Contemporary Europe is facing this chal- lenge when redefining its own identity and socializing institutions. This paper focuses on how current discus- sions on the adequacy of a reference to Judeo- Christian heritage in the new European Constitution or on the teaching of religions at schools show the resilience of old-age notions and stereotypes with respect to cultural diversity. In order to explain this resilience, the paper explores how hierarchical percep- tions of otherness (mainly of Muslims) are flourishing within a (...) dichotomized system of representing other- ness. This system is analyzed from the neo- Durkeimian perspective of cultural sociology and placed in connection with the spiritual leadership of fundamentalist conservatism after the fall of the Berlin Wall and with the old trend of Orientalism underlying pervading dominant Western discourses. (shrink)

Resumen:Ortega intentó comprender los problemas filosóficos en un estrato más hondo del habitual, el cual constituye el “nivel de radicalismo” de su filosofía. En nuestra opinión, dicho estrato descansa en un modelo ontológico y epistemológico intensamente pragmático, que quedó bien puesto de manifiesto durante su refriega con Descartes, uno de los más notables “adversarios” filosóficos de Ortega.PALABRAS CLAVE:PRAGMATISMO, DESCARTES, IDEALISMO, ONTOLOGÍA:Ortega tried to understand the philosophical problems to an unusually deep level, which sets up the “nivel de radicalismo” of his (...) philosophy. In our opinion, this aforementioned stratum rests on a very intense ontological and epistemological pragmatist model that became clear during his argument with Descartes, one of the most important of Ortega’s philosophical “adversaries”.KEYWORDS:PRAGMATISM, DESCARTES, IDEALISM, ONTOLOGY. (shrink)

Em sua obra de “The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt”, Seyla Benhabib faz o exercício de questionar a formação da concepção arendtiana de modernidade. Retornando à biografia de Rahel Varnhagen, a comentadora aponta para a experiência privilegiada dos salões berlinenses como referências mais interessantes para se pensar a esfera pública, derivando daí um possível universalismo moral de Hannah Arendt. Após expor esta tese de Benhabib, apontamos, em sentido diverso, para a impossibilidade deste exercício em Arendt, mostrando que os salões não (...) poderiam se constituir como referência para a esfera pública por não favorecerem a atividade da ação. (shrink)

In “A new proof of the completeness of the Lukasiewicz axioms” Chang proved that any totally ordered MV-algebra A was isomorphic to the segment \}\) of a totally ordered l-group with strong unit A *. This was done by the simple intuitive idea of putting denumerable copies of A on top of each other. Moreover, he also show that any such group G can be recovered from its segment since \^*}\), establishing an equivalence of categories. In “Interpretation of AF C (...) *-algebras in Lukasiewicz sentential calculus” Mundici extended this result to arbitrary MV-algebras and l-groups with strong unit. He takes the representation of A as a sub-direct product of chains A i, and observes that \ where \. Then he let A * be the l-subgroup generated by A inside \. He proves that this idea works, and establish an equivalence of categories in a rather elaborate way by means of his concept of good sequences and its complicated arithmetics. In this note, essentially self-contained except for Chang’s result, we give a simple proof of this equivalence taking advantage directly of the arithmetics of the the product l-group \, avoiding entirely the notion of good sequence. (shrink)

In this paper we develop a general representation theory for MV-algebras. We furnish the appropriate categorical background to study this problem. Our guide line is the theory of classifying topoi of coherent extensions of universal algebra theories. Our main result corresponds, in the case of MV-algebras and MV-chains, to the representation of commutative rings with unit as rings of global sections of sheaves of local rings. We prove that any MV-algebra is isomorphic to the MV-algebra of all global sections of (...) a sheaf of MV-chains on a compact topological space. This result is intimately related to McNaughton’s theorem, and we explain why our representation theorem can be viewed as a vast generalization of McNaughton’s theorem. In spite of the language used in this abstract, we have written this paper in the hope that it can be read by experts in MV-algebras but not in sheaf theory, and conversely. (shrink)

Paulo Arantes explora a imagem original de fronteira que nasce com a modernidade e reflete sobre seus desdobramentos na atualidade geopolítica. O ponto de partida é a tese do sociólogo polonês Zygmunt Bauman de que os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001 teriam marcado o fim simbólico da “era do espaço” e inaugurado uma era de vulnerabilidade permanente que ele denomina “terra de fronteira global”. Arantes recupera a teoria schmittiana de “nomos da terra” para explicar a transformação em curso. (...) Interessa-lhe sobretudo o poder de desmistificação do pensamento liberal moderno que a franqueza do jurista alemão reacionário oferece. Afinal, sua teoria da vinculação intrínseca entre ordenamento jurídico e enraizamento espacial permite reconhecer na descoberta do Novo Mundo e na experiência colonial a precondição da instauração do jus publicum eruropaeum, do reconhecimento mútuo de Estados soberanos europeus e da consequente racionalização e descriminalização da guerra próprios da constituição do capitalismo. Na contramão da euforia globalizante da ideologia contemporânea, a teoria de Schmitt revela como o núcleo orgânico do capitalismo e sua periferia colonial surgem juntos e devem terminar separados, pois o fosso entre ambas seria constitutivo. A segunda consequência extraída é de que se o fundamento do estado de direito na Europa é seu avesso no ultramar, esse processo também é coetâneo de um pensamento por linhas globais. É nesse contexto que Arantes procura refletir sobre a novidade identificada por Bauman e já intuída por Schmitt no pós-guerra com o surgimento de uma potência nacional fora da Europa e que passa a reivindicar autoridade sobre um espaço já não é mais nacional. Demarcando uma nova linha global denominada “hemisfério ocidental”, os EUA inaugurariam também um novo conceito de soberania que despreza a antiga noção de anexação territorial e desarticula a relação intrínseca entre direito, Estado e territorialidade – processo que remonta tanto ao esgotamento da sangrenta expansão na frontier estadunidense quanto à vitória bélica avassaladora da jovem nação americana no desfecho das guerras mundiais às portas da Era Atômica. Os atentados contra o World Trade Center e os desmandos da política externa do Governo Bush aparecem assim como apenas as manifestações mais recentes e vistosas desse novo paradigma histórico em que tudo tornou-se fronteira e cuja marca é a generalização do estado de sítio. (Resenha por Artur Renzo). (shrink)

La instancia filosófica del cominciamento hace referencia a aquel paso absolutamente primero del pensamiento, que es presupuesto y fundamento de todo contenido, modo y acto ulterior del propio pensar. En la modernidad, la instancia del inicio es reivindicada por Hegel, quien, al igual que Tomás de Aquino en el medioevo, concibe el “ser” como punto de partida del pensamiento. A pesar de esta convergencia entre ambos autores, presentan una profunda divergencia especulativa. Tanto la convergencia como la divergencia mencionadas serán examinadas (...) en este trabajo, siguiendo las investigaciones del filósofo italiano Cornelio Fabro. (shrink)

Based on a theoretical approach to current problems of democracy, the amplification of the public citizen action sphere, and changes generated by the transitions in democratic systems, the Venezuelan political process is analyzed since the rise to power of Hugo Chávez in 1998. The Chavez pheno..

This article presents a critical account of Agamben’s understanding of the logic of sovereignty and of the notion bare life, particularly Agamben’s approach to the paradox of sovereignty and its relation to Aristotle’s metaphysical category of potentiality. With regards to bare life, it brings together an analysis of the figure of the homo sacer with an account of Agamben’s use of paradigms as methodological tools. The first part of the paper argues that Agamben ontologises sovereignty by dramatising the paradox of (...) its structure as im-potentiality. The second part claims that even though an account of Agamben’s methodology serves to respond to the different critiques that his notion of bare life has raised, Agamben’s notions of sovereignty and of bare life ultimately rely on Schmitt’s decisionism. El artículo hace un recuento crítico de la forma en que Agamben entiende la lógica de la soberanía y la noción de nuda vida, particularmente su abordaje de la paradoja de la soberanía y su relación con la categoría metafísica aristotélica de la potencialidad. Con respecto a la nuda vida, combina el análisis de la figura del homo sacer con un recuento del uso que hace Agamben de los paradigmas como herramientas metodológicas. En la primera parte del ensayo, se argumenta que Agamben ontologiza la soberanía al dramatizar la paradoja de su estructura como im-potencialidad. En la segunda, se afirma que aunque la descripción de la metodología de Agamben sirve para responder a las diferentes críticas suscitadas por su noción de nuda vida, sus nociones de soberanía y de nuda vida dependen, en última instancia, del decisionismo de Schmitt. Este artigo apresenta a versão crítica do entendimento de Agamben sobre a lógica da soberania e da noção de vida nua. Em particular, a aproximação de Agamben para o paradoxo da soberania e da sua relação com a categoria metafísica da potencialidade de Aristóteles. No que diz respeito à vida nua, reúne uma análise da figura do homo sacer com uma explicação do uso de Agamben de paradigmas como ferramentas metodológicas. Na primeira parte deste artigo, argumenta-se que Agamben ontologiza a soberaniadramatizando o paradoxo de sua estrutura como im-potencialidade. Na segunda parte, será alegado que, apesar de uma explicação da metodologia de Agamben ter servido para responder às diferentes críticas que sua noção de vida nua tenha levantado, em última análise, duas noções da soberania e vida nua de Agamben dependem do "decisionismo schmittiano". (shrink)

Why do humpback whales sing? This paper considers the hypothesis that humpback whales may use song for long range sonar. Given the vocal and social behavior of humpback whales, in several cases it is not apparent how they monitor the movements of distant whales or prey concentrations. Unless distant animals produce sounds, humpback whales are unlikely to be aware of their presence or actions. Some field observations are strongly suggestive of the use of song as sonar. Humpback whales sometimes stop (...) singing and then rapidly approach distant whales in cases where sound production by those whales is not apparent, and singers sometimes alternately sing and swim while attempting to intercept another whale that is swimming evasively. In the evolutionary development of modern cetaceans, perceptual mechanisms have shifted from reliance on visual scanning to the active generation and monitoring of echoes. It is hypothesized that as the size and distance of relevant events increased, humpback whales developed adaptive specializations for long-distance echolocation. Differences between use of songs by humpback whales and use of sonar by other echolocating species are discussed, as are similarities between bat echolocation and singing by humpback whales. Singing humpback whales are known to emit sounds intense enough to generate echoes at long ranges, and to flexibly control the timing and qualities of produced sounds. The major problem for the hypothesis is the lack of recordings of echoes from other whales arriving at singers immediately before they initiate actions related to those whales. An earlier model of echoic processing by singing humpback whales is here revised to incorporate recent discoveries. According to the revised model, both direct echoes from targets and modulations in song-generated reverberation can provide singers with information that can help them make decisions about future actions related to mating, traveling, and foraging. The model identifies acoustic and structural features produced by singing humpback whales that may facilitate a singer’s ability to interpret changes in echoic scenes and suggests that interactive signal coordination by singing whales may help them to avoid mutual interference. Specific, testable predictions of the model are presented. (shrink)

This introduction positions the special issue by highlighting the inherent relationality of place as well as how place is not just an object of analysis but something that shapes thinking, writing and experiences of the world. We reflect on why sociology has found it somewhat more difficult than its social science counterparts to give place the centrality it merits, and discuss whether this reflects a problem with dealing with questions of ‘scale’ and thinking the ‘in-betweenness’ of place. We assess important (...) formulations of place in recent place theories, including non-essentialist framings of place such as ‘progressive’ and as ‘assemblage’. We make a case for seeing the articles in this special issue (and Thesis Eleven’s own long history of publishing writing on the topic of place) as resonating with the themes of place as materiality, atmospheres and spaces of belonging. (shrink)

This book casts new light on the application of the principle of proportionality in international law. Proportionality is claimed to play a central role governing the exercise of public power in international law and has been presented as the 'ultimate rule of law'.

The paper presents Amartya Sen’s critique of the anthropological model that underlies the conception of neoclassical economics, in order to present the conception of subject offered by the abilities approach and then the notion of development as freedom.

The present work proposes to analyze the dialectic between allegory and symbol elaborated from Walter Benjamin's rhetorical-aesthetic reading of the artistic form of the German Trauerspiel. Based on this, through a way of expository interpretation, we will address how the following three key moments are articulated in the book on the German Trauerspiel: the link between the Trauerspiel and the profane scene of reading, the particularity of allegorical signification, and the inseparability of allegory and mourning. From the exposition of these (...) moments, we will arrive at some final considerations: within the field of the philosophy of art, the dialectic between allegory and symbol constitutes a rhetorical-aesthetic conception of meaning (Bedeutens), thought through a double characterisation that Benjamin finds in die Sprache. (shrink)

Peirce’s analyses of the concept of information begin in the period from 1865 to 1869 and continue until the last years of his life. In fact, the successive phases that the scholars distinguish about Peirce’s approaches to information, roughly match Fisch’s periodization of Peirce’s philosophical development. In the first phase his approach is restricted to the proposition and the terms that knock it into shape; the forms of inference prevail. In the second phase the concept of information is enriched with (...) the development of Peirce’s semiotic theory and his typology of signs. By last, his concept of information receives a more decidedly metaphysical stamp. In this paper we will just expose Peirce’s conception of information during the first of these phases, foregrounding his papers Upon Logical Comprehension and Extension (W2 [1867]: 70-86) and Questions on Reality (W2 [1868]: 162-87). Here, individuals explore and actualize possibilities in thought, once they articulate their experience through a social system of signs. That’s why, in inferring, “we ought to say that we are in thought, and not that thoughts are in us” (EP 1 [1868]: 42). (shrink)

El siguiente trabajo tiene como objetivo principal describir y analizar la percepción de Manuel Baldomero Ugarte sobre Estados Unidos. Ugarte fue literato y político, pero también fue un pensador interesado por los asuntos internacionales de América Latina. Evidencia de ello son sus propuestas integracionistas y antiimperialistas, en las cuales la presencia de Estados Unidos era evidente. Debido a lo anterior, se estima conveniente explicar qué pensó Ugarte sobre la nación norteamericana, y desde esa perspectiva, contribuir a la discusión sobre tan (...) trascendental intelectual latinoamericano. The purpose of this work is to describe and analyze the perception of Manuel Baldomero Ugarte about the United States. Ugarte was a writer and a politician, but it was also a thinker interested in the Latin America’s international affairs. Testimony of this are his integrationist and anti-imperialist proposals, in which the U.S. presence was evident. Thus, it is considered advisable to explain what he thought about the American nation, and from this perspective, to contribute to the discussion around this important Latin American intellectual. (shrink)

É inegável a influência que a obra de Nietzsche exerceu na filosofia de Deleuze. Inaugurando, de certo modo, um novo estilo de pensamento na cultura do Ocidente, Nietzsche conferiu novas interpretações a certos conceitos filosóficos considerados imutáveis e eternos, como os conceitos de verdade, de essência e de força. Utilizando-se da tipologia de forças nietzschianas, Deleuze nos mostra como o saber do Ocidente se funda em um pensamento que o filósofo francês denominará de representacional, em oposição a um pensamento da (...) diferença, elucidando como estas duas formas de conhecer se correlacionam a tipos distintos de forças. Assim, o conceito de força cunhado por Nietzsche permitirá a Deleuze não somente traçar uma crítica ao saber ocidental - predominantemente representacional -, como também desenvolver sua própria filosofia da diferença, profundamente influenciada pela crítica e pelo perspectivismo nietzschianos. The influence of Nietzsche’s work in Deleuze’s philosophy is undeniable. Starting a new style of thinking in the western culture, Nietzsche gave new interpretations to certain philosophical concepts considered immutable and eternal, like the concepts of truth, essence and force. Using Nietzsche’s typology of forces, Deleuze shows us how the western knowledge is constituted by a thought the French philosopher calls representational, as opposed to a thought of difference, elucidating how these two ways of knowledge relate to different types of forces. Therefore, the concept of force, created by Nietzsche, allows Deleuze to draw a criticism on western knowledge and also to develop his own philosophy of the difference, deeply influenced by the critic and perspectivism of Nietzsche’s philosophy. (shrink)

The ancient one-to-one relationship with the biological life cycle has gradually deteriorated due to the world undergoing a metamorphic process. Such a metamorphosis has affected ecological harmony, in terms of it being both an approach to studying the relationships between living beings and the environment, and a branch of knowledge protecting and promoting ecological balance. One of the crucial aspects of this phenomenon is the need to rethink and redefine the concept of life in an era that has been described (...) as the “Anthropocene”. In introducing this special issue of the Journal, the paper aims to investigate the environmental question, which plays a crucial role in contemporary political thought, due to the survival of both nature and mankind being threatened. Since the 1950s, such a complex situation has resulted in two lines of thought whose views follow two opposed ideologies – anthropocentrism and anti-anthropocentrism. (shrink)

Este texto se recomprende la noción escolástica de verdad como adecuatio intellectus et rei a la luz de la la interpretación heideggeriana como ¿develación¿. Para ello se siguen tres momentos al hilo de tres preguntas: ¿en qué consiste esta adecuación?, ¿en qué sentido el intelecto y la cosa pensda se parecen? y ¿cuál es la esencia de la verdad?

La presente edición de la revista Polis tiene como tema central la(s) ciencia(s), la(s) tecnología(s) y la producción colectiva de saber(es). El desarrollo científico en nuestros países, llegados tardíamente a la revolución industrial, de frustrada y asimétrica industrialización, es claramente insuficiente y aún no han logrado incorporarse a la nueva revolución científico-tecnológica. Simultáneamente, nuestras sociedades se encuentran en un proceso de profundas transformaciones en su sistema..

Resumo: Neste artigo, propõe-se uma confrontação entre a teoria dos signos de Gotthold E. Lessing, tal como exposta em Laocoonte ou sobre as fronteiras da pintura e da poesia, e os dois ensaios de Theodor W. Adorno sobre as relações entre música e pintura. Pretende-se, com isso, demonstrar a presença decisiva de elementos da estética clássica alemã no pensamento adorniano do pós-guerra; em particular, observa-se o modo pelo qual a teoria racionalista de Lessing atua na abordagem dialética adorniana a respeito (...) da irredutibilidade formal dos meios artísticos e das possibilidades de sua convergência. À luz de tal confrontação, discutem-se, em um segundo momento do artigo, os temas da conferência de Adorno de 1966, A arte e as artes, que, em certa medida, consubstancia a discussão dos ensaios anteriores sobre música e pintura. Assinala-se, nesse contexto, a continuidade da posição teórica de Adorno e se apresentam as diferenças entre o processo de pseudomorfose e o de imbricação dos meios artísticos, segundo o filósofo.s: This article presents a comparison of Gotthold E. Lessing’s theory of signs, as found in his Laocoön: an essay on the limits of painting and poetry, and Theodore W. Adorno’s two essays on the relationship between music and painting. Our aim is to point out the decisive influence of German classical aesthetics on Adorno’s post-war aesthetics. Specifically, we discuss how Lessing’s theory functions as a framework for Adorno’s dialectical assessment of the formal specificity of artistic media and their possibilities of convergence in the context of the 1960’s avant-garde. In this context, we discuss the main implications of Adorno’s famous lecture of 1966, Art and the arts, which concerned the process of media convergence that intensified during the 1960’s, as well as the concepts of “overlapping” between artistic media and of “pseudomorphosis”. (shrink)

El objetivo del artículo es describir rasgos estructurales de la comprensión de metáforas mediante una comparación con la comprensión de otras culturas, tal como ésta ha sido comentada por Wittgenstein y Geertz. El fenómeno de estudio es la comprensión enfática de metáforas fuertes. La comparación entre ambos tipos de comprensión sirve para plantear y dar respuesta a tres preguntas desatendidas en la profusa literatura sobre la metáfora: 1) ¿En qué sentido nos sorprenden las metáforas fuertes? 2) ¿En qué sentido pueden (...) ser profundas? 3) ¿En qué sentido hablamos de la riqueza de este fenómeno lingüístico? /// This paper sets out to describe the structural features of metaphor comprehension through a comparison with the process of understanding other cultures construed along the lines proposed by Wittgenstein and Geertz. The phenomenon under analysis is the emphatic understanding of strong metaphors. The comparison between understanding metaphors and cultures serves to raise and answer three questions that have been neglected in the vast literature on metaphors: 1) In which sense do strong metaphors surprise us? 2) In which sense can a metaphor be profound? 3) In which sense do we speak of the richness of this linguistic phenomenon? (shrink)

O artigo apresenta a visão de Hannah Arendt de três momentos em que se configura, na história da filosofia política, a relação entre filosofia e política.O primeiro é o contexto antigo, representado na obra de Platão, quando a filosofia é entendida como metafísica e o conceito central da política é o de autoridade.O segundo remete à moderna crise do conceito metafísico de verdade e do conceito político de autoridade.O terceiro refere-se à leitura de Arendt da obra de Kant e aponta (...) para a relevância da sua teoria do juízo. (shrink)

Retomando alguns dos principais estudos sobre o conhecimento intuitivo do não existente em Guilherme de Ockham, pretendemos mostrar tanto alguns equívocos do que ficou estabelecido como a atual interpretação do problema, como também oferecer uma nova análise que enfatiza os vínculos entre os conceitos de evidência e de causalidade na argumentação ockhamiana. Fundamentando nossa exposição, estará a análise de pequenos trechos dos textos de alguns dos principais debatedores e intérpretes medievais do texto ockhamiano quanto a esse tema, como Walter Chatton, (...) Adão de Wodeham e Gabriel Biel, os quais nos pareceram essenciais para uma boa compreensão da própria posição ockhamiana. (shrink)

We show the intimate relationship between McNaughton Theorem and the Chinese Remaindner Theorem for MV-algebras. We develop a very short and simple proof of McNaughton Theorem. The arguing is elementary and right out of the definitions. We exhibit the theorem as just an instance of the Chinese theorem. Since the variety of MV-algebras is arithmetic, the Chinese theorem holds for MV-algebras. However, to make this paper self-contained and entirely elementary, we include a simple proof of this theorem inspired in Ferraioli (...) and Lettieri (Math Logic Q 1:27–43, 2011). (shrink)

Seyla Benhabib’s The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era (2002), is considered in terms of three main virtues: first, it moves the question of political justice beyond the debate on the priority of recognition over distribution; second, it contributes to the expansion of the notion of communicative freedom and how it relates to rights; and third, it lays down the foundation for a cosmopolitan, post-nationalistic, form of citizenship that would have as its core the rights of (...) association and existence. Three areas of concern and potential disagreement are discussed: first, whether Benhabib could be accused of a type of culturalism that celebrates too quickly postethnic America at the expense of the agenda of racial justice still to be addressed in the United States; second, whether in this work Benhabib has given enough attention to the political claims of memory, especially when these claims are enunciated from colonial pasts; third, in conclusion, how cultural justice, or respect for cultural diversity, can contribute to biodiversity’s preservation in the age of the coming largest extinction of biodiversity. (shrink)

Davidson's thesis that the notion of a rule is dispensable in regard to a theoretical explanation of linguistic communication is here critically investigated. First I put Davidson's into question and thereby arrive at the conclusion that instances of communication in two languages pose no threat and that Davidson invokes a dubious concept of a rule in his treatment of so called malapropisms. Then I investigate his My thesis is that Davidson does not succeed-in taking into account appropriately the, as he (...) himself concedes, important distinction between "using words correctly" and "believing that one uses words correctly". Finally I try to formulate of the later Davidson in such a manner that they do not fall prey to his rule-criticism. (shrink)

La filosofía del lenguaje de Wittgenstein está influida por las aportaciones tanto de Frege como de Bertrand Russell. Si bien, en su obra el Tracttaus puso su propio estilo. Para incluso llegar a decir que sus aportaciones eran el punto clave para que las teorías tanto de Russell como de Frege terminaran con algunos inconvenientes que surgían en sus teorías. Como ejemplo baste las tablas de Verdad de función que introduce Wittgenstein. Sin embargo, es importante que se tengan en cuenta (...) que tomó de estos filósofos, y la manera en que fue modificando sus ideas, para entender la obra del Wittgenstein del Tractatus. (shrink)

Trata acerca del nuevo sentido que asigna Merleau-Ponty a la existencia humana, que al tiempo que reconoce su pertenencia al mundo de acuerdo con la noción heideggeriana del ser-en-el-mundo y según un enfoque que se opone al intelectualismo racionalista, no renuncia sin embargo a una filosofía del sujeto inspirada en el último Husserl. Eso le lleva a interpretar el viejo principio cartesiano del cogito como existencia y a atribuir a esta noción una ambigüedad: la que se corresponde con la doble (...) y simultánea consideración de pertenencia al mundo y distinción respecto de él. Ese proyecto filosófico se elabora a través de una manera nueva de describir la experiencia en la línea de una concepción fenomenológica que atribuye al cuerpo el papel trascendental que el idealismo clásico asignaba a la conciencia. (shrink)