During the first half of the nineteenth century, moral philosophy enjoyed enormous prestige in colleges throughout the United States: through its alliance with moral theology, it sought to forge the conscience of the nation. It lost this status in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. One of the reasons for this was the growing secularization of society, but one should not underestimate the impact of its failure to serve as the conscience of the nation on the issue of slavery. (...) From being a practical discourse aimed at creating good citizens, moral philosophy retreated into a highly theoretical endeavor divorced from society. Returning to practical affairs is not the answer for moral philosophy unless it is accompanied by a new form of writing its history, one that takes a broader view of its context, including understanding the institutional pressures that impact philosophy when it is done in academic settings. (shrink)

Eco-ethics faces a major challenge: to contribute to the development of a virtuous technological society, capable of improving the psychological and mental well-being of those who shape our society. This challenge is immense and we are at a critical moment. Digital technologies have become deeply embedded in our daily lives, influencing how we engage with the world, learn, and interact with others, for better or worse. Given that the premise of technological development is ambivalent, which is inherent in the process (...) of metamorphosis, we must consider the possibility and necessity of making choices in the process of innovation and technological development. We can ask ourselves: on the basis of which set of values? With what horizons of meaning? In order to try to provide answers to these questions, one of the challenges of this article will be to consider the importance of integrating an aesthetic dimension into what we call the work of ethics. (shrink)

Is ecological anxiety—sometimes called eco-anxiety—just a paralyzing affect, or can it lead to an ethical and political commitment? At first glance, it seems that this anxiety implies, by definition, a lack of knowledge, and must therefore be overcome in order to live better and be able to act again. However, I wish to argue in this article that ecological anxiety, when it is a fear for the future, is not a pathology to be rid of, but a valuable awareness. Indeed, (...) in a period of social and environmental disasters on a global scale, this affect is above all indicative of a concern for the world. The question that then arises is that of the effectiveness of practical wisdom, in the sense of Aristotelian φρόνησις [phronesis], in deliberating on issues as complex as global warming. However, it seems necessary, to overcome the paralysing anxiety, to return to the sources of a collective practical wisdom that could enable citizens to reappropriate issues that concern them directly. (shrink)

Inspired by earthquakes in the world, I attempt to clarify the relationship between human beings and Nature. Many architects, such as Tange and Isozaki from 1963 until 2005, built modern cities under the idea of urbanism. However, in Eco-ethica, we propose a new concept “urbanica.” It suggests a new relationship—not “city-center and suburbs” but free relations among communities. New relationships must be clarified in ethics. I try to make clear the relationship between inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. I analyze this through a (...) Noh play, “Yamanba,” which is a symbol of one natural phenomenon, “wind”: a personified figure of “wind” should link inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. Nature itself makes reality, the real world, by the potential movement of wind. (shrink)

As its founder Imamichi Tomonobu repeatedly stressed, eco-ethics focuses on comprehending what a new ethics for our new times requires. Today, under very dark totalitarian skies, I suggest here several points for further eco-ethical critical discussion on three cardinal themes for such an ethics: human rights, a common good, and social justice. After a short introductory section elucidating my figurative title, I propose in each of the three following sections a summary question and a tentative working hypothesis. The titles of (...) the sections are: 1. Why the idea of human rights lacks general consensus; 2. Why most everyday notions of a common good are equivocal; and 3. Why even strong accounts of social justice are probably unreliable. The presentation concludes with a return to the figurative starting point in the widely suggestive metaphor of a trembling world. (shrink)

Democracy of consideration is a conceptual candidate, next to deliberative democracy. Consideration offers an interesting constellation. If we take the two directions in which consideration leads us, respect and careful examination, these two requirements, to be held together, promise and lead both to a quality of relations between participants of a discussion who feel considered, and to an epistemic quality, from several points of view (constellation), even disciplines and aspects of the issue. It gives rise to a sense of perspective, (...) pluralism, the process of examination, its cessation, and its stabilization “all things considered.” Consideration can be linked to all levels of a deliberative system, to tackle complex problems such as the fight against global warming. Indeed, it goes from individual decisions to international agreements and back again. Solving such a problem requires transitions understood as adjustments (responsiveness) between knowledge, institutions, and individuals, in the course of conversations, all things considered. (shrink)

This paper is the first outline of a reflection on the notion of moderation, which is at the center of contemporary debates: moderation in consumption, moderation in the exploitation of natural resources, ideological and political moderation, and so on. I first consider moderation as opposed to excess, then moderation as opposed to political radicalization. I then develop the idea that moderation has different meanings depending on the domains or “spheres” in which we use the word. In the socio-economic sphere, moderation (...) involves rational calculation, while in historical-cultural communities it is a tradition-based ethical practice. A third sphere to consider when exploring the uses and meanings of the concept of moderation is the political sphere. To do this, I turn to Aristotle’s theories of ethical judgment and phronesis in relation to his conception of the political way of life. (shrink)

This essay attempts to integrate Robert Bernasconi’s interpretation of the lived experience of the colonized in Frantz Fanon in accordance with Sartre’s “regressive-progressive” method with a psychoanalytical investigation of affectivity. Fanon notes that the affectivity of the colonized is overexcited; however, he also points to various kinds of displacements. The psychoanalytical theory posits that under conditions of oppression, defensive mechanisms encounter the lived experience of feeling. In traumatic situations, affect does not spontaneously translate into feelings. Fanon argues that the tendency (...) to adapt to the harsh reality of colonialism is not without immense tension. His challenge in The Wretched of the Earth is an intervention in the psyche of the colonized. In The Wretched of the Earth, he creates an imaginary and symbolic space about revolution and the process of decolonization, aiming to transform the colonized’s awareness of oppression through bodily affects into a space capable of accommodating feelings. (shrink)

In this paper, I present a nominalist ethics of intersubjectivity based on the principle of a discourse transcendent reality of the Other within an intersubjective relationship. Through a discussion of the authors Foucault, Sartre, and Hegel, and the film Drive My Car, the article presents a phenomenology of the appearance of one’s own body and of the body of the Other, according, either, to evaluative criteria or to existential criteria not accessible to discursive handling. The argument is nominalist in its (...) denial of a discursive purchase on the Other. It is realist in its exploration of the discourse transcendent reality of the Other. The argument moves between different orders of scale. (shrink)

Psychoanalysis cannot be excluded from questions of psyche, health, and society in medical care and medical ethics. But can psychoanalysis be conceived as a therapeutic possibility beyond Europe? The ethics of thinking psychoanalysis beyond Europe must first confront the abnegated cartography of Europe and its beyond and do so without confining itself to the colonial moment. It must also confront the politics of the circuits that psychoanalysis has already inhabited. Such an ethic must confront caste as the continent—to indulge in (...) the old witz—neither dark nor unconscious and yet hidden in plain sight both in Indian and European psychoanalysis. Unlike the unnameable Latin America that Derrida felt compelled in 1981 to name within psychoanalysis in the name of ethics, we will have to confront the politics of other hidden names—India, Orient, “Aryan”—that swarm around this unnamed “caste” in the history, and possibly the future, of psychoanalysis. (shrink)

This article attempts to trace the continuity of Tomonobu Imamichi’s understanding of nature and its relationship with human beings in Peter Kemp’s insights on nature in the context of a cosmopolitan Philosophy of Education. The first part deals with Tomonobu Imamichi’s synthesis of the past and present relationship of the human being with nature. The second part describes Peter Kemp’s inclusion of animal nature in a cosmopolitan understanding of Nature. The article concludes with lessons learned from both philosophers in the (...) COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

In writing the essay on “factions” in The Federalist Papers, James Madison was able to point to one of the major purposes of the new United States Constitution, namely, to deal with the emergence of conflicting interests in the new commercial society. This represents the transformation from classical constitutionalism with its focus on virtue to modern constitutionalism with its preoccupation with the mediation of interests. As such, this transformation points to the reconstruction of the domain of the political.

This article discusses the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre on Frantz Fanon’s political thinking. Sartre presents a dialectical social theory, based on the progressive-regressive method, considering the interplay between individual and collective, history and contemporary action, past and future. This philosophy has had a critical impact on Fanon’s political theory of neocolonialism, race, and intersectionality. Fanon studied colonialism based on Sartre’s philosophy and analyzed the problems of racism and oppression. He developed the concept of the colonial gaze as internalization of the (...) gaze of the colonial order as self-oppressive othering of the self. The point of departure for the article is a short presentation of Fanon’s biography. From this the article discusses the famous meeting between Fanon and Sartre in Rome in 1961. Finally, the article places this encounter within the development of a critical philosophy of race, as proposed in the work of Robert Bernasconi. (shrink)

This article presents a theory of the scientist and researcher as a public intellectual who contributes with political, social, and ethical justified opinions and views on the future of society. In recent discussions the figure of the activist researcher has emerged as subject to criticism by defenders of science as being objective and neutral about politics and value-claims. However, the restriction of science as separated from politics has also been a limitation of academic freedom. In this context, I propose a (...) political theory of academic freedom that argues that it is a part of the intellectual duty and responsibility of modern researchers, scientists, and academics to formulate the ethical and political implications of their research. Such a theory is necessary due to the social and political challenges of contemporary society. The activist voice of the researcher can therefore be justified as an integrated part of academic freedom in contemporary society. (shrink)