[1] Dagli inizi alla fine del XII secolo -- [2] Il secolo XIII.

Les prédications eckhartiennes qui nous sont parvenues, sont au nombre d’environ 100 en latin, et de 120 en moyen haut allemand. La critique situe la plus grande partie de ces prédications allemandes dans la dernière décennie de la vie d’Eckhart. Mais son intérêt pour la prédication est présent dans son œuvre dès le début et accompagne toute sa carrière. En particulier, ce qui caractérise son travail homilétique par rapport aux maîtres en théologie, ses contemporains, semble bien être l’usage de la (...) langue vulgaire et le soin particulier apporté à la mise en forme littéraire et à la publication de ces prédications. D’où la question posée : pourquoi cet intérêt pour l’usage de la langue vulgaire? L’attention dans cette étude se concentre donc sur les prédications allemandes et à ce propos sont traités deux arguments qui paraissent particulièrement significatifs. Le premier se concentre sur la nécessité de leur recontextualisation liturgique. En effet, l’aspect liturgique a été complètement occulté dans l’édition critique et la littérature. Le second se manifeste par la nécessité d’explorer le caractère littéraire des prédications, qui ne sont pas de fait “reportées” par des auditeurs (-trices), mais ont été rédigées et publiées par les soins de l’auteur lui-même. Enfin il faut noter comme caractéristique de l’homilétique eckhartienne, le lien essentiel entre locutio emphatica et discours démonstratif (« natiurlîche rede ») : l’examen de quelques textes tirés de la Défense d’Eckhart (1326) tente d’éclairer ce concept. (shrink)

In this paper, three fragments of Dietrich of Freiberg's treatises are reported and analyzed from a philological point of view. The first one, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz,...

Internal cross-references are frequent in Eckhart’s Latin works. In many cases it is easy to identify the passages he had in mind, but several quotations refer to works which are no longer extant or, more probably, to treatises the author intended to write but never actually wrote. This network of cross-indications constitutes a virtual internal memory that links the different parts of Eckhart’s work together in a coherent system. In the German works, the recurring reference to ideas and thoughts already (...) “uttered” seems to explicate the same function, particularly in the hypothesis that they refer to passages contained in a written collection of sermons. In this sense, it would seem that Eckhart’s typical formula “als ich mêr gesprochen hân” should not be translated as a generic “as I have often said”, but as a precise reference to a previous sermon in the collection and simulates orality in the homiletic literary style, in the same... (shrink)

Quaestio, Volume 20, Issue, Page 519-523, January 2020.

Consciousness, understood as an awareness of what is going on that helps shape one’s experiences, is one of the ways that scholars have distinguished animal life from the rest of the natural world. Beings that have interests in having good experiences and avoiding bad ones deserve our moral attention, and this quality is an important feature of ethical engagement with other sentient beings, both human and nonhuman. What interests matter and why they matter is a subject of disagreement that has (...) affected what we judge to be permissible or impermissible treatment of other animals. Empathy toward and respect for other animals takes us beyond attention to their suffering and has us focus on what counts as well-being for others, by their own lights. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of the key philosophical themes and debates in discussions of pornography. In particular, I consider the major positions on how pornography ought to be defined, when (and if ) it should be regulated, whether it is best understood as speech (or action), whether there is evidence that is it harmful. I argue in favor of what is known as the civil rights approach to pornography, as reflected in the work of Catharine MacKinnon.

Personal Versus Political Affairs in Churchill's This is a Chair There are plenty of issues in the world to petition and fight for, yet each individual also has "battles" at home to contend with. Which is of more importance? We often separate the two indefinitely. In studying Caryl Churchill's work This Is a Chair, however, I would suggest the personal and political to be intimately related and possibly each even a causation of the other. To take care of one may (...) be eliminating the problem of the other as well. Might political problems stem from petty, personal qualms? Even more specifically might jeopardizing moral norms affect the greater social order? If so, this would be a revelation and fresh pursuit in solving many of the monumental political issues which are faced today. (shrink)

Capability approach pioneers Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum both recognize empowerment as an important aspect of human development. They seem to disagree, however, about how empowerment should be represented within the capability approach (CA). This essay is concerned with the analysis of the foundational concepts at work within Sen and Nussbaum’s CAs. Part One concerns the key concepts of empowerment at work in Sen’s CA and has three goals. 1) Clarify Sen’s various empowerment concepts. 2) Argue that Sen’s concept of (...) Realize Agency Success is flawed. 3) Make clear that empowerment in Sen’s approach can be helpfully understood in terms of agency and capability set expansion. Part Two considers Nussbaum’s CA and the debate over whether it can account for empowerment. I conclude that not only can Nussbaum’s CA account for empowerment, but that the role of empowerment in both Sen’s and Nussbaum’s CAs can be understood in terms of agency and capability set expansion. In other words, Sen and Nussbaum actually agree about empowerment at the foundational level. (shrink)

Agro-ecological innovations aim at promoting sustainable agricultural practices that have long term benefits. However, farmers rarely adopt beneficial innovations in agro-ecology despite expressing an understanding of the benefits and a desire to do so. It has been argued that the farmers lack sufficient knowledge to implement complex innovations. We believe that in many cases such knowledge is necessary, but is ultimately insufficient for complex innovation adoption. We argue that in addition to knowledge and a desire to adopt an innovation, many (...) farmers require a collaborative relation with an ally. We call this method the Alliance Approach to innovation. This approach is modeled after the therapeutic Alliance Approach at work in cognitive and behavioral sciences. We argue that using the Alliance Approach will not only prove effective in helping farmers adopt complex agro-ecology innovations, but also a better fit for the human centered development of capability approach human development, as it is likely to enhance both the well-being and agency of the farmers. (shrink)

In this "for and against" book, ethicists Lori Watson and Jessica Flanigan debate the criminalization of sex work. Watson argues for a sex equality approach to prostitution in which buyers are criminalized and sellers are decriminalized, known as the Nordic Model. Flanigan argues that sex work should be fully decriminalized because decriminalization ensures respect for sex workers' and clients' rights, and is more effective than alternative policies.

Notion essentielle au croisement de la psychologie, de l'ethique et de l'esthetique de la tradition occidentale, la phantasia des Grecs, devenue imaginatio dans le monde latin avant d'etre traduite dans les differentes langues europeennes, a connu un echo considerable tout au long de l'histoire de la pensee philosophique. Les etudes rassemblees dans le present volume sont issues d'un seminaire et d'une journee d'etudes qui se sont tenus en 2001 a l'Universite catholique de Louvain et aux Facultes Notre-Dame de la Paix (...) de Namur. Elles visent a eclairer l'evolution du sens et du role de la notion au travers d'etapes historiques particulieres, surtout anciennes, s'echelonnant du VIe siecle avant Jesus-Christ au XVIIe siecle de notre ere. (shrink)

Dix ans apres la mort de Hans Jonas, qu'en est-il de la reception de sa philosophie? L'incroyable succes qu'elle connut s'explique par l'actualite d'un de ses themes principaux: la necessite d'une responsabilite nouvelle a l'egard des generations futures. Mais la reception largement negative que provoqua sa vulgarisation dans les domaines de l'ethique envireonnementale ou de la bioethique ne laisse pas de masquer le fondement de cette philosophie et les conditions memes de la mise en place des thematiques nouvelles qui retinrent (...) d'abord l'attention. S'alimentant a des sources tantot cachees, tantot eclectiques, elle s'est developpee au cours de plusieurs periodes dont le philosophe lui-meme disait ne pas voir ce qu'elles avaient en commun... Susceptible d'etre abordee par des voies multiples, cette oeuvre reste encore un defi pour le penseur et l'historien de la philosophie qui veulent la prendre au serieux et qui sont soucieux de la reconstruire et d'en lever tous les mysteres. (shrink)

<I>Cosmopolitanism and the Arab Spring: Foundations for the Decline of Terrorism analyzes the role of social media in the Arab Spring within a specific philosophical framework. Kantian cosmopolitanism, enhanced by social media and Internet communications technologies, offers a solid explanation of the political evolution of the Arab Spring. These technologies have given rise to a new cosmopolitanism that rejects alternating dichotomies in favor of an evolving consciousness of our status as citizens of a global commonwealth with a tiered set of (...) duties to everyone within our sphere of influence. Cosmopolitanism as extended through social media has the potential to break down barriers to aid those who suffer under unjust governmental systems and to yield real and sustainable progress toward the amelioration of both tyranny and terrorism. <I>Cosmopolitanism and the Arab Spring is recommended for political philosophy courses as well as interdisciplinary capstone courses exploring problems in the modern world. (shrink)

Some bioethicists argue that conscientious objectors in health care should have to justify themselves, just as objectors in the military do. They should have to provide reasons that explain why they should be exempt from offering the services that they find offensive. There are two versions of this view in the literature, each giving different standards of justification. We show these views are each either too permissive (i.e. would result in problematic exemptions based on conscience) or too restrictive (i.e. would (...) produce problematic denials of exemption). We then develop a middle ground position that we believe better combines respect for the conscience of healthcare professionals with concern for the duties that they owe to patients. Our claim, in short, is that insofar as objectors should have to justify themselves, they should have to do it according to the standard that we defend rather than according to the standards that others have developed. (shrink)