ABSTRACT
Existe hoy en día una tendencia generalizada a considerar la ética ambiental y la bioética como casos específicos relativos a una supuesta especie de "ética aplicada". La aplicación puede entenderse en dos sentidos diferentes: un sentido concreto, como en las aplicaciones técnicas, y un significado psicológico, como cuando nos aplicamos mentalmente en hacer bien una tarea. La ética se ha pensado siempre como un conocimiento práctico, en un sentido "práxico" y no en uno "poiético". La ética tiene que ver con "fines", no con "medios"; en este sentido la ética es "inútil". Dado que la ética tiene que ver con el sentido último de las cosas, las opciones éticas dan sentido a todas las actividades prácticas. En ese sentido la ética, en lugar de ser inútil, debe considerarse como "supra-útil" (Maritain). Hoy en día la política tiende a instrumentalizar la ética para objetivos políticos. La consecuencia ha sido la reconceptualización de una ética específica como ética aplicada. La ética ambiental y la bioética son sometidas a la política, siguiendo la lógica de aplicaciones técnicas. La ética ambiental y la bioética, consideradas como éticas aplicadas están en riesgo de convertirse no sólo en inútiles, sino también en algo que, en tanto que éticas, carece de sentido
There is actually a pervasive tendency to consider environmental ethics and bioethics as specific cases pertaining to a supposed kind of "applied ethics". Application can be understood in two different meanings: a concrete sense, as in technical applications, and a psychological meaning, as when we mentally apply ourselves to a task. Ethics has been always thought as a practical knowledge, in a "praxical" sense and not in a "poietic" one. Ethics has to do with "ends" not with "means"; in this sense ethics is "useless". Since ethics has to do with the ultimate meaning of things, ethical choices give meaning to all practical activities. In that sense ethics instead of being useless must be considered as "over useful2 (Maritain). Nowadays politics tend to instrumentalize ethics in order to political objectives. The consequence has been the reconceptualization of specific ethics as applied ethics. Environmental ethics and bioethics are then submitted to politics following the logic of technical applications. Environmental ethics and bioethics considered as applied ethics are at risk to becoming not only useless, but also meaningless
Subject(s)
Conservation of Natural Resources , Environmental Health/ethics , Bioethics/trends , Principle-Based Ethics , Ethics Committees/trends , Ethics, ResearchABSTRACT
There is actually a pervasive tendency to consider environmental ethics and bioethics as specific cases pertaining to a supposed kind of â³applied ethicsâ³. Application can be understood in two different meanings: a concrete sense, as in technical applications, and a psychological meaning, as when we mentally apply ourselves to a task. Ethics has been always thought as a practical knowledge, in a â³praxicalâ³ sense and not in a â³poieticâ³ one. Ethics has to do with â³endsâ³ not with â³meansâ³; in this sense ethics is â³uselessâ³. Since ethics has to do with the ultimate meaning of things, ethical choices give meaning to all practical activities. In that sense ethics instead of being useless must be considered as â³over-usefulâ³ (Maritain). Nowadays politics tend to instrumentalize ethics in order to political objectives. The consequence has been the reconceptualization of specific ethics as applied ethics. Environmental ethics and bioethics are then submitted to politics following the logic of technical applications. Environmental ethics and bioethics considered as applied ethics are at risk to becoming not only useless, but also meaningless.
Subject(s)
Bioethical Issues , Environmental Health/ethics , Politics , Environmental Health/trends , MoralsSubject(s)
Chile , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Neurobiology/history , Physiology/historyABSTRACT
Neuroscience embraces a heterogeneous group of disciplines. A conceptual framework that allows a better articulation of these different theoretical and experimental perspectives is needed. A 'whole-animal approach is proposed as a theoretical and hermeneutic tool. To illustrate the potential of this point of view, an overview of the research that has been performed in the extinction of fear-conditioned responses from Pavlov to the present is discussed. This is an example of how a whole-animal-based approach may help to organize and integrate basic and clinical neuroscience research. Our proposal is in agreement with recent statements calling for more integrative approaches in biological and neuropsychiatric research.
Subject(s)
Biomedical Research , Conditioning, Classical/physiology , Extinction, Psychological/physiology , Fear/physiology , Neurosciences , Animals , HumansABSTRACT
Neuroscience embraces a heterogeneous group of disciplines. A conceptual framework that allows a better articulation of these different theoretical and experimental perspectives is needed. A `whole-animal approach' is proposed as a theoretical and hermeneutic tool. To illustrate the potential of this point of view, an overview of the research that has been performed in the extinction of fear-conditioned responses from Pavlov to the present is discussed. This is an example of how a whole-animal-based approach may help to organize and integrate basic and clinical neuroscience research. Our proposal is in agreement with recent statements calling for more integrative approaches in biological and neuropsychiatric research.
Subject(s)
History, 20th Century , Knowledge , Neurosciences/trends , Conditioning, Psychological , Fear , PhilosophyABSTRACT
La medicina moderna, llamada científica, se encuentra hoy en día sometida a diversos cambios y, por lo mismo, a múltiples exigencias que provienen de las transformaciones culturales de la sociedad y que se trasuntan en criterios de tipo comercial, económico o administrativo que pretenden regularla. Algunos han pretendido que se trata de visualizar la figura del médico como "doble agente": por una parte, su papel tradicional como agente de salud y, por la otra, su nuevo papel de asignador de recursos humanos y financieros en el dinamismo económico de las nuevas técnicas y medios con los que cuenta la profesión. Sin embargo, muchos médicos critican esa interpretación, argumentando que el segundo aspecto mencionado no es de su competencia y que modificar o limitar su accionar, basándose en estas consiedraciones, constituiría una suerte de traición para sus enfermos. La actividad médica, como todas las actividades humanas posee una dimensión propia y específica, y una multitud de dimensiones accidentales. Tener una mayor conciencia de la dimensión económica del actuar profesional puede y quizá debe - en la hora actual - ser estimulada en los médicos. Lo anterior, sin embargo, no hace del médico un doble, triple o cuádruple agente, ya que la relación médico paciente es esencialmente una relación de ayuda entre personas y no una venta de servicios, y los aspectos económicos son adyacentes a esa realidad y no pueden superponerse a ella
Subject(s)
Humans , Marketing of Health Services , Physician-Patient Relations , PrivatizationABSTRACT
Theories on the nature of living beings have been present in our culture since the beginnings of science and philosophy in ancient Greece. The two major theoretical approaches to living beings, philosophical mechanism and Aristotelian realism, appear today with renewed force in almost every confrontation concerning the theoretical considerations of life. In recent times a strong and prolific school of thought has risen, headed by the Chilean neurobiologist Humberto Maturana. This author and his school have developed a complex and articulated theoretical system beginning with a theory of living beings and a 'biology of cognition, and extending to ethical, political, and even metaphysical considerations. This work is one of the first efforts to perform a scholarly analysis of Maturana's doctrines on living beings, starting with the analysis of On machines and living beings. The book's introduction is placed under scrutiny in this paper. A strongly mechanist philosophical manifesto is dogmatically stated at the beginning of a supposedly purely scientific approach. The challenges for a rational foundation of philosophical mechanism are critically highlighted and briefly discussed.
Subject(s)
Philosophy , Psychological Theory , Biology , Knowledge , Philosophy , Science , Biology , Chile , Models, TheoreticalABSTRACT
The 'slow axoplasmic transport theory' has been the prevailing view over the last forty years in order to explain the metabolic maintenance of neuronal axons and nerve endings. A significant amount of evidence against this theoretic interpretation of the existing experimental data has been presented by J. Alvarez, A. Giuditta and E. Koenig in an exhaustive review. They propose an alternative theoretical interpretation called the 'local synthesis model', integrating recent evidence for axon biology and regeneration. We present some epistemological considerations that reinforce the above criticisms and propositions.
Subject(s)
Humans , Axonal Transport , Axons , Nerve Tissue Proteins , Biological Transport , Models, Biological , Models, NeurologicalABSTRACT
El surgimiento de una preocupación ética apremiante en la medicina moderna se encuentra en estrecha relación con el desarrollo moderno de la técnica. Se esbozan en este trabajo tres de los principales problemas planteados por ella. 1)La dificultad inherente a toda obra humana para poder predecir a priori y de modo exhaustivo la aparición de efectos colaterales deletéreos. 2)La necesidad de poner en práctica criterios éticos para discernir las prioridades en la implementación y financiamiento de nuevas técnicas. 3)La dificultad para percibir los límites de la intervención técnica cuando es el hombre mismo el objeto de su aplicación. SE ejemplifica este punto con lo que está ocurriendo en la actualidad en relación con la manipulación embrionaria
Subject(s)
Humans , Bioethics , Ethics, Medical , Human Experimentation , Genetic Engineering/methods , Technology Assessment, Biomedical , Embryology/trends , Reproductive Techniques/trendsABSTRACT
A partir de una noción descriptiva de lo íntimo como "toda realidad (humana) oculta, que por algún motivo se desea mantener en reserva", se describen tres planos de la intimidad: territorial, corporal y psicológica. Las raíces biológicas y culturales determinantes de la constitución y de la guarda de la intimidad son exploradas con cierto detalle, tomando en consideración los aportes de la Etiología comparativa. Se propone una visión antropológica equilibrada que, junto con admitir la existencia de determinismos biológicos filogenéticamente adquiridos, reconoce la existencia de un funcionamiento preconciente de las capacidades cognitivas y afectivas específicamente humanas. Una aproximación interpretativa y normativa de la conducta médica debiera surgir sin dificultad a partir de este enfoque
