The Church is a sexed body, in both carnal and symbolic terms. The Church has sex, but being the Church it does so in a radically creative way. This article explores the contrast between sex as imagined by the Church and as imagined by evolutionary psychology (Darwinism). It argues that the latter reduces sex to reproduction (repetition) and makes this a metaphysical principle, whereas the Church transforms sex into a means for final beatitude. (Christian sex is not about self-perpetuation, but (...) about welcoming strangers; not about children as possessions, but as God's most precious gifts.) Darwinism strangely repeats a debased (neoscholastic) form of the natural law, whereas the Church looks to follow a law that is the dispossessive desire of God for God. Sex after this law orders us towards the infinite joy of our consummation with and in God, in the fellowship of Christ and the holy saints. (shrink)

" Le concept d'un être infini est plus simple que celui d'un être bon ou d'un être vrai et autres semblables, parce que " infini " n'est pas une sorte d'attribut ou une propriété de l'être ou de tout ce dont il est prédiqué.

Canavero and Ren (2017) suggest that both public and bioethical objections to head/body transplantation will subside after patient outcomes prove successful in an analogous way to how similar objec...

Dans la quasi-définition hyperbolique qu’en donne Derrida, la circoncision s’effectue toujours sans (mémoire, événement, moi, sujet). Là où, pour Hegel, la négation se nie et l’aliénation s’aliène, le sans vient inciser chirurgicalement la texture même de la langue spéculative, laquelle assure continûment la « reprise dans le concept ». La différance consigne ainsi l’impossibilité de la guérison dialectique et de l’accomplissement salutaire où s’annuleraient le différemment, l’attente, la non-venue. La circoncision nomme donc une coupure, une séparation, un disjointement, dont elle (...) fournit dans l’œuvre de Derrida le philosophème le plus propre. (shrink)

In his lecture course, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, Heidegger discusses three different forms of poverty and deprivation. First of all, the poverty in world of the non-human animal, second, the poverty in the being of contemporary Dasein, and, third, the deprivation of world in the fundamental attunement of profound boredom. This essay discusses these three forms of poverty or deprivation, with the goal to offer a preliminary analysis of Heidegger’s distinction between the human and the non-human animal.

Soumis aux conditions difficiles que lui impose l’Occupation, Julien Benda exprime dans La Grande Épreuve des démocraties une foi lucide en la démocratie, fondée sur un bilan critique du combat antifasciste. Appelant les Européens à privilégier dans leur passé les éléments d’une tradition républicaine d’inspiration libérale et sociale, il remet en cause la relative indifférence qu’il a longtemps entretenue, dans l’esprit de La trahison des clercs, à l’égard des systèmes politiques et de l’espoir de promouvoir la justice dans les sociétés (...) humaines, au profit d’un idéal élitiste soucieux de préserver la liberté d’une minorité d’intellectuels tournés vers l’éternité.Affirmant nettement la nécessité d’un ordre juridique international coercitif et chargé de veiller au respect des principes démocratiques, Julien Benda, collaborant aux publications de la Résistance, a la conviction que la démocratie doit se libérer de l’humanisme pacifiste dont elle est naturellement porteuse, et qu’elle doit, passant par un moment machiavélien, aller contre ses propres valeurs, et s’appuyer sur la force pour assurer son existence face à ses ennemis.Submitted to the difficult conditions imposed on him by the German occupation in France, Julien Benda, in La Grande Épreuve des démocraties expresses a true lucid faith in democracy, grounded on the critical appraisal of the anti-fascist fight. Urging the Europeans to privilege within their past the elements of a Republican tradition of a social and liberal inspiration, he questions the relative indifference he had for quite a while entertained, within the spirit of the Trahison des clercs, towards political systems and his hope to be able to promote justice in human societies, to the profit of an elitist ideal careful to safeguard the freedom of a minority of intellectuals turned towards eternity.Strongly stressing the necessity of a legal international order both coercive and meant to be sure democratic principles should be applied and respected, Julien Benda, by collaborating to the publications of the French Resistance, strongly believes that democracy should free itself from the pacifist humanism which it normally evidences and that it should – through a Machiavellian moment – go astride from its own values and rest on strength to grant its existence when confronted to its enemies. (shrink)

L’injustice est, chez Spinoza, transgression de la loi positive et la rébellion populaire toujours contraire à la loi : jamais la multitude ne peut être légitimée à se révolter. Pourtant elle est caractérisée comme specie juris, apparence ou fausse apparence de droit, contraire à l’interprétation vraie des lois. Gouvernants comme gouvernés sont donc capables d’injustice. Il faut donc expliquer ce à quoi sont tenus les uns comme les autres pour comprendre comment les normes juridiques sont produites.

Sometimes, it is difficult to know what someone means. Sometimes, it merely appears to be difficult. Consider this masterpiece of philosophical hermeneutics from a P. G. Wodehouse short story: “Jeeves,” I said. “A rummy communication has arrived. From Mr. Glossop.” “Indeed, sir?” “I will read it to you. Handed in at Upper Bleaching. Message runs as follows: ‘When you come tomorrow, bring my football boots. Also, if humanly possible, Irish water-spaniel. Urgent. Regards. Tuppy.’.

In “Rothbard as a philosopher” Edward Feser harshly criticises the philosophical abilities of Murray Rothbard. According to Feser, Rothbard seems unable to produce arguments that don’t commit obvious fallacies or produces arguments that fail to address certain obvious objections. His criticism centres on what he regards as Rothbard’s principal argument for the thesis of self-ownership. In this paper, I attempt to show that Feser’s criticism fails of its purpose and that Rothbard is very far from being the epitome of philosophical (...) ineptitude that Feser takes him to be. (shrink)

Akhil Reed Amar, The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997, xi + 272 pp.

Dans les métiers de l'éducation au sens large, la difficulté de savoir qui s'adresse à qui suscite un désarroi. Toute incitation dominante découpe dans les personnes concernées par l'interaction un "sujet" d'un certain type qui, à peine instauré, s'effrite sous l'effet de ses propres ambivalences et sombre souvent dans l'indétermination ou la caricature des labellisations qui visent à éviter la complexité de ses composantes internes pour réduire le désarroi. Successivement, la face active, par trop valorisée, puis la face passive, souvent (...) assimilée à l'inertie, sont ici éclairées par des orientations de pensée fécondes pour les praticiens et leurs formateurs. (shrink)

1. Badly understood words are the main hindrance to the discovery of truth. But they need not be, especially in physical science, where the senses, experience, and geometrical reasoning prevail. Reflection on motion led ancient philosophers into opinions about it so absurd that they are almost forgotten and merit no attention. But even the better presentday scientists, in their treatment of motion, employ language too abstract and of doubtful reference--for example, the attraction of gravity, effort, latent forces, and the like--which (...) make otherwise learned writings unintelligible. Hence this essay. (shrink)

This essay maintains that although We Hold These Truths represented an important milestone in Catholic reflection on the American regime, Murray’s analysis of public morality and the state’s role in its promotion and enforcement is notably weak and of little assistance to us today. More specifically, it argues that Murray’s analysis is insufficiently philosophical and too concerned with the pragmatic task of forging an approach widely acceptable in the America of his day; that it rests on an artificial distinction between (...) “private” and “public” morality that fails to sufficiently appreciate the essential dependence of sound morals legislation upon the government’s recognition of moral truth; and that it too closely identifies the whole of law’s competence with the scope of its coercive jurisdiction, thus failing to appreciate the directive and educative properties of law and its role in the establishment of conditions conducive to human flourishing. (shrink)

Utopia repeatedly sets forth the rhetorical strategy of using pleasant and healing words to “enter” or “flow” or “steal into” fortresses of hardened opinion and custom without arousing warlike passions to keep them out. An important part of this strategy is the creation of a character who denounces major instances and causes of injustice but who nonetheless supports war and other means of force at the expense of law in rectifying that injustice; another part of the strategy is the creation (...) of a character and a plot that embody the “indirect” rhetorical approach aimed primarily at long-term persuasion needed to improve laws and institutions. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene por objeto dar una versión diferente y más breve del poema que contiene una demanda morisca de ayuda al Imperio Otomano, poema estudiado por James Monroe en Al-Andalus XXXI, 281-303. Esta versión indica que había habido otra demanda similar por parte de los moriscos al sultán mameluco de El Cairo, y que ésta era la original. El artículo contiene: 1) un análisis comparativo de las versiones de la casida dirigidas a los mamelucos y a los otomanos, 2) (...) el marco histórico de las relaciones entre los reinos cristianos y musulmanes de la Península Ibérica por un lado y los territorios mameluco y otomano por otro, y 3) una discusión de la fecha de las dos versiones de la casida, así como su autoría. Parece probable que el autor de la casida perteneciera a círculos de musulmanes granadinos que habían formado parte de las clases dirigentes de Granada y que luego habían aceptado puestos en la administración cristiana de la ciudad, como son, por ejemplo, varios miembros de la familia al-Baqannī, algunos de los cuales habían emigrado con Ibn al-Azraq al Norte de África, pero regresaron para integrarse en los grupos dirigentes mudéjares. (shrink)

Este artículo está dedicado al famoso pergamino encontrado en 1588 en el antiguo minarete de la que había sido mezquita aljama de Granada, con textos en árabe, latín y castellano. Junto con los libros plúmbeos descubiertos en diversas cuevas a las afueras de la ciudad entre 1595 y 1600, el pergamino está en los orígenes de un importante culto nacional. El artículo presenta un análisis de la composición y escritura del pergamino y pasa revista a las trascripciones y traducciones que (...) se hicieron por testigos cristianos y musulmanes . Éstas se comparan críticamente con los principales elementos del pergamino y se discuten los comentarios paleográfícos hechos por estos testigos contemporáneos . Como conclusión, los autores mantienen que el documento transferido desde el Vaticano en el año 2000, es el original encontrado en 1588 a pesar de lo incomprensible de los textos árabes y de la corrupción de los textos castellano y latino Según los autores, no hay base para considerar al pergamino como documento proto-islámico, puesto que se trata de un mensaje católico romano anunciando la destrucción del islam. Al mismo tiempo, el documento incluye un mensaje simbólico al mostrar que los cristianos granadinos del siglo I, incluyendo a Cecilius, escribían árabe y castellano, lo mismo que hacían los moriscos. Así, aunque el Islam había de ser extirpado, la lengua árabe se podía armonizar con una vida genuinamente cristiana. (shrink)

Plato's attitude toward the poets and poetry has always been a flashpoint of debate, controversy and notoriety, but most scholars have failed to see their central role in the ideal cities of the Republic and the Laws, that is, Callipolis and Magnesia. In this paper, I argue that in neither dialogue does Plato "exile" the poets, but, instead, believes they must, like all citizens, exercise the expertise proper to their profession, allowing them the right to become full-fledged participants in the (...) productive class. Moreover, attention to certain details reveals that Plato harnesses both positive and negative factors in poetry to bring his ideal cities closer to a practical realization. The status of the poet and his craft in this context has rarely to my knowledge been addressed. (shrink)