O debate sobre o ensino de Filosofia no Brasil tem se pautado em torno de uma argumentação voltada preponderantemente para a defesa daquilo que pode ser chamado de transmissão da “tradição filosófica ou, de forma mais divergente, o desenvolvimento de habilidade de pensamento. Invariavelmente essas abordagens da filosofia se convertem num exercício retórico reduzindo o filosofar numa arte literária fechada que não ilumina nem dirige a confusão que a criança e o jovem encontram-se imersos em suas experiências de vida. Pretendemos (...) argumentar nesse artigo que a educação filosófica pode ser pensada sob outro patamar, ou seja, estabelecendo como seu objeto primário o campo contínuo, interconectado e conflituoso da experiência de vida. Para desenvolver nossa argumentação tomaremos como referência a compreensão da filosofia como uma atividade de pensamento reflexivo no âmbito social e cultural de valor indispensável uma vez que ela tem a tarefa de pensar os problemas da experiência presente tal como podemos encontrar nas principais obras de John Dewey. A filosofia passa a habitar a experiência gerando e vitalizando os sentidos lógicos, éticos, políticos. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo relatar a experiência com o Projeto de educação filosófica denominado Ética e Educação para o Pensar a partir da Literatura Infantil, abordando a história da sua criação, algumas referências teóricas e metodológicas, a estrutura do projeto e o desenvolvimento através de parceria entre o Instituto Sadia, Fundação Sidónio Muralha, Instituto de Filosofia e Educação para o Pensar e seis secretarias de educação. O foco do projeto é a educação ética através da comunidade de investigação, enfatizando (...) a abordagem dialógica dos valores, procurando trabalhar na direção da autonomia moral e cognitiva das crianças. O projeto foi desenvolvido com professores e alunos da Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental I. No final do artigo são apresentadas algumas produções dos alunos desenvolvidas como parte do projeto e depoimentos dos professores sobre o mesmo. (shrink)

Este artigo analisa a concepção de infância como crescimento por meio de um estudo bibliográfico das obras de John Dewey. A condição do crescimento é a potencialidade positiva da imaturidade, interdependência e plasticidade do ser humano. Assim, a vida humana é crescimento como um processo contínuo e interativo de experiência que realiza e renova o poder de pensar, de aprender, da liberdade e da democracia. Infância é este poder de crescimento ou poder da vida.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar o processo de criação de material para ensino de filosofia para crianças. A produção é resultado das atividades de grupo de pesquisa. O trabalho adotou como referencial a concepção de democracia como modo de vida ético e político e suas relações com a educação a partir do pensamento de Dewey e Lipman. Nesta perspectiva, o modo de vida democrático se consubstancia no agir guiado por valores éticos e no exercício político. A atitude filosófica é (...) entendida como uma prática educativa na e para a democracia. O principal resultado é a criação de uma narrativa filosófica sobre democracia para crianças a partir da linguagem metafórica. A metáfora criada para ambientar o conceito de democracia está ancorada na experiência da casa habitada por personagens conceituais relacionados à democracia como liberdade, justiça, poder, direitos, voto e educação. Estes conceitos são discutidos sob diferentes perspectivas filosóficas. (shrink)

O objetivo deste trabalho é abordar o problema dos refugiados como atividade filosófica e educacional. A questão colocada para o debate é a seguinte: a filosofia tem algo a dizer acerca dos refugiados? Outra indagação subjacente pode ser expressa desta forma: como preparar um trabalho filosófico-pedagógico de ensino de filosofia com o aluno de graduação tendo em vista a discussão do problema dos refugiados no Ensino Médio? O procedimento filosófico adotado, com apoio na metodologia de caráter bibliográfico, ocupa-se de discutir (...) conceitos referenciados no pensamento de Adorno como forma de penetrar, compreender e buscar alternativas diante dos problemas colocados. Explora-se o conceito de Auschwitz como razão bárbara, experiência anticivilizatória e desumana e a alternativa proposta pelo autor na forma de educação para a emancipação pessoal e social por meio da reflexão e esclarecimento como base para o processo democrático e desbarbarizador. Do ponto de vista do ensino de filosofia a partir de problemas, o texto pretende fazer um percurso-aula na forma de uma caminhada aberta, dialógica e problematizadora. Para isso, utiliza de início uma poesia que alavanca a possibilidade de tratar o conceito refugiado a partir de uma experiência empática de expressão do seu grito no contexto da experiência da barbárie. Na sequência, a caminhada busca explorar os conceitos mencionados caminhando pela leitura do texto de Adorno com relação à educação e democracia. A análise destes conceitos abre novos questionamentos que convidam a continuar a reflexão criando novas experiências de pensar e compartilhar questões relacionadas aos refugiados. Nesta perspectiva, apontamos que a aula pode ser uma experiência de práxis de pensar e repensar problemas e conceitos como processo formativo da consciência crítica, da emancipação e autonomia. Palavras-chave: Refugiados. Filosofia. Ensino. Experiência. Emancipação. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar o problema epistemológico na obra de Dewey. Abordaremos a crítica aos pressupostos da epistemologia tradicional e sua tentativa de reconstruir uma posição distinta por meio da lógica da investigação. O estudo de caráter filosófico, qualitativo na análise de conceito envolvendo o campo do conhecimento, mostra que este pensador tomou posição crítica diante do que chamou de epistemologia, termo que designa o conjunto de filosofias construídas sobre dualismos como sujeito e objeto, teoria e prática, (...) mente e corpo, espírito e matéria. Tais dualismos surgem da divisão social de classes e servem para a sustentação delas, impedindo a liberdade de criação e comunicação da experiência. Contrapondo-se a este entendimento de epistemologia, Dewey argumenta pela necessidade da lógica como investigação da investigação, ou conhecimento do conhecimento. A contribuição da lógica filosófica da investigação, sua versão da epistemologia, é a de analisar os processos de investigação para abstrair as leis da experiência reflexiva e reorientar o trabalho da filosofia em todas as áreas, inclusive nessa mesma, a lógica. Dewey depreende uma lógica da investigação como processo voltado para a continuidade da vida. O pensamento parte de uma situação indeterminada e culmina na transformação dessa situação por meio de etapas intermediárias de observação, reflexão e ação inteligentemente orientada. A lógica da investigação tem por base a matriz biológica-cultural. Assim, Dewey desenvolve a lógica da experiência que atinge as mais diversas dimensões como a moral, a política e a educação. (shrink)

This research seeks to understand the relationship between philosophy and the formation of concepts in childhood from the perspective of Matthew Lipman. As our own research in the area of philosophy of education, we pose the following question as a problem to be analyzed: how can philosophy contribute to the concept formation process in childhood according to Lipman? The development of this problem was organized in five stages. A first seeks to understand and deepen Lipman's conception of Philosophy for Children, (...) especially the idea of thinking skills and philosophical dialogue in the research community; the second stage consisted of planning philosophical practice with the children at school, in a class with 32 students from the 3rd year of elementary school in a public school in the city of Londrina / PR, in the period of one semester; the third was to carry out the classroom experience with the students and the teacher from the previous stages; the fourth step was the evaluation of the practice and the planning of the following classes after each meeting; and the fifth stage was concerned with the registration, analysis and systematization of the observed. In order to investigate the contribution of philosophy to the concept formation process in childhood, according to Lipman, part of the research methodology was qualitative, analyzing the concepts of philosophy, thinking and the research community of this philosopher. For this, his main works and those of his commentators were consulted. Action research procedures were also employed through the practice of students from Elementary School I, in order to carry out an experience of the analyzed concepts. As a result of the research, it is possible to highlight the fundamental role of Lipman’s Philosophy for Children in the formation of concepts, because, through philosophical practices, the children were more reflective in approaching concepts that in their daily lives could go unnoticed. The work of questioning and dialogue in the research community made it possible to highlight the difficulty of conceptualizing at the beginning of the work, the progress along their approach and the need to seek more in-depth answers. With that, it can be highlighted that the Philosophy classes contributed to such advances and that without them the skills would remain stagnant. This study is added to the philosophical educational movement of teaching philosophy from childhood, which is considered essential for the formation of more reasonable subjects, and most importantly, with the acquisition of skills that will facilitate life in and out of school. (shrink)

Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a noção do Ubuntu como contribuição para pensar a democracia, especialmente a crise que esta enfrenta, no Brasil, da atual realidade histórica de intolerância, discriminação racial, exclusão social e desumanização. Para isso, levanta-se a seguinte questão: pode a África contribuir para o pensamento da democracia, pela sua filosofia de vida expressa em Ubuntu? A primeira parte do texto analisa o conceito de Ubuntu, destacando seu caráter filosófico. A segunda parte desenvolve duas características estruturais (...) do Ubuntu: a comunidade e a tolerância. A metodologia de pesquisa se caracteriza como um trabalho bibliográfico, cujo aporte é a análise filosófica da expressão Ubuntu, fundamentada no modo de vida africano, a partir das obras de Ramose: African Philosophy Through Ubuntu ; de Gyekye: Person and Community in African Thought. Entende-se que compreender Ubuntu como um modo de vida africano, baseado na interdependência, interconstituição, interconexão e inter-humanização é cooperar para pensar a democracia como modo de vida ético, social e político, o qual reconhece e considera o outro como sujeito de diferenças que possibilitam a humanização.: This study aims at analysing the notion of Ubuntu as a contribution to think about democracy, especially the crisis it faces in Brazil, before the current historical reality of intolerance, racial discrimination, social exclusion, and dehumanization. For this reason, we raise the following question: can Africa contribute to think about democracy through her life’s philosophy expressed in Ubuntu? The first part of the text analyses the concept of Ubuntu, highlighting its philosophical character. The second part develops two structural characteristics of Ubuntu: community and tolerance. The research methodology is characterised as a bibliographical work, whose contribution is a philosophical analysis of the expression Ubuntu, based on the African way of life, from the works of Ramose: African Philosophy Through Ubuntu ; of Gyekye: Person and community in African thought. We defend that understanding Ubuntu as an African way of life, based on interdependence, inter-constitution, interconnection and inter-humanisation is to contribute to think about democracy as an ethical, social and political way of life that recognises and considers the other as individual of differences that make humanisation possible. (shrink)

This study described the relationships between academic class and student moral sensitivity and reasoning and between curriculum design components for ethics education and student moral sensitivity and reasoning. The data were collected from freshman (n = 506) and senior students (n = 440) in eight baccalaureate nursing programs in South Korea by survey; the survey consisted of the Korean Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire and the Korean Defining Issues Test. The results showed that moral sensitivity scores in patient-oriented care and conflict were (...) higher in senior students than in freshman students. Furthermore, more hours of ethics content were associated with higher principled thinking scores of senior students. Nursing education in South Korea may have an impact on developing student moral sensitivity. Planned ethics content in nursing curricula is necessary to improve moral sensitivity and moral reasoning of students. (shrink)

Argues that affirming the irreducible differences between men and women can lead to more transformative politics than the struggle for abstract equality between the sexes. In The Symbolic Order of the Mother Luisa Muraro identifies the bond between mother and child as ontologically fundamental to the development of culture and politics, and therefore as key to achieving truly emancipatory political change. Both corporeal development and language acquisition, which are the sources of all thinking, begin in this relationship. However, Western (...) civilization has been defined by men, and Muraro recalls the admiration and envy she felt for the great philosophers as she strove to become one herself, as well as the desire for independence that opposed her to her mother. This conflict between philosophy and culture on the one hand and the relationship with the mother on the other constitutes the root of patriarchy’s symbolic disorder, which blocks women’s (and men’s) access to genuine freedom. Muraro appeals to the feminist practice of gratitude to the mother and the recognition of her authority as a model of unconditional nurture and support that must be restored. This, she argues, is the symbolic order of the mother that must overcome the disorder of patriarchy. The mediating power of the mother tongue constitutes a symbolic order that comes before all others, for both women and men. Luisa Muraro is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Verona, Italy. Francesca Novello is an instructor at the University of Oklahoma. Timothy S. Murphy is Houston-Truax-Wentz Professor and Regents Professor of English at Oklahoma State University. (shrink)

Muraro’s article begins from the philosophical question of the ‘unthought’, and asks how our very image of thought is transformed when the thinking subject is a woman, and her thought is specifically linked to the experience of a body. On the basis of a feminist interrogation of sexual difference which reveals the forms of violence inherent in certain claims to universality, Muraro tries to develop a thinking of politics which would rest on its symbolic distance or independence from (...) power. Through readings of Freud, Macbeth, Saint Paul and women’s narratives, Muraro investigates the dangers borne by the fusion of power and politics and explores the ways in which they could be disjoined. (shrink)

Venant de Belgique, où elle poursuit des recherches comparatives de longue durée sur les femmes dans les mouvements mystiques médiévaux, dans lesquels les béguines anversoises ont joué un rôle décisif, Luisa Muraro s’est arrêtée à Paris et le séminaire qu’elle a donné à la Maison des sciences de l’Homme, le 25 mars 1999, fut l’occasion d’une rencontre avec une personnalité exceptionnelle, dont l’itinéraire, l’expérience, le non-conformisme, la recherche inquiète soucieuse de prendre à bras-l...

This paper is an update of the documents we have concerning the Acts of the Christian martyrs, focused on three main aspects: 1) the kind of acts we know of and their classification from the point of view of their historic value; 2) the versions or editions of the texts that are most accepted by scholars; 3) the relevance of the different parts that make up these documents in order to discern the original text from passages that were rewritten or (...) underwent later variations. In this way, the article offers an exhaustive list of the documents for use in researching Christian martyrs in the Roman period. (shrink)

Partant du constat d'une école en souffrance qui affecte les élèves, les enseignants et les parents, Dorothée Muraro analyse à travers des situations concrètes les effets pervers d'un système scolaire capable de provoquer le décrochage comme les difficultés d'apprentissage. L'orthopédagogie, la philosophie et la psychanalyse permettent de quitter les préjugés liés aux ratages, aux erreurs et aux incompétences de chacun pour repenser le courage de l'héroïsme, le sens de la responsabilité et le goût de l'inventivité indispensables pour apprendre et (...) progresser. Car enseigner et apprendre relèvent d'un droit de grandir, de dire. Ils posent un acte civilisateur que l'on peut appeler un acte pédagogique. (shrink)

Jana Sawicki uses the work and methods of Foucault to explore the possibility of a politics of difference. I argue that Foucault may help us overcome some forms of dogmatism inherited from men's political philosophy of the past, but Foucault is otherwise useless, or worse: misleading. Because Sawicki presents a politics of diversity among women regardless of, and independent from, a politics of sexual difference, I believe Foucault is misleading.

In recent literature, panpsychism has been defended by appeal to two main arguments: first, an argument from philosophy of mind, according to which panpsychism is the only view which successfully integrates consciousness into the physical world (Strawson 2006; Chalmers 2013); second, an argument from categorical properties, according to which panpsychism offers the only positive account of the categorical or intrinsic nature of physical reality (Seager 2006; Adams 2007; Alter and Nagasawa 2012). Historically, however, panpsychism has also been defended by appeal (...) to a third argument based on considerations about the nature and observability of causation. This argument has not been much discussed in recent times. Here is a concise version from William James: "… the concrete perceptual flux, taken just as it comes, offers in our own activity-situations perfectly comprehensible instances of causal agency … If we took these experiences as the type of what actual causation is, we should have to ascribe to cases of causation outside of our life, to physical cases also, an inwardly experiential nature. In other words, we should have to espouse a so-called “pan-psychic” philosophy" (James 1911: 218). James here suggests that we have direct experience of causation in our own agency. He thereby directly contradicts David Hume, who famously denied that we have any experience of causation. James goes on to claim that if this experience is representative of causation in general, it follows that all causation is mental, and that panpsychism is true. This kind of argument for panpsychism can be called the argument from (experience of) causation. This chapter offers, first, a history of this argument and arguments closely related to it, and second, an analysis of the argument – is it valid, are its premises in any way defensible, and how does it relate to the other, more popular arguments for panpsychism from philosophy of mind and categorical properties? (shrink)

Ibn al-ʻArabī, 1165-1240; views on freedom; Sufism; Islamic philosophy.

Greek text, english translation and commentary on the surviving fragments of Empedocles (fragments as known in 1981, does not include more recent finds).

Contrary to Vaesen's argument that humans are unique with respect to nine cognitive capacities essential for tool use, we suggest that although such cognitive processes contribute to variation in tool use, it does not follow that these capacities arenecessaryfor tool use, nor that tool use shaped cognition per se, given the available data in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral biology.

Kurt Godel, the greatest logician of our time, startled the world of mathematics in 1931 with his Theorem of Undecidability, which showed that some statements in mathematics are inherently "undecidable." His work on the completeness of logic, the incompleteness of number theory, and the consistency of the axiom of choice and the continuum theory brought him further worldwide fame. In this introductory volume, Raymond Smullyan, himself a well-known logician, guides the reader through the fascinating world of Godel's incompleteness theorems. The (...) level of presentation is suitable for anyone with a basic acquaintance with mathematical logic. As a clear, concise introduction to a difficult but essential subject, the book will appeal to mathematicians, philosophers, and computer scientists. (shrink)

The concept of the receptive field, first articulated by Hartline, is central to visual neuroscience. The receptive field of a neuron encompasses the spatial and temporal properties of stimuli that activate the neuron, and, as Hubel and Wiesel conceived of it, a neuron’s receptive field is static. This makes it possible to build models of neural circuits and to build up more complex receptive fields out of simpler ones. Recent work in visual neurophysiology is providing evidence that the classical receptive (...) field is an inaccurate picture. The receptive field seems to be a dynamic feature of the neuron. In particular, the receptive field of neurons in V1 seems to be dependent on the properties of the stimulus. In this paper, we review the history of the concept of the receptive field and the problematic data. We then consider a number of possible theoretical responses to these data. (shrink)

There are obvious benefits to be gained from the study of logic: heightened ability to express ideas clearly and concisely, increased skill in defining one's terms, enlarged capacity to formulate arguments rigorously and to analyze them critically. But the greatest benefit, in my judgment, is the recognition that reason can be applied in every aspect of human affairs.

What are conspiracy theories? And what, if anything, is epistemically wrong with them? I offer an account on which conspiracy theories are a unique way of holding a belief in a conspiracy. Specifically, I take conspiracy theories to be self-insulating beliefs in conspiracies. On this view, conspiracy theorists have their conspiratorial beliefs in a way that is immune to revision by counter-evidence. I argue that conspiracy theories are always irrational. Although conspiracy theories involve an expectation to encounter some seemingly disconfirming (...) evidence (allegedly planted by the conspirators), resistance to all counter- evidence cannot be justified on these grounds. (shrink)

This paper is devoted to the study of some subvarieties of the variety Qof Q-Heyting algebras, that is, Heyting algebras with a quantifier. In particular, a deeper investigation is carried out in the variety Q 3 of three-valued Q-Heyting algebras to show that the structure of the lattice of subvarieties of Qis far more complicated that the lattice of subvarieties of Heyting algebras. We determine the simple and subdirectly irreducible algebras in Q 3 and we construct the lattice of subvarieties (...) (Q 3 ) of the variety Q 3. (shrink)

I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?" This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think." The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous, If the meaning of the words "machine" and "think" are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to (...) the question, "Can machines think?" is to be sought in a statistical survey such as a Gallup poll. But this is absurd. Instead of attempting such a definition I shall replace the question by another, which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words. The new form of the problem can be described in terms of a game which we call the 'imitation game." It is played with three people, a man (A), a woman (B), and an interrogator (C) who may be of either sex. The interrogator stays in a room apart front the other two. The object of the game for the interrogator is to determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. He knows them by labels X and Y, and at the end of the game he says either "X is A and Y is B" or "X is B and Y is A." The interrogator is allowed to put questions to A and B. We now ask the question, "What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?" Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman? These questions replace our original, "Can machines think?". (shrink)

This collection addresses a post-WWII shift in the hierarchy of scientific explanations, where the highest goal moves from reductionism towards some ...

Traditional Chinese commentators rightly see that understanding Zhuangzi's way with words is the presupposition for understanding Zhuangzi at all. They are not sure, however, if Zhuangzi's words are super-effective or pure nonsense. I consider Zhuangzi's experience with language, and then turn to Heidegger's word of being to see if it may throw light on Zhuangzi's way of saying. I argue that a conversation between Heidegger and Zhuangzi on language is possible, but only by expanding Heidegger's notion of Gestell and through (...) a destruction of the dominant Confucian discourse that obscures Zhuangzi's way of saying. (shrink)

Several variants of Lewis's Best System Account of Lawhood have been proposed that avoid its commitment to perfectly natural properties. There has been little discussion of the relative merits of these proposals, and little discussion of how one might extend this strategy to provide natural property-free variants of Lewis's other accounts, such as his accounts of duplication, intrinsicality, causation, counterfactuals, and reference. We undertake these projects in this paper. We begin by providing a framework for classifying and assessing the variants (...) of the Best System Account. We then evaluate these proposals, and identify the most promising candidates. We go on to develop a proposal for systematically modifying Lewis's other accounts so that they, too, avoid commitment to perfectly natural properties. We conclude by briefly considering a different route one might take to developing natural property-free versions of Lewis's other accounts, drawing on recent work by Williams. (shrink)

For the theorists of crisis, the revolutionary state comes into existence through violence, and due to its inability to provide an authoritative katechon (restrainer) against internal and external violence, it perpetuates violence until it self-destructs. Writing during extreme economic depression and growing social and political violence, the crisis theorists––Joseph de Maistre, Juan Donoso Cortés, and Carl Schmitt––each sought to blame the chaos of their time upon the Janus-faced postrevolutionary ideals of liberalism and socialism by urging a return to pre-revolutionary moral (...) and religious values. They are united by three counterrevolutionary principles, all of which are purported to remedy revolutionary violence: traditional constitutional fidelity, the philosophy of the decision, and opposition to bourgeois liberalism. This essay is followed by the first complete English translation and publication of Donoso’s letter of October 24, 1851, which contains Donoso’s only reference to the “discussing class,” a political entity later popularized by Schmitt in his 1922 work Political Theology. (shrink)