João Ferreira

The intricate relationships between humans and animals have long shaped philosophical, cultural and scientific inquiry. This narrative review examines evolving conceptions of animal consciousness, agency and sentience within broader historical, ethical and epistemological contexts. Drawing on philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, psychology and animal studies, it critically engages debates on anthropocentrism, cognitive ethology, moral considerability and relational ontology. By tracing the shift from mechanistic models of animality to embodied and affective accounts of consciousness, the analysis highlights how contemporary scholarship destabilises traditional forms of human exceptionalism. Building on this interdisciplinary synthesis, the article advances a symbiotic humanist orientation that integrates evolutionary continuity with multidimensional models of consciousness and differentiated normative responsibility. The argument culminates in the articulation of a Stratified Relational Responsibility Model (SRRM), which reconciles ontological continuity with asymmetrical accountability. Within this framework, shared evolutionary conditions ground moral considerability, while the emergence of reflexive and institutional normativity intensifies human ethical obligation. The model offers a non-anthropocentric yet normatively robust account of human–animal relations, situating human distinctiveness not in metaphysical superiority but in heightened responsibility within multispecies ecological systems.

This article proposes a conceptual reformulation of the phenomenon of boredom by carefully distinguishing ordinary situational or psychologically driven boredom from what is here termed existential boredom: a specific mode of disconnection in which the subject’s capacity to inhabit a meaningful horizon of possibilities becomes temporarily suspended. Rather than interpreting boredom as a mere lack of stimulation, momentary dissatisfaction, or simple emotional discomfort, the study argues that certain forms of boredom reveal a phenomenological contraction of possibility, involving disturbances in lived temporality, value orientation, imaginative projection, and embodied intentionality. Through a critical analysis of key thinkers, the article clarifies the tensions and limitations within classical accounts and delineates the proposed concept of existential boredom from adjacent phenomena such as Unheimlichkeit, Frankl’s “existential vacuum”, clinical apathy, and everyday boredom. It is argued that existential boredom functions as a phenomenological indicator of existential disconnection, not as an ontological diagnosis of meaninglessness but as a liminal experience that renders visible the temporary suspension of the structures that normally sustain meaningful world-disclosure. This conceptualisation also illuminates the contemporary prevalence of this affective state within contexts of hyper-stimulation, attentional fragmentation, and the erosion of meaning frameworks. By offering an integrated analytical framework, the article contributes to a more rigorous understanding of boredom as an existential phenomenon, with implications for philosophy, contemporary psychology, and the study of human experience in modern life. This approach not only expands our understanding of boredom but also invites us on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

A pesquisa investiga a produção científica de gênero nos periódicos de Ciência da Informação da regiãoNordeste do Brasil nos anos de 2019 e 2020, considerando os impactos da pandemia da Covid-19. A partir dasdiscussões teóricas sobre desigualdade de gênero na ciência e da análise do conceito de campo de Bourdieu(2011), o estudo explora como as Tecnologias Digitais de Informação e Comunicação (TDIC) influenciaram osprocessos de produção e disseminação do conhecimento, acentuando desafios já existentes para pesquisadoras. Ametodologia emprega uma abordagem quantitativa e bibliométrica, analisando publicações indexadas naBRAPCI e nos anais do ENANCIB de 2019. Os resultados preliminares apontam para uma queda significativana produtividade acadêmica feminina durante a pandemia, especialmente entre mulheres com responsabilidadesfamiliares, reforçando padrões históricos de desigualdade. A pesquisa contribui para a compreensão dasdinâmicas de gênero na produção científica e destaca a necessidade de políticas de equidade na Ciência daInformação.

This study investigates the role of the capabilities approach (as an ethical framework in management) on the well-being of workers in the context of working from home. A capabilities approach was used to examine the relationship between work engagement and work-life balance. Additionally, the conceptual model tested the role of trust as a mediator. The European Working Conditions Survey was the source of data for this study. Participants were selected based on their self-reported frequency of working from home. The final sample consisted of 23,748 participants. The hypothesis of the conceptual model was tested using the Partial Least Square (PLS) method for data analysis. The results show that, in general, the list of capabilities is empirically valid, presenting a significant relationship with work engagement and work-life balance, either directly or when mediated by trust. Based on the results of this work, organizations gain access to a set of guidelines on how to manage working from home based on the principles of the capabilities approach and liberated companies. This study presents the first empirical validation of the model's capabilities and demonstrates the application of the capabilities approach to the context of working from home.

We propose a framework for the analysis of choice behaviour when the latter is made explicitly in chronological order. We relate this framework to the traditional choice theoretic setting from which the chronological aspect is absent, and compare it to other frameworks that extend this traditional setting. Then, we use this framework to analyse various models of preference discovery. We characterise, via simple revealed preference tests, several models that differ in terms of (1) the priors that the decision-maker holds about alternatives and (2) whether the decision-maker chooses period by period or uses her knowledge about future menus to inform her present choices. These results provide novel testable implications for the preference discovery process of myopic and forward-looking agents.

Background Q-CEP (Qualificação dos Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa que compõem o Sistema CEP/Conep) is a nationwide project resulting from a partnership between the Brazilian National Research Ethics Commission (Conep), the Ministry of Health and Hospital Moinhos de Vento (HMV). It was developed to consolidate policy for ethical review of research with human beings in all members of the CEP/Conep System, Brazil’s national system of institutional review boards. The aim of this study was therefore to report on the experience and results of the Q-CEP project. Methods An observational, retrospective study includes data from the Q-CEP, obtained from visits to all the institutional research ethics committees (RECs) in the country. The actions implemented by Q-CEP were part of a two-step process: (i) training visits to each REC; (ii) development of distance learning modules on strategic topics pertaining to research ethics evaluation. The data presented herein cover step one (training visits), defined by Q-CEP as the diagnostic stage of the project. For a country with social and economics inequalities such as Brazil, this is a particularly important stage; an accurate picture of reality is needed to inform planning of quality improvement strategies. Results In 2019–2021, Q-CEP visited 832 RECs and trained 11,197 people. This sample covered almost all active RECs in the country; only 4 (0.5%) were not evaluated. Of the 94 items evaluated, 62% did not reach the target of at least 80% compliance and around 1/4 (26%) were below 50% compliance. The diagnostic stage of the process revealed inadequacies on the part of the RECs in their ethical reviews. The analysis of informed consent forms showed compliance in only 131 RECs (15.74%). The description of pending issues made by RECs in their reports was compliant in 19.33% (n = 161). Administrative and operational aspects were also considered inadequate by more than half of the RECs. Conclusions Overall, Brazilian RECs showed poor compliance in several aspects of their operation, both in ethics evaluation and in other processes, which justifies additional training. The Q-CEP project is part of a quality improvement policy promoted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The data obtained in the diagnostic step of the project have contributed to the qualification and consolidation of one of the world’s largest research ethics evaluation systems.

Ethical leadership can lead to preparing the ground for employee voice, highlighting employees’ creativity, and encouraging knowledge-sharing behavior in the organization. Thus, this study examines the impact of ethical leadership on organizational identity with the mediating role of employee voice in digital startups. However, previous studies investigating the relationship between ethical leadership and organizational identity disregarded the intervening role of employee voice in this relationship. A cross-sectional design using a sample of 137 managers of digital startups in science parks. Through the PLS3 software, the results show that employees tend to discuss their work-related opinions and concerns more often if they consider their leaders trustworthy, and this can lead to competitive advantage and quick responses to environmental crises. According to the findings of this study, ethical leadership can prepare the ground for employee voice, highlight employees’ creativity, and encourage knowledge-sharing behavior in the organization. Hence, we suggest that leaders demonstrate personal integrity, openly receive employees’ ideas and recommendations, treat employees impartially, and attempt to maximize the benefits to their employees.

A ambiguidade do humor torna-o capaz de desvendar a verdade para lá da peta, do ópio, do fingimento, da falsidade – cada um destes sinónimos de mentira está presente, com subtis gradações, nos periódicos de José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa. O próprio conceito de mentira suscita reflexão e é questionado na sua relação com a verdade: “Com toda a certeza, se não for mentira.” O exagero das petas com que “tempera” as verdades chama a atenção dos leitores para a “verdade encoberta” sob as convenções das práticas sociais, numa dialéctica do ser com o dever ser, do moral com o amoral, na fronteira entre o lícito e o ilícito nas últimas décadas do Estado absolutista e no dealbar do liberalismo. O estudo do humor, dos seus limites e do seu lugar nos periódicos na viragem do século XVIII para o XIX é uma das muitas formas da história das ideias.

The research team measured the enterprise web accessibility levels of the Forbes 250 largest enterprises using the fully automatic accessibility evaluation tool Sortsite, and presented the compliance of the evaluated websites to WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0 and Section 508 accessibility levels. Given the recent attention to organizational leaders having ethical duties towards their dedicated employees, we propose that ‘societal citizenship behaviour’ concerns ethical duties of organizational leaders towards society in general and in particular to those who have less means to assert their needs. In effect, we found enterprise website accessibility levels to be in need of significant improvement. An interpretation of a positive path forward to better enterprise website accessibility levels is put forth based on a focus-group interaction and using BNML—a novel Business Narrative Modelling Language

Recently several authors have proposed proxies of welfare that equate some (as opposed to all) choices with welfare. In this paper, I first distinguish between two prominent proxies: one based oncontext-independent choicesand the other based onreason-based choices. I then propose an original proxy based on choices that individuals state they would want themselves to repeat at the time of the welfare/policy evaluation (confirmed choices). I articulate three complementary arguments that, I claim, support confirmed choices as a more reliable proxy of welfare than context-independent and reason-based choices. Finally, I discuss the implications of these arguments fornudgesandboosts.

Hipólito da Costa (1774-1823) foi o redactor do primeiro periódico liberal de língua portugue­sa, o Correio Braziliense, e é considerado o patriarca do jornalismo brasileiro. Exilado em Lon­dres, desenvolveu no Correio um corpus doutrinal que culminou num Projecto de Constituição para o Brasil, tributário dos valores do modelo constitucional inglês. Anti-absolutista, anti-es­clavagista e anti-democrático, o seu liberalismo tem a marca do gradualismo como método pre­ferencial de evolução política e social.

A pesquisa aponta as condições que motivaram as mudanças nos processos de disseminação da ciência, apresentando o ambiente das redes sociais digitais como espaços unificados de comunicação e de divulgação científicas. A partir deste contexto, busca evidenciar como esses espaços estão vulneráveis à desordem da informação. Para tanto, foram levantados os principais fatores relacionados à desordem no espaço digital, especialmente, nesses processos, e indicados alguns cuidados que precisam ser considerados para evitar ou minimizar esse problema. Trata-se de uma pesquisa bibliográfica de natureza qualitativa, que buscou, a partir de uma revisão de literatura, de inferências e de interpretações, conectar a desordem da informação aos descuidados com as terminologias usadas na comunicação e na divulgação científicas. Considera-se que, para que a promoção da ciência mediada pelas redes sociais não seja permeada de desordens, é preciso que produtores e disseminadores de conteúdos científicos considerem que esse espaço possui peculiaridades que combinam um público heterogêneo e uma forma particular de comunicação e divulgação.

O desenvolvimento tecnológico promoveu o aumento de produção e compartilhamento de conteúdo em plataformas digitais, sendo difícil gerenciar o acesso adequado a informações. O presente artigo tem como objetivo discutir os efeitos do direito ao esquecimento no ambiente digital, considerando o processo de desindexação como estratégia para operacionalizar a efetividade desse direito. Tomando como referências arcabouços teóricos-conceituais acerca da complexidade compósita da informação e de antinomias entre a dignidade da pessoa humana e a liberdade de expressão e o direito à informação, oriundos, respectivamente, da Ciência da Informação e do Direito, analisam-se e discutem-se algumas decisões jurisprudenciais e posicionamentos doutrinários no cenário brasileiro. O direito ao esquecimento está cercado de ambivalências e desafios de ordens normativa, tecnológica e cultural, num compartilhamento de informações em níveis sem precedentes que interferem negativamente na sua efetivação no ambiente digital.