Intense interest has long been shown in the nature of humankind. Are we the products of genes? Are we the products of culture? Or are we something in between? The Marxist position, stressing the dominant significance of social methods for studying humans, is sketched. Then, a number of Western, biologically influenced views are discussed and criticised. Although there are important insights in the writings of the holders of these views, ultimately they produce only a semiscience.

The article aims to base the presence of a reconceptualization of the political in Michel Foucault's thought, taking as the reading key ethhopolitics as a conceptual proposal. There, we can find a concept completely opposed to the way in which both modern governmentality and the tradition of political thought have understood the meaning of politics in the West. Following this purpose, the hypothesis is proposed and developed, according to which the analytical gesture that persists in Michel Foucault's thought is a (...) concept of the political that affirms life in its radical exuberance and unfoundedness. In this statement, we recognize the signatures of a triangular conceptual structure made up of the fold between life, ethics and power. After exposing the problem and clearing some methodological difficulties for its approach, we examine in detail the investigations that comprise the archeology of ethical life in the French philosopher. It is argued that the very textuality of ethhopolitics is formulated as politicity rather than as a specific policy, that is, it is presented as a politics of life, since it is implied as a singular modulation of existence. The article concludes with a scriptural threshold composed of five theses that attempt to expand and project the philosophical-political returns of the analysis developed towards a research program. (shrink)

Contrary to spontaneous yawning, which is widespread in vertebrates and probably evolutionary ancient, contagious yawning—yawning triggered by others’ yawns—is considered an evolutionarily recent phenomenon, found in species characterized by complex sociality. Whether the social asymmetry observed in the occurrence of contagious yawning is related to social and emotional attachment and may therefore reflect emotional contagion is a subject of debate. In this study we assessed whether yawn contagion was enhanced in pregnant women, a cohort of subjects who develop prenatal emotional (...) attachment in preparation for parental care, via hormonal and neurobiological changes. We predicted that if yawn contagion underlies social and emotional attachment, pregnant women would be more likely to contagiously yawn than nonpregnant, nulliparous women of reproductive age. We gathered data in two different settings. In the experimental setting, 49 women were exposed to video stimuli of newborns either yawning or moving their mouth and we video-recorded the women during repeated trials to measure their yawning response. In the naturalistic setting, 131 women were observed in a social environment and their yawning response was recorded. We tested the factors influencing the yawning response, including the reproductive status. In both settings, yawn contagion occurred significantly more in pregnant than nonpregnant women. By showing that pregnant women were most likely to respond to others’ yawns, our results support the hypothesis that the social variation observed in yawn contagion may be influenced by emotional attachment and that yawning in highly social species might have been coopted for emotional contagion during evolution. (shrink)

In this paper we explore the possibilities of a sexual ethics that responds to our times of precariousness. We sustain that the task of a reconsidered sexual ethics can contribute to a more livable life for persons rendered fragile beyond our constitutive embodied fragility. Thus, we connect Judith Butler with 20th century dialogical philosophies as well as with some analysis on sexuality and ethics in authors like Thomas Nagel and Margaret Farley. In all this a key category will be that (...) of justice. (shrink)

This paper clarifies some of the contested ideas put forward by John Stuart Mill by analyzing the reasons and arguments Mill used to support them and demonstrating how these ideas and arguments supporting them are connected into a coherent system. Mill’s theory is placed in wider explanatory framework of democratic legitimacy developed by Thomas Christiano, and is portrayed as a typical example of democratic instrumentalism—a monistic position that focuses on the outcomes and results of a decision-making process. Following this move, (...) the focus is shifted on the understanding of political equality in Mill’s political thought. I claim that, contrary to some contemporary interpretations, Mill’s theory is based on a few fundamentally inegalitarian ideas. Finally, Mill’s view on the role of experts in democratic decision-making is analyzed and compared with contemporary theories advocating democratic expertism—Mill’s view is again portrayed as inegalitarian, both to the extent of setting political aims and creating methods for achieving these aims. (shrink)

I this paper, I discuss Plumwood’s feminist logic program. I argue both in favor of her general stance in feminist philosophy of logic and her more specific feminist critique of classical logic. Plumwood’s general position is in opposition with (I think it’s safe to say) the prevailing view in analytic philosophy about the relation between formal logic and feminist theory, according to which feminist theory cannot say anything about or against logic proper, since the issues of oppression are external to (...) logic as a (formal) discipline. Connected to this externalism is a non-Plumwoodian view that “feminist logic” either doesn’t mean anything, or that it has some figurative meaning. Concerning Plumwood’s (I think it’s safe to say) not widely accepted feminist critique of classical logic, I propose an interpretation according to which classical logic is oppressive only when it’s used to describe a particular, “dualized” or “dualizable”, kind of notions. In accordance with this understanding, I consider five features of oppressive differentiations as proposed by Plumwood, arguing that two of them don’t concern negation, the feminist critique of which operator Plumwood is mostly (in)famous for. (shrink)

L'homme est constamment à la recherche de sens. Il découvre sans cesse le sens des choses, car il comprend l'être et peut ainsi configurer un monde comme un ouvert de sens. Pourtant, il se trouve désemparé face à la question du sens de l'existence. Dans la mesure où l'existence est une projection extatique au monde, la question du sens de l'existence appelle aussitôt celle du sens du monde qui renvoie à l'interrogation fondamentale du sens de l'être. Cette recherche tend à (...) montrer que l'homme comprend l'être naturellement dans le sens du bien. Le bien est formellement le ce-en- vue-de-quoi : la finalité. Cependant, la compréhension pleine du sens de l'être dans le sens du bien n'apparaît que suivant les perspectives de sens du vrai, du juste et du beau. La compréhension de l'être dans le sens du bien n'est pas théorique, mais existentiale. Ainsi, le monde devient un ouvert sensé selon les perspectives de la vérité, de la justice et de la beauté, dans lequel se projettent les existences humaines. L'existence au monde sensé suivant le sens du bien a ainsi du sens. Le sens de l'existence consiste à la destiner au sens du bien, c'est-à-dire à oeuvrer avec les autres pour la construction d'un monde de bien pour une humanité bonne. Il incombe à chaque homme, tout en participant avec les autres à l'édification d'un monde de bien, de frayer sa propre voie vers cet horizon, afin d'accomplir son existence authentique. (shrink)

La pensée heideggérienne de l'être recèle un paradoxe : elle est à la fois le lieu de découvertes prodigieuses et de l'occultation d'une partie importante de l'être de l'homme : la dimension éthique. Afin de comprendre ce phénomène, notre recherche prend pour fil conducteur la manière restrictive dont Heidegger interprète le bien de Platon, à travers tout son chemin de pensée.

La ontologia social desarrollada por Searle nos permite entender los fenomenos sociales desde la teoria de los actos de habla El presente articulo expone la teoria de Searle y analiza la concepcion de Conflicto Social desde esta perspectiva sosteniendo que éste puede ser entendido como la disputa entre diferentes comunidades por la legitimidad de alguna función de estatus Para lograrlo se revisara la teoria de los actos de habla para mostrar que el conflicto social podria ser analizado desde esta perspectiva (...) identificando la intencionalidad de las comunidades en conflicto a traves de enunciados linguisticos. (shrink)

By freedom, classical liberals meant non-interference, independence from the state, the personal and proprietary liberty of the governed. It is negative freedom as the antithesis both to absolutism and anarchy. In the republican interpretations, the freedom of a free political community is made possible and guaranteed by the institutionalization of the liberty of the political community. Political liberty is the medium, stage and precondition for the freedom of its members. That, in turn, is conditional upon the readiness of its members (...) to protect the liberty of their community and themselves, i.e. upon the virtue of the free citizen. In this article I engage with four different interpretations of both kinds of liberty concepts in different discourses of the 20th-century UK and US and 20th—21st-century Hungary. (shrink)

Neste artigo apresentamos as análises fenomenológicas sobre a dor que Jan Patočka desenvolveu nos anos 40. Nelas, o filósofo aponta para uma posição interessante sobre a dor como uma experiência do mal. Em particular, a dor é uma intenção negativa, onde existe um objeto peculiar que aniquila todos os objetos possíveis aos quais os desejos humanos aspiram. Esta tese do filósofo checo, além de esclarecer todo o seu trabalho, enquadra-‑se plenamente nos atuais debates filosóficos e interdisciplinares sobre a dor.

The article deals with the problem of the boundaries in contemporary humanities – if “everything is a text” and the process of assimilation and interpretation of new meanings is fundamentally open and infinite, then do we have any grounds to distinguish between different kinds of understanding of the cultural phenomena surrounding us? The central thesis of the article is that precisely those claims that are theoretical in nature should be read and discussed in a way that is alien to the (...) philological perspective. However, this is not necessarily a problem – the internal heterogeneity of humanitarian thinking may be an advantage considering the point of development reached in the “camp” of the natural sciences. (shrink)

Em Facticidade e Validade, a forma-direito é um conceito central que possibilita a Habermas: enfocar a dimensão institucional do direito; elucidar a problemática da legitimação do direito; realizar uma abordagem funcionalista do direito propícia a reconstrui-lo racionalmente; e explicitar o sistema dos direitos fundamentais. Entretanto, Habermas não procede a uma análise sistemática do nexo funcional entre a forma-direito e o modo de produção de mercadorias. Por isso, ele deixa de prover uma compreensão mais abrangente e mais crítica da forma-direito e (...) das possibilidades emancipatórias na sociedade capitalista. (shrink)

The paper analyzes the personalist view of Kant’s thought in general and the personalist criticism of Kant’s understanding of human dignity and natural law. It is pointed out the way in which the results of that criticism were realized as a personalist concept of human dignity, which was also reflected in the fundamental legal acts on human rights. Concluding considerations are presented in the light of contemporary discussions of the reception of the origin of the legal foundation of human dignity.

Our ability to deal with abstract concepts is one of the most intriguing faculties of human cognition. Still, we know little about how such concepts are formed, processed, and represented in mind. Current views are presented in their most recent and advanced form in this special issue, and directly compared and discussed in a lively debate, reported at the end of each chapter. The main results are reported in the editors’ introduction.

"Ivan Illich alights on such topics as education, history, language, politics, and the church. The conversations range over the whole of Illich's published work and public career as a priest, vice-rector of a university, founder of the Centre for Intercultural Documentation in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and author of such classics as Tools for Conviviality, Medical Nemesis, and Deschooling Society.".

ARAGÃO, Ivan Rêgo. “ Vinde todas as pessoas, e vede a minha dor ”: A Festa/Procissão ao Nosso Senhor dos Passos como Atrativo Potencial Turístico em São Cristóvão-Sergipe-Brasil. 2012. 198f. Dissertação (Mestrado) Cultura e Turismo – Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), Ilhéus-BA. Palavras-chave: Turismo Cultural-Religioso Católico. Religiosidade Popular. Festa do Senhor dos Passos. Keywords: Catholic Religious-Cultural Tourism. Popular Religiosity. Party of Lord of the Steps.

A matéria-prima do espetáculo de circo é o corpo do artista, ora sublime, ora grotesco. O corpo sublime, no chão ou nas alturas, desafia, em forma de espetáculo, as leis naturais. No momento seguinte, o espetáculo é “interrompido” e o público é acometido pela descontração e pelo grotesco dos palhaços. O espetáculo circense, assim, se desloca, com facilidade e maestria, entre o riso e a morte.

Adorno and Horkheimer adoted the notion of the fetishism of commodities for the analysis of art and culture. Material, physical goods are not identical to symbolic ones. In spite of being predominant cultural industry can not be taken as the prototype of all analyses of culture. One can not reduce all cultural productives of the period of market economy to market products. The plurality of artistic and cultural practices present in countries like Brazil, does make questionable the indiscriminate use of (...) the Frankfurtian framework.Adorno e Horkheimer adotaram a noção de fetichismo da mercadoria para a análise da arte e da cultura. Bens materiais e físicos não são idênticos aos simbólicos. Apesar de dominante, a indústria cultural não pode ser tomada como protótipo de toda análise da cultura. Não se pode reduzir toda a produção cultural da época da economia de mercado a produtos de mercado. A pluralidade de práticas artísticas e culturais, à qual se assiste em países como o Brasil, torna problemático o uso indiscriminado do referencial frankfurtiano. (shrink)

A concepção teatral de Brecht não é radicalmente oposta à de Aristóteles. A estética brechtiana, em muitos aspectos, é herdeira das idéias de Aristóteles. O teatro épico proposto por Brecht tem em seu horizonte de combate o teatro de matriz naturalista e o drama psicológico. Mimese e catarse não significam identificação do público com a cena e com o herói.

Platão tem uma visão negativa da arte e da tragédia. A “irracionalidade” da prática artística está na base dessa negação. Sua visão é contrária ao perspectivismo humanista de Eurípedes e dos sofistas. Na filosofia renascentista, o sujeito observador (temporal e racional) pressupõe o múltiplo e o infinito. O perspectivismo está na base dessa orientação e Shakespeare é a melhor expressão artística desse pressuposto defendido na filosofia por Giordano Bruno.

Words are not just labels for conceptual categories. Words construct conceptual categories, frame situations and influence behavior. Where do they get their meaning? This book describes how words acquire their meaning. The author argues that mechanisms based on associations, pattern detection, and feature matching processes explain how words acquire their meaning from experience and from language alike. Such mechanisms are summarized by the distributional hypothesis, a computational theory of meaning originally applied to word occurrences only, and hereby extended to extra-linguistic (...) contexts. By arguing in favor of the cognitive foundations of the distributional hypothesis, which suggests that words that appear in similar contexts have similar meaning, this book offers a theoretical account for word meaning construction and extension in first and second language that bridges empirical findings from cognitive and computer sciences. Plain language and illustrations accompany the text, making this book accessible to a multidisciplinary academic audience. (shrink)

During the 1980s Illich added another dimension to his thought through the study of Medieval history. In the current volume he aims to demonstrate the extent to which the groundwork for the institutions that characterize our world today was laid in the twelfth century.