This collection of essays by scholars from Europe, Asia, North America, and Latin America offers new perspectives of the phenomenological investigation of experiential life on the basis of Husserl’s phenomenology. Not only well-known works of Husserl are interpreted from new angles, but also the latest volumes of the Husserliana are closely examined. In a variety of ways, the contributors explore the emergence of reason in experience that is disclosed in the very regions that are traditionally considered to be “irrational” or (...) “pre-rational.” The leading idea of such explorations is Husserl’s view that perception, affectivity, and volition are regarded as the three aspects of reason. Without affectivity, which is supposedly irrational, no rationality can be established in the spheres of representation and volition, whereas volitional and representational acts consistently structure the process of affective experience. In such a framework, it is also shown that theoretical and practical reason are inseparably intertwined. Thus, the papers collected here can be regarded as a collaborative phenomenological investigation into the entanglement and mutual dependency of the supposedly “rational” and the “irrational” as well as that of the “practical” and the “theoretical.”. (shrink)

El debate de la reciente filosofía de la imagen está estructurado en la oposición entre enfoques semióticos y perceptualistas. Entre estos últimos, los especialistas suelen incluir a la fenomenología. Ahora bien, ¿es correcto caracterizar a la fenomenología como una posición perceptualista acerca de la imagen? Defenderé la tesis de que la fenomenología representa un perceptualismo indirecto o débil. Con todo, el lugar que pueda ocupar la fenomenología en el debate no se restringe a su cercanía con el perceptualismo. Intentaré mostrar (...) que la fenomenología plantea temáticas puntuales, tales como la relación entre sentido y presencia, las cuales puede conducir hacia un análisis crítico de los supuestos en los que se apoya el encuadre actual de la discusión. The debate of the recent philosophy of the image is organized in the opposition between semiotic and perceptualistic approaches. Scholars often include the phenomenology into the perceptualistic view. Yet, ¿is it right to characterize the phenomenology as a kind of perceptualism about the image? The first goal of the paper is to demonstrate that phenomenology represents an indirect or weak perceptualism. Anyway, the place of the phenomenology in the debate does not consist only in being a kind of perceptualism. The second goal of the paper is to show that phenomenology raises certain questions, like the relationship between sense and presence, which can lead us to criticize the assumptions the current articulation of the debate is based on. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analiza el debate reciente sobre operatividad, técnica y cultura en la Teoría de los medios alemana, en el cual se enfrentan, por un lado, el enfoque tecnicista radical, y por el otro, el giro antropológico de los Estudios de las técnicas culturales. Asimismo, analiza la manera en que Simondon fue recientemente incorporado a la discusión y propone, en distancia crítica con ello, un nuevo modo de considerar los posibles aportes simondonianos al debate. Uno de los principales aportes (...) que el presente trabajo destaca es el siguiente: la noción simondoniana de operación técnica ofrece un enfoque no antropológico sobre la técnica y a la vez una consideración no tecno-céntrica de la dimensión técnica de la cultura. (shrink)

El presente trabajo intenta poner de relieve algunos de los principales desafíos que trae consigo la tarea de situar a Husserl en el debate entre conjuntivistas y disyuntivistas. Para ello, realizaremos un análisis crítico de la discusión desarrollada por Overgaard. Sobre la base de dicho análisis, expondremos tres desafíos: en primer lugar, el desafío de sistematizar apropiadamente las discrepancias fundamentales y los elementos en común entre las posiciones conjuntivista y disyuntivista; en segundo lugar, el desafío de utilizar con claridad y (...) precisión las nociones básicas en las que tradicionalmente se ha articulado el debate. Por último, abordaremos desafíos específicos relativos a la interpretación de la fenomenología de Husserl. (shrink)

El artículo muestra una conexión conceptual que no ha sido aun considerada por los especialistas, asaber: la cercanía entre la primera noción de existencia, surgida en la teología latina del s. IV, y lanoción fenomenológico-husserliana de existencia. No se trata de una reconstrucción filológica, dirigidaa mostrar una supuesta influencia de la teología latina en Husserl. El trabajo ofrece, en cambio, unaindagación sistemática acerca de dos líneas de pensamiento que, si bien no se relacionarondirectamente entre sí, muestran convergencias temáticas que merecen (...) nuestra atención. (shrink)

Heidegger's philosophy between Being and Time and «The Origin of the Work of Art» shows a twofold consideration of production. On the one hand, Heidegger criticizes the ontological tradition for its orientation to the produced-being . On the other hand, he develops his own ontological conception of production. This paper focuses on the analysis of the latter consideration by showing its motivations, characteristics and scope. The main thesis is that the transition from Heideggerian Schematism to Heidegger's reflections on art is (...) a transition from a visual to a plastic conception of the production of pictures. (shrink)

El debate central en filosofía de la imagen se articula en torno a la oposición entre un enfoque semiótico, que considera a la imagen como un determinado tipo de signo, y uno perceptualista, que se orienta hacia la captación de imágenes y la caracteriza en su relación con la percepción sensible. Se señalan algunas dificultades de dicha articulación y se analiza el enfoque hermenéutico y la ontología heideggeriana de la imagen para mostrar cómo puede contribuir a renovar el debate, afectando (...) incluso su pregunta conductora. (shrink)

Resumen El presente trabajo analiza críticamente la propuesta de Kittler de renovar las ciencias sociales y humanas mediante una reflexión orientada hacia los medios de comunicación. Para ello, se sitúa tal propuesta en el debate, impulsado por el giro medial en Filosofía de los Medios, acerca de la pertinencia del enfoque trascendentalista sobre los medios. En un primer momento, se presenta en términos generales el planteo kittleriano en cuanto enfoque trascendentalista. En un segundo momento, se reconstruye y analiza la estrategia (...) kittleriana consistente en eliminar la noción de sentido para concentrarse, en cambio, en la noción de información.This work critically analyzes Kittler's proposal to renew the social and human aspects through a media-oriented reflection. For this, such proposal is placed in the debate, driven by the medial turn in Media Philosophy, about the relevance of the transcendentalist approach to the media. At first, the Kittlerian approach is presented in general terms as a transcendentalist approach. In a second moment, the Kittlerian strategy consisting of eliminating the notion of meaning is reconstructed and analyzed to concentrate, instead, on the notion of information. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analiza críticamente la propuesta de Kittler de renovar las ciencias sociales y humanas mediante una reflexión orientada hacia los medios de comunicación. Para ello, se sitúa tal propuesta en el debate, impulsado por el giro medial en Filosofía de los Medios, acerca de la pertinencia (o no) del enfoque trascendentalista sobre los medios. En un primer momento, se presenta en términos generales el planteo kittleriano en cuanto enfoque trascendentalista. En un segundo momento, se reconstruye y analiza la (...) estrategia kittleriana consistente en eliminar la noción de sentido para concentrarse, en cambio, en la noción de información. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza dos proyectos de renovación programática de las Humanidades, los cuales se centran en la noción de información. Consideraremos, por una parte, la propuesta de Friedrich Kittler acerca de un materialismo teórico-informacional, y por otra, la axiomática de las ciencias humanas de Gilbert Simondon. La pregunta que guía nuestro examen crítico es la siguiente: ¿de qué manera, en cada uno de esos proyectos, la noción de información funge como centro para una propuesta renovadora de las Humanidades? Nuestra hipótesis (...) sostiene que hay un común denominador en ambas propuestas, el cual puede formularse en términos foucaultianos del siguiente modo: la información es entendida allí como el a priori histórico actual. (shrink)

Resumen A fines del siglo pasado, con especial notoriedad en los años 80 y 90, surgieron diversos intentos de revuelta anti-hermenéutica que propusieron una transformación materialista de las Ciencias sociales y las Humanidades. Resulta especialmente llamativo el hecho de que algunas de las propuestas más influyentes en ese contexto hayan recurrido explícitamente al pensamiento de Martin Heidegger. En efecto, tanto Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht cuanto Friedrich Kittler reconocen a Heidegger como una de sus principales influencias. ¿Cómo es posible que el pensamiento de (...) Heidegger, un referente de la filosofía hermenéutica, se haya convertido en un eficaz apoyo para la revuelta contra la orientación hermenéutica de las Ciencias del Espíritu? Esta cuestión exige, por una parte, tomar en consideración el contexto académico de la época, especialmente las tensiones intergeneracionales y el surgimiento de nuevas orientaciones interdisciplinares. Por otra parte, la cuestión reclama una tarea de indagación temática. Es preciso explicitar qué planteamientos de problemas y qué desarrollos específicos provenientes de Heidegger fueron objeto de una recepción creativa conducente a un rediseño materialista de las Ciencias del Espíritu.Diverse anti-hermeneutical attempts that proposed a materialist transformation of the Social Sciences and the Humanities developed in the late 20th century, particularly during the 80s and 90s. It is striking that some of the most influential proposals in that context explicitly appealed to Martin Heidegger's thought. In fact, Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht and Friedrich Kittler acknowledged Heidegger as one of their main influences. How is impossible that Heidegger's thought, a well-known referent of hermeneutics, became a productive resource for the revolt against the hermeneutical orientation of the ‘Geisteswissenschaften? On the one hand, this question requires us to consider the academic context of that time, especially the intergenerational tensions and the birth of new interdisciplinary orientations. On the other hand, it demands a thematic inquiry. We need to explain what problems and specific developments of Heidegger's thought mere interpreted in a materialist fashion in order to reshape the ‘Geisteswissenschaften ’. (shrink)

RESUMEN El debate central en filosofía de la imagen se articula en torno a la oposición entre un enfoque semiótico, que considera a la imagen como un determinado tipo de signo, y uno perceptualista, que se orienta hacia la captación de imágenes y la caracteriza en su relación con la percepción sensible. Se señalan algunas dificultades de dicha articulación y se analiza el enfoque hermenéutico y la ontología heideggeriana de la imagen para mostrar cómo puede contribuir a renovar el debate, (...) afectando incluso su pregunta conductora. ABSTRACT The central debate in the field of philosophy of mage concerns the opposition between a semiotic approach, which considers images to be a certain type of signs, and a conceptualist approach, focused on the apprehension an images and its relation to sensory perception. The article points out some of the difficulties of this formulation and analyzes Heidegger's hermeneutical approach and ontology of the image in order to show how it can contribute to enriching the debate and even modify its guiding question. (shrink)

Si se considera que Heidegger ha reflexionado permanentemente sobre el sentido que la experiencia humana de Dios puede ofrecer a la filosofía, incluso durante aquella fase de su pensamiento en la que rechazó el recurso filosófico a la experiencia de Dios, entonces se puede hablar de una continuidad de la cuestión de Dios en el pensar de Heidegger. Ahora bien, esta noción amplia de continuidad requiere un análisis más detenido. El problema es el siguiente: ¿Cómo hemos de entender el recurso (...) afirmativo a la experiencia de Dios tras la crisis de Ser y Tiempo! ¿Es que Heidegger retomó el curso original de su pensar, del cual se había apartado durante la aventura malograda de la ontología fundamental? ¿O se trata más bien de un desarrollo sui generis surgido tras la crisis de Ser y Tiempo, que solo puede ser explicado si se tiene en cuenta el proceso mismo de crisis y transición? El presente trabajo defiende la segunda hipótesis. Se intentará mostrar que la referencia explícita a Dios y lo divino realizada por Heidegger a partir de los años treinta, más allá de toda posible vinculación retrospectiva que pudiera tener con los "orígenes teológicos", tiene una especificidad que no puede entenderse como un carácter previo a Ser y Tiempo, sino como posterior a este. (shrink)

Ce travail expose et discute la réception de Hans Jonas effectuée au sein de la « science de l’image » (Bildwissenschaft). On présente, en premier lieu, le débat actuel sur l’image dans le cadre de cette Bildwissenschaft. En second lieu, on expose les principaux moments de la réception de Jonas dans ledit contexte et on analyse les positions fondamentales de Jonas à propos de l’image et de l’imagination. Enfin, on évalue les avancées et les limites de la réception de Jonas (...) et on prend en considération quelques positions jonassiennes qui peuvent représenter un apport au débat actuel sur l’image. (shrink)

The topic of the present reflection is Christian religious belief. Specifically, we will use Husserlian tools in order to examine the positional nature of this particular type of belief. We will be less interested in the question concerning the success conditions of this experience and more in its noetic structure. According to our proposal, to believe by faith supposes (although it is not exhausted by) accepting the existence of mundane evidence speaking against this fundamental belief. The believer acknowledges the existence (...) of this contradicting en-doxical basis and nevertheless believes what she believes. We will refer to this simultaneous movement of accepting and cancelling as the concessive structure of the religious attitude. The para-doxical movement of experiencing conflicting evidence as being subjectively ineffective is a key component of this attitude. At least some inchoative conflict with the world is required in order for the religious belief to be religious. Lastly, we will try to show that, with a distinctive terminology, the idea that the Christian religious attitude involves a conflict between subjectivity and world is present not only in Kierkegaard but also in phenomenological figures like Scheler and even Husserl. (shrink)

Through his theory of the iconic difference, Boehm has emphasized the differential character of the image. This has led some researchers to relate Boehm’s approach to the thought of Jacques Derrida. Following that line of interpretation, we propose a deconstructive approach to Boehm’s theory about the iconic difference. This means, specifically, that we will bring out internal tensions in Boehm’s proposal between emphases directed towards the differential character of the image, on the one hand, and dualistic approaches, as well as (...) hierarchical distinctions that could cover up such character, on the other hand. Starting from these tensions, we attempt to radicalize the orientation towards the differential structure of the image by incorporating Derrida’s proposals, but making clear, at the same time, the challenges that this would bring to Boehm’s theory and the open questions that would arise therefrom. (shrink)

El presente trabajo intenta mostrar la importancia del Esquematismo Trascendental Kantiano para el programa de “Ser y Tiempo”. El hilo conductor de la argumentación es el siguiente: La pregunta por el sentido del ser interroga por el ser en su darse en cuanto sentido. El tiempo, como sentido del ser, es la dinámica unitaria de la formación de sentido (Sinnbildung). El artículo explica de qué modo Heidegger encuentra en la teoría kantiana acerca de los esquemas trascendentales y de la imaginación (...) trascendental elementos decisivos para elaborar la función ontológica del tiempo como formación y configuración de sentido. (shrink)

La publicación de los escritos y los cursos impartidos por Heidegger en la primera mitad de los años veinte ha dejado en claro la importancia de Aristóteles en el camino filosófico que conduce hacia Ser y tiempo. El presente trabajo intenta explicitar aspectos centrales de esa relación. En concreto, se mostrará que la influencia de Aristóteles es decisiva para el paso de la fenomenología de la vida fáctica hacia la ontología del Dasein, y esto a partir de un doble aporte: (...) por una parte, Heidegger encuentra en los estudios aristotélicos de la praxis un modelo donde enriquecer e integrar las determinaciones de la vida fáctica anteriormente obtenidas. Por otra parte, los estudios de Aristóteles sobre las significaciones del ser le ofrecen el acceso a la perspectiva ontológica, desde la cual, y presentando su propia posición, ha de reinterpretar las estructuras de la praxis como estructuras del Dasein. (shrink)

Seit der Veröffentlichung von Heideggers Text Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik sehen sich die Kant-Interpreten mit der Problematik der ontologischen Bedeutung von Kants Subjektivitätsstudien konfrontiert. Dies ist eine Grundmotivation des Buchs von Herrn Rosales, dessen Fragestellung den subjektiven Ursprung der Kategorien betriftt. Absicht des Buchs ist, zur Diskussion über das Verhältnis zwischen den Seinsprädikaten und der Subjekts¬struktur beizutragen, und zwar durch die Erörterung der Verwurzelung der Kategorien in der Subjektivität.

New Proposals for New Questions Nuevas propuestas para nuevas cuestiones In six sections, the volume deals with different questions of political philosophy. The first section focuses on democratic theories, the second on conceptual debates, discussing topics such as collective rights, the terrorist phenomenon, Libertarianism and conceptions of freedom. In a third section on contemporary debates, perspectives on sovereignity and legitimacy as well as discourse theory versus political liberalism are discussed. The volume also features essays on democracy and law, and in (...) a section entitled oJudicial construction of democracyo papers on constitutional reviews by judges in the Netherlands as well as the construction of democracy in the context of Latin-American democracies. Finally, in the last section the volume deals with the European Constitutional Treatise, analysing the arguments and examining the legitimacy crisis and the main objections displayed against this treatise. Contents I. On Democratic theory / Teoria de la democracia: Eerik Lagerspetz: The Problem of the Common Good in Democratic Theory Sergiy Maksymov: The Kantian Project of the Law Governed Society and New Democracies II. Conceptual debates / Debates conceptuales: Martin Blanchard: Recognition and the Case of Indigenous Reparations: A Habermasian Critique of Habermas Bronik Matwijkiw: The failed Model of Terrorism Susumu Morimura: The Libertarian View of Human Nature Jonathan E. Soeharno: Freedom as Second Nature. Exploring the value of Hegel's concept of Autonomous Personality for Global institutional theory Hashimoto Tsutomu: On the Concept of Positive and Negative Liberty III. Contemporary debates / Debates contemporaneos: Terhi Kiiskinen: Sovereignty Revisited: On Inalienable Constitutional Power Luiz B. Leite Araujo: A Decade of Debate: Discourse Theory versus Political Liberalism IV. Democracy and law / Democracia y derecho: Kenneth E. Himma: Does it really mather whether a Judicial Decision is morally Legitimate? The practical implications of Judicial Illegitimacy in a otherwise Legitimate State Carl Lebeck: Commitments, Rules and the limits of Constitutionalism Oliver W. Lembcke: Exception Rules? Freedom and the Order in a State of Exception Bart van Klink: Does Necessity knows no Laws? Application of Law in a State of Exception Costanza Margiotta: Ideas and Values of the oLegalo State Jiri Priban: Constitution-Making. Morality and Legal Symbolism: on Identity, Temporality and Differentiation of the legal, political and moral Systems V. Judicial construction of democracy / Construccion judicial de la democracia: Maurice Adams: Judging the Constitution: the Third Way. Some reflections on the introduction of Constitutional Review by Judges in The Netherlands Larry Alexander: What is the Problem of Judicial Review? Roberto Corona Copado: Las reglas del juego democratico. La Suprema Corte de Justicia de Mexico en la solucion de controversias entre organos del poder politico desde 1995 Jose de J. Ibarra Cardenas: La construccion judicial de la Democracia en Iberoamerica VI. Deliberation on European constitutional norm / Deliberacion sobre la nueva constitucion europea: Olaf Tans: Deliberating European Constitucional Norms. An Analysis of arguments Carla M. Zoethout: The Court and the Charter or Who Guards the Court of Justice of the EU under the new Constitution?. (shrink)

El presente trabajo se desarrolla a partir de una reconstrucción de los análisis de Roberto Rubio acerca de las dificultades en que incurre la oposición entre enfoque fenomenológico y semiótico, a la hora de aportar posibles soluciones al debate actual en filosofía de la imagen. Después de haber confrontado las perspectivas husserliana y heideggeriana con la teoría derridiana de la escritura, la referencia al arte de Duane Michals permitirá acercar el problema-imagen hacia el pensamiento de la diferencia y (...) del acontecer diferencial, terreno icónico en donde el juego inestable e indefinido de las oposiciones produce toda posibilidad de efecto semántico. (shrink)

A magisterial study of the philosophy of physics that both introduces the subject to the non-specialist and contains many original and important contributions for professionals in the area. Modern physics was born as a part of philosophy and has retained to this day a properly philosophical concern for the clarity and coherence of ideas. Any introduction to the philosophy of physics must therefore focus on the conceptual development of physics itself. This book pursues that development from Galileo and Newton through (...) Maxwell and Boltzmann to Einstein and the founders of quantum mechanics. There is also discussion of important philosophers of physics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and of twentieth-century debates. In the interest of appealing to the broadest possible readership the author avoids technicalities and explains both the physics and philosophical terms. (shrink)

Roberto Esposito is one of the most prolific and important exponents of contemporary Italian political theory.

"a book about religion and a religious work in its own right, it proposes the content of a religion that can survive faith in a transcendent God and in life after death. According to this religion—the religion of the future—human beings can be more human by becoming more godlike, not just later, in another life or another time, but right now, on Earth and in their own lives."--Publishers website.

This article articulates and defends a dissolution of the so-called repugnant conclusion, which focuses on the notion of life worth living figuring both in Parfit's formulation of the repugnant conclusion and in most responses to such a conclusion. The proposed dissolution demonstrates that the notion of life worth living is plagued by multiple ambiguities and that these ambiguities, in turn, hamper meaningful debate about both the issue of whether the repugnant conclusion can be avoided and the issue of whether the (...) repugnant conclusion is actually repugnant. This result does not exclude that some modified versions of the repugnant conclusion may yield valuable insights about the value of populations and the tenability of different axiological/ethical theories. Still, if the proposed dissolution is correct, then the repugnant conclusion rests on an ill-defined notion and we lack the information required to assess the merits of the repugnant conclusion. (shrink)

Are verbal reports of disgust in moral situations specific indicators of the concept of disgust, or are they used metaphorically to refer to anger? In this experiment, participants read scenarios describing a violation of a norm either about the use of the body (bodily moral) or about harm and rights (socio-moral). They then expressed disgust and anger on verbal scales, and through facial expression endorsement measures. The use of disgust words in the socio-moral condition was largely predicted by anger words (...) and only secondarily by disgust faces, whereas in the bodily moral condition the use of disgust words was predicted to a similar extent by disgust faces and anger words. Angry faces, however, never predicted disgust words independently of anger words. These results support a middle-ground position in which disgust words concerning socio-moral violations are not entirely a metaphor for anger, but bear some relationship to other representations of disgust. In the case of socio-moral violations, however, the use of disgust language is more strongly related to anger language, and less strongly to facial representations of disgust than in the case of bodily moral violations. (shrink)

Normative welfare economics commonly assumes that individuals’ preferences can be reliably inferred from their choices and relies on preference satisfaction as the normative standard for welfare. In recent years, several authors have criticized welfare economists’ reliance on preference satisfaction as the normative standard for welfare and have advocated grounding normative welfare economics on opportunities rather than preferences. In this paper, I argue that although preference-based approaches to normative welfare economics face significant conceptual and practical challenges, opportunity-based approaches fail to provide (...) a more reliable and informative foundation for normative welfare economics than preference-based approaches. I then identify and rebut various influential calls to ground normative welfare economics on opportunities rather than preferences to support my qualified defence of preference-based approaches. (shrink)

Descreve, baseado na literatura, o saber prático da elaboração das categorias na construção das revisões de literatura e introduz a prática de uma explanação do saber teórico, baseado na Filosofia, para a elaboração das categorias. A categorização é utilizada como meio para apontar a que classe determinado conceito pertence considerando que não é um procedimento natural mas um esforço intelectivo de compreensão relacionado à síntese como método cognitivo que reúne e integra estudos agrupando o conhecimento em categorias facilitando a sua (...) ordenação e sumarização. A compreensão do saber filosófico da elaboração de categorias nos estudos de revisão da literatura pode contribuir para reflexão e, posterior, aprimoramento dessa prática. (shrink)

A curiosidade recebe diferentes considerações ao longo dos tempos: mau hábito, luxuria, vício, e virtude. As análises de diferentes épocas e autores perpassa a religião, preconceitos e, finalmente a ciência, que a consagra. É a faculdade mais ativa na infância e adolescência e possibilita o desenvolvimento das aptidões gerais da mente. No passado remoto foi condenada pela religião e considerada a responsável pela queda da civilização adâmica assim como o infortúnio da mítica Pandora. Na atualidade, pesquisadores apontam que a curiosidade (...) aumenta com a incerteza e desperta a busca por conhecimento. Compreender a base neural da curiosidade têm importantes implicações substantivas permitindo observar que a busca de informações é evolutivamente adaptativa. As modernas tecnologias modernas e a internet ampliam a quantidade de informações disponíveis, aumentando, portanto, os efeitos potenciais da curiosidade. O arquétipo ambição intelectual e o conceito de conhecimento são utilizados para compreender o aprimoramento do intelecto juntamente com a curiosidade. (shrink)

Trata-se de uma revisão narrativa da literatura cujo foco está voltado para aspectos históricos temporais da política de informação, não relacionando objetivamente com os numerosos estudos, definições e conceituações do tema. O objetivo está voltado para as facetas de poder, comunicação e controle que permeia boa parte da literatura encontrada, o que fortalece essa atividade eminentemente política como prática de governo. A pesquisa bibliográfica foi realizada nas bases de dados Web of Science, Science Direct, JStor, e o repositório informacional Google (...) acadêmico. (shrink)

This book develops a theory of aesthetics that criticizes scientific and philosophical reductionism that denies the importance of culture in art and taste, but its theory accepts some fundamental aspects of Neo-Darwinist theory of culture by addressing points of convergence among the notions of meme, simulacrum, and symbol.

According to Hans Jonas (1903–1993), the modern technological progress endowed humanity with wondrous power, which in the long run risks altering the nature of human action. This is especially true for the realm of collective action, the effects of which evidence an unpredicted issue: the ecological crisis, which is the “critical vulnerability” of nature to technological intervention. This discovery brings to light that the whole biosphere of the planet has been added to that which human beings must be responsible for (...) because of their power over it. There is, however, a further dimension of vulnerability (and responsibility) to be considered, namely the one which characterizes organic life as such. Indeed, the essence of all living organisms–human beings included–is characterized by vulnerability, given their precarious and unstable condition of “needful freedom” towards the environment. Nevertheless, terrestrial life fl ourished through a multifaceted and unplanned (thus, again, vulnerable) evolution of living forms, ranging from bacteria to human beings – these evidencing a unique degree of freedom, which Jonas refers to as a “metaphysical gap” towards other living beings. The problem is that the present-day technology provides the possibility to manipulate the very essence of life and human nature. Is this process to be accepted and accomplished? And what about the related risks? Indeed, according to Jonas, issues such as genetic manipulation, euthanasia, organ transplantation, assisted reproduction, exploitation of other living beings etc., raise ethical dilemmas which can be addressed thanks to the idea of vulnerability. (shrink)

The hopes fostered by the end of the Cold War have been shattered, in this troubled beginning of the XXI century, both by a new kind of extreme violence, transnational terrorism, and-more recently-by a global economic downturn with no end yet in sight. Facing these challenges, world governance suffers from the inadequacy both of political theory and of institutions. This book invites us to go back to basics, i.e. to revisit the very foundations of political and moral theory, and reconsider (...) in the light of the present global predicament the relationship between ends and means, the concept of liberty, the precept of solidarity. Terrorism is a test case of our capacity to look beyond our narrow political options in order to attain the common goal of banning it legally, politically and morally. In order to do that, we will have to be able to define terrorism in a way that recognizes it as distinct from other forms, sometimes equally repulsive but different, of violence. It is an effort that requires at the same time ethical sensitivity and a new kind if non-ideological realism. The same effort that must allow us to build and strengthen new international institutions, from the economy to international criminal law. (shrink)