Who owns nature? The question could be less important than reducing animal sufferings in nature. It does not matter if nature does not belong to anyone or if it belongs to someone, because in both cases there are limitations, linked with animal welfare, regarding what we should do in nature. Sentient beings have interests that we must take into account when designing environmental policies. Since neither ecosystems nor plants have interests, preserving nature is less important than reducing animal sufferings. The (...) relevant moral issue is, therefore, knowing what happens to sentient animals in nature and developing policies to reduce their sufferings. This implies that we have the moral obligation of intervening in nature with the aim of reducing animal sufferings, so conservationist environmental policies defended by ecologists are morally unacceptable. (shrink)

This book is the first full-length study of Eliot as the "greatest man of letters in his time." The book draws upon Eliot's experience as well as upon his poetry & prose, tracing the links between his life & his writings for the whole of his career.

This article examines Aristotle's views concerning the possibility of friendship between human beings and nonhuman animals. The suggestion that he denies this possibility is rejected. I reassess the textual evidence adduced by scholars in support of this reading, while adding new material for discussion. Central to the traditional reading is the assumption that animals, in Aristotle's view, cannot be friends in virtue of their cognitive limitations. I argue that Aristotle's account of animal cognition is perfectly consistent with the possibility of (...) friendship between human beings and nonhuman animals. (shrink)

The purpose of this review is to bring to the attention to a wider, specialised audience a special issue of the UK journal, Ethnographic Studies. The special issue, compiled and edited by Andrew Carlin and Roger Slack, is a Festschrift in honour of Egon Bittner (1921–2011). The readership of Human Studies might be aware of Egon Bittner as one of the circle surrounding Harold Garfinkel and Harvey Sacks in the early and preparatory days of ethnomethodology between 1955 and 1965.This collection (...) of papers can be divided into three sets. The introduction, biographical, and “contribution pieces,” give an account of parts of Bittner’s life, his work with others and the contribution he made within the various collaborations and seminars which he attended and where his contributions were recorded. The second set, probably most valuable to the ethnomethodological reader, are the papers which could be described as Bittner’s contributions to sociological method and methodology. Contained within th .. (shrink)

Reinhold Niebuhr's Cold War stance, which he applied to both the USSR and to China, was a middle ground between the harsh amorality of the realists and the overly hopeful liberal view. Sizemore explicates Niebuhr's Chinese position to provide a skeptical criticism of Reagan's Central American policies.

Background The use of lengthy, detailed, and complex informed consent forms is of paramount concern in biomedical research as it may not truly promote the rights and interests of research participants. The extent of information in ICFs has been the subject of debates for decades; however, no clear guidance is given. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the perspectives of research participants about the type and extent of information they need when they are invited to participate in (...) biomedical research. Methods This multi-center, cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted at 54 study sites in seven Asia-Pacific countries. A modified Likert-scale questionnaire was used to determine the importance of each element in the ICF among research participants of a biomedical study, with an anchored rating scale from 1 to 5. Results Of the 2484 questionnaires distributed, 2113 were returned. The majority of respondents considered most elements required in the ICF to be ‘moderately important’ to ‘very important’ for their decision making. Major foreseeable risk, direct benefit, and common adverse effects of the intervention were considered to be of most concerned elements in the ICF. Conclusions Research participants would like to be informed of the ICF elements required by ethical guidelines and regulations; however, the importance of each element varied, e.g., risk and benefit associated with research participants were considered to be more important than the general nature or technical details of research. Using a participant-oriented approach by providing more details of the participant-interested elements while avoiding unnecessarily lengthy details of other less important elements would enhance the quality of the ICF. (shrink)

Se presenta una reflexión acerca de la importancia de la labor docente ante los cambios curriculares y las demandas educativas contemporáneas. El profesor debe ser capaz de encaminar sus esfuerzos en el proceso de aprendizaje de sus estudiantes, tomando como base sus propias experiencias y movilizándolas hacia el desarrollo de la consciencia colectiva, que haga frente a los desafíos actuales. Palabras clave: educación, docencia, educación centrada en el estudiante, aprendizaje signfiicativo.

Com recuerdo y fiel homenaje a nuestro genial compatrinta, el ingeniero e inventar santanderino Leonardo Torres Quevedo, THEORIA quiere reeoger hoy en sus páginas dos breves, claros y luminosostextos -el primero sobre máquinas algébricas (1901) y el segundo sobre el alcance de una nueva ciencia: la Automática (1915)- de aquel español itinerante e infatigable que, como muy contadascompatriotas, supo aliar claridad y rlgor lógico en las definiciones de los conceptos básicos y desbordante inventiva creadora en la estricta y audaz (...) aplicación técnica de los mismos.Acompaña a estos textos la inolvidable imagen del primer ajedrecista automático (electromagnetico) concebido y construido por Torres Quevedo, anticipador también en la era electromecanica de los que habían de seguirle en la electrónica e informática y triunfador póstumo, en 1951, en el primer Congreso Cibernético de París, donde fué examinado por el hijo del inventor español y el padre de la Cibernética, Norbert Wiener, tres años después de la aparición en el M.I.T. de la primera edición inglesa de la obra de éste último Cybemetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948) que iba a inaugurar la era de la Cibernética, anticipada en tantas ideas, muchos decenios antes, por la Automática de nuestro Torres Quevedo. (shrink)

John Muir can be interpreted to have employed a similar strategy in his earliest conservation advocacy writings as the strategy Ralph Waldo Emerson employed to overcome the public futility of his personal ideals. Like Emerson, Muir came to offset the despair he felt at the political impotence of his conscience with a positive outlook on his potential to embody his subjective ideals both in his personal character and in his contributions to concrete forms of social practice. Muir thus can be (...) shown to have standing in the environmental virtue ethics tradition by dint of his appreciation for the necessity of virtuous political participation in movements for social reform. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo examina siete concepciones filosóficas acerca de la libertad -incluyendo la distinción entre libertad negativa y positiva, liberal y republicana-, ejemplificándolas con representantes de la historia de la filosofía. Por otra parte, para enriquecer la mirada desde un texto jurídico concreto, examinamos la Constitución ecuatoriana de 2008. El propósito principal que ha animado esta investigación es el de sondear las distintas visiones que se han propuesto sobre la libertad, en su triple relación con: 1) los valores, tales como (...) el bien común y la igualdad; 2) el tipo de deber correspondiente que tienen que cumplir los particulares y la sociedad con respecto al sujeto portador del derecho a la libertad; y 3) el Estado y las leyes. Aspiramos a que los resultados alcanzados aporten mayor claridad en aquellos debates de la filosofía normativa en los que está involucrada la libertad.The paper examines seven philosophical conceptions of freedom -including the distinctions between positive and negative liberty, and liberal and republican liberty-, exemplifying them with great authors in the history of philosophy. On the other hand, in order to enrich the vision with a concrete legal document, we examine the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008. The central aim of the research is to probe the use made by those who participated in the drafting of that Constitution of philosophical ideas concerning liberty in its threefold relation to: 1) values, such as common good and equality; 2) the correlative duties imposed on individuals and the society at large with respect to the holder of the right to freedom; and 3) the state and its laws. We hope that the results provide greater clarity in those debates of normative philosophy in which freedom is involved. (shrink)

In this essay I argue for the role of positive, community-based black identities in the creation and maintenance of black solidarity. I argue against Tommie Shelby’s attempts to reduce the notion of black identity as it relates to solidarity from something social or cultural to something entirely political—“thin” black identity. As an alternative, I propose a model for the relationship between “thin” and “thicker” identities based on Rawls’ contention that the stability of overlapping political consensus isproduced by different groups’ adherence (...) to, rather than denial of, a plurality of comprehensive doctrines. I also discuss the benefits of positive, community-based black identities in terms of “black love” and show why, even if not possessed by each and every black American, such identities are ultimately indispensible to any black solidarity project. (shrink)

Alexander Csoma de Koros Analysis of the Kanjur. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica No. 2, Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi 1982. vii + 281 pp. Rs 100.00.

Phra Khantipalo The Path of Truth. Mahamakut Rajavidalaya Press, Bangkok 1977. xii + 237pp. Harischandra Kaviratna Wisdom of the Buddha. Theosophical University Press, Pasadena 1980. xxxiv + 177pp. Cloth $8.50, paper $5.00. Sathienpong Wannapok The Buddha's Words. Distributed by Suksit Siam, Bangkok 1979. xxix + 494pp. $3.00.

This collection of essays and journalism cover a wide range of topics, from balancing prosperity and public expenditure or the mental differences between boys and girls to 'who may use lipstick'. Mortal and Others shows the serious and non-serious side of Russell's personality and work. It provides a lively and revealing introduction to Russell's thought for all readers. First published in 1975, Mortals and Others is at last available in paperback with a new introduction by John Slater.

Este texto pretende apresentar algumas posições sobre o problema do gênero, na modernidade. Partindo do diagnóstico de Foucault de que os processos de constituição e de produção do sujeito implicariam ter um modelo de autodeterminação de si, buscamos pensar o problema do gênero por duas vertentes: por um lado, uma proposta de Butler, em que a sexualidade não poderia ser determinada, pois ela sempre resistiria a qualquer forma de normatização; por outro, uma luta por reconhecimento da individualidade que procura incluir (...) todas as possibilidades de autorrealização de si, na esfera jurídica. Nossa proposta é avaliar esses dois modelos e questionar o que poderia estar mais próximo das demandas sociais em relação ao problema do gênero e, de um modo mais amplo, do problema da identidade individual. This paper aims to present certain positions regarding the question of gender in modernity. Starting from Foucault’s diagnosis that the processes of the constitution and production of the subject involve having a model of self-determination, we have attempted to reexamine the question of gender from two different perspectives: on the one hand, Butler’s proposal that sexuality cannot be determined, since it always resists any form of normatization; on the other, the struggle for recognition of individuality which seeks the inclusion into the legal sphere of all possibilities for self-fulfillment. Our aim is to evaluate these two models and to question which of the two might be closer to social demands connected to the issue of gender and, more broadly, the issue of individual identity. (shrink)

Hispanics are grossly underrepresented in the receipt of STEM Ph.Ds. The National Science Foundation Science and Engineering Indicators suggest that only 7.8% of S and E doctoral recipients are Hispanic while their representation in the population is more than twice that, and that figure goes even higher if restricted to those within the college-age range. To address this gap, the NSF has awarded a grant to the City College of New York and the University of Texas at El Paso to (...) work with Hispanic STEM doctoral students to provide teaching training and preparation for academic positions so they can become role models for Hispanic community college undergraduates. In working to understand the career-decision making of our Fellows, in-depth interviews were conducted to understand what put them on the path to defy the odds and become a STEM doctoral recipient. Interview results suggest that isolated, critical incidents and chance events were responsible for a number of our students entering into doctoral programs. This research suggests that for some Hispanic STEM doctoral students the experience of chance events meant the path to a STEM doctorate was not assured from a young age and further, that the provision of “planned” critical incidents may support an increase in Hispanic STEM doctoral enrollment. (shrink)