Museums are safe spaces for the objects they hold and for the persons that visit them, providing environments that can function in therapeutic ways. Within the wide range of objects, there is enough diversity to help guests discover what similarities they have with others as well as what makes them unique as individuals. Within exhibits, individuals can explore themselves through the reactions they have to particular pieces, through the observation of what holds their attention within the environment, and through the (...) awareness and development of their contemplative mind. Museums can introduce transpersonal information, add information to previous transpersonal experiences, and even promote expanded states of awareness. With direction, guests can use museums to learn about themselves, thus optimizing the therapeutic potentials of these institutions. (shrink)

Many of our ideological, political, moral, religious, aesthetic, scientific beliefs, as well as those concerning everyday life, are controversial; other people do not share them. As a rule, that does not bother us much: we tend to retain our contestable beliefs even if we ascribe no less skill and well-informedness to those who represent other points of view than to ourselves. But is that really reasonable? Shouldn't we often admit that we might be as wrong as others? And if we (...) do, shouldn't this consequently lead us to give up many of our beliefs in favor of agnostic attitudes? Marc Andree Weber argues that in the face of disagreement with equally competent and well-informed interlocutors we should almost always refrain from insisting on our controversial beliefs – with the few exceptions being all the more remarkable. (shrink)

Robert Rosen has proposed several characteristics to distinguish “simple” physical systems (or “mechanisms”) from “complex” systems, such as living systems, which he calls “organisms”. The Memory Evolutive Systems (MES) introduced by the authors in preceding papers are shown to provide a mathematical model, based on category theory, which satisfies his characteristics of organisms, in particular the merger of the Aristotelian causes. Moreover they identify the condition for the emergence of objects and systems of increasing complexity. As an application, the cognitive (...) system of an animal is modeled by the “MES of cat-neurons” obtained by successive complexifications of his neural system, in which the emergence of higher order cognitive processes gives support to Mario Bunge’s “emergentist monism.”. (shrink)

During the past 25 years, the words “theory of action” and “agency theory” have become key-terms in a new branch of philosophy. The themes appear to gain a centrality and influence such that one is led to think that they should cover most of philosophy, including the foundation for all of the human sciences. The number of treatises on human action and on philosophical and special-scientific theories of action is staggering. For the most part inspired by analytic philosophy, the new (...) approach threatens to take over that school’s central place on the stage of international philosophical concern. Having ousted theory of science from that position with an avalanche of analytic studies, analytic philosophy, in turn, is now being overrun by philosophy of action as supposedly suitable basis for the sciences. (shrink)

With their landmark architectures, exhibitions and museums of science and technology partake in the spatial inscription of science in twentieth century landscapes. Unlike other beacons of progress, exhibitions and museums of science and technology double up, inside, as material arrangements of objects, visuals and texts aiming to confer meaning onto the modern world. They both embody and seek to order the spectacle of modernity while often being deployed with the aim of promoting particular visions of social and material progress. An (...) approach sensitive to the material, spatial, and experiential dimensions of displaying science and technology suggests that exhibitions and museums were in the twentieth century crucial sites for reflecting upon and promoting particular futures. (shrink)

Este texto já apareceu no site da ESC:ALA. “Como começar pelo início, se as coisas acontecem antes de acontecer?”, pergunta Clarice Lispector, em A Hora da Estrela. Qualquer começo se faz pelo meio. Meio como metade de uma totalidade, meio como ponto equidistante do princípio e do fim. Meio como ponto central. Meio como ambiente. Ter meios, ter possibilidade, ter veículo, ter ponte. O começo nunca é uma totalidade. Qualquer começo se faz a igual distância do início e do fim (...) de um - Philosophie – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Este artículo ya ha aparecido en Revista Heterotopías del Área de Estudios Críticos del Discurso de FFyH, Volumen 4, N° 8, Córdoba, diciembre de 2021 – ISSN: 2618-2726. Resumen : Son tenues las huellas de Lúcio Pinheiro dos Santos, matemático y filósofo portugués, que fue conocido como el filósofo fantasma, principalmente a causa de su trabajo haberse, literalmente, esfumado en una hoguera frente a la Cámara Municipal de Lisboa. No obstante, son contundentes los pocos vestigios que se pueden - Philosophie (...) – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Light song (a text score) -- Introduction : writing fragments -- The political possibility of sound -- Hearing volumes : architecture, light and words -- Geographies of sound : performing impossible territories -- Morality of the invisible, ethics of the inaudible -- Hearing subjectivities : bodies, forms and formlessness -- Sonic materialism : a philosophy of digging -- Reading fragments of listening, hearing vertical lines of words -- Putting on lipstick (a text score).

Call generalism about children’s and adults’ wellbeing the thesis that the same theory of wellbeing applies to both children and adults. Our goal is to examine whether generalism is true. While this question has not received much attention in the past, it has recently been suggested that generalism is likely to be false and that we need to elaborate different theories of children’s and adults’ wellbeing. In this paper, we defend generalism against the main objections it faces and make a (...) positive case for it. (shrink)

Este texto já apareceu em 2018 na Revista Dobra N° 2. Resumo : Manuel António Pina chamava-lhe isto porque não sabia o nome d'isto. Já eu venho escolhendo a precária, transitória e possivelmente redundante designação de “ritmo vital”. Escolher este nome não resulta de uma tentativa de definição, é antes uma decisão operatória que permite avançar e descolar a atenção do isto, para o gesto de contacto com esse isto – ritmo vital –, e a sua relação com a experiência (...) estética e com a criação artística. Neste - Esthétique – Nouvel article. (shrink)

From its use in literary theory, film criticism and the discourse of games design, Salomé Voegelin expands 'possible world theory' to think the worlding of sound in music, in art and in the everyday. The modal logic of possible worlds, articulated principally via David K. Lewis and developed through Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological life-worlds, creates a view on the invisible slices of the world and reflects on how to make them count, politically and aesthetically. How to make them thinkable and accessible (...) as the possibility of the everyday and of art: to reach a new materialist understanding from the invisible and to develop an ear for the as yet inaudible. This revised edition continues Voegelin's exploration of the sonic possibility of the world into the sonic possibility and impossibility of the body. Listening to work by Áine O'Dwyer, Hannah Silva and Jocy de Oliveira, it considers sonic possible worlds' radical power to rethink normative constructions and to fabulate a different body from its sound: Hearing the Continuum Between Plural Bodies ; between humans, humanoid aliens, monsters, vampires, plants, things and anything we have no name for yet but which a sonic philosophy might start to hear and call. (shrink)

This text practices a philosophical voice that deviates from visuo-centric theory and the muteness of its language and instead sings a complex simultaneity of things and thoughts that burn through the walls of the discipline and illuminate the activities at the margins. This philosophical voice sings a refrain of “I,” which brings us back to bring us forward, surprising us in its renewal again and again. It is a body that is, as Samuel Beckett’s Not I, at once not I (...) and I; an idiosyncratic subjectivity that carries its plural name in its mouth. In this way, it further diffracts the sonic possibility of counterfactual slices into simultaneous dimensionalities open to our gaze in the dark, when we have let go of a normative orientation and are able to see the image at its depth. Between text scores, Churten theory, Canto Cardenche, and the breath of a humpback whale, this voice tries not to theorise. It does not want to produce a philosophical message, supporting a “philosophism” which akin to “scientism” treats philosophy as a phenomenon unconnected to cultural values or location, gender or racial specificity. Instead, it aims to practice a philosophy that opens in song to its own anxiety of objectivity, its fear of a reflective centre, and performs a translucent marginality that generates the view of a plural world burning through a permeable skin. (shrink)

Andrée-Anne Cormier | : Cet article explore la question des implications de l’exclusion des animaux de la catégorie des sujets de justice dans le cadre du libéralisme politique de John Rawls. Plus spécifiquement, j’examine et critique les lectures de Ruth Abbey et de Robert Garner. Abbey suggère que le libéralisme politique est incompatible avec la thèse selon laquelle nous avons des devoirs moraux universels envers les animaux. Garner, pour sa part, avance que la théorie de Rawls n’autorise pas l’État (...) libéral à adopter des mesures de protection des animaux. Dans cet article, je démontre que ces lectures sont erronées, car elles sont fondées sur des interprétations du libéralisme politique qui ne sont pas plausibles. Je soutiens, d’une part, que le libéralisme politique est neutre eu égard à la question de la nature de nos devoirs moraux envers les animaux et, d’autre part, qu’il permet de justifier une gamme considérable d’interventions étatiques visant la protection des animaux. Je suggère donc que la tension entre le libéralisme politique et l’éthique animale est moins forte que ne l’affirment ces auteurs. Enfin, j’identifie des stratégies possibles, cohérentes avec le cadre théorique rawlsien, pour élargir la sphère des sujets de justice de manière à y intégrer les animaux. | : What are the implications of John Rawls’s Political Liberalism for animal ethics? In this paper, I examine Ruth Abbey’s and Robert Garner’s answers to this question. Abbey claims that Political Liberalism is incompatible with the view that there exist universal moral duties toward animals. Garner contends that Rawls’s theory cannot justify state interventions designed to protect animals. I show that these readings are based on implausible interpretations of Rawls’s theory. I argue, on the one hand, that Political Liberalism is neutral with respect to the question of the nature of our moral duties toward animals and, on the other hand, that the theory can potentially justify a significant range of state interventions in the interest of animals. This indicates that the tension between Rawls’s theory and animal ethics is less sharp than Abbey and Garner suggest. Finally, I identify possible strategies, consistent with the Rawlsian framework, for including animals among the subjects of justice. (shrink)

Since the #MeToo movement, many discussions arose on the role of consent in defining rape, among academics, legal practitioners, non-governmental organisations, and at the European Union level. This debate is particularly relevant in France, where rape is a sexual act committed by violence, coercion, threat, or surprise, with no mention of consent in the Criminal Code. By conducting a meta-analysis of the discourse of the French legal literature on this topic in four criminal law reviews and ten textbooks, this study (...) offers a new perspective to this debate. Based on this analysis, the definition of rape and the role of consent is barely discussed by the literature, partly due to an equivalence drawn between the constitutive elements of the offence and the absence of consent of the victim. Yet, the relevance of consent is highly criticised, mainly by a few male academics, using primarily arguments of authority instead of a critical approach to the topic. In general, the French legal literature on the role of consent in defining rape supports rape myths and gender stereotypes. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken ist ein unveränderter, hochwertiger Nachdruck der Originalausgabe aus dem Jahr 1894. Hansebooks ist Herausgeber von Literatur zu unterschiedlichen Themengebieten wie Forschung und Wissenschaft, Reisen und Expeditionen, Kochen und Ernährung, Medizin und weiteren Genres. Der Schwerpunkt des Verlages liegt auf dem Erhalt historischer Literatur. Viele Werke historischer Schriftsteller und Wissenschaftler sind heute nur noch als Antiquitäten erhältlich. Hansebooks verlegt diese Bücher neu und trägt damit zum Erhalt selten gewordener Literatur und historischem Wissen auch für die Zukunft (...) bei. (shrink)

The stage of the formation and establishment of a market economy in Georgia raises the necessity for economic science to solve fundamentally different problems concerning the improvement of the investment environment and investment climate in national economy. After the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the replacement with new relationships has been quite difficult and painful in which foreign investments should play a crucial role. Issues to be discussed include the questions that explore some of the categories and the constraints (...) of the investment climate. All this leads to the relevance of the article and, therefore, determines the purpose of the article. The research process uses general dialectical methods of socio-economic research as well as modern methods of research of economic theory. The scientific aim of the research is to highlight the current issues of the investment environment and investment climate in economy, to study the transformation processes taking place in Georgia during the last two decades, to conduct analysis using proper methods, to show the current social and political as well as other important processes, to generalize them and to form proper opinions. Findings based on research suggest that it is possible to speed up the process of economic development of Georgia. However, the situation will remain difficult in the region and the factors causing the recession _ instability in oil prices and the weakening of the national currency against the US dollar will still be present. In conclusion, the opinion can be formed that a stable and predictable legislative process is important for the investment environment. Therefore, all the parties that may undergo the changes should be informed and involved in every project planned by the government; At present, it becomes necessary to further extend the deregulation policy, which should include the development of financial and investment sectors and support of the establishment of appropriate infrastructure, promotion of the further development of microfinance institutions, investment companies and funds, designing the system of investment insurance and stimulation, elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy and artificial barriers, etc. (shrink)

The majority of current interpreters of Aristotle’s theory of perception assume that perception must be understood as a passive process. This assumption is mainly justified by systematic considerations. Particularly influential for the ongoing debate on the proper understanding of Aristotle’s theory is the work of Myles Burnyeat, whose interpretation amounts to a devastating critique of the Aristotelian philosophy of perception. This paper wants to shed some light on the kind of activity that is involved in perception. It will be shown (...) that by considering the special kind of activity with which Aristotle identifies perception many of the problems that are seen by Burnyeat and others can be circumvented and a coherent interpretation can be provided, which, in turn, must be considered to be essential in order to judge the systematic relevance of Aristotle’s theory of perception. (shrink)

Andrée-Anne Cormier and Harry Brighouse explore the question of whether there are good reasons for schools to try and produce citizens disposed to use, and practiced in, civil discourse and behavior, and if so, what this implies for schools. First, the authors propose an account of the value (and disvalue) of civility, drawing on Cheshire Calhoun’s conception. They argue that civility is good in many circumstances, but not always. In some circumstances, it is neither beneficial nor morally required. Second, (...) they elucidate the reasons for teaching civility in schools and what they think that doing so would involve, what demands it would make on teachers, and how the aim of promoting civility would shape the structure of schools. Finally, they identify some reasons for pessimism that schools can be very successful in promoting civility. They do not think that these are conclusive reasons against teaching civility in schools, but they suggest that civility can only be taught well if educators are clear-eyed about the hurdles they will have to overcome. (shrink)

In this paper we examine the genealogy and transmission of moral duty in Western ethics. We begin with an uncontroversial account of the Stoic notion of the kathēkon, and then examine the pivotal moment of Cicero’s translation of it into Latin as ‘officium’. We take a deflationary view of the impact of Cicero’s translation and conclude that his translation does not mark a departure from the Stoic ideal. We find further confirmation of our deflationary position in the development of the (...) notion of ‘duty’ in Germany between the 16th and 18th centuries. We examine Pufendorf’s critique of ancient eudaimonism and his appropriation of officium, and claim that it foreshadows Kant’s rejection of Garve’s Ciceronian ethics. We demonstrate the undeniable parallels between Kant’s Groundwork and Garve’s influential translation of Cicero’s De Officiis, thereby indicating a novel way in which we should understand Cicero’s contribution to the development of modern moral philosophy. (shrink)

With reference to Steven Feld’s “acoustemology,” his epistemology of sounding and listening, developed in the Bosavi Rainforest in Papua New Guinea, where the trees are too dense to afford a distant view and meaning has to be found up close, on the body with other human and more-than-human bodies, this essay deliberates how sound knows in entanglements and from the in-between: in a being with as a knowing with rather than from a distance. In this way, this essay, from the (...) densities of the rainforest, critiques Western knowledge and its reliance on visual categories, straight lines, and universalising principles that pretend objectivity and a distant view. Instead, it turns to the relational indivisibility of sound that lets us hear interdependencies and confronts us with the invisible of which we are part. In conclusion, it proposes that sound studies as applied, transversal studies enable such a paradigm shift that at once reveals what hegemonic knowledge strands exclude and invites a different dialogue from the in-between of everything. (shrink)

In Germany the voices calling for a critical discussion of racist ideas in the works of the so-called classics of philosophy are growing louder. So far, the focus has been primarily on Kant and Hegel, in whose works racist statements are easily detected. However, the role of these racist ideas in their respective systems remains unclear, and especially in the case of Kant, the question also arises whether Kant is the author of the statements at all. Moreover, the accusation itself (...) is quite ambiguous both in terms of its premises and its subject matter. This paper aims to help clarify this debate. It is primarily concerned with Kant’s philosophy, which is, however, situated in the context of some of the central assumptions of the Enlightenment. It will be shown that racist claims result from crucial elements of Kant’s mature philosophical system. (shrink)

This English translation of Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken offers a rare, intimate view of the philosopher by Lou Salomé, a free-thinking, Russian-born intellectual to whom Nietzsche proposed marriage at only their second meeting. Published in 1894 as its subject languished in madness, Salomé's book rode the crest of a surge of interest in Nietzsche's iconoclastic philosophy. She discusses his writings and such biographical events as his break with Wagner, attempting to ferret out the man in the midst of his (...) works. Salomé's provocative conclusion -- that Nietzsche's madness was the inevitable result of his philosophical views -- generated considerable controversy. Nietzsche's sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, dismissed the book as a work of fantasy. Yet the philosopher's longtime acquaintance Erwin Rohde wrote, "Nothing better or more deeply experienced or perceived has ever been written about Nietzsche." Siegfried Mandel's extensive introduction examines the circumstances that brought Lou Salomé and Nietzsche together and the ideological conflicts that drove them apart. (shrink)

This chapter explores Cicero’s reception in the German Enlightenment, a topic that has garnered less scholarly attention compared to his influence in the Anglosphere. Focusing on Johann Joachim Spalding and Christian Garve as case studies, we highlight Cicero’s profound and often underappreciated impact on German intellectual thought, particularly in shaping ideas about the human vocation (Bestimmung des Menschen)—a legacy that extends even to the towering figure of the German Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant.

We comment on the preceding reviews of our book “ Memory Evolutive Systems ”, discussing the improvements proposed by some of the reviewers and answering to critics of others, in particular on the use of category theory for modeling living systems.

This paper examines the development of the modern concept of substance from Leibniz to Hegel. I will focus primarily on the problem of the inner and outer nature of substance. I will show that if one considers Hegel’s discussion of substance against the background of the controversy between Leibniz and Kant about the inner and outer nature of substance, it becomes clear that for Hegel both Leibniz and Kant grasped the whole concept of substance only partially and in its abstract (...) moments. This is because they both concentrate on one aspect of substance and absolutize it. Hegel, on the other hand, not only overcomes the fundamental difference between the inner and outer of substance, but also develops the connection between the different moments of substance, causality and interaction from the rationalist concept of substance itself. (shrink)

Cicero distinguishes between two forms of divination: natural and artificial divination. Most contemporary scholars assume that Cicero presents a Stoic division and some even draw far-reaching conclusions about the scientific status of divination based on this distinction. However, his justification for the division is apparently contradictory and neither fits with Stoic nor Peripatetic claims that are found elsewhere. This paper examines the exact meaning of the division and sheds light on its Stoic and Peripatetic origin. In this way, we will (...) not only be able to better understand the overall argument of Cicero’s De divinatione, but also to assess his real achievement as a philosophical author. (shrink)

Kant’s postulate of the immortality of the soul has received strikingly little attention among Kant scholars, and only very few have regarded it positively. This is not surprising given the numerous problems associated with his argument. However, it is not the only argument for immortality that Kant offers in his critical philosophy. There is also a second argument that differs from the one furnished in the Second Critique and can be found both in the Critique of Pure Reason and later (...) texts from the 1790s. Kant also addresses here many of the problems that interpreters have found with his postulate of immortality in both earlier and later texts. This paper considers the main difficulties associated with the postulate and proposes a coherent interpretation of Kant’s argument. I show that despite the apparent change in his approach to immortality Kant did not in fact substantially alter his position during his critical period. (shrink)

Kant’s highest good consists of happiness and the worthiness of happiness, that is, morality. The question of the exact connection between these two parts is disputed. Some argue that Kant proposed different, sometimes contradictory, concepts of the highest good. First, the highest good is said to consist in the distribution of happiness in relation to morality. Second, the highest good is said to describe a maximal or best state in which the greatest morality is associated with the highest happiness. This (...) paper will show how the problematic relationship between the two elements of the highest good can be resolved and explain the different versions of the highest good. (shrink)

In recent years, many scholars have offered innovative accounts of social categories such as gender, race, and disability. By contrast, comparatively little work has been done on the category of children. The goal of our paper is to offer a new account of what children are. We start by discussing the two main accounts that have been put forward so far in the literature: naturalistic accounts and normative accounts. According to the former, to be a child is a matter of (...) possessing, or lacking, some ‘natural’ and ‘objective’ properties. According to the latter, to be a child is to possess a particular normative status. We argue that both naturalistic and normative accounts are subject to a variety of objections. We then propose our own social constructivist account. According to it, to be a child in any given society is to be regarded by the dominant ideology of that society as the target of a set of broadly paternalistic norms, in virtue of the possession of a cluster of natural properties such that, according to the dominant ideology of that society, it is justified to subject that individual to such norms. We conclude our paper by showing that our account meets the criteria of success for an account of what it is to be a child and by addressing some objections. (shrink)

For every$n\in \omega \setminus \{0,1\}$we introduce the following weak choice principle:$\operatorname {nC}_{<\aleph _0}^-:$For every infinite family$\mathcal {F}$of finite sets of size at least n there is an infinite subfamily$\mathcal {G}\subseteq \mathcal {F}$with a selection function$f:\mathcal {G}\to \left [\bigcup \mathcal {G}\right ]^n$such that$f(F)\in [F]^n$for all$F\in \mathcal {G}$.Moreover, we consider the following choice principle:$\operatorname {KWF}^-:$For every infinite family$\mathcal {F}$of finite sets of size at least$2$there is an infinite subfamily$\mathcal {G}\subseteq \mathcal {F}$with a Kinna–Wagner selection function. That is, there is a function$g\colon \mathcal (...) {G}\to \mathcal {P}\left (\bigcup \mathcal {G}\right )$with$\emptyset \not =f(F)\subsetneq F$for every$F\in \mathcal {G}$.We will discuss the relations between these two choice principles and their relations to other well-known weak choice principles. Moreover, we will discuss what happens when we replace$\mathcal {F}$by a linearly ordered or a well-ordered family. (shrink)