Si bien existen algunos intentos de repensar el tema de la tecnología desde la filosofía de Søren Kierkegaard, no existe todavía un diálogo directo con la postura transhumanista. En este artículo proponemos un acercamiento inédito, entendido como una crítica, desde el pensamiento de Kierkegaard al transhumanismo y su concepto de singularity. Primero, analizamos el modo en el que los transhumanistas entienden el concepto de singularity y sus limitaciones; después, apoyándonos en la filosofía de Kierkegaard, defendemos que la única singularidad posible (...) y real es la persona humana como relación primigenia, fuente de angustia y libertad, pecado y amor, espíritu. Defendemos también que esta relación no puede ser replicada por una creación artificial. (shrink)

En este artículo propongo una relectura de la novela Apuntes del subsuelo de Fiódor Dostoievski desde la mirada de la filosofía. Considerada por algunos la novela en la cual el escritor expuso su antropología; entendida, por otros, como una crítica social en boca de un extraño personaje, desde mi punto de vista esta obra es un ejercicio que desmantela la racionalidad moderna, y hace de Dostoievski un antimoderno. El ejercicio planteado parte de la idea que el filósofo ruso de origen (...) judío, Lev Shestov, afirmaba sobre este escrito: que representa la verdadera “crítica de la razón pura”. Trataré de demostrar que la novela Apuntes del subsuelo es uno de los escritos más filosóficos de Dostoievski, porque presenta la deconstrucción de la racionalidad moderna, para lo cual analizaré cómo entendió Dostoievski la razón y cuál fue su postura con relación con ella. (shrink)

This book seeks to generate a theoretical and a reflective framework to re-connect people with culture and spirituality. It seeks to recreate important links between these domains to provide interpretative, foundational, and ethical perspectives. It is distinctive in that it focusses on the challenges that humanity is facing at a cultural, social, moral, and spiritual level. It provides a philosophical understanding of humanity from a humanistic and multidisciplinary perspective (encompassing ethics, language, art/cinema, political, cultural and gender approaches) and offers a (...) variety of ways of how we can rethink our culture and our society for the future. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este artículo se propone recuperar un acercamiento peculiar en la comprensión de la realidad a través del concepto del silencio. A pesar de que sobre el silencio hay varías indagaciones, la mayoría relacionadas con la obra de Martín Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein o Merleau-Ponty, este artículo tiene la intención de extender la comprensión de una filosofía del silencio que no sería completa sin la contribución de Max Picard. Siendo este último un pensador original y el autor de una obra peculiar, (...) el objetivo de estas páginas es analizar el silencio, para comprender por qué el filósofo suizo lo entiende como una realidad originaria y positiva y no como una ausencia, creando así una metafísica del silencio como una filosofía integral ; una filosofía en la cual el silencio une, a través del lenguaje, al hombre con lo divino, creando una relación de complementariedad ABSTRACT This article aims to recover a peculiar approach in the understanding of reality through the concept of silence. Although there are several inquiries about silence, mostly related to the work of Martín Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein or Merleau-Ponty, this article intends to extend the understanding of a philosophy of silence that would not be complete without the contribution of Max Picard. Being an original thinker and the author of a peculiar work, the purpose of these pages is to analyze the silence, to understand why the Swiss philosopher understands it as an original and positive reality and not as an absence, thus creating a "metaphysics of silence" as an integral philosophy ; a philosophy in which silence unites, through language, the human and the divine, creating a relationship of complementarity. (shrink)

Siendo un pensador peculiar y entendido como un out-sider, Lev Shestov es el creador de una filosofía genuina que viene a romper el pensamiento para reconstruir; es decir, poner las bases de una filosofía con sentido trágico que se opone a todo pensar especulativo y positivista. Las raíces de esta filosofía las encuentra en la escritura de Kierkegaard, entre otros. El filósofo danés es un pensador que lo atormenta y que representa para su creación un momento decisivo, ya que le (...) devuelve a Shestov la esperanza de que su filosofía de la tragedia encuentra un sustento en la filosofía existencial creada por el filósofo danés. En estas páginas el objetivo es evidenciar aquello que Lev Shestov descubre al leer la obra de Kierkegaard para sustentar el desarrollo del significado de lo que denominará cómo filosofía de la tragedia; una filosofía que nace en la desesperación, en la repetición, en la segunda dimensión del pensamiento; en la angustia y en la fe, y en la revelación. (shrink)

This paper presents an interpretation of the paradoxical decision of Abraham done by Søren A. Kierkegaard in his work Fear and Trembling as an ethics of silence. The main idea is to understand ethics not as moral standards or specific duties, but as the responsibility of becoming a single individual in time; singularity as the intimate and personal relationship with the calling of love. In such a way, that silence is the experience of the encounter with the paradox that being (...) human means to be singular in conditions that claim an universal and general transparent manifestation dependent of the dominant rational discourse.Then, silence becomes the fundamental ethical claim to become a human person, as spirit in time, where it becomes a time of trial and examination, a temporality, where the trial is the fidelity to love’s calling, the listening of the possibilities that are presented by the anxiety of the decision. These possibilities are not immanent to the world or to history, they call for a personal choice, always containing a space of revelation; therefore of listening to the interiority of the personal choice that for Kierkegaard is the passion of faith, communicated and lived in silence. Concluding that an ethics of silence by the image of Abraham implies to re-think the role of philosophy in relationship to faith, hope and love in time, as a silent thought. (shrink)

Considered one of the most complex categories in Søren Kierkegaard’s thought, the repetition continues to raise much restlessness within his own authorship. Although about this category we find some first sketches in an unfinished book called Johannes Climacus or De homnibus dubitandum est, much later Kierkegaard will return to the category of repetition in his writing of the same name: Repetition, a peculiar work, very difficult to understand in its own dynamics. For this reason, in this essay we propose an (...) interpretation of the category of repetition in relation with that text, to understand why repetition is a spiritual category as Kierkegaard himself thought it, starting from the idea that for the Danish philosopher the repetition is what canbe called a “philosophy of the future”. (shrink)

Corría el año de 1837. Un joven que había nacido viejo, a los 24 años, encorvado y un poco lerdo en su caminar, con su pipa en la mano, con un rostro amable pero con una mirada que dejaba en silencio hasta al más elocuente, atrapaba con su mirada contemplativa la juventud de la quinceañera Regine Olsen. Ella en ese instante sintió que su inocencia se convertía en un interrogante inmortal y él desbordaba su ingenio en palabras que no lograban (...) siquiera hacer un esbozo de lo que entre ellos acontecía: una de las grandes historias de amor en un pequeño y alejado país confinado a 40 islas en el norte del hemisferio. (shrink)

Dobre, Catalina Elena. “Søren Kierkegaard y la reconstrucción de la filosofía mediante la duda subjetiva y la repetición a partir del escrito De Omnibus Dubitandum est.” Tópicos. Revista de Filosofía [Ciudad de México, Universidad Panamericana], 47 (2014): 25-52.

The focus on this article is to analyze the concept of beauty in Kierkegaard’s thought, starting from some questions that I try to answer in these pages: How does Kierkegaard understand beauty? What role does beauty play in the inner constitutive process? All this to argue that, as regards beauty, Kierkegaard recovers the Greek concept of kalokagathia to give it a modern interpretation; thus, distancing himself from the modern understanding of beauty as a mere object of study of aesthetics or (...) the mere contemplation of an ideal; beauty is defined as the telos of the inner self and is related to freedom and choice. It is, therefore, as I will argue, an ethical beauty, rather than an aesthetic one. (shrink)

Resumen Si bien los cumplidos han sido examinados extensamente en diferentes idiomas, incluido el español, se ha prestado escasa atención al estudio de variación interdialectal en la realización de cumplidos. Es esto lo que nos interesa analizar en este trabajo al examinar cumplidos en dos variedades del español: español andino y español de Andalucía. Así, el estudio se enmarca en el área de pragmática variacionista. Más específicamente, con base en una muestra de 410 cumplidos que se obtuvieron empleando un cuestionario (...) de construcción de diálogos, analizamos similitudes y diferencias en la percepción de comportamiento apropiado al formular un cumplido entre mujeres universitarias en Quito y Sevilla. Como veremos, en cuanto a estrategias globales, en los dos contextos hay una preferencia clara por formulaciones directas, corroborando los resultados de estudios anteriores. Sin embargo, encontramos algunas diferencias tanto situacionales como socioculturales con respecto a las sub-estrategias empleadas en la realización del acto central. Identificamos también algunas diferencias en el empleo de mecanismos de modificación interna y actos de apoyo encaminados a realzar el cumplido. (shrink)

Oddajemy czytelnikom kolejny numer „Rocznika Filozoficznego Ignatianum”. Prawie w całości poświęcony został on Mikołajowi Zebrzydowskiemu. Stan badań na jego temat zarysowany został w pierwszym tekście autorstwa Elżbiety E. Wróbel i Tomasza Graffa. Drugi z wymienionych autorów w osobnym artykule przedstawił także problematykę związaną z rozwojem majątku Floriana Zebrzydowskiego w miarę wzrostu jego znaczenia politycznego na dworze króla Zygmunta Augusta. Szczególny nacisk położono na studium przypadku (_case study_). Autor analizuje bowiem nabycie przez Zebrzydowskiego dóbr w Radoczy koło Wadowic, ukazując perspektywę konieczności (...) podjęcia dalszych badań nad powiększeniem majątku Floriana Zebrzydowskiego i jego rodziny. Artykuł wieńczy aneks, wraz z edycją w języku łacińskim i polskim tłumaczeniu dokumentu, w którym „Zygmunt August nadaje Florianowi Zebrzydowskiemu prawo zbudowania tamy na rzece Skawie i poprowadzenia stamtąd wody fosą przez ziemie dóbr Wadowice dla zbudowania stawów rybnych w dobrach Radocza”_._. (shrink)

The relationship between smell and politics could appear obscure; and yet, when it comes to smell, questions about freedom and constriction, social and ontological mingling or distinctions, clearly arise. In this paper, I will especially focus on the domain of food as a clear example for describing some of the political ambivalences characterizing the sense of smell. The aim is to pave the way for a more detailed ‘sociopolitical aesthetics of smell’ to come. I will stress epistemological and social features (...) of odors in order to highlight their ambivalence in knowledge and community life. Perceivers and odors will emerge as mingled bodies, highlighting an ongoing process of material as well as emotional affection. Moreover, I will present some relevant examples of smell as social status symbols in relation to the aesthetic values linked to class hierarchy. Consumerism and scented goods will be lastly discussed in order to shade light on contemporary perceptual phenomena and their role in the socioeconomic dimension. (shrink)

En 1954, la Cour d’appel de Buenos Aires acquitte Elena Teotina Haedo de Gaitán et la sage-femme Catalina Fuccia du délit d’avortement en invoquant la figure juridique de la « tentative d’avortement impossible », la grossesse étant scientifiquement et médicalement impossible à vérifier. Cet article examine l’application de la législation anti-avortement dans l’Argentine du milieu du xxe siècle, une Argentine considérée par l’historiographie comme pronataliste. L’analyse des processus judiciaires à l’œuvre permet également d’examiner les formes de tutelle sur (...) le corps et la reproduction des femmes. (shrink)

A macroscope is proposed and tested here for the discovery of the unique argumentative footprint that characterizes how a collective manages differences and pursues disagreement through argument in a polylogue. The macroscope addresses broader analytic problems posed by various conceptualizations of large-scale argument, such as fields, spheres, communities, and institutions. The design incorporates a two-tier methodology for detecting argument patterns of the arguments performed in arguing by an interactive collective that produces views, or topographies, of the ways that issues are (...) generated in the making and defending of standpoints. The design premises for the macroscope build on insights about argument patterns from pragma-dialectical theory by incorporating research and theory on disagreement management and the Argumentum Model of Topics. The design reconceptualizes prototypical and stereotypical argument patterns for characterizing large-scale argumentation. A prototype of the macroscope is tested on data drawn from six threads about oil-drilling and fracking from the subreddit Changemyview. The implementation suggests the efficacy of the macroscope’s design and potential for identifying what communities make controversial and how the disagreement space in a polylogue is managed through stereotypical argument patterns in terms of claims/premises, inferential relations, and presentational devices. (shrink)

The subject of the study is the figurative and symbolic reflection and transformation of the dynamic reality of life in the cinematic space of modern culture. The purpose of the work is to identify and substantiate trends in the development of cinematographic cultural texts based on the figurative and symbolic representation of the phenomenon of success in the existential space of human existence. The scientific novelty of the work is represented by the evidence base of the study, which determines the (...) figurative correspondence of the philosophical and sociological representation of cinematic texts to the phenomenon of success as a value-symbolic aspect of personal activity. Based on the analysis of cinema screen products created at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries and devoted to the characterization of the image of a subject whose existential level of being is characterized in the symbols of success/ failure, several trends in the development of cinematic culture can be identified. Firstly, the characteristic of the "sunset" of the previously dominant ideological trend of symbolization of the actual phenomenology of success. Secondly, the stage of axiological instability and ambivalence in the evaluation of the symbols of success, unevenly implemented in the scenario and staging part. And, thirdly, the formation and consolidation of new cinematic paradigms through the constant convergence of private symbols of success, manifested in different ways both in reality and on the cinema screen, and accompanied by constant attempts at their non-contextual universalization. (shrink)

This article offers a discussion on the opportunity of collaborative, multi-actor (public, private, science, social, and civic actors) partnerships as experimental policymaking and governance solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation plans geographically localized at the urban, metropolitan, and regional level. It sets out considerations as regards the need to design newly conceived permanent or temporary institutional geographies by building on the analysis of examples of policies implementing this kind of partnerships in Italy (e.g., river contracts; river foundations; neighborhood agreements; pacts (...) of collaboration; city science offices; urban sustainable development and innovation partnerships, etc.). Finally, the article draws attention to the challenges entailed by these partnerships including ethics, accountability, and climate justice concerns. (shrink)

The study is devoted to construct a typology of discourses about a miracle. Discourses are interpreted in this case not in a linguistic, but in a philosophical sense, as a certain “way of talking” about a chosen phenomenon. This includes the ontological and ideological position of the speaker (writer), emotional and value pathos, a communicative attitude or lack thereof, a message to the listener (reader) of specific views and beliefs. The author distinguishes three groups of discourses on the ideological basis: (...) 1) a miracle, understood as supernatural, but accessible for communication; 2) a miracle understood as a man-made, purely human phenomenon; 3) a miracle as the result of a “dual determination” coming from both the transcendent and the person himself. The miracle is initially interpreted in the article as a positive phenomenon that can be described and expressed in speech without directly naming the word itself. Within the first group of discourses, the following are considered: religious (Christian), mythological and fairy-tale discourse, and the fate-providentialist discourse is also highlighted. The second approach, connected with the denial of the supernatural, speaks of a miracle in the context of its scientific and technical creation, as well as hopes for a miracle within the framework of progressive and utopian concepts. The third type of discourses, combining the view of a miracle as coming from above and from the person himself, includes mystical-magical, existential and creativistic discourses - interpreting the theme of creativity. The mystical-magical discourse describes a miracle as the result of illumination and as a consequence of persistent spiritual searches. In the existential discourse, represented by fiction, there is also a place for describing a miracle as a magical nature and a magical fate. In creative discourse, the miracle is the very act of the birth of a new one. Summing up what has been said, the author emphasizes that he presents readers with nothing more than a sketch that requires further work and thematic disclosure. (shrink)

BackgroundHuman embryonic stem cells as a source for the development of advanced therapy medicinal products are considered for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Research has shown promising results and opened an avenue of great importance for patients who currently lack a disease modifying therapy. The use of hESC has given rise to moral concerns and been the focus of often heated debates on the moral status of human embryos. Approval for marketing is still pending.ObjectiveTo Investigate the perspectives and concerns of patients (...) with PD, patients being the directly concerned stakeholders in the ethical discussion.MethodsQualitative semi-structured interviews related to this new therapy in seventeen patients from two Swedish cities.ResultsThe participants expressed various interests related to the use of human embryos for development of medicinal therapies; however, overall, they were positive towards the use of hESC for treatment of PD. It was deemed important that the donating woman or couple made the choice to donate embryos voluntarily. Furthermore, there were concerns that the industry does not always prioritise the patient over profit; thus, transparency was seen as important. (shrink)

The place occupied by Kant’s philosophical ideas in the reflections of the Russian philosopher, Nikolay Strakhov, needs further study. The material for a historical-philosophical reconstruction of Strakhov’s reception of Kant’s philosophy is the Russian thinker’s home library catalogue, his correspondence and his own philosophical works. Among Strakhov’s interlocutors were not only philosophers and natural scientists, but also writers, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Afanasy Fet, who in many ways determined the cultural and intellectual horizon of the epoch. The many (...) years of correspondence with the last two writers went a long way to shape and develop Strakhov’s perception of Kant as a thinker. Indeed, without a virtual dialogue with Kant no modern philosophical system can be built. Strakhov’s reflections on the Kantian style of thinking, adoption of Kantian criticism as the model of epistemic analysis in many ways determined the features of his own philosophical work and became a catalyst of renewed interest in Russia in the Kantian philosophy in the last third of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

Providing insights into the interrelation between scientific and religious belief, this work covers features of belief in general and discusses distinctive properties between belief, knowledge and acceptance. These properties are considered in relation and comparison to religious belief.".

Summary Giancarlo Trombini presents the continuation of his research on the question of which criteria can be used to assess the progress of therapy in an objectively verifiable way and to make the decision on the completion of therapy. In the first phase of his research, the phenomenological criterion of a qualitative change in the patient’s relations toward the positive and higher complexity was proposed for this purpose. In terms of the working method in analytic therapy, this meant concretely: attention (...) should be paid to what development is shown in the comparison of the relationships that occur in the dream narrative and in the subsequent associations. This criterion was therefore given the name manifest dream/association comparison (MDAC)—comparison between the manifest dream and the subsequent associations. The idea can easily be transferred to those therapy methods, which do not primarily work with reports of dream memories and subsequent associations—also, in other ways of working, it is possible to pay attention, in the way suggested by Trombini, to the qualitative development of the relationships which are thematized by the clients in the course of an hour. To this first criterion, another phenomenological criterion is now added in the present article: that of the “concluding therapeutic turn” (CTT). If the patient’s development reaches this turn in the course of the therapy in one session, this indicates, according to Trombini, that the therapy can soon be concluded. The fulfillment of this criterion can be recognized by the fact that in the sequence of dream narration and subsequent associations in a session, a relational dynamic toward the positive and higher complexity becomes recognizable and that is, at the same time, connected with a reconciliation of the three temporal reference systems (past, present, and future). The achievement of this CTT indicates that the patient is aware of the changes made in therapy and makes it evident to the therapist that the therapy is nearing completion. (shrink)

This study tested the direct effects of Dark Tetrad traits on organizational and interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors. We also examined the moderating effects of the three dimensions of organizational justice – distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice – on the Dark Tetrad-CWBs relationships. Based on the data from 613 employees across different occupations, the results revealed that only psychopathy and sadism had significant effects on CWBs targeted at the organization. The results also supported the direct effect of sadism on (...) interpersonal CWBs. The findings confirmed the moderating role of interactional justice but differentially, depending on the dark trait and the target of workplace deviance. Whereas low and medium levels of interactional justice moderated the relationship between Machiavellianism and CWBs directed to the organization, it did not play any role in narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism. Regarding CWBs aimed at other people, interactional justice emerged as a significant moderator in Machiavellianism and sadism. But, whereas sadistic employees performed more harmful behaviors toward other individuals whatever their level of interactional justice, if people high in Machiavellianism perceived a high fair interpersonal treatment, they did not show deviant behaviors directed at other employees. The paper concludes with some suggestions and recommendations about the relevance of organizational justice in the influence of dark personality traits on CWBs. (shrink)

Three experiments investigated the role of target-target perceptual similarity within the attentional blink. Various geometric shapes were presented in a rapid serial visual presentation task. Targets could have 2, 1, or 0 shared features. Features included shape and size. The second target was presented after five or six different lags after the first target. The task was to detect both targets on each trial. Second-target report accuracy was increased by target-target similarity. This modulation was observed more for mixed-trial design as (...) compared with blocked design. Results are discussed in terms of increased stability of working memory representations and reduced interference for second-target processing. (shrink)

This contribution aims at providing an argumentative method to account for epistemic modality and evidentiality. I claim that these two linguistic categories can work as semantic components of defeasible argumentative schemes based on classification processes. This kind of approximate reasoning is, in fact, frequently indicated by appearance verbs which signal that the inferred standpoint is conceived by the speaker as uncertain due to the deceiving nature of perceptual data. Drawing from an analysis at the semantic-argumentative interface, the way in which (...) prototype theory sheds light on the processes of meaning construction underlying defeasible arguments from definition is also shown. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Theory in the “Post” Era: A Vocabulary for the 21st-Century Conceptual Commons ed. by Alexandru Matei, Christian Moraru and Andrei TerianLaura Elena Savu WalkerMatei, Alexandru, Christian Moraru, and Andrei Terian, editors. Theory in the “Post” Era: A Vocabulary for the 21st-Century Conceptual Commons. Bloomsbury, 2021. 376pp.Far from “mourning” the demise of theory, this timely and thoughtfully curated essay collection testifies to its “renewed vitality,” its compelling presence (...) “across fields, domains of life, and geocultural boundaries,” and its power to build an ever-expanding world community of practioners who are forming what has come to be known as a “theory commons” (ix). As the collection’s editors point out, theory’s new lease on life hinges on ensuring both the democratic workings of this “world discourse formation” (1) and on the responsible theorizing of the very notion of community in “a world threatened by all kinds of anti-communal actions and reactions, from runaway globalization to exacerbated tribalism and tunnel-vision politics” (x). Working on the margins, specifically, out of a Romanian “lab” called The Critical Theory Institute (CTI), which opened its doors in early 2000, the contributors seek to revise the “standard history of theory,” one whose “Western origins, authority, and cultural compass ” strike them as “exceedingly reductive” (3). This project of geotheoretical repositioning and recalibration aims to recast theory as a “quintessentially cross-linguistic, cross-cultural, trans- and intercontinental undertaking” (4). As such, it carries on the project, launched in a previous volume, Romanian Literature as World Literature (2018), of fashioning an alternative to the nation-state paradigm that has long shaped literary and intellectual histories. In both of these works, Romanian critics and theorists have tuned into a wide range of voices, and tapped into a shared conceptual and methodological apparatus—itself the product of “an ethno-linguistic medley of traditions” (8). This approach informs what editors see as the “epoch-making” (17) discursive paradigm that has taken shape in globally networked post-Cold War societies (17), a viral model of cultural influence that fosters an ontology of “contact, contagion, of infection, dissemination, and horizontal accumulation” (15).To give us a sense of theory’s complex genealogy and evolution, the editors reference the Bulgarian critic Galin Tihanov, who has attributed [End Page 122] important developments in contemporary theory to the achievements of theorists (Nikolai Trubetskoi, Roman Jakobson, Vladimir Propp, and Georg Lukács) and schools of thought (Russian Formalism and the Prague Linguistic Circle). In “Traveling Theory” (1983) and “Traveling Theory Reconsidered” (2000), Edward Said called attention to the migratory nature of contributions made, for instance, by Georg Lukács, whose theories moved across different European locales in this period. Since then, contemporary theory has branched out to integrate the travels and travails of scholars affiliated with theory labs located in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, and last, but not least, Romania (10).Theory in the “Post” Era highlights five characteristics that distinguish theory in the “post” era from earlier forms: 1) It has a “reluctantly epoch-alist” thrust (19; original italics), which assumes that the “post” lexicon entails “rupture, discontinuity, and opposition” (19), radical departures, tentative claims, provisional conclusions, and ex-centric perspectives; 2) it adopts a “self-reflexive and experimental” (20; original italics) stance in which theorists invoke inherited approaches or invent new ones; 3) it introduces a “transdisciplinary” (21; original italics) scope that allows authors to interrogate the foundations, aims, and methods of theoretical discourse and practice across several knowledge domains, from which they “borrow whole vocabularies and toolkits” (21); 4) it is “nationally, transnationally, and ecologically affiliative” (20) in ways that allow theorists to “think with others at a distance” (21) about global issues; and 5) it is programmatic, placing critical and theoretical concerns in the service of “the ethical, the political, and the communal” (22). Organized around three main themes (“Aesthetics,” “Temporalities,” and “Critical Modes”), the essays juxtapose discussions of pivotal historical events and cultural phenomena with literary analyses of Romantic era “classics,” modernist experiments, and postmodern works of the post-Communist era, a corpus that includes, but is not limited to, landmark works of national culture that are now part of a fast-expanding planetary... (shrink)

Many contemporary philosophers hold that comparison requires a common, monistic ‘covering value’, and Aristotle is often described as a forerunner of this view. This paper reconsiders that claim. First, its textual warrant is substantially weaker than has been thought. Philosophically, moreover, Aristotle’s theory of non-synonymous predication allows for comparisons to be made using the special kind of non-synonymous terms that he calls pros hen legomenon, literally those ‘said with reference to a single thing.’ His favourite example is ‘healthy’ as said (...) of food, organisms, and medical procedures: these various senses are not entirely synonymous, yet are not simply unconnected. This has significant implications. Aristotle famously holds that goodness is species-specific, and it would then seem that species cannot be ranked according to how good they are. Yet Aristotle does—frequently—rank species. The paper shows us that he is not, pace other scholars, thereby caught in a contradiction. -/- . (shrink)

This paper proposes a lifespan developmental model of critical moral consciousness and examines its implications for education in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Mature moral consciousness, central to negotiating the challenges of the 21st century, is characterized by a deepening lifelong integration of moral motivation, agency and critical discernment. The paper describes the evolution of moral consciousness through three levels; pre‐critical consciousness (pCC), transitional critical consciousness (tCC) and critical consciousness (CC) and eight chronologically ascending psychosocial themes. It focuses on the first (...) two periods and operationalizes the role of education in cultivating the four dimensions of moral motivation: a moral sense of identity, a sense of responsibility and agency, a deep sense of relatedness on all levels of living and a sense of meaning and life purpose. The paper proposes a re‐envisioning of education in the direction of integrating mind and heart, developing both moral motivation and critical discernment and integrating these into optimal consciousness. (shrink)

Los Ensayos de Montaigne nos sirven de prueba de la fuerza que tienen algunas de nuestras fantasías sobre otras, puesto que este autor tiene un cierto aire libre, dándole una vuelta tan natural y viva a sus pensamientos, que es difícil leerlo sin preocuparse. La negligencia que tanto le gusta le queda muy bien y lo vuelve amable a la mayor parte del mundo sin tornarlo despreciable, y su orgullo es como un orgullo de hombre honesto, si se puede decir (...) así, que inspira respeto sin suscitar odio. (shrink)

The paper examines the invariance principles proposed by the analytical and phenomenological traditions for demarcating the boundaries of formal and regional ontologies. The principle of invariance with respect to isomorphic transformations, generalizing Alfred Tarski’s criterion for logical concepts, is extended to formal ontology as the theory of manifolds in its phenomenological interpretation. Isomorphism types, which are abstract individuals of the highest order, hypostases of forms of all possible ontologies, are considered as model-theoretical analogs of manifolds. The correlativity of the phenomenological (...) principles of demarcation of ontological regions and the criterion of invariance with respect to isomorphic transformations is demonstrated, leading to the convergence of logic and formal mathematics in both traditions and, at the same time, to the exclusion of geometry from formal ontology. Particular attention is paid to the discussion of the analytical and phenomenological traditions of the synthetic (material) a priori and the contribution that Wittgenstein’s doctrine on internal relations at different stages of its evolution makes to this discussion. The paper reveals the basis for later Wittgenstein’s criticism of his earlier project of creating a phenomenological language for expressing internal regional relations (such as the colours exclusion). The paper shows how Wittgenstein’s doubts about the possibility of an ideal notation based on the dichotomy of the logical and phenomenological led him to the study of invariants arising in language games. These invariants are not determined by the special properties of the categorical objects of formal ontology or the structures of regional subject matter, but are stable equilibria generated by the “consensus of actions.” New perspectives are outlined that are opened for logic and phenomenology by switching focus from the invariants of ontological structures to the invariants of structured interactions of various agents. (shrink)

Glimpses into Byzantium. Its Philosophy and Arts -/- This volume contains peer-reviewed articles published by the author either in hard-copy or in electronic format between 2019 and 2021. These focus on various aspects of Byzantine and Medieval culture. -/- It is not possible to upload an entire book here, but there are copies of it in libraries and it can also be bought from Amazon.

This essay uses the case of Russian, in its relation to other languages, to look at the ways in which the architects of internationalism in the aftermath of World War II established a new hegemony of world languages, responding to the challenge posed by the rise of Russian as a scientific and political language. What was initially a campaign by the Soviet delegation at UNESCO for one cause—recognition of the status of the Russian language within the organization—was turned by other (...) delegations into a campaign for a different cause—multilingualism. Rather than establishing Russian on a par with English and French, the Soviet intervention helped to create a new triumvirate of world languages—Russian, Spanish, and Arabic—as these were recognized by international organizations such as the United Nations and UNESCO. The case of the rise of Russian as a language of science and politics helps to underscore the complexities and the ambiguities involved in the negotiation of the language regime, in which political arguments were translated into technological choices, the diplomats’ problems were cast as a problem of communication, and the language in which political arguments were made oftentimes mattered as much as the arguments themselves. (shrink)