If personhood is the quality or condition of being an individual person, brainhood could name the quality or condition of being a brain. This ontological quality would define the `cerebral subject' that has, at least in industrialized and highly medicalized societies, gained numerous social inscriptions since the mid-20th century. This article explores the historical development of brainhood. It suggests that the brain is necessarily the location of the `modern self', and that, consequently, the cerebral subject is the anthropological figure inherent (...) to modernity (at least insofar as modernity gives supreme value to the individual as autonomous agent of choice and initiative). It further argues that the ideology of brainhood impelled neuroscientific investigation much more than it resulted from it, and sketches how an expanding constellation of neurocultural discourses and practices embodies and sustains that ideology. (shrink)

Contra el "sentido ordinario" de que la justicia implica, entre otras cosas, dar a cada quien lo que se merece, en su teoría de la justicia como equidad John Rawls adopta una perspectiva normativa radicalmente anti-meritocrática al considerar que nadie merece su lugar inicial en la sociedad y, por lo tanto, los factores contingentes no pueden tener incidencia distributiva. Desde el comunitarismo, se argumenta que la concepción rawlsiana del sujeto –despojado de casi toda particularidad– impide abordar la cuestión del mérito (...) en tanto bien social propio de la esfera del reconocimiento. El libertarismo de derecha nozickeano, en tanto, recusa las pretensiones rawlsianas ya que desconoce la validez de la regla contractual que impide sacar provecho total de los atributos moralmente arbitrarios. Desde el igualitarismo relacional, Thomas Scanlon procura una rehabilitación limitada del mérito, en la medida en que sea o bien institucionalmente dependiente o merecimiento puro. Así, en lo que sigue, examinaremos la propuesta rawlsiana y la de sus críticos, para mostrar que, en definitiva, la anti-meritocracia de Rawls sale airosa de los embates más radicales y, en cierta medida, puede alojar la posición de Scanlon pero al precio de volverse menos exigente. ARK: ark:/s18537960/thqx/xirg. (shrink)

There is no systematic knowledge about how individuals with Locked-in Syndrome experience their situation. A phenomenology of LIS, in the sense of a description of subjective experience as lived by the ill persons themselves, does not yet exist as an organized endeavor. The present article takes a step in that direction by reviewing various materials and making some suggestions. First-person narratives provide the most important sources, but very few have been discussed. LIS barely appears in bioethics and neuroethics. Research on (...) Quality of Life provides relevant information, one questionnaire study explores the sense of personal continuity in LIS patients, and LIS has been used as a test case of theories in “embodied cognition” and to explore issues in the phenomenology of illness and communication. A systematic phenomenology of LIS would draw on these different areas: while some deal directly with subjective experience, others throw light on its psychological, sociocultural and materials conditions. Such an undertaking can contribute to the improvement of care and QOL, and help inform philosophical questions, such as those concerning the properties that define persons, the conditions of their identity and continuity, or the dynamics of embodiment and intersubjectivity. (shrink)

We discuss in this paper the scope of abduction in Economics. The literature on this type of inference shows that it can be interpreted in different ways, according to the role and nature of its outcome. We present a formal model that allows to capture these various meanings in different economic contexts.

En el marco de los debates contemporáneos sobre la justicia social, en este artículo se discute la visión ralwsiana sobre el comunismo como una sociedad más allá de la justicia, en la cual las personas han perdido el sentido de lo justo y de la obligación moral. Sostenemos que John Rawls no acierta a explicar convincentemente la evanescencia del sentido de la justicia ni la súbita abrogación de las leyes que rigen la psicología moral de las personas. Asimismo, demostramos que, (...) según los propios postulados generales rawlsianos sobre la psicología moral, el comunismo marxiano no puede estar habitado sino por personas que adhieren a instituciones inspiradas en principios igualitarios y fraternos. En la sociedad comunista, entonces, rigen también la justicia y la moral, hay un esquema institucional justo -tal como lo admite Rawls-, y existe una comprensión compartida y un reconocimiento público de la justicia de las instituciones. (shrink)

En su teoría de la justicia como equidad, John Rawls sostiene que la estructura básica es el objeto primario de la justicia y que, por ende, quedan excluidas las decisiones personales. Esta posición sufre un giro insospechado en la visión rawlsiana sobre la justicia en el comunismo. En sus tres lecciones sobre Marx, Rawls presenta una doble valoración: por un lado, sostiene que el comunismo es justo en virtud de su distribución igualitaria; por otro, afirma que la ausencia de un (...) sentido de lo justo y de la obligación moral en la vida cotidiana hace que ésta sea una sociedad más allá de la justicia. La justicia ya no depende sólo de la operación de los primeros principios en la estructura básica, sino también de las actitudes personales. (shrink)

We present a formal analysis of Douglas Hofstadter’s concept of superrationality. We start by defining superrationally justifiable actions, and study them in symmetric games. We then model the beliefs of the players, in a way that leads them to different choices than the usual assumption of rationality by restricting the range of conceivable choices. These beliefs are captured in the formal notion of type drawn from epistemic game theory. The theory of coalgebras is used to frame type spaces and to (...) account for the existence of some of them. We find conditions that guarantee superrational outcomes. (shrink)

Castoriadis's interpretation of Freud centres on the idea of the radical imagination; the introduction of this concept into psychoanalysis has consequences which affect all levels of the Freudian project. As Castoriadis sees it, Freud's foundational insights are not in dispute, but the reference to the imagination makes it possible to articulate them in new ways and build new bridges between psychoanalysis and social theory. In its capacity as a source of representation and meaning, the radical imagination is - together with (...) the drives - a `co-foundation of the psyche'; further reflection along those lines leads Castoriadis to radicalise the concept of the unconscious and introduce the notion of the primal monad, but at the same time, his revised concept of sublimation links the psyche to the social-historical world. In all these regards, there are significant affinities between Castoriadis's work and the post-Lacanian currents in French psychoanalysis. (shrink)

The main task of a critical theory of medicine should be to develop a perspectival, context-fair, and multidimensional science of actions which integrates both diversity and heterogeneity within medicine without eliminating either one. Such a theory should employ diversity in the following areas: (1) in systems, subsystems, and professions, because different medical professions embody different health-care subsystems, thereby influencing the way manpower is utilized, (2) in actors, (e.g., patients, health-care experts, and society), processes, and situations, because each actor potentially conceptualizes (...) health, illness, and desired outcomes differently; and (3) in models of medicine (i.e., as an object science versus an action science). Situational influences modify concepts and explanatory models; even the particular terms, such as illness, disease, and sickness, are not necessarily concordant with each other. (shrink)

Hispania of the 11th-15th centuries developed around the bible a unique and full culture, which was a constituent part and not just a superfluous add-on, to the general history of Europe.

Eventualities and worlds are analysed uniformly as schedules of certain descriptions of eventuality-types (reversing the reduction of eventuality-types to eventualities). The temporal interpretation of modals in Condoravdi 2002 is reformulated to bring out what it is about eventualities and worlds that is essential to the account. What is essential, it is claimed, can be recovered from schedules that may or may not include worlds.

Peirce’s diagrammatic system of Existential Graphs (EGα)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$EG_{\alpha })$$\end{document} is a logical proof system corresponding to the Propositional Calculus (PL). Most known proofs of soundness and completeness for EGα\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$EG_{\alpha }$$\end{document} depend upon a translation of Peirce’s diagrammatic syntax into that of a suitable Frege-style system. In this paper, drawing upon standard results but using the native diagrammatic notational framework of the graphs, we present (...) a purely syntactic proof of soundness, and hence consistency, for EGα\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$EG_{\alpha }$$\end{document}, along with two separate completeness proofs that are constructive in the sense that we provide an algorithm in each case to construct an EGα\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$EG_{\alpha }$$\end{document} formal proof starting from the empty Sheet of Assertion, given any expression that is in fact a tautology according to the standard semantics of the system. (shrink)

This article shows how epideictic rhetoric and argumentation may be interrelated in a general-interest newspaper framed as a single discourse produced by a collective author. In more specific terms, the view advanced here is that newspaper as whole has an epideictic dimension which, in terms of argumentation, is the fundamental or predominant one. The usefulness of this approach is twofold. In terms of rhetoric, to explore the applicability of epideictic rhetoric to journalistic discourse; and in the field of journalism studies, (...) the goal is to draw on the theory of epideictic rhetoric so as to refine the conceptualization of the nature of argumentation in the newspaper as such. Given this twofold perspective, the account of newspaper discursive practices will be general, and the classical and contemporary epideictic theory will be briefly summarized. However, the outcome of this analysis is an example of a fruitful encounter between the two fields. (shrink)

Con recurso a las filosofías de Heidegger y Gadamer, a las que ponemos a hablar con la teoría crítica, este artículo vuelve sobre el diálogo entre filosofía e historia. Cuando se leen estos dos autores en contraste con esa otra corriente de pensamiento, empiezan a hallarse resonancias e implicaciones mutuas, así como también las divergencias que se presentan. Desde esta confrontación pretendemos acceder a una consideración del tiempo y de la historia que permita elaborar desde allí una filosofía crítica. El (...) artículo hace productiva para una filosofía social las ontologías de la historicidad y del tiempo de Gadamer y Heidegger. (shrink)

Iterated admissibility embodies a minimal criterion of rationality in interactions. The epistemic characterization of this solution has been actively investigated in recent times: it has been shown that strategies surviving \ rounds of iterated admissibility may be identified as those that are obtained under a condition called rationality and m assumption of rationality in complete lexicographic type structures. On the other hand, it has been shown that its limit condition, with an infinity assumption of rationality ), might not be satisfied (...) by any state in the epistemic structure, if the class of types is complete and the types are continuous. In this paper we analyze the problem in a different framework. We redefine the notion of type as well as the epistemic notion of assumption. These new definitions are sufficient for the characterization of iterated admissibility as the class of strategies that indeed satisfy \. One of the key methodological innovations in our approach involves defining a new notion of generic types and employing these in conjunction with Cohen’s technique of forcing. (shrink)

The usual procedure in the theory of social choice consists in postulating some desirable properties which an aggregation procedure should verify and derive from them the features of a corresponding social choice function and the outcomes that arise at each possible profile of preferences. In this paper we invert this line of reasoning and try to infer, up from what we call social situations the criteria verified in the implicit aggregation procedure. This inference process, which extracts intensional from extensional information (...) can be seen as an exercise in “qualitative statistics”. (shrink)

In economically meaningful interactions negotiations are particularly important because they allow agents to improve their information about the environment and even to change accordingly their own characteristics. In each step of a negotiation an agent has to emit a message. This message conveys information about her preferences and endowments. Given that the information she uses to decide which message to emit comes from beliefs generated in previous stages of the negotiation, she has to cope with the uncertainty associated with them. (...) The assessment of the states of the world also evolves during the negotiation. In this paper we analyze the intertwined dynamics of beliefs and decision, in order to determine conditions on the agents that allow them to reach agreements. The framework for decision making we consider here is based on defeasible evaluation of possibilities: an argument for a choice defeats another one if it is based on a computation that better uses all the available information. (shrink)

Postmodernity is a move ment that arose as a re sult of the cri sis of the dom i nant mo der nity, con front ing many of the great pro jects which ex - alted the do min ion and the power of man, and re - plac ing them with small ness, what is lo cal, and other al ter na tives. One of the most o..

La sociedad contemporánea en su interés por el progreso y la tecnología, olvida la importancia fundamental del ser humano, y simplemente lo considera como una especie de pieza de engranaje en la dinámica económica, social y política de la sociedad. En la filosofía de Erich Fromm, es fundamental la reflexión acerca del significado del ser humano, y es necesario para Fromm, recuperar el humanismo como una filosofía global del hombre, que permitirá encontrar su sentido y lograr alcanzar un estado de (...) armonía y equilibrio. (shrink)

El presente artículo parte de exponer y analizar dos niveles en el camino metafísico de Heidegger, diferentes mas relacionados recíprocamente: de una parte, el de la crítica al presente, marcado por la cultura del pesimismo que se nutre del desprecio de la civilización técnico-industrial; y, de otra parte, el de la desesperación ontológico existencial anclado en la pérdida epocal de la pregunta por el sentido del ser, la cual comporta, en consecuencia, la imposibilidad de una apropiación individual e histórica de (...) la verdad del ser. (shrink)

The sociological work of Elias is studied, together with his characteristic outcast position, typical of judaism at the end of the century. From such judaic root stems the metapolitical approach observed in the process of civilization from the platform of a Human Genre already assume as formed and defined by the civilized conscience. The idea of a metapolitical (extraterritorial) platform is determined, and its possible historical and political efficiency. Finally, the work focuses on the limits of the civilization process, contrasting (...) N. Elias and G. Bueno conceptions on the issue. Hence a third alternative which observs such limit of history and its superation in the “antropological field” – through the a structural, technoscientific and objective development of society – springs as a source from where the “ultramoderne spirit” described at the end of the issue finds its origins. (shrink)

Contributing reviewersThe Editors of BMC Medical Ethics would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 13 (2013).

Músicas em cinema são potências afetivas capazes de reconfigurar o espaço e promover novos universos sensíveis que mobilizam tanto os corpos em cena quanto os corpos dos espectadores. Buscamos no presente trabalho observar como se dão essas potências quando apropriadas por sensibilidades dissidentes. De que formas a música pode mobilizar afetos capazes de erigir um outro espaço, ou uma heterotopia dissidente. A partir de uma discussão sobre música, dança e heterotopia ligados à experiência estética, analisamos momentos musicais do longa-metragem Tatuagem (...) (Hilton Lacerda, 2013), observando de que formas os corpos em cena engendram performances que demonstram novas formas de agir ética, estética e politicamente frente ao mundo e suas normas. (shrink)

The name of the Genevan critic Jean Starobinski will most likely evoke masterful\nreadings of Rousseau and Montaigne, or insightful reconstructions of the world\nof the Enlightenment. With the possible exception of the history of melancholy,\nmuch more rarely will it be associated with the history of psychology and\npsychiatry. A small number of the critic’s contributions to this field have\nappeared in some of his books. Most of them, however, remain scattered, and\nnothing suggests that they are known as widely as they deserve.\nStarobinski’s work in (...) the history of psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis\nis exemplary in its perspective of the problematic relations between\npsychological concepts and experiences, and between medical thought and the\nlarger culture. (shrink)

Hay muchas circunstancias que motivan a la escritura. En esta nota, el autor hace un paralelismo entre la necesidad que llevó a santa Teresa de Jesús a escribir «libro vivo», tras la prohibición de la lectura de la Biblia en vulgar, y la necesidad que le llevó a él mismo a escribir su propia concepción filosófica, tras la crisis que sufrió la filosofía de Gustavo Bueno, y que tenía como lectura de referencia.

O presente artigo argumenta em duas direções. De um lado, sustenta que a teoria da justiça como equidade, de John Rawls, e em particular o princípio da diferença, antes de representar uma concepção igualitária da justiça, cumpre um objetivo inverso: o de dissociar a justiça social das exigências da igualdade econômica. A desigualdade econômica, na justiça como equidade, surge como um tipo de bem, desde que possa melhorar a posição de todos e em particular a dos menos favorecidos. Para sustentar (...) esta tese, Rawls apela às ideias de pluralismo social e de convergência dos padrões de vida, no âmbito do que chama de uma sociedade bem-ordenada. De outro lado, o artigo sustenta que a teoria pode ser melhor entendida quando desvinculada da adesão a modelos institucionais e de regulação econômica historicamente situados. Uma distinção apropriada entre este sentido ético, dado pelo modo de fundamentação filosófico da teoria, e seus possíveis desdobramentos institucionais, é o melhor caminho para uma teoria que se propõe a servir como ponto de encontro entre as múltiplas visões do bem que competem em nossa tradição democrática. Palavras-chave: Rawls. Modelos econômicos. Princípio da diferença. (shrink)

Frank Wilderson: I introduce a semiotic configuration. The point is, at important levels of abstraction, people who are positioned as Black—which is very different from saying people who think of themselves as Black. One of the basic premises of Afropessimism, which makes it resonate with psychoanalysis or Marxism, is that where one is positioned in a paradigm might not be where one thinks one is or where one desires to be. When I teach undergraduates, I say: “Look, I used to (...) study neorealism. In these neorealist films, we have these people who are bona fide fascists, and then you have those people in the Communist Party, so they could not agree on much. They don’t see themselves as having much of a connection. But in a Gramscian sense, they are both positioned as the host of capitalist parasites. Both groups rely on the wage. So, they are both workers.” One of the big points with respect to the narratological question is that I, as a Black person, trained at Columbia University in creative writing, trained at UC Berkeley in critical theory, love narrative, but narrative does not love me. In other words, it is impossible for me to be “emplotted” as a speaking subject. I can only be “emplotted” as an object of narrative. But I am always struggling to attain that love of humanity; and if I were to attain it, the Human would not have a foil against which to know itself. So, what I am saying is that in a book like Red, White & Black, I am just being very categorically clear about the divisions. In Afropessimism, I am actually talking about the desire of a sentient being who cannot be allowed into an arena where people are recognized and incorporated, in Lacanian terms, as “contemporaries” of human beings. So, there is all this back and forth. I don’t think this speaking subject in Afropessimism ever achieves anything in particular. It is always struggling toward being a subject that can actually travel on a narrative arc and yet ultimately is an object that can never travel from dispossession to redemptive recovery. (shrink)

Alrededor del «año cero» de la era cristiana se cruzaron en la cosmopolita ciudad de Alejandría (Alexandria ad Aegiptum) las ideas de Necesidad (ananké), de tradición griega, y de Dios Creador, de tradición hebrea. Aquí tuvo lugar lo que consideramos «la primera gran revolución filosófica» sobre el modelo socrático platónico y que configuró una matriz para desarrollar la filosofía que llega hasta nuestra época: no se comienza por la opinión (doxa), sino por el Libro, lugar de la revelación de Dios, (...) que, a lo largo de los siglos, se irá sustituyendo por otro tipo de libros: constituciones, declaraciones de Derechos Humanos, historia, literatura patriótica, etc.; la riqueza desbordante del Libro se despliega a través del Logos en sus múltiples dimensiones (de especial relevancia es la figura de la Trinidad); un Logos mediador entre el Libro y la totalidad del Mundo y de las cosas. (shrink)

Este artículo supone la edición electrónica del libro homónimo publicado en 2006 por la editorial La Xara, de Simat de Valldigna (Valencia). Para los autores principales (filósofo e historiador) el estudio de las migraciones humanas se enfoca mejor desde la idea de ruta, cuyo análisis más potente se deriva, a su vez, del uso de categorías histórico-fenomenológicas, frente a otras posibles de menor rendimiento (sociológicas, psicológicas o metafísicas). Nos sitúan así en el ámbito de la filosofía de la historia. La (...) ruta es definida como una trayectoria que permite «unir y separar colectivamente (por contacto o contigüidad) sociedades, pueblos, culturas... y transformar así las relaciones entre los hombres, sus conocimientos sobre el mundo y los vínculos con las identidades que aún no se han incorporado a las rutas» (p. 29). Y la ruta es resultado incesante de la dialéctica entre las rutas históricas —del interior, religiosa, de la moneda, del desplazamiento, político-militar y de la energía—. Tales trayectorias y sus complementarias lanzan a la humanidad por el camino de la globalización. (shrink)

Este trabajo retoma la discusión acerca de la pertinencia de la teología en el espacio público, lo cual habría sido puesto en cuestión por la modernidad debido al vínculo de la teología con la religión. La religión, de perdurar, debía restringirse al ámbito de lo privado o de la conciencia, en sociedades cada vez más secularizadas y pluralistas. Sin embargo, el artículo no solo se refiere a la persistencia creativa de las religiones y de la teología en el espacio público, (...) sino incluso a la necesidad de un retorno de las espiritualidades y religiones, y de los discursos asociados a ellas, en aquellas sociedades desgastadas y carentes de sentido. Pero, sobre todo, se detiene en la emergencia y desarrollo creciente de nuevos espacios públicos: las plataformas y autopistas digitales, las redes sociales y todo ese conjunto de posibilidades que conlleva el “ciberespacio”. Es aquí donde se plantea un ineludible desafío para la teología: no se trata únicamente de servirse de estos nuevos espacios para difundir los propios saberes y hallazgos, o de reflexionar desde la fe acerca de estos nuevos ambientes; se trata, sobre todo, de ejercer la teología en esos espacios atendiendo a las coordenadas culturales que allí se están gestando. Del encuentro del Evangelio con la cultura digital han de surgir, entonces, nuevas formas de ser Iglesia, nuevas maneras de hacer teología y, sin duda, contenidos reformulados e, incluso, inéditos de la fe. (shrink)

A partir de uma análise crítica da teoria econômica da democracia de Downs, examinam-se, em termos do problema da "seleção adversa" de Ackerlof, os efeitos da assimetria de informação entre candidatos (com taxas diferentes de demagogia) e eleitores (com níveis diferentes de conhecimento), contra o pano de fundo da relação entre divisão de trabalho e democracia.