Clearly a Late Antiquity’s phenomenon, the Neoplatonism represented to the ancient men the last bastion of its old traditions, the religion of their ancestors and classical culture. Especially the neoplatonic philosophy of Plotinus, that had engendred precepts which, by its meanings, resounded through the last voices of paganism and survived the Middle Ages into the scholastic philosopy. Although the ideas of Plotinus achieved such later importance, it were the main problem conceiving the conflicts between the philosophers Porphyry and Iamblichus. That (...) will be the starting point of this paper, which analyzes the layers of Neoplatonism throught its historical context. (shrink)

resumo: Há uma solidariedade entre o estilo do L'Individuation à la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d'Information e os princípios teóricos que a obra toma como ponto de partida para sua investigação dos diversos processos de individuação. Essa solidariedade torna o estilo da obra um programa filosófico que responde a demandas precisas quanto ao papel das ciências da natureza, das ciências humanas e da técnica, sua classificação, sua história e sua consistência teórica, demandas que pretendemos especificar no artigo. Ao (...) mesmo tempo esse programa de Simondon requer que o autor recolha os princípios teóricos de sua análise em um corpo teórico cujas linhas gerais desenham a fisonomia de toda uma filosofia, de caráter peculiar. É isso o que justifica, e até mesmo exige, que Simondon tome por objeto o problema da individuação nos termos em que o faz, e que possa apresentar essa aproximação do problema como uma crítica cujo valor é ele mesmo filosófico: uma resposta peculiar ao positivismo, ao pragmatismo, ao estruturalismo e, sobretudo, às formas de compreensão das ciências e das técnicas que era hegemônica no final dos anos 50, no ambiente intelectual francês. abstract: There is a strict allegiance between the style present in L'Individuation à la Lumière des Notions de Forme et d'Information and the theoretical principles by which this work inquires the diverse individuation processes. That allegiance makes this style a whole investigation program on the role of natural sciences, humanities and technology in general, their classification, history and theoretical nature. The clauses of that investigation will be shown in its general lines by the paper itself. But the point is that, at the same time, this investigation program requires the specific theoretical principles adopted by Simondon in this work as a theory and in its development as a complete philosophy. Indeed this is the reason why Simondon takes the problem about individuation processes as the focus of his discussions. Such discussions offer a critique whose value is itself philosophical. That strategy results in a peculiar response to positivism, pragmatism, structuralism and the hegemonic way of thinking about sciences and techniques in the French fifties. (shrink)

Examinamos a argumentação de Cícero contra o estoicismo no De Fato tentando reconstruir a melhor argumentação de Crisipo para a posição de uma filosofia que concilie a postulação do destino com a da liberdade humana. Fazemos isso, contudo tendo em vista a maneira como esse programa estóico é lembrado por Leibniz na Teodicéia. A estratégia para tanto consiste em examinar primeiro a maneira como Crisipo e Cícero poderiam traduzir o problema da relação do destino em termos causais, sugerindo uma diferença (...) possível entre a solução que seria legitimamente a de Crisipo e a de Cícero. Depois, mas em função dessa primeira análise, procuramos entender como Crisipo poderia resolver o problema a partir da postulação autonomia do agente na deliberação, pressuposta a natureza do agente — e pressupostos alguns temas centrais da física e da lógica estóicas como a noção de corporais e incorporais. Aqui aparece o exemplo do cilindro e do cone, como atribuído a Crisipo por Cícero, exemplo cuja interpretação ocupará o restante do artigo. The Cylinder and the ConeWe shall try to find the best way by which Crhysippus philosophy puts fate and freedom together, we must first proceed through an examination of the plot of Cicero’s De Fato. There we shall come back to some Leibnizian remarks about the Fatum Stoicum in the Theodicy. The first step for that is the interpretation of the Ciceronian attempt to translate the problem in an ethiological one, and the statement of the different conceptual framework through which Crhysippus do the same. The final step is the analysis of the Stoic conception of autonomous action in the act of deliberation, supposing the nature of the agent in his commitments with some stoical tenets about the incorporeal, as it appears in their physics and their logics. It is in this step that we shall examine the example of the cylinder and the cone, as it is given by Crhysippus through Cicero’s testimony, and try to extend that analysis to its ultimate consequences. (shrink)

A última proposição da Ética exige, para sua compreensão, a anamnese de todas as partes anteriores da Ética, de uma forma tal que o leitor possa compreender a convergência entre os conceitos de ação, de felicidade e de virtude. Para tanto é necessária uma análise pontual da Proposição 42 da Quinta Parte da Ética e de seu corolário, especificando a diferença entre o sábio e o ignorante a partir do _conatus_ e do poder de ação inerente a cada um.

Pela análise da individuação psicológica, como ela aparece na L’individuation à la lumière des notions deforme e d`information, de Gilbert Simondon, pretendemos estabelecer alguns princípios fundamentais de método,segundo os quais Simondon irá pensar o social, e depois o político. Pretendemos, com esses princípios, sublinhara forma peculiar e original em que a filosofia de Simondon permite pensar a natureza do social e do político, semreduzir as ciências do espírito às ciências da natureza ou vice e versa.

O artigo procura analisar a correspondência entre Espinosa e A. Burgh, um recém-convertido ao catolicismo. Além de alguns aspectos teóricos da correspondência, são tratados os argumentos que Burgh apresenta em favor da autoridade dos artigos de fé e da Igreja, e da necessidade de conversão religiosa de Espinosa, contrapostos aos argumentos racionais baseados no que Espinosa chama de "minha filosofia” ( mea philosophia ).

_ Source: _Volume 31, Issue 1, pp 93 - 119 Over the years great care has been lavished by scholars of Hobbes on decoding the image produced for Leviathan by Abraham Bosse with the creative input of Thomas Hobbes. This article focusses instead on the reception and remaking of this image, arguably the most iconic image in the statist imaginary. Attention turns here, in particular, to two contemporary artworks, Do Ho Suh’s Some/One and Ernesto Neto’s Leviathan Thot. Both of (...) these artworks visually recall and re-problematize Hobbes’s frontispiece: its depiction of the political body and of the complex relationships between the elements comprising it. They therefore offer us a curious perspective from which to re-engage with Hobbes’s work and the political aesthetics that has immortalized it. (shrink)

O presente artigo pretende explorar a máxima contida em Os irmãos Karamázov (se não há Deus, tudo é permitido?) à luz do pensamento de Immanuel Kant. Para tanto, se vale do pensamento de Dostoiévski apenas na medida em que ele serve como auxílio na apresentação da ideia de Deus e de sua relação com a posição do ateu. Tendo em vista a filosofia kantiana, buscamos não apenas a apresentação dessa ideia, mas também sua relação com o ato moral e com (...) a própria condição desse ato. Isso, portanto, resultará em Kant, uma resposta duplamente negativa à pergunta que reflete a posição ateísta de Ivan Karamazov. Pois Kant ao distinguir o ato moral por dever e conforme o dever, defende que recorrer a algo externo à razão (Deus) constituiria uma vontade meramente heterônoma. Portanto, o ato moral por excelência ocorre quando a ação é realizada de um modo unicamente guiado pela razão, com base num interesse puro, e isso conduz, por sua vez, à reprovação por parte de Kant da referida máxima presente na obra de Dostoiévski. (shrink)

Functional language is ubiquitous in ecology, mainly in the researches about biodiversity and ecosystem function. However, it has not been adequately investigated by ecologists or philosophers of ecology. In the contemporary philosophy of ecology we can recognize a kind of implicit consensus about this issue: while the etiological approaches cannot offer a good concept of function in ecology, Cummins’ systemic approach can. Here we propose to go beyond this implicit consensus, because we think these approaches are not adequate for ecology. (...) We argue that a sound epistemological framework to function in ecology is to be found in organizational approaches. In this line, we define function in ecology as a precise effect of a given constraint on the ecosystem flow of matter and energy performed by a given item of biodiversity, within a closure of constraints. We elaborate on this definition by developing a case study of a bromeliad ecosystem. (shrink)

El presente artículo trata de inscribir el fenómeno de la técnica en el marco de una antropología filosófica que nos permita aproximarnos a una comprensión del momento histórico del siglo XX. Para ello se analiza en primer lugar la noción de técnica propugnada por Friedrich Dessauer, esclareciéndola como un fenómeno totalizador que guarda con el hombre una relación fundamental. Posteriormente se trata la noción de técnica propuesta por Günther Anders, para quien la condición del hombre contemporáneo, inseparable del acontecer técnico, (...) se ha visto sujeta a trasformaciones esenciales. (shrink)

O texto investiga os “indesconstruíveis” na filosofia de Jacques Derrida e sua relação com espectrologia, fé e messianidade. Partindo de uma imagem de ziguezague, ela própria presente em diversos ensaios derridianos, aproxima e desaproxima os indesconstruíveis (justiça, perdão, promessa, dom etc.) das ideias de indecidível e decisão, místico e espectral e, finalmente, imanente e transcendente. A partir do debate sobre a Era Axial, pergunta-se, então, se os indesconstruíveis derridianos podem mesmo postular a universalidade, apresentando como contraponto o tratamento da fé (...) secular em Hägglund e da espectralidade nas metafísicas ameríndias tal como descritas por Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. (shrink)

Contrary to the common-sense view and positivist aspirations, scientific concepts are often imprecise. Many of these concepts are ambiguous, vague, or have an under-specified meaning. In this paper, I discuss how imprecise concepts promote integration in biology and thus benefit science. Previous discussions of this issue focus on the concepts of molecular gene and evolutionary novelty. The concept of molecular gene helps biologists integrate explanatory practices, while the notion of evolutionary novelty helps them integrate research questions into an interdisciplinary problem (...) New directions in the philosophy of science, Springer, Dordrecht, 2014). In what follows, I compare molecular gene and evolutionary novelty to another imprecise concept, namely biological lineage. This concept promotes two other types of scientific integration: it helps biologists integrate theoretical principles and methodologies into different areas of biology. The concept of biological lineage facilitates these types of integration because it is broad and under-specified in ways that the concepts of molecular gene and evolutionary novelty are not. Hence, I use the concept of biological lineage as a case study to reveal types of integration that have been overlooked by philosophers. This case study also shows that even very imprecise concepts can be beneficial to scientific practice. (shrink)

The main focus of acquaintance theorists has been the nature and mechanism of perceptual acquaintance with particulars. Generally, one’s view of perceptual acquaintance with general features has taken its bearings from one’s view of perceptual acquaintance with particulars. This has led to the glossing over of significant differences in the mechanisms of perceptual acquaintance with particulars and with general features. The difference in mechanisms suggests a difference in the sort of epistemic state at play in the two kinds of cases. (...) While the existence of such a difference might initially seem to spell trouble for acquaintance theorists, it can be made palatable by being traced back to the distinct basic functions concepts of particulars and of general features serve in thought. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Schopenhauer on the Inevitability of Suffering Criticisms of Schopenhauer's Thesis that to Desire Is to Suffer The Unattainability of True Satisfaction The Inevitability of Boredom The Negative Nature of Pleasure and Satisfaction Happiness and Well‐Being Degrees of Unhappiness: The Possibility of Amelioration The Paradox of the Suspension or Negation of the Will The Inevitability of Unhappiness References Further Reading.

This article aims to throw light on a recurrent structural feature of Heraclitus' style that, it will be argued, serves as a tool to enrich interpretation of his fragments. Named after the bow image used by the philosopher in B51, the ‘bow composition’ will be presented as a narrative technique developed by Heraclitus to reveal his conception of the world. In B51 we read: οὐ ξυνιᾶσιν ὅκως διαϕερόμενον ἑωυτῶι ὁμολογέει· παλίντροπος ἁρμονίη ὅκωσπερ τόξου καὶ λύρης (‘They don't understand how what (...) is in variance agrees with itself, a reciprocal stretching harmony as in the bow and the lyre’). Following an assumption that will be defended later, I argue that Heraclitus attempts through his text to demonstrate how ‘what is in variance agrees with itself’. One of his strategies to this end would be the bow composition, a way to structure his statements in which its first and last terms share the same root but have subtle suffix or prefix differences in order to depict that while being related (ὁμολογέει) they still maintain some difference (διαϕερόμενον). By means of employing such structure to describe reality Heraclitus would imitate the world order in his word order by providing his audience with an analogy that once perceived in the text would teach them how to correctly interpret nature itself. (shrink)

The Earth is facing pressing societal grand challenges that require urgent managerial action. Responsible management learning has emerged as a discipline to prepare managers to act as responsible leaders that can effectively address such pressing challenges. This article aims to extend current knowledge on RML in the domain of corporate sustainability through the application of threshold concepts, novel ideas which provide a doorway to new knowledge and transform a learner’s mindset. Specifically, after conducting a systematic review of the management literature, (...) we identify 33 CS threshold concepts that are useful for mainstream managers and practitioners in their RML process. We group them into six CS threshold concept themes that can help managers understand the complexities and interconnectedness that characterize CS. Finally, we map CS threshold concepts with key competences for effective RML. Therefore, our contribution relies on translating existing CS theoretical frameworks into transformative, specific, understandable and applicable pieces of knowledge that might help mainstream managers to embed CS principles in their daily management practices. (shrink)

While agreeing with Bernard Reginster that Nietzsche's advocacy of the will to power as a psychological thesis is much more fundamental than his extension of it as a cosmological or metaphysical thesis, I criticize him for failing to support this interpretation, and I attempt to supply an analysis that does support it. Then, I take issue with the common tendency to sanitize Nietzsche's theory of the will to power, to make it more palatable—and with Reginster's treatment of this issue. This (...) leads me to an examination of Nietzsche's conception of power—and a critique of Reginster's account of it. (shrink)

What we envisaged as a dossier to explore the connection between style and philosophy in this unique transitional period of Presocratic philosophy has turned out to be a volume that breaks with several conventional views of the Presocratics and has the potential to take the interpretation of style and Presocratic philosophy in a whole new and more fruitful direction.

Active shooter incidents have unfortunately become a common occurrence the world over. There is no country, city, or venue that is safe from these tragedies, and healthcare institutions are no exception. Healthcare facilities have been the targets of active shooters over the last several decades, with increasing incidents occurring over the last decade. People who work in healthcare have a professional and moral obligation to help patients. As concerns about the possibility of such incidents increase, how should healthcare institutions and (...) healthcare professionals understand their responsibilities in preparation for and during ASI? (shrink)

In this short piece I am not undertaking to give a full discussion of the whole of Patočka’s “heretical” work. I wish only make clear its most essential core. What, in Patočka’s view, made Europe Europe and what is Europe’s bequest to the world after what Patočka describes as its fall, completed by the two world wars? What should Europe look to conserve in itself if- as seems likely - it would like to once again play a respected role in (...) world events? Is there something which the globalised world should take over from old Europe, or something which it should eschew, if it does not wish history to end and utter decadence to ensue? (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Hume and Pascal: Pyrrhonism vs. Nature José R. Maia Neto The view that Pyrrhonism is not practically viable was, according to Richard H. Popkin, held during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuriesbydifferent philosophers suchas Mersenne,Arnauld, Pascal, Ramsay, and others.1 Among the anti-sceptics, this position was usually taken as an argument against Pyrrhonism. Popkin points out that Hume's main contribution to the "Pyrrhonian controversy" is to show that (i) "the (...) Pyrrhonian doctrine was the logical outcome of philosophical analysis,"2 (ii) that the infeasibility of Pyrrhonism does not weaken its epistemological force but only its psychological plausibility, and (Ui) that this implausibility obtains because nature (the common affairs ofeveryday life and the feeUngs, impressions, and ideas thereby generated) impels the philosopher to believe.3 Popkin alsomakes an allusion to the similaritybetweenHume and Pascal on this issue.4 In this paper I compare the dilemma posed by Pascal as apropaedeutic tofaith withthe "dangerous dilemma" alluded to, but avoided, by Hume in the conclusion of book 1 of the Treatise. The dilemma follows from (i) above. At a certain point in his epistemological enquiry the philosopher is forced tomake a hard choice between the quite disadvantageous alternatives: either to continue his philosophizing, which, leading to Pyrrhonism, may bring despair and cause the annihilation ofhis life, or to abandon philosophy, makinghim aprey ofthe "errors, absurdities, andobscurities"ofanon-critical life.5 In what follows I compare Hume's solution to this dilemma with Pascal's.? In the following passage Hume shows the toughness of the dilemma and offers a first answer to it: What party, then, shall we choose among these difficulties? If we... condemn all refin'd reasoning, we run into the most manifest absurdities. If we reject it in favour of these reasonings, we subvert entirely the human understanding. We have, therefore, no choice left but betwixt a false reason and none at all. For my part, I know not what ought to be done Volume XVII Number 1 41 JOSE R.???? NETO in the present case. I can only observe what is commonly done; which is, that this difficulty is seldom or never thought of; and even where it has once been present to the mind, is quickly forgot, and leaves but a small impression behind it. (T 268) Note that in this first answer Hume manages to avoid the normative response that the dilemma demands. He provides, instead, a descriptive account which is a kind of solution because it purports to show that human psychology makes it unlikely that someone could reach the point at which he or she would have to choose between the two parties. The dilemma does not arise because nature stops the self-subversion ofreason. Most fortunately it happens, that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herselfsuffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent ofmind, or by some avocation, and lively impression of my senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. (T 269) Hume means by nature in this passage both human nature and the social and natural environments which, in so far as they demand specific reactions, generate appropriate beliefs. Those beliefs imposed by nature are necessaryforour survival. So, the mere interaction ofthe philosopher with the world outside his closet suffices to dispel his sceptical crisis. According to Hume, this determination of nature is absolute and necessary. "I find myself absolutely and necessarily determin'd to live... I may, nay I must yield to the current ofnature" (T 269). This view is reaffirmed in the Enquiry. Nature is always too strong for principle. And though a PYRRHONIAN may throw himself or others into a momentary amazement and confusion by his profound reasonings; the first and most trivial event in life will put to flight all his doubts and scruples, and leave him the same, in every point ofaction and speculation, with the philosophers of every other sect, or with those who never concerned themselves in any philosophical researches.6 So, it would appear that the dilemma is just a fleeting impression in the imagination of the philosopher during a momentary sceptical crisis. Nature provides that such a crisis is not prolonged... (shrink)

Este trabalho tem por objetivo refletir sobre a relação entre a tese da mente estendida e do papel do corpo no uso das estratégias de aprendizagem. Nas discussões, tecemos algumas possíveis interseções entre a teoria das estratégias de aprendizagem com a tese da mente estendida de Andy Clark e David Chalmers e o papel do corpo. Em um primeiro momento, apresentamos a teoria das estratégias de aprendizagem. Em seguida, fizemos uma breve exposição da teoria da mente estendida. De modo subsequente, (...) refletimos sobre as possíveis aproximações entre o conceito de estratégias de aprendizagem e a tese da mente estendida e refletimos sobre o papel do corpo no uso de estratégias de aprendizagem. Por último, apresentamos as considerações finais como um esboço de possíveis contribuições da interseção entre as teorias e deixamos apontamentos para estudos futuros. (shrink)

Aunque fueron contemporáneos, Borges y Wittgenstein nunca se conocieron, ni se citaron, ni se leyeron. Pero hay poderosas afinidades y conexiones entre ambos. Por ejemplo, al fin del Tractatus Wittgenstein entiende que hay que callar precisamente ahí porque se ha llegado a un punto en el que conceptual se subordina a lo poético. La idea de que la naturaleza estética del mundo no puede representarse por medio del lenguaje también es característica de Borges. El mar, los atardeceres, la llama de (...) una hoguera, por ejemplo, son la inminencia de una revelación que nunca se produce, son el hecho estético. La obra de Wittgenstein es estrictamente filosófica y al mismo tiempo literaria. Esa proposición parece verdadera también para el caso de la obra de Borges. (shrink)

When commenting on Aristotle Ph. 1.3, 187a1, Simplicius in Ph. 1.3, 146, 29–147,2 establishes an equivalence between the shining «silver egg» (ὤεον ἀργύφεον) of Orpheus (fr. 70 Kern) and the Parmenidean being or, rather, one of the determinations with which Parmenides, in the section of his Poem devoted to the so-called Way of Truth, indicates the ἐόν, i.e., «resembling the mass of a well-rounded sphere» (εὐκύκλου σφαίρης ἐναλίγκιον ὄγκωι – DK 28 B 8.43). The equivalence established here is found in (...) the great digression about Parmenides (in Ph. 142, 28–148, 24), where Simplicius puts forward an interpretation of Parmenides that identifies the Parmenidean being-one (τὸ ἓν ὄν) with the intelligible (τὸ νοητόν), which, in another passages of the same commentary, is also qualified with the metaphysical concept of “unified” (τὸ ἡνωμένον) that is taken from Damascius. The aim of the present paper is to trace back the Neo-Platonic assumptions of this identification. In particular, we will focus on Damascius Pr. 2.55.40, 14–19 and 3.123.160, 1–3 Westerink, since these passages contain insights into the Orphic theology that is referred to as “usual”, “common” or “rhapsodic”, as well as a contextual “translation” of various Orphic concepts (e.g. ὤεον ἀργύφεον) in terms of Neo-Platonic metaphysics. The metaphysical transposition of the mythical image of the silver egg goes back, however, to Proclus (in Ti. 1.428, 8–9), who assumes the identity between Plato’s being (“being in the primary sense”, τὸ πρώτως [...] ὄν) and the Orphic egg (ταὐτὸν τό τε Πλάτωνος ὂν καὶ τὸ Ὀρφικὸν ὠόν). One cannot, at the same time, exclude a priori the possibility that the Orphic motif of the silver egg circulated in the Magna Graecia of Parmenides already from at least the 6th century BC. It is possible, as Colli hypothesised, that already Ibycus (who certainly knew Orpheus, fr. 25 Page) betrays a certain knowledge of it in fr. 4.4–5 Page, where we find the expression ἐν ὠέωι ἀργυρέωι. This article demonstrates that Proclus and Damascius embedded the Orphic concept of ὤεον ἀργύφεον into their Neo-Platonic metaphysics by showing its potential for speculative order. (shrink)