RESUMO: Interrogando-se sobre o lugar da filosofia de Theodor W. Adorno no âmbito do pensamento crítico contemporâneo, o presente artigo procura dar conta dos revezes da recepção político-filosófica da dialéctica negativa e discutir a sua relevância actual. Defender-se-á que a politização do pensamento adorniano é possível, muito embora as suas valências críticas não se restrinjam a essa possibilidade. Hoje, a dialéctica negativa funcionaria também como antídoto contra os atalhos tomados pelas correntes "voluntarista", "messiânica" e "ontológica" da filosofia, à entrada do (...) século XXI. Contudo, atendendo a que a relação entre teoria e prática é complexa em Adorno, a sua relevância actual ressaltaria em relação com as reacções críticas que o movimento do "realismo especulativo" tem suscitado. Em diálogo com alguns dos seus interlocutores, sugere-se que o desenvolvimento de uma "dialéctica constelar" depende da introdução de um elemento destotalizador no seio do diagnóstico radical - a um só tempo materialista e transcendental - da dialéctica negativa. ABSTRACT: Questioning the place of Theodor W. Adorno's philosophy within contemporary critical thought, this article attempts to account for the politico-philosophical reception of Adorno's negative dialectics and to discuss its present-day relevance. I argue that it is possible to politicize Adorno's work, although its critical valences go far beyond this possibility. Today, negative dialectics would provide an antidote against the shortcuts taken by 'voluntarist', 'messianic' and 'ontological' turns/trends in twenty-first-century philosophy. However, in view of the complexity of Adorno's appraisal of the interplay between theory and praxis, the current relevance of his thought gains plausibility by being linked with critical responses to 'speculative realism'. In dialogue with some of its interlocutors, I suggest that developing a 'constellative dialectics' depends on the introduction of a detotalizing element within the radical - at once materialistic and transcendental - diagnosis of negative dialectics. (shrink)

We point out that current belief revision operations can be used to revise non-monotonic theories and we propose a new operation, called permissive belief revision. The underlying idea of permissive belief revision consists of instead of abandoning some beliefs during a revision, transforming those beliefs into weaker ones, while still keeping the resulting belief set consistent. This framework allows us to keep more beliefs than what is usual using existing belief base-based revision theories.

Resumo: Este artigo possui o propósito de colocar à prova a interpretação heideggeriana acerca das noções nietzschianas de vontade de potência e eterno retorno do mesmo. Para levar a cabo o referido objetivo, de início, apresentaremos o argumento desenvolvido por Heidegger nas suas preleções e textos sobre Nietzsche, editadas e publicadas em dois volumes, no ano de 1961. Num segundo momento, examinaremos, em Nietzsche: sua filosofia dos antagonismos e os antagonismos de sua filosofia, a resposta que Müller-Lauter ofereceu à crítica (...) de Heidegger. Por ocasião deste exame, tentaremos salientar que haveria certa insuficiência na réplica deste comentador. Por fim, iremos recorrer aos textos do próprio Nietzsche para tentar promover uma confrontação com a interpretação do Filósofo da Floresta Negra.: This article has the purpose to challenge the Heideggerian interpretation of Nietzsche’s notions of will to power and eternal recurrence. To carry out this objective, we will first present the argument developed by Heidegger in his lectures and texts on Nietzsche, edited and published in two volumes, in 1961. In a second moment, we will examine, in Nietzsche: his philosophy of antagonisms and the antagonisms of his philosophy, the answer that Müller-Lauter offered to Heidegger’s criticism. On the occasion of this examination, we will try to point out that there would be a certain insufficiency in this commenter’s reply. Finally, we will resort to Nietzsche’s own texts to try to promote a confrontation with the Black Forest Philosopher’s interpretation. (shrink)

BackgroundThe outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a global panic and public concern due to its mortality ratio and lack of treatments/vaccines. Reduced levels of physical activity have been reported during the outbreak, affecting the normal daily pattern.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship of physical activity level with sleep quality and the effects of reduction physical activity levels on sleep quality.MethodsA Google form was used to address personal information, COVID-19 personal care, physical activity, and mental health of 1,907 adult volunteers. (...) Binary logistic regression was used to verify the association of physical activity parameters and sleep quality.ResultsInsufficient physical activity levels were a risk factor to have disturbed sleep pattern [OR: 1.28, 95% CI ]; however, when the BMI was added to the analysis, there was no more statistical difference [OR: 1.23, 95% CI ]. On the other hand, we found that the reduction of physical activity levels was associated with negative changes in sleep quality [OR: 1.73, 95% CI ], regardless all the confounders [OR: 1.30, 95% CI ], unless when feeling of depression was added in Model 6 [OR: 1.28, 95% CI ].ConclusionDisruption in daily physical activity routine, rather than physical activity level, negatively influences sleep quality during the COVID-19 quarantine. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a interpretação realizada por Nietzsche ao poema de Parmênides, Da Natureza. Para levar a cabo essa tarefa, efetuaremos, num primeiro momento, um exame do poema em questão. Esse trabalho inicial fornecerá subsídios para, num segundo momento, voltarmos nossos esforços diretamente à interpretação nietzschiana do texto do pré-socrático. Nesta segunda etapa do artigo, iremos nos debruçar sobre os trabalhos A Filosofia na Idade Trágica dos Gregos e Os filósofos pré-platônicos. A intenção inicial do segundo momento (...) de nossa empreitada é esclarecer a hipótese de Nietzsche acerca da gênese do poema e do desenvolvimento lógico do argumento nele contido. Feito isso, também tentaremos retraçar a argumentação do filósofo alemão no que diz respeito à critica que ele realiza ao pensador de Eleia. Por fim, tentaremos mostrar que as questões levantadas por Nietzsche nesses textos irão reverberar nas fases posteriores de sua filosofia. (shrink)

Jose Marti contributed greatly to Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain with words as well as revolutionary action. Although he died before the formation of an independent republic, he has since been hailed as a heroic martyr inspiring Cuban republican traditions.

Infants show impressive speech decoding abilities and detect acoustic regularities that highlight the syntactic relations of a language, often codedvianon-adjacent dependencies (NADs, e.g.,issinging). It has been claimed that infants learn NADs implicitly and associatively through passive listening and that there is a shift from effortless associative learning to a more controlled learning of NADs after the age of 2 years, potentially driven by the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. To investigate if older children are able to learn NADs,Lammertink et al. (...) (2019)recently developed a word-monitoring serial reaction time (SRT) task and could show that 6–11-year-old children learned the NADs, as their reaction times (RTs) increased then they were presented with violated NADs. In the current study we adapted their experimental paradigm and tested NAD learning in a younger group of 52 children between the age of 4–8 years in a remote, web-based, game-like setting (whack-a-mole). Children were exposed to Italian phrases containing NADs and had to monitor the occurrence of a target syllable, which was the second element of the NAD. After exposure, children did a “Stem Completion” task in which they were presented with the first element of the NAD and had to choose the second element of the NAD to complete the stimuli. Our findings show that, despite large variability in the data, children aged 4–8 years are sensitive to NADs; they show the expected differences in r RTs in the SRT task and could transfer the NAD-rule in the Stem Completion task. We discuss these results with respect to the development of NAD dependency learning in childhood and the practical impact and limitations of collecting these data in a web-based setting. (shrink)

Increasing student involvement in classes has always been a challenge for teachers and school managers. In online learning, some interactivity mechanisms like quizzes are increasingly used to engage students during classes and tasks. However, there is a high demand for tools that evaluate the efficiency of these mechanisms. In order to distinguish between high and low levels of engagement in tasks, it is possible to monitor brain activity through functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The main advantages of this technique are portability, low (...) cost, and a comfortable way for students to concentrate and perform their tasks. This setup provides more natural conditions for the experiments if compared to the other acquisition tools. In this study, we investigated levels of task involvement through the identification of correct and wrong answers of typical quizzes used in virtual environments. We collected data from the prefrontal cortex region of 18 students while watching a video lecture. This data was modeled with supervised learning algorithms. We used random forests and penalized logistic regression to classify correct answers as a function of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentration. These models identify which regions best predict student performance. The random forest and penalized logistic regression obtained, respectively, 0.67 and 0.65 area of the ROC curve. Both models indicate that channels F4-F6 and AF3-AFz are the most relevant for the prediction. The statistical significance of these models was confirmed through cross-validation and a permutation test. This methodology can be useful to better understand the teaching and learning processes in a video lecture and also provide improvements in the methodologies used in order to better adapt the presentation content. (shrink)

With respect to De Dreu and Gross's article, we comment on the psychological functions for attack and defense, focusing on associations between individual differences in psychopathic personality traits and the behavioral patterns observed in attack-defense conflicts. We highlight the dimensional nature of psychopathy and formulate hypothetical associations between distinct traits, their different behavioral outcomes, and associated brain mechanisms.

Resumo: O presente artigo tem por objetivo tentar elucidar as relações entre a tradição contratualista moderna e a noção nietzschiana de "Estado" que está presente na obra Genealogia da moral. Para realizar essa tarefa, iniciaremos pelo exame do argumento de Nietzsche acerca do aparecimento do "Estado", apresentado nas seções 16 e 17 da segunda dissertação do livro citado. Num segundo momento, trazemos um breve resumo dos argumentos de três contratualistas clássicos, a saber, Hobbes, Rousseau e Locke. Essas duas primeiras partes (...) do nosso trabalho servirão como premissas a partir das quais iremos promover a confrontação entre Nietzsche e os contratualistas. Esse procedimento nos dará oportunidade para apresentarmos uma problemática secundária, qual seja, a questão da "sociedade" das "bestas louras" pensada à luz da noção contratualista de pacto. (shrink)

The Second Vatican Council was built within a solidly constituted tradition in the Catholic Church. All councils were held within the traditional and legal parameters of the Church. The question about the condition of possibility of a renewal Council under this tradition shows relevant. The Vatican II is the result of a negotiation between renewal and preservation. Pope John XXIII personally coordinated the construction of the legitimacy of the new event, following steps which may be rescued during the preparatory stages (...) of the great assembly. The reading of this process from sociological parameters may elucidate its plausibility within the tradition and the Church's bureaucratic organization. Pope John started ably a church renewal process, opening a new phase in the long Catholic tradition. Under his Pope condition, he knew how to seed the idea of a revamping event in the name of a divine inspiration and with the set of bishops’ participation of the Church. (shrink)

Neste artigo tenta-se uma aproximação do pensamento de E. Levinas em sua busca de aberturas no discurso-do-serpara a emergência ética do sentido, de um Sentido desconstrutor dos sentidos constituídos, Sentido dos sentidos e do não-sentido. Trata-se, assim, de uma tentativa de superação do esquecimento mais tipico do centralismo da nossa tradição de pensamento: o da Intriga, que é também tensão, do Outro no seio do Mesmo - ou seja, da Transcendência na e à ordem do mundo. Mais do que o (...) esquecimento do Ser, é o esquecimento do Outro que está na origem da presente crftica à filosofia estabelecida - "visibilidade do Mesmo para o Mesmo". Assim, entendendo-se a si mesmo como pequeno ensaio de abertura a uma "ontologia do Exilio" - "ontologia relational", capaz de renunciar ao primado dos esquemas de uma constituição transcendental do sentido e ao privitégio tradicionalmente concedido à manifestação e à presença -, o presente artigo fazuma abordagem do tratamento dado por E. Levinas (prestando em certo momento também atenção ao caminho colateral de M. Heidegger) a três fundamentais dimensões do nosso ser-no-mundo - a interrogação, a linguagem e o corpo - em ordem a uma redefinição do Sentido e da Inteligibilidade da Transcendência, ou seja, à produção de um discurso aberto à vivacidade do enigma que é a presença do Outro no seio do Mesmo. O resultado é como que uma prova em ordem a uma (futura) "filosofia da encarnação", de um pensamento da subjectividade humana em termos de "maternidade e vulnerabilidade", de um ser-aberto à intriga da relação radical no ser. /// Cet article essaye une approximation de la pensée de E. Levinas en cherchant des ouvertures dans le discours-de-l'être à l'émergence éthique du sens, sens déconstructeur des sens constitués, Sens du sens et du non-sens. Il s'agit, done, d'essayer une supération de l'oubliement le plus typique du centralisme de notre tradition de la pensée: l'oubliement de l'Intrigue, qui est aussi tension, de l'Autre dans le Mdme, e'est-à-dire de la Transcendance dans et à l'ordre du monde. Plus qu'oubliement de l'être, e'est l'oubliement de l'Autre qui est à l'origine de la présente critique à la philosophie établie - "visibilité du Même pour le Même". Se comprenant soi-même comme un petit essai d'ouverture à une "ontologie de l'Exile" - "ontologie relationelle", capable de renoncer au primat des schèmes d'une constitution transcendantale du sens et au privilège traditionellement donné par E. Levinas à la manifestation et à la présence, cet article considère le traitement donné par E. Levinas (avec quelque attention au chemin colllatéral de M. Heidegger) à trois dimensions fondamentales de notre être-dans-le-monde - l'interrogation, le langage et le corps - pour une redéfinition du Sens et de l'Intelligibilité de la Transcendance, c'est-à-dire pour un discours ouvert à l'énigme qui est la présence de l'Autre dans le Même. Le résultat est une façon d'épreuve pour une (future) philosophie de l'incarnation, d'une pensée de la subjectivité humaine par rapport à la maternité et vulnérabilité, d'un "être-ouvert à l'intrigue de la relation radical dans l'être. /// In this article an attempt is made to approach Levinas's thought from the perspective of his search for openings that can be discovered in ontological discourse and that point towards the emergence of meaning as ethical, of Meaning which deconstructs constituted meanings, the Meaning of meanings and of non-meaning. It involves an overcoming of the kind of forgetting which is central to our philosophical tradition: that of Intrigue, the tension of the Other in the heart of the Same, i. e., of Transcendence in the order of the world. More than the forgetting of Being, it is the forgetting of the Other that is at the source of the criticism of established philosophy - "the visibility of the Same for itself". In proposing an "ontology of exile", a "relational ontology", capable of renouncing the primacy of transcendental constitution of meaning and the privilege given to manifestation and presence, this article considers Levinas's treatment (with some attention given to Heidegger in this regard) of three fundamental dimensions of our being-in-the-world: interrogation, language, and the body. A redefinition of Meaning and of Inteligibility of Transcendence is thereby sought by being attentive to the production of a discourse which is sensitive to the enigma of the Other in the Same. The possibility of a (future) philosophy of incarnation, where human subjectivity can be thought of in terms of maternity and vulnerability to the degree that it is open to the intrigue in the heart of being, is being tested here. (shrink)

Our present moral traits are unable to provide the level of large-scale co-operation necessary to deal with risks such as nuclear proliferation, drastic climate change and pandemics. In order to survive in an environment with powerful and easily available technologies, some authors claim that we need to improve our moral traits with moral enhancement. But this is prone to produce paradoxical effects, be self-reinforcing and harm personal identity. The risks of moral enhancement require the use of a safety framework; such (...) a framework should guarantee practical robustness to moral uncertainty, empirical adequacy, correct balance between dispositions, preservation of identity, and be sensitive to practical considerations such as emergent social effects. A virtue theory can meet all these desiderata. Possible frameworks incorporate them to variable degrees. The social value orientations framework is one of the most promising candidates. (shrink)

Ao longo da história, a relação entre a filosofia e a política tem-se revelado espinhosa, denunciando a dificuldade em se conceptualizar sobre o que é por natureza antagónico à cristalização, porque particular e pluralista. Na esfera da opinião, o filósofo deve restringir-se a analisar, criticar, rever e aperfeiçoar os valores políticos coevos, a explicar aos seus conterrâneos o universo de acepções sociais partilhadas, consciente de que a sua concepção fundamenta uma via entre as muitas poss...

What is the fundamental insight behind truth-functionality ? When is a logic interpretable by way of a truth-functional semantics? To address such questions in a satisfactory way, a formal definition of truth-functionality from the point of view of abstract logics is clearly called for. As a matter of fact, such a definition has been available at least since the 70s, though to this day it still remains not very widely well-known. A clear distinction can be drawn between logics characterizable through: (...) (1) genuinely finite-valued truth-tabular semantics; (2) no finite-valued but only an infinite-valued truthtabular semantics; (3) no truth-tabular semantics at all. Any of those logics, however, can in principle be characterized through non-truth-functional valuation semantics, at least as soon as their associated consequence relations respect the usual tarskian postulates. So, paradoxical as that might seem at first, it turns out that truth-functional logics may be adequately characterized by non-truth-functional semantics . Now, what feature of a given logic would guarantee it to dwell in class (1) or in class (2), irrespective of its circumstantial semantic characterization? (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the widespread use of online hearings in arbitral proceedings, raising questions about the impact of such proceedings on the determination of facts underlying a dispute. This article explores the extent to which online hearings may hinder arbitrators’ ability to assess witness credibility by drawing upon the cognitive psychology literature on truthfulness determination and lie detection. A survey of the literature suggests that the ability to differentiate truthful from dishonest statements through verbal and nonverbal cues (...) is limited, leading to the notion that observing behaviors like fidgeting, gaze aversion, vocal pitch, or body posture is not particularly relevant in assessing the credibility of a witness. Instead, focusing on the content of what is reported appears to be the most relevant strategy to determine credibility. Therefore, research does not support the idea that face-to-face contact with witnesses is essential to determine the facts of a dispute. Still, the use of in-person hearings may, in practice, continue to be preferred due to underlying cultural assumptions regarding the nature of hearings, the facilitation of communication between parties, counsel, and the tribunal, and a general sense of _Zoom fatigue_. (shrink)

This article is to be a bridge between Kant’s aesthetics and contemporary art – not by being a paper on Kant and contemporary art, but rather by being on Kant and contemporaryphilosophy of art. I claim that Kant’s views on the appreciation of art can accommodate contextualism as well as ethicism. I argue that not only does contextualism fit Kant’s views on the appreciation of art; in §§51–3 of the thirdCritique, Kant’s appreciation of art is in accordance with contextualism. I (...) go on to argue that not only does ethicism fit Kant’s views on the appreciation of art; in §§51–3, Kant’s appreciation of art is in accordance with ethicism. (shrink)

Cause-related marketing has risen to become a popular strategy to increase business value through profit-motivated giving. Despite the growing number of articles published in the last decade, no comprehensive analysis of the most discussed constructs of cause-related marketing is available. This paper uses an advanced Text Mining methodology to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 246 articles published in 40 different journals between 1988 and 2013 on the subject of cause-related marketing. Text Mining also allows quantitative analyses to be performed on (...) the literature. For instance, it is shown that the most prominent long-term topics discussed since 1988 on the subject are “brand-cause fit”, “law and Ethics”, and “corporate and social identification”, while the most actively discussed topic presently is “sectors raising social taboos and moral debates”. The paper has two goals: first, it introduces the technique of CTM to the Marketing area, illustrating how Text Mining may guide, simplify, and enhance review processes while providing objective building blocks to be used in a review; second, it applies CTM to the C-RM field, uncovering and summarizing the most discussed topics. Mining text, however, is not aimed at replacing all subjective decisions that must be taken as part of literature review methodologies. (shrink)

The Foundations of Cognitive Science is a set of thirteen new essays on key topics in this lively interdisciplinary field, by a stellar international line-up of authors. Philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists here come together to investigate such fascinating subjects as consciousness; vision; rationality; artificial life; the neural basis of language, cognition, and emotion; and the relations between mind and world, for instance our representation of numbers and space. The contributors are Ned Block, Margaret Boden, Susan Carey, Patricia Churchland, Paul Churchland, (...) Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio, Donald Davidson, Daniel Dennett, Ilya Farber, James Higginbotham, Christopher Peacocke, Will Peterman, Zenon Pylyshyn, John Searle. Anyone interested in the exploration of the human mind will enjoy this book. (shrink)

O artigo tenta reconstruir alguns elementos acerca da passagem da Lógica da essência para a Lógica do conceito, da necessidade para a liberdade, na Ciência da Lógica hegeliana. No contexto da publicação dos duzentos anos dessa obra filosófica, a explicitação dessa passagem é referencial para a compreensão da Ciência da Lógica e de todo o pensamento hegeliano. O artigo procura sustentar que o binômio necessidade/contingência, um dos pares categoriais da Lógica da essência, não é adequado para a articulação da filosofia (...) hegeliana. Como Hegel afirma reiteradas vezes, é preciso superar a dura necessidade para dar lugar à lógica da liberdade. Para a discussão da problemática, a confrontação entre algumas categorias da essência, tais como substancialidade, necessidade, contingência e causalidade, e algumas categorias do conceito, tais como universalidade, particularidade e singularidade é o foco da exposição. Dessa discussão brota a noção hegeliana de liberdade e a sua relação com o sistema. (shrink)

How should one describe the irreducible relationships in photopoetry observed in intermedial literary photobooks? According to most authors, in literary photobooks, the verbal sign system is linked to the photographic image as a bidirectional interaction, creating a coupled system that can be seen as a new sign system. Mutually modulatory influences link verbal text and photography. But the nature of such influences needs to be explained in detail and with accuracy. What kind of relation are we dealing with? Many authors (...) have tried to explain this phenomenon through several epistemic metaphors. The problem is that these metaphors are rarely subjected to any general theory of meaning. Surprisingly, this is not even mentioned as a problem. In this article, we propose a general semiotic model to describe the irreducible photography-poetry relation, derived from C. S. Peirce’s pragmatic theory of signs, and we also present some preliminary results of the analysis of Quarenta Clics em Curitiba, a photobook by Paulo Leminski and Jack Pires. Our purpose here is to introduce and explore this model to describe the photography-poetry relationship in coupled systems. This relationship is decomposed, in the functional roles occupied by poems and photographs, into a sign-object-interpretant relation. The triadic irreducibility that characterizes semiosis (à la Peirce) is the main property applied to photograph-poetry coupling in Quarenta Clics em Curitiba. (shrink)

The novel notion of importing logics is introduced, subsuming as special cases several kinds of asymmetric combination mechanisms, like temporalization [8, 9], modalization [7] and exogenous enrichment [13, 5, 12, 4, 1]. The graph-theoretic approach proposed in [15] is used, but formulas are identified with irreducible paths in the signature multi-graph instead of equivalence classes of such paths, facilitating proofs involving inductions on formulas. Importing is proved to be strongly conservative. Conservative results follow as corollaries for temporalization, modalization and exogenous (...) enrichment. (shrink)

This paper aims to define what competitive perception is. Using Dufrenne's phenomenological analysis of the art spectator's experience, namely the concept of aesthetic perception, I will claim that it is useful to apply this phenomenological approach to the experience of watching sport events. I will argue that the concepts of uncertainty and auto teleology, being two main features in sport competition, are helpful to define competitive perception.

O texto é uma resenha da Doutrina do Conceito hegeliana recém editada e publicada em português. O terceiro livro da Ciência da Lógica é estruturado em subjetividade, objetividade e ideia, com cada uma destas partes também desenvolvida numa estrutura tripartite. Nesta exposição, merece destaque o movimento contraditório de autodeterminação do conceito, no qual a universalidade se autodiferencia imanentemente em particularidade e o conceito retorna a si mesmo na forma da universalidade concreta. O conceito passa pelas diferentes formas de mediação na (...) teoria do silogismo, especialmente com a mediação da universalidade, quando o conceito se transforma em objetividade. Esta começa com a relação externa do mecanismo, avança para a relação interna do quimismo e conclui na teleologia, onde a liberdade é mais elevada que a necessidade. A Ideia, última parte da Doutrina do Conceito, é a unidade sintética entre conceito e objetividade, com destaque no capítulo da Ideia absoluta na qual Hegel formula uma noção de método como estrutura e movimento do conteúdo e da racionalidade. (shrink)

In this paper, we investigate the rules that should underlie a computer program that is capable of revising its beliefs or opinions. Such a program maintains a model of its environment, which is updated to reflect perceived changes in the environment. This model is stored in a knowledge base, and the program draws logical inferences from the information in the knowledge base. All the inferences drawn are added to the knowledge base. Among the propositions in the knowledge base, there are (...) some in which the program believes, and there may be others in which the program does not believe. Inputs from the outside world or reasoning carried out by the program may lead to the detection of contradictions, in which case the program has to revise its beliefs in order to get rid of the contradiction and to accommodate the new information. (shrink)

Recently several authors have proposed proxies of welfare that equate some (as opposed to all) choices with welfare. In this paper, I first distinguish between two prominent proxies: one based oncontext-independent choicesand the other based onreason-based choices. I then propose an original proxy based on choices that individuals state they would want themselves to repeat at the time of the welfare/policy evaluation (confirmed choices). I articulate three complementary arguments that, I claim, support confirmed choices as a more reliable proxy of (...) welfare than context-independent and reason-based choices. Finally, I discuss the implications of these arguments fornudgesandboosts. (shrink)

Kant accuses bad rhetoric of being a deceitful art. In this article, I give an account of both what it means for Kant that bad rhetoric deceives and how this art deceives in the first place. Additionally, I explore significant moral and aesthetic repercussions of bad rhetoric’s being deceitful. The article is structured into Part A and Part B. I start by reconstructing Kant’s technical definition of deception as disagreement between the semblance and the cognition of truth. I go on (...) to argue that bad rhetoric deceives by promising more than it provides. I show that bad rhetoric deceives technically. In Part B, I identify a distinctive trait of deception in bad rhetoric. By exploring this trait, I shed light upon Kant’s moral criticism of bad rhetoric, and I ultimately suggest Kant’s perspective on the appropriate aesthetic response to this art. (shrink)

A evolução cósmica e biológica é hoje um fato universalmente admitido pela comunidade científica. Muitos julgam que essa posição científica é incompatível com a aceitação de um Deus criador do mundo, seja que neguem a criação em nome da evolução, seja que rejeitem a evolução em nome da fé. O artigo pretende apontar a inconsistência do dilema “evolução ou criação”, mostrando, mediante uma reflexão filosófica, que ele deriva de uma falsa compreensão do método e do alcance tanto das ciências positivas (...) como da teologia. Defende, além disso, que compete aos cientistas verificar se o neodarwinismo da teoria sintética é ou não uma explicação científica satisfatória dos fenômenos. Afirma, porém, que também essa teoria seria compatível com uma ideia adequada de criação, mesmo que não recorra, para explicar a evolução, nem à intervenção de uma causa eficiente trans-empírica, nem a uma inteligência superior que oriente o processo evolutivo para determinados fins. Com efeito, a ação criadora de Deus que confere o ser e agir a toda a realidade natural e a orienta, de algum modo, para seus fins, tem um caráter transcendente, e, por princípio, não pode ser detectada pela investigação científica, mas, tão somente, pela reflexão filosófica. (shrink)

Investiga-se o conceito de força, tal como aparece em Nietzsche e na psicanálise. Objetiva-se esclarecer e potencializar seu uso clínico. A pesquisa se justifica porque se trata de conceber o processo clínico como explicitação da força pulsional, uma vez que a tipologia das forças proposta por Nietzsche e a precisão analítica, de caráter ético e clínico, convergem inteiramente. Uma ética nietzschiana da força ativa (o amor fati) torna-se providencial para se pensar a retomada do conceito de força na psicanálise. Objeções (...) levantadas à noção de força serão oportunas para, inversamente, justificar seu uso: equivalente à noção de real, a de força não se beneficia do deslocamento que a primeira sofre e opera. Que o real possa ser tratado pela negatividade, mas não a força, problematiza o uso das duas noções: a força jamais definir-se-á pelo impossível ou pelo vazio, e sim por atos de resistência ou sublimações. Conclui-se que ao nível dessa potência avaliadora, seletiva, não condicionada pela atualidade, perfilam-se os temas nietzschianos do intempestivo e da transvaloração dos valores. O tempo por vir das forças ativas depende de seu exercício. Esses temas essenciais à filosofia nietzschiana implicam, portanto, a consideração da força e de suas vicissitudes. O mesmo vale para a psicanálise e a noção irrevogável de pulsão. É verdade que, inversamente, a força se esclarece pela transvaloração dos valores que o intempestivo deflagra. A pulsão também só é conhecida mediante seu exercício, ou seja, enquanto ela mesma opera sua decifração pragmática. Ela requer, para tanto, uma perspectiva ética e clínica aliada às suas avaliações imanentes, extramorais. É a razão para que a análise se ocupe do sonho e de sua memória ativa, interpeladora, desde um tempo por vir. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:"Even now, now, very now"Mimesis's and Imitation's TemporalitiesJoão Cezar de Castro Rocha (bio)Had we but world enough and time.—Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress"THE EMPIRE OF NOWNESSIn the contemporary world our lives seem to become ever more Girardian, and to such an extent that even everyday language speaks of this circumstance. I think especially of a tool that is omnipresent in our societies: One just has to listen carefully (...) to the concepts employed daily by billions of users of the digital universal, and more particularly pay attention to the naturalization of an extremely aggressive behavior by the users of social networks.Is it not true that we all want our posts and tweets and photos to go viral? Haven't we all have lost some precious time looking at an infinity of memes scrolling down mechanically screen after screen? In political science, there is even a new approach, memetic, specialized in the study of the production [End Page 47] of memes and above all in understanding the overwhelming impact of their reception—notably in the political arena. Among so many possible examples, the Italian movement Cinque Stelle, the election of both Donald Trump in the United States (2016) and Jair Messias Bolsonaro in Brazil (2018), and the outcome of the Brexit plebiscite (2016) are events intrinsically (although not exclusively) related to a sort of mass production of memes and other gadgets typical of social networks.And that is not all: The word contagion is commonly employed by users in almost a technical Girardian sense. The paroxysm of a world for which social relations are dominated by aggravated internal mediation also deepens the mimetic drive underlying the digital universe. What is one to say of a new "profession" that is flourishing nowadays? I am referring to the digital influencer, whose only possible parallel is given by the uncontrollable multiplication of coaches for every single aspect of life. The reader of René Girard's fundamental work cannot but close her eyes and anticipate the next step. Digital influencers and coaches are only successful if they present themselves as an authentic skandalon to billions of users around the globe, for their lifestyle, although seemingly inaccessible or precisely because of it, becomes the explicit object of desire of their followers. Girardian concepts come naturally to mind: Metaphysical desire defines the profile of such followers—they want to be exactly like the coaches and influencers they admire. The double-bind nature of this predicament is a perfect recipe for the escalation of symbolic violence and abusive language that permeates the digital universe. Influencers and coaches are, so to speak, active nonreaders of Gregory Bateson's work, urging their followers to adopt them as undisputable models, but at the same time, because they are the coaches and the influencers, they are making it clear that the followers will not be able to achieve what nonetheless they are led to covet because of the same influencers and coaches. Otherwise, if every follower became a coach, the "profession" would at once reach its apogee and its destruction!(You understand that redundancy imposes itself here because it is a powerful mimetic machine.)In Bateson's words, the double bind is "a situation in which no matter what a person does, he 'can't win.' It is hypothesized that a person caught in the double bind may develop schizophrenic symptoms."1 This paradoxical structure evokes the classic situation of the fable, in which the character who desires everything [End Page 48] gains nothing; finding himself midway between two treasures, he is unable to settle on one for fear of losing the other. This is a conflictive situation provoked by the digital universe on a daily basis and on a planetary scale in an unprecedented manner.The "best" is yet to come: This troubling escalation of mimetic rivalry and therefore mimetic violence, although entangled in embarrassingly trite matters, has a shocking outcome: the obsessive repetition of the mimetic resolution offered by the so-called "virtual lynching," and the omnipresence of the "cancel or call-out culture," an obvious variation of the scapegoat mechanism, widely employed and rendered properly epidemic due to an... (shrink)

SummaryThe history of languages is closely related to the history of other human activities. Ideally, hypotheses that are designed for linguistic questions on independent grounds should help to consolidate theories in other knowledge fields, such as the history of ideas. This paper deals with the first Portuguese translation of Forbonnais's Elémens du commerce, considering it as a lexical corpus. The linguistic analysis aims to contribute to the general knowledge about this text and its translations. Furthermore, a lexical analysis of Portuguese (...) data can also be understood in the broader context of Romance languages. To this end, we analysed three linguistic expressions, perceived to be representative case-studies: identifying circulação as a terminological loan, the terminological use of a common word and the contrast between terms from different languages. Translations are obvious tools for communicating new ideas. Carrying out linguistic analyses of translations can help to document how ideas take shape. Furthermore, translation studies provide linguistic evidence that is essential for the study of terminology from a diachronic and inter-linguistic standpoint. Data provided by translated texts helps to clarify the date when neologisms were first introduced in a given language. It also helps to identify possible sources of words and to decode the meaning behind lexical innovation. This paper is an example of the output of a contrastive lexicographic approach to Forbonnais's text. (shrink)