José Manuel Losada

Paradise, like any myth, has its time. This will become clearer in the second sectionof the article, when we examine the evolution of the myth: it existed, but it ceased toexist; it was lost. Furthermore, as men and women of our time, we cannot studyparadise in isolation from the contemporary world: paradise may also cease to existas a myth, being reduced to a sublime object, place and time, or, even more so, asensation, an emotion, a material or intellectual ambition. The article is alsostructured in three parts: the concept, its evolution, its relevance today; or, if you prefer, happiness, unhappiness, the longing for fulfilment; expressed in terms ofmyth criticism: the imaginary of the mythical paradise, the lost mythical paradiseand the demythologised paradise. For this reason, the myth of paradise lost requiresepistemological reflection in order to understand the ground on which we stand.Consequently, I shall not approach it from a theological, historical, esoteric,sociological or ideological perspective; nor shall I adopt a utopian perspective, eventhough paradise today commonly functions as a great utopia in the universalimagination.

This article presents the feasibility of teaching generic competences through Sciencelessons at university level. The authors have implemented a new instrumentcalled “Moral Cross Dilemma” which involves the use of argumentationand moral reasoning within the students of Primary EducationDegree. This tool seems to be an effectivepedagogical resource in Higher Education Levels. It is a step forward fromthe well-known dilemma, a consolidated strategy for the development ofethical competences based on argumentative and discursive methodologies.This paper is focused on the description of this technique and applies itfor the first time on experimental data.Moral Cross Dilemma is applicable to environmental conflicts andcan be used as a discursive technique for improving the personal ethiclevel. This work shows empirical evidences from the preliminary implementationwithin university students. experience was carried out on a 47-student sample. They wereprospective teachers learning Natural Sciences. The main results revealedno difference and were observed between self-perceived and peer evaluationof the moral status, although the environmental-friendly argumentationposition clearly set out higher scoring in the moral reasoning level.