El presente artículo estudia la mirada del animal en la novela La ideología de los perros (2020) del escritor Mauricio Embry. La narración se centra en la voz de un niño que crece en un Chile de postdictadura militar y, además, lo hace desde un hogar pinochetista. Esta voz se cruza con otros dos personajes, Andrés y Arnoldo, para formar un único relato. En este marco, la hipótesis de investigación sostiene que el encuentro con la mirada del animal posibilita (...) la emergencia de discursos alternos como los de un niño, un ebrio y un loco, a través de los cuales cada personaje puede reconocer a un otro y, al verse observado por ese otro, también puede descubrirse a sí mismo. Para dar cuenta de esto, el análisis se orienta por la propuesta teórica de Jacques Derrida sobre la cuestión de los animales, en El animal que luego estoy si(gui)endo (2006). (shrink)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND THE REDUCTION OF POVERTY If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay that way, but if you treat him as if he were what he ...

Digital energy platforms play a central role in the transition toward a more sustainable energy system. This research explores the effect of digital energy platforms on public values. We developed and tested a novel public value framework, combining values already embedded in energy and digitalization regulations and emerging values that have become more relevant in recent debates. We analyzed value changes and potential value tensions. We found that sustainability is prioritized, security is broadened to include cybersecurity, and values relevant for (...) digital technologies, such as control over technology, have also become relevant for the energy system. This has resulted in three value tensions: preserving a well-functioning energy system, self-determination, and ensuring a level playing field and public control. A sustainable energy system requires governments to address these value changes, value tensions, and connected societal and political challenges related to the implementation of digital energy platforms. (shrink)

In the last decade we have entered the era of remote controlled military technology. The excitement about this new technology should not mask the ethical questions that it raises. A fundamental ethical question is who may be held responsible for civilian deaths. In this paper we will discuss the role of the human operator or so-called ‘cubicle warrior’, who remotely controls the military robots behind visual interfaces. We will argue that the socio-technical system conditions the cubicle warrior to dehumanize the (...) enemy. As a result the cubicle warrior is morally disengaged from his destructive and lethal actions. This challenges what he should know to make responsible decisions (the so-called knowledge condition). Nowadays and in the near future, three factors will influence and may increase the moral disengagement even further due to the decrease of locus of control orientation: (1) photo shopping the war; (2) the moralization of technology; (3) the speed of decision-making. As a result, cubicle warriors cannot be held reasonably responsible anymore for the decisions they make. (shrink)

Los seres técnicos y toda su conceptualización deben incorporarse a nuestro estudio de la cultura y a nuestras preguntas filosóficas fundamentales. La filosofía de la técnica requiere una vocación abierta e interdisciplinaria, de la antropología a la semiótica, de la ingeniera a la cibernética. También exige desplazamiento por los discursos y los textos y el conocimiento de las cosas y las máquinas. Nuestro concepto de naturaleza se modifica históricamente como también nuestro ser se modifica junto con las estructuras o los (...) mecanismos que hacen factible el mantenimiento de la meta estabilidad, es decir, la adaptación e interacción con un medio tecnológicamente texturizado. Tarnbién se modifica la explicación que darnos sobre nuestros modos de intervención, dependientes de la construcción de nuestra imagen de la natural y de los artefactos que utilizamos para producirla e intervenirla Más allá de la réplica o la simple imitación, el proceso socio-tecnológico ha devenido el dispositivo de síntesis y renvención de la naturaleza. Una tarea fundamental de la filosofía de la técnica es revisar los postulados que dan cuenta de la relación hombre-naturaleza, para realizar un recorrido genealógico que nos permita definir el proceso de constitución de la técnica y la tecnología. Este ejercicio deberla no sólo encontrar respuestas a las necesidades teoréticas que definen su campo, su método y sus vínculos interdisciplinarios, deberla dar algunas respuestas a los problemas del llamado -mundo real-, explicando las dinámicas del cambio tecnológico y comprendiendo sus orígenes.Technical beings and their concepts should be incorporated to our cultural studies and our philosophical question. The philosophy of technology requires an open and interdisciplinary commitment, from Anthropology to Semiotics, from Engineering to Cybernetics. It also demands t he thorough insight of psyches and the understanding of thing and machines. Our concept of nature is historically modified. Similarly, our being is continuously altered along with the structures or the mechanisms that make the maintenances of our meta-stability feasible. There is a continuous adaptation and interaction between a technologically texturized environment and us. The intellectual tools that are used to explain our intervention in nature change with our concept of nature itself and which the devices that we use to produce and intervene nature. Beyond the replica or the simple imitation of the nature, socio-technological process has become the device of synthesis and reinvention of nature. A task for the Philosophy of Technology will be to revise the postulates that give rise to this relationship between man and nature and make a genealogical journey that should allow us to define the process of construction of technology. This exercise should not only find answers the theoretical necessities that define the fids, methods and interdisciplinary approach of philosophy of technology, bu1it should also shed light to the questions from the so-called real world, by explaining the dynamics of technological change and understanding its origins. (shrink)

End-of-life decision-making in patients with dementia is a complex topic. Belgium and the Netherlands have been at the forefront of legislative advancement and progressive societal changes concerning the perspectives toward physician-assisted death (PAD). Careful consideration of clinical and social aspects is essential during the end-of-life decision-making process in patients with dementia. Geriatric assent provides the physician, the patient and his family the opportunity to end life with dignity. Unbearable suffering, decisional competence, and awareness of memory deficits are among the clinical (...) considerations that physicians should incorporate during the end-of-life decision-making process. However, as other societies introduce legislature granting the right of PAD, new social determinants should be considered; Mexico City is an example. Current perspectives regarding advance euthanasia directives (AED) and PAD in patients with dementia are evolving. A new perspective that hinges on the role of the family and geriatric assent should help culturally heterogeneous societies in the transition of their public health care policies regarding end-of-life choices. (shrink)

Ample evidence for dualism in early childhood already exists. Young children have explicit knowledge of the distinction between mental and physical phenomena, which provides the foundation for a rapidly developing theory of mind. Belief in psychological immortality might then follow naturally from this mentalistic conception of human existence and thus require no organized cognitive system dedicated to producing it.

The human ability to live according to learned, shared rules of behavior requires cortical functions. Is the limbic system also necessary for culture or are its functions opposed to it, requiring cortical inhibition? The sizes of monkey and ape neocortical and major limbic structures scale with brain weight, but the neocortex expands more (has a steeper exponent) than limbic structures. As the human brain evolved it did not deviate from the scaling relationships found in nonhuman anthropoids. This evidence for conservation (...) in scaling supports the idea that limbic functions are necessary for human symbolism and culture. (shrink)

Timely public engagement in science presents a broad challenge. It includes more than research into the ethical, legal and social dimensions of science and state-initiated citizen’s participation. Introducing a public perspective on science while safeguarding its public value involves a diverse set of actors: natural scientists and engineers, technology assessment institutes, policy makers, social scientists, citizens, interest organisations, artists, and last, but not least, politicians.

They are often portrayed as outsiders: ethnic minorities, the poor, the disabled, and so many others—all living on the margins of mainstream society. Countless previous studies have focused on their pain and powerlessness, but that has done little more than sustain our preconceptions of marginalized groups. Most accounts of marginalization approach the subject from a distance and tend to overemphasize the victimization of outsiders. Taking a more intimate approach, this book reveals the personal, moral, and social implications of marginalization by (...) drawing upon the actual experiences of such individuals. Multidisciplinary and multicultural, Identity on the Margin addresses marginalization at a variety of social levels and within many different social phenomena, going beyond familiar cases dealing with race, ethnicity, and gender to examine such outsiders as renegade children, conservative Christians, and the physically and mentally disabled. And because women are especially subject to the effects of marginalization, feminist concerns and the marginalization of sexual practices provide a common denominator for many of the essays. From problems posed by "complimentary racism" to the status of gays in Tony Blair's England, from the struggle of Native Americans to preserve their identities to the singular problems of single mothers, Identity on the Margin takes in a broad spectrum of cases to provide theoretical analysis and ethical criticism of the mechanisms of identity formation at the edges of society. In all of the cases, the authors demonstrate the need for theory that initiates social change by considering the ethical implications of marginalization and criticizing its harmful effects. Bringing together accounts of marginalization from many different disciplines and perspectives, this collection addresses a broad audience in the humanities and social sciences. It offers a basis for enhancing our understanding of this process—and for working toward meaningful social change. (shrink)