Neste artigo, abordamos a diferenciação entre trabalho e obra no pensamento de Hannah Arendt, que, embora pareçam para a modernidade conceitos similares ou até idênticos, para a filósofa esta diferenciação é crucial para uma abordagem crítica necessária da condição humana durante e após o século XX. Isto posto, expomos o conceito marxista de trabalho e a posterior crítica feita por Arendt para construir o seu pensamento político acerca da humanidade no pós-guerra.

Background: This study developed a photo and video database of 4-to-6-year-olds expressing the seven induced and posed universal emotions and a neutral expression. Children participated in photo and video sessions designed to elicit the emotions, and the resulting images were further assessed by independent judges in two rounds. Methods: In the first round, two independent judges, experts in the Facial Action Coding System, firstly analysed 3,668 emotions facial expressions stimuli from 132 children. Both judges reached 100% agreement regarding 1,985 stimuli, (...) which were then selected for a second round of analysis between judges 3 and 4. Results: The result was 1,985 stimuli were produced from 124 participants. A Kappa index of 0.70 and an accuracy of 73% between experts were observed. Lower accuracy was found for emotional expression by 4-year-olds than 6-year-olds. Happiness, disgust and contempt had the highest agreement. After a sub-analysis evaluation of all four judges, 100% agreement was reached for 1,381 stimuli which compound the ChildEFES database with 124 participants and 51% induced photographs. The number of stimuli of each emotion were: 87 for neutrality, 363 for happiness, 170 for disgust, 104 for surprise, 152 for fear, 144 for sadness, 157 for anger 157, and 183 for contempt. Conclusions: The findings show that this photo and video database can facilitate research on the mechanisms involved in early childhood recognition of facial emotions in children, contributing to the understanding of facial emotion recognition deficits which characterise several neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to indicate in a contemporary perspective how transhumanism fits into religious discourse as, in seeking to resignify human existence and lead humanity to a posthuman dimension, it finds roots in the ancient gnostic movements, transforming itself into a new Contemporary religion. Given this, we will first try to identify common ground between Gnosticism and Transhumanism, especially the idea linked to the denial of corporeality. In a second moment, we will show the dangers that transhumanism (...) faces when it intends to give man powers to modify its existence, dispensing with the figure of the creator God. (shrink)

Este artigo trata da problematização da escrita dos pareceres descritivos de crianças pequenas em relação à questão de gênero em um Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil, da cidade de Curitiba, a partir das relações entre docência e religião. Os dados da pesquisa foram coletados a partir de questionários, observação, entrevista e análise dos pareceres entre os meses de agosto e dezembro de 2018. Objetivou-se verificar se a vivência religiosa das professoras influencia nas decisões sobre as escritas. A análise ocorreu a (...) partir de Pierre Bourdieu e Gimeno Sacristán, para as noções de socialização, habitus e docência, além de estudos do campo de gênero na educação e da sociologia da religião. As escritas dos pareceres foram divididas em: ações, preferências e personalidades de meninos e meninas. Os resultados indicam que as noções de gênero internalizadas pelas professoras orientam sua escrita e a concepção binária de gênero tradicionalmente aceita pela sociedade foi mais evidente nas professoras com uma vivência mais institucionalizada com a religião. Por fim, a visão dos papeis de mulheres e de homens, influenciada pela religião, interfere nas visões de como enxergam as meninas e os meninos na instituição e precisam ser reveladas para contribuir nesse processo de socialização profissional. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo mostrar o novo status ontológico e fenomenológico daresponsabilidade a partir de uma releitura do animal na obra de Hans Jonas. Neste trabalho,sustentamos que a responsabilidade deve ser entendida como um degrau presente na escala dofenômeno vida. Por ser uma escala que acumula, conserva e compartilha as características de outrosseres, nos parece possível afirmar que a responsabilidade, mesmo que em estado latente, deve estargerminalmente prefigurada em outros seres vivos. Nosso problema de pesquisa coloca o seguintequestionamento: (...) se a responsabilidade está contida na escala de desenvolvimento e aptidões do ser, ede acordo com os pressupostos jonasianos, seguindo a lógica da biologia aristotélica, de que ascamadas mais baixas são conservadas nas superiores, seria possível pensar numa manifestação daresponsabilidade nos níveis mais baixos de tal escala? A fim de tentar responder nossa problemática enosso objetivo, seguiremos o seguinte caminho: num primeiro momento, apresentaremos como aliberdade é o conceito guia fundamental para interpretarmos o fenômeno vida, veremos que quandoJonas amplia tal conceito como sendo pertencente a todo ser, o autor provoca uma revolução ontológicana filosofia, causando uma ferida no antropocentrismo moderno, uma vez que até então, o conceito deliberdade era restrito a esfera humana; num segundo momento, analisaremos como os conceitos demovimento, percepção e sensação se tornaram características próprias do reino animal e como estesseparam o mundo vegetal do animal; por fim, num terceiro momento, defenderemos que na própria obrajonasiana existem certos conceitos que exprimem nossa tese de que a responsabilidade se manifesta deforma latente e germinal no âmbito animal, principalmente nos conceitos de alteridade e sentimento, queos animais têm para com seus próximos. (shrink)

Transhumanisms, as cultural, philosophical, and ideological movements that permeate various areas of technical and scientific knowledge, have caused a rupture in Western philosophical praxis by asserting the possibility of genetic enhancement of the human being through biotechnoscientific procedures. However, the biophysical alterations advocated by transhumanists are not limited to the somatic and psychic realms; they encompass humanity as a whole, including moral aspects. In this sense, the aim of this article is to demonstrate the ethical and political impacts concerning human (...) moral enhancement, highlighting to what extent our freedom may be threatened by such practices. After all, is it possible to genetically enhance our morality? Should we enhance our dispositional moral traits through biotechnoscientific procedures? Faced with these questions, we will first analyze how human moral enhancement can interfere with our freedom as human beings, and then we will examine how human enhancement has become a moral urgency for transhumanists. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por finalidade apresentar alguns aspectos relacionados à questão do corpo na filosofia de Michel Foucault. Para isso, a nossa investigação se dará em dois momentos: no primeiro momento analisaremos a relação do corpo com a medicina para percebermos como a visão deste saber sobre o corpo se modificou a partir do século XVII, veremos que há uma relação entre o olhar médico e o corpo em si. O segundo momento será dedicado a uma explicitação acerca da relação (...) entre poder e corpo; será possível notar que as práticas subjetivas são determinadas a partir de dispositivos culturais próprios de uma realidade cultural. No esteio disso, o poder disciplinar, que tem o seu ideal no panóptico, foi elemento preponderante para o projeto de domesticação dos corpos. Enfim, não é possível afirmar uma teoria sobre o corpo, no pensamento do filósofo francês, pois a sua investigação traz à tona a complexidade das estruturas culturais que determinam as diversas percepções a respeito desse corpo. (shrink)

As considerações que faremos neste artigo vai analisar como o metabolismo se torna um mecanismo que representa o primeiro gesto de liberdade da vida na filosofia de Hans Jonas. A centralidade da discussão está no fato de que a vida é um processo de manutenção de si onde a liberdade está presente desde as estruturas mais simples do organismo às mais desenvolvidas. O nosso objetivo é o de mostrar, a partir de uma análise das ideias de liberdade e necessidade, como (...) a vida se abre para uma transcendência ou, tecnicamente falando, para uma nova ontologia. (shrink)

The definitions and conceptualizations of health, and the management of healthcare have been challenged by the current global scenarios (e.g., new diseases, new geographical distribution of diseases, effects of climate change on health, etc.) and by the ongoing scholarship in humanities and science. In this paper we question the mainstream definition of health adopted by the WHO—‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO in Preamble to the constitution of (...) the World Health Organization as adopted by the international health conference, The World Health Organization, 1948)—and its role in providing tools to understand what health is in the contemporary context. More specifically, we argue that this context requires to take into account the role of the environment both in medical theory and in the healthcare practice. To do so, we analyse WHO documents dated 1984 and 1986 which define health as ‘coping with the environment’. We develop the idea of ‘coping with the environment’, by focusing on two cardinal concepts: adaptation in public health and adaptivity in philosophy of biology. We argue that the notions of adaptation and adaptivity can be of major benefit for the characterization of health, and have practical implications. We explore some of these implications by discussing two recent case studies of adaptivity in public health, which can be valuable to further develop adaptive strategies in the current pandemic scenario: community-centred care and microbiologically healthier buildings. (shrink)

En este trabajo presentamos los fundamentos teóricos de una propuesta para el abordaje didáctico de concepciones teleológicas de los y las estudiantes en la enseñanza de la Biología. La propuesta en cuestión supone acudir al modo en que Darwin lidió con las concepciones teleológicas dominantes entre sus contemporáneos, para proponer una estrategia general a través de la cual se podría incidir sobre las intuiciones teleológicas de los estudiantes, de modo que se pueda facilitar el aprendizaje de la teoría de la (...) selección natural. Sugeriremos también que esta propuesta implica un modo original de apelar a la analogía entre el cambio teórico en la Historia de la Ciencia y el aprendizaje de las ciencias. (shrink)

The impact of contextual influences on human resource management and management more generally has been the focus of much scholarly interest. However, we still know very little about how context impacts on the practice of ethical HRM specifically. Therefore, drawing on 59 in-depth interviews with HR practitioners in Brazil, Colombia and the UK, this paper theorizes how they perceive the ethical dimensions of their roles within their respective national contexts and how the way they act in relation to them is (...) informed, shaped and directed by the institutional context. In doing so it provides an important insight into three key themes: first, the views of HRM practitioners and managers about ethical HRM and how they articulate what it means to be ethical; second, how they respond to perceived ethical dilemmas; and third, how their responses are influenced by institutional forces and associated beliefs, values and scripts. In addition to providing an ‘emic’ perspective of this increasingly important topic and theorizing the experience and practice of ethical HRM, the paper answers calls for more international comparisons of ethical HRM practice in contemporary organizations. (shrink)

Embodied and phenomenological approaches to neuropsychiatry have proven to be promising for assessing social cognition and its impairments. Second-person neuroscience has demonstrated that the dynamics of social interaction make a difference when it comes to how people understand each other. This article presents the Perceptual Crossing Experiment (PCE) as a paradigm for studying real-time dyadic embodied interactions in the context of schizophrenia. We draw on the phenomenological concept of interbodily resonance (IR) and show how the PCE can be used to (...) accurately model and assess IR. We then turn to disembodied interaction in schizophrenia and finally propose the PCE as a translational tool for systematically assessing the hindered IR that individuals with schizophrenia suffer from. We offer an experimental approach to phenomenology which could be informative for the development of more embodied interventions aiming to remedy the profoundly disrupted social life that patients with schizophrenia live with. (shrink)

Dispositivos da Formação Teórica Queer: contribuições de Michel Foucault e Jacques Derrida Resumo: O presente artigo busca discutir as contribuições de Michel Foucault e Jacques Derrida para a formulação da teoria queer, apresentando algumas de suas propostas teóricas que passeiam e incorporam movimentos políticos e acadêmicos, bem como corpos em constante construção de si, incorporados por enunciados de gênero, suas oposições, mas também por suas Diferanças. Para isso, apresentamos inicialmente os itinerários históricos dos movimentos políticos queer, ou seja, uma pragmática (...) que se dará ao longo da sua construção, base para o pensamento teórico. A seguir, apresentamos o pensamento desses autores como pressupostos para a potencialização, tanto dessa pragmática, como de dispositivos que compõem a analítica das normalizações dos gêneros e para além deles, constitutivas da Teoria Queer. Palavras-chave: Gênero; Teoria Queer; Michel Foucault; Jacques Derrida. Devices of Queer Theoretical Formation: contributions from Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida Abstract: This article aims to discuss the contributions of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida to the formulation of queer theory, presenting some of their theoretical proposals that walk and incorporate political and academic movements, as well as bodies in constant construction of themselves, incorporated by statements of gender, its oppositions, but also for its Differances. For this, we initially present the historical itineraries of queer political movements, that is, a pragmatics that will take place throughout their construction, the basis for theoretical thinking. In sequence, we present the thought of these authors as presuppositions for the potentializing of both this pragmatics and devices that make up the analysis of the normalizations of genres and beyond them, which are constitutive of the Queer Theory. Keywords: Gender; Queer Theory; Michel Foucault; Jacques Derrida. Dispositivos de Formación Teórica Queer: aportes de Michel Foucault y Jacques Derrida Resumen: Este artículo busca discutir los aportes de Michel Foucault y Jacques Derrida a la formulación de la teoría queer, presentando algunas de sus propuestas teóricas que caminan e incorporan movimientos políticos y académicos, así como cuerpos en constante construcción de sí mismos, incorporados por declaraciones de género, sus oposiciones, pero también por sus Diferancias. Para eso, presentamos inicialmente los itinerarios históricos de los movimientos políticos queer, o sea, una pragmática que se irá dando a lo largo de su construcción, base del pensamiento teórico. La continuación, presentamos el pensamiento de estos autores como presupuestos para la potencialización tanto de esta pragmática como de los dispositivos que componen el análisis de las normalizaciones de géneros y más allá de ellos, que son constitutivos de la Teoría Queer. Palabras clave: Género; Teoría Queer; Michel Foucault; Jacques Derrida. Data de registro: 16/09/2021 Data de aceite: 19/01/2022. (shrink)

Work stress is consistently linked with the deterioration of cognitive and mental health, limitations in everyday workplace performance, and an increased risk of developing diseases. A common thread binding these consequences appears to be stress-associated alterations in neuropsychological functions and affective domains, especially those reliant on hippocampal, prefrontal, and amygdala brain area. Although research broadly supports the claim that the practice of mindfulness meditation for the reduction of the consequences of stress and the promotion of health exert positive effects on (...) workplaces, the precise neuropsychological benefits of Mindfulness-based interventions in the context of organizations remain elusive. In this review, we will analyze the impairments imposed by stress on the brain areas and functions and the benefits of MBIs from a neuropsychological point of view. This is significant since there is a centrality of cognitive functions in core processes necessary for work achievements, such as emotion regulation, problem-solving, and learning. The promotion of wellbeing is a responsibility shared between workers and organizations. Developing healthy environments allows workers to exercise greater control over their work, face work challenges, work productively and develop their talent. (shrink)

In the contextual cueing task, visual search is faster for targets embedded in invariant displays compared to targets found in variant displays. However, it has been repeatedly shown that participants do not learn repeated contexts when these are irrelevant to the task. One potential explanation lays in the idea of associative blocking, where salient cues block the learning of invariant associations in the task-irrelevant subset of items. An alternative explanation is that the associative blocking rather hinders the allocation of attention (...) to task-irrelevant subsets, but not the learning per se. The current work examined these two explanations. In two experiments, participants performed a visual search task under a rapid presentation condition in Experiment 1, or under a longer presentation condition in Experiment 2. In both experiments, the search items within both old and new displays were presented in two colors which defined the irrelevant and task-relevant items within each display. The participants were asked to search for the target in the relevant subset in the learning phase. In the transfer phase, the instructions were reversed and task-irrelevant items became task-relevant. In line with previous studies, the search of task-irrelevant subsets resulted in no cueing effect post-transfer in the longer presentation condition; however, a reliable cueing effect was generated by task-irrelevant subsets learned under the rapid presentation. These results demonstrate that under rapid display presentation, global attentional selection leads to global context learning. However, under a longer display presentation, global attention is blocked, leading to the exclusive learning of invariant relevant items in the learning session. (shrink)

It is widely believed by philosophers that we human beings are capable of stepping back from inclinations to act in a certain way and consider whether we should do so. If we judge that there are enough reasons in favour of following our initial inclination, we are definitely motivated, and, if all goes well, we act. This view of human agency naturally leads to the idea that our actions are self-determined, or controlled by ourselves. Some go one step further to (...) the point of saying that we should extend the fundamental aspects of this view of human agency to the epistemic realm. This we call ‘the control-view”. Here we will make a strong case against the control-view. While we have a substantial control over our practical lives, it is very unlikely that this extends to our epistemic lives. Our discussion will proceed in three stages. We will present two asymmetries between our practical and epistemic lives which are followed by a general argument against the control-view. (shrink)

In this paper we shall introduce the variety WQS of weak-quasi-Stone algebras as a generalization of the variety QS of quasi-Stone algebras introduced in [9]. We shall apply the Priestley duality developed in [4] for the variety N of ¬-lattices to give a duality for WQS. We prove that a weak-quasi-Stone algebra is characterized by a property of the set of its regular elements, as well by mean of some principal lattice congruences. We will also determine the simple and subdirectly (...) irreducible algebras. (shrink)

This paper will develop a new reading of the institutional pattern. According to this interpretation, legal norms exist only inside of legal institutions - on the assumption that law consists of legal institutions and that legal norms should have meaning and normative force only inside of them. At this basic idea the thesis, which this paper proposes, tries to connect Robert Alexy’s concept of normative optimization of principles to the institutional theory: legal norms as optimization of principles, which shape a (...) legal institution. (shrink)

This essay proposes to analyze the analytic philosopher Jonathan Bennett's interpretation about attribute's definition on the first part of Spinoza's Ethics, considering that such an interpretation, differing from others, attempts to coherently explain the role played by 'understanding' on the definition just mentioned.

La idea de progreso es una de las nociones más influyentes, pero también más polémicas, del mundo moderno. Ello se debe en buena medida al carácter ideológico que subyace a su empleo en diferentes contextos. En este artículo se examinan cuatro paradojas que ha generado la aplicación de la idea de progreso, cuyos efectos negativos se hacen sentir cada vez con más fuerza hoy en día. Se muestra también cómo esta idea, pese al creciente descrédito que la rodea, continúa ejerciendo (...) una poderosa influencia en la vida contemporánea. (shrink)

Edmund Husserl intentó excluir supuestos metafísicos y ajustarse a lo dado en la experiencia inmediata, con el fin de buscar una verdad primera e indubitable sobre la cual basar verdades ulteriores, teóricas. Pero, en la segunda etapa de su pensamiento, él abandonó ese camino para usar, sin tematizarlo, el supuesto subjetivista de René Descartes. Para reconducir la fenomenología al proyecto original de ir a las cosas mismas, eliminando supuestos y ateniéndose a la experiencia inmediata, el lósofo español Antonio González Fernández (...) propone la praxeología. Esta aproximación reemplaza el concepto de sujeto, que considera al ser humano como una cosa pensante, por el de persona, entendida como acto encarnado. Esta definición antropológica, coherente con la visión teológica del ser humano como imagen y semejanza de Dios, posibilita orientaciones éticas de las acciones en pro de la descosificación y dignificación del ser humano y el cuidado de la naturaleza. (shrink)

The role of academic satisfaction on persistence and successful academic behavior has been the focus of research for decades. Nevertheless, driven by positive educational psychology, subjective well-being has been highlighted as another central feature in the academic path of students. Studies aimed at identifying the variables that contribute to explain different aspects of academic performance have been widely investigated, although studies aimed at identifying the determinants of subjective well-being are still limited. The present paper examined the contribution of AS judgments (...) on subjective well-being. To this end, it was hypothesized that SWB levels depend on the balance between positive/negative emotions and life satisfaction judgments. Furthermore, it was stipulated that AS has an indirect contribution on SWB, through life satisfaction, whereas the balance of emotions influences both AS judgments and life satisfaction. Using an analysis strategy based on structural equation modeling, the results indicated that the model fitted satisfactorily, explaining 32% of the variance of SWB. Particularly, it was observed that AS judgments contributed to life satisfaction judgments. Although no direct contribution of AS on SWB was reported, a total contribution partially mediated by life satisfaction judgments was revealed. These findings support the importance of academic satisfaction judgments, not only because of their importance in academic terms, but also because of their impact on university students’ subjective well-being and health. (shrink)

Palabras de agradecimiento al promotor del Congreso Internacional y a los participantes en él. Asimismo, a la persona que ha trabajado en la labor de transcripción de mis escritos y a otros colaboradores míos. También a quienes han tomado en cuenta mis ideas para elaborar sus tesis doctorales, y a otros colegas cuyos planteamientos filosóficos distan de los míos. Como la filosofía es una actividad interminable, queda abierta la sucesiva investigación en mis propuestas.

The Shannon information function (H) has been extensively used in ecology as a statistic of species diversity. Yet, the use of Shannon diversity index has also been criticized, mainly because of its ambiguous ecological interpretation and because of its relatively great sensitivity to the relative abundances of species in the community. In my opinion, the major shortcoming of the traditional perspective (on the possible relation of species diversity with information theory) is that species need for an external receiver (the scientist (...) or ecologist) to exist and transmit information. Because organisms are self-catalized replicating structures that can transmit genotypic information to offspring, it should be evident that any single species has two possible states or alternatives: to be or not to be. In other words, species have no need for an external receiver since they are their own receivers. Therefore, the amount of biological information (at the species scale) in a community with one only species would be species, and not bits as in the traditional perspective. Moreover, species diversity appears to be a monotonic increasing function of (or S) when all species are equally probable (S being species richness), and not a function of as in the traditional perspective. To avoid the noted shortcoming, we could use 2H (instead of H) for calculating species diversity and species evenness (= 2H/S). However, owing to the relatively great sensitivity of H to the relative abundances of species in the community, the value of species dominance (= 1 − 2H/S) is unreasonably high when differences between dominant and subordinate species are considerable, thereby lowering the value of species evenness and diversity. This unsatisfactory behaviour is even more evident for Simpson index and related algorithms. I propose the use of other statistics for a better analysis of community structure, their relationship being: species evenness + species dominance = 1; species diversity × species uniformity = 1; and species diversity = species richness × species evenness. (shrink)

In this paper we criticize the “Ashbyan interpretation” (Froese & Stewart, 2010) of autopoietic theory by showing that Ashby’s framework and the autopoietic one are based on distinct, often incompatible, assumptions and that they aim at addressing different issues. We also suggest that in order to better understand autopoiesis and its implications, a different and wider set of theoretical contributions, developed previously or at the time autopoiesis was formulated, needs to be taken into consideration: among the others, the works of (...) Rosen, Weiss and Piaget. By analyzing the concepts of organization and closure, the idea of components, and the role of materiality in the theory proposed by Maturana and Varela, we advocate the view that autopoiesis necessarily entails self-production and intrinsic instability and can be realized only in domains characterized by the same transformative and processual properties exhibited by the molecular domain. From this theoretical standpoint it can be demonstrated that autopoietic theory neither commits to a sharp dualism between organization and structure nor to a reflexive view of downward causation, thus avoiding the respective strong criticisms. (shrink)

The present article introduces and describes an innovative educational approach to learning processes, the Imagineering collaborative methodology. The methodology has been developed as a part of the learning curriculum for the Imagineering masters course. The theoretical and practical framework is explained, offering some illustrations in order to demonstrate the possibilities and implications of embracing such an approach in an educational environment. This article proposes a systemic, collaborative, and relational view on education that avoids reductive and disjunctive learning processes, inviting students (...) to be designers of their learning, preparing them to deal professionally with the demands of the twenty-first century, more aligned with a radically changing landscape in today's society. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, investigamos relações que autores psicanalíticos fazem entre histeria e literatura. Fizemos um estudo dos artigos destes autores, e o objetivo foi de expor as temáticas abordadas por eles quando reúnem e interpretam juntas histeria, psicanálise e literatura. Historicamente, tanto a h..

Resumen: En Towards a genealogy of pharmaceutical practice, sostuvimos que la práctica farmacológica daba lugar a un nuevo tipo de biopoder, con tecnologías y racionalidades propias, que lo distinguían del biopoder que había reconocido Michel Foucault en su trabajo tardío. Pero también sostuvimos que su contracara era la generación de nuevas formas de resistencia. En este artículo presentaremos dos modelos específicos de resistencias producidos por el dispositivo del poder farmacológico: uno, que tiene como caso básico el de los movimientos proanorexia, (...) que operan resignificando la categoría misma de la patología “anoréxica” a base del fármaco Xenical; otro, que tiene referencia en la experiencia relatada por Beatriz Preciado en su libro Testo yonqui y que actúa superando los límites legales, médicos y morales, para arrojarse a la producción de una nueva identidad jamás antes trazada al consumir dosis no permitidas de testosterona en gel.: In a previous work, we have argued that pharmacological practice has given rise to a new type of biopower, with specific technologies and rationalities, distinguishing it from the biopower that Michel Foucault recognised in his later work. However, we also argued that another effect has been the creation of new forms of resistance. In this article, we present two specific models of resistance created by the apparatus of pharmacological power: one, inspired by pro-anorexia movements, which operates by resignifying the pathological categorization of anorexia using the drug Xenical; another, based on the experience outlined by Beatriz Preciado in her 2008 book Testo Junkie, which operates by overcoming legal, medical and moral limits to create a ground-breaking new identity by consuming prohibited doses of gel testosterone. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 33, Issue 2, Page 184-200, April 2024.

Spinoza is often described as an ethical perfectionist—one who accepts an account of the good centered on the development of our natural capacities. Perfectionists typically accept a perfectionist theory of value, in which the properties of good and evil are grounded in a normative property of perfection. Yet I argue that Spinoza rejects a perfectionist theory of value because he believes it conflicts with the doctrine of necessitarianism. This leads him to conclude that attributions of perfection in ethical contexts must (...) be regarded as fictions. If Spinoza is indeed an ethical perfectionist, his perfectionism must be grounded in a theory of value that is not itself perfectionist. (shrink)

Com recuerdo y fiel homenaje a nuestro genial compatrinta, el ingeniero e inventar santanderino Leonardo Torres Quevedo, THEORIA quiere reeoger hoy en sus páginas dos breves, claros y luminosostextos -el primero sobre máquinas algébricas (1901) y el segundo sobre el alcance de una nueva ciencia: la Automática (1915)- de aquel español itinerante e infatigable que, como muy contadascompatriotas, supo aliar claridad y rlgor lógico en las definiciones de los conceptos básicos y desbordante inventiva creadora en la estricta y audaz (...) aplicación técnica de los mismos.Acompaña a estos textos la inolvidable imagen del primer ajedrecista automático (electromagnetico) concebido y construido por Torres Quevedo, anticipador también en la era electromecanica de los que habían de seguirle en la electrónica e informática y triunfador póstumo, en 1951, en el primer Congreso Cibernético de París, donde fué examinado por el hijo del inventor español y el padre de la Cibernética, Norbert Wiener, tres años después de la aparición en el M.I.T. de la primera edición inglesa de la obra de éste último Cybemetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948) que iba a inaugurar la era de la Cibernética, anticipada en tantas ideas, muchos decenios antes, por la Automática de nuestro Torres Quevedo. (shrink)

A novel thermodynamic perspective on natural selection is presented. In the case that life continuity is optimized in an ideal system, where relatively constant and homogeneous selective pressures favour a given competing species, natural selection leads that system to a stationary state of maximum genotypic uniformity of life and maximum sustainable consumption of available energy by life (competitive equilibrium). Structurally and functionally, this optimizing tendency towards competitive equilibrium looks similar to the optimizing tendency towards thermodynamic equilibrium of classical thermodynamics (maximum (...) energetic uniformity and maximum degradation of available energy). The principle of competitive exclusion may thus be conceptually viewed as an ecological manifestation of the second law of (classical) thermodynamics. On the other hand, the novel thermodynamic perspective on natural selection is discussed with regard to the open and nonequilibrium system of nature, where selective pressures vary in space and time. In this case, natural selection can induce diversity instead of uniformity, though an optimizing tendendcy towards maximum sustainable consumption of resources (optimization of life continuity) always remains. Overall, it is concluded that the action of natural selection favours the maximization of the sustainable consumption of energy at the level of individual organism. (shrink)