v. 1. Les arts et les sciences -- v. 2. L'être et l'esprit.

The aim of this article is to question the nature of the socio-anthropological approach in Lefort’s thought. The author explores the complex relationship between Lefort and the Durkheimian French school of sociology in four stages: in the first, he shows Lefort as a sociologist ‘worthy of its name’ or, in other words, a sociologist interested in questioning the ‘institution of the social’. In the second, he focuses on the disturbing elements that Lefort introduces: the political and the division into the (...) French sociological approach. In the third stage, he focuses his attention on the sociological approach in Lefort’s way of thinking about democratic society. Finally, he concludes by referring to Lefort’s apparent opposition between philosophy and social sciences – and the errors that this may have engendered – in order to demonstrate the continuity of Lefort’s sociological approach. (shrink)

O presente artigo trata da esquerda católica paranaense a partir do arquivo de documentos do Serviço Nacional de Informações (SNI-PR), da agência de Curitiba. O objetivo geral foi compreender criticamente, servindo-se da perspectiva de Otto Maduro, as expressões político-ideológicas descritas, anexadas e julgadas nos relatórios dos agentes do SNI-PR sobre a esquerda católica do interior do Paraná, no período de abertura política da ditadura militar. Por meio da pesquisa documental qualitativa de tipo exploratória, composta pelos diferentes registros dos agentes do (...) SNI-PR, foram identificadas as ações de religiosos do interior do Paraná que se constituíram alvo de vigilância e perseguição pelo aparato estatal da ditadura militar no período de abertura política. Destaca-se a importância de estudos sobre a esquerda católica sob a vigilância e o silenciamento nas regiões interioranas, evidenciando que o alcance do aparato estatal repressivo da ditadura não se limitou às regiões metropolitanas ou com maior densidade populacional. Ainda, o acesso aos arquivos inéditos permitiu tratar o tema vinculado ao campo religioso como um produto da dinâmica dos conflitos sociais na sociedade brasileira, com a ação religiosa limitada e orientada por tais conflitos, mas possuindo autonomia relativa sobre estes. (shrink)

This review of Salar Mohandesi's Red Internationalism focuses on the author's contribution to our understanding of a movement of transnational solidarity in the 1960s under the framework of anti-imperialist internationalism as well as of its collapse in the 1970s and of the emergence of the discourse of “human rights.” This was not a case of an evolutionary transformation, with anti-imperialist discourse slowly morphing into human rights, but one of “displacement.” Anti-imperialism entered into a crisis in the early 1970s, and that (...) crisis opened a space for the rhetoric of human rights to ascend as the dominant form of internationalism. Mohandesi further analyzes how “human rights” was quickly reduced to one single meaning, the rights of the individual, which allowed for and coincided with a retreat from forms of collective political engagement. This happened at a time where any space for revolutionary politics seemed to be foreclosed, and capitalist liberal democracy appeared to be triumphant globally. (shrink)

La question 104 de la II a II ae n’est qu’une de celles de la Summa theologiae où Thomas d’Aquin réfléchit sur l’obéissance, en théorisant sa nécessité à tous les niveaux de la réalité et en établissant sa portée et ses limites. Lorsque la réflexion de Thomas est appliquée à un contexte doctrinal et historique différent à divers égards, cette réflexion ouvre à l’inclusion d’éléments nouveaux, déclenchant ainsi une nouvelle discussion sur les relations complexes entre les autorités à obéir et (...) le sujet qui obéit, en les considérant dans leurs multiples aspects problématiques. C’est ce qu’on peut constater dans les commentaires de la Summa theologiae de Francisco de Vitoria, Luis de Molina et Pedro Luis. La nécessité d’éprouver ou d’adapter la théorie thomasienne de l’obéissance à une réalité qui doit faire face, avant tout, au protestantisme, conduit ces auteurs à focaliser leur attention sur des cas où le sujet qui doit obéir se trouve dans des situations d’impasse. La résolution des cas d’impasse les plus difficiles – par exemple le doute impliquant l’ordre du prélat – passe également par la récupération d’un élément clé de la réflexion proposée par Thomas dans la q. 104 : la caractérisation de l’obéissance comme vertu spécifique. (shrink)

The article focuses on the social-lexical history of the terms fraternité and solidarité in France during the first half of the 19th century. In particular, the author highlights how, in 1848, fratenité is both used in the motto of the Republic and associated with the defeated socialist republicanism. Then, the author focuses on its synonymous, solidarité, and he reconstructs the different contexts of use of this term , in order to show that its use in the social context accompanies the (...) formation of the first sociological approach with a republican-saint-simonian matrix. (shrink)

Paralelamente a su poesía, Bernard Noël desarrolla una obra en prosa que plantea interrogantes de orden cognitivo, en particular en torno a la percepción visual. La exploración de dispositivos tecnológicos (la cámara fotográfica) y de escenificaciones del acto de creación (la escena del pintor trabajando) es ocasión para contrastar la pertinencia de las intuiciones y reflexiones del poeta puestas bajo el foco de las actuales ciencias cognitivas. El trayecto de lo óptico a lo mental queda inscrito en una comprensión encarnada (...) y gestual de la cognición que apunta también hacia el surgimiento del lenguaje. Su poesía ha de ser pues entendida como el tramo final del proceso. (shrink)

Censure and exclusion of The Republic are characteristics of many utopias, which become dystopias precisely because of turning to them. Plato´s reasons to censure certain types of poetry are ethical and political ones, although his arguments are epistemological . This paper proposes reading these two aspects of the platonic proposal in the light of three specific points of the Timaeus: 1) the theory of discourse about the concept of verisimilar , 2) its relation to the question of whether we can (...) represent objects we do not know, and 3) the demiurge model proposed by Plato in this dialogue. The aim is to show that two of the most problematic aspects of The Republic, are dissolved today in the Timaeus. (shrink)

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar la relevancia de la teoría informacional del conocimiento para el problema de la suerte epistémica. Argumento que el clásico enfoque de Dretske es equivalente a la condición de seguridad de Pritchard. Sin embargo, considero que esta manera de eludir la suerte epistémica exige lidiar con el llamado "problema de la generalidad". Argumento que una respuesta a este problema requiere una noción de seguridad diferente y propongo un enfoque informacional equivalente a esta versión (...) del requisito. Concluyo que este enfoque es preferible a la condición de seguridad propuesta porque desvela relaciones conceptuales entre los elementos que constituyen el conocimiento.The aim of this paper is to determine the relevance of an informational theory of knowledge to address recently discussed epistemic problems. I argue that Dretske's classical approach is equivalent to the safety condition proposed by Pritchard to avoid epistemic luck. However, I claim that Pritchard's condition has to be modified to avoid the so-called "generality problem" for reliabilism. I propose an alternative version of the requirement to deal with these problems and provide an equivalent informational condition. I conclude that this informational version is preferable since it reveals conceptual relationships between the constituents of knowledge. (shrink)

Antes incluso de que la España de 1992 celebrara e l V centenario del descubrimiento de América, Ferlosio publi có en la prensa varios textos críticos sobre la con q uista que luego fueron reuni dos en Esas Yndias equivocadas y malditas. Comentarios a la historia. Part iend o de aquí, p lante o la s pregunta s de qué es la historia y cómo debería escribirse y ensayo una r esp uesta de sde la crítica de la violencia de (...) Benjamin y la identificación que hace Ferlosio de Historia, Dios, dominación y s entido, fundamento de l a m ora l expiatoria y el principio de intercambio de bienes por valores. D esarrollar é la tesis, compartida por Ferlosio, Dussel y Lomax, de que 1492 fue el año eje entre la Reconquista de la península ibérica y la conquista de América, r etrocederé a la fusión de Cristianismo e Imperio Romano en Nicea, presentare la caracterización hecha por Ferlo sio de la guerra escatológica, cuyo garante es Dios, y rastrear é los antecedentes estoic os d el sentido. Finalizaré con Dussel para m o stra r cómo el discurso histórico puede ser c rític o (Benjamin), transitiv o ( Ferlosio ) y congénito con su objeto ( Timeo ), se lib e re de la lógica del Sentido (Ferlosio) y n o tenga que taparse los ojos ante lo que dice ( Anne Carson ). (shrink)

Summary Within Husserl’s theory of perception, the role attributed to kinesthetic sensations determines a phase of the perceptive constitution that marks the boundary between pure receptivity and a first form of self-determination of consciousness. Kinesthetic experiences are, in fact, characterized not just as acts that are performed but rather that can be performed, albeit according to predetermined paths. This primitive form of ‘instinctive’ spontaneity of the Ego (linked to primal impulses) as realization of pre-established potentialities, characterizes what Husserl defines the (...) ‘ idiopsychic’ dimension of consciousness (Husserl, 1952, p. 135). However, although this level of consciousness unity presupposes a spontaneous activity, it can be investigated according to the ‘causal’ laws of motivation. The phenomenon of motivation was notoriously introduced by Husserl in §56 of Ideen II, as a specific law of spiritual life. However, there are two possible forms of motivation, one in which the Ego is actively involved, and a second one, called “associative motivation.” The latter basically indicates the passive tendency of creating associations between unities of the immanent sphere. In other terms, Husserl acknowledges the existence of “motivated relations” within the immanent sphere of mental acts which do not necessarily call for an active participation of the Ego. In this sense, the relation between motivating factors and motivated elements could be considered a kind of conditioning of the form “because-therefore,” in which the two elements arrange themselves in a succession of experiences. This work aims to show that this very kind of association is the same that pre-determines the unfolding possibility of kinesthetic chains. (shrink)

In the Summa theologiae, Aquinas distinguishes between an extrinsic and an intrinsic beatitude, the first being caused by God and the latter by human acts. The sixteenth-century Salamanca commentators on the Summa concentrate their interpretative efforts on the intrinsic beatitude, assigning to the human acts an indispensable role in order to reach beatitude. Their main concern is to refute the Lutheran conception of man’s passive role in his own justification.

El vocablo πέπλος (“peplo”), que designa típicamente la túnica vestida por lasmujeres, se registra un total de once veces en Hécuba de Eurípides. Teniendo encuenta la estructura bipartita de esta tragedia y la importancia de la vestimenta en elmundo griego antiguo, este artículo se propone analizar las apariciones del términoen sus contextos, con la hipótesis de que los peplos ocultan pero a la vez revelan elcarácter de los personajes femeninos: Políxena, el coro de cautivas troyanas yHécuba, como también habilitan la (...) transformación de los dos últimos en una y otraparte de la obra. (shrink)

This article investigates the role of Scholarly Digital Editions in advancing textual scholarship, with a focus on Judeo-Arabic, a unique linguistic variety using Hebrew script to represent Arabic. It proposes a stratified model for Scholarly Digital Editions to handle Judeo-Arabic’s orthographic complexities, including transcription, script conversion, normalization, and metadata integration. The study highlights the critical role of managing noise in textual editing, particularly during data acquisition, where any distortion or omission of orthographic elements can compromise scholarly integrity. A case study (...) of a medieval Judeo-Arabic manuscript illustrates the model’s application, highlighting how it preserves textual integrity and enriches scholarly analysis. This methodology not only addresses Judeo-Arabic specific challenges but is also adaptable to other allographic systems. (shrink)

Debido a que no es evidente en qué sentido el estudio de la matemática ayuda a los guardianes de la República de Platón a dominar las pasiones y los prepara para ser gobernantes, mostraré la función propedéutica de la matemática; cómo las cinco disciplinas en las que está dividida — aritmética, geometría, estereotomía, astronomía y música — pueden dividirse a su vez en dos: la popular y la filosófica, y es solo esta última la que provoca el giro del alma (...) hacia lo que es siempre. Esta es la razón por la cual se afirma que la matemática es una preparación para la dialéctica, el único método propiamente filosófico y la ciencia máxima. Solo tras una década de ejercitación matemática el guardián se convertirá en dialéctico, ascenderá al ámbito inteligible y contemplará las Ideas, divinas y ordenadas. Esto despertará en él el deseo de querer asemejarse a ellas y, por mímesis, volverse él también divino y ordenado, lo que le permitirá ejercer el gobierno de sí, que en la psicología platónica se traduce en el mandato de lo racional sobre lo irascible y lo apetitivo, el gobierno de lo intelectual sobre lo anímico. A pesar del deseo de permanecer para siempre en el ámbito inteligible, el dialéctico deberá descender nuevamente a la caverna y gobernar de forma justa la pólis e instaurar en las costumbres públicas y privadas de los gobernados el orden contemplado, alejado de la tiranía y de las pasiones violentas y los apetitos que tiranizan al propio tirano, según el paralelismo alma - ciudad. Cierro con la respuesta a la pregunta de quién es ese filósofo-gobernante en el siglo XXI. (shrink)

Qu’est-ce que le travail? La question posée par le titre de ce recueil offre un tremplin pour des réponses multiples et nuancées, fruits de recherches sur un large spectre temporel et spatial. Les articles qui le composent répondent à cette question en interrogeant la façon dont le genre définit notre compréhension du travail. Se trouvent donc placés au premier plan les problèmes relatifs à l’égalité, le rôle du marché versus l’espace privé, la question des capacités de production comparée a...

RESUMEN ¿Por qué cuando Platón quiere justificar su definición del sofista como un «fabricante de imágenes», se apoya sobre dos versos auténticos de Parménides que aluden, sin duda alguna, al camino recorrido por los «mortales que nada saben»? ¿Quiere acaso sugerir que esos «mortales», que son en realidad «fabricantes de opiniones», son un antecedente de los sofistas, que son «fabricantes de imágenes»? ABSTRACT Why, when Plato wants to justify his definition of the sophist as an "image maker", he quotes two (...) authentic verses of Parmenides that undoubtedly allude to the path taken by the "mortals who know nothing"? Does he want to suggest that these "mortals", who are actually "opinions makers" are ancestors of the sophists, who are "image makers"? (shrink)

In the second half of the sixteenth century, many universities influenced by Salamanca adopted the Summa theologiae as the textbook for teaching scholastic theology. At the same time, the universities decided that some minor chairs should teach one of the Sentences commentaries written by one of the following authors: Duns Scotus, Durand of Saint-Pourçain, or Gabriel Biel. As a result, some commentaries on these commentaries started to appear. This is most notably the case when it comes to the University of (...) Coimbra, where Aquinas’s Summa became the textbook only very late and where the chairs of Scotus, Durand and Biel were instituted in the second half of the century. This article provides a list of questions making up thirteen commentaries produced in Coimbra, where, unlike what happened in Salamanca, the professors belonged to different religious orders. It also presents the list of questions of one commentary connected with a Franciscan convent. Some reflections on the need to study late-scholastic manuscripts as well as on the structure of these commentaries are also offered. (shrink)

A new installment in the series that blew readers' minds with Biocentrism and Beyond Biocentrism, The Grand Biocentric Design offers an even deeper dive in to the nature of reality and our universe based on the latest groundbreaking research.

The aim of this work is to analyze some aspects that can have an influence on our evaluation of conditional statements. The final purpose is to provide a methodological frame of evaluation of this kind of statements without taking into account the truth values of antecedent and consequent as Formal Logic has been usually assumed.

A groundbreaking examination of Michel Foucault's history of truth. Many blame Michel Foucault for our post-truth and conspiracy-laden society. In this provocative work, Daniele Lorenzini argues that such criticism fundamentally misunderstands the philosopher’s project. Foucault did not question truth itself but what Lorenzini calls “the force of truth,” or how some truth claims are given the power to govern our conduct while others are not. This interest, Lorenzini shows, drove Foucault to articulate a new ethics and politics of truth-telling (...) precisely in order to evade the threat of relativism. The Force of Truth explores this neglected dimension of Foucault’s project by putting his writings on regimes of truth and parrhesia in conversation with early analytic philosophy and by drawing out the “possibilizing” elements of Foucault’s genealogies that remain vital for practicing critique today. (shrink)

RESUMEN Cuando se mira la masacre de El Salado, es difícil no preguntarse por los factores que llevaron a esta comunidad de los Montes de María, en el contexto de la guerra rural que vivía Colombia a finales del siglo XX, a volverse un objetivo militar por parte de las A.U.C. (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), es decir, a recibir la marca o estigma de 'pueblo guerrillero'; en otras palabras, a convertirse en un pueblo masacrable. El presente artículo intenta abordar esta (...) cuestión y para ello analiza las consecuencias de la ocupación de las FARC desde su ingreso a la región en los noventa. Los modos como este poder fareano dispuso de lógicas guerreristas y dejó poco margen de maniobra y libertad para los pobladores de El Salado; los saladeros no tuvieron opción ni libertad, y la cohabitación se confundió con la colaboración, la pasividad con la pertenencia. En una segunda parte, revisa los efectos de la arremetida brutal de las FARC contra cierto grupo de pobladores (en especial, ganaderos y fuerza pública); de algún modo, la masacre del 2000, ejecutada por las AUC, fue una respuesta impulsada por un odio desmedido frente a una violencia también excesiva por parte de las FARC en los años anteriores a la masacre. En este apartado, se habla acerca del odio y la venganza que se constituyen en afectos que contribuyeron decisivamente -entre otros más- a la masacre del año 2000. Las elaboraciones sobre la economía del odio de Sara Ahmed (2015) y las de Laura Quintana sobre los afectos (2020 y 2021) serán fundamentales. ABSTRACT When looking at the El Salado massacre, we wonder about the factors that led this town of los Montes de María, in the context of the rural war in Colombia at the end of the 20th century, to become a military objective by the A.U.C (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), that is, to receive the brand or stigma of 'guerrilla people'; that is, to become a massacrable town. This article tries to address this issue, thus analyzing the consequences of the FARC occupation since its entry into the region in the nineties. Ways like this Farean power had warmer logic and left little room for maneuver and freedom for the residents of El Salado; The saladeros had no choice or freedom, and cohabitation was confused with collaboration, passivity with belonging. in a second part, it reviews the effects of the brutal attack by the FARC against a certain group of residents (especially, ranchers and the military); in a way, the 2000 massacre, carried out by the AUC, was an inordinately hateful response to excessive violence by the FARC in the years before the massacre. In this section, we talk about the hatred and revenge that constitute elements that contributed decisively -among others- to the 2000 massacre. The elaborations on the economy of hate by Sara Ahmed (2015) and the elaborations of Laura Quintana on affects (2020 and 2021) will be fundamental. (shrink)

Analizaremos las características de los cinco poliedros regulares convexos que Platón describe en el Timeo y esclareceremos los siguientes problemas: primero, mientras los poliedros regulares son cinco, los elementos naturales son solo cuatro; segundo, la transformación de unos elementos en otros; tercero, las proporciones que rigen las mezclas de los elementos, y cuarto, las consecuencias de la propuesta platónica en dos problemas científico filosóficos de ese momento: la causa del movimiento y la existencia o no del vacío.

En unos tiempos donde se cuestiona la utilidad de la Lógica dentro de los planes de estudio de Filosofía, llega, como maná caído del cielo, esta pequeña guía sobre argumentación y retórica de José Miguel Sagüillo. Pocas veces se han expresado tantos conceptos lógicos con tal claridad en un espacio tan breve. Sin duda, el libro constituye una herramienta pedagógicamente impecable para profesores y alumnos de Lógica, Retórica o Teoría de la Argumentación y una fuente de información imprescindible para el (...) ciudadano de a pie que tenga cierta querencia por el buen razonar y trate de evitar sucumbir a las sutiles garras de la manipulación retórica. Además, este pequeño tratado deja sin excusas a los que pretenden denigrar a la Lógica calificándola de incomprensible para los que son más diestros en las letras que en las ciencias o desconectada del campo de la Filosofía. (shrink)

Introduction: Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to transcranial magnetic stimulation are known to be susceptible to several sources of variability. However, conflicting evidences on individual characteristics in relatively small sample sizes have been reported. We investigated the effect of age, height, and sex on MEPs of the motor cortex and spinal roots in a large cohort. Methods: A total of 587 subjects clinically and neuroradiologically intact were included. MEPs were recorded during mild tonic contraction through a circular coil applied over the (...) “hot spot” of the first dorsal interosseous and tibialis anterior muscles, bilaterally. Central motor conduction time (CMCT) was estimated as the difference between MEP cortical latency and the peripheral motor conduction time by cervical or lumbar magnetic stimulation. Peak-to-peak MEP amplitude to cortical stimulation and right-to-left difference of each parameter were also measured. Results: After Bonferroni correction, general linear (multiple) regression analysis showed that both MEP cortical latency and peripheral motor conduction time at four limbs positively correlated with age and height. At lower limbs, an independent effect of sex on the same measures was also observed (with females showing smaller values than males). CMCT correlated with both age (negatively) and height (positively) when analyzed by a single regression; however, with a multiple regression analysis this significance disappeared, due to the correction for the multicollinearity within the dataset. Conclusions: Physical individual features need to be considered for a more accurate and meaningful MEPs interpretation. Both in clinical practice and in research setting, patients and controls should be matched for age, height, and sex. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the vindicatory/unmasking distinction has so far prevented scholars from grasping a third dimension of genealogical inquiry, one I call possibilising. This dimension has passed unnoticed even though it constitutes a crucial aspect of Foucault’s genealogical project starting from 1978 on. By focusing attention on it, I hope to provide a definitive rebuttal of one of the main criticisms that has been raised against genealogy in general, and Foucauldian genealogy in particular, namely the idea that (...) Foucault’s genealogical project lacks normative grounding and is therefore ultimately incapable of telling us why we should resist and fight against the mechanisms of power it nevertheless reveals in an empirically insightful way. This conclusion, I argue, is mistaken because it conceives of Foucauldian genealogy exclusively as an unmasking or problematising method, whereas I claim that Foucault’s genealogical project possesses a possibilising dimension that provides his work with sui generis normative force. (shrink)

Todos los seres vivos escribimos y una escritura inspira otra escritura. El cuento de Ursula K Le Guin (1987) “The Author of the Acacia Seeds and other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics” (1974) está en el origen de estos relatos de anticipación. Anticipación no es aquí sinónimo de impaciencia, sino de previsión: estos relatos se adelantan y nos cuentan lo que nos espera en el camino. Y también lo que ya no nos va a esperar porque (...) desapareció. O, más preciso, lo hicimos desaparecer. De la extinción de las especies solo nos espera la extinción, no las especies. (shrink)

In a recent blog post, Joshua Clover rightly notices the swift emergence of a new panoply of “genres of the quarantine.”1 It should not come as a surprise that one of them centers on Michel Foucault’s notion of biopolitics, asking whether or not it is still appropriate to describe the situation that we are currently experiencing. Neither should it come as a surprise that, in virtually all of the contributions that make use of the concept of biopolitics to address the (...) current coronavirus pandemic, the same bunch of rather vague ideas are mentioned over and over again, while other—no doubt more interesting—Foucauldian insights tend to be ignored. In what follows, I discuss two of these insights, and I conclude with some methodological remarks on the issue of what it may mean to “respond” to the current “crisis.”. (shrink)

Resumen Cuando el 6 de agosto de 1945 los científicos del proyecto atómico alemán dirigido por el físico Werner Heisenberg escucharon desde su encierro en Farm Hall la noticia de que Estados Unidos había arrojado una bomba nuclear que había destruido Hiroshima, comenzó la construcción de la historia: la versión que Heisenberg ofreció en su autobiografía intelectual fue que sabía que el proyecto era inviable a corto y medio plazo y, por tanto, no había riesgo en asumir la investigación. Siguiendo (...) las tesis de filosofía de la historia de Benjamin, pasaré el cepillo a contrapelo a esta construcción de la historia de la ciencia para sacar a la luz varias razones que la desmontan. Para ello recurriré a la filosofía de la ciencia de Popper, Kuhn y Lakatos y a la critica de Marcuse a la racionalidad tecnológica. La finalidad es triple: cuestionar la visión de la ciencia sostenida por Heisenberg, mostrar la influencia que ejercen los grandes proyectos científico - tecnológicos sobre el modo de pensar y actuar de los individuos y salvar los dos abismos denunciados por el físico y novelista C. P. Snow, uno entre ciencias y humanidades y otro entre quienes poseen conocimiento especializado y quienes no.When, on August 6, 1945, the scientists ofthe German atomic project led by physicist Werner Heisenberg heard the news from their confinement in Farm Hall, England, that the United States had dropped a nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, the construction of history began: Heisenberg's version in his intellectual autobiography was that he knew the project was unviable in the short and medium term and, therefore, there was no risk in advancing the research. Following Benjamin's theses on the philosophy of history, I will brush against this construction of the history of science to bring to light several reasons that dismantle this construction. To do this I will resort to the philosophy of science of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos and Marcuse's criticism of technological rationality. The aim is threefold: to question the vision of science held by Heisenberg, to show the influence of the great scientific-technological projects on the way of thinking and acting of individuals and to bridge the two abysses denounced by the physicist and novelist C. P. Snow, one between sciences and humanities and the other between those who have specialized knowledge and those who do not. (shrink)

We discuss the hints for the disappearance of continuum space and time at microscopic scale. These include arguments for a discrete nature of them or for a fundamental non-locality, in a quantum theory of gravity. We discuss how these ideas are realized in specific quantum gravity approaches. Turning then the problem around, we consider the emergence of continuum space and time from the collective behaviour of discrete, pre-geometric atoms of quantum space, and for understanding spacetime as a kind of “condensate”, (...) and we present the case for this emergence process being the result of a phase transition, dubbed “geometrogenesis”. We discuss some conceptual issues of this scenario and of the idea of emergent spacetime in general. As a concrete example, we outline the GFT framework for quantum gravity, and illustrate a tentative procedure for the emergence of spacetime in this framework. Last, we re-examine the conceptual issues raised by the emergent spacetime scenario in light of this concrete example. (shrink)