Nesta investigação pretendemos captar o papel que a pregação cristã desempenhou, ao longo do período da patrística, na difusão do Evangelho. Na continuidade da evangelização levada a cabo pelos Apóstolos, os Padres da Igreja assumiram a herança do imperativo missionário, dado por Cristo: o catecumenato se cristaliza como instituição eclesial na Igreja do séc. III (_Katecumenoi_ no oriente, e _audientes_ no ocidente), mas recebe a herança de um processo de evangelização cujas raízes se estendem não só à missão levada a (...) cabo pelos próprios Apóstolos, mas também à missão evangelizadora do próprio Jesus. Por tudo isso, nos primeiros séculos, não podemos dissociar os conceitos de pregação e de educação. Centraremos a nossa atenção na figura de Santo Agostinho, salientando, por um lado, o seu contributo no lançamento dos alicerces teóricos e práticos da oratória sagrada, enquanto pastor e educador. A sua vida, a pregação, os seus escritos fizeram de Santo Agostinho o educador do ocidente, cuja matriz marcará definitivamente o futuro do cristianismo. (shrink)

Nesta investigação, propomo-nos demonstrar que Jesus foi um verdadeiro contador de histórias. A narrativa lucana conhecida tradicionalmente por parábola do Filho pródigo não é propriamente uma parábola, pois assume os contornos formais de um conto, podendo-se nela encontrar as caraterística centrais do género literário “o conto”. Nela encontramos propriedades configuradoras da sua individualização como género: a conclusão moralizante de uma história fechada, com princípio, meio e fim; a concentração de espaço, tempo e reduzido número de personagens; a curta extensão sintagmática, (...) mas sempre extensa comparada com a das parábolas. Em suma, concluímos que estamos perante um verdadeiro e extraordinário conto. Há, no entanto, outras narrativas evangélicas que pelas suas características se assemelham à do Filho pródigo. Podemos assim identificar a do Administrador infiel, a narrativa dos Vinhateiros homicidas, a das Moedas de ouro e respetivos paralelos de Mt, que se revestem de característica muito semelhantes às do Filho pródigo, apesar de muito menos desenvolvidas e que, no fundo, as consideramos como sendo embriões de contos. (shrink)

The online dating application has in recent years become a major avenue for meeting potential partners. But while the digital public sphere has gained the attention of political philosophers, a systematic normative evaluation of issues arising in the ‘digital sexual sphere’ is lacking. I provide a philosophical framework for assessing dating app corporation conduct, capturing why people use these apps and their experience so often is unsatisfactory. Identifying dating apps as agents intervening in a social institution necessary for the reproduction (...) of society, with immense power over people's lives, I ask if they exercise their power in line with individuals’ interests. Acknowledging that people have claims to non-interference, equal standing, and choice improvement relating to intimacy, I find that the traditional, non-digital, sexual sphere poses problems to their realisation, especially for sexual minorities. In this context, apps’ potential for justice in the sexual sphere is immense, but unfulfilled. (shrink)

This paper examines what social auditing has to offer Oxfam and similar organisations involved in the collection of charitable donations for international development and relief operations in terms of improving the quality of their work, increasing their accountability to stakeholders, and their capacity to achieve impact in terms of their institutional goals. In looking at the particular case of Oxfam, it discusses issues in relation to the establishment of social auditing with relevance for similar organisations.The paper points out that since (...) Oxfam is not a profit-making organisation, but one based on a humanitarian impulse, there are many ways in which it already lives up to the ideals of social audit. The paper lists areas of governance and systems where Oxfam is currently responding to the major principles of social audit, and some of the issues encountered in doing so. These principles have been defined by Zadek (1997) as follows. (shrink)

O nosso intuito é refletir sobre a noção de ética e cegueira aspetual na filosofia de Wittgenstein. Trata-se de abordar a ética, apresentada de forma tantas vezes fragmentada, a partir da “Conferência sobre ética” e das noções de cegueira aspetual e inexprimível, para além de se tomar em consideração tudo aquilo que Wittgenstein escreveu sobre ele próprio. É nesta relação entre ética, interpretação e biografia que se pode vislumbrar a perspetiva de Wittgenstein.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, Europe's largest banks have largely remained unchallenged. Is this because of the structural power banks continue to hold over states? This article challenges the view that states are sheer hostages of banks’ capacity to provide credit to the real economy—the conventional definition of structural power. Instead, it sheds light on the geo-economic dimension of banks’ power: key public officials conceive the position of “their own” banks in global financial markets as a crucial dimension of state (...) power. State priority toward banking thus results from political choices as to what structurally matters most for the state. Based on a discourse analysis of parliamentary debates in France, Germany, and Spain, as well as on a comparative analysis of the implementation of a special tax on banks, this article shows that power dynamics within states largely shape political priorities toward banking at both domestic and international levels. (shrink)

El dolor, el placer y las emociones que suscitan constituyen importantes señalizadores biológicos que a lo largo de la vida intervienen de un modo crítico en la adquisición del sistema de valores (recompensas y castigos) que guía el comportamiento. Los sistemas emocionales del cerebro garantizan la formación de memorias robustas y duraderas para todos aquellos estímulos que adquieren significado biológico. Las deficiencias en los sistemas perceptivos y emocionales del cerebro afectan a la construcción del sistema de valores de los individuos (...) y pueden alterar el comportamiento ordinario, la inteligencia y la personalidad. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza un nuevo modo creativo específico de la ilustración: la ilustración corpórea. Este concepto aborda la tridimensionalidad de la ilustración gráfica desde su práctica contemporánea encontrándonos con autores como Dulk. Su implementación en la teoría visual y artística supone la posibilidad de dar nombre y caracterizar la corporeidad de la imagen de carácter gráfico-ilustrativo en un concepto específico y global. La tridimensionalidad efectiva de las imágenes es una realidad artística en crecimiento que define una importante y (...) significativa línea de desarrollo en el ámbito de la creación y de la ilustración. (shrink)

Nous sommes aujourd'hui confrontés, à travers les objets techniques comme la réalité virtuelle ou, plus quotidiennement les images des jeux vidéo, à un changement qui affecte non pas les objets de la perception mais la perception elle-même. Ce changement a un nom qui est aussi un des grands impensés de la philosophie du XXe siècle : la «perception artificielle». A travers les textes d'Edmund Husserl, Jacques Derrida et Bernard Stiegler et en s'appuyant sur des cas empruntés tant aux jeux vidéos (...) et aux dispositifs de simulation qu'au cinéma, Elsa Boyer se livre à une enquête philosophique à la fois radicale et profonde. Car c'est la perception elle-même que son artificialité l'amène à repenser, par-delà l'opposition entre le réel et l'imaginaire. Relisant Husserl après Derrida et confrontant le dernier au fantôme du premier, Elsa Boyer nous montre comment la réalité virtuelle nous oblige à (re)faire de la philosophie. (shrink)

Among various case studies addressing the reception of relativity, very few deal with Portugal at either the international or the national level. The national literature on the topic has mainly concentrated on the reactions to relativity of the Portuguese mathematical community. The absence of Portuguese astronomers alongside Eddington during the 1919 expedition to Principe, then a Portuguese island, has been implicitly equated with the astronomical community's lack of interest in the event. In reception studies dealing with general relativity, analysis has (...) tended to focus on the physics and mathematics communities, less on the astronomers. Given that relativity was born at the interface of physics, mathematics and astronomy, reactions of members of these scientific communities depended on differences in shared traditions, values, problems and expectations, as well as on individual practitioners' idiosyncrasies. This paper addresses the contributions of the overlooked Portuguese astronomical community, evaluates the actions and reactions of its members to the expedition and assesses their role in the process of appropriation of relativity. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage pluridisciplinaire est issu d'un séminaire international organisé par le groupe de recherche Déméter : Histoire, femmes et genre (Université d'Oviedo). Il s'inscrit au croisement de l'histoire de la maternité et de l'histoire de la médecine, dans une perspective féministe. Les auteures puisent dans des travaux historiques, philosophiques aussi bien qu'anthropologiques pour aborder la manière dont l'accouchement et plus généralement la maternité ont été encadrés, vécus et débattus...

Le interpretazioni di Walter Benjamin si estendono dall’estremo di considerarlo l’ultimo significativo uomo di lettere del periodo precedente alla seconda guerra mondiale fino all’estremo opposto di ritenerlo un rabbino hassidico. C’è accordo sul fatto che circa dal 1916-1920 Benjamin fu interessato alla teologia e alla metafisica ebraica e cristiana e che dal 1925 circa fino alla sua morte nel 1940 fu apertamente marxista e giunse fino alla quasi esclusione della metafisica. L’articolo individua le ambiguità della cosmologia teistica del primo Benjamin, (...) sostenendo che l’instabilità intrinseca delle sue considerazioni, specialmente su linguaggio, giudizio e allegoria, lo ha costretto ad abbandonare il platonismo giovanile e ad abbracciare una cosmologia in cui Dio è nascosto. Proprio come i primi atei si ispirarono alla speculazione di Duns Scoto secondo il quale un triangolo avrebbe avuto ancora tre angoli in un universo in cui Dio non esistesse, la visione di Benjamin di un mondo abbandonato da Dio lo condusse, nel corso degli anni Venti, al materialismo ateo. Poiché il materialista Benjamin continuò, nonostante se stesso, a incontrare tracce divine e teleologia nelle sue escursioni letterarie, concluse che doveva cacciare Dio ancora più lontano dalla sua creazione per permettere all’umanità di percepirla come realmente è. Questo atteggiamento si protrasse fino all’ultimo anno di vita di Benjamin, durante il quale scelse di abbracciare la teologia come lo spirito nascosto nella lettera del materialismo storico. Interpretations of Walter Benjamin have ranged from the last pre-war man of letters to a Hasidic rabbi. There is consensus that from roughly 1916-1920 Benjamin was interested in Jewish and Christian theology and metaphysics and that from about 1925 to his death in 1940 he was vocally Marxist to the near exclusion of metaphysics. This article identifies ambiguities in Benjamin’s early, theistic cosmology, arguing that the inherent instability of Benjamin’s accounts especially of language, judgment and allegory compelled him to discard his early Platonism and embrace a cosmology in which God is abscondite. Just as early atheists took inspiration from Duns Scotus’s speculation that a triangle would still have three angles in a universe in which God does not exist, Benjamin’s vision of a world abandoned by God led him, over the course of the 1920s, into atheistic materialism. When the materialist Benjamin continued, despite himself, to encounter divine traces and teleology in his literary excursions, he concluded that he had to chase God even further from his creation in order for humanity to perceive the latter as it really was. This state of affairs continued until the last year of Benjamin’s life, during which he chose to embrace theology as the hidden spirit lurking within the letter of historical materialism. (shrink)

In search of human uniqueness Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9472-6 Authors Elsa Addessi, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Via Ulisse Aldrovandi, 16/b, 00197 Rome, Italy Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

John and Curran have convincingly shown that Scanlonian contractualism is a valuable resource for evaluating pandemic response policies, and that we should reject cost–benefit analysis in favour of a contractualist framework. However, they fail to consider the part of contractualism that Scanlon constructed precisely to deal with the question of when the state can restrict individuals from making choices that are harmful to themselves and others: the value of choice view. In doing so, they leave it open for opponents of (...) lockdowns to misuse contractualism to justify mistaken policies. This is because the most powerful contractualist objections to locking down are likely to be based on the VoC. When we apply the value of choice view, we see that a lockdown policy’s justifiability depends on the extent to which particular values of choice are found to be threatened by the policy in question, and what safeguards policy-makers have put in place to increase the value of choice and protect people from the harmful consequences of lockdown. Without the VoC, it is harder to explain why lockdowns, to be non-rejectable, must have certain features. With the VoC, the case for contractualism over cost benefit analysis can be made even stronger. (shrink)

Cities of the past enjoyed rich soundscapes full of organic sounds. Such sounds can be hard to hear, even for those that are listening, in many of today’s cities and neighborhoods. Evaluating the sounds of life in urban neighborhoods can be one method of determining the health and vibrancy of an area. A silent neighborhood, one not devoid of sound or noise, but rather missing the sounds of human and animal life, can be detrimental to the community and its residents. (...) This paper both investigates the history of and loss of the diverse urban soundscape and how it can be reclaimed in modern cities. (shrink)

Platons Philosophie des Bildes est un ouvrage imposant et dense, qui propose une lecture générale du sens et de la fonction de l’image dans la philosophie de Platon. En dressant de ceux-ci un tableau synoptique à partir de la période « de maturité », il vise à faire apparaître une « unité remarquable » de la notion platonicienne d’image (« der platonische Bildbegriff »). Si Christoph Poetsch analyse les diverses formes de celle-ci, ainsi que les Gleichnisbilder (analogies et métaphores) les (...) p... (shrink)

The Theatetus and the Sophist present in succession two “battles” regarding ousia. In so doing, ousia is placed at the heart of what is essential to both dialogues : in fact, ousia interconnects with the conditions of possibility, both physical and metaphysical, of logos and epistèmè.However, each dialogue brings differing conceptions of discourse and science into play, and both articulate a different train of thought regarding being. Ousia appears differently in the two dialogues and it is not the same thing (...) as the notion of ousia, usually considered to be truly Platonic, presented in the central books of the Republic, which neither the Socrates of the Theatetus nor the Stranger of the Sophist put forward.Both present ways out of the battles, each has its own middle course. Against the thesis of the non‑immutability of ousia, the Theatetus establishes that there is not only motion. And, unlike the doctrine that reduces ousia to Forms excluding all motion, the Sophist shows that while there is not only motion, there is not only rest either. Such different orientations in the treatment of ousia, just below and just above doctrinal Platonism as it were, adjust to distinctions in the epistemological stakes : even if the Theatetus emphasizes that science proceeds from an activity of the soul bringing together “commons”, it is not yet a question, as it will be the following day, of systematically getting epistèmè to intellectually grasp a set of eidetic relationships, nor of making logos itself the elaboration of relationships. One needs to have left the field where those in favour of motion are challenged on their own ground, and in an albeit transformed field marked out by the partisans of eide which is not the field hierarchical metaphysics either, it will become possible to analyse the discourse itself as a relational framework that is consistent with the framework of ousia. (shrink)

According to Ruth Chang (2002, 2022), incommensurability in hard cases cannot be cases of vagueness. This is because vagueness, unlike hard cases, can always be resolved by arbitrary stipulation, leaving no resolutional remainder or substantive disagreement. Contrary to this, I argue that Chang’s argument fails because proponents of the vagueness view are in no way necessarily committed to the claim that vagueness always can be resolved by arbitrary stipulation. In fact, there seems to be no reason to assume that vagueness (...) could not accommodate our intuitions about resolutional remainder and substantive disagreements in a satisfying way. If we want a simple theory, and if at least some incommensurability is vagueness, this could then be a reason for understanding incommensurability as vagueness; and perhaps even rejecting parity. (shrink)

We discuss the striking similarities between Friedrich Nietzsche's and Wilfrid Sellars's respective philosophies of mind. Drawing especially on recent Nietzsche scholarship by Riccardi and Katsafanas, we argue that the Nietzschean picture of consciousness is essentially the same as Sellars's view of conceptually structured thought. In particular, we argue that both consider structured thinking to be a linguistic phenomenon whose structure, in turn, arises contingently from social interactions within a community. Further, both views provide for a special role to be played (...) by specifically mentalistic vocabulary, making it possible to engage with the mental states of others in a reflective way. We also discuss how this parallel extends to their respective views on perception. Drawing on O'Shea and Riccardi, we argue for interpretations on which there still is a clear connection between their respective views. Finally, we end the article by discussing some reasons why this similarity should not be as unexpected as it initially seems. (shrink)

What is considered normal determines clinical practice in medicine and has implications at an individual level, doctor-patient relationship and health care policies. With the increase in medical information and technical abilities it is urgent to have a clear concept of normality in medicine so that crucial discussions can be held with unequivocal terms.The different meanings for normality were analyzed throughout the literature and grouped according to their relevance in the academic community in models, namely the Biostatistical Theory (BST), Health, Ideal, (...) Process and Biological advantage. The BST is the most established naturalistic approach, however normal variability can arguably constitute a problem. Health is similar and raises the question of setting the boundaries of pathology. Normality as an Ideal is an useful tool but is naturally unrealistic. As a Process it is comprehensible but is hard to frame for practical purposes. If considered as a Biological Advantage, seems intuitive but abnormality should tend to disappear.After, three examples were presented to discuss these models. They were Anemia, Psychiatric diseases and Psychopathy. In the case of Anemia the BST was applied and the arbitrary boundaries but with social impact were exposed. Psychiatric diseases was discussed under the process of self-organization and non-suffering ideal. With Psychopathy the boundaries of biological advantage are questioned.This review appeals to the importance of redesigning of the concept of normality in medicine according to current times and stresses the importance of integrating concepts such as variability and autonomy. (shrink)

Based on therapeutic meetings with individuals who have experienced sexual violence and abuse, the challenge is how do we help these couples to establish sexual relationships on their own terms, without interference of defence or coping strategies they have used to protect themselves against the overwhelming experiences of violence or abuse in the past? This article will focus on therapeutic work with such couples and how to interact with them and support their efforts to establish satisfying sexual relationships, based on (...) sexological experience as well as experience from work with traumatisation. The basis for our treatment is a modified version of William Masters and Virginia Johnson’s approach. The technique of sensate focus is central, modified by trauma theory, including the understanding of dissociation, and the need to integrate memories from different levels: somatic, emotional, and cognitive. The traumatised client needs special attention to the experiences of predictability and safety and respect due to their history of being transgressed against. The therapists must be aware of the issue of dissociation; different dissociated inner parts can play different roles in the interaction between client and therapist. While couples therapy is a necessary frame for this therapy, the therapist often needs to work with issues unique to each individual. Each partner must be able to identify their own responses and their own sexual needs and preferences. It may therefore be valuable to have a co-therapist. The central goal is for the clients to identify responses to stimulation as a here and now experience in a setting that feels safe and welcome. (shrink)

A radical thinking of space remains for phenomenology a difficulty, which Heidegger has been concerned with. He developed an existential conception of the spatiality of Dasein in Being and Time, which he abandoned in his later philosophy; according to its “turn,” this philosophy proposes a notion of emptiness to describe spatial experience. The paper endorses the view that this notion makes possible a thinking of space in its essence. Pursuing further the reflection concerning the empty space, Maldiney advocates the influence (...) of the East Asian tradition on this issue. However, given that none of these authors considers dance as an art susceptible to disclose space in its essential vacuity, this paper aims to argue that there is a true choreographic empty space. (shrink)