Innovation encompasses the introduction of novel concepts, products, services, and methodologies designed for the betterment of humanity, often with the anticipation of yielding economic advantages. It is the driving force behind transformative shifts, notably within the technological realm. The societal ramifications of innovation stem from the intentional execution of inventive human endeavours. In the contemporary landscape, the vanguard of innovation is inhabited by a novel socioeconomic entity recognized as the knowledge worker. Within this scope, the present research endeavours to construct (...) a comprehensive framework elucidating the progression of innovation from conceptualization to practical application. The study posits that the genesis of innovative endeavours resides within individual consciousness, subsequently translating into tangible actions spanning immediate surroundings, markets, and organizational landscapes. The overarching aim remains the enhancement of societal well-being and the holistic prosperity of individuals, encompassing both material and spiritual dimensions. This article forges epistemological connections between anthropology, theology, and economics. This scholarly nexus is made feasible by situating oneself within theological domains that scrutinize human conduct, specifically moral theology and theological anthropology, while simultaneously drawing upon the profound reservoir of insights encapsulated within economic theory. Resumen La innovación abarca la introducción de conceptos, productos, servicios y metodologías novedosos diseñados para el mejoramiento de la humanidad, a menudo con la expectativa de generar ventajas económicas. Es la fuerza impulsora detrás de cambios transformadores, especialmente en el ámbito tecnológico. Las repercusiones sociales de la innovación derivan de la ejecución intencionada de esfuerzos creativos humanos. En el panorama contemporáneo, la vanguardia de la innovación está constituida por una nueva entidad socioeconómica conocida como el *trabajador del conocimiento*. En este contexto, la presente investigación se propone construir un marco integral que explique la progresión de la innovación desde su conceptualización hasta su aplicación práctica. El estudio sostiene que el origen de los esfuerzos innovadores reside en la conciencia individual, traduciéndose posteriormente en acciones tangibles que impactan el entorno inmediato, los mercados y las organizaciones. El objetivo general sigue siendo la mejora del bienestar social y la prosperidad holística de las personas, abarcando tanto las dimensiones materiales como las espirituales. Este artículo establece conexiones epistemológicas entre la antropología, la teología y la economía. Este nexo académico es posible al situarse dentro de dominios teológicos que examinan la conducta humana, específicamente la teología moral y la antropología teológica, mientras se aprovechan las profundidades de los conocimientos de la teoría económica. (shrink)

Cardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this subspecialty. This paper is a first endeavor to empirically investigate the axiological foundations of the healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital. Our pilot study selected, as the target population, cardiology personnel not only because of their difficult ethical deliberations but also because of the stringent conditions in which they (...) have to make them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reconsider clinical ethics and Value-Based Medicine. This study proposes a qualitative analysis of the values and the virtues of healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital in order to establish how the former impact upon the medical and ethical decisions made by the latter. (shrink)

Are hierarchical arrangements in the workplace, including the employer-employee relationship, consistent with the ideal of relating to one another as moral equals? With this question at its core, this volume of essays by leading moral and political philosophers explores ideas about justice in the workplace, contributing to both political philosophy and business ethics. Relational egalitarians propose that the ideal of equality is primarily an ideal of social relationships and view the equality of social relationships as having priority over the distributive (...) arrangements. Yet contemporary workplaces are characterized by hierarchical employer-employee relationships. The essays push discussions of the relational egalitarian tradition in new directions, helping to show its promise and its limits. They address pressing concerns at a time of widening inequality and rapid changes in the nature of work. (shrink)

Some observers of the data economy have proposed that we treat data as labor. But are data contributions labor? Our folk conception of work emphasizes its importance and effort, such that work has a special interpersonal priority and deserves appreciation and compensation. The folk conception does not generally favor counting data as work, and so it serves as an error theory for reluctance to regulate data as labor. In contrast, labor regulation and policy focus on the political economy of labor, (...) and in particular the bargaining dynamics that participants in a labor market face. Labor regulation aims to protect workers against the threats characteristically posed by such bargaining dynamics. Data-transferring interactions between internet platforms and users share similar bargaining dynamics, and so there is a promising functional similarity between labor regulation and proposals for data regulation that would facilitate data strikes and data unions. (shrink)

The paper demonstrates that social alignment is distinct from value alignment as it is currently understood in the AI safety literature, and argues that social alignment is an important research agenda. Work provides an important example for the argument, since work is a cooperative endeavor, and it is part of the larger manifold of social cooperation. These cooperative aspects of work are individually and socially valuable, and so they must be given a central place when evaluating the impact of AI (...) upon work. Workplace technologies are not simply instruments for achieving productive goals, but ways of mediating interpersonal relations. They are aspects of a cooperative interface i.e. the infrastructure by which we engage cooperative behavior with others. The concept of the cooperative interface suggests two conjectures to foreground in the social alignment agenda, motivated by the experience of algorithmic trading and social robotics: that AI impacts cooperation through its effects on social networks, and through its effects on social norms. (shrink)

I survey several counterexamples (by Raz and MacCormick) to Hohfeld's conjecture that a claim-right is correlative to a directed duty and (by Cornell and Frick) to Bentham's suggestion that a claim-right is correlative to a wronging. We can vindicate these claims of correlativity if we acknowledge that entitlements like claim-rights and directed duties admit of degrees of abstraction: that they may be general rather than specific, unspecified rather than specified, or indefinite rather than definite. I provide an error theory consisting (...) in linguistic and practical reasons for why we articulate normative incidents in ways that threaten correlativity. And I deny that abstraction imposes a heavy metaphysical cost on rights theory, though I leave open whether abstraction excludes certain explanatory accounts of rights such as the interest theory or will theory. (shrink)

Este ensayo se ocupa del tratamiento dado por René Descartes al descubrimiento de la circulación de la sangre hecho por William Harvey y sus diferencias respecto al papel del corazón en este proceso. Tomando distancia de la interpretación tradicional de la controversia, se concluye que, si bien Harvey fue un declarado aristotélico y Descartes un filósofo de estirpe materialista, los postulados de este último exhiben varios prejuicios escolásticos y una fuerte carga teórica en las observaciones. Por el contrario, la propuesta (...) de Harvey, aunque inspirada en el Estagirita, termina librando a la fisiología de consideraciones propias del pensamiento de Aristóteles. (shrink)

La lectura que ha recibido Spinoza ha variado de acuerdo con la época y los intereses propios de sus intérpretes. Algunas lecturas, como las de sus contemporáneos, han encontrado en él una fuente de ateísmo radical, mientras el romanticismo lo llamará “el ebrio de Dios”. Estas interpretaciones también permiten hacer juicios sobre las religiones reveladas, es decir, sobre aquellas religiones positivas tales como el cristianismo, el judaísmo o el islam. Una lectura clásica de Spinoza ha denigrado totalmente la religión. En (...) este artículo, sin embargo, propongo mostrar que aquella interpretación es errada, pues Spinoza entiende la religión como una visión de mundo imaginativa que permite, por medio de los afectos, la tradición y la obediencia, la cohesión de la comunidad. La teología, distinta de la religión, será el verdadero adversario de Spinoza. Para cumplir con lo planteado, se analizarán las dos figuras que expresan cada campo social: el profeta y el teólogo. La hipótesis es que el profeta expresa una relación de inmanencia frente a su comunidad, mientras el teólogo se establece sobre la base de una representación trascendente, ejecutando un dominio político de servidumbre y superstición sobre sus fieles. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta dos objetivos principales, ambos relacionados con los planteamientos de la corriente transhumanista. El primero consiste en realizar una aproximación al aspecto tecnológico del transhumanismo, en concreto a su estado actual en cuanto a los avances en el ámbito de la ingeniería cibernética. Tras una introducción al concepto de transhumanismo, se expondrán algunos proyectos actuales que buscan desde la reparación de daños hasta el mejoramiento humano. Como ejemplo de la implementación de la tecnología con el objetivo de amplificar (...) los sentidos, se presenta el concepto de cíborg. El segundo objetivo se centrará en presentar las cuestiones de carácter bioético que los avances en ingeniería cibernética plantean y que irán surgiendo a lo largo del artículo con el fin de ver cómo estos avances realmente pueden ponerse al servicio de la naturaleza humana y de su desarrollo integral. (shrink)

Polo’s new books on psychology are examined, in the light of his entire corpus.

One of the early, non-financial uses of blockchain technologies around which several startups have developed was to help manage, monetize, and make the sharing of genomic data more private. Because deidentified genomic data are excluded from HIPAA and many other regulatory contexts worldwide—and is already a widely traded commodity for science valued in the hundreds of millions over the past decade—genomic blockchains proved a promising entry point for using the benefits of blockchains for dissemination and remuneration of data. Several models (...) have been tried, and most have touted their abilities to make users the “owners” of the genomic data in ways in which current models fail. This paper will explore the various existing and potential models for genomic blockchains, review some shortcomings and unmet needs, and explain why no technical solution alone will fulfill the promise of genomic data ownership without regulation. (shrink)

The universally recognized backbone of molecular biology describes the flow of genetic information from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to ribonucleic acid (RNA) to protein or gene product, that is, DNA is transcribed into another nucleic acid (RNA), which is single stranded, next some types of RNA are in turn translated into proteins. Translation of nucleic acids to proteins is literally a translation from the genomic language to the metabolic language. Codons formed of a sequence of three nucleic acids summon a specific (...) amino acid. Translation from codons to proteins, that is, protein synthesis, takes place by specialized machinery comprising mRNA, ribosomes, and free amino acids. Inferring the structure of DNA opened the door for tremendous advances in understanding the role of genes in creating life, directing replication, and ongoing metabolic processes responsible for maintaining life at both the cellular and organism level. (shrink)

In the human sciences, experimental research is used to establish causal relationships. However, the extrapolation of these results to the target population can be problematic. To facilitate extrapolation, we propose to use the statistical technique Latent Class Regression Analysis in combination with the analogical reasoning theory for extrapolation. This statistical technique can identify latent classes that differ in the effect of X on Y. In order to extrapolate by means of analogical reasoning, one can characterize the latent classes by a (...) combination of features, and then compare these features to features of the target. (shrink)

This book will provide a cutting-edge, theoretically innovative, and analytically detailed response to significant developments occurring in the fields of indigenous governance.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has produced high stress in nurses, affecting their professional quality of life. Different variables affect psychological stress response and professional quality of life. In this context, the role of professional values represents an interesting object of research. Objectives: To analyze the relationship between professional values, perceived stress, and professional quality of life among nurses during the COVID-19 crisis. Research design, participants, and research context: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Participants were 439 registered nurses from the public health system. (...) Perceived stress, professional quality of life, and professional values were evaluated by using measuring instruments adapted and validated in the geographic context of research. Data were collected online in December 2020 during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Ethical considerations: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee on Clinical Research of the Principality of Asturias. Findings: Within professional values, ethics obtained higher scores showing the primacy of ethical values among nurses. Moderate correlations between ethics, mastery, expertise, and compassion satisfaction were found. Frontline nurses informed high perceived stress. The correlations between professional values and compassion satisfaction were higher in non-frontline nurses. A moderate negative correlation between perceived stress and compassion satisfaction was found in both groups, which implies that the higher the stress, the lower the satisfaction in the helping relationship. Conclusion: Professional values positively influence compassion satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compassion satisfaction presents a negative correlation with fatigue compassion and burnout in frontline and non-frontline nurses. Given the functionality of values both to guide clinical practice professionally and ethically, and prevent dissatisfaction with one’s professional quality of life by reinforcing compassion satisfaction, it is necessary to reinforce them with an intensive and cross-sectional learning during the university training. (shrink)

Tom Rockmore: Kant and Phenomenology, Chicago-Londres: University of Chicago Press 2011, 258 pp.

In response to the COVID‐19 pandemic philosophers and governments have proposed scarce resource allocation guidelines. Their purpose is to advise healthcare professionals on how to ethically allocate scarce medical resources. One challenging feature of the pandemic has been the large numbers of patients needing mechanical ventilatory support. Guidelines have paradigmatically focused on the question of what doctors should do if they have fewer ventilators than patients who need respiratory support: which patient should get the ventilator? There is, however, an important (...) higher level allocation problem. Namely, how are we to ethically distribute newly obtained ventilators across hospitals: which hospital should get the ventilator(s)? In this paper, we identify a set of principles for allocating newly obtained ventilators across hospitals. We focus particularly on low and middle income countries, who frequently have limited pre‐existing intensive care capacity, and have needed to source additional ventilators. We first provide some background. Second, we argue that the main population healthcare aim during the COVID‐19 pandemic should be to save the most lives. Next, we assess a series of potential heuristics or principles that could be used to guide allocation: allocation to the most densely populated cities, random allocation, allocation based on the ratio of patients to ICU personnel, prioritisation in terms of intrahospital mortality, prioritisation of younger populations, and prioritisation in terms of population mortality. We conclude by providing a plausible ranking of the principles, while noting a number of epistemological challenges, in terms of how they best further the aim of increasing the probability of saving the most lives. (shrink)

IntroductionCardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this subspecialty. This paper is a first endeavor to empirically investigate the axiological foundations of the healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital. Our pilot study selected, as the target population, cardiology personnel not only because of their difficult ethical deliberations but also because of the stringent conditions in which they (...) have to make them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reconsider clinical ethics and Value-Based Medicine. This study proposes a qualitative analysis of the values and the virtues of healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital in order to establish how the former impact upon the medical and ethical decisions made by the latter.ResultsWe point out the need for strengthening the roles of healthcare personnel as educators and guidance counselors in order to meet the ends of medicine, as well as the need for an ethical discernment that is compatible with our results, namely, that the ethical values developed by healthcare professionals stem from their life history as well as their professional education.ConclusionWe establish the kind of actions, communication skills and empathy that are required to build a stronger patient-healthcare professional relationship, which at the same time improves prognosis, treatment efficiency and therapeutic adhesion. (shrink)

The classic pejorative designation of populism currently coexists with its recent vindication. From certain left-wing political and intellectual circles, the revival of this category is part of a strategy aimed at bringing together unsatisfied demands in an emancipatory key. In line with Ernesto Laclau's theory, one of the paradigmatic examples of this tendency is Chantal Mouffe's left-populist proposal. Different critical approaches object that, in the eagerness to deepen and to radicalise democracy, these impulses often challenge its limits and flirt with (...) political logics that could completely blur them. Thus, the feasibility of this emancipatory strategy seems to be tied to the ever-problematic compatibility between populism and democracy, especially to its possible normative and institutional modulations. This article will argue that the populist conception projected by Mouffe is relatively autonomous from Laclau's, and that, unlike Laclau's, it has its own prospects of agonism and civicrepublicanism that can make room for the institutional dimension and the normativity constitutive of the liberal democratic order. (shrink)

Preciado, Paul B. (2022)Dysphoria mundi: El sonido del mundo derrumbándoseBarcelona: Anagrama, 551 p.ISBN 978-84-339-9948-1.

Este artículo presenta una revisión del concepto de sujeto neoliberal a través de sus distintas caracterizaciones en la filosofía política contemporánea. Bajo las nociones de empresa, deuda y reto, se estudian las obras de los principales autores que se han ocupado de la subjetividad neoliberal y se muestran sus diferencias, así como el hilo conductor que, mediante acuerdos implícitos, ha avanzado la investigación hasta alcanzar una concepción del sujeto neoliberal como aquel que toma su vida como una sucesión de retos (...) deportivos. Así, se concluye que el concepto de reto ha recogido los análisis basados en la empresa y en la deuda, ofreciendo la definición más completa y exacta del sujeto neoliberal. (shrink)

Chantal Mouffe ha criticado con vehemencia la propuesta deliberativa de Jürgen Habermas por lo que interpreta como una negación del conflicto político. El objetivo de este trabajo es reconsiderar esta objeción. Para ello se reconstruye la crítica mouffeana a partir de cuatro diferentes planos analíticos en lo que refiere a las posibilidades de comprensión y aceptación del antagonismo. En contra de lo sostenido por Mouffe, afirmamos que a pesar de que el modelo deliberativo coloca un énfasis prioritario en la dimensión (...) consensual de la práctica comunicativa, el conflicto constituye un supuesto necesario e irreductible que está presente en la base del edificio teórico de la propuesta habermasiana. Chantal Mouffe has strongly criticized the Jürgen Habermas' deliberative proposal for what she asserts is the negation of political conflict. In this paper we reconsider this objection by rebuilding this critique through four different dimensions which consider the possibilities of comprehension and acceptation of antagonism. Thus, in opposition to what Mouffe supports, we assert that even though his deliberative model emphasizes the consensual dimension of the communicative practice, conflict lays on the basis of the Habermas' theoretical structure as a necessary and unavoidable concept. (shrink)

La presente nota crítica de Pinocho. Las aventuras de un títere dos veces comentadas y tres veces ilustradas, de Giorgio Agamben, propone una lectura a partir de los conceptos benjaminianos de carácter y destino, mostrando cómo estos revelan más claramente el sentido de las tesis que el autor va alcanzando, así como contrastándolo con la crítica que Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio hizo del Pinocho de Carlo Collodi. Se concluye que el Pinocho de Agamben es un personaje que trasciende aquella oposición por (...) su carácter abierto y su destino literariamente malparado. (shrink)

Résumé L'article vise à montrer que le langage est intimement lié au monde social et que la clarification d'une telle relation dépend du fait de considérer sur un même plan les énoncés et les actions, ce qui conduit à considérer l'énonciation par le langage comme un type de comportement partagé. Cela signifie que la langue ne sert pas seulement les besoins de la vie sociale en tant que moyen d'intercompréhension. De façon relativement autonome, le langage fonctionne dans des conditions de (...) réalisation qui sont des relations sociales très segmentées et hiérarchisées. L'hypothèse est qu'il est nécessaire, comme point de départ de l'analyse du caractère social du langage, de reconnaître la valeur performative qu'ont les énoncés, du fait qu'ils contiennent, dans le domaine des actes de langage, un certain pouvoir effectif ajusté aux conditions sociales qui détermine leur énonciation. Resumen El artículo tiene el objetivo de mostrar que el lenguaje está íntimamente vinculado con el mundo social y que aclarar tal relación depende de considerar en un mismo plano de dependencia a los enunciados y a las acciones - lo que lleva a considerar al lenguaje como un tipo de comportamiento compartido. Eso quiere decir que el lenguaje no solo sirve a las necesidades de la vida social como medio de intercomprensión. Sobre un fondo relativamente autónomo -caracterizable en las consideraciones sobre los matices semánticos introducidos por las significaciones implícitas- el lenguaje funciona en condiciones de realización que son relaciones sociales altamente segmentadas y jerarquizadas. La hipótesis es que el lenguaje se realiza socialmente en la medida en que facilita a los individuos una forma de contacto. Pero también insistimos en que como punto de partida para el análisis del carácter social del lenguaje es necesario reconocer el valor performativo que tienen los enunciados en cuanto comportan, en el ámbito de los hechos del habla, un cierto poder realizativo ajustado a condiciones sociales que determinan los caminos de tal realización. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Tacitus, Germanicus, Piso, and the Tabula SiarensisJulián GonzálezTacitus describes the funerary honors that were decreed for Germanicus in a dense narrative covering the whole of chapter 83 of book 2 of his Annals. Modern critics consider that this extensive chapter was taken from the acta senatus, from which not only the senatus consulta would have been taken but also various items from the debate, especially the sententiae of the (...) senators and the interventions of the emperor himself. 1 In the introductory phrase honores ut quis amore in Germanicum aut ingenio ualidus reperti decretique the word decreti clearly indicates that we are dealing with a decision of the Senate, but I also believe that reperti, “found after a search,” ties in perfectly with the result of a senatorial deliberation. This initial supposition is supported by Ann. 2.83.3, where Tacitus records the proposal of the Senate to dedicate to Germanicus a golden imago clipeata among the portraits of the classical orators (cum censeretur clipeus auro et magnitudine insignis inter auctores), a proposal rejected by Tiberius. The use of the technical term censeretur, “vote,” and the fact that Tacitus records the intervention of the emperor verbatim can only be explained in terms of direct consultation of the acta senatus.The Tabula Siarensis, discovered in 1982 in the province of Sevilla, preserves on two large bronze fragments much of the Senatus Consultum de Honoribus Germanici Decernendis that was decreed at the end of A.D. 19. We know this from fr. IIb, lines 20–21, in which it is decreed that the senatus consultum be inscribed together with another, earlier, senatus consultum, which was passed on 16 December (Itemque hoc s(enatus) c(onsultum) in aere incideretur cum eo s(enatus) c(onsulto) quod factum est A.D. XVII kal. Ian.... figeretur). The text of fr. IIb, lines 18–19, placere uti libellus, quem is (Drusus) proxumo senatu recitasset, in aere incideretur, mentions, in turn, another session of the Senate different from that of 16 December. [End Page 123]As we compare Tacitus’ narrative with the official documents, then, we have to reckon with two (or three) senatus consulta and one comitial law, the lex Valeria Aurelia (found on the Tabula Hebana), through which we have at our disposal an unrivaled wealth of information on the funerary honors of Germanicus. This will allow us to ascertain not only to what extent Tacitus uses the acta senatus and in what way he adapts his narrative to the content of these sources, but also to what extent his signature statement sine ira et studio is valid. Thanks to these discoveries, we now have another example to add to the speech of Claudius in support of the admission to the Senate of the leading men of the Three Gauls. Although it is certain that Tacitus used the acta senatus, our first observation in comparing his narrative to the contents of the Tabula Siarensis and the Tabula Hebana is in some ways surprising, since Tacitus only mentions a dozen honors, while the Tabula Siarensis records a total of twenty-seven, to which one must add others to be found in the Tabula Hebana that are equally ignored by Tacitus.Tacitus divides Germanicus’ funerary honors into four sections:1. In the first of these he mentions the following: (a) that his name be sung in the carmen Saliare; (b) that the curule chairs, decorated with laurel crowns, be positioned in the places usually occupied by the sacerdotes Augustales; (c) that an ivory statue of him precede the pompa circensis; and (d) that no flamen or augur be elected in his place unless he belong to the gens Iulia. These measures do not feature in the extant portions of the Tabula Siarensis, although the Tabula Hebana mentions some of them, specifically the inclusion of Germanicus’ name in the carmen Saliare (Tab. Heb. lines 4–5), and the positioning of the curule chairs, decorated with laurel crowns, in places usually occupied by the sodales Augustales (Tab. Heb. lines 50–52), and probably also the ivory statue carried in front of the pompa circensis. 2This would indicate, in the opinion of some scholars, that Tacitus... (shrink)

This explorative article conceptualizes the myth as a cultural locus where different concepts are ordered forming semantic networks and as a social narrative reflecting emotional predispositions toward the social significance of an episode in the past. The article analyzes the semantic network formed within the Arthurian myth by the concepts Britain and imperium. It identifies a persistent semilogical dynamic between both concepts but shifting emotional responses and temporalities: loss and longing among the Welsh (sixth century to eleventh century), fixing the (...) memory in the past; joy among the English (twelfth century to fifteenth century), bringing the memory into the present; and anxiety and desire among Welsh and English (sixteenth century) projecting the memory to the future. During the seventeenth century, the semantic network left the Arthurian myth, which fell into a relative oblivion. (shrink)

Relationships between degree/area of academic formation and religious and Darwinian views are controversial. This study aimed to compare the religious beliefs and acceptance of Darwinian evolution between two contrasting South American scientific communities (Chile and Colombia), accounting for different degrees and areas of academic formation. In 2018, 115 last year bachelor students (surveyed as freshmen in 2014 for a previous study) from Chile, and 283 first/last year bachelor students, graduate students, and professors from Colombia, all belonging to biology, chemistry, or (...) physics, were surveyed. Chilean students/faculty were significantly more agnostic/atheist, more accepting of Darwinian evolution, and less creationist than their Colombian counterparts. Academic degree and area differently affected these views in both countries, as only in Chile there was a clear tendency among biologists and physicists with higher degrees to hold less religious and creationist views. Marked differences between the history, socioeconomic contexts, and especially in high school and university curricula of both countries might explain these results. (shrink)

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by dysfunctional processing of nociceptive stimulation. Neuroimaging studies have pointed out that pain-related network functioning seems to be altered in these patients. It is thought that this clinical symptomatology may be maintained or even strengthened because of an enhanced expectancy for painful stimuli or its forthcoming appearance. However, neural electrophysiological correlates associated with such attentional mechanisms have been scarcely explored. In the current study, expectancy processes of upcoming laser stimulation (painful and non-painful) and (...) its further processing were explored by event-related potentials (ERPs). Nineteen fibromyalgia patients and twenty healthy control volunteers took part in the experiment. Behavioral measures (reaction times and subjective pain perception) were also collected. We manipulated the pain/no pain expectancy through an S1–S2 paradigm (cue-target). S1 (image: triangle or square) predicted the S2 appearance (laser stimulation: warmth or pinprick sensation). Laser stimuli were delivered using a CO2 laser device. Temporal and spatial principal component analyses were employed to define and quantify the ERP component reliability. Statistical analyses revealed the existence of an abnormal pattern of pain expectancy in patients with fibromyalgia. Specifically, our results showed attenuated amplitudes at posterior lCNV component in anticipation of painful stimulation that was not found in healthy participants. In contrast, although larger P2 amplitudes to painful compared to innocuous events were shown, patients did not show any amplitude change in this laser-evoked response as a function of pain predictive cues (as occurred in the healthy control group). Additionally, analyses of the subjective perception of pain and reaction time indicated that laser stimuli preceded by pain cues were rated as more painful than those signaling non-pain expectancy and were associated with faster responses. Differences between groups were not found. The present findings suggest the presence of dysfunction in pain expectation mechanisms in fibromyalgia that eventually may make it difficult for patients to correctly interpret signs that prevent pain symptoms. Furthermore, the abnormal pattern in pain expectancy displayed by fibromyalgia patients could result in ineffective pain coping strategies. Understanding the neural correlates of pain processing and its modulatory factors is crucial to identify treatments for chronic pain syndromes. (shrink)

El presente trabajo investiga las tesis sobre el poder civil de Alonso de la Veracruz que buscan incorporar en la comunidad política española a los habitantes autóctonos del Nuevo Mundo, tesis que suelen relacionarse con F. de Vitoria y el tomismo español, y que últimamente son consideradas parte del republicanismo novohispano elaborado desde la periferia americana. Se busca demostrar que su propósito era aplicar una teoría de derechos naturales, sin que ello implique participación política de los indios americanos. Se analiza (...) la postura del fraile frente a la diversidad cultural y la guerra contra los indios. The paper explores Alonso de la Veracruz's theses on civil power, which sought to integrate the native inhabitants of the New World into the Spanish political community. These theses, which have usually been associated with F. de Vitoria and Spanish Thomism, have recently come to be considered part of a Novohispanic republicanism developed in the American periphery. The article seeks to show that the purpose of such theses was to apply a theory of natural rights that did not entail the political participation of the indigenous population, as well as to analyze Veracruz's position regarding cultural diversity and the war against the indigenous peoples. (shrink)

A growing number of technologies are currently being developed to improve and distribute thinking and decision-making. Rapid progress in brain-to-brain interfacing and swarming technologies promises to transform how we think about collective and collaborative cognitive tasks across domains, ranging from research to entertainment, and from therapeutics to military applications. As these tools continue to improve, we are prompted to monitor how they may affect our society on a broader level, but also how they may reshape our fundamental understanding of agency, (...) responsibility, and other key concepts of our moral landscape.In this paper we take a closer look at this class of technologies – Technologies for Collective Minds – to see not only how their implementation may react with commonly held moral values, but also how they challenge our underlying concepts of what constitutes collective or individual agency. We argue that prominent contemporary frameworks for understanding collective agency and responsibility are insufficient in terms of accurately describing the relationships enabled by Technologies for Collective Minds, and that they therefore risk obstructing ethical analysis of the implementation of these technologies in society. We propose a more multidimensional approach to better understand this set of technologies, and to facilitate future research on the ethics of Technologies for Collective Minds. (shrink)

Behavioral intervention techniques leveraging reactive responses have gained popularity as tools for promoting ethical behavior. Choice architects, for example, design and present default opt-out options to nudge individuals into accepting preselected choices deemed beneficial to both the decision-maker and society. Such interventions can also employ mild financial incentives or affective triggers including joy, fear, empathy, social pressure, and reputational rewards. We argue, however, that ethical competence is achieved via reflection, and that heavy reliance on reactive behavioral interventions can undermine the (...) development of ethical competence over the long term. Specifically, drawbacks may occur through motivational displacement, dependency, moral crowding out, loss of personal autonomy, and reactance. We introduce complementary cognitive boosting techniques designed to stimulate reflective cognition, as a more promising long-term strategy for instilling ethical behavior. One such approach is the Moral Self-Awareness (MSA) motivational construct, which incrementally leads agents to increasing levels of ethical reflection. We explain why ethical boosting approaches present more edifying and durable alternatives to reactive behavioral interventions and offer suggestions for social and organizational policy. (shrink)

Our goal in this paper is to articulate a precise concept of at least a certain kind of disease-mongering, showing how pharmaceutical marketing can commercially exploit certain diseases when their best definition is given through the success of a treatment in a clinical trial. We distinguish two types of disease-mongering according to the way they exploit the definition of the trial population for marketing purposes. We argue that behind these two forms of disease-mongering there are two well-known problems in the (...) statistical methodology of clinical trials (the reference class problem and the distinction between statistical and clinical significance). Overcoming them is far from simple. (shrink)