Traducción del artículo originalmente publicado como Sorgner, S. L. (2017). Immortality as Utopia and the Relevance of Nihilism. En Y. Tuncel (ed), Nietzsche and transhumanism. Precursor or enemy? (pp. 248-261). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Este texto ha sido Publicado con la autorización de Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Agradecemos a Stefan Lorenz Sorgner por autorizarnos a realizar la traducción de este texto.

Traducción del artículo publicado originalmente como Sorgner, S. L. (2011). Zarathustra 2.0 and Beyond: Further Remarks on the Complex Relationship between Nietzsche and Transhumanism. The Agonist, a Nietzsche Circle Journal, 4(2).

Evaluations are a matter of daily routine. One chooses, classifies, compares, and the very acts of evaluation are often legitimated and reflected upon. Seldom are evaluations restricted to specific contexts , they can hardly be reduced to particular objects, and are not necessary always following conventions, rules, or standards. Indeed, on several occasions, evaluations structure the context of their utterance. In such less formalized situations it becomes especially important to first highlight evaluations as such and then to reconstruct their references; (...) this requires a theoretical perspective on evaluative acts as well as a methodological device for their investigation. The research of Alain Cottereau and Mokhtar Mohatar Marzok offers important insights in both respects. These exigencies become increasingly stringent when confronted with the puzzling l .. (shrink)

In der kontinuierlich wachsenden deutschsprachigen Schütz’ Rezeption des letzten Jahrzehntes stellen Martin Endreß’ Analysen einen unübergehenden Referenz­punkt dar. Einflussreicher und vom Autor selbst programmatisch weiterentwickelter Linie anthropologisch-pragmatischer Argu­mentationsstränge kommen ausgearbeitete Entwicklungen zu, die sich durch unschwer einsehbare Auseinadersetzung mit Schütz’ wissenssoziologischer Problematik pro­filieren lassen. Dass seine Auffassungen hinsichtlich der Frage nach den Sinnstrukturen der Lebenswelt und deren Bedeutung für die Übersetzung als Transzendenzbewältigung andere Akzente als die Ethnomethodologie setzt, wird stets ausführlich dokumentiert. So gelingt es Endreß in seinen Arbeiten in (...) Anknüpfung an Schütz’ Theorie der „Sinnprovinzen“ Elemente eines „allgemeinen Musters alltäglicher menschlicher Weltorientierung“ aufgrund der Transformation von Unver­trautem ins Vertraute hervorzuheben. Sodann führt Endreß’ These nicht zur Umwandlung einer Wirklichkeit in selbstständig strukturierte „multiple realities“, sondern zu einer strukturellen Homogenität der Lebenswelt, die interkulturelle Verstehensprozesse fördert. (shrink)

Is there such a sub-discipline as “sociology of valuation and evaluation”? Identifying the main focus, the topics, and the analytical designs, i.e., reflecting on a theoretical profile of such an investigation, is far from complete. The main question is indeed—where to start when addressing the sociology of valuation and evaluation? Is it a specific area of research, analysis, and inquiry, with specific objects? Should we confine it to the many important qualitative and quantitative studies dedicated to the measure of market (...) performance, the efficiency of public policy, profitability of private investment, or identification of best practices in various areas ? Beyond business and administration processes, a huge body of research in economic sociology has developed in recent years that has renewed the investigations on economic experience through a moral lens (Lamont 2000; Vatin 2008; Karpik 2010; Beckert and Aspe .. (shrink)

In his reflections on the spatiotemporal structuring of the life-world, Schütz distinguishes between two forms of intersubjectivity among contemporaries. Firstly, he points at actors sharing both space and time and experiencing a direct, immediate face-to-face communication; secondly, he indicates the intersubjectivity of indirect communication, lacking any commonalities of space and time, such as the correspondence by letter. Apart from the strict exchange of thoughts, the alternating writing gives one the chance to relate to the interpretive patterns and relevancies of the (...) correspondent and thereby to understand more clearly the intellectual position of the proponent. Reflecting on the specificity of the situation, Schütz claims: “The written communication forced upon us by the geographical distance between us should at least have the benefit of encouraging us to put our thoughts, as best we can, into a clear and orderly form” (p. 49). The correspondence between Alfred Schütz and Eri. (shrink)

Este manuscrito inédito corresponde al capítulo final del libro _Latin America replies to Transhumanism. __A Symposium on Sorgner’s We have always been cyborgs _a publicarse el año 2024 por la editorial Trivent. Budapest, Hungria. Agradecemos a Stefan L. Sorgner y Teodora C. Artimon por los permisos de publicación. Las referencias a los autores mencionados corresponden a otros capítulos de este mismo libro. Traducción de Nicolás Rojas Cortés y Camilo Vergara Ramírez.

Sometimes I feel that Sorgner's ideas can foresee the questions I can ask about his philosophy. But I cannot claim that he is a prophet of Apollo. Instead, his latest work continues to embrace a Dionysian constant, showing the reaches of an ontology of per-manent becoming and putting into practice his own understanding of philosophy, namely an "Intellectual War of Values". Such a statement is Hera-clitean and, therefore, also Nietzschean. In this sense, Philosophy of Posthuman Art is not a work (...) independent of the author's other works, but a necessary consequence of his global intellectual production. (shrink)

Charles E. SCOTT, Susan M. SCHOENBOHM, Daniela VALLEGA-NEU, Alejandro VALLEGA, Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, IndianaUniversity Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 2001 ; Gernot BÖHME, Aisthetik. Vorlesungen über Ästhetik als allgemeine Wahrnehmungslehre, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München, 2001 ; Dean KOMEL, Osnutja k Filozofski in Kulturni Hermenevtiki [Outlines to Philosophical and Cultural Hermeneutics], Nova revija, Ljubljana, 2001 ; Marc RICHIR, L’institution de l’idéalité. Des schématismes phénoménologiques, Association pour la promotion de la Phénoménologie, Paris, 2002 ; Fred EVANS & Leonard LAWLOR, Chiasms. (...) Merleau-Ponty's Notion of Flesh, State University of New York Press, 2000 ; Udo TIETZ, Ontologie und Dialektik. Heidegger und Adorno über das Sein, das Nichtidentische, die Synthesis und die Kopula, Passagen Verlag, Wien, 2003 ; Etienne FERON, Phénoménologie de la mort. Sur les traces de Levinas, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London, 1999. (shrink)

_ _ Nick Bostrom popularizó y difundió las intuiciones básicas del movimiento transhumanista desde una perspectiva filosófica. Sin embargo, hoy en día sus ideas pueden considerarse auto contradictorias respecto a su pretensión de superar al humanismo. De hecho, se podría marcar el pensamiento de Bostrom como de ultrahumanista e incluso de materialista ingenuo (Gabriel 2018, 2019). No obstante, admitiendo que la filosofía progresa en cuanto disciplina, es posible identificar pensadores transhumanistas de segunda generación, es decir, pensadores transhumanistas capaces de comprender (...) los límites y presupuestos de las intuiciones presentadas por Bostrom. Consideraremos la actividad filosófica de James Hughes y Stefan L. Sorgner como un transhumanismo de segunda generación en tanto que sus propuestas de transhumanismo son coherentes respecto de sus propios presupuestos. El caso de Hughes refleja la posibilidad de un transhumanismo democrático y consistente con las exigencias morales de nuestros tiempos, mientras que el caso de Sorgner es una invitación a edificar un transhumanismo desde presupuestos no humanistas, a saber, desde la filosofía dinámica de Nietzsche. De este modo, el transhumanismo de segunda generación sería el producto de una reflexión respecto a la coherencia de las propias condiciones de posibilidad del transhumanismo. Palabras clave: Bostrom - Materialismo ingenuo - Filosofía Dinámica - Transhumanismo democrático - Filosofía del transhumanismo. (shrink)

_ _ Nick Bostrom popularizó y difundió las intuiciones básicas del movimiento transhumanista desde una perspectiva filosófica. Sin embargo, hoy en día sus ideas pueden considerarse auto contradictorias respecto a su pretensión de superar al humanismo. De hecho, se podría marcar el pensamiento de Bostrom como de ultrahumanista e incluso de materialista ingenuo (Gabriel 2018, 2019). No obstante, admitiendo que la filosofía progresa en cuanto disciplina, es posible identificar pensadores transhumanistas de segunda generación, es decir, pensadores transhumanistas capaces de comprender (...) los límites y presupuestos de las intuiciones presentadas por Bostrom. Consideraremos la actividad filosófica de James Hughes y Stefan L. Sorgner como un transhumanismo de segunda generación en tanto que sus propuestas de transhumanismo son coherentes respecto de sus propios presupuestos. El caso de Hughes refleja la posibilidad de un transhumanismo democrático y consistente con las exigencias morales de nuestros tiempos, mientras que el caso de Sorgner es una invitación a edificar un transhumanismo desde presupuestos no humanistas, a saber, desde la filosofía dinámica de Nietzsche. De este modo, el transhumanismo de segunda generación sería el producto de una reflexión respecto a la coherencia de las propias condiciones de posibilidad del transhumanismo. Palabras clave: Bostrom - Materialismo ingenuo - Filosofía Dinámica - Transhumanismo democrático - Filosofía del transhumanismo. (shrink)

Review of Nicu Gavriluţă’s The Fools’ Mother is Always Pregnant. A Sociology of Everyday Pathologies. (Mama proştilor e mereu gravidă. Sociologia patologiilor cotidiene.) Foreword by Ştefan Afloroaei (Iaşi: European Institute, 2010).

ROLF KÜHN, Jean Reaidy, Michel Henry, la passion de naître : méditations phénoménologiques sur la naissance; SEBASTIAN KNÖPKER Rolf Kühn, Praxis der Phänomenologie: Einübungen ins Unvordenkliche; EVELINE CIOFLEC, Chan-fai Cheung, Kairos: Phenomenology and Photography; DENISA BUTNARU, Hisashi Nasu, Lester Embree, George Psathas, Ilja Srubar, Alfred Schutz and His Intellectual Partners; ȘTEFAN NICOLAE, Martin Endreß, Alfred Schütz; ȘTEFAN NICOLAE, Schutzian Research. A Yearbook of Lifewordly Phenomenology and Qualitative Social Science, Vol. 1/2009; BENCE MAROSAN, Csaba Olay, Hans-Georg Gadamer: (...) Phänomenologie der ungegenständlichen Zusammenhänge; ADRIAN NIȚĂ, François Jaran, La métaphysique du Dasein. Heidegger et la possibilité de la métaphysique. (shrink)

Peer commentary on: Blumenthal-Barby, J. S. (2016). Biases and heuristics in decision making and their impact on autonomy. The American Journal of Bioethics, 16(5), 5-15.

A quarter of a century ago, a group of scientists and conservationists introduced ‘biodiversity’ as a media buzzword with the explicit intent of galvanizing public and political support for environ...

What makes casanova the prototype of the seducer? This is the question that many have tried to answer, such as Hermann Kesten, in his study dedicated to this character, whose name has become a common proper noun in almost all European languages. Was the incredible force of Casanova’s seduction made possible by a certain technique or, better, an art with rules that everyone can master? As he says in The Story of My Life, “The chief business of my life has (...) always been to indulge my senses.” Is it possible that this was the nucleus that radiated such a mysterious force? Did he discover something extraordinary, Kesten asked, that escaped the knowledge of the rest of the people?1 Yes, indeed, Giacomo Casanova. (shrink)

This paper investigates how the distribution of negative polarity items can inform our understanding of the underlying semantic representation of constituent questions. It argues that the distribution of NPIs in questions is governed by the same logical properties that govern their distribution in declarative constructions. Building on an observation due to Guerzoni and Sharvit that strength of exhaustivity in questions correlates with the acceptability of NPIs, I propose a revision of the semantics of questions that can explain this link in (...) terms already familiar from the literature of negative polarity, namely the availability of a local downward entailing environment. I argue for a new theory of questions that takes strength of exhaustivity to be encoded internal to the question nucleus rather than in different answer-hood operators. This switch, while conceptually a simple move, has far-reaching consequences in the domain of questions. I also show how this new analysis can account for a host of issues related to NPIs, such as the subject–object asymmetry noted by Han and Siegel, the interaction between NPIs and high versus low wh-adjuncts, the varying acceptability of NPIs in the restrictor of which-phrases, and the contrast between weak and strong NPIs. (shrink)

This article takes the following two assumptions for granted: first, that gifts influence physicians and, second, that the influences gifts have on physicians may be harmful for patients. These assumptions are common in the applied ethics literature, and they prompt an obvious practical question, namely, what is the best way to mitigate the negative effects? We examine the negative effects of gift giving in depth, considering how the influence occurs, and we assert that the ethical debate surrounding gift-giving practices must (...) be reoriented. Our main claim is that the failure of recent policies addressing gift giving can be traced to a misunderstanding of what psychological mechanisms are most likely to underpin physicians’ biased behavior as a result of interaction with the medical industry. The problem with gift giving is largely not a matter of malicious or consciously self-interested behavior, but of well-intentioned actions on the part of physicians that are nonetheless perniciously infected by the presence of the medical industry. Substantiating this claim will involve elaboration on two points. First, we will retrace the history of policies regarding gift giving between the medical profession and the medical industry and highlight how most policies assume a rationalistic view of moral agency. Reliance on this view of agency is best illustrated by past attempts to address gift giving in terms of conflicts of interest. Second, we will introduce and motivate an alternate view of moral agency emerging from recent literature in social psychology on implicit social cognition. We will show that proper consideration of implicit social cognition paints a picture of human psychology at odds with the rationalistic model assumed in discussions of COIs. With these two pieces on the table we will be able to show that, without fully appreciating the social-psychological mechanisms of implicit cognition, policy-makers are likely to overlook significant aspects of how gifts influence doctors. (shrink)

The meaning of life is not just some ordinary old philosophical problem, butalso a practical one that, in some form, everyone wonders about. The wholemeaning of life has always been linked with belief in higher values that formthe incentive for the spiritual uplift of humanity. Even if spiritual values areillusions, they are absolutely necessary in order to give life meaning. Whenthey disappear, it causes a serious disease of the axiological consciousnessof man. The characters that are involved in the cultural stage (...) hosting thisdrama are the idealist, who sets values as necessary illusions of the humanspirit, and the wise man, who shatters any illusion of salvation throughfaith in values. (shrink)

The Orthodox liturgy is a religious phenomenon that can be analyzed phenomenologically and theologically alike, given the emphasis that both phenomenology and Orthodox theology place on experience. By proposing the Kingdom of God instead of the natural world without being able to annihilate the latter in the name of the former, the liturgy seeks divine-human communion. Through the dialogue of prayer, through symbolic and iconic openings, as well as through apophatic theology, the liturgy emphasizes the horizon of mystery as a (...) horizon essential to the way man positions himself before God. The present text attempts to demonstrate that apophaticism, understood as an experience of the mysterious presence of God, is one of the crucial dimensions of the Orthodox liturgy; and that this apophatic presence of God reveals a way of thinking which does not become onto-theology, not even when using concepts borrowed from metaphysics. The overcoming of onto-theology is achieved here not by abandoning concepts such as “being” and “cause” but by placing the language game in the field of prayer and apophatic theology. (shrink)

Exemplified especially by Heidegger and Levinas, the phenomenology of death expresses first, the impossibility of the death experience, second, the authenticity of Dasein starting from the horizon opened by the possibility of death, and third, the relevance of the death of the other to the discovery of one’s own death. This article tries to take a step further, showing the link between the authenticity of Dasein and the desire for immortality manifested in this authenticity. By overturning Heidegger’s theses and by (...) affirming both the necessity of an authentication of death itself—in accord with Socrates’s death example—and the legitimacy of the meditation on death, this text links the need for immortality, which is phenomenologically visible, with the Christian faith in the resurrection, which is visible only for theology. (shrink)

This article first defines the absolute discourse, then discusses its possibility in theology, as well as the relationships between language, thought, and reality as they derive from the spirituality and life of the Eastern Church. Theology must face several problems—including the paradox of transcendence, the violence of metaphysics, onto-theology, and the duplicity of language itself—, but the Revelation of the Absolute itself legitimizes the theological discourse. By using both affirmations and negations, theology reveals an iconic structure of discourse that opens (...) itself towards life and spirituality. The conclusion is that, in the absolute discourse of theology, words, even ineffable ones, are insufficient without life. (shrink)

The research on stem cell-based therapies has greatly expanded in recent years. Our text attempts to seek those religious and ethical challenges that stem cell therapy and research bring into debate. Our thesis is that bioethics can defend its principle without a religious background. We will develop our argumentation on three major points: firstly, a comparison between secular ethics and religious views will clarify why stem cell therapy and research are important from a scientific point of view, addressing the very (...) center of the human being; in our view, being based on secular society, bioethics can answer the challenges of stem cell therapy and research; secondly, following Hans Jonas' perspective on experimenting on humans, we seek to understand the philosophical guidance that sciences dealing with stem cell need; thirdly, we will map the ethical guidelines for clinical translational research that have been adopted by the International Society for Stem Cell Research. . (shrink)

Thinking on transcendence falls into a paradox: if transcendence is a radical one, we cannot speak about it; if we speak about it, it is no longer radical. The aim of this paper is to overcome this paradox and to analyze the concept of transcendence considering the dynamic of self-transcending that is natural to man, the limit beyond which one can speak about transcendence, and the phenomena of mystery whereby the transcendence appears. Inasmuch as transcendence does not escape from the (...) suspicion that the movement of self-transcending postulates it according to its desires and reaches Kantian “transcendental appearance,” this text tries to delineate the possible phenomenon of the maximum manifestation of transcendence in this world: how could transcendence give itself? The answer engages the revelation, namely, transcendence’s intention of donating itself, the presence of paradox, and the solution of mediation between transcendence and immanence by transcendence itself. Each of these possible solutions has examples in Christian Orthodox theology. (shrink)

An increasing number of contemporary voices in both bioethics and environmental ethics have grown dissatisfied with the schisms, abysses, and raging torrents that continue to flow between those two...

Fichte’s essay about Machiavelli was published in 1807 in Vesta journal with the declared aim to contribute to the »defence of a formidable man’s honour«. A year later some fragments from this essay were republished at the beginning of Fichte’s celebre writing: Addresses to the German Nation. Fichte’s declared admiration for Machiavelli as political thinker is difficult to understand, as the two men had very different political conceptions. The present study demonstrates that there is no difference between Fichte’s eulogy for (...) the man who discovered the demonic nature of power and his own political theory, which contains exactly an attempt to de-demonize this power. For Fichte The Prince contains a perfect political theory useful for the past of the humanity, but his theory, based on a new form of education, addresses the problems of the future. That is why he considered Machiavelli a good specialist of the human nature who, as a real physician of culture, made a very precise diagnosis of humanity’s moral maladies.Fichtes Essai über Machiavelli wurde 1807 in der Zeitschrift Vesta veröffentlicht, um zur »Ehrenrettung eines braves Mannes« beizutragen. Ein Jahr später wurden einige Passagen am Anfang seiner Reden an die deutsche Nation neu aufgelegt. Fichtes Bewunderung für Machiavelli als politischen Denker scheint schwer erklären zu sein, weil es um zwei entgegengesetzte politische Konzeptionen geht. Es gibt jedoch keinen Widerspruch zwischen Fichtes Lobrede auf Machiavelli als politischen Denker, der die Dämonie der Macht entdeckt hat, und seiner eigenen entgegengesetzten Lehre von der Entdämonisierung der Macht. Für Fichte enthält das Buch Vom Fürsten eine politische Theorie, die für die Vergangenheit der Menschheit vollkommen gültig ist, während er durch seine Lehre von der Entdämonisierung der Macht durch eine neue Art der Erziehung die Zukunft im Auge hat. Für ihn ist Machiavelli ein tiefgründiger Kenner des Menschen und der Gesellschaft, der wie ein Arzt der Kultur alle moralischen Krankheiten der Menscheit sehr genau diagnostiziert hat. (shrink)

Lucian Blaga (1895-1961), the famous Romanian philosopher who started as a poet and took his PhD in Philosophy and Biology in Vienna is our contemporary, illustrating the spiritual changes at the borders between modernism and postmodernism; he is meant to be studied from the perspective of the postmodernist philosophy of religion. Lucian Blaga was a writer, playwright, journalist, professor and librarian who had a vaste writing; as a philosopher he is a unique author of philosophical system, in the Romanian philosophy (...) where his “deconstructionism” is the fact that Blaga “deconstructs” Rigveda by the analysis of the word brahman, specifying that because of the mentality about the sacrificer as a being and God at the same time, the vedic believer “takes courage” towards the deities, loses humility, gaining in return “boldness towards gods”. (shrink)