Is it remarkable that the Royal Dutch Medical Association as a medical professional organization has the point of view that in particular circumstances euthanasia is an acceptable act for a physician. Seen from the viewpoints in the international community, we might say that it is highly remarkable. Frankly put: the RDMA has met strong international disapproval of its standpoint on euthanasia during the last 10 years or so. For instance, the World Medical Association still condemns physicians performing euthanasia as “unethical.” (...) So far the RDMA is the only professional medical organization that holds the view that in particular cases euthanasia is morally acceptable. However, viewed within the context of Dutch society, the Dutch system of healthcare, and the sociocultural approach to moral questions in The Netherlands, the RDMA point of view ceases to be reprehensible. (shrink)

Este texto discute alguns filmes classificados como de ficção científica para marcar como o cinema nos tem ensinado a ver e a viver nessa civilização altamente tecnológica, à qual se tem atribuído o qualificativo cibernética. (APPIGNANESI; GARRAT, 1998). Tal civilização, também configurada como pós-moderna (Lyotard, 1989), como modernidade líquida (BAUMAN, 2001), ou como modernidade tardia (JAMESON, 2002), tem sido caracterizada por atuar na produção de subjetividades bastante diversas das usualmente invocadas para referir o homem no humanismo moderno. Muitos dos debates (...) conduzidos salientam a centralidade que as TICs alcançam nas sociedades contemporâneas, que também se caracterizam pela emergência de formas ciborgues, pós-humanas ou pós-orgânicas, que representam corpos descritos muito mais como processos ou arranjos da informação do que como corposmáquina, como as perspectivas modernistas enfatizavam. Argumentamos que se rompem nessas novas representações importantes binarismos modernos, tais como, homem/máquina, biológico/tecnológico e natureza/cultura. (shrink)

Neste texto analisamos blogs da Internet como espaços educativos nos quais se produzem/constroem as identidades juvenis de indivíduos que buscam se inserir no grupo cultural conhecido como nerd/geek. Inseridos nos Estudos Culturais, na sua vertente pós-moderna e pós-estruturalista, valemo-nos da noção de Representação Cultural para analisar como as identidades são constituídas com a escrita/leitura de blogs disponibilizados na web. Destacamos que a forma como se dá o agrupamento dos jovens que escrevem/leem os blogs é efêmera e espontânea, baseada no prazer (...) de estar junto, no consumo de alguns itens e no estabelecimento de alguns laços afetivos momentâneos. Tal compartilhamento tem semelhança com outras “tribos” urbanas deste início de século XXI. Destacamos, também, que não estamos associando a juventude a uma faixa etária particular, mas, isto sim, a um estilo de vida fortemente ligado ao lazer e ao consumo. Os blogs analisados, ao colocarem em circulação representações de identidades nerd/geek, contribuem para a produção discursiva dessas mesmas identidades em função dos modos como os/as integrantes desse grupo partilham formas de apropriar-se de saberes diversos, de utilizar equipamentos tecnológicos, de consumir produtos comerciais e textos midiáticos. (shrink)

Service-Robotic—mainly defined as “non-industrial robotics”—is identified as the next economical success story to be expected after robots have been ubiquitously implemented into industrial production lines. Under the heading of service-robotic, we found a widespread area of applications reaching from robotics in agriculture and in the public transportation system to service robots applied in private homes. We propose for our interdisciplinary perspective of technology assessment to take the human user/worker as common focus. In some cases, the user/worker is the effective subject (...) acting by means of and in cooperation with a service robot; in other cases, the user/worker might become a pure object of the respective robotic system, for example, as a patient in a hospital. In this paper, we present a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework, which allows us to scrutinize some of the most relevant applications of service robotics; we propose to combine technical, economical, legal, philosophical/ethical, and psychological perspectives in order to design a thorough and comprehensive expert-based technology assessment. This allows us to understand the potentials as well as the limits and even the threats connected with the ongoing and the planned implementation of service robots into human lifeworld—particularly of those technical systems displaying increasing grades of autonomy. (shrink)

In the metabolic control theory, the control coefficient is a key parameter in quantifying the sensitivity of the flux towards an infinitesimal variation of enzyme activity. This concept does not apply just as it is for variations of enzyme concentrations whenever there is spatial, energy or resources limitations in the cell. Due to constraint on total enzyme concentration, the variation of concentration of any given enzyme may affect the concentrations of other enzymes. To take into account these correlations between enzyme (...) concentrations, we propose the concept of "combined response coefficient". Its definition is similar to that of the control coefficient, but its mathematical expression is different. Its range of variation is from – + 1, the null value corresponding to optimum enzyme concentration, i.e. to concentrations that maximise the flux, and the negative values to concentrations beyond the optimum value. A summation property could be derived using a simple weighting of the combined response coefficients, the sum of the weighed coefficient being 0. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Section 1: Rational Judgment and Understanding Section 2: The Structure of Systematicity Section 3: Systematicity as Methodological Maxim? Section 4: Nature and Rational Structure.

Duchamp’s aspiration to become more philosophical in his art mirrors Heidegger’s aspiration to become more poetical in his philosophy. Their shared mistrust of subjectivity led them to question the continued viability of art on the one hand and of philosophy on the other. This article examines Heidegger’s essay in juxtaposition to Duchamp’s work, highlighting Heidegger’s (often underappreciated) playful approach to his weighty task, and, in regard to Duchamp, revealing just how serious art can be when it doesn’t appear to take (...) itself too seriously. (shrink)

Questa è la breve storia , forse un poco romanzata, del gatto che, se non forse il più citato, è di sicuro il più bistrattato della storia della fisica e della filosofia: il gatto di Schrödinger.

Translations of the “myths” from Plato’s Protagoras (320c-324d), Symposium (189c-193d), Republic (614b-621d), Timaeus (20d-25d and 29d-34b), and Kritias (108e-121c).