The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that developments in transhumanist technologies may have upon human cultures, and to do so by exploring a potential debate between Habermas and the transhumanists. Transhumanists, such as Nick Bostrom, typically see the potential in genetic and other technologies for positively expanding and transcending human nature. In contrast, Habermas is a representative of those who are fearful of this technology, suggesting that it will compound the deleterious effects of the colonisation of (...) the lifeworld, further constraining human autonomy and undermining the meaningfulness of the lifeworld by expanding the technological control and manipulation of humanity. It will be argued that these opposed positions are grounded in fundamentally different understandings of the consequences of scientific and technological advance. On one level, the transhumanists remain confident that the lifeworld has within it the resources necessary to find meaning and purpose in a society deeply infused by genetic technology. Habermas disagrees. On another level, the difference is articulated by Horkheimer and Adorno in Dialectic of Enlightenment, primarily by challenging what may be understood as a Baconian faith in science as a project for the domination of nature. While the transhumanists broadly embrace this faith, Habermas returns to something akin to Horkheimer and Adorno’s pessimistic scepticism. (shrink)

Discusses the nature and functions and philosophical foundations of law as well as the central problems of legal method.

Statements of degree appear to falsify basic doctrines in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. I offer a fresh formulation of the challenge and assess a solution proposed on Wittgenstein’s behalf by Sarah Moss. I find that Moss’s proposal fails. The proposal rides in part on novel interpretations of pronouncements by Wittgenstein on the nature of the elementary proposition. I find that the interpretations cannot be sustained but that Moss’s textual case hints at important and overlooked features of the Tractarian program. I develop Wittgenstein’s (...) comparison of propositions to measuring instruments and apply it throughout, showing that it captures philosophical commitments in Tractatus that otherwise tend to slip from view. (shrink)

I respond to Lennart Nordenfelt's analysis of dignity by questioning his attempt to establish an objective standard by which dignity can be determined. I approach this by considering the way in which claims to dignity may be contested and defended. This leads, in the cases of dignity of merit and dignity of moral status, to an apparent relativism. This relativism is checked by further consideration of dignity of identity, and in particular by consideration of the nature of the processes that (...) serve to humiliate people. It is suggested that acts of humiliation attack certain competences that human beings develop as embodied, social beings. Menschenwürde may then be articulated as an account of human nature, in terms of the human potential to develop a series of core competences. This account of human nature aspires to universality, and as such offers an objective ground to dignity. This paper is a product of the research project on Dignity and Older Europeans Programme, Contract No QLG6, 2001, 00888). (shrink)

The idea of believing for a good reason has both normative and psychological content. How are these related? Recently, a number of authors have defended a ‘disjunctivist’ view of rationalisation, on which a good reason can make a subject’s responses to it intelligible in a way that mere ‘apparent reasons’ cannot. However, little has been said about the possible epistemological significance of this view or its relationship to more familiar forms of disjunctivism in the philosophy of perception. This paper examines (...) the relationship between epistemological disjunctivism and disjunctivism about rationalisation, arguing that the latter provides an attractive articulation of certain elements of the former. The specific claim is that disjunctivism about rationalisation enables the proponent of epistemological disjunctivism to explain why beliefs that are based on conclusive normative reasons provided by perception are susceptible to a certain kind of undercutting defeat. On the way to motivating this claim, the paper considers possible ways of articulating epistemological disjunctivism in terms of reasons, distinguishes different forms of disjunctivism about reasons for belief and clarifies the relationships between them. (shrink)

Some chapters revisions of works previously issued 2004-2016.

Bourdieu’s concept of habitus clivé illuminates Indigenous Australians’ experiences in tertiary environments for both Aboriginal students and Aboriginal staff. Habitus formed through family, schooling and social class is also shaped by urban, regional or rural upbringing, creating a durable sense of self. Aboriginal people in Australia live in all of these places, often in marginalised circumstances. Bourdieu’s more specific concept of habitus clivé, or divided self, is less well known than habitus, but offers value in giving expression to Indigenous people’s (...) experiences within a dominant White society. The complexity of participation and educational change is explored here through the experiences of three authors’ intersecting positionalities within the Australian academy. Developing more nuanced scholarly language reduces the imposition of perspectives that see Indigenous people as objects within western frameworks. Scholarly understanding and respect for Australia’s first peoples’ concepts and cultural practices would engage more appropriately and fairly with Aboriginal knowledge and society. Habitus clivé chronicles one version of habitus that can be changed or be reconfirmed but not easily or by fiat. Understanding the concept can be learned, however. Educational opportunity, glorified in today’s higher education, means little for Aboriginal people without long-term strategies addressing existentially and culturally split habitus. (shrink)

La exposición de los regímenes políticos del Tratado Político no es aleatoria; Spinoza expone en primer lugar el que menos conviene, esto es, el monárquico, después el que conviene más, la aristocracia, y finalmente la democracia, régimen al que concibe como el más perfecto. Este criterio de exposición no sirve de criterio para investigar cuál es el valor de la democracia para Spinoza, pero nos permite investigar cuál es el principal obstáculo o peligro que debe enfrentar la democracia para que (...) se pueda instituir realmente por parte de los ciudadanos, y para que no sea instrumentalizada por los intereses particulares de los gobernantes y políticos de turno. (shrink)

How do we relate globalisation to other types of mondialisation, such as communications and economics? The answer should be: any globalisation should be motivated by the general interest of humanity and striving to that aim. In practice, this means that international protection of human rights and environmental rights need not only jurisdictional but also, above all, ethical standards. Without it, a conflict between different types of globalisation could become damaging, almost dangerous. The very idea of the global village that has (...) so well explained the phenomenon of mondialisation can assist in solving the problems that need to be addressed. One of the features of each village is the intense connection among the inhabitants. That phenomenon is now present globally, which is the essence of globalisation. That implies a global responsibility that must be implemented on the one hand by communities and the other by individuals, especially those who serve in the service of community — politicians. The crucial question arises, “How to define the responsibility of one and the others?” It is evident that at the top of the pyramid, there are major planetary problems whose solutions require the cooperation of all nations and countries. The straightforward phrase “Think globally, act locally”, expresses the rule of the fundamental game of the global world and its diversity — a possible ethic of sustainable development. (shrink)

"This book is commended to all good and progressive men and women who believe that by studying Mind, discovering its laws and applying them to human betterment, the career of man on earth could be greatly improved. And that the appalling errors, war, alcohol, oppression, injustice, crime and poverty can be abolished, together with a large proportion of disease, pain and unhappiness. This book is being written under an impression so strong that it rises to the dignity of a theory, (...) that Mind, expressing as human, or, in the human phase, is able by studying the material universe, to discover some facts relating to its Creator. The main object in publishing this volume is to convince the reader that the universe stands upon a mental base, rooted and grounded in Mind; and that Mind created what we have named electrons. No hope is entertained by the author that the true nature of either Mind or matter will be discovered in this study, but hope is expressed that a few clews will be found"--p. [341]. (shrink)

Un célèbre enseignement du Talmud de Babylone maudit la « sagesse grecque ». Or qu’est-ce que la « sagesse grecque »? On a souvent compris que le Talmud récusait la philosophie. C’est pourtant une lecture hâtive et, en définitive, erronée. Car par « sagesse grecque », le Talmud entend désigner une forme d’intelligence pratique qui caractérise les hommes de pouvoir. Ce que le Talmud maudit, c’est donc une forme de « machiavélisme » avant la lettre, et non une radicalité rationaliste.

Let's try to recognize the regularity according to the historical fact, give in a certain logical sequence its own vision of those events of the history of Ukrainian nation, which led to the rise of the Union of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Roman Apostolic See in 1596. The reasons for this are seven.

Издание содержит: из истории Химкинского леса; Химкинский лес как памятник природы; выбор трассы; начало гражданского сопротивления; рождение "Экообороны" и многое другое. Для широкого круга читателей.

Et si on appliquait à la philosophie la méthodologie du physicien? L'inexplicable constat des limitations inhérentes à toute réalité expérimentée inciterait à poser en théorie l'hypothèse d'un modèle exempt de ces limitations d'où pourrait procéder la réalité limitée telle que nous la vivons. Et si par déduction on en arrivait à des résultats scientifiquement plausibles, l'aventure à laquelle nous serions alors conviés serait de décoder l'univers comme une anamorphose. Sous la forme d'un dialogue, ce livre met en débat la pensée (...) originale de Pierre Malifaud qui ouvre ensuite à des problématiques plus englobantes. (shrink)

¿Cómo hay que entender la tesis de Hegel en la Lógica de que "la teleología es la verdad del mecanismo"? La afirmó contra Kant, desde luego; a saber, contra la posibilidad de que lo que parece teleológico sea sólo mecánico; pero no en el sentido de un compromiso dogmático con la realidad de fines naturales y tampoco en el de una refutación del mecanicismo como la que Fichte busca con su radicalización de la filosofía trascendental. Aquí se examina qué posibilidades (...) quedan abiertas cuando se cierran aquéllas. How should one understand the claim that "Teleology is the truth of Mechanism" advanced by Hegel in the Logic? It certainly opposes Kant's position in denying the possibility that what seems to be teleological is only mechanical, but not in the sense of a dogmatic commitment to the reality of natural ends or in the sense of a refutation of mechanicism as in Fichte's radicalization of transcendental philosophy. I examine in this paper which alternatives remain open once these are discarded. (shrink)

El presente número de la Revista Escritos recoge algunos artículos cuyos resultados fueron presentados en el II Congreso Iberoamericano de Bioética e Investigación, llevado a cabo por la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana en convenio con la Corporación Universitaria Lasallista, entre el 17 y 19 de agosto de 2016. Así mismo, se incluyen algunas de las ponencias leídas por los invitados centrales del evento.

La pregunta por el sentido general del ser emerge, en situaciones críticas, como una indagación noética y existencial que descubre la condición finita y vulnerable del ser ahí. La pandemia Covid19 se ha convertido en el contexto social la oportunidad para pensar en la importancia del cuidado en donde, a raíz del confinamiento y el aislamiento preventivo, se ha modificado de forma infranqueable los ritmos de vida. La rapidación del mundo social de producción y consumo ha constituido el modus vivendi-operandi (...) de nuestras sociedades capitalistas. Por eso, los ritmos de vida acelerados han constituido la forma habitual del ser ahí en la carrera social hacia el éxito, consumada en una vida aparentemente feliz, sujeta a las tendencias del mercado y convirtiéndose, este imaginario colectivo, en el paradigma globalizado al cual aspira cualquier persona desde el nivel de vida o estrato social en que se encuentra. Los relegados del sistema, por su parte, quiénes no están a la altura de la competencia del capitalismo salvaje, se convierten en excedentes sociales postergados hacia el inevitable destino del desecho. Si queremos reivindicar el discurso del ser es en orden al fortalecimiento del cuidado de la vida, como un asunto primordial del ser ahí, para reconocer la raíz humana de la crisis ecológica porque, a la base de esta indagación fundamental se encuentra una deficiente cultura del cuidado que no es otra cosa que el descuido mismo del ser. El objetivo de este artículo, derivado de un proceso de investigación documental, es proponer, a la luz de los aportes de Martín Heidegger, la estructura fundamental de la cura como elemento consustancial de la vida en orden al cuidado de sí, de los otros y del ambiente natural como una respuesta oportuna a la crisis actual. (shrink)

Siguiendo las coordenadas conceptuales propuestas por Michel Foucault en su abordaje del tratamiento gubernamental de las pandemias, en este artículo se desarrolla un recorrido genealógico por específicas prácticas de gobierno que se han venido desarrollando en Chile en distintos momentos de su historia; se visibilizan de este modo diversos actores de gobierno que buscarán conducir conductas y subjetividades en contextos de pandemia. Entendida como una propuesta metodológica, establecida en base a la identificación de actores, racionalidades y acciones de gobierno, inscrita (...) en el marco conceptual desarrollado por Foucault en su abordaje del tratamiento gubernamental de las pandemias, buscamos problematizar las fórmulas gubernativas que se han dispensado en el pasado para comprender las estrategias de gobierno de la pandemia del presente. (shrink)

O principal objetivo deste artigo é mostrar, contra as interpretações da filosofia de Leibniz que tendem a reduzir sua noção de substância a uma concepção derivada unicamente de considerações de natureza lógica, que o conceito leibniziano de substância possui raízes lógicas, físicas e teológicas que são mutuamente independentes.