The first fragment in which Nietzsche refers to the eternal recurrence is known for its obscurity. In this paper, we intend to contribute to the philosophical genesis of this thought, by contextualizing it in the experimental philosophy since Dawn and by determining the links between this fragment and the previous texts since 1880. Therefore, the idea of eternal recurrence appears to be based on a different representation of reality, resulting from what Nietzsche calls “the passion of knowledge”, a crucial notion (...) that introduces his philosophy of affirmation. (shrink)

The Thought of Eternal Recurrence: From Discourse to Doctrine. This article gives a new interpretation of eternal recurrence, based on the observation that the central debate about this idea in Nietzsche studies is quite unique in the history of philosophy. This debate is based on a rather radical conflict between Lehre and Rede, doctrine and discourse. Purely doctrinal interpretations tend to underestimate the significance of the discursive form chosen by Nietzsche to express his thought in favor of the Nachlass, whereas (...) discursive readings are generally characterized by an anti-doctrinal, parodic and purely critical function. However, it is possible to reconcile the specificity of the discourse of the eternal recurrence in Nietzsche’s published works with his attempt to establish a real philosophical doctrine. By considering the fictional structure of eternal recurrence in Nietzsche’s published works, we can reinterpret the meaning of Nietzsche’s philosophy of affirmation, which implies a new relationship with life, reality, and values, as well as a new kind of belief. Indeed, we find in fiction a paradigm for such an affirmation of life, which Nietzsche discusses in his analyses of appearance and Greek tragedy. (shrink)

Cet article s’efforce de déterminer quel est le lien entre physique et métaphysique dans le discours nietzschéen à partir de la critique de la métaphysique qu’il opère. Nous voudrions montrer en particulier que la position de Nietzsche est sensiblement différente de deux représentations que nous pourrions facilement avoir de lui sur cette question. La première consisterait à croire que sa critique de la métaphysique entraîne dans son sillage une critique de la physique et des sciences en général. À l’opposé, la (...) seconde soulignerait chez lui un éloge vibrant des sciences de la nature, dans un esprit positiviste, qui s’accompagne d’une critique de la métaphysique. L’évaluation que Nietzche donne des sciences de la nature est en fait bien plus nuancée et ne peut être assimilée à ces deux positions. (shrink)

In the last two decades modal logic has undergone an explosive growth, to thepointthatacompletebibliographyofthisbranchoflogic,supposingthat someone were capable to compile it, would?ll itself a ponderous volume. What is impressive in the growth of modal logic has not been so much the quick accumulation of results but the richness of its thematic dev- opments. In the 1960s, when Kripke semantics gave new credibility to the logic of modalities? which was already known and appreciated in the Ancient and Medieval times? no one could (...) have foreseen that in a short time modal logic would become a lively source of ideas and methods for analytical philosophers,historians of philosophy,linguists, epistemologists and computer scientists. The aim which oriented the composition of this book was not to write a new manual of modal logic buttoo?ertoeveryreader,evenwithnospeci?cbackground in logic, a conceptually linear path in the labyrinth of the current panorama of modal logic. The notion which in our opinion looked suitable to work as a compass in this enterprise was the notion of multimodality, or, more speci?cally, the basic idea of grounding systems on languages admitting more than one primitive modal operator. (shrink)

The following paper discusses Schiller’s interpretation of the German concept of Bildung. Bildung appears to be a central term in Germany’s culture, especially (but not limited to) the educational realm. As Bildung underwent massive transformations and has been re-interpreted multiple times throughout German history, this paper will start with a definitory exercise trying to organize the dynamics surrounding the term. Secondly, a two-fold historical context – firstly regarding the wider political and social dynamics of the time and secondly, a more (...) biographical approach focusing on Schiller – will be provided. These contextualizing efforts will be succeeded by elaborations on Schiller’s concept of Herzensbildung. The paper closes with a summary of key insights and further potential endeavors. (shrink)

Rousseau’s thoughts on education are being presented and then put in tension with todays educational conceptions. We aim at highlighting in how far Rousseau’s work can still contribute to conceive teaching and learning, but also how it is in tension with some contemporary educational tenets. We conclude by emphasising the need to reflect all teaching and learning taking into account the objective to allow the development of a human being bestowed with a unique potential, that of being able to become (...) autonomous and free, actively taking part in his and his society’s future. (shrink)

Abstract: Alienation and slavery from Precious or what we don't want to see. It is our purpose to establish, in a parallel reading, these two films (highly rewarded), namely The Fence and Precious, that apparently being so different, are an illustration of the reality of life and the modern democratic world: the social uprooting and slavery. If in the movie of Phillip Noyce and Christone Olsen The Fence, is told a story of three young Aboriginal girls who are forcibly taken (...) to be transformed into domestic slaves, in the movie of Lee Daniels Precious, the young woman is already a servant in her own home and seeks the transformation of her life. Uniting these two stories, we find fundamental elements: illiteracy, ill-treatment, the idea of a migration (real or metaphysical), among others, but whose fundamental notion is the journey. If the film The Fence, the fence itself is used to conduct the three young Aboriginal to a real reunion with the family, in Precious, the metaphorical ‘fence’ is the limit of her world. From this interpretation, we will undertake our reflection about what we consider to be the alienation of the modern world and the silence we produce about them. (shrink)

Pretendemos com este ensaio fazer uma bordagem à filosofia fenomenológica da linguagem de Heidegger; abordagem que procura realizar, senão mesmo justificar, isso mesmo que subjaz a uma linguagem que é doação, que é fazer vir à presença aquilo que é nomeado. Mas linguagem tem um sentido mais lato que não apenas fala ou falado. Linguagem como ‘dizer’. Um ‘dizer’ que se escuta para lá do simples dito, para lá de qualquer modo de ser do dasein (autêntico ou inautêntico), para lá (...) do quotidianamente falado. Ou seja, o que permite tornar perceptível e inteligível as sentenças “o homem fala” e, “die sprache spricht”, o que permite dizer que o dasein é aquele que só pode advir através da linguagem mas simultaneamente é aquele pelo qual só o ser pode falar, é aquilo que apelidámos de ontopotencialidade. Tendo a linguagem esta ontopotencialidade, i.e., a potencialidade de doação permanente, de permitir um acontecer possibilitante de mundo(s) que instituem uma abertura, ela possibilita a manutenção dessa mesma abertura. Eis a tarefa do nosso ensaio. Dividimos assim a nossa comunicação em três partes, a saber: 1) A origem necessária: Logos – O discurso como mostração; 2) Linguagem e Poesia – A essência da arte e a arte da essência; 3) A Ontopotencialidade da linguagem – definição e síntese. (shrink)

Investiga a temática competência em informação sob a ótica da Filosofia e da Ciência da Informação. Tem como diretriz a seguinte indagação: como é possível abordar a competência em informação no âmbito da dimensão técnica por meio de um diálogo integrado entre a Filosofia e a Ciência da Informação? As respostas a esta pergunta norteadora, bem como as reflexões resultantes destas, baseiam-se numa investigação de natureza exploratória e bibliográfica, conduzida em artigos e livros nestas áreas do conhecimento. Trata sobre a (...) dimensão técnica, teoricamente constituída por conceitos sobre a “técnica” (Filosofia) e sobre a competência em informação (Ciência da Informação). Resgata conceitos de Aristóteles de Hannah Arendt e de outros filósofos contemporâneos, relacionando-os aos conceitos de competência em informação. A inter-relação conceitual revela que a dimensão técnica da competência em informação abrange habilidades sustentadas por julgamentos e decisões durante as etapas de busca, avaliação e uso da informação. AbstractThe aim of this article is to investigate the issue of Information Literacy under the light of Philosophy and Information Science. The article’s basis lies in the following inquiry: how is it possible to approach Information Literacy in the technical dimension through a dialogue between Philosophy and Information Science? The answers to this guiding question, as well as the deliberations that arise as an outcome, are based on a research that is both exploratory and bibliographical, carried out through the reading of articles and books in the field of study. This study addresses the technical dimension, supported by theoretical concepts dealing with Technique (Philosophy) and Information Literacy (Information Science). This research goes back to notions proposed by Aristotle, Hannah Arendt and other contemporary philosophers, relating these concepts to Information Literacy. The conceptual interrelation reveals that the technical dimension of Information Literacy tackles skills grounded on judgments and decisions made during the steps of location, evaluation and use of information. (shrink)

Este texto quer examinar como Kant a partir da sua concepção de _cogito_ procura refutar o idealismo problemático de Descartes. Em primeiro lugar, quer verificar se Kant, ao entender a consciência de si como dependente da consciência de objeto, não estaria assumindo pressupostos metafísicos e epistemológicos diferentes dos assumidos por Descartes em sua concepção de _cogito_. Em segundo lugar, tenta formular o problema do alcance das noções de representação e reflexividade em cada um dos referidos filósofos. Para enfrentar essa problemática, (...) elege como metodologia de investigação a análise da Refutação do Idealismo da Analítica dos Princípios da _Crítica da Razão Pura_, bem como de alguns textos de Descartes que explicitam a sua concepção de _cogito_. (shrink)

At the entrance of the Temple of Delphi, the inscription possibly best known in the history of ideas warned about the importance of self-knowledge. In turn, this inscription is philosophically unfolded by the argument that one can only know oneself who cares, since caring is already in itself, to know oneself. Accordingly, many of the ancient medical practices recommended healing through the word. However, only with the advent of clinical hypnosis has this practice recovered, which in theoretical terms seems to (...) run counter to the main lines of the philosophy of mind, whether from the physicalist or the dualistic point of view. In this essay, we will try to show to what extent the concepts of caring and mind can be compatible according to these areas. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo analisar o projeto arquitetônico de fundamentação da ética do discurso desenvolvido por Karl-Otto Apel, a partir da década de 70. Pretendemos mostrar que Apel, a partir da linguagem, buscará desenvolver uma ética da responsabilidade para a sociedade global. Neste sentido, a linguagem enquanto médium intransponível de toda reflexão teórica e prática fundamenta uma intersubjetividade, que torna possível uma ética do acordo mútuo. Esta ética buscará dar conta, não apenas do plano normativo, mas, levará em consideração, (...) também, o âmbito prático de fundamentação. (shrink)

A partir da leitura dos escritos de Ficino dedicados à melancolia, a presente investigação considera o modo como, combinando elementos de diversas fontes, o filósofo florentino contribuiu decisivamente para compreensão dessa condição e para a constituição de um medium terapêutico diferenciado. O enquadramento do De Vita Libri Tres na longa sucessão de teorias médico-‑filosóficas relativas à constituição melancólica revela a sua participação na dimensão incremental de uma densa semântica, mas também, de modo decisivo, a ausência de uma evolução unívoca das (...) ideias de melancolia. Assim o demonstra a recuperação de uma vertente favorável do temperamento melancólico, combinando Ficino a ortodoxia médica relativa ao equilíbrio humoral com a possibilidade, enunciada no Problema XXX, de uma forma superior de equilíbrio. O eclodir da genialidade contemplativa, tida como característica central dos maiores feitos humanos, em particular no domínio dos estudos académicos, tem lugar na forma de êxtase, adaptando Ficino traços da mania [furor] platónica. O papel de Ficino na evolução das conceções de melancolia é também evidenciado na sua exploração das suas formas amorosa e religiosa, indicando uma sensibilidade às condições sociais da individuação, mas também a tentativa de compreender e mitigar as tribulações existenciais associadas ao seu próprio temperamento. Já no que se refere ao manancial terapêutico proposto pelo filósofo florentino, o aspeto mais inovador reside na sua mobilização da astrologia e da magia, pro- curando demonstrar que as mesmas são um recurso natural baseado num conceito de simpatia entre os elementos da hierarquia cósmica e, como tal, distintas da necromancia e da demonologia. (shrink)

This multidisciplinary volume explores the relationship between human rights and the subject. Each chapter considers how human rights norms and practices affect the way we relate to ourselves, to other people, and to the non-human world, drawing on the best work on human rights in political theory, cultural studies, history, law, anthropology, literary studies, and philosophy.

The advent of the Web is one of the defining technological events of the twentieth century, yet its impact on the fundamental questions of philosophy has not yet been explored, much less systematized. The Web, as today implemented on the foundations of the Internet, is broadly construed as the space of all items of interest identified by URIs. Originally a space of linked hypertext documents, today the Web is rapidly evolving as a universal platform for data and computation. Even swifter (...) is the Web‐driven transformation of many previously unquestioned philosophical concepts of privacy, belief, intelligence, cognition, and even embodiment in surprising ways. The ensuing essays in this collection hope to explore the philosophical foundation of the World Wide Web and open the debate on whether or not the changes caused by the Web to technology and society warrant the creation of a philosophy of the Web. (shrink)

Este artigo examina em âmbito fenomenológico as categorias da experiência fática da vida e do fenômeno histórico, a partir da primeira parte da preleção “Introdução à fenomenologia da religião”, proferida por Martin Heidegger, no semestre de inverno de 1920/1921. Elucida a peculiaridade dos conceitos filosóficos e a diferença de princípio que há entre filosofia e ciência. Apresenta a reelaboração do método fenomenológico, enquanto ponto de partida da filosofia, capaz de fazer jus à vida fática e à historicidade do Ser-aí. Examina (...) o significado do fenômeno histórico e a crítica à maneira habitual de pensá-lo, como “algo que transcorre no tempo” ou “uma propriedade geral aplicável a todo objeto temporal”. Conclui que as vias de afirmação da vida contra o histórico caem no modo teorético e não expressam o histórico em seu caráter imediato. Portanto, preservar o caráter fenomenológico e intranquilizador da história significa respeitar a historicidade viva e a força vital e multidirecional do sentido fático do Ser-aí. Palavras-chave: Fenomenologia. Filosofia. Ciência. Facticidade. Historicidade. (shrink)

O texto indaga acerca do núcleo das confrontações do pensamento contemporâneo, para mostrar qual é o lugar que corresponde, nesse contexto, à Levinas. Neste sentido, mostraremos, em primeiro lugar, o motivo principal pelo qual, tem-se produzido, nos últimos anos, uma revalorização do pensamento de Levinas, a saber, a virada ética contemporânea; em segundo lugar, ilustraremos uma das noções básicas da proposta filosófica levinasiana, que se encontra em íntima relação com os problemas que o pensamento contemporâneo tem desenvolvido: racionalidade ética como (...) abertura à diferença não indiferente – alteridade. (shrink)

Pretende-se abordar a problemática da filosofia como prática formativa, tendo como paradigma a experiência estética enquanto via para uma formação ética que inclua as dimensões emocional, afetiva e criativa do ser humano (e não apenas a formação intelectual ou técnico-profissional), retomando assim as tradições filosóficas formativas da Paideia antiga, assim como as da autonomia e da Bildung modernas.

RESUMO: nas últimas décadas, a temática da consciência tem atraído atenção de pesquisadores em filosofia da mente, e em diversas disciplinas científicas e tecnológicas. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi realizar uma revisão das principais escalas e métodos de avaliação do nível de consciência utilizados na área da saúde, no âmbito internacional, tendo em vista responder a indagações que emergem no contexto da prática dos profissionais de saúde. O procedimento metodológico consistiu em adotar o Monismo de Duplo Aspecto e o Monismo (...) Reflexivo como referencial teórico, e levantar os principais procedimentos relativos à avaliação do nível de consciência na área de saúde, para então discutir se aborda o fenômeno de modo conceitualmente apropriado. Concluímos que os critérios utilizados pelas escalas de avaliação do nível de consciência e pelas escalas de profundidade anestésica avaliam possibilidades de ocorrência da experiência consciente. (shrink)

Derrida et Bergson ne se sont jamais rencontres, et l'oeuvre du premier ne refere qu'avec circonspection a celle du second. Un dialogue entre eux n'en est pas moins possible, portant entre autres sur la delicate question du fondement de l'intuition. Une connaissance immediate, non langagiere, integrale et certaine est-elle envisageable? Le probleme en est un de droit plutot que de fait: quid juris? a ce probleme lourd d'implications epistemologiques, Derrida et Bergson ont repondu de facons distinctes: l'un a mis en (...) doute la possibilite de l'intuition, l'autre a defendu les droits de la methode intuitive. Le present ouvrage est le premier a serrer de pres la relation entre ces deux philosophes, dont les pensees refletent a elles seules certains des tournants qu'a connus le xxe siecle. Son objectif est triple: circonscrire etroitement l'objet du litige entre Derrida et Bergson, trop peu souligne par les commentateurs, et dont ce livre montre qu'il n'est pas annule par un accord partiel; tirer au clair les diverses raisons qui amenent l'un a s'en prendre a l'intuition, l'autre a embrasser la methode intuitive; etablir que certains arguments de Bergson, bien qu'ils connaissent un regain d'interet et engagent la pensee dans des voies prometteuses, complementaires de celles du realisme speculatif, semblent meriter un nouvel etayage. (shrink)

Une vulgate interprétative a repéré chez Bergson deux intentions majeures : d'une part, celle de montrer que le temps d'Einstein est compatible avec la conception de la durée : d'autre part, celle de subordonner le temps einsteinien au temps vécu. Les pages qui suivent seront l'occasion pour nous d'ébranler le second volet de cette interprétation. Sans le réfuter de point en point, nous voudrions en effet montrer que de nombreux passages de l'oeuvre bergsonienne permettent d'atténuer l'idée que Bergson ait inféodé (...) le temps d'Einstein au sien propre. L'intérêt principal de cette tâche sera défaire contrepoids à une conception bien ancrée, mais excessive, et de montrer que le temps de la relativité restreinte a pleine valeur non seulement dans le cadre des sciences physiques en général, mais aussi clans celui du bergsonisme en particulier. (shrink)

Une vulgate interprétative a repéré chez Bergson deux intentions majeures : d'une part, celle de montrer que le temps d'Einstein est compatible avec la conception de la durée ; d'autre part, celle de subordonner le temps einsteinien au temps vécu. Les pages qui suivent seront l'occasion pour nous d'ébranler le second volet de cette interprétation. Sans le refuter de point en point, nous voudrions en effet montrer que de nombreux passages de l'œvre bergsonienne permettent d'atténuer I'idée que Bergson ait inféodé (...) le temps d'Einstein au sien propre. L'intérêt principal de cette tâche sera de faire contrepoidsà une conception bien ancrée, mais excessive, et de montrer que le temps de la relativité restreinte a pleine valeur non seulement dans le cadre des sciences physiques en général, mais aussi dans celui du bergsonisme en particulier. (shrink)

Concept à significations multiples, le sens commun désigne chez Bergson tantôt un contenu de croyances naïves et répandues, tantôt l’effort par lequel on fait un tri parmi les croyances. En serrant de près ces deux acceptions principales, nous chercherons ici à éclairer l’apport philosophique que Bergson attribue par moments au sens commun. Il s’agira donc de faire ressortir combien Bergson développe une conception positive du sens commun lorsqu’il l’associe au bon sens et l’envisage comme la disposition à faire volte-face, c’est-à-dire (...) à se régler sur les particularités du réel. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é apontar a importância vital do diálogo socrático e, em especial, na figura de Sócrates na construção da tese dos exercícios espirituais de Pierre Hadot e a transformação/construção ética do sujeito ante a condição frágil e vulnerável do ser humano. Esse objetivo é aqui pensado a partir da interpretação que Hadot faz da figura de Sócrates e da filosofia antiga. Com efeito, desde o início do pensamento grego, o Sábio aparece como uma norma viva e concreta (...) como nota Hadot: “essas pesquisas, essas reflexões sobre o Sábio como norma se fixaram pouco a pouco, por muitas razões, na figura única de Sócrates”. Sócrates torna-se o mediador entre o ideal transcendente de sabedoria e a realidade ética humana concreta. (shrink)

La France est une nation légère - ce lieu commun antique est abondamment repris tout au long du XVIIIe siècle, témoignant de profonds bouleversements axiologiques, scientifiques et éthiques, dont ce volume collectif cherche à mesurer l'importance et les enjeux, en racontant l'histoire d'un autre siècle des Lumières: celle d'un siècle de la Légèreté. Ce volume collectif offre une perspective interdisciplinaire, croisant les champs d'études concernés par la question de la légèreté. Les 15 articles réunis analysent tant la peinture que la (...) morale, tant les sciences que l'histoire politique, tant la littérature que les technologies ou l'économie. Ensemble, ces articles révèlent la complexité de la légèreté au dix-huitième siècle, en proposant non seulement des analyses nouvelles originales de sources bien connues (Hogarth, Fontenelle ou Voltaire) mais aussi des découvertes de textes et des objets moins souvent étudiés (La Morlière, le Père Castel, Octave Uzanne, les cabriolets ou les parfums). L'un des atouts principaux de cette recherche est son approche critique et historiographique de la légèreté qui remet en question la façon dont s'écrit l'Histoire. Derrière les idées reçues, ce livre découvre les enjeux nationaux, diplomatiques, voire parfois aussi existentiels qui ont participé à la construction des représentations du dix-huitième siècle français. (shrink)

Computational reproducibility possesses its own dynamics and narratives of crisis. Alongside the difficulties of computing as an ubiquitous yet complex scientific activity, computational reproducibility suffers from a naive expectancy of total reproducibility and a moral imperative to embrace the principles of free software as a non-negotiable epistemic virtue. We argue that the epistemic issues at stake in actual practices of computational reproducibility are best unveiled by focusing on software as a pivotal concept, one that is surprisingly often overlooked in accounts (...) of reproducibility issues. Software is not only about designing and coding but also about maintaining, supporting, distributing, licensing, and governance; it is not only about developers but also about users. We focus on openness debates among computational chemists involved in molecular modeling software packages as empirical grounding for our argument. We then identify and analyse four epistemic characteristics as key to the role of software in computational reproducibility. (shrink)

Depersonalization is a pathological condition consisting in a deep modification of the way things appear to a subject, leading him to feel estranged from his body, his actions, his thoughts, his mind and even from himself. In this article, I argue that the study of depersonalization raises three challenges for recent theories of the sense of bodily ownership. These challenges—which I call the centrality challenge, the dissociation challenge and the grounding challenge— thwart most of these theories and suggest that the (...) sense of bodily ownership hinges on a phenomenal mark of mineness that can not be accounted for in terms of our sensory, interoceptive, agentive, cognitive or affective dispositions and that is psychologically primitive. In short: that mineness is first. (shrink)

In a previous article on cosmological arguments, I have put forward a few examples of complete infinite and circular explanations, and argued that complete non-wellfounded explanations such as these might explain the present state of the world better than their well-founded theistic counterparts (Billon, 2021). Although my aim was broader, the examples I gave there implied merely causal explanations. In this article, I would like to do three things: • Specify some general informative conditions for complete and incomplete non-wellfounded causal (...) explanations that can be used to assess candidate explanations and to generate new examples of complete non-wellfounded explanations. • Show that these conditions, which concern chains of causal explanations, easily generalize to chains of metaphysical, grounding explanations and even to chains involving other “determination relations” such as supervenience. • Apply these general conditions to the recent debates against the existence of nonwellfounded chains of grounds and show, with a couple of precise examples, that the latter can be complete, and that just like in the case of causal explanations, non-wellfoundedness can in fact be an aset rather than a liability. (shrink)

Patients suffering from depersonalization complain of feeling detached from their body, their mental states, and actions or even from themselves. In this chapter, I argue that depersonalization consists in the lack of a phenomenal feature that marks my experiences as mine, which is usually called “mineness,” and that the study of depersonalization constitutes a neglected yet incomparable probe to assess empirically the scope, role, and even the nature of mineness. Here is how I will proceed. After describing depersonalization (§2) and (...) arguing that it involves a lack of mineness (§3) I will confront a series of objections (§4). I will then spell out what depersonalization can teach us about the scope of mineness (§5), about its role and psychological function (§6) and even about its nature (§7). (shrink)

According to what we will call subjectivity theories of consciousness, there is a constitutive connection between phenomenal consciousness and subjectivity: there is something it is like for a subject to have mental state M only if M is characterized by a certain mine-ness or for-me-ness. Such theories appear to face certain psychopathological counterexamples: patients appear to report conscious experiences that lack this subjective element. A subsidiary goal of this chapter is to articulate with greater precision both subjectivity theories and the (...) psychopathological challenge they face. The chapter’s central goal is to present two new approaches to defending subjectivity theories in the face of this challenge. What distinguishes these two approaches is that they go to great lengths to interpret patients’ reports at face value – greater length, at any rate, than more widespread approaches in the extant literature. (shrink)

One of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and unconventional thinkers, Alexandre Kojève was a Russian émigré to France whose lectures on Hegel in the 1930s galvanized a generation of French intellectuals. Although Kojève wrote a great deal, he published very little in his lifetime, and so the ongoing rediscovery of his work continues to present new challenges to philosophy and political theory. Written in 1931 but left unfinished, Atheism is an erudite and open-ended exploration of profound questions of estrangement, (...) death, suicide, and the infinite that demonstrates the range and the provocative power of Kojève’s thought. Ranging across Heidegger, Buddhism, Christianity, German idealism, Russian literature, and mathematics, Kojève advances a novel argument about freedom and authority. He investigates the possibility that there is not any vantage point or source of authority—including philosophy, science, or God—that is outside or beyond politics and the world as we experience it. The question becomes whether atheism—or theism—is even a meaningful position since both affirmation and denial of God’s existence imply a knowledge that seems clearly outside our capacities. Masterfully translated by Jeff Love, this book offers a striking new perspective on Kojève’s work and its implications for theism, atheism, politics, and freedom. (shrink)

Natural modalities are often analysed from an abstract point of view where they are associated with putative laws of nature. However, the way possibilities are represented in physics is more complex. Lagrangian mechanics, for instance, involves two different layers of modalities: kinematical and dynamical possibilities. This paper examines the status of these two layers, both in the classical and quantum case. The quantum case is particularly problematic: we identify four possible interpretive options. The upshot is that a close inspection of (...) the way possibilities are represented in physics could lead to new ways of thinking about natural modalities. (shrink)