Un tema complejo en la bioética contemporánea es el que versa sobre la decisión de poner fin a una vida humana, y dentro de éste, quizás el que tiene que ver con la práctica de la eutanasia voluntaria es el más ampliamente discutido. Desde el punto de vista de su consideración moral, no es poco frecuente encontrar en los debates en torno al tópico la apelación a la palabra “dignidad humana”. Este ensayo reflexiona sobre las diferencias y similitudes de significado (...) que tiene el concepto de dignidad para las tres tradiciones morales occidentales más importantes, a saber, la utilitarista, la bíblica y la kantiana. Nuestro objetivo es revisar la postura moral que estas mismas tradiciones mantienen sobre la cuestión del suicidio asistido desde el punto de vista de sus particulares concepciones de dignidad.A complex issue in contemporary bioethics concerns with the decision of putting an end to a human life, and within this, the topic of voluntary euthanasia is perhaps the most widely discussed. From the standpoint of moral consideration it is very common to find in these discussions the appeal to the concept of “human dignity”. This essay seeks to reflect upon the differences and similarities of the meaning of the word “human dignity” for the more important moral Western traditions, namely, Utilitarian, Biblical and Kantian ethics. Our aim is to review the moral position that each of these traditions hold upon the issue of assisted suicide. (shrink)

In the first of the three essays of Theory and Practice published in 1793, Kant took the task to answer some objections that Ch. Garve, Kant’s contemporary popular philosopher, had raised against his ethical theory a couple of years earlier. One of these, the most important one in my view, has to do with the problem of, as Garve puts it, “how anyone can become aware of having performed his duty quite unselfishly”. In this paper, my aim is to recover (...) the pertinence of this text by showing two things. First, that this essay is part of a controversy between Garve and Kant that transcends, historically and philosophically, Theory and Practice itself; and second, that Kant fails to succeed in this controversy against Garve due to a confession that he makes during the discussion, for this statement runs against that which has the intend to be demonstrate by the argument of the “fact of pure reason”. (shrink)

Kant’s moral philosophy intends to be an articulated project between metaphysics of morals and practical anthropology. In the works in which he undertakes the task of grounding his metaphysics of morals, namely, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant insists that he borrows nothing from anthropology to support this grounding, whereas in his two other most important practical writings, the Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant applies (...) his metaphysics of morals to anthropology. By discussing Kant’s idea that empirical happiness is an essential end for every human being, and that his metaphysics of morals is just incoherent without denying rationality and freedom to every sensible incentive, this paper problematizes the possibility of the articulated project of Kant’s moral philosophy. (shrink)

Se problematiza la conexión entre la libertad práctica y trascendental en la Crítica de la razón pura. La intención es explicitar las dificultades que enfrenta Kant al relacionar estos sentidos de libertad dentro del marco de la filosofía crítica. Por lo general, los intérpretes entienden la relación entre estos dos sentidos de libertad como ontológica o como conceptual. Se quiere mostrar que ninguna de estas interpretaciones alcanza a superar los presuntos dogmatismos racionalista y empirista que, en conformidad con Kant, sustentan (...) las posturas del proponente de la Tesis y de la Antítesis, respectivamente. The article discusses the connection between practical and transcendental freedom in the Critique of Pure Reason, in order to reveal the difficulties faced by Kant when he relates these two meanings of freedom in the context of critical philosophy. Interpreters have generally understood the relation between these two meanings of freedom as ontological or conceptual. The objective of this article, however, is to show that neither of those interpretations manages to overcome the rationalist and empiricist dogmatism that, according to Kant, support the positions of the proponents of the Thesis and the Antithesis, respectively. (shrink)

El articulo explora una alternativa distinta sobre la posible comprensión kantiana de los derechos humanos a la que se muestra en un par de contribuciones recientes por parte de Jürgen Habermas y Otfried Höffe. Se intenta mostrar que la manera como estos teóricos defienden la eventual aportación de Kant a los derechos humanos, sustentada en su apriorística y trascendental doctrina moral, no resiste el análisis si de lo que se trata es defender la cualidad humana de los derechos humanos y (...) su universalidad. En su lugar, y teniendo como base el concepto del “fenómeno de los derechos humanos” defendido por el filósofo y jurista argentino Eduardo Rabossi, se busca mostrar que la posición histórica y antropológica, no trascendental, que Kant sostiene en torno a la relación entre revolución y progreso moral en uno de sus textos sobre El conflicto de las facultades se ajusta más persuasivamente a lo que estos derechos representan. (shrink)

En este artículo me propongo analizar el significado que tiene la idea de formar éticamente a profesionistas para resolver «dilemas éticos». Partiendo de la base de las propuestas más significativas de la UNESCO para legitimar la pertinencia de la formación ética en la educación profesional en el siglo XXI, me interesa mostrar el sentido que adquiere el concepto de dilema ético y lo que significa aceptar su legitimidad, para de aquí invitar a una reflexión sobre los fundamentos básicos formales de (...) una pedagogía ética que todo docente que enseña ética a nivel profesional tendría que considerar para enseñar a los futuros profesionistas a enfrentar este singular problema de la razón práctica. (shrink)

Can Artificial Intelligence be more effective than human instruction for the moral enhancement of people? The author argues that it only would be if the use of this technology were aimed at increasing the individual's capacity to reflectively decide for themselves, rather than at directly influencing behaviour. To support this, it is shown how a disregard for personal autonomy, in particular, invalidates the main proposals for applying new technologies, both biomedical and AI-based, to moral enhancement. As an alternative to these (...) proposals, this article proposes a virtual assistant that, through dialogue, neutrality and virtual reality technologies, can teach users to make better moral decisions on their own. The author concludes that, as long as certain precautions are taken in its design, such an assistant could do this better than a human instructor adopting the same educational methodology. (shrink)

Creating effective teamwork between humans and robots involves not only addressing their performance as a team but also sustaining the quality and sense of unity among teammates, also known as cohesion. This paper explores the research problem of: how can we endow robotic teammates with social capabilities to improve the cohesive alliance with humans? By defining the concept of a human–robot cohesive alliance in the light of the multidimensional construct of cohesion from the social sciences, we propose to address this (...) problem through the idea of multifaceted human–robot cohesion. We present our preliminary effort from previous works to examine each of the five dimensions of cohesion: social, collective, emotional, structural, and task. We finish the paper with a discussion on how human–robot cohesion contributes to the key questions and ongoing challenges of creating robotic teammates. Overall, cohesion in human–robot teams might be a key factor to propel team performance and it should be considered in the design, development, and evaluation of robotic teammates. (shrink)

a central thesis of martin heidegger's first reading of a Platonic dialogue, the 1924/25 course on the Sophist, was that, "for the Greeks, being means precisely to be present, to be in the present [Anwesend-sein, Gegenwärtig-sein]."1 Heidegger saw this Greek interpretation of being as leading to Plato's specific interpretation of being as eidos or idea. Heidegger makes this clear in the following passage from another Plato course, the 1931–32 course On the Essence of Truth: "'Idea' is the look [der Anblick] (...) of what something offers itself as being. These looks [Anblicke] are that in which the individual thing presents itself as this or that, that in which it is present and presencing [präsent und anwesend].... (shrink)

The design of the bronchial tree has largely been proposed as a model of optimal design from a physical-functional perspective. However, the distributive function of the airway may be more related to a geometrical than a physical problem. The bronchial tree must distribute a three dimensional volume of inspired air on a two dimensional alveolar surface, included in a limited volume. It is thus valid to ask whether an optimal bronchial tree from a physical perspective is also optimum from a (...) geometrical point of view. In this paper we generate a simple geometric model for the branching pattern of the bronchial tree, deducing relationships that permit estimation of the departures from the geometrical optimum of each bifurcation. We also, for comparative purposes, estimate the departures from the physical optimum. From the geometrical assumptions: i) a symmetrical dichotomic fractal design, ii) with minimum volume and iii) maximum dispersion of the terminal points; and several simulations we suggest that the optimality is characterized by a bifurcation angle Θ ∼ 60° and a length reduction scale γ = (1/2)1/3 = 0.7937. We propose distances from the physical and geometrical optimality defined as Euclidean distances from the expected optima. We show how the advanced relationships and the distances can be used to estimate departures from the optimality in bronchographs of four species. We found lower physical and geometrical departures in the distal zone than those of the proximal zones, as well as lower physical than geometrical departures from optimality. (shrink)

Pendant l’ete de 1928 Heidegger a offert un seminaire sur le troisieme livre de la Physique d’Aristote et donc sur l’explication aristotelicienne de la nature du mouvement. La derniere seance de ce cours, qui eut lieu le 25 juillet, est d’une grande importance parce que c’est a cette occasion que Heidegger va au livre neuf de la Metaphysique pour essayer de comprendre la notion ontologique qui est a la base de l’interpretation aristotelicienne du mouvement : l’energeia. Mais dans les protocoles (...) de ce seminaire qui se trouvent parmi les papiers de Heidegger et qui ont ete publies recemment dans le volume 83 de la Gesamtausgabe, la seance du 25 juillet se trouve absente. Ce fait a conduit l’editeur a conclure que le seminaire avait pris fin le 23 juillet, sans s’apercevoir donc que la conclusion du seminaire manquait. Il existe heureusement une transcription preservee parmi les papiers de l’etudiante de Heidegger, Helene Weiss, et accessible aujourd’hui dans les archives de l’universite de Stanford. Cette transcription montre que la derniere session eut bien lieu le 25 juillet et nous offre la lecture heideggerienne de Metaphysique IX qui ne se trouve pas dans la version de la Gesamtausgabe. C’est dans le contexte de cette lecture que Heidegger fait la declaration etonnante qui nous concerne ici : ≪Dans la derniere instance, la Metaphysique Θ revient a Platon ; la priorite de l’energeia est fondamentalement la meme chose que l’epekeina des Idees. ≫La première tâche que je me propose ici sera d’expliquer cette déclaration qui suggère une relation tres etroite, ou meme une identite, entre la notion aristotelicienne de l’energeia comme ayant une priorite vis‑a‑vis de la dunamis et la notion platonicienne de l’Idee du Bien comme etant epekeina de l’ousia. Pour cette explication je ferai appel non seulement au contexte du seminaire de 1928, mais aussi aux textes plus tardifs comme les Beitrage et les cours sur Nietzsche dans lesquels Heidegger semble presupposer et développer sa déclaration de 1928. Ma seconde tâche sera de comparer cette thèse heideggerienne a la tentative de Gadamer de surmonter l’opposition traditionnelle entre les ontologies de Platon et d’Aristote en faisant appel a l’idee du bien chez les deux. Cette tentative se trouve dans le texte Die Idee des Guten zwischen Plato und Aristoteles. La comparaison que j’entreprends ici va montrer certaines affinites entre les interpretations de l’Idee du Bien chez Heidegger et Gadamer, mais aussi de profondes differences qui vont determiner leurs differents projets philosophiques. (shrink)

El presente ensayo explora el itinerario de la crítica que Nietzsche ejerció sobre el arte de Wagner en tres pasos. Primero, se trata de reconocer la juvenil admiración del filósofo por la ópera wagneriana entendida como un renacimiento del drama musical antiguo. Luego, se explora el tránsito hacia su desilusión en la clave de la influencia de Schopenhauer sobre Wagner. Finalmente, el ensayo remata en la crítica madura de Nietzsche sobre Wagner, donde se advierten los prolegómenos decimonónicos de la transformación (...) general del arte en espectáculo en el sentido contemporáneo. (shrink)

In the history of literary criticism the name of Ortega y Gasset is indispensable, since in this, as well as in all other sectors of cultural activity, the influence of his thought has been most decisive. He opened paths and established guidelines that remain in effect; his vision of the Quijote not only counterbalanced that of Unamuno, against which it purposely rebelled, but also, by underscoring the resources called into play by Cervantes in composing his master work, he has shaped (...) the attitudes of subsequent professional and academic criticism; and his analysis of the personalities of such important writers as Baroja is as yet unsurpassed. Among his many influential works, Francisco Ayala has written Reflexiones sobre la estructura narrativa (criticism) and España, a la fecha. (essays). His collected fiction appeared in 1969 under the title Obras narrativas completas. At Professor Ayala's request, this essay, and Ideas sobre Pío Baroja, by José Ortega y Gasset, were translated by Richard Ford. (shrink)

Koselleck en su escrito Futuro Pasado, considera que la historia conceptual permite la comprensión del pensamiento socio-político ya que los conceptos son las herramientas con las que los actores de un momento histórico articularon sus estructuras socio-políticas, y proyectaron diversas expectativas sobre su futuro. Por otra parte, la implementación de la historia conceptual en el estudio del pensamiento socio-político latinoamericano, ofrece a la historia social y a la filosofía política una nueva mirada sobre la consolidación, el cambio o desaparición de (...) las sociedades, sus instituciones y sus conceptos políticos fundamentales. Ahora bien, en este escrito presento una aproximación sobre la libertad y su importancia como concepto fundamental del pensamiento socio-político, en el periodo de la Regeneración, en tres momentos. Primero, describo los lineamientos generales de la historia conceptual. Segundo, expongo la influencia de la historia conceptual en el estudio del pensamiento socio-político latinoamericano. Finalmente, establezco las posibilidades del análisis del concepto libertad durante el periodo de la Regeneración. (shrink)

Este artigo problematiza, sob o ponto de vista teórico da Análise do Discurso francesa, por que, em algumas regiões do Nordeste brasileiro, há quem evite pronunciar a palavra macaco e opte por usar em seu lugar outras palavras, tais como dezessete. A hipótese defendida é a de que essa prática cultural-discursiva, entendida aqui como uma forma de interdição, ocorre basicamente em regiões sertanejas onde a memória do cangaço é ainda marcadamente diluída no cotidiano. A partir da análise de discursos presentes (...) no dia a dia, este artigo pretende contribuir para uma compreensão mais acurada de uma particularidade sociocultural brasileira. (shrink)

El Furry Fandom es una subcultura en torno al interés por animales o criaturas antropomórficas, pero apenas ha sido investigada su población hispanohablante, a pesar de la instigación de los medios de comunicación españoles reproduciendo estereotipos de los medios americanos. El artículo aborda cómo se construye la identidad furry en España y sus relaciones con la práctica del género (regulada sexualmente); así como el uso de jerga. El método consta de observación participante en foros y en entrevistas para análisis de (...) casos; lo cual permitió un análisis de contenidos diversos, repertorios interpretativos y un análisis crítico del discurso . Como conclusión, el furry fandom enmarca cuestiones feministas a partir de la metáfora del cyborg, tales como qué papel debe tener la ciencia, ideología sobre la naturaleza humana y la necesidad de coalición de identidades. (shrink)

Hospitality can be considered a key institution in the social relationships in the ancient Mediterranean. To identify the people involved in a hospitality agreement, in certain contexts small objects were used in a similar way to a password, which the Greeks called symbolon and the Romans tessera hospitalis. We know how the latter were used thanks to Plautus' Poenulus. At least 64 pieces are currently known which may be identified as tesserae hospitales. All come from the Western Mediterranean. The majority (...) contain brief inscriptions, written in Etruscan, Latin, Greek, or Celtiberian. They share a series of common features, which impart a clear family resemblance beyond geographic, cultural, or linguistic borders. (shrink)

the paper argues that it is possible to perceive a positive reconsideration about the importance of State role on social life and economic organization, in that democratic politics and redistributive, compensatory and interventive functions of the State are affirmed as directive forces of social evolution and socio-economic organization, by many groups of society, political parties and even intellectuals. Therefore, this positive role of the State, after a long time of supremacy of neoliberal positions and its disruption of State, is oriented (...) to pacification of social poverty produced by capitalist economy and to reinforce democratic political participation of citizens – something that current economic worldwide crisis makes more preeminent. So, the State is the core of democratic constitution of society itself, again , and it must be affirmed in this position and in the vindications of social movements and citizen initiatives about solid processes of political democracy, social justice and cultural recognition. (shrink)

Los trabajos que componen este libro se adentran en eso que ha llegado a verse como un campo de estudio asegurado, pero que más bien parece un arco en problemática tensión: el que se forma al pretender conjuntar la fenomenología “y” la hermenéutica. La particularidad de Heidegger consiste tanto en haber tensado ese arco como en haber abandonado después su propio intento, tan fructífero para otros. Por ello, Heidegger es −junto a Gadamer− el interlocutor principal de estos escritos. El libro (...) tiene como objetivo homenajear a Franco Volpi por todo lo que nos dio como pensador y persona. Da a conocer uno de los últimos trabajos del propio Volpi, así como ensayos de Jean Grondin, Arturo Leyte, Ramón Rodríguez, Alejandro Vigo y Ángel Xolocotzi, entre otros. (shrink)

Pretende-se estabelecer, nos limites do presente texto, um breve recenseamento sobre os conceitos de vida e biopolítica na filosofia contemporânea, tendo como subsídios principais o pensamento de Giorgio Agamben e algumas inflexões teóricas de Gilles Deleuze (vida e imanência) e Michel Foucault (formas-de-vida e parrhesia), delineando, no escopo da tentativa teórica, a intersecção de suas matrizes teóricas e conceitos.

O pensamento de Cícero inaugura o republicanismo romano e se apresenta como uma reflexão política que busca analisar questões primordiais para a República, tendo Roma Antiga como referência. Amiúde, verifica-se nesse pensamento a utilização de exemplos da vida política real com o intuito de formular uma crítica ao regime romano. O presente artigo tem como propósito central, por meio da investigação de um problema de gravidade incontestável: a corrupção política, examinar o republicanismo de Cícero mediante suas noções fundamentais. Assim, teremos (...) três objetivos: primeiro, compreender a concepção de República alicerçada na virtude, no interesse comum e na justiça; o segundo, avaliar as razões pelas quais a igualdade e a liberdade se inscrevem como suportes indispensáveis no referido regime político; e, o terceiro, analisar como Cícero define a corrupção política, a maneira como ela penetra na República e suas prováveis consequências. (shrink)

The question regarding the determination of Hegel's idealism remains central in Hegelian studies, today dominated by the view that such idealism would be merely a continuation and elaboration of Kant's transcendental idealism. Against this view, in this work we propose to investigate the way in which Hegel conceives philosophy, its task and its object and the way in which such a conception reveals the central determinations of his idealism, that is, the way in which Hegel's idealism has an explicit ontological (...) direction that distances it from the purely epistemological project of Kant and his epigones, placing the fundamental problems of European philosophy in another light; The historical-social foundations that explain the reason for such a conception of philosophy are also addressed. (shrink)

Reseñe de ¡Al ladrón! Anarquismo y Filosofía de Catherine Malabou.