This chapter explores the concepts of ethnic identity, ethnogenesis, ethnonationalism, nationalism and multiculturalism, linking them to a critical analysis of the selective revival of the past. In particular, it looks at the meanings of the concept of ethnonationalism, and at its historical origins, in terms of how it relates to the history of nation building and national culture building, which ethnonationalism represents. Drawing on comparative ethnographic analysis, the chapter examines two opposite processes; the ways in which new ethnic groups are (...) created through a selective reading of the past, and the way in which larger polities are imposed on very different ethnic groups. (shrink)

We discuss Boltzmann’s probabilistic explanation of the second law of thermodynamics providing a comprehensive presentation of what is called today the typicality account. Countering its misconception as an alternative explanation, we examine the relation between Boltzmann’s H-theorem and the general typicality argument demonstrating the conceptual continuity between the two. We then discuss the philosophical dimensions of the concept of typicality and its relevance for scientific reasoning in general, in particular for understanding the reduction of macroscopic laws to microscopic laws. Finally, (...) we reply to various common criticisms of the typicality account. (shrink)

Algorithms influence every facet of modern life: criminal justice, education, housing, entertainment, elections, social media, news feeds, work… the list goes on. Delegating important decisions to machines, however, gives rise to deep moral concerns about responsibility, transparency, freedom, fairness, and democracy. Algorithms and Autonomy connects these concerns to the core human value of autonomy in the contexts of algorithmic teacher evaluation, risk assessment in criminal sentencing, predictive policing, background checks, news feeds, ride-sharing platforms, social media, and election interference. Using these (...) case studies, the authors provide a better understanding of machine fairness and algorithmic transparency. They explain why interventions in algorithmic systems are necessary to ensure that algorithms are not used to control citizens' participation in politics and undercut democracy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. (shrink)

When agents insert technological systems into their decision-making processes, they can obscure moral responsibility for the results. This can give rise to a distinct moral wrong, which we call “agency laundering.” At root, agency laundering involves obfuscating one’s moral responsibility by enlisting a technology or process to take some action and letting it forestall others from demanding an account for bad outcomes that result. We argue that the concept of agency laundering helps in understanding important moral problems in a number (...) of recent cases involving automated, or algorithmic, decision-systems. We apply our conception of agency laundering to a series of examples, including Facebook’s automated advertising suggestions, Uber’s driver interfaces, algorithmic evaluation of K-12 teachers, and risk assessment in criminal sentencing. We distinguish agency laundering from several other critiques of information technology, including the so-called “responsibility gap,” “bias laundering,” and masking. (shrink)

A pragmatic account of referential communication is developed which presents an alternative to traditional Gricean accounts by focusing on cooperativeness and efficiency, rather than informativity. The results of four language‐production experiments support the view that speakers can be cooperative when producing redundant adjectives, doing so more often when color modification could facilitate the listener's search for the referent in the visual display (Experiment 1a). By contrast, when the listener knew which shape was the target, speakers did not produce redundant color (...) adjectives (Experiment 1b). English speakers used redundant color adjectives more often than Spanish speakers, suggesting that speakers are sensitive to the differential efficiency of prenominal and postnominal modification (Experiment 2). Speakers were also cooperative when using redundant size adjectives (Experiment 3). Overall, these results show how discriminability affects a speaker's choice of referential expression above and beyond considerations of informativity, supporting the view that redundant speakers can be cooperative. (shrink)

Algorithmic systems and predictive analytics play an increasingly important role in various aspects of modern life. Scholarship on the moral ramifications of such systems is in its early stages, and much of it focuses on bias and harm. This paper argues that in understanding the moral salience of algorithmic systems it is essential to understand the relation between algorithms, autonomy, and agency. We draw on several recent cases in criminal sentencing and K–12 teacher evaluation to outline four key ways in (...) which issues of agency, autonomy, and respect for persons can conflict with algorithmic decision-making. Three of these involve failures to treat individual agents with the respect they deserve. The fourth involves distancing oneself from a morally suspect action by attributing one’s decision to take that action to an algorithm, thereby laundering one’s agency. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: So far in this book, we have examined algorithmic decision systems from three autonomy-based perspectives: in terms of what we owe autonomous agents (chapters 3 and 4), in terms of the conditions required for people to act autonomously (chapters 5 and 6), and in terms of the responsibilities of agents (chapter 7). -/- In this chapter we turn to the ways in which autonomy underwrites democratic governance. Political authority, which is to say the ability of a government to exercise (...) power, may be justifiable or not. Whether it is justified and how it can come to be justified is a question of political legitimacy. Political legitimacy is another way in which autonomy and responsibility are linked. This relationship is the basis of the current chapter, and it is important in understanding the moral salience of algorithmic systems. We will draw the connection as follows. We begin, in section 8.1, by describing two uses of technology: crime predicting technology used to drive policing practices and social media technology used to influence elections (including by Cambridge Analytica and by the Internet Research Agency). In section 8.2 we consider several views of legitimacy and argue for a hybrid version of normative legitimacy based on one recently offered by Fabienne Peter. In section 8.3 we will explain that the connection between political legitimacy and autonomy is that legitimacy is grounded in legitimating processes, which are in turn based on autonomy. Algorithmic systems—among them PredPol and the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook-Internet Research Agency amalgam—can hinder that legitimation process and conflict with democratic legitimacy, as we argue in section 8.4. We will conclude by returning to several cases that serve as through-lines to the book: Loomis, Wagner, and Houston Schools. -/- The link below is to an open-access copy of the chapter. (shrink)

ABSTRACTComputers are now able to automatically generate metaphors, but some automatically generated metaphors are more well received than others. In this article, we showed participants a series of “A is B” type metaphors that were either generated by humans or taken from the Twitter account “MetaphorIsMyBusiness”, which is linked to a fully automated metaphor generator. We used these metaphors to assess linguistic factors that drive metaphor appreciation and understanding, including the role of novelty, word frequency, concreteness, and emotional valence of (...) the topic and vehicle terms. We additionally assessed how these metaphors were understood in three languages, including English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese, and whether participants thought they had been generated by a human or a computer. We found that meaningfulness, appreciation, speed in finding meaning, and humanness ratings were reliably correlated with each other in all three languages, which we interpret to indicate a mor... (shrink)

Historical re-enactment is an emerging social practice in the knowledge society, and it helps us better understand aspects of the past and heritage. The knowledge gained through historical recreation contributes to the construction of quality citizenship. The deepening of democratic values requires that educational systems commit to the promotion of critical citizenship. Service-learning constructively develops experiences that connect science, education and society. Our research describes a systematized praxis of historical recreation. It has been developed by university students, and it has (...) been carried out from the perspective of service-learning, in a manner consistent with the concepts of public history and public archaeology, to contribute to the promotion and defense of heritage history and the preservation of historical memory. (shrink)

Questions of privacy have become particularly salient in recent years due, in part, to information-gathering initiatives precipitated by the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, increasing power of surveillance and computing technologies, and massive data collection about individuals for commercial purposes. While privacy is not new to the philosophical and legal literature, there is much to say about the nature and value of privacy. My focus here is on the nature of informational privacy. I argue that the predominant accounts of privacy (...) are unsatisfactory and offer an alternative: for a person to have informational privacy is for there to be limits on the particularized judgments that others are able to reasonably make about that person. (shrink)

In recent years, educational institutions have started using the tools of commercial data analytics in higher education. By gathering information about students as they navigate campus information systems, learning analytics “uses analytic techniques to help target instructional, curricular, and support resources” to examine student learning behaviors and change students’ learning environments. As a result, the information educators and educational institutions have at their disposal is no longer demarcated by course content and assessments, and old boundaries between information used for assessment (...) and information about how students live and work are blurring. Our goal in this paper is to provide a systematic discussion of the ways in which privacy and learning analytics conflict and to provide a framework for understanding those conflicts. -/- We argue that there are five crucial issues about student privacy that we must address in order to ensure that whatever the laudable goals and gains of learning analytics, they are commensurate with respecting students’ privacy and associated rights, including (but not limited to) autonomy interests. First, we argue that we must distinguish among different entities with respect to whom students have, or lack, privacy. Second, we argue that we need clear criteria for what information may justifiably be collected in the name of learning analytics. Third, we need to address whether purported consequences of learning analytics (e.g., better learning outcomes) are justified and what the distributions of those consequences are. Fourth, we argue that regardless of how robust the benefits of learning analytics turn out to be, students have important autonomy interests in how information about them is collected. Finally, we argue that it is an open question whether the goods that justify higher education are advanced by learning analytics, or whether collection of information actually runs counter to those goods. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: One important criticism of algorithmic systems is that they lack transparency. Such systems can be opaque because they are complex, protected by patent or trade secret, or deliberately obscure. In the EU, there is a debate about whether the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains a “right to explanation,” and if so what such a right entails. Our task in this chapter is to address this informational component of algorithmic systems. We argue that information access is integral for respecting (...) autonomy, and transparency policies should be tailored to advance autonomy. -/- To make this argument we distinguish two facets of agency (i.e., capacity to act). The first is practical agency, or the ability to act effectively according to one’s values. The second is what we call cognitive agency, which is the ability to exercise what Pamela Hieronymi calls “evaluative control” (i.e., the ability to control our affective states, such as beliefs, desires, and attitudes). We argue that respecting autonomy requires providing persons sufficient information to exercise evaluative control and properly interpret the world and one’s place in it. We draw this distinction out by considering algorithmic systems used in background checks, and we apply the view to key cases involving risk assessment in criminal justice decisions and K-12 teacher evaluation. -/- The link below is to an open access version of the chapter. (shrink)

This paper discusses the potential of the notions of reification and consensualization as developed by the theory of social representations as analytical tools for addressing the communication between the lay and scientific spheres. Social Representations Theory started by offering an over-sharp distinction between the reified and the consensual universes of which science and common sense, respectively, were presented as paradigmatic. This paper, however, suggests that the notions of consensual and reified can be considered as describing two distinct communicative formats: reification (...) implying the use of arguments which establish prescriptions for representations and action, and consensualization relying on arguments which recognize the heterogeneity of representation and action. We illustrate this proposal through the analysis of a case in which the expert and the lay spheres of a Lisbon neighborhood opposed each other regarding the new laws of public participation in community matters. This analysis showed how reification and consensualization can be used as discursive formats by both spheres. The implications of the use of reification and consensualization and how they may depend on several power resources and have different impacts on social change are discussed. (shrink)

Church's thesis, that all reasonable definitions of “computability” are equivalent, is not usually thought of in terms of computability by acontinuouscomputer, of which the general-purpose analog computer (GPAC) is a prototype. Here we prove, under a hypothesis of determinism, that the analytic outputs of aC∞GPAC are computable by a digital computer.In [POE, Theorems 5, 6, 7, and 8], Pour-El obtained some related results. (The proof there of Theorem 7 depends on her Theorem 2, for which the proof in [POE] is (...) incorrect, but for which a correct proof is given in [LIR]. Also, the proof in [POE] of Theorem 8 depends on the unproved assertion that a solution of an algebraic differential equation must be analytic on an open subset of its domain. However, this assertion was later proved in [BRR].) As in [POE], we reduce the problem to a problem about solutions of certain systems of algebraic differential equations (ADE's). If such a system is nonsingular (i.e. if the “separant” does not vanish along the given solution), then the argument is very easy (see [VSD] for an even simpler situation), so that the essential difficulties arise fromsingularsystems. Our main tools in handling these difficulties are drawn from the excellent (and difficult) paper [DEL] by Denef and Lipshitz. The author especially wants to thank Leonard Lipshitz for his kind help in the preparation of the present paper.We emphasize here that our proof of the simulation result applies only to the GPAC as described below. The GPAC's form a natural subclass of the class of all analog computers, and are based on certain idealized components (“black boxes”), mostly associated with the technology of past decades. One can easily envisage other kinds of black boxes of an input-output character that would lead to different kinds of analog computers. (For example, one could incorporate delays, or spatial integrators in addition to the present temporal integrators, etc.) Whether digital simulation is possible for these “extended” analog computers poses a rich and challenging set of research questions. (shrink)

Across languages, we find indefinites that trigger modal inferences. One such indefinite is Spanish alg´un. The sentence in (1), for instance, makes an existential claim (that there is a student that Mar´ıa married), and additionally conveys that the speaker does not know which student satisfies this claim. Hence, adding the continuation namely Pedro, which explicitly identifies the student that Mar´ıa married, would result in oddity. In contrast, the counterpart of (1) with the ‘plain’ indefinite un allows for such a continuation, (...) witness (2). (shrink)

Civil liberty and privacy advocates have criticized the USA PATRIOT Act (Act) on numerous grounds since it was passed in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. Two of the primary targets of those criticisms are the Act’s sneak-and-peek search provision, which allows law enforcement agents to conduct searches without informing the search’s subjects, and the business records provision, which allows agents to secretly subpoena a variety of information – most notoriously, library borrowing records. Without attending to (...) all of the ways that critics claim the Act burdens privacy, I examine whether those two controversial parts of the Act, the section 213 sneak-and-peak search and the section 215 business records gag-rule provisions, burden privacy as critics charge. I begin by describing the two provisions. Next, I explain why those provisions don’t burden privacy on standard philosophical accounts. Moreover, I argue that they need not conflict with the justifications for people’s claims to privacy, nor do they undermine the value of privacy on the standard accounts. However, rather than simply concluding that the sections don’t burden privacy, I argue that those provisions are problematic on the grounds that they undermine the value of whatever rights to privacy people have. Specifically, I argue that it is important to distinguish rights themselves from the value that those rights have to the rights-holders, and that an essential element of privacy rights having value is that privacy right-holders be able to tell the extent to which they actually have privacy. This element, which is justified by the right-holders’ autonomy interests, is harmed by the two provisions. (shrink)

This paper has two aims. The first is to explain a type of wrong that arises when agents obscure responsibility for their actions. Call it “agency laundering.” The second is to use the concept of agency laundering to understand the underlying moral issues in a number of recent cases involving algorithmic decision systems. From the Proceedings of the 14th International Conference, iConference 2019, Washington D.C., March 31-April 3, 2019.

The modern view of logical reasoning as modeled by a consequence operator has allowed for huge developments in the study of logic as an abstract discipline. Still, it is unable to explain why it is often the case that the same designation is used, in an ambiguous way, to describe several distinct modes of reasoning over the same logical language. A paradigmatic example of such a situation is ‘modal logic’, a terminology which can encompass reasoning over Kripke frames, but also (...) over Kripke models, and in any case either locally or globally . Herein, we adopt a novel abstract notion of logic presented as a lattice-structured hierarchy of consequence operators, and explore some common proof-theoretic and model-theoretic ways of presenting such hierarchies through a collection of meaningful examples. In order to illustrate the usefulness of the notion of hierarchical consequence operators we address a few questions in the theory of combined logics, where a suitable abstract presentation of the logics being combined is absolutely essential. We show how to define the operation, in general, and we achieve a number of interesting preservation results for fibring within the context of 2-hierarchies. (shrink)

Weak determiners have both a presuppositional and a non presuppositional reading. Two ways of accounting for this fact have been proposed. The Ambiguity Approach (Partee 1989, Diesing 1992, de Hoop 1992) posits that weak determiners are ambiguous. The Pragmatic Approach (Büring 1996) claims that we do not need to postulate an ambiguity in the semantics: the presuppositional reading arises as a result of presuppositions triggered by topic/focus marking. In this paper we explore the possibility that both theories are needed. We (...) present as evidence the behavior of two Spanish weak determiners, unos and algunos. Algunos can get a presuppositional reading independently of topic/focus marking, as predicted by the Ambiguity Approach. Unos, on the other hand, exhibits the behavior predicted by the Pragmatic Approach: it is presuppositional only when marked either as contrastive topic or as focus. (shrink)

In her recent article, Does autonomy count in favor of labeling genetically modified food?, Kirsten Hansen argues that in Europe, voluntary negative labeling of non-GM foods respects consumer autonomy just as well as mandatory positive labeling of foods with GM content. She also argues that because negative labeling places labeling costs upon those consumers that want to know whether food is GM, negative labeling is better policy than positive labeling. In this paper, we argue that Hansens arguments are mistaken in (...) several respects. Most importantly, she underestimates the demands of respecting autonomy and overestimates the cost of positive labeling. Moreover, she mistakenly implies that only a small minority of people desire information about GM content. We also explore the extent to which her arguments would apply to the US context, and argue that any discussion of the relationship between autonomy and labeling should include not just considerations of consumer autonomy but also considerations of what we call citizen autonomy. (shrink)

Resumo: O estudo objetivou analisar os efeitos de uma proposta de intervenção da área da Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, voltada para a inclusão social e educacional de estudantes com deficiência no contexto universitário. Participaram quatro estudantes (três com deficiência física e um com transtorno do espectro autista), matriculados numa universidade pública brasileira. A coleta de dados ocorreu em três etapas: 1) entrevistas abertas individuais e aplicação de instrumentos; 2) intervenção grupal; 3) entrevistas individuais e reaplicação dos instrumentos. Neste texto, serão (...) destacados os procedimentos qualitativos e suas respectivas análises, iluminando as atuações do profissional da Psicologia como mediador e facilitador, por meio de uma análise crítica dos encontros e análise pelo núcleo de significação dos relatos obtidos nas entrevistas. Pode-se dizer que o programa de intervenção de apoio psicológico se configurou como um local de escuta, acolhimento e voz de estudantes com deficiência na instituição. Conclui-se que a Psicologia Escolar e Educacional pode contribuir para favorecer o empoderamento de estudantes com deficiência, seu desenvolvimento pessoal, social e acadêmico, possibilitando uma participação mais ativa desses sujeitos no Ensino Superior. Palavras-chave: Ensino Superior; Educação Inclusiva. Pessoas com deficiência; Inclusão Social; Psicologia. Psychology and Inclusion: Intervention proposition of students with disability in Higher Education Abstract: This study’s goal was to analyze the effects of an intervention proposition in the area of School and Educational Psychology, aimed at the social and educational inclusion of students with disability in the University context. Four students have participated (three of them with physical disabilities and one with Autistic Spectrum Disorders), enrolled in a Brazilian public university. Data collection occurred in three stages: 1) individual and open interviews and application of instruments; 2) group intervention; 3) individual interviews and reapplication of instruments. In this text, the qualitative procedures are highlighted along with their analysis, elucidating practices from Psychology professionals as mediators and facilitators, by means of critical analysis of the encounters and by the analysis of meaning cores of the accounts obtained during the interviews. It can be said that the intervention program for psychological support became a safe place for sharing, understanding, and as a platform for disabled students to make their voices heard throughout the institution. It was concluded that School and Educational Psychology can contribute to promote the empowerment of disabled students, as well as their personal, social, and academic development, enabling a more active participation of these students in Higher Education. Keywords: Higher Education; Inclusive Education; People with disabilities; Social Inclusion; Psychology. Psicología e Inclusión: Una propuesta de intervención a estudiantes con discapacidad en Educación Superior Resumen: El estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar los efectos de una propuesta de intervención en el área de Psicología Escolar y Educativa, orientada a la inclusión social y educativa de estudiantes con discapacidad en el contexto universitario. Participaron cuatro estudiantes (tres con discapacidad física y uno con trastorno del espectro autista), matriculados en una universidad pública brasileña. La recolección de datos se llevó a cabo en tres etapas: 1) entrevistas abiertas individuales y aplicación de instrumentos; 2) intervención grupal; 3) entrevistas individuales y reaplicación de los instrumentos. En este texto se destacarán los procedimientos cualitativos y sus respectivos análisis, destacando el trabajo del profesional de la psicología como mediador y facilitador, a través de un análisis crítico de los encuentros y análisis por el núcleo de significado de los relatos obtenidos en las entrevistas. Se puede decir que el programa de intervención de apoyo psicológico se configuró como un lugar para escuchar, acoger y hablar a los estudiantes con discapacidad de la institución. Se concluye que la Psicología Escolar y Educativa puede contribuir a favorecer el empoderamiento de los estudiantes con discapacidad, su desarrollo personal, social y académico, posibilitando una participación más activa de estas materias en la Educación Superior. Palabras clave: Educación superior; Educación inclusive; Personas con deficiencia; Inclusión social; Psicología. Data de registro: 30/04/2021 Data de aceite: 16/02/2022. (shrink)

A large literature documents the correlates and causes of subjective well-being, or happiness. But few studies have investigated whether people choose happiness. Is happiness all that people want from life, or are they willing to sacrifice it for other attributes, such as income and health? Tackling this question has largely been the preserve of philosophers. In this article, we find out just how much happiness matters to ordinary citizens. Our sample consists of nearly 13,000 members of the UK and US (...) general populations. We ask them to choose between, and make judgments over, lives that are high in different types of happiness and low in income, physical health, family, career success, or education. We find that people by and large choose the life that is highest in happiness but health is by far the most important other concern, with considerable numbers of people choosing to be healthy rather than happy. We discuss some possible reasons for this preference. (shrink)

O presente texto é oriundo da disciplina “Ontologia e Ciências Humanas: O Kant de Heidegger”, ministrada pelos professores Gustavo Silvano Batista e Eduardo José Marandola Junior entre janeiro e fevereiro de 2024, no Programa de Pós-Graduação Interdisciplinar (ICHSA) da Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas (FCA) da Unicamp no campus de Limeira-SP. Nele procuro analisar no segundo Heidegger em sua crítica pós-metafísica, portanto após a sua discussão sobre a metafísica kantiana, a maturação da ideia do Dasein. Nessa leitura específica de Heidegger destaco (...) o momento, apesar de não conclusivo, em que o Ser aparece como um ser-com, no qual vislumbro a possibilidade de diálogo, de encontro com outras percepções de mundo, entre elas, a oralidade na perspectiva de Amadou Hampaté Bâ. Com isso indico que apesar dos nítidos distanciamentos existem campos proximais, nos quais para a tradição oral ocorre o interesse pelo outro, o que estabelece a base necessária para que a palavra aconteça. (shrink)

Privacy is often linked to freedom. Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is a hallmark of a free society, and pervasive state‐sponsored surveillance is generally considered to correlate closely with authoritarianism. One link between privacy and freedom is prominent in the library and information studies field and has recently been receiving attention in legal and philosophical scholarship. Specifically, scholars and professionals argue that privacy is an essential component of intellectual freedom. However, the nature of intellectual freedom and its link to (...) privacy are not entirely clear. My aim in this article is to offer an account of intellectual freedom as a type of positive freedom. I will argue that a full account of intellectual freedom must involve more than an absence of constraints. Rather, intellectual freedom is at least partly a function of the quality of persons’ agency with respect to intellectual endeavors. Such an account best explains the relation between intellectual freedom and privacy and avoids problems with conceptions of intellectual freedom based solely on constraints. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo essencial contribuir para o esclarecimento teórico-filosófico do uso de conceitos como ética, moral, axiologia e valores, habitualmente empregues para nos referirmos a uma mesma realidade. Para tal, começaremos por analisar as respetivas etimologias que os caracterizam, examinaremos os diversos matizes dos seus sentidos diferenciados, bem como a sua relação de complementaridade, e terminaremos referindo o que entendemos por valores e qual a sua natureza e importância, principais características, bem como o universo a que se reportam. (...) Ao longo do texto, aduziremos e concluiremos pelo uso preferencial do conceito de "ética" a "moral", para o qual estão reservados os termos "normas" e "regras", e o de "valor" a "norma", a par de uma perspetiva crítica daquela. This article essentially aims to contribute to the philosophical-theoretical clarification of the use of concepts such as ethics, morals, axiology and values, usually used to refer to the same reality. To this end, we will begin by analyzing the respective etymologies that feature them, we will examine the various nuances of their senses, as well as their relationship of complementarity, and we will finish by referring to what we mean by values and what is their nature and importance, key features, as well as the universe to which they relate. Throughout the text, we will conclude by the preferential use of the concept from "ethics" to "morals", for which the terms "standards" and "rules" are reserved, and that from "value" to "standard", together with a critical perspective. (shrink)

This book has its philosophical starting point in the idea that group-based social movements have positive implications for peace politics. It explores ways of imagining community, nation, and international systems through a political lens that is attentive to diversity and different lived experiences. Contributors suggest how groups might work toward new nonviolent conceptions and experiences of diverse communities and global stability.

Desde las últimas décadas del siglo XIX el liberalismo económico ha ido progresivamente perdiendo consenso en las sociedades europeas lo que desemboco en un conjunto de reformas sociales a favor de los sectores trabadores, de ello no solo fue testigo participe la sociedad en su conjunto, sino también la disciplina económica. Sin embargo, desde allí en adelante se han generado intentos de retornos al liberalismo económico puro cuyo ascenso al poder se cristalizaron en la puesta en la marcha y sostenimiento (...) del modelo económico, político y social neoliberal en las últimas décadas del siglo XX. Su expansión alcanzó tanto a la sociedad política como a la sociedad civil, es decir alcanzo los espacios de poder estatal y se expandió en las creencias y formas de comprender lo social que permitieron sustentar y mantener las reformas aplicadas por el primero. En este contexto, este trabajo pretende rescatar el herramental analítico que el estudio de los intelectuales de Antonio Gramsci propicia para analizar de qué forma la disciplina económica ha contribuido a la construcción de esta nueva hegemonía, de este nuevo consenso, intentando analizar el modo en que ella ha conquistado un espacio disciplinar. (shrink)

RESUMO Este texto propõe a trazer à tona alguns aspectos dos estudos do budismo e de sua filosofia no Brasil, que têm sido, de alguma forma, negligenciados ou tratados de modo pouco condizente com a proposta com que este filosofar foi inicialmente concebido. Não se trata de convencer ou "converter" acadêmicos brasileiros a pensarem de maneira similar aos eruditos budistas, mas simplesmente destacar pontos que parecem relevantes para dar continuidade a um debate que já vem sendo estabelecido, particularmente na última (...) década. Com este propósito, serão levantadas questões como as motivações e métodos do fazer filosófico, o dogmatismo, a ética e formas de transmissão de conhecimento. ABSTRACT This text aims to highlight some aspects of the study of Buddhism and its philosophy in Brazil, which have been either neglected or treated in a manner that is incongruous with the proposal upon which this philosophy was initially conceived. The motivation here is not to convince or "convert" Brazilian scholars to think in a similar way to the Buddhist scholars, but simply to bring out points that seem to be relevant to foster the debate that has already been established, particularly in the last decade. For this purpose, issues regarding motivation and method in philosophical work, dogmatism, ethics and modes of knowledge transmission will be raised. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the gap between the strategic and operational levels of corporate responsibility. The strategic level of corporateresponsibility refers to the strategic plans concerning corporate responsibility which are examined by looking at the corporate responsibility documents. The operational level stands for the everyday actions of retailers which are analysed through interviews of nine retailers. The gap between the strategic plans and operational actions is described and analysed to understand why and how the gap exists (...) and what could be done to overcome the gap in the future. (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo describir la funcionalidad discursivo-pragmática de sujetos adultos mayores sanos y con demencia leve, en sus aspectos de coherencia y coherencia pragmática, a través del análisis de producción lingüística oral, de ambos grupos, mediante la tarea denominada “monólogo audible” del protocolo MetAphAs. La muestra fue seleccionada de la base de datos NEUROLEN, en la cual se eligieron 9 sujetos sanos y 9 sujetos con demencia leve. Los datos fueron analizados desde una perspectiva de investigación cualitativa (...) descriptiva, con base en la funcionalidad discursiva-pragmática y la comparación con el marco teórico disponible. Los resultados arrojaron diferencias significativas en el desempeño de ambos grupos de senescentes. A pesar de presentar fallas en la producción del lenguaje a causa del envejecimiento fisiológico, los adultos mayores sanos son capaces de desarrollar comunicación funcional con su entorno, no ocurre lo mismo en el caso de los sujetos con demencia, debido a su deterioro cognitivo, el cual generaría dificultades en la producción discursiva. (shrink)

Genetic and other biotechnologies are starting to impact significantly upon society and individuals within it. Rose and Novas draw on an analysis of many patient groups to sketch out the broad notion of biocitizenship as a device for describing how the empowered and informed individual, group or network can engage with bioscience. In this paper, we examine critically the notion of biocitizenship, drawing on both sociological fieldwork that grounds the debate in the views of a large and varied group of (...) concerned actors. Using work within green politics, we identify shortcomings in the concept of biocitizenship as it has so far been explicated. The value assumptions lying behind an account of biocitizenship, and its tendency to see issues through a reductive lens, are examined. Alternative views of values and goals, which may undermine any alleged rights and duties, are explored using interviews and other ethnographic data that illustrates the complexity of the terrain. The reductive lens of biocitizenship is explored through contrast with the wider scope of concerns emanating from various sources, including many within green politics. If such complexities are not recognised, there is a danger that a concept of biocitizenship may serve to create and amplify inequalities. Problems with identity issues are key: the construction of identity is complex and many groups are explicitly rejecting the ‘biological’ label. We discuss the multiple relations of citizens with the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Arguably, existing inequalities in power relationships, exploitation, commodification and ownership patterns are being perpetuated in novel ways through the new biosciences. We pose the question of whether it is possible to construct a concept of biocitizenship that overcomes these problems. (shrink)

The At Home/Chez Soi project is a pragmatic trial that is intended to test the effectiveness of providing persons who are homeless and mentally ill with housing and support for their mental illnesses. Research undertaken in academic journals and the gray literature about the ethics of conducting pragmatic housing studies with persons who are mentally ill revealed the lack of published knowledge in this area of research ethics. Thus, the At Home/Chez Soi project had to tailor traditional research ethics thinking (...) and tools to best protect its stakeholders. In this article, we outline two of the modifications we made. First, we evaluate the ethical challenges present when participants want to withdraw from a housing study. And second, we describe how adverse events are addressed in our pragmatic trial, and how a specially convened safety committee protects participants and stakeholders. (shrink)

Surveillance plays a crucial role in public health, and for obvious reasons conflicts with individual privacy. This paper argues that the predominant approach to the conflict is problematic, and then offers an alternative. It outlines a Basic Interests Approach to public health measures, and the Unreasonable Exercise Argument, which sets forth conditions under which individuals may justifiably exercise individual privacy claims that conflict with public health goals. The view articulated is compatible with a broad range conceptions of the value of (...) health. (shrink)