The scope of Philosophy in Multiple Voices provides the reader with eight philosophical streams of thought-African-American, Afro-Caribbean, Asian-American, Feminist, Latin-American, Lesbian, Native-American and Queer-that introduce readers to alternative, complex philosophical questions concerning gendered, sexed, racial and ethnic identities, canon formation, and meta-philosophy. The overriding theme of the text is that philosophy is pluralistic in voice, rich in diversity, and ought to valorize democratic intellectual spaces of philosophical engagement.

Este texto discute alguns filmes classificados como de ficção científica para marcar como o cinema nos tem ensinado a ver e a viver nessa civilização altamente tecnológica, à qual se tem atribuído o qualificativo cibernética. (APPIGNANESI; GARRAT, 1998). Tal civilização, também configurada como pós-moderna (Lyotard, 1989), como modernidade líquida (BAUMAN, 2001), ou como modernidade tardia (JAMESON, 2002), tem sido caracterizada por atuar na produção de subjetividades bastante diversas das usualmente invocadas para referir o homem no humanismo moderno. Muitos dos debates (...) conduzidos salientam a centralidade que as TICs alcançam nas sociedades contemporâneas, que também se caracterizam pela emergência de formas ciborgues, pós-humanas ou pós-orgânicas, que representam corpos descritos muito mais como processos ou arranjos da informação do que como corposmáquina, como as perspectivas modernistas enfatizavam. Argumentamos que se rompem nessas novas representações importantes binarismos modernos, tais como, homem/máquina, biológico/tecnológico e natureza/cultura. (shrink)

In this work, we discuss how both contractualism, in the Western tradition, and communitarianism, in the African interpretation based on the idea of Ubuntu, conceptualise intergenerational justice. Even though both philosophical theories, taking into account differences and shortcomings, provide theoretical answers to intergenerational justice dilemmas, the implementation of actual policies in the interest of future individuals does not follow straightforwardly. Accordingly, in the second part of the chapter, we analyse what policy tools have been implemented or conceived to deliver intergenerational (...) justice and we advocate a pragmatic approach pointing towards a mix of different policy tools. (shrink)

(1994). Introduction to the special issue on art and science: Studies from the world academy of art and science. World Futures: Vol. 40, Art and Science: Studies from the World Academy of Art and Science, pp. 1-1.

Masini, A., 2-Sequent calculus: a proof theory of modalities, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 58 229–246. In this work we propose an extension of the Getzen sequent calculus in order to deal with modalities. We extend the notion of a sequent obtaining what we call a 2-sequent. For the obtained calculus we prove a cut elimination theorem.

According to the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), social and institutional entities are the only entities that can be null, void. The starting point of the article, The “Invalid” and the “Nothing”: At the Origins of Social Ontology, is the analysis of Hans Kelsen’s thesis. But: Why are social entities the only entities that can be null, void? In order to answer this question, in the first part of the article, the author uses two new concepts: validity-imperfection and validity-falsification. The (...) second part of the paper deals with a new ontological question: Are null (void) social entities something? (shrink)

The general question to be considered in this paper points to the nature of the world described by chemistry: what is macro-chemical ontology like? In particular, we want to identify the ontological categories that underlie chemical discourse and chemical practice. This is not an easy task, because modern Western metaphysics was strongly modeled by theoretical physics. For this reason, we attempt to answer our question by contrasting macro-chemical ontology with the mainstream ontology of physics and of traditional metaphysics. In particular, (...) we introduce the distinction between stuff-ontology, proper of chemistry, and individual-ontology, proper of physics. These two ontologies differ from each other in the basic categories of their own structures. On this basis, we characterize individual-ontology in such a way that the features of stuff-ontology will arise by contrast with it. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la novela Jardín, de la escritora cubana Dulce María Loynaz, deteniéndose en las estrategias que despliega para subvertir distintos modelos de feminidad. La novela sostiene un diálogo productivo con distintas corrientes estéticas, cuyas formas de expresión asume y a la vez critica por las limitaciones que le imponen al desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina. A través del recorrido que realiza en Jardín por distintas propuestas estéticas e ideológicas que han contribuido a la configuración del sujeto moderno, Loynaz (...) despliega una crítica a las formas en que estas construyen el sujeto femenino y su posición en el orden de género sexual. Este recorrido se realiza desde dentro de estas estéticas, desde su apropiación productiva en la textualidad de la novela, la que transita por el lenguaje del romanticismo, del simbolismo, del modernismo y de las vanguardias. En Jardín se muestra cómo estos movimientos abren, pero también cierran, posibilidades de expresión y desarrollo para las mujeres. (shrink)

Resumo : O texto deseja investigar a categoria “estética” no campo da filosofia da educação. Formar-se significa dar a si mesmo o direito de escolher trajetórias diante do fecundo universo interpretativo à disposição no meio acadêmico. A força do educador na relação com o estudante implica ensinar a ruminar sobre suas escolhas estéticas para bem argumentar na relação com outras abordagens filosóficas. Cabe aos educadores no ensino superior e especialmente aqueles do campo da Filosofia e das Teorias da Educação provocar (...) os estudantes a fazer experiências com seus próprios conceitos, por vezes desmontando, refinando, sofisticando, incluindo, excluindo noções e conceitos para evitar que a solidez das convicções empobreçam as imagens da exuberância da vida e das estéticas educativas Palavras-chave : formação, filosofia da educação, estética, teorias da educação. (shrink)

We propose a constructionist approach to the polyfunctionality of the Italian focus particle magari (roughly corresponding to ‘maybe’, but also ‘I wish’). The sheer syntactic versatility of this word leads us to detect its formal regularities at the level of discourse configurations. This level of analysis, identified within the French linguistic tradition, is defined by the maintenance of a predicate-argument-adjunct structure in discourse. The salient feature of discourse configurations is their shape, which can be described by referring to a number (...) of topological patterns: lists of elements in the same syntactic position, repetition of syntactic structures, shifting of elements from a post-verbal to a pre-verbal position and so on. These topological patterns are meaningful to an extent and they are eligible to be regarded as constructions. Magari is shown to be regularly associated with a general topological pattern, namely a list of items that occupy the same syntactic position as the item focused by magari. Each semantic function of magari correlates with one particular kind of list. These associations of a form (the different types of lists) and a meaning (the functions of magari) are shown to be related to one another by means of inheritance links. (shrink)

In late February and early March 2020, Italy became the European epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite increasingly stringent containment measures enforced by the government, the health system faced an enormous pressure, and extraordinary efforts were made in order to increase overall hospital beds’ availability and especially ICU capacity. Nevertheless, the hardest-hit hospitals in Northern Italy experienced a shortage of ICU beds and resources that led to hard allocating choices. At the beginning of March 2020, the Italian Society of Anesthesia, (...) Analgesia, Resuscitation, and Intensive Care issued recommendations aimed at supporting physicians in prioritizing patients when the number of critically ill patients overwhelm the capacity of ICUs. One motivating concern for the SIAARTI guidance was that, if no balanced and consistent allocation procedures were applied to prioritize patients, there would be a concrete risk for unfair choices, and that the prevalent “first come, first served” principle would lead to many avoidable deaths. Among the drivers of decision for admission to ICUs, age, comorbidities, and preexisting functional status were included. The recommendations were criticized as ageist and potentially discriminatory against elderly patients. Looking forward to the next steps, the Italian experience can be relevant to other parts of the world that are yet to see a significant surge of COVID-19: the need for transparent triage criteria and commonly shared values give the Italian recommendations even greater legitimacy. (shrink)

The essay intends to highlight as the walls constitute the elements of that “imaginary geography”, according to a definition of Edward Said, that realizing an attempt of defence of the State sovereignty, admits at same times its fragility. Symbolically representing a function and an effectiveness that in reality they do not exercise, such walls appear as “theatrical and spectacularised performance of the power”, disappointing responses in the face of the challenges and of today's questions. Analysing the convergence of the Mediterranean (...) area to the global tendency to the building of barriers and to the deep fragmentation of the lands, ploughed by rigid and hostile boundaries, the analysis focused how the elevation of real walls is linked to the creation of an imaginary barrier, the “Mediterranean wall”, an intangible, immaterial, but impassable limit, a barrier against which an incalculable number of migrants have lost and continue to lose their lives. (shrink)

Women account for 70% of healthcare workers, so their role has been – and still is – fundamental in addressing and managing the current pandemic event caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Far from being an opportunity to highlight the importance of women in the field, the healthcare crisis, together with lockdown policies and care responsibilities, have contributed to increase the gender gap. To study the depiction of women healthcare professionals, this paper analyses 401 cartoons on the COVID-19 pandemic that depict (...) healthcare workers. Most represent doctors as men and nurses as women, in roles subordinate to men. The representation of women is also impacted by stereotypes that do not contribute to better reflect the roles and professional skills of women in the healthcare field today. (shrink)

Ethics consultation is a service provided to patients, families, and clinicians to support decisions during ethical dilemmas. This study is a secondary qualitative analysis of 48 interviews from clinicians involved in an ethics consultation at a large academic health center. An inductive secondary analysis of this data set led to the emergence of one key theme, the apparent perspective the clinicians adopted as they recalled a specific ethics case. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the propensity of clinicians involved (...) in an ethics consultation to adopt the subjective viewpoints of their team, their patient, or both simultaneously. Clinicians demonstrated an ability to take the patient perspective (42%), the clinician perspective (31%), or the clinician-patient perspective (25%). Our analysis suggests the potential for narrative medicine to build the empathy and moral imagination necessary to bridge the gap in perspectives between key stakeholders. (shrink)

Hastings Center Report, Volume 52, Issue 5, Page 46-47, September–October 2022.

Enaction, as put forward by Varela and defended by other thinkers (notably Alva Noë, 2004; Susan Hurley, 2006; and Kevin O’Regan, 1992), departs from traditional accounts that treat mental processes (like perception, reasoning, and action) as discrete, independent processes that are causally related in a sequen- tial fashion. According to the main claim of the enactive approach, which Thompson seems to fully endorse, perceptual awareness is taken to be a skill-based activity. Our perceptual contact with the world, according to the (...) enactionists, is not mediated by representations but is enacted, and the notion of representation, belonging to the classic computational paradigm, has no place in this alternative approach. Though Thompson does not pronounce directly on the issue of representationalism, he is most definitely keeping the company of anti-representationalists, and in that context it is not unreasonable to take his silence for consent. In this paper, we will argue that the enactive approach to imagery is unworkable unless it makes appeal to representations, understood in a particular way. Not understood as pictures, to be sure. Or sentences for that matter. But those aren’t the only options. (shrink)

This paper describes a practice innovation: the addition of formal weekly discussions of patients with prolonged PICU stay to reduce healthcare providers’ moral distress and decrease length of stay for patients with life-threatening illnesses. We evaluated the innovation using a pre/post intervention design measuring provider moral distress and comparing patient outcomes using retrospective historical controls. Physicians and nurses on staff in our pediatric intensive care unit in a quaternary care children's hospital participated in the evaluation. There were 60 patients in (...) the interventional group and 66 patients in the historical control group. We evaluated the impact of weekly meetings to establish goals of care for patients with longer than 10 days length of stay in the ICU for a year. Moral distress was measured intermittently and reported moral distress thermometer scores fluctuated. "Clinical situations" represented the most frequent contributing factor to moral distress. Post intervention, overall moral distress scores, measured on the moral distress scale revised, were lower for respondents in all categories, and on three specific items. Patient outcomes before and after PEACE intervention showed a statistically significant decrease in PRISM indexed LOS, a statistically significant increase in both code status changes DNR, and in-hospital death, with no change in patient 30 or 365 day mortality. The addition of a clinical ethicist and senior intensivist to weekly inter-professional team meetings facilitated difficult conversations regarding realistic goals of care. The study demonstrated that the PEACE intervention had a positive impact on some factors that contribute to moral distress and can shorten PICU length of stay for some patients. (shrink)

There is certainly no shortage of studies describing the unwanted effects of infidelity in the relevant literature. By contrast, this paper examines the previously unexplored face of infidelity – namely, the subjectively perceived positive effects. One hundred and four participants from Slovakia in emerging and/or young adulthood shared their relationship history through semi-structured interviews (transcribed verbatim). Sixty-nine of these were self-moderated in written form. The same topics were covered in the two types of interview. Using a categorical-content analysis method, four (...) categories were created. These described the constructive functions of infidelity, including enhancing relationship quality; aiding a desired breakup; satisfying unmet needs; and facilitating the decision-making process during the transition period before settling into a long-term relationship. For future research we recommend differentiating between beneficial episodes of infidelity, focusing on personal characteristics and subjective experiences of infidelity, and including non-heterosexual participants. (shrink)

Westworld tells the story of a technologically advanced theme park populated by robots referred to as hosts, who follow a script and rules that the park's operators set up for them. Alan Turing argued that machines think not because they have special powers or because they are like us. Turing's perspective is illustrated perfectly in the show's focus on the hosts. Objecting to Turing's theory, John Searle proposes a situation called the “Chinese room argument”, concluding that the man in the (...) room does not understand Chinese even though he can correctly manipulate the symbols and give output that might lead an observer to believe that the man does understand Chinese. The Maze represents consciousness, a privileged knowledge of our own thoughts, it also represents the inward journey for the hosts to reach consciousness. Once hosts are able to solve the Maze, they become truly conscious and develop their own voice. (shrink)