This paper offers an answer to an objection to Phillip Pettit’s neo‐republican account of freedom as non‐domination raised by Sharon Krause. The objection is that widespread prejudice, such as systemic racism or sexism, generates significant obstacles to individuals’ free agency but that neo‐republicanism fails to explain why these obstacles reduce freedom. This is because neo‐republicanism defines domination in terms of the capacity for arbitrary interference, but many prejudiced actions do not involve physical coercion, threats, or any other behavior typically described (...) as types of interference. The paper discusses three strategies to account for the impact of widespread prejudice on the domination of groups. It argues that the most plausible strategy redefines domination in terms of behavior that is prima facie wrong and lacks appropriate checks. Such behavior includes interference but also includes prejudiced actions, such as failing to select the most qualified candidate for a job. (shrink)

Neo-republicanism seems well suited to provide insight into current policies for the control and restriction of immigration. In this paper, I discuss three different accounts of domination to assess whether they can provide intuitively acceptable responses to the types of domination experienced by different groups of immigrants. First, I present and criticize an argument offered by Philip Pettit in support of the view that immigration restrictions could in principle avoid being dominating. My criticism focuses on Pettit’s account of non-arbitrary governmental (...) action that claims that laws and policies are not dominating when people have democratic control over the government’s activity. Given the failure of Pettit’s argument, I turn to the proceduralist account of non-arbitrary state action proposed by Frank Lovett, and discuss the limitations of the account in diagnosing all ways in which border controls and immigration policy can generate domination. Finally, I present and defend the view that governmental action is not dominating when there are adequate checks that protect the objective interests of individuals. (shrink)

This paper examines the ways in which public health measures taken to contain the spread of COVID‐19 impacted the freedom of those affected, understanding freedom as non‐domination. It argues that, in the absence of effective vaccines, individuals who carry a virus with the profile of COVID‐19 have the capacity to impose high risks of severe illness and death on other people. But formal and informal rules can help control this capacity, supporting the freedom of people in certain respects. With regard (...) to governmental enforcement of public health measures such as lockdowns, it argues that—depending on the form they take—they can be consistent with the enjoyment of freedom as non‐domination of the population. Still, for this to be the case, some demanding conditions must be met. First, the government must continue to operate under a number of suitable checks. Second, the relevant policies must protect the basic interests of all members of the population. The paper also responds to criticisms of this account of freedom, stressing the connection between the secure enjoyment of basic liberties and the enforcement of formal and informal rules. (shrink)

This article discusses Philip Pettit’s neo-republicanism in light of the criterion of self-sustenance: the requirement that a political theory be capable of serving as a self-sustaining public philosophy for a pluralist democracy. It argues that this criterion can only be satisfied by developing an adequate politics of virtue. Pettit’s theory is built around the notion of freedom as non-domination, and he does not say much about the virtues of citizens or the policies the state may employ to encourage their development. (...) In order to explain the motivation to comply with republican laws that promote non-domination, Pettit relies on the phenomenon of civility and the mechanism of the intangible hand. But to understand what underlies an adequate level of robust civility one needs to focus on the more basic phenomenon of personal virtue. Policies that aim to promote non-domination should take into account the need to cultivate virtue among citizens, as well as the full range of conditions that favor its exercise. (shrink)

One of the central elements of John Rawls’ argument in support of his two principles of justice is the intuitive normative ideal of citizens as free and equal. But taken in isolation, the claim that citizens are to be treated as free and equal is extremely indeterminate, and has virtually no clear implications for policy. In order to remedy this, the two principles of justice, together with the stipulation that citizens have basic interests in developing their moral capacities and pursuing (...) their conceptions of the good life, are meant to provide a more precise interpretation of what is involved in treating citizens as free and equal. Rawls’ critics, however, have argued that satisfying the two principles of justice is not the most appropriate or plausible way to respect the status of citizens as free and equal. In relation to this debate, the present paper has two aims. The first is to examine Rawls’ account of the type of freedom that a just society must guarantee equally to its citizens. I will argue that those who think of Rawls as a theorist of freedom as non-interference are mistaken, because his notion of liberty resembles in important respects the republican notion of freedom as non-domination. Second, I will consider the extent to which Rawls’ principles of justice successfully protect the freedom as non-domination of all citizens so as to effectively treat them as free and equal. (shrink)

Der vorliegende Band stellt die unterschiedlichen Akzentverschiebungen innerhalb des methodischen Diskurses zur Transzendenz in der Phänomenologie seit Husserl und Heidegger vor. Er beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob es zwischen phänomenologischer Methode und religiösen Sinndimensionen Berührungspunkte oder gar ein wechselseitiges Verhältnis der Anregung geben kann. Über die Ansätze der französischen Phänomenologie hinaus erörtert dieser Band neue methodische Reflexionen. Dabei werden die Grenzen beider Disziplinen ernst genommen, zugleich wird systematisch begründet, wie diese Grenzen anhand ihrer Berührungspunkte vermittelt werden können. -/- Mit (...) Beiträgen von -/- Carla Canullo | Nikolaas Cassidy-Deketelaere | João Paulo Costa | René Dausner | Dominic Nnaemeka Ekweariri | Emmanuel Falque | István Fazakas | Irène Gay | Christina M. Gschwandtner | Jean-Luc Marion | Antonino Mazzù | Bernhard Nitsche | Daniel Remmel | Hans Ruin | Alexander Schnell | Walter Schweidler | Jan Juhani Steinmann | Claudia Welz. (shrink)

Human rights have become an important ideal in current times, yet our age has witnessed more violations of human rights than any previous less enlightened one. This book explores the historical and theoretical dimensions of this paradox. Divided into two parts, the first section offers an alternative history of natural law, in which natural rights are represented as the eternal human struggle to resist opression and to fight for a society in which people are no longer degraded or despised. At (...) the time of their birth in the 18th Century and again in the popular uprisings of the last decade, human rights became the dominant critique of law and society. The radical rhetoric of rights and its apparently endless expansive potential has led to its adoption by governments and individuals alike seeking to justify their actions on moral grounds and has undermined its radical edge. Part Two examines the philosophical logic of rights. The classical critiques of Kant, Burke, Hegel and Marx illuminate traditional aproaches to the concept of human rights. The work of Heidegger, Sartre and psychoanalysis is used to deconstruct the metaphisical essentialism of bothe universalists and cultural relativists. Finally, through a consideration of the ethics of otherness, and with reference to recent human rights violations, it is argued that the end of human rights is to judge law and politics from a moral stand point which both transcends the present and is historically relevant. (shrink)

This paper defends a neorepublican account of civic virtue as consisting of stable traits of character, understood in broadly Aristotelian terms, that exhibit excellences associated with the role of citizen, and that contribute to the secure protection of freedom as non-domination. Such an account is important for the neorepublican project because neither laws nor social norms can yield reliable support for republican freedom without a parallel input from civic virtue. The paper emphasizes the need to distinguish civic virtue from desirable (...) norms, which can operate in tandem. Against other neorepublican accounts of civic virtue, it argues that the primary function of such virtue is not to support the stability of republican regimes. Rather, it has a corrective function, and may in fact challenge institutions, laws, and informal norms if they allow for the exercise of arbitrary power. Finally, the paper argues that this account of civic virtue is better positioned than a stability-focused account to shed light on the relationship between civic virtue and the common good. (shrink)

There is mounting global interest in the revolutionary potential of AI tools. However, its use in healthcare carries certain risks. Some argue that opaque (‘black box’) AI systems in particular undermine patients' informed consent. While interpretable models offer an alternative, this approach may be impossible with generative AI and large language models (LLMs). Thus, we propose that AI tools should be evaluated for clinical use based on their implementation risk, rather than interpretability. We introduce a practical decision algorithm for the (...) clinical implementation of black‐box AI by evaluating its risk of implementation. Applied to the case of an LLM for surgical informed consent, we assess a system's implementation risk by evaluating: (1) technical robustness, (2) implementation feasibility and (3) analysis of harms and benefits. Accordingly, the system is categorised as minimal‐risk (standard use), moderate‐risk (innovative use) or high‐risk (experimental use). Recommendations for implementation are proportional to risk, requiring more oversight for higher‐risk categories. The algorithm also considers the system's cost‐effectiveness and patients' informed consent. (shrink)

Feminists disagree about whether or not Rawls’s account of free and equal citizenship is an emancipatory ideal for women, and whether or not the application of the two principles of justice would suffice to dismantle relationships of domination that affect women’s lives. This chapter argues that there is no clear and uncontroversial application of Rawls’s principles of justice that supports those feminists who give affirmative answers to these questions. Regarding the first principle, one unsettled question is whether it protects sexual (...) and reproductive rights, including the right to abortion. Regarding the second principle, there is indeterminacy due to the need to balance the requirements of fair equality of opportunity with parental rights. Moreover, the difference principle’s focus on the maximization of income and wealth for the worst off makes room for policies that do this while still leaving some women exposed to the arbitrary power of others. (shrink)

This paper offers a systematic overview of the contemporary debate on the notion of essence, highlighting important connections to classical interpretations. We begin by presenting the modal approach, which understands essence primarily through possible worlds semantics, critically assessing its limitations in capturing the full complexity of the notion. We then turn to the currently dominant primitivist approach, exploring its underlying intuitions and the possibility it opens for defining modalities in terms of essence. Finally, we propose an alternative framework that introduces (...) essence through the notion of numerical identity. By comparing these approaches, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of essence that bridges historical and contemporary philosophical thought, ultimately contributing to ongoing discussions in metaphysics. (shrink)

The republican revival in political philosophy, political theory, and legal theory has produced an impressive range of novel interpretations of the historical figures of the republican tradition. It has also given rise to a variety of contemporary neo-republican theories that build on its historical themes. Although there have been some feminist discussions of its historical representatives, neo-republicanism has not generated a great deal of enthusiasm among feminists. The present paper examines Phillip Pettit's theory of freedom as nondomination in order to (...) assess its potential usefulness for those with feminist goals. It defends Pettit's account of interpersonal domination from certain feminist objections, but argues that his account of state domination needs to be amended if it is fully to protect the interests of women and other groups. (shrink)

This article considers why the influential neo-republicans Philip Pettit and Richard Bellamy tend to minimise or deny the role that natural or moral rights play in republican thought. It argues that their specific views about the theoretical role of such rights are motivated by methodological commitments. In Pettit’s case the commitments are to consequentialism and formalism, while in Bellamy’s it is to proceduralism. But these commitments get in the way of providing a fully adequate account of the value of freedom (...) as non-domination: one that allows us to determine when citizens actually enjoy this kind of freedom. Finally, the article argues that a full explanation of what it means to enjoy freedom as non-domination must unavoidably appeal to normative notions. (shrink)

For fifty years the philosophy of language has been experiencing a stalemating conflict between the old descriptive and internalist orthodoxy (advocated by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Strawson, and Searle) and the new causal-referential and externalist orthodoxy (mainly endorsed by Kripke, Putnam, and Kaplan). Although the latter is dominant among specialists, the former retains a discomforting intuitive plausibility. The ultimate goal of this book is to overcome the stalemate by means of a non-naïve return to the old descriptivist-internalist orthodoxy. (...) Concerning proper names, this means introducing second-order description-rules capable of systemizing descriptions of the proper name’s cluster to provide us with the right changeable conditions of satisfaction for its application. Such rules can explain how a proper name can become a rigid designator while remaining descriptive, disarming Kripke's and Donnellan’s main objections. In the last chapter, this new perspective is extended to indexicals in a discussion of David Kaplan’s and John Perry’s views, and of general terms, in a discussion of Hilary Putnam’s externalism. (shrink)

This article formulates a novel conception of constitutions based on John Finnis’s jurisprudential work. The ‘central case constitution’ transcends the formal or functionalist analyses currently dominant in constitutional theory by considering a constitution as having a ‘double life’. Constitutions are necessarily and intrinsically normative and factual. The article explores Finnis’s natural law philosophy, emphasizing the central case constitution’s alignment with the practical reasonableness viewpoint and its role in directing a political community towards its common good. Focusing on key elements such (...) as the rule of law and the context of a political community, the central case constitution emerges as a legal determination that structures society, frames political institutions and authoritatively directs communities towards justice. This ontological understanding has theoretical and practical implications, including identifying genuine constitutional purposes, safeguarding private associations from the overwhelming state presence, promoting community identity and accommodating diverse constitutional choices for self-determination. (shrink)

GALIMBERTI, Umberto. Rastros do Sagrado: o Cristianismo e a dessacralização do Sagrado. Wander Moreira da Costa KONINGS, Johan S. J. Ser cristão: fé e prática. Paulo Agostinho Nogueira Baptista KONINGS, Johan S. J. Liturgia dominical: mistério de Cristo e formação dos fiéis (anos A-B-C) Victor René Villavicencio Matienzo.

Lars Moen's The Republican Dilemma (2024) offers a novel and insightful contribution to the debate between liberals and republicans about the meaning of political freedom. Moen bases his criticism of republicanism on Ian Carter's Equivalent Judgments Thesis. According to this thesis, the theory of pure negative freedom and the republican theory entail equivalent comparative judgments about the freedom of people. In this paper I argue, first, that there are significant differences between the pure negative freedom theorist's assessment of individual cases (...) and Philip Pettit's republicanism's assessment of those same cases. And I use these differences to raise doubts about the existence of a strong empirical correlation between the implications of the two views. Second, with regard to a putative equivalence in policy recommendations, I concede to Moen that there are important similarities between John Rawls’ and Pettit's recommendations. But I argue that these similarities do not support the equivalent judgments thesis because Rawls is not an advocate of the theory of pure negative freedom. (shrink)

Although they are often used as synonyms, emancipation and liberation constitute two distinct normative horizons in critical theory of society. In this article, I offer an analysis of these two concepts, including their historical and epistemological characteristics, pointing out similarities, differences and the possibilities for their combined use as basis of models of normative social criticism. I argue that the critical horizon of human emancipation emerges in post-Kantian European thought, while the horizon of liberation was developed in Latin American decolonial (...) thinking in the second half of the 20th century. The horizon of emancipation arises with the critique of the primacy of systemic domination, while liberation emerges in the resistance to the primacy of the experience of oppression. The analytical distinction between these two normative horizons can be helpful to better understand both the foundations of epistemic decolonization and the potential for dialogue between the critical perspectives of center and periphery. (shrink)

The article presents Claude Lefort's first steps in elaborating his critique of the Soviet regime from the end of the 1940s onwards. If in his youth essays a double effort: at the same time that he seeks to discern the nature of bureaucratic domination in the USSR, Lefort endeavors to give a democratic meaning to the definition of socialism, moving away from the objectivist paradigm that reduces it to the legal form of ownership or formal economic criteria (nationalization, collectivization, planning, (...) etc.). In order to bring to light this double movement active in Lefort's first criticisms, we will make considerations about the historical and conceptual conjuncture of the time, the progressive construction of the concept of totalitarianism, and the background conception of an "authentic socialism" that guides the analyzes of the young thinker. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze some of the main themes elaborated by Argentinean thinker Luis Alberto Warat, namely: the waratian anthropophagism, the reunion with the lost subjectivity and carnivalization. In order to achieve so, we examined one of the most valued works of waratian thought: A ciência jurídica e seus dois maridos. Through the undertaken analysis we attempted to develop a critique of traditional paradigms of science, including here the science of law itself. It is given emphasis to the disruptive (...) nature of artistic and literary activities to insinuate the historical failure of the well-established disciplines, dominant thought and culture. Therefore, we seek a greater interaction between what is understood as science and human subjectivity as a whole. (shrink)

The mainstream view of the twentieth century suggests that the Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith made a tout court defense of individualism and the pure rational calculation of economics. However, we consider this to be a biased interpretation that ignores an integrated reading of his books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, which hinder a global view of his thinking. In opposition to this dominant view, we propose, as the central objective of this article, the conciliation (...) between Smith’s classical liberalism and his sentimental ethics, based on the notion of human dignity, present in the recognition of the other as an equal. If this hypothesis is confirmed, we will defend the thesis of sympathetic liberalism in Adam Smith’s philosophical system. For this, we will analyze the feeling of Smithian sympathy and its interference in interpersonal relationships, then, the device of moral justification of impartiality as a promoter of fairness behavior. Finally, we will argue that the intertwining of these two elements of Smithian sentimental ethics in public space engenders a notion of human dignity compatible with his liberalism, insofar as it respects individual freedoms while fostering the progress of commercial societies. For such, we will make use of the work Theory of Moral Sentimentalism by Adam Smith and the article Sympathetic Liberalism: Recent Work on Adam Smith by Stephen Darwall. (shrink)

The relatively short history of sociology as an established discipline is a history of crises: crises of relevance, crises of funding, epistemological crises, institutional crises. The present article discusses the contemporary crisis of sociology starting from the perspective of its dominant conceptions of the human. It first identifies three dichotomies usually present in the sociological conceptions of the human: human beings versus nature; Western human beings (subjects) versus non-Western human beings (non-subjects); and human beings capable of theoretical reflection (social scientists) (...) versus lay people (social actors). It then presents an overview of recent developments in research on conviviality to demonstrate how these debates offer suitable solutions for sociology to overcome its anachronistic conceptions of the human. (shrink)

Resumo: A partir de uma análise de categorias marxistas, neste artigo, quero trazer para o domínio da visibilidade a "questão da mulher" e defender que esta deve ser o fio condutor no processo de identificação de condições de possibilidade para a transformação do sistema das práticas que visam à emancipação humana, entendida como superação da lógica de dominação.: Based on an analysis of Marxist categories, I attempt in this article to bring into the domain of visibility the 'issue of women', (...) and argue that it must be the guiding thread in the process of identification of conditions of possibility for the transformation of the system of practices that aim at human emancipation, understood as overcoming the logic of domination. (shrink)

With a focus on the social and political conjuncture in Greece following interventions by the troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Union, and European Central Bank, as well as with an analysis of historical trends in Greek capitalism, the end of the Metapolitefsi period, and the rise in authoritarian statism, I argue for a revival of Marxist state theory in understanding the current global crisis. I identify this moment in Greece as a battle for hegemony between the dominant narratives (...) of disaster that perpetuate the vicious cycle of debt-and-austerity and an alternative, radical narrative of here-and-now. (shrink)

The rapid development of vaccines against COVID‐19 represents a huge achievement, and offers hope of ending the global pandemic. At least three COVID‐19 vaccines have been approved or are about to be approved for distribution in many countries. However, with very limited initial availability, only a minority of the population will be able to receive vaccines this winter. Urgent decisions will have to be made about who should receive priority for access. Current policy in the UK appears to take the (...) view that those who are most vulnerable to COVID‐19 should get the vaccine first. While this is intuitively attractive, we argue that there are other possible values and criteria that need to be considered. These include both intrinsic and instrumental values. The former are numbers of lives saved, years of life saved, quality of the lives saved, quality‐adjusted life‐years (QALYs), and possibly others including age. Instrumental values include protecting healthcare systems and other broader societal interests, which might require prioritizing key worker status and having dependants. The challenge from an ethical point of view is to strike the right balance among these values. It also depends on effectiveness of different vaccines on different population groups and on modelling around cost‐effectiveness of different strategies. It is a mistake to simply assume that prioritizing the most vulnerable is the best strategy. Although that could end up being the best approach, whether it is or not requires careful ethical and empirical analysis. (shrink)

Scholars have critiqued mainstream economic approaches to environmental valuation for decades. These critiques have intensified with the increased prominence of environmental valuation in decision-making. This paper has three goals. First, we summarise prominent critiques of monetary valuation, drawing mostly on the work of Clive Spash, who worked extensively on cost–benefit analysis early in his career and then became one of monetary valuation's most thorough and ardent critics. Second, we, as a group of scholars who study relational values, describe how relational (...) values research engages with and addresses many of the critiques of monetary valuation. Third, we offer suggestions for relational values research that continues and deepens its ability to respond to critiques of monetary valuation and contributes to transformative change towards sustainability. (shrink)

Calls have been growing for government interventions to address diets high in ultra-processed foods (i.e., ultra-processed diets), which are associated with a large and rising burden of preventable death and disease. To date, however, government action relating to ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has been mostly insufficient. In this paper, we argue that one of the key reasons behind this lacklustre response has been the dominance of ‘UPF fetishism’ in scientific, public, and policy discussions. Adapting Marx’s concept of ‘commodity fetishism’, we refer (...) to UPF fetishism as the tendency to view UPFs only in terms of their final qualities or characteristics at the point of purchase (e.g., price, quality, convenience), while failing to consider all the socio-ecological processes, relations, and activities involved in their provisioning (e.g., intensive agriculture, widespread value extraction). UPF fetishism, we argue, undermines efforts seeking healthy, equitable, and sustainable diets worldwide by obscuring the wide range of harms and inequities generated along the entire UPF value chain, and by undermining and potentially foreclosing discussions on alternative visions and solutions for improving population diets. Researchers and advocates can help to challenge UPF fetishism by turning their focus to the structural and systemic drivers of ultra-processed diets. Taking this critical systems-level view ultimately draws attention the need to confront the very systems – particularly corporate food systems, late capitalism, and imperialism – that structure and sustain the harmful processes, relations, and activities underpinning the current system of UPF provisioning. While some trade-offs may be required, particularly with respect to pragmatism and political feasibility, a strategic advantage of moving beyond UPF fetishism is that it may help to illuminate meaningful opportunities for collaboration within the vast ecology of values-aligned movements seeking better diets, food systems, and economies for people and planet. (shrink)

The article investigates the religion theme in Marx and Engels based on the hypothesis that religion contains a multiplicity of social and ideological perspectives. The novelty brought by Marx and Engels transcends the traditional debate between secularism versus religion, indicating that all this can only be thought of by a critique of bourgeois civil society and its institutions, as well as of the capitalist way of producing material life. Traditionally, the secularization phenomenon is understood as one that reduces or restricts (...) religious discourse to the private sphere, in which religion no longer has the power to politically mobilize with the advancement of modernity and democracy. The survival of religion in modernity does not, however, mean a deviation from secularization in modern history, a betrayal of the Enlightenment or even an antagonism towards political emancipation in Marx and Engels. On the contrary, it is the consequence of a secularization that did not face the contradictions of a capitalist society. Religion in Marx and Engels present sa greater complex dynamic than traditionally thought, constituted from different contexts, sometimes comprising a conservative sphere and sometimes progressive or revolutionary. If Marx first stated that religion is be the opium of the people, it is, at the same time, according to Marx himself, the revolt against the real misery of the world. Furthermore, as Engels demonstrates, the peasants and Anabaptists led by Thomas Münzer intended to establish a Christian paradise on earth through a critique of bourgeois and capitalist society from the theological teachings of the Christian Bible, going against Luther's Protestantism and the dominant Catholicism. In this context, religion for Marx and Engels encompassed a complexity, a social dynamic, broad and open to the possibilities of history. (shrink)

The general purpose of this article is to critically analyze and describe the panoptic threat and structural racism, as well as their intersections, based on the works of Michel Foucault and Achille Mbembe. On the one hand, in Surveillance and Punishment, Foucault argues that panoptism represents a governmental model centered on the State's ability to exercise domination over individuals, by showing the birth of a disciplinary society where visibility and surveillance are indispensable mechanisms for maintaining totalitarian order. On the other (...) hand, in Critique of Black Reason, Mbembe examines the ontological problem of the state of race and demonstrates that its unscientific foundation hierarchizes human groups, legitimizes exploitative and violent interventions, promotes the degradation of non-European identities, and emphasizes that the representation of racialized humanity serves as a tool for dehumanization and social control. Based on this fusion of horizons, through an analytical-descriptive methodology that combines bibliographical review, close reading and creative writing, the aim is to evidence, as a research result, the extent to which the two philosophers understand the relationship between power, knowledge and subjectivity, as well as how they contribute to a critique of the necrobiopolitical backfeeding between panoptism and racism in contemporary times. (shrink)

What are human rights? What makes a particular human rights claim ‘genuine’ or ‘valid’? These are difficult questions with which current philosophical literature on human rights is concerned. They are also the same kind of questions that legal philosophers asked about Law throughout the 20th century. Drawing from the similarities between the two fields, I attempt to do with the concept of human rights something similar to what Ronald Dworkin accomplished with that of Law in Law’s Empire. First, I offer (...) a critique of the two dominant perspectives on human rights—the Orthodox and Political views—that is similar in character to Dworkin’s Semantic Sting objection to Legal Positivism. Second, I sketch an alternative, Dworkinian-inspired framework that seeks to develop the notion of human rights as an interpretive concept. According to this framework, different accounts of human rights are to be understood as expressing different interpretations of the point (or purpose) of human rights practice. (shrink)

Algorithmic decision-making is integral to digital platforms, influencing user experiences and societal dynamics. This paper chapter scrutinizes algorithmic opacity, highlighting the inherent biases, the anti-competitive strategies that may result from dominant market power and the potential for discrimination within these systems. Despite the promise of objectivity, algorithms often operate under a veil of opacity, shaping content and information access, with significant implications for individual perspectives and societal functioning. The chapter explores the legal challenges posed by the protection of algorithms through (...) the lenses of intellectual property rights and competition law. It calls for a multifaceted regulatory approach to ensure transparency. The analysis emphasises the need to balance innovation with competition and societal well-being, advocating for a right to explanation in the face of automated decisions within the European Union. (shrink)

Resumo: Neste trabalho pretendo, em primeiro lugar, indicar o sentido geral da crítica ao correlacionismo de Meillassoux, isto é, a crítica à ideia dominante desde a filosofia transcendental de Kant, segundo a qual não temos acesso senão à correlação entre pensamento e ser. Em seguida, destacar a aporia indicada por essa crítica através do argumento da ancestralidade, e que expressa um limite da postura antirrealista própria à ideia correlacionista. Então, finalmente, analisar a primeira parte do §43 de Ser e tempo (...) e discutir o alcance da aporia apresentada por Meillassoux em face da posição heideggeriana acerca da realidade do mundo exterior. Palavras chave: Correlação; Realidade; Mundo The reality of the exterior world in Being and time from Quentin Meillassoux's critique of correlationism Abstract: In this paper I intend, firstly, to indicate the general meaning of Meillassoux's criticism of correlationism, i.e., the criticism of the dominant idea since Kant's transcendental philosophy, according to which we have access only to the correlation between thought and being. Next, I shall highlight the aporia indicated by this criticism through the argument of ancestry, which expresses a limit of the anti-realist stance associated with the correlationist idea. Then, finally, I analyze the first part of §43 of Being and time and discuss the scope of the aporia presented by Meillassoux in view of the Heideggerian position regarding the reality of the external world. Keywords: Correlation; Reality; World La realidad del mundo exterior en Ser y tiempo desde la crítica al correlacionismo de Quentin Meillassoux Resumen: En este trabajo pretendo, en primer lugar, señalar el sentido de la crítica al correlacionismo de Meillassoux: la crítica a la idea dominante desde la filosofía trascendental de Kant, según la cual sólo se accede a la correlación entre pensamiento y ser. Luego, resaltar la aporía señalada por esta crítica, a través del argumento ancestral, que expresa un límite de la postura antirrealista propia de la idea correlacionista. Finalmente analizar la primera parte del §43 de Ser y tiempo y discutir el alcance de la aporía presentada por Meillassoux frente a la posición heideggeriana sobre la realidad del mundo externo. Palabras clave: Correlación; Realidad; Mundo Data de registro: 03/11/2022 Data de aceite: 23/08/2023. (shrink)

This paper introduces a formal concept of ideology and ideological system. The formalization takes ideologies and ideological systems to be situated in agent societies. An ideological system is defined as a system of operations able to create, maintain, and extinguish the ideologies adopted by the social groups of agent societies. The concepts of group ideology, ideological contradiction, ideological dominance, and dominant ideology of an agent society, are defined. An ideology-based concept of social group is introduced. Relations between the proposed formal (...) concept of ideology and the classical concepts of ideology elaborated in social sciences are examined. A computational notation is presented, to support the realization of ideological systems in computationally implemented agent societies. The adequacy of the approach for the formal modeling and analysis of ideological issues is illustrated through three case studies. (shrink)

A translation of fourteen of Lucian's dialogues, offering a cross-section of his styles and satirical targets, from serious polemic (Alexander, Peregrinus) to lighter squibs and character-portrayals (Dialogues of the Courtesans). Also included are How to Write History and his most famous piece, A True History, a parody of the popular vogue for fabulous traveller's tales. Each piece has a summary introduction, and notes to clarify obscure allusions in the text. The Introduction examines in some detail Lucian's importance as a dominant (...) Atticizer in the period of the Second Sophistic, as well as his extraordinarily widespread influence on later European literature. (shrink)

Although most studies investigated the impact of infertility and its treatment on the couple, a small body of evidence suggested that infertility care providers may experience different sources of stress related for instance to excessive workload, the complexity of the technique, and relational difficulties with patients. The current study aimed at providing further insight into the understanding of the subjective experience of infertility care providers by highlighting their feelings and emotions, personal meanings, challenges, and opportunities. Following the methodological guidelines of (...) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 23 members of two different fertility units. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Textual analysis was then conducted to identify emerging dominant themes and subthemes. Three main themes were extracted: dealing with infertile patients and their specificities, performing assisted reproductive technology, being part of a team. These themes related to participants experiencing: difficulties in establishing an empathic connection and communicating with couples, such that women were sometimes perceived as “particular patients” and men as poorly involved in the process; difficulties in dealing with a complex procedure in which errors are not allowed, with a growing number of women aged > 40 seeking assisted reproduction, despite the risks for their health; being part of a team as a resource, although the huge amount of time spent together can involve conflicts and organizational problems. These findings suggested that patients’ overpersistence represents an important source of stress for infertility care providers. At the same time, the concept of particular or difficult patient derives from the combination of multiple factors, including providers’ own history and subjective experience. The presence of mental health professionals in fertility units is essential to help providers improve the quality of doctor-patient communication and relieve the stress related to organizational issues and conflicts. (shrink)

This article presents a literature review on black, poor and peripheral youth in Brazil, with the aim of analyzing inequalities of race, gender and class, and how these systems correlate to create particular experiences for these population segments. In this way, intersectionality aims to provide a critical analysis to reveal the context, the structural avenues that these subjects are hit by, and the positions that black youth occupy in society. By analyzing intersectionality, it is possible to reveal that black, poor (...) and peripheral youth are mostly at a social disadvantage, unemployed, in conditions of poverty and exclusion, targets of police approaches, violence and mass incarceration. Young black women are criminalized and punished for their sexual and reproductive practices. Therefore, analyzing the structural systems of race, gender and class, and their implications for the living conditions of young black people, who are poor and live in peripheral territories, can make it possible not only to reveal the systems of oppression-domination to which they are subjected, but above all, to think of strategies on how to combat them. In view of this, it is worth highlighting the construction of public policies that intersect the categories of race, gender and class, since black youth experience racialized experiences and are intersected by other structures. (shrink)

Bilinguals have been shown to perform worse than monolinguals in a variety of verbal tasks. This study investigated this bilingual verbal cost in a large-scale picture-naming study conducted in Spanish. We explored how individual characteristics of the participants and the linguistic properties of the words being spoken influence this performance cost. In particular, we focused on the contributions of lexical frequency and phonological similarity across translations. The naming performance of Spanish-Catalan bilinguals speaking in their dominant and non-dominant language was compared (...) to that of Spanish monolinguals. Single trial naming latencies were analyzed by means of linear mixed models accounting for individual effects at the participant and item level. While decreasing lexical frequency was shown to increase naming latencies in all groups, this variable by itself did not account for the bilingual cost. In turn, our results showed that the bilingual cost disappeared when naming words with high phonological similarity across translations. In short, our results show that frequency of use can play a role in the emergence of the bilingual cost, but that phonological similarity across translations should be regarded as one of the most important variables that determine the bilingual cost in speech production. Low phonological similarity across translations yields worse performance in bilinguals and promotes the bilingual cost in naming performance. The implications of our results for the effect of phonological similarity across translations within the bilingual speech production system are discussed. (shrink)

A dominant cultural narrative within Costa Rica describes Costa Ricans not only as different from their Central American neighbours, but it also exalts them as better: specifically, as more white, peaceful, egalitarian and democratic. This notion of Costa Rican exceptionalism played a key role in the creation of their health care system, which is based on the four core principles of equity, universality, solidarity and obligation. While the political justification and design of the current health care system (...) does, in part, realize this ideal, we argue that the narrative of Costa Rican exceptionalism prevents the full actualization of these principles by marginalizing and excluding disadvantaged groups, especially indigenous and black citizens and the substantial Nicaraguan minority. We offer three suggestions to mitigate the self-undermining effects of the dominant national narrative: 1) encouragement and development of counternarratives; 2) support of an emerging field of Costa Rican bioethics; and 3) decoupling health and national successes. (shrink)

This paper presents research conducted during two coffee farming seasons in Costa Rica. The study examined coffee farmers’ weed management practices and is presented in the form of a case study of small-scale farmers’ use of labor and herbicides in weed management practices. Over 200 structured interviews were conducted with coffee farmers concerning their use of hired labor and family labor, weed management activities, support services, and expectations about the future of their coffee production. ANOVA and regression analyses describe (...) the relationships between farm size, labor, and herbicide use, and three farm types (i.e., conventional, semi-conventional, and organic). Based on findings regarding the amount of labor used to manually control weeds on different types of farms (large farms, small conventional, semi-conventional, and organic farms) I am able to challenge small conventional farmers’ perceived need for herbicide use. Semi-structured interviews of coffee farmers and extension workers further revealed a dominant role played by agro-chemical companies in assisting farmers with production problems, and documented a high transaction cost for information provided from elsewhere. Chemical companies hire extension workers to visit farmers at their farms, free of charge, to offer recommendations on how to treat different pest problems, while government and cooperative extension agents charge for the service. There is a need to increase the amount of resources available to the National Coffee Institute to fund one-on-one farmer support services in order to balance the influence of agro-chemical company representatives and allow farmers to make better decisions regarding weed management. (shrink)

Political writings of eighteenth-century France have been so far mostly overlooked as a source of republican thought. Philosophers such as Condorcet actively promoted the ideal of republicanism in ways that can shed light on current debates. In this paper, I look at one particular source: Le Republicain, published in the summer 1791, focusing on previously unattributed articles by Condorcet’s wife and collaborator, Sophie de Grouchy. Grouchy, a philosopher in her own right, is beginning to be known for her Letters on (...) Sympathy, a response to Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiment, which she published at the same time as her translation of that text into French. I argue, further, that in the texts, which I attribute to Grouchy, we can find the early development of a commercial republican theory, a belief, which is reflected in her discussion of the ‘cost’ of tyranny. (shrink)

This work explores the intersection of environmental ethics, indigenous rights, and socio-political resistance in the context of gentrification in Gandoca-Manzanillo, Costa Rica. It revisits the legacy of the iconic environmental novel La Loca de Gandoca by Anacristina Rossi, contextualizing its themes in the current sociopolitical landscape where development pressures, tourism, and political silence continue to threaten ecological balance and Indigenous territories. The study critiques the continued marginalization of Indigenous and coastal communities whose lands are increasingly targeted by tourism-driven development. (...) While Costa Rica is internationally recognized for its environmental policies as a green, peaceful country, this work argues that the commodification of nature and the silencing of grassroots environmental defenders reflect deeper ethical contradictions. Through a philosophical lens rooted in bioethics and Latin American critical thought, the project engages with the concept of cuerpo-territorio, the precautionary principle, epistemic injustice, and decolonial ethics to question dominant narratives of sustainable development. The lack of official sources and active marginalization of affected voices underline the urgency and necessity of ethical academic intervention. The project seeks to highlight how forgotten narratives like La Loca de Gandoca remain painfully relevant and how ignoring them perpetuates historical violence under the guise of “green” economic development. (shrink)

During the last 10 years or so, a number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives have been introduced in global supply chains, which aim to improve the conditions of workers engaged in producing goods for export. This article discusses the observations of CSR in practice in the Costa Rican-United Kingdom (UK) banana chain. The banana chain makes for an interesting case study because there are dominant corporate actors at each end who are in a position to influence the conditions (...) experienced by workers on banana plantations. At the top of the chain there are four major UK supermarket groups who control access to the retail market and as selfappointed guardians of consumer interest are demanding that producers adopt more socially responsible practices. At the other end, banana production is highly integrated and controlled by three large North American agri-businesses who have developed their own social and environmental certification programmes. Costa Rica also makes for an interesting country to locate the study as it has a tradition of state-led policies to protect worker rights. Yet, in spite of CSR commitments made by both supermarkets and producers that emphasise health and safety and the country's established Labour Law, this article shows that there are problems for workers when they are forced to meet demanding production schedules. Furthermore, it suggests that whilst supermarkets continue to drive down consumer prices and put pressure on producers to reduce costs, a downward spiral of working conditions is created regardless of the CSR policies in place. However, this article also identifies that changes to supermarket behaviour is possible when consumer trust is at stake. (shrink)

Unfortunately, business is often associated with unethical behavior. While research has offered a number of explanations for why business might encourage unethical behavior, we argue that how a person frames a situation may provide important insight. Drawing on the decision frame literature, the goal of the current research is to identify the differences in cognitive processing associated with two decision frames dominant in the business ethics literature—business and ethical—and, with that knowledge, examine ways to mitigate the detrimental influence of frame (...) on unethical behavior. We first demonstrate the causal link between frame and misrepresentation, and then identify several differences in cognitive processing—cost–benefit analyses, concern for others, and construal level—that distinguish business and ethical frames, and investigate their effects on misrepresentation. In our final set of studies, we demonstrate that the influence of these frames on misrepresentation can be altered by manipulating these cognitive processes, both mitigating and exacerbating a decision maker’s engagement in misrepresentation. We conclude by summarizing our findings and their potential impact on unethical behavior more broadly. (shrink)

The Navajo Nation faces critical challenges in developing housing that is resilient to climate change while honoring cultural heritage. Socio‐economic disparities, limited infrastructure, and extreme environmental conditions demand innovative solutions that integrate sustainable practices with traditional Navajo values. This study critically examines the potential of smart design‐build technologies to create resilient, culturally appropriate housing tailored to the Navajo Nation’s unique needs, while interrogating the normative assumptions that often accompany Western frameworks of sustainability and innovation. This research combines a multidisciplinary literature (...) review with a graduate‐level design studio’s explorative and applied insight. The literature review synthesizes advancements in sustainable technologies—such as off‐grid power systems, alternative materials, and participatory design methods—through a decolonial lens that challenges dominant planning paradigms. A conceptual framework was constructed to evaluate the intersection of cultural coherence, technological viability, material sustainability, socio‐environmental adaptability, and governance. Off‐grid solutions, including solar panels and wind turbines, offer clean energy alternatives, while locally sourced materials, like earth‐based and carbon‐environmentally informed additive manufacturing solutions, provide cost‐effective, low‐carbon options suitable for the arid climate. The study emphasizes participatory design, engaging local communities in developing housing solutions that align with cultural values and modern needs. By combining traditional Navajo architectural principles—such as circular forms and earthen materials—with smart technologies, the resulting designs are resilient, sustainable, and socially relevant. The design studio component enabled graduate students to explore speculative housing prototypes grounded in this framework, evaluated in dialogue with Navajo cultural liaisons and contextual constraints, thereby centering Indigenous perspectives in both process and output. The findings contribute to the broader discourse on smart, resilient infrastructure, offering insights for policymakers, designers, and funders to support localized, culturally and environmentally informed housing solutions in Indigenous communities. (shrink)

This paper proposes a description of the moral obligations of economic agents. It will show that a threefold division should be adopted to distinguish moral obligations applying to their interactions in the market, obligations applying to their interactions inside business firms and obligations applying to their interactions with agents outside the market. Competition might be permissible in the first case since markets are special patterns of social interactions (called adversarial schemes). They produce their benefits when agents try to satisfy exclusive (...) preferences at the expense of others. However, moral obligations inside the firm and moral obligations outside the market are of a different nature. This argument will be developed in the two first parts of this paper. In the third part, it will outline the relevant strengths of that account in relation with two popular views of economic agents’ moral obligations: the shareholder primacy view and the stakeholder theory. (shrink)

Life-sustaining treatment is sometimes withdrawn or withheld from critically ill newborn infants with poor prognosis. Guidelines relating to such decisions place emphasis on the best interests of the infant. However, in practice, parental views and parental interests are often taken into consideration.In this paper I draw on the example of newborn infants with severe muscle weakness (for example spinal muscular atrophy). I provide two arguments that parental interests should be given some weight in decisions about treatment, and that they should (...) be given somewhat more weight in decisions about newborns than for older children. Firstly, the interests of the infant and of parents intersect, and are hard to separate. Parents’ views about treatment may be relevant to an assessment of the infant’s interests, and they may also affect those interests. Secondly, the interests of the infant in her future are relatively reduced by her developmental immaturity. In some situations parents’ welfare interests outweigh those of the infant. However, I argue that this would not justify treatment limitation except in the setting of severe impairment. (shrink)