In recent years a debate has developed over the ties between Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas and transhumanism. This article clarifies some issues at the meta-level of the discussion. Firstly, the author provides a scientometric analysis of research trends to show the relevance of the topic. Secondly, he distinguishes between two analytical perspectives, which he calls ‘noumenal’ and ‘phenomenal.’ Thirdly, by taking the phenomenal perspective, the author shows that transhumanism can be classified into four different categories, namely: quasi-Nietzschean, Nietzschean, a-Nietzschean, and anti-Nietzschean. (...) Finally, he provides historical examples of each single type of transhumanism. This way, the article also contributes to the history of transhumanist thought. (shrink)

In questo articolo si analizza la situazione della religione nativa popolare coreana, comunemente descritta col termine ombrello di “sciamanesimo”, durante la metà e la seconda parte del periodo Koryŏ. Lo studio tenta di espandere e correggere alcune assunzioni di base del lavoro di Lee Seog-Ju (2010), il quale ha descritto la dialettica esistente tra l’élite confuciana, la casa reale, il buddismo e lo sciamanesimo in epoca Koryŏ, correggendo come detto alcuni assunti storici dell’autore. Nello specifico si terrà conto de: la (...) pervasività della dottrina nell’aiuto esterno dei bodhisattva nella Corea medievale come notato da Yung Sung-chan (2016); l’esistenza di un sincretismo tra le dottrina confuciane e quelle buddiste, notato da Kim Jongmyung (2016) e Vermeersch (2020); la natura sincretica dello sciamanesimo in rapporto col buddismo, notata da più autori quali Grayson (1992) e McBride (2007), infine, l’importanza dello sciamanesimo nei riti nazionali preesistenti come l’Assemblea delle Otto Proibizioni, sottolineata da Vermeersch (2007). Tesi di questo articolo è dimostrare come lo scontro con lo sciamanesimo da parte degli intellettuali confuciani di Koryŏ fosse dovuto non tanto da una supposta devianza dall’ortodossia confuciana da parte della religione nativa, ma da una sua non aderenza ai canoni dei riti del buddismo di Stato. Lo scritto si muoverà secondo il seguente schema: anzitutto verrà brevemente analizzata la società del regno di Koryŏ nei suoi aspetti religiosi, culturali, sociali e politici, verrà poi data una descrizione della relazione trai due attori in campo, vale a dire lo sciamanesimo e il confucianesimo in relazione al buddismo, infine verranno fornite le conclusioni dello studio. (shrink)

In a passage from Apollodorus’ Against Neaera ([Dem.] 59.113), the manuscripts have unanimously transmitted the feminine plural genitive of ‘citizen’, πολιτίδων. Since Reiske's 1770 emendation, however, editions of the text have printed the considerably more common masculine form, πολιτῶν. Emphasizing the importance of female citizenship in Athens, this note proposes restoring the manuscript reading of the text.

Jusqu’à Totalité et Infini compris, la temporalité aura été essentiellement pensée par Lévinas, au seuil de l’événement qu’est l’Autre, comme ouverture d’un avenir pur, jusqu’à la rémission d’un présent, qui nous relèverait alors de notre passé. À partir de sa méditation toujours plus insistante de la « Trace de l’Autre », Lévinas est toutefois amené à repenser cette ouverture elle-même depuis un passé toujours déjà passé et dont nous aurions à jamais à répondre, échapperait-il à toute expérience dans l’entre-temps de (...) son passage. Du Visage à la Trace – jusqu’au visage comme trace –, l’avenir ne s’ouvrirait à nous que dans la déchirure de notre réponse à ce passé immémorial d’où l’Autre nous appellerait sans cesse, déjà parti avant d’être venu. Arrachés à nous-mêmes, nous voici, dans la « honte de survivre », ordonnés à l’avenir par l’accusation d’un passé qui toujours se dérobe, sans qu’il nous soit jamais possible de nous y dérober. À partir de sa pensée de la trace de l’Autre et de sa mortalité, Lévinas inscrit sa propre méditation du temps et de l’histoire dans la trace de l’immémorial – impossible mémoire, à la mémoire de l’impossible, dont la signifiance éthique ne saurait se réduire à un improbable « devoir de mémoire ». « Une voix vient de l’autre rive. Une voix interrompt le dire du déjà dit », qui nous voue, à présent, à ce qui ne cesse de venir, selon une vocation, une dévotion, qui est le temps lui-même.Up to and including Totality and Infinity, temporality has been thought by Levinas, on the threshold of this incident which is the Other, as the opening of a pure future, up to the remission of the present, which would then recover us from our past. Nevertheless, from his more and more insistent meditation upon the « Trace of the Other », Levinas has been led to re-examine that opening itself from a past for ever past and for which we would be answerable, were it to escape our experience in the interval of its crossing. From the Face to the Trace – up to the face considered as a trace –, future would be opened for us only in the tear of our answer to this immemorial past, from where the Other would call us incessantly, already gone off before he came. Uprooted from ourselves, here we are, in the « shame of survival », ordered to the future by the charge of an ever-escaping past, from which we can never escape ourselves. From his thought of the Other’s trace and mortality, Levinas includes his own meditation of time and history within the trace of the immemorial – impossible memory, to the memory of the impossible, the ethical sense of which is irreducible to an improbable « duty of memory ». « A voice comes from the other side. A voice breaks in the saying of what is already said », that vows us, just now, to what is constantly to come, under a vocation, a devotion, which is time in itself. (shrink)

Since the industrial revolution, humans have tended to reduce science to the ancillary role of engine of technology. But the quest for knowledge started two and a half millennia ago with the aim of setting humans free from ignorance. The first scientists and philosophers saw knowledge as the goal, not as the means. The main goal was to understand matter, life, conscience, intelligence, our origin, and our destiny, not only to solve practical problems. Being sceptical to myths and religions, they (...) gave themselves the goal to reach The Answer via rational and empirical inquiry. Transhumanism is a very specific philosophy of technology, because one of its goals is the creation of a posthuman intelligence. Several scientists share this hope: making of technology the ancilla of science, and not vice versa. (shrink)

The theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) enjoys considerable consensus among experts. It is widely recognized that global industrialization is producing an increase in the planet’s temperatures and causing environmental disasters. Still, there are scholars – although a minority – who consider groundless either the idea of global warming itself or the idea that it constitutes an existential threat for humanity. This lack of scientific unanimity (as well as differing political ideologies) ignites controversies in the political world, the mass media, (...) and public opinion as well. Sociologists have been dealing with this issue for some time, producing researches and studies based on their specific competencies. Using scientometric tools, this article tries to establish to what extent and in which capacity sociologists are studying the phenomenon of climate change. Particular attention is paid to meta-analytical aspects such as consensus, thematic trends, and the impact of scientific works. (shrink)

This article provides a detailed description of robotic weapons and unmanned systems currently used by the U.S. Military and its allies, and an ethical assessment of their actual or potential use on the battlefield. Firstly, trough a review of scientific literature, reports, and newspaper articles, a catalogue of ethical problems related to military robotics is compiled. Secondly, possible solutions for these problems are offered, by relying also on analytic tools provided by the new field of roboethics. Finally, the article explores (...) possible future developments of military robotics and present six reasons why a war between humans and automata is unlikely to happen in the 21st century. (shrink)

The objective of this work was to contrast the hypothesis of significant differences between the quality of university life reported in the literature with respect to the empirical observations in a university in northwestern Mexico. A cross-sectional, exploratory, correlational and psychometric study was carried out with a sample of intentionally selected students. A two-dimensional factorial structure related to quality of life and university identity was found that contravenes the theoretical structure reported in the state of the art, although the literature (...) also suggests the modeling of actors in order to predict academic performance. In this sense, the inclusion of the third factor is recommended whenever the indicators are reduced, and that the adjustment and residual parameters indicate an amplification of the study to other samples, but a reduction of the features of the quality of university life. (shrink)

In their introduction to Les Guerres d'antan, Mathilde Bernard, Laurence Campa and Ninon Grangé outline the conceptual framework that led to developing this study, which crowns several years of joint research by researchers in history, literature, philosophy and history of art on the sources and models of war. This preliminary work made it possible to establish just how powerful imagination of the wars of yesteryear is in shaping contemporary wars, an observation that led to preparing a symposium in May (...) 2022. The participants of this event, for which the proceedings published here, took this premise as their starting point to query how past conflicts could return to the fore in, whether this was explicit or not, hushed up, denied, on the other hand yet still asserted, acknowledged, used knowingly and for what purpose. Different disciplines were once again highlighted to emphasize and explain the way in which past wars inform present ones. The researchers who were involved in writing this study worked on a long period of time taking a philosophical approach that goes beyond chronological boundaries, and as historians and literary scholars reflecting on a perspective that builds bridges between eras. (shrink)

New theological understanding can emerge with the advancement of scientific knowledge and the use of new concepts, or older concepts in new ways. Here, the authors present a proposal to extend the concept of “rescue and recovery” found in the United Nations Law of the High Seas, off‐world and within a broader purview of other intelligent and self‐aware species that humans may someday encounter. The notion of a morality that extends to off‐world species is not new, but in this analysis, (...) rescue and recovery become an imperative when any intelligent and self‐aware species is in harm's way. Rescue and recovery encompass a necessary action component except perhaps in those cases where rescuers are in danger. The authors explore three biblical examples of rescue and recovery to derive a fundamental meaning of the concept. (shrink)

Scholars studying the ethical, legal, and social issues associated with emerging technologies maintain the importance of considering these issues throughout the research and development cycle, even during the earliest stages of basic research. Embedding these considerations within the scientific process requires communication between ELSI scholars and the community of physical scientists who are conducting that basic research. We posit that this communication can be effective on a broad scale only if it links societal issues directly to characteristics of the emerging (...) technology that are relevant to the physical and natural scientists involved in research and development. In this article, we examine nano-ELSI literature from 2003 to 2010 to discern the degree to which it makes these types of explicit connections. We find that, while the literature identifies a wide range of issues of societal concern, it generally does so in a non-specific manner. It neither links societal issues to particular forms or characteristics of widely divergent nanotechnologies nor to any of the many potential uses to which those nanotechnologies may be put. We believe that these kinds of specificity are essential to those engaged in nano-scale research. We also compare the literature-based findings to observations from interviews we conducted with nanoscientists and conclude that ELSI scholars should add technical- and application-related forms of specificity to their work and their writings to enhance effectiveness and impact in communicating with one important target audience—members of the nanoscale science community. (shrink)

The goal of this pilot study is to investigate expressions of the collective disquiet of people in the first months of Covid-19 pandemic, and to try to understand how they manage covert risk, especially with religion and magic. Four co-authors living in early hot spots of the pandemic speculate on the roles of science, religion, and magic, in the latest global catastrophe. They delve into the consolidation that should be occurring worldwide because of a common, viral enemy, but find little (...) evidence for it. They draw parallels to biblical works, finding evidence of a connection between plague and “social strife.” They explore changes in the purviews of science, religion, and magic, and how and why they have changed, as three systems of covert risk management. They speculate on the coming wave of grief when the world populations finally decide that too many people have died, and they envision cultural changes on the other side of the pandemic, to lifestyles, travel, reverse urbanization, and living and working in smaller communities. Using an unusual approach named “crowd-sourced ethnography”, they conduct un-traditional ethnography and speculate on management of covert risk in their native countries. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer tragische Schluss der Emilia Galotti hat von Anfang an gespaltene Reaktionen hervorgerufen. Noch heute sind zahlreiche Missverständnisse im Umlauf. Stimmen, die seine fragwürdige Konstruktion bemängelten, verklangen bald. Stattdessen wurde nach Verantwortlichen für die Katastrophe gefahndet. Dass schon bald der Vater, Odoardo Galotti, in Haftung genommen wurde, liegt, so die These, nicht zuletzt an einer Umwidmung oder Neukonzeption des tragischen Opfers. Es wird mit zentralen Versatzstücken der zeitgenössischen Geschlechtersemantik aufgeladen und einer metadramaturgischen Reflexion unterzogen. Emilias Selbstopfer ist ein Opfer (...) im Wortsinn, es stattet die victima mit allen Attributen des sacrificiums aus. Und es ist ein Opfer, das maßgeblich von der Figur selbst in die Wege geleitet und vollzogen wird. Ein Großteil der nachfolgenden Dramatik arbeitet sich unter Übernahme der geschlechteranthropologischen Prämissen an diesem fulminanten Ende ab. Die Unterminierung einer bürgerlichen Würdekultur durch eine bald sich etablierende Kultur des Opfers setzte schon damals ein. Tatsächlich dokumentiert das Stück eine Krise der Tragödie. Wenn schon das Opfer selbst eine Darstellungsfunktion besitzt, dann steht bis heute zur Debatte, welche Funktion die Darstellung des Opfers besitzt.Ever since, the tragic ending of Emilia Galotti has stimulated divided reactions. Even today numerous misreadings occur. Voices which criticized its questionable or yet dubious construction soon faded. Instead of that, responsibles have been searched for. Especially Odoardo Galotti, Emilia’s father, has been taken into accountability. The reason for this, thus the claim, lies in a new conception of tragic sacrifice. It is being charged with central elements of contemporary gender anthropology. Furthermore, it undergoes a metadramaturgic reflection. Emilia’s self-sacrifice represents a genuine »Opfer« in the literal senses of victima and sacrificium. Actually, this sacrifice is significantly initiated and performed by the character itself. A major part of subsequent dramatic production is adopting the tragedy’s premises on gender anthropology while commenting on the fulminant ending. It is as early as this that a bourgeois culture of dignity is being undermined by a victimhood culture. The drama does in fact document a crisis of tragedy itself. If already sacrifice possesses a dimension of representation, a further question remains yet unanswered: Which function does representation of sacrifice fulfill? (shrink)

Văn khắ c Chămpa tại Ba̓ o tàng ̃ Điêu khắ c Chăm–Đà Nă ̃ ng. The Inscriptions of Campā at the Museum of Cham Sculpture in Đà Năng. By Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William A. Southworth, and Thành Phn. Published in collaboration between École française d’Extrême-Orient, Hanoi, and Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University H̀ô Chí Minh City. H̀ô Chí Minh: VNUHCM Publishing House, 2012. Pp. 288, 67 pl., 38 (...) photos. VND 170.000. (shrink)

In questo dialogo radiofonico del 1964 Bloch e Adorno discutono della nostalgia per ciò che non è ancora, per un qualcosa che manca, come af¬fermato nel Mahagonny di Bertolt Brecht. L’utopia, in Moro e Campa¬nella, era l’isola in cui vigeva uno stato di cose giusto, la optima res pu¬blica. L’utopia è quindi ricerca di realizzazione, di libertà, di giustizia. Nonostante oggi la parola ‘utopia’ sia caduta in discredito a causa del com¬piersi di un gran numero di cosiddetti sogni utopici, (...) tutti gli uomini si ren¬dono conto che qualcosa di meglio è davvero possibile. Bloch sostiene che l’utopia è una parte ineliminabile del pensiero, mentre Adorno argomenta che l’idea di utopia coincide con la trasformazione della totalità, con la ca¬pacità, da riconquistare, di immaginare la totalità come qualcosa che po¬trebbe essere completamente differente.In this 1964 radio talk, Ernst Bloch and Theodor W. Adorno debate about the desire for something that is not, for «Something’s missing», as stated by Bertolt Brecht’s Mahagonny. Utopia, by Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella, was the island of good social order, optima res publica: uto¬pia is then search for happiness, for freedom, for justice. Though nowa¬days ‘utopia’ has become discredited by the fulfilling of a large number of so-called utopian dreams, all men know that something better is really pos¬sible. Bloch argues that utopian thinking is a fundamental part of thought itself, while Adorno states that the idea of utopia coincide with the trans¬formation of totality: men must reconquest the capability to imagine the totality as something that could be completely different. (shrink)

La Ley Desmedida trata de dar cuenta de la desbocada realidad legislativa y de cuanto de conflicto supone imponer un modelo constitucional normativo plagado de contenidos materiales quiz poco respetuosos del sistema de fuentes positivas del Derecho, de la separaci¢n entre el Derecho y la moral, de las garant¡as judiciales y de la seguridad jur¡dica. Pero lo hace con la perspectiva cr¡tico-constructiva de impulsar la mejora del Derecho en el horizonte claro de la rehabilitaci¢n de una teor¡a y una t‚cnica (...) legislativas que reemprendan el camino abandonado por el iuspositivismo formal aunque sin abandonar la evidencia de la positividad y conform ndose a las condiciones y exigencias que caracterizan a la sociedad m£ltiple, compleja y reclamante que campa por la realidad actual. (shrink)

La sombra del Supremo se adentra en la única contingencia que Occidente no puede admitir: que el engaño provenga de Dios. No ya del artero enemigo que tras la caída de Lucifer campa por la tierra, tampoco del azar o la necesidad, ni siquiera de la naturaleza oculta tras los fenómenos, sino directa y llanamente de la Causa Primera: de la voluntad original del Hacedor. Desde el Deus Prudens o Dios Sabio que por compasión oculta la verdad a los (...) humanos al Creador que finge el mundo con un bostezo provocado por el tedio de su soledad; desde el Yahveh que envía al diablo o la serpiente para que engañe a sus criaturas con sutiles celadas al Theos Agnostos o Dios Desconocido que permite al demiurgo levantar un universo infame, la falsedad del mundo sería solo la sombra inevitable del Supremo. (shrink)

I began writing this review of John Zilcosky and Marlo Burks’ edited volume, The Allure of Sports in Western Culture, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine commenced. In the wake of the military campa...