This paper describes the content and evolution of a fourth-year course for medical students on teaching pathographies of mental illness. (It is a follow-up to Nathan Carlin’s Pathographies of Mental Illness that appeared as an Element in the Bioethics and Neuroethics series published by Cambridge University Press.) The course originally centered on classic (and some contemporary) memoirs; however, responding to student evaluations, newer material now ensures more diversity, with material written by women and people of color, and describes the difference (...) that can make. (shrink)

Sin duda, Altazor o el viaje en paracaídas de Vicente Huidobro constituye una de las obras cumbre de la literatura hispanoamericana y, por extensión, de la literatura hispanoamericana. Indagar en su construcción literaria desde los códigos vanguardistas del erotismo como detonante, y de la estética de la sublimidad como marco de creación, constituye el mejor modo para comprender la poética del vacío y la sistematización de recursos literarios que articulan lo sublime. Así, el creacionismo singularmente y las Vanguardias, en general, (...) encuentran su demiurgo entrópico en la disolución de límites que dinamiza la sublimidad. (shrink)

Bioethics should pay more attention to globalization and some of its consequences than it has done so far. The COVID-19 pandemic would not have been possible without globalization, which has also increased some of its negative consequences. Globalization has intensified wildlife trade in the world. One of the main hypotheses about the origin of this pandemic is that it originated in illegal forms of wildlife trade in China. In the last 30 or 40 years, there have been zoonotic outbreaks at (...) a much frequent pace than before, many of those have been related to wildlife trade. Legal and illegal wildlife trade has grown in the shadow of globalization. Second, globalization has had a huge impact on the redistribution of wealth in the world. Since 1990 income inequality has increased in most high- and in many middle- and low-income countries. A country’s level of pre-COVID income inequality is the best predictor of the COVID death rate. These two issues are not unrelated. People living in poverty in LMIC tend to suffer more from infectious diseases and tend to be marginalized from the health sector. Additionally, poverty tends to reproduce the conditions under which zoonotic diseases can more easily spread. (shrink)

In this paper, an argument by Fisher (2004) is formalized and evaluated by means of some tools of classical logic. The argument presented by Fisher is a version of a piece of reasoning of great historical importance known as Pascal’s Wager. According to Fisher, “this is a fascinating piece of reasoning. It is complex and important and hard to handle”. Here is shown that, although formal logical analysis has limitations to evaluate everyday deductive arguments, it is perfectly capable to formalize (...) and evaluate Fisher’s argument. This should show that its usefulness is undeniable. (shrink)

According to Karl-Otto Apel, Wittgenstein and Heidegger carried away a critic of sense with antithetic pretension to invalidate or to defend the metaphysics, although in both cases approve the presupposition opposed to what that everyone should defended. Both initiated a process of self-destruction of Philosophy, that in pos-modernity generated a greater radicalism, although could not be that.

El artículo aborda el tema de las funciones ejecutivas (FE) y el aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios. Seconsidera relevante en el momento actual, debido a las diversas afectaciones que se perciben en el rendimientoacadémico luego de la pandemia, siendo cada vez más evidentes los problemas para regular el aprendizaje, la pocacapacidad para buscar información relevante y las dificultades para abstraer aspectos significativos de los datosde interés. Desde aquí se plantea la relevancia de comprender mejor el papel de las FE en el (...) aprendizaje, paralo cual, se inicia con varias definiciones que coinciden en caracterizarlas como aquellas que regulan, controlany mediatizan las actividades superiores y más complejas que realiza el cerebro; se las ubica en el córtex frontaly tienen diversas tasas de desarrollo a lo largo del ciclo vital, desde la infancia hasta la adultez joven, en la quealcanzan su pleno desarrollo. Agregado a esto, se describen los componentes de las FE, puesto que son variadosdependiendo de los autores y su relación con el aprendizaje. El enfoque es eminentemente neuropsicológico, perose realiza un breve diálogo con la filosofía de Heidegger, Hume y Locke. Se concluye con varias sugerencias deposibles actividades que pueden llevarse a cabo para desarrollar estas funciones en los estudiantes. (shrink)

This paper has two specific goals. The first is to demonstrate that the theorem in MetaphysicsΘ 9, 1051a24-27 is not equiva-lent to Euclid’s Proposition 32 of book I (which contradicts some Aristotelian commentators, such as W. D. Ross, J. L. Heiberg, and T. L. Heith). Agreeing with Henry Mendell’s analysis, I ar-gue that the two theorems are not equivalent, but I offer different reasons for such divergence: I propose a pedagogical-philosoph-ical reason for the Aristotelian theorem being shorter than the Euclidean (...) one (and the previous Aristotelian versions). Aristotle wants to emphasize the deductive procedure as a satisfactory method to discover scientific knowledge. The second objective, opposing some consensus about geometrical deductions/theo-rems in Aristotle, is to briefly propose that the theorem, exactly as we found it in Metaphysics and without any emendation to the text (therefore opposing Henry Mendell’s suggested amend-ments), allows the ancient philosopher to demonstrate that universal mathematical knowledge is in potence in geometrical figures. This tentatively proves that Aristotle emphasizes that geometrical deduction is sufficient to actualize mathematical knowledge. (shrink)

Psychopedagogy has experienced a great scientific development since 20th century as a result of disciplinary integration of psychology and pedagogy. However, epistemological problems of its professional and research practices have not been taken into account in scientific literature due to its theoretical complexity, insufficient attention by professionals who research in this discipline and perhaps for underrate general theoretical problems of sciences. The objective of this article is to offer different arguments in favour of a scientific status of psychopedagogy as an (...) interdisciplinary science, according to logical and historical assessment and the same way the determination of main epistemological problems that it confronts. La psicopedagogía ha venido manifestando un gran desarrollo desde el siglo XX, como resultado de la integración disciplinar de la psicología y la pedagogía. Sin embargo, los problemas epistemológicos asociados a su práctica investigativa y profesional no han sido abordados en la literatura científica, debido a su complejidad teórica, a una atención insuficiente por parte de los profesionales que investigan en esta disciplina y quizás a un menosprecio por los problemas teóricos generales de las ciencias. El objetivo de este artículo es ofrecer varios argumentos a favor del estatus científico de la psicopedagogía como ciencia interdisciplinar, a partir de una valoración histórica y lógica de su evolución, así como la precisión de los problemas epistemológicos fundamentales que afronta. (shrink)

In this work, we focus on the problem of selecting low-level heuristics in a hyperheuristic approach with offline learning, for the solution of instances of different problem domains. The objective is to improve the performance of the offline hyperheuristic approach, identifying equivalence classes in a set of instances of different problems and selecting the best performing heuristics in each of them. A methodology is proposed as the first step of a set of instances of all problems, and the generic characteristics (...) of each instance and the performance of the heuristics in each one of them are considered to define the vectors of characteristics and make a grouping of classes. Metalearning with statistical tests is used to select the heuristics for each class. Finally, we used the Naive Bayes to test the set instances with k-fold cross-validation, and we compared all results statistically with the best-known values. In this research, the methodology was tested by applying it to the problems of capacitated vehicle routing and graph coloring. The experimental results show that the proposed methodology can improve the performance of the offline hyperheuristic approach, correctly identifying the classes of instances and applying the appropriate heuristics in each case. This is based on the statistical comparison of the results obtained with those of the state of the art of each instance. (shrink)

The article examines whether economics serves to organize scarce resources, whether a market economy is the most natural form of organizing economic life, how the hierarchy of needs is satisfied; whether one man alone could be considered free, and advice is given us to what is recommendable that one bring with him to a desert island.

What did John Dewey mean by the experience? Researchers of John Dewey’s work often attempt to decipher the American thinker’s thesis, statements and postulates. However, specific approaches have probably become inexact when interpreting many of his concepts, even thinking that they are superficial idealism. Detailed state-of-the-art review during the past decade, in terms of the idea of experience in Dewey, makes it possible to think that this concept –although not precisely defined as that of a dictionary– can be analyzed more (...) accurately. The last is the debate and reflection that will be open to the academic community in this paper; to clarify and, subsequently, define the concept, two fundamental and inherent aspects are presented in this document: first, the pragmatist line that addresses an epistemological framework of the idea; second, two Deweyan elements will be enlightened, these are the living organism and nature, which, as the axis of an empirical influence, are analyzed from the Vermont philosopher’s perspective. This concept also addresses three essential perspectives: biological, psychological and social, bearing in mind that, according to Dewey, real experiences occur if “meaning” comes after. Finally, an interpretative approach will answer, as possible, the question posed at the beginning of this abstract. (shrink)

En la educación médica cubana se ha diseñado un currículo para el cumplimiento de su encargo social donde se inserta la enseñanza del inglés. Actualmente constituye una prioridad trabajar en la búsqueda de estrategias que favorezcan el perfeccionamiento idiomático de los egresados, en este sentido se desarrolló una investigación en la Filial de Ciencias Médicas de Colón con el objetivo de desarrollar la expresión oral en el inglés con fines específicos en el tercer año de la carrera de Medicina. Se (...) emplearon métodos como el análisis de documentos, la observación participante, y los registros anecdóticos. El sistema de actividades aplicado favorece la negociación de significados, toma de riesgos, mayor precisión al expresar ideas, así como el acercamiento del uso del idioma en situaciones reales con lo cual se logra mayor motivación, objetividad del aprendizaje e independencia, al emplear las habilidades lingüísticas para su desempeño profesional. In Cuban medical education, a curriculum in which English is integrated, is designed to fulfill a social mission. Presently, it is a priority to identify strategies that support the idiomatic improvement of graduates. To this end, an investigation was developed in the University of Medical Sciences of Matanzas at Colon Campus with the objective of developing speaking in English for Specific Purposes in the third-year of the medical program of study. Methods such as document analysis, participant observation, and review of anecdotal records were used. The resulting system of activities favors the negotiation of meaning, risk-taking, improved precision to express ideas and the expanded use of English language in real situations. This results in greater motivation, learning objectivity and independence to use language skills for their professional performance. (shrink)

El neodualismo postanalítico atribuyó a Russell, el primer Wittgenstein y Popper una actitud radicalmente anti-fundamentalista, con posterioridad a la teoría de los juegos del lenguaje del segundo Wittgenstein, debido a tres motivos, al menos según Von Wright y Apel, a saber: la fundamentación dogmática inductivista del positivismo lógico en los dos primeros casos; las sucesivas refundaciones meramente hipotéticas del racionalismo crítico en Popper; y, finalmente, la fundamentación explicativo-comprensiva preconizada de un modo meliorista por el pragmatismo semántico en aquel último caso. (...) Pero a pesar de este acuerdo básico, von Wright y Apel discreparon acerca del sentido meramente pragmático, o más bien pragmático-transcendental que, a pesar de todo, se debería seguir otorgando a la noción de fundamentación en los seguidores de estas nuevas tendencias del neodualismo postanalítico. (shrink)

Bernard Rollin argues that it is permissible to change an animal's telos through genetic engineering, if it doesn't harm the animal's welfare. Recent attempts to undermine his argument rely either on the claim that diminishing certain capacities always harms an animal's welfare or on the claim that it always violates an animal's integrity. I argue that these fail. However, respect for animal dignity provides a defeasible reason not to engineer an animal in a way that inhibits the development of those (...) functions that a member of its species can normally perform, even if the modification would improve the animal's welfare. (shrink)

We consider IOpen, the subsystem of PA (Peano Arithmetic) with the induction scheme restricted to quantifier-free formulas. We prove that each model of IOpen can be embedded in a model where the equation x 2 1 + x 2 2 + x 2 3 + x 2 4 = a has a solution. The main lemma states that there is no polynomial f(x,y) with coefficients in a (nonstandard) DOR M such that $|f(x,y)| for every (x,y) ∈ C, where C is (...) the curve defined on the real closure of M by C: x 2 + y 2 = a and $a > 0$ is a nonstandard element of M. (shrink)