Visual cortical prostheses (VCPs) have the potential to provide artificial vision for visually impaired persons. However, the nature and utility of this form of vision is not yet fully understood. Participants in the early feasibility trial for the Orion VCP were interviewed to gain insight into their experiences using artificial vision, their motivations for participation, as well as their expectations and assessments of risks and benefits. Analyzed using principles of grounded theory and an interpretive description approach, these interviews yielded six (...) themes, including: the irreducibility of benefit to device functionality, mixed expectations for short-term device functionality and long-term technological advancement of visual prostheses, and a broad range of risks, concerns, and fears related to trial participation. We argue that these narratives motivate a nuanced set of ethical considerations related to the complex relationship between functionality and benefit, the intersection of user experience with disability justice, and the import of expectations and indirect risks on consent. (shrink)

Russell’s theory of memory as acquaintance with the past seems to square uneasily with his definition of acquaintance as the converse of the relation of presentation of an object to a subject. We show how the two views can be made to cohere under a suitable construal of ‘presentation’, which has the additional appeal of bringing Russell’s theory of memory closer to contemporary views on direct reference and object-dependent thinking than is usually acknowledged. The drawback is that memory as acquaintance (...) with the past falls short of fulfilling Russell’s requirement that knowledge by acquaintance be discriminating knowledge – a shortcoming shared by contemporary externalist accounts of knowledge from memory. (shrink)

We verified moral distress related to organ shortage for transplantation in nursing students. This quantitative pilot study analyzed data from 104 nursing undergraduate students. Data were collected through a survey composed of four questions and two sociodemographic items. The chi-squared test was used to examine categorical variables, whereas continuous variable data were analyzed using ANOVA and the Pearson Product Moment correlational test for determining the existence of moral distress regarding the availability of one heart for four individuals susceptible to heart (...) transplantation. A high level of moral distress was identified with regard to the hypothetical decision-making process, which justifies the need for further studies on the subject. Given the hypothetical scenario, moral distress was observed among the students, reaching severe distress in some cases. Approval CEP-University of Alberta Pro00068610. (shrink)

The exchange of goods and services between individuals is often formalised by a contract in which the parties establish norms to define what is expected of each one. Norms use deontic statements of obligation, prohibition, and permission, which may be in conflict. The task of manually detecting norm conflicts can be time–consuming and error-prone since contracts can be vast and complex. To automate such tasks, we develop an approach to identify potential conflicts between norms. We show the effectiveness of our (...) approach and its individual components empirically using two publicly available corpora, and contribute with a new annotated test corpus for norm conflict identification. (shrink)

O caráter polêmico e a relevância da obra de David Hume são indisputáveis. Neste livro, discute-se a visão do filósofo sobre a teoria do conhecimento e da ciência, além de tópicos mais particulares, mas nem por isso menos cruciais, como sua crítica ao finalismo, sua relevância para a leitura de Freud e a tese humeana, retomada por Quine, da continuidade entre conhecimento comum e teórico.

O artigo investiga a pertinência dos discursos religiosos para a construção da sociedade democrática. A contemporaneidade filosófica tem observado que as religiões podem contribuir para a realização do objetivo de fraternidade e solidariedade entre os cidadãos com distintas orientações axiológicas. A teoria do discurso de Jürgen Habermas analisa que as sociedades contemporâneas estão vivenciando o processo de pós-secularização e o ressurgimento das religiões na esfera pública. O filósofo alemão considera que as instituições religiosas têm o conteúdo normativo e a legitimidade (...) que está ausente nas instituições políticas e nos atores políticos. As religiões mundiais se caracterizam pelas ações sociais e o incentivo à solidariedade aos seus fiéis. No nível pós-metafísico de fundamentação da forma política, os discursos religiosos podem motivar os cidadãos para a atitude comunicativa e o entendimento sobre as normas sociais que deverão reger a sociedade justa e inclusiva. Nesse sentido, a experiência de auto-esclarecimento das religiões sobre as suas doutrinas e princípios de fé poderá colaborar para o entendimento entre os cidadãos religiosos e não-religiosos. Por fim, a análise da experiência católica de autorreflexão sobre suas doutrinas e o relacionamento com as diversas religiões se tornou o exemplo de diálogo para as entidades religiosas no mundo secular. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o desenvolvimento histórico do cinema de Charlie Chaplin, a partir da obra de Guido Oldrini: História do Cinema na Cultura do Século XX: Um Mapeamento Crítico. Analisamos também o potencial do cinema de Chaplin de cumprir a missão social da arte, a partir do sistema de mediações categorias de Lukács em sua obra A Peculiaridade Do Estético. Buscamos, assim, analisar o caso específico das obras de Charlie Chaplin e explicitar as categorias estéticas do (...) cinema enquanto forma particular de arte a partir do seu desenvolvimento histórico. (shrink)

Laura Nader is a towering figure as anthropologist, teacher, and public intellectual. Her letters give a glimpse of academic life mostly unseen by academics and by the general public. The collection includes letters from academic colleagues, but it also contains correspondence from lawyers, politicians, citizens, people on death row, Peace Corps workers, members of the military, scientists, and more.

We estimate that 208,000 deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices have been implanted to address neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders worldwide. DBS Think Tank presenters pooled data and determined that DBS expanded in its scope and has been applied to multiple brain disorders in an effort to modulate neural circuitry. The DBS Think Tank was founded in 2012 providing a space where clinicians, engineers, researchers from industry and academia discuss current and emerging DBS technologies and logistical and ethical issues facing the field. (...) The emphasis is on cutting edge research and collaboration aimed to advance the DBS field. The Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank was held virtually on September 1 and 2, 2020 (Zoom Video Communications) due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting focused on advances in: (1) optogenetics as a tool for comprehending neurobiology of diseases and on optogenetically-inspired DBS, (2) cutting edge of emerging DBS technologies, (3) ethical issues affecting DBS research and access to care, (4) neuromodulatory approaches for depression, (5) advancing novel hardware, software and imaging methodologies, (6) use of neurophysiological signals in adaptive neurostimulation, and (7) use of more advanced technologies to improve DBS clinical outcomes. There were 178 attendees who participated in a DBS Think Tank survey, which revealed the expansion of DBS into several indications such as obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and Alzheimer’s disease. This proceedings summarizes the advances discussed at the Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank. (shrink)

This paper presents an algebraic framework for investigating proposed translations of classical logic into intuitionistic logic, such as the four negative translations introduced by Kolmogorov, Gödel, Gentzen and Glivenko. We view these asvariant semanticsand present a semantic formulation of Troelstra’s syntactic criteria for a satisfactory negative translation. We consider how each of the above-mentioned translation schemes behaves on two generalisations of Heyting algebras: bounded pocrims and bounded hoops. When a translation fails for a particular class of algebras, we demonstrate that (...) failure via specific finite examples. Using these, we prove that the syntactic version of these translations will fail to satisfy Troelstra’s criteria in the corresponding substructural logical setting. (shrink)

Este ensaio estabelece uma comparação estética e fenomenológica entre os pensamentos de Yves-Klein e Merleau-Ponty. Se o pintor materializou as suas reflexões e concepções em obra pictórica, o fenomenólogo francês dissertou na escrita filosófica o resultado da sua reflexão. Da análise conjunta entre um e outro resulta esta fenomenologia e estética comparativa que apresenta alguns conceitos fundamentais que alimentaram essas reflexões, tais como a visibilidade, o corpo, o mundo. Assim, para além dessa comparação, este ensaio viabiliza o diálogo entre ambos. (...) Palavras-chave: Corpo. Mundo. Visibilidade. Merleau-Ponty. Yves Klein -/- Abstract:This essay establishes an aesthetic and phenomenological comparison between the thoughts of Yves-Klein and Merleau-Ponty. If the painter materialized his reflections and concepts in pictorial work, the French phenomenologist disserted in the philosophical writing the result of his reflection. From the joint analysis between one and the other, this phenomenology and comparative aesthetics results, which presents some fundamental concepts that fed these reflections such as visibility, the body, the world. Thus, in addition to this comparison, this essay enables the dialogue between both. Keywords: Body. World. Visibility. Merleau-Ponty. Yves Klein. (shrink)

ENTREVISTA COM PROFESSORAS(ES) DE FILOSOFIA DO ENSINO MÉDIO DO CEARÁ – BLOCO IICom: Dayane Evellin de Sousa Costa, Emilson Silva LopesPor: Antônio Alex Pereira de Sousa, Paulo Willame Araújo de Lima.

The Leslie matrix model for discrete population growth has been modified and used several times in population dynamics. A review is given of the basic model and of its principal modifications. The modifications relating to the influences of ‘internal’ or ‘external’ factors to the population are studied with greater detail. The same applies to models where the population is divided in stages rather than in age classes. In the same line, Hadjibiros studied a more general model, where the transition matrix (...) corresponds to a population divided in stages of unequal duration, and where the time varying influences of the ‘internal’ or ‘external’ factors are included. This model offers the possibility of computer simulation of the population dynamics of a natural population represented by a demographic vector. Some kind of relationship is proposed between the general matrix model and the Lefkovitch matrix ; the elements of which, obtained by regression techniques from census data, describe the biological dependance of a stage i at time t + 1 on a stage j at time t. (shrink)

Este trabalho procura contemplar as conseqüências de um Capítulo Geral de um Instituto de Vida Consagrada, dentro de um contexto atual parametrizado pelo Concílio Vaticano II, e fundamentada na Congregação das Escolas de Caridade – Instituto Cavanis, que recentemente realizou seu XXXIII Capítulo Geral, com atuação na América Latina e em outras partes do mundo. Alerta sobre o cotidiano e os desafios da vida religiosa nos dias de hoje, dentro de uma perspectiva atual nos âmbitos social e eclesial, propondo uma (...) abertura a novos ares, um novo "aggiornamento" nas instituições. (shrink)

Em As razões do Iluminismo, Sergio Paulo Rouanet refletiu sobre as tendências irracionalistas no Brasil e no mundo, e tentou opor a essas tendências um Iluminismo reformulado. Neste novo livro, dá um conteúdo conceitual mais preciso à idéia iluminista, a partir do funcionamento, em três configurações históricas - a Ilustração, o liberalismo e o socialismo -, dos momentos constitutivos do Iluminismo, que para Rouanet são a universalidade, a individualização e a autonomia.O autor explora sob vários ângulos esse tema, em (...) ensaios de caráter histórico ou teórico, versando tanto sobre a realidade brasileira como sobre a cultura mundial. Numa fase de eclipse das certezas e de exaustão dos paradigmas, Mal-estar na modernidade propõe, não uma alternativa concreta, mas o debate em torno de um caminho possível - uma civilização iluminista. (shrink)

Implementation of formal specifications is very important in formal software development and can be described in terms of simple logical concepts. Formal specifications are presentations of theories in many-sorted first-order logic, and an implementation of a formal specification on another formal specification amounts to an interpretation of the former into a conservative extension of the latter. Here we present and analyse some sort introducing constructs akin to those found in many programming languages. This is of importance because it occurs often (...) in implementing formal specifications, when new sorts are ‘constructed’ from the concrete ones. We specify these constructs and show that these specifications provide extensions with behaviour close to that of the familiar extensions by definitions. (shrink)

This article provides a critical reading of the ‘Parecer CNE-CES 60, de 2014’, from the Ministry of education, Brazil, which defines the curriculum guidelines for courses of Baccalaureate in Theology. In its first section it discusses the theoretical background of the ‘Parecer’, questioning its illuminist orientation, as well as its pedagogical theory focused on contents and not on the students activities. It aims to show that are two opposed educational paradigms in the ‘Parecer’, the illuminist and the constructivist, although the (...) illuminist is the dominant one. It also question the view of the theologian present in the ‘Parecer’, marked by significant absences from the professional field of religious work. In the second section, the article presents a sample of particular interpretation of the ‘Parecer’, indicating the guidelines of a curriculum based on the constructivist paradigm. It dedicates special attention to the occult dimension of the curriculum and to an articulation of the student’s activities in relationship to the disciplines of the course. (shrink)

El presente trabajo procura abordar, dentro del contexto del debate en torno a la influencia de valores extra epistémicos en las ciencias, el problema respecto de ciertas investigaciones científicas que pudieran contener conclusiones indeseables, en el sentido de que su contenido pudiera afectar a ciertos grupos sociales. Siguiendo el razonamiento del filósofo pluralista Philip Kitcher, se sitúa la discusión en torno a la renuncia a la búsqueda de ciertas verdades, cuando éstas puedan reñir con ciertos valores morales, políticos o sociales (...) que no estamos dispuestos a transgredir. En dicha línea, se pone acento en la influencia de las consideraciones morales que pueden influir en nuestro juicio sobre las verdades que describen el mundo, como asimismo en la dimensión moral del obrar humano que resulta ser un aspecto irrenunciable, lo cual es enteramente aplicable a la actividad científica. (shrink)

An anthology of writings from Plato and Aristotle, including an introductory essay on the history of ancient Greek philosophy and Greek Glossary.

El artículo estudia la teoría de la guerra justa, en san Agustín, considerándolo como el fundador de esta teoría, ya que fue el primero en articular los criterios perennes dentro del marco de "ethos" cristiano del amor e igualdad como seres humanos creados a imagen y semejanza del Creador. Trata también del influjo de Agustín en el desarrollo de esta teoría de la guerra justa.

By tracing some of the historical and hermeneutical influences of Augustine on Martin Heidegger and his 1927 magnum opus, this article argues that Being and Time has an “Augustinian constitution.” While Heidegger’s philosophical terms are in a certain sense original, many of them have their conceptual origins in Augustine’s Christian thought and in his philosophizing from experience. The article systematically revisits all of Heidegger’s citations of Augustine, which reveals not only the rhetorical influence of Augustine on the organization of Being (...) and Time, but also the fact that the conceptual inspiration of the work and the development of its philosophicalterms are significantly indebted to Augustine. Further, an original synthesis of Heidegger’s methodology with Augustine’s thought on restlessness and conversion is developed in order to demonstrate the philosophical compatibility between Heidegger and Augustine. This synthesis results in what the author considers the foundations for an Augustinian phenomenology. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to explain the influence that Dionysius's doctrine of God's incommunicability has on Thomistic thought in De divinis nominibus, chapter II. lec. 2 and 3.

Proponho uma interpretação das observações de Wittgenstein nas Investigações Filosóficas (§§ 134-6) sobre a doutrina da ‘forma proposicional geral’ exposta no Tractatus. Contra a leitura predominante, sustento que essas passagens contêm uma defesa, ao invés de uma rejeição sumária, do que eu alego ser o núcleo daquela doutrina. Recorro ao comentário de A. N. Prior ao § 134 das Investigações para salientar a estrutura anafórica do exemplo que dá Wittgenstein do uso, na linguagem ordinária, de uma variável proposicional. Encerro a (...) discussão com um breve aceno à vulnerabilidade da fundação (grounding) de cadeias anafóricas.AbstractI offer an interpretation of Wittgenstein’s remarks in Philosophical Investigations (§§ 134-6) about the doctrine of a ‘general propositional form’ as it was presented in the Tractatus. Against the prevailing reading, I argue that these sections contain a vindication, rather than an out and out rejection, of what I claim to be the kernel of that doctrine. I make use of A. N. Prior’s gloss on § 134 of the Investigations to underscore the anaphoric structure of Wittgenstein’s example of the use, in ordinary language, of a propositional variable. I round up the discussion with a brief glance at the vulnerability of grounding of anaphoric chains. (shrink)

Este texto visa expor alguns conceitos próprios da doutrina do Direito de Kant, bem como os fundamentos a priori deduzidos pelo filósofo crítico nas suas obras Crítica da razão prática e Metafísica dos costumes – introdução à doutrina do direito, os quais devem ser encontrados na base de toda legislação prática. De posse de tais conceitos, investigo a possibilidade contemporânea de permanência da filosofia prática de Kant como supedâneo fundamental para uma política e legislação internacional para proteção e garantia dos (...) direitos humanos, e as condições exigidas por Kant para tal modelo legislativo. (shrink)

Há um discurso teórico que denuncia a igualdade formal presente no ideal de Estado de Direito como um manto ideológico a serviço do conservadorismo. Por debaixo desse manto, as profundas desigualdades sociais e relações de opressão seriam legitimadas como se fossem simplesmente fruto da aplicação imparcial das regras jurídicas a que todos estariam igualmente submetidos. Embora essa crítica sirva quando direcionada ao modelo de Estado de Direito defendido por Hayek, que apresenta falsamente as regras oriundas dos costumes e dos precedentes (...) como isentas de posições políticas, ela não atinge da mesma maneira o modelo de Estado de Direito centrado na supremacia da legislação. Apesar de todas as limitações que podem ser reconhecidas no ideal de igualdade formal, a sua recusa parece antes permitir novas e mais graves formas de opressão do que as suprimir. (shrink)