Wittgenstein's later writings generate a great deal of controversy and debate, as do the implications of his ideas for such topics as consciousness, knowledge, language and the arts. Oswald Hanfling addresses a widespeard tendency to ascribe to Wittgenstein views that go beyond those he actually held. Separate chapters deal with important topics such as the private language argument, rule-following, the problem of other minds, and the ascription of scepticism to Wittgenstein. Describing Wittgenstein as a 'humanist' thinker, he contrasts his (...) views on language, art humanity and philosophy itself with those of scientifically minded philosophers. He argues that 'the human form of life' calls for a kind of understanding that cfannot be achieved by the methods of emirical science; that consiousness, for example, cannot properly be regarded as a property of the bran; and that the resulting 'problem of consoiusness is an illusion. Wittgenstein and the Human Form of Life is essential reading for anyone interested in Wittgenstein's approach to what it means to be human. It will be invaluable to all Wittgenstein scholars, and all who are interested in the philosophy of mind, language and aesthetics. (shrink)

What is philosophy about and what are its methods? _Philosophy and Ordinary Language_ is a defence of the view that philosophy is largely about questions of language, which to a large extent means _ordinary_ language. Some people argue that if philosophy is about ordinary language, then it is necessarily less deep and difficult than it is usually taken to be but Oswald Hanfling shows us that this isn't true. Hanfling, a leading expert in the development of analytic philosophy, covers (...) a wide range of topics, including scepticism and the definition of knowledge, free will, empiricism, folk psychology, ordinary versus artificial logic, and philosophy versus science. Drawing on philosophers such as Austin, Wittgenstein, and Quine, this book explores the nature of ordinary language in philosophy. (shrink)

As a result of advances in healthcare, the worldwide average life expectancy is steadily increasing. However, this positive trend has societal and individual costs, not least because greater life expectancy is linked to higher incidence of age-related diseases, such as dementia. Over the past few decades, research has isolated various protective “healthy lifestyle” factors argued to contribute positively to cognitive aging, e.g., healthy diet, physical exercise and occupational attainment. The present article critically reviews neuroscientific evidence for another such factor, i.e., (...) speaking multiple languages. Moreover, with multiple societal stakeholders in mind, we contextualize and stress the importance of the research program that seeks to uncover and understand potential connections between bilingual language experience and cognitive aging trajectories, inclusive of the socio-economic impact it can have. If on the right track, this is an important line of research because bilingualism has the potential to cross-over socio-economic divides to a degree other healthy lifestyle factors currently do not and likely cannot. (shrink)

What does music have that it pushes us to talk about it? Is music something that is beyond human language? What is the difference between "mother tongue", "language", and "discourse"? We try to find music in everything that permits encoding, insist on giving it a value or precise coordinates in documents, files or more recently, in codes and networks, but there will always be something in music that escapes from language. A certain thing that will elude the very discourse that (...) we were compelled to enunciate by music. I mean the real unattainable that is the fuel for creativity. (shrink)

The biblical injunction to love one's neighbour has long been regarded as a central pillar of morality. It is taken to be an ideal which gives direction to our moral aspirations, even though most of us find it difficult to live up to, owing to our selfish natures. But the difficulties I wish to raise are of a logical kind, as distinct from those depending on personal character. They fall under three headings: the first concerns the scope of ‘my neighbour’, (...) the second the injunction to love, and the third the idea of loving oneself. The first will probably be the most familiar. (shrink)

This text through the direct use to Foucault’s work and using the concepts of ‘care of the self’ and biopolitics is questioning and analyzing resistance and practices of freedom. Mainly, from the Foucault’s courses at the College de France and the methodological tools found there, here I present a discussion about Gilles Deleuze’s contributions to Foucault’s thought and I develop a dialog where I try to explain the concepts of domination, power, ethics, esthetics and the relationship of the self with (...) himself. (shrink)

L’État constitue, pour Levinas, l’institution d’une limite à la responsabilité infinie. Mais il soutient aussi que le politique fondé sur la justice peut virer à la violence lorsque s’impose une logique autonome, où le pouvoir s’exerce en vue de lui-même, à travers un système abstrait et impersonnel, qui conduit à une logique totalitaire lorsqu’elle oublie l’expérience concrète d’autrui dont la société est issue. Il revient alors à l’anarchie éthique d’opérer un contrôle sur l’État, ce qui nous ramène à une impossibilité (...) de retrancher la socialité, cette source vive qui inspire la politique et continue de l’inspirer, mais qui reste aussi à sa marge. (shrink)

Si pour Husserl la conscience est la source du sens, la phénoménologie semble ainsi revenir à une pure analyse du travail constitutif de la conscience qui détermine la constitution du monde. Ce sens de la phénoménologie est bien différent de celui de Hegel. En effet, la Phénoménologie de l’Esprit rappelle une véritable conjonction de la conscience avec le contexte qui l’entoure et montre comment le développement de la conscience émerge de sa relation avec son contexte ainsi qu’avec l’histoire. Bien que (...) Levinas s’inscrive ouvertement dans la tradition de Husserl et que plusieurs de ses textes engagent ouvertement un dialogue avec Husserl, le but de cet article est de montrer que la conception de la conscience de Levinas implique une distance avec Husserl en engageant dans sa conception de la phénoménologie une conception hégélienne, selon une approche où la conscience n’est pas donnée comme point de départ pour la description des phénomènes, mais émerge en même temps qu’elle se rapporte à ses phénomènes. Par conséquent, nous soutenons qu’il est possible de démontrer que dans un certain sens dans Totalité et infini, il est possible de parler d’une Phénoménologie de l’Esprit qui est en cours. (shrink)

First published in 1934, the ideas in this book were developed just prior to the Nazi seizure of power and it also reflects on its aftermath. It assessed the decline of European power and the crisis of Western civilization in the face of conflict between the ruling class and the lowers classes in white nations, and the ‘Coloured World Revolution’ — arguing that only by adherence to their inherited ‘Prussianism’ would Germany have the solidity to be able to combat these (...) dangers. Despite the influence of his previous writings of key Nazi figures, his criticisms of National Socialism in this book led to it being banned, although not before it had been widely distributed throughout Germany. (shrink)

The Emotional Intelligence of Jesus introduces readers to key principles of emotional intelligence--self-awareness, empathy, assertiveness, optimism, and stress management--illustrating them in the life of Jesus and offering practical applications for leaders today.

This paper examines from a cognitive perspective the rhetorical and epistemic advantages that can be gained from the use of (extended) metaphors in political discourse. We defend the assumption that extended metaphors can be argumentatively exploited, and provide two arguments in support of the claim. First, considering that each instantiation of the metaphorical mapping in the text may function as a confirmation of the overall relevance of the main core mapping, we argue that extended metaphors carry self-validating claims that increase (...) the chances of their content being accepted. Second, we show how the recognition of an extended metaphor’s sophistication and relevance (on behalf of the addressee) can benefit the speaker’s perceived competence (ethos). We then assess whether these two arguments measure against the dual epistemic monitoring postulated in the notion of epistemic vigilance (i.e., assessment of the source of a message and assessment of the message) and conclude that extended metaphors may fulfil the requirements of epistemic vigilance and lead to the stabilisation of a belief. We illustrate our account with an analysis of the extended metaphor of the USA as an empire found in a political pamphlet written by the Swiss politician Oskar Freysinger. (shrink)

This volume contains surveys of the main issues in philosophical aesthetics, as discussed by thinkers from ancient Greece to modern times.

In questo contributo tenterò di rispondere ad una domanda fondamentale e assai complessa: la concezione di Dio come Esse Ipsum Subsistens rischia una deriva verso il monismo parmenideo? L’indagine verterà dapprima sul superamento di Aristotele della visione parmenidea e poi si concentrerà sulla metafisica dell’essere di Tommaso d’Aquino che, se correttamente intesa, non rischia affatto una deriva verso il monismo ontologico. Saranno infatti presentati alcuni passi che comprovano come il concetto centrale della concezione di Tommaso, quello di partecipazione, garantisca proprio (...) dal rischio del monismo, a patto che si intenda la presenza di Dio negli enti non in un senso quantitativo. (shrink)

Maurizio Viroli’s Prophetic Times: Visions of Emancipation in the History of Italy (2023) is the latest in a long list of outstanding works on Italian intellectual history that the scholar has publ...

La conocida teoría de la intersubjetividad, desarrollada por Husserl en sus Meditaciones Cartesianas, ha sido objeto de innumerables críticas. La virtud de estas críticas es que son precisamente ellas las que han ofrecido la posibilidad de renovar la fenomenología como teoría social. Nuestro propósito es confrontar la Quinta meditación cartesiana con otros textos del corpus husserliano para proponer tres nuevas entradas críticas a su teoría de la intersubjetividad en relación a la cuestión del lenguaje, el mundo y la cultura, y (...) las insuficiencias que la Quinta meditación cartesiana encierra frente a esos presupuestos. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es plantear la relación que establece Hannah Arendt entre los conceptos de acción, historia y naturaleza, cuya conexión se da en torno a las características que hacen a las acciones humanas contingentes, es decir, la imposibilidad de predecir sus consecuencias y sus efectos ilimitados. El análisis de las relaciones entre los conceptos aquí aludidos es una herramienta de reflexión sobre la necesidad de replantear la relación entre el hombre y la naturaleza. Inicialmente, haré una breve (...) exposición de la tesis de la acción y la vida política del hombre. Seguidamente, expondré los aspectos por los cuales la historia y la naturaleza pueden ser comprendidas en correspondencia a la categoría de la acción política, para finalmente exponer algunas reflexiones que pueden surgir de esta interpretación en torno a los efectos impredecibles de la intervención humana sobre la Tierra. (shrink)

O debate em torno do ensino de Filosofia no Brasil, especialmente na educação média, não é novo. Estudos esparsos e pontuais, embora em número bastante reduzido, podem ser encontrados ao longo da história da educaçãono país, notadamente no século XX, depois da criação da Universidade de São Paulo e de seu Departamento de Filosofia. É, porém, no final da década de 1970 e, sobretudo, durante a década de 1980, que a discussão ganha vulto, mediante a articulação dos Departamentos de Filosofia (...) das universidades brasileiras em torno de uma mobilização para exigir do governo militar a “volta” da disciplina aos currículos da educação média, então denominada segundo grau. Como sabemos, a reforma educacional levada a cabo pelo regime militar por meio da Lei no 5.692/71 tirou do segundo grau essa disciplina, a qual deixou de figurar tanto na chamada “parte comum” quanto na “parte diversificada” dos currículos desse nível de ensino. (shrink)

Richard Bourke brings Hegel back to the forefront of the debate with masterful theoretical clarity, philosophical acumen, historical accuracy, and impressive knowledge, presenting to us a vivid account of Hegel's political thought. In this brief note I discuss the central philosophical, hermeneutical, and historical concerns of the book while highlighting its principal contributions to the wider scholarship on Hegel, in the history of political thought, and to recent debates about revolutions in nineteenth-century Europe.

Philosophers and social scientists largely agree that fake news is not just necessarily untruthful, but necessarily insincere: it’s produced either with the intention to deceive or an indifference toward its truth. Against this, I argue insincerity is neither a necessary nor obviously typical feature of fake news. The main argument proceeds in two stages. The first, methodological step develops classification criteria for identifying instances of fake news. By attending to expressed theoretical and practical interests, I observe how our classification practices (...) turn on worries about fake news’s unique political-epistemic risks. From this, I argue (i) theories of fake news should capture independent mechanisms that realise these risks and (ii) the manifestation of them suffices for classifying a news story as fake news. The second step applies the classification criteria to bad science journalism. I argue the systematic epistemic faults in bad science journalism manifest the same political-epistemic risks we see in fake news, which suffices to justify classifying it as fake news. But since such faults aren’t plausibly attributed to its propagators being insincere, insincerity doesn’t function independently as a mechanism for realising fake news’s political-epistemic risks. Thus, I conclude, we should exclude insincerity from our accounts of the phenomenon. (shrink)