Background: Nurse managers are expected to continuously ensure that ethical standards are met and to support healthcare workers’ ethical competence. Several studies have concluded that nurses across various healthcare settings lack the support needed to provide safe, compassionate and competent ethical care. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore and understand how nurse managers perceive their role in supporting their staff in conducting ethically sound care in nursing homes and home nursing care. Design and participants: Qualitative individual interviews (...) were performed with 10 nurse managers with human resources responsibilities for healthcare workers in four nursing home wards and six home nursing care districts. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Ethical considerations: The Norwegian Centre for Research Data granted permission for this study. Findings: The analysis resulted in seven subcategories that were grouped into three main categories: managers’ perception of the importance of the role, managers’ experiences of exercising the role and managers’ opportunities to fulfil the role. Challenges with conceptualizing ethics were highlighted, as well as lack of applicable tools or time and varying motivation among employees. Discussion: The leaders tended to perceive ethics as a ‘personal matter’ and that the need for and benefit of ethical support (e.g., ethics reflection) depended on individuals’ vulnerability, attitudes, commitment and previous experiences. The managers did not seem to distinguish between their own responsibility to support ethical competence and the responsibility of the individual employee to provide ethical care. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that nurse managers need support themselves, both to understand and to carry out their responsibilities to foster their staffs’ ethical conduct. Supporting staff in conducting ethically sound care requires more than organizing meeting places for ethical reflection; it also requires greater awareness and understanding of what ethical leadership means. (shrink)

ObjectivesTo describe reporting of informed consent in pragmatic trials, justifications for waivers of consent and reporting of alternative approaches to standard written consent. To identify factors associated with (1) not reporting and (2) not obtaining consent.MethodsSurvey of primary trial reports, published 2014–2019, identified using an electronic search filter for pragmatic trials implemented in MEDLINE, and registered in ClinicalTrials.gov.ResultsAmong 1988 trials, 132 (6.6%) did not include a statement about participant consent, 1691 (85.0%) reported consent had been obtained, 139 (7.0%) reported a (...) waiver and 26 (1.3%) reported consent for one aspect (eg, data collection) but a waiver for another (eg, intervention). Of the 165 trials reporting a waiver, 76 (46.1%) provided a justification. Few (53, 2.9%) explicitly reported use of alternative approaches to consent. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, lower journal impact factor (p=0.001) and cluster randomisation (p<0.0001) were significantly associated with not reporting on consent, while trial recency, cluster randomisation, higher-income country settings, health services research and explicit labelling as pragmatic were significantly associated with not obtaining consent (all p<0.0001).DiscussionNot obtaining consent seems to be increasing and is associated with the use of cluster randomisation and pragmatic aims, but neither cluster randomisation nor pragmatism are currently accepted justifications for waivers of consent. Rather than considering either standard written informed consent or waivers of consent, researchers and research ethics committees could consider alternative consent approaches that may facilitate the conduct of pragmatic trials while preserving patient autonomy and the public’s trust in research. (shrink)

The self- vs. external-regulation behavior theory, SR-ER Theory model has postulated the Self-Regulation /Non or De-Regulation/Dys-regulation continuum in the person and in their context. The model also generates a behavioral heuristic that allows us to predict and explain the variability of other dependent behavioral variables in a range of scenarios. Consequently, the objective of this study was to validate the different scales prepared on the basis of the theory presented. A total of 469 students voluntarily completed at different times the (...) five questionnaires presented, to give a total of 1,385 completed questionnaires. Using an ex post facto design, descriptive, correlational, confirmatory factorial analysis, reliability, and concurrent validity analyses were carried out. The scales were analyzed individually and as a whole. The results showed the acceptable structure of scale and consistent levels of reliability. The five levels generated by the SR-NR-DR combinatory heuristic that arises from the theoretical model determined significant differences in the levels of the variables analyzed for each psychological context. We discuss the theoretical implications and the implications for the assessment and improvement of the behaviors analyzed in function of the personal and contextual regulation levels evaluated. (shrink)

For much of 2021, allocating the scarce supply of Covid‐19 vaccines was the world's most pressing bioethical challenge, and similar challenges may recur for novel therapies and future vaccines. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) identified three fundamental ethical principles to guide the process: maximize benefits, promote justice, and mitigate health inequities. We argue that critical components of the recommended protocol were internally inconsistent with these principles. Specifically, the ACIP (...) violated its principles by recommending overly broad health care worker priority in phase 1a, using being at least seventy‐five years of age as the only criterion to identify individuals at high risk of death from Covid‐19 during phase 1b, failing to recommend place‐based vaccine distribution, and implicitly endorsing first‐come, first‐served allocation. More rigorous empirical work and the development of a complete ethical framework that recognizes trade‐offs between principles may have prevented these mistakes and saved lives. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The aim of the present article is to rebuild picturebooks’ identity as polyphonic cultural objects based on a brief historical trajectory. Dialogue established between text and reader in contemporary picturebook’s production is broadened by the presence of different semiosis that allow multiple voices to be heard, since they act as meaning enhancers. The Bakhtinian concept of polyphony is herein held at the picturebook reflections scope to set contrast in children’s literature, which has a moralizing nature and is substantiated from (...) a monological perspective. The books by Angela Lago, who is a representative of the Brazilian children’s literature, are herein analyzed to disclose multimodal aspects found in this cultural object (book). In conclusion, picturebooks open a window of possibilities for open minded and creative readings, as well as for different readers, due to their polysemic and polyphonic nature. (shrink)

Knowledge brokers are among the main channels of communication between scientists and the public and a key element to establishing a relation of trust between the two. But translating knowledge from the scientific community to a wider audience presents several difficulties, which can be accentuated in times of crisis. In this paper we study some of the problems that knowledge brokers face when communicating in times of crisis. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected interviews with Italian (...) experts that played a major role as knowledge brokers in the local media. We asked them questions about five main topics: the features and role of science communicators; the use of language in communicating science; the importance of the relation of trust with the public; the peculiarity of communicating in a context of emergency; the problem of disagreement among experts, and its public perception and communication. The goal of this paper is to understand, through the words of knowledge brokers themselves, what they consider as best practices (and obstacles) to create trust between scientists and the public. Our empirical work can inform normative accounts of what knowledge brokering should be about. (shrink)

Despite journalism’s commitment to ethical principles such as accuracy, humanity and diversity, compliance with the gender perspective in content is still minimal in approximately one hundred countries. This inequality reinforces misperceptions, imbalances, and perceived differences between men and women. To address this situation, from 2010 to 2021, eight Spanish media companies appointed a new editorial position responsible for self-regulating gender equality. This qualitative study focused on 10 journalists who currently exercise or have exercised that job, to detect, describe and propose (...) the implementation of this new professional role. This study suggests that gender editing has advanced equality in parity of sourcing and the presence of women in the opinion sections, but implementation of equality in overall content is more difficult. Gender editors’ daily work is hampered by a lack of management support and an absence of independence in editorial decisions. (shrink)

Philosopher Judith Butler has influenced how people talk about vulnerable bodies and sees vulnerability as universal, existential, and relational. Being vulnerable is part of the human condition. The main theoretical areas that run across Butler’s work; power, knowledge and subjectivity, performativity, and ethics—are of particular relevance to nursing practice. This review aims to explore how Butler’s theoretical work is reflected in research literature within a nursing context. We conducted a scoping review guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. A systematic (...) literature search of CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science identified 15 papers. Butler’s theoretical work was applied at an individual and social level in research literature within a nursing context. Nurses need to reflect on their clinical practice and role as health professionals in relation to power and performativity in encounters with patients who are marginalized. Nurses’ working conditions, recognition, and understanding are strongly influenced by society, and calling nurses heroes undermines their capacity to challenge and resist the hero identity. The healthcare system’s impact on patient-nurse encounters challenges patients’ and nurses’ subjectivity, performativity, and power relations. The review allowed us to describe how Butler’s theoretical work can facilitate a reflection on nursing practice which is a prerequisite for caring, ethical relationships, and working conditions within a nursing context. Butler’s concepts can provide useful perspectives on how nurses understand, communicate with, and care for patients, as well as a nuanced understanding of the nursing role and power relations and structures. (shrink)

Blumenthal-Barby et al. (2022) are right. Philosophers should pay greater attention to bioethics and bioethicists should pay greater attention to insights from philosophy. This commentary extends t...

Due to the recent gains in biomedical sciences, the fetus1 is more exposed and subjected to increasing possibilities of intervention, becoming a full-fledged patient, and entering more often into a...

O presente trabalho é decorrente do Projeto de Pesquisa Intervenção “Phenix – a ousadia do renascimento do indivíduo-sujeito – fase IV”, vinculado a Universidade Estadual de Maringá. As teorizações aqui realizadas partiram de encontros realizados entre graduandos e pós-graduandos de psicologia com adolescentes pauperizados de uma escola pública localizada na periferia de Maringá-PR, cujo foco foi propiciar uma reflexão crítica acerca do cotidiano desses adolescentes a partir de Psicanálise e de pressupostos da Teoria Crítica de Adorno. A princípio serão apresentadas (...) nesse trabalho algumas considerações sobre os processos de identificação, adesão e reprodução de discursos totalizantes relacionados a ideias meritocráticas e patriarcalistas que foram discutidas com os adolescentes, com o intuito de desmistificar alguns modelos pré-formatados de família, de homem e de mulher impostos na sociedade contemporânea. Na sequência, serão realizadas breves considerações sobre as especificidades do adolescer dentro de um contexto pauperizado e significativamente marcado pelos imperativos do consumo, via indústria cultural. (shrink)

Nesta comunicação, discutimos os discursos intolerantes e privilégios religiosos que circulam no contexto prisional baiano, que por um lado afeta a presença e expressão de religiosidades de matriz africana através de processos de demonização, desqualificação e desautorização religiosa, por outro, produz privilégios direcionados a cristãos, em especial, vinculados as vertentes evangélicas/protestantes. Os dados apresentados são oriundos de parte da dissertação intitulada “nome suprimido”, desenvolvida no Programa. Adotamos a perspectiva da psicologia social, sustentada teórico-metodologicamente no movimento do Construcionismo Social. Além disso, (...) utilizamos contribuições mais específicas que situam os processos de racialização e seus efeitos para a compreensão do tema desse estudo, em especial de Franz Fanon. Os dados foram produzidos através de entrevistas, via roteiro semiestruturado, de quatro custodiados, três agentes penitenciários/as e um agente religioso no Complexo Penitenciário Lemos Brito na cidade de Salvador, analisadas à luz da análise categorial temática. Concluímos que a instituição prisão ainda funciona de forma preponderadamente colonial, onde a reatualização da hegemonia cristã, com a roupagem atual das vertentes evangélicas/protestantes. Esse horizonte localiza o corpus religioso de matriz africana, importante e fundamental prisma de resistência identitária negra diaspórica, como algo a ser neutralizado, incidindo maior vulnerabilidade da população negra ao discurso cristão que produz auto-ódio, desvinculação social, com base em intolerância religiosa, racismo religioso e institucional. (shrink)

This perspective paper aims at discussing theoretical principles that could explain how emotion regulation and physical diseases mutually influence each other in the context of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Furthermore, this paper discusses the clinical implications of the functional relationships between emotion regulation, BPD and medical conditions considering dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) as a well-validated therapeutic intervention, which encompasses these issues. The inflexible use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., suppression, experiential avoidance, and rumination) might directly increase the probability of (...) developing physical diseases through a physiological pathway, or indirectly through a behavioral pathway. Some metabolic and chronic medical conditions could significantly impact emotional functioning through biological alterations involved in emotion regulation. Several empirical studies have shown high co-occurrence rates between BPD and several chronic physical diseases, especially ones linked to emotion-based maladaptive behaviors. DBT addresses physical diseases reported by individuals with BPD reducing problematic behaviors functionally associated to emotion dysregulation and identifying physical health as a goal forBuilding a Life Worth Living. (shrink)

En contraste a los efectos positivos del capital social, diversos autores llaman la atención sobre su “lado oscuro”. En este artículo exploramos una de sus manifestaciones. Proponemos que el capital social puede ser utilizado por políticos en relaciones clientelares para coaccionar a los ciudadanos, condicionando la continuidad de estas relaciones si los ciudadanos utilizan mecanismos de control social para sancionarlos. Proponemos entonces que el capital social puede limitar el ejercicio del control social. Luego de realizar distinciones analíticas sobre el capital (...) social, analizamos la relación entre ciudadanos y políticos desde la teoría principal-agente y para explicar la asimetría de poder entre ambos, utilizamos la teoría del intercambio disputadoformulada por la economía política radical. La tesis central es que tal como el capital favorece la dominación de los obreros en los mercados de trabajo capitalistas, el capital social puede favorecer la dominación de los ciudadanos en las relaciones clientelares. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to propose a satisfying model-theoretic account of the notions of singularity, collective plurality, and distributive plurality expressed by both the nouns and the verbs of Papago according to Mathiot (1983). The approach will be algebraic in the sense of Link (1983). Informally, our proposal is that while English has only one form of plurality, Papago has two: one based on identity and the other on equivalence. The identity-based plural is one that Papago shares with (...) English and other Indo-European languages; the equivalence-based plural, on the other hand, is characteristic of Papago and other Native American languages. The extreme elaboration of the notion of multiplicity expressed in Papago follows from this proposal, given sufficiently rich models and independently motivated principles governing the semantics of roots (Wackernagel 1920; Ojeda 1993; Eschenbach 1993), markedness (Jakobson 1957), and verbs (Davidson 1967; Parsons 1990). (shrink)

While it represents a common form of gender-based violence, misogyny is an often-overlooked concept within academia and the queer community. Drawing on queer and feminist scholarship on gay male misogyny, this article presents a theoretical challenge to the myth that the oppressed cannot oppress, arguing that specific forms of gay male subjectivities can be proponents of misogyny in ways that are unrecognised because of their sexually marginalised status. The authors’ interest in the doing of misogyny, and its effects on specific (...) bodies and subjectivities, leads them to discuss the extent to which white gay male misogyny can function to reinforce a particular gender and racial hierarchy that continually confines queer femininities to the status of the abject other, for failing to exhibit their feminine credentials and for making gender trouble. The study also addresses how specific markers of femininity are depoliticised through the workings of this misogyny, exploring what femininity does when it is conceptualised outside a heteronormative framework. To address these ideas, the authors firstly propose a theoretical account of misogyny in order to understand its analytical status as a cultural mechanism within the psychic economy of patriarchy. Secondly, they use queer approaches to effeminacy and subject formation for making the case for gay male misogyny and its connections to femininity within white gay cultures, asking how misogyny might become an essential component of the performance of hegemonic masculinity. The article concludes with a discussion of the ways in which gay male misogyny reinforces white male dominance over women and queer femininities specifically, advocating for resistance to the reproduction of such patriarchal arrangements. (shrink)

En esta comunicación se tratará un fenómeno creciente, la migración, desde la óptica de Seyla Benhabib, pensadora turca de nacionalidad estadounidense. La preocupación de esta pensadora es evidenciar los problemas y paradojas que existen en el seno de los estados nacionales con respecto, precisamente, a la condición que experimentan los inmigrantes. Es por ello que la autora apuesta por la membresía política, un sugerente concepto con que Benhabib dilucida uno de los grandes temas políticos y filosóficos de nuestro tiempo. El (...) dilema es precisamente éste: ¿Cómo apelar a derechos universales y a la vez sostener una identidad nacional en un Estado democrático, soberano? Como veremos, la teoría de Benhabib es un intento muy bien logrado de responder a estas preguntas aunque, como suele suceder, queden muchas otras en el aire. (shrink)

Today’s medical ethics involve two different viewpoints based on how we understand the role of conscience in medicine and the purpose of healthcare. The first view, called the health-directed model, sees medicine as a way to improve health and promote healing, while also respecting the values of both patients and doctors. In this model, doctors need some discretionary space to decide how to achieve the best health outcomes in their practice. On the other hand, the service-provider model sees the main (...) goal of medicine as providing a service, especially healthcare, with a strong focus on protecting patient autonomy. In this view, doctors are required to provide care even when it goes against their personal beliefs. The goal of this article is to explore the foundations and arguments of these two medical models. Understanding the key ideas behind these models is important for deciding whether to support or oppose conscientious objection in medical ethics. Additionally, the article aims to figure out which model makes a stronger case and to offer advice on how to engage with the opposing view from a virtue ethics perspective. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the golden era and proposes an exercise of creativity whereby we imagine Diana, the Amazon, becoming Wonder Woman in order to overthrow Man's World. Through Wonder Woman's story, we can build a feminist epic that depicts women who fight patriarchy. In the novel Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary, Wittig and Zeig describe the Amazons as the warriors thanks to whom we have been able to enter the Golden Age, an age without patriarchy or sex differences. (...) Diana, by becoming Wonder Woman and by fighting against heteropatriarchal injustice, leads the war toward the destruction of this dualistic division. The connection between Amazons and Guerrilleres, between two generations of fighters against patriarchy, aims to inspire our sorority and union in this fight against heteronormative, oppressive structures that affect us all, especially women and other subjects with alternative sexual and gender identities. (shrink)

En la Edad Moderna numerosos exiliados llegaron hasta la Corte de la Monarquía Hispánica en búsqueda de auxilio y refugio bajo el poder imperial de los Austrias. Uno de ellos fue Muley Hamet (Mawlāy Aḥmad), un príncipe jarife de la dinastía saʿdī de Marruecos, con aspiraciones de conseguir el amparo de Felipe IV para recuperar su legitimidad como heredero al trono de Fez. El análisis de la documentación burocrática que generó su incómoda presencia en Getafe, entre 1648 y 1649, servirá (...) en el presente artículo no solo para esclarecer esta enturbiada figura principesca entre otras de la época, sino también para reflexionar sobre los mecanismos de recepción de extranjeros en la corona castellana ante sujetos cuya confesión difería del catolicismo. (shrink)

This paper is about syllogistic reasoning, i.e., reasoning from such pairs of premises as, All the chefs are musicians; some of the musicians are painters. We present a computer model that implements the latest account of syllogisms, which is based on the theory of mental models. We also report four experiments that were designed to test this account. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the strategies revealed by the participants' use of paper and pencil as aids to reasoning. Experiment 3 used (...) a new technique to externalize thinking. The participants had to refute, if possible, putative conclusions by constructing external models that were examples of the premises but counterexamples of the conclusions. Experiment 4 used the same techniques to examine the participants' strategies as they drew their own conclusions from syllogistic premises. The results of the experiments showed that individuals not trained in logic can construct counterexamples, that they use similar operations to those implemented in the computer model, but that they rely on a much greater variety of interpretations of premises and of search strategies than the computer model does. We re‐evaluates current theories of syllogistic reasoning in the light of these results. (shrink)

Based on ethnographic evidence collected over the last two decades in Gunayala Comarca (autonomous territory), Panama, this article explores understandings of human consciousness from the perspective of the Guna people. After a brief account of the linguistic, historical, and political context, it continues with a presentation of the notions of burba, niga, and gurgin, which are used to refer to notions of soul, spirit, and consciousness. After translating these words and describing their particularities, I show the extent to which these (...) notions, with roots in knowledge passed down from generation to generation, or revealed through dreams or visions, make it possible to understand the conception of the human being in relation with other non-human beings. Finally, the article seeks to open up a discussion with works produced over the last few decades by philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists, and to respond from the Guna standpoint to some of the questions that have recently been raised in these fields. (shrink)

El objetivo de este estudio es mostrar el sentir de los estudiantes de licenciatura durante la contingencia sanitaria. Se realizó un estudio cualitativo a través de la narrativa de 35 estudiantes. Los principales resultados muestran que éstos se enfrentaron a diversos sentimientos y retos en su aprendizaje a lo largo de casi dos años de confinamiento.

É provável que eu morra nos próximos dez, quinze, anos- Tenho filhos e netos, amei e fui amada, escrevi livros, ouvi música e viajei- Poderia dar-me por satisfeita, o que não me faz encarar a morte com placidez- Se amanhã um médico me disser que sofro de.

The aim is to show that study objects that address social problems , should be analysed with a consistent method to it complexity, i.e. critical dialectical, because it not only explains the problem, but transforms the current conditions with the intention of enhancing its constituent elements. The first section shows the onto-epistemological and teleological assumptions of the study object, the second the explanation of an epistemic matrix that displays the location of the problem, thus establishing the right process for its (...) approach. Se trata de mostrar que los objetos de estudio que aborden problemas sociales , deben ser analizados con un método consecuente a la complejidad del mismo, siendo éste la dialéctica-crítica, puesto que no se trata solamente de explicar el problema, sino de transformar las condiciones existentes con una intencionalidad potenciadora de los elementos que lo constituyen. Para ello se recurre, en un primer momento, a la explicación de los supuestos onto-epistemológicos y teleológicos del objeto de estudio, y en un segundo momento, a la explicación de una matriz epistémica que permite visualizar la ubicación del problema, estableciendo en consecuencia, el proceso adecuado para su abordaje. (shrink)

El término Teodicea fue acuñado por Leibniz a comienzos de la Ilustración y recoge desde entonces los intentos teístas de justificar su idea de un Dios interesado en el mundo, omnipotente y bueno con la realidad tozuda e innegable del mal. Esa justificación se nos revela hoy como necesariamente etiológica, aunque no por ello menos fructífera o relevante para nuestro propio predicamento. El presente trabajo pretende mostrar muy someramente las condiciones socioculturales que se revelan en las etiologías más destacadas posteriores (...) a Leibniz y sus paralelismos con nuestra situación presente. A partir de esos paralelismos se apuntarán los posibles rasgos de una Teodicea actual desde los supuestos de la filosofía analítica y la teología filosófica, centrada en los diferentes tipos de mal y una comprensión de las características del mundo y de la mente que apunten a posibles soluciones. (shrink)

En este trabajo se pretende abordar la historia del arte según Arthur Danto, partiremos de la distinción entre los tres distintos periodos históricos que postula, el primero de ellos lo ubicaré bajo el nombre del Periodo Prehistórico del arte, el segundo como el Periodo Histórico y finalmente el periodo Posthistórico. Cada uno será explicado de manera tal que no exista ambigüedad entre ellos, todo esto con la finalidad de esclarecer aún más la concepción que tiene Danto sobre la historia del (...) arte y poder abordar en el tercer capítulo lo que nos atañe con respecto a su tesis sobre el fin del arte. Se podrá realizar un contraste entre lo propuesto por Shinner frente Danto y resaltar la pertinencia del segundo autor partiendo del periodo Posthistórico como el que define lo acontecido en el arte contemporáneo y el fin del arte. Shinner es capaz de tejer históricamente lo que acontece con el concepto arte y sus problemáticas hasta su configuración moderna de bellas artes, después, continúa relatando sin añadir la problemática con respecto a las producciones del siglo XIX y XX, sólo nos dice que cambian las producciones, más no que el concepto lo hace con ellas. Por lo tanto, se ve la necesidad de explicar el cambio en el concepto, recurriendo a la crítica de Danto y la propuesta de un nuevo concepto capaz de incluir en su definición todo lo es una obra de arte y lo que esté en posibilidad de ser una. Lo que está en posibilidad habita en el reino prehistórico y posthistórico del arte. (shrink)

Adolescence is a vital stage in a person´s development, stressful events within the most significant subsystems at this stage can lead to anxious-depressive symptomatology. The objective of this study was to design a socio-emotional narrative intervention program in order to decrease anxious-depressive symptoms in adolescents. We seek to strengthen emotional intelligence skills, such as: emotional awareness, self-image, self-concept, self-esteem and self-regulation. The research was quasi-experimental, pretest-post-test was carried out with control group and transverse temporality. The research approach was mixed. The (...) sample consisted of 80 women aged 13 to 15. Quantitative results showed a statistically significant difference in experimental group with medium effect for anxiety and small for depression as well as medium and high in the self-image. A qualitive analysis of the verbal and pictographic productions was carried out. It is important to continue proving the effectiveness of this socio-emotional narrative intervention to decrease anxious and depressive symptomatology in adolescents. (shrink)

La conciencia de un sujeto es condensación de la conciencia social del momento histórico de su constitución. La conciencia se forma con referentes de diversos modos de apropiación de lo real que se convierten en condición de incorporación de nuevos referentes, los cuales son traducidos a su lógica d..

The employment of mythological language and imagery by an Epicurean poet - an adherent of a system not only materialist, but overtly hostile to myth and poetry - is highly paradoxical. This apparent contradiction has often been ascribed to a conflict in the poet between reason and intellect, or to a desire to enliven his philosophical material with mythological digressions. This book attempts to provide a more positive assessment of Lucretius' aims and methodology by considering the poet's attitude to myth, (...) and the role which it plays in the De Rerum Natura, against the background of earlier and contemporary views. The author suggests that Lucretius was not only aware of the tension between his two roles as philosopher and poet, but attempted to resolve it by developing his own, Epicurean poetic, together with a bold and innovative theory of the origins and meaning of myth. (shrink)

National and international research cultures for the innovation of new medicines involve various value claims about the ethics of the placebo entity as differentiating comparator. Yet, in turn, the instantiation of the placebo comparator as cultural artefact for the creation and identification of the ‘control group’ depends also upon prior social understandings of ‘comparability’. Reading back the ethics controversies surrounding the Risperidone psychiatry trials in India, the paper illustrates why drug efficacies need to be studied not only through comparative techniques (...) such as randomised controlled trials, but also through analytical modes of inquiry that can begin to place the problem of efficacy within particular social and cultural contexts, as well as across disciplines. It is suggested that future bioethics debates could benefit from a revised conception of the interdisciplinary placebo — one that is rooted in ‘placebo politics’ and that listens responsively to the voices of the global South. (shrink)

The issues involved in deciding whether to use artificial methods of delivering hydration and nutrition are often very difficult for patients, families, and health care providers. Once private and personal matters, these decisions now frequently involve the judicial system. Five years ago, Hospice of Washington recognized the need for a written policy and wrote the one published here. Its goal is to respect individual preferences and family concerns while addressing the nutrition and hydration needs of dying patients. The policy sets (...) parameters on the issue, provides basic information, and encourages crafting the most fitting resolution to each situation. (shrink)

Even though the concept of sustainability emerged from a reality-life emergency, its discourse seems diverse, built even on different onto-gnoseological and teleological assupmtions. This is mainly due to the different perceptions of life held by individuals, as well as to the hegemonic class interests. Then, derived from this different perceptions of life and interests, has been the behavior of human beings on the Earth; sometimes in accordance to it, but many others in outright aggression to it. And if life’s way (...) shows life itself, it can be changed, even collapsed by the anthropic hegemonic actions that take place in the planet. It is therefore important to reflect on the categorical and conceptual frameworks that underlie discourse, in order to build a way of thinking that includes all formas of life, that enhances the eco-existentiality of the individual and its community for the enrichment of all. (shrink)