Marta García

China plays an essential role in Bayle’s philosophical work. He uses China to demonstrate that there is no necessary connection between religion and a successful society. Politics and morality do not require a religious root. Besides, the atheism of the Chinese is not merely a negative absence of belief, like that of the Americans or Africans. China is not simply a backdrop for the creation of the philosophical myth of atheism but a model for political tolerance. This is supported by the equation between Confucianism and civic religion, an idea that may have come from the works of the Jesuits. China embodies political tolerance by not imposing any obligations to adhere to a particular doctrine or participate in a specific religious ceremony. This type of toleration is a religious-political model where beliefs and rituals, the two fundamental elements of any religion, are not mandatory for the entire population.

Recent accounts of the development of the philosophy of technology identify a distinct empirical turn in the 1980s and 1990s characterized by a focus on specific technologies and an understanding of technology as a contingent product of a heterogeneous array of factors. In this contribution, I explore the overlaps of this so-called empirical turn with other research fields such as science studies, practice studies or even consumer research via a case study on sports technology, that of the running shoe.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate how Moroccan women prisoners interpret and practice their religion in prison and the consequences of this in their lives, on an individual level and on a group level, in short the role religion plays for them in prison. Based on the qualitative method, and by using in-depth interviews as the investigative technique, the results show that, in general, religion brings important benefits such as psychological well being, helping the women prisoners to adapt to prison life, alleviating the pain of separation from their children and giving them hope for the future. However, the Islamic religion is the principal point of difference among the Moroccan women prisoners, according to the degree of influence that they exercise over each other which is influenced by various factors: where they come from, their socialization process and for the time that they have spent in prison. Based on these factors three distinct profiles for Moroccan women prisoners have been identified which differentiate them as women and as prisoners. In short, our results show that religion is key to understanding the identity of these women in prison. Our work opens a new line of investigation that encompasses religion, gender, nationality and prison not addressed until now.

En este artículo analizamos la contribución de la teología protestante a la idea de autonomía moral a partir de un análisis de la obra de Juan Calvino. Mostramos cómo se afirma en ella la incapacidad del sujeto para conocer y querer el bien, manifiesto en la ley natural. Esta incapacidad es compensada con los mandatos bíblicos, para los que Calvino justificará una positivación jurídica en los Estados cristianos. Concluimos, por todo ello, que Calvino está lejos de la idea kantiana de autonomía que consideramos distintiva de la Modernidad.

El artículo defiende la pertinencia y el valor del término “persona” por la riqueza significativa adquirida a través de la historia de la Filosofía, que le permite, como a ningún otro concepto, definir el ser del hombre. Cuatro momentos de la historia se pueden destacar por la manera en que recrean su sentido: en la filosofía griega “persona” está ligado al papel del ser humano en la sociedad y a la función que desempeña; en ella el sentido de individualidad no se destaca. En La filosofía Medieval se inicia la asunción de la connotación de individualidad, especialmente mediante el desarrollo de los conceptos de individuación y personalidad; estos dos términos atienden a la característica del individuo de “pertenecer a” una especie, diferenciándose de todos los demás. En la filosofía moderna se desarrolla el concepto de individuo, usándose de manera abstracta como principio de leyes; adquiere un tono universal, en cuanto característica de todo hombre de ser igual ante la ley y sujeto de derechos. El concepto de “persona” es retomado por Locke para referirse a la identidad personal, que es la característica de los humanos de ser individuos pensantes, reflexivos, con conciencia de sí y con voluntad. Finalmente, Wittgenstein, a partir de la reflexión sobre la interpretación del rostro (de todo símbolo y de una obra de arte) reconoce, sin tematizarlos explícitamente, los rasgos de individualidad, sociabilidad y universalidad del ser humano, los cuales se suponen o se dan por sentados en la manera de relacionamos con el rostro de una persona.El estudio histórico del concepto y su síntesis en la Filosofía Contemporánea se presentan como dos argumentos que autorizan a defender la pertinencia del término para la Filosofía y para ámbitos importantes de la vida práctica. La investigación que lleva a cabo Ricoeur de la persona, a partir del análisis y la interpretación de un acto de habla, le permite estudiar al hombre como sujeto de la enunciación en una acción comunicativa; en el sujeto de la enunciación se cumplen las tres esferas de la vida humana: es una persona(individuo, consciente de su individualidad) que hace uso de competencias lingüísticas, las cuales le permiten comunicarse mediante un código aprendido socioculturalmente. Los tres subactos del acto de habla son universales, pues lo que varía en ellos es la forma como cada lengua hace uso de su código. El hablante hace la enunciación a un oyente que reconoce como a una persona; la presencialidad del cara a cara y la percepción de su rostro es parte de la información con que cuenta en la enunciación. Hablante y oyente se saben individuos sociales, con responsabilidades. Y los dos viven una experiencia universal humana: la comunicación enmarcada en un determinado acto de habla.

Aims: Attentional bias, alcohol craving, and anxiety have important implications in the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder. The current study aims to test the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Cue-Exposure Therapy to reduce levels of alcohol craving and anxiety and prompt changes in AB toward alcohol content.Method: A 49-year-old male participated in this study, diagnosed with severe AUD, who also used tobacco and illicit substances on an occasional basis and who made several failed attempts to cease substance misuse. The protocol consisted of six VR-CET booster sessions and two assessment sessions over the course of 5 weeks. The VR-CET program consisted of booster therapy sessions based on virtual reality exposure to preferred alcohol-related cues and contexts. The initial and final assessment sessions were focused on exploring AB, alcohol craving, and anxiety using paper-and-pencil instruments and the eye-tracking and VR technologies at different time points.Results: Pre and post assessment sessions indicated falls on the scores of all instruments assessing alcohol craving, anxiety, and AB.Conclusions: This case report, part of a larger project, demonstrates the effectiveness of the VR-CET booster sessions in AUD. In the post-treatment measurements, a variety of instruments showed a change in the AB pattern and an improvement in craving and anxiety responses. As a result of the systematic desensitization, virtual exposure gradually reduced the responses to significant alcohol-related cues and contexts. The implications for AB, anxiety and craving are discussed.

En este trabajo se analizan las aportaciones de las críticas feministas para el debate actual sobre el papel de los valores no epistémicos en la ciencia. La revitalización de la discusión sobre los valores y la responsabilidad social de la ciencia en las últimas décadas responde a preocupaciones como la crisis de la replicabilidad, la creciente comercialización o el papel de la ciencia para la política. En todas ellas la influencia de valores de carácter no epistémico aparece como problemática. La crítica feminista, no obstante, proporciona ejemplos del funcionamiento de los valores políticos como recursos para una crítica constructiva que, acompañada de reflexividad y capacidad de autocorrección por parte de las comunidades implicadas, puede promover los propios objetivos epistémicos de la ciencia. Utilizaré dos ejemplos bien conocidos, la primatología y la neurociencia cognitiva, para discutir la interacción de lo epistémico y lo no epistémico en las críticas feministas. Los casos analizados servirán también para explorar la propia interacción de valores en la recepción de las críticas y para introducir la discusión sobre el denominado “nuevo problema de la demarcación”.

En este artículo se va a estudiar la relación que existe en Leibniz entre verdad eterna, razón soberna y libertad divina. Si la razón soberana se puede constituir como juez supremo es porque contiene unas verdades eternas que Dios no ha creado sino que pertenecen a la misma esencia divina. Estas verdades en cuanto esencias, tienden a existir en la medida de su perfección, pero no existirán necesariamente, sino que Dios las pone en la existencia mediante un acto libre. Ante la posibilidad de pensar que Dios pudiera verse obligado a elegir aquello que mejor, Leibniz sostendrá que Dios elige crear siempre lo mejor en un primer decreto máximamente libre y voluntario. de este modo el resto de sus elecciones son también máximamente libres y racionales

The essential role of creativity has been highlighted in several human knowledge areas. Regarding the neural underpinnings of creativity, there is evidence about the role of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on divergent thinking (DT) and convergent thinking (CT). Transcranial stimulation studies suggest that the left DLPFC is associated with both DT and CT, whereas left IFG is more related to DT. However, none of the previous studies have targeted both hubs simultaneously and compared transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and random noise stimulation (tRNS). Additionally, given the relationship between cognitive flexibility and creativity, we included it in order to check if the improvement in creativity may be mediated by cognitive flexibility. In this double-blind, between-subjects study, 66 healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups (N = 22) that received a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS), or sham for 20 min. The tDCS group received 1.5 mA with the anode over the left DLPFC and cathode over the left IFG. Locations in tRNS group were the same and they received 1.5 mA of high frequency tRNS (100–500 Hz). Divergent thinking was assessed before (baseline) and during stimulation with unusual uses (UU) and picture completion (PC) subtests from Torrance Creative thinking Test, whereas convergent thinking was evaluated with the remote association test (RAT). Stroop test was included to assess cognitive flexibility. ANCOVA results of performance under stimulation (controlling for baseline performance) showed that there were significant differences in PC (F = 3.35, p = 0.042, np2 = 0.10) but not in UU (F = 0.61, p = 0.546) and RAT (F = 2.65, p = 0.079) scores. Post-hoc analyses showed that tRNS group had significantly higher scores compared to sham (p = 0.004) in PC. More specifically, tRNS showed higher performance in fluency (p = 0.012) and originality (p = 0.021) dimensions of PC compared to sham. Regarding cognitive flexibility, we did not find any significant effect of any of the stimulation groups (F = 0.34, p = 0.711). Therefore, no further mediation analyses were performed. Finally, the group that received tDCS reported more adverse effects than sham group (F = 3.46, p = 0.035). Altogether, these results suggest that tRNS may have some advantages over tDCS in DT.

El posthumanismo es un término que engloba numerosos análisis teóricos con un denominador común: el excepcionalismo humano, es decir, la posición privilegiada del ser humano respecto al resto del universo. El propósito de este artículo es analizar hasta qué punto la estructura no naturalista de lo humano ha difuminado la distinción tradicional entre lo humano y lo que no es humano y, al mismo tiempo, presentar brevemente el desacuerdo existente dentro del posthumanismo. El objetivo es cuestionar las múltiples formas en que el posthumanismo, en sus diversas configuraciones, es antiexcepcionalista y desafía nuestra noción de “lo humano”.

Background: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shortage of qualified nurses in Spain. As a result, the government authorized the hiring of senior students. Objectives: To explore the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts experienced by final-year nursing students who worked during the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Research design: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a question guide. Interviews took place via a private video chat room platform. A thematic, inductive analysis was performed of the information gathered. Participants and research context: Eighteen nursing students were recruited from two universities of Madrid, aged between 18 and 65 years old, enrolled in the fourth year of nursing studies and who were hired under a relief contract for health professionals during the pandemic. Ethical considerations: The present study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Results: Three specific themes emerged: (a) coping with patient triage, (b) difficulties in providing end-of-life care, and (c) coping with patient death. Nursing students participated in the process of patient selection for resource allocation and ICU bed occupancy. They were shown how to care for patients who were not admitted to the ICU, in their last moments and were faced with the difficulties of applying end-of-life care. Finally, the nursing students were confronted with the death of their patients, in overwhelming numbers and under adverse conditions. Conclusions: These findings can help shed light on the ethical dilemmas and ethical conflicts faced by novice nursing students, incorporated into the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it was described that students may normalize the death due to the exhaustion and overwhelmed routine.

This article argues for two related theses. First, it defends a general thesis: any kind of necessity, including metaphysical necessity, can only be known a priori. Second, however, it also argues that the sort of a priori involved in modal metaphysical knowledge is not related to imagination or any sort of so-called epistemic possibility. Imagination is neither a proof of possibility nor a limit to necessity. Rather, modal metaphysical knowledge is built on intuition of philosophical categories and the structures they form

Introduction: Loss of employment is an experience that is lived and interpreted differently depending on a series of individual variables, including the psychological resources available to the affected person, as well as their perception of their degree of employability. Losing one’s job can be one of the most painful and traumatic events a person has to withstand. Following a dismissal, the worker needs to overcome a period of emotional adaptation to the loss. But that period of grieving can also condition the process of job search of the person, and be influenced by different variables, highlighting the age and work experience. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between intensity and type of affliction due to the loss of employment in older workers and their level of employability. Method: We carried out a descriptive, analytical, cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 140 unemployed participants, from 19 to 65 years of age, users of job Orientation in the Public Employment Service of Andalusia (España). Of the total participants, 66 were unemployed and over 45 years of age. They all took the Labour Insertion Potential Assessment Test, and the Texas Inventory revised adapted to job loss Results: Significant differences are shown in the grieving process due to loss of employment between both groups, with the older unemployed living the process more intensely. In relation to the employability potential, differences are found between both groups in terms of availability, perceived difficulties and fears. Interrelationships between total grieving intensity and the importance that older jobseekers give to work are also indicated. Conclusion:Loss of employment and the psychological and health consequences of this situation are identified with those that arise in the grieving process. Older workers present a series of features that determine that their job loss grieving process is more intense and lasts longer than that of other younger workers, regardless of whether the job loss was recent or not. On the other hand, it is shown that the intensity of grieving is related to the decrease of certain variables that are part of the concept of employability.

El articulo quiere demostrar las razones por las cuales se precisa de la complementariedad dialectica entre las dos formas de reconocimiento reciproco, la reciprocidad y la mutualidad, si se apunta al telos, nunca completamente alcanzado y siempre esperado, de llevar una vida buena y feliz en comunidad, dado el rol insustituible del conflicto en el seno de la condicion humana y la vida en sociedad. Se centra en las diferencias de matiz, pero importantes entre reconocimiento reciproco y mutuo con el fin de mostrar la potencia de estos conceptos en la comprension del intrincado camino del ser humano para realizar la historia de la vida en comun. La lucha por el reconocimiento es expresion de la tendencia ambigua y ambivalente de la condicion humana que hace de los hombres seres fragiles y desproporcionados, tan capaces del bien como del mal, de la disimetria como de la reciprocidad y de la inclinacion al impulso agresivo, como a las bondades del amor. La capacidad del incremento de sentido del amor, de la autocritica a la mala conciencia y de los esfuerzos generosos de la voluntad por una vida buena en comun, propios del reconocimiento mutuo, resultan ser ingredientes necesarios que deben tenerse en cuenta en las iniciativas de las luchas pacificas por el reconocimiento. Finalmente, estas ideas van a ser aplicadas a algunos rasgos de la experiencia de paz en Colombia para demostrar la necesidad de los gestos de reconocimiento mutuo para vislumbrar un horizonte de configuracion de situaciones duraderas de paz.

Background: Despite the reported harms and ethical concerns about physical restraint use in the critical care settings, nurses’ intention to apply them is unequal across countries. According to the theory of planned behaviour, eliciting nurses’ beliefs regarding the use of physical restraints would provide additional social information about nurses’ intention to perform this practice. Aim: To explore the salient behavioural, normative and control beliefs underlying the intention of critical care nurses to use physical restraints from the theory of planned behaviour. Research design: A belief elicitation study was conducted. Participants and research context: Twenty-six critical care nurses were purposively sampled across gender, work-shift patterns and professional experience in five intensive care units of three hospitals in Spain. Data were obtained from a nine-item open-ended questionnaire and a focus group. Deductive content analysis was performed. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the hospital ethics committee. Participants were assured their participation was voluntary. Findings: Nurses framed the use of restraints as a way of prioritising patients’ physical safety. They referred to contextual factors as the main reasons to justify their application. Nurses perceived that their decision is approved by other colleagues and the patients’ relatives. Some nurses started advocating against their use, but felt powerless to change this unsafe practice within an unfavourable climate. Control beliefs were linked to patients’ medical condition, availability of alternative solutions, analgo-sedation policies and work organisation. Discussion: Safety arguments based on the surrounding work environment were discussed. Conclusion: Nurses’ behavioural and control beliefs were related. Nurses should be trained in alternatives to physical restraint use. The impact of analgo-sedation protocols, relatives’ involvement, leadership support and intensive care unit restraint policies on physical restraint practices need to be revised. Further research is required to explore why nurses do not act with moral courage to change this harmful practice.