De la materia del sueño nace de un esfuerzo de síntesis entre dos orientaciones vitales. Por un lado, en el plano poético, la poesía y los medios por los que esta logra extenderse en la vida cotidiana a partir de la experiencia de lo maravilloso; por otro, en el plano político, las potencialidades de la Utopía como medio de reactivación del imaginario revolucionario. Es ahí, y no en otra parte, donde debe enmarcarse este ensayo. Si no fuera porque ellos nunca (...) hablaron previamente, podríamos decir que en este libro está basada la última película de Jan Švankmajer, Sobreviviendo a la vida (Teoría y práctica). (shrink)

Background: Preparing tomorrow’s healthcare workforce for managing the growing complexity of care places high demands on students, educators, and faculties. In the light of worrying data about study-related stress and burnout, understanding how students manage stressors and develop resilience has been identified as a priority topic of research. In addition to study-related stressors, also moral stressors are known to characterize the students’ first clinical experiences. Objectives: However, current debates show that it remains unclear how healthcare ethics education should address them. (...) In order to clarify this issue, this study first develops the notion of moral resilience as a response to moral stressors involving both situations of moral complexity and moral wrongness. Second, it explores the potential of healthcare ethics education in fostering moral resilience. For this purpose, it defines moral resilience operationally as a reduction of moral distress in a given axis of time measured by a validated tool. Research design, participants, and context: The educational transferability was assessed within an explorative, quantitative pre–post interventional study with a purposive sample of 166 nursing students. The educational intervention comprised a lecture introducing the typology of moral stressors. Before and after the lecture, students were presented vignettes depicting morally stressful situations. Ethical considerations: The competent research ethics committee confirmed that no ethical approval was needed. Informed consent was obtained from participants. Findings: Three of four vignettes showed a modest but statistically significant reduction in measured levels of distress after the lecture (p < 0.05, α = 5%). Discussion: The study shows the potential of healthcare ethics education in providing students with transformative knowledge that fosters moral resilience. Conclusion: In times of global scarcity of educational resources, healthcare ethics education has an important contribution to offer in the promotion of students’ mental and physical health by strengthening the knowledge base of moral resilience. This legitimates its costs for societies, faculties, and professional bodies. (shrink)

Background: This article combines foundational and empirical aspects of healthcare education and develops a framework for teaching ethical theories inspired by pragmatist learning theory and recent work on the concept of moral resilience. It describes an exemplary implementation and presents data from student evaluation. Objectives: After a pilot implementation in a regular ethics module, the feasibility and acceptance of the novel framework by students were evaluated. Research design: In addition to the regular online module evaluation, specific questions referring to the (...) teaching of ethical theories were added using simple (yes/no) and Likert rating answer formats. Participants and research context: At the Bern University of Applied Sciences, a total of 93 students from 2 parallel sub-cohorts of the bachelor’s program in nursing science were sent the online survey link after having been exposed to the same modular contents. A total of 62% of all students participated in the survey. Ethical considerations: The survey was voluntary and anonymous. Students were free to write their name and additional comments. Findings: Students consider ethical theories—as taught within the proposed framework—as practically applicable, useful, and transferable into practice. Discussion: Teaching ethical theories within the proposed framework overcomes the shortcomings described by current research. Students do not consider the mutually exclusive character of ethical theories as an insurmountable problem. Conclusion: The proposed framework is likely to promote the effectiveness of healthcare ethics education. Inspired by pragmatist learning theory, it enables students to consider ethical theories as educative playgrounds that help them to “frame” and “name” the ethical issues they encounter in daily practice, which is seen as an expression of moral resilience. Since it does not advocate a single ethical theory, but is open to the diversity of traditions that shape ethical thinking, it promotes a culturally sensitive, ethically reflected healthcare practice. (shrink)

Professionelles Handeln bedarf moralischen Handlungsvermögens. Im Kontext pflegerischer Weiterbildungen beschreibt der Philosoph Andrew Jameton vor über drei Jahrzehnten psychologische Reaktionen auf kompromittiertes moralisches Handlungsvermögen, die er als moralischen Stress definiert. Diese Standarddefinition hat in der Pflegewissenschaft zu einer dichten Forschung geführt und zum Vorschlag einer weiten Definition. Belegt sind gravierende Folgen von moralischem Stress auf die Patientensicherheit und auf die psychische Gesundheit von Mitarbeitenden. Der Beitrag diskutiert die Rezeption des Konzepts innerhalb der Pflegewissenschaft und die jüngst vorgeschlagene weite Definition von (...) moralischem Stress als Reaktion auf Situationen wahrgenommener moralischer Unerwünschtheit. Er bezweifelt die Kongruenz der Definitionen. Gerade das Verständnis der Prävalenz von moralischem Stress in der Pflegepraxis wird durch die Ausweitung der Definition erschwert, welche den Messinstrumenten jeweils zugrunde liegt. Trotz dieser Unschärfe bleibt der Umgang mit moralischem Stress eine zentrale Herausforderung für alle Gesundheitsfachpersonen. Für die wirksame Bewältigung bedarf er aber einer Schärfung, die die Kernanliegen sowohl der „alten“ wie auch der „neuen“ Definition aufnimmt: Wahrgenommene moralische Unerwünschtheit wird als Gesamtheit an emotionalen Reaktionen auf ethisch belastende Situationen vorgeschlagen, der bei kompromittiertem moralischen Handlungsvermögen moralischer Stress folgen kann, bei erschwertem moralischen Handlungsvermögen hingegen moralisches Unbehagen. In normativer Hinsicht steht moralischer Stress für Reaktionen auf Situationen moralischer Komplizität, moralisches Unbehagen für solche auf moralischer Komplexität. Durch diese Schärfung wird moralischer Stress hinreichend klar bestimmbar und die Standarddefinition im Kern bestätigt. Aber auch das Anliegen der weiten Definition wird aufgenommen für das breite Spektrum ethischer Belastungen, die den Alltag von Gesundheitsfachpersonen prägen und spezifische Strategien zu deren Bewältigung erfordern. (shrink)

Since the beginning of the pandemic spread of the Coronavirus, societies have been reminded that the impact of Covid-19 and public health measures of infection containment reflect known gradients of inequality. Measures focusing only the (acknowledged) frontstage of the pandemic and neglecting its (unacknowledged) backstage—understood as those framework conditions indispensable for societies to thrive—have worsened the impact of social determinants of health on the most vulnerable, as shown by the deleterious effects of prolonged social isolation of residents of nursing homes. (...) To reflect this phenomenon ethically, a framework is proposed which is inspired by the feminist philosopher Margret Little. At its core stands the assumption that caring for people and moral ends allows us to identify what is morally salient. This epistemological stance allows a critical look at the alleged dilemmas invoked to enforce brute, long-lasting policies of closing nursing homes in many places—especially in the light of their dubious effectiveness in preventing viral spread and the severe physical and psychological consequences for those affected. If moral salience is only fully perceived through the closeness of the caring relationship, the human suffering resulting from these policies reveals the utter inadequacy of the dilemma rhetoric used to justify them. This insight is illustrated by the personal experience of the author: He describes his role as an essential care partner of his mother living in a nursing home and forced into the role of a “visitor” who witnessed a constant deterioration of care. Based on an epistemological understanding of caring for making reliable moral judgments, potentially exclusionary effects of distinguishing essential from non-essential groups in care will be addressed together with the need to overcome strict boundaries between front- and backstage. Such efforts will strengthen the moral community of persons needing care, professional care givers and essential care partners. (shrink)

Departing from a contemporary novel about a boy who is going to die from leukaemia, this article shows how the dimension of time can be seen as a morally relevant category that bridges both ‘dramatic’ issues, which constitute the dominant focus of bioethical decision making, and ‘undramatic’ issues, which characterize the lived experience of patients, relatives and health care workers. The moral task of comparing the various time dimensions of a given situation is explained as an act of ‘synchronizing’ the (...) clocks. Ethical sensitivity and competence are presented as core skills that allow a continuity of care in situations where dramatic issues seem to be resolved, but undramatic ones are still not addressed. A nine-step model of shared decision making is proposed as an approach to identifying critical junctures within an illness trajectory and synchronizing the clocks of the involved actors. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungZwischenfälle, Behandlungsfehler und tragische Verläufe können im Medizinalltag schwerwiegende Auswirkungen auf Patientinnen und Patienten haben, aber auch auf beteiligte Gesundheitsfachpersonen. Don Berwick, ehemaliger Leiter des Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, hob in einem Interview die Unterstützung von „second victims“ als „ethische Angelegenheit“ hervor. Es besteht aber keine Klarheit darüber, was darunter zu verstehen ist. Der vorliegende Beitrag unternimmt eine Klärung dieser Frage aus der Perspektive der Organisationsethik. Ausgehend von Daten aus der Literatur zur Wirksamkeit der Unterstützung von „second victims“ (...) werden Herausforderungen beschrieben und aus organisationsethischer Sicht beurteilt. Es gibt Hinweise, dass Angebote der Unterstützung von „second victims“ zwar bestehen, aber nicht wirksam genug sind, um die psychischen Folgen von unerwünschten Ereignissen zu bewältigen. Dies wirkt sich auf betroffene Fachpersonen negativ aus und kann zu einer erneuten Gefährdung der Patientensicherheit führen. Angesichts dieser Befunde bedarf es eines organisationsethischen Ansatzes, um Don Berwicks Forderung nachzukommen, den Umgang mit „second victims“ als „ethische Angelegenheit“ wahrzunehmen. Dieser Ansatz fördert die Kongruenz zwischen den deklarierten und den faktisch gelebten Werten der Organisation. Sein normatives Fundament besteht in den Fürsorgepflichten der Organisation, gegenüber Patientinnen, Patienten und Mitarbeitenden. Die Organisationsethik ermöglicht es, die Unterstützung von „second victims“ verbindlich und sichtbar in der Sicherheitskultur der Organisation zu verankern. Sie konkretisiert sich in ihrer Verpflichtung, für die Mechanismen der Entstehung des Phänomens zu sensibilisieren und Ressourcen bereitzustellen, die einen effektiven Umgang damit ermöglichen. Dazu gehören evidenzbasierte ethische Leitlinien, standardisierte Prozesse, Schulungen sowie niederschwellige Coaching-Angebote. (shrink)

Incivility poses a serious threat to any healthcare system striving for effectiveness without sacrificing the requirements of humanity. Threats to civility within healthcare not only come from individual ‘bad apples’ exhibiting borderline and inacceptable behaviour, as seen in many ‘high-tech, high-risk, high-responsibility’ environments such as operating or emergency rooms.1 They may also be facilitated by ‘bad trees’ or system-immanent, poor healthcare environments.2 This may be the case when healthcare administrations, facing the challenges of political austerity, set budgetary targets that cannot (...) be met without seriously compromising quality of care, patient safety, and the well-being of those professionals working at the ‘sharp end’. Both individual and systemic factors fuel the occurrence of incivility,3 and individuals—rather than institutions—are often held responsible for acts of incivility. Nevertheless, explaining what might trigger incivility can never serve as a justification for it, because ‘in-civility’ —in its literal sense—breaches basic rules of civic cooperation and goodwill, and thus grossly violates the social …. (shrink)

Inauguration speech at chair number 18 of the Brasilian Academy of Philosophy.

Der Umgang mit Gesundheit und Krankheit, noch mehr aber die Übergänge zwischen dem einen und dem anderen Zustand, weisen mit der Entwicklung des therapeutischen Wissens und Könnens und der Strukturen in der Gesundheitsversorgung eine Vielfalt an ethischen Bezügen auf.

The whole brain criterion of death has been the subject of intense theological debate since the process of policy shaping fortheGerman transplantation law adopted in 1997. This article identifies tutiorism as the predominant argumentative strategy both for the theological defence and the rejection of a neurological criterion of death. A tutioristic argumentation fails to elucidate the very nature of the problern which is normative and tends to clarify rights and duties of all the actors involved in the clinical setting of (...) organ transplant or withdrawal of life sustaining therapies. A theological defence of the whole brain criterion of death has to avoid that distinctions between life and death become blurred. On the other hand, those who reject this criterion, but still support the current practice of organ transplant, have to be aware that this option is hardly compatible with most part of the moral tradition of Christianity. (shrink)

Durante décadas, los filósofos han concebido los derechos humanos como una clase de derechos naturales de los que gozamos por el mero hecho de ser seres humanos. Sin embargo, esta interpretación ha sido severamente cuestionada en los últimos años. Toda una familia de autores, identificados con una concepción “práctico-dependiente”, asevera que los derechos humanos constituyen una práctica sui generis completamente ajena a la tradición del derecho natural. En contra de esta postura, este artículo argumenta que el discurso de los derechos (...) naturales es parte constitutiva de la doctrina actual de los derechos humanos y que puede hacer un aporte crucial a la adecuada justificación y comprensión de sus funciones, su contenido y su alcance normativo. Más concretamente, mi tesis será que si bien los derechos humanos no pueden reducirse a derechos naturales, bien podrían derivar de derechos naturales previos. (shrink)

In many high-income countries, an initial response to the severe impact of Covid-19 on residential care was to shield residents from outside contacts. As the pandemic progressed, these measures have been increasingly questioned, given their detrimental impact on residents’ health and well-being and their dubious effectiveness. Many authorities have been hesitant in adapting visiting policies, often leaving nursing homes to act on their own safety and liability considerations. Against this backdrop, this article discusses the appropriateness of viewing the continuation of (...) the practice of shielding as a moral failure. This is affirmed and specified in four dimensions: preventability of foreseeable harm, moral agency, moral character, and moral practice (in MacIntyre’s sense). Moral character is discussed in the context of prudent versus proportionate choices. As to moral practice, it will be shown that the continued practice of shielding no longer met the requirements of an (inherently moral) practice, as external goods such as security thinking and structural deficiencies prevented the pursuit of internal goods focusing on residents’ interests and welfare, which in many places has led to a loss of trust in these facilities. This specification of moral failure also allows a novel perspective on moral distress, which can be understood as the expression of the psychological impact of moral failure on moral agents. Conclusions are formulated about how pandemic events can be understood as character challenges for healthcare professionals within residential care, aimed at preserving the internal goods of residential care even under difficult circumstances, which is understood as a manifestation of moral resilience. Finally, the importance of moral and civic education of healthcare students is emphasized to facilitate students' early identification as trusted members of a profession and a caring society, in order to reduce experiences of moral failure or improve the way to deal with it effectively. (shrink)

This paper investigates some classical oppositional categories, like synthetic versus analytic, posterior versus prior, imagination versus grammar, metaphor versus hermeneutics, metaphysics versus observation, innovation versus routine, and image versus sound, and the role they play in epistemology and philosophy of science. The epistemological framework of _objective cognitive constructivism_ is of special interest in these investigations. Oppositional relations are formally represented using algebraic lattice structures like the cube and the hexagon of opposition, with applications in the contexts of modern color theory, (...) Kantian philosophy, Jungian psychology, and linguistics. (shrink)

Ibn al-Bann1321) is the author of one of the four extant of the unfinished zq (fl. Tunis and Marrakesh ca. 1193j accessible for the computation of planetary longitudes. The present paper studies some modifications of the structure of the tables the purpose of which is to make calculations easier. The tables of the planetary and lunar equations of the centre are ' appears as a clever adapter, who displays a clear ingenuity allowing him to introduce formal modifications which give his (...) work an appearance of novelty which does not correspond to reality. (shrink)

Does the fact that my actions cause someone to lack access to the objects of her human rights make me a human rights violator? Is behaving in such a way that we deprive someone of access to the objects of her human rights even when we could have avoided behaving in such a way, sufficient to maintain that we have violated her human rights? When an affluent country pursues domestic policies that will foreseeably cause massive deprivation abroad in order to (...) improve its already prosperous economy, has this country violated the human rights of the very poor just by doing so? If international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization pursue policies that lead to an increase in the global poverty rate, are such organizations human rights violators? Can an individual undertaking certain actions in the market place that render insecure the access of the worst-off to the objects of their human rights be blamed for violating their rights?In this article I discuss the thesis that claims that whenever we cause, or contribute to the cause of, someone else's lack of access to the objects of her human rights, we are human rights violators. I contend that this thesis, which seems to underpin the arguments of many cosmopolitan authors taking part of the global justice debate, is mistaken. In order to achieve this end, I analyze several alternative formulations of the causal thesis. My conclusion is that before it can be said that an agent has violated someone else's human rights, it has to be proven that this agent has caused, or contributed to the cause of, a state of affairs where someone lacks access to the object of some of her human rights, by infringing a duty not to do so. Furthermore, I maintain that this must be a perfect, as opposed to an imperfect, duty. (shrink)

An Andalusian tradition of zījes seems to have been predominant in the Maghrib due to the popularity of the zīj of Ibn Is[hdotu]āq al-Tūnisī and derived texts compiled in the fourteenth century. This tradition computed sidereal planetary longitudes and allowed the calculation of tropical longitudes by using trepidation tables based on models designed in al-Andalus by Abū Is[hdotu]āq ibn al-Zarqālluh. This tradition also used Ibn al-Zarqālluh's model to calculate the obliquity of the ecliptic, which implied that this angle had a (...) cyclical period of oscillation between a maximum of 23;53° and a minimum of 23;33°: after reaching this minimum value the obliquity of the ecliptic was bound to increase. This paper argues that some new Maghribi sources give information on observations made in the Maghrib in the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries that imply that precession had increased beyond the limits allowed by the Zarqāllian trepidation theory, while the obliquity of the ecliptic had diminished below the level accepted by astronomers who followed Ibn al-Zarqālluh. This explains the introduction in the Maghrib of Eastern zījes, which computed directly tropical longitudes and did not accept the cyclical variation of the obliquity. Information about observations of dawn and twilight made both in Egypt and in the Maghrib in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is also presented. (shrink)

In the last three decades, considerable theoretical and empirical research has been undertaken on the topic of moral distress among health professionals. Understood as a psychological and emotional response to the experience of moral wrongdoing, there is evidence to suggest that—if unaddressed—it contributes to staff demoralization, desensitization and burnout and, ultimately, to lower standards of patient safety and quality of care. However, more recently, the concept of moral distress has been subjected to important criticisms. Specifically, some authors argue that the (...) standard account of moral distress elucidated by Jameton :542–551, 1984) does not refer to a discrete phenomenon and/or that it is not sufficiently broad and that this makes measuring its prevalence among health professionals, and other groups of workers, difficult if not impossible. In this paper, we defend the standard account of moral distress. We understand it as a concept that draws attention to the social, political and contextual determinants of moral agency and brings the emotional landscape of the moral realm to the fore. Given the increasing pressure on health professionals worldwide to meet efficiency, financial and corporate targets and reported adverse effects of these for the quality and safety of patient care, we believe that further empirical research that deploys the standard account moral distress is timely and important. (shrink)

Shifts in technology and ideology blur distinctions between people and machines, nations, and multinationals. Neoliberal economic policies in Mexico clashed with the national identity traditionally fostered by the official educational system. Calling for dialogue not imposed truths, historians rejected at tempts to align textbooks with the new agenda during a 3-year controversy. [Curriculum is] a specially constructed information system whose purpose, in its totality, is to influence, teach, train, or cultivate the mind and character of youth. —Neil Postman (cited in (...) Brosio, 1994, p. 243). (shrink)

En este articulo analizamos el fenómeno del Ereignis en la obra de Heidegger posterior a la Kehre para confrontar su origen conflictivo. Para esto, presentamos la influencia de su lectura del πόλεµοç de Heráclito y una interpretación de la estructura y sus dimensiones gracias a la tensión de las partes que se mantienen en continua oscilación por la naturaleza abismal de la donación. Asimismo, revisamos el camino que presentan los ensambles del fenómeno a la luz de su obra Beiträge zur (...) Philosophie. De esto modo, comprenderemos un poco más el sentido complejo de este fenómeno y su aporte al problema de la diferencia. In this paper we analyze the phenomenon of Ereignis in Heidegger's work after the Kehre, in order to question his conflicting origin. To do this, we show the influence of his reading of Heraclitus' πόλεµοç as well as an interpretation of the structure and its dimensions, thanks to the tension between the parts kept in continuous oscillation due to the abysmal nature of donation. We also revised the path shown by the gatherings of the phenomenon, in the light of his work Beiträge zur Philosophie. This way, we may get greater insights into the complex sense of this phenomenon and its contribution to the issue of difference. (shrink)

Conceptual congruency effects are biases induced by an irrelevant conceptual dimension of a task (e.g., location in vertical space) on the processing of another, relevant dimension (e.g., judging words’ emotional evaluation). Such effects are a central empirical pillar for recent views about how the mind/brain represents concepts. In the present paper, we show how attentional cueing (both exogenous and endogenous) to each conceptual dimension succeeds in modifying both the manifestation and the symmetry of the effect. The theoretical implications of this (...) finding are discussed. (shrink)

X. Zubiri, uno de los pensadores espanoles mas sobresalientes en el presente siglo, nos ha hecho ver que el mal se entiende como condicion de la realidad en respectividad ante el hombre, o sea, en la interaccion del hombre con las cosas reales o consigo mismo en cuanto realidad. En este sentido, el mal se entiende desde la realidad condicionada. Como se entiende que el mal surja desde la realidad? Cual es la consistencia del mal en cuanto condicion? En que (...) supera Zubiri la vision del mal como privacion del bien? El presente estudio pretende dar respuesta a tales cuestiones, considerando el planteamiento del mal segun Zubiri desde el contexto de su pensamiento filosofico. Julio Martin Castillo nacio en 1960 en las Yayas, La Vega (Rep. Dominicana). Ordenado sacerdote en 1986. Ha terminado su doctorado en Filosofia en la Pontificia Universidad Gregoriana (Roma). (shrink)

From a reading of Sein und Zeit and contemporary courses, we are interested in examining the transcendental structure of Dasein to explain what we understand as its bidimensional character. For this, we analyze the function of the mood in the dynamics of the structure through the anxiety and profound boredom . We emphasize the affective disposition as an existential starting point and condition of possibility for two pathways, since in relation to being we observed tension between two dimensions that are (...) oscillated Dasein towards one concealment and one unconcealed motion of what happens. With this interpretation we intend to show that the tensive dynamics of the bidimensional structure of Dasein proposed here is the effect of the original givenness of being. (shrink)

ResumenEl objetivo de este artículo es demostrar que la doctrina kantiana del esquematismo trascendental trata una problemática ontológica. Con ese fin, en primer lugar, estudiamos las relaciones entre categorías, esquemas y principios del entendimiento. De esta manera señalamos la íntima relación entre los esquemas y los principios. En segundo lugar, mostramos que el sistema de los principios del entendimiento puede entenderse como un tratado de ontología. En tercer lugar, presentamos y criticamos un grupo de interpretaciones semánticas del esquematismo trascendental.Palabras claveKant, (...) filosofía trascendental, esquematismo, ontología.AbstractThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the Kantian doctrine of transcendental schematism deals with an ontological problematic. With this purpose in mind, in the first place, I study the relationships between categories, schemata and principles of understanding. In this way I point out the close relationship between schemata and principles. In the second place, I demonstrate that the system of the principles of understanding can be conceived as an ontological treatise. In the third place, I present and review a group of semantic interpretations of transcendental schematism.KeywordsKant, transcendental philosophy, schematism, ontology. (shrink)

Espacio, cuerpo y hábito delimitan en este trabajo el entorno en el cual se emplaza el tema de la agencia técnica, en tanto una modalidad de la praxis que ejerce el sujeto en el mundo. En Phénoménologie de la perception Merleau-Ponty hace un análisis que ayuda a rastrear cómo se conforma su sentido en relación a la situación a la que se circunscribe el comportamiento del sujeto con los útiles en la experiencia. Una reconstrucción de estas prácticas requerirá exhibir los (...) mecanismos vitales que plasman una versión efectiva del horizonte de posibilidades del útil. Hay algo que escapa a la lectura teórica, que tiene que ver con la fuerza y la intensidad de las percepciones inherentes a la conducta del sujeto «encarnado». Este plus de sentido que excede el rango objetivo contribuye, sin más, a la constitución elemental de la práctica de una manera que sólo una exploración directa del acto y su sentir nos provee. De este modo, se puede abordar la complejidad y limitaciones de la experiencia que aparecen con una lectura inmanente de su sentido. (shrink)

O intuito deste artigo é responder: qual a religião de Voltaire? O filósofo teria um modelo de religião a propor? Como sabemos que a resposta é positiva, trabalhamos com as principais obras de Voltaire para entender quais são os fundamentos mais importantes de sua religião, quais são as questões que mais aparecem nas obras do filósofo e como elas são respondidas. Para isso, apresentaremos a relação das ideias de Voltaire com o cristianismo vigente em sua época, e a posição do (...) filósofo a respeito de Deus, da alma e do livre-arbítrio, bem como o modelo de religião proposto pelo autor do Cândido. (shrink)

Decoupling is a general principle that allows us to separate simple components in a complex system. In statistics, decoupling is often expressed as independence, no association, or zero covariance relations. These relations are sharp statistical hypotheses, that can be tested using the FBST - Full Bayesian Significance Test. Decoupling relations can also be introduced by some techniques of Design of Statistical Experiments, DSEs, like randomization. This article discusses the concepts of decoupling, randomization and sparsely connected statistical models in the epistemological (...) framework of cognitive constructivism. (shrink)

En nuestros días las teorías cosmopolitas han experimentado una revitalización significativa al albur de la intensificación de las relaciones humanas que ha propiciado el fenómeno de la globalización. En las últimas décadas, particularmente desde la caída del Muro de Berlín, se ha registrado un florecimiento de las tesis cosmopolitas que aspiran a ofrecer un modelo teórico desde el que comprender y transformar la realidad en esta era de apertura y de creciente interdependencia que inaugura la globalización. En este trabajo realizamos (...) una aproximación histórica y conceptual al cosmopolitismo, abundando en las causas de su actual auge y, tras analizar los elementos que conforman el fenómeno de la globalización, que determina un tránsito desde la primera a la segunda modernidad, se formula una propuesta humanista e ilustrada de un _cosmopolitismo gradual_, una concepción realista cosmopolita que permita trascender la estatalidad mediante la implementación de formas de gobernanza multinivel. (shrink)

This study integrates corpus-assisted text analysis with frame semantics to study a social problem. Taking a cognitive-linguistic approach to critical discourse studies, in this article I examine the linguistic construction of minors in a corpus of 489 articles from the Uruguayan newspaper El País in the context of the so-called ‘Criminal Imputability Referendum’. Throughout, I focus on the construal operation of framing and identify a host of discursive patterns via which minors and adolescents are recurrently placed within the semantic frame (...) CRIME, and within this, they profile the frame elements of perpetrators of violent crimes rather than victims. I argue that, in the context of the referendum, these discursive strategies run the risk of facilitating the consolidation of a strong conceptual link whereby youth become readily associated with criminality, and are subservient to the political views of groups supporting a lower cut-off age for criminal responsibility and more stringent punishments. The observations arrived at in this instance set the foundations for a future experimental study testing whether the discursive patterns unearthed here have an effect on how readers conceptualize minors outside the texts. (shrink)

Background: Most undergraduate midwifery curricula comprise ethics courses to strengthen the moral competences of future midwives. By contrast, surprisingly little is known about the specific moral competences considered to be relevant for midwifery practice. Describing these competences not only depends on generic assumptions about the moral nature of midwifery practice but also reflects which issues practitioners themselves classify as moral. Objective: The goal of this study was to gain insight into the ethical issues midwives encounter in their daily work, the (...) key competences and resources they consider indispensable to understand and deal with them, and to assess phenomena linked to moral distress. Methods: We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with eight midwives and two other health professionals, varying in terms of years of experience and work setting. Interview transcripts were analyzed in an interdisciplinary research group, following thematic analysis. Ethical considerations: This study was not subject to approval according to the Swiss Law on Research with Humans. Participants were informed about the study goals and gave written informed consent prior to participation. Results: External constraints limiting the midwife’s and the patient’s autonomy and resulting interpersonal conflicts were found to be the most relevant ethical issues encountered in clinical practice and were most often associated with moral distress. These conflicts often arise in the context of medical interventions midwives consider as not appropriate and situations in which less experienced midwives in particular observe a lack of both interprofessional communication and trust in their professional competence. Ethical issues related to late abortions or prenatal diagnostics and selective abortions were also frequently addressed, but many midwives involved had learned to cope with them. Discussion: In the light of the ethical issues and factors contributing to phenomena of moral distress, an empirically grounded profile of moral competences is drafted. Curricular implications in the light of possible adaptations within undergraduate midwifery education are critically discussed. (shrink)

This paper seeks to establish the reflexive fundamentals about the importance of language in initiave-functional college education, with the general objective of finding and developing categories that allow synthesizing schemes of different approaches to language, in order to contribute to the teaching practice with discourse analysis -/- techniques, which favor processes that promote the pupils’operative intellectual habits. To present this, we will show some propositions that underlie didactic strategies we have used, to motivate, stimulate, and provoke participation from the students (...) in the teaching-learning process of the topics raised in the different subjects that integrate the Sciences of Communication course at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). -/- Therefore, the aim of this exposition of causes is to define: 1) our experiential context so to make explicit the limitations and challenges we experiment with and face in this academic exercise to provoke the pupils’ amazement or at least keep their interest; and 2) the theoretical assumptions that underlie our investigation about the relationship between observed language (system) and lived language (act). (shrink)

Book reviews: NOGUEIRA, Paulo Augusto de Souza. Religião e linguagem: abordagens teóricas interdisciplinares. São Paulo: Paulus, 2015. 446 p.. ISBN 978-85-349-4187-7.

Neste artigo, faço críticas às críticas tecidas por John Rawlscontra o utilitarismo, compreendido como teoria política, em seu livroA Theory of Justice. Esforçar-me-ei por mostrar que, ainda que outilitarismo considere a maximização da felicidade como o critério dedistinção das instituições políticas corretamente ordenadas, isso nãosignifica que ele seja indiferente a questões de justiça distributiva.Buscarei mostrar que o utilitarismo incorpora tais princípios de justiça,porque o modo como a felicidade é distribuída determina a proporçãoem que ela pode ser produzida. Além disso, como (...) veremos, as críticasfeitas por Rawls estão fundadas numa concepção extremamenteempobrecida do princípio da prudência racional, a qual ele injustamenteatribui ao seu opositor. Não obstante, também buscarei mostrar quedeterminadas críticas feitas por Rawls estão na direção correta, a saberaquelas que, em oposição ao utilitarismo, apresentam a liberdade, enão a felicidade, como constituidora do bem incondicional que deveser justamente distribuído.In this paper, I criticize the criticisms that John Rawls developsagainst the Utilitarianism, understood as a political theory, in his bookA Theory of Justice. I would like to show that, although theUtilitarianism takes the maximization of happiness as the criterion ofrightly ordered political institutions, it does not mean that it cannot bevery sensitive to questions of distributive justice. I will show that theUtilitarianism embeds such principles of justice, because the way happiness is distributed determines the proportion in which it can beproduced. Moreover, as we will see, Rawls criticisms are based on avery poorly conception of rational prudence that he then unfairlyattributes to his opponent. Nevertheless, I will also show that Rawlscriticism is in the right way, when he asserts, in opposition to theUtilitarianism, that freedom, instead of happiness, is the unconditionalgood that should be rightly distributed. (shrink)