This paper aims to present and discuss Guy Debord and the Situationists' conception of culture. In doing so, it is necessary to clear up a few misconceptions from the outset: contrary to appearances, they do not advocate an anti-cultural attitude. Contrariwise, we are at the antipodes of “Neo‑primitivism". When Debord asserts his rejection of contemporary “Neo‑primitivism”, this is akin, in Schillerian language, to rejecting the position of the “savage”, as depicted by Rousseau in his canonical romantic portrait. In the same (...) language, we should also say that Debord rejects the opposite position, that of the "barbarian", who destroys life and sensibility in favour of abstractions. (shrink)

This paper aims to examine the nature of the situationist concept of spectacle, especially by separating it into its philosophical elements, in order to check the effectiveness, from a systematic point of view, of situationism’s radical critique. In doing so, the main focus of our attention will be Debord’s major theoretical work: Society of the Spectacle. In fact, the concept of spectacle, repeatedly evoked in other writings, has its most far-reaching version in that small but great book, whose first edition (...) was published in 1967. (shrink)

Even today there persist perceptions of the thought of António Sérgio (1883 – 1969) that confine this prominent philosopher, journalist, sociologist and essayist within rather narrow bounds of strictly classicist framing − in other words, immune to the influences of ‘sensibility’. The present study, however, endeavours to suggest that this is no more than a limited glimpse, a glimpse that in fact ignores the intricacy of a Sérgian manner of perceiving. What one confronts here is a cultural myth that calls (...) for being deconstructed in order to demonstrate the substance of Sérgio’s humanist discourse. The study leverages, to this effect, both the philosophy of Jean- Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) and the novel "A Cidade e as Serras" by Eça de Queiroz (1845 –1900). (shrink)

As far as the relationship between The Society of the Spectacle (1967) and Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle (1988) is concerned, one either acknowledges Guy Debord's self interpretation, according to which these books complement each other, or one is forced to concede, on the contrary, the existence of an "epistemological cut", undermining, therefore, the revolutionary unity of Debord’s work. According to the first hypothesis, Machiavelli and Marx will eventually be linked up in a Situationist project to overthrow spectacular (...) society. However, the second hypothesis involves dismissing political economy analysis, whose field is apparently occupied by police logic. Because Debord’s interpretation seems to us to be more plausible, even though its defence is not an easy task, we will endorse his point of view. (shrink)

The Letter from Pero Vaz de Caminha to the King of Portugal, Manuel I, is a unique document because its account of first contact with a people unknown in Europe up to that time may be regarded as evidence of the anthropological impossibility of a neutral gaze. This is an asymmetric testimony, as we do not possess (for obvious reasons) the Amerindian counterpart of European discourse. Although the letter’s author is someone who fully assumes the objectivity claim, we must not (...) neglect the rhetorical framework of this assumption. Hence the need for textual analysis that seeks to somehow discern the boundaries between fiction and reality. It is not as an ethnographic document, indeed, that we should value the Letter. In fact, it is necessary to recognize that this is a beautiful piece of literature whose architectural weave owes everything to the classical mechanisms of Rhetoric. (shrink)

This paper intends to validate the hermeneutic relevance of three core theses: José Matias (i) is demonstrably an “open work”, (ii) it constitutes a philosophical short story and (iii) it illustrates the failure of panlogism. With regard to the first thesis, it is necessary to concede up front that this interpretation of José Matias does not purport to be unique nor does it encompass the richness of the work’s content. Yet, given the second thesis, the paper intends to defy the (...) common notion among critics that the philosophical references that pervade the Queirozian text fulfill a merely rhetorical function, in the pejorative sense of this expression. Finally, the third thesis seeks to bring the reader to realize that after all, in this narrative, we have a subtle literary incarnation of the nineteenth-century crisis of reason, of which ‘scientism’, far from a cure, was nothing but a symptom. (shrink)

A interrogação que preside a este ensaio não busca, à maneira heideggeriana, o impensado esquecimento de um certo desenvolvimento historial, mas há de apenas delimitar o estado da arte da visão cartesiana do mundo. Para o efeito, no entanto, não vai além do horizonte epistêmico da Filosofia da Biologia, porque o seu principal objectivo consiste em diagnosticar a “crise de identidade” da Biologia, cujo sucesso experimental não deve camuflar a sua “depressão epistemológica”. Na verdade, trata‑se de uma disciplina que, entre (...) física e metafísica, ainda não encontrou o seu espaço teórico. Ora, é possível remontar tal dificuldade à raiz filosófica da Modernidade. Assim sendo, impõe‑se uma avaliação da mutação paradigmática que Descartes introduz na ordem do saber, de acordo com a qual a investigação racional passa a ter por destino o domínio da Natureza. (shrink)

In Mind and World, John McDowell intends to make the diagnosis of a fundamental philosophical anxiety, whose hard core, from his point of view, is deeply rooted in the relationship that usually occurs between mind and world, as the title suggests. Moreover, assuming entirely the clinical consequences of metaphor, McDowell’s main aim is to point towards a cure. This therapy, as we shall see, doesn’t have an effective Wittgensteinian direction, in contrast with McDowell’s assertions. On the other hand, I will (...) show, in particular on the issue of skepticism, a contrasting vision of «analytical» and «phenomenological» approaches to the problems of knowledge. (shrink)

Revisiting May 1968, this paper highlights the critical nature of Guy Debord's Marxism. Fifty years after the French events, the question then arises: “To what extent does the Situationist definition of anticapitalist subjectivity still preserve its historical-critical relevance?” The answer is not simple. After all, it amounts to the evaluation of the critical Marxism of Debord, in order to distinguish, in its regard, what is living and what is dead.

In this paper, I will focus on the nature of the modernity from the perspective of a «logical» square. On the basis of its vectorial orientation, I will show the value of Guy Debord’s work, according to which, undeniably, there is a need to articulate two core issues of our time: «How does a multitude turn into a class?» (Benjamin’s question) and «How does the individual become a subject?» (Althusser’s question). It is precisely the nexus between these questions that allows (...) us to draw the line between the modernity and the postmodernity. (shrink)

In this paper, I will focus on the nature of the Situationist concept of everyday life, in order to highlight not only its objective content but also its ambiguity. Moreover, I will demonstrate that there is, from the perspective of a poetics of everyday life, and in spite of the diversity of development stages of the Situationist International, an undeniable unity of its revolutionary program.

Satisfying the demand of questioning the contemporary condition implies, first of all, a criticism of present times. From this point of view, it becomes clear that art and revolution whilst practices of creative disruption are undoubtedly in crisis. Hence, it is imperative to re-read Guy Debord, who not only refused the aestheticization of politics, but also the politicization of aesthetics. For the hermeneutics of contemporary, his work is, of course, essential. Proving it is, in short, the purpose of this paper.

Abstract.In recent issues of Zygon, numerous reflections have been published commenting on where the field of science‐and‐religion has been, where it presently stands, and where it should move in the future. These reflections touch on the importance of the dialogue and raise questions as to what audience the dialogue addresses and whom it should address. Some scholars see the dialogue as prospering, while others point out that much work needs to be done to make the dialogue more accessible to a (...) larger audience and more successful at tackling the provocative questions before us. Other academics view the questions themselves as needing further consideration and focus before answers to them can even be explored. In this article I provide a general overview of these essays by outlining some general categories of thought that seem to emerge from the contributors. I then present some of my own opinions concerning the future of the science‐religion field and emphasize that the dialogue, in addition to its traditional roles, must further the philosophical framework that can aid humanity in resolving the most pressing global concerns of our time. (shrink)

The initial problem which motivated the writing of this thesis arose from reading of Emile by Rousseau. In this work, it was possible to detect the influence of different theoretical approaches, such as rationalism and empiricism, inspiring the development of the educational plan designed by Rousseau for his imaginary student (Emile). The very core question of the present thesis regards to whether there was a theory of knowledge pertaining to Rousseau’s philosophical thinking and, if so, how it was related to (...) his theories of education. In the set of his oeuvre, Rousseau’s affiliation to authors like Descartes, Leibniz, Locke and Malebranche, as well as Condillac, Diderot, D’Holbach and Helvétius was discovered. As the reading of the great philosophical work of Rousseau progressed, an original knowledge theory was discovered, of the kind which accepts the coexistence of opposite thoughts. Pedagogy, in the context of (the work) Emile, arose out of the miscellany of such theories and also for the intense philosophical maturing process on the core of Rousseau’s thinking. This study intended, therefore, to understand the origin and development of Rousseau’s theory of knowledge, and also to figure out how the philosopher formulated his theories on Education, especially in Emile. The object of this research, materialized through the extensive bibliography of the Swiss philosopher, was intensively read and analyzed. The methodology used was that of comparative, descriptive and critical documentary research of the mentioned authors. This research is divided into three sections: the first one intends to investigate the philosophical influence from different authors on the foundations of Rousseau’s epistemology; the second section addresses Rousseau’s theories of Education; the third and final part investigates the link between theory of knowledge and Education within Rousseau’s philosophical thought. -/- . (shrink)

In a previous issue of Zygon (Carvalho 2007), I explored the role of scientists—especially those engaging the science-religion dialogue—within the arena of global equity health, world poverty, and human rights. I contended that experimental biologists, who might have reduced agency because of their professional workload or lack of individual resources, can still unite into collective forces with other scientists as well as human rights organizations, medical doctors, and political and civic leaders to foster progressive change in our world. In (...) this article, I present some recent findings from research on three emerging viruses—HIV, dengue, and rotavirus—to explore the factors that lead to the geographical expansion of these viruses and the increase in frequency of the infectious diseases they cause. I show how these viruses are generating problems for geopolitical stability, human rights, and equity health care for developing nations that are already experiencing a growing poverty crisis. I suggest some avenues of future research for the scientific community for the movement toward resolution of these problems and indicate where the science-religion field can be of additional aid. (shrink)

Corria o ano de 2007 quando o jornalista britânico Peter Trickett publicou na Austrália um livro no qual atribuía a descoberta da Austrália ao português Cristóvão de Mendonça, ainda durante a primeira metade do século XVI. Já nos anos setenta do século XX tinha havido uma acalorada discussão entre historiadores acerca da eventual descoberta da Austrália por portugueses, mas o assunto tinha ficado adormecido durante algumas décadas. Quando em 2008 se publicou, em Portugal, Para Além de Capricórnio. Como os navegadores (...) portugueses descobriram e cartografaram secretamente a costa da Austrália e da Nova Zelândia, 250 anos antes da chegada do Capitão Cook, a tradução do livro de Trickett para português, o Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra reuniu especialistas de diversas áreas para discutirem o tema. No presente livro encontram-se reunidas algumas das contribuições desse colóquio, Portugueses na Austrália. (shrink)

The paper studies the contribution of Joaquim de Carvalho, a teacher at the University of Coimbra in the first half of last century, to the phenomenological movement in Portugal. Its importance is not restricted to the introduction he had prepared for the Portuguese translation of The Philosophy of rigor as science. He used the lessons of Edmund Husserl to build a critique of Hegelian and positivist conceptions in his work History of Philosophy. It also draws on phenomenology to treat (...) problems such as homesickness. All these aspects of the project as publisher of phenomenology in Portugal, especially in education. (shrink)

Em poucos anos, Olavo de Carvalho, figura obscura, sem projeção e sem qualquer reconhecimento acadêmico, passa a ocupar o centro do poder político brasileiro. Considerado o guru ideológico do governo Bolsonaro, é responsável pela indicação de pelo menos dois ministros e vem sendo o mentor intelectual de vários ocupantes de cargos na administração e na política. Olavo simboliza hoje os contraditórios valores conservadores brasileiros e, no passo disto, instiga algumas das mais destrutivas estratégias na guerra cultural que ele e (...) seus discípulos empreendem. Através do olhar incisivo de Heloisa de Carvalho, a filha mais velha deste guru e testemunha ocular destes relatos, a faceta sombria e controversa de Olavo, que ele tanto tentou ocultar, se expõe: seus vínculos com escandalosas seitas esotéricas, sua vida errática e desregrada, o grave abandono intelectual dos filhos, e toda uma trajetória pessoal e profissional centrada no culto à própria personalidade que, contra todas as expectativas e quase que desafiando a lógica, tornou-se uma incontornável referência intelectual da chamada "Nova Direita" do país. Um novo que aponta para o passado - para a longínqua Idade Média -, concorrendo para o retrocesso dos avanços sociais a tão alto custo conquistados pelo povo. Esperamos que as revelações biográficas de Heloísa sejam uma gota no oceano da necessária frenagem da difusão e defesa dessas ideias torpes e contraditórias. Não nos importa o homem, mas sua trajetória tem a ver com suas ideias e suas práticas, daí a importância da leitura desse livro. (shrink)

A pesquisa revela a grande influencia dos beneditinos no Brasil e na São Paulo colonial. São revelados diversos aspectos da historia da Ordem de São Bento e suas particularidades no período retratado: São Paulo colonial.

The philosophy of perception has been mostly focused on vision, to the detriment of other modalities like audition or olfaction. In this paper I focus on olfaction and olfactory experience, and raise the following questions: is olfaction a perceptual-representational modality? If so, what does it represent? My goal in the paper is, firstly, to provide an affirmative answer to the first question, and secondly, to argue that olfaction represents odors in the form of olfactory objects, to which olfactory qualities are (...) attributed. In order to do this I develop an empirically adequate notion of olfactory object that is sensitive to the peculiarities of olfaction, and defend it against various objections. (shrink)

Neste artigo, estudamos as características que o filósofo espanhol Ortega y Gasset atribuiu à vida. Mostramos que o essencial de sua meditação girou em torno do assunto. No entanto, o tema ganhou densidade metafísica somente no final dos anos 1920, quando suas considerações foram inseridas na tradição filosófica do ocidente. Foi quando ele apontou a insuficiência do realismo e do idealismo na abordagem do fundamento pretendido pela Filosofia e apresentou a filosofia da razão vital como um passo adiante das duas (...) grandes perspectivas filosóficas que marcaram a história da metafísica. In this article, we study the characteristics that the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset attributed to life. We show that the essence of his meditations revolved around the subject. However, the issue gained metaphysical density only in the late 1920s, when his remarks were inserted into the philosophical tradition of the West. That is when he pointed out the failure of realism and idealism in the approach to foundations pretended by philosophy, and presented the philosophy of vital reason as a step forward from the two great philosophical perspectives that have marked the history of metaphysics. (shrink)

Através deste artigo científico pretende-se expor as contribuições de Linda Zagzebski para a teoria da epistemologia das virtudes contemporânea, evidenciando sua inspiração na teoria das virtudes de Aristóteles. A inovação trazida por Zagzebski é a proposta de indistinção entre virtudes morais e virtudes intelectuais. Para a autora, as virtudes intelectuais são um subconjunto das virtudes morais, e assim merecem avaliação conjunta com estas. Por fim, argumenta-se que essa interpretação não implica em um reducionismo das virtudes intelectuais e que pode servir (...) para inspirar uma renovação nas discussões filosóficas contemporâneas. (shrink)

Durante vários anos, Jean Héring (1890-1966) foi professor de teologia na Université de Strasbourg. Um fato pessoal que o marcou definitivamente, foi o privilégio de ter sido discípulo de Husserl, em Göttingen. Nesta oportunidade, também teve contato com outros representantes da fenomenologia, como Edith Stein, Adolf Reinach e Alexandre Koyré. No breve texto a seguir, datado de 1939, um ano antes da morte de Husserl, Héring relembra a sua chegada em Göttingen, no ano de 1909 e o modo como Husserl (...) impressionava os seus discípulos, pelo seu brilhantismo. Fato este que acompanhou Héring durante todo o restante de sua vida, impactando decisivamente em sua obra. (shrink)

Feelings are conscious mental events that represent body states as they undergo homeostatic regulation. Feelings depend on the interoceptive nervous system (INS), a collection of peripheral and central pathways, nuclei and cortical regions which continuously sense chemical and anatomical changes in the organism. How such humoral and neural signals come to generate conscious mental states has been a major scientific question. The answer proposed here invokes (1) several distinctive and poorly known physiological features of the INS; and (2) a unique (...) interaction between the body (the ‘object’ of interoception) and the central nervous system (which generates the 'subject' of interoception). The atypical traits of the INS and the direct interactions between neural and non‐neural physiological compartments of the organism, neither of which is present in exteroceptive systems, plausibly explain the qualitative and subjective aspects of feelings, thus accounting for their conscious nature. (shrink)

O presente trabalho busca responder à indagação constante no seu título, visto que pouco se sabe sobre a adaptação literária no tocante aos gêneros textuais literários que são objetos desse processo. Em vista disso, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica (CARVALHO, 2006) que possibilitou a configuração da adaptação literária como um fenômeno editorial da literatura infantil brasileira. A partir dos dados coletados, foi possível identificar os gêneros textuais inseridos no universo da narrativa literária, mais adaptados a crianças e jovens no Brasil: (...) lenda, mito, epopeia, apólogo, tragédia, comédia, drama romântico, conto, novela e romance. Essa tipologia indicia uma diversidade de narrativas, o que propicia ao leitor em formação, via adaptação, a exposição a um leque variado de gêneros textuais, possibilitando compor um horizonte de expectativas, na acepção de Jauss (1994), bastante heterogêneo. Contudo, a ocorrência de tal variedade depende do processo de adaptação, uma vez que o adaptador pode interferir na estrutura da narrativa, alterando, por conseguinte, o gênero. (shrink)

Through a theoretical examination of the preventive turn in criminal law and justice which has gained momentum in Anglo-American criminal justice systems since the late-twentieth century, The Preventive Turn in Criminal Law demonstrates how recent transformations in criminal law and justiceare intrinsically related to and embedded in the way liberal society and liberal law have been imagined, developed, and conditioned by its social, political, and historical context. Henrique Carvalho identifies a tension between the idea of punishment as an expression (...) of individual justice, andprevention as a manifestation of the need for security and the promotion of welfare. Tracing this tension back to an intrinsic ambivalence within the modern conception of individual liberty, which is both repressed and preserved by liberal conceptions of responsibility and punishment, Carvalhoproves that as long as this ambivalence remains unexamined, liberal law has the potential to both promote and undermine individual justice.Engaging with the dominant contemporary literature on criminal law, prevention, risk, security, and criminalisation, this volume deploys a theoretical perspective developed through a critical analysis of both classical and contemporary works of social and political theory. The book reveals that thepervasiveness of prevention in 21st century criminal justice systems represents not only the consequence of new and unprecedented features of contemporary politics and society, but also the manifestation of essential aspects of the liberal legal and political tradition. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 6, Page 60-62, June 2011.

This is a critical commentary on Pritchard's book Epistemic Angst. In Section 2, I present the closure-based radical skeptical paradox. Then in Section 3, I sketch Pritchard’s undercutting response to this paradox. Finally, in Section 4, I put forward two concerns about Pritchard’s response and I also propose a reading of hinge commitments, the ability reading, that might put some pressure on Pritchard’s own reading of these commitments.

O objetivo principal deste artigo é analisar os objetos intencionais da teoria da intencionalidade em Franz Brentano em sua primeira fase, ou seja, no período de 1874 a 1904, por meio de sua análise mereológica da consciência. Nesse contexto, irei abordar os diferentes modos de consciência, os correlatos intencionais, a distinção entre seres real e existente assim como a distinção entre objeto e conteúdo na teoria brentaniana. No final, irei defender que o estatuto ontológico dos objetos que existem nos correlatos (...) intencionais e dos objetos representados ou conteúdos intencionais podem ser interpretados como sendo “neutros”, visto que eles são partes apenas conceituais ou abstratas de sua teoria mereológica. (shrink)

RESUMO A partir dos estudos e reflexões de Mikhail Bakhtin sobre a origem e o desenvolvimento da prosa e do romance no Ocidente, este artigo intenta pensar a sua particularidade em torno das grandes produções literárias de ficção na América Latina, no século XX. Trabalhando basicamente com os conceitos de dialogismo e barroquismo, o artigo investiga, em fragmentos selecionados, aquelas que seriam algumas das principais marcas deixadas desse grande embate com as nossas marcas de fundação.ABSTRACT From Mikhail Bakhtin's studies and (...) discussions about the origins and development of prose and novel in the West, the purpose of this paper is to reflect on the peculiarities of the novel in great literary fictional productions in Latin America during the twentieth century. Based on the concepts of dialogism and the Baroque, this article investigates, with a selection of fragments, the main characteristics of the dialogic confrontation in the formation of Latin America. (shrink)

Este texto apresenta alguns elementos básicos de reflexão para favorecer mudanças no paradigma cultural dominante: o individualismo. Retomando a metáfora rortyana do "declínio da verdade redentora e da ascensão de uma cultura literária", tento mostrar que se a literatura é eficaz na ampliação da sensibilidade, algo necessário à construção de uma cultura pós-individualista, ela não pode ser identificada tout court, como quer Rorty, ao ideal liberal da mera autocriação privada.

RESUMO O artigo examina algumas influências teóricas de Freud para recuperar os valores epistemológicos que subjazem à composição de sua concepção de ciência da natureza. Se, por um lado, Freud teve acesso ao pensamento de autores específicos que participaram efetivamente dos caminhos percorridos pela psicologia em sua reivindicação de uma identidade científica, por meio de entrelaçamentos com a física e a fisiologia, por outro lado, ele também teve contato com certos filósofos que lhe permitiram uma aproximação a alguns defensores da (...) cientificidade da psicologia que não abandonam o naturalismo, nem recorrem ao solo fisiológico. Nossa avaliação histórica constituiu-se como uma defesa de que Freud sofreu diversas influências no tocante ao status da psicologia no campo das ciências da natureza. A pluralidade dessas influências evoca uma necessidade de abertura para a avaliação do modo pelo qual podemos colocar em perspectiva a epistemologia e a concepção do naturalismo de Freud. ABSTRACT This article examines some of the theoretical outlooks Freud used to acquire the epistemological values that underlie the foundation of his notion of natural science. On the one hand Freud was familiar with the ideas of specific authors, who had made major contributions that support of psychology's status as a science by appealing to physics and physiology. On the other hand, his contact with certain philosophers allowed him to use their defenses of psychology's scientific status without abandoning naturalism and without recourse to physiology. Our historical evaluation of these struggles supports that Freud was affected by various points of view concerning psychology's standing within the natural sciences. Owing to the diverse influences on Freud, we need to figure out how we can put his epistemology and his concept of naturalism into perspective. (shrink)