Há meses a população mundial enfrenta a pandemia causada pelo COVID-19, uma situação ímpar e talvez a mais desafiadora que rememoramos. Para a maioria dos sujeitos, esta crise junta-se às demais emergências e reforça injustiças, violências, discriminações e sofrimento, uma vez que são considerados _invisíveis_ e sobrevivem em espaços desprovidos de higiene, saúde, educação e segurança e repletos de outras manifestações de _renúncia_ e _impossibilidade_. Considerando que a própria estrutura social é a responsável por chegarmos onde estamos, precisamos nos contrapor (...) à inconsciência de uma realidade que se mostra normativa e imutável, apreendendo-a em perspectivas críticas e transformadoras. Dessa forma, este texto parte da seguinte problematização: quais alternativas poderemos vislumbrar no pós-pandemia, visto que as desigualdades e as injustiças aumentam? Delineamos prognósticos do tempo presente a partir do diálogo entre Adorno e Horkheimer (2006) e Santos (2007), utilizando como categorias de análise: racionalidade instrumental, pensamento abissal, pensamento pós-abissal e educação emancipatória. A racionalidade tornou-se o cânon da sociedade esclarecida, fundamentando as estruturas e relações sociais em uma percepção universal, totalitária e homogênea, que despreza e invisibiliza as diferenças. Defendemos uma educação para a contestação, a inquietude e a resistência, que desvele e problematize as linhas abissais a fim de pensarmos e agirmos para além delas, vislumbrando alternativas, novas práticas e perspectivas solidárias e sustentáveis, pois quaisquer ideais de progresso e desenvolvimento serão ilusórios enquanto persistirem a invisibilidade “do outro lado da linha”. A reflexão da realidade, em suas estruturas históricas e sociais, se efetiva como possibilidade de novos caminhos para a compreensão dos obstáculos e potencialidades emancipatórias. (shrink)

Em face de uma possibilidade real de calamidade na saúde pública, junto com uma possível crise econômica posterior, muitas reflexões de fundo ético sobre políticas públicas surgem: devemos estabelecer limites econômicos flexíveis para combater o coronavírus? Até que ponto podemos restringir a liberdade de agrupamento na pandemia? É eticamente aceitável aumentar o risco do grupo mais vulnerável em prol de um melhor equilíbrio da economia? A resposta a tais questões envolve noções de éticas e políticas muitas vezes antagônicas. Tomando por (...) base as teorias de filósofos modernos e contemporâneos consagrados – como Rawls, Sandel, Mill, Adorno e Horkheimer –, propomos na sequência uma reflexão sobre o conceito de justiça social a fim de analisar a seguinte questão: afinal, qual fundamento devemos tomar para avaliar como sendo justas as ações públicas em tempos de pandemia? (shrink)

These essays, written between 1949 and 1967, focus on a single theme: the triumph in the twentieth century of the state-bureaucratic apparatus and ‘instrumental reason’ and the concomitant liquidation of the individual and the basic social institutions and relationships associated with the individual.

This article reviews John Dewey and Our Educational Prospect, A Critical Engagement with Dewey's Democracy and Education, edited and spearheaded by David T. Hansen, with contributions by Gert Biesta, Reba N. Page, Larry A. Hickman, Naoko Saito, Gary D. Fenstermacher, Herbert M. Kliebard, Sharon Fieman-Nemser and Elizabeth Minnich. This review will not only praise and evaluate the merits of this book, but will also attempt to frame this new study of Dewey within the challenges that continue to engage education in (...) the realms of democracy, as the latter continues to strive for its own survival. While highlighting salient aspects of Hansen et al.'s rereading of Dewey's great work, this review seeks to frame both Dewey's text and this Deweyan study within the breadth of those other challenges by which education—and in turn philosophy of education—has come to take on issues such as: the nexus between theory and practice, the prevalent domination of the social scientific paradigm in education and the continuous threat of the standardisation and institutionalisation of human learning. It will be argued that, to meet this challenge, philosophy of education must sustain a continuous engagement with Dewey's work. A rereading of Dewey also involves a revaluation of his pragmatic theory of education and its lineage, moving from Emerson's metaphilosophy to Cavell's ethics. As Hansen et al. invariably engage with the latter, this review will question, through Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of pragmatisation, whether Deweyan pragmatism can still challenge the current state of affairs by which education is not only systematised away from learning, but also subsumed into a more institutionalised state—a condition that immediately jars with Dewey's own philosophical instincts and pedagogical labours. (shrink)

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism." Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of (...) contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present. The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization. Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book. This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory. (shrink)

ALTHOUGH OVERLOOKED, THE SUBJECT OF LOCKE’S "THE REASONABLENESS OF CHRISTIANITY" WAS JUSTIFICATION, WHICH HE WROTE ON BECAUSE OF CONTEMPORARY DEBATES ON THE SUBJECT. HE RESTATED THE VIEW OF BAXTERIAN PRESBYTERIANS AND LATITUDINARIAN ANGLICANS, THAT JUSTIFYING FAITH COMPENSATES FOR HUMAN FAILURE TO FULLY OBEY GOD’S LAW. LOCKE ALSO EXPRESSED A MORAL INFLUENCE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT, FOR WHICH STRICT CALVINISTS EXCORIATED HIM AS A SOCINIAN, EVEN THOUGH MANY LATITUDINARIANS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND HELD THE SAME VIEW. NEITHER ANTITRINITARIAN NOR DEIST, (...) LOCKE WAS A LIBERAL CHRISTIAN. (shrink)

These essays, written in the 1930s and 1940s, represent a first selection in English from the major work of the founder of the famous institute for Social ...

Dewey Wallace tells the story of several prominent English Calvinist actors and thinkers in the first generations after the beginning of the Restoration, illuminating the religious and intellectual history of the era between the Reformation and modernity.

Noch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs in den Vereinigten Staaten entstanden, 1947 als Buch erschienen, mit der Neuausgabe von 1969 endgültig zum einflussreichsten Werk der ”Frankfurter Schule“ geworden: eine Sonderausgabe zum hundertsten Geburtstag Theodor W. Adornos am 11. September 2003.

This book is a reprint of Part II of Dewey and Tufts 1938 version of the Ethics.

Theory in the traditional sense of the word comprises a deductive system in which hypotheses and their logical consequences are compared with empirical observations. Such comparison is usually regarded as a verification of the theory. The ideal for this conception of theory is a universal scientific system in which the theories of the different scientific disciplines are brought together under the head of a few fundamental principles.Traditional theory and reality belong to two distinct and separate provinces. Insofar as men make (...) forecasts with the help of theory and attempt to change reality, they do not act as theoreticians. Theory remains in the realm of contemplation. Philosophers have frequently made something absolute out of this aspect of theory and, under the title of,logosf or.spirit', have deified the subject of these intellectual activities. It appears in their systems as the creator of the world. What they are really doing, however, is treating the scholar’s activity, which is based on the division of labor in modern society, as an dbjective and independent substance. The real subject of theory in its traditional aspect is not pure spirit but the scholar who performs definite and necessary functions in modem society.If such an analysis is accepted, the philosophical naiveté of the theoretician disappears. He perceives that not only thinking as such, but also its task, its direction, and the structure of the objective world are ultimately connected with human activity and work. Out of the historical process by which men wrest their living from nature, there emerges the separation of material and intellectual work, as well as the structure and the content of the latter. The dogmatic differentiation between the logical and historical premises of science cannot be maintained. The theoretician is himself part and parcel of the subject which forms the real objective world. To take an active part in the direction of the social life of humanity, therefore, becomes a function and a requirement of science.So it is as theory, in the critical sense of the word, that the author regards the type of reasoning which attempts to impart to social life in its totality a rational form and which does not limit itself to working within the framework of the given system of the division of labor. The history of different scientific theories shows theory, with its unity and clarity, in contrast and opposition to the heterogeneity and disharmony of the real world. In the attempts to achieve harmony in society, thought may play an important role.The author analyses the logical structure of critical theory in the performance of such a function. Its content is the description of present society in terms of a development towards a rational form. Critical theory, therefore, always remains intimately linked up with the reality of existence. It needs for its development in each and every instance the existence and assistance of the various scientific disciplines. Its logical structure, however, is more complicated than that of theory in the traditional sense, because it does not regard its objectives as a separate and foreign province. Science, in the traditional sense, even where it formulates developments in nature and human history, regards interests and purposes as given facts and guideposts that are foreign to its own structure. It has a utilitarian character in a directly understandable sense. Critical theory, however, is confronted with the task of justifying its own problems and their differentiation and has to adjust its internal structure accordingly. It does not set up an unchanging system but sees as its purpose the attempt to apply the knowledge that has been accumulated in the traditional theories to the social totality in the direction that critical theory itself indicates.La théorie, au sens traditionnel, est un système déductif. La confrontation des connaissances obtenues par voie déductive avec les faits constatés permet la vérification de la théorie. L'idéal est un système universel de la science dans lequel les théories des différentes disciplines, toutes ensemble, sont rattachées à un petit nombre de propositions premières.La réalité demeure extérieure à une théorie ainsi conçue. Dans la mesure où les hommes utilisent la théorie pour faire des prévisions et pour modifier la réalité, ils ne sont plus des théoriciens. En ce sens, la théorie est purement contemplative. Les philosophes qui ont analysé la connaissance ont souvent porté à l'absolu cet aspect de la théorie et ont fait du sujet des opérations intellectuelles, sous les noms de,Logos4 ou de,Esprit4, le démiurge du monde. En vérité, ils ont ainsi hypostasié l'activité, qui dans la société moderne revient au savant du fait de la division du travail. Le sujet réel de la théorie sous sa forme traditionnelle, loin d'être l'esprit pur, est le savant qui remplit dans la société bourgeoise une fonction nécessaire, bien déterminée.Après cette prise de conscience, la naïveté philosophique du théoricien doit disparaître. Il comprend que la pensée, ses tâches et son orientation, l'organisation du monde qui lui est donné, se ramènent en dernière analyse au travail humain. Le combat de l'homme avec la nature est la condition de l’évolution historique, dans laquelle le travail matériel se sépare du travail intellectuel, il détermine la structure et le contenu de ce dernier. La séparation rigide des hypothèses logiques et historiques de la science est impossible à maintenir. L'activité du théoricien exprime le sujet concret qui ne donne pas forme à la seule théorie, mais aussi au monde réel. Prendre position dans la vie sociale, l'influencer consciemment devient une tâche immanente à la science.Par théorie au sens critique, H. entend la connaissance qui ne se contente pas de construire ses systèmes en respectant les cadres de la division du travail existante, mais qui s'efforce de donner à la totalité sociale une forme raisonnable. Dans l'histoire, la cohérence logique et comme transparente qui caractérise les théories traditionnelles, était en contradiction avec les rapports réels. Dans les tentatives pour rendre la société conforme à l'harmonie de la pensée, celle-ci peut jouer un rôle important.H. étudie la structure logique que présente la pensée lorsqu'elle exerce une telle fonction. Elle a pour contenu la représentation de la société actuelle, envisagée par rapport à révolution vers la raison. La théorie critique forme par conséquent un jugement existentiel unique. Pour développer et justifier celui-ci, elle a besoin, à chaque instant, de la science spéciale. Mais comme la théorie ne conçoit pas les buts qu'elle s'assigne comme extérieurs à elle, elle est logiquement plus compliquée que la théorie traditionnelle. Même lorsque la discipline spéciale construit des évolutions comme dans l'histoire naturelle et humaine, elle est orientée par des objectifs et des intérêts. Elle est, en un sens immédiatement compréhensible, utile. La théorie critique, au contraire, doit justifier elle-même la manière dont elle pose les problèmes, qui d'ailleurs sans cesse se transforment, elle doit modifier en conséquence l'ordre de son développement. Elle ne travaille pas en vue d'un système fixe, mais se comprend elle-même comme une tentative pour appliquer le savoir accumulé par les théories traditionnelles, à la marche historique de l'ensemble social, afin d'exercer une action dans un sens bien déterminé.Aussi bien, cette fonction de la théorie est-elle la réalisation des intentions authentiques de la philosophie idéaliste classique. (shrink)

Dewey's book on Democracy and Education established his credentials in the field of education and once counted as his most important book. It has been re-published in many editions and continuously in print ever since the original publication in 1916.

In The Public and Its Problems, a classic of social and political philosophy, John Dewey exhibits his strong faith in the potential of human intelligence to solve the public's problems. In his characteristic provocative style, Dewey clarifies the meaning and implications of such concepts as "the public," "the state," "government," and "political democracy." He distinguishes his a posterior reasoning from a priori reasoning, which, he argues permeates less meaningful discussion of basic concepts. Dewey repeatedly demonstrates the interrelationships between fact and (...) theory. (shrink)

This book is Dewey's most fully developed treatment of logic as the theory of Inquiry. It is a later work which reflects, in part, Dewey's readings of C.S. Peirce during the 1930's. -/- Reprinted in Series: The collected works of John Dewey / ed. by Jo Ann Boydston, 3,12.; The later works, 1925 - 1953, Vol. 12.

The distinguished author of books on psychology, ethics, and politics, John Dewey specialized in the philosophy of education. In this landmark work on public education, Dewey discusses methods of providing quality public education in a democratic society. First published close to 90 years ago, Democracy and Education sounded the call for a revolution in education, stressing growth, experience, and activity as factors that promote a democratic character in students and lead to the advancement of self and society. Unabridged reproduction of (...) the classic 1916 edition. (shrink)

Although social philosophy is the focus of general philosophical concern, it is in no better shape today than most philosophical, indeed most fundamentally intellectual, efforts. One is unable to f...

In Human Nature and Conduct, first published in 1922, Dewey brings the rigor of natural sciences to the quest for a better moral system.

This is a classic volume in the "library of Living Philosophers" and includes a collection of essays on Dewey's work by his contemporaries at the time of the volume's publication. It also includes a biographical essay on Dewey and his replies to the assembled essays.

The first Ukrainian translation of Max Horkheimer's article "History and Psychology", made by Vitaly Bryzhnik under the scientific and literary editorship of Ivan Ivashchenko.

These essays reveal another side of Horkheimer, focusing on his remarkable contributions to critical theory in the 1930s. Max Horkheimer is well known as the director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and as a sometime collaborator with Theodor Adorno, especially on their classic Dialectic of Enlightenment. These essays reveal another side of Horkheimer, focusing on his remarkable contributions to critical theory in the 1930s. Included are Horkheimer's inaugural address as director of the Institute, in (...) which he outlines the interdisciplinary research program that would dominate the initial phase of the Frankfurt School, his first full monograph, and a number of other pieces published in the 1930s. The essays, most of which have not appeared in English before, are surprisingly relevant to current post-philosophy debates, notably "On the Problem of Truth," with its focus on pragmatism, and "The Rationalism Debate in Current Philosophy," a sustained critique of the post-Cartesian philosophy of consciousness. Horkheimer's 1933 critique of Kantian ethics, "Materialism and Morality," is of particular interest given the current reaction to the neo-Kantian aspect of Habermas's work. There are also essays relevant to the current foundations debate within Continental philosophy, and the rationality/relativism question is sustained throughout the volume. (shrink)

Metaphysics and science stand opposed in modern times. In the average mind, aspects of each exist side by side without real unity. Philosophers have for centuries struggled to resolve the contradictions and to give the intelligible universe a true unity. The modern school of „logical empiricism“ seeks to achieve harmony by attributing validity only to the physical sciences. All statements that cannot be reduced to the concepts and judgments of the specialized disciplines are devoid of meaning for this school.Each of (...) the two components of this philosophy, namely, a certain form of logic and empiricism, contains errors. Traditional empiricism maintained that all knowledge is compounded from isolated perceptions. The new doctrine, however, holds that science has no immediate concern with perceptions, but that the statements of observers announcing such perceptions — „protocol statements“ as they are called — constitute its only subject matter. The task of science is to organize this material in such a way that predictions may be made from it. The author attempts to show that this description holds only for a particular function of knowledge, which, to be sure, is highly significant for industry and technology. To the extent that thought is not limited to these ends, it performs other functions. Thought plays a particularly important role in establishing perceptions and in constructing a theoretical reflection of living reality. Empiricism totally ignores thought, together with all the intellectual factors which, bound up with definite interests, sketch a living picture of reality. The concept of history, which is only intelligible from subjectively determined goals, belongs among those concepts which logical empiricism must inevitably misconstrue because of its behavioristic theory of man.Logistics, which modern empiricism adopts, is basically nothing but the old formal logic, enriched by a few theories and symbolic techniques. In the author’s opinion, the separation of the form and content of knowledge, which is fundamental for logistics, has dubious validity. Confronted with more complex structures of knowledge, comprehensible only in their totality, logistics reveals its impotence. Furthermore, logistics conflicts with empiricism itself. Having derived their propositions from limited material, the empiricists should claim only limited validity for logistics, if they are consistent in their doctrine. But in setting itself up as a norm for criticizing metaphysical statements, logistics shows that it contradicts a doctrine which has use for facts alone.Thus, logical empiricism does not destroy metaphysics. Since it subsumes under the term metaphysics all thought which transcends the special disciplines, romantic illusions as well as dialectical theories, it misunderstands the decisive contradictions of the present situation. In fact, it contributes to the general confusion, to a large extent. However important the achievements of the logical empiricists may be in special fields, they have failed to work out a clear philosophy. Métaphysique et science s’opposent dans les temps modernes. Des éléments empruntés aux deux modes de pensée se juxtaposent sans s’unir dans la conscience moyenne. Depuis des siècles, les philosophes s’efforcent de résoudre les contradictions et de donner à l’univers de notre intelligence une unité véritable. L’école moderne de „l’empirisme logique“ veut arriver à cette harmonie en ne reconnaissant de valeur qu’aux sciences positives. Dans la mesure où des opinions ne se laissent pas réduire aux concepts et aux jugements des disciplines spécialisées, elles passent pour dénuées de signification.Les deux composants de cette philosophie, une certaine forme de la logique et l’empirisme, contiennent l’un et l’autre des erreurs. L’ancien empirisme soutient que toute connaissance se ramène à des perceptions isolées. D’après la doctrine nouvelle, la science n’a pas affaire immédiatement à des perceptions ; cependant, les propositions d’observateurs qui constatent des perceptions, ce qu’on appelle les protocoles (Protokollsätze), constituent leur matière exclusive. La science aurait pour tâche d’ordonner cette matière de telle sorte que des prévisions soient toujours possibles. H. essaye de montrer que cette description ne vaut que pour une fonction spéciale de la connaissance, qui, il est vrai, a une signification particulière pour l’industrie et la technique. Dans la mesure où la pensée ne se limite pas à ces buts, elle exerce d’autres fonctions. Avant tout, la pensée joue un rôle de premier plan lorsqu’il s’agit d’ordonner les perceptions en une structure qui corresponde à l’ensemble du réel. L’empirisme ignore totalement la pensée, unité de tous les facteurs intellectuels, qui, liés sans doute à certains intérêts pratiques, permettent d’esquisser un tableau vivant de la réalité. Le concept de tendance historique, compréhensible seulement à partir de buts subjectivement déterminés, appartient au nombre de ceux que l’empirisme logique, par sa théorie behavioriste de l’homme, est inévitablement conduit à méconnaître.La logistique, à laquelle l’empirisme moderne s’est uni, n’est au fond que la vieille logique formaliste, enrichie de quelques théories et de quelques procédés symboliques. La distinction de la forme et du contenu de la connaissance, qui se trouve à la base de la logique, apparaît à H. très suspecte. Lorsqu’on arrive à des connaissances complexes, compréhensibles seulement dans leur totalité, elle se révèle impuissante. De plus, la logique entre en conflit avec l’empirisme lui-même. Car, comme la logique a tiré ses propositions d’un matériel très restreint, elle n’a le droit de revendiquer qu’une modalité hypothétique, comme c’est le cas, d’après l’empirisme, pour les autres propositions générales. Mais en s’érigeant en norme vis-à-vis des opinions métaphysiques et en passant à la critique, elle montre qu’elle contredit une doctrine qui ne reconnaît que les faits.Ainsi l’empirisme logique ne dépasse pas la métaphysique. Comme il embrasse sous le terme de métaphysique toute pensée qui va au delà des disciplines spéciales, les illusions romantiques aussi bien que les théories dialectiques, il méconnaît les contradictions décisives de la situation actuelle, et il contribue pour sa bonne part à la confusion générale. Quelque importants que soient, dans des domaines spécialisés, les travaux des partisans de l’empirisme logique, en tout cas, une claire philosophie leur fait défaut*. (shrink)

"A modern classic. Dewey's lectures have lost none of their vigor...The historical approach, which underlay the central argument, is beautifully exemplified in his treatments of the origin of philosophy."-- Philosophy and Phenomenological Research "It was with this book that Dewey fully launched his campaign for experimental philosophy."-- The New Republic Written by an eminent philosopher shortly after the shattering effects of World War I, this volume offers an insightful introduction to the concept of pragmatic humanism. Dewey presents persuasive arguments against (...) traditional philosophical constructs, suggesting their basis in self-justification. He proposes, instead, an examination of core values in terms of their ultimate effects on the self and others. This experimental philosophy was received with both outrage and acclaim for daring to mingle ethics and science. Delivered in 1919 as a series of lectures, Dewey's landmark work appears here in an enlarged edition that features an informative introduction by the author, written more than 25 years after the book's initial publication. (shrink)

John Dewey's Gifford Lectures, given at Edinburgh in 1929.

The esteemed psychologist and thinker John Dewey headed for previously unexplored philosophical territory with this influential work. Written shortly after World War I, it embodies Dewey's system of pragmatic humanism and maintains that individuals can attain "a more ordered and intelligent happiness" by reconsidering the ultimate effects of their deepest beliefs and feelings. With its promise of achieving an understanding of the past and attaining a brighter future, Reconstruction in Philosophy remains ever relevant. "A modern classic." — Philosophy and Phenomenological (...) Research. (shrink)

John Dewey's Gifford Lectures, given at Edinburgh in 1929.

Dewey on the reflex arc concept--an important theme in William James.