The main thesis of this paper is that a large part of human behavior cannot be understood in terms of natural kinds but by appealing to normative kinds. In the first section we explain the distinction between natural kinds and normative kinds. In the second section we focus on the notion of “human behavior”, proposing a distinction between type A and type B behaviors and pointing out that psychology deals with type B behaviors, which are also included as diagnostic criteria (...) for mental disorders. In the third section we analyze the strategies used in biomedical research to find specific etiologies (“essences”) in order to explain such disorders. We argue that their results are inconsistent and that the lack of biomarkers that are clinically useful to refine the diagnoses is due to the fact that, unlike certain neuropathologies, there are no physiological essences behind such disorders. On the other hand, we argue that, as we are dealing with type B behaviors, we must interpret mental disorders as normative kinds. Keywords: human behavior, natural kinds, normative kinds. (shrink)

The need to provide novel but meaningful ways to reason and talk about an unprecedented crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a surge of creative metaphoric expressions in a variety...

In Belgium, a service voucher scheme – known as Titres Services – was launched in 2004 in order to create employment and regularize the labor conditions of domestic workers. The extent to which this scheme has represented an improvement in domestic workers’ labor conditions, however, is still a matter of debate. This article explores the workers’ experience of the changes introduced by this scheme. It focuses on Latin American migrants that are currently working under this scheme in Brussels, situating them (...) in relation to their previous experiences and the experience of other migrants who currently work in the informal market. The authors distinguish two tropes in their informants’ discourse, which describe their ambivalence regarding these changes. Using the Titres Services scheme’s rhetoric, the first one seeks to increase the social status of this occupation by presenting it as a ‘profession’. Contrarily, the second trope highlights the limits to professionalization. (shrink)

In the last half century,there were several attempts to adopt the notion of supervenience in order to shed light on the claim of generality that is involved in aesthetic judgments. In this paper I will show the difficulties brought up by the transposition of the notion of supervenience from other areas of philosophy to the philosophy of art and I will also show the intrinsic difficulties of this project. First, I will revise the origins of the notion of supervenience in (...) contemporary ethics and philosophy of mind, as well as the theoretical framework in which this notion was first introduced. Second, I will revise the arguments for and against aesthetic supervenience in the field of analytic philosophy of art. In the rest of this work, I will try to argue against the viability of applying this notion to the relationship between aesthetic and non-aesthetic properties. I will point out the difficulties of identifying the base properties of such relationship, and then the difficulties of identifying the supervenient properties. In this way I will show that there are good reasons to argue that it will not be fruitful to use the notion of supervenience in order to understand the peculiarities of aesthetic judgments. Finally, I will point out a number of additional difficulties for the thesis of aesthetic supervenience which do not seem able to be satisfactorily solved. (shrink)

En este trabajo me concentro en las formas en las que los seres humanos interactuamos con los sistemas con IA actualmente existentes en nuestras sociedades. Muestro que son cierto tipo de formas de interacción las que están a la base de la consideración de tales sistemas como “inteligentes” dado el origen mismo del desarrollo de la IA en base al “Test de Turing”. Distingo dos tipos de desarrollos y sus efectos, tomando como criterios las formas de interacción que estos sistemas (...) demandan. Finalmente, destaco algunos de los desafíos que enfrentamos en nuestros días, el rol central que las humanidades y ciencias sociales tendrán en este ámbito, y sugiero algunas líneas posibles de acción. (shrink)

Background: The high level of satisfaction of users of a health service is largely due to the fact that they receive excellent care from healthcare professionals. Compassionate care is an essential component of excellent care. But what do nurses understand compassion to be? Research objectives: To analyse the concept of compassion from the perspective of nurses in the Andalusian Public Health System, Spain. Research design: This is a qualitative study following the grounded theory model. Four focus groups and 25 in-depth (...) interviews were conducted. Participants and research context: A total of 68 nursing professionals working in the Andalusian Public Health System (Spain) participated. Theoretical sampling was used, with participants being recruited using the snowball technique. Ethical considerations: This research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Centro-Almería Health District (CEICA 27/9/17). Findings: From the analysis of the data, four themes emerged that helped to understand the concept of compassion according to nurses: ‘Negative perception of the term compassion’, ‘Compassion and empathy as synonyms’, ‘Beyond empathy’, and ‘Effects of having a compassionate attitude’. Discussion: Nurses perceive the concept of compassion differently to each other and even contradictorily. This concept is imbued with cultural elements, which adds confusion to understanding it, and is even perceived as something negative similar to pity. Conclusion: Nurses confuse the concepts of empathy and compassion as if they were synonymous. Before considering training in compassion for healthcare professionals, it is essential to clarify the concept of compassion through educational interventions. (shrink)

BackgroundInformed consent is a key element of ethical clinical research. Addicted population may be at risk for impaired consent capacity. However, very little research has focused on their comprehension of consent forms. The aim of this study is to assess the capacity of addicted individuals to provide consent to research.Methods53 subjects with DSM-5 diagnoses of a Substance Use Disorder and 50 non psychiatric comparison subjects participated in the survey from December 2014 to March 2015. This cross-sectional study was carried out (...) at a community-based Outpatient Treatment Center and at an urban-located Health Centre in Spain. A binary judgment of capacity/incapacity was made guided by the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research and a clinical interview. Demographics and clinical characteristics were assessed by cases notes and the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Global Assessment Functional Scale and the Clinical Global Impression Scale.ResultsNPCs performed the best on the MacCAT–CR, and patients with SUD had the worst performance, particularly on the Understanding and Appreciation subscales. 32.7 % SUD people lacked research-related decisional capacity. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of capacity to consent to research.ConclusionsThe findings of our study provide evidence that a large proportion of individuals with SUD had decisional capacity for consent to research. It is therefore inappropriate to draw conclusions about capacity to make research decisions on the basis of a SUD diagnosis. In the absence of advanced cognitive impairment, acute withdrawal or intoxication, we should assume that addicted persons possess decision-making capacity. Thus, the view that people with SUD would ipso facto lose decision-making power for research consent is flawed and stigmatizing. (shrink)

“Si se da, pues, sentido de la realidad, y nadie dudará que tiene su razón de ser, se tiene que dar por consiguiente algo a lo que se le pueda llamar sentido de la posibilidad”Robert Musil.“El hombre sin atributos”La pregunta por el desarrollo, por las consecuencias de los modelos desarrollistas implantados en las últimas décadas del siglo XX en América Latina, así como por las posibilidades y la urgencia de re-significar el concepto y de transformar sus prácticas, son problemas que (...) aborda Ós.. (shrink)

​This paper examines the life and work of the Novohispanic philosopher Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who used a great deal of irony to respond to what, we argue, were gender-based microaggressions in 17th century New Spain. The case of Sor Juana is particularly interesting not only because it suggests that microaggressions are not the product of our time, as has been suggested in the literature, but also because it reveals some of the advantages as well as limitations (...) of using irony when one is subject to microaggression. The case of Sor Juana also provides insights regarding the difficulties of using irony to address microaggressions that take place in the classroom. (shrink)

Tanto en las políticas de memoria en Argentina como en la vasta producción académica en torno a las experiencias traumáticas de violencia estatal durante la última dictadura genocida, las memorias indígenas han sido tematizadas en forma marginal o subsidiaria respecto a otras categorías identitarias (Lenton, 2014). Estos silencios comienzan a romperse partir de la propia agencia indígena en los procesos de recuperación de las raíces ancestrales al calor de las luchas territoriales de las últimas décadas (Delrio, Lenton, Musanti, Nagy, Papazian (...) y Pérez, 2010), y por un creciente campo de estudios en el que abreva la tesis de Sabrina Rosas “Warmikunamanta Atipaq Sonqokuna: Mujeres de corazones valientes”. Memoria, identidad y territorio indígena kolla en la ciudad de La Plata. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Creativity Belongs to the Person, not to DiseaseJuan J. López-Ibor Jr. (bio) and María-Inés López-Ibor (bio)Keywordscreativity, patho-biography, Saint Teresa, visionsIn the paper, “From the Visions of Saint Teresa of Jesus to the Voices of Schizophrenia,” Cangas, Sass, and Pérez-Álvarez (2008) take an original approach to patho-biography that is very welcome.The temptation to designate historical individuals or characters of fiction as suffering from mental disease has always produced (...) disagreeable feelings in me. This sort of abuse of psychiatry and of the people in question is parallel to the abuse by the media or lay citizens when they describe, say, an especially violent murderer as a schizophrenic—forgetting that the vast majority of people with schizophrenia are not in the least violent. Having read Santa Teresa’s writings during my adolescence, well before I even considered entering medicine, I reacted to comments about her alleged psychiatric illnesses with uneasiness, to put it mildly. The Santa Teresa of La Vida de la Santa Madre Teresa de Jesús (her autobiography), of the Camino de Perfección, and of the El Castillo Interior was surely not a mental patient, it seemed to me. The same would apply to San Juan de La Cruz, Jean D’Arc, Don Quijote, Sancho Panza, Edipus, and Clitemnestra, to mention a few. Even van Gogh’s paintings did not seem to me the productions of a patient with schizophrenia or epilepsy. Of course all of them may have suffered, at certain periods of life, symptoms attributable to a mental disorder, but their creativity rested elsewhere, and was often manifest during healthy periods of their lives. After years spent fighting the stigma of mental diseases, and after organizing several exhibitions of works of art of people with mental diseases, we came to the conclusion that creativity and singularity belong to the person, not to the illness. Some of the diseases of these individuals may have being accidents (van Gogh’s hallucinations and psychotic symptoms, for example, were most probably due to intoxications with absinthe, then rich in hallucinogenic alkaloids such as tujone), or, together with other life circumstances, may have had unspecific influences on the person’s condition. In contrast with many other psychiatric disorders that are represented in ancient Greek and Roman literature, there are no descriptions of individuals with schizophrenia in the Greek and Roman literature dating from the fifth century bc to the beginning of the second century Ad (Evans et al. 2003), and several authors have speculated that schizophrenia did not exist before the eighteenth century (Ellard 1987).Caution is important when dealing with mental health and religious issues in contrast with creativity. The creativity of people suffering from bipolar disorders is well recognized (Jamison 1993) and [End Page 277] the same applies to alcohol and drug intoxication. Tellenbach (1986) has also written on the creativity of depressed persons, although he refers more to the disposition of mood (Schwermut) than to clinical depression as such. The link between melancholia and genius put forward by Aristotle has often been misinterpreted. The philosopher was considering the melancholic temperament and not the melancholic illness as we would understand it today. Of the four temperaments, it is in his view only the melancholic that is gifted with creativity. The sanguine person seeks the immediate pleasures of life, the choleric one considers himself powerful and dedicates himself to manifesting this power, and the phlegmatic individual is disconnected from life and seeks to live without effort or pleasure. The melancholic temperament leads to creativity because of the predominance of doubt, reflection, and dissatisfaction with the miseries of life.Freud’s notion of religiosity as a collective obsessive neurosis is totally mistaken, in my view. The three main themes of obsessions are cleanliness, order, and guilt. In none of these cases is the theme the goal of the action; rather, it is a strategy to contain anxiety. As a consequence, patients with obsessions and compulsions about dirt and cleanliness tend to be dirty themselves, because the real purpose of their compulsions is not in fact to be clean but rather to satisfy a ritual. When order... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Anthropological Perspectives in Psychiatric NosologyJuan J. López-Ibor Jr. (bio) and María-Inés López-Ibor (bio)KeywordsDSM, etiology, Aristotelian causes, social dramasPsychiatry and clinical psychology, as we learn in this paper, are disciplines in need of an ontological perspective. Very few branches of contemporary learning share this characteristic. Probably only theoretical physic and theology—as the rest have long ago given up trying to define and understand the essence of their object, for (...) example, life in the case of biology or mind in psychology. Consequently, the paper by Pérez-Álvarez, Sass and García-Montes, “The Ontology of Mental Disorders in Constructivist Perspective,” (2008) should be welcomed and indeed included in the reading lists for trainees in psychiatry and clinical psychology.The authors propose an approach to the understanding of mental disorders that is extremely attractive and well articulated, and which also has practical implications for clinicians. It is not just another “philosophical divertimento” devoid of scientific and practical importance. Let us analyze the article in an orderly way.Less DsmThe authors of the target paper disapprove of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-III/IV approach to defining illnesses by starting from the symptoms that are present—on the grounds that this may lead clinicians to assume that their sole role is to identify, fight, and suppress the symptoms by whichever procedure. They propose an alternative that is dear to myself because it follows the path of the so-called “anthropological” psychiatry of Binswanger, von Gebsattel, Erwin Strauss, Zutt, López-Ibor, Sr., and others. In essence, this is a phenomenological approach to the meaning of mental diseases, one that emphasizes how the illness is revealed to the patient him- or herself.The target article’s criticism of DSM should be considered in the context of the abuses committed on its behalf. The DSM is not a textbook of psychiatric disorders, nor does it contain a definition of the diseases. The DSM does not tell what a disease is (Klerman et al. 1984)—something that is impossible with a classification system based on the manifestations of the diseases, the signs and symptoms. The DSM, as its title states, is just a diagnostic and statistical manual, which does not contain anything about the origin of [End Page 259] any disease nor an explanation of why it exists or what it means. The DSM is, in fact, just a tool to determine whether a disease is present, and therefore to facilitate communication between professionals and with other individuals, without saying anything about the disease’s aitia—a key term (associated with notions of essence as well as cause) to be discussed below. In theory, most clinicians should understand these limitations; it may be, however, that this is not really the case for many who read or use the DSM. In the world there are around 200,000 psychiatrists; since 1980 the number of DSM copies sold is in the order of several hundred thousand.The misuse of a classification system is even more noticeable in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 Research Version. The instructions for the use of this version recommend that the first step is to make an inventory of all the symptoms present, and then to construct a diagnosis based on them. This how all computer-assisted systems work. This procedure can, however, only be valid if the clinician has already reached a diagnostic conclusion by other means—a diagnosis then to be confirmed for research purposes. It may be that this is one of the reasons why the ICD-10 Research Version has almost never actually been used for research.Furthermore, the concept of symptoms in psychiatry applies only to organic mental disorders (Schneider 1959), conditions in which the patient’s attitude and way of experiencing the symptoms do not play the kind of role that they play in schizophrenia and other mental disorders. The quotation from the important paper by Sass and Parnas in this context is most appropriate. It is indeed that case that “subjective experience can play an important causal role in the progressive experiential transformations of a developing schizophrenic illness... (shrink)

In this paper I will show why Carnap’s and Quine’s sympathy for the extensionality thesis can be considered equivalent to their concern with clear logical criteria for the manipulation—that is, identification and permutation—of empirical linguistic terms and also why Carnap renounced to the extensionality thesis in the late 1930s. Quine’s inclination to see extensionality as an avoidance of semantic confusion triggered his profound admiration for Carnap’s early works, which are very much of an extensionalist nature. But Quine realizes, as early (...) as the 1930s, that Carnap does not have the same resistance to admitting intensional objects. Already in the Aufbau (1928), Carnap’s phenomenalist and structuralist approach to knowledge, and his pragmatic approach to language systems, leads to the conclusion that the self-psyche and others’ psyche are not something, in principle, inaccessible to knowledge, and, therefore, that intensional—including intentional—objects could, in principle, be scientific objects. In addition to the historical development of semantics—which influenced Carnap—there are two fundamental reasons for Carnap’s increasing tolerance of intensional terminology and analysis in the philosophy of language. In the first place, Carnap thinks it possible to maintain a discourse on intensions without this leading to an ontological commitment to abstract intensional entities. Second, the behaviourist criteria for the identification of intensions that he offered demonstrates that he believed it possible to meet clear identification criteria for intensions. I will show why Carnap disagrees on these two points, in his semantic period, with Quine. (shrink)

The accuracy of proxies when they interpret advance directives or apply substituted decision-making criteria has been called into question. It therefore became important to know if the Andalusian Advance Directive Form (AADF) can help to increase the accuracy of proxies' predictions. The aim of this research was to compare the effect of the AADF on the accuracy of proxies' predictions about patients' preferences with that gained from informative and deliberative sessions about end-of-life decision making. A total of 171 pairs of (...) patients and their proxies were randomized to three groups. The control group's answers to the Life Sustaining Preferences Questionnaire (LSPQ) were compared with their proxies' answers to the same questionnaire. In one intervention group, the patients had already completed the AADF and given it to their proxies, who used it to guide their own answers to the LSPQ. In the second intervention (discussion) group, both patients and proxies attended two educative sessions guided by trained nurses and later filled in the LSPQ. Comparisons of accuracy and other variables showed a strong association with the discussion group. The findings show that promoting communication between patients and their proxies improves the accuracy of proxies' predictions much more than isolated use of the AADF form. (shrink)

El manual escolar sigue siendo un recurso didáctico clave en la enseñanza de la historia. En Educación Primaria y Secundaria pervive su uso, a pesar de las numerosas reformas educativas llevadas a cabo desde hace siglo y medio. Este trabajo pretende analizar su vigencia, estructura y cambios a lo largo del tiempo. Los cada vez más numerosos estudios se han escrito desde una perspectiva española o portuguesa, así que interesa conocer la evolución paralela y establecer comparaciones. Se analizan las escuelas (...) historiográficas y pedagógicas que han influido en la evolución de los currículos educativos. Además, se reflexiona sobre los contenidos históricos de los manuales, especialmente las narrativas nacionales. (shrink)

In this work, we will approach some essential questions about the collective imaginary and their relations with reality and truth. We should face this subject in a conceptual framework, followed by the corresponding factual analysis of demonstrable behavioral realities. We will adopt not only the methodology, but mostly the tenets and propositions of the analytic philosophy, which certainly will be apparent throughout the study, and may be identified by the features described by Perez : -/- Rabossi (1975) defends the idea (...) that analytic philosophy can be identified by considering certain family resemblances. He suggests the following family traits: a positive attitude toward scientific knowledge; a cautious attitude toward metaphysics; a conception of philosophy as a conceptual task, which takes conceptual analysis as a method; a close relationship between language and philosophy; a concern with seeking argumentative answers to philosophical problems; search for conceptual clarity Perez, Diana Ines, "Analytic Philosophy in Latin America”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ). These core concepts involve cultural, social, religious, scientific, philosophic, moral, and political contents, belonging to the individual and collective existence of each one of us. The present work grounds itself on analytical reflection. We will speculate the most comprehensive and profound way we can and express the results of our thoughts. Notwithstanding the multidisciplinary nature of the subject and the methodological openness for accepting contributions from any field of science, this work belongs to the aim of psychology and ontology or, in other terms, social and ontological psychology. The main scope of this paper is to observe how some essential evolutionary attributes of humankind, like creativity, imagination, and association, can become a hazardous sickness, sheltered in the misty shadows of the intelligence. (shrink)

Para la ejecución de este trabajo se entrevistaron a 122 adultos mayores de 60 años de la ciudad de Arica (52,5% hombres y 47,5% mujeres). A éstos se les administró un cuestionario de Satisfacción Vital SWLS (Diener, Emmons, Larsen y Griffin, 1985) junto con un cuestionario demográfico, para determinar cuáles de estas variables de contexto por si solas o en su conjunto, explican la Satisfacción Vital. El objetivo principal de este estudio es evidenciar cómo los indicadores de la Satisfacción Vital, (...) se ven influidas por la situación de pareja comparando las puntuaciones medias del cuestionario. (shrink)

El presente estudio busca determinar posibles diferencias por sexo en la aparición de variables asociadas al síndrome de Burnout medidos a través del clima y la satisfacción organizacional en una muestra de 233 trabajadores de la ciudad de Arica, pertenecientes a cinco diferentes actividades económicas (educación, salud, comercio de tangibles e intangibles, y administración pública).

A detailed consideration of the Trojan fly supertask reveals certain unsuspected characteristics relating to determinism and causation. I propose here a solution to the new difficulty in terms of bare dispositions.

The analysis of so-called ?strategic intentional fouls? (SIF) as well as the discussion of their validity in the normative systems of sports have a long track record. These fouls can be characterised as rule violations committed in order to be detected and which accept the corresponding sanction. However, there is an additional goal of obtaining an advantage or subsequent benefit in the competition. In fact, this practice is not infrequent and it is even occasionally accepted by the players themselves, referees, (...) judges, sports authorities and spectators. In this work I have analysed the internal structure of SIFs (the features of an axiological gap and a ?special intention?) with a view to providing a deeper understanding and stressing the differences with closely related concepts: cheating, and especially fraus legis or what in Anglo-Saxon culture is called ?spoiling the game?. Finally, I try to show some difficulties in distinguishing SIF from gamesmanship. (shrink)

Se limita a mirarme con esos ojos suyos tan raros que tanto dan que hablar. Siempre digo que no es tanto por lo que haga o diga o algo así, como por el modo en que te mira. Es como si te llegara hasta muy adentro, en cierto modo. Algo así como si uno se estuviera mirando a sí mismo y lo que hace y lo viera con sus ojos.

This paper analyzes Davidson´s classical version of the principle of charity,in order to suggest a reformulation from which it is possible to extractsome consequences regarding the nature of understanding. Thus, it is putforward an abandonment of the intencionalist hermeneutics as well as theCartesi..

Frente al sistema político liberal, basado en la agregación de intereses egoístas, los teóricos de la democracia deliberativa defienden la superioridad epistémica de la deliberación como método de toma de decisiones. En mi artículo pretendo tratar algunas de las cuestiones fundamentales concernientes a la democracia deliberativa como una teoría epistémica. Primero analizaré los elementos definitorios de la superioridad epistémica de la deliberación. Después expondré las diferentes formas en que los autores articulan el valor epistémico de la deliberación en sus propuestas. (...) Finalmente, abordaré los retos a los que se enfrenta esta concepción epistémica de la democracia para alcanzar las expectativas depositadas en este nuevo proceso de toma de decisiones. (shrink)

Público el centro de la participación política de los ciudadanos. Sin embargo, las diferencias materiales que existen entre los individuos pueden influir de una forma decisiva en el desarrollo del proceso deliberativo.En este artículo examino la forma en que desde esta teoría de la democracia se ha hecho frente a este problema. Aunque encontramos notables diferencias entre los autores, todos ellos defienden la necesidad de garantizar una igual influencia de los ciudadanos en el proceso político.

Zadie Smith’s latest novel, NW, presents a multiverse in which multiplicity is driven into homogeneization by the forces of those dominant discourses that attempt to suppress the category of the “Other.” This paper focuses on the development of the two female protagonists. Their opposing attitudes towards motherhood, together with their confrontation with their origins, bring to the fore the performativity found in the discourses of gender, sexuality, class, and race. Thus, this paper will explore authenticity and performativity in a contemporary (...) context, where patriarchal and neocolonial discourses still apply. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the legal case involving the Court of Arbitration of Sport, the Union of European Football Associations, and the Turkish team Eskişehirspor to analyze the leg...

Cuba es un país insular en donde los fenómenos meteorológicos han sido elementos metafóricos importantes en la configuración de los mitos fundacionales. Será útil entonces observar los fenómenos histórico-socioculturales como fenómenos meteorológicos, pues matizarían cuestiones locales y globales, en lo referente a la identidad y diversidad cultural, estudios estéticos y literarios. La insularidad de Cuba ha pasado por distintos estadios de análisis, desde el plano ontológico hasta el plano político o literario. La inte-racción entre espacio imaginado y expresado en la (...) literatura exige un acercamiento mediado entre los referentes “reales” y meta-literarios. La utilización de la metáfora de la isla ha sido perenne en la historia cultural cubana. Las generaciones de escritores en Cuba, desde hace treinta años aproximadamente, buscan superar algunas barreras ideotemáticas y estilísticas mediante la re-expresión de sus propias sub-versiones literarias. Para ellos, la insularidad o la isla se convierten en un tópico versátil que tensa las relaciones entre las estéticas y sus categorías. Tales fenómenos literarios serían perceptibles en la narrativa de Abilio Estévez, Marilyn Bobes y Antonio José Ponte, lo cual presenta un debate interdisciplinario centrado particularmente en el posicionamiento global de la narrativa cubana y las contemporáneas subversiones literarias. (shrink)

Este artículo visibiliza la centralidad de la dimensión ética en la investigación sociológica. En la primera sección se analizan los antecedentes de las preocupación es éticas en la investigación social. Para ello, se rastrea la emergencia del campo de la bioética en Europa Occidental y Estados Unidos después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la creación de Códigos y Declaraciones Éticos y la institucionalización de mecanismos regulatorios del quehacer investigativo por medio de la creación de Comités Éticos en organizaciones de distinto (...) tipo. Luego, se identifican tres temas cruciales en la literatura sobre ética e investigación social a nivel internacional: el consentimiento informado, el anonimato y la confidencialidad. Finalmente, se examina cómo algunas organizaciones científicas y profesionales argentinas re-localizan estas problemáticas centrales. Este artículo argumenta que existe un marginal aunque creciente interés en torno a las consideraciones éticas en Argentina. Sin embargo, este interés parece más producto de la incorporación de códigos y lineamientos internacionales que el resultado de una reflexión colectiva (al menos en el caso de los sociólogos) en torno a los dilemas éticos que éstos deben enfrentar cotidianamente en su ejercicio profesional. (shrink)

El pensamiento utópico es un producto especialmente significativo de la modernidad occidental y, por tanto, no debe sorprender que la crisis que se ha cebado sobre ella lo arrastre consigo como pieza herida de muerte. A medida que nuestra postmodernidad, largamente anunciada desde Nietzsche, ha ido configurándose como nueva etapa en la que las pretensiones de la razón moderna evidencian el resquebrajamiento de lo que parecían sus bases más sólidas, el pensamiento utópico a través del cual plasmó sus ideales resulta (...) fuertemente cuestionado, tanto que apenas si es posible una honrosa salida de la escena cultural mediante revisión autocrítica de sus planteamientos. Achicado al máximo el espacio para la utopía en la reflexión filosófica contemporánea, ni siquiera cabe una cura de adelgazamiento de pensar utópico para hacerlo sostenible en medio de nuestras perplejidades. Hoy, y en cualquier caso venciendo un pudor difícilmente superable, cuesta asumir la defensa de lo utópico, y si se ha puesto muy complicado hablar de utopía es por el riesgo de caer bajo la doble acusación de ingenuidad y de cinismo. ¿Quién lo iba a decir, cuando el pensamiento utópico logró afirmarse como ariete de la crítica del orden establecido frente al pragmatismo de los defensores del statu quo? (shrink)