La morale occupe une place centrale dans l’oeuvre de Diderot et dans Le Neveu de Rameau. La morale a un double sens: les moeurs, les opinions et les comportements valorisés dans une société et la science des moeurs. À côté des études savantes ou apologétiques (religieuses), la satire offre un moyen pour comprendre les normes et les valeurs morales, en dénonçant leur transgression par des vicieux. Le Neveu de Rameau est une « satyre ». L’article analyse le genre (...) de satire qu’est ce dialogue. Il apparaît que si d’un côté c’est Lui, le vicieux qui est la cible de la satire, de l’autre c’est lui qui fait la satire d’un milieu social qui nie les valeurs de la morale commune. L’hypothèse est que ce dispositif vise à montrer les limites de la philosophie en ce qui concerne la morale. (shrink)

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French authors did not ignore the word “éthique,” but neither did they make it play a specific role in their works like they did with “morale,” their preferred term. By contrast, English writers were more likely than their counterparts to distinguish “Ethicks” from “Morals.” Consequently, it is mainly in English-language writings that the separation of the two terms can be found. The key authors invested in refining these distinctions are Locke, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, (...) Hume, and Bentham—the last one being the philosopher who enacted the splitting of these two terms. From their meditations gradually emerges a belief in the conditions for a common moral platform and position; in those authors’ estimation, this foundation could properly take the place of mathematical ethical inquiry. Among those exposing utilitarianism, ethics are a matter of calculation, ethical action achievable through mathematical rules. If calculation is still limited with Hutcheson, it becomes subtler still with Bentham, even if the first utilitarian author stays within the parameters of this moral philosophy. Bentham seems to be inspired by Bayesian–Pricean probability calculus, and his main and seminal ideas are developed in “The Axioms of Pathology” at the end of the “Pannomial Fragments.”. (shrink)

Se propone un examen crítico de la última obra de J.-L. Marion titulada, dedicada a la unión de alma y cuerpo, y cuya tesis principal es: los problemas que esta unión suscita confunden dos términos, cuerpo y mi cuerpo. Esta confusión lleva a que se apliquen al primero categorías propias del segundo. Se examinan las "paradojas ónticas" que mi cuerpo (la carne) inaugura (a); se despeja la tesis de dos interpretaciones de las meditaciones primera y sexta (b); se discute la (...) "excepción a la metafísica" instaurada por el conocimiento de mi cuerpo (c); se arriesga, siguiendo una indicación del autor, la apertura a una dimensión ética que exige examinar ya no la unión de cuerpo y alma, sino la unión por el amor a un semejante y a la comunidad de semejantes (d). The article carries out a critical examination of J.-L. Marion's latest work, "Sur la pensée passive de Descartes", whose main thesis is that the problems posed by the union of body and soul confuse two terms: body and my body. This confusion leads to the application to the former of categories inherent to the latter. The paper examines the "ontic paradoxes" that my body (the flesh) gives rise to (a); it clarifies the thesis of two interpretations of the First and Sixth Meditations (b); it discusses the "exception to metaphysics" established by the knowledge of my body (c); and, following an indication by the author, it proposes an opening to the ethical dimension, which demands an examination of the union, through love, with a fellow human being and with the community of human beings, rather than of the union of body and soul (d). Neste artigo, propõe-se um exame crítico da última obra de J.-L. Marion, intitulada "Sur la pensée passive de Descartes", dedicada à união de alma e corpo, e cuja tese principal é: os problemas que essa união suscita confundem dois termos, corpo e meu corpo. Essa confusão leva a que se apliquem ao primeiro categorias próprias do segundo. Examinam-se os "paradoxos ônticos" que meu corpo (a carne) inaugura; a tese de duas interpretações das medita ccedil;ões primeira e sexta é esclarecida; arrisca-se, seguindo uma indicação do autor, a abertura a uma dimensão ética que exige examinar já não a união de corpo e alma, mas sim a união pelo amor a um semelhante e à comunidade de semelhantes. (shrink)

Many physicians are involved in relationships that create tension between a physician's duty to work in her patients’ best interest at all times and her financial arrangement with a third party, most often a pharmaceutical manufacturer, whose primary goal is maximizing sales or profit. Despite the prevalence of this threat, in the United States and globally, the most common reaction to conflicts of interest in medicine is timid acceptance. There are few calls for conflicts of interest to be banned, and, (...) to our knowledge, no one calls for conflicted practitioners to be reprimanded. Contrast our attitudes in medicine with public attitudes toward financial conflicts among government employees. When enforcement of rules against conflict of interest slackens in the public sector, news organizations investigate and publish their criticism. Yet even when doctors are quoted in the media promoting specific drugs, their personal financial ties to the drug maker are rarely mentioned. Policies for governmental employees are strict, condemnation is strong, and criminal statutes exist (allowing for corruption charges). Yet the evidence that conflict is problematic is, if anything, stronger in medicine than in the public sector. Policies against conflicts of interest in medicine should be at least as strong as those already existing in the public sector. (shrink)

Faut-il chercher un principe de la morale, quelque chose qui serait là, en nous, pour qu'elle puisse exister? La morale ne nous vient-elle pas aussi de l'extérieur, d'une contrainte sociale? Les protagonistes de la troisième partie de l'Alciphron s'engagent dans un vif débat sur cette question. Toutefois l'attention est détournée du « bien » vers le beau, objet du sens moral. L'exposé de cette thèse, les objections qui lui sont faites, sont le levier qui permet d'envisager la place de l'intérêt, (...) de nos sentiments de crainte et d'espoir, et de l'obéissance à la loi divine. L'enjeu, c'est la possibilité d'une morale autonome. Should one try and find some principle of ethics, i.e. something that would be herein, within us, so that it may be liable to exist? Do not ethics also come from outside, i.e. from a social constraint? The protagonists of Alciphron's third part start an acute debate on the topic. However attention is turned from the « good » towards the beautiful which is the object of the moral sense. This thesis and objections made to it are the lever enabling to grasp the part played by interest, by our feelings both of fear and of hope and by obedience to the divine law. What is at stake is the liability of autonomous ethics. (shrink)

Les règles de la justice sont, d'après Friedrich Hayek, l'effet d'un ordre spontané et non de la volonté délibérée des hommes. Cette thèse renvoie à une conception de la règle abstraite et générale dont ce livre montre le lien avec les limites de la raison, l'abstraction constituant, selon Hayek, le moyen pour l'esprit de s'occuper d'une réalité que celui-ci ne peut entièrement comprendre. Une "primauté de l'abstrait" s'applique ainsi non seulement à l'ordre social - guidé par les règles abstraites de (...) la justice, mais également à l'ordre sensoriel, c'est-à-dire à notre perception du monde extérieur et aux dispositions à agir qui en résultent. Comment comprendre le lien entre cette primauté de l'abstrait et le libéralisme de Hayek, en particulier concernant sa conception de la "morale du marché" comme discipline des règles abstraites et son rejet de buts particuliers guidant l'action publique? Enfin, Hayek a-t-il eu raison d'attribuer au philosophe empiriste David Hume une telle conception de l'abstraction?"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Although many psychiatrists regard psychopathy as a coherent scientific construction, some clinicians and philosophers regard it as irrelevant. According to the latter, psychopathy is nothing more than a means of social control. The present study focuses on the issues of the neurological bases and moral responsibility related to psychopathy. While neuroscience aims to identify dysfunctions in psychopaths, action theory and ethics tend to vindicate the hypothesis of the moral irresponsibility of the psychopath. However, rather than reinforcing the concept of (...) psychopathy, recent results in neuroscience tend to stress its incoherence. Philosophical speculations on psychopaths’ responsibility are not sufficiently empirically informed and seem to announce endless ethical debates. (shrink)

Contrairement aux idées reçues, Hegel n’est pas un précurseur de la pensée totalitaire, auquel on pourrait opposer un Bergson républicain et démocrate. Tous deux parlent de la communauté politique comme d’un organisme, doctrine affectionnée du totalitarisme. Ni chez l’un, ni chez l’autre, on ne peut atténuer la portée de l’affirmation en invoquant un usage métaphorique : il faut entendre, chez l’un comme chez l’autre, l’organisme au sens propre mais large. L’organicité du politique, loin de la menacer, est la seule forme (...) compatible avec la liberté des individus, grâce à la distinction que l’on peut faire entre organisation toute faite et organisation se faisant : si la première traite les individus en rouages d’un mécanisme, la seconde est l’expression immédiate de l’épanouissement de leurs libertés.Popper wrote that Hegel, as a thinker, is a forerunner of totalitarianism ; on the other hand, one cannot but regard Bergson as a true democrat. Both however considered the politic body as an organism, a doctrine supporters of the totalitarian state favoured. The assertion must not be underrated : neither thinker intended to use a metaphorical expression, hence a broad meaning of « organism ». As a matter of fact the organicity of a politic body, far from threatening individual freedom, is the only form that proves compatible with individuality. The important thing is to distinguish all-made « organized organisation » from selfmaking « organizing organisation » : the former treats individuals as mechanical entities, while the latter is the result of the self-development of their freedom. (shrink)

A basic income is typically defined as an individual’s entitlement to receive a regular payment as a right, independent of other sources of income, employment or willingness to work, or living situation. In this article, we examine what it means for the state to institute a right to basic income. The normative literature on basic income has developed numerous arguments in support of basic income as an inextricable component of a just social order, but there exists little analysis about (...) basic income within a jurisprudential or philosophical rights perspective. In our view, strong reasons of either a principled or a pragmatic nature in support of instituting a basic income scheme nevertheless often fall short of ascribing to basic income a distinctive Hohfeldian rights status. This article aims to partially redress this gap by examining two sets of questions. First, what are the implications – ethical and practical – of adopting basic income as a legal right as opposed to a mere policy? Second, we also enquire whether there should be such a right: what, if anything, is the ethical foundation that warrants granting basic income a distinctive legal rights status? This article suggests that any such foundation must be grounded in comparative evaluation and discusses several comparative strategies available to basic income advocates. The aim of this article is not to offer a definite argument in favor of a legal right to basic income, but to chart several lines of argument that a rights perspective might add to the contemporary discussion. (shrink)

This volume presents a selection of the political writings of one of the most significant figures of the French enlightenment. It contains the most important articles that Diderot contributed to the Encyclope;die, of which he was principal editor, the complete texts of his Supple;ment au Voyage de Bougainville and Observations sur le Nakaz (translated into English here for the first time), and a substantial number of his contributions to Raynal's Histoire des Deux Indes. The editors' introduction puts these works (...) in context, showing their essential features and underlying coherence. (shrink)

L'antique question des rapports de l'ame et du corps a ete profondement renouvelee avec Descartes, tellement que, souvent, la solution dualiste qu'il lui a donnee est presentee comme un edifice metaphysique se suffisant a lui-meme. C'est oublier qu'elle s'inscrit dans un mouvement inaugure par l'emergence de la science nouvelle et le rejet de la vision scolastique de la nature. Ce mouvement qui, en France, se developpe en une tradition vigoureuse, avant d'etre supplante par le kantisme et l'idealisme allemand vers le (...) milieu du XIXe siecle, suscite apres Descartes le developpement de la biologie, qui se detache de la physique mecanicienne en s'y opposant, puis de la psychologie. Or, ces sciences induisent deux autres conceptions des rapports psychophysiques: le materialisme avec Diderot et un dualisme renouvele tendant vers un monisme spiritualiste avec Maine de Biran, ce qui indique a quel point la these de l'influence reelle devient difficile a articuler pour qui admet la verite de la science nouvelle. (shrink)

Martha Nussbaum, à l'instar de Cavell ou de Murdoch, appuie sa pratique de la philosophie morale sur une analyse précise de textes littéraires. Dans cet article, on montre que ce recours à la littérature n'est pas illustratif, mais est cohérent avec un ensemble de thèses substantielles sur la nature même de la pensée morale et sur la méthode adaptée à la philosophie morale. C'est parce qu'elle accorde un poids particulier aux êtres et aux objets particuliers en éthique, ainsi qu'aux conflits, (...) et à la portée cognitive des émotions que Nussbaum peut considérer certains textes littéraires particuliers comme des exemples de philosophie morale. Cela explique également certaines caractéristiques de son propre style philosophique, en particulier son usage particulier du « je ». For Martha Nussbaum, as well as for Cavell or Murdoch, moral philosophy relies heavily on detailed analysis of literary texts. This paper shows that this use of literature in ethics, far from being only illustrative, is consistent with a set of substantial thesis on the nature of moral thought and on the method appropriate for moral philosophy. Nussbaum considers that some literary texts are instances of moral philosophy because she sees the individuality of beings and things, as well as conflicts, as crucial elements in ethics, and also because she attributes to emotions a cognitive aspect. These characteristics shed some light on some particularities of her own style, such as a remarkable use of the first person. (shrink)

L’actualité du kantisme en philosophie morale et politique est illustrée par l’importance en son sein des approches formelles, notamment l’éthique de la discussion et le libéralisme politique. Ces approches estiment que le formalisme pratique implique une réduction de la sphère de la rationalité pratique à la seule réflexion morale sur l’impartialité des normes, au détriment du questionnement éthique sur la vie bonne renvoyé à la particularité subjective. Dans le présent article, nous contestons la nécessité d’une telle implication et nous voulons (...) montrer la possibilité de penser une éthique formelle : un jugement éthique a priori peut être fondé sur la seule nécessité de donner sens à la forme de la finitude.The actuality of Kantism in moral and political philosophy is mirrored in the importance of formal approaches, i.e. deliberative ethics and political liberalism. These approaches underline that practical formalism implies a reduction of the sphere of practical rationality to a moral reflection on impartiality of norms. This reflection is carried out at the expense of the ethical questioning on the « good life », which is reduced to the subjective particularity. In the present article, I contest the necessity of such an implication. Also, I want to show the possibility to conceive a formal ethic, namely an a priori ethical judgement can be founded on the necessity alone to give sense to the form of finitude. (shrink)

The anal y sis is based on a the ory that con cen trates on com mu ni ca tion as the axis of in ter me di a tion be tween pol i tics and de moc - racy. It at tempts to an swer the ques tions: i) Should pol i tics be de fined as a com mu ni ca tive fact?, ii) Can so ci ety’s com mu ni ca tive sy..

Consciousness and confidence seem intimately related. Accordingly, some researchers use confidence ratings as a measure of, or proxy for, consciousness. Rosenthal discusses the potential connections between the two, and rejects confidence as a valid measure of consciousness. He argues that there are better alternatives to get at conscious experiences such as direct subjective reports of awareness (i.e. subjects’ reports of perceiving something or of the degree of visibility of a stimulus). In this chapter, we offer a different perspective. Confidence ratings (...) in general, and metacognitive measures in particular, may offer important advantages over subjective ratings. The arguments we offer here are supported by empirical, practical and socio-strategic considerations. However, we do not suggest consciousness and confidence are interchangeable. We recognize the limitations of confidence ratings in some experimental designs and for some research questions. Nevertheless, we also address a potential conceptual link between consciousness and confidence that stems from Rosenthal’s very own work on mental quality space theory. (shrink)

This entry first provides some background about how to define moral relativism. It then reviews two different strands of the contemporary discussion of moral relativism. The first concerns the question of whether most people endorse, either implicitly or explicitly, some form of moral relativism. The second concerns the question of whether moral relativism is actually true. Here the focus will be on the influential work of Shaun Nichols, who has proposed an account of the psychology of moral judgments which he (...) takes to provide support for moral relativism. Some problems will briefly be raised with Nichols’s main argument. (shrink)

За традиционной концепцией морали как нормативной дисциплины, хорошо представленной у Канта, последовали: 1) философии, которые отказывались от самого вопроса «что я должен делать?» ; 2) философии, которые считали своей задачей критику морали ; 3) этические программы, маргинальные по отношению к философии . Представляется, однако, что сила морали и этики заключена в формулировании запретов, в негативных поступках, в требованиях долга, направленных против склонностей и влечений. Все это вовсе не обедняет мораль: напротив, негативные поступки оказываются самыми насыщенными в духовном плане. A la (...) conception traditionnelle de la morale comme discipline normative ont succédé : 1) des philosophies qui refusent de poser la question « que dois-je faire ? » ; 2) des philosophies qui se donnent pour tâche de critiquer la morale ; 3) des programmes éthiques marginaux par rapport à la philosophie, comme l’idéal de nonviolence de Tolstoï. Il semble toutefois que la force de la morale et de l’éthique réside dans l’énoncé de ce qui est interdit, dans l’acte négatif, le devoir contre l’inclination. Loin que la morale soit ainsi appauvrie, il apparaît que les actes négatifs sont les plus denses qui soient sur le plan spirituel. The traditional conception of morality as a normative discipline has been consecutively replaced by: 1) philosophies that eschew the question: “ what should I do?”; 2) philosophies who set themselves the task of criticizing ethics; 3) marginal ethical programs that diverge from the philosophical outlook: for example, Tolstoy’s non-violence ideal. However, it seems that the force of morality and ethics consists in the formulation of what is prohibited, of what is a negative act, in a duty against inclinations. Accordingly, far from morality being impoverished, it seems that “negative” actions are by far the densest ones on the spiritual level. (shrink)

In his 1960 paper “The concept of moral insight and the Kantian doctrine of the Fact of Reason” (introduced and translated in french by Laura Tavernier), Dieter Henrich argues that Kant’s doctrine of the Fact of Reason—according to which pure reason can not theoretically anticipate or ground the possibility of its practical use—does not betray a lack of systematicity, as post-Kantians reproached it to Kant. After the repeated failures of his own attempts to deduce moral insight from theoretical reason in (...) the “silent decade”, Kant eventually acknowledges that the moral law and our awareness of it cannot be logically derived from a higher principle. The Kantian doctrine of the Fact of Reason thus remains faithful to the phenomenon of moral insight, the paradoxical knowledge of the good, and offers a methodologically adequate answer to the problem that D. Henrich considers to be at the foundation of metaphysics: Kant thinks of a unity of the theoretical and the practical reason that does not imply any derivation of one from the other, nor any subsumption of the two under a unifying principle. (shrink)

Se discuten dos argumentos del diálogo Protágoras sobre la relación entre las virtudes individuales. En primer lugar se defiende -frente a Terry Penner- la tesis de Vlastos de que cuando Sócrates dice que "la justicia es justa", "la justicia es piadosa", etc., está destacando la mutua implicación entre las virtudes, y no su identidad; y se formula una hipótesis para explicar la razón de tal reciprocidad. En segundo lugar, se examina el argumento de que, puesto que la insensatez se opone (...) tanto a la moderación como a la sabiduría, y un término contrario no puede tener más de un contrario, moderación y sabiduría serían "una sola cosa". Se asevera que Platón quiere que rechacemos esta última conclusión, basada en el fondo en la idea de que las distintas virtudes se relacionan entre sí como las partes de un mismo rostro. Se concluye que los argumentos analizados no implican realmente la idea contraintuitiva de la identifi cación mutua de las virtudes.Two arguments from the Protagoras on the unity of the virtues are here dwelt with. First, it is claimed - with G. Vlastos and contra T. Penner - that when Socrates says that “justice is just”, “justice is pious”, etc. he wants to highlight the reciprocity of the individual virtues, not their mutual identity . Second, it is argued that Plato does not really want us to infer from folly’s opposition to both temperance and wisdom the need to identify these two virtues . He is only drawing our attention to their close relationship. This is enough to reject the hypothesis initially defended by Protagoras, i.e. that the different virtues relate to each other as the parts of a face. I conclude that the two aforesaid arguments do not really support the mutual identity of the virtues. (shrink)

Synthetic biology, as a research field, brings together molecular life scientists, computational biologists, and social scientists to engineer biological systems toward societally desired goals. Given the field’s broad multidisciplinarity and relatively young age, innovative educational methods are required to provide students with the needed background knowledge to push the field forward in the future. The international Genetically Engineered Machine competition is such an example where education and high-level research merge, providing the synthetic biology field with trained students, new ideas, and (...) novel results. In the 2021 edition alone, 343 teams from across the world completed the competition to tackle societal problems with synthetic biology. As Wageningen University & Research celebrates 10 years of participation in iGEM, we share our thoughts and experiences on supervising iGEM teams, which is especially relevant to organizers of current and new teams, and also others interested in the iGEM competition. (shrink)

Philosophy and psychoanalytical psychology converge in this examination of some of the central themes in this work on María Zambrano, such as exile, mercy, and the development of the individual. With a special focus on the psychology of the unconscious and the universe of symbolism, the book also provides thought-provoking interpretations of two emblematic tragic figures, those of Oedipus and Antigone, and an interesting approach to the figure of Cervantes' Dulcinea.

This original and compelling book argues that previous studies of John Stuart Mill's work have neglected his egalitarianism and thus seriously misunderstood his views. Morales demonstrates that Mill was fundamentally concerned with how the exercise of unjust or arbitrary power by some individuals over others sabotages the possibility of human well-being and social improvement. Mill therefore believed that 'perfect equality'--more than liberty--was the foundation of democracy and that democracy was a moral ideal for the organization of human life in all (...) of its dimensions. By reinterpreting Mill, Morales also challenges twentieth-century views of liberalism, and addresses its contemporary communitarian and feminist critics. (shrink)

Philosophic thoughts.--Letter on the blind.--Addition to the letter on the blind.--Letter on the deaf and dumb.

An act that accords with duty has moral worth if and only if the agent’s reason for performing it is the same as what would have motivated a perfectly virtuous agent to perform it. On one of the two leading accounts of moral worth, an act that accords with duty has moral worth if and only if the agent’s reason for performing it is the fact that it’s obligatory. On the other, an act that accords with duty has moral worth (...) if and only if the agent’s reason for performing it is the fact that it has that feature of obligatory acts that makes them obligatory. I argue that both views are incorrect, providing counterexamples to each. I then argue that, on the correct account, an act can have moral worth only if its agent is motivated out of a fundamental concern for the things that ultimately matter. (shrink)

In this paper, I reject that animal reasoning, negation in particular, necessarily involves the representation of absences, as suggested by Bermúdez (2003, 2006, 2007), since this would still work as a logical negation (unavailable for non-linguistic creatures). False belief, pretense, and communication experiments show that non-human animals (at least some primates) have difficulties representing absent entities or properties. I offer an alternative account resorting to the sub-symbolic similarity judgments proposed by Vigo & Allen (2009) and expectations: animal proto-negation takes place (...) through the incompatibility between an expected and the actual representation. Finally, I propose that the expectation paradigm be extrapolated to other experi-ments in cognitive psychology (both with pre-linguistic children and animals) in order to design fair experiments that test other minds considering their true abilities. (shrink)

In ‘The Science of Art’ Ramachandran and Hirstein have written a vigorous, thought provoking paper. It raises many issues, but in the interest of brevity, I can only consider a few of them here.

First part of the translation into Spanish of David Lewis' "New Work for a Theory of Universals", corresponding to the introduction and the first two sections of the original paper. || Primera parte de la traducción al español del trabajo de David Lewis "New Work for a Theory of Universals", correspondiente a la introducción y las dos primeras secciones del artículo original. Artículo original publicado en: Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 61, No. 4, Dec. 1983, pp. 343-377.

Depuis 1998 la congrégation pour la Doctrine de la Foi, héritière des archives de la congrégation du Saint-Office et avec elles de celles de la congrégation de l’Index, a ouvert à la consultation les fonds historiques qu’elle détient. Jusqu’à cette date toute récente, ces documents demeuraient rigoureusement inaccessibles : l’historien se trouve désormais dans une situation tout à fait nouvelle et accède à des informations susceptibles d’éclairer des épisodes encore imparfaitement connus. Ainsi devrait prochainement voir le jour une édition de (...) l’ensemble des matériaux concernant la condamnation d’Alfred Loisy, prononcée par le décret du Saint-Office du 16 décembre 1903, et son excommunication en 1908. À côté de ce dossier volumineux, le mince fascicule de l’Index relatif aux trois premiers livres d’Henri Bergson n’occupe qu’une place modeste : sa divulgation devrait néanmoins apporter quelques précisions jusqu’ici inconnues aux biographes du philosophe. (shrink)

Good Simulation Practice implies that a computational model considered for a simulation task has also been developed according to good practice.

Persson and Savulescu are advocates for moral bioenhancement—i.e., using drug treatments and genetic engineering to enhance our core moral dispositions. Among other things, they suggest that moral bioenhancement would improve how we treat animals. My goal here is to argue that we have little reason to think that moral bioenhancement will help in this regard. What’s more, it may make things worse. This is because there are cognitive mechanisms that lead us to discount animal interests relative to human (...) interests—mechanisms not overridden by increased altruism and a stronger sense of justice—and there are deep tensions between the interests of humans and animals that moral bioenhancement may well exacerbate. (shrink)

This paper investigates Kit Fine's account of the nature of material objects – the theory of embodiments.1 This theory is custom-fitted to an intuitive distinction between ‘timeless’ and ‘temporary’ parthood. It incorporates these notions by postulating two operations by which objects can be generated from their (immediate) parts. The operation of ‘rigid embodiment’ generates objects which have their immediate parts timelessly. In contrast, any product of the alternative operation, ‘variable embodiment’, has only temporary material parts. I shall argue that Fine's (...) operations of embodiment cannot account for what I call ‘nucleated wholes’ – objects which have both timeless and temporary immediate parts. As such, the theory of embodiment does not account for a significant class of material things. Having explained the problem, I consider four ways in which Fine's theory might be defended. None of these responses is entirely satisfactory. I conclude by highlighting two ways in which one might continue – either proceeding within Fine's ‘operationalist’ framework, or dropping this and developing an alternative framework. (shrink)

Este artículo trata sobre el filósofo chileno Jenaro Abasolo. Se expone en él, primeramente, la producción literaria de Abasolo y la nula receptividad que su obra tuvo en los círculos intelectuales de su tiempo, aludiendo, a la vez, al concepto central de su filosofía, es decir, la idea de personalidad. Luego, y más extensamente, se presentan las consideraciones de Abasolo respecto de algunas de las problemáticas sociales y económicas discutidas en los inicios de la República, abordando temas como la moral, (...) la religión, el fin social y la libertad. This artick is a treatise on the Chilean philosopher Jenaro Abasólo. Vrimarilj, it exposes Abasólo, his literary production, and the complete lack of attention that his oeuvre recieved from the intellectual áreles of his period. It alludes, at the same time, to the central concept of his philosophy, Le., the idea of personality. Later and more extensively, it presents Abasolo’s considerations regarding social and economic issues discussed at the beginning of the Republic, addressing topics such as morality, religión, social order and freedom. (shrink)

La morale se trouve aujourd'hui dans une situation équivoque. D'une part, les changements considérables subis par les conditions de l'action et des évaluations au XXe siècle la font apparemment tomber en désuétude : dissolution des structures sociales et institutionnelles, développement des techniques et de la puissance humaine, la pression irrésistible des idéologies-informations éclatées et simplifiées que diffusent les médias, enfin un cynisme snob ou un écoeurement blasé ou naïf face aux horreurs qui ont marqué le XXe siècle. Mais en même (...) temps, paradoxalement, elle semble ressusciter, voire revenir en force : les fondamentalismes, les intégrismes, orthodoxies, traditionnalismes en témoignent, donnant raison à ceux qui depuis trois millénaires, de l'Ecclésiaste à Nietzsche, ont vu dans la morale un remède pire que le mal, la Circé de l'humanité. On se demandera d'abord où se situe le problème moral et s'il ne s'agit pas là d'un faux problème, quelque prestige que la morale s'arroge par son antiquité. Peut-on encore parler de biens, de fins, de vertus? Le problème du mal s'avérera comme ce qui suscite la recherche d'un fondement de la morale. Mais tout au long du parcours, on s'efforcera de relier les traditions morales à ce qui concerne notre action et ses conditions aujourd'hui, en passant au crible notre présent, ses promesses et ses menaces, sous le double emblême des critiques de Rousseau et de l'intempestivité nietzschéenne. Texte de couverture. (shrink)

The triumph of the Sandinista Revolution on July 19, 1979 marked the beginning of a period of intensification of the struggle of the insurgent movements in El Salvador and Guatemala that, encouraged by the victory of their Sandinista comrades, tried to emulate the defeat of the oligarchy in their respective countries. Nicaragua acquired a relevant role as it had not had in the region until then, becoming one of the actors that would mark the course of the isthmus during the (...) eighties of the last century. One of the effects of this new role was the strengthening of relations between the Sandinista National Liberation Front and the Nicaraguan government with the guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front of El Salvador and the National Revolutionary Unity. of Guatemala. The climate of revolutionary optimism that very graphically expressed this Central American vision of the revolution was summed up in the motto of the time: "If Nicaragua won, El Salvador will win and Guatemala will follow." The objective of this article is to describe and analyze the relationships that were forged between the FSLN, the FMLN and the URNG in the 1980s. (shrink)

This anthology features unabridged translations of Diderot's best work as a literary artist, including those writings that embody his most original and influential ideas.

Many physicians are involved in relationships that create tension between a physician's duty to work in her patients’ best interest at all times and her financial arrangement with a third party, most often a pharmaceutical manufacturer, whose primary goal is maximizing sales or profit. Despite the prevalence of this threat, in the United States and globally, the most common reaction to conflicts of interest in medicine is timid acceptance. There are few calls for conflicts of interest to be banned, and, (...) to our knowledge, no one calls for conflicted practitioners to be reprimanded. Contrast our attitudes in medicine with public attitudes toward financial conflicts among government employees. When enforcement of rules against conflict of interest slackens in the public sector, news organizations investigate and publish their criticism. Yet even when doctors are quoted in the media promoting specific drugs, their personal financial ties to the drug maker are rarely mentioned. Policies for governmental employees are strict, condemnation is strong, and criminal statutes exist. Yet the evidence that conflict is problematic is, if anything, stronger in medicine than in the public sector. Policies against conflicts of interest in medicine should be at least as strong as those already existing in the public sector. (shrink)

Dans l’essai qu’elle consacre au roman de Dickens David Copperfield, Martha Nussbaum affirme que si ce roman montre qu’une union de l’amour et de la moralité est possible, le narrateur y parvient à travers l’écriture du roman et grâce à l’amour « romantique et érotique » qu’il éprouve pour le personage de Steerforth. Je montre au contraire que la forme de moralité que l’amour permet d’atteindre caractérise aussi, dans ce roman, d’autres types d’amour, non-érotiques, notamment l’amour parental, l’amour filial et (...) l’amour chrétien. Je montre également qu’Agnès Wickfield n’est pas dans ce roman le personnage kantien ou le spectateur impartial qu’y voit Nussbaum, de sorte qu’Agnès exprimerait « une position éthique qui diffère de celle qui anime la narration dans son ensemble ». Je montre au contraire qu’à travers l’amour sans jugement qu’elle porte à son père, Agnès illustre précisément, tout comme d’autres personnages qui s’y trouvent, la position éthique générale de ce roman. (shrink)

Presidential commissions come and go by design, and it is reasonable to wonder about the impact of their recommendations. I have been involved in the work of two presidential commissions: as a member of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (from 1994 to 1995) and as senior consultant to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (from 1999 to 2000) for its report on multinational research. I continue to reflect on and look for the impact of both these commissions.ACHRE's charter included (...) the review of experiments with ionizing radiation sponsored or conducted by the United States government since the 1940s. The committee was also charged with investigating specific intentional releases of radiation into the environment. ACHRE had a somewhat unique difficulty built into its work: the need to make retrospective ethical judgments. With the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, my main role as senior consultant consisted of writing chapters of the report on multinational research for the commissioners’ approval. A more important concern for me as a hired consultant was how to maintain intellectual and moral integrity. Unlike when writing scholarly papers, where I can express my own views, when I was drafting text for a presidential commission, the commissioners’ views took precedence over my own when we disagreed. I wondered, how much could I comply with the commissioners’ positions without compromising my own integrity? (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)

Le but de cet ouvrage est de montrer la teneur philosophique unitaire de la pensée critique de Diderot par delà le caractère éclaté et dispersé de son œuvre. Diderot philosophe est présenté comme un penseur critique et systématique, c'est-à-dire un philosophe dont la réflexion, d'une part, s'inscrit dans le cadre du courant de pensée moderne qui vise à dépasser les perspectives du « premier regard géomètre de la raison », celui de Descartes, de Malebranche et des post-cartésiens. D'autre part, elle (...) atteint un « second regard critique », plus profond, jeté sur le monde de la nature et surtout, sur lui-même (une philosophie de l'aperception : Spinoza, Wolff, les Moralistes anglais et Kant), qui se rattache intimement à un matérialisme biologique tout à fait original, issu de la confrontation de Diderot avec les naturalistes et les médecins de son temps. C'est ce matérialisme élaboré dans l'usine encyclopédique qui met en cause la notion clé d'« individualité naturelle » (jouée en couplet avec une « communauté du désir ») - néologisme dont Le Neveu de Rameau et Le Rêve de D'Alembert développeront les tenants et les aboutissants philosophiques -, et qui témoigne de la nouveauté d'approche propre à cette philosophie, à l'intérieur de la pensée des Lumières européennes. Avec Diderot, c'est une nouvelle figure historique de la philosophie elle-même - celle de la subjectivité individuelle complexe, uni-totalité de penser-sentir-agir - qui monte sur la scène de la modernité, comme étant la substance première, incontournable et insaisissable, de la pensée critique de nos jours. (shrink)