On aura lu dans le présent numéro de Dialogue une longue étude critique, où Claude Panaccio analyse la traduction, par Roland Galibois, du Commentaire d'Occam sur le Livre des Prédicables de Porphyre, ainsi que mon introduction à ce texte.On nous permettra sans doute d'y répondre, et on trouvera ci-après l'excellente justification que R. Galibois donne de sa traduction.

Qu’en est-il du doute qui porte sur l’existence même de Dieu, l’objet de la foi? Doit-on l’assumer sans jamais prétendre l’éliminer? On le doit, dit Tillich, dans un écrit de 1919 intitulé «Justification et doute», où, de façon paradoxale, il confronte un tel doute à l’idée paulino-luthérienne de la justification. Étant nous-mêmes porteurs, en tant que personnes, d’un sens imprégné de mystère, nous sommes à la fois conscients de la distance infinie qui nous sépare de l’absolu et de la singulière (...) parenté qui nous en approche. (shrink)

The author argues that the concept of the public good carries largely the politico-ethical sense which subsumes the politico-economic sense. The public good is public in the sense that the beneficiaries are the general public. The government or state pursues it with a service orientation while private corporations pursue it with a profit orientation. The author also discusses mixed public goods which are pursued by private organizations with a service motivation. Government corporations are basically motivated by service though having profit (...) is not precluded. Finally, the author talks about public bads such as corruption, pollution, and crimes. (shrink)

In treatises or advanced textbooks on theoretical physics, it is apparent that the way mathematics is used is very different from what is to be found in books of mathematics. There is, for example, no close connection between books on analysis, on the one hand, and any classical textbook in quantum mechanics, for example, Schiff, [11], or quite recent books, for example Ryder, [10], on quantum field theory. The differences run a good deal deeper than the fact that the books (...) on theoretical physics are not written in the definition-theorem-proof style characteristic of pure mathematics. Although a good many propositions are proved in the books on physics, there are almost with exception no existential proofs, and consequently there is no really serious systematic use of quantifiers. Another important characteristic is the free use of infinitesimals. In fact, most results would not lose anything, from a physicist's point of view, by leaving them in approximate form, i.e., instead of strict equalities or inequalities, using equalities or inequalities only up to an infinitesimal.The discrepancy between the way mathematics is ordinarily done in theoretical physics and the way it is built up from a foundational standpoint in any of the standard modern views raises the question of whether it might be possible to construct quite directly a rigorous foundation that reflects a significant part of this standard practice in theoretical physics. Other parts of standard practice in physics, for example, the use of physically intuitive but nonrigorous arguments, are not present in our system. (shrink)

At 876ff. Octavia's partisans lament the ruinous intervention of the Roman mob in support of the heroine's legitimate claims against Poppaea. A series of paradigmatic figures illustrates the sentence ‘o funestus multis populi dirusque fauor’: the two Gracchi, first, then Livius Drusus, thetribunus plebisof 91 B.C., stabbed to death in his house in the year of his tribunate. The gallery of historical characters suits the Roman atmosphere of the play, the fallen heroes of Republican times are presented as noble and (...) disinterested figures, struck by disaster and evil fortune. This is the description of Livius' fate (887–90; text and colometry given as in Zwierlein's OCT). (shrink)

Even in mathematical logic the proposition as an arbitrary technical device can be eliminated and replaced by the constative. The items of experience of the external world—objects, properties, relationships, and the like— are processed in consciousness on the basis of a situational demand that defines the situational context which in turn elicits a particular constatival attitude. The output of this mental processing is the appropriate pragmatic constatival response that generally is publicly communicated.

Every ASEAN member envisions itself to become economically and politically efficient and stable—of becoming a First World country. No doubt there are many ways of approaching this vision and making it a reality. But I will argue in this paper that education can play a major role in transforming the region into a First World technopole or economic power through what Alvin Toffler calls the philosophy of “educational futurism.” Educational futurism states that we tailor our present educational plans on our (...) future dreams or visions. (shrink)

In this paper, the author makes the distinctions between traditional and cultural approaches to philosophy and between philosophers and scholars of philosophy, explains why the Filipino philosophy that developed is Western in orientation, discusses the problems of philosophy in the Philippines, argues for the relevant linkage of philosophy to nation building and, among others, enumerates some principles that help guide the author in developing philosophy in the Philippines.

The author interprets Lopez's work as a case of mythologizing a historical figure for the Filipino masses. It is therefore a proletarian myth in contrast to bourgeois myths which Roland Barthes talks about. Myth indeed is a language - a metalanguage - and Lopez made use of it to express the theme of emulation and the responsibility of the proletarian man through traits that endure in the Filipino psyche: his loob (inner self), budhi (conscience), hiya (shame), and sense of responsibility. (...) The author agrees with Barthes that history and myth do not mix. Where a piece of work does not portray historical facts faithfully it should not be taken as a historical document but - in the context of Lopez's awit - as a piece of literary work that must be enjoyed. (shrink)

Part of rethinking philosophy today, the author believes, is to rethink our logical concepts. The author questions the ontological existence of the proposition as the content of sentential utterances—written or spoken—as it was originally proposed by John Searle. While a performative is an utterance where the speaker not only utters a sentential or illocutionary content such as a statement, but also performs the illocutionary force such as the act of stating, the author reasserts John Austin’s constative as the general label (...) (genus) of specific utterances (species) that can be rendered true or false such as a statement, assertion, description, and prediction. In the remainder of the paper, the author tries to show that it is a category mistake for someone to assert a statement or to state an assertion. (shrink)

En este artículo se analizan las posiciones de José Imbelloni y Alfred Métraux respecto a la cultura de la Isla de Pascua. Abordar esta cuestión los llevaba a discutir sobre las relaciones que habían existido, o no, entre Oceanía y América. El debate que aquí desarrollamos se centra en dos elementos de la cultura material de la isla: los moais y las tabletas parlantes. El punto central, y en el que oscilarán ambos antropólogos, es entre la cuestión de la originalidad, (...) y autonomía, de los rasgos culturales de los pascuenses, o el préstamo, y origen foráneo, de esos rasgos. Se discute así cuánto hay de creativo y cuánto de copia en una cultura. (shrink)

In tracing historically the development of Filipino philosophy as traditionally conceived, the author discovered that the early Filipino philosophers were Enlightenment thinkers. This was the direct consequence of the Filipino colonial experience and the explanation why the trajectory of Filipino philosophy is basically Western in orientation.

This article addresses the critique of the modern conception of history and time through a reading of Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s work provides an alternative to the thought with universal pretensions that has dominated the panorama of modernity. She thinks the historical through contradiction and gives a place to human experience next to facts. In thinking the event Arendt shows the insufficiency of the modern chronological appropriation of the past and the limits of using theory as a given framework of interpretation. (...) Understanding the historical event is to challenge the chronology assumed in our forms of understanding and representing the real. Her work blurs the tacit boundary that lurks in modern forms of representation between a ‘dynamic’ present and a ‘congealed’ past. Arendt’s thinking provides a critique of the modern notions of time and history as of the use of theory as a fixed framework of interpretation. (shrink)

This unique book presents a new interpretation of probability, rooted in the traditional interpretation that was current in the 17th and 18th centuries.

This paper argues that research in the arts and humanities should not be marginalized in the academe, as has generally been the situation, but should equally be given emphasis together with those researches in the social sciences. All the more they should be equally funded because they generally require a smaller outlay compared to those in the natural and social sciences. Moreover, outputs in AH qualitative researches can also be comparatively significant epistemologically, culturally, and historically.

The goal of a Christian, especially a regenerated Christian, in the 21st century is to tell the story of the various shapes that his religious position underwent with the hope that other unbelievers may follow his footsteps, that is, from a belief in God to atheism and agnosticism, and back to a belief in God. He tries to show by using the arguments of Paul Tillich how the limits of language enabled him to transcend the agnosticism of Bertrand Russell.

This volume studies a fundamental element of Montesquieu’s argumentative architecture that is most apparent in his De l’Esprit des Lois: the problem of giving order to, and establishing a network of consistent explanations of political, social and cultural diversity. Following a thorough and careful analysis of his writings, the volume approaches this subject by observing the use of the information sources available to Montesquieu, the relationships between them, and the judgments he expresses. The book examines some of Montesquieu’s essential theoretical (...) contributions, such as the idea of despotism, and the connection between politics, society and religion, on the basis of his reflections on the variety of mainly non-European societies and cultures. It demonstrates a number of possible inconsistencies and unresolved questions in Montesquieu’s argumentation. One of the main subjects of the book is the consideration of geographical context as an essential element for elaborating uniform criteria of political analysis. The book collects contributions concerning Montesquieu’s reflections on China, Tartary, Japan, India, America, Russia, and the Islamic world, and, building on this earlier research, it shows the importance of Montesquieu’s thought and explains the reason for his longstanding influence. (shrink)

En el siguiente trabajo se aborda la confrontación de Eugen Fink con Martin Heidegger de cara al concepto de mundo. En este sentido se analiza el contraste entre un concepto existencial de mundo, del modo como el Heidegger de la ontología existencial lo desarrolla, y un concepto cosmológico de mundo, que Fink propone a partir de su interpretación del giro (Kehre) heideggeriano y que lo conduce hacia el despliegue de una ontología cosmológica del juego, cuyo camino filosófico-metódico queda abierto por (...) una fenomenología especulativa en contraposición o como superación de la fenomenología hermenéutica heideggeriana. (shrink)

It is not only important for a Filipino teacher or scholar of philosophy to transform oneself into a Filipino philosopher by innovating within one's favorite philosopher , by rejecting a philosophical position and formulating one's own , or by examining old philosophical questions and offering one's own novel perspectival solutions. It is more important to transform oneself into a world-class philosopher.

At the peak of this heated confrontation between Nero and Seneca, in which the latter exhorts the emperor to seek the people's love and trust rather than their hatred, Nero retorts that it is meet for the people to fear their prince . This is unsurprising and represents Nero as merely the latest in a long line of tragic tyrants . In the exchange that follows, however, is the slightly puzzling : ‘metuant necesse est’:: ‘quicquid exprimitur graue est’. It is (...) not only that Nero simply reiterates a concept already asserted in the line before which had prompted Seneca's ‘at plus diligi’. More than that, Seneca's exprimitur is a non sequitur after ‘metuant necesse est’. exprimere is to ‘squeeze out’, ‘to extort’, ‘to elicit’, but in Latin metus is hardly ever ‘extorted’, exprimere, on the other hand, is commonly said of sincere or pretended assent, applause, jubilation, or forced admission. The verb occurs again at 494 ‘humiles … uoces exprimit nostri metus’; 581 ‘exprimere ius est, ferre quod nequeunt preces?’; elsewhere in Sen. Oed. 529 ‘ulline poena uocis expressae fuit’; Clem. 1.1.7 ‘omnibus … nunc ciuibus tuis … haec confessio exprimitur esse felices’; Plin. Pan. 2.2 ‘uoces illas quas metus exprimebat’. (shrink)

The contribution offers an interpretation of the last phase of Nietzsche’s production, based on the influence of some economic concepts. In 1887, Nietzsche encountered the work of the proto-marginalist economist Emmanuel Herrmann and his book “Cultur und Natur: Studien im Gebiete der Wirthschaft”. At the time, Nietzsche was working on the attempt – later abandoned – to offer a comprehensive interpretation of Western metaphysics and history. aimed at a “transvaluation of all values” and based on the idea of will to (...) power. Herrmann’s economic theory played a significant role in this project, offering a model capable of articulating all social and natural processes – and particularly life – in terms of purely immanent relations. By linking the ideas of transvaluation and will-to-power to the logic of capitalistic accumulation and of market society, we can gain an understanding of the influence of economical concepts on Nietzsche’s project, which should in turn allow a better evaluation of its historical relevance. (shrink)