Deeply rethinking the teaching of philosophy: problems and appropriationResumen: ¿Para qué sirve la filosofía? es la pregunta que se hace desde fuera de la comunidad filosófica y cuya respuesta puede abrir puertas o poner serios obstáculos a su consolidación como asignatura. El permanente cuestionamiento externo por la “falta de utilidad” y la constante labor apologética que genera, parecen ser un indicio de que la filosofía requiere innovación en algunos aspectos de su enseñanza. A fin de contribuir con este esfuerzo es (...) imprescindible identificar los problemas, y se determina que la falta de interacción con la ciencia puede ser uno de ellos. Se presentan dos ideas que se enlazan metodológicamente con este cambio de enfoque: una es poner el énfasis en los problemas filosóficos y no en autores; y la otra es facilitar que los estudiantes se apropien intelectualmente de la filosofía como elemento constitutivo de su pensamiento. Ambas ideas se implementarían sobre el trasfondo de establecer una relación estrecha con la ciencia, así como realizar cambios en la didáctica.: How is philosophy useful? is the question posed from outside the philosophical community and whose answer can either open doors or become a serious obstacle to its consolidation as a subject. The constant external questioning regarding its “lack of usefulness”, and the apologetic task it generates, seem to be an indication that philosophy requires innovation in some aspects of its teaching. In order to contribute to this effort it is essential to identify the problems, and it is determined that the lack of interaction with science may be one of them. Two ideas which are methodologically linked to this change of approach are presented: one is to underscore the philosophical problems and not the authors; and the other one is to enable the students to appropriate philosophy intellectually as a constitutive element of their thinking. Both ideas would be implemented on the basis of establishing a close relation with science, as well as making some changes in didactics. Palabras clave: educación, innovación, filosofía, ciencia, problema, apropiación. Keywords: education, innovation, philosophy, science, problem, appropriation. (shrink)

A “Critical Perspectives” article in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry on scientific integrity in Brazil summarizes several misconduct cases documented therein . To further reinforce the responsible conduct of research in developing countries and to fight against the unaccountability of many editors , we describe here a Mexican instance of alleged in-house plagiarism .In June 2011, we submitted a “Correspondence” note to a Nature group journal to expose what we claimed to be a breach of collegiality and inappropriate authorship in (...) a three-page mutation report just published in that journal. Our main complaints were two: the surreptitious way in which we believed that both displayed metaphases in that report had been obtained from our files by a local colleague and then published without our consent and the massive easy-on co-authorship: 14 out of 21 co-authors declared just to have “provided clinical material.” In c .. (shrink)

Objective: To analyze the empathic profile and the empathy scores of freshmen of the nursing course. Design and participants: Descriptive study involving 399 freshmen students of two modalities of nursing courses: Bachelor and Bachelor and Teaching Diploma, in the period from 2012 to 2015. A sociodemographic questionnaire and the Empathy Inventory were applied. Ethical considerations: The research received approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing. The students registered their acceptance (...) to participate in the research by signing the Free and Informed Consent Form and anonymity was guaranteed. Findings: The mean age of the participants was 19 years, being 85.5% female. The students were grouped by course modality and all groups presented high empathy scores. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was found, which indicates that students of the Bachelor and Teaching Diploma program presented a higher degree of empathy for the General Score, Domain 2 (Interpersonal Flexibility), and Domain 3 (Altruism) in relation to students in the Bachelor program. Conclusion: Results show that nursing undergraduate freshmen are emphatic, with minimum differences between the two courses. This profile is relevant for the development of future professionals capable to demonstrate a balance between instrumental and expressive competences. (shrink)

In Brazil, the normative landscape around advertising is complex, not the least because of limitations inherent to dispute resolution mechanisms. Focusing on unhealthy food and beverages, this case study identifies some challenges and opportunities around advertising restrictions, including in relation to freedom of speech.

In this article, the right to health is discussed as a social right and an essential requisite in the construction and guarantee of human rights, more precisely human dignity, considering this right as a complex but effective process in the transformation of the social reality. In the first place, the activities of the public power and its difficulties to guarantee universal access to health are highlighted. This scenario ends up inhibiting the practice of the right to health and prevents users (...) from enjoying and using it. In that sense, this article challenges and explores some alternatives to solidify and put in practice the right to health in Brazil. Departing from the analysis of the Unified Health System (SUS) and social participation in Brazil, this article discusses the judicialization of health in the country, highlighting the difficulties the State faces to equitably offer universal healthcare to society. This context offers an opportunity for reflection and a paradigm change, from the “judicialization of health” to the “judicialization of health policies.” Finally, the public health policies adopted by other countries are emphasized, in the attempt to construct the empowerment of human beings in the practice of their rights, particularly social participation and the discussion about the States’ responsibility to put their citizens’ right to health in practice. In conclusion, the political and collective construction of the right to health needs to be encouraged, distinguishing the legitimate interests of the different interlocutors involved. (shrink)

In this article, the right to health is discussed as a social right and an essential requisite in the construction and guarantee of human rights, more precisely human dignity, considering this right as a complex but effective process in the transformation of the social reality. In the first place, the activities of the public power and its difficulties to guarantee universal access to health are highlighted. This scenario ends up inhibiting the practice of the right to health and prevents users (...) from enjoying and using it. In that sense, this article challenges and explores some alternatives to solidify and put in practice the right to health in Brazil. Departing from the analysis of the Unified Health System (SUS) and social participation in Brazil, this article discusses the judicialization of health in the country, highlighting the difficulties the State faces to equitably offer universal healthcare to society. This context offers an opportunity for reflection and a paradigm change, from the “judicialization of health” to the “judicialization of health policies.” Finally, the public health policies adopted by other countries are emphasized, in the attempt to construct the empowerment of human beings in the practice of their rights, particularly social participation and the discussion about the States’ responsibility to put their citizens’ right to health in practice. In conclusion, the political and collective construction of the right to health needs to be encouraged, distinguishing the legitimate interests of the different interlocutors involved. (shrink)

This article studies natural food packaging as enabling artifacts of the traditional material culture of Antioquia in Colombia. For this purpose, we consider artifacts as objective nodes that combine design and use intentions, functions, materials, histories, artifactual lineages, and cooperative relationships that stabilize ritualized practices of a human group. We take the example of natural packaging as artifacts that enablers and stabilizers of traditional cooking and food preparation practices. Natural packaging materials are here assumed to be leaves having some favorable (...) property to contain a food product. After providing a theoretical reflection, we analyze the data collected from fieldwork we conducted in two towns in Antioquia, Colombia (Santa Fe de Antioquia and Amagá), as well as from an interview with an expert in the field. Finally, we show that it is possible to postulate an analysis under a relational ontological description of a traditional practice with conceptual categories of the philosophy of technology. (shrink)

Though advertising is a massive and global mechanism of communication, regionally it might provide possibilities to explore constructions of past perspectives of particular communities. Thus, the article considers advertising as evidence of collective memory and as part of the ‘realms of memory’, as understood by Pierre Nora and Jacques Le Goff. It, then, analyzes the advertising campaign for Pilsen made by the local painter Humberto Chaves, which was published in the newspaper El Colombiano during the 1940s. It is possible to (...) consider advertising within the realms of memory because it is a material entity that becomes part of the heritage of a community, revealing customs, ways of being and acting, and ways of understanding reality and everyday life. Therefore, the article explores, first, the geographic, advertising, and theoretical-conceptual context. Then, it selects and identifies the advertisements from a collection of the primary source. Finally, through analyzing the selected advertisements, it concludes that both the graphic and textual languages, and both the discourses of advertising and graphic design are social, cultural, political, and economical elements that reveal an identity, a cultural ethos, and a regional collective memory. (shrink)

Health is a basic human right, and drug use represents a severe influence on people’s health. This qualitative study aimed to understand how health professionals in a public health-care team working with drug users in a city of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, perceive the human rights of these users and how these rights are being respected in health care. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 10 health professionals at the service under analysis. A thematic analysis of the (...) interviews reveals the professionals’ difficulty to define the concept of human right and contextualize these rights in their work environment. A deeper understanding of the right to health, however, represents an important premise for a more humanized care practice in health services to drug users. (shrink)

This paper intends to explore whether and how the quality of participation experiences is associated with political efficacy and the disposition of migrant and non-migrant young people to becoming involved. The sample includes 1010 young people of Portuguese, Angolan and Brazilian origin, aged between 15 and 29 years old. The results reveal that the quality of participation experiences is related to political efficacy and dispositions to becoming involved, but different groups seem to react differently to different forms of political action.

Aim: To analyze the empathizing and systemizing profiles of Brazilian and Portuguese nursing undergraduates. Background: Empathy is a fundamental skill for nursing practice and should be analyzed during the student’s education. Methods: Descriptive study with cross-sectional design. Participants were 968 undergraduate students, including 215 (22.2%) Brazilians from a university in the state of São Paulo and 753 (77.8%) Portuguese students from a higher education institution in central Portugal. The Portuguese and Brazilian versions of the Empathizing/Systemizing Quotient have good internal consistency (...) and reliability. Ethical considerations: In Brazil, approval for the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing (protocol 191/2016) and in Portugal, from the Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing, Coimbra Higher School of Nursing (protocol P362-09/2016). Results: Most (86%) participants were female and aged between 20 and 24 years. In the general profile analysis between both groups, the domains “Social Skills,” “Contents,” and “Processes” scored higher. Gender differences exist for the feeling of empathy and systemizing, as women scored better on the short version of the Empathy Quotient and men on the Systemizing Quotient. Conclusion: As demonstrated in the domain scores for “Social Skills,” “Contents,” and “Processes,” the undergraduate nursing students analyzed have the ability to deal intuitively and spontaneously with social situations; they are also characterized as methodical people, who like to follow rules, and experience practice better than theory, and the women have a higher empathetic level than men, who in turn are more systemizing. (shrink)

La economía en Leonardo Polo se ocupa de estudiar el accionar de las personas humanas. Su visión corrige el reduccionismo de quienes limitan el saber económico al análisis de precios, mercados y determinación de rentas individuales y excluyen el estudio de los fines humanos. Para el efecto se sirve de su antropología trascendental, distinguiendo en el hombre naturaleza, esencia y ser personal; sin limitarse a traslapar sino investigando mediante los métodos distintivos del saber estrictamente económico. Sostiene que sólo una organización (...) que integre aquellas tres dimensiones permite un verdadero ex-sistir humano. La empresa reúne tal condición. (shrink)

Background The practice of health advocacy in nursing has been defined as a process aimed at promoting the independence and autonomy of users of health services, in addition to providing information on healthcare decision-making and offering support for decisions taken. Ethical considerations Ethics approval was not required to conduct this review. Aim This integrative review aims to synthesize evidence in the literature on health advocacy in professional nursing practice. Methods An integrative review methodology guided by Whittemore and Knalf was used. (...) Studies were identified by conducting searches on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and LILACS databases. Of 2179 records, 34 studies matched the inclusion criteria. Results The main aspects involved in the practice of health advocacy by professional nurses are related to the ethical principles of the nursing profession, such as protecting patients seeking autonomy and care. Furthermore, the practice of health advocacy by nurses requires an empathetic attitude, responsibility, and assertive communication. Conclusion The diverse possibilities for the practice of advocacy synthesized in this study allow nurses to approach and become familiarized with the topic, being able to acquire and complement knowledge that will reflect on their professional practice in different work environments such as the educational field, in hospital practice, or basic health care. (shrink)

Richard Rorty notoriously maintained that philosophy is not an academic discipline. He thought that the only viable candidate for philosophy to be an academic discipline—where philosophy consists in a collection of permanent, pure topics—depends on a Cartesian conceptual framework. Once we overcome this framework, he maintained, there will be nothing left to be the distinct subject matter of philosophy. This article argues that there is a conception of philosophy that can be an academic discipline, even if we take Rorty's challenge (...) seriously. It remains even if we overcome the Cartesian conceptual framework. In the end the article goes beyond Rorty's challenge and considers two further criteria for philosophy to be an academic discipline: that it have a distinct method, and that it be able to be done for the public good. The article argues that philosophy can fulfill these two criteria, and therefore that it can be an academic discipline. (shrink)

Shavelson et al. (2023) identify an important problem in their Target article: a significant number of terminally ill patients with impaired motor function are wrongfully excluded from receiving ai...

This paper demonstrates how argumentation schemes can be used in decision support systems that help clinicians in making treatment decisions. The work builds on the use of computational argumentation, a rigorous approach to reasoning with complex data that places strong emphasis on being able to justify and explain the decisions that are recommended. The main contribution of the paper is to present a novel set of specialised argumentation schemes that can be used in the context of a clinical decision support (...) system to assist in reasoning about what treatments to offer. These schemes provide a mechanism for capturing clinical reasoning in such a way that it can be handled by the formal reasoning mechanisms of formal argumentation. The paper describes how the integration between argumentation schemes and formal argumentation may be carried out, sketches how this is achieved by an implementation that we have created and illustrates the overall process on a small set of case studies. (shrink)

In this article I shall propose María Zambrano's poetic reason as a suitable method for developing a knowledge of animal being. To do so, I will follow the analyses (Derrida, Coetzee) that place animal thinking in the poetic sphere, thus showing the need for a poetic/literary knowledge to make a philosophical knowledge of the animal possible. Animal writing expresses our nature in relation to animal nature; it discloses our animal interbeingness. Finally, I will point to some of the principles of (...) ecofeminist/animal ethics, like care and empathy, which arise both in what I propose to call animal writing and in Zambranian poetic reason. (shrink)

This paper analyzes Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève’s dialogue with proponents of Hegelianism and phenomenology in Soviet Russia of the 1920–30s. Considering works by Dmytro Chyzhevsky, Ivan Ilyin, Gustav Shpet, and Alexandre Koyré, I retrace Hegelian themes in Kojève, focusing on the relation between method and time. I argue that original reflections on method played a key role in both Russian Hegelianism and Kojève’s work, from his famous Hegel lectures to the late fragments of a system. As I demonstrate, Kojève’s Hegelianism (...) was significantly shaped by his encounter with Ilyin’s 1918 commentary on Hegel, a detailed study of the relation between method and the experience of time. However, in Kojève’s hands, Ilyin’s ideas were transformed, some radicalized, others abandoned. Comparatively reading texts by these thinkers in their respective contexts, I resituate and evaluate claims that Hegel’s method was less dialectical than phenomenological. I finally argue that early Soviet Hegelian discourses not only shaped the trajectory of Kojève’s Hegelianism but also radically anticipated concepts of time in French post-structuralism. (shrink)

In the first part of this article, we show that, contrary to the Gricean tradition, inter-clausal and is not semantically equivalent to logical conjunction and, contrary to temporal approaches such as Bar-Levand Palacas 1980, it is not temporallyloaded. We then explore a commonsenseidea – namely that while sentence juxtaposition might be interpreted either as discourse coordination or subordination, and indicates coordination. SDRT already includes notions of coordinating and subordinating discourse relations (cf. Lascarides and Asher 1993, Asher 1993), and the meaning (...) of and is related to this distinction. Similar distinctions that play a crucial role in anaphora resolution have also appeared in AI – cf. Scha and Polanyi 1988, or Webber 1991. However, this discourse-structure-based distinction has not been well defined yet, and our approach provides independent motivation for it. This paper argues that the semantics of and includes a notion of coordination expressed as the requirement of a Coordinated Discourse Topic (CDT).CDT characterizes aclass of discourse relations, among which are Narration and Result.Once the basic semanticcontribution of and is isolated, effects related to its presence such as changes in temporal structure, blocking of a Discourse Relation, or conditional meanings are shown to follow from the defeasiblearchitecture set up by SDRT. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analizan, por una parte, los datos sobre la presencia de las mujeres en los movimientos de derechos de los animales en el estado español; por otro lado, tratamos de encontrar marcos explicativos que aclaren cuál es el vínculo que conecta la sensibilidad feminista con la sensibilidad animalista. Hemos realizado un sondeo sobre el porcentaje de mujeres entre los miembros de las organizaciones animalistas más importantes de España y, con estos resultados, hemos hecho una revisión de los (...) diferentes marcos teóricos que pueden explicar esta significativa orientación de género en la defensa del bienestar animal. Por último, defendemos que hay un vínculo entre la ideología patriarcal y la explotación ecológica, en tanto que ambos comparten la dominación y la opresión de género. En este sentido, la sensibilidad animalista movilizaría sentimientos morales de fraternidad con la naturaleza. (shrink)

The task of data collection is becoming routine in many disciplines and this results in increased availability of data. This routinely collected data provides a valuable opportunity for analysis with a view to support evidence based decision making. In order to confidently leverage the data in support of decision making the most appropriate statistical method needs to be selected, and this can be difficult for an end user not trained in statistics. This paper outlines an application of argumentation to support (...) the analysis of clinical data, that uses Extended Argumentation Frameworks in order to reason with the meta-level arguments derived from preference contexts relevant to the data and the analysis objective of the end user. We outline a formalisation of the argument scheme for statistical model selection, its critical questions and the structure of the knowledge base required to support the instantiation of the arguments and meta-level arguments through the use of Z notation. This paper also describes the prototype implementation of argumentation for statistical model selection based on the Z specification outlined herein. (shrink)

Prenatal and preimplantation testing technologies have offered unprecedented access to information about the genetic and congenital makeup of our prospective progeny. Future developments such as preconception testing, non-intrusive prenatal testing and more extensive preimplantation testing promise to increase that access further still. The result may be greater reproductive choice, but it also increases the burden on women and men to avail themselves of these technologies in order to avoid having a child with a disability. The overwhelming question for legislators has (...) been whether and, if so, how to regulate the use of these technologies in the face of compelling but seemingly contradictory claims about the advancement of reproductive choice and the dangers of eugenic or discriminatory effects. This book examines the evolution of this legislative oversight across a number of jurisdictions and explores the tensions and ambiguities that inform these laws. (shrink)

Many scholars study the global diffusion of culture, looking at how institutions spread culture around the world or at how intermediaries adapt foreign culture in the local context. This research can tell us much about brokers’ “cultural-matching” or “congruence-building” strategies. To date, however, few scholars have examined brokers’ interpretive work. In this article, the author argues that globalization research needs to pay more attention to interpretation. Building on translation studies, the author shows that brokers’ work is shaped by how they (...) imagine their dual roles, how they imagine different parts of the world, how they interpret a text’s intertextuality, and how their audience imagines the foreign Other. In this way, the author lays the groundwork for a hermeneutic model of cultural globalization. (shrink)

This article reconstructs the forgotten friendship between Georges Bataille and the Russian émigré poet and philosopher Boris Poplavsky. Comparing their solar metaphysics, I focus on conceptions of friendship, sacrifice and depersonalisation. First, I retrace Bataille’s relationship to early Surrealis and Russian circles in interwar Paris, with a focus on his friendship with Irina Odoevtseva. I then offer a novel reading of Poplavsky’s poetry through the lens of Bataille’s philosophy, analysing a recurring motif that I call ‘dark solarity’. Uncovering a hidden (...) intertextual dialogue between Poplavsky and Bataille, I argue for Poplavsky’s lasting impact on Bataille’s anti-Icarian sun cult. Finally, my paper demonstrates how Poplavsky’s writings on solar sacrifice, excess and friendship left marks on Bataille’s vision of a solar community, embodied in the secret society Acéphale. The dialogue between Poplavsky and Bataille, I finally suggest, is a missing piece in the entangled history of Russian and French philosophy, as well as an original contribution to discourses on friendship in twentieth-century continental thought. (shrink)

This paper analyzes Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève’s dialogue with proponents of Hegelianism and phenomenology in Soviet Russia of the 1920–30s. Considering works by Dmytro Chyzhevsky, Ivan Ilyin, Gustav Shpet, and Alexandre Koyré, I retrace Hegelian themes in Kojève, focusing on the relation between method and time. I argue that original reflections on method played a key role in both Russian Hegelianism and Kojève’s work, from his famous Hegel lectures to the late fragments of a system. As I demonstrate, Kojève’s Hegelianism (...) was significantly shaped by his encounter with Ilyin’s 1918 commentary on Hegel, a detailed study of the relation between method and the experience of time. However, in Kojève’s hands, Ilyin’s ideas were transformed, some radicalized, others abandoned. Comparatively reading texts by these thinkers in their respective contexts, I resituate and evaluate claims that Hegel’s method was less dialectical than phenomenological. I finally argue that early Soviet Hegelian discourses not only shaped the trajectory of Kojève’s Hegelianism but also radically anticipated concepts of time in French post-structuralism. (shrink)

La hagiografía medieval tenía una importante función didáctica. Estos relatos fueron muy útiles para la Iglesia ya que permitían transmitir valores, modelos de conducta e ideas complejas a los feligreses. En este trabajo de investigación exploraremos tres obras hagiográficas en verso redactadas en distintas zonas de la Península Ibérica durante el siglo XIII, protagonizadas por tres santas que representan modelos diferentes (mártires, religiosas y penitentes). A través de este estudio comparativo hemos podido observar que, más allá de los tópicos asociados (...) a cada modelo de santidad, los valores transmitidos como ejemplo de “buenas cristianas” se repiten en todos ellos como condición necesaria para que la mujer alcanzase la salvación eterna: mantenimiento de la virginidad, castidad, penitencia y purga del pecado. Así, podemos concluir que la hagiografía femenina plenomedieval tuvo un importante papel en la transmisión y asentamiento de las ideas del clero respecto a lo femenino, cargadas de una evidente misoginia. (shrink)

This paper analyzes Russian-French philosopher Alexandre Kojève’s dialogue with proponents of Hegelianism and phenomenology in Soviet Russia of the 1920–30s. Considering works by Dmytro Chyzhevsky, Ivan Ilyin, Gustav Shpet, and Alexandre Koyré, I retrace Hegelian themes in Kojève, focusing on the relation between method and time. I argue that original reflections on method played a key role in both Russian Hegelianism and Kojève’s work, from his famous Hegel lectures to the late fragments of a system. As I demonstrate, Kojève’s Hegelianism (...) was significantly shaped by his encounter with Ilyin’s 1918 commentary on Hegel, a detailed study of the relation between method and the experience of time. However, in Kojève’s hands, Ilyin’s ideas were transformed, some radicalized, others abandoned. Comparatively reading texts by these thinkers in their respective contexts, I resituate and evaluate claims that Hegel’s method was less dialectical than phenomenological. I finally argue that early Soviet Hegelian discourses not only shaped the trajectory of Kojève’s Hegelianism but also radically anticipated concepts of time in French post-structuralism. (shrink)

The complementarity between the virtue of law (the rule of law) and the legal virtues In alternative to Virtue Jurisprudence, the aim of this contribution is assessing the claim that legal virtues develop along with the deepening of the law’s knowledge within its practice, as well as with the grasp of the role that law plays within society. This fits with the idea of virtues rooted in practices. Legal virtues do not depend – at least entirely – on pre-existing moral (...) qualities related to human capacities, but are related to practice of law. The latter is well defined by the virtue of law, the rule of law, that is not only indicating a mode of government, but it also entails a specific model of social ordering. From this perspective, the main legal virtues necessary to uphold the rule of law are reflexivity, fidelity to law, and teamworking. These virtues are related to each other and to many other virtues. (shrink)

In the mid-twentieth century, many philosophers took up as their aim the destruction of Western metaphysics. Martinican philosopher, novelist, poet, and playwright Édouard Glissant and German philosopher Martin Heidegger were two such authors. Driven by a profound dissatisfaction with the logocentrism of Western metaphysics and concerns over what the tradition excluded—for Glissant, the experience of the creolized and post-colonial subject, and for Heidegger, the “Question of Being”—both advocated for more creative engagement with language and advanced particular views about the link (...) between language and Being. Through a comparative examination of the two authors’ poetics, I aim to “unconceal” an implicit dialogue between their views. I conclude by considering the implications of a key exchange in this proposed dialogue: Glissant’s substitution of Relation for Heideggerean Being. I suggest that this exchange and Glissant’s substitution make plain the problematic tendency in Western philosophy to promote an exclusionary view under the guise of universal truth, that it provides Caribbean philosophy with a greater vocabulary through which to further “produce” itself, and that it is better suited to allow for a process of unceasing transformation and creolization, in contrast to a Western philosophical emphasis on fixity. (shrink)

Drawing on Hegel’s anthropology, this paper reconstructs ‘madness’ as an essential stage in the formation of the subject by developing the dialectical character of madness. This goes along with resituating the negativity of spirit as arising on an intermediary stage between nature and developed spirit as second nature. Hegel determines the freedom of spirit as “absolute negativity”. Madness shows a moment of radical negativity that is not viable as such. The formation of subjectivity is thus threatened by that which makes (...) it possible. The art of spirit is to over-come this form of abstract negativity, though not to lose the radicality of negativity, but to deepen it. ‘Absolute negativity’ is Hegel’s term for this successful sublation and simultaneous deepening of negativity. (shrink)

El hábito es una de las encrucijadas filosóficas en las que el dilema entre naturaleza y libertad se pone de manifiesto. El artículo expone la descripción que Paul Ricoeur ofrece sobre esta noción en Lo voluntario y lo involuntario (1950) y defiende que el hábito constituye una genuina y paradójica forma de libertad, pues ésta se realiza gracias y a través de la necesidad. Se tiene en consideración el difícil punto de partida de Ricoeur, quien, por una parte, rechaza lo (...) que él denomina la explicación cosmológica de Tomás de Aquino y, por otra, acoge la novedad del cogito cartesiano, siendo a la vez consciente de las limitaciones dualistas que el planteamiento conlleva. Inspirándose en Ravaisson, Ricoeur rechaza una interpretación maquinal del hábito y se acerca a la idea clásica de segunda naturaleza. En el artículo se muestran los problemas de Ricoeur en el empleo de este término y se señalan los límites de la propuesta del autor, para quien, al final, no hay sistema entre lo natural y lo libre. (shrink)