A derivação da religião como fruto da moralidade, a descrição de deveres como comandos divinos, o conceito de comunidade ética, podem, à primeira vista, credenciar a ideia de que o princípio kantiano de autonomia moral não seria tão forte quanto pretende, de que não incluiria, em particular, a noção de soberania individual na aplicação da lei moral. uma análise mais detida, entretanto, da concepção kantiana de religião e da concepção, simples e direta, da natureza do dever, indica a força da (...) autonomia como princípio, não apenas da razão prática como da razão em geral. (shrink)

In Brazil, induced abortion in adolescents has been frequent in less-advantaged socioeconomic classes, and the vulnerability of these adolescents has not been addressed. Given this context, the present study sought to investigate the relationship between the practice of abortion and vulnerability in adolescents. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 201 adolescents who completed a structured questionnaire that allowed the analysis of variables with respect to intent to abort. The profile of the pregnant adolescents in the sample studied was the (...) following: average age, 16.1 years; stable partner; mulatas; did not use condoms during sexual relations; precocious with respect to their first sexual relations; and did not plan the pregnancy. According to the classification of the World Health Organization, 81.59% of the subjects‘ abortions were known to be induced. Twenty-one were vulnerable to induced abortion; of these, 13 reported forced sexual intercourse, of whom 8 reported that they had suffered associated violence. These results indicate that sexual violence and unwanted pregnancy subject adolescents to a context of greater vulnerability to induced abortion. Thus, it is suggested that this relationship should be considered from the perspective of bioethics and human rights, but always respecting the cultural values of the society in which the adolescents live, as well as their human dignity. (shrink)

In this note, the problem of tracking random references and rejecting random perturbations in a quadrotor, both generated by an auxiliary system named exosystem, is solved by extending the deterministic tracking problem to the area of stochastic processes. Besides, it is considered that only a part of the state vector of the quadrotor is available through measurements. As a consequence, the state vector of the plant must be estimated in order to close the control loop. On this basis, a controller (...) to track random references and to reject random perturbations is developed by combining a Kalman filter to estimate the references and perturbations of an exosystem and an observer to estimate the states of a quadrotor. Besides, to obtain a more practical controller, the analysis is carried out in discrete time. Numerical simulations are used in a quadrotor to confirm the validity and effectiveness of the proposed control. (shrink)

This paper deals mainly with Marx's conception of politics. My contention is that in Marx's works two basic and opposed conceptions of politics coexist. On the one hand we find a negative, instrumental and realist conception that sees politics as nothing but domination of one class over another and the State as the main instrument of that domination. On the other, we find a positive conception that understands politics as community self-rule. I trace the conceptual origins of these two conceptions (...) to three basic concepts: "alienation", "emancipation" and "species-being". These notions provide the foundations of Marx's conception of politics and enable us to understand its shortcomings. It is basically a contradictory and utopian conception which seriously disregards both the positive traits of actual politics and individual freedoms. /// El tema central de este trabajo es la concepción de la política de Marx. En el artículo sostengo que es posible encontrar dos concepciones básicas de la política en los escritos de Marx: por un lado, una concepción negativa, instrumental y realista que la concibe como la dominación de una clase sobre otra, y al Estado como el instrumento principal de tal dominatión; por el otro, una concepción positiva que entiende la política como el autogobierno de una comunidad. Estas concepciones están basadas en tres conceptos fundamentales de la obra de Marx: "enajenación", "emancipación" y "ser de la especie", los cuales nos permiten entender los errores de la concepción general de la política de Marx. Se trata de una concepción contradictoria y utópica, que no entiende ni las características positivas de la política efectiva, ni la importancia de las libertades individuales. (shrink)

Una revisión somera de la teorí­a contemporánea de la democracia ofrece el siguiente panorama: por un lado, una valoración positiva de la forma efectiva de la democracia, es decir, la democracia liberal y representativa porque provee estabilidad, se respetan las libertades y tienen altos niveles de legitimidad; y, por el otro, una crí­tica de la democracia por ineficiente, representativa y no participativa y por liberal en oposición a social. El problema, evidentemente, es el siguiente: la democracia, ¿podrí­a ser como deberí­a (...) ser o sólo puede ser como de hecho es? Evidentemente, no se puede ofrecer a esta pregunta una respuesta definitiva y, en su lugar, se revisan los argumentos de aquellos autores que defienden a la democracia liberal y representativa como la única forma de gobierno posible en el mundo moderno con la intención de determinar si tienen o no razón, es decir, si la democracia representativa y liberal es, en efecto, la única forma de democracia posible. Dos ejemplos clásicos de esta tesis se encuentran en las obras de Publius y Alexis de Tocqueville."œThe conditions of a possible democracy: The Federalist and Tocqueville"A superficial review of the contemporary theory of democracy ofers the following panorama. On the one hand, a positive appraisal of the efective form of democracy, that is, liberal and representative democracy because it provides stability, freedom is respected and there are high levels of justice. On the other, a criticism of democracy for being ineficient, representative and non-participatory, and for being liberal in opposition to social. Obviously the problem is the following: could democracy be what it should be or can it only be de facto? Obviously a definite answer cannot be given to this question and, instead, the arguments of those authors who defend liberal and representative democracy as the only possible form of government in the modern world are revised with the intention of determining whether they are right or not, that is, if representative and liberal government is, in efect, the only form of possible government. Two classic examples of this thesis are found in the works of Publius and Alexis de Tocqueville. (shrink)

La lección de Weber sobre la democracia es doble. Por un lado, la precisión acerca de qut actores y qut procesos son claves en su estudio -lidera, burocracia, partidos, búsqueda del poder, responsabilidad, &c.- y, por otro, la convicción acerca de los limites de lo posible en una democracia. P..

The aim of the present study is to analyze individual differences in academic self-efficacy within a population of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors from the European cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Variables describing educational level and length of stay were considered in a sample of 377 individuals being cared for in different youth centers. Of these, 63.4% belonged to the group who had stayed at the center for less than 9 months and 36.6% reported a length of stay of more than 9 (...) months. The age of participants ranged between 8 and 17 years old. Once the quality parameters of the instrument were elaborated, reliability and validity was confirmed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis using Structural Equation Modeling methodology. Data collection was then initiated. The results overall indicate that 87.6% of those who completed the questionnaire reported a higher level of self-efficacy with regards to working with any classmate, whilst at the same time seeing themselves as capable of achieving good marks. ANOVA results indicated significant differences with respect to educational level and length of stay. In this regard, students who had received professional training and had been at the Center for more than 9 months, were the ones who developed greater academic self-efficacy for spending more time working when tasks were judged to be difficult. The results obtained demonstrate that any intervention will be positive as long as it promotes different institutions to develop strategies that cater to a length of stay of more than 9 months and target education, academic self-efficacy, socialization and strengthening the future workforce. Such interventions can be directed through new European, Spanish or local level policies. It is clear that institutions still have a lot of work left to do. (shrink)

La formación adecuada de profesionistas presenta un reto educativo a nivel mundial, este reto es de carácter multifactorial, que se ha abordado desde diferentes disciplinas. La pandemia sanitaria obligó al cierre de universidades mostrando claramente múltiples deficiencias en la implementación de sistemas tecnológicos híbridos que hicieran continua la formación universitaria. En este contexto, se desarrolla una propuesta integral que abarque las necesidades para solventar una educación híbrida. Para formular el modelo se realizó una revisión de la literatura para identificar los (...) factores críticos de éxito en la educación hibrida con recursos tecnológicos. Se caracterizó cómo funciona una institución de educación superior de forma general y se identificaron las plataformas digitales educativas y se obtuvo una primera aproximación del modelo para hacer pruebas de implementación. (shrink)

O Brasil foi um dos maiores traficantes de africanos destinados à escravidão nas Américas; e a Bahia um dos seus principais destinos. Porém, juntamente com a escravidão, os africanos trouxeram também a rebelião. Uma das principais formas de negação da escravidão pela revolta trazida pelos negros africanos às Américas foi o quilombo. O artigo discute as mudanças ocorridas na literatura histórica sobre a escravidão e suas formas de negação após o centenário da abolição, em 1988. O quilombo de Palmares surgido (...) no interior de Alagoas em finais do século XIV, veio a se constituir, durante o século XVII, no maior e mais bem organizado quilombo das Américas. Visto de formas diferentes pela historiografia ao longo do tempo, Palmares acabou por se transformar, no imaginário dos explorados de todos os matizes e dos negros de forma especial, num dos maiores símbolos de liberdade e de resistência a qualquer forma de exploração, opressão e discriminação. Palavras-chave: Escravidão; negros; quilombo de Palmares; resistência. (shrink)

The development and use of advanced and innovative neuroscience, neurotechnology and some forms of artificial intelligence have exposed potential threats to the human condition, including human rights. As a result, reconceptualizing or creating human rights (i.e. neurorights) has been proposed to address specific brain and mind issues like free will, personal identity and cognitive liberty. However, perceptions, interpretations and meanings of these issues—and of neurorights—may vary between countries, contexts and cultures, all relevant for an international-consensus definition and implementation of neurorights. (...) Thus, we encourage reflecting on the proactive inclusion of transnational, cross-cultural and contextual considerations and concerns to contribute to the global discourse. This inclusion does not mean endorsing ethical relativism but rather a call to foster a universal understanding of key concepts and concerns. Including contextual and cultural perspectives may truly anticipate global concerns which could be addressed while developing and implementing neurorights. Consequently, any ethical and/or legal regulatory framework(s) for the translational and transnational use of advanced neuroscience, neurotechnology and some forms of artificial intelligence intended to protect and safeguard human dignity should be contextually and culturally mindful, responsible, respectful and inclusive of not only human rights and fundamental freedoms but also of neurocognitive cultural diversity. (shrink)

La comunicación está referida a la categoría de la acción, pero no dirigida inmediatamente al mundo, sino a promover algún tipo de respuesta en otro sujeto. Y es este campo limitado -dominio de la interacción humana- el objeto propio de la ética. Communication refers to the category of action, but it is not directed to the world immediately. Instead, it is oriented to elicit a certain type of answer from somebody else. This constrained field -domain of the human interaction- is (...) the particular subject of Ethics. (shrink)

Nuestro texto no trata el tema lógico-lingüístico de las proposiciones, sino el tema ético de la comunicación humana. Comunicar es vincularse a otro ser humano mediante alguna referencia al mundo. A la ética importa describir y clasificar las diversas especies que se crean a través de la acción comunicativa y sus posibles transgresiones. Tema importante para comprender por qué toda acción humana -pero, en especial, la acción comunicativa-es éticamente evaluable, es el estudio que aquí se hace del concepto aristotélico-tomista de (...) ‘circunstancia'. Our text is not about the logical-linguistic issue proposais, but rather about the ethical issue of human communication. To communicative is to link to another human being using some reference to the world. Ethics is concerned with describing and classifying every single kind of links that are created by communicative action and its possible transgressions. An important issue to understand why every single human action -but specially, communicative action- is subject of ethical evaluation, is the study we do here about the Thomist-Aristothelic concept for ‘circumstance'. (shrink)

We present a longitudinal computational study on the connection between emotional and amodal word representations from a developmental perspective. In this study, children's and adult word representations were generated using the latent semantic analysis (LSA) vector space model and Word Maturity methodology. Some children's word representations were used to set a mapping function between amodal and emotional word representations with a neural network model using ratings from 9‐year‐old children. The neural network was trained and validated in the child semantic space. (...) Then, the resulting neural network was tested with adult word representations using ratings from an adult data set. Samples of 1210 and 5315 words were used in the child and the adult semantic spaces, respectively. Results suggested that the emotional valence of words can be predicted from amodal vector representations even at the child stage, and accurate emotional propagation was found in the adult word vector representations. In this way, different propagative processes were observed in the adult semantic space. These findings highlight a potential mechanism for early verbal emotional anchoring. Moreover, different multiple linear regression and mixed‐effect models revealed moderation effects for the performance of the longitudinal computational model. First, words with early maturation and subsequent semantic definition promoted emotional propagation. Second, an interaction effect between age of acquisition and abstractness was found to explain model performance. The theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. (shrink)

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the amodal (semantic) development of words and two popular emotional norms (emotional valence and arousal) in English and Spanish languages. To do so, we combined the strengths of semantics from vector space models (vector length, semantic diversity, and word maturity measures), and feature-based models of emotions. First, we generated a common vector space representing the meaning of words at different developmental stages (five and four developmental stages for English and Spanish, respectively) using (...) the Word Maturity methodology to align different vector spaces. Second, we analyzed the amodal development of words through mixed-effects models with crossed random effects for words and variables using a continuous time metric. Third, the emotional norms were included as covariates in the statistical models. We evaluated more than 23,000 words, whose emotional norms were available for more than 10,000 words, in each language separately. Results showed a curve of amodal development with an increasing linear effect and a small quadratic deceleration. A relevant influence on the amodal development of words was found only for emotional valence (not for arousal), suggesting that positive words have an earlier amodal development and a less pronounced semantic change across early lifespan. (shrink)

A partir de la revisión de bibliografía especializada y del análisis crítico-constructivo del trabajo de Dow (2013) que examina los anacronismos existentes en la recreación digital de la ciudad de Florencia en el videojuego Assassin’s Creed II (2009), el presente trabajo explora la capacidad que tienen este tipo de videojuegos para reconstruir la ambientación de un período histórico concreto a partir del uso de anacronismos derivados de licencias creativas y de las necesidades artísticas propias del videojuego. Los resultados demuestran que (...) el anacronismo es una herramienta que los desarrolladores de videojuegos históricos utilizan de forma intencionada para transmitir una imagen del pasado que resulte vigente y atractiva en la actualidad. Igualmente se evidencia la necesidad de una metodología propia dentro de los denominados Game Studies que aborde el videojuego como objeto de estudio artístico lejos del enfoque de líneas de investigación como los Historical Game Studies y otras disciplinas humanísticas. (shrink)

Introduction: Ethical conflict is a phenomenon that has been under study over the last three decades, especially the types moral dilemma and moral distress in the field of nursing care. However, ethical problems and their idiosyncrasies need to be further explored. Aim: The objectives of this study were, first, to obtain a transcultural Portuguese-language adaptation and validation of the Ethical Conflict Nursing Questionnaire–Critical Care Version and, second, to analyse Portuguese critical care nurses’ level of exposure to ethical conflict and its (...) characteristics. Methods: A cross-cultural validation and descriptive, prospective and correlational study. The sample was made for 184 critical care nurses in 2016. Ethical Considerations: The study was authorised by Bioethics Commission of the University of Barcelona, the Associaçâo de Apoio ao Serviço de Cuidados Intensivos do Centro Hospitalar do Porto and the Sociedade Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental. Findings: The Portuguese version of the Ethical Conflict Nursing Questionnaire–Critical Care Version was a valid and reliable instrument to measure exposure to conflict. Moral outrage was the most common type of conflict. The most problematic situations were the ineffectiveness of analgesic treatments, the administration of treatments considered futile and the mismanagement of resources. (shrink)

Esta experiencia describe las conclusiones extraídas de la realización de un taller de cortometraje como método terapéutico para trabajar habilidades de empoderamiento y de expresión emocional con un grupo de personas con enfermedad mental, usuarias de un centro de día. La finalización del taller culmina con un video fórum y la grabación de un video para un certamen anual de cortos sobre salud mental. Para la evaluación del taller se utilizó un proceso metodológico de carácter cualitativo basado en el grupo (...) de discusión. La mayoría destacó las experiencias positivas resultantes del programa y los efectos positivos, sobre todo a nivel creativo y emocional. (shrink)

In this paper we evaluate and confirm the effectiveness of including curriculum training on career management as a component of university studies. The behaviour of the students in this study was modified by the uncertainty created by the crisis in the labour market due to the pandemic.Our results confirm that universities need to develop the generic and academic skills demanded by the labour market in order to provide their students with comprehensive training while also taking joint responsibility for developing their (...) students’ career management skills. (shrink)

RESUMEN El presente trabajo está dirigido a exponer elementos inherentes al modelo de superación profesional del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico desde la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio. Entre los métodos teóricos empleados, el analítico-sintético permitió la determinación de los fundamentos epistemológicos y praxiológicos del proceso de superación, el inductivo-deductivo posibilitó la determinación de las categorías que surgen en el proceso investigativo, el sistémico estructural funcional para fundamentar el carácter de sistema del modelo y la modelación con la finalidad (...) de construirlo. Se concluye que se establecen como subsistemas del modelo, la proyección profesional de las ciencias básicas biomédicas, la contextualización profesional de la integración ciencias básicas biomédicas-laboratorio y la valoración contextual de la integración en el proceso de superación, lo que explica el proceso de superación del tecnólogo de la salud en laboratorio clínico. ABSTRACT This paper aims at setting out elements inherent to the health technologist in clinical laboratory’s professional training model from the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences. Among the theoretical methods used, analysis-synthesis allowed establishing the epistemological and praxeological basis of the training process; the inductive-deductive method made it possible to determine the categories that result from the research process and the systemic-structural-functional method was used to support the system-like nature of the model and modelling with the end of building it. In conclusion, subsystems of the model are established: basic biomedical sciences professionals’ aims, professional conceptualization of the integration of basic biomedical-laboratory sciences and the contextual assessment of integration in the training process, which expounds the training process of the health technologist in clinical laboratory. (shrink)

El presente artículo pretende mostrar la profunda interrelación entre el Misterio, el silencio, la experiencia espiritual y el arte. Con ello se busca subrayar el requisito de la representación perteneciente a la experiencia espiritual a través del símbolo. El acontecer del Misterio y su acogida por parte del ser humano implica, en sí mismo, la necesidad del silencio y la contemplación. Estas dos características son elementos indispensables para identificar la autenticidad del ser humano espiritual. Aunque el silencio y la contemplación (...) parezcan hablar sobre la «pasividad» de lo humano, el dinamismo que se genera en la vivencia de esta experiencia impulsa al sujeto a expresar de diversas formas una realidad que lo trasciende y fascina. La vía más adecuada de esta expresión es el símbolo, el cual busca representar una vivencia que comunica y transforma. La fuerza de la creación y transformación constante de este proceso permite descubrir, en la obra de arte, el signo visible de la auto-revelación del Misterio Santo. Ante el bullicio del mundo contemporáneo, que no da lugar al recogimiento, esta reflexión se presenta como una alternativa para profundizar sobre la necesidad de la espiritualidad en la configuración de lo humano. (shrink)

La Bohemia como corriente literaria es poco estudiada. En este artículo analizamos de manera breve la presencia de la Bohemia en el cuento “De ultratumba” del autor José Juan Tablada. Mediante un método comparativo logramos encontrar que existe una presencia de la Bohemia como la entiende Henry Murger. Es la primera vez que se investigan elementos bohemios en Tablada ya que la mayoría de los análisis se encaminan a su época vanguardista y la influencia de la cultura asiática en su (...) obra, de ahí la originalidad y el valor de este artículo. (shrink)

El sacrificio humano es una imagen frecuente en las religiones antiguas, concretamente en la griega, y su estudio ha levantado numerosos enfrentamientos entre corrientes historiográficas distintas. Uno de los casos más sobresalientes es del culto a Zeus en el Monte Liceo, que aquí analizamos. Las fuentes literarias reflejan la creencia de los griegos en estos sacrificios humanos, así que podemos decir que los sacrificios fueron reales porque fueron usados para construir paisaje y, por lo tanto, realidad.

Apart from emphasising Professor Humberto Baquero Moreno's vast scientific pro- duction, as well as his remarkable enthusiasm for teaching, an activity he never abandoned even when he was given the opportunity to do so, this brief intervention is also a tribute to his relevant services to the Portuguese culture, as director of the Oporto's District Archives and National Archives of "Torre do Tombo", as well as his dedication to the administration, scientific research and internationalisation of the Faculty of Arts (...) and their relevance for the whole University of Oporto. (shrink)

Context: Constructivist epistemology is not a doctrinal set of clear and consistent theses and assumptions but a movement full of tensions, with minimally integrated lines of discussions. Problem: This situation explains why it is so difficult to come up with a general definition of constructivist epistemology that could serve as a starting point to study its several research programs systematically and comparatively. Method: We compare the constructivist epistemologies of Jean Piaget, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Humberto Maturana, and Niklas Luhmann regarding (...) tensions between knowledge/reality and individual/society. Results: Our comparison leads to a general definition of constructivist epistemology as a heterogeneous movement problematizing certain dualities - such as subject/object, knowledge/reality, or individual/society - that have been shown to be central for epistemological inquiry. We argue that such dualisms can be used as dimensions for critical analysis, comparison, and discussion among the different research programs, and that, at the same time, they would allow us to analyze the general strategies characterizing such programs. The comparative and critical analysis of the programs by way of the aforementioned tensions results in an organized presentation highlighting their convergences, divergences, and singularities. (shrink)

En la deliberación pública de una democracia, ¿qué lugar tienen las emociones, especialmente las emociones de la compasión y la ira?; es la pregunta general que guía esta investigación. Para dar respuesta a ella nos centraremos en el pensamiento de dos pensadores que aunque pertenecen a espacios culturales y académicos diferentes guardan algunos puntos de contacto en sus perspectivas filosóficas: Marta Nussbaum y Humberto Giannini. Haciéndonos cargo del affective turn (Ahmed 2014) nos interesa indagar que impacto tienen las pasiones (...) de la compasión y de la ira sobre una democracia incompleta, o débil. Esto es especialmente relevante en momentos de transformación y perfeccionamiento democrático, cuando una comunidad camina hacia una democracia más participativa e inclusiva. Así, en un primer momento, siguiendo las pistas que nos entregan estos dos filósofos, nos dedicaremos a describir formas de compasión y formas de ira que benefician la deliberación democrática y aquellas que la obstaculizan. (shrink)

Resumen:Juan José Fuentes Ubilla nació el 6 de septiembre de 1979 en la ciudad de Santa Cruz. Fue estudiante, ayudante y luego profesor del Departamento de Filosofía de la Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades de la Universidad de Chile. Fue ayudante de la profesora Patricia Bonzi, con quien se formó en filosofía contemporánea y especialmente en la fenomenología de autores como Lévinas y Arendt. Ayudante del profesor Arturo Fontaine y luego profesor del curso de Filosofía Medieval. Ayudante y luego coinvestigador (...) del profesor Humberto Giannini en el proyecto Fondecyt “El horizonte ético-político del perdón de la promesa: claves para una ética del conflicto”. Realizó su especialización de posgrado en estudios medievales, especialmente en los estudios de la tardoantigüedad, la influencia y el conflicto entre helenismo y cristianismo primitivo. Obtuvo su máster en Filosofía, mención Historia de la Filosofía en la Universidad Paris IV (Sorbonne). Continuó su formación de doctorado en Ciencias de la Religión y Sistemas de Pensamiento, en la École Practique des Hautes Études, bajo la dirección de Andrei Timotin. (shrink)

This article argues that bodily awareness is a basic form of self-consciousness through which perceiving agents are directly conscious of the bodily self. It clarifies the nature of bodily awareness, categorises the different types of body-relative information, and rejects the claim that we can have a sense of ownership of our own bodies. It explores how bodily awareness functions as a form of self-consciousness and highlights the importance of certain forms of bodily awareness that share an important epistemological property with (...) canonical forms of self-consciousness such as introspection. (shrink)

While in agreement with Miranda Fricker’s context-sensitive approach to hermeneutical injustice, this paper argues that this contextualist approach has to be pluralized and rendered relational in more complex ways. In the first place, I argue that the normative assessment of social silences and the epistemic harms they generate cannot be properly carried out without a pluralistic analysis of the different interpretative communities and expressive practices that coexist in the social context in question. Social silences and hermeneutical gaps are misrepresented if (...) they are uniformly predicated of an entire social context, instead of being predicated of particular ways of inhabiting that context by particular people in relation to particular others. I contend that a more nuanced—polyphonic—contextualization offers a more adequate picture of what it means to break social silences and to repair the hermeneutical injustices associated with them. In the second place, I argue that the particular obligations with respect to hermeneutical justice that differently situated subjects and groups have are interactive and need to be determined relationally. That is, whether individuals and groups live up to their hermeneutical responsibilities has to be assessed by taking into account the forms of mutual positionality, relationality, and responsivity (or lack thereof) that these subjects and groups display with respect to one another. The central argument is developed through an examination of what in race theory and in contemporary epistemologies of ignorance has been termed “white ignorance”; that is, the kind of hermeneutical inability of privileged white subjects to recognize and make sense of their racial identities, experiences, and social positionality. (shrink)

Decision Theory and Rationality offers a challenging new interpretation of a key theoretical tool in the human and social sciences. This accessible book argues, contrary to orthodoxy in politics, economics, and management science, that decision theory cannot provide a theory of rationality.

Reliabilist accounts of knowledge are widely seen as having the resources for blocking sceptical arguments, since these arguments appear to rely on assumptions about the nature of knowledge that are rendered illegitimate by reliabilist accounts. The goal of this book is to assess the main arguments against the possibility of knowledge, and its conclusions challenge this consensus. The book articulates and defends a theory of knowledge that belongs firmly in the truth-tracking tradition, and argues that although the theory has the (...) resources for blocking the main standard lines of sceptical reasoning, there is a sceptical argument against which the theory offers no defence, as it doesn’t rely on any assumptions that the theory would render illegitimate. The book ends with the suggestion that the problem might have a metaphysical solution—that although the sceptical argument may make no illegitimate epistemological assumptions, it does rest on a questionable account of the nature of cognition. (shrink)