Debates on the moral status of human embryos have been highly and continuously controversial. For many, these controversies have turned into a fruitless scholastical endeavor. However, recent developments and insights in cellular biology have cast further doubt on one of the core points of dissent: the argument from potentiality. In this article we want to show in a nonscholastical way why this argument cannot possibly survive. Getting once more into the intricacies of status debates is a must in our eyes. (...) Not merely intellectual coherence but the standing and self-understanding of current stem cell research might profit from finally taking leave of the argument from potentiality. (shrink)

Según la noción clásica el derecho es el objeto de la justicia; también clásicamente se dice que el ius es lo justo, lo debido. Según esto, el ius naturale es lo justo que se funda en la naturaleza y es lo debido por naturaleza. Frente a estas nociones clásicas Thomas Hobbes define al ius naturale como la libertad que cada hombre tiene de usar su propio poder como quiera, para la conservación de su propia naturaleza, es decir, de su vida. (...) También podemos marcar la diferencia entre la concepción clásica de la ley natural como dictamen de la razón práctica que ordena al hombre hacia el fin inscripto en su naturaleza, permitiendo reconocer el bien y el mal afin de realizar el primero y evitar el último, de la noción moderna hobbesiana que concibe la lex naturalis como norma general que obliga a realizar lo que preserve mejor su vida u omitir lo que pueda destruirla o privarle de los medios de conservarla. El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo y porqué se llega a estas diferencias tan marcadas. (shrink)

The induction period is considered one of the most difficult in a teacher’s career. In Israel, support systems for beginning teachers include a learning community and a mentoring process, over a 2-year period. The study was based on self-determination theory and examined how support for BTs’ psychological needs and exploration from the LC facilitator and teacher-mentor contributed to their functioning. The study was conducted over 2 years during which BTs participated in LCs and were accompanied by a teacher-mentor. Questionnaires were (...) administered to Bedouin-Arab and Jewish teachers, 308 interns in the first year, and 205 new teachers in the second. Results of SEM analysis indicated that supporting BTs’ needs and exploration by LC facilitators in both years predicted their autonomous motivation, which in turn predicted positive feelings and satisfaction in the LC. The LC facilitators’ support also predicted the BTs’ autonomous motivation in teaching, which was also predicted by the teacher-mentors’ support. This in turn positively predicted the BTs’ sense of competence and self-actualization, and negatively predicted burnout. In both years, autonomous motivation mediated the association between the support the BTs received, and teacher outcomes in the LC and school. No significant differences were found between the two cultures. The effects found in the second year are above and beyond the effects of support from the LC facilitators and teacher-mentors in the first year. The study indicates the importance of combining multiple induction programs over time and highlights the importance of supporting BTs’ needs during the induction period. (shrink)

In Tractatus Logico‐Philosophicus (TLP), Wittgenstein gave ethics the same semantic status as logic. This paper first investigates this claim from the perspective of Wittgenstein’s lifelong semantic framework. This reveals that ethical sentences are meaningless expressions, which can only be used to ostensively point out conditions of meaningfulness. Secondly, the paper assesses the implications of this conclusion for understanding the seven cryptic remarks on value and ethics in TLP. Using the connection between will and value in TLP and will and sentence (...) interpretation in Philosophical Investigations, it is suggested that Wittgenstein held lifelong views on value and ethics. (shrink)

This symposium issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is devoted to the convening of the national public health law conference, Practical Approaches to Critical Challenges, on October 10-12, 2012, in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was co-sponsored by the Network for Public Health Law and the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics with generous support provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, de Beaumont Foundation, California Endowment, and Healthcare Georgia Foundation.With the support of those organizations and the (...) dedicated efforts of the individuals mentioned below, the conference focused on building effective interactions between attorneys and public health practitioners in order to:•examine practical legal approaches to address priority public health issues;•learn about helpful public health law resources and evidence-based research;•discuss public health legal questions and answers; and•build partnerships to accomplish public health objectives and foster innovation. (shrink)

The denomination of personal being as lord of time signifies that the essence of human being appears in the condition of essential anteposition related to time. According to it, the human being disposes of time in presential articulation, which depends on the anthropological real distinction of essentia and esse. This study includes the metaphysic examination or pure values of before and after and it tries to solve the difficulties in the order of pure thinking of time.

Se continúa el estudio sobre el tema del tiempo en la filosofía de Polo comenzando en la Superación del tiempo . En el contexto de la gnoseología poliana, es analizada la diversidad de las objetivaciones del tiempo, así como la función cognoscitiva desempeñada por las nociones modales en semejante articulación.

I study the senses in which it is possible to understand the beginning, focusing on the beginning of thinking as a presential articulation of time. This paper is a continuation of earlier studies.

El presente trabajo constituye una introducción al tema del tiempo el Polo, en relación con la posición que tal noción mantiene en la filosofía fenomenológica. Husserl propone el abandono de la suposición de la existencia real de los objetos, fundándolos en la presentificación. Con ello plantea la superación del tiempo en unos términos que no evitan la 'constitución' de los objetos de la conciencia. En Heidegger la temporalidad es la última condición a priori de la comprensión del ser. El abandono (...) de la presencia en Polo alcanza distinciones de realidad connotantes de diversidad de dimensiones metódicas y temáticas del tiempo. (shrink)

This article introduces the doctrine of the passions in the Hobbesian work, showing its debt with tradition, especially the scholastic Aristotelian one, even if, at the same time, it offers some breach features with this tradition, which are also analysed. In addition, the fundamentals of imagination manifest themselves in the appetitive process, in Hobbes's doctrine as well as in the scholastic Aristotelian tradition, showing their similarities and differences.

En este texto se describe que este número monográfico de Studia Poliana está dedicado enteramente a la comparación entre la teoría del conocimiento de L. Polo y la Crítica de la razón pura de Kant. Se hace además una valoración filosófica del empleo de dicho procedimiento como método filosófico.

L. Polo's doctrine of the first principles is analized focussing the study on causality as an indicator of the trascendentality of being and of its real distinction regarding essence. The concept of totality has its origins in the nonrealization of trascendental value of causality.

ZusammenfassungDas Potenzialitätsargument ist das wohl wichtigste Argument der Gegner der verbrauchenden Embryonenforschung und des Schwangerschaftsabbruchs. Weil schon der frühe Embryo eine potenzielle Person sei, so das Argument, besitze er bereits den moralischen Status einer Person. Mit der Möglichkeit, aus differenzierten somatischen Zellen „ethisch unproblematische“ induzierte pluripotente Stammzellen zu gewinnen, schien diese PA-Problematik zumindest für die Forschung umgangen. Indessen zeigen neuere wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse, dass auch aus pluripotenten Zellen neue Organismen erwachsen können. Der Beitrag argumentiert dafür, dass nach der Logik von PA (...) nicht nur iPS-Zellen, sondern auch die somatischen Zellen, aus denen diese entstehen, als potenzielle Personen mit Würde und Lebensrecht anzusehen wären. Aufgrund dieser Implikationen ist PA auch nicht als Argument für ein Lebensrecht von Embryonen geeignet. (shrink)

The study focuses on the emotional-motivational experiences of Bedouin-Arab beginning teachers during the induction period, from the perspective of Self-Determination Theory. A phenomenological study was employed. Seventy-four teachers participated, 62 of whom completed open questionnaires, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 other participants. The findings indicate that the beginning teachers reported experiences of coercion, exploitation, and gender-based discrimination. They also experienced a judgmental attitude, lack of assistance, and difficulties with students, and their sense of relatedness to the school is (...) impaired due to cultural factors. As a result, they expressed controlled motivation, a sense of burnout, stress, impaired well-being and disengagement in school. They also suppressed their students' autonomy. At the same time, the findings also show that when the teachers experience a sense of need satisfaction, they integrate well into the school. These findings indicate the necessity for establishing a need-supportive school environment for beginning teachers during their induction period. (shrink)

Undoubtedly, Ewin's view of Thomas Hobbes's moral philosophy offers a fresh counterpart to most current analytical readings of Hobbes by recent American scholars, such as Gregory Kavka and Jean Hampton. Staying close to Hobbes's text, this Australian professor is continuously in debate with these two authors, criticizing their game theoretic reconstruction of Hobbesian philosophy. Ewin's main purpose seems to be the revival of Hobbes's reputation as a moral philosopher.

Este artículo contrasta el método del abandono del límite con la analogía de Tomás de Aquino, ofreciendo una descripción global de esta última, en orden a la determinación del significado y el estatuto gnoseológico de la noción de ente. Examina en los respectivos planteamientos el valor y el alcance metafísico de la potencia, de la articulación abstracta del tiempo y de la “entelécheia”.

Leibnizian senses of temporality are analized, in order to assess that Leibniz’s formal and a priori notion of time is based on his own modal metaphysics. In this way, we can say that time constitutes the notion that allows the modalities articulation (Possibility-Necessity-Contingency) as well as the role of modal concepts allows to control the time.

The mental limit may be described as formal fullness of time in accordance with its conditional character in relation with intelligible essence. The metaphysic knowledge includes a methodic exclusion confining time under thematic position in order to its abandonment. The abandonment of formal fullness of time notices being. As a conditional antecedent of thought object, the limit is behind practical action and it is trespassed in it.

This paper studies time in Hegel’s thought according to the interpretation of the topic in Polo’s philosophy. Two senses of the Hegelian time are distinguished as well as it is explained the dialectic development from one to the other. The first sense is tiem understood as the empty form of become, and the second one is the time of the spirit, the pure negative variation which may be designated in modal terms as whole possibility.