It is commonly assumed that moral deliberation requires that the alternatives available in a choice situation are evaluatively comparable. This comparability assumption is threatened by claims of incomparability, which is often established by means of the small improvement argument (SIA). In this paper I argue that SIA does not establish incomparability in a stricter sense. The reason is that it fails to distinguish incomparability from a kind of evaluative indeterminacy which may arise due to the vagueness of the evaluative comparatives (...) ‘better than,’ ‘worse than,’ and ‘equally as good as.’. (shrink)

Se indaga el problema de la explotación técnica del mundo a partir de los pensamientos de Xavier Zubiri y Georges Canguilhem. Se examina el análisis zubiriano de la inteligencia humana y la tesis de Canguilhem sobre la originalidad de la actividad técnica, su relación con la ciencia y su papel en la normatividad del organismo. En ambos autores, el término Umwelt, traducido como “circun-mundo” o medio de comportamiento propio, sirve como base para establecer las posibilidades que tiene la técnica en (...) el desarrollo de nuevas formas de relación con el medio ambiente. (shrink)

We discuss ethical aspects of risk-taking with special focus on principlism and mid-level moral principles. A new distinction between the strength of an obligation and the degree to which it is valid is proposed. We then use this distinction for arguing that, in cases where mid-level moral principles come into conflict, the moral status of the act under consideration may be indeterminate, in a sense rendered precise in the paper. We apply this thought to issues related to pandemic influenza vaccines. (...) The main conclusion of the paper is that on a principlist approach some acts may be neither right nor wrong (or neither permissible nor impermissible), and we claim that this has important implications for how we ought to make decisions under risk. (shrink)

Los patios interiores de la democracia de Norbert Lechnerademás de los contenidos específicos de cada artículo que convocan con inteligencia a la reflexión y al estudio de temas particulares actuales –la revolución, la democracia, la vida cotidiana, el realismo político, el miedo, la cultura posmoderna, etc–, es sugerente a lo menos en tres aspectos generales: el primero, tiene que ver con el discernimiento de la «situación epistemológica» del investigador contemporáneo latinoamericano despué..

En este artículo, se presenta una crítica ético-política hacia una propuesta tecnológico-militar que llamaremos “Corredor Energético-Militar México-Estados Unidos”. Nuestro enfoque será el medioambiente y cómo este podría ser afectado por el Corredor Energético-Militar México-Estados Unidos, pero la migración también se tendrá en cuenta. Mientras se dé la lógica del desarrollo económico con el estilo universal en la arquitectura y una estrategia militar basada en la supuesta seguridad nacional estadounidense, habrá consecuencias ecológicas negativas hacia el medioambiente y la dominancia económico-militar estadounidense (...) continuará en esta frontera internacional. Esto tiene consecuencias para la migración y aunque estas dependen de posibles modificaciones a la infraestructura futura y sus reglamentos gubernamentales, la propuesta actual no favorece a la migración. Fundamentalmente, si el Corredor Energético-Militar México-Estados Unidos es construido en su esquema actual, las consecuencias migratorias del norte de México hacia el sur de Estados Unidos serán negativas. (shrink)

. Consistent valuation and societal prioritization of risks presupposes comparability among risks, that is, in order to rank risks in order of severity, and allocate risk preventative resources accordingly, we must be able to determine whether one risk is better or worse than another, and by how much. It is often claimed, however, that some risks are not amenable to this kind of comparison because they are incommensurable, which roughly means that they are not comparable with respect to a common (...) cardinal measure. The aim of this thesis is to i) consider what it means to say that two risks are incommensurable, ii) explore if incomparability - comparison failure with respect to a common ordinal scale - ever occurs, and how to model it if it does. Essay I is a critical examination of the most prominent argument for incomparability, the so-called small improvement argument. It is argued that the argument fails because it conflates incomparability and a kind of evaluative indeterminacy. Essay II outlines so-called margin of error principles for comparative value judgements. They are based on the idea that if a proposition concerning the value relation between two value-bearing options is true, but there are sufficiently similar cases in which it is false, it is not available to be known. The usefulness of these principles is demonstrated by utilizing them in an epistemological case against SIA. Essay III presents a novel account of incomplete preference orderings which acknowledges that incomparability can vary in degrees. This is achieved by means of a probabilistic analysis of preferences. (shrink)

Indecent Theology has provided both Feminist Theology and Liberation Theology with new contours for rethinking bodies, power, dominance, and submission. With regard to the logic of dominance that radically pushes the margins of the margins into a form of inexistent living, I suggest a material turn to rethink the contours that are evoked with Indecent Theology. Materialism has long stood as a philosophy opposing the overwhelming dominance of language and the poststructuralist emphasis that has emerged as the ‘linguistic turn’. Considering (...) ‘new materialism’ as a theoretical platform to reread Indecent Theology provides theologies and ethics an opportunity to re-imagine indecent methodologies through indecency, a sort of ethical perversion. I suggest an indecent turn in mobilizing materialism and kink as theories to reread indecent theology for a productive queer materialist sexual theology. The feminist liberation theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid pushes both feminism and liberation into new contours of power and submission and initiates new contours of queer sexuality into the discourse. When analysing Althaus-Reid’s work, we are brought to attention to the margins of the margins, an awareness of the struggle for power and control by those deemed less than. There are contours of power at and in the margins of the margins, those who occupy ‘bottom space’. From a kink/bdsm orientation, I propose to reread Alrhaus-Read’s feminist liberation theology as decolonial erotics that helps to generate a productive materialist queer sexuality. The overarching methodology of this article is a quasi-auto ethnographic investigation into the ways in which the contours of race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, and ability affect power and submission and in turn reframes both queer theology and queer sexuality that is rooted in the living out of a very particular theology and ethics, which is rooted in queer relating. Theology can neither materialize in a vacuum nor in isolation. An indecent turn to a queer sexual theology that is rooted in a queer relationality demands attention to the interdependence of queer relating that is materialized through the interdependency of the growing queer desires of bodies, power, dominance, and submission. (shrink)

El presente artículo indaga en torno a la naturaleza del fantasma y el terror dentro del pensamiento filosófico, y cómo ello permite reconsiderar en el ámbito de la epistemología, la experiencia del terror en la percepción, comprensión y conocimiento de la realidad. Dicho análisis se plantea, por un lado, por medio de la recuperación de la figura del genio maligno mencionada en las Meditaciones metafísicas de René Descartes, que proporcionan una clave para reconsiderar el terror como elemento presente en la (...) conformación de la subjetividad; y, por otro lado, en las consideraciones sobre el cine de Jacques Derrida como dispositivo de producción de espectros, en tanto permite comprender la figura del fantasma como aquello que irrumpe y altera la realidad. Ambas líneas de estudio convergen en el análisis de la película de terror uruguaya La casa muda, del director Gustavo Hernández, que abre la posibilidad de apreciar cómo el terror es una experiencia corporal que permite al sujeto acceder a una nueva comprensión de sí mismo y su mundo. (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende analizar cómo se representan y se repiensan los nuevos procesos de política orgánica de las mujeres mapuche, incluyendo su historización, sus contextos de producción y su locus de enunciación. Se interroga cómo el feminismo indígena mapuche despatriarcal y decolonial pone en tensión al feminismo blanco examinando las representaciones y los discursos de lideresas y activistas mapuche y forjando un recorrido desde 1990, momento en que se constituyen las primeras organizaciones que dan cuenta de un feminismo indígena.

Cultural landscapes represent a complex category where the nature-culture dichotomy seem to not be able to unfold the main features and the profound relations that humans have with the environment. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the saltpans of Se-ovlje (Slovene Istria) and Janubio (Lanzarote--Canary Islands) this article examines informant`s perceptions about the awareness of the importance and the enhancement of the holistic values of both saltpans, as well as the impacts and benefits of tourism. Comparing these perceptions about both (...) cultural landscapes, I try to suggest that the complex fruitfully relations between humans and nature in these saltpans are at odds with the neoliberal logic of nature which exploit and commoditize its resources depriving them of their respective agency. A sustainability to contrast the harmful activities of the market ought to be understood not as a simply isolation and fencing of nature for the sake of conservation, but as a preservation that need to foster the continuity of the deep interactions between human culture and non-human nature which are the core of the cultural landscapes. (shrink)

Disability is often defined as deviation from putative norms of physical, cognitive, or affective function. This definition is normatively laden, causing people with disabilities to be thought of as “different” and treated with pity. We address the predominant theme of this issue on “Disability Identity”: defining and imposing the category of “disability” and attempting to overcome it through medical intervention. The issue culminates in a call for courageous humility as the proper response to encounters with disability, providing medical professionals with (...) the disposition to resist medicine’s inherent drive to fix what is perceived to be broken—that which strays from the norm. We hope that this issue might act as a clarion call to medical professionals to reevaluate how they see and interact with “disability” as a category, and ultimately with people with disabilities, especially with respect to what may be owed to persons with disabilities from society. (shrink)

This text links from the biographical and intimate of Nietzsche to the deepest of his thought of the eternal return, because it is the only way to understand this thought of eternal return. And for this, certain of Nietzsche’s biographical milestones are discussed in the light of the work Thus Spoke Zarathustra and its link to Lou Salomé. We look at how Lou Salomé lies behind the mythical figure of Ariadne as the bearer of the ring of return; that is, (...) through the feminine, Nietzsche shows us how the eternal return operates to free us from the chains of modernity. (shrink)

La desegregación racial en las escuelas norteamericanas planteó la discusión acerca de sí y bajo cuáles condiciones puede ser admitido el efecto horizontal del derecho de igualdad en relaciones entre particulares. En principio, bajo los términos de la doctrina de la state action la conducta discriminatoria de los particulares quedaría fuera del ámbito de aplicación de la cláusula de igual protección de la Decimocuarta Enmienda, debido a que ésta sólo es aplicable frente a la acción del Estado. Nos preguntamos si (...) es posible constatar la existencia de espacios intermedios entre el derecho público y privado, en los que se produce la vigencia frente a terceros de los derechos fundamentales. (shrink)

This article is the result of research on the occurrences of the terms suppositio, supponere and their linguistic derivations in the literature on fallacies of the second half of the thirteenth century. The authors analysed are Albert the Great, Giles of Rome, Simon of Faversham, the so-called Incerti Auctores, the Anonymous of Prague and John Duns Scotus. The central elements that emerge are the role played by the notion of suppositum and by the linguistic context to determine the denotation of (...) an expression, and the importance of the metaphysical problem of the unity and identity of suppositum in both the theory of predication and the theory of inference. Both subjects, obviously, are closely connected. (shrink)

Emotional self-regulation in childhood and adolescence constitutes a growing interest in the scientific community, highlighting in recent years the need to observe its development in their daily life. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to characterize publications referring to the development of emotional self-regulation of people under 18 years-old, in natural contexts. Based on the PRISMA guidelines, searches are carried out in the Web of Science, Scopus and PsycINFO databases, and in Google Scholar until May 2020. After reviewing (...) the full text of 376 publications, 14 works are selected that are observed in their extrinsic, substantive and methodological characteristics based on the GREOM and MQCOM guidelines, by two independent evaluators. Most of the studies correspond to the last 20 years, increasing the interest in observing older children, in interaction with adults and/or in different cultures. They apply mixed methodologies, not always ascribing to a low intensity design. Strengths are observed regarding the collection and analysis of the quality of the data; and weaknesses related to the failure to record the duration and sequence of behaviors, highlighting the use of guidelines as guides for future research. (shrink)

El capital social, si bien corresponde a una categoría nacida de la economía política clásica y, en particular, empleada por Karl Marx, en su versión contemporánea se muestra en la combinación del capital físico y el capital humano en el contexto de la teoría de la economía de bienestar. En la primera parte se expone la cuestión conceptual y en la segunda se expone el capital humano en un modelo de crecimiento de Convergencia. Se consideran los niveles de escolaridad promedio (...) en los asentamientos irregulares de la Delegación Milpa Alta en el Distrito Federal entre 2000-2005 y se proyectan las tasas al 2020 que mantiene los resultados de Convergencia obtenidos en el modelo para el 2000-2005, demostrando la relación entre valor, trabajo, educación y crecimiento. (shrink)

La perspectiva teórica del Capital, del siglo XIX, aparece alejada del capital social del siglo XXI. Ambas, con la misma raíz, sin embargo, pareciera que no se tocan, ni teórica ni prácticamente. Quizás, sería pertinente escudriñar esta relación.Desde la década de los noventa, el tema del “capital social” ha sido visto por muchos estudiosos de la realidad social contemporánea como una propuesta promisoria, transversal y hegemónica. Tanto desde la economía, las ciencias morales, la ciencia y..

A negative conclusion, like R. Feynman’s sentence “nature is uncomprehensible”, forces us to examine the value of contemporary science from the point of view of understanding. As a contribution to this task, I criticize some of the philosophical presuppositions of experimentalism. Then I try to place some stepping stones towards metaphysics, conceived as a rational extension of science, and devoted to the search for intelligibility.

Juliet Mitchell’s psychoanalytic account of sibling rivalry, fluctuating between narcissistic identification and fear of annihilation, also applies to Walter Benjamin’s model of true love in his reading of Goethe’s Elective Affinities. This model is found in the utopian novella “The Curious Tale of the Childhood Sweethearts,” inserted within Goethe’s novel. By reducing the relationship between the novella and its framing narrative to an opposition between truth and semblance, Benjamin replicates in his reading the specular logic that is love’s obstacle. On (...) the other hand, Freud’s analysis of an episode in Goethe’s autobiography can be said to retroactively operate what Mitchell calls “lateral castration,” for Freud compares the great writer to patients in analysis and thus establishes the necessary seriality that creates “space for one who is the same and different.” Still, and although elements of his own autobiography facilitate the construction of alternative scenarios, Freud exempts Goethe’s sisters from the position of rivals. Recognising “the sister” as earliest playmate, and object of hatred and narcissistic identification, like Mitchell does, might be the first step necessary for drawing a model of love for women as peers this side of utopia. (shrink)

Resumen: El presente trabajo analiza un conjunto de entrevistas realizadas a poetas mapuche proponiendo una articulación metadiscursiva entre el campo literario y el campo periodístico. El análisis del corpus sugiere la existencia de tensiones en la práctica poética que es posible visualizar en las entrevistas a los autores mapuches. Estas tensiones se manifiestan en tres binomios fundamentales que funcionan aquí como categorías de análisis y que son: alta-baja cultura; distinción público-privado y dinámicas de articulación entre identidad-alteridad. Por último, se propone (...) la dimensión intercultural como pivote articulador de las categorías antes desplegadas y analizadas en la poesía mapuche.: This article analyzes a set of interviews with Mapuche poets proposing a metadiscursive articulation between the literary field and the journalistic field. The corpus analisys`s suggest the existence of three tension in poetic practice that can be seen in interviews with the authors. These tensions are manifested in three fundamental binomials that function here as categories of analysis: high-low culture; public-private distinction and dynamic articulation between identity-alterity. Finally, an intercultural dimension it is proposes as an articulating pivot of categories previously implemented and analyzed in Mapuche poetry. (shrink)

U sadržaju ovog elaborata autorica želi propitati pojam umjetnosti orijentirajući se na Gadamerovo shvaćanje umjetnosti kao »aktualnost lijepoga«, a kao polazišnu točku autorica uzima Gadamerovo krucijalno pitanje: »Je li umjetnost moderne ono što uistinu razumijevamo kao umjetnost?« Ono što autorica smatra pregnantnim pri određivanju polazišta ovog elaborata, čiji sadržaj tendira obrazložiti i pojasniti razumijevanje umjetnosti kao »aktualnost lijepoga«, na temelju fenomenološki impostiranog i hermeneutički oblikovanog mišljenja u djelu naslovljenom Ogledi o filozofiji umjetnosti, tiče se tumačenja Gadamerova stava spram vrednovanja kriterija (...) umjetnosti, odnosno umjetničkog djela. Odakle Gadamer preuzima te kriterije? On ih preuzima iz dvaju, može se reći, sadržajno dijametralno suprotnih, a formom identičnih kulturno povijesnih epohalnih razdoblja, od kojih prvo, ujedno i važnije, predstavlja izvor iz kojega ono drugo crpi svoje impulse, snagu, uzore i nadahnuća: antika i moderna. Međutim, prije nego li prijeđemo na bît problema, valja propitati razloge koji su naveli filozofiju, a time i sâmog Gadamera, da se počne zanimati/baviti pitanje umjetnosti. Imajući na umu prethodno izložene reference, u sadržaju ovog elaborata spomenuta će se tema obrazložiti slojevito, tj. u tri dijela: prvi dio elaborata baviti će se općim značajkama Gadamerova fundiranja problematike umjetnosti, tj. umjetničkog djela općenito i to s naglaskom na značaj, smisao, svrhu i ulogu moderne umjetnost. U drugom će se dijelu više pažnje posvetiti razumijevanju estetske dimenzije umjetnosti: iskustvo lijepoga. Treći dio elaborata orijentiran je na razumijevanje umjetnosti kao igre, simbola i svetkovine.The author’s intent in this paper consists into inquire Gadamer’s notion of art as »actuality of beauty«. As a starting point for it author takes Gadamer’s crucial question: »Is the art of modernity what we really understand as art?«. That what the author wants to explain from the phenomenological and hermeneutical view in defining stand point of this elaborate which tend to clarify understanding of art as »actuality of beauty« and what is considered as pregnant too, is Gadamer’s stand related to evaluation of criteria of art and work of art particularly presented in his philosophical work »Essays about Philosophy of Art«. Where does Gadamer find the criteria presents a question of fundamental significance for this essay. Namely, he finds them in two essentially different but formally very identical cultural and historical areas: in ancient Greek and in modernity. The first step we take in this paper goes toward an explanation of the motifs that stimulated philosophy in general and Gadamer in particular to examine the issue of art as a philosophical theme. The argument of this paper will be presented on several levels. In the first part of it we will argue about general meanings of Gadamer’s understanding and explaining the aim and the roll of the art of modernity. In the second part of it we will be oriented toward understanding of aesthetical dimension of the art, such as an experience of the beauty. In the last part of this paper we will discuss the art as a game, symbol and festival. (shrink)

The reinforcement sensitivity theory proposes that neurobiological systems mediate protective and appetitive behaviours and the functioning of these systems is associated to personality traits. In this manner, the RST is a link between neuroscience, behaviour, and personality. The theory evolved to the present revised version describing three systems: fight-flight-freezing, behavioural approach/activation, and behavioural inhibition. However, the most widely available measure of the theory, the BIS/BAS scales, only investigates two systems. Using a large longitudinal community survey, we found that the BIS/BAS (...) scales can be re-structured to investigate the three systems of the theory with a BIS scale, three BAS scales, and a separate fight-flight-freezing system scale. The re-structured scales were age, sex, and longitudinally invariant, and associations with personality and mental health measures followed theoretical expectations and previously published associations. The proposed framework can be used to investigate behavioural choices influencing physical and mental health and bridge historical with contemporary research. (shrink)

The contention of this paper is that the current ethical debate over embryonic stem cell research is polarised to an extent that is not warranted by the underlying ethical conflict. It is argued that the ethical debate can be rendered more nuanced, and less polarised, by introducing non-binary notions of moral rightness and wrongness. According to the view proposed, embryonic stem cell research—and possibly other controversial activities too—can be considered ‘a little bit right and a little bit wrong’. If this (...) idea were to become widely accepted, the ethical debate would, for conceptual reasons, become less polarised. (shrink)

Throughout our entire evolutionary history, the physical environment has played a significant role in shaping humans’ subsistence adaptations. As early humans began to colonise novel biomes and construct ecological niches, their behavioural flexibility appeared as an unquestionable fact. During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the shift from foraging to farming radically altered ecosystem services, resulting in increased exposure to zoonotic pathogens and the emergence of structural inequalities that pervade our current human condition in the Anthropocene epoch. The article seeks to use (...) an anthropological biosocial analysis to explore the diverse evolutionary paths humans have taken, which in turn shape their relationships with the natural world. Given the enigmatic nature of human behavior, it is essential to examine it holistically to understand how different subsistence patterns (e.g., intensive agriculture, foraging, and horticulture) have influenced resilience and adaptation to environmental challenges. (shrink)

Some things have positive value and some things have negative value. The things with positive value are good and the things with negative value are bad. There are also things in-between that are neither good nor bad, which are neutral. All in all, then, there are three monadic value predicates: “good,” “bad,” and “neutral.”.

Se muestra cómo la “inteligencia sentiente”, en sus elementos “noológicos”, adquiere cierto carácter “técnico” primario y constitutivo que se despliega en el logos y en la razón de manera individual, social e histórica. En la aprehensión primordial de la realidad se juega la viabilidad misma del hombre en su estar siendo en el mundo como animal humano, donde lo “técnico” juega un papel relevante. En los elementos noológicos primarios de la aprehensión primordial se hallan los cimientos de los que surge (...) la “técnica”, que no es entonces elemento accesorio, sino parte constitutiva del hacerse cargo de la realidad. (shrink)

A partir de una discusión sobre el concepto de pobreza desde la perspectiva de las necesidades, absoluta y relativa, y su satisfacción, se exponen estrategias metodológicas y alternativas para su medición. Considerando zonas espaciales, se estima la pobreza territorial para las delegaciones del Distrito Federal sincrónica y diacrónicamente en el periodo 2000-2040. Se hace uso del método de ESNBI a fin de comparar espacios territoriales demarcados por una división política, lo cual se desarrolla a través de variables de Necesidades Básicas (...) o variables directas y un indicador de feminización de la pobreza. A las variables seleccionadas se les da un tratamiento con base en el Método de Componentes Principales que da como resultado un índice de pobreza. (shrink)

El presente texto en que Augusto A. Bolívar entrevista a Norbert Lechner, se profundiza sobre un conjunto de temas tales como los de “heterogeneidad estructural” y “hegemonía externa”, la distinción entre modernización y modernidad, “racionalidad normativa”, la tensión entre voluntad y necesidad y entre acción y condicionamiento, la autoproducción como comunidad de la sociedad moderna, las distinciones entre lo político con lo estatal y con lo público, lo que lleva a un análisis de la nueva ciudadanía, y finalmente se aborda (...) el desafío de los procesos de la modernidad y la modernización en el caso chileno, abordando sus tensiones junto a las propuestas para resolverlas. (shrink)

Este trabajo examina el Contrato social de Rousseau como exposición de los principios de derecho político de la “república legítima” (Estado), que están en la base de la comprensión de los cuerpos políticos modernos. Tomando en cuenta el campo agonístico de la teoría del contrato y de la tradición republicana en que se inserta, el interés recae en la identificación y sistematización de los principios formales que subyacen a su concepción de la república como un todo compuesto y complejo, así (...) como al enunciado de sus principios constitutivos. A partir de ello, el artículo identifica el modelo de la república en estado de equilibrio, que le permite dar el paso para el desarrollo de su teoría sobre el funcionamiento del Estado y el papel del gobierno. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza una recreación quijotesca en la novela de Graham Greene Monseñor Quijote. Para ello se utilizan dos términos procedentes del Derecho romano: los conceptos de autoridad y poder. En esta obra de Greene, la autoridad surge de los libros o de autores de libros, cuya lectura permite que la vida siga teniendo sentido. En Greene encontramos la estrategia de lectura conocida como las sortes virgilianae que permite a los personajes orientarse en las dificultades diarias. Sin embargo, (...) el poder está caracterizado por su condición iletrada, la ausencia de libros y su ignorancia. In this article a novel by Graham Greene entitled Monsignor Quixote is analysed, a book that involves a recreation of the novel by Cervantes. The author of this article employs two concepts from Roman law: authority and power in his analysis. In this work by Greene, authority arises from the books or the book writers, whose reading allows life to keep making sense. In Greene, a strategy of reading known as the sortes virgilianae is found and this allows the characters to get their bearings in the daily difficulties. However, power is described as illiterate, the absence of books and ignorance. (shrink)

The primary aim of this thesis is to examine some of the arguments that have been leveled against the idea that all value bearing entities are comparable. A secondary aim is to investigate some putative properties of the relation ‘better than', especially transitivity and vagueness. Also, some of the consequences of accepting incomparability are investigated, both with regards to other value theoretical issues, such as the implications for monadic value predicates, and with regards to more applied issues, such as the (...) comparison of risks. PAPER I is a critical examination of the so-called small-improvement argument for incomparability. It is demonstrated that the value structure this argument is able to distinguish is compatible not only with incomparability but also with a kind of evaluative indeterminacy that is distinct from incomparability. PAPER II argues that if the possibility of non-conventional value relations is granted it follows that some things that have value are neither good, bad, nor neutral. This counterintuitive conclusion is reached by combining two individually plausible analyses of value. PAPER III addresses the phenomenon of incomplete preferences. It is shown how it is possible to model incomplete preference orderings by means of probabilistic preferences, and how to reveal an agent's incomplete preference ordering within a behaviorist framework. PAPER IV examines another version of the small-improvement argument designed to establish the rationality of incomplete preferences. It is argued that while there might be reasons to believe each of the premises in this version, there is a conflict between these reasons. The conflict is such that we are not provided with a reason to believe the conjunction of the premises. And without support for the conjunction of the premises the small-improvement argument for incomparability fails. PAPER V defends the common sense claim that ‘better than' is transitive against the compelling counterexamples provided by Larry Temkin and Stuart Rachels. It is demonstrated that the contradiction that follows from accepting Temkin and Rachels' premises trades on the vagueness of ‘better than', and so does not warrant the rejection of transitivity, but rather the conclusion that ‘better than' is vague. PAPER VI applies the notions of incommensurability and incomparability to comparative risk analysis. It is argued that if risks are incommensurable, and thereby resistant to accurate comparisons in terms of severity, we cannot perform accurate and cost effective trade-offs between risks and their associated benefits. (shrink)

This research advocates a strategy to mitigate or prevent further anthropogenic climate change and preserve natural resources. The strategy takes into account mechanisms of social and moral norms, which are innate in humanity due to millions of years of evolution. Social norms themselves are not innate, but the mechanisms to acquire them and implement them are. To slow down anthropogenic climate change global forces, inclusive of governments, NGOs, and collective humanity, should help indigenous peoples to protect their territories and property. (...) Important to the moral argument is highlighting the murder of Berta Cáceres, a Honduran environmental activist, in 2015 by military members of Honduras at the instruction of the Honduran joint chiefs of staff as well as the likely involvement of an energy company. To conclude, if global forces were to enforce protection of indigenous communities affected by the negative effects of urbanization and globalization, then there would be a mitigating effect on anthropogenic climate change. (shrink)

My dissertation is in two parts. First, it develops a philosophical concept of “tragic uncertainty,” derived from early twentieth-century Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno. Secondly, it demonstrates ethical application of tragic uncertainty to human societal events. The ethical imperative created from tragic uncertainty—and not either tragedy or uncertainty alone—is the following. Given a tragic situation with a great degree of uncertainty, people living with doubt, mental despair, and perpetual anguish because of it should be provided relief. Generally, this relief should (...) be in the form of therapy, by which I mean an affective and emotional release. Two important case studies are explored. One on corrupted political systems in the USA-Mexico border. The other in Honduras, on both climate change and corrupted political systems. These are explained and categorized as tragically uncertain. Corresponding, minimal practical solutions accompany the ethical imperative created to remedy tragic uncertainty. (shrink)