M. Laura Gemelli Marciano ist Titularprofessorin für Klassische Philologie an der Universität Zürich.

M. Laura Gemelli Marciano ist Titularprofessorin für Klassische Philologie an der Universität Zürich.

L’article prend en considération la façon dont différents auteurs rassemblés sous l’étiquette générale de « présocratiques » commençaient leurs discours. Dans le contexte d’une transmission essentiellement orale tel que celui de la culture de la Grèce archaïque, l’incipit prend une importance fondamentale, dans la mesure où il pose les bases de la communication, définit le type de message que l’auteur veut transmettre et indique dans quelle voie il s’engage. Il donne donc des indications non seulement sur le type de texte, (...) mais aussi sur le genre de public auquel ce texte était adressé. S’il s’agit d’un public restreint et choisi, l’incipit est généralement élitiste, obscur, et fait référence à un code auquel il est difficile d’accéder ou, comme dans le cas de l’écrit d’Alcméon, mise sur la difficulté d’une entreprise que les disciples doivent surmonter à l’aide de l’enseignement du maître. Si le texte est destiné à un public plus large d’amateurs cultivés, il mise sur des phrases ronflantes qui suscitent des visions grandioses et des émotions et placent l’orateur dans une position dominante vis-à-vis de l’auditoire. Ici on prend en considération en particulier les incipit de quatre auteurs assez différents les uns des autres, de la fin du vie au dernier tiers du ve siècle av. J.‑C. : Héraclite, Alcméon, Anaxagore et Diogène d’Apollonie. En recourant à l’analyse linguistique et en les confrontant avec d’autres textes de même époque, on cherche à définir la particularité de chaque texte en relation avec le message qu’il véhicule et avec ses destinataires. Les résultats de cette analyse invitent à reconsidérer la méthode à employer pour aborder les fragments des auteurs dits présocratiques et à se libérer du modèle herméneutique « anthologique » d’Aristote qui vise à rechercher un « système » philosophique et néglige le rythme prosodique, l’harmonie de la langue, le caractère persuasif des textes et leur contexte culturel. (shrink)

Questo volume, curato da Livio Rossetti e Massimo Pulpito, raccoglie le lezioni su Parmenide e Zenone di Elea tenute da M. Laura Gemelli Marciano (d’ora in poi GM) durante il convegno “Eleatica 2007” (Ascea Marina, 29 novembre - 2 dicembre 2007). Tali lezioni si presentano come la sintesi degli studi che GM ha condotto negli ultimi decenni sui Presocratici, in particolare dei suoi tentativi di emanciparli definitivamente dalla geschichtliche Entwicklung in cui Eduard Zeller li aveva inquadrat...

This essay aims to analyse the Parmenides’ interpretation that Laura Gemelli Marciano offered in the Eleatica lectures. The scholar represents the Parmenidean Poem as a mystical experience where sounds, words and images communicate and produce a real approach to the divine reality at the same time. This intriguing reading, which closely follows that offered by Kingsley, understimates the problems and cognitive structures of rational thought in the poem. Thus Parmenides appears to be a shaman rather a philosopher.

This essay deals with the question of what really makes human beings exceptional. It is argued that it is a special kind of love that ultimately distinguishes humans from other animals. Although other kinds of considerations, preferably cognitive ones, have most often been invoked to make such a distinction, these might eventually be found to be, at least in part, a matter of degree and not something qualitatively different, as argued here with respect to this type of love. Arguments from (...) both scientific and philosophical sources are brought to bear on the question. (shrink)

This paper reviews the social scientific literature on biometric surveillance, with particular attention to its potential harms. It maps the harms caused by biometric surveillance, traces their theoretical origins, and brings these harms together in one integrative framework to elucidate their cumulative power. Demonstrating these harms with examples from the United States, the European Union, and Israel, I propose that biometric surveillance be addressed, evaluated and reframed as a new form of control rather than simply another means of inspection. I (...) conclude by delineating three features of biometric technologies—complexity, objectivity, and agency—that demonstrate their social power and draw attention to the importance of studying biometric surveillance. (shrink)

My purpose in this paper is to defend the legitimacy of different religious systems by showing that they arise naturally as a consequence of the fact that we are linguistic beings. I will show that we do not need to presume that such belief systems all have something in common, and that even if they did we would most probably be unaware of it. I shall argue, however, that this lack of a common core does not mean that understanding between (...) different belief systems is impossible, and that, in fact, a dialogue between them is possible without one system being reduced to another. I will defend these ideas through the use of some principles expounded in Wittgenstein’s On Certainty, especially the world-picture concept. (shrink)

En un número monográfico sobre el dolor no está fuera de lugar abordar una forma especial de aflicción que ha sido denominada, en el contexto tradicional dela cultura religiosa cristiana, como un "dolor del alma" a causa de hechos y situaciones de carácter negativo en que la libertad del sujeto se ha visto implicada.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the connections and links that existed between Buchanan and Italian economists. We show that, even though Buchanan had read them, it was only after having spent one year in Italy—1955–1956—that Buchanan paid attention to these economists. Here, Francesco Forte played a particularly important role. It did not only transform Buchanan’s conception of the public debt but also lead him to pay more attention to law, institutions and political phenomena.

This book brings together the most authoritative articles on Law and Economics and the interaction between the two disciplines as well as the use of economic tools to analyse legal problems. Aimed at students experiencing the subject for the first time, the selections are interlaced with a wealth of features including explanatory introductions and exercises. Key features of the reader include: - The accessibility of the material: the articles should be understandable to those with only a limited background in economics (...) and law. - The book’s focus on the most important and basic – foundational – issues in law and economics. - An exposition of the opposition between the different legal systems that exist in the world including common law, civil law and public law. - Debates viewed from the perspective of the scholars from a range of backgrounds are presented as well as all the key figures in economics and in law. The book should prove to be an essential resource to all students studying this burgeoning field and represents an exciting introduction to one of the key disciplines which has grown up in the social sciences in recent times. (shrink)

Para comprender el significado del mensaje de Jesús sobre el amor es preciso situarlo en el contexto del mundo religioso judío y, en cierta medida, de la cultura helenística. Ésta aporta gran parte del vocabulario y del universo expresivo simbólico. Sin embargo, para el conocimiento de la enseñanza del Jesús histórico este contexto no adquiere tanta importancia, ano ser el ya incorporado dentro del judaísmo, sobre todo en las comunidades de la diáspora. Por lo que respecta al contexto judío, hay (...) que superar la visión simplista que considera al judaísmo como la "religión del legalismo" en contraposición al cristianismo como la "religión del amor". El judaísmo, entre otros muchos factores que lo integran, también está basado y organizado en torno al amor. En el Antiguo Testamento existen abundantes perspectivas que enfatizan el amor de Dios hacia los seres humanos, un amor vinculado a la alianza (Dt 4, 37; 8, 17; 9, 4-6; 10, 15) y que se manifiesta como: fidelidad (Ex 3, 14; Sal 103, 4.8.13), misericordia (Sal 51, 1; 89, 23. 25. 29; 98, 3; 145, 8), ternura (Os 11, 1. 3-4; Jer 31, 20). (shrink)

Resumo: Este trabalho busca fazer algumas especulações a respeito de uma das idéias mais controversas presentes na primeira obra de Wittgenstein, a saber, o místico. Tentaremos elucidar este conceito, comparando-o com o misticismo religioso caracterizado por William James em As Variedades da experiência religiosa. Tal comparaçáo se faz necessário, a nosso ver, para que se possa esclarecer algumas peculiaridades do místico tractatiano, desenvolvendo assim, uma percepçáo mais acurada da importância deste conceito dentro do Tractatus. A nosso ver, ele náo é (...) um tema gratuito em tal obra, ao contrário, é decorrência lógica do encontro do sujeito volitivo com os limites da linguagem, apresentados através da análise lógica da proposiçáo. Tentaremos, assim, neste trabalho, elucidar como o místico do Tractatus se assemelha e difere do misticismo religioso. Palavras-chave: James; Místico; Tractatus ; Wittgenstein. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider syncretic processes as generators of syncretic beliefs and discuss the question of whether the religious believer, especially the theist believer, would have reasons for trusting in the beliefs that arise from this process. I intend to answer the following specific question: Is the theist, specially the Christian theist, justified in forming and maintaining syncretic beliefs? However, the answer to the specific question is dependent on an answer to a broad question, namely, whether a believer in (...) general is justified in forming and maintaining syncretic beliefs. For this reason, much of this article will focus on the broad question to later answer the specific question. I will argue that both in the case of syncretic beliefs in general and in the case of syncretic-theistic beliefs in particular, defeaters are unsustainable, and a religious believer has good reasons to maintain syncretic beliefs. (shrink)

v. 2. La moral en el cristianismo antiguo (ss. I-VII) -- Moral y espiritualidad en cristiandad medieval (ss. VIII-XIV) -- v. 4-1. La moral en la Edad Moderna (ss. XV-XVI). Humanismo y reforma -- v. 4-2. La moral en la Edad Moderna (ss. XV-XVI). América: "problema moral" -- v. 5. Del Trento al Vaticano II : 5-1. Crisis de la razón y rigorismo moral en el barroco (s. XVII) -- 5-3, tomos 1-2. Alfonso de Liguori (1696-1787) : el triunfo de (...) benignidad frente al rigorismo --. (shrink)

Law and Economics deals with the economic analysis of legal relations, legal provisions, laws and regulations and is a research field which has a long tradition in economics. It was lost after the expulsion of some of the leading economists from Germany during 1933 to 1938, but then revived in Chicago. Both the subject of Law of Economics and the need for a concise Encyclopedia is particularly relevant in Europe today. Currently in the European Union there are several different legal (...) cultures: the Anglo-Saxon legal framework, the German legal framework, which for example also includes Greece, and the Roman legal family—three jurisdictions which have to be covered with one and the same theory. In the EU, the task of the European Commission to interact with the various European jurisdictions means different legal cultures collaborating and some degree of harmonization is necessary. The result is an immediate need, if only for the science, to show how a given problem is solved in each legal tradition and jurisdiction. This Encyclopedia provides both a common language and precise definitions in the field, which will be useful in the future to avoid misunderstandings during harmonization of EU Law. (shrink)

Resumo: A questão que move este trabalho é a seguinte: é possível justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso, através das abordagens pluralistas atuais? Pretende-se empreender uma análise de duas teorias pluralistas, mostrando suas vantagens e limites, para justificar e fomentar o diálogo inter-religioso. Num primeiro momento, será feita uma breve introdução e contextualização dos problemas filosóficos gerados pela diversidade religiosa. Feito isso, serão apresentadas e discutidas duas teorias pluralistas atuais. Será focalizada primeiramente a teoria pluralista de John Hick, o qual (...) possui uma proposta de justificação do pluralismo religioso que tem como ponto central a distinção, emprestada de Kant, entre a realidade fenomênica e a realidade numênica ou entre fenômeno e coisa em si. É daí que seu pluralismo pode ser chamado de pluralismo transcendental. Serão abordados e discutidos os principais conceitos, alcances e limites dessa teoria. Após isso, o mesmo se fará com a teoria de Victoria Harrison, conhecida como pluralismo internalista, que parte de uma adaptação do realismo interno de Putnam ao âmbito da diversidade religiosa. Por fim, esboçar-se-á uma avaliação comparativa das duas teorias, analisando-se as possibilidades e limites dessas teorias, no que se refere ao diálogo inter-religioso.: Is it possible to justify and promote inter-religious dialogue through current pluralistic approaches? This paper analyses two pluralist theories, showing their advantages and limits in justifying and promoting interreligious dialogue. First I make a brief introduction and contextualization of the philosophical problems generated by religious diversity. Next I present and discuss two current pluralistic theories. The first is the pluralistic theory of John Hick, which in justifying religious pluralism has as its central point the distinction, borrowed from Kant, between phenomenal and noumenal reality; Hick’s theory can be called transcendental pluralism. The second is Victoria Harrison’s theory, known as internalist pluralism. This theory is an adaptation of Putnam’s internal realism to the problems of religious diversity. Finally, I make a comparative evaluation of the two theories, analyzing their possibilities and limitations with regard to interreligious dialogue. (shrink)

Al-Najjar and Weinstein propose to scrutinize the implications of recent theories of ambiguity in dynamic settings. They conclude that such implications are so unreasonable as to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the theories under consideration. The present paper argues that the seemingly unreasonable implications highlighted by Al-Najjar and Weinstein can be understood as the result of basic trade-offs that arise naturally in the presence of ambiguity. In particular, Al-Najjar and Weinstein are uncomfortable with the possibility that an ambiguity-averse individual (...) may reject freely available information; however, this phenomenon simply reflects a trade-off between the intrinsic value of information, which is positive even in the presence of ambiguity, and the value of commitment. (shrink)

I propose that, in its form, it is possible to make a religious reading of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus along the lines of how Wittgenstein himself understood religion, and in particular, religious conversion. This idea could appear to be completely senseless. But we cannot forget that Wittgenstein himself said that although he did not consider himself a religious man, he could not help seeing every problem in a religious way. It is precisely this religious way of thinking that I would like to (...) apply to the Tractatus. I begin by elucidating Wittgenstein's ideas of ​​religion, especially his notion of religious conversion. After that, I briefly describe the Tractatus, its objectives, and what happens if we climb the ladder of this work. I then show how the goals of the work and where the ladder of the Tractatus leads us take a religious form. That is, they lead to a conversion to a new way of seeing the world and language. This is similar to a religious conversion that makes us see the world in a completely different way. I conclude by discussing how such a religious perspective helps us to understand the sense of the Tractatus by making an analogy with the Wittgenstein’s ideas in relation to the role of religious doctrine. (shrink)

This article, in its first part, summarizes Noam Chomsky’s ideas about human nature and their ethico-political consequences, language and its origin and the scope and limitations of experimental science. As a result, there will emerge the portrait of a great scientist without prejudices and a true and honest freethinker. Then, on the second part, and based on the author C. S. Lewis, a proposal will be made about the possible existence of an infused rational soul in humans and how it (...) could connect with the linguist’s ideas with respect to the origin of language. It will also serve to supply with some realism Chomsky’s too optimistic view about human nature. (shrink)

The object of this paper is to retrace the steps that led Buchanan from marginal cost pricing to clubs. We claim that the idea individuals could form clubs to finance public goods can be traced back to his first works on public finance, at the end of the 1940s, and relates to the financing of highways and the pricing of their construction and of their use. Very early in his career Buchanan adopted Knut Wicksell’s proposal to use a marginal cost (...) pricing rule even for public goods. The many criticisms raised against this rule led him to replace it with club pricing. (shrink)

A pergunta central do presente trabalho é: a tolerância é um valor suficiente nas relações inter-religiosas em uma sociedade onde há diversidade religiosa? Para responder isso, começo mostrando alguns usos cotidianos de tal conceito, a fim de elucidar alguns erros comuns a tais usos. Após isso, apresento algumas defesas filosóficas desse conceito e defendo uma ideia de tolerância que entendo ser mais razoável. Em seguida, mostro como tal conceito é necessário e importante para as relações inter-religiosas, apesar de ser insuficiente (...) para tais relações, podendo, na verdade, limitar relações mais profícuas entre religiões, principalmente, em relação a debates de interesse público. Ao final, apresento, brevemente, uma proposta de relação inter-religiosa que vai além da tolerância e promove, a meu ver, uma interação mais profícua entre diferentes religiões. (shrink)