I would like to thank Christoph Lumer for his illuminating comments on my paper “The question of truth” published in this journal (Botting 2010) and would like to exercise my right of reply on a few of the issues that he raises.

The present article is a continuation of an earlier paper, entitled “Dialectical Materialism: A Friendly Interpretation”, which appeared in this journal. In the “Friendly Interpretation”, the emphasis was on formal and systematic exposition. Here, familiarity with the basic tenets of dialectical materialism is presumed, and some peripheral topics, which were deleted from the “Friendly Interpretation” lest they interrupt its continuity, are treated in five essay-type sections. First, an interpretation of dialectical materialism proposed by Rosenfeld, according to which the usual acausal (...) interpretation of quantum mechanics is consistent with, and even an instructive illustration of dialectical materialism, is criticized. In the second section, the connection between positivism and Orwell's “doublethink” is pointed out. This is done in order to exhibit certain difficulties to which consistent positivism leads, but which are avoided by both materialism and objective idealism; in particular, the language of positivism, lacking the concept of “existence”, is inadequate to distinguish by any absolute criterion between reality and a dream world. In the last three sections, two acausal philosophies are compared and contrasted to dialectical materialism. First, in the third section, Landé‘s argument, showing the incompatibility of the principles of complete causality and of continuity of cause and effect, is summarized. It is shown that Landé‘s choice, in favor of continuity of cause and effect, is not the only consistent one, and that if one accepts the outlook of dialectical materialism, the opposite choice can and should be made. In the fourth section, Margenau's interpretation of quantum mechanics is criticized, both in terms of the criteria proposed by Margenau, and from the point of view of the doctrine of rationalism, which, in the “Friendly Interpretation”, was included as part of dialectical materialism. The interpretation of Bohm, de Broglie, and Takabayasi is preferred to that of Margenau, which is akin to the usual Bohr-Heisenberg interpretation of quantum mechanics. Margenau's sharp distinction between concepts applicable to the microcosm, and those useful in macroscopic considerations, is criticized. In the fifth section, Margenau's use of the term “historical reality” in connection with the microcosm is criticized. It is argued that the reality of historical concepts is not intrinsically different from the reality of physical concepts. This leads to a further discussion of “free will”. (shrink)

A non-productivist Marxism departing from the analysis of capitalism’s “dialectic of scarcity” can make a valuable contribution to the field of environmental ethics. On the one hand, the analysis of capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity shows that the ethical yardstick by which capitalism should be measured is immanent in this social system’s dynamic tendencies. On the other hand, this analysis exposes capitalism’s inability to fulfill the potential for an ecologically sustainable society without unnecessary human suffering that capitalism’s technological dynamism generates. This (...) argument can be illustrated by a critical analysis of Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist. An exploration of capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity can bring to light those weaknesses and internal contradictions of antiecological discourses that are likely to escape the attention of non-Marxist ecologists. This analysis shows that to the extent capitalism’s dialectic of scarcity encourages the fragmentation of social justice and environmental movements, a critical analysis of this dialectic can contribute to the formation of the alliance of emancipatory movements that the attainment of a just and ecologically sustainable society presupposes. (shrink)

DIALETICS AT A STANDSTILL: BENJAMIN'S "DENKBILDER":0Benjamin's Thougt-Images in Einbahnstraße - Gustan Asselbergs; 0Sichtlich sich verbergend: Die Autor-Figur des Passagen-Werks - Wolfram Malte Fues; 0LIMINAL FIGURES: CHILD AND FLANEUR:0The Child at the Threshold: Walter Benjamin's Berliner Kindheit um 1900 - Corina Stan; 0The Flâneur and the Socio-Economic Critique - Nassima Sahraoui; 0UNSIGHTLY FIGURES: 0Walter Benjamin's Figures of De-Figuration: The Barbarian, the Destructive Character, and the Monster - Sami R. Khatib; 0ANGELS AND HISTORIANS: 0Closing Time: Benjamin, Temporality, and the Problem of Political (...) Organization - Bennett Carpenter; 0Of Fish and Men: Benjamin's Allegorist and the Meaning of Life - Madeleine Kasten; 0Walter Benjamin on Charlie Chaplin: The Rehabilitation of the Allegorical in Modernity - Daniel Mourenza; 0THE NARRATOR AND THE POLITICS OF SENSES: 0"Drawing o an Unlikely Source": The "Erzähler", the Islamic Revival, and Benjamin's Philosophy of Language - Ton Groeneweg; 0TRANSLATION BETWEEN FOREIGNNESS AND KINSHIP: 0Bleakness in the Age of Google: Walter Benjamin and the Possibility of Redemptive Translation - Orr Scharf; 0Walter Benjamin's Translator/Critic as a Model for Transcultural Thought and Practice - Gisela Brinker-Gabler.; 0THE TASK OF CRITIC: 0Lektüre als Opfer: Der Kritiker in "Wider ein Meisterwerk" und dem Trauerspielbuch - Anna Wotkowicz; 0THE RIGHTEOUS AS MEDIATOR OF LINGUISTIC EXPERIENCE: 0"Im Anfang war das Wort": Von Adam, zwei Bäumen und dem Gerechten - Gerard Visser. (shrink)

Totalidade dialética: contribuições para derruir os limites entre a filosofia e a interdisciplinaridade Resumo: O presente artigo busca trazer para o debate alguns elementos que denotam uma tendência na filosofia de ser uma atividade intelectual voltada para a construção de um olhar de unidade objetivando a totalidade. A categoria totalidade primeiro aparece como objetivo do processo gnosiológico para em seguida aparecer como categoria lógica e epistemológica, sendo significante e explicativa. Esta tendência da filosofia ainda colocaria em suspeição a ideia de (...) interdisciplinaridade como pensamento inovador fundado na década de sessenta na França. Este trabalho ainda busca contribuir com o debate interdisciplinar ao colocar a pertinência da visão unitária, sistêmica e dialética, que nos conduza para uma superação do que podemos chamar de “alienação esclarecida”. Palavras-chave: filosofia; animismo; interdisciplinaridade; totalidade; dialética. Dialetic totality: contributions to drop the limits between philosophy and interdisciplinarity Abstract: This article seeks to bring to the debate some elements that denote a tendency in philosophy to be an intellectual activity aimed at building a look of unity aiming at totality. The totality category first appears in history as the objective of the gnosiological process and then appears as a logical and epistemological category, being significant and explanatory. This trend in philosophy would still put the idea of interdisciplinarity as an innovative thought founded in the sixties in France under suspicion. This work still seeks to contribute to the interdisciplinary debate by placing the pertinence of the unitary, systemic and dialectical view, which leads us to overcome what we can call "enlightened alienation". Key-words: Philosophy; Animism; Interdisciplinarity; Totality; Dialectic. Totalidad dialética: contribuciones para abandonar los límites entre filosofía e interdisciplinaridad Resumen: Este artículo busca traer al debate algunos elementos que denotan una tendencia en la filosofía a ser una actividad intelectual orientada a construir una mirada de unidad con miras a la totalidad. La categoría de totalidad aparece primero como el objetivo del proceso gnosiológico y luego aparece como una categoría lógica y epistemológica, siendo significativa y explicativa. Esta corriente filosófica aún pondría bajo sospecha la idea de la interdisciplinariedad como pensamiento innovador fundado en los años sesenta en Francia. Este trabajo también busca contribuir al debate interdisciplinario colocando la pertinencia de la mirada unitaria, sistémica y dialéctica, lo que nos lleva a superar lo que podemos llamar "alienación ilustrada". Palabras clave: filosofía; animismo; interdisciplinariedad; totalidad; dialéctico. Data de registro: 21/03/2021 Data de aceite: 19/01/2022. (shrink)

Peirce proposed the concept of abductive inference to inquire into the generation of new hypotheses and defined it as another term for pragmatism, no less (Admitting, then, that the question of Pragmatism is the question of Abduction, let us consider it under that form. What is good abduction? What should an explanatory hypothesis be to be worthy to rank as a hypothesis? Of course, it must explain the facts. But what other conditions ought it to fulfill to be good? The (...) question of the goodness of anything is whether that thing fulfills its end. What, then, is the end of an explanatory hypothesis? Its end is, through subjection to the test of experiment, to lead to the avoidance of all surprise and to the establishment of a habit of positive expectation that shall not be disappointed (Peirce. 1931–1966. The collected papers of Charles S. Peirce, 8 vols., C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss & A. W. Burks (eds.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 5.197)). Apart from being linked to the vague idea of the play of musement as an almost dreamlike process of epiphany or inspiration or as an inverted minor premise from a syllogism, we are far from understanding the dynamics and specificity of this kind of inference. Among authors dealing with this problem I could trace three factors at work in processes of abduction, i.e. combination, resemblance, and dialetics or questioning. In this paper I attempt to look a bit further into this enigma by a category of play I defined as “peripatos” or games of invention, riddles, and puzzles, hoping it could shed some light on the process of creativity in several social activities such as science, art, war, and religion. The approach will take on Huizinga’s idea of the play of culture, Lakoff and Johnson’s conception of cross-domain correlations, Kant’s view of “aesthetic ideas,” and my proposal of the play of peripatos through a “what if-as if” coupling into this very common yet little understood, and thus mystified, process of the generation of innovative ideas. (shrink)

É bem conhecida a oposição estabelecida por Kant entre experiência possível e dialética, na medida em que esta última é caracterizada como a “lógica da ilusão”. Ao mesmo tempo, o modo de pensar metafísico, que ocorre dialeticamente, em sentido kantiano, é uma tendência inevitável da razão, expressa na exigência formal de completude das categorias. Como o pensar, enquanto exercício livre da razão, é em si mesmo mais amplo do que a atividade de conhecer, própria do entendimento, o pensar contém o (...) conhecimento, embora este se qualifique pelas regras e pelos limites determinantes da objetividade. A pergunta que tentaremos formular é se essa relação continente-conteúdo não poderia configurar também uma dependência da experiência em relação ao raciocínio dialético, que estaria de algum modo indicada na função reguladora das idéias da razão. Nesse caso, a oposição formal entre conhecer e pensar seria inseparável da inclusão estrutural (dependência) da experiência no âmbito da razão. Na raiz do problema estaria talvez a tensão (dialética) entre a aspiração subjetiva de totalidade e as exigências objetivas de limitação e segmentação da experiência e a forma da experiência teria de ser finalmente concebida a partir de um fundo de inteligibilidade problemática. Dialectics and experienceThe separation of possible experience as objective knowledge and dialetics as a non-objective or non-theoretical knowledge is one of the most important aspects of kantian critical philosophy. But Kant also says that the activity of reason, as a pure thinking, has more amplitude than understanding knowledge. So we could say that theoric knowledge would depend on rational ( and non-theoretical) knowledge, as something contained in it. If we accept that, the consequence would be a relation of dependence between the form of objective knowledge and the background of a problematic – even doubtful – inteligible knowledge. (shrink)

Materialismo dialético, luta de classes e insights filosóficos sobre a educação a partir de Slavoj Žižek Resumo: O artigo aborda a concepção de luta de classes no atual cenário histórico, político e social. O dogma das democracias ocidentais sugere que vivemos numa era pós-ideológica. Isso implica que não há mais espaço para a ideia de luta de classes. Contudo, segundo Žižek, é esse discurso que deve ser enquadrado no campo ideológico. Žižek retoma o conceito de materialismo dialético a fim de (...) demonstrar a contradição interna ao campo ideológico de nossa sociedade dita pós-ideológica. Nesse momento, o conceito de luta de classes retorna à cena. A luta de classes não consiste num antagonismo entre dois polos num espaço comum, mas na fissura inerente ao próprio espaço. Para desenvolver o tema, cabe, antes, abordar o conceito de materialismo teológico de Walter Benjamin, que fundamenta, substancialmente, o conceito de materialismo dialético de Žižek. Importante, igualmente, retomar uma reflexão sobre o conceito de pulsão de morte em Freud, já que tal conceito exprime exatamente a fissura interna à realidade que condiciona a luta de classes. Convém, ademais, compreender como a ideia de educação pode ser pensada a partir da contradição que mobiliza a luta de classes.Palavras-chaves: Materialismo dialético. Luta de classes. Ideologia. Educação. Dialetic materialism, class struggle and philosophical insights on education from Slavoj Žižek: The article discusses the concept of class struggle in the current historical, political and social scenario. The dogma of Western democracies suggests that we live in a post-ideological era. This implies that there is no longer any room for the idea of ​​class struggle. However, according to Žižek, it is this discourse that must be framed in the ideological domain. Žižek takes up the concept of dialectical materialism in order to demonstrate the internal contradiction to the ideological field of our so-called post-ideological society. At this point, the concept of class struggle returns to the scene. The class struggle does not consist of an antagonism between two poles in a common space, but in the fissure inherent in the space itself. To develop the theme, it is first necessary to approach Walter Benjamin's concept of theological materialism, which substantially supports Žižek's concept of dialectical materialism. It is also important to resume a reflection on the concept of the death instinct in Freud, because this concept expresses exactly the internal fissure in reality which conditions the class struggle. In addition, it is important to understand how the idea of ​​education can be thought of from the contradiction that mobilizes the class struggle.Keywords: Dialectical materialism. Class struggle. Ideology. Education. Matérialisme dialetique, lutte de classe et insights philosophiques sur l'éducation de Slavoj Zižek Résumé: L'article aborde le concept de lutte des classes dans le scénario historique, politique et social actuel. Le dogme des démocraties Occidentales sugère que nous vivons à une époque post-idéologique. Cela implique qu'il n'y a plus de place pour l'idée de lutte de classe. Cependant, selon Žižek, c'est ce discours qui doit être cadré dans le domaine idéologique. Žižek reprend le concept de matérialisme dialectique afin de démontrer la contradiction interne au champ idéologique de notre soi-disant société post-idéologique. À ce moment, le concept de lutte des classes revient sur la scène. La lutte des classes ne consiste pas en un antagonisme entre deux pôles dans un espace commun, mais dans la fissure inhérente à l'espace lui-même. Pour développer le thème, il est d'abord nécessaire d'approcher le concept de matérialisme théologique de Walter Benjamin, qui étaye substantiellement le concept de matérialisme dialectique de Žižek. Il est également important de reprendre une réflexion sur le concept d'instinct de mort chez Freud, car ce concept exprime exactement la fissure interne à la réalité qui conditionne la lutte des classes. En outre, il est important de comprendre comment l'idée de l'éducation peut être pensée à partir de la contradiction qui mobilise la lutte des classes.Mots-clés: Matérialisme dialectique. Lutte des classes. Idéologie. Éducation. Data de registro: 09/02/2020Data de aceite: 28/08/2020. (shrink)

Philosophers of science have given up on the quest for a silver bullet to put an end to all pseudoscience, as such a neat formal criterion to separate good science from its contenders has proven elusive. In the literature on critical thinking and in some philosophical quarters, however, this search for silver bullets lives on in the taxonomies of fallacies. The attractive idea is to have a handy list of abstract definitions or argumentation schemes, on the basis of which one (...) can identify bad or invalid types of reasoning, abstracting away from the specific content and dialectical context. Such shortcuts for debunking arguments are tempting, but alas, the promise is hardly if ever fulfilled. Different strands of research on the pragmatics of argumentation, probabilistic reasoning and ecological rationality have shown that almost every known type of fallacy is a close neighbor to sound inferences or acceptable moves in a debate. Nonetheless, the kernel idea of a fallacy as an erroneous type of argument is still retained by most authors. We outline a destructive dilemma we refer to as the Fallacy Fork: on the one hand, if fallacies are construed as demonstrably invalid form of reasoning, then they have very limited applicability in real life. On the other hand, if our definitions of fallacies are sophisticated enough to capture real-life complexities, they can no longer be held up as an effective tool for discriminating good and bad forms of reasoning. As we bring our schematic “fallacies” in touch with reality, we seem to lose grip on normative questions. Even approaches that do not rely on argumentation schemes to identify fallacies fail to escape the Fallacy Fork, and run up against their own version of it. (shrink)

En este artículo se muestran las fuertes analogías entre Hegel y Rosmini sobre la relación alma-cuerpo, haciendo referencia a sus textos. Entre el 1807 y el 1830, Hegel va más allá de una lógica dualista y explica la identidad del sujeto, a pesar de todas sus modificaciones. Él valoriza la corporeidad, reconociendo el instinto como finalidad, aunque dentro de un horizonte finito. Además, según el filósofo alemán, el alma y el cuerpo no pueden estar sin un yo y se superan (...) simultáneamente en el espíritu, donde el sujeto toma conciencia de sí mismo como libertad autónoma. En su madurez, Rosmini se ocupa de estos mismos temas y, aunque critica a Hegel, plantea una dialéctica análoga entre cuerpo, alma y espíritu humano. Sin embargo, se aclara que el enfoque ontológico rosminiano es antitético al hegeliano. De hecho, en Hegel el individuo se resuelve en ser un momento del Espíritu; en Rosmini la presencia del ser inicial permite captar la dignidad del sujeto como ser finito y completo, de manera que el hombre, reconociendo el ser inicial, vuelve a sí mismo. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Kybernetik - eine neue Universalphilosophie der Gesellschaft?" verfügbar.