Background: The research on nursing professionals in Clinical Ethics Committees and Nursing Ethics Commissions occurs in different parts of the world; however, little information on this subject is found in the literature. Objective: This study analyzed national and international publications in relation to the participation of nursing professionals in Clinical Ethics Committees. Research design: This was an integrative review of articles published in national and international journals between 1994 and 2016 which described the participation of nursing professionals in ethics commissions. (...) Participants and research context: A total of 35 articles were selected. Discussion and conclusion for this article: The thematic categories were the need for time to discuss ethical issues; ethics committee to reduce the moral suffering of professionals; competencies required for participation; and barriers/difficulties and facilitators for implementation/ performance. It was concluded that professionals recognize the need for ethics committees to foster discussions. However, barriers hamper operation and fundamental competencies for participation. Communication of committee activities to professionals and educational activities may be major allies to improve the functioning of these committees. (shrink)

Cet article vise à rouvrir le débat à propos de l’importance du structuralisme pour la philosophie de Michel Foucault. Les transformations survenues dans la production foucaldienne entre la fin des années 1960 et le début des années 1970 sont couramment expliquées à partir de sa prise de distance par rapport au structuralisme, qui serait liée à au poids grandissant de F. Nietzsche dans ses travaux. En prenant du recul par rapport à cette interprétation, nous montrons la convergence qui joue, chez (...) Foucault, entre ces deux sources de pensée. De la problématisation du régime d’existence des objets dans l’archéologie à la systématisation des rapports de force dans la généalogie, nous verrons comment la notion de structure se réactive dans le passage d’un moment à l’autre. Dans ce parcours nous prenons appui notamment sur Le Discours philosophique, pour analyser sa notion-clé de « diagnostic ». (shrink)

Depuis la publication des Dits et écrits, la place de la littérature dans l’oeuvre de Michel Foucault a une position bien assignée dans les recherches académiques, où l’on souligne surtout l’approche nietzschéenne de la lecture qu’a proposé le philosophe. Prenant appui sur des nouvelles publications et sur des manuscrits inédits, notre texte envisage ce thème sous un autre prisme, à partir du structuralisme de l’analyse littéraire et de l’enjeu philosophique de la revue Tel Quel dans son rapport avec le Nouveau (...) Roman. En repérant l’importance du concept de « distance » dans ses écrits sur la littérature, nous discuterons comment plusieurs des notions créées par Foucault se trouvent en dialogue avec cette constellation théorique plus large. Nous y établirons ainsi le rapport entre la structure et l’événement, la paire conceptuelle au centre des débats philosophiques des années 1960, qui nous guidera dans la compréhension des tensions et des adhésions de la méthodologie foucaldienne à l’égard de l’analyse structurale. A abordagem da « distância » nos escritos literários de Michel Foucault, ou como inscrever o acontecimento na estrutura Desde a publicação dos Ditos e Escritos, o lugar da literatura na obra de Michel Foucault possui uma posição bem definida nas pesquisas acadêmicas, nas quais se ressalta sobretudo a abordagem nietzscheana da leitura proposta pelo filósofo. Recorrendo a novas publicações e aos manuscritos inéditos do Fonds Foucault-BnF, este texto enfocará o tema da literatura sob um outro prisma, à partir do estruturalismo da análise literária e do contexto filosófico da revista Tel Quel em sua relação com o Nouveau Roman. Enfatizando a importância do conceito de “distância” em seus escritos sobre a literatura, discutir-se-á como várias das noções criadas por Foucault se encontram em diálogo com esta constelação teórica mais ampla. A relação entre a estrutura e o acontecimento, enquanto par conceitual que se encontrava no centro dos debates filosóficos nos anos 1960, nos guiará na compreensão das tensões e das adesões da metodologia foucaltiana no que tange à análise estrutural.Palavras-chave: Análise literária. Estruturalismo. Distância. Acontecimento. Tel Quel; BnF Inéditos. (shrink)

Em 1973, Georges Canguilhem publica, na Encyclopédie Universalis, um extenso verbete histórico do conceito “Vida” na biologia e nas ciências da vida. A seguinte tradução do verbete é baseada na segunda edição, reimpressão publicada em 1989, nas páginas 546-553.

Revisiting the generally accepted notion of psycho-physical parallelism in Spinoza, Chantal Jaquet offers a new analysis of the relation between body and mind. Looking at a range of Spinoza's texts, and using an original methodology, she analyses their unity in action through affects, actions and passions.

Although a great deal has been written on Plato's ethics, his cosmology has not received so much attention in recent times and its importance for his ethical thought has remained underexplored. By offering accounts of Timaeus, Philebus, Politicus and Laws X, the book reveals a strongly symbiotic relation between the cosmic and human sphere. It is argued that in his late period Plato presents a picture of an organic universe, endowed with structure and intrinsic value, which both urges our respect (...) and calls for our responsible intervention. Humans are thus seen as citizens of a university that can provide a context for their flourishing even in the absence of good political institutions. The book sheds light on many intricate metaphysical issues in late Plato and brings out the close connections between his cosmology and the development of his ethics. (shrink)

Over the past two decades, the study of moral reasoning has been heavily influenced by Joshua Greene’s dual-process model of moral judgment, according to which deontological judgments are typically supported by intuitive, automatic processes while utilitarian judgments are typically supported by reflective, conscious processes. However, most of the evidence gathered in support of this model comes from the study of people’s judgments about sacrificial dilemmas, such as Trolley Problems. To which extent does this model generalize to other debates in which (...) deontological and utilitarian judgments conflict, such as the existence of harmless moral violations, the difference between actions and omissions, the extent of our duties of assistance, and the appropriate justification for punishment? To find out, we conducted a series of five studies on the role of reflection in these kinds of moral conundrums. In Study 1, participants were asked to answer under cognitive load. In Study 2, participants had to answer under a strict time constraint. In Studies 3 to 5, we sought to promote reflection through exposure to counter-intuitive reasoning problems or direct instruction. Overall, our results offer strong support to the extension of Greene’s dual-process model to moral debates on the existence of harmless violations and partial support to its extension to moral debates on the extent of our duties of assistance. (shrink)

Le système spinoziste comprend une infinité d'expressions de la Nature et offre aux modes finis que nous sommes la possibilité d'appréhender la puissance d'agir sous un angle physique, mental, ou encore psychophysique, selon qu'elle est ...

Empirical research in bioethics has developed rapidly over the past decade, but has largely eschewed the use of technology-driven methodologies. We propose “design bioethics” as an area of conjoined theoretical and methodological innovation in the field, working across bioethics, health sciences and human-centred technological design. We demonstrate the potential of digital tools, particularly purpose-built digital games, to align with theoretical frameworks in bioethics for empirical research, integrating context, narrative and embodiment in moral decision-making. Purpose-built digital tools can engender situated engagement (...) with bioethical questions; can achieve such engagement at scale; and can access groups traditionally under-represented in bioethics research and theory. If developed and used with appropriate rigor, tools motivated by “design bioethics” could offer unique insights into new and familiar normative and empirical issues in the field. (shrink)

Spinoza breaks with Descartes’ conception of the psychophysical union and deeply changes the ontological statute of men. He considers no longer that human beings in Nature are a dominion within a dominion and share with God the privilege of being substances. In Descartes, the union of an immaterial or non‐extended substance and a material or extended substance remains beyond understanding, since the problem of whether they are able to interact arises. By identifying the mind to the idea of the body, (...) the author of the Ethics provides guidance on how to conceptualize their relationship. The psychophysical parallelism fails to explain both identity and differences in Spinoza. It presupposes homologies and one‐to‐one correspondences between ideas and things, mind and body, and leads to conceptualizing the various modal expressions according to a linearly identical model. The psychophysical union in Spinoza sounds like a duet that puts an end to duality without reducing it to a mechanical identity. (shrink)

Animal ethicists have been debating the morality of speciesism for over forty years. Despite rather persuasive arguments against this form of discrimination, many philosophers continue to assign humans a higher moral status than nonhuman animals. The primary source of evidence for this position is our intuition that humans’ interests matter more than the similar interests of other animals. And it must be acknowledged that this intuition is both powerful and widespread. But should we trust it for all that? The present (...) paper defends a negative answer to that question, based on a debunking argument. The intuitive belief that humans matter more than other animals is unjustified because it results from an epistemically defective process. It is largely shaped by tribalism, our tendency to favor ingroup members as opposed to outgroup members. And this influence is distortive for two reasons. First, tribalism evolved for reasons unrelated to moral truths; hence, it would at best produce true moral beliefs accidentally. Second, tribalism generates a vast quantity of false moral beliefs, starting with racist beliefs. Once this intuition is discarded, little evidence remains that speciesism is morally acceptable. (shrink)

The prevalent view in animal ethics is that speciesism is wrong: we should weigh the interests of humans and non-humans equally. Shelly Kagan has recently questioned this claim, defending speciesism against Peter Singer’s seminal argument based on the principle of equal consideration of interests. This critique is most charitably construed as a dilemma. The principle of equal consideration can be interpreted in either of two ways. While it faces counterexamples on the first reading, it makes Singer’s argument question-begging on the (...) second. In response, Singer has grasped the first horn of this dilemma and tried to accommodate Kagan’s apparent counterexamples. In my opinion, this attempt is unpersuasive: the principle of equal consideration is inconsistent with common-sense intuitions on Kagan’s cases. Worse, Singer’s argument begs the question anyway. It therefore faces two serious objections. This is not to say that there is nothing wrong with speciesism, however. In the second half of the paper, I propose another, better argument against speciesism, which I argue is immune to both objections. According to this other argument, speciesism is wrong because it involves discriminating on the basis of a merely biological property. (shrink)

This work is the first monograph devoted to the interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of chance in Physics II 4-6 and its implications and projections in other treatises, including an original and comprehensive account of the Aristotelian conception of chance, of accidental causality in the realm of nature, and of accidental causality in the realm of human action. One of the main interpretative issues around Aristotle’s discussion of chance is its relation to the four causes and to teleology. In this sense, (...) it is particularly difficult to find the common features which fortune (tyche) and spontaneity (automaton) share. This work, offers such an interpretation of Aristotle’s general concept of chance (i.e. common to fortune and spontaneity), which shows clearly its relation with his theory of causality (Phys. II 3), with teleology, and with the application of this theory to the study of nature. It also shows how fortune and spontaneity can be interpreted consistently with this general characterization of chance, and how the specific differences between them can be accounted for paying attention to the different structures of causality in the realm of nature and in the realm of human action. Regarding the specific concept of spontaneity (automaton), a crux interpretum, the book offers one of the few independent discussions this issue in Aristotelian literature, and proposes a sub-classification in two kinds of spontaneity based on an analysis of Aristotle’s different examples and characterizations: ‘mixed spontaneity’ (which shares some features with fortune), and ‘pure spontaneity’ (which takes place strictly in the realm of nature). These different structures had not been recognized in specialized literature before. The problem of chance has projections into Aristotle’s natural philosophy, as well as into Aristotle’s theory of action and practical philosophy. This ample perspective of Aristotle’s work, and of the different explanatory models and ontological structures therein involved, constitutes an interesting groundwork for future developments in some or many of these realms of investigation. (shrink)

This paper re-evaluates the role that Plato confers to pleasure in the "Philebus." According to leading interpretations, Plato there downplays the role of pleasure, or indeed rejects hedonism altogether. Thus, scholars such as D. Frede have taken the "mixed life" of pleasure and intelligence initially submitted in the "Philebus" to be conceded by Socrates only as a remedial good, second to a life of neutral condition, where one would experience no pleasure and pain. Even more strongly, scholars such as Irwin (...) have seen the "Philebus'" arguments against false pleasures as an actual attack on hedonism, showing -- in Irwin's words -- "why maximization of pleasure cannot be a reasonable policy for the best life." Against these claims, I argue that the mixed life of pleasure and intelligence is presented in the "Philebus" as a first best and not just as a second best for humans, and that, accordingly, Socrates proposes to incorporate -- rather than reject -- pleasure as one of the intrinsically desirable aspects of the happy life. Thus, I offer alternative readings of controversial passages that have given rise to the prevalent interpretation criticized here, and advance positive evidence that at least some pleasures are seen by Plato as inherently good. In addition, I demonstrate that Plato's arguments against false pleasures do not by themselves constitute an attack on hedonism. Rather, they can be seen as a strategy to show the hedonist that, in order to be a maximal, or even a consistent, hedonist, he should go for true, and not fake pleasures, if after all pleasure is the object of his pursuit. But, since this cannot be achieved without intelligence, then the mixed life of pleasure and intelligence is to be accepted even by hedonist themselves. (shrink)

The moral error theory holds that moral claims and beliefs, because they commit us to the existence of illusory entities, are systematically false or untrue. It is an open question what we should do with moral thought and discourse once we have become convinced by this view. Until recently, this question had received two main answers. The abolitionist proposed that we should get rid of moral thought altogether. The fictionalist, though he agreed we should eliminate moral beliefs, enjoined us to (...) replace them with attitudes that resemble to some extent the attitudes we have towards pieces of fiction. But there is now a third theory on the market: conservationism, the view that we should keep holding moral beliefs, even though we know them to be false. (According to a fourth theory, ‘substitutionism’, we should modify the content of our moral claims in such a way that they become true.) Putting abolitionism (and substitutionism) aside, our aim is to assess the plausibility of conservationism as an alternative to the – relatively dominant – fictionalism that we find in the literature. Given the difficulty of finding a conservationist view that is both (i) plausible and (ii) not merely a terminological variant of fictionalism, we will argue that conservationism fails to constitute a plausible alternative to fictionalism, at least insofar as it purports to be an alternative view as to what we should do with our moral thoughts. (shrink)

A concepção espinosista das relações entre o corpo e a mente é frequentemente apresentada como um modelo e uma referência na biologia e na neurobiologia contemporâneas, como testemunham as obras de Jean-Pierre Changeux, de Antonio Damasio ou de Henri Atlan. Apesar de suas profundas diferenças, esses pesquisadores expõem de maneira análoga três teses que fazem de Espinosa um precursor: o monismo psicofísico, a dualidade de expressão da unidade corpo/mente e a ausência de interação e de causalidade recíproca. Esse artigo se (...) interroga sobre as razões pelas quais Espinosa é convocado por esses pesquisadores para dar apoio às suas teorias e para abordar os diferentes usos da sua concepção das relações corpo/mente. Trata-se, portanto, de examinar a maneira pela qual eles apreendem sucessivamente essas três teses e de mensurar a pertinência de suas abordagens. (shrink)

O texto fala da amizade como inspiração filosófica, mas também como inspiração da vida. Os filósofos e filósofas são “amigos da sabedoria”, mas não necessariamente sábios. Contudo, ao nos aproximarmos do pensamento de Emmanuel Lévinas e Maurice Blanchot, percebemos o exercício profundo do pensamento, feito de cumplicidade intelectual. A amizade entre Lévinas e Blanchot é o fio condutor da escrita. Durante muito tempo foram distantes politicamente. Blanchot apoiou o nazismo enquanto Lévinas escrevia e vivia sobre as consequências do nazismo. Diante (...) de uma admiração filosófica que ambos passam a nutrir, Blanchot muda suas posições. Percebe um tempo de morte, tema que atravessa seus escritos. Entre proximidades e distanciamentos acompanhamos suas conversas infinitas que trazem a filosofia e a literatura como matéria-prima para os inúmeros diálogos tecidos. Suas obras erguem questões e respostas aos estes diálogos. A linguagem torna-se não somente o meio pelo qual se constitui e se faz a defesa do pensamento, mas é ética, filosofia primeira, único caminho possível para existirmos enquanto comunidade. Palavras-chaves: Lévinas, Blanchot, Amizade, Linguagem, Ética. (shrink)

L’assimilation des notions de bien et de mal par Spinoza à des modes de l’imagination est souvent comprise comme une critique radicale invalidant les valeurs morales. Dans cette optique l’auteur de l’Ethique apparaît comme le précurseur d’une philosophie par delà bien et mal. L’article s’inscrit en faux contre cette interprétation hâtive et met au jour la positivité des concepts de bien et du mal, en analysant les raisons pour lesquelles la critique spinoziste n’entraîne pas paradoxalement leur rejet mais leur conservation (...) au sein d’une éthique de la puissance. (shrink)

Nous sommes des êtres de chair, mais cette évidence s'obscurcit dès qu'il est question de déterminer l'étendue des aptitudes du corps et la nature de ses rapports avec l'esprit. Que peut au juste le corps? Telle est l'interrogation qui sous-tend depuis longtemps la réflexion philosophique et qui rend nécessaire aujourd'hui encore l'élaboration d'un " Connais-toi toi-même " corporel. Il importe alors d'examiner le corps à l'œuvre et d'explorer les diverses facettes de la corporéité pour en montrer la prodigieuse puissance. A (...) cet effet, il convient d'abord de cerner l'essence et la sphère d'extension de ce concept en épousant le mouvement qui, de l'inerte au vivant, des corps bruts au corps humain, préside à la constitution des multiples formes corporelles. Il s'agit ensuite de mesurer la puissance du corps à l'aune de ses capacités pratiques : puissance technique du corps en travail et au travail, puissance artistique et éthique du corps promoteur de valeurs, puissance sexuelle enfin qui nous enseigne de manière problématique aussi bien la différence entre nous et nous-mêmes - tant nous ne sommes pas ce que nous croyons être - que la différence entre le masculin et le féminin. Cet ouvrage est tout autant une méditation et une synthèse philosophiques qu'un hymne à la joie du corps. (shrink)

Issu d'un colloque international organisé à l'Université Paris I, en janvier 2003, dans le cadre du Centre d'Histoire des Systèmes de Pensée Moderne, cet ouvrage consacré aux Pensées métaphysiques de Spinoza vise à ouvrir les ...

Le sujet se définit par son obéissance. On peut se demander alors s’il peut résister au souverain. L’article analyse d’abord la conception hobbesienne du sujet, qui doit abandonner son droit de résister. Il se fonde ensuite sur l’étude des deux concepts subditus et subjectum et de leur lien dans la philosophie de Spinoza pour montrer, au contraire, que le statut de sujet n’implique pas l’abandon du droit de résister.

O presente artigo pretende apresentar e avaliar criticamente o projeto racionalista de David Chalmers e Frank Jackson na interpretação epistêmica da chamada semântica bidimensional. Diferentes versões do aparato formal da semântica bidimensional são lançadas para resolver certos problemas no âmbito da filosofia da linguagem, a saber, dar conta do conteúdo semântico de termos indexicais, produzir uma explicação para os híbridos modais como instâncias do necessário a posteriori e contribuir para o debate acerca da determinação do conteúdo mental. De um modo (...) geral, a semântica bidimensional estipula uma dupla dependência de expressões linguísticas frente a possibilidades ou cenários. Uma das noções centrais para a construção das possibilidades relevantes é a noção de “cenário”. O presente trabalho procura responder a duas objeções aa noção de cenário empregada por David Chalmers em sua interpretação do aparato bidimensional. AbstractThis paper aims at presenting and critically assessing the epistemic interpretation advanced by David Chalmers and Frank Jackson of the two-dimensional semantic framework. Different versions of the formal apparatus of the two-dimensional framework are used to account for philosophical phenomena such as the content of indexical terms, modal hybrids, such as posteriori necessities and the individuation of mental content. Generally, two-dimensional framework stipulates a double dependence of linguistic terms on possibilities or scenarios. One of the central notions for the construction of the relevant kind of possibility is the notion of “scenario”. The aim of the paper is to defend the two- dimensional framework from two objections regarding the notion of scenario. (shrink)

Plato’s division of goods performed by Glaucon in the Republic involves three kinds of goods: the first kind would be desirable for their own sake; the second, desirable in themselves and in their consequences, and the third kind, only desirable in their consequences. The problem to understand it is thus presented: in which of these kinds is justice observed, and which one provides happiness to men. According to Socrates, justice should be placed on the second kind of good if men (...) want to be happy. However, it is not in this way that the many hold justice, for they include it in the third kind. Having this difference under perspective, Glaucon defends this point of view, willing afterwards to listen to Socrates’ refutation of his argument and the defence of justice as being a good desirable in themselves and their consequences. The aim of our work is to present an interpretation that can justly adapt to what Glaucon understands as 'in themselves' and as a 'consequence' of the goods in this division. (shrink)

The paper attempts to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Spinoza’s ethics of virtue and responsibility—a non-deontic ethics whose foundation is not obligation and duty, not the normative laws which regulate the relations with the fellows, or the prescriptions, but an intuitive knowledge on the essence of things and on the choice of a proper way of life. The choice of the best way of life is equivalent with the responsibility to identify the opportunities to control the own life.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Lily of the Valley, or Love as Breathing in the ScentChantal Jaquet (bio)The Lily of the Valley, published by Balzac in 1836, can be considered as a standard in olfactory literature since the novel is entirely built on the perception of odors and the central role of breathing in romantic relationships. As the title indicates, it is in the floral and olfactory registers that the essence of (...) love expresses itself. Perfume presides over the birth of love, the recognition of the other, and the definition of the woman's identity. We can read it as a poetics of breathing that tells another story and re-enchants the world. The Lily of the Valley offers a powerful antidote to the impediments to breathing nowadays. I try here to interpret it like an ode celebrating another way of inhaling the world through love and perfumes.Love at first scentThe Lily of the Valley tells the story of the platonic love of a young man, Felix, for a married woman, Madame de Mortsauf. From the beginning, their first meeting takes place under the auspices of breath and perfume. During a party, Felix, who is extremely bored, finds refuge on an abandoned bench; a woman, taking him for a child, sits next to him. Felix is then immediately drawn to the stranger's perfume and is pulled out of his sullen torpor to feel an unparalleled fascination:Immediately, I smelt a woman's fragrance which shone in my soul as oriental poetry was to shine later. I looked at my neighbour and was more dazzled by her than I had been by the ball.(15)Perfume thus triggers love and becomes the very essence of the beloved woman. Before he perceives any visual detail, Felix is flooded with an olfactory emotion, which will be taken over and amplified by the poetic evocation of the Orient and its fragrances. The woman's scent, which re-enchants his morose universe, dazzles him with its brilliance and eclipses vision by taking possession of its attributes. It is only afterward that he begins to examine the shoulders, bosom, and hair of the woman with the luminous perfume. It is the act of inhaling her perfume that triggers his [End Page 34] love at first sight and wrests the following confession from him: "All of a sudden, I was in love" (16).This primacy of olfaction and breathing continue to hold true in the absence of the beloved when the latter is no longer smelled, but simply evoked: "At the thought that my queen-elect lived in Touraine I breathed the air with delight [...]" (16). The feelings that develop even before a second meeting takes place do not belie the first romantic olfactory sensation, but strengthen it following a process of crystallization that transforms the soulmate into a fragrant flower. The stranger, under the influence of Felix's poetic imagination, becomes the lily of the valley, a symbol of beauty and purity. Despondent over the disappearance of the woman he loves, whose name he does not even know, the young man, pressured by his family to seek distraction, travels to Touraine, to the Château de Frapesle, to stay with a friend of his mother's. He discovers a magnificent valley near Montbazon, which, in his eyes, can only be where his beloved resides. Here we see the perspicacity of the lover who picks up the scent of his beloved and sees her face in the landscape:She lived there. My heart had not misled me. [...] She was, as you already know, though you know nothing yet, THE LILY OF THIS VALLEY, where she grew for Heaven, filling it with the perfume of her virtues.(18)The olfactory dimension of the lily prevails here over floral vision. It is the perfume of her virtues exhaled in the valley that defines the beloved permanently and immemorially, and makes her into a celestial creature with the odor of sanctity. The use of the imperfect tense in "she was the lily" evokes the magic of a love story that seems like a fairy tale. She was the lily, because once upon a time there was a woman who... (shrink)

There is a need to increase the number of practicing medical doctors in South Africa. We examine the ethical implications of patients’ rights being affected in medical education in a South African context.The South African legal framework advocates public healthcare access. Yet, the State’s ethical obligations when it comes to guaranteeing public healthcare access, conflict with its utilitarian policy, that allows for medical education to help achieve the State’s public healthcare commitments, at the cost of eroding patients’ rights, and accepts (...) that certain actions are imperative, in line with Ubuntu, which is tenable yet nuanced. A patient treated by a licenced doctor today, benefits because other patients have allowed themselves to be used as hands-on learning material for medical students yesterday.Healthcare institutions need to take cognisance of the numbers of medical students that patients can reasonably be expected to endure. There is a need for the Health Professions Council of South Africa and medical schools to adopt guidelines on reasonable levels of medical student-patient interaction, and medical student-to-patient ratios in healthcare delivery. (shrink)

Recent years have seen a growing interest among psychologists for debates in moral philosophy. Moral psychologists have investigated the causal origins of the opposition between utilitarian and deontological judgments and the psychological underpinnings of people’s beliefs about the moral status of animals. One issue that remains underexplored in this research area is the relationship between people’s disposition to engage in utilitarian thinking and their attitudes towards animals. This gap is unfortunate considering the tight philosophical connection between utilitarianism and the claim (...) that animals have the same moral status as humans. Indeed, the principle of utility leads naturally enough to the view that animals count every bit as much as human beings. In this paper, we report two empirical studies dedicated to bridging this gap. In Study 1, we looked at the relationship between attitudes towards animals and utilitarian judgments in the context of sacrificial dilemmas. In Study 2, we bypassed the problems raised by the use of such dilemmas as a measure of utilitarianism by relying on other types of thought experiments. Overall, our results suggest no strong correlation between utilitarianism and attitudes towards animals. Rather, the existence of a correlation between utilitarianism and attitudes towards animals very much depends on how both are measured. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper aims at exposing a strategy to organize the debate around physicalism. Our starting point is the pre-philosophical notion of physicalism, which is typically formulated in the form of slogans. Indeed, philosophers debating metaphysics have paradigmatically introduced the subject with aid of slogans such as “there is nothing over and above the physical”, “once every physical aspect of the world is settled, every other aspect will follow”, “physicalism is the thesis that everything is physical”. These ideas are very (...) intuitive but they are, of course, far from being a satisfactory metaphysical conception of Physicalism. For that end, we will begin with the definition of physicalism as the thesis that everything is physical, following Stoljar, we should be able to respond to one central question: how to interpret the physicalist claim that everything in physical. (shrink)

Animal ethicists often distinguish between direct and indirect defenses of speciesism, where the former appeal to species membership and the latter invoke other features that are simply associated with it. The main extant charge against indirect defenses rests on the empirical claim that any feature other than membership in our species is either absent in some humans or present in some nonhumans. This paper challenges indirect defenses with a new argument, which presupposes no such empirical claim. Instead, the argument from (...) discordance resorts to the following principle: a certain feature can only justify discriminating on the basis of that feature. (shrink)

Many people believe that human interests matter much more than the like interests of non-human animals, and this “speciesist belief” plays a crucial role in the philosophical debate over the moral status of animals. In this paper, I develop a debunking argument against it. My contention is that this belief is unjustified because it is largely due to an off-track process: our attempt to reduce the cognitive dissonance generated by the “meat paradox”. Most meat-eaters believe that it is wrong to (...) harm animals unnecessarily, yet they routinely and deliberately behave in ways that cause great unnecessary suffering to animals. As recent research suggests, this practical inconsistency puts them in an unpleasant state of dissonance, which they try to escape by resolving the paradox. And they do so in part by adopting the speciesist belief—if animal suffering matters much less than human suffering, then harming animals cannot be so wrong after all. Since this belief-forming process does not track moral truth, I conclude that we are not justified in believing that human interests matter more than the similar interests of non-humans. (shrink)

La philosophie morale est traditionnellement divisée en trois sous-disciplines : l’éthique appliquée, qui, comme son nom l’indique, s’intéresse aux positions à adopter sur des sujets pratiques ; l’éthique normative, où s’opposent un ensemble de théories sur ce qui devrait être, sur ce qui est bon/mauvais, etc. ; et la méta-éthique, qui étudie des questions non morales, mais relatives à la morale 1 . Cette dernière définition peut paraître floue, mais c’est un flou que rend nécessaire l’hétérogénéité propre à la discipline. (...) En effet, celle-ci est elle-même divisée en plusieurs domaines : l’épistémologie morale, l’ontologie morale, la psychologie morale, la phénoménologie morale et la logique morale (l’analyse des concepts moraux). Il n’est pas impossible de croiser les domaines, à l’instar de David McNaughton qui oppose une théorie ontologique – le réalisme – à une théorie épistémologique – le non-cognitivisme. Le réalisme moral affirme l’existence de propriétés morales non réductibles à des propriétés non morales : un acte est condamnable si et seulement s’il possède, à côté de ses propriétés non morales (il s’agit d’un acte délibéré, prémédité, etc.), la propriété d’être condamnable. Et, quant à lui, le cognitivisme soutient qu’une opinion morale n’est rien de plus qu’un état cognitif, qu’une croyance. Ce que nie le non-cognitivisme. Ainsi, selon McNaughton, le principal argument contre le réalisme moral est non cognitiviste. (shrink)

Doing research in a globalized context – regardless of the discipline – requires language decisions at different stages of the research process. Many of these language decisions have ethical implications. Existing literature and ethical guidance tend to focus on ethical concerns that arise in communication with participants who use a language different from the main research language. As this article shows, language decisions with potential ethical implications can occur in many additional ways. Two questions guided this work: how do language (...) decisions and research ethics intersect at different stages of the research process, and what potential harm is related to language decisions and how can such concerns be mitigated? Relevant literature – combined with practical research experiences – show that language decisions can potentially result in harm at the conception stage of research projects, when working with participants, during data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination, as well as when managing a research project. Thus, the article highlights that the role of language-related ethical dilemmas is not only organizational (e.g., ensuring participants can understand what the research is about), but also social (e.g., developing trust and relationships in research teams) as well as ideological (e.g., awareness of power structures and diverse worldviews). In order to support researchers in globalized contexts, this article offers a reflective framework that complements regulatory guidance issued by ethical bodies and facilitates a deeper awareness of ethical implications related to language decisions in a multilingual world. (shrink)

The paper analyses the olfactory figures of hate and the various kinds of discrimination based on smell. It shows how figures of hate express themselves in the olfactory form of rejecting the other who stinks. All of the categories considered to be contemptible or inferior are olfactorily devalued. The paper examines successively the nose of anti-Semitism and racism, the nose of homophobia and sexism, the olfactory social discriminations, and the fiction of the stinking enemy. One may ask why this theme (...) of the other’s bad smell so thoroughly permeates the discourses of rejection. One of the reasons is doubtlessly related to the uncontrollable nature of smell, which invades space and intimacy, and betrays your identity. Eyes can be turned away or be deceived, but the nose knows. It is supposed to sniff out otherness and perceive invisible differences despite all efforts to hide them. (shrink)

This article begins by examining the importance that critical intercultural dialogues have within the Modernity/Coloniality Research Program toward reaching an alternative geopolitics and body-politics of knowledge, in order to raise the question whether the colonial difference creates conditions for dialogical situations that bring together critiques of coloniality emerging from different experiences of coloniality. The answer it offers is twofold. On the one hand, if one imagines such situations to be communicative exchanges à la Bakhtin that put logos at the center, (...) given what is termed the coloniality of language and speech, the possibility of such exchanges is feasible only as an abstract gesture. On the other hand, when one faces the complications of the erasure of dialogue produced by coloniality, the kind of decolonial communicative relations that seem possible among people thinking and acting from the colonial difference are less conscious or agential than emotive. By articulating the relations between coalitional methodologies and a global sense of connection the article proposes a nondialogical theory of decolonial communication: a way of orienting ourselves with a sense of permeability and recognition of being on the same side that doesn't need to be politically motivated but is always active. (shrink)

As is well known, Heinrich Scholz and his academic society maintained good scientific contacts with Polish logicians before, during, and after the Second World War. My interest here is to examine the details of their collaboration by presenting Scholz’s unpublished correspondence with Fr. Józef M. Bocheński. The following topics are discussed here: Polish logicians who survived the war and their current place of work; reorganization of the scholarly environment, didactic activities, duties, scholarly trips; current research topics, prospects for post-war publications, (...) and future publishing plans; information about Jan Łukasiewicz, Bolesław Sobociński, and Joachim Metallmann; personal matters. (shrink)

When constructed in linear terms, cultures and identities misrepresent other people, constructing crisp boundaries that separate groups as if completely different. To demonstrate the negative impact of such views, I analyze cultural texts such as songs, films, and Web pages, showing the intercultural complexity existing in different constructions of Mexicanness as part of the dialogue arising in the political, social, and cultural interaction between Mexico and the United States. I emphasize the contrast between examples that reinforce identities that can be (...) interpreted as fuzzy and inclusive, against those promoting and generating discrimination and exclusion. (shrink)

In the present study the impact of need for cognitive closure manipulations via time pressure and explicit closure goal activation on executive control was investigated. Although there is some evidence that NFC, measured as an individual variable, is related to better performing in attentional tasks involving executive control, these results have never been validated across different manipulations of NFC. Thus, in the present study we induced NFC via internal and external time pressure and tested the impact of these manipulations on (...) the performance in tasks that measure executive control, i.e., the Stroop and switching tasks. The results revealed that induced high NFC, indeed boosted performance in executive control tasks. Moreover, there was no difference in the effect of both NFC manipulations on task performance. The implications regarding the role of executive control and specific NFC manipulations in social cognition are discussed. (shrink)

O presente texto pretende refletir sobre a interculturalidade e sua necesidade histórica, através de dois autores centrais, Raúl Fornet-Betancourt e LéliaGonzalez. O conhecimento dos porvos indígenas e negros foi apagado e nem sequer reconhecido como conhecimento filosófico. Qusndo se reconhece a filosofia amerindia, se faz em comparação com a filosofia ocidental e com tudo que esta produziu. Neste sentido, la Filosofia Intercultural coloca o desafio de repensar la filosofia desde outras experiências de pensamento. O epistemicidio expõe o racismo em que (...) vivimos. O encontro do filósofo cubano com a filósofa brasileira, uma mulher negra, dará força a uma categoria de pensamento que pretendo desenvolver, Améfrica Profunda, para melhor compreender este país chamado Brasil e a forma em que as resistências dos povos indígenas e negros se constituiram, también a partir de profundas experiencias interculturais. (shrink)