The lack of public support for climate change policies and refusals to vaccinate children are just two alarming illustrations of the impacts of dissent about scientific claims. Dissent can lead to confusion, false beliefs, and widespread public doubt about highly justified scientific evidence. Even more dangerously, it has begun to corrode the very authority of scientific consensus and knowledge. Deployed aggressively and to political ends, some dissent can intimidate scientists, stymie research, and lead both the public and policymakers to oppose (...) important public policies firmly rooted in science. -/- To criticize dissent is, however, a fraught exercise. Skepticism and fearless debate are key to the scientific process, making it both vital and incredibly difficult to characterize and identify dissent that is problematic in its approach and consequences. Indeed, as de Melo-Martín and Intemann show, the criteria commonly proposed as means of identifying inappropriate dissent are flawed and the strategies generally recommended to tackle such dissent are not only ineffective but could even make the situation worse. -/- The Fight Against Doubt proposes that progress on this front can best be achieved by enhancing the trustworthiness of the scientific community and by being more realistic about the limits of science when it comes to policymaking. It shows that a richer understanding of the context in which science operates is needed to disarm problematic dissent and those who deploy it. This, the authors argue, is the best way forward, rather than diagnosing the many instances of wrong-headed dissent. (shrink)

The therapeutic misconception has been seen as presenting an ethical problem because failure to distinguish the aims of research participation from those receiving ordinary treatment may seriously undermine the informed consent of research subjects. Hence, most theoretical and empirical work on the problems of the therapeutic misconception has been directed to evaluate whether, and to what degree, this confusion invalidates the consent of subjects. We argue here that this focus on the understanding component of informed consent, while important, might be (...) too narrow to capture the ethical complexity of the therapeutic misconception. We show that concerns about misplaced trust and exploitation of such trust are also relevant, and ought to be taken into account, when considering why the therapeutic misconception matters ethically. (shrink)

In recent years, online “involuntary celibate” or “incel” communities have been linked to various deadly attacks targeting women. Why do these men react to romantic rejection with not just disappointment, but murderous rage? Feminists have claimed this is because incels desire women as objects or, alternatively, because they feel entitled to women’s attention. I argue that both of these explanatory models are insufficient. They fail to account for incels’ distinctive ambivalence toward women—for their oscillation between obsessive desire and violent hatred. (...) I propose instead that what incels want is a Beauvoirian “Other.” For Beauvoir, when men conceive of women as Others, they represent them as simultaneously human subjects and embodiments of the natural world. Women function then as sui generis entities through which men can experience themselves as praiseworthy heroes, regardless of the quality of their actions. I go on to give an illustrative analysis of Elliot Rodger’s autobiographical manifesto, “My Twisted World.” I show how this Beauvoirian model sheds light on Rodger’s racist and classist attitudes and gives us a better understanding of his ambivalence toward women. It therefore constitutes a powerful and overlooked theoretical alternative to accounts centered on objectification and entitlement. (shrink)

Este artigo científico procurou investigar o processo de adaptação da Universidade Brasileira aos novos paradigmas impostos pelas políticas neoliberais. A análise se faz a partir de breve histórico do liberalismo e de suas imbricações no ensino. Apontando também a relativização da suposta democratização e modernização do ensino pelas novas perspectivas impostas pelo mercado. São levantadas também questões como autonomia universitária e legitimação da instituição de ensino superior.

Este trabalho apresenta algumas considerações do pensador italiano Gianni Vattimo acerca da religião na idade contemporânea. O referido filósofo tem como base de suas reflexões a ideia de uma filosofia pós-moderna que se caracteriza pela desconstrução da metafísica da tradição moderna. Nesse sentido, o autor visualiza nas filosofias de Nietzsche e Heidegger a inauguração de uma nova orientação do pensamento ocidental, marcada por esse rompimento com as filosofias totalizantes e pela consideração do ser como resultado das circunstancias eventuais que compõem (...) a experiência existencial. A religião, por sua vez, não acompanhou tal movimento, mas conservou um pensamento marcado ainda pela estrutura da metafísica tradicional, por isso, não se encontra em condições de responder às atuais demandas deste mundo plural. O autor sinaliza para a necessidade da abdicação das estruturas dogmáticas e dos fundamentalismos da religião como meio para a abertura ao diálogo inter-religioso e intercultural. (shrink)

Tract advocating Thai moral rearmamament according to Buddhist principles in response to social change; originally serialized in daily periodical Thammāthipat beginning in May, 1953.

Reprogenetic technologies, which combine the power of reproductive techniques with the tools of genetic science and technology, promise prospective parents a remarkable degree of control to pick and choose the likely characteristics of their offspring. Not only can they select embryos with or without particular genetically-related diseases and disabilities but also choose embryos with non-disease related traits such as sex. -/- Prominent authors such as Agar, Buchanan, DeGrazia, Green, Harris, Robertson, Savulescu, and Silver have flocked to the banner of reprogenetics. (...) For them, increased reproductive choice and reduced suffering through the elimination of genetic disease and disability are just the first step. They advocate use of these technologies to create beings who enjoy longer and healthier lives, possess greater intellectual capacities, and are capable of more refined emotional experiences. Indeed, Harris and Savulescu in particular take reprogenetic technologies to be so valuable to human beings that they have insisted that their use is not only morally permissible but morally required. -/- Rethinking Reprogenetics challenges this mainstream view with a contextualised, gender-attentive philosophical perspective. De Melo-Martín demonstrates that you do not have to be a Luddite, social conservative, or religious zealot to resist the siren song of reprogenetics. Pointing out the flawed nature of the arguments put forward by the technologies' proponents, Rethinking Reprogenetics reveals the problematic nature of the assumptions underpinning current evaluations of these technologies and offers a framework for a more critical and skeptical assessment. (shrink)

One of the key insights of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex is the idea that gender-based subordination is not just something done to women, but also something women do to themselves. This raises a question about ethical responsibility: if women are complicit, or actively implicated in their own oppression, are they at fault? Recent Beauvoir scholarship remains divided on this point. Here, I argue that Beauvoir did, in fact, ethically criticize many women for their complicity, as a sign of (...) what she called “bad faith”. I challenge recent accounts by Nancy Bauer and Manon Garcia, who both read Beauvoir as exonerating complicit women. According to this reading, women emerge as human “freedoms” within a social world where a “destiny” of inferiority is already prepared for them. Their self-subordination is then an inevitable product of acting in a patriarchal world. I argue, however, that this interpretation generates a crucial tension, leading Bauer and Garcia to call on women to stop being complicit, while also claiming they cannot avoid complicity. I propose instead a different interpretation, on which feminine complicity is often fueled by criticizable ethical attitudes that are far from inevitable. By revisiting Beauvoir’s notion of “bad faith”, I show that this account is compatible with recognizing the limitations imposed on women’s agency and I show that this feminist ethical criticism is itself an important part of a collective project of social transformation. (shrink)

At the end of 2017, Kristen Roupenian’s short story, Cat Person, went viral. Published at the height of the #MeToo movement, it depicted a ‘toxic date’ and a disturbing sexual encounter between Margot, a college student, and Robert, an older man she meets at work. The story was widely viewed as a relatable denunciation of women’s powerlessness and routine victimization. In this paper, I push against this common reading. I propose an alternative feminist interpretation through the lens of Simone de (...) Beauvoir’s notion of narcissism: a form of alienation that consists in making oneself both the subject and the ultimate project of one’s life. Framing Margot as a narcissist casts her as engaging, not in subtly coerced, undesired sex, but rather in sex that is desired in a tragically alienated way. I argue that Beauvoir’s notion of narcissism is an important tool for feminists today – well beyond the interpretation of Cat Person. It presses us to see systematic subordination not just as something done to women, but also as something women do to themselves. This in turn highlights the neglected role of self-transformation as a key aspect of feminist political resistance. (shrink)

Several feminist philosophers of science have argued that social and political values are compatible with, and may even enhance, scientific objectivity. A variety of normative recommendations have emerged regarding how to identify, manage, and critically evaluate social values in science. In particular, several feminist theorists have argued that scientific communities ought to: 1) include researchers with diverse experiences, interests, and values, with equal opportunity and authority to scrutinize research; 2) investigate or "study up" scientific phenomena from the perspectives, interests, and (...) conditions of marginalized stakeholders potentially affected by the research; and 3) make gender, ethnicity, class, and geographical location "visible," or use them as categories of analysis when appropriate. Yet, more work is needed to determine what exactly these recommendations would require, and the benefits they would yield, in specific research contexts. Using the recent development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, we examine how these three feminist recommendations would have applied. We argue that these principles would have yielded several epistemic and social benefits in the HPV case, as well as in biomedical research more generally. That is, biomedical research guided by these principles would not only be epistemically superior, but also more socially responsible. (shrink)

Dom Léger-Marie Deschamps élabora un système philosophique profondément subversif et novateur, intitulé : La Vérité, ou Le Vrai Système. Il s'agit d'une philosophie de la totalité, fondée sur une logique des contraires et du contradictoire. La métaphysique de Deschamps annonce l'avènement d'une nouvelle humanité, qui induit nécessairement une nouvelle société, dans lequel l'État, les lois, les idéologies, la religion, la propriété sont abolis, chacun étant égal à tous. Au XVIIIe siècle cette doctrine ne pouvait être diffusée sans risques très graves (...) pour son auteur: l'amitié et la protection du marquis de Voyer d'Argenson évitèrent à Dom Deschamps toute persécution. (shrink)

Em que pese uma tradição já consolidada dos estudos discursivos na América Latina, com posição destacada nos programas de pós-graduação da área de Linguística e um pulsante calendário de eventos an...

Can an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God create humans with free will without the capacity to commit evil? Scholars have taken opposite positions on the contentious problem. Using scripture and the rules of logic, we argue that God cannot create impeccable creatures because of his ‘simplicity’. God cannot create gods, because God is uncreated. Peccable humans freely choose to disobey their creator and thus cannot blame him for the horrendous evils in this world. Concerning the belief of sinless humans with free (...) will in heaven, we suggest that such an impartation of God’s impeccability can be accomplished, not through creation, but by the marriage of Christ and the Church, for the two shall become one. Believers will become children of God and partakers of the divine nature.Contribution: Theologians and philosophers have argued whether God could create humans with free will who never commit evil, and if he could, why did he not do so? The primary contribution of this article is the argument that God could not create impeccable humans with free will for God could not create gods. (shrink)

The idea that women qua women can be dehumanized has been dismissed by feminist philosophers, like Kate Manne, and by philosophers of dehumanization, like David Livingstone Smith. Against these skeptics, I argue that we can and should use dehumanization to explain an important strand of misogyny. When they are dehumanized, women are represented simultaneously as human and as inhuman embodiments of the natural world. They therefore appear as magical, contaminating, sexualized threats towards whom violence is acceptable or even necessary. Misogynistic (...) dehumanization is important to understanding atrocities like the early modern European witch-hunts, but also contemporary phenomena like incel violence. (shrink)

O que pode dizer um homem que fez o voto de se dedicar a Deus a outro que está plenamente convencido de Deus não existe? O que pode ouvir um crente de um ateu? O que um ateu pode aprender? São questões assim que guiaram o encontro entre o padre Fábio de Melo e o historiador Leandro Karnal e resultaram neste livro. Um debate rico e respeitoso entre um cético e um católico que oferece uma referência importante aos brasileiros (...) crentes e não crentes. Com coragem para provocar um ao outro e humildade para aceitar os argumentos, os autores discutiram pontos fundamentais, como se o mundo é melhor ou pior sem Deus e se a religião ajuda ou atrapalha. Questionaram o quanto a fé faz falta e discutiram as esperanças, os medos e a morte no horizonte de quem crê e quem não crê. Crer ou não crer é o resultado de muitas horas de conversa entre um dos padres mais amados do país com um dos mais populares historiadores. Uma obra que irá agradar e enriquecer milhões de leitores. (shrink)

Este artigo visa fazer um diálogo a respeito do desejo aflitivo por comida, de um lado dialogando com textos da tradição budista tibetana Geluk, e do outro com pesquisas realizadas na área da saúde, especialmente as voltadas à parte biológica-comportamental da alimentação. Bem como, trazer contribuições para a área da saúde, a respeito do desejo aflitivo, que contribui na problemática crescente do sobrepeso, obesidade e doenças associadas no contexto mundial das sociedades desenvolvidas.

It is argued here that bioethicists might inadvertently be promoting genetic determinism: the idea that genes alone determine human traits and behaviours. Discussions about genetic testing are used to exemplify how they might be doing so. Quite often bioethicists use clinical cases to support particular moral obligations or rights as if these cases were representative of the kind of information we can acquire about human diseases through genetic testing, when they are not. On other occasions, the clinical cases are presented (...) in simplistic ways that portray genetic testing as yielding information more accurate than it actually is. It is concluded that, because of the problematic implications that the ideology of genetic determinism might have for individuals’ wellbeing and for our public policies, bioethicists should be careful to present these issues in ways that do not promote questionable ideas about the causal role of genes in human diseases and behaviours. (shrink)

Este trabalho apresenta algumas considerações do pensador italiano Gianni Vattimo acerca da religião na idade contemporânea. O referido filósofo tem como base de suas reflexões a ideia de uma filosofia pós-moderna que se caracteriza pela desconstrução da metafísica da tradição moderna. Nesse sentido, o autor visualiza nas filosofias de Nietzsche e Heidegger a inauguração de uma nova orientação do pensamento ocidental, marcada por esse rompimento com as filosofias totalizantes e pela consideração do ser como resultado das circunstancias eventuais que compõem (...) a experiência existencial. A religião, por sua vez, não acompanhou tal movimento, mas conservou um pensamento marcado ainda pela estrutura da metafísica tradicional, por isso, não se encontra em condições de responder às atuais demandas deste mundo plural. O autor sinaliza para a necessidade da abdicação das estruturas dogmáticas e dos fundamentalismos da religião como meio para a abertura ao diálogo inter-religioso e intercultural. (shrink)

Não apenas uma vez Nietzsche escreve que o mundo, junto com tudo que nele há, é tão somente vontade de poder. Por meio dessa teoria ele pensa os diversos níveis da existência, indo desde elementos ínfimos e simples até estruturas complexas, com elevado grau de refinamento. Tudo não passa, segundo esse filósofo, do desenrolar de forças em jogo agonístico por um algo a mais de poder. Neste artigo nós analisamos alguns aspectos da teoria da vontade de poder para mostrar como (...) Nietzsche faz uso de um mesmo arranjo conceitual para qualificar toda a existência. Assim, tanto o microscópico quanto o macroscópico, tanto o orgânico quanto o inorgânico, são tomados como exemplos de entes que, não obstante suas diferenças, são todos vontades de poder. (shrink)

Recently, some have proposed moral bioenhancement as a solution to the serious moral evils that humans face. Seemingly disillusioned with traditional methods of moral education, proponents of bioenhancement believe that we should pursue and apply biotechnological means to morally enhance human beings. Such proposal has generated a lively debate about the permissibility of moral bioenhancement. We argue here that such debate is specious. The claim that moral bioenhancement is a solution – whether permissible or not – to the serious moral (...) problems that affect human beings is based on several problematic framing assumptions. We evaluate here three of such assumptions: the first rests on a contested understanding of morality, the second consist in a mistaken conception of human moral problems, and the third relates to problematic presuppositions grounding the interpretation of existent scientific evidence presented to defend moral bioenhancement. Once these framing assumptions are identified and critically evaluated, it becomes clear that the moral bioenhancement debate is misguided. (shrink)

Science is our most reliable producer of knowledge. Nonetheless, a significant amount of evidence shows that pluralities of members of publics question a variety of accepted scientific claims as well as policies and recommendation informed by the scientific evidence. Scientific misinformation is considered to play a central role in this state of affairs. In this paper, I challenge the emphasis on misinformation as a primary culprit on two grounds. First, the phenomenon of misinformation is far less clear than what much (...) discussion about the topic would lead one to believe. The evidence regarding the amount of misinformation that exits as well as its role in people’s harmful behaviors is at best conflicting and at worst completely useless. Second, the prominence given to misinformation and its harms on people’s behaviors disregards the role of values in policymaking and treats scientific information as if it were the only information necessary to make policy decisions. At a minimum, these problems call for caution regarding the emphasis on this phenomenon. After all, if the problem is incorrectly diagnosed, the solutions that are being offered to address the problem of misinformation are bound to at best inadequate and at worst dangerous. (shrink)

DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO MELO, Mário Henrique Resende. O significado histórico religioso da venerável ordem terceira de Nossa Senhora do Monte do Carmo de Sabará nas minas oitocentistas: práticas religiosas e representações. 2011. 100 folhas. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Belo Horizonte.

Ethically sound analyses of embryo genetic editing require more than simple assessments of safety considerations. After all, we as humans care deeply not only about our health, but also care profoundly about the kinds of societies we construct, the injustices that our actions produce, the responsibilities that we have toward others and ourselves, our self-understanding, the characters that we develop, our family relationships, and the world that we leave to our children and grandchildren.

O presente artigo coloca em evidência uma proposta sobre educação e os respectivos pressupostos para que ela aconteça no sujeito, tendo como referência a pedagogia da hospitalidade com base na filosofia da alteridade em Levinas. Nesse caso, a educação não é vista a partir do movimento do Eu em direção do Outro, mas sim, o contrário. Precisamente o Outro assume o protagonismo pedagógico já que o Eu se abre à possibilidade de acolhida do Outro sem nenhum critério preestabelecido, de forma (...) assimétrica. A partir disso, o texto apresenta a possibilidade de uma hospitalidade a partir da alteridade, tendo o Outro como base de uma relação ética em que o Eu é convidado a participar do convívio do Outro. Essa pedagogia rompe as barreiras de uma educação centrada tão-somente na capacidade do eu egoísta, mas se abre ao infinito das possibilidades da relação onde o Outro se revela com sua história, cultura, e o Eu se adequa às necessidades daquilo que se apresenta como diferente. O rosto do Outro revela ao sujeito o infinito e o valor dele como superação do próprio preconceito por meio da pedagogia da hospitalidade. (shrink)

Abordagens (etno)filosóficas no e do direito -- Criminologia, direito penal e direito internacional humanitário -- Educação em direitos humanos e fundamentais -- Hermanêutica jurídica e sistemas teóricos do conhecimento no direito -- Gênero na transversalidade no direito : epistemologias da marginalização do 'outro' não hegemônico.

A oferta de oficinas literárias para a população prisional, de uma penitenciária situada fora do Brasil, possibilitou identificar pontos sensíveis na execução penal internacional e na política criminal, apontando que a Educação em Direitos é uma demanda que deve ser implementada antes, durante e depois do cumprimento da pena.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) foi um proeminente escritor e um dos maiores intelectuais europeus do movimento positivista do século XIX. Filósofo, sociólogo, biólogo, educador e cientista, fortemente influenciado pela teoria da evolução de Charles Darwin, foi também autor de prolíficas obras filosóficas e educativas, como Os Princípios da Sociologia, A Educação Intelectual, Moral e Física. Do livro intitulado The Philosophy of Style, publicado originalmente na Inglaterra, em 1852, apresenta-se as traduções de seis ensaios filosófico-literários ao português brasileiro, nos quais Spencer discorreu (...) sobre a aplicação da economia às palavras, ao texto literário e traços peculiares da linguagem estética.Palavras-chave: Herbert Spencer. Filosofia. Linguagem. Estilo. (shrink)

En el texto se exponen algunas reflexiones sobre la importancia que tiene el rescatar los conocimientos tradicionales de las comunidades rurales, indígenas y campesinas sobre las prácticas agrícolas y alimenticias como recurso y mecanismo para favorecer la seguridad alimnetaria y de esta manera la sustentabilidad comunitaria. Se parte de una revisión bibliográfica sobre el tema, y se exponen casos específicos, como ejemplo, donde la experiencia se ha convertido en una oportunidad de algunas comunidades para hacer valer sus derechos de manejo (...) de la tierra, los procesos que se requieren para la diversidad de cultivos, de su propio sistema de producción y de esta forma mitigar los efectos de la pobreza y consolidad una propuesta alterna para el ejercicio de la soberanía y seguridad alimentaria de las comunidades. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to show that critics of biological explanations of human nature may be granting too much to those who propose such explanations when they argue that the truth of genetic determinism implies an end to critical evaluation and reform of our social institutions. This is the case because when we argue that biological determinism exempts us from social critique we are erroneously presupposing that our social values, practices, and institutions have nothing to do with what (...) makes biological explanations troublesome. My argument is that what constitutes a problem for those who are concerned with social justice is not the fact that particular behaviours may be genetically determined, but the fact that our value system and social institutions create the conditions that make such behaviours problematic. Thus, I will argue that even if genetic determinism were correct, the requirement of assessing and transforming our social practices and institutions would be far from superfluous. Biology is rarely destiny for human beings and the institutions they create. (shrink)

Scientists, the medical profession, philosophers, social scientists, policy makers, and the public at large have been quick to embrace the accomplishments of genetic science. The enthusiasm for the new biotechnologies is not unrelated to their worthy goal. The belief that the new genetic technologies will help to decrease human suffering by improving the public’s health has been a significant influence in the acceptance of technologies such as genetic testing and screening. But accepting this end should not blind us to the (...) need for an evaluation of whether a particular means is adequate to achieve it. Lack of such evaluation notwithstanding, discussions of the ethical, legal, and social implications have tended to presuppose that the development and implementation of genetic testing will be an appropriate means to reduce human suffering in significant ways. I argue here that such an assumption is mistaken. In part this is the case because human biology is more complex than sometimes it is made to appear in these debates. But, the idea that human suffering resulting from disease can be reduced in significant ways with the use of genetic testing also ignores the social contexts in which these technologies are being developed and implemented. (shrink)

Para poder encontrar uma base comum de justificação de princípios e normas que,sob condições de um pluralismo social e cultural, pudessem ser publicamente reconhecidos,John Rawls e Jürgen Habermas fazem uma reconstrução do ponto de vista sob o qualé possível fundamentar imparcialmente normas de ação. Mas de acordo com a concepçãohabermasiana de democracia, a legitimidade das normas depende da institucionalização deprocedimentos que promovem a deliberação e aumentam as chances de se alcançardecisões válidas de acordo com o uso público da razão. Esse (...) procedimento se refere à trocadiscursiva de razões na qual os participantes buscam chegar a um acordo somente combase no melhor argumento, ancorando a validade das normas na possibilidade de um acordoracionalmente fundamentado por parte de todos os possíveis concernidos, consideradosparticipantes em discursos racionais. (shrink)

La actual construcción de procesos museísticos propios de los pueblos indígenas gana espacio frente a los discursos colonialistas permeados durante mucho tiempo en los museos etnográficos. Se presenta una revisión de la literatura, combinada con el análisis de otras fuentes sobre museos etnográficos, pueblos indígenas y patrimonio cultural indígena brasileño. Actualmente los museos indígenas buscan acercar y participar a los pueblos indígenas, además del surgimiento de museos legítimamente indígenas, como el Museo Magüta de la etnia Ticuna, que reflejan una conciencia (...) y reafirmación de la identidad de estas poblaciones y del museo campo. (shrink)