BackgroundViral pandemics present a range of ethical challenges for policy makers, not the least among which are difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce healthcare resources. One important question is whether healthcare workers should receive priority access to a vaccine in the event that an effective vaccine becomes available. This question is especially relevant in the coronavirus pandemic with governments and health authorities currently facing questions of distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.Main textIn this article, we critically evaluate the most common ethical (...) arguments for granting healthcare workers priority access to a vaccine. We review the existing literature on this topic, and analyse both deontological and utilitarian arguments in favour of HCW prioritisation. For illustrative purposes, we focus in particular on the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. We also explore some practical complexities attendant on arguments in favour of HCW prioritisation.ConclusionsWe argue that there are deontological and utilitarian cases for prioritising HCWs. Indeed, the widely held view that we should prioritise HCWs represents an example of ethical convergence. Complexities arise, however, when considering who should be included in the category of HCW, and who else should receive priority in addition to HCWs. (shrink)

This paper aims to show how Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics, namely in the specificity of the Conflict of interpretations category, is a fruitful resource in the constitution of Women's Studies as well as to legitimize the need for its full integration in the canons of humanistic knowledge. In general, they continue to ignore the immense body of knowledge and perspectives that Women's Studies have produced in recent decades. In this sense, it begins by presenting the general features of the hermeneutic problematic (...) and the theme of Conflict of Interpretations, and then showing its proven contribution to the development of Women's Studies and defending its possible contribution to enhancing their integration into canons. (shrink)

This paper presents the Obstetric and Neonatal Ontology (OntONeo). This ontology has been created to provide a consensus representation of salient electronic health record (EHR) data and to serve interoperability of the associated data and information systems. More generally, it will serve interoperability of clinical and translational data, for example deriving from genomics disciplines and from clinical trials. Interoperability of EHR data is important to ensuring continuity of care during the prenatal and postnatal periods for both mother and child. As (...) a strategy to advance such interoperability we use an approach based on ontological realism and on the ontology development principles of the Open Biomedical Ontologies Foundry, including reuse of reference ontologies wherever possible. We describe the structure and coverage domain of OntONeo and the process of creating and maintaining the ontology. (shrink)

Neste ensaio, abordo o problema de saber se é possível atribuir experiência consciente a um sistema de inteligência artificial, ou seja, o problema de saber se é possível algo como uma subjetividade artificial. Para abordar esse problema, primeiro recorro a dois textos clássicos da filosofia da mente: “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness” de David Chalmers (1995) e “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” de Thomas Nagel (1974). Então, busco esclarecer quais são as (im)potencialidades das inteligências artificiais (...) (IAs), ressaltando suas capacidades e fragilidades, a partir principalmente dos textos de Alexandre Quaresma (2019) e Teresa Ludemir (2021). Na terceira e última parte deste ensaio, busco sintetizar o conteúdo precedente no sentido de apontar para duas condições necessárias para a instanciação de subjetividade num sistema artificial, uma condição técnica e uma condição conceitual. Busco apresentar argumentos que enfatizam a importância de tomarmos os organismos biológicos como modelos de sistemas conscientes e, nesse sentido, argumento em favor de duas condições necessárias para algo como uma subjetividade artificial: (i) as capacidades de meta-aprendizagem e autorregulação, típicas de um organismo, e (ii) a resolução do velho problema difícil da consciência. (shrink)

Electronic health records (EHRs) serve as repositories of documented data collected in a health care encounter. An EHR records information about who receives, who provides the health care and about the place where the encounter happens. We also observe additional elements relating to social relations in which the healthcare consumer is involved. To provide a consensus representation of common data and to enhance interoperability between different EHR repositories we have created a solution grounded in formal ontology. Here, we present how (...) an ontology for the obstetric and neonatal domain deals with these general elements documented in health care encounters. Our goal is to promote the interoperability of information among EHRs created in different specialties. To develop our ontology, we used two main approaches: one based on ontological realism, the other based on the principles of the OBO Foundry, including reuse of reference ontologies. (shrink)

In this paper, I show that Polleit and Mariano (2011) are right in concluding that Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are per se unobjectionable from Rothbard’s libertarian perspective on property rights and contract theory, but that they fail to derive this conclusion properly. I therefore outline the proper explanation. In addition, though Polleit and Mariano are correct in pointing out that speculation with CDS can conceivably hurt the borrowers’ interests, they fail to grasp that this can be the case only in (...) some peculiar circumstances that I identify. In other words, they miss the bigger picture, the one outside special circumstances, in which CDS trading has the opposite effect. That is, CDS facilitate debt accumulation, including government debt accumulation. Finally, I point out how this can precipitate the collapse of fiat money regimes. An incidental goal of the analysis is to provide a better account than Polleit and Mariano of recent government interventions in and around CDS markets. (shrink)

This article examines the British colonial theft of Indigenous sovereignty and the particular obstacles that it presents to establishing just social relations between the colonizer and the colonized in settler states. In the first half, I argue that the particular nature of the crime of sovereign theft makes apologies and reparations unsuitable policy tools for reconciliation because Settler societies owe their very existence to the abrogation of Indigenous sovereignties. Instead, Settler states ought to return sovereignty to the land’s Indigenous peoples. (...) In the second half of this paper, I take up some of the practical questions of how this might be done and anticipate a number of objections. Giving up sovereignty would not mean dispossessing the millions of colonists who currently reside in these countries of their homes and property – but it does mean rethinking the constitutional makeup of a country and how that serves to benefit the different peoples who make their homes there. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different “degrees of contingency”. We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For illustrative (...) purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)

The present work consists of a discussion about the concept of real number in Frege. It is intended to explain how Frege tries to define the real numbers, highlighting the importance that the notion of “magnitude-ratio” plays in this definition. In Part III, in Volume II of the Grundgesetze der Arithmetik (1903) (from now on only: Grundgesetze), Frege presents his theory of real numbers, which is followed by a long criticism of the real number theories in force at that time, (...) such as by Cantor, Dedekind, Thomae and Weierstrass. In view of this, to fulfill our purpose, we will examine the text only where Frege presents his own theory of real numbers (the informal presentation) (§§156-164). Frege's criticisms of previous theories will not be examined in detail, unless an introduction to his criticism of formalism, in order to elucidate such criticism. Thus, only the part in which the philosopher presents his own conception of real numbers will be analyzed. To support the discussion, authors Peter Simons, Eric Snyder and Stewart Shapiro will be used. (shrink)

Esta monografia faz parte de uma pesquisa de Iniciação Científica (IC) financiada pela FAPESP (processo 2023/04313-5) até 31/12/2024. Neste texto, que é simultaneamente um trabalho final de disciplina (Monografia II - HG880 SC) e minha monografia de conclusão de curso, comparo os naturalismos metodológicos de Quine, Hume e Aristóteles quanto à natureza da cognição. Ou seja, pretendo comparar como Aristóteles, Hume e Quine concebem, no interior de suas respectivas epistemologias naturalizadas, aquilo que geralmente chamamos de ‘alma’, ‘mente’ ou ‘cognição’. Desse (...) modo, ao oferecer uma perspectiva diacrônica da epistemologia naturalizada, meu propósito é contribuir para o debate quanto ao problema de como conhecer cientificamente a cognição. Para tanto, parto de um mapeamento da origem de tal problema, bem como de uma reconstrução expositiva que aborda seu desenvolvimento de Aristóteles até Quine. Ao longo desse percurso, procuro mostrar de que modo Hume pode ser tomado como o principal mediador entre as concepções clássica e contemporânea de ciência, filosofia e cognição. Ao longo de minha exposição, recupero alguns dos resultados da pesquisa de IC, de modo a indicar também desenvolvimentos da epistemologia naturalizada que são posteriores a Quine. Em particular, recupero a epistemologia naturalizada de Sellars e algumas de suas teses em filosofia da mente, na expectativa de que isso seja de alguma forma útil ao empreendimento de compreender a trajetória histórica que o naturalismo percorreu até o século XX. Esta monografia, portanto, recupera as epistemologias de dois importantes precursores de Quine e Sellars — as de Hume e Aristóteles —, comparando-as com o programa quineano de naturalização da epistemologia e preparando o terreno para a uma pesquisa futura quanto aos sucessores de Quine nesse programa, com destaque para Sellars. Desse modo, espero que esta monografia contribua para o desenvolvimento de uma das partes da pesquisa de IC, no sentido de investigar as bases históricas a partir das quais o naturalismo epistemológico floresceu no século XX. (shrink)

Esta monografia faz parte de uma pesquisa de Iniciação Científica (IC) atualmente em curso, com financiamento da FAPESP (processo 2023/04313-5) até 31/12/2024.A pesquisa de IC em questão, intitulada “Como fazer ciência da cognição? O problema do método científico nas ciências cognitivas na perspectiva do naturalismo anti-reducionista das epistemologias de Quine e Sellars”, pretende caracterizar e articular os conceitos de ciência e de cognição a partir das epistemologias naturalizadas de Willard von Orman Quine (1951/1961 e 1969) e Wilfrid Sellars (1956/1963 e (...) 1962/1963). Estamos examinando se uma perspectiva naturalista e anti-reducionista, adotada em ambas nas teorias epistemológicas desses filósofos, é de fato adequada para responder ao problema filosófico de como estabelecer critérios adequados para conhecer cientificamente a cognição. Assim, estamos pesquisando, no desenvolvimento da IC, como a epistemologia naturalizada contribui para lidar com o problema de como é possível conhecer objetivamente um objeto de investigação científica que é, por excelência, subjetivo. É a partir desse problema de pesquisa que elaboramos o recorte bibliográfico desta monografia. Neste texto, que é simultaneamente um trabalho final de disciplina (Monografia I - HG770 K, 1s2024) e a primeira versão de uma monografia a ser aprimorada e expandida no segundo semestre de 2024 com auxílio da disciplina de Monografia II (HG 870), pretendo comparar os naturalismos epistemológicos de Hume e Quine quanto à natureza da cognição. Ou seja, pretendo comparar como Hume e Quine concebem, no interior de suas respectivas epistemologias, que são naturalizadas, aquilo que geralmente chamamos de ‘mente’ ou, às vezes, de ‘alma’. Na segunda e última versão da monografia, a ser desenvolvida no semestre que vem, pretendo incluir o naturalismo epistemológico de Aristóteles na comparação, e pretendo também incluir, embora brevemente e com auxílio de bibliografia contemporânea sobre o assunto, alguns resultados da pesquisa de IC relativos à epistemologia naturalizada de Sellars, o outro autor principal do projeto de IC, e algumas de suas teses em Filosofia da Mente, na expectativa de isso seja de alguma forma útil ao empreendimento de compreender a trajetória histórica pela qual percorreu o naturalismo até o século XX. Esta monografia, portanto, pretende recuperar as epistemologias de dois importantes precursores de Quine, as de Hume e Aristóteles, comparando-as com o programa quineano de naturalização da epistemologia e preparando o terreno para a uma pesquisa futura quanto aos sucessores de Quine nesse programa, inclusive Sellars. Desse modo, espero que esta monografia contribua positivamente para o desenvolvimento de uma das partes da pesquisa de IC no sentido de investigar possíveis bases históricas a partir das quais o naturalismo epistemológico floresceu no século XX. (shrink)

O problema da naturalização da consciência se coloca como uma forma de consumação de um projeto de psicologia como uma ciência natural da mente que abranja todas as dimensões do que se considera como constituindo o mental. O principal paradigma para um tal projeto é fornecido hoje em dia pelo programa interdisciplinar de investigação que veio a ser denominado, coletivamente, como Ciência Cognitiva. Entretanto, mesmo com os seus avanços, que se destacam na interação das áreas da Filosofia, Psicologia, Biologia, Neurociência, (...) Etologia, Antropologia, Inteligência Artificial, Comunicação e Sociologia, o tradicional problema mente-corpo se coloca então na forma de um déficit explicativo, que se deve a uma lacuna entre os dados das estruturas neuronais ou estados cerebrais e os conteúdos da introspecção ou fenômenos da consciência. Uma vez que estes continuam a requerer melhor elucidação, a Ciência Cognitiva desenvolveu um projeto de naturalização da fenomenologia. Nesse contexto, a presente pesquisa teórica teve como objetivo uma análise das principais dimensões em que emerge e se expressa o problema concernente à chamada lacuna explicativa ¿ o qual tende a ensejar as propostas contemporâneas de naturalização da consciência ¿ culminando em uma reflexão sobre a possibilidade de uma revisão do referido problema a partir de uma via alternativa de fundamentação dos fenômenos da consciência mediante a filosofia merleau-pontyana. (shrink)

The Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, is a key document for fundamental theology. In it, for the first time, the Church openly discusses the anthropological question as a specific theme. It explains what Christian anthropology is and in what way the mystery of Christ sheds light on the mystery of man. From the point of view of fundamental theology, the document shows how theological reason is closely related to anthropological meaning. It takes note of the potential mediatory role of anthropology (...) in a dialogue between faith and reason in the modern world. (shrink)

This thesis is a sceptical investigation into the notion that the metaphorical wave-particle binary of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse is related to quantum physics. Indeed, the field of literature and science has employed conceptual similarities as the main means of connecting quantum concepts to novels, however, this has led to a host of scholarly difficulties, prompting the need for a re-examination of analogical linkages. Woolf is the model candidate for such a re-examination, given her historical and philosophical proximity with (...) the developments of quantum mechanics. To the Lighthouse, in particular, was written between 1925 and 1927: precisely when quantum physicists were attempting to resolve the wave-particle duality, leading to Niels Bohr's complementarity. This parallel has been noted by researchers as relevant to the novel, as it too displays a general binary that can be read as wave-particle-like, which the author also attempts to resolve along similar philosophical lines. Nevertheless, other than proximity and similarity, there are no reasons to affirm that the science is related to the novel; hence, it is an ideal case study to examine in order to ascertain the value of conceptual similarities in literature and science. To do so, To the Lighthouse's binary and its resolution are interpreted in a thesis-long close reading, in order to compare aspects of it firstly to Woolf's personal thought, and secondly to various non-quantum intellectual contexts that preceded and surrounded her. In doing so, it becomes clear not only that invoking quantum physics serves no clear purpose in better understanding the novel, but also that the notion of resolving wave- particle-like binaries was a widespread philosophical procedure at the turn of the century, decades before Bohr's concept. This negative conclusion interrogates what the scholarly value of interpreting similarities is, though a hypothetical solution can be found in conceptual metaphor theory. (shrink)

Author: Erzsébet Rózsa. Translated by Fernanda Medina and Pedro Sepúlveda Zambrano. La mujer correcta es la protagonista en el pensamiento maduro de Hegel. A decir verdad, ella nunca lo atrajo tanto como Antígona. Con todo, lo cierto es que él rebajó a Antígona: vulneró la singularidad de la grandeza del carácter de Antígona en la Fenomenología, mezcló su imagen de Antígona con rasgos modernos burgueses, y transfirió con ello algunas características de su singularidad a la imagen de la mujer (...) en el marco de la pequeña familia de la incipiente sociedad burguesa. Esta imagen fusionada de la grandeza de Antígona la acaba dañando, y tampoco ayuda a una interpretación y auto-interpretación apropiada de la mujer, o bien a la elucidación de sus roles sociales y de género en la modernidad naciente. Apartándose estrictamente de esta imagen mezclada, en la Filosofía del derecho Hegel ha ofrecido una imagen comprensible hasta el día de hoy, y en muchos sentidos aún relevante, acerca de los diferenciados roles sociales y de género, adecuados a las expectativas de la incipiente sociedad moderna, o bien acerca de una correspondiente auto-interpretación y autodeterminación para la mujer de la modernidad naciente. La mujer comparte del mismo modo con el hombre la orientación subjetiva-normativa en la actitud práctica: ella debe apropiar y ejercitar correctamente sus roles sociales y de género. Pero todas estas expectativas se encuentran muy alejadas de la grandeza de Antígona. Con ello Hegel abrió una perspectiva a través de su comprensión de la fragilidad de la existencia humana en la modernidad, en medio de la cual mujeres y hombres cuestionamos cada vez el sentido de nuestra propia existencia. (shrink)

Culture as a dynamic system of meaningful relations can naturally accommodate a hermeneutic analysis. In this essay, the notion of Gadamer’s hermeneutics as involving interpretable meaning throughout experiential reality permits a natural concordance with an understanding of culture as meaningful. The Gadamerian idea that prejudices inform the horizons that make our experiences intelligible is applied to the view that culture is both a self-enclosed structure that is given by one’s horizon and one that continuously points past this horizon in genuine (...) dialogue. Nevertheless, in seeing culture as a coherent system that transcends itself, we are consequently faced with a dilemma regarding the evolution of one’s cultural horizons: whether past horizons can survive the creation of novel ones through dialogue. However, this may be resolved through Gadamer’s understanding of the functions of sameness and difference within horizonal evolution, and how these functions feature in the distinction between a shared ontological ground and the horizons through which the ground is interpreted. Ultimately, we showcase how it is noncontradictory to suppose that culture is both self- and other-referential. (shrink)

In most jurisdictions where euthanasia is legal, patients seeking euthanasia need to seek out the approval of their request from two clinicians (one of who is a psychiatrist). These doctors are required to assess whether euthanasia is ‘appropriate’ for the patient in question. In this paper I claim that doctors qua doctors are not qualified (or, at least, not typically) to evaluate suffering of an existential kind, and consequently they are not qualified to 'evaluate' the requests of patients seeking euthanasia. (...) Importantly, this argument is only focused on patients who are seeking euthanasia on account of acute suffering. To defend my central thesis, I discuss the limits of the professional expertise of clinicians, in addition to considering the nature of suffering experienced by patients requesting euthanasia (which is, typically, a combination of physiological, psychological and existential suffering). (shrink)

In this essay, I look at the significant portion of vegans who are vegan because they care about harm to animals. I investigate what lifestyle is in fact consistent with caring about harm to animals, which I begin by calling consistent veganism. I argue that the lifestyle that consistently follows from this underlying conviction behind many people’s veganism is in fact distinct from a vegan lifestyle.

The radical mean suggested by Socrates in order to carry out the program of the Republic - the relegation to the fields of all inhabitants over the age of 10 - has perplexed modern commentators who have seen in it an ironical remark, a reductio ad absurdum presented in order to establish the very impossibility of Kallipolis or, on the contrary, a sign of the totalitarian and criminal character of the Platonic city. But it is far from evident, in view (...) of political or military events prior and contemporary with the redaction of the Republic, that this solution could offend the moral conscience of fourth-century Greeks. This practice even seems to be the logical consequence of a certain oligarchic or aristocratic ideology, common by the end of the 5th c. and at the beginning of the 4th c., which associated, on the one hand, rural organization with the ‘best regime’ and, on the other, urban centralisation with democracy. The actual practices of the Lacedaemonian city, which maintained its primitive organization in komai, and even tried to impose it to other cities, could also serve as a model for the opponents of Athenian democracy. All of Plato's political models, from the Republic to the Laws, present cities whose essential, if not exclusive, productive activity is agriculture. The displacement of the population to the countryside seems, from this perspective, a rather serious proposal of the philosopher. * * Agradezco a Héctor Zagal y a María-Elena García-Peláez por sus observaciones y sugerencias al texto en español. (shrink)

L’article introduit au rôle de l’efficience dans la génération d’avantages ou de désavantages enregistrés par les minorités. L’objectif est de démontrer que l’efficience devrait jouer un rôle plus important dans le domaine de la justice ethnoculturelle. Pour ce faire, une brève présentation de la place du nombre dans la littérature sur le sujet est offerte, ce qui permet de saisir le fond de l’argument consistant à faire des déséquilibres numériques une source certaine des injustices subies par les minorités, notamment dans (...) une perspective inspirée par l’égalitarisme de la chance. De ce point de vue, l’asymétrie numérique peut toutefois constituer une source d’avantages pour ces groupes. Dès lors, une telle asymétrie, qui est l’un des constituants de la définition de la minorité, prend une autre dimension. Plus que cette asymétrie, il apparaît que c’est l’efficience (la manière dont les groupes gèrent cette asymétrie) qui détermine les conditions et succès matériels des membres d’un groupe donné. Après une discussion des minorités efficientes et dominantes, l’article se conclut par la mise en lumière de quelques pistes de recherche rendues visibles par l’efficience et qui sont pertinentes pour la théorie de la justice en contexte multiculturel. (shrink)

Cet article évalue, du point de vue moral, les justifications possibles pour le recours à la taxation en vue de promouvoir des comportements « sains ». L’objectif est de démontrer qu’un tel instrument recevrait une meilleure justification, c’est-à-dire plus en accord avec des principes égalitariens respectueux de la liberté individuelle, s’ils s’inscrivaient dans une logique de mutualisation. Pour ce faire, les arguments du bien-être individuel et de l’efficience sociale sont discutés afin d’en pointer les fécondités et limites. Au travers de (...) leurs limites, ces arguments introduisent naturellement à une troisième manière d’appréhender le problème, sous l’angle de la mutualisation. Ce principe représente moins une remise en cause radicale des arguments précédents qu’une reformulation du recours à l’efficience sociale et une limitation du champ d’application des appels au bien-être individuel. Il repose sur deux idées. La première est que la référence à une notion de responsabilité, même affadie, est nécessaire. De plus, celle-ci doit être conçue comme partagée entre producteurs et consommateurs ainsi que limitée au domaine financier. La seconde est que la mutualisation ne peut être déconnectée d’intuitions égalitariennes formulées de manière générale. (shrink)

Kantian Deontological Ethics concerns itself with the will as grounded in universalisable maxims. Such maxims are in turn based on rationally conceived laws that, in a professional setting, find expression in the autonomously made agreements constituting professional protocols and regulations. When applied to a case-study wherein public safety has been possibly jeopardised by company products, we can argue for priority in the agreed-to responsibility towards the good of professional autonomy, expressed as a rational mandate of nondisclosure of confidential product information, (...) over that of the good of public safety. This priority persists regardless of whether the good of truth, such as the disclosure of confidential product information, has its value grounded in itself or the good of safety. Nevertheless, company and individual professional responsibility may prioritise safety over autonomy, but how this prioritisation is made must be sensitive to the autonomously willed choice of the employed professional. (shrink)

According to Kuhn’s account of the nature of scientific paradigms, how one experiences the world varies drastically from one context to another depending on the accepted paradigm of the context in question. In other words, one’s pre-existing conceptual structure concerning the world not only acts as an epistemological framework for its possible understanding, but also fundamentally affects the phenomenological observations of the world as something; this latter function of the conceptual structure motivates the view that mature scientific paradigms/theories and the (...) data of scientific observation/experimentation are essentially two sides of the same coin. What is interesting, then, is that even between different historical eras that generally regarded the world in clearly incompatible ways, albeit still informed by paradigms, Kuhn still attributes scientific knowledge to each. To make sense of this, the explanatory resources of epistemological contextualism are used to specify potentially one way in which epistemic standards for knowledge must change between different historical eras for one to justifiably claim scientific knowledge within these different contexts. As we shall see, the argument for Kuhn’s account of paradigm being contextualist in character is apparently best made through the notion of doubt-driven context-shifts as actualising change in the form of P between different contexts in which “S knows that P” is asserted. As such, this paper first explores Kuhn’s account of scientific knowledge and paradigms before considering how the account can be considered contextualist in nature. Moreover, other context-concerned systems, such as Traditional, and Subject-Sensitive Invariantism, are briefly investigated to substantiate claims of what cannot be accurately ascribed to Kuhn’s epistemology. (shrink)

Popper's account of science is an endeavour in establishing the relationship between universality and truth. The idea is that the more an empirical law is universal, by precluding certain realities from obtaining in an evidentially falsifiable way, the more the law is supported by instances of its predictions being evidentially verified. The logical structure of this dynamic is captured by Popper's notion of 'corroboration'. However, this notion is suspect, for, depending on one's interpretation of evidential givenness, the relation between a (...) law's degree of universality and evidential corroborability could instead invert, thereby contradicting Popper. This paper also explores how a conceptualization of universality in terms of necessary simplicity-i.e., a measure of simplicity that is also sensitive to the evidence at hand-can better recontextualize evidential givenness to be about evidential support for a theory's predictive truth conduciveness, against Popper's understanding of evidential support for a theory's veracity concerning the evidence at hand. However, it is argued that employing necessary simplicity to attain truth conduciveness in a theory's predictions must appeal to specific background assumptions concerning the state of affairs the evidence is supposed to be about. When these background assumptions are denied as being necessarily instantiated, then a relation between necessary simplicity and truth conduciveness becomes contingently uncertain. (shrink)

En esta modernización y cambios permanentes, los museos necesitan aplicar calidad en su gestión incorporando criterios de control y evaluación para obtener los mejores resultados. El desarrollo del presente trabajo estará enfocado en el análisis de la gestión de calidad en las instituciones museísticas. Considerando que los modelos de calidad son un referente de la gestión, la investigación estará dirigida a la determinación de si es aplicable el modelo iberoamericano de gestión en los museos. Este modelo de excelencia en gestión (...) fue desarrollado a partir de la iniciativa de la Fundación Iberoamericana para la Gestión de la Calidad (Fundibeq) y reúne la opinión de países de América y Europa. Constituye una guía que posibilita a las organizaciones medir el grado de avance respecto a las variables que integran el modelo y, en ese marco, definir acciones que permitan cubrir la brecha entre el modelo y la realidad organizacional. La investigación se enfoca en analizar su aplicabilidad a los museos como unidades complejas, con misiones específicas, en proceso de importante transformación cualitativa y la medida que contribuye a enriquecer su gestión. Para ello se realizó en una primera instancia una revisión bibliográfica respecto de la concepción de museo, calidad y gestión organizacional. Posteriormente, se efectuó la investigación sobre la base de entrevistas a los directores de los museos seleccionados. Desde el punto de vista metodológico formal –para la elección de la muestra y siguiendo a Dillon – se usó un tipo de muestreo no probabilístico denominado muestra de criterio que consiste en la selección de determinados encuestados para que participen en el estudio. La selección busca satisfacer las necesidades concretas de la investigación para lo que se incluyeron en la muestra los principales museos montevideanos públicos y privados que representan 27% del total. El trabajo se divide en cuatro apartados. El primero muestra una revisión de la bibliografía al respecto de la gestión y su aplicabilidad en los museos y, en el segundo, se presentan distintos modelos de gestión de calidad haciendo hincapié en el modelo iberoamericano de gestión. En la tercera parte del trabajo se desarrolla la investigación empírica y en la cuarta se exponen las conclusiones de la investigación. (shrink)

Defences of Williamson’s Anti-Luminosity Argument (ALA) that employ doxastic propagation principles—i.e., rules by which cases of beliefs and/or dispositions to believe are inferred from other such cases—risk running into sorites. Since these principles are explainable by an ineffective capacity to phenomenally discriminate between two adjacent cases, luminist rejections of the ALA can halt sorites by denying doxastic propagation, thereby reaffirming these discriminative capacities as appropriately effective. One potent method of resisting the luminist involves recharacterizing discriminative capacities in terms of a (...) distinction between beliefs and their underlying dispositions to reinstate the plausibility of doxastic propagation. To this effect, I propose a novel coarse-grained approach favouring the ALA that leverages a modal analysis of the belief/ disposition distinction. This motivates a sharp threshold between belief and absent belief that neither succumbs to sorites nor begs the question against the luminist. The upshot of this approach is substantial: by conferring a dialectical advantage to the anti-luminist, the luminist is held to highly problematic positions, regarding the trivialisation of safety and the relationship between beliefs and dispositions, if they deny the coarse-grained approach at many of its components. (shrink)

Why is space 3-dimensional? The fi rst answer to this question, entirely based on Physics, was given by Ehrenfest, in 1917, who showed that the stability requirement for n-dimensional two-body planetary system very strongly constrains space dimensionality, favouring 3-d. This kind of approach will be generically called "stability postulate" throughout this paper and was shown by Tangherlini, in 1963, to be still valid in the framework of general relativity as well as for quantum mechanical hydrogen atom, giving the same constraint (...) for space{dimensionality. In the present work, before criticizing this methodology, a brief discussion has been introduced, aimed at stressing and clarifying some general physical aspects of the problem of how to determine the number of space dimensions. Then, the epistemological consequences of Ehrenfest's methodology are critically reviewed. An alternative procedure to get at the proper number of dimensions, in which the stability postulate - and the implicit singularities in three-dimensional physics - are not an essential part of the argument, is proposed. In this way, the main epistemological problems contained in Ehrenfest's original idea are avoided. The alternative methodology proposed in this paper is realized by obtaining and discussing the n-dimensional quantum theory as expressed in Planck's law, de Broglie relation and the Heisenberg uncertainty relation. As a consequence, it is possible to propose an experiment, based on thermal neutron di raction by crystals, to directly measure space dimensionality. Finally the distinguished role of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in the determination of space dimensionality is stressed. (shrink)

This paper introduces the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ as a cultural treasure. By interviewing four key individuals related to the bamboo organ, the paper discusses the history, present condition, and activities related to the preservation and sustenance of the bamboo organ. Interview, a method of oral history, was chosen to let the people involved share their own memories and experiences that are not usually featured in written documents about the bamboo organ. The following themes emerged from the interviews: (1) the (...) introduction of Father Diego Cera as an organ builder, (2) the motivations in using bamboo as the main material of the bamboo organ, (3) the quality of the sound produced by the bamboo organ, (4) the restoration of the bamboo organ, (5) the beginnings, objectives, and activities of the Bamboo Organ Foundation, Inc., (6) the beginnings and objectives of the International Bamboo Organ Festival and the activities related to it, (7) the problems that the bamboo organ faces, and (8) the importance of training organists. The researchers also identified the implications of the conservation of the bamboo organ in the economic, social, ecological, and cultural aspects of the city’s social life based on its potentials for development. This paper can be a useful primary source for future researchers of the bamboo organ and the local history of Las Piñas. (shrink)

In order to re-contextualize the otherwise ontologically privileged meaning of metaphysical debates into a more insubstantial form, metaphysical deflationism runs the risk of having to adopt potentially unwanted anti-realist tendencies. This tension between deflationism and anti-realism can be expressed as follows: in order to claim truthfully that something exists, how can deflationism avoid the anti-realist feature of construing such claims singularly in an analytical fashion? One may choose to adopt a Yablovian fallibilism about existential claims, but other approaches can be (...) appealed to as well. Amie Thomasson's Easy Ontology is one such approach, whereby the interaction of empirical as well as analytic features within the construction of its ontological theory affords a role for analytical rules without forsaking a link with empirical reality. The development of these analytical and empirical features has resulted in significant critiques regarding, one, potential reference failure of easy-ontological claims, and two, a circularity in how easy ontology explains the relation between its analytical rules and existential claims. This essay offers a response by showcasing how an easy ontological deflationism can reject these criticisms without succumbing to, one, the anti-realism of pure analyticism, and two, a further critique of wholesale referential indeterminacy in its referring terms. (shrink)

La investigación clínica, entendida como la búsqueda de soluciones para los problemas que acechan a la salud es, por su objetivo, una de las actividades de mayor trascendencia para el ser humano. Esta obra colectiva, como su propio título indica, explora no solo lo mucho que de positivo (las luces) tiene la investigación clínica, cómo se realiza, qué problemas encuentra y qué soluciones se plantean, sino también algunos aspectos negativos (las sombras) que la comunidad científica ha sido, hasta la fecha, (...) incapaz de impedir que se produzcan. (shrink)

In this article it is shown that a careful analysis of Kant 's Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte und Beurtheilung der Beweise leads to a conclusion that does not match the usually accepted interpretation of Kant 's reasoning in 1747, according to which the young Kant supposedly establishes a relationship between the tridimensionality of space and Newton's law of gravitation. Indeed, it is argued that this text does not yield a satisfactory explanation of space dimensionality, and actually (...) restricts itself to justifying the tridimensionality of extension. (shrink)

Metascientific criteria used for explaining or constraining physical space dimensionality and their historical relationship to prevailing causal systems are discussed. The important contributions by Aristotle, Kant and Ehrenfest to the dimensionality of space problem are considered and shown to be grounded on different causal explanations: causa materialis for Aristotle, causa efficiens for young Kant and an ingenious combination of causa efficiens and causa formalis for Ehrenfest. The prominent and growing rôle played by causa formalis in modern physical approaches to this (...) problem is emphasized. (shrink)