This essay aims to analyze the conception of a work of art in the thought of Susanne K. Langer. The author offers us a definition of art, grounded on the idea that art is the “creation of symbolic forms of human feeling”. This thesis is, in turn, constructed from a robust theory of the symbolic function of the human mind.

This essay aims to examine how Thomas Mann reinterprets, in the novel “The Magic Mountain”, Nietzsche’s view of the world expressed in “The Birth of Tragedy”. The Olympic world becomes in the novel of Mann, a sanatorium where the death drive controls everything. Several interpretations for this ironic reading of the magic mountain symbol are offered, in particular the idea that death must not hypnotise us, a major theme of “Snow scene” of the novel.

The goal of this paper is to distinguish between two main concepts in Philosophy of Religion: the religious human experience and the notion of God. It argues that religion must be understood as a symbolic and cultural construction while the concept of the divine means the experience of the limits of human thought. Sometimes, throughout human history, these two experience meet but they are not conceptually the same.

O presente artigo tem como objectivo fundamental propor uma interpretação do poema de T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, no qual a experiência do mal constitui ponto de referência central. Esta experiência, traduzida metaforicamente por "terra desolada", pode ser perspectivada tanto em termos pessoais como civilizacionais. O poema, depois de realizar o diagnóstico de uma situação de crise profunda, realiza o que poderíamos designar como um ritual catártico que permite a purificação das dimensões negativas, sedimentadas em nós, constrangedoras da nossa liberdade. (...) /// This paper proposes an interpretation of T. S. Elliot 's poem The Waste Land whose core is the experience of evil. Such experience, expressed by the metaphor of the "waste land", can be viewed either in personal or in civilizational terms. After diagnosing a profound crisis, the poem goes on to what could be called a cathartic ritual, which enables the purification of negative elements of life that constrain our freedom. (shrink)

This paper analyses which are the great cultural cosmogonic models of creation in mythology; so it will be an essay of comparative mythology about the origin of the world, a study marked by the concern to detect philosophical principles that guide this area of thought.

This paper has the purpose of showing the way the concept of narrative identity, suggested by Ricoeur, enables us to re-evaluate the paradoxes resulting from the two classic criteria used to solve the problem of personal identity.

This essay examines the conflict of interpretations arisen by Kafka’s work, specially by his narrative «The Metamorphosis». It analyses the range and limits of the psychological, sociological, theological and existentialist interpretation of Kafka.

This paper aims to analyse how literary fiction deals with two real cases of philistine violence on cultural objects, one artistic and the other scientific. In this way, we will analyse Mishima's novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, which narrates the destruction of one of the “jewels of Kyoto,” as well as Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, which novelised the attack against the meridian of Greenwich. In both cases, we are confronted with the same attitude, namely, the insane resentment (...) against the reality principle. (shrink)

This paper examines the philosophical conflict arisen by theodicy in western culture. After the exposition of Simon Blackburn and Richard Swinbume’s contentions views, we sustain that the only credible solution to the problem entails a new philosophical concept of God based on a non-anthropocentric vision of reality.

In this paper, we sustain the thesis that there is a violent aspect in the religious attitude. However, it is also true – as paradoxical as it might sound – that religion has been the privileged field to limit all kinds of violence in human societies. Keywords: Religion. Violence. Sacrifice. Frazer. Girard. Eliade.

In this paper, I intend to dispute Marc Hauser’s thesis, sustained in Wild Minds. What Animals Really Think, that we must abandon the question of whether animals have a feeling of themselves, replacing it for an objective and scientific analysis capable of disclosing the extraordinary similitude between different mental procedures animals undergo when they face common challenges.

In this paper, I intend to dispute Marc Hauser’s thesis, sustained in Wild Minds. What animals Really Think, that we must abandon the question of whether animals have a feeling of themselves, replacing it for an objective and scientific analysis capable of disclosing the extraordinary similitude between different mental procedures animals undergo when they face common challenges.

In this article, we analyse the symbolic meaning of the Thomas Mann's novel, The Magic Mountain. We try to see the scope of the interpretations that consider the metaphors of death, time and culture as the main subject of the novel. Finally, we sustain the idea that Thomas Mann wants to tell us that beauty and perfection are the reverse of death and suffering.

The COVID-19 outbreak has ravaged all societal domains, including education. Home confinement, school closures, and distance learning impacted students, teachers, and parents’ lives worldwide. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on Italian and Portuguese students’ academic motivation as well as investigate the possible buffering role of extracurricular activities. Following a retrospective pretest–posttest design, 567 parents reported on their children’s academic motivation and participation in extracurricular activities. We used a multi-group latent change score model to (...) compare Italian and Portuguese students’: pre-COVID mean motivation scores; rate of change in motivation; individual variation in the rate of change in motivation; and dependence of the rate of change on initial motivation scores. Estimates of latent change score models showed a decrease in students’ motivation both in Italy and in Portugal, although more pronounced in Italian students. Results also indicated that the decrease in students’ participation in extracurricular activities was associated with changes in academic motivation. Furthermore, students’ age was significantly associated with changes in motivation. No significant associations were found for students’ gender nor for parents’ education. This study provides an important contribution to the study of students’ academic motivation during home confinement, school closures, and distance learning as restrictive measures adopted to contain a worldwide health emergency. We contend that teachers need to adopt motivation-enhancing practices as means to prevent the decline in academic motivation during exceptional situations. (shrink)

O tema deste artigo é sobre o modus operandi de Jesus, a maneira como ele proclama a chegada o Reino de Deus, que consiste na restauração da saúde das pessoas em suas diversas enfermidades. Qual a sua fonte de energia para a missão? Onde ele foi buscar o poder para curar e até salvar pessoas da morte, restaurando-lhes a saúde? Em suma, onde ele encontrou forças para essa missão salvífica? O objetivo desta breve pesquisa consiste em demonstrar a íntima relação (...) entre espiritualidade e saúde na prática messiânica de Jesus. A metodologia utilizada é a da exegese bíblica, a partir de Mc 1,32-39, na perspectiva de uma hermenêutica teológica atualizada, que leve a conclusões sobre a ação missionária salvífica de Jesus, pertinentes para a ação evangelizadora no tempo presente. Os resultados apontam para o fato de que a atividade messiânica de Jesus contém uma soteriologia que leva em conta a restauração da saúde física e mental. Não se trata de uma espiritualidade desencarnada das reais necessidades humanas, em suas fragilidades físicas e mentais. É, sem dúvida, uma prática comprometida com a instauração do Reino de Deus, que deve ser continuada pelos atuais discípulos e discípulas de Jesus. (shrink)

The cry of the poor, the theme of this work, challenges the humanitarian consciousness of the people and is a strong questioning of the religious conscience and the Christian faith. Nevertheless, the preferential option for the poor, consecrated in the Final Document of the Episcopal Conference held in Puebla of Los Angeles, is still the cause of much controversy inside and outside the Church. Bearing in mind this context, this article aims to present the resonance of the cry of the (...) poor in the context of the Puebla Conference; demonstrate that this cry is not recent: it has been present since antiquity, and was contemplated in the earliest sacred texts, including the religious culture of Israel and the Christian religion; to reflect on this cry of impoverished crowds in contemporary times. The research is bibliographic, based on the Official Document of the conclusions of the Puebla Conference; from critical analysis by Latin American theologians, as well as from articles and books by authors from the epistemological field of the Sciences of Religion. The results achieved point to the timeliness of the issue, as there is a growing wave of impoverishment everywhere and, at the same time, a growing lack of commitment and intolerance towards the outcry of the great excluded masses. (shrink)

Especificidades e usos da noção de signo em A Arqueologia do Saber Resumo: O reconhecimento da noção do signo em diferentes domínios do saber com significados, sentidos e usos diversos sinaliza sua relevância estruturante e operante nos processos de produção do conhecimento, da comunicação e da sociabilidade humana. Considerando esse fato, o presente ensaio objetivou identificar e localizar as formas de aparecimento da noção de signo em A Arqueologia do Saber (2008), a fim de analisar e sistematizar seu status na (...) Análise Arqueológica do Discurso – AAD – e de refletir sobre ele. Recorrendo à própria AAD para escandir o referido livro, verificamos que Foucault tocou, inúmeras vezes e de modos diferenciados, na questão do signo, sempre em conexão com a problemática do discurso, seja como uma estratégia de sua elisão, seja como limiar de sua constituição. O ensaio concluiu que Foucault operou, em A Arqueologia do Saber (2008), um deslocamento do sentido e do uso corrente da noção de signo para a de discurso-enunciado, como uma formação discursiva fundamental para os estudos e as pesquisas analítico-arqueológicas. Palavras-chave: Signo; Discurso; Foucault; Análise Arqueológica do Discurso. Specificities and uses of the notion of sign in The Knowledge Archeology Abstract: The recognition of sign notion in different domains of knowledge with meanings, senses and many uses, signalize its structuring relevance and operant in the knowledge production processes, communication and human sociability. Considering this fact, this essay had as objective identify and localize the ways of appearance of sign notion in the Knowledge Archeology (2008), in order to reflect, analyze and systematize its status in Archaeological Discourse Analysis — ADA. Using ADA itself to scan the referred book, it was verified that Foucault touched in different ways in the sign question, Always in conexion with the discourse problematic, such as an elision strategy or as threshold of its constitution. The essay concluded that Foucault operated in Knowledge Archeology (2008) a displacement of meaning and current use of sign notion to the speech-utterance, as a fundamental discursive formation to the studies and analytical archaeological researches. Key-words: Achaeological Discourse Analysis; Foucault; Sign; Speech. Especificidades y usos de la noción de signo en La Arqueología del conocimiento Resumen: El reconocimiento de la noción de signo en diferentes dominios del conocimiento con significados, sentidos y muchos usos, señala su relevancia estructurante y operante en los procesos de producción de conocimiento, comunicación y sociabilidad humana. Teniendo en cuenta este hecho, este ensayo tuvo como objetivo identificar y localizar las formas de aparición de la noción de signo en la Knowledge Archaeology (2008), para reflejar, analizar y sistematizar su estado en el Análisis del Discurso Arqueológico - ADA. Utilizando la propia ADA para escanear el referido libro, se verificó que Foucault tocó de diferentes maneras la pregunta del signo, siempre en relación con la problemática del discurso, como una estrategia de elisión o como umbral de su constitución. El ensayo concluyó que Foucault operaba en Knowledge Archaeology (2008) un desplazamiento del significado y el uso actual de la noción de signos a la expresión oral, como una formación discursiva fundamental para los estudios y las investigaciones arqueológicas analíticas. Palabras-clave: Análisis del discurso arqueológico; Foucault Firmar; Habla. Data de registro: 17/05/2020 Data de aceite: 22/09/2021. (shrink)

In this study we examined whether parents’ perceptions of students’ anxiety as well as perceived support from both teachers and classmates were predictive of changes in students’ academic motivation during the first wave of COVID-19. To this end, we used a retrospective pretest-posttest design together with a latent change score model to analyze our data. From April to May of 2020, 394 Portuguese parents of students in grades 1–9 participated in this study. Our results showed that students’ anxiety and teachers’ (...) social support, as perceived by parents, were highly significant predictors of academic motivation changes. Specifically, we found a negative effect of anxiety and a positive effect of teachers’ social support on students’ academic motivation. Our results did not show, however, a significant predictive role of classmates’ social support. This study provides an important contribution to further understand the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that are associated with the decline of students’ academic motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pivotal role of teachers in sustaining students’ academic motivation and other relevant educational implications for the ongoing pandemic are discussed. (shrink)

The Polish logician Roman Suszko has extensively pleaded in the 1970s for a restatement of the notion of many-valuedness. According to him, as he would often repeat, “there are but two logical values, true and false.” As a matter of fact, a result by W´ojcicki-Lindenbaum shows that any tarskian logic has a many-valued semantics, and results by Suszko-da Costa-Scott show that any many-valued semantics can be reduced to a two-valued one. So, why should one even consider using logics with more (...) than two values? Because, we argue, one has to decide how to deal with bivalence and settle down the tradeoff between logical 2-valuedness and truth-functionality, from a pragmatical standpoint. -/- This paper will illustrate the ups and downs of a two-valued reduction of logic. Suszko’s reductive result is quite non-constructive.We will exhibit here a way of effectively constructing the two-valued semantics of any logic that has a truth-functional finite-valued semantics and a sufficiently expressive language. From there, as we will indicate, one can easily go on to provide those logics with adequate canonical systems of sequents or tableaux. The algorithmic methods developed here can be generalized so as to apply to many non-finitely valued logics as well —or at least to those that admit of computable quasi tabular two-valued semantics, the so-called dyadic semantics. (shrink)

A comunicação divide-se em três partes. Na primeira, trata de apresentar os pressupostos conceituais da tese de Rousseau de que a vontade geral é irrepresentável. Na segunda, com base no ocorrido já ao início da Revolução Francesa, mostra que, historicamente, a tese não teve herdeiros. Na terceira parte apresenta as razões que autorizam sustentar a priori que todo poder político é necessariamente representativo e chama atenção para o fato e para o modo em que o Estado de Direito contemporâneo trata (...) de controlar e remediar as distorções políticas inerentes à natureza representativa do poder político. Palavras-chave: Rousseau. Vontade geral. Poder político. Representação política. (shrink)

It is proper for more reasons than the most obvious one that I should open this talk by quoting a former President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Lord Quinton, whose works on political philosophy I have so much enjoyed—and learnt from.

It is proper for more reasons than the most obvious one that I should open this talk by quoting a former President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Lord Quinton, whose works on political philosophy I have so much enjoyed—and learnt from.

Karl R. Popper: The open society and its enemies -- Ralf Dahrendorf: Liberty and civil society -- Raymond Plant: Social welfare without class warfare -- Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving Kristol: The moral imagination -- Raymond Aron: The opium of the intellectuals -- Friedrich A. Hayek: The constitution of liberty -- Isaiah Berlin: Liberty and pluralism -- Michael J. Oakeshott: The conservative disposition -- Leo Strauss: Relativism and the crisis of modernity -- Edmund Burke: Liberty and duty -- James Madison vs. (...) Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Two views of self-government -- Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America -- Winston S. Churchill: The English-Speaking Peoples and the Free World -- Limited and accountable Government -- Two kinds of rationalism -- Liberty as conversation. (shrink)

Uma das questões que desafia educadores e educador@s [1], inserid@s no campo da relação que envolve os processos de ensino e de aprendizagem, consiste no papel da educação do ponto de vista da vida em sociedade. E uma resposta aceita de forma genérica aponta para a dimensão da humanização. Questiona-se: até que ponto a relação educativa possui a capacidade e potencialidade de humanizar? Como relacionar a construção do conhecimento à perspectiva de valoração que promova a sociabilidade humana? A partir destes (...) questionamentos abordamos duas dimensões fundamentais: a ética e a moral, campos que estão na base da cultura, do mito, das relações de poder e, portanto, da política. Assim, esse texto objetiva refletir sobre os impactos da ética e da moral nas relações de poder e no processo de humanização, apontando para uma relação dialógica, na perspectiva da alteridade, como uma das saídas viáveis para a humanidade. E para tanto, utilizamos Martin Buber (1974, 1987) e Paulo Freire (1979, 1983) como principais referências teóricas, pensando o papel da educação no enfrentamento deste problema. A partir das leituras, compreendemos o conceito de alteridade, que aponta para o caminho da desmitologização da realidade por meio desta mesma dimensão, que pode ser compreendida no campo da educação. Concluímos que, somente na perspectiva da ética, esta relação pode ser dialógica. E, somente na relação dialógica este processo pode ser transformador e libertador. Esse procedimento educativo potencializa relações de solidariedade e, consequentemente, humaniza em seu significado mais pleno de ser com @ outr@. [1] Utilizamos o símbolo “@” para referenciar de modo simultâneo os gêneros feminino e masculino. Trata-se de um posicionamento político-cultural que vem de encontro às normas gramaticais postas. (shrink)

O artigo tem por objeto o exame de três registros de gritantes e distintos paradoxos na Doutrina do Direito de Kant. Registros feitos em tempos e contextos históricos diferentes por Friedrich Bouterwek, Marcus Willaschek e Balthazar Barbosa Filho. Bouterwek atribuiu a Kant a mais paradoxal das proposições jamais enunciadas por qualquer autor, a de que a mera ideia de soberania deve obrigar-nos a obedecer como a nosso inquestionável senhor a quem quer que se haja estabelecido como tal, sem que caiba (...) indagar quem lhe deu o direito de comandar-nos. Willaschek aponta a incompatibilidade de duas teses centrais da doutrina kantiana: a do caráter externo dos vínculos jurídicos e a da incondicionalidade obrigacional do direito positivo, pois não é possível entender como é possível termo-nos como obrigados por imperativos jurídicos e, ao mesmo, vermo-nos internamente isentados do dever de obedecê-los. O ponto crítico de Balthazar é alegar que não pode haver na filosofia kantiana uma crítica da razão político e jurídica, simplesmente porque o conceito de imputação, base da normatividade própria dessas esferas, pressupõe uma pluralidade de agentes livres que, justamente, só pode ser uma pressuposição, pois nosso acesso à normatividade prática só pode ter lugar em primeira pessoa. No exame a que o artigo submete essas alegações, o artigo argumenta, em objeção à tese de Balthazar, que o caráter universal e categórico da força que vincula o sujeito quando confrontado com a lei moral em primeira pessoa necessariamente se desvaneceria se, ao mesmo tempo, ele não fosse tomado pela evidência de que a realidade objetiva dos princípios morais é não só instanciável, mas assegurada pela múltipla instanciação. Com relação às dificuldades levantadas por Willaschek e Bouterwek, o artigo argumenta que o princípio exeundum e statu naturali, enquanto norma metapositiva, anterior à divisão do domínio prático entre doutrina do direito e doutrina da virtude, permite ao mesmo tempo compreender a exigência de obediência ao poder constituído e a restrição das obrigações jurídico-políticas exclusivamente ao foro externo.AbstractThe object of the article is to examine three claims about three distinct and allegedly blatant paradoxes in Kant's Doctrine of Right. These three critical points had been made in distinct times and contexts by Friedrich Bouterwek, Marcus Willaschek e Balthazar Barbosa Filho. Bouterwek attributed to Kant the most paradoxical of all paradoxical propositions, the statement that by the mere idea of sovereignty we are obliged to obey as our lord who has imposed himself upon us, without questioning from where he got such right. Willaschek points out the incompatibility of two main theses of Kantian doctrine of right: the claims that the legal bounds are of external character and that they are the source of unconditional obligations, since it seems impossible to understand how it would be possible to be obliged by juridical norms and decisions and at the same time to be exempted of the internal duty of compliance. The radical objection of Professor Balthazar is the claim that in the context of Kantian Philosophy it is impossible to admit a critique of the juridical and political reason because the concept of imputation, ground of the normativity in these domains, requires not only the presupposition of free agents, but a true and secure epistemic access to them, which is, according to him, impossible considering that the moral law and the other practical principles are accessible for us only in the first person. In the course of the appraisal of such claims, the article contest that objection arguing that the universal and categorical force of the normative bound experienced by the subject when confronted with the moral law in the first person would ineluctably vanish if, at the same time, he had not been taken by the evidence that the objective reality of the moral principles is secured by multiple instancing. Regarding the difficulties raised by Willaschek and Bouterwek, the article argues that the principle exeundum e statu naturali, as a norm of meta-positive character, prior to the division of practical domains between the doctrine of right and the doctrine of virtue, is the cue both to the understanding of the requirement of unquestioning obedience to the constituted power and to the restriction of the validity of this requirement only in foro externo. (shrink)