The manufacture of humanoid robots with embedded artificial intelligence and for sexual purposes has generated some debates within bioethics, in which diverse competing views have been presented. Themes such as sexuality and its deviations, the objectification of women, the relational problems of contemporary life, loneliness, and even the reproductive future of the species constitute the arguments which have emerged in relation to this subject. Based on these themes, this article presents the current state of the use of female sex robots, (...) the bioethical problems that arise, and how bioethics could serve as a medium for both thinking about and resolving some of these challenges. (shrink)

The original publication contained a mistake. The department name of the 1st author E.C. Carvalho should be “Postgraduate Program of Bioethics”. The institutions of the second author E. da Silva should be Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos.

Este estudo explora alternativas de gênero e sexualidade construídas por grupos étnicos subalternizados que antagonizam com o que estabelece a norma resultante da cosmovisão dos colonizadores europeus. Sustentamos a tese de que a resistência de grupos étnicos subalternizados, dispersos pelo mundo, evidencia cosmovisões alternativas. Como resultado principal, consideramos que, tendo em vista que no Brasil a Lei nº 11.645, de 10 de março de 2008 estabelece a obrigatoriedade do ensino de “História e Cultura Afro-Brasileira e Indígena” em todos os componentes (...) curriculares da Educação Básica, compreendemos que é papel também do Ensino de Ciências problematizar as noções biologizantes e reducionistas de corpo, à luz do que nos ensinam os grupos étnicos subalternizados sobre gênero e sexualidade. Assim, o desenvolvimento e a análise de propostas de ensino de ciências que articulem gênero, sexualidade, colonialismo e as culturas de povos subalternizados é um campo de pesquisa latente de investigações. (shrink)

The contention that medical artificial intelligence (AI) should be ‘explainable’ is widespread in contemporary philosophy and in legal and best practice documents. Yet critics argue that ‘explainability’ is not a stable concept; non-explainable AI is often more accurate; mechanisms intended to improve explainability do not improve understanding and introduce new epistemic concerns; and explainability requirements are ad hoc where human medical decision-making is often opaque. A recent ‘political response’ to these issues contends that AI used in high-stakes scenarios, including medical (...) AI, must be explainable to meet basic standards of legitimacy: People are owed reasons for decisions that impact their vital interests, and this requires explainable AI. This article demonstrates why the political response fails. Attending to systemic considerations, as its proponents desire, suggests that the political response is subject to the same criticisms as other arguments for explainable AI and presents new issues. It also suggests that decision-making about non-explainable medical AI can meet public reason standards. The most plausible version of the response amounts to a simple claim that public reason demands reasons why AI is permitted. But that does not actually support explainable AI or respond to criticisms of strong requirements for explainable medical AI. (shrink)

Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 4, April 2022.

This monograph offers a fresh perspective on the applicability of mathematics in science. It explores what mathematics must be so that its applications to the empirical world do not constitute a mystery. In the process, readers are presented with a new version of mathematical structuralism. The author details a philosophy of mathematics in which the problem of its applicability, particularly in physics, in all its forms can be explained and justified. Chapters cover: mathematics as a formal science, mathematical ontology: what (...) does it mean to exist, mathematical structures: what are they and how do we know them, how different layers of mathematical structuring relate to each other and to perceptual structures, and how to use mathematics to find out how the world is. The book simultaneously develops along two lines, both inspired and enlightened by Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological philosophy. One line leads to the establishment of a particular version of mathematical structuralism, free of “naturalist” and empiricist bias. The other leads to a logical-epistemological explanation and justification of the applicability of mathematics carried out within a unique structuralist perspective. This second line points to the “unreasonable” effectiveness of mathematics in physics as a means of representation, a tool, and a source of not always logically justified but useful and effective heuristic strategies. (shrink)

Introdução: A pressão expiratória final positiva-pressão expiratória final zero (PEEP-ZEEP) é uma técnica fisioterapêutica para desobstrução brônquica. Objetivo: Avaliar os efeitos agudos da PEEP-ZEEP comparada à hiperinsuflação manual (HM) em pacientes críticos traqueostomizados em relação à segurança e eficiência para higiene brônquica. Métodos: Indivíduos submetidos à ventilação mecânica invasiva por cânula de traqueostomia foram aleatorizados em dois grupos, um que recebia a técnica PEEP-ZEEP primeiramente, e outro que recebia HM. A coleta das variáveis cardiorrespiratórias foi realizada antes, 1 minuto e (...) 30 minutos após cada técnica, bem como o peso da secreção pulmonar aspirada. Resultados: Para 18 pacientes com média de idade de 66,4 (17,3) anos, não foram encontradas diferenças entre grupos para nenhuma das variáveis hemodinâmicas e respiratórias. A quantidade de secreção pulmonar removida também foi semelhante entre as técnicas. Conclusão: PEEP-ZEEP e hiperinsuflação manual não diferem entre si em relação à depuração de secreções brônquicas e variáveis cardiorrespiratórias. (shrink)

O PRINCÍPIO DA MORALIDADE NA ADMINISTRAÇÃO PÚBLICA E A MATIZAÇÃO DA DISTINÇÃO ENTRE DIREITO E MORAL.

Edward Nieznański developed two logical systems to deal with the problem of evil and to refute religious determinism. However, when formalized in first-order modal logic, two axioms of each system contradict one another, revealing that there is an underlying minimal set of axioms enough to settle the questions. In this article, we develop this minimal system, called N3, which is based on Nieznański’s contribution. The purpose of N3 is to solve the logical problem of evil through the defeat of a (...) version of religious determinism. On the one hand, these questions are also addressed by Nieznański’s systems, but, on the other hand, they are obtained in N3 with fewer assumptions. Our approach can be considered a case of logic of religion, that is, of logic applied to religious discourse, as proposed by Józef Maria Bocheński; in this particular case, it is a discourse in theodicy, which is situated in the context of the philosophy of religion. (shrink)

Many journals and publishers employ online submission systems to process manuscripts. In some cases, one “template” format exists, but it is then molded slightly to suit the specific needs of each journal, a decision made by the editor-in-chief or editors. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of cases in which OSSs have been abused, mostly by the authorship, either through the creation of fake identities or the use of false e-mail accounts. Although the (...) abusive or fraudulent authors are at fault in such cases, the fact that such cases remained undetected for so long is of concern. Moreover, the current OSSs are imperfect, have security issues and may not be able to detect false information, except through post-submission verification. Sting operations, which involve the submission of false manuscripts with false identities and false affiliations, are no less unethical, and those who abuse the publishing protocol deserve to be as reprimanded as those who abuse OSSs. Finally, I question the ethics of editors or publishers creating OSS accounts on behalf of reviewers prior to obtaining their explicit permission. doi: 10.5294/pebi.2016.20.2.3. (shrink)

In this paper, we set out to show that the relationships between individuals, including the intersubjectivity inherent to the body politic, are also affective relationships, so as to reconstruct Spinoza’s minimalist theory of tolerance. According to Spinoza’s concept of affectivity and bodily life, affection refers to a state of the affected body and implies the presence of the affecting body, while affect refers to the transition from one state to another, taking into account the correlative variation of affective bodies, that (...) is, the affect is always a passage or variation in the intensity of our power to exist and act — the increase or decrease, the favoring or the restraint of our power to exist and act. We argue that Spinoza’s geometry of affective relations decisively contributes to a political theory of democracy, insofar as it anticipates modern, liberal conceptions of tolerance. (shrink)

Every country must allocate final decision-making authority over different issues/subjects within its boundaries. Historically, many scholars working on this topic implicitly assumed that identifying the features providing entities with justified claims for authority and the entities possessing those features would also identify which groups should have which powers (or vice versa). However, many candidate allocative principles select multiple entities as candidates for some sub-state authority and yet fail to explain which powers each should possess. Further work must explain which groups (...) should possess which powers when and what to do when two groups can make equally-valid authority claims using the same principle. Subsidiarity, the principle under which authority should presumptively belong to the entity representing those ‘most affected’ by its exercise and capable of addressing underlying problems, is one of the few principles focused on identifying which groups should have which powers. Unfortunately, subsidiarity alone does not provide guidance on many issues/subjects. Useful subsidiarity-related guidance relies on balancing underlying justificatory interests, which do the real allocative work. Another allocative principle remains necessary. A deflationary account of subsidiarity’s allocative potential nonetheless provides insights into how to articulate a new principle and accounts of subsidiarity that can fulfill other moral roles. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo abordar o conceito de “partilha do sensível” esboçado pelo filósofo francês Jacques Rancière dentro de uma ótica de dispositivo de controle da homossexualidade, este conceito está relacionado a ideia de que a partilha do sensível possui uma crítica de Jacques Rancière com relação a ideia de uma estrutura social de Platão, que representa uma estrutura estática, uma estrutura engessada, que privilegia aquele que já se encontrou na sociedade. Esse conceito mais particular de partilha é (...) apresentado e define, de certa forma quem aparece e que toma parte dos espaços, tempos e tipos de atividades de acordo com suas ocupações, o tempo e o espaço é quem vão determinar a maneira como um comum se presta a participação, assim como uns e outros também tomam parte nessa partilha. Nesse sentido, será abordado a maneira que essa partilha do sensível se apresenta e toma parte do sujeito homossexual na sociedade tendo em vista o modelo padrão e heteronormativo de comportamento que a sociedade impõe a todos que dela fazem parte. (shrink)

Without peer reviewers, the entire scholarly publishing system as we currently know it would collapse. However, as it currently stands, publishing is an extremely exploitative system, relative to o...

This article offers an original, intellectual portrait of G. H. Mead. My reassessment of Mead’s thinking is founded, in methodological terms, upon a historically minded yet theoretically oriented strategy. Mead’s system of thought is submitted to a historical reconstruction in order to grasp the evolution of his ideas over time, and to a thematic reconstruction organized around three major research areas or pillars: science, social psychology and politics. If one re-examines the entirety of Mead’s published and unpublished writings from the (...) point of view of contemporary social and political theory, one can see that his contributions transcend the field of social psychology. Mead’s innovative insights on the communicative aspects of social life and individual conscience are yet to be fully explored by current social and political theorists. This is partly due to the fact that his was a system in a state of flux, ever escaping the final written form. (shrink)

Neste ensaio, refletimos sobre a unidade e a universalidade da lógica, por meio de duas questões fundamentais. Em primeiro lugar, discutimos se, dentre as várias lógicas existentes atualmente, haveria alguma melhor do que as outras. Em segundo, debruçamo-nos sobre o problema de saber se o mundo real é governado por uma determinada lógica. Remetendo as questões aos seus fundamentos, defendemos o pluralismo e mostramos que a avaliação das lógicas não se dá por questões de índole meramente formal, envolvendo princípios históricos, (...) pragmáticos e dialéticos ligados aos diversos contextos racionais aos quais elas são aplicadas. Mostramos ainda que o mundo real não é governado por nenhuma lógica específica, mas por variadas lógicas, e que há sempre uma espécie de ambiguidade e um jogo adaptativo entre os aspectos reais do mundo e os formais da lógica. (shrink)

Many believe the existence of a moral right to some good should lead to recognition of a corresponding legal right to that good. If, for instance, there is a moral right to healthcare, it is natural to believe countries should recognize a legal right to healthcare. This article demonstrates that justifying legal rights to healthcare is more difficult than many assume. The existence of a moral right is insufficient to justify recognition of a corresponding justiciable constitutional right. Further conditions on (...) when it is appropriate to recognize constitutional rights are rarely satisfied in the healthcare case. And focusing on aspirational or statutory rights presents costs for those seeking to justify legal rights on the basis of corresponding moral ones while maintaining empirical challenges for justifying constitutional rights. This suggests movement from a moral right to a corresponding legal one is far from straightforward and justifies examining alternative means of realizing moral socio‐economic rights such as the proposed moral right to healthcare. (shrink)

In this article we analyse the role of the principle of relativity and the generalisation of Lorentz transformations in Einstein's relativistic physics, whose philosophical ideal was the construction of an image of nature endowed with maximum unity and logical simplicity. In his critical-rationalist realism, Einstein aimed to develop a "conception of the world" that expressed the logical unity of nature. Throughout his scientific career, this philosophical programme led him to produce "great syntheses", seeking compatibility between different physical systems.

Parte das concepções pseudocientíficas propagadas pela comunidade científica em seus principais periódicos, especialmente no início do século XX, tomaram alcance com os conceitos de Eugenia e Darwinismo Social, em que o cerne das discussões considerava as distinções de raça enquanto fenômeno biológico. O presente ensaio expõe a contribuição nefasta promovida pela renomada revista Nature, que, há até pouco tempo, indiretamente acabou por reforçar crenças e culturas racistas, como o apartheid, a colonização, o trabalho forçado e a escravidão, deixando uma marca (...) indelével em sua trajetória histórica. As discussões sobre a inferioridade de raças, povos e indivíduos não somente fomentaram o negacionismo, uma vez que careciam de evidências, de consenso e de ceticismo científico adequados, como foram utilizadas como uma camada de verniz científico para legitimar projetos colonialistas e expandir os interesses do grande capital à época. Esse texto assinala ainda que as estratégias adotadas pelo capitalismo para alcançar seu patamar atual de forma hegemônica de sociabilidade somente tiveram êxito devido à apropriação do conhecimento científico que forneceu os aperfeiçoamentos tecnológicos para a conquista de novas terras e povos e, por fim, o acúmulo de capitais. Em conclusão, destacam-se autores que defendem uma perspectiva do negacionismo atual enquanto fenômeno social, o qual mais se liga às consequências da negação do fato do que propriamente ao fato em si. Essa perspectiva amplia o debate em torno do negacionismo para além das ideias difundidas nas mídias sociais, situando-o numa dimensão em que é necessário discutir o impacto das mudanças propostas pela ciência na hegemonia de determinados setores e de países dominantes da economia global. (shrink)

Medical practitioners and healthcare workers rely on information accuracy in academic journals. Some Covid-19 papers contain “tortured phrases”, nonstandard English expressions, or imprecise or erroneous terms, that give the impression of jargon but are not. Most post-publication attention paid to Covid-19 literature has focused on the accuracy of biomedical aspects, the validity of claims, or the robustness of data, but little has been published on linguistic specificity. This paper highlights the existence of “tortured phrases” in select Covid-19 literature, arguing that (...) they could serve as a class of epistemic marker when evaluating the integrity of the scientific and biomedical literature. (shrink)

It is a philosophical naiveté to believe that the object of science is some ready-made world out there that the scientist, free of any preconceptions, simply stumbles upon. Of course, there is a world out there, given to us through the senses, but that must be intentionally elaborated to become a world for us and a possible object of scientific inquiry. The intentional constitution of the world of science supports and “justifies” a priori conceptions about the empirical world, even those (...) of a logical nature, that are, then, properly transcendental rather than metaphysical. My goal here is to investigate what these presuppositions are and on what they are based. (shrink)

A proposição deste trabalho é relatar uma vivência de reflexão filosófica, em específico na perspectiva de um olhar sobre o trabalho com textos, em particular nas séries iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, na escola campo Centro de Ensino Fundamental 06 de Sobradinho-DF.

The Periodic Table of Elements is one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect but is far from a finished work. Generations of chemists and physicists have improved on it, in light of the discovery of new elements and advancements in the domain of Quantum Mechanics. Specially, the role of the four quantum numbers that dictates the distribution of the elements throughout the Table has been clarified. However, as the Table grew older and venerable, a tradition developed that froze (...) its overall shape, obfuscating somewhat the comprehension of its underlying principles. Proposals of reforming it has been made but face the opposition of scientists, professionals and educators who are comfortable with the Table as it has been for several decades. Here, the author advocates for possible alternatives, discuss potential advantages and answer to some criticisms on them. (shrink)

Floridi’s work, although diverse and multifaceted, portrays a solid coherence across his different lines of work. Among his wealth of interests and results, we highlight his recent work on information logics, on the ethics of information technology, and his rigorous (and vigorous) philosophical analysis of recent technological trends and developments in information technology. In the present article we illustrate, by means of some connecting arguments, the diversity and coherence of Floridi’s work. We also show how his work, although fundamentally philosophical (...) in nature, can be used to build solid foundations for scientific and entrepreneurial endeavours of higher quality. More specifically, we discuss how the combination of results from the three lines of work referred to above can be used as ground for the organisation of higher quality programmes to augment the capabilities and effectiveness of governmental systems through information and communications technology, a trend that has been explored in many nations and that has been coined Electronic Government. Electronic Government programmes that improve the capabilities of citizens to interact with each other and with governments, as well as the capabilities of governments to listen to the needs and aspirations of citizens, have the potential to contribute to the construction of more democratic states. Electronic Government systems that rely on ready made models to prescribe to citizens how best they should interact with each other and with the public administration are, however, by construction non-democratic. Hence, it can be a moral and ethical matter for governments to choose which line of technological development they take. (shrink)

The following note has on purpose to introduce interested students to logicism. Our objective is not to show any new interpretation or thesis about logicism or its rebirth between the 60s and 80s of the last century. What we will do is systematically show the evolution of logicism from Frege to Russell-Whitehead, with greater emphasis on this latest development, and approach some problems that arise within that movement, for example: The logical paradoxes and the principle of intuitive comprehension, the impredicative (...) definitions and the semantic paradoxes, the Ramified Hierarchy and real numbers, the axiom of reducibility and the impossibility of reducing mathematics to logic, etc. (shrink)

Mediante um breve recorte, presto, no que se segue, uma singela homenagem à recémfalecida professora doutora Creusa Capalbo (1934-2017), importante difusora intelectualquanto aos estudos fenomenológicos no Brasil. Para tanto, chamo a atenção para um dosconceitos-chave mais trabalhados em sua produção: a noção de historicidade.

ABSTRACTErnest Weinrib claims that the purpose of private law is to correct injustices between private parties and the use of private laws for consequentialist ends is a distortion. Weinrib’s primary argument highlights the distinctiveness of corrective justice and distributive justice. Weinrib claims to have an Aristotelian proof for their distinctiveness, but formalisation of and commentary on this aspect of his argument are lacking. This piece fills that gap in the literature. It provides purposely and strategically simple formal models of the (...) structure of corrective and distributive justice, and demonstrates that they are not reducible to one another and cannot be placed under a larger, non-trivial mathematical formula that generalises for even a large number of private law cases. (shrink)

This article assesses the similarity and difference between the Western European style of doing bioethics and the Scandinavian one. First, it reviews the introductory article by the editor, C. Delkeskamp-Hayes in the first issue of Christian Bioethics , devoted to the possibility of a specifically Christian bioethics in Europe. Second, it analyses bioethics debates in Scandinavian today. In light of Delkeskamp-Hayes' article, the main similarity is that both regions are facing secularization as a threat to basic Christian values, for example, (...) to the Christian view of the sanctity and dignity of the human life. But the Scandinavian tends to reduce Christian bioethics to Luther's concept of the worldly kingdom, supposed to foster a dialogue between Christians and non-Christians on controversial ethical issues. Despite the positive value of the dialogue, this strategy renders Christian ethics powerless. Third, from an evangelical theological standpoint, it proposes some strategies for enhancing the influence of Christian commitments on bioethical laws and policies. (shrink)

Based on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Alexandre Kojève produces a theory of an "anthropogenesis" that allocates the constitution of self-consciousness in a markedly historical and social field centered on the "dialectic of the master and the slave". More than this, it emerges in a domaine seized by the conflictuality of such a central operator of socialization, namely the desire, which is always, in the last case, a desire for recognition. Aware of this idea and on the path of the development (...) of an imaginary’s theory, Lacan was pursuing the necessity to reallocate certain points of the Freudian constitution’s theory of the ego. He was aiming to bypass Freud’s supposed “biologism” by emphasizing the fundamental dependence of the other’s figure on the process of "hominization", in which "aggressiveness" plays an inherent role. If the projects of Kojève and Lacan present undeniable convergences, it is necessary, however, to better understand them, as well as to establish the uniqueness of their distances, inflections and objectives. (shrink)

Drawing on the views of donors and recipients about anonymity in a country that is experiencing a transition towards non-anonymous gamete donation mandated by the Constitutional Court, we explore how the intersection between rights-based approaches and an empirical framework enhances recommendations for ethical policy and healthcare. Between July 2017 and April 2018, 69 donors and 147 recipients, recruited at the Portuguese Public Bank of Gametes, participated in this cross-sectional study. Position towards anonymity was assessed through an open-ended question in a (...) self-report questionnaire, which was subject to content analysis. Preference for an anonymous donation regime was mentioned by 82.6% of donors and 89.8% of recipients; and all those with children. Instead of the rights-based reasoning used by the Constitutional Court, donors highlighted concerns over future relationships and recipients focused on socioethical values linked with the safeguard of safety, privacy and confidentiality. The remaining participants advocated the choice between anonymity or non-anonymity, invoking respect for their autonomy. The complex, diverse ethical views and reasoning of donors and recipients expand a traditionally dichotomous discussion. Their perspectives challenge the transition towards non-anonymity and international guidelines, raising awareness to the need for their involvement in the design of policies to enable choice according to their values and preferences, and of psychosocial counselling responsive to their socioethical concerns and sensitive to their parental status. Empirical frameworks complement rights-based approaches to uphold justice, fairness and equal respect, and to incorporate utility, beneficence and non-maleficence in policymaking and healthcare in the transition towards non-anonymity. (shrink)