Population health has recently grown from a series of loosely connected critiques of twentieth-century public health and medicine into a theoretical framework with a corresponding field of research—population health science. Its approach is to promote the public’s health through improving everyday human life: affordable nutritious food, clean air, safe places where children can play, living wages, etc. It recognizes that addressing contemporary health challenges such as the prevalence of type 2 diabetes will take much more than good hospitals and public (...) health departments. -/- Blending philosophy of science/medicine, public health ethics and history, this book offers a framework that explains, analyses and largely endorses the features that define this relatively new field. Presenting a philosophical perspective, Valles helps to clarify what these features are and why they matter, including: searching for health’s “upstream” causes in social life, embracing a professional commitment to studying and ameliorating the staggering health inequities in and between populations; and reforming scientific practices to foster humility and respect among the many scientists and non- scientists who must work collaboratively to promote health. -/- Featuring illustrative case studies from around the globe at the end of all main chapters, this radical monograph is written to be accessible to all scholars and advanced students who have an interest in health—from public health students to professional philosophers. (shrink)

This article discusses possible dialogues between medical history and the history of concepts, suggesting that a “socio-conceptual-moral” history of medicine offers insightful elements for the historical analysis of conceptual change. Drawing mainly from Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte and Ludwik Fleck’s theory of knowledge, I focus on three points of the “socio-conceptual-moral” perspective: the approach to medical statements as part of a semantic field, the interaction between a formulated concept and its practice, and negotiations about the meanings of medical concepts between different (...) social arenas. I take the history of cancer prevention in Brazil as a case study to discuss these three aspects and emphasize the situated character of conceptual change. The article analyzes the period between the 1960s and the 1990s when substantial changes in the conceptual framework of cancer prevention confronted continuities in public health and medicine practices, policies, and institutions. (shrink)

O pensamento japonês contemporâneo surge e se consolida em diálogo com a tradição filosófica ocidental. Nishida se confronta com os principais problemas da história da filosofia ocidental. Com Tanabe a Escola de Kyoto entra em contato com Heidegger, que se torna o principal interlocutor ocidental de todas as gerações posteriores: Hisamatsu e Nishitani, Ueda e Tsujimura, e por último, Ohashi. As questões filosóficas tratadas por Heidegger, principalmente sua reflexão sobre a linguagem, torna-se um dos principais pontos de partida para o (...) início do diálogo entre o pensamento japonês contemporâneo e a filosofia ocidental.Contemporary Japanese thought emerges and engages in dialogue with Western philosophical tradition. Nishida is confronted with the main problems in the history of Western philosophy. With Tanabe, the Kyoto School comes into contact with Heidegger, who becomes the main Western interlocutor with all subsequent generations: Hisamatsu and Nishitani, Ueda and Tsujimura and, finally, Ohashi. The philosophical issues addressed by Heidegger, especially his reflection on language, become the main points of departure for the start of a dialogue between contemporary Japanese thought and Western philosophy. (shrink)

Résumé — Cet article se propose de montrer que le scepticisme présent dans les œuvres philosophiques de Huet, notamment dans le Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain, n’est pas un scepticisme chrétien dans le sens d’un scepticisme déterminé d’une manière ou d’une autre par la doctrine chrétienne. On examine d’abord quelques raisons historiques de la réception de la philosophie du Traité comme un « pyrrhonisme chrétien ». Puis on signale des différences décisives entre le scepticisme du Traité et (...) ses autres formes présentes chez d’autres philosophes de la période, qui peuvent être légitimement qualifiés comme différents modèles de scepticisme chrétien.— The article attempts to show that the skepticism exhibited in Huet’s philosophical works, in particular in the Traité philosophique de la foiblesse de l’esprit humain, is not a Christian skepticism in the sense of a skepticism determined in one way or another by Christian doctrine. The article begins by examining some historical reasons for the reception of the philosophy of the Traité as a « Christian pyrrhonism ». Then some crucial differences are pointed out between the skepticism of the Traité and other models of skepticism exhibited in the works of other philosophers of the period which can be considered as different types of Christian skepticism. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a interpretação realizada por Nietzsche ao poema de Parmênides, Da Natureza. Para levar a cabo essa tarefa, efetuaremos, num primeiro momento, um exame do poema em questão. Esse trabalho inicial fornecerá subsídios para, num segundo momento, voltarmos nossos esforços diretamente à interpretação nietzschiana do texto do pré-socrático. Nesta segunda etapa do artigo, iremos nos debruçar sobre os trabalhos A Filosofia na Idade Trágica dos Gregos e Os filósofos pré-platônicos. A intenção inicial do segundo momento (...) de nossa empreitada é esclarecer a hipótese de Nietzsche acerca da gênese do poema e do desenvolvimento lógico do argumento nele contido. Feito isso, também tentaremos retraçar a argumentação do filósofo alemão no que diz respeito à critica que ele realiza ao pensador de Eleia. Por fim, tentaremos mostrar que as questões levantadas por Nietzsche nesses textos irão reverberar nas fases posteriores de sua filosofia. (shrink)

After the publication of Hart's Concept of Law, Dworkin published his article “The Model of Rules,” dividing positivism into two varieties: inclusive and exclusive. Many theorists involved in this debate have characterized Hart's position as inclusivist, which we reject in this article. We argue that Hart, in the postscript to The Concept of Law, conceded a point to Dworkin in accepting that inclusive positivism would imply the existence of objective moral standing, adopting a more “neutral” position—compatible with inclusive and exclusive (...) positivism—and consequently distancing himself from the incorporation thesis, which is paramount to inclusive positivism. (shrink)

Functional language is ubiquitous in ecology, mainly in the researches about biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, it has not been adequately investigated by ecologists or philosophers of ecology. In the contemporary philosophy of ecology we can recognize a kind of implicit consensus about this issue: while the etiological approaches cannot offer a good concept of function in ecology, Cummins’ systemic approach can. Here we propose to go beyond this implicit consensus, because we think these approaches are not adequate for ecology. (...) We argue that a sound epistemological framework to function in ecology is to be found in organizational approaches. In this line, we define function in ecology as a precise effect of a given constraint on the ecosystem flow of matter and energy performed by a given item of biodiversity, within a closure of constraints. We elaborate on this definition by developing a case study of a bromeliad ecosystem. (shrink)

According to public health data, the US Hispanic population is far healthier than would be expected for a population with low socioeconomic status. Ever since Kyriakos Markides and Jeannine Coreil highlighted this in a seminal 1986 article, public health researchers have sought to explain the so-called “Hispanic paradox.” Several candidate explanations have been offered over the years, but the debate goes on. This article offers a philosophical analysis that clarifies how two sets of obstacles make it particularly difficult to explain (...) the Hispanic paradox. First, different research projects define the Hispanic paradox phenomenon in substantially different ways. Moreover, using Bas van Fraassen’s pragmatic theory of explanation and Sean Valles’s extension of it with the concept of “phenomenon choice,” it also becomes clear that there are also multiple ways of explaining each individual definition of the phenomenon. A second set of philosophical and methodological challenges arises during any attempt to study “Hispanic” phenomena, with one key challenge being that the “Hispanic” panethnic concept was intentionally made vague as it was developed and popularized during the 1960s–1970s. After comparing this case with similar cases in the philosophical literature, the article concludes with observations on what makes this problem unique, particularly its ethical features. (shrink)

The origin of eukaryotes is one of the major challenges of evolutionary cell biology. Other than the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts, the steps leading to eukaryotic endomembranes and endoskeleton are poorly understood. Ras‐family small GTPases are key regulators of cytoskeleton dynamics, vesicular trafficking and nuclear function. They are specific for eukaryotes and their expansion probably traces the evolution of core eukaryote features. The phylogeny of small GTPases suggests that the first endomembranes to evolve during eukaryote evolution had secretory, (...) and not phagocytic, function. Based on the reconstruction of putative roles for ancestral small GTPases, a hypothetical scenario on the origins of the first endomembranes, the nucleus, and phagocytosis is presented. BioEssays 25:1129–1138, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Investiga-se a possibilidade de uma abordagem do fenômeno do pluralismo lógico a partir de uma perspectiva inspirada no pensamento de Quine. A matematização da lógica termina por levar à flexibilização da teoria lógica, logo surgindo, não apenas sistemas complementares e alternativos à lógica clássica, mas também a questão da admissibilidade de mais do que um sistema lógico. A tal posição se dá o nome “pluralismo lógico”. Quine foi um destacado defensor da lógica clássica a partir de uma perspectiva monista, ainda (...) que admitisse em princípio a possibilidade de sua revisão. Pode-se, contudo, investigar se as linhas gerais do pensamento quineano são compatíveis com uma perspectiva pluralista. Algumas possibilidades são levantadas tomando em consideração propostas como as teorias pluralistas de Carlo Dalla Pozza e Richard Epstein. Conclui-se que, embora Quine não concebesse a possibilidade de apoiar o pluralismo lógico, a sua filosofia ajuda a enquadrar e avaliar as maneiras de estudar o assunto. (shrink)

O artigo pretende discutir o sentido da ciência filosófica chamada “ontologia”, a doutrina do ente nele mesmo, a partir da crítica histórico-filosófica de Nietzsche à noção de verdade: na medida em que a “vontade de verdade” coloca a si mesma em questão e se pergunta pelo valor da verdade, não é só a “morte de Deus” e da moralidade cristã que finalmente têm lugar, a ideia mesma de uma doutrina do Ser cai por terra, entrando em seu lugar o conceito (...) de “interpretação”. Segundo essa leitura, a filosofia de Nietzsche é a um só tempo destino histórico e conceituação crítica desse destino. O artigo indica que se há uma tese ontológica na filosofia de Nietzsche — o mundo em si seria vontade de poder —, o sentido de “ontologia” aqui não é e não pode ser mais o sentido utilizado pela tradição metafísica. (shrink)

Dionysus has several sets throughout Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) books. This question will arouse the interest of Brazilian interpreters when football is under observation. The aim of this article is to discuss the appropriations from the philosopher's concepts since the first half of the twentieth century. Commentators and the author himself saw that there are inflections about this theme in the Nietzschean work. The wide circulation of football elements in Brazil, its close connection with the national identity and with the popular (...) cultural has to be taken into account in a consistent investigation. (shrink)

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar a influência do pensamento de Jean Piaget na proposta das Concepções Abertas no ensino da Educação Física. A epistemologia do autor constituiu uma das referências para a proposta em questão, o que torna necessário o estudo dos pressupostos gnosiológicos e ontológicos da teoria piagetiana para a melhor compreensão das implicações político-pedagógicas do ensino aberto. É possível identificar problemas e limitações das Concepções Abertas, que, por herdar as visões de homem e sociedade defendidas (...) por Piaget, encontra-se presa aos parâmetros do ensino centrado no aluno. (shrink)

Con un'impostazione che coniuga la fedeltà testuale e l'approfondimento critico, il percorso di questo libro mira a ricondurre l'edificazione kierkegaardina - spesso considerata mera esortazione spirituale - allo spessore autenticamente filosofico d'una via soggettiva alla verità. Un modello antioggettivistico di filosofare senza perdere di vista né l'esercizio del dubbio né la dimensione della fede. Attraverso l' interpretazione kierkegaardiane di C. Fabro si è giunti all'esposizione e ai lineamenti descrittivi fondamentali della nozione del singolo. Il singolo viene presentato dallo stesso Kierkegaard (...) come la mia categoria. Sta di fatto che si può intendere l'intera produzione kierkegaardiana come un pensare soggettivamente il singolo. Pensiero etico carico di conseguenze pratiche, giacchè il danese non pretendeva fondare una scuola filosofica ma soltanto rendere attenti, svegliare le coscienze. (shrink)

La obra de Harari es una proyección hacia el futuro de la situación actual de la humanidad. Está fundada en tres supuestos básicos: materialismo, cientificismo y ateísmo. Debido al fuerte reduccionismo de sus supuestos, su explicación de lo humano y del futuro de lo humano queda en una especulación interesante de conocer pero que carece de objetividad.

En este trabajo me propongo desarrollar un estudio crítico de la concepción mecanicista de la explicación científica. En primer lugar, argumento que la caracterización mecanicista de los modelos fenoménicos (no explicativos) es inadecuada, pues no ofrece un análisis aceptable de los conceptos de modelo científico y similitud, que son fundamentales para la propuesta. En segundo lugar, sostengo que la caracterización de los modelos mecanicistas (explicativos) es igualmente inadecuada, pues los análisis disponibles de la relación explicativa de relevancia constitutiva implican una (...) tesis metafísica que es rechazada por los mismos mecanicistas. Concluyo que el mecanicismo no ofrece todavía una elucidación aceptable de la explicación científica. In this paper, I offer a critical assessment of the mechanicist approach to scientific explanation. Firstly, I argue that the mechanicist characterization of (non explanatory) phenomenological models is inadequate, since it does not develop an explication of the concepts of scientific model and similarity, which are indispensable to the approach. Secondly, I claim that the mechanicist conception of (explanatory) mechanicist models is inadequate as well, since all the available analices of the explanatory relation of constitutive relevance imply a metaphysical thesis that is rejected by the mechanicists themselves. I conclude that mechanicism needs to be emended if it aims to be considered as a genuinely illuminating approach to scientific explanation. (shrink)