Defense Of Dignity Research Articles

Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement and Cheapened Achievement: A New Dilemma

Recent discussions of cognitive enhancement often note that drugs and technologies that improve cognitive performance may do so at the risk of “cheapening” our resulting cognitive achievements (e.g., Kass, Life, liberty and the defense of dignity: the challenge for bioethics, Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2004; Agar, Humanity’s end: why we should reject radical enhancement, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2010; Sandel, The case against perfection. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2007; Sandel, The case against perfection: what’s wrong with designer children, bionic athletes, and genetic engineering?”. In: Holland (ed) Arguing about bioethics, Routledge, London, 2012; Harris in Bioethics 25:102–111, 2011). While there are several possible responses to this worry, we will highlight what we take to be one of the most promising—one which draws on a recent strand of thinking in social and virtue epistemology to construct an integrationist defence of cognitive enhancement. (e.g., Pritchard in Synthese 175:133–151, 2010; Palermos in Synthese 192:2955–2286, 2015; Clark in Synthese 192:3757–3375, 2015). According to such a line, there is—despite initial appearances to the contrary—no genuine tension between using enhancements to attain our goals and achieving these goals in a valuable way provided the relevant enhancement is appropriately integrated into the agent’s cognitive architecture (in some suitably specified way). In this paper, however, we show that the kind of integration recommended by such views will likely come at a high cost. More specifically, we highlight a dilemma for users of pharmacological cognitive enhancement: they can (1) meet the conditions for cognitive integration (and on this basis attain valuable achievements) at the significant risk of dangerous dependency, or (2) remain free of such dependency while foregoing integration and the valuable achievements that such integration enables. After motivating and clarifying the import of this dilemma, we offer recommendations for how future cognitive enhancement research may offer potential routes for navigating past it.

In defense of dignity: Reflections on the moral function of human dignity

This paper defends human dignity in two ways. First, by confronting the criticism that human dignity does not serve an important function in contemporary moral discourse and that its function can be sufficiently performed by other moral terms. It is argued that this criticism invites a danger of moral reductionism, which impoverishes moral discourse. The authority of moral philosophy to correct widely shared moral intuitions, rooted in experiences of grave injustices and wrongs, is questioned. Secondly, dignity is defended by showing what is needed to uphold it, both in theory and practice. It is argued, and demonstrated through examples, that human dignity as a universal value ascribed to human beings and the virtue of dignified action are intimately related. This is fleshed out in terms of Kant's analysis of respect in the practical sense and of virtue as a commitment to the value of dignity as a constitutive end of our moral order. It is furthermore argued that theoretical attempts to ground respect for dignity in human capacities lead to a moral impasse. It is necessary to act as if every human being is worthy of respect. This practical approach requires institutions and specified moral obligations that are integral to the democratic ethos and the rule of law, which guarantees the equal status of human beings. This practical task requires that we consistently tease out and act on the implications of these principles rather than seek deeper justification for the equal worth of humans, articulated in the term human dignity.

Empréstimos bancários consignados de duas ou mais instituições financeiras: uma perspectiva à luz do direito do consumidor como direito fundamental

O presente artigo visa trazer luz ao fato de que a concessão de empréstimos consignados em contracheque por parte de bancos e fornecedoras de crédito sem uma verificação apurada da saúde financeira do consumidor constitui prática abusiva. Este tipo de crédito deve tomar até 30% do salário líquido e é dividido em parcelas que são descontadas diretamente no contracheque do cliente, o que pode comprometer a sua subsistência e de sua família, especialmente no contexto de superendividamento em que se encontram boa parte dos brasileiros. Esta realidade é inaceitável no âmbito da Constituição Cidadã de 1988, cujo valor central é o princípio da dignidade da pessoa humana, e do Código de Defesa do Consumidor, que foi o subsistema concebido a partir da positivação da defesa do consumidor como direito fundamental no art. 5º, XXXII. Esta previsão expressa deve-se à ligação íntima entre a dignidade da pessoa humana e a dignidade do consumidor, pois o consumo é parte indissociável da vida nos tempos atuais e se dá em uma relação naturalmente desequilibrada entre fornecedores e consumidores. Deste modo, instituições financeiras devem verificar pormenorizadamente as condições de seus clientes assumirem empréstimos consignados, sob pena de sofrerem revisão contratual na esfera judicial a fim de acomodarem os empréstimos em mais parcelas quanto forem necessárias que não ultrapassem os 30% estabelecidos pela Lei Federal nº 10.820/2003. A defesa da dignidade enquanto direito fundamental da personalidade em muito supera o direito à satisfação do crédito por parte de bancos e organizações afins.

Book Review: A Defense of Dignity, Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

Book Review: A Defense of Dignity, Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

La religión del amor: Feuerbach y los filósofos del diálogo

En este artículo se parte de la crítica de Feuerbach a la religión para recuperar el sentido humanista de dicha crítica, que más que una afirmación del ateísmo o una negación de la existencia de Dios es una defensa de la dignidad y de la libertad humana. A lo largo de este estudio se sitúa el pensamiento de Feuerbach más allá de la discusión entre el teísmo y el ateísmo, estableciendo un diálogo que deja a un lado las limitaciones de esta dicotomía. En la Historia de la filosofía se ha insistido en la importancia del pensamiento de Feuerbach para la posterior filosofía de la sospecha, pero en este caso se recorre una vía menos explorada: su relación con el pensamiento dialógico y la religión del amor.

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, written by Christopher Kaczor

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, written by Christopher Kaczor

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By ChristopherKaczor. Pp. 221, Notre Dame IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 2013, $30.00.

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By ChristopherKaczor. Pp. 221, Notre Dame IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 2013, $30.00.

Kaczor, Christopher. A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

Kaczor, Christopher. A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor

Book Review: A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By Christopher Kaczor

Book Review: A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By Christopher Kaczor

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor, Notre Dame Press, Indiana, 2013, pp. x + 220, $ 30, pbk

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor, Notre Dame Press, Indiana, 2013, pp. x + 220, $ 30, pbk

Christopher Kaczor, A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

Christopher Kaczor, A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By ChristopherKaczor. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Pp. 216. $30.00.

A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience. By ChristopherKaczor. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Pp. 216. $30.00.

A defense of dignity: creating life, destroying life, and protecting the rights of conscience

Questions about the of the human person give rise to many of the most central and hotly disputed topics in bioethics. In A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, Christopher Kaczor investigates whether each human being has intrinsic and whether the very concept of dignity has a useful place in contemporary ethical debates. Kaczor explores a broad range of issues addressed in contemporary bioethics, including whether there is a duty of procreative beneficence, the ethics of ectopic pregnancy, and the possibility of rescuing human embryos with human wombs or artificial wombs. A Defense of Dignity also treats issues relevant to the end of life, including physician-assisted suicide, provision of food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state, and how to proceed with organ donation following death. Finally, what are the duties and prerogatives of health care professionals who refuse in conscience to take part in activities that they regard as degrading to human dignity? Should they be forced to do what they consider to be violations of the patient's well being, or does patient autonomy always trump the conscience of a health care professional? Grounded in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition, A Defense of Dignity argues that all human beings from the beginning to the end of their lives should be treated with respect and considers how this belief should be applied in controversial cases.

Human Dignity and the Ethics of Human Enhancement

Human dignity supports the equal value of all humans and their ethical treatment. While human rights conventions use the term frequently, it is rarely defined. The term dignity is used differently, and two dimensions are described in detail. Inherent dignity is an intrinsic dimension held by all humans and is the basis of equal rights for all humans. Circumstantial dignity is another dimension, but is variable and changeable. This is in mind when circumstances are said to enhance or diminish someone’s dignity. The recent critique of dignity arises in part because of conflation of these two dimensions. Others reject dignity because of its religious connections. Such criticisms will be responded to in defense of dignity. Posthuman and transhuman enhancement also raise questions about the value of dignity because of its roots in humanism. Nick Bostrom defends posthuman dignity while critiquing Leon Kass’s bioconservative position. Bostrom’s argument will be critiqued because of his failure to distinguish between inherent and circumstantial dignity, and his misunderstanding of Kass’s claims. In contrast to the transhumanist enhancement project, inherent dignity points to the givenness and limitations of human nature. This indicates the importance of developing gratitude for human nature and avoiding an endless pursuit of perfection. Such an approach is not antagonistic to medicine and science. Instead, it places priority on improving the circumstantial dignity of all human beings, especially those who live without their basic needs being met. Their inherent dignity places a moral obligation on those with resources to help them. Medicine and science should focus on relieving their needs, not enhancing those who already have most needs met. Justice for all humans based on their inherent dignity is proposed as a significant argument against the ethics of transhuman enhancement.

The God of Life and the Spirit of Life: The Social and Political Dimension of Life in the Spirit

In this work, the social and political dimensions of life in the Spirit are examined, starting with the premise that God requires that the churches which are energised by the Spirit be defenders of human dignity. The basic premise of our theological reflection is that the defense of human dignity and the struggle for social justice are two legitimate forms of living in the Spirit, and concrete expressions of the social and political dimensions of Christian holiness which is modeled by the Spirit of life. We affirm that the God of life is the God who loves and defends life, and liberates human beings from all oppression. In this sense, for Pentecostals who have been liberated by God from the chains of oppression, it should not be strange that they be involved in the defense of the dignity of all human beings as God's creations. This is a concrete form of living in the Spirit, and for this reason, they must denounce all forms of personal, social and structural sin.

Capital Social y Voluntariado: claves para un financiamiento solidario de la vivienda social. El caso de la fundación Un Techo para Chile.

Even when the housing policies have, in the last decades, introduced important improvements in the understanding and treatment of housing in the poorest sectors, there is still an important percentage of poverty . The poorest sectors are clearly excluded from several aspects of society. This is evident in chanty towns which have no land regulations, lack of basic services, crowding conditions, segregation and discrimination. There is also a lack of formulas which facilitate the application to housing units. There is a need for alternative management and financing models where solidarity is an effective policy and not just nice words. This paper presents the vision and the working model used by the Un Techo para Chile Foundation (exported to other Latin American countries under the name of Un Techo para mi Pais). The social capital and volunteering are stressed as fundamental strategies which cooperate with solidarity financing for social housing. Such strategies play an important role in the financing of the housing units, in the transmission of the information, the defence of dignity, guaranteeing quality and the search of excellence in service as possible premises in the development of urban housing for the poorest communities.

The choosy reaper

Our increased understanding of the biology of ageing has revived prospects for radical anti‐ageing medicine. Ethicists have often tried to argue against these endeavours, but with little success. Their arguments, which appeal to the natural order, are either circular or self‐defeating. Invoking the invariance of the human condition cuts no ice as rational argument and often turns into an avowedly irrational appeal to the ‘yuk reaction’ that exotic technologies evoke. Does that mean that anti‐mortality technologies are ethically innocuous? Not if we consider the reality of unequal death in today's world, in which differences in longevity highlight the gap between the haves and the have‐nots. Even in affluent societies, in which the basics of food, shelter and medicine are widely available, the grim reaper is very much class conscious. Without returning to the concern for equality that was once the hallmark of the Enlightenment, radical life extension may well add to these existing inequalities, and create more resentment and strife in the future. Many aspects of current biomedical research, especially in the more avant‐garde areas of neuroscience and stem‐cell research, are united under the alluring label ‘regenerative medicine’. These developments fuel legitimate hopes for new treatments of degenerative diseases, which, in an age of increasing longevity, represent the main focal point for prevailing anxieties about ill health and the frailties of old age. But regenerative medicine is often taken more literally to mean rejuvenation—a genuine turning back of the clock—which leads to more florid speculations about massive increases in human lifespan. These futuristic views are often criticized by scientists as daydreams that owe more to science fiction than to a sober appraisal of predictable advances. But they are taken more seriously by a different category of opponents, namely those who condemn these prospects on ethical grounds. For many conservative critics, …

Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics and Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs, by Leon R. Kass

Life, Liberty, and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics and Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs, by Leon R. Kass

Book Review: Life, liberty and the defense of dignity: the challenge for bioethics

Book Review: Life, liberty and the defense of dignity: the challenge for bioethics