O texto seleccionado e que se apresenta agora em tradução portuguesa pode ser considerado como uma síntese exemplar das ideias de Hegel relativamente ao ensino da filosofia a nível secundário. Sobre a exposição da filosofia em Ginásios é um texto redigido como resposta a Immanuel Niethammer, na altura Conselheiro escolar da Baviera, que solicitara a Hegel uma apreciação sobre a reforma geral do sistema de ensino cuja aplicação estava em curso nas escolas bávaras e que tinha a sua expressão legal (...) no documento de 3 de Novembro de 1808, Allgemeines Normativ der Einrichtung der öffentlichen Unterrichtsanstalten [Directiva geral para a organização dos estabelecimentos públicos de ensino]. (shrink)

Em vez de considerarem o problema da distinção entre Natureza e Paisagem, posição típica das teorias de Georg Simmel e de Joachim Ritter, os debates contemporâneos incidem sobretudo na questão da naturalidade do natural, e em particular na possibilidade de restituir à paisagem a naturalidade perdida.

O presente artigo aborda, em leitura comparada, alguns aspectos centrais da filosofia da religião de Ludwig Feuerbach e de Georg Simmel. Para além das diferentes orientações filosóficas, aproxima-os uma perspectiva genética que reconduz as religiões historicamente instituídas à sua fonte na subjetividade. Na origem da religião estão a fé viva e a religiosidade, expressões da experiência vivida que incluem dimensões não intelectuais, como o sentimento e a emoção. Ao aceder a zonas não conceptualizáveis do ser humano, a filosofia da religião (...) trava estreitas articulações com a antropologia, explicitamente defendidas por Feuerbach e subjacentes em immel. Nos três primeiros pontos, o artigo analisa os desenvolvimentos do método regressivo que conduz da religião até o núcleo da religiosidade. Nos pontos finais, acentua a divergências entre as duas visões de mundo, sendo que Simmel defende a assunção de um núcleo metafísico na alma humana, e Feuerbach aponta à transformação dos impulsos religiosos em realização intersubjetiva e comunitária da humanidade. Palavras-chave: Ludwig Feuerbach. Georg Simmel. Religião. Sentimento. Antropologia. (shrink)

O presente artigo propõe-se mostrar até que ponto o pensamento de Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) antecipa a tendência geral da filosofia contemporânea para ultrapassar o antropocentrismo e colocar no fundamento da realidade a correlaçāo originária entre Homem e Natureza. Numa parte inicial são sucessivamente abordados aspectos da filosofia da natureza e da ontologia da sensibilidade, conducentes à autonomia, ao valor intrínseco e à plenitude do real. Em seguida, considera-se a existência humana do ponto de vista concreto na diversidade de relações que (...) estabelece com o mundo natural. Finalmente, são analisados os principios da ética feuerbachiana da natureza, que conjuga a ética objectiva - do valor intrínseco e dos direitos de todos os seres, incluindo os animais - e a ética subjectiva, no apelo a uma atitude de responsabilidade e a uma contenção do agir por parte do ser humano. /// The present article wishes to show to what degree the thought of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) anticipates the general tendency in contemporary philosophy to overcome anthropocentrism and to place at the very foundation of reality the original correlation binding humankind with nature. In the initial part, aspects of the philosophy of nature and the ontology of affections (or feeling), leading to the notions of the autonomous, intrinsic, and fullness of the real are treated. In a second moment, human existence is considered in regard to the diversity of its relations with the natural world. Finally, the principles of Feuerbachian ethics of nature are dealt with. It will be seen that it conjugates the objective ethics of intrinsic value and the rights of all beings, including animals, with a subjective ethics with its call to responsibility and restraint on the part of human beings. (shrink)

This paper tries to synthesize the a priori foundations of Kant’s autonomy principle, deciphering its sense and epistemic value, from the Critique of Practical Reason to the Foundations of Metaphysics of Customs.

Neste texto pretende-se sintetizar os fundamentos a priori do principio da autonomia de Kant, decifrando o seu sentido e valor gnoseologicos desde a Critica da Razao Pratica ate aos Fundamentos da Metafisica dos Costumes.

Resumo Ensaio expositivo e interpretativo das perguntas sobre a natureza humana e das respostas que o pensamento moderno, em Merlin Donald e outros, vai dando. A perspetiva fisicalista, neurobiológica, é analisada a partir de Joseph LeDoux, e outros, comentando as suas teses principais. É dada ênfase particular à evolução das capacidades da mente humana na transição da cultura mimética para a cultura oral, a criação mítica e o advento da escrita e das outras formas de cultura exterior simbólica. Na crítica (...) ao monismo fisicalista é discutido o que se pode entender por qualia e de que modo este entendimento justifica a aceitação de um “hiato explicativo” como o pensam Urbano Sidoncha e outros autores. É abordada a relação entre Pensamento e Linguagem a partir de Lev Vygotsky. Considerando a ética como um qualia procura-se fixar, empiricamente, a diferença entre ética e eticidade como contraponto à diferença entre autoconsciência e consciência cognitiva. Como proposta final é apresentada uma pergunta radical e oferecida uma temerária resposta sobre o possível conhecimento total da natureza humana. Palavras-chave : autoconsciência, consciência, ética, palavra, qualiaExpository and interpretive essay of the questions on human nature and the responses that modern thought, in Merlin Donald et al., has been producing. The physicalist, neurobiological perspective is analysed as from Joseph LeDoux et al., by commenting on his main theses. Particular emphasis is given to the evolution of the human mind’s capacities in the transition from the mimetic culture to the oral culture, the mythical creation and the advent of writing and the other forms of external symbolic culture. In the critique of the physicalist monism, one discusses what can be understood by qualia and how this understanding justifies the acceptance of an ‘explanatory hiatus’ such as Urbano Sidoncha and other authors think. The relationship between Thought and Language, as from Lev Vygotsky, is addressed. Considering ethics as a qualia, one tries to establish, in an empirical way, the difference between ethics and ethicity in contrast to the difference between self-consciousness and cognitive consciousness. As a final proposition, an extreme question is raised and a daring answer is put forward on the possible full knowledge of human nature. Keywords : awareness, consciousness, ethics, qualia, word. (shrink)

A linguagem de comunicabilidade da imagética barroca expressa-se com inesperado ênfase no caso de uma desconhecida tela que representa Jesus Cristo perante Caifás e a negação de S. Pedro, num altar do Convento dos frades eremitas paulistas da vila de Portel. Pintada cerca de 1660, essa tela, que se inspira numa estampa nórdica de Schelte a Bolswert segundo modelo caravagesco de Gerard Seghers, leva a colocar a questão do papel assumido pela gravura italo­flamenga (a estampa solta e a estampa de (...) livro) na construção de uma imagética contra-reformista ao serviço da militância católica e do convencimento das populações em larga escala. A peça, que é devida, segundo se crê, a um secundário pintor proto-barroco de nome João da Cunha, morador em Beja, reforça a ideia do interesse da nossa pintura regional por cânones de influência caravagesca, uma tendência quase ignorada na arte portuguesa do século XVII. A pintura de Portel mostra uma narração para serviço do convencimento e revela-se um qualifi­cado painel de devoção, inspirado em modelo tenebrista de Seghers, com o seu dinâmico grupo de figuras a la candela que assiste ao trecho bíblico. Testemunha-se um caso de encomenda religiosa periférica que, apesar do seu grau aparente de vulgaridade, assume, através da utiliza­ção de uma estampa de sinal erudito, a experiência da inovação possível e as possibilidades da reconversão imagética do modelo, a fim de melhor servir o rigorismo do seu impacto visual. (shrink)

BackgroundIn the last 2 weeks of January 2021, Portugal was the worst country in the world in incidence of infections and deaths due to COVID-19. As a result, the pressure on the healthcare system increased exponentially, exceeding its capacities and leaving hospitals in near collapse. This scenario caused multiple constraints, particularly for hospital medical staff. Previous studies conducted at different moments during the pandemic reported that COVID-19 has had significant negative impacts on healthcare workers’ psychological health, including stress, anxiety, depression, (...) burnout, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and sleep disturbances. However, there are many uncertainties regarding the professional quality of life of hospital nurses and physicians. To address gaps in previous research on secondary traumatic stress, we focused on healthcare workers working in hospitals affected by a major traumatic event: the third wave of COVID-19.ObjectivesThe aim of the present study was to identify the contribution of personal and work-related contextual variables on professional quality of life of healthcare workers.MethodsCross-sectional study with a web-based questionnaire given to physicians and nurses working in a hospital setting. A total of 853 healthcare professionals participated in the survey assessing professional quality of life compassion satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout. Factors of professional quality of life were assessed using regression analysis.ResultsMost of the participants showed moderate or high levels of compassion satisfaction, whereas the majority of them experienced moderate levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. The analyzed variables demonstrated no differences between professionals who were directly or not involved in the care of COVID-19 patients. Parental status was found to be a significant factor in compassion satisfaction. Female gender was significantly associated with more susceptibility to secondary traumatization. Factors that may potentially contribute to burnout include years of professional experience and the number of work hours per week.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has created a new challenge for the healthcare system. Burnout and secondary traumatic stress can lead to medical errors and impact standards of patient care, particularly compromising compassionate care. It is therefore recommended that hospitals develop psychoeducational initiatives to support professionals in dealing with barriers to compassion. (shrink)

A aprovação pela Assembleia da República de uma lei sobre declarações antecipadas de vontade justifica que se comentem os textos que lhe serviram de base, apresentados pelo Partido Socialista, Partido Social-Democrata, Partido CDS-PP e Bloco de Esquerda, na perspetiva da sua formulaçāo jurídica e de algumas dificuldades éticas encontradas na sua aplicabilidade médica. Da análise das propostas deduzem-se os requisitos jurídicos, éticos e de assistência na doença necessários para que se escreva um bom "testamento vital" que não levante dificuldades insuperáveis (...) quando o médico tiver de ter em conta estas declarações antecipadas de vontade face a um doente inconsciente que não pode manifestar a sua vontade actual. Analisa-se o conceito de autonomia diacrónica, como uma autonomia que se exerce hoje para ser eficaz amanhã e critica-se esta opçao legislativa, Por fim sugere-se que a melhor soluçao para a insegurança da pessoa, face á qualidade dos cuidados que lhe serão prestados na fase final da sua vida, não é o testamento vital mas a designação de um Procurador de saúde. The approval by the Portuguese National Parliament of a law concerning the anticipated declaration of will deserves a commentary on the texts upon which the Socialist, Social-Democrat, Centrist, and Leftist parties based their respective juridical formulations. The commentary will include a consideration of the ethical difficulties found in their eventual medical application. From an analysis of the proposals, one can deduce the juridical, ethical, and care requirements necessary to write a living will that does not raise insuperable difficulties when the physician has to consider these anticipated declarations of will in regard to a patient who is unconscious and unable to express his will as he currently understands it. The concept of diachronic autonomy, i.e., an autonomy that is exercised today such that it might be efficacious tomorrow, receives a critical analysis. Finally, the author suggests that the best solution for a person's insecurity in the face of the quality of care that will be administered to him in the final phase of his life is not a living will but the designation of an attorney-in-fact who will look after his health issues. (shrink)

Relating Narratives is a major new work by the philosopher and feminist thinker Adriana Cavarero. First published in Italian to widespread acclaim, Relating Narratives is a fascinating and challenging new account of the relationship between selfhood and narration. Drawing a diverse array of thinkers from both the philosophical and the literary tradition, from Sophocles and Homer to Hannah Arendt, Karen Blixen, Walter Benjamin and Borges, Adriana Cadarero's theory of the `narratable self' shows how narrative models in philosophy and (...) literature can open new ways of thinking about formation of human identities. By showing how each human being has a unique story that can be told about them, Adriana Cavarero inaugurates an important shift in thinking about subjectivity and identity which relies not upon categorical or discursive norms, but rather seeks to account for `who' each one of us uniquely is. (shrink)

This essay focuses on anthropomorphism as both a form of hype and fallacy. As a form of hype, anthropomorphism is shown to exaggerate AI capabilities and performance by attributing human-like traits to systems that do not possess them. As a fallacy, anthropomorphism is shown to distort moral judgments about AI, such as those concerning its moral character and status, as well as judgments of responsibility and trust. By focusing on these two dimensions of anthropomorphism in AI, the essay highlights negative (...) ethical consequences of the phenomenon in this field. (shrink)

This article discusses the issue of public accusations and slander in Machiavelli’s Discorsi. It is argued that the ordering of public prosecution strengthened control over social conflicts that could be harmful to the exercise of civil freedom. This institution prevented dissensions between the plebs and the nobility from resulting in social disorders that could make the body politic sick. It describes the role of public accusations and how slander could interfere with the stability of the republic. The analysis was guided (...) by the reading of chapters 7 and 8 of book I of Discorsi. In Rome, acussations resulted in punishment and slander was controlled, un like what happened in Florence, Machiavelli’s hometown. (shrink)

O presente artigo objetiva refletir sobre as formas de resistência da religiosidade, da memória e da cultura negra da Comunidade de Remanescente de Quilombo Mel da Pedreira, localizada no município de Macapá, estado do Amapá. Uma comunidade que possui sua história, práticas culturais e identidade marcadas pela religiosidade de matriz afro-ameríndia e posteriormente protestante. O presente trabalho trata-se do resultado final de um dos capítulos de um estudo etnográfico de natureza qualitativa que adotou a pesquisa bibliográfica, a análise documental, a (...) entrevista semiestruturada e ação colaborativa no âmbito da Tese de Doutorado em Teologia. O fator relevante para a escolha desta comunidade deve-se ao fato da mesma se diferenciar das demais, por não trazer como parte de sua cultura, os rituais de matriz africana e as festas de santo católico, à medida que realiza cultos evangélicos. No entanto, os resultados apontam que embora essa comunidade quilombola apresente princípios protestantes em sua forma de vida, nos hábitos e nos costumes, há evidências de resistência de religiosidade afro-ameríndia em suas manifestações religiosas, pois utiliza a Caixa de Marabaixo e o Tambor - instrumentos símbolos de raiz negra muito utilizado nas celebrações de matriz africana no Amapá. (shrink)

What does a truly democratic experience of political action look like today? In this provocative new work, Adriana Cavarero weighs in on contemporary debates about the relationship between democracy, happiness, and dissent. Drawing upon Arendt's understanding of politics as a participatory experience, but also discussing texts by Émile Zola, Elias Canetti, Boris Pasternak, and Roland Barthes, along with engaging Judith Butler, Cavarero proposes a new view of democracy, based not on violence, but rather on the spontaneous experience of a (...) plurality of bodies coming together in public. Expanding upon the themes explored in previous works, Cavarero offers a timely intervention into current thinking about the nature of democracy, suggesting that its emergence thrives on the nonviolent creativity of a widespread, participatory, and relational power that is shared horizontally rather than vertically. From digital democracy to selfies to contemporary protest movements, Cavarero argues that we need to rethink our focus on individual happiness and turn toward rediscovering the joyful emotions of birth through plural interaction. Yes, let us be happy, she urges, but let us do so publicly, politically, together. (shrink)

Words like "terrorism" and "war" no longer encompass the scope of contemporary violence. With this explosive book, Adriana Cavarero, one of the world's most provocative feminist theorists and political philosophers, effectively renders such terms obsolete. She introduces a new word—"horrorism"—to capture the experience of violence. Unlike terror, horrorism is a form of violation grounded in the offense of disfiguration and massacre. Numerous outbursts of violence fall within Cavarero's category of horrorism, especially when the phenomenology of violence is considered from (...) the perspective of the victim rather than that of the warrior. Cavarero locates horrorism in the philosophical, political, literary, and artistic representations of defenseless and vulnerable victims. She considers both terror and horror on the battlefields of the _Iliad_, in the decapitation of Medusa, and in the murder of Medea's children. In the modern arena, she forges a link between horror, extermination, and massacre, especially the Nazi death camps, and revisits the work of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt's thesis on totalitarianism, and Arendt's debate with Georges Bataille on the estheticization of violence and cruelty. In applying the horroristic paradigm to the current phenomena of suicide bombers, torturers, and hypertechnological warfare, Cavarero integrates Susan Sontag's views on photography and the eroticization of horror, as well as ideas on violence and the state advanced by Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. Through her searing analysis, Caverero proves that violence against the helpless claims a specific vocabulary, one that has been known for millennia, and not just to the Western tradition. Where common language fails to form a picture of atrocity, horrorism paints a brilliant portrait of its vivid reality. (shrink)

The human voice does not deceive. The one who is speaking is inevitably revealed by the singular sound of her voice, no matter “what” she says. We take this fact for granted—for example, every time someone asks, over the telephone, “Who is speaking?” and receives as a reply the familiar utterance, “It’s me.” Starting from the given uniqueness of every voice, Cavarero rereads the history of philosophy through its peculiar evasion of this embodied uniqueness. She shows how this history—along with (...) the fields it comprehends, such as linguistics, musicology, political theory, and studies in orality—might be grasped as the “devocalization of Logos,” as the invariable privileging of semantike over phone, mind over body. Female figures—from the Sirens to the Muses, from Echo to opera singers—provide a crucial counterhistory, one in which the embodied voice triumphs over the immaterial semantic. Reconstructing this counterhistory, Cavarero proposes a “politics of the voice” wherein the ancient bond between Logos and politics is reconfigured, and wherein what matters is not the communicative content of a given discourse, but rather who is speaking. (shrink)

This essay answers two questions that continue to drive debate in moral and legal philosophy; namely, ‘Is a risk of harm a wrong?’ and ‘Is a risk of harm a harm?’. The essay’s central claim is that to risk harm can be both to wrong and to harm. This stands in contrast to the respective positions of Heidi Hurd and Stephen Perry, whose views represent prominent extremes in this debate about risks. The essay shows that there is at least one (...) category of risks – intentional impositions of risk on unconsenting agents – which can be both wrongful and harmful. The wrongfulness of these risks can be established when, on the balance of reasons, one ought not to impose them. The harmfulness of these risks can be established when the risks are shown to set back legitimate interests. In those cases where risks constitute a denial of the moral status of agents, risks set back agents’ interest in dignity. In these ways, the essay shows that there are instances when a risk can constitute both a wrong and a harm. (shrink)

In this article, Adriana Cavarero and Nidesh Lawtoo resume a dialogue on mimetic inclinations in view of furthering a relational, embodied and affective conception of subjectivity that challenges homo erectus from the immanent perspective of homo mimeticus. If a dominant philosophical tradition tends to restrict mimesis to an illusory representation of reality, Plato was the first to know that mimesis also operates as an affective force, or pathos, that dispossesses the subject. While Plato tended to emphasize the pathological implications (...) of mimesis, Cavarero and Lawtoo agree that both mimesis and inclinations go beyond good and evil and can be put to both pathological and democratic use. Picking up a dialogue started during a walk in New York City, Cavarero and Lawtoo, take their shared interests in Joseph Conrad's relating narratives as an occasion to discuss good and bad mimetic inclinations in contemporary politics and ethics. Joined in conclusion by the Gendered Mimesis team (Willow Verkerk, Isabelle Dahms and Giulia Rignano), topics addressed include new fascism, surging democracy, ethical responsibility for vulnerable others, hypermaternity and public happiness in a precarious world. (shrink)

In his unpublished 1979 Lectures on the Philosophy of Mind, Saul Kripke offers a knowledge argument against materialism focusing on deaf people who lack knowledge of auditory experience. Kripke's argument is a precursor of Frank Jackson's better‐known knowledge argument against materialism (1982). The paper sets out Kripke's argument, brings out its interest and philosophical importance, and explores some similarities and differences between Kripke's knowledge argument and Jackson's.

Adriana Novoa and Alex Levine offer here a history and interpretation of the reception of Darwinism in Argentina, illuminating the ways culture shapes ...

This pathbreaking work pursues two interwoven themes. Firstly, it engages in a deconstruction of Ancient philosopher's texts--mainly from Plato, but also from Homer and Parmenides--in order to free four Greek female figures from the patriarchal discourse which for centuries had imprisoned them in a particular role. Secondly, it attempts to construct a symbolic female order, reinterpreting these figures from a new perspective. Building on the theory of sexual difference, Cavarero shows that death is the central category on which the whole (...) edifice of traditional philosophy is based. By contrast, the category of birth provides the thread with which new concepts of feminist criticism can be woven together to establish a fresh way of thinking. Cavarero develops a philosophical narrative which, by re-interpreting each of the four figures of ancient thought, uncovers several images of the female desire for self-representation. Plato himself had not forseen that one day female subjectivity would assert its autonomy, plundering and throwing into confusion the patriarchal text in order to tell another story. (shrink)

I introduce a novel multidimensional framework tailored to investigate a set of phenomena that might appear intractable and render them amenable to scientific inquiry. In particular, I focus on examining altered states of consciousness that appear to the experiencing subject as “contentless” or “objectless” states in some form, either by having disrupted or reduced content of awareness, or content that appears as missing altogether. By drawing on empirical research, I propose a cluster of phenomenological dimensions aimed at enhancing our understanding (...) of this group of experiences of minimal awareness, including “Richness of the Content”, “Bodily-Awareness”, “Passage of Time”, “Attentional Focus”, and “Self-Revelation”. The result is a robust framework that provides precise scientific terminology, facilitating its operationalisation and adaptability for future empirical work. I show the explanatory power of this framework through a case study of the state of clear light sleep—a state widely reported by Indo-Tibetan Buddhist traditions as an instance of pure awareness during sleep, a state of consciousness-as-such. This rare phenomenon has gained increasing attention in contemporary analytic philosophy of mind for the study of the nature of consciousness. However, we still lack consensus on its characterisation and potential identity with other associated states. I end the paper by illustrating how the state of clear light sleep can be situated in relation to other associated states and more ordinary ones as regions of a multidimensional state space. (shrink)

Barnett Newman : Adam's line -- Kant and the newborn -- Virginia Woolf and the shadow of the "I" -- Plato erectus sed -- Men and trees -- We are not monkeys : on erect posture -- Hobbes and the macroanthropos -- Elias Canetti : upright before the dead -- Artemisia : the allegory of inclination -- Leonardo and maternal inclination -- Hannah Arendt : "a child has been born unto us" -- Schemata for a postural ethics -- Coda : (...) adieu to Lévinas. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:“A Child Has Been Born unto Us”Arendt on BirthAdriana CavareroTranslated by Silvia Guslandi and Cosette BruhnsIn The Human Condition, at the end of the dense chapter on action, Hannah Arendt reiterates that action, that is, the political faculty for excellence, “is ontologically rooted” in the fact of natality, “like an ever-present reminder that men, though they must die, are not born in order to die but in order to (...) begin” (Arendt 1998, 246).1 To reinforce this argument, Arendt compares action to miracles, and makes an interesting and, as we will see, somewhat perplexing reference to the Bible:[The miracle] is, in other words, the birth of new men and the new beginning, the action they are capable of by virtue of being born. Only the full experience of this capacity can bestow upon human affairs faith and hope, those two essential characteristics of human existence which Greek antiquity ignored altogether.…It is this faith in and hope for the world that found perhaps its most glorious and most succinct expression in the few words with which the Gospels announced their “glad tidings”: “A child has been born unto us.”(HC, 247)The citation is suggestive, but incorrect. In the Gospels, which do announce with true joy the birth of the child, the phrase as it is quoted here does not exist. It appears instead in Isaiah (9:6), translated into English both as “For to us a child is borne,” and, in the version of the King James Bible from which Arendt is plausibly drawing, as “For unto us a child is born.” The error, if indeed it is an error, is thus twofold (see Young-Ah Gottlieb 2003, 136ff.), since [End Page 12] both the passage referenced and the words cited are incorrect. That Arendt frequently cites from memory, and that the citations tend to be bibliographically incorrect, is known to her interpreters, but in this case the error ends up being quite significant. As is well known, the prophetic text carries a strong Messianic burden, and such a burden would trouble significantly the thesis that Arendt is here illustrating; the Gospels’ message creates instead fewer obstacles to her strategy of framing the meaning of birth within the mundane horizon that in her vocabulary takes the names of “world” or “worldliness.” Since “‘to live’ and to ‘be among men’” mean the same thing (HC, 7), the child, every newborn, that is, every human being that makes its entrance in the world, is not, according to the Arendtian vision, born to us, coming from elsewhere, but appears among us here. The scenario of birth, like that of action, whatever be the holy text that mentions or exemplarily validates them, is, for Arendt, a radically mundane scenario that does not call into question any transcendence or religious instance of salvation.Jewish, secular, and classically trained in Greek and Latin, Arendt, who had little familiarity with the Jewish language and tradition, met Christian thought primarily through Saint Augustine, to whom she dedicated her doctoral thesis (Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin, published in Berlin in 1929 and then in English in 1996 as Love and Saint Augustine), and who remained a constant point of reference throughout her work. A phrase from Augustine—initium ut esset homo creatus est—present in the thesis, appears, in fact, in Arendt’s later texts, including The Human Condition, indeed with obsessive repetitiveness in reference to the category of birth.2 In her monumental work The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, a full seven years prior to The Human Condition, Arendt already writes: “Beginning, before it becomes a historical event, is the supreme capacity of man; politically, it is identical with man’s freedom. Initium ut esset homo creatus est, ‘that a beginning be made, man was created’, said Augustine. This beginning is guaranteed by each new birth; it is indeed every man” (Arendt 1973, 479). On the philosophically anomalous theme of birth, the contributions of the Christian tradition that Arendt does appreciate are predominantly two: the “glad tidings” that herald the coming of the child, and Augustine’s comments on the narrative of Creation.Natality, Birth, and the Human Condition of... (shrink)

This volume bridges contemporary philosophical conceptions of risk and responsibility and offers an extensive examination of the topic. It shows that risk and responsibility combine in ways that give rise to new philosophical questions and problems. Philosophical interest in the relationship between risk and responsibility continues to rise, due in no small part due to environmental crises, emerging technologies, legal developments, and new medical advances. Despite such interest, scholars are just now working out how to conceive of the links between (...) risk and responsibility, the implications that risks may have to conceptions of responsibility (and vice versa), as well as how such theorizing might play out in applied cases. With contributions from leading scholars, this volume brings together new work examining the interplay between risk and responsibility, exploring its varied philosophical aspects and applications to contemporary issues in law, bioethics, technology, and environmental ethics. Risk and Responsibility in Context will be of interest to philosophers working in ethics, bioethics, philosophy of law, and philosophy of technology, as well as scholars and practitioners in law, health and science management, public policy, and environmental studies. (shrink)

This essay addresses moral aspects of using carbon offsets for counteracting individuals’ luxury emissions. After introducing and outlining the main topics and terms related to carbon offsetting, this essay answers three objections that have been levied against carbon offsetting: objections from the indulgences analogy, objections from the directness of the duty not to harm, and separateness objections. The essay argues that advocates for offsetting have resources to defend against these criticisms by pointing to particularities of individual emissions’ harmfulness, as well (...) as the preemptive nature of offsetting. The essay then shows that in spite of these defenses there is reason to regard not emitting as a better option because of a host of problems that plague offsetting in its current forms. The essay concludes that offsetting enhances individuals’ options for discharging their duty not to harm, but that standards of justice and efficacy need to be adopted. (shrink)

This paper presents the results of the first study part of the research project ‘Objectless sleep experiences’ aimed at exploring the phenomenological blueprints of conscious sleep states that lack a distinct object of awareness. A total of 573 responses were collected from an online survey that asked about the incidence, frequency, and phenomenology of a range of sleep phenomena. The survey’s results provide a better understanding of the variety of sleep experiences by yielding preliminary insights into the phenomenology of objectless (...) sleep experiences. Additionally, the results show that putative instances of objectless awareness during sleep are rare. From the thematic analysis, reports of objectless sleep experiences were characterised as a state of “void”, “emptiness”, or simply an awareness of the sleeping state. Moreover, two sorts of temporal dynamics of this sort of experience were distinguished from the reports: following the dissolution of a dream scene or arising spontaneously during sleep without recall of what preceded it. Furthermore, the results provide preliminary insights into the phenomenology of certain waking experiences that some have regarded as potentially related to instances of objectless sleep awareness. Such experiences include the phenomenon of white dreaming, the feeling of knowing, upon awakening, that one had a dream but was unable to recall its content. (shrink)

La vulnerabilidad narrativa, producto de la exclusión de los marcos de representación del contexto, que priva a algunos de ser vistos, escuchados y sentidos por la mayoría, implica la precariedad de amplias generaciones transformadas en “vidas fungibles”, esto es, en instrumentos vivos y animados de las máquinas de la guerra. Estos hombres y mujeres, empero, no son engranajes de la destrucción, sino seres con un nombre y una historia singular. Su capacidad de traducir narrativamente la realidad ofrece otro encuadre de (...) interpretación sobre el pasado y el futuro a partir de su llamado a una nueva vida y al fin de la violencia armada. Aquí reside la propuesta de esta contribución, en la que, usando las reflexiones de Hannah Arendt y de Judith Butler, además de una entrevista a profundidad con un excombatiente colombiano en proceso de reintegración, se advierte en la narración la respuesta a la fungibilidad —‍ la condición de existencias usufructuables, reemplazables y matables‍‍— de forma que se posibilita una vida biográfica, cargada de porvenir. (shrink)

These are the supplementary materials of the article "Exploration of Contentless Awareness During Sleep: An Online Survey".

This work shows that two problems—the reference class and the mental state of the agent—undermine the plausibility of the ‘blameworthiness tracks risk thesis’ (BTRT), which states, prima facie, an agent is more blameworthy for imposing a greater rather than smaller risk. The article first outlines core concepts. It then shows how the two problems undermine BTRT; namely, (1) no blame attribution based on risk imposition is unequivocal; (2) when the materialization of risk is subject to chance, an agent’s decision can (...) ground an equal degree of blameworthiness regardless of whether the risk is greater or lesser. (shrink)

Chakravartty puts forward a view of scientific knowledge that conceives of properties attributed to objects by scientific models as dispositions. Those dispositions refer to the capacity of an object to behave differently in different circumstances. This pluralism of behaviour is intended to show that perspectivalism does not exclude the possibility of non-perspectival knowledge. To support this claim, he offers an analogy between conflicting models and contrastive explanations. I examine the strength of the purported analogy between conflicting models and contrastive explanations. (...) Then, I analyse this dispositionalist account of properties in order to assess whether ontological pluralism can meet the challenge that conflicting models pose to the scientific realism. To conclude, I contend that to accomplish this goal, a more detailed account of dispositional properties should be provided, as well as a theory of explanatory relevance. (shrink)

The contribution of recent theories of sound and audition has been extremely significant for the development of a philosophy of auditory perception; however, none tackle the question of how our consciousness of auditory states arises. My goal is to show how consciousness about our auditory experience gets triggered. I examine a range of auditory mental phenomena to show how we are able to capture qualitative distinctions of auditory sensations. I argue that our consciousness of auditory states consists in having thoughts (...) that organize our experience. Although my proposals could be adapted to fit with other theories of consciousness, here I expand David Rosenthal’s high-order-thought theory and his quality-space theory, and show their usefulness for analyzing our auditory experience. I use quality-space to account for pitch, timbre, loudness, and sound location. I further show that our high-order-thoughts capture qualitative aspects of our auditory sensations. I conclude by demonstrating how a hypothetical listener in possession of a refined vocabulary describes and reports her high-order-thoughts about her musical experience. (shrink)

At the very beginning of the history of philosophy, with Plato, we are told the strange story of some men dwelling in a cave and looking at shadows. Immobilized by chains since childhood for all their lives, they are forced to sit on the cave's floor and are impeded from standing up. Hence, whoever they are and whatever they do, the label Homo erectus as a general category denoting the vertical posture of the human animal is decidedly unfit for their (...) position. The strange story, however, goes on and recounts how one of them, by managing to get rid of the chains, for the first time rises to his feet. The familiar feature of Homo erectus, intended not as an extinct hominid species but as the postural human standard .. (shrink)

This paper presents a series of 4 single subject experiments aimed to investigate whether children with autism show more social engagement when interacting with the Nao robot, compared to a human partner in a motor imitation task. The Nao robot imitates gross arm movements of the child in real-time. Different behavioral criteria (i.e. eye gaze, gaze shifting, free initiations and prompted initiations of arm movements, and smile/laughter) were analyzed based on the video data of the interaction. The results are mixed (...) and suggest a high variability in reactions to the Nao robot. The results are as follows: For Child2 and Child3, the results indicate no effect of the Nao robot in any of the target variables. Child1 and Child4 showed more eye gaze and smile/laughter in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the human partner and Child1 showed a higher frequency of motor initiations in the interaction with the Nao robot compared to the baselines, but not with respect to the human-interaction. The robot proved to be a better facilitator of shared attention only for Child1. Keywords: human-robot interaction; assistive robotics; autism. (shrink)

Adriana Ayers studies the evolution of kotex advertising, focusing specifically on the way in which African American women were figured into changing advertisers’ conceptions of womanhood. The article analyzes images featured in various women’s magazines to examine how ideas surrounding menstruation were packaged and sold to women.