Analytical study of ethics in Hindu philosophy.

This contribution traces the interpretations of Jn 8: 32 in the first centuries up to Origen, who represents in this case, as in general for ancient patristic literature, a fundamental watershed. Each passage is illuminated by setting it in the context of exegesis and controversy. Passages which at first glance may seem unconnected are grouped together in this perspective to reveal interesting points of contact.

Neo-Nyaya treatise on the relationship between an object and the knowledge of it (viṣayatāvāda).

On Vedanta philosophy with reference to Upanishads, Brahmasūtra of Bādarāyaṇa, and Bhagavadgītā.

What kind of reality is legal reality, how is it created, and what are its a priori foundations? These are the central questions asked by the early phenomenologists who took interest in social ontology and law. While Reinach represents the well-known “realist” approach to phenomenology of law, Felix Kaufmann and Fritz Schreier belonged to the “positivist” “Vienna School of Jurisprudence,” combining Hans Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law with Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology—and thereby challenging Reinach’s views on how legal reality and the (...) legal a priori were to be conceived. This paper addresses the controversy between these positivist and realist approaches to phenomenology of law, with the goal of introducing the lesser known theories of Kaufmann and Schreier. The special focus on their critique of Reinach’s outline should give us an overview of their positions vis-à-vis the basic and a priori elements of which legal reality consists and the role that phenomenology plays in analyzing them. There is one general tendency to be noted: While the phenomenological legal positivists see the root of legal reality in an act of interpretation according to a “normative scheme of interpretation,” Reinach locates the roots of legal reality in social interaction and argues for the existence of entities independent of any interpretation. (shrink)

This essay is about the difficulties connected with grounding human rights philosophically in a multicultural context. These difficulties are argued to derive from the tension between our aspiration to universal validity and our shared belief in the constitutive role of life-forms, traditions, cultures, and vocabularies vis-à-vis our conceptions of justice. Rawls's and Habermas's approaches to the justification of human rights are then briefly reconstructed and assessed. A symmetrical distribution of strong and weak points is argued to obtain. In the light (...) of this reconstruction, the author explores the potential of his judgment view of justice for providing a justification of the universality of human rights not vulnerable to the difficulties of the other examined approaches. (shrink)

In questo lavoro vengono sviluppate alcune considerazioni sulla funzione dell’istruzione nel presente contesto storico–culturale, in particolare riguardo alla matematica. Tra i molti aspetti che rendono l’epoca attuale diversa dalle precedenti ve ne sono due che più di altri invocano la necessità di un cambiamento nelle impostazioni didattiche. Il primo è una crisi che, per durata ed estensione, appare non più come dinamica di aggiustamento all’interno di un modello ma come irreversibile degenerazione del modello stesso. Il secondo riguarda la quantità di (...) informazione a cui l’individuo ha accesso e la facilità e velocità di tale accesso. Cambiamenti così profondi provocano una domanda: i modi e i contenuti della didattica devono rimanere gli stessi o occorre ripensare l’istruzione progettando cambiamenti altrettanto irreversibili quanto lo sono quelli dell’economia e della società? Queste considerazioni ci portano a una riflessione sul rapporto tra educazione e società e, più in generale, tra cultura e società. I prodotti scientifici e culturali sono dei codici cristallizzati come idee platoniche o piuttosto acquistano valenza e significato a partire dal contesto in cui nascono? Questa domanda poi ne richiama altre ancora sul rapporto tra individuo, sistema scolastico e società. In che misura il ruolo della scuola di standardizzare la cultura è compatibile con quello di favorire la creatività e le possibilità espressive dell’individuo? E cosa significa oggi dare all’individuo gli strumenti per sviluppare al meglio le proprie possibilità? L’insegnante dovrebbe osservare, ipotizzare, sperimentare, esplorare opportunità senza pregiudizi culturali. Egli sa che molte idee che sulla carta sembrano vincenti potrebbero rivelarsi inefficaci, ma ciò non deve costituire un alibi. Se infatti si possono nutrire dei dubbi su alcune proposte di innovazione, su una cosa vi è certezza: la didattica tradizionale ha ormai poco senso ed è totalmente inadeguata rispetto alle sfide di questi e dei prossimi anni. (shrink)

Der Bezug zwischen ›Erscheinung‹, ›Schein‹, und ›Wa h rheit‹ spielt in Platons Politeia eine wichtige Rolle. An mehre-ren Stellen im II., VI. und X. Buch wird die ›Wahrheit‹ im Gegensatz zu einer›Unwahrheit‹ definiert, die in einem irre-führenden ›Erscheinen‹ von Gegen-ständen be-steht. Die aus dem Erscheinen hervor-gehende Sichtbarkeit der Gegenstände ist zugleich trügerisch und erkennt-nisstiftend: Einerseits trägt nämlich das Erscheinen dazu bei, die Wahrheit zu verbergen, andererseits kann nur durch dieses verbergende Erscheinen die Wahrheit hervortreten. Diese Ambiva-lenz wird im vorliegenden Aufsatz (...) in Bezug auf das irrtümliche Erscheinen des Gottes, die Mimesis und die Manifestation der alêtheia näher untersucht. (shrink)

Contributed papers on concept of False and Indivisibles (Philosophy) in Hindu philosophy presented at Seminar organized by Department of Advaita Vedanta, Rāṣṭrīyasaṃskr̥tavidyāpīṭham, Tirupati from December 31, 2005 to January 01, 2006).

In this paper I aim at discussing the aesthetic-normative conditions for the right understanding and the right evaluation of jazz. My main point is this: The aesthetics of jazz is an aesthetics of the successful performance, rather than an aesthetics of imperfection. The paper will be structured as follows. SectionI introduces the topic. SectionII presents the ›imperfection thesis‹, while III discusses some arguments against it. Sections IV and V investigate two related questions: the first is about the role of the (...) »mistake« in jazz; the second concerns the crucial topic of normativity. At this regard I will maintain that the ›imperfection thesis‹ does not work, especially because it misunderstands the specific normativity of jazz as improvisational art. Section VI is devoted to clarifying both in which sense the idea of a normativity of the successful performance is sound and why this idea is important for understanding jazz. Finally (VII) I defend this view against possible objections. (shrink)

Excerpt from Contributi Ad una Teoria Filosofica Dell' Ordine Giuridico Non vi è neppure una pagina di questo lavoro, che sia una semplice versione dal testo francese; non vi e' neppure un paragrafo, nella stesura del quale io abbia tenuto dinanzi agli occhi quel mio vecchio volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to (...) digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

In this essay, I analyze the role of physics in Baumgarten’s founding of aesthetics. After examining for the first time his courses on physics and their relationship with aesthetics, I explore the importance of physical metaphors in the issues of aesthetic experiments and aesthetic enthusiasm, with special regard to the influence of Bacon, Boyle, and Leibniz’s doctrine of vis viva.

This paper assesses the complex debt of Machiavelli’s moral and political thought to Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition, especially in its Scholastic variant. My claim is that Machiavelli’s attitude vis-à-vis Aristotle is twofold because it reflects two different aspects of Aristotle’s moral and political theory that are closely intertwined and that were selectively developed by subsequent Aristotelian Scholastic commentators: a teleological and a realist aspect. On one hand, Machiavelli provides a model that dramatically breaks with Aristotle on, for example, the (...) question of the origin of human society and the moral prudence of rulers. On the other hand, Machiavelli’s engagement with Aristotle amounts to something more complex than a simple rejection. The Florentine appears to read Aristotle rather selectively, and emphasizes the realist dimension of certain Aristotelian ideas that suit his own original overturning of classical moral and political ideas. I use two paradigmatic themes in which the Aristotelian teleological-realist divide is most evident, i.e. the account of the origin of human society and the case of prudence, in order to prove the dual relationship of Machiavelli’s thought with Aristotelianism. (shrink)

The paper comprehensively responds to critical comments by F. Michelman, D. Rasmussen, J. van der Walt, S. Winter, P. Niesen, and B. Schupmann on Sovereignty Across Generations. Constituent Power and Political Liberalism. The themes debated include: whether Rawls’s dualist view of democracy, including his idea of legitimation by constitution, intimates or calls for a concretistic view of a subject of constituent power as creator of the constitutional order (Michelman); the relation of the normative to the historical in political liberalism and (...) whether Plato’s allegory of the cave is helpful for elucidating the meaning of the ‘most reasonable for us’ (Rasmussen); Rawls’s stance vis-à-vis the unbridgeable divisiveness of pluralism, the virtuality of overlapping consensus, and the dissolution of constituent power into a panoply of constituent powers (Van der Walt); democratic sequential sovereignty contrasted with serial sovereignty, the sensibleness of distinguishing legal principles from the cognitive assumptions undergirding their application, the justification of sequential sovereignty, and the nexus of vertical reciprocity and freedom across generations (Winter); the implications of the gap between ‘the people’ and the population for constitutional legitimacy, and the distinct prospects for a Habermasian and a political liberal conception of constituent power to be applicable at a supranational level (Niesen); the cogency and effectiveness of ‘implicit unamendability’ for safeguarding constitutional essentials compared with entrenching them via eternity clauses, the extent to which measures of militant democracy are compatible with political liberalism (Schupmann). (shrink)

Exploring the intricacies of heterogeneity in tax avoidance practices within family firms, a growing trend acknowledges the significant role of chief executive officers (CEOs) in setting the ethical tone and shaping corporate tax strategies. However, these studies often overlook the influence of the CEO’s transgenerational orientation, which becomes crucial when assessing ethics in family businesses. Therefore, the paper aims to analyse to what extent the CEO’s transgenerational responsibility (the moral obligation that incumbent leaders have vis-à-vis next generation family members) affects (...) tax avoidance with a utilitarianism lens. Relying on a sample of 272 firm-year observations of Italian listed family companies along the period 2014–2018, the panel regression model finds a positive relationship. Moreover, the involvement in the business of the next generation of family members strengthens this relationship, suggesting that the immediate proximity with other relatives fosters the conversion of the CEO’s transgenerational responsibility into tax avoidance practices. Finally, when the family firm is in financial distress, CEOs with greater transgenerational responsibility tend to avoid more taxes. (shrink)

The paper investigates the characteristics of the global restructuring of the agricultural and food system that has occurred in recent years. Emphasis is placed on the emergence of the “Food and Natural Resource Question” and its relation to the “Agrarian Question.” It is argued that rather than being separate issues, these are two aspects of a unified process occurring at the global level. Moreover, it is argued that the transnational unity of the agrarian question and the food question mandates a (...) reconstruction of the arena within which production takes place. This phenomenon in turn generates a set of limits to domestic political institutions and locally generated social demands. The implications of the emergence of the international arena as locus of political action is discussed vis-a-vis the local level of socio-political action. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to build a bridge between the fields of social cognition and social ontology. Drawing on both classical and more recent phenomenological studies, the article develops an account ofgroup-directed empathy. The first part of the article spells out the phenomenological notion of empathy and suggests certain conceptual distinctions vis-à-vis two different kinds of group. The second part of the paper applies these conceptual considerations to cases in which empathy is directed at groups and elucidates the sense (...) in which individuals can empathically target not only other individual’s emotions, but also shared emotions as such. Clarifying the structure of group-directed empathy, it will also be argued that the latter is, by default, more informative than individual-directed empathy. The third and last section of the paper is devoted to one central consequence of the proposed account: if it is possible to empathize with groups as such, and if empathy necessary builds on body-perception, then both ideas seem to be conducive to the claim that groups as such have a body. (shrink)

Contributed papers on concept of Avidyā and Mokṣa in Hindu philosophy presented at Seminar organized by Department of Advaita Vedanta, Rāṣṭrīyasaṃskr̥tavidyāpīṭham, Tirupati from December 31, 2005 to January 01, 2006).

On Jaina philosophy; includes translation in Hindi.

The modern republican history of Turkey and its relation with the question of ethnic diversity could be understood via the tension between the processes of system integration and social integration. This article, based on Jürgen Habermas’ conceptual framework, draws the sources of such tension with reference to the Kurdish identity in Turkey since the early republican era. For this purpose, from the 1920s to the 2000s, policies and discourses of system integration aiming at a certain degree of ethnic homogenization to (...) eliminate ‘possible threats’ to territorial integrity and national unity are discussed in detail. While system integration processes reflect an exclusionary and assimilative-securitist logic of state practices regarding the Kurdish question, this article argues that the Kurdish challenge to republicanism and to its system integration logic promises more for the dynamics of social integration. Especially since the 1990s, while processes of system integration are still in force; national, regional and diasporic achievements of Kurdish politics and its call for a democratic transformation of the republic based on decentralist, participatory and multiculturalist values have become much more visible. This new focus on democratic transformation demands more for social integration through internalization of roles as well as through promotion of an active communication between citizens by raising the claims of active participation to social and political spheres as well as by making identity visible in different aspects of socio-cultural life. Degree of social integration and its success vis-à-vis system integration will be decisive in the democratic transformation of Turkey in the future. (shrink)

On the fundamentals of Jaina philosophy.

Articles on fundamentals of Hinduism, philosophy, and culture.

Articles on fundamentals of Hinduism, philosophy, and culture.

Exhaustive work on Vīraśaivism; includes commentary in Kannada.

Study on Vedanta philosophy in the Bhagavadgītā commentaries of Śaṅkarācārya, Aurobindo Ghosh and S. Radhakrishnan.

Den offentlige beslutningsprosessen i bioetiske spørsmål i Norge preges av stor bruk av etiske komiteer. I denne artikkelen reiser jeg spørsmålet om hvordan denne bruken kan begrunnes. Mens en god offentlig prosess krever at det finnes organer som tar seg av nemndenes drøftende og informasjonsgivende funksjon, er det mindre sikkert hvorvidt vi trenger deres rådgivende funksjon, som det til en viss grad er mulig å skille fra de to andre funksjonene. Nemndenes rådgivende funksjon kjennetegnes ved at deres råd gis en (...) spesiell vekt i høringsrunder, uavhengig av argumentene bak rådene, og slik må det også være hvis man skal ha rådgivende nemnder overhodet. Men det er uklart hva som rettferdiggjør at nemndenes råd gis spesiell vekt.Jeg ser på to måter å svare på dette spørsmålet på, enten med utgangspunkt i en moralsk epistemologi som sannsynliggjør at nemndene finner moralsk riktige svar, eller med utgangspunkt i en teori om politisk legitimitet som tilsier at nemndenes konklusjoner har politisk legitimitet. Jeg drøfter og forkaster to former for moralsk epistemologi; én som ser på nemnder som en samling etikkeksperter som kan resonnere seg frem til riktig svar, og én som ser på nemnder som en samling vismenn med spesiell moralsk innsikt. Mer plausibelt er en mellomløsning, som ser på nemndsmedlemmene som de kompetente dommere i en reflektiv likevektprosess. I en slik prosess spiller imidlertid skjønnsvurderinger en uunngåelig rolle, og jeg argumenterer for at beslutninger basert på subjektive skjønnsvurderinger ikke vil være politisk legitime. I den grad nemnder bidrar til politisk legitime beslutninger, er det mer fordi de bidrar til å oppdage løsninger som av uavhengige grunner har politisk legitimitet, enn at de selv gir slik legitimitet. (shrink)

This article focuses on the debate concerning the status of specific differentiae from Alexander of Aphrodisias to Iamblichus. First, I outline Alexander’s views on the substantial status of differentiae and his distinction between the differentia insofar as it is taken in isolation and the differentia insofar as it is taken together with the genus and is a constituent part of the substantial species. I also focus on a passage from Plotinus on the differentia (see Enn. VI 3[44], 5) which is (...) apparently directed against Alexander, and I suggest that Simplicius reports Iamblichus’ criticism of Plotinus’ anti-Aristotelian stance. Both Porphyry and Iamblichus are credited with the view that differentiae are intermediate between substance and quality. As I aim to show, this conclusion requires some qualification. Porphyry essentially follows Alexander’s account of the substantial status of differentiae. Iamblichus, instead, emphasizes that the differentia, while being a completive feature of substance, is not a constituent part of substance and, therefore, cannot be regarded as a substance. I further analyze the controversy over the status of the differentia between Porphyry and Iamblichus and try to set their disagreement against the wider background of their metaphysical views. (shrink)

Cultural education for the soldiers of People army of Vietnam.

Hovedregelen for å kunne gi helsehjelp i Norge er at pasienter samtykker. I henhold til pasientrettighetsloven er det helsepersonell som skal avgjøre om pasienter har samtykkekompetanse. Dersom pasienter ikke er samtykkekompetente, kan de behandles mot deres uttrykte ønske. Dette reiser det viktige og vanskelige spørsmålet: På hvilket grunnlag skal helsepersonell vurdere samtykkekompetansen? Det finnes ulike, psykologiske, tester. Disse brukes ikke i Norge, hvor vurderingene i stor grad er basert på skjønn. Denne artikkelen undersøker en del sentrale moralske føringer for hvordan (...) man bør vurdere samtykkekompetanse dersom målsettingen er å respektere personers selvbestemmelse. Samtykkekompetansen bør vurderes uavhengig av hvordan vi vurderer det personen bestemmer seg for, men ikke uavhengig av situasjonen vedkommende er i. Kravene til samtykkekompetanse bør ikke variere med kompleksitet, risiko og nytte av helsetiltak, mens kravene til vurderingens pålitelighet kan variere. (shrink)

In Aesthetics in Arabic Thought from Pre-Islamic Arabia through al-Andalus José Miguel Puerta Vílchez analyzes the discourses about beauty, the arts, and sense perception that arose within classical Arab culture from pre-Islamic poetry and the Quran (sixth-seventh centuries CE) to the Alhambra palace in Granada (fourteenth century CE). He focuses on the contributions of such great thinkers as Ibn Ḥazm, Avempace, Ibn Ṭufayl, Averroes, Ibn ʻArabī, and Ibn Khaldūn in al-Andalus, and the Brethren of Purity, al-Tawḥīdī, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Alhazen, and (...) al-Ghazālī in the East. The work also explores literary criticism, calligraphy, music, belles-lettres (adab), and erotic literature, and highlights the contribution of Arab humanism to shaping the field of Aesthetics in the West. (shrink)

In this paper I shall deal with the question of whether a State-granted minimal income (which is not the same as a basic income) is a necessary condition in order for individuals (1) to attain a basic level of autonomy; and (2) to develop capabilities that allow them to improve the quality of their life. As a theoretical basis for my analysis I shall use Honneth’s theory of recognition, Sen’s capability approach (also in the version offered by Nussbaum), and Simmel’s (...) concept of independency as developed in his Philosophy of Money. A minimal income aims at guaranteeing not only the survival of the extremely poor (this could also be achieved by emergency programs), but also – in cooperation with other State programs such as education, medical and legal assistance etc – at enabling these individuals to be more independent from their social environment, where dependence often constitutes a strong obstacle to the development of their autonomy. The social and political inclusion of millions of people, both in threshold countries and in poor countries, depends upon the existence of such programs. (shrink)

Supercommentary on Anuvyākhyāna, verse commentary by Madhva, 13th cent., on Brahmasūtra by Bādarāyaṇa, representing Dvaita point of view; with twenty five supercommentaries : Nyāyasudhābindu by Vijayindratīrtha ; Parimaḷa by Rāghavendratīrtha ; Vāgvajra by Pādarājatīrtha ; Gurvarthadīpikā by Vādirājatīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Yadupatyācārya ; Vākyārthavivr̥ti by Vaṃśapallī Śrīnivāsācārya ; Ānanda by Galagalī Narasiṃhācārya ; Vivr̥ti by Kambālūru Rāmacandratīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Śrīnidhitīrtha ; Vākyārthacandrikā by Vidyādhīsatīrtha ; Śeṣavākyārthacandrikā by Pāṇḍuraṅgī Keśavācārya ; Vākyārtharatnamālā by Pāṇḍuraṅganarasiṃhācārya ; Sudhāvivr̥tti by Satyavrtatīrtha ; Rasakūlaṅkaṣa by (...) Kuṇḍalagiriācārya ; Durghaṭavākyārthavicāra by Satyanāthatīrtha ; Ṭippaṇī by Viṭṭhalabhaṭṭa ; Rasarañjanī by Viṣṇutīrtha ; Laghurasarañjanī by Aḍavī Kr̥ṣṇācārya ; Caṣaka by Mannārī Kr̥ṣṇācārya ; Upasparśa by Erī Bālācārya ; Kāśī ṭippaṇī by Kāśī Ācārya ; Guḍhakar̥trkā by Gudhakaratr̥kācārya ; Pradīpa by Pradīpakāra ; Ṭippaṇī by Pāndhrī Śrīnivāsācārya ; Huggi by Kallāpūra Satyādhirājācārya. (shrink)