A book review of Jon Robson, Aesthetic Testimony: An Optimistic Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022, x+166 pp. ISBN 9780192862952.

Arthur Danto's The Abuse of Beauty was a significant contribution to the acclaimed return of beauty that had been taking place since Dave Hickey's 1993 manifesto announced that beauty would be the defining problem of the next decade. One of the most original and important aspects of Danto's look at beauty is that he thought about it as a contribution to art criticism. External aesthetic qualities would be as meaningless as natural beauty intended to play role in conveying a work (...) 's meaning, constitute the aesthetic dimension of the work. For Danto, elegiac beauty can provide political role for the aesthetic quality, but the impossibility of what could be termed an “angry beauty,” capable of outraging people, seriously limits the option of beauty in “angrily political” contemporary art. Danto thought that activist art will try to inflect works with an angry mood in order to turn people against what they are about. (shrink)

The rejection of beauty from a political standpoint is a significant part of the legacy of avant-gardism in contemporary art. In particular, Arthur Danto signaled that artistic activism should avoid beauty simply because beauty induces the wrong perspective on whatever it is desired to have an impact upon. While artistic beauty’s tendency would be to heal, he claimed, political protest needs anger as its trigger. This article challenges such an argument that opposes beauty’s emotional effects on political action by examining (...) the complex nature of both beauty and anger. I contest a mere contemplative view of beauty and, using Carolyn Korsmeyer’s account of “terrible beauties,” bound up with discomforting emotions, I defend that beauty can be compatible with anger albeit, in order to be politically truly effective, anger must move from the wish to punish toward more productive forward-looking thoughts. Though often being necessary as a source of motivation to fight for justice, I believe, with Martha Nussbaum and Myisha Cherry, that anger is truly politically effective and keeps its noble side when detached from revenge and directed by hope, a value related to beauty. (shrink)

The Abuse of Beauty can be seen as the beginning of a “turn” in the philosophy of art of Arthur Danto, based on the conceptual divorce between art and aesthetics, through which he has vindicated a significant role for the aesthetic in the art of today. However, Danto is still reluctant to make aesthetics part of the definition of art. The paper analyzes some of his most relevant new concepts and examines their implications for that central thesis of his theory (...) of art. (shrink)

Desde que en los años 60 la producción artística más relevante rechazara la teoría estética modernista, se ha cuestionado si la estética tenía realmente algo que ver con el arte. Diversas formas de cognitivismo en filosofía del arte han acompañado al conceptualismo que, en un sentido amplio, ha fundamentado la mayoría de las prácticas neovanguardistas. Sin embargo, la relación entre el arte y la estética ha sido redefinida sobre distintas bases. Este artículo se centra en la reciente «estética del significado» (...) de Danto para contestar la tesis conceptualista que afirma que la estética es irrelevante para la crítica y el valor del arte actual. (shrink)

Depuis les années soixante les plus représentatives des productions artistiques rejetant la théorie esthétique moderniste, la question se pose de savoir si l’esthétique n’a vraiment plus rien à voir avec l’art. En philosophie de l’art différents courants cognitivistes ont accompagné le conceptualisme qui, grosso modo, a été au cœur de la plupart des pratiques néo-avant-gardistes, et qui affirme que l’art est contre, ou au moins au-delà, de l’esthétique. Cependant, il existe d’autres manières de définir l’art, l’esthétique et leurs relations, qui (...) se fondent sur d’autres bases. Cet article en considère quelques-unes, et tout particulièrement « l’esthétique de la signification » du dernier Danto, afin de réfuter les thèses conceptualistes selon lesquelles l’esthétique serait impropre à évaluer l’art d’aujourd’hui. (shrink)

Pese a los esfuerzos de las últimas décadas, la poca habilitación tecnológica dentro de las escuelas rurales de México ha quedado expuesta durante el cierre de escuelas por Covid-19. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio para identificar los niveles de brecha digital de acceso experimentados por los profesores de un centro educativo en una zona rural de México y explorar las estrategias de usos de las TIC desplegadas para dar continuidad académica durante la pandemia. Se constató que aun con acceso tecnológico (...) limitado, se desarrollaron diversos usos de las TIC para el desarrollo de los procesos de enseñanza y de aprendizaje. (shrink)

Hinge epistemology is a family of views that offers a novel approach to avoiding skeptical conclusions about the possibility of a posteriori justification of our empirical beliefs. They claim that at the basis of our empirical beliefs lie certain commitments whose rational status is not determined by our evidence. These are called hinge commitments. Prominent hinge epistemologists have claimed that hinge commitments are either rational or arational but yet not beliefs. I argue that such views are subject to decisive objections. (...) I then offer what I consider to be the best version of hinge epistemology. On this view, hinge commitments are best understood as arational beliefs that contingently inform our worldview. I call this view the Arational Beliefs View. (shrink)

Envelhecer traz em si significações negativas que se agravam em situação de reclusão. Os procedimentos metodológicos pautaram-se em estudo bibliográfico e pesquisa em banco de dados. Os artigos encontrados foram organizados, analisados, chegando à conclusões como a falta de pesquisas sobre a mulher idosa encarcerada. Por isso, foi realizada a entrevista semi-estruturada com uma senhora sentenciada à privação de liberdade em São Paulo, Brasil. Os dados da pesquisa revelaram que a vida em regime fechado é precária para a mulher idosa (...) e, que se faz necessário repensar as políticas públicas priorizando medidas educativas e artísticas no ambiente prisional. (shrink)

En el presente artículo nos hemos propuesto analizar las variantes textuales griegas relativas a los términos “vino” y “vinagre” dentro del contexto neotestamentario de la Pasión de Cristo, así como sus correlatos en la traducción de los Evangelios en antiguo eslavo. Como resultado de dicho análisis, hemos detectado una tendencia a introducir el término “vinagre” por parte de la tradición textológica del Nuevo Testamento griego, que es secundada además por otras tradiciones, como la siríaca o la eslava.

Virtual Reality has often been referred to as an “empathy machine.” This is mostly because it can induce empathy through embodiment experiences in outgroup membership. However, the potential of intergroup contact with an outgroup avatar in VR to increase empathy is less studied. Even though intergroup contact literature suggests that less threatening and more prosocial emotions are the key to understanding why intergroup contact is a powerful mean to decrease prejudice, few studies have investigated the effect of intergroup contact on (...) empathy in VR. In this study, we developed a between-participants design to investigate how VR can be used to create a positive intergroup contact with a member of a stigmatized outgroup and present the results of the effect of intergroup contact in VR on empathy. Sixty four participants experienced either positive contact with a black avatar or no intergroup contact, with situational empathy being measured through a self-report questionnaire up to a week before and right after the VR contact experience. The experiment showed that satisfying degrees of body ownership of participants’ own avatar and co-presence with the contacted avatar can be achieved in simple and universally accessible virtual environments such as AltspaceVR. The results indicated that while VR intergroup contact had no significant direct effect on empathy, exploratory analyses indicated that post-intervention empathic interest increased with stronger feelings of co-presence in the intergroup contact condition. (shrink)

Para hacer frente a los riesgos de rezago y deserción escolar durante Covid-19, las universidades implementaron programas de apoyo y de atención tutorial virtuales. Los esquemas de acompañamiento profesor-estudiante se han documentado mayoritariamente, pero poco se ha dicho sobre otras modalidades como el acompañamiento entre pares. Bajo este panorama se planteó un diseño exploratorio para identificar los tipos de ayuda educativa desplegados durante la pandemia en el marco de un programa de tutorías entre iguales en una universidad mexicana. Los resultados (...) evidencian que las ayudas más requeridas giran en torno al factor socioemocional del aprendizaje. (shrink)

El artículo busca discutir algunos de los posicionamientos de Heidegger en su época nazi, mostrando que la base de su error político está en su nacionalismo. Esto lo ha hecho caer en una interpretación de la historia de Alemania como una opción opuesta a la modernidad y lo ha inducido a perder de vista las relaciones de interdependencia mutua entre facticidad y trascendencia. El nacionalismo se presenta así como un desvío del propósito universalista de la filosofía y el error de (...) Heidegger como un abandono del propósito esencial de la filosofía. We discuss some aspects of Heidegger's stance during his nazi period. We show that the root of his political error lies in his nationalism. This led him to understand the history of Germany as an option opposed to modernity, while losing sight of the mutual dependence of facticity and transcendence. Nationalism appears thus as a deviation from the universalist aim of philosophy and Heidegger's error as defection from philosophy's essential purpose. (shrink)

La cuestión de la relación del hombre con la naturaleza ha sido abordada desde múltiples ópticas a lo largo de la historia del pensamiento. Se ofrece en este artículo la propuesta de los pensadores Hans Jonas y Helmuth Plessner quienes sitúan al hombre enraizado en el dinamismo natural, acentuando, con Jonas, su responsabilidad moral con y sobre este.

In this paper, we propose a methodology of analysis for new videographies based on an analytical grid. We base our epistemological starting point on various critical cultural study authors, a semiotic analysis, and a critical discourse analysis. We apply the grid to a case study composed of a series of videos titledIdentibuzz: Hybrid identities, which was created within UBIQA, a Basque social innovation laboratory. In order to fully grasp the results of the analysis, we briefly outline some data referring to (...) transnational migrations in Spain as well as the representation of immigrants in Spanish mainstream media. We then compare the representations of immigrants in the videos to that in mainstream media to analyze the dissection between new videographies and more traditional video genres. (shrink)

La educación del hombre es un tema que no deja de ser cuestionado. A pesar de los esfuerzos y de las diversas innovaciones en la materia, la crisis educativa de la «sociedad líquida» es cada vez más profunda y al mismo tiempo más relativa. El hombre y sus actitudes, hoy fuertemente controvertidas por sus manifestaciones de violencia, irracionalidad, corrupción y rechazo de los valores, revelan la cruda realidad educativa. Frente a la situación descrita, la presente investigación se propone analizar las (...) raíces de esta problemática y a la vez proponer reflexiones y alternativas innovadoras que ayuden a superar dicha crisis. Los resultados encontrados son reveladores y esperanzadores. Varios de los planteamientos de este trabajo ya están contemplados en la legislación y en la teoría educativa desde hace varias décadas; sin embargo, han quedado en el olvido por efectos del individualismo, la anomia, el escepticismo y el nihilismo propios de la sociedad posmoderna. El aporte factible y necesario es la educación sistémica de la persona que, superando los diversos reduccionismos, se centre en el «desarrollo humano integral» ; dejando en claro, asimismo, los roles de la familia, del Estado, de la escuela, de los medios de comunicación social, de la sociedad y del mismo educando frente al desafío de la educación actual. (shrink)

To carry out an ethnographic study on the work process in the sterilization unit of a hospital in Catalonia, we found the socially distributed cognition approaches of Hutchins and Kirsh useful. However, these approaches lack sufficient explanation on three important issues: the pragmatic criteria for identifying and delimiting a relevant unit of analysis and therefore the setting and contexts of the work process; the mechanisms and results of reciprocal influences between these levels of analysis; and the relation between these levels. (...) Therefore, we added several new elements to these approaches, in addition to Layder's model of contexts with some important modifications, with the aim of offering an interactive, cognitive and social proposal of analysis that clarifies these three issues, allowing a more exhaustive and broader empirical analysis that captures better the ‘social’ dimension embedded in the work processes. (shrink)

A reflection on the aesthetic status of some typical objects of everyday life, and the relationship we have with them, may originate from the development of “aesthetic experience” by John Dewey and Neopragmatism. The continuity between the common practices and aesthetic ones determines the significance of ordinary objects if they are linked to a project of enrichment and fulfillment of experience. A case that thematizes the richness of these practices in the contemporary world, and also the related theoretical and critical (...) problems, is the production of skateboards. An established artist like Damien Hirst collaborates with the NYC-based streetwear brand Supreme; a new London-based brand, Palace Skateboards, and Tate realize together a few skateboard and a video. (shrink)

This paper int e nds to re s e a rch the possibility of thinking the several elements of Sartre’s works according to one axe named “realism”. It is important to explain what “realism” means here. Not intending find out a definitive definit ion of “realism”, he re “realism” means the struc t u ral tre nd of west letters towards “representing the reality”. Otherwise, the main objective of this paper is not de f i n i ng strictly the (...) sense of “realism”. Our main objective is related all i m p o r t a nt Sartre’s work eleme nts – the philosophical eleme nt s, the critic i s m elements, the literary eleme nts – in a way that ma kes clear the integrity of sartrean project. (shrink)

The book is an intellectual analysis of the political ideas of English radical thinker Thomas Spence (1750-1814), who was renowned for his "Plan", a proposal for the abolition of private landownership and the replacement of state institutions with a decentralized parochial organization. This system would be realized by means of the revolution of the "swinish multitude", the poor labouring class despised by Edmund Burke and adopted by Spence as his privileged political interlocutor. While he has long been considered an eccentric (...) and anachronistic figure, the book sets out to demonstrate that Spence was a deeply original, thoroughly modern thinker, who translated his themes into a popular language addressing the multitude and publicized his Plan through chapbooks, tokens, and songs. The book is therefore a history of Spence's political thought "from below", designed to decode the subtle complexity of his Plan. It also shows that the Plan featured an excoriating critique of colonialism and slavery as well as a project of global emancipation. By virtue of its transnational scope, the Plan made landfall in the British West Indies a few years after Spence's death. Indeed, Spencean ideas were intellectually implicated in the largest slave revolt in the history of Barbados. (shrink)

In the late fifteenth centuryMuscovy an intellectual ecclesiastical elite promotes the production of treaties on calendar tables for the calculation of the Easter date (Paskhalia) in order to quell the unrest, that the end of the seventh millennium caused. In addition, in the Paskhalia there are controversial issues against Judaizing Heresy and againstWesternisers. At the same time, the treaties outline the basis of Muscovite hegemonic political ideology.