One argument used by detractors of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) invokes Kant's formula of humanity, which proscribes treating persons solely as a means to an end, rather than as ends in themselves. According to Fuat S. Oduncu, for example, adhering to this imperative entails that human embryos should not be disaggregated to obtain pluripotent stem cells for hESCR. Given that human embryos are Kantian persons from the time of their conception, killing them to obtain their cells for research (...) fails to treat them as ends in themselves. (shrink)

As is well known, A. C. Haddon visited Torres Straits for the first time in the\nsummer of 1888 with the purpose of studying, as a marine biologist, the fauna\nand the structure and mode of formation of the coral reefs in Torres Straits. There\nbegan Haddon’s ’conversion’ from zoology to anthropology.’ It seems that\nHaddon felt an urgent need to collect ethnographic information on the islanders\nbecause he saw they were changing and diminishing in number very quickly, and\ntherefore their customs were vanishing.\nVery soon after (...) my arrival in the Straits I found that the natives of the\nislands had of late years been greatly reduced in number, and that, with the\nexception of but one or two individuals, none of the white residents knew\nanything about the customs of the natives, and not a single person cared\nabout them personally. When I began to question the natives I discovered\nthat the young men had a very imperfect acquaintance with the old habits\nand beliefs, and that only from the older men was reliable information to be\nobtained. So it was made clear to me that if I neglected to avail myself of the\npresent opportunity of collecting information on the ethnography of the\nislanders, it was extremely probable that that knowledge would never be\ngleaned - for if no one interested himself in the matter meanwhile, it was\nalmost certain that no trustworthy information could be collected in, say, ten years’ time. This being my opinion, I felt it my duty to fill up all the\ntime not actually employed in my zoological researches in anthropological\nstudies. (shrink)

La filosofía, atendiendo a cierto afán esencialista, se ha visto abocada, a lo largo de su historia, a la conceptualización o definición de términos tan complejos como el arte. Una de las teorías más aceptadas y fundamentadas en relación a esta tarea es aquella que define las obras de arte como formas de expresión. En estos últimos siglos, la expresión se ha consolidado como un concepto estrechamente vinculado a la actividad artística. La llegada de la filosofía analítica y su énfasis (...) en el ámbito lingüístico fomentó el interés por definir el fenómeno expresivo como medio de representación de la realidad. En este contexto, autores como Nelson Goodman y Arthur Danto, concibieron, en sus respectivos pensamientos, a la expresión como proceso de simbolización artístico. Ambos autores, que conjugaron en su obra la metodología analítica y la preocupación estética, contribuyeron a la legitimación de la teoría expresivista. A través de la interrelación de sus teorías se observa cómo Goodman sentó unas bases que serían recogidas y ampliadas posteriormente por Danto, para así conformar uno de los idearios más influyentes y representativos del arte contemporáneo. (shrink)

IntroductionThe assessments of the motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease are usually limited to clinical rating scales, and it depends on the clinician’s experience. This study aims to propose a machine learning technique algorithm using the variables from upper and lower limbs, to classify people with PD from healthy people, using data from a portable low-cost device. And can be used to support the diagnosis and follow-up of patients in developing countries and remote areas.MethodsWe used Kinect®eMotion system to capture the spatiotemporal (...) gait data from 30 patients with PD and 30 healthy age-matched controls in three walking trials. First, a correlation matrix was made using the variables of upper and lower limbs. After this, we applied a backward feature selection model using R and Python to determine the most relevant variables. Three further analyses were done using variables selected from backward feature selection model, movement disorders specialist, and all the variables from the dataset. We ran seven machine learning models for each model. Dataset was divided 80% for algorithm training and 20% for evaluation. Finally, a causal inference model using the DoWhy library was performed on Dataset B due to its accuracy and simplicity.ResultsThe Random Forest model is the most accurate for all three variable Datasets followed by the support vector machine. The CIM shows a relation between leg variables and the arms swing asymmetry and a proportional relationship between ASA and the diagnosis of PD with a robust estimator.ConclusionsMachine learning techniques based on objective measures using portable low-cost devices are useful and accurate to classify patients with Parkinson’s disease. This method can be used to evaluate patients remotely and help clinicians make decisions regarding follow-up and treatment. (shrink)

En este artículo se cuestiona el desempeño del enfoque responsabilidad en epistemología de las virtudes para responder a la pregunta normativa. Para ello, se indica que el concepto de virtud no es suficiente para dar cuenta los motivos de nuestros actos epistémicos ni individual ni socialmente, por lo que se sugiere recurrir a una reconstrucción de la epistemología del testimonio kantiana para mostrar cómo la ética subyacente a dicha propuesta permitiría concebir una teoría del conocimiento basada en una alternativa que (...) sí puede responder a la pregunta normativa. Así, se presenta como línea novedosa de investigación el analizar la posibilidad de una epistemología deontológica, es decir, una epistemología cuyo fundamento moral (y, por tanto, normativo respecto de todas las acciones que impliquen personas y no mero procesos en la adquisición y difusión de conocimiento) se sostiene por cuenta propia. De este modo, se concluye que es necesario considerar la propuesta kantiana como fundamento para investigaciones epistemológicas, cuestión que, tradicionalmente, no ha sido abordada en profundidad. (shrink)

Logical limitation and virtual harmony are two formal characteristics that construct the objective organization of artistic objects. In the experience of Art, the emergence of space relationships has its origin in the limitation of logical relationships. The pretension towards harmonic adaptation determines the virtual appearance of a space prior to the objective world. The contemporary aesthetic theory must reformulate the theoretical contexts previous to modernity, referring to the historical origin of its most critical problems. Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism and Neo-Platonism, as (...) systematizations of classical tradition, contain the fundamental premises that, later on, will reappear in modern aesthetics and will help us reorder the panorama of aesthetic drift after contemporary thought. (shrink)

En este artículo se estudia la novela _El entenado _(1983), de Juan José Saer, una obra singular que se incluye dentro del género de la nueva novela histórica pero que se aleja de sus convenciones. _El entenado _no reflexiona sobre un hecho central de la historia de Argentina ni acude a testimonios colectivos, sino que desplaza su mirada al testimonio individual y a la narración de un acontecimiento histórico casi olvidado, marginal: la fallida expedición de Juan Díaz de Solís (1515) (...) y el testimonio del único superviviente de la antropofagia ritual de los indios colastiné, el grumete Francisco del Puerto. Las herramientas teóricas de este artículo corresponden a los postulados de la novela histórica de Georg Lukács y a las premisas de María Cristina Pons sobre la nueva novela histórica de mediados del siglo XX en Latinoamérica; todo esto en diálogo con la poética del autor vertida en ensayos y entrevistas. El centro de este estudio, sin embargo, no es una reflexión genérica, sino el análisis detallado de los diversos desplazamientos que propone Saer: el genérico, el espacial y el temporal. Se subraya, principalmente, el movimiento que va de la fragmentación, de los cuerpos, o del discurso parcial de la historia, a la construcción de un sentido simbólico. Las conclusiones reflexionan sobre cómo integrar los elementos excluidos (históricos, sociales e individuales) en los grandes discursos y cómo dotarlos de sentido. Así, esta novela propone abandonar la infructuosa búsqueda de una verdad histórica y sustituirla por una verdad simbólica, más crítica e incluyente. (shrink)

Developed by Arthur Prior, Temporal Logic allows to represent temporal information on a logical system using modal operators such as P, F, H or G, whose intuitive meaning is “it was sometime in the Past...”, “it will be sometime in the Future...”, “it Has always been in the past...” and “it will always Going to be in the future...” respectively. Valuation of formulae built from these operators are carried out on Kripke semantics, so Modal Logic and Temporal Logic are consequently (...) related. In fact, Temporal Logic is an extension of Modal one. Even when both logics mechanisms are able to formalize modal-temporal information with some accuracy, they suffer from a lack of expressiveness which Hybrid Logic can solve. Indeed, one of the problems of Modal Logic consists in its incapacity of naming specific points inside a model. As Temporal Logic is based on it, it cannot make such a thing neither. But First-Order Logic does can by means of constants and equality relation. Hybrid Logic, which results from combining Modal Logic and First-Order Logic, may solve this shortcoming. The main aim of this paper is to explain how Hybrid Logic emanates from Modal and Temporal ones in order to show what it adds to both logics with regard to information representation, why it is more expressive than them and what relation it maintains with the First-Order Correspondence Language. (shrink)

El artículo aborda la carta 93 de san Agustín. Analiza los argumentos rogatistas contra el "compelle intrare", la eclesiología que subyace en ellos, el contexto sociohistórico del uso de la violencia para imponer la ley, así como la evolución agustiniana al interpretar el "compelle intrare".

The aim of this paper is to provide a brief reading of Tractatus 6.421 and its consequences in 6.432 and following, adding to it an sketch of so-lution, which takes hold on the idea, present in his lessons and conver-sations, of "super-mechanism".

Se diseñó una estrategia educativa antitabáquica en la Residencia Estudiantil de Ciencias Médicas en Camagüey que fue valorada por criterio de especialistas y actualmente se encuentra en fase de implementación. En el artículo se evalúa su impacto. La misma se caracteriza por ser sistémica, dinámica, flexible, factible, participativa y dinamizadora de la esfera afectiva. Se ha empleado en la impartición de posgrado, capacitaciones a profesores guías e instructoras educativas; ha contribuido a incrementar los conocimientos en el orden teórico, metodológico, educativo (...) y salubrista en relación con la educación antitabáquica en estudiantes, profesores e instructoras educativas y ha favorecido el fomento de estilos de vida saludables. An anti-smoking educational strategy in Medical Sciences Dormitory in Camaguey was designed and assessed based on specialists' criteria and it is currently under the implementation phase. Its impact is assessed in the article. It is characterized by being systemic, dynamic, feasible, participative and emotional sphere stimulating. It has been used in the teaching of postgraduate courses and in guiding teachers and educational instructors' training; it has contributed to increasing students, professors and educational instructors' theoretical, methodological, and educational and health knowledge regarding anti-smoking education, therefore favoring healthy lifestyles promotion. (shrink)

Understanding human beings and their distinctive rational and volitional capacities requires a clear account of such things as reasons, desires, emotions, and motives, and how they combine to produce and explain human behaviour. Maria Alvarez presents a fresh and incisive study of these concepts, centred on reasons and their role in human agency.

Doctors Pratt and de Vries propose a well-structured and courageous approach to analyse and repair an insufficiently recognised discussion about epistemologies and knowledge production in bioethics.1 The authors invite researchers, scholars, public health experts and bioethicists from the global North to reflect about their lack of imagination regarding different sources of narratives produced by the global South. There is a critical analysis of injustices and an urgent call for global bioethicists to reorient their field and focus on the analysis and (...) development of ethical interventions to achieve a comprehensive epistemic justice for global health ethics. Feminist bioethicists from the global South already argued about the importance of the voices and biographies of the people and groups in the communities to reframe the bioethical reasoning regarding the meaning of individual’s needs during public health and humanitarian emergencies.2 Over a decade ago, Diniz and Guilhem described the role and goal of feminist bioethics in Latin America, shaped in an oppressive context promoted and created by …. (shrink)

How well can institutional guidelines help ensure the dignity, rights, safety and well being of research participants in an underdeveloped country? In this paper I describe the limits of informed consent as an instrument for the protection of participants in the context of the Philippines. I bring to this paper my experiences as an advocate of rights, a member of an ethics review board, a researcher on the ethics of research and as an observer of the dynamics of clinical practice (...) in an academic public teaching hospital of the University of the Philippines where I am professor. (shrink)

In Brazil, the epicenter of the Zika crisis, brown, black, and indigenous poor women living in municipalities with scarce resources were disproportionally affected. The gendered consequences of the epidemic exposed how intersectional lenses are central to understand the impact of public health emergencies in the lives of women and girls. The demand for Zika-affected children and women to be research participants is relevant for an ethical analysis of participant protection procedures during a crisis. We investigated how women experienced research participation (...) by analyzing their narratives. Two-year-long longitudinal qualitative study in Brazilian sites located in the epidemic's epicenter was performed using mixed methods: ethnography with women from two distinct states and individual semi-structured interviews with five women in different Zika-affected states, four of which were community leaders. All women in the study were mothers or grandmothers of Zika-affected children. Thematic analysis was used for data evaluation. Women perceived being pressured to participate in research and a lack of benefit sharing. Structural determinants of gender inequality, such as its effect on power distribution, were found to impact research participant protection. Formal procedures for research protocols approvals were insufficient in protecting participants because these instruments were unable to account for structural aspects. Communitarian mobilization, through WhatsApp groups, was found to be an important mechanism to create conditions to challenge oppressive structures. Strengthening public health, effective community-based participation in research planning and implantation of ethical strategies that promotes gender equality can have transformative effect on unequal power structures and promote participant protection. (shrink)

Scholars have long maintained that Machiavelli's "The Prince" does not develop a single sustained argument but rather presents a set of disparate reflections; however, de Alvarez takes a different view. In "The Machiavellian Enterprise", he demonstrates that there is an internal consistency in "The Prince" built upon a key argument that has been previously overlooked. De Alvarez presents his bold and sophisticated argument in an accessible manner and incites debates and discussions that reshape the view of the western (...) tradition's most original political philosopher. (shrink)

La Sección Tercera del Consejo de Estado como garante de los procesos que buscan la reparación directa de las víctimas que exigen que se les repare y que se declare que se presentó un daño antijurídico bien sea por la acción directa u posible omisión de entidades estatales. Es por ello que dicha entidad ha planteado y desarrollado una serie de presunciones, las cuales han servido de fundamento para conceder y liquidar, y en algunos casos, para negar el reconocimiento de (...) perjuicios alegados. En este artículo se realiza una exposición de las presunciones más importantes planteadas y desarrolladas por el Consejo de Estado con el fin de analizar cada una de ellas, con el fin de verificar si constituyen verdaderos aciertos en pro de la reparación integral y la consolidación de una justicia eficiente y acorde al Estado Social de derecho, o si representan un absurdo frente a dichos ideales. (shrink)

Rational justification of claims with empirical content calls for empirical and not only normative philosophical investigation. Empirical approaches to bioethics are epistemically valuable, i.e., such methods may be necessary in providing and verifying basic knowledge about cultural values and norms. Our assumptions in moral reasoning can be verified or corrected using these methods. Moral arguments can be initiated or adjudicated by data drawn from empirical investigation. One may argue that individualistic informed consent, for example, is not compatible with the Asian (...) communitarian orientation. But this normative claim uses an empirical assumption that may be contrary to the fact that some Asians do value and argue for informed consent. Is it necessary and factual to neatly characterize some cultures as individualistic and some as communitarian? Empirical investigation can provide a reasonable way to inform such generalizations. In a multi‐cultural context, such as in the Philippines, there is a need to investigate the nature of the local ethos before making any appeal to authenticity. Otherwise we may succumb to the same ethical imperialism we are trying hard to resist. Normative claims that involve empirical premises cannot be reasonably verified or evaluated without utilizing empirical methods along with philosophical reflection. The integration of empirical methods to the standard normative approach to moral reasoning should be reasonably guided by the epistemic demands of claims arising from cross‐cultural discourse in bioethics. (shrink)

Application of egalitarian and prioritarian accounts of health resource allocation in low‐income countries have both been criticized for implying distribution outcomes that allow decreasing/undermining health gains and for tolerating unacceptable standards of health care and health status that result from such allocation schemes. Insufficient health care and severe deprivation of health resources are difficult to accept even when justified by aggregative efficiency or legitimized by fair deliberative process in pursuing equality and priority oriented outcomes. I affirm the sufficientarian argument that, (...) given extreme scarcity of public health resources in low‐income countries, neither health status equality between populations nor priority for the worse off is normatively adequate. Nevertheless, the threshold norm alone need not be the sole consideration when a country's total health budget is extremely scarce. Threshold considerations are necessary in developing a theory of fair distribution of health resources that is sensitive to the lexically prior norm of sufficiency. Based on the intuition that shares must not be taken away from those who barely achieve a minimal level of health, I argue that assessments based on standards of minimal physical/mental health must be developed to evaluate the sufficiency of the total resources of health systems in low‐income countries prior to pursuing equality, priority, and efficiency based resource allocation. I also begin to examine how threshold sensitive health resource assessment could be used in the Philippines. (shrink)

The paper defends a version of the view that agency is a causal power, the “causing view.” After sketching the view, and explaining how it differs from its rivals, various challenges are assessed. A family of objections says that causing change is neither necessary nor sufficient for acting. The second challenge centers on an Aristotelian thesis about the relation between an action (A's opening a window) and the corresponding passion (the window's being opened by A). The final objection concerns the (...) dynamic nature of acting: the claim is that a causal view of agency cannot accommodate actions “in progress” or mere activity. I conclude that none of the objections examined presents unsurmountable problems for the causal view of agency which, at least in the version here defended, remains a highly plausible and attractive view. (shrink)

In 1969 Harry Frankfurt published his hugely influential paper 'Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility' in which he claimed to present a counterexample to the so-called 'Principle of Alternate Possibilities' ('a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise'). The success of Frankfurt-style cases as counterexamples to the Principle has been much debated since. I present an objection to these cases that, in questioning their conceptual cogency, undercuts many of those debates. Such cases (...) all require a counterfactual mechanism that could cause an agent to perform an action that he cannot avoid performing. I argue that, given our concept of what it is for someone to act, this requirement is inconsistent. Frankfurt-style alleged counterexamples are cases where an agent is morally responsible for an action he performs even though, the claim goes, he could not have avoided performing that action. However, it has recently been argued, e.g. by John Fischer, that a counterexample to the Principle could be a 'Fischer-style case', i.e. a case where the agent can either perform the action or do nothing else. I argue that, although Fischer-style cases do not share the conceptual flaw common to all Frankfurt-style cases, they also fail as counterexamples to the Principle. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of the significance of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. (shrink)