Resumen Esta investigación propone a la alteridad como un concepto para el estudio de la comunicación digital. Su justificación está basada en el hecho de que, si bien la literatura que se enfoca en interacciones en espacios online involucra a un yo y un otro, el rol de ambas nociones tiende a ser abordado de manera más bien tangencial y con un énfasis en el otro como un enemigo. A raíz de ello, este artículo toma el trabajo de Emmanuel Lévinas (...) sobre la alteridad y promueve las distintas maneras en que esta noción puede ayudarnos a observar al yo y al otro desde nuevas perspectivas en la comunicación digital. Esencialmente, se argumenta que esta mirada respecto de la alteridad permite poner de relieve que los intercambios en internet van más allá de la violencia, por un lado, y que incluso cuando ello ocurre, eso no significa que no necesitemos al otro de todas formas, por el otro. Abstract This research proposes alterity as a concept for the study of digital communication. Its justification is based on the fact that although the literature focused on interactions on online spaces involves a self and an other, the role of both notions tends to be approached in a rather tangential manner and with an emphasis on the other as an enemy. In light of this, this article takes the work of Emmanuel Lévinas on alteriry and puts forward the different ways in which this notion can help us observe the self and the other from new perspectives within digital communication. Essentially, what is argued is that this standpoint in regard to alterity allows to shed light on how exchanges on the Internet go beyond violence, on the one hand, and that when that occurs, it does not mean that we do not need the other anyway, on the other. (shrink)

Recension: LÓPEZ VIGIL, Maria; LÓPEZ VIGIL, José Ignacio. Just Jesus. New York: Crossroads, 1997. [LÓPEZ VIGIL, Maria; LÓPEZ VIGIL, José Ignacio. Un tal Jesús . Salamanca: Lóguez Ediciones, 1982] LÓPEZ VIGIL, Maria; LÓPEZ VIGIL, José Ignacio. Outro Dios es posible: 100 entrevistas exclusivas con Jesucristo en su segunda venida a la Tierra. Quito: Gráficas Silva, 2008.

Lukacs participation in the establishment and running of the Theater Company Thalia will reflect on his reflection on the modern drama in his first book (History of the evolution of modern drama". Our study is based on the correspondence between Lukacs and his companions and analysis of the early writings of Lukács, usually in Hungarian.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) shows the state of air pollution in a unique and more understandable way. This work aims to forecast the AQI in Algeciras (Spain) 8 hours in advance. The AQI is calculated indirectly through the predicted concentrations of five pollutants (O3, NO2, CO, SO2 and PM10) to achieve this goal. Artificial neural networks (ANNs), sequence-to-sequence long short-term memory networks (LSTMs) and a newly proposed method combing a rolling window with the latter (LSTMNA) are employed as the (...) forecasting techniques. Besides, two input approaches are evaluated: using only the data from the own time series of the pollutant in the first case or adding exogenous variables in the second one. Several window sizes are employed (24, 28 and 72 hours) with ANNs and LSTMNAs. Additionally, several feature ranking methods are applied in the exogenous approach to select the most relevant lagged variables to feed the models. Results show how the proposed exogenous approach increases the performance of the prediction models. Besides, the newly proposed method LSTMNA provides the best performances in most of the cases evaluated. Hence, it constitutes an exciting alternative to standard LSTMs and ANNs to predict pollutants concentrations and, consequently, the AQI. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Diacritics 31.2 (2001) 35-48 [Access article in PDF] Film, Freud, and ParanoiaDalí and the Representation of Male Desire in An Andalusian Dog Ignacio Javier López An Andalusian Dog, one of the most universally acclaimed films in cinema history, is frequently mentioned by critics as a privileged point of reference for the Surrealist rebellion. The film remains enigmatic to this day. Criticism has concentrated on the validity and (...) effectiveness of its images to exemplify the avant-garde attack against social conventions and against the exclusive dominance of rationality in epistemology and social discourse. But this contextual approach does not take account of the script's fragmented narrative, which finds support in Freud's psychoanalytical theories and articulates a radical proposal for identity and culture. Largely neglected by critics, this narrative has been highly influential in the history of cinema. An Andalusian Dog is central to a long list of films that explore different aspects of the irrational, among them Jean Cocteau's Le sang du poète, Hunt Stromberg's The Strange Woman, Guy Debord's script Howling in Favor of the Marquis de Sade, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, and Philip Kaufman's Quills. This impressive list underscores the need for an interpretative critical effort that accounts for the authors' proposal in the context of the Surrealist reaction to convention and tradition.Conventionally An Andalusian Dog has been viewed as a film about sexuality; I suggest that sexuality appears in the film as the pretext for a discussion of the threat sexual desire poses for male identity. In this respect, the film develops ideas that begin to appear in paintings completed by Dalí after his initial contact with Freud's works in the mid-1920s. These paintings display male identity as a fragile form of subsistence unfolding between two alternate forces, desire and fear: the desire for sexual realization and the opposed fear that sexual intercourse will conclude in disease and ultimately in death. Given the scarcity of Buñuel's production prior to 1929, I suggest that Dalí's monumental production of paintings during these years served as a preliminary visual point of reference for the design of some of the images in An Andalusian Dog.By concentrating on Dalí's work, I do not mean to suggest that he deserves exclusive credit for the film; a careful examination of Buñuel's writings clearly indicates that the movie included most of his interests as well. Nonetheless, I would like to correct what has become a common trend in the study of An Andalusian Dog. In the early 1940s, Buñuel and Dalí's friendship came to an abrupt end, and in the following years each claimed sole authorship for the ideas in the film. The conflict between the two artists contaminated critical attitudes, which were guided exclusively by Buñuel's pre-1929 writings on cinema. The recurrence of images in the filmmaker's subsequent work was employed to confirm critics' initial intuitions that the film was exclusively Buñuel's. As a result, Dalí's name became increasingly dissociated from the movie, as is illustrated by the absence of the painter's name on the cover of the English edition of the script. However, the antagonism that separated the artists more than ten years after An [End Page 35] [Begin Page 37] Andalusian Dog premiered in Paris on June 6, 1929, should not be a consideration in our critical understanding of this work. Although Buñuel directed the movie and deserves to be recognized for his undeniable input, we should not forget that he eagerly sought the painter's cooperation in writing the script. Moreover, contrary to Buñuel's later practice of frequently altering the initial script during the course of the film's production, An Andalusian Dog closely follows the original plan. This furthers the idea of the importance of Dalí's contribution, and, despite the opposing claims made by both artists in later years, it certainly appears... (shrink)

Este documento ofrece una propuesta desde la perspectiva de la bioética para la elaboración de un protocolo de triaje en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19. Dicha propuesta incluye recomendaciones sobre las normas procedimentales y normas sustantivas que deben regir la asignación y reasignación de recursos terapéuticos en condiciones de escasez extrema.

Desde la didáctica de la Historia, el análisis de los libros de texto es una de las líneas de investigación más arraigadas en los últimos años. Este trabajo analiza la forma en que se ha enseñado la Transición democrática a través de libros de texto de Bachillerato correspondientes a la asignatura de Historia de España, de diferentes editoriales, tanto confesionales como laicas.

This essay traces the genealogy and evolution of the category of the subject as it developed in the thought of Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, and Alain Badiou. As will be seen, within the fruitful and complementary dialogue about the subject and subjectivity formation among these three French thinkers, there are major discrepancies in their approaches, from Althusser’s seemingly passive view of the subject as a victim of state oppression, to Foucault’s one, embedded in power but with the capacity of resistance, (...) and, finally, to Badiou’s understanding, in his book Théorie du sujet (Theory of the Subject, 1982), of the subject as the one who courageously takes risks to put into practice the truth brought about by the event in order to radically transform the present situation. (shrink)

Resumen: Las nuevas tecnologías biomédicas han planteado la posibilidad de intervenir en la capacidad de decisión sobre el bien y el mal, es decir, en la evaluación de la moralidad de los actos humanos. Aunque estas intervenciones (genéticas o neurológicas) no pretenden alterar la identidad del individuo, sus planteamientos no lo descartan. En consecuencia, el dilema entre terapia y mejora, en el contexto moral, adquiere especial relevancia. Aunque la terapia intentaría restaurar la capacidad individual para decidir entre el bien y (...) el mal, la mejora biomédica plantea otros objetivos para los que es necesario abordar los fundamentos de la entidad humana, en particular algunos conceptos filosóficos como la identidad y la autonomía. Desde la filosofía moral, el desarrollo del individuo debe estructurarse fuera del campo tecnológico y abordar una perspectiva que considere el factor relacional y la existencia del otro como elemento fundamental para alcanzar la plenitud del ser humano. Abstract: The new biomedical technologies have raised the possibility of intervening in the decision-making capacity regarding good and evil, that is, in the evaluation of the morality of human acts. Although these interventions (genetic or neurological) do not intend to alter the identity of the individual, their approaches do not rule it out. Consequently, the dilemma between therapy and improvement, in the moral context, acquires special relevance. Although the therapy would try to restore the individual capacity to decide between good and evil, biomedical enhancement raises other objectives for which it is necessary to address the foundations of the human entity, in particular some philosophical concepts such as identity and autonomy. From moral philosophy, the development of the individual must be structured outside the technological field and approach a perspective that considers the relational factor and the existence of the other as a fundamental element to achieve the fullness of the human being. (shrink)

The article attempts to examine Walter Benjamin’s relationship whit the academic institution. A significant fact of this situation is the one that occurs whith the attempt to achieve teaching qualification, and, as we know, it ends up being an unfavorable and unfortunate experience. However, we believe that from this scene, beyond the purely anecdotal, it encompasses a critical exercise with academia in general and, specifically, with normative forms of writing production to which it submits. Along with the above, an attempt (...) is made to explore Benjamin’s relationship with the university institution and the place that could correspond to it. (shrink)

This article explores the connections between the construct of sexism and other sociodemographic and attitudinal variables, such as internalized homonegativity and heteronormative resistances, among psychology students. Both unrefined and inferential analyses were used with a representative sample of 841 psychology students from public universities in Madrid. Results showed higher levels of sexism, internalized homonegativity and low resistances to heteronormativity among groups of men, heterosexuals and conservatives. Interactions were found that showed a higher degree of hostile sexism in: heterosexual people with (...) respect to LGB and heterosexual men with respect to heterosexual women. Also, interactions were found to show a greater degree of heteronormative resistance in: LGB people with respect to heterosexuals and left-wing women with respect to right-wing women. Correlations with sexism varied according to gender identity and sexual orientation. In addition, heteronormative resistances correlated negatively with sexism, while some components of internalized homonegativity correlated positively. Political affiliation was the most frequent predictor of sexism. The results highlight the need for an intersectional approach to understanding the phenomenon of sexism. (shrink)

La construcción de una ética urbana que afiance la convivencia en una sociedad históricamente excluyente e inicua, que en sus distintos periodos de formación mantuvo límites y barreras insalvables entre los ciudadanos, que se manifestaron en una violencia cruel y recurrente que aun hoy padece en múltiples formas y que impide que las ciudades construyan una ciudadanía plural y participativa y una realidad justa. Esto se aprecia en la ausencia o la desvalorización del espacio público que se define, no como (...) el espacio vacío entre los edificios como resultado del proceso de urbanización, sino como lugar de encuentro en el cual el poder que se manifiesta en él surge de la comunidad que decide su propio destino. (shrink)

The functional capabilities that consciousness seems to provide to biological systems can supply valuable principles in the design of more autonomous and robust technical systems. These functional concepts keep a notable similarity to those underlying the notion of operating system in software engineering, which allows us to specialize the computer metaphor for the mind into that of the operating system metaphor for consciousness. In this article, departing from these ideas and a model-based theoretical framework for cognition, we present an architectural (...) proposal for machine consciousness, called the Operative Mind. According to it, machine consciousness could be implemented as a set of services, in an operative system fashion, based on modeling of the own control architecture, that supervise the adequacy of the system architectural structure to the current objectives, triggering and managing adaptativity mechanisms. (shrink)

In this article we will argue that given certain conditions for the evolution of bi- ological controllers, these will necessarily evolve in the direction of incorporating consciousness capabilities. We will also see what are the necessary mechanics for the provision of these capabilities and extrapolate this vision to the world of artifi- cial systems postulating seven design principles for conscious systems. This article was published in the journal Neural Networks special issue on brain and conscious- ness.

Reflection on the development of bioethics in pharmaceutical professional organizations. Professional excellence Reflexão sobre o desenvolvimento da Bioética nas organizações profissionais farmacêuticas. A excelência profissional For some years, the collegiate organizations of the pharmaceutical profession are being challenged, not only by external agents, but also by the professionals themselves. There is a certain criticism in the response, especially in aspects that have to do with the role they must play in the development and activity of professional practice, in their domestic, (...) external and internal purposes and in the characteristics they must possess as organizations in service of these professionals and society. We understand that the development, revision and updating of Bioethics, as well as training in this field in professional organizations, contributes to that transcendent excellence in the profession, provokes a real knowledge of it in all its dimensions and with the power to act in total freedom from threats or internal or external restrictions. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Centenera-Jaraba JI, López-Guzmán J. Reflexión acerca del desarrollo de la bioética en las organizaciones profesionales farmacéuticas. La excelencia profesional. Pers Bioet. 2019; 23: 49-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.1.4 Recepción: 15/02/2018 Aceptación: 16/04/2019. (shrink)

Objetivo: El siguiente artículo tiene como propósito la revisión de la literatura existente cuyo enfoque sea las herramientas tecnológicas utilizadas para el abordaje del paciente con síntomas de salud mental, de manera virtual, para describir las ventajas, la eficacia, la efectividad y los beneficios de estas herramientas, a partir de la literatura encontrada. Métodos: se realizó una búsqueda en las bases de datos Pubmed, Elsevier, UpToDate, Journal of Medical Internet Research y Google Académico. Se identificó un total de 58 artículos (...) que versan sobre la eficacia y efectividad de las diferentes modalidades digitales (tales como aplicaciones, cuestionarios en línea, mensajes de texto, etc.) que tratan la salud mental. Resultados: la búsqueda realizada arrojó un total de 58 artículos. Tras la eliminación de duplicados, el número fue de 50 artículos. Después de la caracterización de la información basada en la revisión de la totalidad del contenido, fueron elegidos 30 artículos para que sirvieran como base para la construcción de la síntesis de datos. Conclusiones: las herramientas virtuales utilizadas en salud mental ofrecen un sin fin de beneficios para prestar un servicio con un acceso más sencillo a la población, de forma económica y efectiva, sin temor a que los pacientes sean estigmatizados al momento de buscar ayuda, como se pudo evidenciar en los artículos presentados. Además, las herramientas digitales utilizadas en psiquiatría han demostrado ser eficaces y seguras, sin embargo, son de reciente aparición y cuentan con una cantidad limitada de estudios que demuestren objetivamente su eficacia en esta área. (shrink)

This report analyses the aplicability of the principles of consciousness developed in the ASys project to three of the most relevant cognitive architectures. This is done in relation to their aplicability to build integrated control systems and studying their support for general mechanisms of real-time consciousness. To analyse these architectures the ASys Framework is employed. This is a conceptual framework based on an extension for cognitive autonomous systems of the General Systems Theory (GST). A general qualitative evaluation criteria for cognitive (...) architectures is established based upon: a) requirements for a cognitive architecture, b) the theoretical framework based on the GST and c) core design principles for integrated cognitive conscious control systems. (shrink)

8 March, now known as International Women’s Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal (...) well-being and collective well-being, collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women’s rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people from countries in Latin America and Europe, with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks. Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals. (shrink)

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the approach to the health-disease system, raising the question about the principles of bioethics present in physician–patient relations. The principles while widely accepted may not be sufficient for a comprehensive ethical analysis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the perception of these principles and the physician–patient relationship during a hospital stay through a qualitative approach. Method Sixteen semi-structured interviews took place to know the patients’ perception during their 2020 hospitalization for COVID-19. (...) The data was analyzed through the constant comparison method, creating categories and comparing them. In the end, seven categories were established and were grouped in three: bioethical principles (dignity, charity, vulnerability, autonomy), doctor-patient relationship (participant commitment, informed consent, health staff-patient relationship) and the experience of the disease (illness, the role of the family). Results The research found that most patients described a positive experience, with the feeling of having been well cared for with no sense of discrimination or injustice done. The majority also reported that their autonomy was respected in the treatment decisions. The evaluation of these attitudes is an area of opportunity, especially when the patients' vulnerability is at risk. Conclusions The ethics of virtue offers a better reflection of how human beings manifest themselves by emphasizing the development of virtuous character and behaviors that allow them to realize their values in life. Authorized by the Research Ethics Committee with registration: DI/18/105-B/3/308. (shrink)

The acquisition and evolution of speech production, discourse and communication can be negatively impacted by brain malformations. We describe, for the first time, a case of developmental dynamic dysphasia (DDD) in a right-handed adolescent boy (subject D) with cortical malformations involving language-eloquent regions (inferior frontal gyrus) in both the left and the right hemispheres. Language evaluation revealed a markedly reduced verbal output affecting phonemic and semantic fluency, phrase and sentence generation and verbal communication in everyday life. Auditory comprehension, repetition, naming, (...) reading and spelling were relatively preserved, but executive function was impaired. Multimodal neuroimaging showed a malformed cerebral cortex with atypical configuration and placement of white matter tracts bilaterally and abnormal callosal fibers. Dichotic listening showed right hemisphere dominance for language and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) additionally revealed dissociated hemispheric language representation with right frontal activation for phonology and bilateral dominance for semantic processing. Moreover, subject D also had congenital mirror movements (CMM), defined as involuntary movements of one side of the body that mirror intentional movements of the other side. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and fMRI during voluntary unimanual (left and right) hand movements showed bilateral motor cortex recruitment and tractography revealed a lack of decussation of bilateral corticospinal tracts. Genetic testing aimed to detect mutations that disrupt the development of commissural tracts correlating with CMM (e.g., Germline DCC mutations) was negative. Overall, our findings suggest that DDD in subject D resulted from the underdevelopment of the left inferior frontal gyrus with limited capacity for plastic reorganization by its homologous counterpart in the right hemisphere. Corpus callosum anomalies probably contributed to hinder interhemispheric connectivity necessary to compensate language and communication deficits after left frontal involvement. (shrink)

El Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) establece que el aprendizaje debe estar centrado en el estudiante. Partiendo de este enunciado, el artículo explica cómo la gamificación puede ser una técnica pedagógica que propicie el ansiado cambio en la docencia universitaria hacia donde marca el EEES. Este trabajo presenta el diseño de una metodología de gamificación sencilla y fácil de implementar en un Grado de Ingeniería utilizando Kahoot! como herramienta y su evolución a lo largo de tres cursos académicos. Los (...) resultados indican que los alumnos ven más atractiva la asignatura, aumenta el seguimiento y mejoran sus resultados académicos. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es la presentación de los resultados obtenidos y de la metodología desarrollada durante un proyecto de innovación docente cuyo objetivo era la definición, desarrollo e implantación de un proyecto de multidisciplinar que aglutine las diversas asignaturas de un cuatrimestre y en el que se desarrollen los conocimientos adquiridos en cada una de ellas. Se pretende con esta metodología que todas las asignaturas participen en la consecución de unos objetivos globales.

¿Es posible que la indiferencia en los Ejercicios Espirituales de san Ignacio presente alguna huella de los estoicos como Epicteto o Marco Aurelio? Este artículo analiza algunas observaciones que relacionan el ser estoico y el hacerse indiferente en dos escuelas espirituales totalmente diversas. Tras un estado de la cuestión, analizamos el Principio y Fundamento de los Ejercicios en relación a la indiferencia. Mediante algunos textos de los estoicos, comparamos el modo de comprender la vida, el fin del ser humano (...) y su relación divino-humana. A modo de conclusión, finalizamos con una serie de líneas sobre la indiferencia para el estoicismo y la teología ignaciana. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyze the philosophical arguments that underpin the four political transformations of Mexico. This analysis provides a detailed account of the difficulties Mexico has had for consolidating the principles of freedom and equality. In what follows, I track the origin of the Mexican left in the 19th century from authors, such as Ignacio Ramírez, to concerns that appear within two contrasting moral Cartillas, the first one written by Alfonso Reyes, and the second one, (...) that of Fourier, brought to Mexico by Plotinus Rhodakanaty. Subsequently, I propose a possible link between anarchism and the political and moral philosophy that underpins the ideology of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. I shall highlight the tensions within the ideology of the fourth transformation, especially those existing between government centralization and the weakening of some institutions, the latter, a premise inherited from the anarchist ideology. (shrink)

The World Health Organization has declared a world pandemic due to COVID-19. In response, most affected countries have enacted measures involving compulsory confinement and restrictions on free movement, which likely influence citizens' lifestyles. This study investigates changes in health risk behaviors with duration of confinement. An online cross-sectional survey served to collect data about the Spanish adult population regarding health behaviors during the first 3 weeks of confinement. A large sample of participants from all Spanish regions completed the survey. Binomial (...) logistic regressions adjusted for socioeconomic characteristics, body mass index, previous HRBs, and confinement context were conducted to investigate associations between the number of weeks confined and a set of six HRBs. When adjusted, we observed significantly lower odds of experiencing a higher number of HRBs than before confinement overall in a time-dependent fashion: OR 0.63; 95% CI: 0.49–0.81 for the second and OR 0.47; 95% CI: 0.36–0.61 for the third week of confinement. These results were equally consistent in all age and gender subgroup analyses. The present study indicates that changes toward a higher number of HRBs than before confinement, as well as the prevalence of each HRB except screen exposure, decreased during the first 3 weeks of COVID-19 confinement, and thus the Spanish adult population may have adapted to the new situational context by gradually improving their health behaviors. (shrink)

Tesis doctoral presentada en el departament de Lògica Història i Filosofia de la Ciencia de la Universitat de Barcelona per optar al títol de Doctor en Filosofia.

Food democracy is a concept with growing influence in food research. Food democracy deals with how actors may regain democratic control over the food system enabling its sustainable transformation. Following multi-level perspective framework's connotations, food democracy research has so far mainly focused on the niche level of the food system. An integrative approach that includes the perspectives of both the regime and the niche is still missing. This study addresses this research gap and proposes a new conceptual framework for food (...) democracy that includes actors from the niche and the regime level. Furthermore, we apply our conceptual framework to the urban food system of Vienna to explore the deeper meaning and practice of food democracy. Finally, we have conducted semi-structured interviews with actors at niche level and regime level within Vienna’s urban food system. Findings from this research broaden the perspective on food democracy and illustrate actors’ contributions at niche and regime level such as promoting organic food, re-localizing food provision, and procuring environmentally sustainable public food. Barriers to food democracy were also identified, e.g.: actors’ self-enhancement values, market-orientation, and capitalist alignment or lack of transparency. We conclude that actors at the niche and, to some extent, at the regime level may contribute to a process of on-going changes that fosters a transformation of established structures within the food system. (shrink)

Recommender Systems (RecSys) have been around since the early days of the Internet, helping users navigate the vast ocean of information and the increasingly available options that have been available for us ever since. The range of tasks for which one could use a RecSys is expanding as the technical capabilities grow, with the disruption of Machine Learning representing a tipping point in this domain, as in many others. However, the increase of the technical capabilities of AI-powered RecSys did not (...) come with a thorough consideration of their ethical implications and, despite being a well-established technical domain, the potential impacts of RecSys on their users are still under-assessed. This paper aims at filling this gap in regards to one of the main impacts of RecSys: personal autonomy. We first describe how technology can affect human values and a suitable methodology to identify these effects and mitigate potential harms: Value Sensitive Design (VSD). We use VSD to carry out a conceptual investigation of personal autonomy in the context of a generic RecSys and draw on a nuanced account of procedural autonomy to focus on two components: competence and authenticity. We provide the results of our inquiry as a value hierarchy and apply it to the design of a speculative RecSys as an example. (shrink)

Trust in vaccination is eroding, and attitudes about vaccination have become more polarized. This is an observational study of Twitter analyzing the impact that COVID-19 had on vaccine discourse. We identify the actors, the language they use, how their language changed, and what can explain this change. First, we find that authors cluster into several large, interpretable groups, and that the discourse was greatly affected by American partisan politics. Over the course of our study, both Republicans and Democrats entered the (...) vaccine conversation in large numbers, forming coalitions with Antivaxxers and public health organizations, respectively. After the pandemic was officially declared, the interactions between these groups increased. Second, we show that the moral and non-moral language used by the various communities converged in interesting and informative ways. Finally, vector autoregression analysis indicates that differential responses to public health measures are likely part of what drove this convergence. Taken together, our results suggest that polarization around vaccination discourse in the context of COVID-19 was ultimately driven by a trust-first dynamic of political engagement. (shrink)

This article compares the ‘enfranchisement lottery’, a novel method for allocating the right to vote, with universal suffrage. The comparison is conducted exclusively on the basis of the expected consequences of the two systems. Each scheme seems to have a relative advantage. On the one hand, the enfranchisement lottery would create a better informed electorate and thus improve the quality of electoral outcomes. On the other hand, universal suffrage is more likely to ensure that elections are seen to be fair, (...) which is important for political stability. This article concludes that, on balance, universal suffrage is prima facie superior to the enfranchisement lottery. Yet the analysis shows that the instrumental case for the ‘one person, one vote’ principle is less conclusive than democratic theorists usually suppose. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a performative account of hinge epistemology to make the case for a feminist hinge epistemology. We characterize it as follows: 1) there are hinges that enable and govern our ordinary epistemic practices, functioning as rules; 2) these hinges are enacted and actualized in the specific actions of agents that participate in such practices; 3) this makes room for the transformation and emergence of hinges; 4) against this background, we argue in favor of the possibility of (...) feminist hinges. This novel account opens the way for hinge epistemology to be useful for feminist goals in epistemology, which we believe is the ultimate criterion for hinge epistemology to be legitimately feminist. (shrink)

Most people (and philosophers) distinguish between performing a morally wrong action and being blameworthy for having performed that action, and believe that an individual can be fully excused for having performed a wrong action. My purpose is to reject this claim. More precisely, I defend what I call the “Dependence Claim”: A's doing X is wrong only if A is blameworthy for having done X. I consider three cases in which, according to the traditional view, a wrong action could be (...) excused: duress, mental illness, and mistake. I try to show that the reasons for excusing in either case are not relevantly distinguishable from the reasons for claiming that the prima facie wrong action is not wrong all things considered. (shrink)

Motivated by the definition of semi-Nelson algebras, a propositional calculus called semi-intuitionistic logic with strong negation is introduced and proved to be complete with respect to that class of algebras. An axiomatic extension is proved to have as algebraic semantics the class of Nelson algebras.