ObjectivesIn 2015, the Province of Quebec, Canada passed a law that allowed voluntary active euthanasia. Palliative care stakeholders in Canada have been largely opposed to euthanasia, yet there is little research about their views. The research question guiding this study was the following: How do palliative care physicians in Quebec position themselves regarding the practice of VAE in the context of the new provincial legislation?MethodsWe used interpretive description, an inductive methodology to answer research questions about clinical practice. A total of (...) 18 palliative care physicians participated in semistructured interviews at two university-affiliated hospitals in Quebec.ResultsParticipants positioned themselves in opposition to euthanasia. Their justifications were framed within their professional commitment to not hasten death, which sat in tension with the value of patients’ autonomy to choose how to die. Participants described VAE as unacceptable if it impeded opportunities to evaluate and alleviate suffering. Further, they contested government rhetoric that positioned VAE as a way to improve end-of-life care. Participants felt that VAE would diminish the potential of palliative care to relieve suffering. Dilemmas were apparent in their narratives, about reconciling respect for patient autonomy with broader palliative care values, and the value of accompanying and not abandoning patients who make requests for VAE while being committed to neither prolonging nor hastening death.ConclusionsThis study provides insight into nuanced positions of experienced palliative care physicians in Quebec and confirms expected tensions between an important stakeholder and the practice of VAE as guided by the new legislation. (shrink)

In his thesis 'Para uma Teoria Geral dos Homomorfismos' (1944) the Portuguese mathematician José Sebastião e Silva constructed an abstract or generalized Galois theory, that is intimately linked to F. Klein’s Erlangen Program and that foreshadows some notions and results of today’s model theory; an analogous theory was independently worked out by M. Krasner in 1938. In this paper, we present a version of the theory making use of tools which were not at Silva’s disposal. At the same time, we (...) tried to keep in mind, so much as possible, the gist of his standpoint. (shrink)

With the triumph of capitalism at the end of the Cold War, the 1990s witnessed the emergence of an optimistic sentiment grounded in the idea of limitless progress. However, as Fisher (2020) asserts, this sentiment was called into question by the crises of the early 21st century, giving rise to a melancholic outlook on the future. This new phase of capitalism has generated a series of existential-themed products in popular culture, albeit with a despairing tone regarding the direction of society. (...) The issue at hand aims to analyze popular culture through a Sartrean existential prism, seeking to understand how the cultural industry creates clichés inspired by historical existentialism, producing what we will refer to as “vulgar existentialism,” in contrast to Sartre’s historical existentialism. Our hypothesis unfolds in two parts: 1- Vulgar existentialism promotes a hedonistic rebellion that does not threaten the system, reducing the crisis to a “neutralized” form of conduct; 2- Such conduct is sustained by an imaginary rooted in popular culture productions that manifest melancholy and fatalism in relation to attempts at radical societal transformation. (shrink)

Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 8, August 2022.

Articular teoría y observación reflexiva-crítica de la práctica pedagógica, buscando acercar los estudiantes a la metodología de investigación acción, constituye un eje central de la formación de los futuros docentes y la asignatura de Iniciación a la Práctica Profesional (IPP) asume esa dimensión. Este estudio tiene por objetivo identificarla en los informes de IPP. Los datos de análisis son de 2017-2021 y contemplan la observación del contexto no formal en la educación primaria. El análisis textual discursivo fue la metodología utilizada (...) para analizar los informes seleccionados. Los resultados indican problemas en la apropiación del cuestionamiento reflexivo y la construcción de argumentación. (shrink)

In this paper I examine two mathematical definitions of observational equivalence, one proposed by Charlotte Werndl and based on manifest isomorphism, and the other based on Ornstein and Weiss's ε-congruenceε-congruence. I argue, for two related reasons, that neither can function as a purely mathematical definition of observational equivalence. First, each definition permits of counterexamples; second, overcoming these counterexamples will introduce non-mathematical premises about the systems in question. Accordingly, the prospects for a broadly applicable and purely mathematical definition of observational equivalence (...) are unpromising. Despite this critique, I suggest that Werndl's proposals are valuable because they clarify the distinction between provable and unprovable elements in arguments for observational equivalence. (shrink)

Steeve Bélanger,Frédérique Bonenfant | : Le concept d’« innovation religieuse » est rarement, mais surtout particulièrement mal défini dans la recherche actuelle. De plus, il est souvent associé aux nouveaux mouvements religieux qui ont émergé à l’époque contemporaine, ce qui limite indéniablement son utilisation comme outil et catégorie d’analyse des phénomènes de changement, de nouveauté, de transformation et de mutation religieux d’hier comme d’aujourd’hui. Afin de la distinguer d’une nouveauté, d’une mode ou d’une tendance religieuse passagère, nous proposons de (...) considérer que l’innovation religieuse consiste en un processus collectif qui, par volonté et/ou par désir de changement face à une situation considérée comme ne répondant pas ou plus aux besoins ou aux aspirations actuelles, introduit une nouveauté religieuse et qui conduit, par négociation ou par imposition au moyen d’un réseau de communication, à un changement socioreligieux significatif, effectif et durable des pratiques et/ou du système de significations. Cette proposition de définition, qui se veut ouverte et englobante, permet de considérer que toute nouveauté introduite dans le domaine religieux peut se transformer en innovation religieuse à condition de traverser les quatre phases qui caractérisent, selon nous, les processus d’innovation religieuse, soit celle de proposition d’une nouveauté, celle de diffusion de la nouveauté, celle d’appropriation de la nouveauté puis celle d’adoption de la nouveauté par changement des pratiques et/ou du système de significations. | : The concept of “religious innovation” is seldom, but most of all very badly defined in current research. Furthermore, it is often associated to new religious movements that have emerged in the contemporary period. This undeniably limits its use as a tool and a category of analysis of the phenomena of religious change, novelty, transformation and mutation yesterday as today. With a view to distinguish it from a novelty, a fashion or a passing religious tendency, we propose to consider that religious innovation consists in a collective process which, either willingly or through a desire for change in the face of a situation deemed not or no longer to answer to actual needs or aspirations, introduces a religious novelty, and which leads, through negotiation or imposition by means of a network of communication, to a socio-religious change, significant, effective and durable, of practices and/or of the system of meanings. This proposed definition, intended as it is to be open and inclusive, allows one to consider that every novelty introduced into the religious domain may be transformed into a religious innovation provided it passes through the four phases characterizing, according to us, the processes of religious innovation, namely that of a proposition of novelty, that of a diffusion of the novelty, that of an appropriation of the novelty and that of an adoption of the novelty through a change of practices and/or of the system of meanings. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between information and abductive reasoning in the context of problem-solving, focusing on non-human animals. Two questions guide our investigation: What is the relation between information and abductive reasoning in the context of human and non-human animals? Do non-human animals perform discovery based on inferential processes such as abductive reasoning? In order to answer these questions, we discuss the semiotic concept of information in relation to the concept of abductive reasoning and, (...) more specifically, to the notion of manipulative abduction proposed by Magnani. Finally, we investigate a case study of corvids’ intelligence, namely, their capacity of causal cognition. (shrink)

This article aims to review the standard objections to dualism and to argue that will either fail to convince someone committed to dualism or are flawed on independent grounds. I begin by presenting the taxonomy of metaphysical positions on concrete particulars as they relate to the dispute between materialists and dualists, and in particular substance dualism is defined. In the first section, several kinds of substance dualism are distinguished and the relevant varieties of this kind of dualism are selected. The (...) remaining sections are analyses of the standard objections to substance dualism : It is uninformative, has troubles accounting for soul individuation, causal pairing and interaction, violates laws of physics, is made implausible by the development of neuroscience and it postulates entities beyond necessity. I conclude that none of these objections is successful. (shrink)

This papers’ goal is to present a survey of the contemporary discussions regarding truthmakers. The emphasis will be on the characterization of the truthmaking relation and on the problems involved in universal propositions and negations.

ABSTRACT In this article, I will carry out an epistemic and interpretative project, drawing out the implications of African values for the morality of war. More precisely, I wish to interpret the African value system and tease out some conclusions as to what this value system entails in terms of the following: the morality of when to enter war, how to act in war, and what to do after war. I carry out this inquiry by articulating the African value of (...) Ubuntu in light of the actions and speeches of two prominent African leaders, Nelson Mandela and Amilcar Cabral. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The current COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a strong negative impact on African countries. This is due to the fact that poverty has reduced the ability of these countries to implement health measures that are necessary to address the pandemic. In this article, I contend that colonialism has a role to play in this reduced ability to respond to the current crisis. Hence I argue that Ubuntu ethics imposes responsibility on European governments to aid Africans during this period.

The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles By Dr Rodrigue Tremblay Prometheus Books -/- The world faces a crisis of civilization, which is in reality a moral crisis. The modern moral worldview that has evolved since the 18th Century Age of Enlightenment seems to be weathering. There is a recrudescence of the old moral formulas that encourage conflicts and wars. Humanity is in need of a new moral revival, free of sectarian references, in order to pursue its long (...) march for survival in a climate of progress and liberty. -/- The Code for Global Ethics proposes an imperative and more explicitly universal code of rights and obligations for all individuals, whether they be ordinary citizens or leaders of countries, of corporations, or religious organizations. It outlines the principles of rational humanism to be applied within the global context of a shrinking and a politically and economically interdependent world. Such a universal and global code of conduct is then compared to alternative moral codes—codes usually based on sectarian religious systems—with a demonstration of why such narrow or ethnically centered moral systems have failed humanity in the past. In our view, humanism is about idealism, compassion, and mutual tolerance, in a true spirit of humanity. It is a truly universal vision of humankind. http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Global-Ethics-Principles/dp/1616141727/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3 -/- . (shrink)

After satisfying their quantitative and qualitative needs as regards nutrition, consumers in developed countries are becoming more involved in the ethical aspects of food production, especially when it relates to animal products. Social demands for respecting animal welfare in housing systems are increasing rapidly, as is social awareness of human responsibility towards farm animals. Many studies have been conducted on animal welfare measurement in different production systems, but the available information for small ruminants remains insufficient. In this study, a 75 (...) criteria-evaluation tool has been set up on the basis of the five freedoms concept. Animal welfare considerations have been analyzed in 25 documents, including labeling schemes, regulations, and recommendations from different European countries. The results show many differences between regular and organic small ruminant farming standards. Emergency measures are generally lacking. A weak representation of psychological aspects of animal welfare, especially by the current European legislation, is highlighted. (shrink)

Seguiremos com a leitura da Crítica da razão prática, de Immanuel Kant, buscando apoio em dois eixos centrais: a) a formulação do imperativo categórico; b) a doutrina do fato da razão. A escolha desse percurso sustenta a posição de que, não obstante as inúmeras formulações dadas ao imperativo da moralidade ao longo da Fundamentação, haveria, nos termos da segunda Crítica, uma formulação mais clara e precisa desse princípio. Em relação à doutrina do fato da razão, a mesma será tratada em (...) dois sentidos: de um lado, a partir de uma tentativa de reconstrução das teses originais de Kant, com base no percurso textual do filósofo; de outro, mostrando em que medida essa doutrina representa uma mudança de posição em relação às impossibilidades encontradas na FMC. O objetivo, com efeito, será o de mostrar como Kant deixa de ocupar-se da tarefa de deduzir analiticamente o conceito de liberdade a partir do conceito de vontade, sendo, precisamente, o apelo ao fato da razão o traço distintivo dessa mudança. Disso se concluirá que não apenas a razão pura pode ser prática, mas que só ela, e não a razão restringida empiricamente, é incondicionalmente prática. De saída, falaremos da distinção entre vontade e arbítrio, ressaltando seu significado para a compreensão do conceito de autonomia face à antropologia e à natureza humana. (shrink)

One of the most critical challenges faced in science is that of categorization. Both at the inception of a new field and recurrently as it matures, its objects of interest must be classified according to their similarities, and the resulting kinds must be conceptualized in a way that mirrors the best of what is known or postulated about them—all in the hope that those kinds are either real or of practical significance. Transformations in the conceptual chart of any scientific discipline (...) are not only usual but a sign of and often a requirement for its development. Curiously enough, the most prominent definition of... (shrink)

Benedito Nunes, aclamado filósofo e crítico literário, guarda em sua biografia um período de formação jurídica na Faculdade de Direito do Pará, entre os anos de 1948 e 1952. Este é um dado que normalmente fica isolado na observação de sua trajetória, sobretudo em relação aos aspectos intelectuais da formação jurídica, fator que pode permitir uma maior compreensão sobre a construção do pensamento do filósofo. Diante dessa percepção, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a formação jurídico-filosófica propiciada pela Faculdade (...) de Direito do Pará ao estudante Benedito Nunes, dando ênfase aos estudos realizados em “Introdução à Ciência do Direito”, disciplina ministrada pelo professor Daniel Coelho de Souza. Para tanto, utiliza-se como base os dossiês acadêmicos albergados pelo Arquivo da atual Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) e demais fontes que auxiliam o trabalho a partir da perspectiva da História Intelectual. Em conclusão, nota-se que a Faculdadem de Direito do Pará foi um ambiente que contribuiu para a formação da visão de mundo de seus bacharéis, em especial de Benedito Nunes, por meio da formação filosófica rica em temas de Teoria do Conhecimento, abrindo possibilidades para um pensamento universal. (shrink)

The following article represents a synthesis effort on the narrative of Religious Education formation in the Brazilian official documents on Education. Thus, it intends to be a theoretical and pedagogical instrument for understanding this curricular component as a field of Applied Science of Religion. In order to achieve this goal, we divide the text into three parts. In the first part, the possible classifications of Religious Education, which would be the subarea of knowledge of the Science of Religion or the (...) Applied Science of Religion and the curricular component that composes the subjects defined at the Brazilian Elementary School level. In the second part of this article some elements of the official documents are discussed, the Common National Curriculum Base and the National Curriculum Guidelines for Licenciature of Science in Religion, which guarantee the provision of Religious Education in accordance with the Law and a reflective and secular model of education. At the end, we will present and discuss in the third part some epistemological and methodological assumptions of the Science of Religion that allow the theoretical and practical basis of Religious Education. (shrink)

The morality of war has been debated from a variety of perspectives. However, it has rarely been intertwined with the topic of the existence of God. Sometimes anti-theists argue that the existence of a Western Judeo-Christian God who is omnipotent, omniscient and morally perfect is inconsistent with the existence of evils such as war. We will argue that there is no such logical inconsistency between the God of the African traditional religions and the evil of war. First, we contend that (...) such a logical inconsistency does not exist because God in African traditional religions is not seen as omnipotent, omniscient or morally perfect, and therefore, it would not be logically inconsistent for such a God to co-exist with the evil of war. This is mainly because African moral realism entails that war is a legitimate means for an imperfect being in an imperfect world to pursue morally permissible goals. Second, even if God is omniscient, omnipotent and morally perfect, when considered from the African religious viewpoint, a God of harmony, like the one in African traditional religions, can permit some evils for a greater good such as “harmony”. (shrink)

Research suggests that the experience of meaningless work is prevalent in various occupations, and that it is destructive for organizations and individuals, making this an issue of major ethical importance. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study based on interviews with Canadian public servants who self-identified as experiencing meaninglessness at work. Our main goal is to better understand participants' responses to the experience of meaningless work and the broader implications their experiences had on the rest of (...) their lives. We surface and explore the harms inflicted on participants through their experiences with meaningless work and suggest that these harms may have been made worse by structural features of our study's public-sector setting. We contribute to organization studies literature by showing the intersection of meaningless work with three related concepts: bullshit jobs, empty labour, and functional stupidity and argue that our empirical findings complement and complicate these frameworks by presenting the complex but hidden emotional experiences that can accompany outwardly observable workplace behaviours. (shrink)

Steeve Bélanger | : Depuis le xixe siècle, la question de la « séparation » entre le « judaïsme » et le « christianisme » anciens a soulevé de nombreux débats entre spécialistes. Pour tenter d’expliquer ce phénomène historique complexe, les chercheurs n’ont pas hésité à recourir à de nombreuses métaphores et à divers paradigmes interprétatifs. Or, la recherche des trois dernières décennies a contribué à renouveler et à nuancer notre connaissance du « judaïsme » et du « christianisme (...) » anciens obligeant alors à revoir les métaphores et paradigmes par lesquels on a tenté d’expliquer la « séparation » entre ces deux entités religieuses. | : Since the 19th century, the question of the “separation” between the “Judaism” and “Christianity” in Antiquity has raised many debates among specialists. Many researchers have tried to explain this complex historical phenomenon, and they did not hesitate to use many metaphors and various interpretative paradigms. The research during the three last decades contributed to renew and to moderate our knowledge of “Judaism” and “Christianity.” The community then had to re-examine the metaphors and paradigms by which the “separation” between these two religious entities has been there explained. (shrink)

The emergence of environmental governance practices raises a fundamental question as to whether they are substantive or symbolic. Toward that end, we analyze the relationship between a firm’s environmental governance and its environmental management as reflected in its ultimate outcome, environmental performance. We posit that substantive practices would bring changes in organizations, most notably in terms of improved environmental performance, whereas symbolic practices would portray organizations as environmentally committed without making meaningful changes to their operations. Focusing on a sample of (...) environmentally sensitive firms, results are consistent with environmental governance mechanisms being predominantly part of a symbolic approach to manage stakeholder perceptions on environmental management, having little substantial impact on organizations. Statistical analyses show mostly that there is no relation between environmental governance mechanisms and environmental performance, measured in terms of regulatory compliance, pollution prevention, and environmental capital expenditures. However, there is some indication that environmental incentives are associated with pollution prevention. Interviews with corporate directors shed further light on these results by underlining that environmental governance mechanisms are employed at the board level to protect the organization from reputational and/or regulatory harm, but are not necessarily intended to proactively improve environmental performance. (shrink)

Araras, 4 de abril de 2017 Querido amigo José Esteves: Você não tem idéia do quanto fiquei contente ao receber a solicitação feita por sua amiga Cecília de uma bibliografia sobre o Centro Dom Vital. Foi você quem sugeriu que ela me telefonasse e eu fiquei feliz por ser lembrada depois de tanto tempo e lembrada por um amigo que me traz tantas e tão gratas recordações. Soube por ela, pela sua amiga, que você está aposentado e que continua muito (...) ativo, trabalhando em seus múltiplos interesses c... (shrink)

Um dos pais fundadores da psicoterapia existencial- Ludwig Binswanger- foi justamente criticado por Martin Heidegger por excesso de formalismo e má compreensão da analítica existencial. Apesar destes reparos algumas contribuições de Binswanger, por estarem baseadas na sua experiência clínica, são, ainda hoje profícuas para uma interpretação do sofrimento, apresentado pelos nossos pacientes na clínica psicoterapêutica. É precisamente no caso da psicopatologia, tanto neurótica como psicótica, que a noção de projeto-de-mundo, apresenta um elevado valor heurístico e permite o desvelamento do modo (...) de ser-no-mundo do paciente, a partir do qual se torna clara a origem da estrutura essencial da experiência psicopatológica. Retomando o já célebre caso apresentado por Binswanger da menina em que se separou o tacão do sapato enquanto patinava, também comentado por Heidegger, apresenta-se uma discussão histórica do caso que permita exemplificar uma interpretação, respeitadora do método fenomenológico, que ilumina o seu projeto-de-mundo e identificar, como acontece com toda a Psicopatologia, quais os dados da existência, negados, escamoteados ou escotomizados e que consequências daí advêm. É também apresentada uma via psicoterapêutica, nestes casos, a partir do questionamento dos pressupostos do projeto-de-mundo, uma vez identificados pela análise existencial. (shrink)