Paul W. Taylor has defended a life-centered ethics that considers the inherent worth of all living things to be the same. l examine reasons for ascribing inherent worth to all living beings, but argue that there can be various levels of inherent worth. Differences in capacities among types of life are used to justify such levels. I argue that once levels of inherent worth are distinguished, it becomes reasonable torestrict rights to human beings.

In the literature on the interpretation of quantum mechanics, not many works attempt to adopt a proactive perspective aimed at seeing how different interpretations can enrich each other through a productive dialogue. In particular, few proposals have been devised to show that different approaches can be clarified by comparing them, and can even complement each other, improving or leading to a more fertile overall approach. The purpose of this paper is framed within this perspective of complementation and mutual enrichment. In (...) particular, the Relational Quantum Mechanics and the Modal-Hamiltonian Interpretation are compared, highlighting their differences and points of contact. The final purpose is to show that, in spite of their disagreements, they are not contradictory but, on the contrary, they can be made compatible from an overarching perspective and can even complement each other in a fruitful way. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende abordar os impactos que a vivência do racismo dentro do ambiente familiar tem na subjetividade dos indivíduos. Interpela, portanto, os modos como essa experiência interfere na formação da identidade do sujeito, na sua autoimagem e na construção da estima por si mesmo. Esses processos, múltiplos e complexos, serão observados a partir da análise do relato das histórias e experiências de vida de uma pessoa, Mariana. Embora trate de Mariana, através de sua voz, muitos outros falam. Muitas famílias (...) brasileiras estão aqui representadas, na vivência dolorida de muitas mulheres e homens que experimentaram o racismo desde a tenra infância. Contado e vivificado por ela, assim como interpretado à luz dos significantes e significados que ela atribui a essas vivências, seu relato permite pensar os efeitos psicossociais da experiência da violência racial e do racismo quando ele é vivido pelos sujeitos negros nos arranjos familiares em que o branco da família é explicitamente racista. (shrink)

El siguiente artículo busca presentar una visión fenomenológica de la identidad personal en tanto fenómeno complejo y multidimensional, tomando como punto de partida el pensamiento del filósofo danés Dan Zahavi. Mientras que Zahavi presenta la dimensión experiencial del yo como fundamento y núcleo del yo, y por ende de la identidad, cabe preguntarse si este yo experiencial no puede ser complementado con una noción de yo más fuerte, que yo llamo núcleo personal. En primer lugar, se presentará la visión de (...) identidad personal de acuerdo con el pensamiento de Zahavi. En segundo lugar, se propondrá que tal núcleo personal se da como un hecho fenomenológico, es decir, revelado por la experiencia misma del yo. Finalmente, se sostendrá que dicho núcleo personal, que es el fundamento de las otras dimensiones del yo y de la identidad personal, se puede complementar con las otras dos dimensiones del yo desarrolladas por Zahavi. (shrink)

Esta carta abierta es el resultado del intenso intercambio epistolar que he mantenido con el Prof. Torretti durante muchos años, y a través del cual me he enriquecido ampliamente en el pensar filosófico. Aquí señalo nuestros acuerdos en la adopción de una perspectiva de inspiración kantiana, y en el reconocimiento del papel que juega la dimensión pragmática en la ciencia. No obstante, nos distanciamos en cuanto al peso que le adjudicamos al realismo en nuestras posturas. Estas discusiones con el Prof. (...) Torretti me permitieron explicitar mi modo de vivir la filosofía como praxis filosófica, dirigida a enfrentarme con ciertos aspectos del modo en que actualmente se hace ciencia. (shrink)

Although involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) and déjà vu have important shared characteristics, in this commentary, we focus on potential differences that may question the argument that two phenomena lie on a continuum. We propose that differences in their frequency and autonoetic consciousness could be explained by different types of cues and memory representations involved in experiencing IAMs and déjà vu.

Resumen Según el diagnóstico sobre la academia contemporánea del pensador italiano Piero Coda, la teología, disciplina escindida de la filósofa desde la modernidad, se ha reducido a una mera apologética de la fe. En este marco, la Trinidad se vacía de contenido ontológico, dejando de ser principio de interpretación de la realidad. En el presente artículo analizaré las consecuencias antropológicas que posee el hecho de que la creación, específicamente del hombre, sea imago Trinitatis en el pensamiento de Edith Stein. En (...) la primera sección, presentaré brevemente cómo Stein aborda el misterio y las relaciones intra-trinitarias utilizando las imágenes del amor y de la vida. Luego, presentaré brevemente el desarrollo de la noción de persona y como ésta es resignificada a la luz del dogma trinitario para explicar en qué sentido Dios es persona. En la segunda sección, presentaré cómo se da la imagen del Dios Trino en la creación. Este será el primer paso, dado que para Stein el discurso cosmológico es solo la antesala del discurso antropológico. Finalmente, analizaré cómo se da la imagen del Dios trinitario en la persona humana y por ende cómo esta noción es resignificada y enriquecida.According to the diagnosis on the contemporary academy of the Italian thinker Piero Coda, theology, having been cut off from philosophy since modernity, has been reduced to mere apologetics. Within this framework, the doctrine of the Trinity is emptied of any ontological content, ceasing to be a principle of interpretation of reality. In this article I will analyse the anthropological consequences of the fact that creation, specifically of man, is imago Trinitatis in the thought of Edith Stein. In the first section, I will briefly present how Stein approaches mystery and intra-Trinitarian relationships using the images of love and life. Then, I will offer a quick description of the development of the notion of person and how it is re-signified in light of the Trinitarian dogma as to explain in what sense God is a person. In the second section, I will present how the image of the Triune God appears in Creation, a first step in cosmological discourse that will lead, for Stein, to the anthropological discourse. Finally, I will analyse how the image of the Trinitarian God is present to the human person and therefore how this notion is re-signified and enriched. (shrink)

The new edition of this manual brings together a decade's teaching in bioethics. It confronts new questions and monitors the latest far reaching experiments, whose results and publications need to be properly understood.

The focus of this volume is the crisis of the traditional view of the relationship between words and things and the emergence of linguistic arbitrarism in 17th ...

We claim that much of the confusion associated with the "tautology problem" about survival of the fittest is due to the mistake of attributing fitness to individuals instead of to types. We argue further that the problem itself cannot be solved merely by taking fitness as the aggregate cause of reproductive success. We suggest that a satisfying explanation must center not on logical analysis of the concept of general adaptedness but on the empirical analysis of single adapted traits and their (...) causal relationship to changes in allele frequencies. (shrink)

El propósito del presente artículo es evaluar en qué sentido y bajo qué condiciones la ergodicidad es relevante para explicar el éxito de la mecánica estadística. Se objeta la positión de quienes sostienen que la ergodicidad es irrelevante para tal explicatión, y se señala que las propiedades ergódicas desempeñan diferentes papeles en la mecánica estadística del equilibrio y en la descriptión de la evolución hacia el equilibrio: es posible prescindir de la ergodicidad en el primer caso pero no en el (...) segundo. Sobre esta base, se reformularán las definiciones de ergodicidad y mezcla, relativizándolas a la macrovariable particular cuya evolución irreversible se desea describir. Finalmente, se enfatiza la importancia de tomar en cuenta la elaboratión de modelos para evaluar la utilizatión de los métodos de Gibbs. /// The aim of this paper is to consider in what sense and under what conditions ergodicity is relevant for explaining the success of Statistical Mechanics. We argue against those who claim that ergodicity is irrelevant to this explanation, by noting that ergodic properties play different roles in equilibrium Statistical Mechanics and in the description of the approach to equilibrium: it is possible to do without it in the first case but not in the second one. On this basis, we reformulate the definitions of ergodicity and mixing, relativizing them to the particular macrovariable whose irreversible evolution is to be described. Finally, we stress the relevance of taking into account model-construction for evaluating the use of Gibbs' methods. (shrink)

Approximately three decades ago the question was first answered whether parasitoids are able to assess the number or origin of eggs in a host for a solitary parasitoid, Leptopilina heterotoma, by fitting theoretically derived distributions to empirical ones. We extend the set of different theoretically postulated distributions of eggs among hosts by combining searching modes and abilities in assessing host quality. In the models, parasitoids search either randomly (Poisson) (1) or by vibrotaxis (Negative Binomial) (2). Parasitoids are: (a) assumed to (...) treat all hosts equally, (b) able to distinguish them in unparasitised and parasitised hosts only, (c) able to distinguish them by the number of eggs they contained, or (d) able to recognise their own eggs. Mathematically tractable combinations of searching mode (1 and 2) and abilities (a,b,c,d) result in seven different models (M1a, M1b, M1c, M1d, M2a, M2b and M2c). These models have been simulated for a varying number of searching parasitoids and various mean numbers of eggs per host. Each resulting distribution is fitted to all theoretical models. The model with the minimum Akaike's information criterion (AIC) is chosen as the best fitting for each simulated distribution. We thus investigate the power of the AIC and for each distribution with a specified mean number of eggs per host we derive a frequency distribution for classification.Firstly, we discuss the simulations of models including random search (M1a, M1b, M1c and M1d). For M1a, M1c and M1d the simulated distributions are correctly classified in at least 70% of all cases. However, in a few cases model M1b is only properly classified for intermediate mean values of eggs per host. The models including vibrotaxis as searching behaviour (M2a, M2b and M2c) cannot be distinguished from those with random search if the mean number of eggs per host is low. Among the models incorporating vibrotaxis the three abilities are detected analogously as in models with random search. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new member of the family of the modal interpretations of quantum mechanics. In this modal-Hamiltonian interpretation, the Hamiltonian of the quantum system plays a decisive role in the property-ascription rule that selects the definite-valued observables whose possible values become actual. We show that this interpretation is effective for solving the measurement problem, both in its ideal and its non-ideal versions, and we argue for the physical relevance of the property-ascription rule by (...) applying it to well-known physical situations. Moreover, we explain how this interpretation supplies a description of the elemental categories of the ontology referred to by the theory, where quantum systems turn out to be bundles of possible properties. (shrink)

ResumoAs práticas culturais fundem, a todo o momento, diferentes relações entre sistemas culturais (EVEN-ZOHAR, 1990) que antes eram separados. Tais manifestações híbridas reconfiguram e desterritorializam processos simbólicos. Nesse sentido, o presente artigo realiza uma análise comparatista das relações intertextuais presentes na configuração artística do álbum Esú, do rapper brasileiro Baco Exu do Blues, em especial na faixa “Capitães de Areia” em relação ao romance quase homônimo de Jorge Amado, às referências à mitologia dos Erês, e à série fotográfica Laróyè, de (...) Mario Cravo Neto. Para analisar as implicações dessas inter-relações na configuração cultural e identitária da obra, buscamos aporte teórico-crítico no campo dos Estudos Culturais pela perspectiva de conceitos que tentam dar conta desses processos, acerca do Hibridismo, em Néstor García Canclini, e das reflexões sobre sincretismo religioso em Sérgio Ferretti.Palavras-chave: Capitães da Areia; Hibridismo; sincretismo religioso; práticas culturais. AbstractCultural practices merge, at all times, different relationships with cultural systems (EVENN-ZOHAR, 1991) that were previously separated. Such hybrid manifestations reconfigure and deterritorialize symbolic processes. In this sense, this article performs a comparative analysis of the intertextual relations present in the artistic configuration of the album Esú, by rapper Baco Exu do Blues, especially the track “Capitães de Areia” and references to the mythology of the Erês, to the novel by Jorge Amado and Laróyè photographic series by Mario Cravo Neto. To analyze the implications of these interrelations in the cultural and identity configuration of the work, we seek theoretical-critical support in the field of Cultural Studies from the perspective of concepts that try to account for these processes, about Hybridism in Néstor García Canclini and reflections on religious syncretism in Sérgio Ferreti.Keywords: Capitães da Areia; Hybridity; religious syncretism; cultural practices. (shrink)

The focus in this study is the relationships between one tertiary music academy and four amateur orchestras. In this study the kinds of cooperation that exist, how students benefit from participati...

Neural Stem Cells (NSC) are present in the developing and adult CNS. In both the embryonic and adult neurogenic regions, β1 integrins may act as sensors for the changing extracellular matrix. Here we highlight the integrative functions that β1 integrins may play in the “niche” by regulating NSC growth factor responsiveness in a timely and spatially controlled manner. β1 integrins may provide NSC with the capacity to react to a dynamic “niche”, and to respond adequately by either remaining as stem (...) cells or by differentiating and migrating away to shape the developing cortex. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. BioEssays 27:698–707, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Al centro dell'attenzione degli studiosi nell'ultimo ventennio per l'importanza della testimonianza storica, per il carattere peculiare delle strutture compositive, per varie sfaccettature dell'impostazione ideologica, l'opera di Michele Attaliata non disponeva di un'analisi complessiva né tantomeno di un'edizione critica condotta sulla base degli attuali criteri ecdotici e di una traduzione in una lingua moderna. Lacuna avvertita dai bizantinisti con maggiore evidenza, dal momento che per gli altri storici di primo piano dell'XI secolo, da Michele Psello a Giovanni Scilitza, ci si avvale (...) di strumenti critici agguerriti. Lacuna colmata dal poderoso lavoro di I. Pérez Martín che si presenta come un'edizione dell' Ἱστοϱία di Attaliata, corredata da traduzione in spagnolo, commento, bibliografia, indici, tavole e preceduta da un'ampia introduzione. (shrink)

Gender produces multiple discontents (unease, discomfort, embarrassment, irritation, annoyance) in society. With this straightforward thesis the author addresses the problem of gender—Butlerian “gender trouble”—as a form of cultural discontent or unease. During the ground-breaking and path-paving women’s, feminist, gay and lesbian movements, gender, then female gender, caused cultural irritation for the patriarchy of the then societies and continues to do so to this very day. However, with the recent transgender movement, this cultural unease about gender has taken on entirely new (...) dimensions, including turning gender into an alarming issue, a threatening global specter and annoyingly omnipresent conflict not only in wider society but also in academia. These uneasy issues are here tackled in two ways, through the theory and practice of gender. The way subversive gender theory can trigger collective unease, even if it is falsely imposed, artificially induced, and manipulatively orchestrated, is shown using the example of the abuse of Judith Butler’s gender theory by polemicists in culture war debates surrounding gender and proponents and supporters of the anti-gender movement, clearly betraying their intention of harming communities of gender non-conforming people and those communities’ efforts towards social, political, and legal emancipation. The way transgressive gender practice can trigger relational discomfort in everyday interactions is illustrated through the author’s own “gender story” in the form of a short autoethnography of gender unease, to illustrate the problem of deep sex/gender binarism, essentialism, primordialism, perennialism, and naturalism permeating, completely spontaneously and unreflexively, all our thoughts, words, actions, relationships, institutions, and collectives. (shrink)

Em seu exame da teoria da verdade cartesiana, Raul Landim (1993, 2009) enuncia as três questões que toda teoria da verdade deve responder: (a) o sentido de ‘verdade’; (b) a possibilidade de conhecimentos verdadeiros e (c) a possibilidade do reconhecimento de conhecimentos verdadeiros. Os argumentos a serem apresentados dizem respeito sobretudo à terceira questão, mas consideram a necessidade de ser assegurar uma resposta adequada à segunda questão. Para tanto, retomarei (I) brevemente alguns pontos de um artigo anterior sobre o tema (...) (2017) para, em seguida, dar prosseguimento ao estudo ali iniciado, que ainda deverá ser completado em um terceiro texto, sobre atenção, representação e intecionalidade. Com efeito, três contextos argumentativos são relevantes para o exame da noção de atenção: (i) o tratamento psicofísico da atenção; (ii) as condições para a busca da verdade, no qual a atenção designa, prima facie, uma modulação do pensar, que é relevante para o método; (iii) a explicação do caráter intencional do pensar humano, no qual a atenção é um aspecto do pensar concernente à seleção do conteúdo pensado no tempo presente (presença). Somente o segundo será considerado aqui. Após a retomada dos resultados anteriores, apresentarei indícios da relação entre a atenção e o conceito de intenção na história da filosofia que precede Descartes e, em seguida, farei uma breve análise das ocorrências do texto na obra cartesiana (II). Por fim, na seção (III), passarei à análise daquelas ocorrências ligadas ao método do filósofo, tanto no que se refere à sua intervenção na determinação do critério de reconhecimento da verdade (a regra geral da verdade, ou regra do claro e do distinto), quanto no esclarecimento da via analítica do método de demonstração geométrico. (shrink)

This commentary suggests how the target article raises new implications for brain injury therapies, which may have been anticipated by the neurologist Kurt Goldstein, though he worked in an earlier era of fervent localization of brain function.

The essay examines Thomas Hill Green’s idealistic reading of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and De anima, starting from his “monopsychist” view of human understanding. His criticism of the Aristotelian notion of substance leads him to a recalibration of hylomorphism and a “noetization” of matter, which could be seen as an averroizing move. Green holds that there is only one “Eternal Consciousness” and that the individual thinking subjects are particular manifestations of it. As for Averroes’ unity of intellect, this idea derives from a (...) “left-wing” account of the potency of thought. But there are several other ontological, ethical, religious, and political consequences in making potency something essentially spiritual. The comparison between the two philosophers could help to throw light on the ‘obscure’ conception of “Eternal Consciousness”. (shrink)

El presente artículo parte de la idea de que para superar la crisis ecológica que estamos viviendo no basta con desarrollar más tecnología y más ciencia, sino que también es necesario repensar y modificar nuestra relación con la naturaleza. Como sostiene la eco-filosofía, es necesario superar una ontología mecanicista centrada en un antropocentrismo fuerte que contrapone dualísticamente al hombre con la naturaleza, viéndola como mera propiedad al servicio del ser humano. Ahora bien, mientras que las eco-filosofías suelen apoyarse en una (...) ontología relacional, la hipótesis que se sostendrá a lo largo de este artículo es que no solo esta ontología puede funcionar de base para repensar y modificar nuestra relación con la naturaleza, sino que también la clásica doctrina metafísica de los grados del ser puede servir como base para un nuevo paradigma ecológico. (shrink)

In this work we will deal only with the concept of information in the communicational context, in which information is primarily something that has to be transmitted for communication purposes. The aim of the paper is to consider some arguments traditionally put forward to support the idea that quantum information is qualitatively different than classical information. On the basis of the analysis of those arguments, we will conclude that there are no reasons to admit the existence of quantum information as (...) qualitatively different from classical information: there is only one kind of information, physically neutral, which can be encoded by means of classical or of quantum states. (shrink)

The article examines the question of whether business ethics courses ought to have an impact. Despite the still common attitude among students and some business professionals that ethical considerations are less pressing in business, I argue that moral obligations are just as important there as elsewhere. The emphasis on profits in business is related to other realms (e.g., hobbies and seeking and education) in which, though private goals are dominant, moral limits remain in force. Business ethics courses can play a (...) crucial role in emphasizing the necessity of ethical analysis in business. (shrink)

This article engages new histories of the black frontline communities of the Underground Railroad to rethink both fugitive democracy and the transformative possibilities of sanctuary as its constitutive twin. We analyze the ways that communities of free blacks and fugitives in the border zones between the Antebellum US North and South crafted themselves as magnetic spaces of creative refuge that suggest we reconceive sanctuary as the generative twin of fugitivity. This insight enables us to theorize new ethical and political dimensions (...) of Sheldon Wolin’s concept fugitive democracy by illuminating how fugitivity as flight away from danger can be interwoven with sanctuary as flight into and toward alternatives. Specifically, we theorize three dimensions of fugitive democracy/transformative sanctuary—sanctuary tending, dramatic sanctuary, and disruptive hospitality. While some theorists have considered key motifs in Wolin’s fugitive democracy to be opposed to vital themes disclosed in contemporary theories of black fugitivity, we argue that the power of black frontline communities stemmed precisely from their capacities to dynamically entangle political approaches (mis)taken to be at odds. For example, we suggest a theory and practice of tending involving both nurturing care and militantly defensive action, dramatic sanctuary performances that amplify public power by oscillating between tricky concealment and flagrant publicity, and disruptive hospitality that interweaves law-breaking harbor with strategies for juridical and institutional change. These insights open onto an alternative imaginary that can also provide a toolbox for building grassroots democratic power today, particularly in the face of emergent neofascism and escalating displacement worldwide. (shrink)

The many-faced relationship between chemistry and physics is one of the most discussed topics in the philosophy of chemistry. In his recent book Reducing Chemistry to Physics. Limits, Models, Consequences, Hinne Hettema conceives this relationship as a reduction link, and devotes his work to defend this position on the basis of a “naturalized” concept of reduction. In the present paper I critically review three kinds of issues stemming from Hettema’s argumentation: philosophical, scientific and methodological.

To which ontological category do quantum systems belong? Although we usually speak of particles, it is well known that these peculiar items defy several traditional metaphysical principles. In the present chapter these challenges will be discussed in the light of certain distinctions usually not taken into account in the debate about the ontological nature of quantum systems. On this basis, it will be argued that an ontology of properties without individuals, framed in the algebraic formalism of quantum mechanics, provides adequate (...) answers to the ontological challenges raised by the theory.What kind of item is a quantum system? In the practice of physics it is common to speak of quantum particles, as if they were items of a similar nature to classical items, but obeying different laws of motion. However, as is well known, quantum systems have such peculiar features that they challenge certain ontological principles and categories as understood in traditional metaphysics. In general, these features are analyzed in the context of the so-called problem of indistinguishability, which is a consequence of the particular statistical behavior of quantum systems. But the fact that certain items are “indistinguishable” is not the only difficulty to be overcome in order to elucidate the ontological category of quantum systems. (shrink)

In his 1994 paper, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet affirmed that he found a way to test the interaction between the mind and the brain. He believed that this procedure would also test the reality of a non-physical mind, emerging from neural activity. In 2000 John Searle objected to Libet’s evident dualism, affirming that the mind is not a hypothesis to test but a datum to be explained. According to Searle, Libet’s problem arose from accepting the Cartesian distinction of ‘mind’ and ‘body’, (...) obsolete categories from an old philosophy. Searle’s solution implied the rejection both of dualism and reductive materialism, suggesting a non-reductive materialism. This first-person ontology, as Searle calls it, aims at preserving, against reductive materialism, the essential features of consciousness, i.e. subjective, qualitative and unified. Searle argued, however, that the nature of consciousness remained biological. Dan Zahavi’s thesis is that a phenomenological approach to the self and consciousness can offer a complementing alternative to the contemporary comprehension of the nature of consciousness. Engaged in an open dialogue with neuroscience and cognitive science in his dealings with consciousness, Zahavi holds, nonetheless, that this notion cannot be completely understood without reference to the notion of the self. Thus, this paper will analyse Zahavi’s ideas about the self and consciousness in Subjectivity and Selfhood as to evaluate whether his phenomenological approach is able to overcome the materialist tones of Searle’s philosophy of mind, opening the possibility of a non-reductive comprehension of human beings. (shrink)

Continued failure to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are causing global climate change has brought increased attention to climate engineering technologies, which actively modify the global environment to counteract heating and climate disruptions caused by elevated greenhouse gases. Some proposed forms of CE, particularly spraying reflective particles in the upper atmosphere to reduce incoming sunlight, can cool the average temperature of the Earth rapidly and cheaply, thereby substantially reducing climate-related risks. Yet CE interventions provide only (...) imperfect corrections for the climatic and other environmental effects of elevated greenhouse gases, and carry their own environmental risks. Moreover, they may also increase other risks, by weakening political support for essential emissions reductions or providing new triggers for international conflict. These technologies thus require international governance, but also pose novel and severe challenges to current international laws and institutions. Effective governance of CE will require a capacity to make decisions regarding the conditions, if any, under which specific interventions are authorized, plus realtime operational oversight of any interventions that are conducted. Decision processes must be effectively linked with scientific research and assessment, and with institutions to manage and respond to threats of CE-related conflict. We advance preliminary suggestions to address two priority areas for early investigation: how international cooperation on early CE research can help develop shared norms that can grow robust enough to support future decision needs; and how early research and development on CE can be made to complement and encourage, rather than undermine, parallel efforts to reduce climate risks by cutting emissions. (shrink)

Christopher Timpson proposes a deflationary view about information, according to which the term ‘information’ is an abstract noun and, as a consequence, information is not part of the material contents of the world. The main purpose of the present article consists in supplying a critical analysis of this proposal, which will lead us to conclude that information is an item even more abstract than what Timpson claims. From this view, we embrace a pluralist stance that recognizes the legitimacy of different (...) interpretations of the concept of information. (shrink)