Background: Most older people wish to live in the familiar surroundings of their own home until they die. Knowledge concerning dignity and dignity loss of home-dwelling older women living with incurable cancer should be a foundation for quality of care within municipal healthcare services. The informal caregivers of these women can help increase the understanding of sources related to dignity and dignity loss Aim: The aim of this study was to explore informal caregivers’ perceptions of sources related to dignity and (...) dignity loss in end-of-life of older home-dwelling women with incurable cancer. Research design and method: The study was founded upon Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. In-depth interviews with 13 informal caregivers were carried out, and four participant observations were performed during home meetings. Ethical consideration: The study was based on voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality and the opportunity to withdraw at any time. The Norwegian Social Science Data Services approved the study. Results: Three main sources important in preserving the older women’s dignity were identified: maintaining one’s self-concept, remaining hopeful and sustaining freedom of choice. We also identified three main sources that lead to dignity loss: Sensing loss of human value, experiencing absence of gentleness and feelings of being treated as an object. Discussion and final considerations: On the individual level, the opportunity to maintain one’s self-concept and control in life, preserved dignity, while feelings of existential loneliness led to dignity loss. On the relational level, being confirmed as worthy human beings promoted the women’s dignity, whereas dignity loss was related to uncaring behaviours from healthcare professionals. On the societal level, individual decisions concerning travel situations and the place to stay when nearing end-of-life were of crucial importance. Constituting these women’s living space, these perspectives should be emphasized in healthcare professionals’ educational training and in the municipal end-of-life care of these patients. (shrink)

En este artículo se explica en qué consisten las éticas centradas en el sufrimiento, presenta algunas de las principales razones a su favor y expone cuáles son sus implicaciones con respecto a la consideración moral de los animales. Se argumenta que conforme a estas éticas los usos como recursos de los animales lesivos para estos deberán ser rechazados. A continuación, se examinan las posiciones que aceptan el uso de los animales siempre que este tenga lugar reduciendo los daños infligidos a (...) estos. Se presentarán una serie de razones por las que tales posiciones resultan cuestionables y por las que van a entrar en conflicto con las implicaciones de las éticas centradas en el sufrimiento. (shrink)

Oscar Masotta (Buenos Aires, 1930- Barcelona, 1979) is all but forgotten now, except perhapsin the field of Lacanian studies. This is because in the 1970s,Masotta would challenge the master psychoanalyst on hisown turf, creating his own post-Lacanian school of psychoanalysisin Barcelona. But in 1965, aged just 27, Masottataught at the University of Buenos Aires, lectured at theDi Tella, and edited a book series on communication andmedia. A product of the newly open post-Perón era." Page 91.. This is the first (...) exhibition organized with materials from the archive Juan Acha, and includes reactivations of non-object-based art and artistic documentation. (shrink)

En este trabajo realizamos una revisión historiográfica sobre la fabricación de anatomías artificiales que fueron ampliamente demandadas como herramientas didácticas en la enseñanza de la naturaleza, entre finales del siglo XVIII y principios del XX. Se analizan los contextos educativos y sociales que favorecieron la amplia difusión de este tipo de artefactos en el comercio de la cultura científica, y se describen las técnicas de manufactura. Se concluye que estos artefactos, fruto del ingenio humano, son fuentes materiales de extraordinario valor (...) para comprender la construcción y evolución de la ciencia, los avances en los recursos pedagógicos y las innovaciones tecnológicas. (shrink)

El presente ensayo intenta aportar algunos elementos para repensar la "cientificidad", los criterios de validación o validez de distintas prácticas y teorías en relación al hombre. Nuestro punto de perspectiva está influenciado por los problemas epistemológicos y metodológicos que se nos han apareci..

Roman Ingardens unprätentiöse, analytisch orientierte Phänomenologie wurde vor 1945 relativ wenig beachtet. Heute jedoch zählt Ingarden zu den großen Denkern und Phänomenologen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Den 1967 in Oslo gehaltenen Vorlesungen kommt in Ingardens Schrifttum zu Husserl eine Sonderstellung zu. Mit den »Osloer Vorlesungen« liegt ein einzigartiges, in sich geschlossenes Spätdokument für Ingardens Husserl-Lektüre vor - mit dem deutlich erkennbaren Anliegen, den Philosophen Husserl für das eigene Denken attraktiv zu machen. Was aber im Besonderen die Idealismus/Realismus-Thematik betrifft, so kommt in (...) diesen Vorlesungen äußerst ausführlich die Ingardensche Sichtweise der konstitutiven Problematik zur Geltung. Die »Osloer Vorlesungen« dokumentieren somit auch, wo der späte Ingarden die grundlegenden sachlichen Differenzen zwischen Husserl und sich selbst gesehen hat. (shrink)

This book presents an original thesis about the notion of sensory experience and of the mind’s architecture, which is grounded in current trends in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. Presented in the form of a dialogue, the book explores some of the psychological and philosophical consequences that the author derives from his proposal. "Provocative and imaginative, the first volume in the VIBS' Special Series in Cognitive Science is a critique of the traditional theoretical apparatus of the discipline. In The (...) Dissolution of Mind, neuroscientist Oscar Vilarroya undertakes the ambitious project of reformulating the traditional notions of "concept," "thought," "communication," "representation," "language" and eventually "mind." Metapsychology, May 2003. (shrink)

Engaging and thought-provoking, this book examines how we see and treat animals and argues that we should extend equal rights to all species, human and non-human alike. Our world is plighted by 'isms' - racism, sexism and ageism to name a few - but we have one more to add: speciesism. Speciesism is a form of discrimination against those who don't belong to a certain species and it is a concept which raises controversial questions over humanity's very complicated relationship with (...) animals. Forgetting that humans are animals too, this mindset allows us to see animals as objects, rather than individuals with their own interests and with the ability to feel and suffer. This book questions all of these assumptions. Human feelings of superiority have allowed us to feel entitled to own animals as pets, to eat them, to use them for entertainment and to treat them with unkindness and cruelty. Looking at both the use of animals for the production of food, as well as the suffering of wild animals, this book advocates for society to seriously take into account the interests of all animals and argues that we have a duty to treat animals with much greater care, consideration and respect. For all who care about the rights and welfare of animals, this book is essential reading. (shrink)

Dorian Gray pays a hefty price for years of sin and vice in this completely unabridged edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

La existencia de tradiciones filosóficas inconmensurables plantea dificultades serias para algunas de las teorías más importantes que se han propuesto en este siglo sobre la historiografía filosófica. Las teorías historiográficas pretenden ofrecer un marco general unitario válido para dar sentido a la labor de cualquier historiador de la filosofía cuando, en realidad, ese marco no resiste la confrontación con las distintas tradiciones de pensamiento en las que se han formado los diversos historiadores de la filosofía. Desde esta perspectiva, se analizan (...) las propuestas de Gadamer, MacIntyre y Rorty. (shrink)

I argue that a standard formulation of hinge epistemology is host to epistemic relativism and show that two leading hinge approaches (Coliva’s acceptance account and Pritchard’s nondoxastic account) are vulnerable to a form of incommensurability that leads to relativism. Building on both accounts, I introduce a new, minimally epistemic conception of hinges that avoids epistemic relativism and rationally resolves hinge disagreements. According to my proposed account, putative cases of epistemic incommensurability are rationally resolvable: hinges are propositions that are the objects (...) of our belief-like attitudes and are rationally revisable in virtue of our overarching commitment to avoid systematic deception in our epistemic practices. (shrink)

The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould as an active living substrate, yet it is a self-consistent living creature which evolved over millions of years and occupied most parts of the world, but in any case, that living entity did not own true cognition, just automated biochemical mechanisms. To “rehabilitate” slime mould from (...) the rank of a purely living electronics element to a “creature of thoughts” we are analyzing the cognitive potential of P. polycephalum. We base our theory of minimal cognition of the slime mould on a bottom-up approach, from the biological and biophysical nature of the slime mould and its regulatory systems using frameworks such as Lyon’s biogenic cognition, Muller, di Primio-Lengelerś modifiable pathways, Bateson's “patterns that connect” framework, Maturana's autopoietic network, or proto-consciousness and Morgan's Canon. (shrink)

Este texto introduz a tradução do discurso de intitulado "Sobre os números transfinitos" ("Über transfinite Zahlen"), proferido por Henri Poincaré em 27 de abril de 1909, na Universidade de Göttingen. Após uma breve apresentação do pensamento do autor acerca dos fundamentos da aritmética, procura-se citar os aspectos mais relevantes da chamada crise dos fundamentos da matemática, para então introduzir a reformulação do conceito de predicatividade aventada no referido discurso sobre números transfinitos, contribuição compreendida como um recurso teórico necessário para a (...) superação dos paradoxos relativos à teoria dos conjuntos. Com isso, pretende-se evidenciar o papel central do texto publicado nesta edição para o desenvolvimento da concepção matemática de Henri Poincaré. This article provides an introduction to the translation of the lecture entitled "On transfinite numbers" ("Über transfinite Zahlen"), given by Henri Poincaré at the University of Göttingen on April 27, 1909. Following a short presentation of Poincaré's views on the foundations of arithmetic, it identifies the aspects of the so-called crisis of the foundations of mathematics that are most relevant for understanding his reconstruction of the concept of predicativity, which is intended to be a theoretical resource that may overcome the paradoxes of set theory. In doing so, the article highlights the central role of this text in the process of maturation of Poincaré's views on the foundations of mathematics. (shrink)

In this paper, I shall argue that both cognitivism and liberal contractualism defend a pre-moral conception of human desire that has its origin in the Hobbesian and Humean tradition that both theories share. Moreover, the computational and syntactic themes in cognitive science support the notion, which Gauthier evidently shares, that the human mind – or, in Gauthier’s case, the mind of “economic man” – is a purely formal mechanism, characterized by logical and mathematical operations. I shall conclude that a single (...) conception of human behaviour runs through the various dominant psychological, moral and political theories of analytic inspiration. (shrink)

A disaffected journalist teams up with a young, enigmatic German woman to penetrate the wall of political intrigue surrounding the development of the atom bomb at Los Alamos, in a thriller by an award-winning foreign correspondent.

chapter 7. How DNA became an important molecule: Controversies at the origins of molecular biology Eleonora Cresto José María Gil Contributors Author index ...

El presente texto ofrece las líneas fundamentales de la interpretación que Julius Ebbinghaus realiza de la filosofía del derecho de Kant. En primer lugar, expone la famosa “tesis de la independencia” presentada en numeroso trabajos por J. Ebbinghaus. En segundo lugar, centra su atención en el diagnóstico que hace J. Ebbinghaus de los casos de “injusticia extrema” y se pone en relación la fórmula de Radbruch con la filosofía del derecho de Kant. Por último, y frente al positivismo jurídico, J. (...) Ebbinghaus sitúa los límites de la dominación política en el derecho de la humanidad. Las consecuencias normativas de dicho derecho se ponen de manifiesto en caso de injusticia extrema, cuyo ejemplo paradigmático lo ofrece la Alemania Nacionalsocialista. A partir la ley de la humanidad, Julius Ebbinghaus ofrece una justificación kantiana del concepto de delitos de lesa humanidad. (shrink)

La disfuncionalidad del sistema financiero internacional, reflejada con claridad en las recientes crisis de Argentina (2001) y de los mercados asiáticos (1997-98), no hace sino confirmar, a juicio de los autores, la imperiosa necesidad de una profunda reforma y democratización de las instituciones de crédito a escala mundial. La tarea principal del FMI nunca debió ser la de prestamista de última instancia, sino la de garante de condiciones justas que permitan a los países en vías de desarrollo un mejor y (...) más justo acceso al crédito. A modo de recomendación, los autores proponen la creación de un Tribunal Internacional de Arbitraje de la Deuda Soberana, el cual actuaría como instancia multilateral y contrapeso al poder que tienen las instituciones acreedoras sobre los organismos actuales (Banco Mundial, FMI, Club de París). Por otra parte, se discute y critica la concepción actual dominante que ya no considera a los países como entes soberanos, sino más bien como empresas, es decir, sujetas a la quiebra y al embargo. (shrink)

ABSTRACTColin Hay's constructivist institutionalism and Vivien A. Schmidt's discursive institutionalism are two recent attempts to theorize ideas as potential explanations of institutional change. This new attention to the causal role of ideas is welcome, but Hay and Schmidt do not take into consideration the constitutive and structural aspects of ideas. Instead they reduce ideas to properties of individual conscious minds, scanting the respects in which ideas are intersubjectively baked into the practices shared by individuals. This aspect of ideas—arguably, the institutional (...) side of ideas—is developed in post-structuralist thought, which therefore demands a place in ideational research. (shrink)

The argument from species overlap has been widely used in the literature on animal ethics and speciesism. However, there has been much confusion regarding what the argument proves and what it does not prove, and regarding the views it challenges. This article intends to clarify these confusions, and to show that the name most often used for this argument (‘the argument from marginal cases’) reflects and reinforces these misunderstandings. The article claims that the argument questions not only those defences of (...) anthropocentrism that appeal to capacities believed to be typically human, but also those that appeal to special relations between humans. This means the scope of the argument is far wider than has been thought thus far. Finally, the article claims that, even if the argument cannot prove by itself that we should not disregard the interests of nonhuman animals, it provides us with strong reasons to do so, since the argument does prove that no defence of anthropocentrism appealing to non-definitional and testable criteria succeeds. (shrink)

I argue against the Standard View of ignorance, according to which ignorance is defined as equivalent to lack of knowledge, that cases of environmental epistemic luck, though entailing lack of knowledge, do not necessarily entail ignorance. In support of my argument, I contend that in cases of environmental luck an agent retains what I call epistemic access to the relevant fact by successfully exercising her epistemic agency and that ignorance and non-ignorance, contrary to what the Standard View predicts, are not (...) modal in the sense that knowledge is. After responding to objections, I conclude by sketching an alternative account of ignorance centered on the notions of epistemic access and epistemic agency. (shrink)

Reconstruction is a central notion in Dewey’s account of inquiry and in his metaphilosophical commitments. In his work, Dewey made a call for reconstruction of philosophy, in the reconstruction of central notions of the discipline, like knowledge, logic, truth, the good, reason, and experience. Inquiry itself is reconstructive, according to Dewey, involving the transformation of an indeterminate situation into one which is determinate and understood. Dewey’s philosophical views should therefore be of interest to those taking part in the recent turn (...) towards revisionary philosophical methodologies, like conceptual engineering, explication, and amelioration. In light of the recent developments in revisionary methodologies, I aim to explore Dewey’s conception of concepts in relation to the conceptual engineering literature, suggesting that it provides a useful conception of concepts for conceptual engineering, and to suggest a Deweyan model of philosophical inquiry where concepts are the objects of inquiry. In both cases, I hope to show a productive interaction between Dewey’s ideas and contemporary discussions of conceptual engineering. (shrink)

Excerpt from Kants Kritischer Idealismus: Als Grundlage von Erkenntnistheorie und Ethik Sukzession: a) Substanz. Psychische Substanz. Sub stanz und Apperzeption. B) Kausalität. 0) Wechsel wirkung. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in (...) the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)