Depuis quelques années, un mouvement d'idées venu des Etats-Unis, qualifié de "Révolution transhumaniste", a pris un essor considérable. Demain, on vivra 200 ou 300 ans... et bien sûr en parfaite santé : l'immortalité n'est pas loin! Ces prophéties s'appuient sur les avancées réelles de l'intelligence artificielle et de la recherche en biologie, en particulier dans le domaine du vieillissement, passant ainsi allègrement de l'homme préservé et/ou augmenté à un véritable homme dieu. Mais dès que l'on s'intéresse au cerveau, les données, (...) particulièrement complexes, ne vont pas dans leur sens. Il existe une contradiction criante entre la jeunesse éternelle promise et la réalité actuelle, marquée en particulier par les échecs thérapeutiques répétés dans les maladies neurodégénératives. Forts de leur expérience et de leur autorité dans le domaine des neurosciences et du vieillissement, Danièle Tritsch et Jean Mariani dénoncent l'imposture du transhumanisme et ses excès ou délires, données scientifiques à l'appui. De façon accessible et vivante, avec de nombreux exemples de la vie quotidienne, ils démontrent que les efforts lents et soutenus de la recherche biologique et médicale - auxquels contribuera l'intelligence artificielle - restent la seule voie pour comprendre le fonctionnement du cerveau, le maintenir en bonne santé (cerveau préservé), le doter de capacités nouvelles (cerveau augmenté) et, dans un délai non prévisible, guérir ou stabiliser les maladies neurodégénératives (cerveau réparé). L'homme dieu, quant à lui, ne s'appuie sur rien de tangible. (shrink)

Evoquant au passage l'axolotl, ce poisson mexicain qui nous ressemble, comme le jaguar de la brousse brésilienne ou le loup des contes enfantins, discutant avec Platon, Albert Einstein ou... Michael Jackson, se prenant à l'occasion pour Sherlock Holmes, le narrateur écrit dix lettres à sa " belle amie". Qui correspondent à autant de moments clés du " voyage" à travers le temps accompli par cette étrange espèce animale qu'on appelle les hommes. Contrairement à l'idée reçue, notre espèce se caractérise non (...) pas par sa supériorité sur le reste de la création mais par sa forme inachevée, sa faiblesse "naturelle" constitutive. Un "manque de nature ", donc, que seule peut compenser la culture, autrement dit les discours et récits comme les sciences et techniques qui permettent à l'être humain d'agir sur le monde pour mieux l'habiter. A moins qu'en voulant construire une " surhumanité " réservée à quelques-uns l'on ne mette en jeu la survie même de l'espèce... Peut-être n'est-il pas trop tard pour non seulement s'indigner mais aussi résister, nous dit Dany-Robert Dufour en conclusion de ce beau texte lisible par tout le monde. A travers lequel il poursuit en philosophe son travail de critique radicale mais constructive du monde contemporain. (shrink)

The problems of racism and racially motivated violence in predominantly African American communities in the United States are complex, multifactorial, and historically rooted. While these problems are also deeply morally troubling, bioethicists have not contributed substantially to addressing them. Concern for justice has been one of the core commitments of bioethics. For this and other reasons, bioethicists should contribute to addressing these problems. We consider how bioethicists can offer meaningful contributions to the public discourse, research, teaching, training, policy development, and (...) academic scholarship in response to the alarming and persistent patterns of racism and implicit biases associated with it. To make any useful contribution, bioethicists will require preparation and should expect to play a significant role through collaborative action with others. (shrink)

In this paper evidence will be provided that Wittgenstein’s intuition about the logic of colour relations is to be taken near-literally. Starting from the Aristotelian oppositions between propositions as represented in the logical square of oppositions on the one hand and oppositions between primary and secondary colors as represented in an octahedron on the other, it will be shown algebraically how definitions for the former carry over to the realm of colour categories and describe very precisely the relations obtaining between (...) the known primary and secondary colours. Linguistic evidence for the reality of the resulting isomorphism will be provided. For example, the vertices that resist natural single-item lexicalization in logic (such as the O-corner, for which there is no natural lexicalization *nall (=not all)) are not naturally lexicalized in the realm of colour terms either. From the perspective of the architecture of cognition, the isomorphism suggests that the foundations of logical oppositions and negation may well be much more deeply rooted in the physiological structure of human cognition than is standardly assumed. (shrink)

We intend to present a reading of Franklin Leopoldo e Silva’s Bergson: intuição e discurso filosófico from the perspective of the problem of expression, emphasizing how the methodological and discursive issue in philosophy is resolved by overcoming traditional problems related to the subject-object distinction, privileging now interiority, a genetic method, suggestion, and philosophical attitude, which we will finally try to qualify as generous. Thus, we aim not only to reveal Franklin Leopoldo e Silva’s Bergson, but also the Bergsonism present in (...) the Brazilian philosopher. (shrink)

Recientemente se falló la famosa sentencia del Tribunal de Estrasburgo de 21 de octubre de 2013, aplicada a España, en torno a la doctrina Parot, que trae de cabeza a juristas, tertuliano/as, personajes políticos, y a la ciudadanía en general. Ciertamente cuando se firma un Convenio Internacional, cuando se ratifica, ese Derecho y ese compromiso firmado por el Estado, pasa a ser vinculante, como no puede ser de otro modo, pues hubiera bastado —de no estar de acuerdo— con no f (...) irmarlo en el momento de su presentación “oficial” en el marco internacional. Ya sabemos las consecuencias que ha supuesto la aplicación automática de ese derecho positivo. Pero este no ha sido el único compromiso internacional adquirido por el Estado español en estos últimos años, ni será el único que plantee serias consecuencias por su inaplicación... (shrink)

When quality in an organisational context includes more employee-oriented arrangements and systems, the introduction of a new relationship pattern between employers and employees can rightly be considered a quality program. In this article we describe the shifting roles of HRM and 'people management' in general within a changing environmental and organisational context. We present an original 'FIT' organisational model, in which the role of HRM as 'partner-champion' is highlighted, and which was implemented during the 1990s in a multinational company. More (...) specifically, we describe the company background, the motives for this new approach, the basic principles and the main phases of implementation of this new 'social contract'. (shrink)

The language of rights is increasingly used to regulate access to health care and allocation of resources in the health care field. The right to health has been grounded on different theories of justice. Scholars within the liberal tradition have grounded the right to health care on Rawls's two principles of justice. Thus, the right to health care has been justified as being one of the basic liberties, as enabling equality of opportunity, or as being justified by the maximin principle. (...) In this article, Filc analyzes—from a radical egalitarian standpoint—the limitations of the different attempts to ground an equal right to health on Rawls's theory of justice and offers a first approximation to a radical egalitarian formulation of the right to health. (shrink)

La situación de la lectura en la España de principios del siglo XX cambió gracias a la aparición de las colecciones de literatura breve. Éstas se convirtieron en un producto altamente rentable. Enrique Fajardo, más conocido como “Fabián Vidal”, fue un periodista y escritor granadino nacido en 1883 y muerto exiliado en México aproximadamente en 1948. Redactor jefe en La Correspondencia de España y director de La Voz, su obra no se limita a la actividad periodística, sino que también cultivó (...) la creación literaria. Éste es el caso de su novela breve En el aire, que apareció publicada en la colección Los Contemporáneos en 1924. Esta obra ofrece el interés de estar inserta en el contexto anteriormente descrito, siendo un buen ejemplo de la confluencia del periodismo y la literatura. (shrink)

In this research, a sliding mode regulator with sine mapping is suggested for the stabilization of electricity generators being affected by magnet interaction nonlinearities and generator nonlinearities. To reach this goal, our suggested regulator has the following contributions: it starts from the sliding mode regulator with the modifications that the saturation mapping is used to reach a smoother performance instead of the signum mapping, and the sine mapping is applied to reach an upper bound in the proportional gain error, it (...) is used to reach some chosen constant behaviors for the angle position, angle speed, and current in the electricity generators, and its stabilization is ensured based on the Lyapunov approach. We show the simulation of the suggested regulator in two electricity generators. (shrink)

O artigo visa desenvolver a noção de duração na _Ética_ de Espinosa, mostrando que seu entendimento passa pela discussão de uma outra noção, central na filosofia de Espinosa, qual seja, a noção de conatus. A partir, então, da análise aqui pretendida – análise essa que passará por um estudo sobre a existência, a essência, a substância e o modo, além da noção de definição – será possível uma compreensão positiva da indefinição, e um esclarecimento, enfim, do que Espinosa entende por (...) duração, bem como por conatus. (shrink)

The article aims to, from the study of several writings of Pascal,return to what the seventeenth century thinker would have consideredabout time and eternity: what they would be, if and how they wouldrelate. For this, it will be firstly outlined a course that will go through thestudy of the human condition, describing its situation of disproportion and misery, and the condition of the things of worldly life, in addition to man, until the understanding of the existence of another order is (...) reached. This will then mark a course from time to eternity, or, as it will be seen, from flow to presence. (shrink)

We analyzed the processing of noun-noun metaphors, which have been relatively understudied, compared to other types of figurative expressions, such as X is Y metaphors (e.g., He...

This is a follow-up article of Strauss 2011. In order to transcend the shortcomings present in the dialectical legacy regarding normativity, this article further explores key elements within the dialectical tradition focused on the basic motive of nature and freedom and the effect it had on modern social contract theories which aimed at reconstructing human society from its “atoms,” the individuals. The transition to an alternative approach commences with a discussion of the distinction between conditions and what is conditioned. It (...) concerns a correlation found within all aspects of reality, namely that between the law side or norm side on the one hand and the factual side on the other. The basic assumption of this alternative view is found in the idea of ontic normativity which is rooted in a non-reductionist ontology. Against this broader background shortcomings in Kelsen’s theory of law are briefly traced to the dialectic of the causal and non-causal, before a positive characterization of the concept of a principle is given. It turned out that it is a compound basic concept in which terms from different modal aspects of reality are encapsulated at once. The recognition of ontic normativity therefore also enables a distinct methodology, the transcendental-empirical method, which makes it possible to distinguish between the pre-positive nature of a principle, as a universal and constant starting-point for human action, and the historically varying ways in which such a principle can be made valid, through a competent organ disposing over an accountable will and capable to interpret the unique historical circumstances in which the principle has to be positivized . The nature of modal norms is highlighted in terms of various examples, such as jural, historical, logical and aesthetic principles, with special reference to Derrida’s understanding of credit as economic trust or economic faith. In order to make this transcendental-empirical method understandable a more detailed account of the nature of modal aspects is given. The emphasis on ontic normativity also helps us to steer clear of conceptions of natural law, historicism and the shortcomings present in the idea of a social construction of the world. The guiding perspective flowing from this analysis is that modal norms can be articulated through an analysis of analogical structural moments on the law sides of the normative aspects. The last part of this article briefly introduces the distinction between modal and typical norms without entering into a discussion of the latter. (shrink)

Ignoring primitive terms leads to an infinite regress. The alternative is to account for an intuitive understanding into the meaning of such terms. The current investigation proceeds on the basis of an idea of the structure of the various modes of being within which concrete entities function. Examples of primtive terms are given from disciplines such as mathematics, physics and logic and they are related to the general idea of a modal aspect. It is argued that primitive terms are not (...) isolated but reveal their meaning only through their interconnections with other primitive terms that are embedded in other modal aspects. However, although primitive terms are found within the various aspects, the meaning of an aspect only comes to expression through its coherence with other aspects, evinced in modal analogies that are qualified by the core meaning of an aspect. There appears to be two options, either reduce what is irreducible or merely provide synonymous terms for given primitives. The former happens when other unique terms are used to define a specific one and the latter when the attempted ‘definitions’ revert to terms with which the original terms could be meaningfully replaced. It is been pointed out that the coherence between primitives invites every academic discipline to account for the meaning attached to the analogies of primitive terms it is employing, without exploring this additional theme any further. (shrink)

Since the discovery of the paradoxes of Zeno, the problem of infinity was dominated by the meaning of endlessness—a view also adhered to by Herman Dooyeweerd. Since Aristotle, philosophers and mathematicians distinguished between the potential infinite and the actual infinite. The main aim of this article is to highlight the strengths and limitations of Dooyeweerd’s philosophy for an understanding of the foundations of mathematics, including Dooyeweerd’s quasi-substantial view of the natural numbers and his view of the other types of numbers (...) as functions of natural numbers. Dooyeweerd’s rejection of the actual infinite is turned upside down by the exploring of an alternative perspective on the interrelations between number and space in support of the idea of infinite totalities, or infinite wholes. No other trend has succeeded in justifying the mathematical use of the actual infinite on the basis of an analysis of the intermodal coherence between number and space. (shrink)

The economics profession has become a favourite punching bag in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Economists are widely reviled and their influence derided by the general public. Yet their services have never been in greater demand. To unravel the paradox, we need to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of economics. This book offers both a defence and critique of economics. Economists' way of thinking about social phenomena has great advantages. But the flexible, contextual nature of economics is (...) also its Achilles' heel in the hands of clumsy practitioners. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar un análisis bioético claro de las consecuencias que tiene la legalización de la eutanasia sobre tres sectores: la sociedad, los enfermos y el personal médico. Para plasmarlo se desarrolla un análisis crítico a partir de un caso reciente de público conocimiento, además de una amplia revisión bibliográfica en torno a la temática. Así, se presenta de manera práctica y cercana el impacto de la legalización de la eutanasia. Se argumenta y concluye que el camino (...) hacia una muerte digna no es la eutanasia, sino un acompañamiento activo e integral del paciente. (shrink)

Tenemos la oportunidad de dar a conocer algunas de las cartas que Alain Guy dirige a María Zambrano en el exilio, las primeras se las envía a Roma y las últimas que vamos a comentar el profesor le escribe a su casa cerca del monte Jura. En este artículo damos noticias de algunas de sus cartas, hasta ahora inéditas.

Este ensayo reflexiona sobre el tipo de política cultural que una sociedad necesita. Defiende la idea de que la producción cultural, desde la subjetividad, es esencial para la diversidad. Analiza la importancia central de una política pública sobre la cultura, en la cual destaca el derecho a la información. Tras el discurso teórico, se examina la política pública de información en Colombia, donde se ponen de manifiesto unas estrategias que van en contra de la pluralidad y de una producción cultural (...) realmente democrática.This essay thinks about the type of cultural politics that a society needs. It defends the idea of that the cultural production, from the subjectivity, is essential for the diversity. It analyzes the central importance of a public politics on the culture, in which the right stands out to the information. After the theoretical speech, the public politics of information is examined in Colombia, where they put of manifest on a few strategies that go in opposition to the plurality and a cultural really democratic production. (shrink)

C’est un vieux court-métrage en noir et blanc qui ne cesse de tressauter dans ma tête depuis mon adolescence. Cela débute généralement à l’aube, entre deux sommeils. Le film se termine par une scène en apparence banale : quelques secondes où l’on voit deux hommes se serrer la main. L’image est un peu floue du fait que la scène est filmée par une mémoire émue. * Quelques rapides traits pour situer l’événement. Les deux hommes vivent sur des continents séparés. L’un (...) est en Europe ; l’autre, en .. (shrink)

The hypothesis of this article is that Sarah was the equal of Abraham in establishing the faith of the Hebrew nation, and therefore, she was also a party to a constitutive covenant that was most likely concealed and omitted from the canonical version of the Bible. First, this article introduces research claims regarding Sarah’s central role as a formative leading matriarch. The article then goes on to examine the significance of the tradition of the covenant with Abraham in terms of (...) cultural symbolism. And finally, the article tries to identify this symbolic significance in the Hebrew scriptures in a feminine context, assuming that ritual or ceremonial expressions may be associated with Sarah’s covenant as a founding matriarch in Israel’s religion and heritage. (shrink)

This article examines the character of Miriam the prophetess and raises questions regarding the contradictions and contrasts in the way she is portrayed in the biblical text. Contrary to some researchers, who argued that Miriam was not actually a prophetess and did not deliver the word of God, this essay argues that Miriam was indeed equal to her brother Moses, both as a prophetess and as a messenger, equal in both essence and spiritual role. This essay aims to reveal, using (...) the approach of cultural symbolism, the female parts of the story and the tradition of Miriam, which were censored and silenced in the hegemonic text. The essay aims to prove that Miriam, like Moses, was present at moments of revelation and was sent on the mission of leading and delivering the Hebrew nation. (shrink)

Pretendemos comentar os primeiros quatro capítulos da segunda parte dos _Pensamentos Metafísicos_ de Espinosa, dedicados, respectivamente, à eternidade, à unidade, à imensidão e à imutabilidade de Deus; sugerindo, ademais, uma leitura geral para a obra em questão como um todo. Procuramos, desse modo, investigar o sentido das demonstrações espinosanas nesses capítulos, propondo hipóteses para a estruturação delas bem como a, por vezes, insuficiência – justificada – de algumas delas, enfatizando, nisso tudo e dentre outros aspectos, o caráter _polêmico_ da obra.

O percurso argumentativo do Discurso de Metafísica encontra um momento de tensão quando se atinge o artigo 13, pois, após abordar Deus e a substância individual com caracterizações que induzem ao fatalismo, Leibniz procura afirmar a contingência e a liberdade tanto divina quanto humana. O exame que se segue tem como objetivo a descrição dessa dificuldade, bem como a apresentação de tentativas de solucioná-la – articulando as noções e respostas dadas no Discurso de Metafísica e outros textos de Leibniz, e (...) buscando sempre manter uma coerência em relação à sua filosofia. (shrink)

Virtue Epistemology, as developed over the last 43 years by Ernest Sosa (1980, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2021), known as virtue reliabilism, has proven to be a highly explanatory account. This model posits that knowledge should be understood as, not mere true belief, but apt belief, to the extent that it is attained through the manifestation of epistemic virtues or competencies of the agent. However, it faces challenges when applied to the analysis of irreducibly collective knowledge, that is, the type of (...) knowledge attributed to groups understood as a whole over and above of its members, as described by non-summativist group epistemology (Gilbert, 1987, 1989, 2013, 2023; Tollefsen, 2004, 2015; Lackey, 2021). These problems can be summarized in what Jesper Kallestrup has identified as a crucial disanalogy (2020): groups, unlike individuals, lack their own seat, in Sosa’s terms, upon which cognitive competence is based. In this work, I develop a solution to the problem posed by this disanalogy, focusing on the relationship between the concept of virtue and the sources of normativity that provide judgments with substantial content, both moral and practical, and epistemic. My strategy at this point consists of two steps. The first is to analyze the family of constitutivist strategies within metaethical constructivism. Despite the virtues of the models analyzed, none seem to offer conceptual tools that comprehensively resolve the relationship between the manifestation of virtue and the normative content open to evaluation. Therefore, secondly, I develop, based on the structure that underpins the constitutivist strategy presented in the previous section, an original model, virtue constitutivism drawn on Spinoza, whose result is promising for the proposed task. Thus, after applying the conceptual framework of my virtue constitutivism to virtue reliabilism, we find that the latter retains its explanatory power, despite revising the conceptual structure of the notion of epistemic virtue on which it is based. Having done this, I apply the obtained result to the problem of the crucial disanalogy to resolve it, thereby showing that non-summativist group epistemology is open to future developments. (shrink)

Con la aparición de este número dedicado —como no puede ser de otro modo— a Francisco Suárez, en la vida de su tiempo y en la del nuestro, con motivo del cuarto centenario de su fallecimiento, ACFS inaugura una nueva etapa —la tercera— que pretende, además de aprovechar este homenaje, afrontar los nuevos retos planteados por la sociedad-economía del conocimiento y sus variados indicadores —formales— de medición de calidad. Es cierto que lo que marca la calidad, al menos la científica, (...) debería sobrepasar cualquier requisito formal, pero más allá de lo que siempre debió y debe ser lo importante, el fondo, las revistas jurídicas han tenido que reinventarse para cumplir con los requerimientos de indexación exigidos por las reconocidas Bases de Datos. (shrink)

La violencia de género sigue estando en la agenda política y legislativa delos Estados debido a que supone un grave atentado y un ultraje contra losderechos de las mujeres, como ciudadanas. Buena parte del problema desu abordaje jurídico y político reside en la tozuda incomprensión de quela Violencia contra las mujeres es discriminación con mayúsculas y que nopuede acometerse, en ningún caso, de manera sectorial. La gravedad de estavictimización secundaria e institucional añadida a las mujeres y menoresvíctimas de la violencia (...) de género, viene de la mano de la ignorancia en lametodología de género y de las especiales características de la violenciacontra las mujeres, de la descoordinación, de la falta de recursos económicosy humanos, de la falta de voluntad política, y como no, de una cienciajurídica que sigue aplicando patrones y cánones no revisados ni falsados enel marco de la violencia de género. En este artículo evaluaremos algunos delos esfuerzos legislativos recientemente aprobados y repasaremos algunosde los retos que quedan por acometer. (shrink)