Inequity has been a hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, especially in the sharply disproportionate impacts among people of color. Recent studies have confirmed that t...

The major statements of the leading figures in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century German and French hermeneutic traditions.

The essays presented here offer contemporary analyses of interpretation by prominent figures in philosophy and literary criticism, including Foucault, Kristeva, and Derrida.

This essay reads Iris Marion Young’s foundational essay “Throwing Like a Girl” as one of the first serious attempts to mount a critique of phenomenology’s universal aspirations using its own methods, in order to show that its humanism was deeply, if unknowingly, inflected by gender. I show how Young’s use of Erwin Straus’s and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological methods both extend and challenge their claims, and her how assertions about the particularity of feminine existence call into question some of phenome-nology’s deepest (...) convictions about bodily existence in general. Her argument thus uses phenomenology to call into question the phenomenological foundation on which it rests, in a feminist reconsideration of motility, space, intentionality, and transcendence. I conclude by turning to “Throwing Like a Girl: Twenty Years Later” twenty years after its publication and consider the phenomenology of action and relation that Young gestures toward there. Dans cet article, nous présenterons l’article révolutionnaire d’Iris Marion Young, « Lancer comme une fille », comme l’une des premières tentatives de critiquer les aspirations universelles de la phénoménologie en utilisant ses propres méthodes. Young démontre que l’humanisme de la phénoménologie est profondément (et mal-gré elle) influencé par le genre. Nous montrerons en quoi le recours par Young aux approches phénoménologiques d’Erwin Straus et de Maurice Merleau-Ponty permet de mettre à l’épreuve leurs thèses. Nous expliquerons ensuite comment son exploration de la spécificité de l’existence féminine met en question les convictions les plus profondes de la phénoménologie concernant l’existence corporelle en général. Ainsi, en examinant la motilité, l’intentionnalité et la transcendance dans une perspective féministe, Young fait appel à la phénoménologie pour questionner les fondements phénoménologiques sur lesquels il repose. Dans un deuxième temps, nous abor-derons, vingt ans après sa publication, l’article « Throwing Like a Girl : Twenty Years Later » pour présenter la phénoménologie de l’action et de la relation qui y est esquissée. (shrink)

[D. H. Mellor] Kant's claim that our knowledge of time is transcendental in his sense, while false of time itself, is true of tenses, i.e. of the locations of events and other temporal entities in McTaggart's A series. This fact can easily, and I think only, be explained by taking time itself to be real but tenseless. /// [J. R. Lucas] Mellor's argument from Kant fails. The difficulties in his first Antinomy are due to topological confusions, not the tensed nature (...) of time. Nor are McTaggart' s difficulties due to the tensed nature of time. The ego-centricity of tensed discourse is an essential feature of communication between selves, each of whom refers himself as 'I', and is required for talking about time as well as experience and agency. Arguments based on the Special Theory are misconceived. Some rest on a confused notion of 'topological simultaneity'. In the General Theory a cosmic time is defined, as also in quantum mechanics, where a natural present is defined by a unique hyperplane of collapse into eigen-ness. (shrink)

This study, the third in a series of three, draws on a broader Norwegian research project exploring the phenomenon of support for young persons with mental health issues. The aim was to explore and explicate the sense of “nourishing communion”, as a somewhat neglected aspect of support. Fourteen Norwegian young adults, aged 18-25, were interviewed about their experiences of support. Data was analyzed using van Manen’s hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to open up possible meanings of how nourishing communion is concretely lived. Analysis (...) was supplemented by in-depth reflexive dialogues between the first and second author, which fostered a nourishing communion akin to the processes and dimensions of our phenomenon of interest. Findings highlight five intertwined existential themes: a) trusting the other to hold vulnerability safely; b) flourishing in mutual participation; c) acceptance in a felt togetherness; d) feeling found and received; and e) feeling an attuned resonance. The notion of “nourishing communion” as a significant but neglected element of support challenges current practice, suggesting the need for a different approach to collaboration with young persons and their networks. From the perspectives both of individual professional engagement and of policy making, there is a need for further exploration of how young persons might be supported to create and maintain a broader range of nourishing relationships. (shrink)

BackgroundHealth research funding agencies are placing a growing focus on knowledge translation (KT) plans, also known as dissemination and implementation (D&I) plans, in grant applications to decrease the gap between what we know from research and what we do in practice, policy, and further research. Historically, review panels have focused on the scientific excellence of applications to determine which should be funded; however, relevance to societal health priorities, the facilitation of evidence-informed practice and policy, or realizing commercialization opportunities all require (...) a different lens.DiscussionWhile experts in their respective fields, grant reviewers may lack the competencies to rigorously assess the KT components of applications. Funders of health research—including health charities, non-profit agencies, governments, and foundations—have an obligation to ensure that these components of funding applications are as rigorously evaluated as the scientific components. In this paper, we discuss the need for a more rigorous evaluation of knowledge translation potential by review panels and propose how this may be addressed.ConclusionWe propose that reviewer training supported in various ways including guidelines and KT expertise on review panels and modalities such as online and face-to-face training will result in the rigorous assessment of all components of funding applications, thus increasing the relevance and use of funded research evidence. An unintended but highly welcome consequence of such training could be higher quality D&I or KT plans in subsequent funding applications from trained reviewers. (shrink)

[D. H. Mellor] Kant's claim that our knowledge of time is transcendental in his sense, while false of time itself, is true of tenses, i.e. of the locations of events and other temporal entities in McTaggart's A series. This fact can easily, and I think only, be explained by taking time itself to be real but tenseless. /// [J. R. Lucas] Mellor's argument from Kant fails. The difficulties in his first Antinomy are due to topological confusions, not the tensed nature (...) of time. Nor are McTaggart' s difficulties due to the tensed nature of time. The ego-centricity of tensed discourse is an essential feature of communication between selves, each of whom refers himself as 'I', and is required for talking about time as well as experience and agency. Arguments based on the Special Theory are misconceived. Some rest on a confused notion of 'topological simultaneity'. In the General Theory a cosmic time is defined, as also in quantum mechanics, where a natural present is defined by a unique hyperplane of collapse into eigen-ness. (shrink)

Multidimensional adjectives are ubiquitous in natural language. An adjective F is multidimensional just in case whether F applies to an object or pair of objects depends on how those objects stand with respect to multiple underlying dimensions of F-ness. Developing a semantics for multidimensional adjectives requires us to address the problem of dimensional aggregation: how do the application conditions of an adjective F in its positive and comparative forms depend on its underlying dimensions? Here we develop a semantics for (...) multidimensional adjectives that incorporates aggregation functions. We then explore an analogy between dimensional aggregation and preference aggregation, bringing results from social choice theory to bear on the number and kind of aggregation functions that are admissible in a context. These results suggest that, for any given adjective, there will often be multiple aggregation functions admissible, meaning that multidimensional comparatives are often vague. (shrink)

"It is the highest possibility of philosophy to become, as metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, and to go beyond itself in the religious relation to God." It is this possibility that the author affirms, and for which he attempts to lay the groundwork. The pre-knowledge of Being grounds all our metaphysical understanding of the "that-ness" and "what-ness" of beings. God, as Absolute Being, becomes the unifying ground of both the ontological questioner and the objective world of his activity. (...) The merit of this work, and the source of much of its difficulty, is its attempt to bring together a modern subjective approach to ontology and religion with a wealth of scholastic concepts.--D. T. C. (shrink)

Anselm saw theology as fides quaerens intellectum, faith searching for understanding. Theology concerns itself with human awareness of something that transcends humanity. It starts where we are and involves a given-ness which forms its fundamental basis. Human experience or awareness of God is interpreted from within this agreed framework. Theology is a way of experiencing and interpreting life but it is also dynamic body of knowledge. Within the Christian tradition, this can be seen in the theologies from the so-called (...) ‘margins’. The study of such a dynamic body of knowledge has been the concern of theology and religious studies degree programmes in modern Universities. Theology is however, not the preserve of the elite professionals. The professional theologians need to stand alongside ordinary people and learning from their experiences as much as theirs. (shrink)

In this paper I critique the concept of social groups deployed by Iris Marion Young in her well-known theory of the five faces of oppression. I contend that Young’s approach to conceptualizing social groups creates arbitrary and inconsistent categories, essentializes certain groups, and fails to take seriously the complexity of pluralism. I propose that Margaret Gilbert’s work in social metaphysics provides a more philosophically robust account of social groups that serves as a helpful corrective to Young’s approach. Gilbert’s account of (...) “we”-ness, as well as her theory of the nature of individuals and collectivities, provides a helpful vantage point for critiquing Young’s project and its emphasis on the social process of differentiation in the formation of social groups. (shrink)

This essay demonstrates that Athenagoras’ theology is primarily concerned, not with the creative activity of God, as L.W. Barnard has argued, but rather with the immateriality of the divine nature and the unity of the Father and the Son. It is this two-fold basis of distinction and unity that makes the apprehension of God possible only by mind and reason. Since the divine nature is heavenly and immaterial, such apprehension cannot occur in the physical realm as promoted in pagan worship, (...) but must take place in the mind through the Son, who is the Logos or Mind, the Reason and Wisdom of the Father. Athenagoras’ assertion that the immaterial God can only be apprehended by reason emphasizes the distinction between God and matter, while the unity of the Father and Son in God’s acts and teachings highlights the role of reason in the soul’s apprehension of the divine. One must be conformed to the Son, who is the Reason of God, in order to apprehend God the Father, and Athenagoras evokes the ethical dimension of reason in the soul’s apprehension of the divine. As the soul follows the Son in obeying his teachings, it is conformed to the Son, thereby becoming rational and engaging in rational worship, focusing on the heavenly rather than the earthly. Thus it is in ethical conduct that Christians are essentially pure in spirit and rational in worship, as they are directed by the Son, who is unified with the Father, to apprehend the immaterial God. (shrink)

If one answers the question ‘What is G-ness?’ with a biconditional of the form ‘x is G iff x is F,’ one can ask whether x is G because it is F, or whether x is F because it is G. This question, known as The Euthyphro Question, invites one to choose between one of two options which are presented as mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive: either x is G because it is F, or x is F because it (...) is G but not both. Each answer has its attractions and difficulties. The _Euthyphro Problem_ is the problem of choosing one rather than the other. This paper argues that holism in the theory of reasons — a view developed by Jonathan Dancy in a different context and for a different purpose — provides a novel and elegant solution to this age-old problem. (shrink)

O presente trabalho pretende investigar as veredas da estética da crueldade construídas no romance Venenos de Deus, remédios do Diabo, de Mia Couto, a partir da hibridização, desterriorização e dos percursos das identidades diaspóricas criadas e fragmentadas nos discursos existentes na Vila Cacimba, cenário que documenta a história de Bartolomeu Sozinho, sua esposa Dona Munda, o médico Sidónio Rosa e a mulher que este ama e busca reencontrar em Vila Cacimba, Deolinda. Nesse cenário é que os textos acerca da língua (...) enquanto colonização, da suposta epidemia enquanto multietnicidade, da diáspora, das miscigenações vistas com muita resistência, e certas inversões de significados tidos como maniqueísmos e tabus, como sugere o próprio título Venenos de Deus, remédios do Diabo, desvelam estéticas da crueldade nos cruzamentos de fronteiras e nas fronteiras que se cruzam em discursos identitários. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:SOME DOGMATIC CONSEQUENCES OF PAUL F. KNITTER'S UNITARIAN THEOCENTRISM PAUL D. MOLNAR St. John's University Jamaica, New York EACTIONS TO Paul Knitter's No Other Nanie? vary from criticizing his "unitarian theocentrism" 1 and his sliding away from "creedal Chrisitology" 2 to unequivocail endorsement of his" less Christocentric approach to a theo1ogy of religions;" 3 this shows the challenge Knitter poses to current dogmatics. This 1arHcile w1ll explore three critical (...) dogmatic issues related to Knitter's non-normative ChristoJogy. First, can the idea that Jesus is one savior among others be defonded froni within the Christian-Catholic 1tradition without yie1ding the truth of Christology? Second, if "Jesus remains universailly normativ ;e " for Christians while " other revelations or rev;ea:lers might also be universaUy normative," then does this not p:vomote some form of docetic Christology and lead to a unitarianism, exduded by the naiture of the God revealed in Christ? Third, on the basis of " l'eligious experience " Knitter olaims to perceive an" evolution from ecolesiocentrism to chrfatocentrism to theocentrism" and finally to "soteriooentrism." 4 Is there 1!1ea1ly such an evolution? And if there is noit, oan those who de- ~end the tradition succeed by arguing from experience and praxis rather than from revelation and faith? 5 Moreover, if 1"Review Symposium: Paul Knitter's No Other Name?: A Critical Survey of OMistian Attitudes toward the World Religions," in Horizons 13 (1986): 116-135. This is the view of Daniel Sheridan, p. llS. 2 This is the view of Denise Carmody. Ibid., p. 122. s This is the view of William Cenkner. Ibid., p. 127. 4 Ibid., pp. 133-34. 5 Denise Carmody, e.g., believes that we should stress praxis more than 449 450 PAUL D. MOLNAR we think the tradition should not be defended, have we not ceased to think about theological truth? Rather, have we not made divinity itself indis:tingiuishab1e from our human experiences and praxis at the outset? And does this not open the door to both polytheism allJd pantheism? By making God hut noit Christ normative, Knitter's " nonnormati ¥e" Christology re-1transiates the truth of Jesus' oonsubstantiality with the Father into the content of a myth, an experienice or a vailue judgment having no re1ality in itseH.6 It then defines :reveiLation and salvation.aocording to a unitarian view of God. While Knitter denies this,7 his reasoning aictuaUy is unitarian: In my proposed model, Jesus remains universally normative, but I am asking whether Christians can recognize that other revelations or revealers might also be universally normative. Could there be a complementary uniqueness among the religious traditions of the world? To try to answer that question, 'intellectual conversion;... is a requisite. But it will have to be an intellectual conversion that walks more than' the way to Nicea and Chalcedon'... only on the basis of the praxis of authentic dialogue-grounded in intellectual, moral, and religious conversion-can we know the unique~ ness of Christ.8 doctrine without relativizing Christ. Thus, for her, Rahner's Christology does not mean " that Christians cannot be open to the Buddha or Lord Krishna," Ibid., p. 126. The problem is that this very thinking already relativizes Christ. 6 Even theologians who do not intend the radical views of John Hick run a similar risk by beginning Christology from below in the manner of Paul Knitter. Cf., e.g., Edward L. Krasevac, O.P., "' Christology From Above' And 'Christology From Below '," The Thomist, 51 (1987) : 299-306, arguing that "Christological faith is an apostolic faith that has its origins in a historical process which began with the public ministry of our Lord...." (p. 300) causes us to ask what makes Christology true? Is it "the actual apostolic process " (306) or is it Jesus as the Lord who is and remains the sole foundation and validation for faith in any age? Does this approach not leave the door open to the kind of evolution which Knitter claims to have discovered in Christianity, which then enables him to move beyond Jesus as the only Lord and Savior? 1 Review Symposium, Horizons, p. 131. s Ibid., p. 133. KNITTER'S UNITARIAN THEOCENTRISM 451 Here the ha:.sis... (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Consciousness and Machines:A Commentary Drawing on Japanese PhilosophyS. D. Noam Cook (bio)Viewed from within the great unity of consciousness, thinking is a wave on the surface of a great intuition.Kitarō NishidaIntroductionRecent developments in AI have made the long-standing debate about what computers can and can't do a major public concern. What we understand the properties of such machines to be, and consequently how we design [End Page 305] and (...) deploy them, will increasingly shape how we live and how we understand ourselves. Thus, there is an urgent need for better understanding of these issues.Susan Schneider, in her book Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, offers an exceptionally careful and insightful examination of key issues entailed in how we understand AI and ourselves. One of her central concerns is how we might test for machine consciousness. Given the variations in design and function among current and projected AIs, Schneider sees no likely one-size-fits-all test. So, she offers a battery of different tests that she believes together will make such testing more reliable. This seems a wise approach, and reflects the conceptual and pragmatic care Schneider takes throughout the book.Similarly, it seems to me that the question of machine consciousness should also include various understandings of consciousness itself. What consciousness is taken to be has varied widely both historically and culturally. No commonly accepted single understanding has emerged, and may never emerge. Just as having a battery of tests might help us better assess possible machine consciousness, having different understandings of consciousness might give us a better understanding of what we are testing for. The two should work in tandem, each gauging and shaping the other.Like the development of computers themselves, the predominant thinking about AI has been shaped, in part, by key presuppositions of a scientific worldview, with its origins in Western thought and culture. Among these presuppositions are materialism, reductionism, and a primary focus on objective behavior. These are reflected in the common concern with observable behavior of physical aspects of the brain in efforts to understand human consciousness, which in turn has become a familiar model for work on machine consciousness. All this is important and valuable work. But, in the spirit of Schneider's cautions, it should not be taken as one-size-fits-all. Accordingly, I offer one view of consciousness from a different perspective.In what follows, I sketch out an understanding of consciousness that draws on Japanese philosophy, particularly that of the highly influential early twentieth-century Japanese philosopher Kitarō Nishida (1870–1945). I then explore how the tests for machine consciousness that Schneider proposes might be viewed from that perspective.Consciousness: A Perspective from Japanese PhilosophyConsciousness was a central concern for Nishida, whose philosophy is deeply informed by Japanese culture and by Zen theory and practice. As one might expect from such a philosopher, Nishida's exploration of consciousness is not concerned with properties of the brain, but with what we might discern through disciplined reflection on the experience of our own consciousness. Ultimately, he views consciousness as an organic whole [End Page 306] of systemically organized interrelationships of activities and sensations within our subjective experience. This may be understood by first considering 'nothingness'.For Nishida, nothingness does not suggest an ultimate and absolute vacuity, as is often understandably assumed. In Nishida's sense, it is a singular "place" that mirrors the multifaceted world of our common experience. In understanding this, I am told by native Japanese speakers that the English word 'nothingness' has an advantage over the Japanese equivalent, 'mu', in that 'nothingness' can usefully be broken down as 'nothing-ness'. This suggests that nothingness is a state of consciousness where what we commonly experience as distinct (self, other, world, blue, ache, joy, etc.) is indistinct, a state of unified experience. This is consciousness without our finding or discriminating in it the myriad "things" of common experience, but rather a "pure experience" of a singular whole. Nishida introduces his concept of "pure experience" as follows:To experience means to know facts just as they are, to know in accordance with facts by completely relinquishing one... (shrink)

Background: As part of an ongoing Scandinavian project on the dignity of care for older people, this study is based on ‘clinical caring science’ as a scientific discipline. Clinical caring science examines how ground concepts, axioms and theories are expressed in different clinical contexts. Central notions are caring culture, dignity, at-home-ness, the little extra, non-caring cultures versus caring cultures and ethical context – and climate. Aim and assumptions: This study investigates the individual variations of caring cultures in relation to (...) dignity and how it is expressed in caring acts and ethical contexts. Three assumptions are formulated: (1) the caring culture of nursing homes influences whether dignified care is provided, (2) an ethos that is reflected on and appropriated by the caregiver mirrors itself in ethical caring acts and as artful caring in an ethical context and (3) caring culture is assumed to be a more ontological or universal concept than, for example, an ethical context or ethical person-to-person acts. Research design: The methodological approach is hermeneutic. The data consist of 28 interviews with relatives of older persons from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Ethical considerations: The principles of voluntariness, confidentiality and anonymity were respected during the whole research process. Findings: Three patterns were revealed: dignity as at-home-ness, dignity as the little extra and non-dignifying ethical context. Discussion: Caring communion, invitation, at-home-ness and ‘the little extra’ are expressions of ethical contexts and caring acts in a caring culture. A non-caring culture may not consider the dignity of its residents and may be represented by routinized care that values organizational efficiency and instrumentalism rather than an individual’s dignity and self-worth. Conclusion: An ethos must be integrated in both the organization and in the individual caregiver in order to be expressed in caring acts and in an ethical context that supports these caring acts. (shrink)

When people make decisions, they act in a way that is either automatic (“rote”), or more thoughtful (“reflective”). But do people notice when others are behaving in a rote way, and do they care? We examine the detection of rote behavior and its consequences in U.S. adults, focusing specifically on pedagogy and learning. We establish repetitiveness as a cue for rote behavior (Experiment 1), and find that rote people are seen as worse teachers (Experiment 2). We also find that the (...) more a person's feedback seems similar across groups (indicating greater rote-ness), the more negatively their teaching is evaluated (Experiment 3). A word-embedding analysis of an open-response task shows people naturally cluster rote and reflective teachers into different semantic categories (Experiment 4). We also show that repetitiveness can be decoupled from perceptions of rote-ness given contextual explanation (Experiment 5). Finally, we establish two additional cues to rote behavior that can be tied to quality of teaching (Experiment 6). These results empirically show that people detect and care about scripted behaviors in pedagogy, and suggest an important extension to formal frameworks of social reasoning. (shrink)

The outcome of the 2020 U.S. election between Trump and Biden evoked strong emotions. In U.S. American (Study 1; N = 405) and German (Study 2; N = 123) samples, we investigated how observers’ group membership (i.e. political orientation) and the social rank attainment of both candidates (i.e. dominance vs. prestige) predicted emotional reactions. Trump was generally perceived as more dominant, and Biden as more prestigious. However, perceptions of social rank attainment differed depending on the observers’ political orientation, either matching (...) or not matching with the leaders (i.e. Republicans and Democrats, respectively). The candidate who did not share the participants’ political orientation was perceived as less prestigious and more dominant and elicited stronger contrastive emotions (i.e. schadenfreude, malicious envy) and weaker assimilative emotions (i.e. happy-for-ness, sympathy, anger), and vice versa. Crucially, dominance and prestige perceptions explained variance in the emotional reactions of more conservative and more liberal participants. Prestige positively predicted assimilative emotions and dominance contrastive emotions. Our work advances theorising by providing evidence that dominance and prestige perceptions contribute to the elicitation of various emotions. Furthermore, it suggests that prestige and dominance are not fixed characteristics of liberal and conservative leaders but depend on the observers’ group membership. (shrink)

Honneth afirma que o léxico das palavras diagnóstico e patologia estão ligadas à medicina. Na área social, essas noções só podem ser interpretadas indiretamente, ou seja, através das narrativas literárias, do campo artístico e da cinematografia. O Observatório Global de Patologias Sociais propõe-se a superar esse déficit. Este artigo exibe não apenas a análise conceitual, mas também as percepções inovadoras oriundas de um questionário online. Foram três questões. Por um lado, trata-se de descrever uma conceptualização de patologia social. Por outro, (...) coletar sugestões para um instrumento empírico. Por fim, obter uma lista de patologias sociais. A análise demonstrou que há patologias restritas ao âmbito individual, enquanto outras são concernentes ao espaço coletivo. Nesse sentido, os efeitos e acometimentos também obedecem a categorias diferenciadas. Além do mais, aparecem percepções de patologias ligadas ao aspecto institucional, revelando uma preocupação com relação ao sistema social. Como conclusão, o texto sugere que a análise das patologias deve voltar-se à concretização social, institucional e histórica. Deste modo, os impulsos que, a princípio, eram tratados como subjetivos, individuais ou pessoais podem ser investigados como situações sociais coletivas e institucionais. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the claim by Schneider and Butcher (2000) that it makes little sense to criticise the use of performance-enhancing drugs as ?dehumanising? (as, for example, Hoberman does (1992)) because we are unable to give a satisfactory account of what it is to be human. Schneider and Butcher (2000, 196) put this as follows: ?The dehumanisation argument is interesting but incomplete. It is incomplete because we do not have an agreed-upon conception of what it is to be human. (...) Without this it is difficult to see why some practices should count as dehumanising.? The paper begins by considering J.L. Austin's (1962) treatment of the word ?real?. By transposing ideas from Austin to the terms ?dehumanise? and ?human? I argue that (a) In the pair ?dehumanise? and ?human?, the term ?dehumanise? is dominant; (b) We cannot understand ?dehumanise? and ?human? independently of either the context of their use or the contrast that is drawn in their use; (c) Either one of these is sufficient to understand the terms; (d) ?Dehumanise?, ?human? and their cognates are not univocal; we can have no recourse to exceptionless accounts of the meaning of such terms. The importance of context is developed further by consideration of an example from the work of Charles Travis (2005), and the issue of exceptionless accounts of the meaning of words is addressed through an application of Gordon Baker's (2004) characterisation of Wittgenstein's uses of the term ?metaphysical? to Miah's (2004) treatment of human-ness. I argue that Miah's conception of human-ness exhibits all the forms of metaphysical use of terms (in this case the term ?human?) outlined by Baker (2004). The article attempts to clarify some objections to the use of performance-enhancing drugs and the prospect of genetic modification of athletes by sketching an overview of possible concrete uses of ?dehumanise?. The focus of the paper, however, is on ?making sense of what we (are inclined to) say ? [rather than] making explicit what underlies what we say? (McFee, 1993/4, 115). (shrink)

Şiddet varoluşumuzun temelini oluşturan en önemli niteliklerdendir. Fransız düşünce tarihinde önemli bir yer tutan Walter Benjamin’in tarih kavramı üzerinden ele aldığı şiddet insanın doğal yaşamdan yerleşik yaşama, hukukun egemenliği altına girmesini temellendirmektedir. Ancak yasa, aynı zamanda egemenin tasavvurundadır. Bu nedenle zamanla yozlaşmaya açıktır. Benjamin bu yozlaşmanın bir karşı çıkışla, Mesiyanik bir şiddetle sona ereceğini ifade etmektedir. Hukuksal şiddet insanları tek tip kılarken, Mesiyanik şiddet daha kişisel bir formdadır. Benjamin’e göre burada yasa koyucu ve yasa koruyucu şiddetin uygulandığı insan kırılma anlarında (...) kendini bulmaktadır. Bu ifadeden yola çıkarak metinde Benjamin’in tarihin yıkıntıları arasında koşturduğunu söylediği çocuğa istinaden çocuksu bir şiddet formunu oluşturmak ve bunu temellendirmek metnin esas amacıdır. Bu çocuksu biçim, içkin şiddet olarak kavramsallaştırılmakta ve kişinin sorgulama ve itirazla kendi benliğini oluşturmasını temellendirmektedir. Böyle bir insan zaman ve mekanda kesinti yaratarak, toplumda kendini ortaya koyduğu yeni bir alan açmaktadır. Çocuksu içkin şiddet anın durduğu, zamanın askıya alındığı ve yasanın içinde bir gedik açılan ana denk gelmektedir. Bu fotoğrafla benzer bir etkiye sahiptir. Fotoğraf sanatı toplum ve yasanın içinde ve dışında, görülen ve görülmeyenin arasında bir yerdedir. Çocuksu içkin şiddeti uygulayan insan da diğerlerine göre barbar ve yabancı hale gelerek ne içeride ne dışarıda bulunmaktadır. Kısaca bütün akışı askıya almaktadır. Metinde bu durumu örneklemek için Ori Gerscht’in yıkımı konu alan fotoğrafları kullanılacaktır. (shrink)

No cenário literário brasileiro do início da década de 1950, chama a atenção a publicação quase simultânea de O mundo da paz e Os subterrâneos da liberdade de Jorge Amado, e Viagem e Memórias do cárcere de Graciliano Ramos. Romancistas brasileiros já consagrados pela crítica e pelo público, ambos revelam nessas publicações a radicalidade com a qual se identificam com o comunismo e com a experiência soviética. Ao mesmo tempo, os relatos de viagem e os livros de memória, se vistos (...) em conjunto, evidenciam a presença de duas tradições narrativas: a literária propriamente dita e a do engajamento político dos intelectuais. Assim, o que se pretende aqui é apresentar como essas duas tradições aparecem na obra dos dois escritores, em especial, em seus relatos de viagem à URSS. Do ponto de vista da militância política e dos recursos literários, ambos escritores se utilizaram, nesses títulos, do “gênero de fronteira” para partilhar com seus leitores algum tipo de comprometimento com a história da política nacional recente, com o comunismo e para avalizar a experiência soviética. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, argumentamos ser a proposta historiográfica de Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (1932-2021), presente em seu Programa Etnomatemática, capaz de nos apoiar nos processos de valorização da historicidade e da diversidade cultural brasileiras. Partindo de uma pesquisa teórica, de abordagem qualitativa e bibliográfica, utilizamos alguns aspectos da perspectiva de D’Ambrosio para fazer o estudo de um episódio histórico do século XVII, baseado na tradução de um livro publicado em 1614 por um missionário francês, que participou do projeto de colonização do Brasil no (...) que ficou conhecido como França Equinocial. Nesse sentido, ao final, apresentamos uma discussão de três trechos dessa tradução que evidenciam conhecimentos astronômicos de um grupo Tupinambá que vivia no Maranhão nessa época. Com isso, buscamos oferecer subsídios para que docentes de Ciências e Física implementem propostas na Educação Básica na perspectiva das Histórias das Ciências especializadas, buscando evitar estereótipos e abordagens ingênuas, de modo a ir ao encontro, por exemplo, da Lei 11.645/2008, a qual exige a inclusão de estudos sobre história e cultura afro-brasileira e indígena em todo o currículo escolar do Brasil. (shrink)

A relação entre o sublime e a arte, a princípio, soa natural e certa, mas ao longo do século XVIII algumas teorias afastaram essa categoria da produção artística. Foram décadas notadamente frutíferas nas questões sobre o sublime, período em que não só o sublime recebe seu título de categoria estética como destacadamente participa das questões epistemológicas da recém cunhada disciplina Estética. Nesse cenário, alguns pensadores se voltam exclusivamente para o sublime natural. Esse artigo procurará mostrar o caminho percorrido por esse (...) conceito a partir da recepção pelos ingleses, em 1689, do tratado sobre retórica do século I d.C. intitulado Peri Hypsos, traduzido por Boileu-Despréaux como Sobre o Sublime e atribuído ao crítico grego Cassius Longinus. Visitaremos as teorias de pensadores como Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke e Immanuel Kant, que apontam para o sublime exclusivamente como contemplação da natureza, e encerraremos essa jornada na reinserção do drama trágico na categoria sublime por Friedrich Schiller. Fecha-se, dessa forma, o que chamamos aqui de “ciclo do sublime natural”, que se inicia na leitura característica dos britânicos empiristas, encontra sua mais bem acabada teoria na terceira Crítica kantiana e se encerra no trabalho teórico e literário do poeta de Weimar. (shrink)

The essays in Part I of _Beyond Poststructuralism seek_ to demonstrate fallacies of structuralist and poststructuralist thought that remain potent even though the theoretical structures that led to their enunciation have lost much of their original influence. These fallacies include the idea that one must avoid the consideration of authorial intention; that meanings are undecidable; that there is no justification for seeking unity in a text; that all hierarchies of value are reversible; that history is no more than an open (...) contest among competing narrative constructions; and that the very nature of language makes the falsifiability of statements about human experience impossible. The essays in Part II suggest ways to bring literary study into closer relation with human experience of the world. Their authors emphasize the role of literature in providing new perspectives and broadening the range of available alternatives to what is threatening, unjust, fallacious, or absurd in social and cultural structures. Contributors are Bernard Bergonzi, John Holloway, Wendell V. Harris, A. D. Nuttall, Raymond Tallis, John Searle, Richard Levin, Robert Scholes, James Battersby, David Bromwich, Quentin Kraft, Michael Fischer, Charles Altieri, Christopher Clausen, Gayle Greene, André Lefevere, Daniel R. Schwarz, Virgil Nemoianu, and Martha Nussbaum. (shrink)

O problema do bem agir e a reflexão sobre a virtude (areté) e o vício (kakía) são presenças marcantes na filosofia de Platão. No Timeu e nas Leis as questões do mal e da ação má recebem uma atenção especial, seja em meio àquela narrativa cosmológica, seja no debate sobre a injustiça, os crimes e as melhores leis para uma cidade. Propomos apresentar a nossa leitura do tema nesses Diálogos, bem como a nossa hipótese sobre a origem do mal em (...) Platão, ambas decorrentes de nossas pesquisas sobre o texto platônico e sua literatura. Platão situa no interior do próprio homem a fonte potencial do mal moral, resultante de má educação e má disposição da alma, no Timeu. Nas Leis, detalha o modo pelo qual uma ação injusta e má é gestada: a formação de um mau caráter (tirania de elementos internos à alma, pela má educação) e de modos de agir mal (consentidos, deliberados). Defendemos que, em Leis IX, Platão realiza uma reformulação do paradigma socrático do mal inconsentido, admitindo que o homem que age de um modo consentido e mal possui tanto o caráter como o modo de agir injusto e mau (861e-862c4). Palavras-chave: Mal; Injustiça; Ética platônica. Plato and the problem of evil, from the Timaeus to the refutation of the Socratic paradigm of not consented-evil in the Laws: there are ways of consentingly acting unfair and evils. Abstract: The problem of doing the right thing and reflecting on virtue (areté) and vice (kakía) are striking presences in Plato's philosophy. In the Timaeus and Laws, the issues of evil and evil action receive special attention, whether in the midst of that cosmological narrative or the debate about injustice, crimes, and the best laws for a city. We propose to present our reading of the theme in these Dialogues and our hypothesis about the genesis of evil in Plato, both arising from our research on the Platonic text and its literature. Plato locates within man himself the potential source of moral evil, resulting from lousy education and nasty disposition of the soul, in the Timaeus. In the Laws, he details how an unjust and bad action is fathered: the formation of an evil character (tyranny of elements internal to the soul, by bad education) and ways of misbehaving (consented, deliberate). We argue that, in Laws IX, Plato performs a reformulation of the Socratic paradigm of not consented evil, admitting that the man who acts in a consenting and evil way possesses both the character and the way of acting unjust and evil (861e-862c4). Key-words: Evil; Injustice; Platonic ethics. Platon et le problème du mal, du Timée à la réfutation du paradigme socratique du mal pas consenti dans les Lois : il y a des manières d'agir, avec consentement, injustes et mauvaises. Résumé : Le problème du bien agir et la réflexion sur la vertu (areté) et le vice (kakía) sont des présences fortes dans la philosophie de Platon. Dans le Timée et dans les Lois, les problèmes du mal et de la mauvaise action reçoivent une attention particulière, soit dans le récit cosmologique, soit dans le débat sur l'injustice, les crimes et les meilleures lois pour une ville. On propose de présenter notre lecture du thème dans ces Dialogues, ainsi que notre hypothèse sur l'origine du mal chez Platon, les deux venues de nos recherches sur le texte platonicien et sa littérature. Dans le Timée, Platon situe la source potentielle du mal moral, résultant d'une mauvaise éducation et d'une mauvaise disposition de l'âme, dans l'homme lui-même. Dans les Lois, il détaille comment une action injuste ou mauvaise est effectuée : la formation d'un mauvais caractère (tyrannie d'éléments internes à l'âme, due à une mauvaise éducation) et de mauvaises manières d'agir (consenties, délibérées). On soutient que, dans les Lois IX, Platon reformule le paradigme socratique du mal pas consenti, en admettant que l'homme qui agit d’une manière consentie et mauvaise a non seulement le caractère, mais aussi la manière d'agir injuste et mauvaise (861e-862c4). Mots clés : Mal ; Injustice ; Éthique platonicienne. Data de registro: 02/08/2023 Data de aceite: 12/06/2024. (shrink)

Os conceitos que tratam do processo de globalização, originários da economia a partir da década de 1980, se aplicam para a comparação e análise de alguns paradoxos ainda hoje presentes no campo da comunicação internacional. Assim como uma ‘nova ordem econômica’ versou sobre a mundialização dos negócios, na área da comunicação o desequilíbrio na circulação de informação entre países industrializados e em desenvolvimento deu origem a intensos debates internacionais que resultaram no documento oficial que tratava de uma ‘nova ordem da (...) informação e da comunicação’. Assuntos como internacionalização e transnacionalização, analisados inicialmente no domínio dos estudos econômicos e das relações internacionais, migraram para o núcleo das pesquisas comunicacionais na mesma década de 1980. Alguns autores identificam quatro linhas básicas para a interpretação do fenômeno da globalização: “(a) globalização como uma época histórica; b) globalização como um fenômeno sociológico de compressão do espaço e tempo; c) globalização como hegemonia dos valores liberais; d) globalização como fenômeno socioeconômico” (Prado, s/d). É também nos estudos econômicos que está a origem de outro conceito usado para explicar a forma como se estabeleceram as relações entre ‘centro e periferia’, com a divisão do mundo distribuída entre centros econômicos desenvolvidos (como Estados Unidos e países da Europa ocidental) e países periféricos (produtores de economia primária). No setor da comunicação, os primeiros assumiram o papel de geradores de informação e os últimos se transformaram em consumidores da produção midiática dos países industrializados. O impacto da globalização no campo da comunicação é expressivo no âmbito da indústria de mídia, em especial no que diz respeito à propriedade dos meios de massa. Conglomerados midiáticos se expandem em escala global e a audiência cresce de maneira proporcional à padronização gerada pela fusão de empresas que passaram a produzir simultaneamente notícia, entretenimento e conteúdo para a web. O fluxo da informação entre países e culturas se mantém como elemento de pesquisas desenvolvidas pela comunidade internacional de pesquisadores de comunicação. Nesse aspecto se destacam investigadores da Europa e dos Estados Unidos. São poucas as contribuições da América Latina e ainda mais reduzida a participação de pesquisadores do Brasil nessa discussão que é de interesse de todos – produtores, especialistas e público dos meios de comunicação. Os artigos que integram esta edição dedicada ao tema Globalização e Comunicação Internacional expressam o status dos estudos contemporâneos sobre o assunto. Não é por coincidência que os cinco textos, as duas resenhas e os depoimentos dos correspondentes internacionais no Rio de Janeiro, selecionados para este número tragam em comum um mesmo fio condutor: a questão do equilíbrio no fluxo da informação e de produtos midiáticos. A política de comunicação global é o foco do artigo de abertura assinado pelo Dr. Cees Hamelink, da Universidade de Amsterdã, autor com extensa produção teórica, que há vários anos coordena pesquisas e é responsável pela disciplina Comunicação Internacional na sua instituição. A participação da comunidade latino-americana na elaboração do Relatório MacBride no final da década de 1970, representada pelo colombiano Gabriel Garcia Márquez e pelo chileno Juan Somavia, é recuperada no artigo de José Marques de Melo, da Universidade de São Paulo e diretor da Cátedra Unesco no Brasil. A jornalista Sonia Ambrósio de Nelson avalia a influência de poderes políticos, econômicos e culturais na cobertura midiática do terrorismo em três países asiáticos. O artigo do professor Joseph Straubhaar, em co-autoria com estudantes de doutorado na Universidade do Texas em Austin, é uma contribuição importante para os estudos comparados entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos, ao abordar a questão da inserção digital da população nos dois países. O artigo de Eula Dantas Taveira Cabral, resultados de pesquisa realizada para o doutorado, analisa algumas das estratégias de internacionalização de meios de comunicação brasileiros. A oportunidade de reunir em um único volume a produção científica com autores de origens distintas é uma forma sistematizar uma área de conhecimento que continua dispersa, à espera da contribuição dos investigadores de comunicação no Brasil. Referências Bibliográficas PRADO, Luiz Carlos Delorme. Globalização: notas sobre um conceito controverso. Instituto de Economia da UFRJ, sem data. PREBISCH, Raúl. The Latin American Periphery in the Global System of Capitalism. Cepal Review nº 13, April 1981, p. 143-150. (shrink)

Although physicalism has been the dominant position in recent work in the philosophy of mind, this dominance has not prevented a small but growing number of philosophers from arguing that physicalism is untenable for several reasons: both ontologically and epistemologically it cannot reduce mentality to the realm of the physical, and its attempts to reduce subjectivity to objectivity have thoroughly failed. The contributors to After Physicalism provide powerful alternatives to the physicalist account of the human mind from a dualistic point (...) of view and argue that the reductive and naturalistic paradigm in philosophy has lost its force. The essays in this collection all firmly engage in a priori metaphysics. Those by Uwe Meixner, E. J. Lowe, John Foster, Alvin Plantinga, and Richard Swinburne are concerned with ways to establish the truth of dualism. Essays by William Hasker, A. D. Smith, and Howard Robinson deal with the relation between physicalism and dualism. Benedikt Paul Göcke argues that the “I” is not a particular and Stephen Priest that “I have to understand myself not as a thing but as no-thing-ness.” In the final essay, Thomas Schärtl argues that there are limits to dualism as indicated by the concept of resurrection. By including two classical essays by Plantinga and Swinburne, the volume conveniently brings together some of the best and the newest thinking in making the philosophical case for dualism. "Seven of these essays are by eminent philosophers: Lowe, Foster, Plantinga, Swinburne, Hasker, Smith, and Robinson, each recapitulating his well-known position in the debate. To have these seven essayists together under one cover constitutes a remarkable book, which can be used as a textbook in philosophy of mind as well as in philosophy of religion courses, and which also opens up the debate in an original way among colleagues at an advanced level." —Fergus Kerr, University of Edinburgh. (shrink)

A comunidade dos amantes: anacronismo e aforismo em questão em Blanchot e Derrida Resumo: A reflexão sobre o pensamento da “comunidade”, especificamente no séc. XX e, em especial, por pensadores franceses, é tema de diversas obras. Em torno dessa temática, pensadores como Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy e Derrida deram importantes contribuições. Apesar de Derrida recusar a noção de comunidade colocando em seu lugar a noção de coletividade, as concepções que fundamentam uma experiência de comunidade/coletividade são próximas: alteridade; différance; (...) escritura; acontecimento e presença de uma ausência. Nesse contexto, a possibilidade de uma interseção entre esses conceitos, a partir da obras de Blanchot e Derrida, permite pensar a experiência da comunidade em sua relação com a escritura. Palavras-chave: Comunidade; Coletividade; Escritura; Alteridade; Acontecimento. The lovers community: anachronism and aphorism in question in Blanchot and Derrida Abstract: The reflection about the thought of “community”, specifically in the XX century and, specially, by French thinkers, is the theme of many works. Around this theme, thinkers/intellectuals like Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy and Derrida gave important contributions. Despite Derrida's refusal of the notion of community putting in its place the notion of collectivity, the conceptions that ground an experience of community/collectivity are close: otherness; differance; writing; event and absent presence. In this context, the possibility of an intersection between these concepts, starting from the works of Blanchot and Derrida, allows to think the experience of community in its relation to the writing. Keywords: Community; Collectivity; Writing; Otherness; Event. La communauté des amoureux : anacronisme et aphorisme en question chez Blanchot et Derrida Résumé: La réflexion sur la pensée de la “communauté”, spécifiquement au XXe siècle, et particulièrement par les penseurs français, fait l’objet de plusieurs travaux. Autour de ce thème, des penseurs tels que Bataille, Deleuze, Foucault, Blanchot, Jean-Luc Nancy et Derrida ont apporté d'importantes contributions. Bien que Derrida rejette la notion de communauté, en la remplaçant par la notion de collectivité, les conceptions qui fondent une expérience communauté/collectivité sont proches : altérité ; la différance ; écriture ; événement et présence d'une absence. Dans ce contexte, la possibilité d'une intersection de ces concepts, basée sur les travaux de Blanchot et de Derrida, permet de réfléchir à l'expérience de la communauté dans sa relation avec l'écriture. Mots-clés: Communauté ; Collectivité ; Écriture ; Altérité ; Événement. Data de registro: 21/11/2019 Data de aceite: 08/12/2020. (shrink)

Este texto procura encontrar um princípio hermenêutico que dê acesso a uma leitura de unidade da obra de Ricoeur. Nesse contexto, experimenta a tese de que a filosofia ricoeuriana se deixa interpretar como um caso no interior do pensamento crítico de herança kantiana, como uma filosofia dos limites da razão, não no sentido originário, de investigação sobre as condições de possibilidade do conhecimento objectivo, mas por poder ser lida como uma pesquisa sistematica para encontrar as condições em que é possível (...) ao pensar, à discursividade, dizer, num saber constituído, a existência. Assim, tratar-se-á do significado "crítico" de Le volontaire et l'involontaire que, sendo a primeira obra do projecto da Filosofia da Vontade. lhe determina as condição de possibilidade, ao propor os princípios teóricos fundantes da constituição de um discurso unitário sobre o humano enquanto expressão de uma existência histórica e livre. /// Ce texte veut trouver un principe herméneutique qui donne accès à une lecture unitaire de l'oeuvre de Ricoeur. C'est dans ce contexte que l'on avance la thèse selon laquelle la philosophie ricoeurienne doit être interprétée comme un cas à l'intérieur de la pensée critique d'héritage kantien, comme une philosophie des limites de la raison, non pas dans le sens d'investigation des conditions de possibilité de la connaissance objective, mais parce que cette philosophie peut être lue comme une recherche systématique en vue de trouver les conditions dans lesquelles le penser, le discours, peut, en un savoir constitué, dire l'existence. On s'occupera donc du sens "critique" de Le volontaire et l'involontaire qui, comme première oeuvre du projet de la Philosophie de la l'olonté, assigne à celle-ci ses conditions de possibilité en proposant les principes théoriques qui fondent la constitution d'un discours unitaire à propos de l'humain en tant qu'expression d'une existence historique et libre. /// This text seeks to find a hermeneutical principle which permits a reading of Ricoeur's work as a whole. In this context, it is proposed that Ricoeur's philosophy may be interpreted with the Kantian tradition of the critical thought as a philosophy of limits for reason; this is not to be taken in the original sense of the conditions of possibility for objective knowledge but rather as sistematic investigation to discover the conditions which make possible thought and discourse concerning existence. It is thus that the "criticism" of Le volontaire et l'involontaire, the first work of his Philosophy of the Will. can be seen as determining these conditions of possibility by proposing fundamental theoretical principles of the constitution of unitary discourse is relation to the human experience, understood as historical and free existence. (shrink)

La femme tableau et/ou miroir de l'homme — telle qu'il la crée, l'aime — renvoie de celui-ci l'image inversée : forme de l'« autre » elle montre dans ce qui se dit d'elle le désir de l'« un » comme désir d'être l'un et l'autre , désir d'être le « Tout » ou, désir de l'« Un ». Plusieurs textes freudiens marquent sans ambiguïté la « sexuation » du désir, marquent le désir comme principe mâle. Il s'agit ici de montrer, (...) avec ces textes, les places et les articulations de l'un et l'autre sexe dans la dynamique du désir.Woman as a picture and/or mirror of man — as he creates and loves her — gives an reversed image of him: she, a form of the "other", reveals in what is said of her the desire of "one" as the desire to be both the one and the other , the desire for "Whole"-ness, for "One"-ness. Several Freudian texts unambiguously mark the sexualisation of desire, desire as a male principle. What is shown here, with these texts, are the places and articulations of the one and the other sex in the dynamics of désire. (shrink)

Introduction: reenvisaging freedom and solidarity -- Twilights and new dawns: revaluation and de(con)struction -- Letting-be politically: Heidegger on freedom and solidarity -- The promise of democracy: nonpossessive freedom and caring solidarity -- Markets and democracy: beyond neoliberalism -- Rights and right(ness): humanity at the crossroads -- "Man against the state": community and dissent -- Faith and communicative freedom: a tribute to Wolfgang Huber -- Between holism and totalitarianism: remembering Dimitry Likhachev -- Freedom as engaged social praxis: lessons from D.P. (...) Chattopadhyaya -- Freedom and solidarity (again): reimagining social democracy. (shrink)

The Sense of I: Conceptualizing Subjectivity: In Indian Philosophy (Sāṃkhya-Yoga) This book discusses the sense of I as it is captured in the Sāṃkhya-Yoga tradition – one of the oldest currents of Indian philosophy, dating back to as early as the 7th c. BCE. The author offers her reinterpretation of the Yogasūtra and Sāṃkhyakārikā complemented with several commentaries, including the writings of Hariharānanda Ᾱraṇya – a charismatic scholar-monk believed to have re-established the Sāṃkhya-Yoga lineage in the early 20th century. The (...) textual analysis of the classical Sanskrit sources and their constructive interpretation is enhanced by some crucial questions and points of dispute commonly picked up in the contemporary philosophy of mind, such as the challenge of ontological and categorical reductionism, the criteria of personal identity, the limits of agency and free will, the ineluctability of self-deception, etc. However, defining the sense of ego (ahaṃkāra) and ‘I-am-ness’ (asmitā) is the main focus of this research. Four chapters composing the study are subsequently devoted to: (1) the methodological assumptions of the present author and the basic historical distinctions relevant to the subject matter, (2) linguistic preconditioning of I-consciousness as well as metaphysical coherency and ambiguity of the concept of subjectivity presented by Sāṃkhya-Yoga philosophers, (3) cognitive and ontological issues concerning the embodied ego being opposed to inactive and contentless consciousness, or the pure self (puruṣa), (4) axiological evaluation of self-discipline and significance of liberation from ego. 1. The method, scope, and problem. In the first chapter, the method of comparative philosophy adopted in this book is introduced by a phenomenological analysis of ‘otherness’ and ‘alienness’ inspired by the considerations of Bernhard Waldenfels and his understanding of xenology. This section is followed by a critical reflection on the incommensurability of the alternative conceptual frameworks, supported by some arguments provided by Ludwik Fleck and Richard E. Nisbett. When explaining the term ‘comparative philosophy’, the author pays special attention to those proponents of the aforementioned current who contributed to the rapprochement of Western and Indian philosophical traditions by tracing both their similarities and divergences. The author makes references to numerous prominent researchers, such as Paul Masson-Oursel, Paul Deussen, Stanisław Schayer, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Bimal K. Matilal, Raimundo Panikkar, Daya Krishna, Wilhelm Halbfass, and many others representing a younger generation. The historical introduction presents a concise survey of the evolution of the Sāṃkhya-Yoga textual tradition, and distinguishes five phases of its development: proto-Sāṃkhya (7th c. BCA – 1st c. CE), pre-classical phase (1st – 5th c. CE), classical Sāṃkhya (3rd – 9th c. CE), post-classical phase (till 14th c.), and neo-classical phase (since 1927). Here, the author also evaluates the primary sources, including Sanskrit commentaries, and the secondary sources in the light of their relevance and usefulness to the constructive interpretation of Yogasūtra and Sāṃkhyakārikā. Then, she makes some methodological remarks concerning the specificity of their reading. This section is concluded with highlighting three main strategies usually applied when interpreting Patañjali’s sūtras: (1) anti-philosophical approach – treating the text as a merely mystical report or the yogic vademecum, (2) anti-mystical perspective – which reads the text as a highly speculative divagation of no much use to a practitioner, (3) mystic-and- philosophical approach – emphasizing the fact that the theory of consciousness presented in Yogasūtra is both philosophically coherent and empirically (or mystically) verified. The author argues for the third, heuristic, perspective mentioned above. The last section of the first chapter aims to problematize the I-concept (aham) and the paradoxical situation of the ego searching for self-knowledge. This part starts with the acknowledgement of the deliberation on non-self (anātman) by Śāntideva, a Buddhist philosopher claiming that one’s own ego ought to be identified with the ego of any other. Then, the author unfolds the fundamental assumptions and scope of the constructive interpretation she wants to develop following K.C. Bhattacharyya’s clues. When explaining her reasons, she stresses both the need to reveal the philosophical meaning of the source materials and, at the same time, the need to make them meaningful on the ground of our contemporary philosophical enquiry. Thus, among the main purposes there is a reliable, scrupulous and careful reconstruction of the historical conception of the self as elaborated on in the classical period of Sāṃkhya-Yoga tradition, as well as reinterpretation of the sense of I as it was grasped by the Sāṃkhya-Yoga thinkers in terms of modern comparative and ‘polylogical’ discourse. 2. Naming I. In the second chapter, a variety of linguistic categories capturing different aspects of subjectivity is discussed in detail. A textual examination is preceded by clarification of the semantic distinctions made by Patañjali, such as a verbal convention (saṃketa) which stands for uniting or overlapping a word (śabda), its meaning (artha) and a mental state of comprehension (pratyaya) that ascribes the word to a particular object. Among the key concepts there is also explained a spontaneous mental activity referring to pseudo-objects posited only by words (vikalpa), which is unwittingly involved in every process of conceptualizing, designating, and naming objects. Such mental states can neither be ‘valid’ nor ‘invalid’, and are believed to unavoidably accompany one’s use of language. These presuppositions testify to Patañjali’s severe criticism towards all verbal conventions that not only affect the way we formulate and construct our views, but also determine the very process of perception. A major section of the chapter contains the analysis of the ambiguous sense of subjectivity and its basic aspects distinguished by the author in the result of a contextual and comparative study of the Sanskrit terms used in Yogasūtra and Sāṃkhyakārikā for naming I-consciousness. The six basic aspects of the self comprise: essentializing oneself, perceiving (something), getting conscious (of something), mastering or owning (something), and being capable of self-identifying as well as disidentifying oneself. A majority of the enumerated predicates ascribed to the self refer to different functions and activities of the empirical ego and the embodied mind. Yet, apart from this intentional, active, reactive, sensing, and objectifiable self Sāṃkhya-Yoga philosophers distinguish a sense of subjectivity going beyond all these psycho-physical characteristics: the self that remains unmanifest, non-active, free from experiencing any joy or pain, said to be the principle of consciousness. The plausibility of its existence as the final cause of the world is to be determined by the embodied ego by virtue of abductive reasoning based on the analysis of all material and psycho-physical phenomena preconditioned by three guṇas that compose the domain of nature (prakṛti). In the subsequent section, three Sanskrit notions – ahaṃkāra, asmitā, and puruṣa, most significant for the Sāṃkhya and Yoga understanding of subjectivity, are discussed closely one after another to expose their semantic, epistemic and metaphysical connotations. The chapter is completed by some pivotal remarks bringing out the problem of discrepancy between the metaphysical position implied by Patañjali and Īśvarakṛṣṇa, and the grammatical instruments applied by them to express it. 3. Cognizing I. The third chapter addresses two important issues in the phenomenology of self-perception, namely the question of psycho-physical dualism explained on the grounds of the considered darśanas, and the spiritual quest for the ideal embodiment of consciousness. While emphasizing the unity of human psycho-physical nature the author refers to several contemporary Western thinkers, such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Thomas Nagel, John R. Searle, David Chalmers and others, by making some comparative remarks on the idea of the embodied mind. Furthermore, three arguments for the plurality of selves (puruṣa-bahutva) are reconstructed and critically considered. The arguments given by Īśvarakṛṣṇa (SK 18) include the diversity of ways in which one experiences one’s life and death, the spatio-temporal distinctness of particular embodied egos, and the variations of features manifested by individual selves. The second section of this chapter presents a thorough inquiry into a non-theistic devotion and spiritual pragmatism defended by the adherents of Sāṃkhya- Yoga. God (īśvara) is defined here primarily as an object of meditative practice and a special tool convenient for yogic pedagogy. In the concluding part of this section four functions of devotional practice (īśvara-pranidhāna) are recognized and explained; they embrace: (1) prevention from mental scattering and dispersion, (2) therapy allowing to form some positive perceptual habits and the right cognitive approach, (3) enhancement of morally and spiritually required qualities, and (4) reinforcement of the sense of subjective identity being a complementary method of self-development. 4. Liberating oneself from I. The final chapter consists of three sections. The first one introduces the concept of liberation through action (pravṛtti-dharma), commonly opposed in Indian tradition to the path of renunciation (nivṛtti- dharma). According to Hariharānanda Ᾱraṇya’s interpretation, both Sāṃkhya- Yoga and Buddhism follow the latter one, which in terms of spiritual practice dynamics makes them much closer to each other than it is usually believed. In the subsequent section the idea of liberating oneself from one’s attachment to ego is explained in detail, along with the significance of gradual self-negation. Then the author raises the interpretation of the Sāṃkhya-Yoga perspective on liberation as self-distinction-through-renunciation. The main focus in this section is placed on the sense of agency (kartṛ), the problem of free will, and the criteria of moral and soteriological evaluation of one’s deeds. Some crucial questions on karmic conditioning of self-knowledge in the form of kleśas are also the subject of careful analysis. The next section undertakes the issue of ownership (mamakāra) of one’s activity and self-esteem (abhimāna) involved in spiritual growth. Again, some comparative remarks are made by referring to the Buddhist philosophers’ positions, such as Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva and Candrakīrti. Among others, the Buddhist refutation of the Sāṃkhya-Yoga concept of eternal, inactive, indifferent, irresponsible, and exclusively conscious self (puruṣa) is quoted and partly rejected in favour of the classical Hindu darśanas. In summary, the author emphasized the significance-generating or sense-creating function of I, its engagement in the search for its own raison d’être, its role in self-identification as well as subverting it, and the expediency of liberation from ego. The philosophers of classical Sāṃkhya and Yoga indicate a twofold sense of the self; on the one hand, the only appropriate designation: ‘I’ is true self (puruṣa), a passive and unknowable principle of consciousness whose existence makes the empirical phenomena meaningful. On the other hand, the ‘I’ clearly designates the current sense of the self, expressed as “I think”, “I doubt”, “I suffer”, etc. This second meaning of ‘I’, the specific sense of ‘mineness’, is recognized as a secondary and relative one – thus illusive and troublesome. However, its delusiveness does not mean that the empirical ego is an unreal or non-existent entity. What it implies is that the empirical self-identity is fundamentally inadequate and – according to the Indian thinkers – ought to be unveiled and, ultimately, given up. (shrink)

Tacitus gives lavish treatment to the mutiny of the German legions in the aftermath of Augustus' death in a.d. 14 and provides an excellent centrepiece in a speech by Germanicus to the troops of the Lower German army at Ara Ubiorum . After the harsh treatment of a delegation from Rome, Germanicus responded to requests that he send Agrippina and Caligula to safety. As the family was leaving the camp the troops surrounded Germanicus, who moved them to repentance by his (...) speech. Previous writers have already discussed particular debts to Livy and to Virgil, but none has, I think, pointed to the most likely source for Germanicus' opening remarks: ‘Non mihi uxor aut filius patre et re publica cariores sunt…’. Goodyear dismisses the sentiment as a variety of the ‘commonplace’. that the state was more important than the individual and refers the reader to Béranger. However, none of these passages is as close or as pointed as the examples I consider below. (shrink)

O objetivo do presente artigo é examinar os desdobramentos que as determinações das crises econômicas no nível do capital em geral adquirem no processo global da produção capitalista tratada no Livro III d’O capital de Karl Marx, passando pelas compreensões relativas à lei tendencial da queda da taxa de lucro e à sobreacumulação cíclica de capital, bem como pelas figuras do capital portador de juros e do capital fictício, a fim de culminar na compreensão da dinâmica exercida pelas formas jurídicas (...) nesse contexto. (shrink)

Do passeio pela filosofia Deleuze-Guattariana ao encontro com o possível conceito de programas de vida Resumo: De todas as maneiras de incursionar uma filosofia, o passeio pareceu ser a abordagem possível diante do emaranhado pensamento de Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari. Ainda que alguns se dediquem a localizar onde começa e onde termina a contribuição de cada um nas obras que os dois filósofos escreveram juntos, é nesse entre, no encontro de dois pensadores, que enfrentavam questões específicas em cada campo (...) de ação, mas que foram capazes, por meio da troca, ou melhor do roubo recíproco, como gostava de dizer Deleuze, que se produziu um pensamento que não se acomoda ou se ajusta à tradição. Desse passeio, destaca-se o encontro com um possível conceito presente em diferentes obras desses filósofos que é o programa de vida. Não se trata de um conceito efetivo, pois ele não é alçado a esse status pelos seus autores, ou pelo menos de forma objetiva. Cabe a este artigo, enfim, apresentar um plano sobre o qual esse protoconceito possa ser desenvolvido. Palavras-chave: Programa de vida; Deleuze; Guattari; Intersecção. The stroll of Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy and meeting with the possible concept of life programs: Of all the ways of studying philosophy, the stroll seemed to be the possible approach to the tangled intersected thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Although some are dedicated to locating where each one's contribution begins and ends in the works that the two philosophers wrote together, it is in this between, at the meeting of two contemporary thinkers, that they generally faced questions specific to each field of action. That finally, they were able, through an exchange, or rather reciprocal theft, as Deleuze liked to say, that philosophy has been produced which does not fit but is not excluding from what tradition has conventionally called philosophy - reason. This tour highlights the encounter with a possible concept present in different works of these philosophers, which is the program of life. This is not an effective concept, as it is, they not raised to this status by its authors, or at least objectively. It is up to this article, finally, to present a plan on which this developing of concept. Key Works: Life program; Deleuze; Guattari; Intersection. Le promenade par la philosophie Deleuze-Guattarien à la rencontre avec la possible notion de programme de vie De toutes les manières de connaitre une philosophie, le promenade semblait être l’approche possible devant l’enchevêtrement de pensée intersecté de Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari. Encore que certain se consacrent a localiser où commence et termine la contribution de chacun dans les oeuvres que les deux philosophes ont écrit ensemble, c’est dans ce entre, la rencontre de deux penseurs contemporains, qui ont généralement confronté les questions spécifiques a chaque champs d’actions, mais qui à la fin, ont été capable, grâce a l’échange, ou mieux du vol réciproque, comme aimait dire Deleuze, que s’est produite une philosophie que ne s’ajustait pas, mais aussi qui ne s’est exclue pas de ce que la tradition convenu a appelé philosophie- la raison. De ce chemin, ce démarque la rencontre avec une possible notion présente dans différentes oeuvres de ces philosophes qui est le programme de la vie. Il ne s’agit pas d’une notion efficace car il n’est élevé pas à ce statut par ses auteurs, ou au moins de forme objectif. Incombe a cet article, enfin, de présenter un plan sur lequel ce ‘proto-notion’ peut être développé.Mots clés : Programme de vie; Deleuze; Guattari; Intersection. Data de registro: 06/12/2019 Data de aceite: 13/10/2020. (shrink)