Essays that put noted political thinkers of the past—including Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Wollstonecraft, Marx, and Confucius—in dialogue with current environmental political theory. Contemporary environmental political theory considers the implications of the environmental crisis for such political concepts as rights, citizenship, justice, democracy, the state, race, class, and gender. As the field has matured, scholars have begun to explore connections between Green Theory and such canonical political thinkers as Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, and Marx. The essays in this volume put important figures (...) from the political theory canon in dialogue with current environmental political theory. It is the first comprehensive volume to bring the insights of Green Theory to bear in reinterpreting these canonical theorists. Individual essays cover such classical figures in Western thought as Aristotle, Hume, Rousseau, Mill, and Burke, but they also depart from the traditional canon to consider Mary Wollstonecraft, W. E. B. Du Bois, Hannah Arendt, and Confucius. Engaging and accessible, the essays also offer original and innovative interpretations that often challenge standard readings of these thinkers. In examining and explicating how these great thinkers of the past viewed the natural world and our relationship with nature, the essays also illuminate our current environmental predicament. Essays on Plato • Aristotle • Niccolò Machiavelli • Thomas Hobbes • John Locke • David Hume • Jean-Jacques Rousseau • Edmund Burke • Mary Wollstonecraft • John Stuart Mill • Karl Marx • W. E. B. Du Bois • Martin Heidegger • Hannah Arendt • Confucius Contributors Sheryl D. Breen, W. Scott Cameron, Peter F. Cannavò, Joel Jay Kassiola, Joseph H. Lane Jr. Timothy W. Luke, John M. Meyer, Özgüç Orhan, Barbara K. Seeber, Francisco Seijo, Kimberly K. Smith, Piers H. G. Stephens, Zev Trachtenberg, Andrew Valls, Harlan Wilson. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se busca dilucidar cómo Axel Honneth aborda el problema de la dominación en Crítica del poder y La lucha por el reconocimiento. En la primera obra, el autor analiza de qué forma los sujetos sociales construyen prácticas de dominación y no se limitan a legitimarlas a posteriori. Esta concepción del dominio pone a Honneth ante el siguiente problema: ¿comprendería su planteo, además de la construcción activa de los marcos institucionales que regulan las relaciones sociales, el hecho (...) de que los distintos grupos den asentimiento a “formas superfluas de dominación”? El primer objetivo de mi trabajo es desarrollar este problema tal y como se presenta en Crítica del poder, el segundo, apunta a retraducir esa cuestión según los términos teóricos que Honneth introduce en trabajos posteriores al hablar de una lucha por el reconocimiento. Estos trabajos buscan comprender el conflicto que se suscita en torno al reconocimiento entre los diferentes grupos sociales y del que depende que sean considerados miembros legítimos de una comunidad. (shrink)

El artículo examina la importancia que ha tenido para los miembros de la Escuela de Chartres y especialmente para la concepción cosmológica, antropológica y estética de Bernardo Silvestre, la lectura directa del Asclepio hermético. Para llegar a este resultado se expone la historia de las relaciones entre el Asclepio latino y el pensamiento cristiano desde el siglo II al XII y se demuestra el interés que adquieren para entender estas relaciones los escritos hermético gnósticos del Códice VI de la biblioteca (...) copta de Nag Hammadi. (shrink)

Between Faith and Reason is a description of the interaction between our need to believe and our ability to reason. Faced with a reality that threatens him emotionally, man develops and adheres to articles of faith that help him cope with that reality. The author cuts through conflicting interpretations of the human condition to a simple but powerful internal dynamic which points to the fact that reason is always disequilibrating. he book attempts no ultimate explanation of the conflict between rational (...) knowledge and emotional uncertainty, but calls attention to its presence and emphasizes the need to cast a comprehensive and honest view over this conflict if we are ever to make sense of our actions. (shrink)

As is well known, in his Summa theologiae Thomas Aquinas defends from an Aristotelian perspective the scientific nature of sacra doctrina, arguing that it is a science that is subaltern to the knowledge that God has of Himself. Thomas’ interpretation of the Aristotelian doctrine on science allows him to argue that the conclusions of sacra doctrina are reducible to the articles of the faith as to its first principles. What is not well known, however, is that St. Thomas in other (...) texts modifies his view on the way in which sacra doctrinafulfills the requirements for a science. This has been made evident in part by certain recent critical editions, such as Boyle›s edition of the Lectura Romana, and especially by Oliva’s edition of the prologue to the Commentary on the Sentences. Although the articles of the faith are evident in themselves, these texts, seen chronologically, show that throughout his career Aquinas hesitates in acknowledging that from our perspective the articles of the faith are neither evident nor demonstrable, but are objects of religious faith. Throughout these texts Aquinas progressively admits that there exists an imperfection in the mode in which we know sacra doctrina in this life ; therefore, sacra doctrina in a certain way falls short of the perfect ratio of science, at least quoad nos. (shrink)

El artículo señala las limitaciones de dos tradiciones del liberalismo político en tomo a la cuestión de la justicia distributiva en el contexto latinoamericano. El autor muestra la necesidad de un replanteamiento del concepto de justicia, con el fin de conseguir una base normativa más adecuada para la evaluación y crítica de las formas particulares de distribución actualmente existentes de los bienes sociales.

Aristóteles y G.E. Moore, los dos fundadores de la filosofía moral en épocas diferentes, son una especie de símbolo del combate que esta disciplina ha debido librar entre la Escila de un intelectualismo extremo y la Caribdis de un antiintelectualismo igualmente extremo. Los dos han luchado en pro de cierto cognitivismo en materia ética ¿Han escapado por ello a las tentaciones y a los reclamos del no-cognitivismo? ¿Y cuál de los dos se halla más cerca de la vida moral, tal (...) como ella transcurre realmente? ¿Cuál es el lugar efectivo de la razón en ésta y en la ética que la piensa? El autor investiga estas cuestiones en su obra, dedicadas, respectivamente, al dominio, las metas y los métodos de la filosofía moral. (shrink)

The Colombian conflict seems a typical instantiation of a “greedy war”and exhibits very strong links between criminal economic activities and rebel organizations. On the contrary, the author suggests that not even in Colombia does the “criminal rebels” thesis hold. On the other hand, the Colombian case shows that criminality and war mix in ways that escape a strictly economic interpretation of war.

Desde una concepción relacional de la justicia de inspiración rawlsiana, las ideas de la cooperación, la reciprocidad y la interacción han sido propuestas para interpretar el fundamento de las reivindicaciones legítimas de justicia distributiva y para restringir su ámbito de aplicación a sociedades políticas o Estados particulares. En este artículo se analizan los principales intentos de justificar esta restricción y se argumentará en contra de ellos. Se finalizará con la presentación de otra forma de interpretar la concepción relacional de la (...) justicia que posibilita una aproximación crítica a las complejas injusticias con las que nos interpela nuestro mundo en globalización. (shrink)

Hospitality can be considered a key institution in the social relationships in the ancient Mediterranean. To identify the people involved in a hospitality agreement, in certain contexts small objects were used in a similar way to a password, which the Greeks called symbolon and the Romans tessera hospitalis. We know how the latter were used thanks to Plautus' Poenulus. At least 64 pieces are currently known which may be identified as tesserae hospitales. All come from the Western Mediterranean. The majority (...) contain brief inscriptions, written in Etruscan, Latin, Greek, or Celtiberian. They share a series of common features, which impart a clear family resemblance beyond geographic, cultural, or linguistic borders. (shrink)

Recent ?dynamical? approaches to relativity by Harvey Brown and his colleagues have used John Bell's own solution to a problem in relativity which has in the past sometimes been called ?Bell's spaceships paradox?, in a central way. This paper examines solutions to this problem in greater detail and from a broader philosophical perspective than Brown et al. offer. It also analyses the well-known analogy between special relativity and classical thermodynamics. This analysis leads to the sceptical conclusion that Bell's solution yields (...) neither new philosophical insights concerning the foundations of relativity nor differential support for a specific view concerning the existence of space-time. (shrink)

Un tema complejo en la bioética contemporánea es el que versa sobre la decisión de poner fin a una vida humana, y dentro de éste, quizás el que tiene que ver con la práctica de la eutanasia voluntaria es el más ampliamente discutido. Desde el punto de vista de su consideración moral, no es poco frecuente encontrar en los debates en torno al tópico la apelación a la palabra “dignidad humana”. Este ensayo reflexiona sobre las diferencias y similitudes de significado (...) que tiene el concepto de dignidad para las tres tradiciones morales occidentales más importantes, a saber, la utilitarista, la bíblica y la kantiana. Nuestro objetivo es revisar la postura moral que estas mismas tradiciones mantienen sobre la cuestión del suicidio asistido desde el punto de vista de sus particulares concepciones de dignidad.A complex issue in contemporary bioethics concerns with the decision of putting an end to a human life, and within this, the topic of voluntary euthanasia is perhaps the most widely discussed. From the standpoint of moral consideration it is very common to find in these discussions the appeal to the concept of “human dignity”. This essay seeks to reflect upon the differences and similarities of the meaning of the word “human dignity” for the more important moral Western traditions, namely, Utilitarian, Biblical and Kantian ethics. Our aim is to review the moral position that each of these traditions hold upon the issue of assisted suicide. (shrink)

This paper intends to investigate in Hannah Arendt's last work The Life of the Mind the relationship between thinking and action, which is in the origin of the conflict between philosophy and politics and has influenced the whole philosophical tradition. Arendt aims to show that these two activities are not by themselves incompatible with each other, as this tradition made efforts to establish, but they have become so through the "professional" philosophical use of thinking.Este artigo trata do relacionamento entre pensamento (...) e ação na obra final de Hannah Arendt, A vida do espírito, que se encontra, segundo ela, na origem do conflito entre filosofia e política e teve influência sobre toda a tradição filosófica. Arendt pretende mostrar que essas duas atividades não são por si próprias incompatíveis entre si, como a tradição se esforçou por fazer crer, mas apenas assim se tornaram pelo uso "profissional" que o filósofo faz do pensamento. (shrink)