En el presente trabajo analizamos la relación dinámica entre razón y pathos que anima la obra de Carlos Blanco. Esta relación, que llamamos noesis, es enfocada como un acontecimiento que se reproduce en cada una de sus libros y que gobierna la lógica de sus conceptos.

We reply to Artiga and Martinez’s claim according to which the organizational account of cross-generation functions implies a backward looking interpretation of etiology, just as standard etiological theories of function do. We argue that Artiga and Martinez’s claim stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about the notion of “closure”, on which the organizational account relies. In particular, they incorrectly assume that the system, which is relevant for ascribing cross-generation organizational function, is the lineage. In contrast, we recall that organizational closure refers (...) to a relational description of a network of mutual dependencies, abstracted from time, in which production relations are irrelevant. From an organizational perspective, ascribing a function to an entity means locating it in the abstract system that realizes closure. In particular, the position of each entity within the relational system conveys an etiological explanation of its existence, because of its dependence on the effects exerted by other entities subject to closure. Because of the abstract relational nature of closure, we maintain that the organizational account of functions does not endorse a backward looking interpretation of etiology. As a consequence, it does not fall prey of epiphenomenalism. (shrink)

In contrast to the “normativist” view, “naturalist” theorists claim that the concept of health refers to natural or normal states and propose different characterizations of healthy and diseased conditions that are meant to be objectivist and biologically grounded. In this article, we examine the core concept of these naturalist accounts of disease, i.e., the concept of biological malfunction, and develop a new formulation of the notion of malfunction following the recent organizational approach to functions in the philosophy of biology. We (...) focus on the notions of adaptive regulation and functional presupposition to develop a new conceptual framework that justifies the ascription of malfunctional behaviors to biological systems according to the embodied normativity of biological organizations. (shrink)

Employing a social justice framework, this book examines the effects of innovation incentives and policies in agriculture. It addresses access to the objects of innovation, the direction of science and the type of innovations that are available, opportunities to participate in research and development, as well as effects on future generations. The book examines the potential value of preventive and reconciliatory measures, drawing on concepts from procedural and restorative justice. As such it offers a comprehensive analysis of the main social (...) justice dimensions affected by agricultural innovation. It gives academics and policy analysts an extensive overview of the deep impact of innovation on society and the environment, and the expectations the general public has from the scientific community. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta a potência do pensamento da filósofa e professora Ada Kroef para o ensino de Filosofia e a Educação. Para tanto, abordaremos os livros Currículo-nômade: sobrevoos de bruxas e travessias de piratas Inspirada pela Filosofia da Diferença (2018) e Escola como polo cultural: contornos mutantes em fronteiras fixas (2017). Nessas obras, a autora questiona teorias e práticas conservadoras do ensino e da educação de forma geral, propondo a criação de novas práticas e posicionamentos teóricos. A estrutura desse artigo (...) se desenvolve em dois tópicos. O primeiro, A Escola na Filosofia, pensa essa instituição a partir das noções de currículo-nômade e currículo-programa. O segundo, A Filosofia na Escola, pondera sobre o fazer dos professores de Filosofia nas diversas funções que podem ocupar na escola e em políticas públicas educacionais e também sobre a prática docente de Ada Kroef como professora no curso de Filosofia da UFC nas disciplinas de estágio supervisionado, onde cria estratégias pedagógicas diferenciadas na experiência do Sábado Filosófico. (shrink)

In this paper a tentative explanation of the competence of argumentation from an evolutionary point of view is offered. Because in contemporary argumentation theory and the informal logic approach the evolutionary perspective has been neglected, this paper gives an initial overview on the matter with the hope that core aspects of the argumentative faculty—such as argumentative normativity, the function of arguments, or fallacious moves, among others—can be seen differently afterwards. In order to specify the proposal, the main concepts considered are (...) the notion of collective intentionality, cooperation, reputation, niche construction and, of course, basic evolutionary terms. (shrink)

Important and, in the same time, controversial personality of interwar period and the later one, Nichifor Crainic was in the same time poet, theologian, philosopher and politician. He published many articles, book reviews, chronicles, meditation and theological studies in books and journals like Gândirea or Ramuri (the first one founded by him). Inthe same time, he was the first professor of mystical theology in a Romanian Faculty of Theology, the one of Bucharest. His theological ideas are still relevant today for (...) the theological space and this make them to be analysed, referred to and quoted. In the same time, some of them have influenced his political attitude, making them to become exponential for Romanian Nationalism during the interwar period, to see, as others (for example Nae Ionescu) of being Orthodox as linked with national identity, and also to be closed with far-right movement during the aforementioned period, but also during the Second World War. Using his ideas expressed, both in his books of poetry or theology or in journals like the ones already named, but also information from the books and articles dedicated to him, we will try there to see how his theological ideas and the influence of theology and Orthodox Church upon him, have influenced the Romanian writer in his political actions. We will also see how his ideas are reflected inhis work as politician and writer and we will analyse the influence that he had upon other personalities of his time with same concerns and political orientation. The research will therefore bring again into attention the profile and work of the Romanian theologian, offering a new approach of the relationship between his ideas and works and a reevaluation of his ideas and their actuality. (shrink)

En el debate sobre la equidad los impuestos indirectos han sido criticados por regresivos e inequitativos. Esta crítica, aplicada a los impuestos proporcionales sobre el consumo, supone que existe una distribución indebida de las cargas contributivas sobre los que menos tienen, y por lo tanto, se exige muy poco de quienes tienen mayor capacidad de pago. No obstante, existe una postura que rechaza la noción de capacidad de pago, y además afirma que cualquier evaluación en términos de equidad o inequidad (...) es sesgada si no tiene en cuenta los efectos globales del esquema institucional en su conjunto. Este trabajo defiende que los impuestos proporcionales sobre el consumo sí pueden ser criticados de manera aislada, mediante una objeción interna y una objeción externa. La objeción interna permite aclarar por qué razón los impuestos sobre el consumo no necesariamente deben ser proporcionales para tratar equitativamente a los ciudadanos, pero además implica rechazar la idea de que los tributos indirectos son injustos. La objeción externa discute que la evaluación de las instituciones tributarias deba tomar en cuenta los efectos generales de la estructura institucional en su totalidad. (shrink)

Este artículo se propone argumentar por qué la reivindicación o el relego del término campesino constituye una apuesta política por excelencia. En esta dirección, se sostiene que la ambigüedad de aquella categoría, lejos de ser una debilidad, puede tornarse una potencia en la medida que el discurso sobre la diferencia específica sea desplazado por la problematización de la (des)igualdad. En efecto, el interrogante sobre qué es lo que distingue a un campesino cede lugar a la pregunta ¿qué relaciones sociales son (...) puestas en cuestión o reinventadas a partir de la identificación como tal? Para ello, la reflexión teórica adopta un anclaje empírico en el surgimiento del Movimiento Campesino de Santiago del Estero (MOCASE), el cual, pese a los múltiples conflictos y divisiones internas, tiene en común haber acuñado la categoría campesino en un sentido positivo, en el marco de la disputa por la tierra. Cabe aclarar que no es la intención explicitar presuntos núcleos duros de la identidad; tampoco concebirla como etapa anterior o posterior de la acción colectiva, sino examinarla como un proceso dialógico. Asimismo, se aborda el lugar de lo campesino en Argentina y su tensión con el concepto de agricultura familiar. (shrink)

By resorting to the spiritual autobiography of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, an important religious and cultural personality of the 20th century, the author tries to emphasise the aspects of political theology that defined her way of acting and thinking and to show how she understood the relationship between religion and politics. Topics like poverty, love, giving, peace, sacrifice or responsibility are presented as keywords in the understanding of a complex vision with interdisciplinary relevance, while the two levels of poverty, namely (...) the material one, often accompanied by physical pain, maladies and other types of suffering, and the spiritual one, that is not necessarily related to the lack of basic material needs and can be found even in developed countries like the United States of America or Japan, are seen through the lenses of political theology. The author shows that, by finding practical bridges between spirituality and politics and by using as sources of inspiration not only Christian thinkers, but also thinkers from other religions, like Ghandi, the Albanese militant accomplished her vocation and also offered important and perennial principles which can help in the understanding of the contemporary world and in finding solutions to some of its crises. Although her message is a sort of combination between theology and social life, the political accents, sometimes theoretical, at other times practical, are important and can be used today for the development of a sustainable discourse for both the theological and the political sphere. CONTRIBUTION: The article brings into attention a spiritual autobiography that was not valorised properly by the contemporary research and in the same time offers an inter-disciplinary approach with ecumenical value. (shrink)

The issues of bioethics have been present in the Romanian space starting with the past century and have been tackled in different ways, according to context and the people interacting with them. Nonetheless, as a science, it became visible within the university context only towards the end of the past century when the faculties of theology in collaboration with those of medicine managed to introduce in the curriculum of the former and later on in that of the latter the problems (...) of bioethics, as well as their possible solutions. Though being a young science, bioethics succeeded in gaining ground as a university subject due to some doctors, famous in Romania and known as prestigious teachers lecturing in it, and due to its multiple challenges with which the Romanian society has been confronted lately. (shrink)

Nicolas Berdyaev’s spiritual autobiography was, unfortunately, the least well-known of his publications. Therefore, we will try to shed light on it, emphasising its philosophical and political value. We will describe the manner in which the author speaks in order to deepen our understanding of it. We will also consider the genesis of some of his works, noting the influence his spiritual experiences had on them. We will emphasise some of the main political aspects his spiritual autobiography contains, showing its usefulness (...) in areas like political theology. Therefore, we will present the interdisciplinary value of this autobiography, together with its potential for building bridges between spirituality and different areas of science in an analysis dedicated to providing a holistic understanding of his work. We will observe how his spiritual experiences informed his way of thinking, allowing him to critique topics like modernity, a system based on freedom, love and human dignity and a profound understanding of eschatology as the accomplishment of the world and its mission.Contribution: The research investigates Berdyaev’s memorial work showing why it can be considered a spiritual autobiography and it emphasises also its relevance for the philosophical area. (shrink)

In this article, the author speaks about how a profession can constitute a road to God and can lead one to a deeper understanding of spirituality as the heart of theology, by investigating the spiritual autobiographies of Teilhard de Chardin and Dag Hammarskjöld. While the former was a Jesuit with important contributions to the historical field, the latter was an important personality in the field of international diplomacy, whose contribution came to light towards the end of the important crises that (...) took place in the 1960s. Both of them left us rich spiritual autobiographies in the form of a last published book and a manuscript discovered after the author’s death and published posthumously.Contribution: This article brings into attention two important authors of the 20th century with different confessional backgrounds by investigating their spiritual autobiographies and showing how the profession they exercised led them to God and helped them deepen their spirituality and theology. (shrink)

An important moment in the recent history of the Eastern Orthodox Church was for sure the recognition granted to the Ukrainian Orthodoxy by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople with the Tomos of autocephaly. Praised by some Orthodox churches and damned by other, it was preceded by some attempts of negotiation initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and by a few meetings between the representatives of the aforementioned institution, Russian Patriarchate and the Ukrainian local churches that was later recognised by Constantinople and (...) by a Schism between the Constantinople and Moscow. At the same time, it divided the local Orthodox churches between the ones who sustain one or the other side or prefer to remain in a neutral state and determined later meetings like the one from Amman in Jordan, between leaders and representatives of the Orthodox Church. Conscious of the relevance of the event and its potential consequences, we have tried here to see how it was reflected in the ecumenical space. Therefore, we have proceeded to the investigation of the journals from the ecumenical area that spoke about it, and we analysed the way how they saw it and emphasised the main elements that have raised their interest. Together with the ecclesiastical challenges, we found that they were also interested in this problem not only for its theological meaning but also because of its geopolitical relevance. The research, based on the literature investigated, therefore presents the Ukrainian problem and its image in the ecumenical space.Contribution: The research investigates how the image of the Eastern Orthodox Church changed in the ecumenical space after the foundation of the New Ukrainian Church and the debates that followed inside of the Orthodox space in this context. It is linked with the scope of the journal due to the fact that investigates a topic relevant for the ecumenical area and presents a topic that can contribute in the future to the change of the relationships with different churches with the Orthodox one. (shrink)

This article derives some morals from the examination of the physico-mathematical view of scientific laws and its place in the current debate. After revisiting the expression scientific law, which appears in scientific practice under various names (laws, principles, equations, symmetries, and postulates), I briefly assess two extreme, opposite positions in the literature on laws, namely, full-blown metaphysics of laws of nature, which distinguishes such laws from the more mundane laws that we find in science; and the no-laws thesis, which ultimately (...) contends that we should dispense with laws in science altogether. I argue that both positions fail to make sense of the laws that we find in scientific practice. For this, I outline the following twofold claim: first, most laws (in physics) are abstract mathematical statements; and second, they express some of the best physical generalisations achieved in this branch of science. Thus understood, a minimal construal of laws suggests that they are in principle intended to refer to those features of phenomena whose salience and stability are relevant for specific scientific tasks. (shrink)

The Anthropocene is seen by many scholars across the sciences and the humanities as a tool for political action. Yet the validation process for this term appears to be extremely conservative. According to geologists’ leading efforts to formalize the term, signals need to petrify in stratigraphic sequences in order to become candidates to mark the start of the Anthropocene. I argue that this emphasis results from a fossilized view of becoming, where time is seen as a punctuated accumulation of solid (...) surfaces that are accessible only in retrospect. I show that this petrified view of change relates to a tendency to divorce earth and sky, which currently divides the practices of humanities scholars and geologists, as well as those of earth system scientists and stratigraphers collaborating on the formalization of the Anthropocene. Challenging this tendency, I conclude, requires opening up earth’s history to the more-than-solid flows of environmental change. (shrink)

From a Wittgensteinian point of view, my goal is to argue against the idea that teaching critical thinking should have as one of its aims the possibility of changing or adapting our deeply held beliefs. As pointed out by the Austrian philosopher in On Certainty, we have a world-picture which is neither true nor false, but above all, ‘it is the substratum of all my enquiring and asserting’. Besides that, in his remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, Wittgenstein insists on the (...) idea that different communities have their own rituals that express ways of acting, which become crystallized in their customs and institutions, similar to the magical rituals described by Frazer. The degree of similarity among them is greater than we suspect, and what interested Wittgenstein was to understand how we see things by looking for the links between the various ritualistic events. Based on these remarks, I argue that, if our deeply held beliefs are a source of necessity, instead of aiming to change/adapt them, teaching critical thinking should—by showing the links between diverse cultures—essentially avoid employing them in a dogmatic way, since our own deeply held beliefs could have been different ones. (shrink)

Using documents, books and articles written by Nicola Velimirović during World War I, this article investigates his attitude towards this conflagration and shows how his Christian views influence his outlook on this topic. Shared during his visits to the USA and England and via lectures given in venues like Westminster Abbey or Oxford University, his ideas make him a militant for peace and, at the same time, a man who defends his country's cause in front of the Austro-Hungarian abuses. Investigating (...) his writings from this point of view is important because he manages to show a different face of the future Serbian bishop and brings to the fore his concerns regarding his contemporary society. (shrink)

La capacidad de elegir se ha erigido como una de las notas características de la libertad en la cultura contemporánea, pero si esta capacidad se ejerce de modo autorreferente puede meter a las personas en dinámicas que les suman en la incertidumbre. Partiendo de un estudio interdisciplinar en el que interactúan filosofía, sociología y teología, en este artículo se pretende analizar la categoría «elección» desde una de las espiritualidades más influyentes de la historia de la Iglesia Católica moderna, la espiritualidad (...) ignaciana. El hecho de que los proyectos vitales, en los que desplegar y cargar de significado la existencia, se vean inmersos en la incertidumbre nos avoca al diálogo interdisciplinar desde el cual colaborar a la toma de decisiones del sujeto contemporáneo. (shrink)

Any system for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has three main kinds of distributive effects. It will determine or influence: (a) the types of objects that will be developed and for which IPRs will be sought; (b) the differential access various people will have to these objects; and (c) the distribution of the IPRs themselves among various actors. What this means to the area of pharmaceutical research is that many urgently needed medicines will not be developed at all, (...) that the existing medicines will not be suitable for countries with a precarious health infrastructure or not target the disease variety that is prevalent in poorer regions. Such effects are commonly captured under the rubric of the “10/90 gap” in biomedical research. High prices will also restrict access to medicines as well endanger compliance to treatment schemes. IPRs are mainly held by multinational corporations situated in the developed world, which not only raises egalitarian concerns, but also severely limits the possibilities of companies in poorer countries to realize improvements on existing inventions, as they cannot financially afford to secure freedom to operate, which systematically shrinks the number of potential innovators. Those inequities lead to an enormous burden for the global poor and since no institution is willing to assume the responsibility to fulfil the right to health and the corresponding right of access to essential medicines, we have to analyse alternatives or additions to the actual intellectual property regimes in order to create new incentives to fill this gap. (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

Review of Kristina Stoeckl, Ingeborg Gabriel, Aristotle Papanikolau, eds., Political Theologies in Orthodox Christianity. Common Challenges – Divergent Positions,, Edinburgh: T&T Clark and Bloomberg, 2017.

The paper presents three strong arguments advocating for the exclusion of the table of Ptolemy’s own planetary terms from the original text of the Tetrabiblos. This table was vastly used by Renaissance astrologers, and much work on its rationale and its manuscript variant readings has been published recently. The author argues that the table was the product of the systematic analysis of Ptolemy’s instructions for the terms in the late antique commentary on the Tetrabiblos edited by Wolf in 1559, and (...) that it entered the direct transmission of Ptolemy’s text in the Byzantine period, probably in the 11th century through cod. Laur. 28,34. The absence of the table in the original Tetrabiblos would explain Ptolemy’s recourse to a probably invented manuscript find and his limited account of the system’s workings. (shrink)

A tension between solidity and fluidity tends to divide the sciences and the humanities along lines that define what is hard and soft in knowledge. This divide relates to similar dichotomies, between exteriority and interiority, material and spiritual, homogeneity and heterogeneity, matter and form, all of which have been partially mapped in Western thinking onto a traditional separation between earth and sky. Yet particular forms of knowledge sit uneasily within these tensions, a paradigmatic example of which is an understanding of (...) solids as ‘viscous fluids’. This article explores the concept of viscosity, attending to how it has impacted on understandings of matter, as well as broader social and cultural issues. It does so, particularly, by looking into the scientific study of ice, a material that has historically been regarded as solidfluid, to argue that life and sociality remain possible only in so far as matter that is viscid allows solid and fluid states to mingle. (shrink)

Archaeology, like most sciences that rely on stratigraphic excavation for studying the past, tends to conceptualize this past as lying deep underneath the ground. Accordingly, chronologies tend to be depicted as a movement from bottom to top, which contrast with sciences that illustrate the passage of time horizontally. By paying attention to the development of the visual language of disciplines that follow stratigraphy, I show how chronologies get entangled with other temporalities, particularly those of writing. Relying on recent ethnographic work (...) with archaeologists, the analysis reveals that excavation emerges as a double vertical movement of downward destruction and upward reconstruction that coincides with a systematic dissociation of time and space that has important effects for the understanding of the formation of sites. I conclude by looking at some of the implications of this dissociation for contemporary theoretical discussions, particularly those that emerged after the phenomenological push to horizontalize the discipline. Challenging this dissociation, I argue that the conceptualization of time in science should be understood as a process that depends on the body and unfolds in movement. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article addresses the prospects of applied naturalistic metaphysics from both a global and a local perspective. Adopting a broad Sellarsian approach, I look into whether metaphysics has a place and role in the overall scientific image and assess whether it has its own subject matter as a first- or second- order discipline. After outlining the general argument in section 1, section 2 examines our construal of science and metaphysics, drawing some considerations for restating the question about the viability (...) of naturalistic metaphysics. Sections 3 and 4, in turn, suggest two styles of naturalistic metaphysics that can be respectively applied on a global and on a local basis. I briefly outline their respective goals, problems and categories. I argue, in particular, that globally applied naturalistic metaphysics deals with issues about the fundamental structure of reality, whereas locally applied naturalistic metaphysics tackles riddles arising from the examination of specific unobservable posits in the frontiers of scientific ontology. Section 5 closes with concluding remarks that put metaphysics within the scientific image. (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

Kitcher has proposed an ideal-theory account—well-ordered science (WOS)— of the collective good that science’s research agenda should promote. Against criticism regarding WOS’s action-guidance, Kitcher has advised critics not to confuse substantive ideals and the ways to arrive at them, and he has defended WOS as a necessary and useful ideal for science policy. I provide a distinction between two types of ideal-theories that helps clarifying WOS’s elusive nature. I use this distinction to argue that the action-guidance problem that WOS faces (...) remains even under the aims/means distinction, because the WOS’s failure is more basic than critics have suggested. (shrink)

This article discusses how resignifications of the human rights NGO Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo contributed to transformations of post-dictatorial culture. For decades hegemonic media and perpetrators engaged state terror’s reasoning to confront Abuelas’ call for “restitution” of the children who “disappeared” during the last dictatorship in Argentina. Drawing on both the junta’s self-appointed role of saviors and the benevolence of nurture, Catholic couples had thus rescued children from irresponsible “subversive” parents. In their struggle against state terror Abuelas’ metaphor apropiación (...) resignified nurture as violence, pushing politico-cultural change towards a universal right to identity. (shrink)

In postmodern society, many of the perceptions that people had about them, their lives, the values ​​that define them and the strategies that they can use to achieve their ideals have changed. Specifically, today we can talk about new paradigms, such as health, lifestyle focused on personal well-being, obtained through fitness and wellness, respectively wellbeing that adds the spiritual component, in an holistic interdependence. An important role in the changes we are talking about has been played by the media, which (...) promote living standards built on hedonistic principles, specific to the consumer society. The consequence is that more and more teenagers and young people want to look good and feel good, but only a small part of them reach the specialists, who are best able to provide individualized guidance, support, and programs to prevent any negative consequences of uninspired choices or poorly dosed enthusiasm The stakes of choice are high, because a healthy lifestyle, which should not be limited to body aesthetics, but also aims to develop the spiritual side, can support a more effective adaptation to the dynamics of changes in society. The last year, marked by a new challenge, the pandemic, has fully demonstrated the need to assume on a personal level a balanced and responsible lifestyle, which offers new values ​​of quality of life, as well as complementing proactive management with that managed by specialists. (shrink)

In the philosophy of physics and philosophy of time there is a widely-extended thesis according to which our experience of the passage of time is unreal to the extent that it has no objective grounds in nature as described by our best physical theories. Particularly, as dynamical laws belonging to such theories are temporally symmetric, and they do not distinguish both time directions, the experienced temporal asymmetry turnouts to be illusory. In this paper, I shall argue that we have sound (...) reasons to cast doubts on such thesis. For the one thing, it is not so clear to me to what extent we really have experience of the passage of time. For another thing, it is highly questionable that our dynamical laws are temporally symmetric, and if so, that they were useful to argue against our assumed experience of the passage of time. (shrink)

Danaher suggests that doxological justice, grounded in an acute receptivity of the generosity of God, can decenter our current notions of justice. Instead I focus on what might be called doxological forgiveness, that is, grace-responsive forgiveness. The first section argues that a conception of forgiveness which I dub repentance-responsive is compatible with and even requires holding punitive attitudes. The second section sketches the alternative account of grace-responsive forgiveness. Those who embody this virtue have epistemic and theological warrant to entirely disavow (...) punitive emotions. The third section argues that God embodies a grace-responsive forgiveness that undermines retributivism and eclipses repentance-responsive forgiveness. (shrink)

Review of Sandu Frunză, Filosofie şi comunicare cotidiană: cărţile ar putea să-ţi schimbe viaţa [Philosophy and daily communication: the books could change your life], Iaşi: Editura Lumen, 2020.

Political membership refers to the condition of being a member of a particular political community. It is a relational concept by virtue of the fact that it presupposes a political relation shared by several individuals. Thus, a simple way to think about political membership is in terms of the rights and duties common to all full members of a specific community that it enforces. Those privileges and obligations are commonly delimited by political boundaries which regulate the relations among members and (...) aliens. (Published: 27 February 2012) Citation: Ethics & Global Politics, Vol. 5 , No. 1, 2012, pp. 57-69. DOI: 10.3402/egp.v5i1.14926. (shrink)

This text attempts to trace the evolution of the political and philosophical thought of Georg Lukács, after his magnum opus History and class consciousness, as well as the influence that historical events had on this evolution. Against the dominant consensus that dismisses Lukács’s late work as an effect of his alleged “reconciliation with reality”, I argue that the line of continuity in his thought was the idea of peaceful coexistence, derived from the objective conditions – the isolation of the Soviet (...) Union and the stabilization of Western capitalism. So, rather than explaining his choice to defend coexistence, or “socialism in one country” as a consequence of his reconciliation with, or surrender to Stalinism, one should see his compromise with Stalinism as a consequence of this choice. His commitment to the coexistence thesis shaped his final version of Marxism in a number of ways. From a political perspective, a readjustment of the temporal scale of the transition to socialism in post-revolutionary society constrained him to advocate a more realist strategy that combined revolutionary movements with evolutionary processes – this was reflected in his option for the Popular Front strategy and later in his support for the Western pacifist movements. His late philosophical work also bears the marks of this enduring political choice. (shrink)