This essay examines Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’ from a Latin American perspective and its reception in this part of the world, especially in Brazil. It focuses on two aspects of Laudato si’: its dialogical approach, and the connection it makes between ecological issues and poverty. These two aspects allow us to understand Francis’s proposal of integral ecology and how the preferential option for the poor becomes central to his perspective. In addition, this essay explains how Latin American theology and (...) pastoral experience are present in Pope Francis’s thought. (shrink)

This essay examines the development of a liberation bioethics in Latin America with its focus on public health equity from the experience and knowledge of those who are at the margins, the poor and historically oppressed groups. An encounter between bioethics and liberation theology contributed to form a Latin American bioethics marked by a double aspect: bioethical scholarly focus on public health equity and social activism for universal healthcare coverage. Liberation theology has a role in this bioethics oriented to public (...) health, and Pope Francis offers a new contribution for this perspective at the same time that he brings it to a global discussion. Considering the exchange between liberation theology and bioethics and Francis’s insights, this essay offers a new perspective grounded in the Brazilian experiment and the Catholic social tradition to dialogue with US bioethical accounts by challenging the Western epistemological framework of bioethical studies in the Global North. (shrink)

The notion of a strongly determined type over A extending p is introduced, where p .S. A strongly determined extension of p over A assigns, for any model M )- A, a type q S extending p such that, if realises q, then any elementary partial map M → M which fixes acleq pointwise is elementary over . This gives a crude notion of independence which arises very frequently. Examples are provided of many different kinds of theories with strongly determined (...) types, and some without. We investigate a notion of multiplicity for strongly determined types with applications to ‘involved’ finite simple groups, and an analogue of the Finite Equivalence Relation Theorem. Lifting of strongly determined types to covers of a structure is discussed, and an application to finite covers is given. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to identify general characteristics attributed to ethical business cultures by executives from a variety of industries. Our research identified five clusters of characteristics: Mission- and Values-Driven, Stakeholder Balance, Leadership Effectiveness, Process Integrity, and Long-term Perspective. We propose that these characteristics be used as a foundation of a comprehensive model that can be engaged to influence operational practices in creating and sustaining an ethical business culture.

Several decades of behavioral research have established that variations in socioeconomic status are related to differences in cognitive performance. Neuroimaging and psychophysiological techniques have recently emerged as a method of choice to better understand the neurobiological processes underlying this phenomenon. Here we present a systematic review of a particular sub-domain of this field. Specifically, we used the PICOS approach to review studies investigating potential relationships between SES and scalp event-related brain potentials. This review found evidence that SES is related to (...) amplitude variations in a diverse range of ERPs: P1, N1, N2, Error-Related Negativities, N400, auditory evoked potentials, negative difference waves, P3 and slow waves. These ERPs include early, mid-latency and late potentials that reflect a broad range of cognitive processes. In this review, all SES effects on ERPs appeared to reflect an impairment or a less efficient form of task-related neural activity for low-SES compared to high-SES individuals. Overall, these results confirm that a wide variety of distinct neural processes with different functional meanings are sensitive to SES differences. The findings of this review also suggest that the relationship between SES and some ERP components may depend on the developmental stage of study participants. Results are further discussed in terms of the current limitations of this field and future avenues of research. (shrink)

The Greek Prophetologion manuscript Q12 from the library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, copied in 1275, contains some thirty marginal notes written in Alanic, a pre-stage of Ossetic. On leaf 100r, the glossator provided the Greek heading τ παραμο(ν) τς μέ(σο) ν´ (i.e. μεσοπεντηκοστς), ‘Eve of Mid-Pentecost’, with a gloss πητζινάκ χουτζάου πάν which most probably means ‘Pecheneg Sunday’. A Pecheneg festival established after the decisive victory of John II over the Pechenegs is attested by both Nicetas (...) Choniates and Ecloga Basilicorum. It is no wonder that this festival reached distant Alania, since the 12th century was a heyday for the Orthodox Christianity in the Northern Caucasus. The battle took place near Beroea in spring of the “fifth year” of John II's reign. The majority of historians tend to opt for 1122, but we would not exclude 1123 either. Whatever the year, the marginal note from Q12 may help in establishing the day of the battle, which is not mentioned either in Greek or in Scandinavian sources. If the battle of Beroea took place in 1122, it happened either on the 20th–22nd or on the 24th–26th of April. If the battle was fought in 1123, the day of the victory could then be either the 10th–12th or the 14th–16th of May. (shrink)

The use of transcranial Electrical Stimulation in the modulation of cognitive brain functions to improve neuropsychiatric conditions has extensively increased over the decades. tES techniques have also raised new challenges associated with study design, stimulation protocol, functional specificity, and dose-response relationship. In this paper, we addressed challenges through the emerging methodology to investigate the dose-response relationship of High Definition-transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, identifying the role of negative valence in tinnitus perception. In light of the neurofunctional testable framework and tES application, (...) hypotheses were formulated to measure clinical and surrogate endpoints. We posited that conscious pairing adequately pleasant stimuli with tinnitus perception results in correction of the loudness misperception and would be reinforced by concurrent active HD-tDCS on the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex. The dose-response relationship between HD-tDCS specificity and the loudness perception is also modeled. We conducted a double-blind, randomized crossover pilot study with six recruited tinnitus patients. Accrued data was utilized to design a well-controlled adaptive seamless Bayesian dose-response study. The sample size and optimum interims were anticipated for adaptive decision-making about efficacy, safety, and single session dose parameters. Furthermore, preliminary pilot study results were sufficient to show a significant difference within the longitudinally detected self-report tinnitus loudness between before and under positive emotion induction. This study demonstrated a research methodology used to improve emotion regulation in tinnitus patients. In the projected method, positive emotion induction is essential for promoting functional targeting under HD-tDCS anatomical specificity to indicate the efficacy and facilitate the dose-finding process. The continuous updating of prior knowledge about efficacy and dose during the exploratory stage adapts the anticipated dose-response model. Consequently, the effective dose range to make superiority neuromodulation in correcting loudness misperception of tinnitus will be redefined. Highly effective dose adapts the study to a standard randomized trial and transforms it into the confirmatory stage in which active HD-tDCS protocol is compared with a sham trial. Establishing the HD-tDCS intervention protocols relying on this novel method provides reliable evidence for regulatory agencies to approve or reject the efficacy and safety. Furthermore, this paper supports a technical report for designing multimodality data-driven complementary investigations in emotion regulation, including EEG-driven neuro markers, Stroop-driven attention biases, and neuroimaging-driven brain network dynamics. (shrink)

We consider the problem of measurement using the Lindblad equation, which allows the introduction of time in the interaction between the measured system and the measurement apparatus. We use analytic results, valid for weak system-environment coupling, obtained for a two-level system in contact with a measurer (Markovian interaction) and a thermal bath (non-Markovian interaction), where the measured observable may or may not commute with the system-environment interaction. Analysing the behavior of the coherence, which tends to a value asymptotically close to (...) zero, we obtain an expression for the time of measurement which depends only on the system-measurer coupling, and which does not depend on whether the observable commutes with the system-bath interaction. The behavior of the coherences in the case of strong system-environment coupling, found numerically, indicates that an increase in this coupling decreases the measurement time, thus allowing our expression to be considered the upper limit for the duration of the process. (shrink)

The analysis of the circumstances in which Alexander Luria came to send letters to Kurt Goldstein sheds some light on the historical context of their existence. The documents show how strongly Luria and some of his colleagues were interested in Goldstein’s works in the early 1930s. These documents dating from the post Second World War years also testify to the beginning of the more than purely professional relationship between the two recognized neurologists (or neuropsychologists).

De origen francés y griego, el Dr. Alexandre Christoyanno-poulos creció en Bruselas aunque lleva viviendo en Reino Unido casi desde 1997. En University of Kent estudióEconomía, Relaciones Internacionales y Estudios Europeos, y por último, Ciencias Políticas y Religión. Comenzó a trabajar en University of Kent y en Canterbury Christ Church University. Desde septiembre de 2010 es profesor de Ciencias Políticas y Relaciones Internacionales en la Loughborough University. Ha publicado Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel (2010); en 2014 (...) aparecerá su Leo Tolstoy’s Political Thought. Y ha editado un tercero: Religious Anarchism: New Perspectives (2009).Entre sus artículos destacan: “Jesus Christ against the Westphalian Leviathans:A Christian Anarchist Critique of Our Coercive, Idolatrous and Unchristian International Order”; “Leo Tolstoy on the State: A Detailed Picture of Tolstoy’s Denunciation of State Violence and Deception”; “Turning the Other Cheek to Terrorism: Reflections on the Contemporary Significance of Leo Tolstoy’s Exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount” y “Love, Justice, and Social Eschatology.”Si deseas conocer más acerca del trabajo del Dr. Alexandre Christoyannopoulos puede visitarse su página web. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage d'histoire des idées et de philosophie des sciences rassemble plusieurs études dont le point commun est d'analyser les conséquences majeures de la découverte scientifique de l'infini. Ainsi, Alexandre Koyré montre comment la révolution galiléenne ou la découverte du calcul infinitésimal par Leibniz et Newton ont profondément modifié la conscience qu'a l'homme de lui-même et de sa place dans l'univers.

Explorando a crítica do “tríplice amálgama” que José Chasin desenvolve em Marx: estatuto ontológico e resolução metodológica, texto de 1995, este artigo procura retomar, em um procedimento expansivo, os textos indicados pelo marxista brasileiro, a fim de verificar a gênese teórica de sua posição crítica. Para tanto, revisita os textos de Kaustky, Lênin e, sobretudo Engels, demonstrando que, na busca por precisar o estatuto da cientificidade marxiana, Chasin fornece as pistas para encontrarmos não apenas a originalidade de Marx, mas a (...) autenticidade do próprio filósofo de Barmen. Neste percurso, não apenas o problema do método, como ainda a reanálise da política, o lugar da determinação econômica e a definição da ideologia encerram o quadrado engelsiano. (shrink)

Thābit b. Qurra, a Sabian of Ḥarrān, and his descendants remained in their ancestral religion for six generations. Why did they persist despite pressure to convert? This article argues that religious self-identification as a Sabian could be a distinct advantage in Baghdad’s elite circles. It focuses on Thābit’s great-grandson Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Hilāl al-Ṣābī and his poetry as collected by al-Thaʿālibī. Two members of the family who did convert are also considered by way of contrast.

A formação inicial na construção de identidade profissional em educação física1 Resumo: A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar como as experiências de formação inicial de formandos em Educação Física da Universidade Federal do Paraná, contribuem para a construção de identidade profissional. A produção de dados ocorreu por meio da realização de dois grupos focais distintos, um com formandos da modalidade de licenciatura e outro de bacharelado em EF. O programa de Análise de Conteúdo Atlas.TI 8 foi utilizado para (...) criar as unidades de análise do eixo previamente definido sobre formação inicial. Identificou-se, que os formandos ao experimentarem práticas de estágio e trabalho, de pesquisa nos programas e projetos de iniciação científica, além de refletirem, construírem, planejarem, criarem, elaborarem seus métodos e metodologias de ensino e aprendizagem, constroem identidade profissional mestiças não articuladas integralmente aos processos de pesquisa e criação de métodos e metodologias. Palavras-chave: Identidade profissional. Formação inicial. Pesquisa. Método. Initial training in the construction of professional identity of physical education: This research aims to analyze how the initial training experiences in Physical Education of students at Universidade Federal do Paraná contribute to the construction of professional identity. Data were produced through focus groups; one with students of the licentiate degree and the other with students of the bachelor’s degree in Physical Education. The Content Analysis Program Atlas.TI 8 was used to create a unit of analysis from a previously-defined axis on initial training. It was identified, through their experiences on the practical training placement and work, and through research programs and projects, as well as reflecting, constituting, planning, creating, and elaborating their teaching and learning methods and methodologies, build mixed professional identities that are not fully articulated with the processes of research and creation of methods and methodologies. Keywords: Professional identity. Initial training. Research. Method. La formación inicial en la construcción de identidad profesional en educación física Resumen: La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar como las experiencias de formación inicial de graduados en Educación Física de Universidade Federal do Paraná, contribuyen en la construcción de identidades profesionales. La producción de datos ocurrió por medio de la realización de dos grupos distintos, un con graduados en la modalidad de grado y el otro en licenciatura en Educación Física. El programa de Análisis de Contenido Atlas.TI 8 fue utilizado para crear las unidades de análisis de eje previamente definido sobre la formación inicial. Se identificó que los graduados al comenzar las prácticas y el trabajo, de investigación en los programas y proyectos de iniciación científica, además de reflexionar, construir, planear, crear, elaborar sus métodos y metodologías de enseñanza, construyen identidades profesionales mestizas no articuladas integralmente a los procesos de investigación y creación de métodos y metodologías. Palabras clave: Identidade profesional. Formación inicial. Investigación. Método. 1 Pesquisa financiada com bolsa de pós-doutorado pela Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Capes. Data de registro: 12/06/2019 Data de aceite: 23/04/2020. (shrink)

Alexandre Koyré. of the fixed stars is infinite commit a contradiction in adjecto. In truth, an infinite body cannot be comprehended by thought. For the concepts of the mind concerning the infinite are either about the meaning oftheterm "infinite,"  ...

Various commentators have acknowledged the fact that Schelling was influenced by Spinoza’s philosophical views (cf. Bowie 1993, 2003; Copleston 1963; Esposito 1977; White 1983; Lawrence 2003; Hegel 1995; Beiser 2002; Richards 2002). However, these commentators have not spelled out in detail this influence, and this situation is particularly true of the Anglo-American tradition. In this article, I investigate Schelling’s Naturphilosophie project in search of its Spinozistic roots and I argue that this provides us with a better understanding of the Schelligian (...) system. (shrink)

In a previous article on cosmological arguments, I have put forward a few examples of complete infinite and circular explanations, and argued that complete non-wellfounded explanations such as these might explain the present state of the world better than their well-founded theistic counterparts (Billon, 2021). Although my aim was broader, the examples I gave there implied merely causal explanations. In this article, I would like to do three things: • Specify some general informative conditions for complete and incomplete non-wellfounded causal (...) explanations that can be used to assess candidate explanations and to generate new examples of complete non-wellfounded explanations. • Show that these conditions, which concern chains of causal explanations, easily generalize to chains of metaphysical, grounding explanations and even to chains involving other “determination relations” such as supervenience. • Apply these general conditions to the recent debates against the existence of nonwellfounded chains of grounds and show, with a couple of precise examples, that the latter can be complete, and that just like in the case of causal explanations, non-wellfoundedness can in fact be an aset rather than a liability. (shrink)

This collection of six essays centers on Professor Koyre;'s great theme: the relative importance of metaphysics and observation, with controlled experiment a kind of marriage between the two. Professor Koyre;'s thesis might be summed up as a claim that when one is seeking to explain the scientific revolution, attention must be concentrated on the philosophical outlook of the scientist and away from speculative theories. At the time of his death, Alexandre Koyre; was a professor at the Ecole Pratique des (...) Hautes Études (Sorbonne) and a memeber of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. (shrink)

Trata-se, neste trabalho, de refletir acerca da recuperação do republicanismo de Nicolau Maquiavel para o debate democrático contemporâneo. Com esse intento, entre as muitas atualizações possíveis do pensamento do secretário florentino para os dias atuais, destaco duas matrizes conceituais, justamente aquelas mais concernidas com as noções de liberdade e ação política popular. Seguindo as sugestões de Helton Adverse, procuro então aprofundar e esclarecer a sua proposta de uma matriz “institucional” e uma matriz “conflitiva” quando da interpretação e recuperação das ideias (...) de Maquiavel. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

This article discusses the acquisition of a physical impairment/disability through voluntary body modification, or transability. From the perspectives of critical genealogy and feminist intersectional analysis, the article considers the ability and cis*/trans* axes in order to question the boundaries between trans and transabled experience and examines two assumptions impeding the conceptualization of their placement on the same continuum: 1) trans studies assumes an able-bodied trans identity and able-bodied trans subject of analysis; and 2) disability studies assumes a cis* disabled identity. (...) The perception of transsexuality and transability as mutually exclusive phenomena results from a nonintersectional analysis of transsexuality as an issue of sex/gender, but not of ability, and of transability as an issue of ability, but not of sex/gender. Difficulty recognizing continuities between these phenomena thus stems from an ableist interpretation of sex/gender and a cisnormative* interpretation of ability. This article aims to: 1) enrich intersectional analysis in trans and disability studies and transability scholarship; 2) complicate disability studies, in which disabilities are often presumed to be “involuntary,” and encourage the decentering of a cis* subject; 3) encourage trans studies to decenter an able-bodied subject; and 4) advocate for increased dialogue and the creation of alliances between trans and disability studies and movements. (shrink)

Among the very architects of the recent re-emergence of emergentism in the physical sciences, Robert B. Laughlin certainly occupies a prominent place. Through a series of works beginning as early as his Nobel lecture in 1998, a lecture given after having been awarded, together with Störmer and Tsui, the Nobel prize in physics for its contribution in the elucidation of the fractional quantum Hall effect, Laughlin openly and relentlessly advocated a strongly anti-reductionistic view of physics – and, more particularly, of (...) the interface between condensed matter and particles physics – which culminated in what can be considered his emergentist manifesto: A Different Universe. Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down (2005). In spite of this prominent role in the vindication of emergentism, rare are the philosophers, among whom even those sympathetic to the idea of emergence, who have paid serious attention to Laughlin’s insights. The subtleties of his view – it is true, often concealed in many technicalities – have accordingly, and somewhat unfortunately, mainly passed unnoticed. (shrink)

Lors de la récente « rétrospective » de l’œuvre de Bertrand Lavier au Centre Georges Pompidou à Paris, on pouvait voir, dans une des dernières salles de l’exposition, comme une « sorte » de peinture gestuelle, une toile ou un panneau, présentant de longs gestes enroulés, blancs, comme dans les plus « belles » des peintures de l’abstraction lyrique. La relation entre le support et la matière laisse à peine entrevoir qu’il ne s’agit pas tout à fait d’une peinture à (...) proprement parler. En examina... (shrink)

This article examines the dedicatory epigram of the earliest and most important witness to the Greek alchemical corpus, the tenth-century manuscript donated by Cardinal Bessarion to the Republic of Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana MS gr. 299, as a window onto the cultural coordinates of the manuscript’s middle Byzantine readers. Scrutiny of the epigram’s meter, language, literary conventions, and the handwriting of the scribe who copied it into the manuscript point to a tenth-century date not only for the manuscript but also (...) for the epigram itself and make it possible to situate the epigram, and with it the alchemical manuscript that contains it, within the mainstream of middle Byzantine elite culture. (shrink)

In this paper, we put forward a new account of emergence called “transformational emergence”. Such an account captures a variety of emergence that can be considered as being diachronic and weakly ontological. The fact that transformational emergence actually constitutes a genuine form of emergence is motivated. Besides, the account is free of traditional problems surrounding more usual, synchronic versions of emergence, and it can find a strong empirical support in a specific physical phenomenon, the fractional quantum Hall effect, which has (...) long been touted as a paradigmatic case of emergence. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper puts forward a normative framework to differentiate between the climate-related responsibilities of different countries in the aftermath of the Paris Agreement. It offers reasons for applying the chief moral principles of ‘historical responsibility’ and ‘capacity’ to climate finance instead of climate change mitigation targets. This will provide a normative basis to realize the goal of climate change mitigation while allowing for developing and newly industrialized countries to develop economically and offer an account of the distributive principles that can (...) regulate climate finance. This is a real-world interpretation of the 1992 UNFCCC principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ that takes into account the progress accomplished at the COP21 in Paris and offers a solution to the still unsolved problem of differentiated responsibilities. This paper offers an application of this proposal to the Green Climate Fund. (shrink)

This chapter introduces the main issues and themes of the volume. Approaches to individuality from metaphysics and philosophy of science are contrasted. Recent philosophical developments regarding concepts of biological and physical individuality are exposed. These research trends show how philosophy of physics and philosophy of biology address differently the question of what an individual is. Five main divergences are identified: the centrality of part-whole questions, the issue of identical individuals, the importance of the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles and, (...) finally, the importance of structuralist concerns. At the end of the chapter, the structure of the book is explained in detail. (shrink)

Au terme allemand d’Experiment (ou Versuch) correspond en fran­çais le terme d’expérience. Or, en sens opposé, expérience peut devenir soit Versuch, soit Erfahrung (savoir, savoir-faire, connaissance, événement vécu, etc.). Ainsi, le mot expérience véhiculé à plusieurs reprises par Lavoisier dans le discours préliminaire de son Traité a été traduit en allemand par Erfahrung, et en anglais par experiment, ce qui démontre que le terme français prête à des interprétations divergentes, mais également possibles. L’article explicite l’em­ploi du mot expériment, néologisme mort-né (...) du début de xixe siècle, comme équivalent de Versuch., Experiment et experiment dans le but de réduire l’am­biguïté sémantique propre au terme d’expérience. (shrink)

Este artigo discute a trajetória de Bento de Jesus, irmão leigo da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco que atuou como pregador da fé católica no arquipélago de Cabo Verde na primeira metade do século XVII e foi condenado à morte pela inquisição portuguesa na sequência de uma experiência mística considerada herética pelos inquisidores lusitanos. Será empreendida uma análise do conteúdo de sua visão extática e da maneira como Bento entendia a doutrina católica e a transmitia aos africanos de Cabo Verde. (...) Pretende-se evidenciar como sua pregação, por meio de uma linguagem religiosa que enfatizava as práticas penitencialistas, corroborava as coordenadas fundamentais de um discurso jesuítico amplamente disseminado no mundo atlântico, o qual legitimava a escravidão africana a partir de uma representação do cativeiro como uma necessária purgação dos supostos pecados dos africanos. Levando-se em conta o fato de que Bento de Jesus era, ele próprio, africano e descendente direto de escravos, intenta-se discutir como essa ideologia de legitimação da escravidão foi apropriada pelos africanos de maneiras ambivalentes, que reforçavam o discurso escravista ao mesmo tempo em que o tencionavam e expunham algumas de suas contradições. Palavras-chave: ideologia da escravidão; catolicismo; africano; inquisição; Igreja católica; Cabo Verde. (shrink)

The realisation of justice in the real world requires moral principles and political action. This book offers a roadmap for these two notions to connect.

Defining roles of agents (i.e., people, organisations, etc.) is required in various Semantic Web applications, including access control, knowledge management and skill repository. So far, many theo...

Este artigo propõe estabelecer uma correlação entre a concepção de Spinoza acerca da imaginação e a teoria da ideologia de Althusser. Compreendida em seu modo de funcionamento e nos seus efeitos sobre a percepção dos homens acerca de seu corpo, de suas ideias e das coisas que a afetam, a imaginação, segundo a acepção spinozista, passa a constituiria a forma da consciência subjetiva ao operar no mundo da política. Marcada pela regularidade e previsibilidade dos processos causais e pela reprodução das (...) relações, a ordem política se afiguraria à imaginação como uma ordem teleológica, cuja repetição fixaria, como verdades universais, as ideias das imagens das coisas na forma com que estas se apresentariam mais recorrentemente à percepção dos homens. À estabilidade das relações e das imagens sob as quais os homens as representam corresponderia a estabilidade dos modos de pensar sob os quais eles representam a si mesmos no interior da ordem política. Os conteúdos da consciência – da imaginação politicamente estruturada – seriam, desse ponto de vista, sempre conteúdos ideológicos. (shrink)

This work analyses the theory of causality presented by the Scottish philosopher David Hume in his Treatise on Human Nature. It proposes, as a central argument, that the idea of causal relation comes from a reflexive impression and assumes the form of an imaginary belief, whose object is a constant conjunction. Starting by analyzing the concepts of impressions and ideas, over which Hume elaborates his theory of perception, this text explores the basis of the process of association of ideas, and (...) identifies the notion of causality as a mode of it. A brief study of the political effects of such a conception of causality, based on belief and perception habits, gives a conclusion to this article. (shrink)

There has been a shift from teaching to learning, the so-called process of ‘learnification’, which promotes the idea that teaching should be primarily concerned with the creation of rich learning environments and scaffolding student learning. In doing so, this process of ‘learnification’ has also attacked the idea that teachers have something to teach and that students have something to learn from their teachers. The influence of constructivism, and thinkers like Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner in this paradigm shift is quite evident; (...) however, this gives rise to a tension in what a teacher is and what teaching entails, because the teacher, by definition, is someone who has something to teach students, and not merely a facilitator of the learning process. Moreover, because of constructivism and ‘learnification’, current educational practices and policies seem to pay little attention to the importance of ‘relations’ and ‘the encounter with the Other’, which become merely desirable by-products. In this article I criticise constructivism and ‘learnification’ by proposing that the teacher is a community ‘builder’ and teaching a ‘situational revelation’, while also emphasising the importance of ‘relations’ in the educational process. The starting point for my discussion is a much neglected passage of I and Thou where Martin Buber discusses the importance of the ‘living centre’ [lebendigen Mitte] for ‘true community’ [Die wahre Gemeinde] formation. (shrink)

A radical new interpretation of liberalism, viewing it not merely as a political philosophy or set of political precepts, but as a personal orientation and way of living.

Qual o estatuto da noção de “minha natureza” nas “Meditações Metafísicas” de Descartes? Esta é a questão do presente artigo. Para respondê-la, o estudo se divide em duas partes. Num primeiro momento, mais enxuto, trata-se de investigar a referida noção tal como ela aparece, sobretudo, nas duas primeiras meditações, a saber: como a natureza do senso comum, a qual requer ser superada com vistas a dar lugar a uma noção de natureza propriamente filosófica, guiada pelo que se denomina nas “Meditações” (...) por “luz natural”. Num segundo momento do trabalho, mais alongado e seminal, notadamente através da análise da sexta meditação, trata-se de evidenciar que se a noção de “minha natureza” em nada auxilia na tarefa de uma teoria do conhecimento, para uma filosofia prática em específico será justamente a ela que o autor se verá obrigado a recorrer. O que comporta, contudo, algum custo para a metafísica cartesiana de maneira geral. Pois se a sua teoria do conhecimento está inteiramente baseada em elementos a priori, a sua filosofia prática, por sua vez, porquanto fundada numa mistura entre razão e sentimentos, precisará ser edificada quase que inteiramente num solo contingencial e experimental. (shrink)