The interview conducted in 2017 with Professor Lauro Frederico Barbosa da Silveira is published. This republication is a posthumous tribute to this philosopher who was one of the founders of the Trans/ Form/Ação Journal 50 years ago. A profound expert on various topics in Philosophy and other areas, Lauro was a pioneer in Semiotics studies in Brazil, having contributed to the consolidation and dissemination of the field. The interview addresses several subjects, such as the origin, academic and professional background (...) of the interviewee, the role of semiotics, the philosopher and philosophy in the world, the inseparability between theory and practice, the Brazilian political scenario, the role of information and the media in the formation of habits, autonomous action, and the function of emotions in the production of theories. (shrink)

This dissertation is a study of the images of the soul in the Gorgias. I analyze the relationship between power and omnipotence in the conceptions of the soul defended and/or exemplified by the characters of the dialogue. ;In chapter 1 I focus on the dramatic setting of the Gorgias, which lacks clear temporal and spatial indications. I show that the three conversations are dramatically linked to the last myth of judgment. My hypothesis is that Gorgias and his followers are seen (...) by Socrates as the representatives of the age of Kronos. As opposed to the age of Zeus, which allows for correct judgment of the soul, the age of Kronos is characterized by deception and manipulation. ;Chapter 2 analyzes in detail the myth of last judgment, which presents the problem of correct and incorrect knowledge of the soul. I focus on the relationship between surface and depth involved in judging the soul of another. I show that the passage from the age of Kronos to the age of Zeus represents the passage from a primitive condition of the soul to a condition which allows for thinking and power. The concept of separation is central in my analysis. ;While Chapter 3 shows how Gorgias' claim for rhetoric's omnipotence is first brought to light and then refuted by Socrates, Chapter 4 examines Gorgias' legacy in Callicles' theory of the law of nature. The interplay between Callicles' theory and the examples used to support it brings me to consider the master/slave relationship involved in Callicles' theory and his ambiguous stance towards omnipotence and rhetoric. ;The Appendix is mainly devoted to an analysis of Socrates' Palinode in the Phaedrus. I maintain that the Palinode reveals what is implicit in Socrates' and Callicles' discussion of pleasure in the Gorgias, namely that thinking is possible only when transcendence is acknowledged. ;I conclude that the Gorgias gives us not only a topology of the human soul, but also a rich and deep understanding of the genealogy of thinking. (shrink)

Strauss’s invitation to understand Greek authors as they understood themselves was attacked by influential scholars as anti-historical. In the first part of the paper, I argue that the charge is due to a misunderstanding of Strauss’s position on the respective role of interpretation and criticism in historicism. In the second part, I highlight Strauss’s view of the tension between scientific history as the manifestation of a certain age, and scientific history as the culmination of historical progress. In the third part, (...) I discuss Strauss’s thesis that the belief in progress prevented Collingwood from taking past thinkers seriously. Collingwood claimed that the Greeks failed to appreciate that age-long traditions shaped their thought. Strauss held the opposite: the beginning of Greek philosophy coincides with questioning the identity between the ancestral and the good, and philosophy in Plato’s Republic is shown to be a form of critical reflection on the reasons why certain traditions and myths can exercise political, religious, and psychological power. (shrink)

Bioethics and Human Rights Content Type Journal Article Pages 38-42 Authors Alessandra Prudente, Sicily, Italy Journal Human Reproduction & Genetic Ethics Online ISSN 2043-0469 Print ISSN 1028-7825 Journal Volume Volume 8 Journal Issue Volume 8, Number 2 / 2002.

Today’s New APPS interview is with Alessandra Tanesini, Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. This is Part I; Part II will run next week. Thanks very much for doing this interview with us, Alessandra. Let’s start with your personal practice of philosophy. What are the pleasures and pains of philosophy...

After more than three centuries, Molyneux's question continues to challenge our understanding of cognition and perceptual systems. Locke, the original recipient of the question, approached it as a theoretical exercise relevant to long-standing philosophical issues, such as nativism, the possibility of common sensibles, and the empiricism-rationalism debate. However, philosophers were quick to adopt the experimentalist's stance as soon as they became aware of recoveries from congenital blindness through ophtalmic surgery. Such recoveries were widely reported to support empiricist positions, suggesting that (...) the question had found its empirical answer. Contrary to this common view, we argue that studies of patients recovering from early blindness through surgery cannot provide an answer. In fact, because of the very nature of such ophtalmological interventions it is impossible to test the question in the empirical conditions outlined by Molyneux. Thus we propose that Molyneux's question be treated as an early thought experiment of a specific kind. Although thought experiments of this kind cannot be turned into actual experimental conditions, they provide a conceptual restructuring of theories. Such restructuring in turn leads to new predictions that can then be tested by normal experiments. In accord with this interpretation, we show that Molyneux's question can be analyzed into a hierarchy of specific questions about vision in its phenomenal and sensory-motor components. Some of these questions do lead to actual experimental conditions that could be studied empirically. (shrink)

Introduction / Alessandra Tanesini and Michael P. Lynch -- Reassessing different conceptions of argumentation / Catarina Dutilh Novaes -- Martial metaphors and argumentative virtues and vices / Ian James Kidd -- Arrogance and deep disagreement / Andrew Aberdein -- Closed-mindedness and arrogance / Heather Battaly -- Intellectual trust and the marketplace of ideas / Allan Hazlett -- Is searching the Internet making us intellectually arrogant? / J. Adam Carter and Emma C. Gordon -- Intellectual humility and the curse of (...) knowledge / Michael Hannon -- Bullshit and dogmatism : a discourse analytical perspective / Chris Heffer -- Polarization and the problem of spreading arrogance / Michael P. Lynch -- Arrogance, polarization and arguing to win / Alessandra Tanesini -- Partisanship, humility, and epistemic polarization / Thomas Nadelhoffer, Rose Graves, Gus Skorburg, Mark Leary, and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong -- Science denial, polarization, and arrogance / Lee McIntyre -- The polarization toolkit / Quassim Cassam -- Epistemic rights in a polarized world : the right to know and the abortion / Debate Lani Watson. (shrink)

This paper distinguishes between two arguments based on measurement robustness and defends the epistemic value of robustness for the assessment of measurement reliability. I argue that the appeal to measurement robustness in the assessment of measurement is based on a different inferential pattern and is not exposed to the same objections as the no-coincidence argument which is commonly associated with the use of robustness to corroborate individual results. This investigation sheds light on the precise meaning of reliability that emerges from (...) measurement assessment practice. In addition, by arguing that the measurement assessment robustness argument has similar characteristics across the physical, social and behavioural sciences, I defend the idea that there is continuity in the notion of measurement reliability across sciences. (shrink)

Este artigo analisa a crítica de Adorno à ontologia de Heidegger. Para tal, utiliza como leitmotiv a interpretação heideggeriana de Kant. Procuraremos mostrar que para Adorno a edificação da ontologia fundamental a partir da filosofia de Kant é uma interpretação indevida desta. Por fim, procura apontar uma possível saída na filosofia de Adorno para o problema da necessidade de fundamentação do discurso filosófico. Tal saída passa pela constatação da importância da arte para a construção da universalidade na filosofia.

Inicialmente, proponho a discussão sobre as justificativas que são fornecidas para o ensino de humanidades. Analiso, em seguida, algumas dessas justificativas a partir de suas raízes filosóficas que julgo remontarem a Aristóteles e a Hegel. Identifico na estratégia enciclopédica desse último, o tipo de argumento mais usual para legitimar o ensino de humanidades ainda hoje. Indico, na seqüência, os motivos pelos quais nenhuma dessas justificativas possui, nos nossos dias, poder de convencimento. Finalmente, utilizando o diagnóstico de Lyotard sobre o mundo (...) contemporâneo, indico uma maneira alternativa de tornar o ensino de humanidades necessário sem fazer referência ao humanismo. (shrink)

The crisis, characteristic of our present postcolonial era, in the historically-codified forms of talking about alterity has permitted the emergence of what can be called « stories of the other » — stories about those who have been implicitly excluded from the position of the subject. This crisis is particularly evident in a discipline such as anthropology, which is founded precisely upon narratives of the Other. Beginning with the problems posed by the possibility of a visual narration of alterity, this (...) article proposes to analyse the connections among narrative, representation and identity in the works of Tracey Moffat, Isaac Julien and Fiona Tan. In their videos and installations, the question of the gaze fixed on the other is articulated around the themes of memory and the crisis of ethnography as a means of representation of or narrative about cultural alterity. These artists stage an « other » gaze capable of bringing out repressed and subaltern histories. They affirm an identity that is marginal and hybrid at the same time, beyond the myths of origin and purity that delineate colonial and colonialist thought. (shrink)

Ci sono domande che rimangono tali per secoli e anche se non trovano risposta riescono a mantenere vivo il nostro interesse, diventando col tempo dei veri e propri rompicapi. Una di queste è quella formulata da William Molyneux nel 1688, conosciuta come il Quesito di Molyneux. In questo caso l’interesse non riguarda solo la domanda in sé ma anche la sua infinita storia. 1. La storia del Quesito di Molyneux Il Quesito di cui parleremo in queste pagine fa la sua (...) comparsa, per la prima volta, in... (shrink)

The use of ultrasonic scans in pregnancy makes it possible to observe the fetus undisturbed in the womb. Dr Alessandra Piontelli has done what no one has done before: she observed eleven fetuses in the womb using ultrasound scans, and then observed their development at home from birth up to the age of four years. She includes a description of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of one of the research children, and the psychoanalysis of five other very young children whose behaviour (...) in analysis suggested that they were deeply preoccupied with their experience in the womb. Dr Piontelli has discovered what many parents have always thought - that each fetus, like each newborn baby, is a highly individual creature. By drawing on her experience as a child psychotherapist and psychoanalyst as well as on her observational research, she is able to investigate issues relating to individuality, psychological birth and the influence of maternal emotions during pregnancy. Her findings demonstrate clearly how psychoanalytical evidence enhances, deepens and supports observational data on the remarkable behavioural and psychological continuities between pre-natal and post-natal life. (shrink)

The Mismeasure of the Self is dedicated to vices that blight many lives. They are the vices of superiority, characteristic of those who feel entitled, superior and who have an inflated opinion of themselves, and those of inferiority, typical of those who are riddled with self-doubt and feel inferior. Arrogance, narcissism, haughtiness, and vanity are among the first group. Self-abasement, fatalism, servility, and timidity exemplify the second. This book shows these traits to be to vices of self-evaluation and describes their (...) pervasive harmful effects in some detail. Even though the influence of these traits extends to any aspect of life, the focus of this book is their damaging impact on the life of the intellect. Tanesini develops and defends a view of these vices that puts vicious motivations at their core. The analyses developed in this work build on empirical research in attitude psychology and on philosophical theories in virtue ethics and epistemology. The book concludes with a positive proposal for weakening vice and promoting virtue. (shrink)

In this new book, Alessandra Tanesini demonstrates that feminist thought has a lot to offer to the study of Wittgenstein's philosophical work, and that -at the same time-that work can inspire feminist reflection in new directions. In Wittgenstein, Tanesini offers a highly original interpretation of several themes in Wittgenstein's philosophy. She argues that when we look at his work through feminist eyes we discover that he is not primarily concerned with providing solutions to technical problems in the philosophy of (...) mind, mathematics, and language. Instead, his remarks on these topics are intended to offer insights about human finitude, the loneliness of the modern autonomous self, and our relations to other human beings. Thus, the modern conception of the individual emerges as the critical target of Wittgenstein's philosophical work, both early and late. This conception has also been one of the dominant concerns of contemporary feminist philosophy. In this book, Wittgenstein's insights are deployed to further feminist debates on issues such as identity, difference, the masculine character of the modern self. (shrink)

This article argues that intellectual character vices involve non-instrumental motives to oppose, antagonise, or avoid things that are epistemically good in themselves. This view has been the recent target of criticism based on alleged counterexamples presenting epistemically vicious individuals who are virtuously motivated or at least lack suitable epistemically bad motivations. The paper first presents these examples and shows that they do not undermine the motivational approach. Finally, having distinguished motivating from explanatory reasons for belief and action, it argues that (...) our epistemic practice of vice attribution supplies evidence in favour of motivational accounts of vice. (shrink)

Intellectual servility is a vice opposing proper pride about one's intellectual achievements. Intellectual timidity is also a vice; it is manifested in a lack of proper concern for others’ esteem. This paper offers an account of the nature of these vices and details some of the epistemic harms that flow from them. I argue that servility, which is often the result of suffering humiliation, is a form of damaged self-esteem. It is underpinned by attitudes serving social-adjustive functions and causes ingratiating (...) behaviors. Timidity, which is habituated through self-silencing, is underpinned by negative attitudes toward the intellectual worth of the self, which serve a defensive function. Like servility, timidity is an obstacle to the acquisition and transmission of knowledge and especially knowledge about oneself. (shrink)

In this paper I provide an account of two forms of intellectual arrogance which cause the epistemic practices of conversational turn-taking and assertion to malfunction. I detail some of the ethical and epistemic harms generated by intellectual arrogance, and explain its role in fostering the intellectual vices of timidity and servility in other agents. Finally, I show that arrogance produces ignorance by silencing others (both preventing them from speaking and causing their assertions to misfire) and by fostering self-delusion in the (...) arrogant themselves. (shrink)

A diagnose médica, considerada de um ponto de vista semiótico, consiste num complexo processo dialógico entre médico e paciente. Ambos desempenham papéis essenciais no estabelecimento de hipóteses diagnósticas sugestivas. E isso por meio de um diagrama em que as categorias fenomenológicas, propostas por Peirce, funcionam como vetores caracterizando as diversas atividades e experiências que compõem o processo. O processo em sua inteireza é bastante longo, embora possa ser abreviado em razão ou da urgência de se determinar a conduta terapêutica ou (...) da precipitação de ao menos um dos participantes. A seqüência das atividades também pode mudar de direção dependendo do curso do diálogo, como acontece em todo processo dinâmico e não determinístico. (shrink)

Que há de novo no pensamento de João como comentador de Santo Tomás de Aquino? Reconhecidamente, sua teoria do signum. Em João de Santo Tomás, a teologia da salvação, calcada em sua teoria filosófica do sinal, mostra um aprofundamento considerável de tal modo que toda a redenção humana pode ser relida pela ótica do sinal. Assim, a encarnação do Verbo, sua atividade taumatúrgica, os sacramentos, e, finalmente, a vida futura são tratados a partir do Verbo-Sinal, ao mesmo tempo como causa (...) eficiente principal e instrumental de toda a salvação humana. (shrink)

This study, drawing upon contemporary theories in the field of migration, postcolonialism, and translation, offers an analysis of literary works by Monica Ali and Jhumpa Lahiri. Ali and Lahiri epitomize second-generation immigrant literature, play with the linguistic concept of translating and interpreting as forms of hybrid connections, and are significant examples of how a text may become a space where multi-faceted identities co-habit in a process of deconstructing and reconstructing their own sense of emplacement in non-native places. Each immigrant text (...) becomes a hybrid site, where second- and third generations of immigrant subjects move as mobile, fluctuating and impermanent identities, caught up in the act of transmitting their bicultural and bilingual experience through the use of the English language as their instrument of communication in a universe which tends to marginalize them. This investigation seeks to demonstrate how Ali and Lahiri represent two different migrant experiences, Muslim and Indian, each of which functioning within a multicultural Anglo-American context. Each text is transformed into the lieu where identities become both identities-intranslation and translated identities and each text itself may be looked at as the site of preservation of native identities but also of the assimilation of identity. Second-generation immigrant women writers become the interpreters of the old and new cultures, the translators of their own local cultures in a space of transition. (shrink)