amigos recifenses se (...) reencontraram depois de anos de afastamento. Da troca de ideias e ideais acerca de uma educação libertadora, surgiram a paixão e o amor. Nita e Paulo Freire foram casados por dez anos, período em que ela acompanhou a escrita de Pedagogia da autonomia – um dos títulos mais lidos do educador – e no qual apoiou seu marido na produção de outros três importantes livros: Pedagogia da esperança, Cartas a Cristina e À sombra desta mangueira. Por comungar da intimidade intelectual e pessoal de Paulo Freire por tantos anos, o caminho natural, após seu falecimento, foi desdobrar sua dedicação de esposa numa missão que tomou para si com muito orgulho: a difusão do pensamento freireano. A autora possui vasta produção intelectual nesse sentido, tendo sido finalista do prestigioso Prêmio Jabuti, em 2007, com a biografia Paulo Freire: uma história de vida. Além disso, vem organizando volumes póstumos, além de diversos título em torno da leitura de mundo e a maneira de ser e pensar de Paulo Freire. Aos 90 anos da educadora, a Editora Paz & Terra lhe presta um tributo inédito. Foram compilados especialmente para esta edição alguns dos escritos inéditos ou que estavam dispersos em publicações diversas. São fruto de diversos convites que recebeu para integrar livros, revistas e edições especiais, realizar palestras e receber honrarias em homenagem a seu companheiro de vida, sempre apresentando leituras mais contemporâneas, que refletem sobre como a pedagogia freireana pode nos auxiliar na resolução de conflitos recentes, como a polarização política no Brasil e a violência em nível global. Ainda, em caráter mais intimista, foram organizadas algumas entrevistas concedidas pela autora, de forma que leitores e leitoras possam se sentir ainda mais próximos dos afetos freireanos. É um livro necessário para a história da intelectualidade brasileira, originado da mais autêntica boniteza. “Este excelente trabalho de nossa querida Nita Freire, viúva de Paulo Freire, nos relembra duas dimensões muito bem tratadas pelo saudoso mestre e tão atuais: a tolerância e a violência. Paulo nos ensinou que a tolerância não pode significar suportar, e sim respeitar — acatar a diferença sem fazer dela divergência.” — Frei Betto “O texto de Ana Maria Freire apresenta-se como uma ferramenta teórica potente para os que sonham e lutam por uma educação que contribua para construir uma sociedade verdadeiramente democrática e inclusiva.” — Jose Clovis de Azevedo “A beleza do amor que compartilharam tem como um de seus frutos a excelência com que Nita mantém viva a obra de Paulo.” — Ramón Flecha “As descrições que Nita Freire faz sobre os pequenos diálogos cotidianos com Paulo Freire, na colaboração que lhe prestava para a produção dos seus textos, têm um notável valor histórico — à altura do valor histórico de Freire.” — Alípio Casali. (shrink)

Pensamos que apesar de Kant inaugurar sua filosofia crítica tratando das condições de possibilidade formais para resolução de problemas (filosofia crítica), ele avança na década de 1790 em direção a estabelecer a antropologia como finalidade da sua filosofia. Considerando isso, o objetivo deste escrito é mostrar que a recepção da filosofia kantiana nos séculos XIX e XX foi logicista e formalista, ressaltando bem mais sua base transcendental que pragmática (em sentido kantiano). Desse modo, o retorno a Kant, promovido pelo Neokantismo, (...) contribuiu para o esquecimento e não tematização da centralidade da sua antropologia, pois se voltou às condições de possibilidade para a consolidação das ciências na segunda metade do século XIX e legou ao kantismo do século XX modelos interpretativos de viés logicista a analítico, deixando de lado qualquer reflexão profunda sobre a parte empírica de sua filosofia, posto considerá-la impura. Também pontuaremos que a própria ciência etnográfica desconsidera qualquer herança de Kant em sua constituição. No final, provaremos estatisticamente, por meio da análise do centenário histórico da revista Kant Studien que houve um baixíssimo volume de textos sobre temas pragmáticos. A antropologia de Kant foi esquecida pela fortuna crítica, quando deveria ter sido posta como central. (shrink)

Margaret Archer plays a leading role in the sociological analysis of the relation between structure and agency, and particularly in the study of reflexivity. The main aim of this article is to discuss her approach, focusing on the main contributions and limitations of Archer’s theory of reflexivity. It is argued that even though her research is a pioneering one, proposing an operationalization of the concept of reflexivity in view of its empirical implementation, it also minimizes crucial social factors and the (...) dimensions necessary for a more complex and multi-dimensional study of the concept, such as social origins, family socialization, processes of internalization of exteriority, the role of other structure–agency mediation mechanisms and the persistence of social reproduction. (shrink)

The integration of nanotechnology’s ‘social and ethical issues’ (SEI) at the research and development stage is one of the defining features of nanotechnology governance in the United States. Mandated by law, integration extends the field of nanotechnology to include a role for the “social”, the “public” and the social sciences and humanities in research and development (R&D) practices and agendas. Drawing from interviews with scientists, engineers and policymakers who took part in an oral history of the “Future of Nanotechnology” symposium (...) at the Cornell NanoScale Facility, this article examines how nanotechnology’s ‘social and ethical issues’ are brought to life by these practitioners. From our analysis, three modes of enactment emerge: enacting SEI as obligations and problems-to-be-solved, enacting SEI by ‘not doing it’ in the laboratory, and enacting SEI as part of scientific practice. Together they paint a complex picture where SEI are variously defined, made visible or invisible, included and excluded, with participants showing their skill at both boundary-work (Gieryn Am Sociol Rev 48:781–795, 1983, 1999) and at integration. We conclude by reflecting on what this may mean for the design and implementation of SEI integration policies, suggesting that we need to transform SEI from obligations into ‘matters of care’ (Puig de la Bellacasa Soc Stud Sci 41(1):85–106, 2011) that tend to existing relationalities between science and society and implicate practitioners themselves. (shrink)

Drawing from Goffman’s original observations on stigma and the consequences of interactions between the stigmatized and supportive or stigmatizing audiences, we conduct a 20-year review of the diverse literature on stigma to revisit the collective nature of stigmatization processes. We find that studies on stigma’s origins, responses, processes, and outcomes have diverged from Goffman’s relational view of stigma as they have overlooked important relational mechanisms explaining the processes of (de)stigmatization. We draw from those conclusions to justify the need to study (...) stigma as a collective phenomenon. We develop a relational perspective on stigma based on understanding how attributes are stigmatized (or not) by audiences in their interactions. We argue that to advance stigma research, it is necessary to build on Goffman’s theory to include the stigmatizers (i.e., the normal) and supporters (i.e., the wise); how they create, sustain, or remove stigma; and how they relate to the stigmatized (i.e., the targets). Accordingly, we provide a research agenda on stigma as a collective phenomenon that theorizes a relational perspective, proposes a typology of how audiences relate to stigmatization, and identifies patterns of relations between audiences. We thus offer a missing piece to existing accounts of stigma by focusing on the key role of audiences (i.e., stigmatizers or supporters of the stigmatized) rather than on the targets of stigma (i.e., the own). (shrink)

Studies of creative industries typically contend that creative work is profoundly precarious, taking place on a freelance basis in highly competitive, individualized and contingent labour markets. Such studies depict creative workers as correspondingly self-enterprising, self-reliant, self-interested and calculative agents who valorise care-free independence. In contrast, we adopt the ‘ethics of care’ approach to explore, recognize and appreciate the communitarian, relational and moral considerations as well as interpersonal connectedness and interdependencies that underpin creative work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with creative workers (...) in a range of marginal socio-cultural contexts, we argue that creative workers cultivate and sustain a diverse array of practices of care arising from an affective concern with the well-being of others. Far from being merely individualistic and crudely competitive actors, creative workers enact practical ethical responsibilities and affectivities towards a range of human and non-human others, including families, local communities and neighbourhoods, colleagues, artistic scenes and their adjacent genres, and surrounding national and linguistic cultures. In emphasizing the fundamental and structuring role of care in contingent labour markets our approach accords with recent trends in the social sciences that ‘affirmatively’—as opposed to ‘negatively’ and ‘suspiciously’—recognize that mutuality, solidarity and affectivity are powerful drivers of action on a par with or even exceeding market-driven self-centredness. (shrink)

The language of ethics expertise has become particularly important in bioethics in light of efforts to establish the value of the clinical ethics consultation, to specify who is qualified to function as a clinical ethics consultant, and to characterize how one should evaluate whether or not a person is so qualified. Supporters and skeptics about the possibility of ethics expertise use the language of ethics expertise in ways that reflect competing views about what ethics expertise entails. We argue for clarity (...) in understanding the nature of expertise and ethics expertise. To be an ethics expert, we argue, is to be an expert in knowing what ought to be done. Any attempt to articulate expertise with respect to knowing what ought to be done must include an account of ethics that specifies the nature of moral truth and the means by which we access this truth or a theoretical account of ethics such that expertise in another domain is linked to knowing or being better at judging what ought to be done and the standards by which this “knowing” or “being better at judging” is determined. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our analysis for the literature on ethics expertise in CEC. We do think that there are clear domains in which a clinical ethics consultant might be expert but we are skeptical about the possibility that this includes ethics expertise. Clinical ethics consultants should not be referred to as ethics experts. (shrink)

The purpose of the present study is to examine the attitudes of Portuguese chartered accountants with respect to questions of ethical nature that can arise in their professional activity. Respondents were asked to respond to the Ethics Position Questionnaire developed by Forsyth (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39(1), 175–184, 1980), in order to determine their idealism and relativism levels. Subsequently, they answered questions about five scenarios related to accounting practices, with the objective of measuring their ethical judgments. Based on (...) the idealism and relativism levels of our respondents, they were classified into one of four groups, representing different ethical ideologies (absolutism, exceptionism, subjectivism, and situationism). The results indicated that age was the major determinant of relativism. Contrary to previous research, older respondents revealed themselves significantly more relativistic than younger ones. Gender seems to be the most important determinant of ethical judgments; against expectations, men evidenced significantly stricter judgments than women in two of the five scenarios. Findings also indicated that respondents’ ethical judgments did not differ significantly based on their ethical ideology, supporting the idea that ethical ideology is not an important determinant of ethical judgments. (shrink)

Socio-cultural shifts during the 1960s and 1970s included widespread secularization, challenges to authority and tradition, and an emphasis on individual choice. Healthcare and biomedical research advances accompanied these social changes, giving rise to numerous ethical and policy questions. The contemporary bioethics project emerged in this context with (at least) three aims: (1) to offer practical answers to these questions (often) in ways that (2) facilitate or support particular practices or goals (e.g., organ donation or human research) and that (3) appear (...) broadly applicable and legitimately enforceable. Philosophical thinking, which involves investigating and disambiguating concepts and categories, articulating conceptually clear definitions, and mapping arguments to identify premises, detect fallacies, and describe their logical implications, can undermine the practical goals of the bioethics project. This tension between the goals of bioethics and philosophical thinking might help to explain what some scholars see as a disinterest in philosophical thinking in bioethics today. (shrink)

Considering recent theoretical discussions about the concept of moral legitimacy, this study advances our understanding of its performance consequences. Specifically, it uncovers the mediating role of moral legitimacy in the relationship between regulations and industry performance. Our analysis of the U.S. state-level data on regulations in a controversial industry between 1994 and 2010 yields four significant findings. The results show that regulations not only decrease performance but also negatively impact moral legitimacy. Moreover, this study provides empirical evidence that moral legitimacy (...) is positively related to industry performance, providing much-needed direct support for this premise. Importantly, the results indicate that moral legitimacy mediates the effect of regulations on performance, but only when regulations are aligned with moral values. Overall, this study extends our understanding of how regulations influence moral legitimacy, and in turn impact industry performance. (shrink)

In this study we examined whether parents’ perceptions of students’ anxiety as well as perceived support from both teachers and classmates were predictive of changes in students’ academic motivation during the first wave of COVID-19. To this end, we used a retrospective pretest-posttest design together with a latent change score model to analyze our data. From April to May of 2020, 394 Portuguese parents of students in grades 1–9 participated in this study. Our results showed that students’ anxiety and teachers’ (...) social support, as perceived by parents, were highly significant predictors of academic motivation changes. Specifically, we found a negative effect of anxiety and a positive effect of teachers’ social support on students’ academic motivation. Our results did not show, however, a significant predictive role of classmates’ social support. This study provides an important contribution to further understand the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that are associated with the decline of students’ academic motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pivotal role of teachers in sustaining students’ academic motivation and other relevant educational implications for the ongoing pandemic are discussed. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to view Kant's approach to education in the broader context of Kant's philosophy of culture and history as a process whose direction should be reflectively assumed by human freedom, in the light of man's moral vocation. In this context, some characteristic tensions of his enlightened approach to education appear. Thus, while Kant takes the educational process to be a radically moral enterprise all the way through—and hence, placed in a relational context—he also aspires to (...) constitute education as a science, to be improved through experiments, thereby paving the way for a systemic approach to education; in spite of its moral inspiration, his systemic approach not only could enter into conflict with the moral demand of taking each individual subject as an end, but is also marked by an intrinsic paradox, already involved in the ambiguity of the term ‘humanity’, which might mean a) humanity as a moral disposition present in each individual human being or b) humanity as a whole, as the ‘human species’. (shrink)

This article refers to selected issues elaborated from my interdisciplinary doctoral thesis accomplished at the University of South Africa in 2019. I investigated the ethical-theoretical frameworks as well as practices of Christian humanitarian non-governmental organisations in Germany by combining a theoretical part and an empirical part. The empirical part was accomplished by interviewing 11 NGOs from the humanitarian field. The findings of theory and practice showed that many Christian NGOs typically conform to the secular mindset and regulations in order to (...) be able to function as organisations. The results also revealed that Christian NGOs have difficulties in defining their identity in order to be attractive and convincing to their current and prospective employees and donors. In addition, organisational and hierarchical structures are mostly taken from business companies but do not necessarily always fit to the individual organisations. The research is significant because it shows to what extent these NGOs experience tensions and insecurities having to work in a secular environment, and it helps to identify some typical challenges that Christian organisations face in Western countries. The purpose of the thesis was to impact on the reflection and practice of leaders of NGOs in their quest to understand developments and paradigm shifts, and ensure that they will act in a recognisably Christian way.Contribution: This article has been held as a presentation at the Leadership Conference in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2019. It contributes to the research of specific Christian leadership, and particularly of leadership in Christian non-governmental organisations. This article aims to describe the challenges these organisations face, having to work in the midst of a secular environment. (shrink)

This book joins the contemporary recovery of Kant’s empirical works to highlight the relevance of his concept of culture for understanding the sources of various characteristic modern dilemmas, such as the tension between culture and happiness, the morally ambivalent nature of cultural progress, or the existing conflicts between a factual plurality of cultures and the historical forces pressing toward a universal civilization. The book will be of special interest for Kantian scholars, moral and political philosophers, as well as philosophers of (...) culture. (shrink)

Humanism is charged with fostering a harmful anthropocentrism that has led to the exploitation of non-human beings and the environment. Posthumanist and transhumanist ideas prominently aim at rethinking our self-understanding and human-nature relations. Yet these approaches turn out to be flawed when it comes to addressing the challenges of the “age of the humanity”, the Anthropocene. Whereas posthumanism fails in acknowledging the exceptional role of human beings with regard to political agency and responsibility, transhumanism overemphasizes human capabilities of controlling nature (...) and only deepens the human-nature dualism. Therefore, a critical and humble version of humanism is suggested as a viable alternative. Drawing on pragmatist thinkers William James and F.C.S. Schiller, a resource for de-centering the human being is provided that critically reflects our role in the larger ecosystem and underlines human potentials as well as human responsibilities. (shrink)

Although they were not written by Kant himself, the transcripts of his lectures constitute an important source for philosophical research today. The contributions presented in this volume discuss the authenticity and significance of these transcripts.Theyshed light ondifferent philosophical questions related to Kant s philosophy and provide new insights that, if looking at Kant s published writings alone, we would not be able to gain.".

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)

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)

We adopt the largest consistent set defined by Chwe (1994; J. Econ. Theory 63: 299–325) to predict which coalition structures are possibly stable when players are farsighted. We also introduce a refinement, the largest cautious consistent set, based on the assumption that players are cautious. For games with positive spillovers, many coalition structures may belong to the largest consistent set. The grand coalition, which is the efficient coalition structure, always belongs to the largest consistent set and is the unique one (...) to belong to the largest cautious consistent set. (shrink)

In this essay I present some of my thoughts on the issue of boundaries in the professional relationship between service users and social workers. As a graduate student of social work, I had an opportunity to discuss ethical dilemmas in an international perspective in one of my courses. A guest professor, who provided international perspectives, was Prof. Kim Strom from UNC at Chapel Hill in North Carolina, USA. The lectures offered a fresh perspective that raised many questions about thick and (...) thin boundaries in social work – especially when approaching social work by following prevailing guidelines for social work in Slovenia requiring us to co-create solutions through dialogue with service users, keeping in mind that service users are actually the ones who are the experts from experience. In this way, the working relationship seeks to foster a sense of partnership between social workers and service users. In this essay I would like to challenge the idea of rigid boundaries in social work and explore the possibility of fluid boundaries, keeping in mind that boundaries should reflect their main purpose, which I believe is to protect human dignity. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Persons generally must give their informed consent to participate in research. To provide informed consent persons must be given information regarding the study in simple, lay language. Consent must be voluntary, and persons giving consent must be legally competent to consent and possess the capacity to understand and appreciate the information provided. This paper examines the relationship between the obligation to disclose information regarding risks and the requirement that persons have the capacity to understand and appreciate the information. There (...) has been insufficient attention to the extent to which persons must be able to understand and appreciate study information in order to have their consent deemed valid when the information is provided in simple, lay language. This paper argues that (1) the capacity to understand and appreciate information that should be deemed necessary to give valid consent should be defined by the capacity of the typical, cognitively normal adult and (2) the capacity of the typical, cognitively normal adult to understand and appreciate the concept of risk is limited. Therefore, (3) all things being equal, potential subjects must possess a limited capacity to understand and appreciate risk to be deemed competent to consent to research participation. (4) In some cases investigators ought to require that persons possess a greater than typical capacity to understand and appreciate risk. (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.

In Understanding Moral Obligation (2012), Robert Stern sets out to provide a fresh interpretation of the role of autonomy in Kant’s moral philosophy and attempts to rectify J. B. Schneewind’s standard account in The Invention of Autonomy (1998). While Stern agrees that Kant’s resort to autonomy is at the basis of a constructivist account of moral obligation, he claims that autonomy plays no role in Kant’s theory of value, such that, in this respect, Kant remains a realist. Accordingly, Stern characterizes (...) Kant’s moral philosophy as a “hybrid” view because he sees it as involving a compromise between realism with regard to value and constructivism with regard to obligation. Stern’s interpretation relies on a sharp distinction between value and obligation. The purpose of the present article is to question his reliance on that rigid distinction, which involves intermixing theoretical and practical reason and assumes a distorted view of human agency. (shrink)

Contemporary genome editing techniques have made genomic intervention—from microorganism to human—more accessible, easier to use, and more accurate than previous methods. We argue that, notwithstanding its merits in treating and preventing disease in humans, genome editing represents a potential threat for domestic and international security, requiring an integrated approach in regulating, detecting, preventing, and mitigating the risk of its use for malicious purposes. Despite the global regulatory ambitions of the 2021 WHO framework, we see insufficient attention given to the future (...) prospect of dual-use genomic technology. Drawing parallels with the nuclear field, we suggest tentative practical steps for a way forward in dealing with genome editing technologies, such as: 1) adapting national (bio)security and defence strategies to include genome editing as a possible threat (with conceivable WMD potential); 2) enhancing the international dialogue on genome editing and raising the issue at the highest level; 3) working towards a global, legally binding verification mechanism; 4) tracking genome editing technologies. (shrink)

Studies of non-standard, project-based forms of work prevalent in the creative industries have typically theorized the relational dynamics of work as a competitive process of social capital accumulation involving an individualistic, self-enterprising, zero-sum, and winner-takes-all struggle for favourable social network-positioning. Problematizing this prevailing conceptualization, our empirical case study draws on fifty in-depth interviews and two focus groups with creative workers in Ghana to show how relations of mutual aid, including elaborate efforts to live harmoniously with others, are intricately intertwined with (...) economic practices of getting by and getting ahead. Our analysis abductively mobilizes insights from Afro-communitarian ethics to theorize the mutual aid we observed as a complex socio-economic practice of relational resource redistribution contingent on degrees of social proximity. In applying “a theory from the South” to foreground the role of moral obligations, social harmony, and hands-on practices of mutual aid in non-standard forms of work, we contribute a “decolonial critique” of relationality of relevance to scholars of creative work and business ethicists. (shrink)

Partindo de alguns textos fundadores do conceito de ‘utopia’, pretendemos pôr em evidência que, no caso de José Saramago, em regra, a procura de uma (im)possível sociedade livre e perfeita assume contornos de tonalidades diversas. O desejo de cenários diferentes daqueles em que vivemos, mais justos e fraternos, não acarreta, necessariamente, a ideia de deslocalização ou de relocalização espacial implicada nas tradicionais utopias. Pelo contrário, cremos que o ideal utópico saramaguiano (numa perspectiva de leitura cuja subjectividade assumimos) supõe uma busca (...) que se traduz num processo de (re)aprendizagem que começa e acaba no próprio ser humano. Para tal, há que acreditar na capacidade e no poder do Homem para lutar contra várias espécies de adversidades, de obstáculos e de violências. Afinal, como disse, em 1997, a Eduardo Sterzi e Jerônimo Teixeira: “Sabemos mais do que julgamos, podemos muito mais do que imaginamos.” No delinear destes percursos de humana aprendizagem verificaremos ainda a presença (aparente) de afinidades com alguns vectores da tradição religiosa que o autor sempre recusou e a aproximação (efectiva) a uma outra dimensão espiritual: a de certos rituais maçónicos. (shrink)

The article argues for a parallelism between the interpretation of deontic modals and the interpretation of counterfactuals. The main claim is that dependencies between facts play a role in the resolution of both types of modality: in both cases, facts ‘stand and fall’ together. The article provides two types of evidence supporting this claim: (i) evidence that comes from the interaction between primary and secondary duties (as presented in contrary-to-duty imperatives) and (ii) evidence that comes from the possibility of reproducing (...) well-known counterfactual puzzles in the domain of deontic statements. The article argues that the semantics of deontic modals needs to be stated in a way that pays attention to dependencies between facts and illustrates this with a proposal building on work on counterfactuals by Kratzer and Veltman. (shrink)

Este artículo trata de estudiar la evolución de la figura del alcalde mayor de las aljamas de Castilla a partir de la institución del cadiazgo de la comunidad islámica (qādī al-qudat), modificada por el paso del tiempo y la intervención de las autoridades cristianas. Para ello se analizan las familias que desempeñaron este oficio en Castilla, todos ellos pertenecientes a la élite político-militar, comercial y jurídica de las aljamas mudéjares. La institución de la alcaldía mayor de las aljamas del reino, (...) estudiada como algo excepcional por Torres Fontes, no lo es tanto, y encaja perfectamente en la estructura organizativa de las aljamas y en las luchas internas por el poder que se gestan en ellas. A partir de ahí nos concentramos en el estudio de los elementos de continuidad y ruptura que se manifiestan e la institución de la alcaldía mayor de los moros respecto al cadiazgo islámico. (shrink)

Recent research has found that the omission of accent marks in Spanish does not produce slower word identification times in go/no-go lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks [e.g., cárcel = carcel], thus suggesting that vowels like á and a are represented by the same orthographic units during word recognition and reading. However, there is a discrepant finding with the yes/no lexical decision task, where the words with the omitted accent mark produced longer response times than the words with the accent (...) mark. In Experiment 1, we examined this discrepant finding by running a yes/no lexical decision experiment comparing the effects for words and non-words. Results showed slower response times for the words with omitted accent mark than for those with the accent mark present, thus suggesting a bias toward a “word” response for accented items in the yes/no lexical decision task. To test this interpretation, Experiment 2 used the same stimuli with a blocked design and a go/no-go lexical decision task. Results showed similar response times to words regardless of whether the accent mark was omitted. This pattern strongly suggests that the longer response times to words with an omitted accent mark in yes/no lexical decision experiments are a task-dependent effect rather than a genuine reading cost. (shrink)