This essay develops an account of artistic creativity based on Martin Buber’s theory of dialogue. Crucially, Buber distinguishes between the It that is objectified in experience and use and the You whom we meet as a whole person in dialogical relationships. Buber’s emphasis on dialogue as the core of what it means to be human suggests that the human significance of art might also be in its dialogical potential. The problem, however, is that artists, psychologists, critics, and philosophers often treat (...) artistic creativity in objective terms and thus make any dialogical ontology of art implausible. To address this issue, the essay proposes a dialogical anthropology of art that acknowledges the objective conditions of art-making and locates the human significance of art in the non-objective interfaces it opens between the artist and his or her world. Such an account brings to light the ways in which art may invite people into “unfinalizable” dialogical relationships with the world they inhabit. (shrink)

The article aims at remembering Mario Perniola, died last year, philosopher and author of a large number of books translated all over the world, devoted especially to the field of aesthetics, whose research could be intended as an open reflection dealing with not only the traditional topics of the discipline, but with the broad and differentiated phenomena involving the sphere of perception and feeling, operating in the world of communication and media, in society, politics, religion, and arts. The distinctive feature (...) of his thought is here identified in his extraordinary ability to put in contact different and distant authors, concepts and things and at the same time to separate them, giving rise to the development of subtle, smart and penetrating concepts capable of reading our time. Thus his research is here defined as a “philosophy of between”, which strives to think of the intermediate state that separates but also that space connecting; a philosophy that rejects any apocalyptic position but at the same time avoids surrendering to the society of spectacle and communication in which we live. (shrink)

What is the relevance of organizing knowledge in distinct conceptual fields when everything has become cultural with no distinct areas anymore? Is, for example, Western traditional aesthetics as an autonomous cognitive discipline always relevant in the age of multiculturalism? This essay argues, albeit controversially, that the perspective of socalled cultural studies has opened new doors by adopting a more radically pluralistic and inclusive approach – one whereby aesthetic categories are thought in terms of cultural practices. Despite the many defects of (...) such culture-related studies – such as their eclecticism, lack of scientific rigor, or methodological unreliability – the challenges of today’s multicultural society demand that we pay more attention at all levels to the roles played by difference and dialogue with otherness. This includes overcoming any form of ethnocentricity in our cognitive cultural disciplines; incorporating new topical horizons, whether economic, political or social; and rethinking the very nature of value, meaning and way of life. (shrink)

En la autobiografía viquiana el relato es precisamente la puesta en obra del tiempo, el tiempo se vuelve el protagonista absoluto de la narración a través de la continua remisión dialógica entre el tiempo de la escritura y el tiempo de la vida.In Vico's autobiography, the tale is precisely the narration of time. This way, time becomes the absolute protagonist of the narration, through the continuous dialogical connection between the time of the writing and the time of life.

Este ensayo aborda la importancia del "origen" y de los "principios" en relación a la atención que Vico presta al cuerpo y a la corporeidad en los inicios. El cuerpo es, por tanto, a la vez un principio y trámite de humanidad; pero también es como chispa y origen de conocimiento, como la puerta a través de la que entramos en contacto con el mundo, y entonces como el primer y esencial criterio de valoración a través del cual donamos sentido (...) a las cosas del mundo mismo. La "sabiduría poética" de la Scienza nuova abre así la posibilidad de un nuevo saber centrado propiamente en el cuerpo, que, sin embargo, no puede ser pensado como pasiva e instintiva sensitividad, sino como creativa y activa sabiduría del sentido.This paper is concerned with the importance of the "origin" and the "principles" in connection with particular attention Vico pays to the body. The body is both a principle and a source of knowledge, an open door through which we keep contact with the world. From this view it appears also as an essential criterion in terms of which we understand and make sense of the many different things which make the world up for us. The Scienza nuova´s poetical knowledge gives rise to a new type of wisdom rooted in the body, which, far from being inoperative or instintive, is a wholly creative faculty. (shrink)

¿Es hoy aún posible pensar la creatividad sin el método, la invención sin la regla? La historia nos enseña que el arte es siempre inevitablemente tanto fantasía como disciplina, tanto creatividad como técnica, tanto genialidad como orden, y allí donde prevalece sólo uno de los dos momentos la creación artística corre siempre el riesgo de degenerar o en un mero delirio creativo sin resultados concretos o en un exasperante formalismo sin inspiración. De las reflexiones barrocas de Baltasar Gracián y de (...) Giambattista Vico nos viene la invitación a concebir la creatividad como ingenio, por lo tanto, a entender la creatividad como la capacidad de captar relaciones inéditas entre las cosas, las ideas o las palabras, o de formular intuiciones imprevisibles e imprevistas para los esquemas de pensamiento habituales o tradicionales, aunque reelaborando y conectando originalmente materiales ya dados. Este diverso modelo de creatividad, un modelo especialmente barroco, trata así de evitar el doble peligro de la exasperación fantástica, por un lado, y de la mortificación creativa, por el otro. Descubrir y profundizar la relación entre creatividad e ingenio, así como fue elaborado por Gracián y por Vico, puede entonces contribuir a arrojar nueva luz sobre la noción misma de creatividad, enriqueciéndola siempre con nuevos y más amplios significados.Palabras clave: creatividad, ingenio, Gracián, Vico. Is it still possible to think about creativity without method, or invention without rule? We can learn from history that art is always, unavoidably, a matter of fantasy as well as of discipline, of creativity as well as of technique, of geniality as well as of order; and that wherever only one of those moments prevails, artistic creation runs the risk of degenerating into mere creative delirium, with no concrete results, or in exasperating formalism, deprived of any inspiration. Baroque reflections of Baltasar Gracian and Giambattista Vico invite us to understand creativity as inventiveness, namely the capacity to grasp unprecedented links between things, ideas or words, or to formulate intuitions that were unpredictable and unpredicted for the traditional schemes of convencional or traditional thought, even if re-elaborated, and connecting well known materials in an original way. It is the aim of this particularly baroque model of creativity to avoid the double danger of fantastic exasperation, on the one hand, and creative mortification, on the other. Discovering and considering the relationship between creativity and inventiveness, as Gracian and Vico devised them, could therefore throw some light on the very notion of creativity, enriching it with new and broader meanings.Keywords: creativity, inventiveness, Gracian, Vico. (shrink)

El autor estudia la concepción viquiana de la Universidad desde la función que cumple en la construcción del saber insertándola en el marco del paradigma retórico, frente al modelo disociativo de la modernidad. Vico es el defensor de una paideia que rechaza todo especialismo, para alcanzar la integración metodológica de todas las facultades humanas. Ello comporta un maridaje entre la imaginación y el entendimiento, entre razón retórica y razón crítica. El resultado es una dialéctica de la copresencia, de la integridad (...) y de la cooperación recíproca. (shrink)

Este escrito presenta el tema del cuerpo y de la corporeidad en la Scienza nuova de Vico, confrontando las dos interpretaciones, que la autora opone, de Alberto M. Damiani y de Giuseppe Patella.Palabras clave: Vico, cuerpo, corporeidad, A. Damiani, G. Patella.This paper focusses on the subject of body and embodiment in Vico’s Scienza nuova, by confronting the interpretations of Alberto M. Damiani and Giuseppe Patella.Keywords: Vico, body, embodiment, A. Damiani, G. Patella.

This paper explores taste fragmentalism, a novel approach to matters of taste and faultless disagreement. The view is inspired by Kit Fine’s fragmentalism about time, according to which the temporal dimension can be constituted—in an absolute manner—by states that are pairwise incompatible, provided that they do not obtain together. In the present paper, we will apply this metaphysical framework to taste states. In our proposal, two incompatible taste states (such as the state of rhubarb’s being tasty and the state of (...) rhubarb’s being distasteful) can both constitute reality in an absolute manner, although no agent can have joint access to both states. We will then develop a formalised version of our view by means of an exact truthmaker semantics for taste assertions. Within this framework—we argue—our linguistic and inferential practices concerning cases of faultless disagreement are elegantly vindicated, thus suggesting that taste fragmentalism is worth of further consideration. (shrink)

This book is a systematic analysis of John R. Searle’s philosophy of mind. Searle’s view of mind, as a set of subjective _and_ biologically embodied processes, can account for our being part of nature _qua_ mindful beings. This model finds support in neuroscience and offers reliable solutions to the problems of consciousness, mental causation, and the self.

In this text we try to develop some considerations starting from the readings that Jacques Garelli elaborates through a profound reflection on the theses expounded by Merleau-Ponty in his latest works. In particular we, after recalling some points of contact between the two thinkers, comment on two long essays by Jacques Garelli dedicated to Rimbaud and Artaud. Through these re-readings we aim to highlight the novel characteristics that the author of Rythmes et mondes has managed to outline through an ever-greater (...) study of the theses on language presented by Merleau-Ponty in his latest works. (shrink)

The brain constructs within itself an understanding of its surround which constitutes its own world. This is described as its Double in the frame of the dissipative quantum model of brain, where the perception-action arc in the Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception finds its formal description. In the dialog with the Double, the continuous attempt to reach the equilibrium shows that the real goal pursued by the brain activity is the aesthetical experience, the most harmonious “to-be-in-the-world” reached through reciprocal actions, the (...) aesthetical dimension characterized by the “pleasure” of the perception. Aesthetical pleasure unavoidably implies disclosure, to manifest “signs”, artistic communication. An interpersonal, collective level of consciousness then arises, a larger stage where the actors are mutually dependent. The coherent structure of the brain background state manifests itself in the auto-similarity properties of fractal structures. These are observed to occur also in a large number of natural phenomena and systems. The conception of Nature divided in separated domains is replaced by the vision of Nature unified by laws of form implied by the underlying quantum dynamics of the coherent vacuum, an integrated ecological vision. (shrink)

We here report the findings of our investigation into the validity of the conjunction fallacy (Tversky & Kahneman, 1983), bearing in mind the role of conversational rules. Our first experiment showed that subjects found a logically correct answer unacceptable when it implied a violation of the conversational rules. We argue that tautological questions, such as those which concern the relationship of inclusion between a class and its sub-class, violate conversational rules because they are not informative. In this sense, it is (...) not understood that the question in a Linda-type problem involves a comparison between an inclusive and included class, but presumed that a different type of comparison is intended. Tautological questions (and, consequently, also their answers) do not become a matter of discussion except under certain specific conditions. Our second experiment showed that, providing the context was adequately marked (such as in the case of a rhetorical question), the conjunction fallacy disappears. In two further experiments, the implications of our view were compared with those of the other critical approaches to the heuristic programme: the classical pragmatic view (which we call logical complementarity) and the frequentist view. (shrink)

In dem Band entwickeln renommierte Autorinnen und Autoren in 22 Beiträgen Antworten auf eine Reihe von Fragen zu Immanuel Kant und der Rezeption seiner Philosophie in Österreich, die bis heute noch nicht ausreichend diskutiert wurden: Gab es überhaupt einen österreichischen Neukantianismus? Wie prägend ist die Philosophie von Kant für die Entwicklung der Philosophie in Österreich? Oder anders formuliert: Inwiefern haben österreichische Denkerinnen und Denker des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts einen Beitrag zu einem spezifischen Verständnis der kantischen Philosophie geleistet? Dabei zeigt (...) sich, dass neben den zwei Hauptformen des Neukantianismus in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts – d.h. der Marburger und der Südwestdeutschen Schule – ein spezifisch österreichischer Zugang zu Kant historisch wie systematisch von besonderer Bedeutung ist und weitreichende Folgen hatte. Unter Absehung der üblichen geografischen Zuordnungen der verschiedenen Schulen lässt sich dieser als realistischer Kritizismus beschreiben und hat neben Richard Hönigswald und Robert Reininger seinen wichtigsten Vertreter in Alois Riehl. (shrink)

The _Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion_ is an annual collection of double-blind peer-reviewed articles, which seeks to provide a broad international arena for an intellectual exchange of ideas between the disciplines of philosophy, theology, religion, cultural history, and literature and to showcase their multifarious junctures within the framework of Jewish studies.

The difference between the concepts of saṃsāra e nirvāṇaset forth by the historical Buddha in his first sermon seem to be disputed by the equalization of the two terms effected by Nāgārjuna in a topical passage of his MK. This article, firstly, supports the thesis that the contradiction is just a seeming one and that the relation of difference or identity between the two dimensions depends on the philosophical register, respectively epistemological and ontological, being used - in both cases for (...) soteriological purposes - by the Buddha and Nāgārjuna. Secondly, we wish to prove that, in any case, Nāgārjuna's ontology, far from being a philosophical novelty or an evolution of the thought of the founder of Buddhism, is, on the contrary, one of the possible applications of the "non-self" doctrine - probably the most important and original contribution of Buddhist thought to the history of world philosophy - expounded by the Buddha in his second sermon.La differenza tra i concetti di saṃsāra e nirvāṇastabilita dal Buddha nel suo primo sermone sembra essere messa in discussione dall'equiparazione dei due termini effettuata da Nāgārjuna in un passaggio-chiave delle sue MK. Questo articolo, in primo luogo, difende la tesi che la contraddizione sia soltanto apparente e che la relazione, di differenza o di identità, tra le due dimensioni dipende dal registro filosofico, rispettivamente epistemologico e ontologico, usato - in entrambi i casi per finalità soteriologiche - dal Buddha e da Nāgārjuna. In secondo luogo, cercheremo di provare che, in ogni caso, l'ontologia di Nāgārjuna, lungi dall'essere una novità filosofica o un'evoluzione rispetto al pensiero del fondatore del buddhismo è, al contrario, una delle possibili applicazioni della dottrina del non-sé - probabilmente il contributo più importante e originale del pensiero buddhista alla storia della filosofia universale - esposta dal Buddha nel suo secondo sermone. (shrink)

In a previous paper I have shown that this is the correct reading, and that the variant єλєν is a clumsy attempt made by a copyist who did not understand Apollonius. Since my elucidation of the matter has now been questioned by Campbell , I find it necessary to return to Apollonius’ line in more detail, and I shall endeavour to demonstrate geometrico more that my explanation of the poet's words is right because supported by the use of Homeric Wortgut (...) made by Hellenistic poets; Campbell's contention is wrong in that it starts from a false assumption and rests on basic methodological errors. (shrink)