Drawing on several issues and methods in Western philosophy, from analytical philosophy to semiotics and hermeneutics, the author throws new light on the ancient Zhuangzi text. Engaging Daoism and contemporary Western philosophical logic, and drawing on new developments in our understanding of early Chinese culture, Coutinho challenges the interpretation of Zhuangzi as either a skeptic or a relativist, and instead seeks to explore his philosophy as emphasizing the ineradicable vagueness of language, thought and reality. This new interpretation of the (...) Zhuangzi offers an important development in the understanding of Daoist philosophy, describing a world in flux in which things themselves are vague and inconsistent, and tries to show us a Way (a Dao) to negotiate through the shadows of a "chaotic" world. (shrink)

Steve Coutinho explores in detail the fundamental concepts of Daoist thought as represented in three early texts: the _Laozi_, the _Zhuangzi_, and the _Liezi_. Readers interested in philosophy yet unfamiliar with Daoism will gain a comprehensive understanding of these works from this analysis, and readers fascinated by ancient China who also wish to grasp its philosophical foundations will appreciate the clarity and depth of Coutinho's explanations. Coutinho writes a volume for all readers, whether or not they have (...) a background in philosophy or Chinese studies. A work of comparative philosophy, this volume also integrates the concepts and methods of contemporary philosophical discourse into a discussion of early Chinese thought. The resulting dialogue relates ancient Chinese thought to contemporary philosophical issues and uses modern Western ideas and approaches to throw new interpretive light on classical texts. Rather than function as historical curiosities, these works act as living philosophies in conversation with contemporary thought and experience. Coutinho respects the multiplicity of Daoist philosophies while also revealing a distinctive philosophical sensibility, and he provides clear explanations of these complex texts without resorting to oversimplification. (shrink)

The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is a measure of analytical reasoning that cues an intuitive but incorrect response that must be rejected for successful performance to be attained. The CRT yields two types of errors: Intuitive errors, which are attributed to Type 1 processes; and non-intuitive errors, which result from poor numeracy skills or deficient reasoning. Past research shows that participants who commit the highest numbers of errors on the CRT overestimate their performance the most, whereas those with the lowest (...) error-rates tend to slightly underestimate. This is an example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE). The present study examined how intuitive vs. non-intuitive errors contribute to overestimation in the CRT at different levels of performance. Female undergraduate students completed a seven-item CRT test and subsequently estimated their raw score. They also filled out the Faith in Intuition (FI) questionnaire, which is a dispositional measure of intuitive thinking. Data was separated into quartiles based on level of performance on the CRT. The results demonstrated the DKE. Additionally, intuitive and non-intuitive errors predicted miscalibration among low, but not high performers. However, intuitive errors were a stronger predictor of miscalibration. Finally, FI was positively correlated with CRT self-estimates and miscalibration, indicating that participants who perceived themselves to be more intuitive were worse at estimating their score. These results taken together suggest that participants who perform poorly in the CRT and also those who score higher in intuitive thinking disposition are more susceptible to the influences of heuristic-based cues, such as answer fluency, when judging their performance. (shrink)

The way we think about disagreement is shaped by the systematic emphasizing of its adversarial, non-cooperative aspects. This is due to a perspective on arguing and disagreeing. Perspectives enable some thoughts and occlude others. We claim that the way some issues are thought of in aesthetics is conditioned by a similar phenomenon we call ‘the Received Image’ (RI), which parallels the influence on ethics of what Bernard Williams called ‘systems of morality’. Peter Kivy argued that disagreements in aesthetics, if genuine, (...) presuppose that contenders are tacit realists about ‘art-relevant properties’: the motivation for arguing lies in making the adversary acknowledge (epistemic) defeat (in pursuing agreement from others). He draws this conclusion from what he sees as a fundamental difference between aesthetics and ethics. However, in our view, Kivy and his opponents in the semantic meta-debate on disagreement think under the aegis of the RI. We look at disagreements about art from a neo-cognitivist perspective, and argue that heuristic similarities between aesthetics and ethics stand out with an understanding-based epistemology coupled with an adequate theory of artistic form: form as a perspective-generating device whose grasping involves ‘infinitely fine adjustments’. (shrink)

Based on a mixed-methods study involving triad tasks and ethnobiological models, we analyze local categories and knowledge of key ethnospecies of fish exploring partial overlaps between artisanal fishers’ and academic knowledge in a fishing community in northeast Brazil. We argue that fishers’ and academic knowledge overlaps may provide common ground for transdisciplinary collaboration, while their partiality requires reflection on epistemological and ontological differences. Here, we show how knowledge of artisanal fishers can complement academic knowledge and bring about tensions that need (...) to be addressed through intercultural dialogue. By integrating a general philosophical framework of partial overlaps with a mixed-methods study on fishers’ knowledge, we show how ethnobiology can contribute to reflective and empirically-grounded transdisciplinary practices. (shrink)

This paper is a defence of the view that, contrary to a recent trend in the literature, there is a distinctively political kind of normativity. Four steps are taken to establish that conclusion. First, I introduce a constructivist methodology for practical philosophy, one that is focused on the problem-solving nature of normative concepts. Second, I propose to understand the political as constituted by political problems, that is, by problems that concern members of a collective as members of that collective. Third, (...) I claim that there is a kind of collective obligations, which I call political collective obligations, that do not provide direct and clear action guidance to those subject to them, but that are rather best conceived of as thin obligations. Such thin obligations stemming from properly conceived political problems constitute a distinctive kind of normativity, the normativity of politics. Because political collective obligations typically lack action guidance, what they mandate is that each obliged agent contribute their share to what they normatively regard as the best collective solution to the political problem. The paper concludes with some considerations about the so-called inefficacy problem in light of the previously established conclusions. (shrink)

No livro XI da obra A Trindade, Santo Agostinho discorre acerca da construção do conhecimento sensível à luz de duas analogias trinitárias, isto é, de dois processos epistemológicos que refletem, em certo sentido, semelhanças com o mistério da Divina Trindade. A partir das categorias de lembrança e esquecimento, as quais dependem do poder unitivo da vontade, bem como da capacidade da memória de reter as imagens das coisas sensíveis inteligidas pelos sentidos, analisaremos a função da faculdade da imaginação no tocante (...) à formação de imagens, embora de ordem distinta daquelas armazenadas na memória, bem como a importância da vontade neste processo. Com efeito, objetivamos neste trabalho apresentar o processo de construção do conhecimento sensível na referida obra agostiniana, aventando o viés ético-moral para o qual sua epistemologia conduz. (shrink)

Resenha do livro: DUQUE, Eduardo. _Valores e religiosidade em Portugal: _comportamentos e atitudes geracionais. Porto: Afrontamento, 2022, 126 p.

A pesquisa desenvolve o tema das agências reguladoras que são órgãos públicos submetidos a um regime jurídico especial. Este indica a independência de sua composição e de atuação como condição de legalidade e de legitimidade. Aponta-se o fenômeno da captura, que poderá ocorrer naqueles dois momentos, como sendo uma forma de corrupção a desestabilizar o modelo das agências implementado no Brasil a partir de 1997. O percurso dos estudos considera método qualitativo a partir da doutrina e da legislação em vigor.

O modelo escolar moderno que foi universalizado durante o século XX, mostrou-se incapacitado de responder todas as demandas sociais que lhe foram impostas. Dessa forma, durante a segunda metade deste século a crise do sistema de ensino formal deu abertura a diversos debates sobre questões que permeiam a ação de educar, como os espaços, os atores e porque não sobre próprio conceito: o que é educar? Sendo assim, neste artigo trago reflexões sobre a educação formal, dentre outras formas, analisando o (...) contexto da educação no Brasil e em Cabo Verde, para compreender de que maneira determinados atores sociais, como os rappers, podem contribuir para a construção de uma educação emancipadora. (shrink)

O pensamento de Evaldo Coutinho, que se concentra numa síntese teológica e estético-filosófica, veio se desenvolvendo através dos quatro volumes anteriores, culmina neste livro numa profundidade de discernimento suscetível de comprovar-se a cada página, além de ostentar a coerência interna, indispensável a todo labor especulativo. O viver humano se traduz como viver metafísico, quando os fatos se deixam corresponder ao sentido que lhes inocula o escritor, qual seja, o de nada deixar escapar à ordem fisionômica. Esta é a denominação (...) com que Evaldo Coutinho intitula o universo enquanto repertório de sua individualidade 'em via de perecer'. Os episódios apresentados no dia-a-dia atestam a dependência em relação à vida do próprio autor, visto que ele os existência através do conhecimento e da criação. A par da originalidade daquela síntese, ressalta a qualidade de uma escritura, ímpar no pensamento brasileiro, e a novidade literária, rara de ver-se na ensaística filosófica em geral. Trata-se, na verdade, de uma contribuição que veio para ficar entre as mais sensíveis meditações sobre o sentido do existir e que irá penetrando na consciência do leitor que tiver o gosto pela aventura do espírito através dos caminhos da reflexão e do autoconhecimento e que se der ao trabalho de acompanhar Evaldo Coutinho em sua notável caminhada para fora de si, dentro de si. (shrink)

Some think politics and art should not mix. The problem with this view is that politics and art were always entwined. Human experience is structured politically, even if much of it is not. Here, I illustrate this with a series of artistic examples that take us from work songs in a Mississippi 1940s forced labour camp to a desolate dead forest landscape in a former Krasnoyarsk gulag, evocative of a Paul Nash World War I painting. Powerful artworks help us to (...) come to grips with human experience, more than merely “expressing emotion”. I treat songs as representations, looking for a way their political significance is part of their aesthetic value. To do this, I defend James Young’s (2001) concept of “illustrative representation” as bridging the gap between formalism and contextualism. But instead of Young’s “Wollheimian” (resemblance between experiences) approach to how such representation works I draw on Kulvicki’s (2020) notion of “syntactic parts”, combining it with Carroll’s (2016) concept of form as the “ensemble of artistic choices”, and Black’s (1954-55) frame-and-focus model of meaning in metaphor. Hopefully, in the end I will have clarified the ways in which (some) songs are both politically and aesthetically meaningful. (shrink)

Partindo das doutrinárias que apresentou no livro 'O Lugar de todos os Lugares', também publicado por esta Editora, Evaldo Coutinho expõe, em 'A Subordinação ao nosso Existir', a sua tese sobre a teologia do eu, quando salienta que todo o universo está a depender, existencialmente, da vida de cada ser humano. Este passa a ter, portanto, uma valorização metafísica inexcedível. A comprovação da tese se encontra na percepção do autor que vê em si mesmo o existenciador e o preservador (...) do universo. Ele, o autor, assume o privilégio absoluto de posse de abrangência, do qual nenhuma coisa vem a subrair-se. Para ilustrar o seu pensamento, Evaldo Coutinho usa a imagem do espectador colocado na última cadeira, de onde testemunha, simultaneamente, o palco e os demais espectadores. A Subordinação ao nosso Existir, encerra, na estruturação literária, figuras e cenas que vivificam a especulação filosófica em torno do universo restrito à brevidade de uma vida, no caso a do próprio revelador da 'ordem fisionômica'. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to understand the perceptions of highly skilled and less skilled volleyball players about the influences that parents, coaches, and peers had on their sport development and performance achievement. Highly skilled (n= 30) and less skilled (n= 30) volleyball players participated in semi-structured retrospective interviews to explain how parents, coaches and peers may have influenced their sport participation. Data was analyzed through a process of content analysis. Results indicated that parents, coaches, and peers had an (...) important influence in player's sport development but differing according to players' expertise level. Concerning to parental influences, tangible support during the early years of development was mentioned by all players. However, parents' level of involvement and parenting styles revealed interesting differences between highly skilled and less skilled players. Highly skilled players perceived a moderate parental involvement and an autonomy-supportive parenting style, while less skilled players referred a excessive parental involvement in players' sport participation. Coaches influences showed to have some similarities in the early years with all players mentioning coaches as caring and recognizing their value as an athlete. However, highly skilled players described a different training environment characterized by a demanding coach, individualized instruction, and specific goal setting. Regarding peers' influence, all players recognized that friends were not only one of the main reasons to start playing volleyball, but also an important source of support to remain engaged and staying motivated to do sport. Highly skilled players, however, mentioned the importance of teammates' positive push and critiques during practice for enhancing their motivation, team cohesion and friendship. They also highlighted the importance of friends outside of sport in the later years of their career by acting as an escape from all the pressure that emerged from volleyball training and competition demands. Overall, these findings highlight different social influences according to the players' expertise level suggesting the need to examine more extensively the nature of significant others' support on athlete and talent development. (shrink)

Esta coletânea trata de vários temas, que vão desde os conceitos de democracia e de sociedade civil até a atual crise do PT e do seu governo. Gramsci é a fonte das principais categorias do autor.

Este artigo sobre as minorias religiosas em Portugal tem como objetivo apresentar uma revisão bibliográfica dos estudos qualitativos de cariz sociológico e/ou antropológico sobre as mesmas, contribuindo, assim, para reunir e analisar os estudos referidos, para além de avaliar, no final, o estado da arte. Para o efeito, realiza-se uma análise exaustiva dos catálogos das bibliotecas das universidades, dos sites dos centros de investigação e das plataformas de dados curriculares, para se coligir as obras de cada autor doutorado, optando-se, sempre (...) que possível, pelas mais recentes, completas e/ou representativas do objecto estudado. Por um lado, há minorias religiosas relativamente bem analisadas, como alguns evangélicos, alguns outros cristãos, religiões afro-brasileiras e africanas, cristãos orientais, muçulmanos, hindus e judeus. Por outro lado, há minorias religiosas totalmente por estudar, sobretudo evangélicos, outros cristãos e minorias orientais, cuja presença é mais significativa, ou protestantes, cuja presença é menos significativa. (shrink)

O terceiro argumento a favor da imortalidade da alma no Fédon, que a tradição exegética também costuma chamar de “argumento da afinidade” (77e-80d), apresenta uma curiosa relação entre corpo e alma que, por vezes, é vista por intérpretes como uma dicotoma radical. Para discutir esse trecho do Fédon na tentativa de ultrapassar a suposta dicotomia entre alma e corpo que se imputa a Platão neste diálogo, propõe-se neste artigo uma análise minuciosa do argumento em duas etapas, ele próprio consistindo em (...) dois níveis: (i) a analogia entre a alma e as Ideias (78b-79c), (ii) e a analogia entre a alma e o divino (80a-c). Devido às controvérsias que este argumento tem gerado e na confiança de que esse debate está longe de atingir o seu termo, este artigo tem como objetivo responder a três perguntas: como entender o argumento da afinidade na economia do Fédon como um todo? Além disso, como compreender a relação entre corpo e alma nesse argumento? Por fim, a letra do texto platônico permite, de fato, inferir uma dicotomia radical entre alma e corpo? Como veremos, Sócrates está menos interessado em oferecer uma demonstração lógica da imortalidade da alma do que um discurso exortativo para curar os seus companheiros do temor de que a alma desaparece com a morte do corpo. Trata-se então da oportunidade perfeita para discutir esses dois elementos que constituem o fenômeno efêmero e transitório chamado “homem” (ánthropos), bem como seus modos de cognição e o seu comportamento ético. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that principles of justice, contrary to what John Rawls and Thomas Nagel believe, do apply transnationally. I start with a debate about the proper scope of justice and defend the view according to which social practices, apart from the structure of the state, ought to be included in the purview of justice. However, I hold that there is no need to include individual behaviour, alongside social practices, opposing G. A. Cohen’s view on this matter and (...) agreeing with Aaron James. I then argue for a relational account of equality, understood as a central principle of justice, whose application is feasible at the transnational level. Finally, I briefly discuss two examples of international social practices that could (and in my view ought to) be assessed in terms of social justice and respond to two objections to my position. -/- . (shrink)

Our core hypothesis is that the emergence of human language arose very rapidly from the linking of two pre-adapted systems found elsewhere in the animal world—an expression system, found, for example, in birdsong, and a lexical system, suggestively found in non-human primate calls (Miyagawa et al., 2013, 2014 ). We challenge the view that language has undergone a series of gradual changes—or a single preliminary protolinguistic stage—before achieving its full character. We argue that a full-fledged combinatorial operation Merge triggered the (...) integration of these two pre-adapted systems, giving rise to a fully developed language. This goes against the gradualist view that there existed a structureless, protolinguistic stage, in which a rudimentary proto-Merge operation generated internally flat words. It is argued that compounds in present-day language are a fossilized form of this prior stage, a point which we will question. (shrink)

Kripke argues that theoretical identities are necessary but seem contingent, and that alleged psychophysical identities of types are not in fact identities. In line with Kripke’s strategy for explaining the contingency illusion of theoretical identities (and for the alleged failure of the type-type identitative materialist strategy), while an explanation is available for the illusion of contingency in the case of theoretical identities, in the case of alleged psychophysical identities of types, an analogous explanation is not available. Nagel argues that there (...) are the following two explanations: that of the two types of imagination and that of the tripartite essence of pain or of the fixers of the reference. Hill, in turn, defends Nagel’s two types of imagination. (shrink)

. Modern science is one form of knowledge, demarcated by its time (modernity) and by other “knowledges.” There is a fair amount of clarity as to what does not count as scientific, but there is a twilight zone of knowledges whose scientific status is ambivalent. In this zone the encounter between science and religion takes place. The particular contribution of religion and theology in this encounter is to call for an ethics of knowledge in the epistemological endeavors of science.

This is a theological response to two programmatic essays, “Science and the Future of Theology: Critical Issues,” by Arthur Peacocke and “What Game is Being Played? The Need for Clarity about theRelationship between Scientific and Theological Understanding,” by David A. Pailin. It argues that the two authors, well informed by the recent developments in science, are reduplicating some methodological and epistemological trends common to nineteenth‐century theology. The feasibility of their project should, therefore, be examined on whether they succeed in answering (...) the questions posed to the liberal project that dominated theological and philosophical scholarship in the last century. They are found to be wanting in their inadequate response to three considerations: (1) the persistence of particular manifestations of religion and theology's enduring refusal to accept thoroughly scientific “enlightened” criteria, (2) the epistemological implications of the eschatological character of the Christianmessage, and (3) the trinitarian paradigm for Christian theology and the life of faith. (shrink)

O HUMANISMO NA HERMENÊUTICA FILOSÓFICA: PARA ALÉM DO SÓCIOPOLÍTICO- ECONÔMICO.

Desde os anos 1960, muitos educadores populares atuaram no Brasil com “objetivos políticos”, buscando construir uma hegemonia popular alcançada “antes de conquistar o poder governamental”. Pretende-se pesquisar a contribuição dessa síntese fecunda entre educação e política nos movimentos populares para o declínio do regime autoritário e para o fortalecimento de um projeto popular de democracia, que disputou a hegemonia política nos anos 1978-1989, bem como analisar os desdobramentos, limites e possibilidades atuais desse projeto, através da consulta a documentos e fontes (...) bibliográficas, além de entrevistas. (shrink)

This present research seeks to introduce to some of the recent developments in analytical philosophy of religion. Thus, the revival of philosophical theism in scholarly debates in the analytic philosophy ocurring since the 60' will be looked at. As a byproduct of this revival, natural theology makes a comeback with its traditional arguments for the existence of God. We discuss this in light of the controversy on same subject involving theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner.

Abordaremos a crítica marxiana à noção hegeliana de "ser" , mostrando que a historicidade e a objetividade, em verdade, são determinações desta . Deste modo, intentamos mostrar que analogias entre a lógica hegeliana e a teoria marxiana podem eclipsar aspectos centrais à abordagem materialista proposta pelo autor de "O capital". Apontando a inversão hegeliana entre sujeito e predicado, Marx trata da apreensão do real que, muito embora seja traçada em diálogo com a dialética hegeliana, é também sua antítese direta . (...) We will deal with the Marxian criticism to the Hegelian notion of "being". It will be shown that historicity and objectivity are determinations of this category . So, the analogy between the Hegelian logic and the Marxian theory may, sometimes, hide essential aspects of the materialist comprehension of history. Here, we intend to prove that, by questioning the treatment dispensed to the matter of being by Hegel, Marx criticizes the Hegelian inversion between subject and predicate in a way that, although dialoguing with Hegel, his conception is the exact opposite at the same time. (shrink)