La polémica Constant-Kant tuvo lugar cuando Inmanuel Kant replico directamente a una observación crítica formulada por Constant en su panfleto Des Réactions Politiques. El tema sobre el que se debatía era la existencia de un deber incondicionado de decir siempre y en cualquier situación la verdad. Frente a las tesis del imperativo universal moral de la verdad del filósofo de Koënisberg, Constant opone los ejemplos concretos de situaciones en las que decir la verdad puede equivaler a hacer el mal. Gabriel (...) Albiac no explica en el Estudio introductorio que precede a la edición de los textos completos de la querella, cuanto anticipan las tesis que aquí se debaten, los problemas que generará el totalitarismo y el terror en el mundo de las ideologías holistas. Pero más allá de las consecuencias que pueden deparar las reflexiones en este libro relativas al derecho a decir y exigir la verdad - que es un de los postulados de la sacralización de la teología operada a partir del Renacimiento y de la Ilustración-, la polémica Constant/ Kant oculta otro segundo debate sobre el valor de los principios, la forma de construirlos y su eficacia para regir y explicar la realidad que se demuestra de excepcional interés en un siglo como el XXI, desbordado por su incapacidad de comprender los hechos que todos los días ofrece un mundo empírico en continua efervescencia, debido a la carencia de un sistema de categorías de principio generalmente aceptados que pueda servir de referente para unificar la multiplicidad de lo singular. En esta polémica que surge entre, un gran filósofo consagrado, que no tuvo reparo en salir al quite de un argumento que consideraba digno de réplica, y un joven aventurero dotado de extraordinaria inteligencia que iba a demostrarse capaz de comprender el mundo en que iniciaba su singladura, están contenidos en ciernes los supuestos básicos de alguno de lo problemas centrales de nuestra difícil postmodernidad. (shrink)

Drawing on affective sciences, I argue that normally elicited emotions involve a component—the appraisal process—that represents evaluative properties unconsciously. More specifically, I argue that, given a substantial agreement in affective sciences about what emotions are, given broadly shared definitions of representation, evaluative properties, and unconsciousness, given how appraisals are conceptualized by most (neuro)psychological theories of emotion, and given empirical evidence about affective states elicited by stimuli perceived unconsciously, we are led to conclude that normally elicited emotions involve a component that (...) represents evaluative properties unconsciously. In the last section, I assess which philosophical theories of emotions are in contradiction with my conclusion, ask whether it implies that emotions represent evaluative properties consciously as well, and discuss how it relates to the debate on unconscious emotions. (shrink)

Volume X presents a critical edition with commentary of all the texts published by Constant between July 1815 and April 1818. We are dealing here with political journalism, an instrument of public opinion deployed with great virtuosity by Constant to realise his liberal programme, with texts on political theory and the fundamental debates on the state budget, with publications composed in connection with the 1817 parliamentary elections. This volume contains an engagement with one of Chateaubriand’s key works (La Monarchie selon (...) la Charte), articles on the politics of the day and publications on important contemporary personalities such as Madame de Staël or Joseph Fouché. The importance of the texts always reaches beyond their particular concern to encompass fundamental principles of liberalism in Restoration Europe. (shrink)

L’histoire sociale et institutionnelle de l’université de Paris reste encore souvent détachée de l’étude des dynamiques intellectuelles qui se produisirent en son sein. Le concept des «communautés de savoir » perm et de combler ce hiatus, en associant étroitement l’histoire des savoirs à leurs conditions concrètes de production et d’enseignement. Ce modèle permet de rendre attentif au maintien, au sein de l’université parisienne, de diverses «écoles », dotées d’orientations et de programmes de recherche spécifiques. L’apparition des collèges peut être également (...) située dans cette perspective, qui perm et de mieux saisir l’interaction entre les enjeux politiques et intellectuels qui scandent l’histoire de l’Université au xiii e siècle. Au final, il en ressort l’image d’une institution plus fragmentée qu’unifiée. (shrink)

L'éloge funèbre chez les Romains.--Le philosophe Carnéade à Rome.--Les consolations dans l'antiquité.--L'examine de conscience chez les anciens.--Un chrétien devenu paĭen.--Un paĭen devenu chrétien.

This article reviews the recent edition by David Luscombe, accompanied by an English translation of The Letter Collection of Abelard and Heloise. In particular it considers Luscombe’s claim that the exchange begins with quarrelling about love, but concludes with shared reflection on religious life. It examines the unity of the letter collection as preserved in manuscripts, with particular attention to the way it is often reproduced, as in this volume, without the final text, the Institutiones nostre, which sets out the (...) actual observances of the Paraclete in the time of Heloise, adapted from early Cistercian observances. This is despite the fact that it follows Abelard’s Rule in the fullest surviving manuscript of the exchange, Troyes, Mediatheque MS 802. The article also re-examines issues of philosophical vocabulary raised by the Epistolae duorum amantium, preserved in the library of Clairvaux, responding to Luscombe’s summary of debate about whether these might be the letters that both Abe lard and Heloise say they exchanged at the time of their affair. (shrink)

For Rilke, like Heidegeer, the being of things becomes problematic. Already in 1912, the poet wrote that, for example, things transferred their essence to the money and they disappeared then; and, after a time, the disillusioned individual notices that the money also has gone away and the essenc..

Heloise and Discussion about Love. This chapter examines the significance of the early love affair of Abelard and Heloise. It argues that this relationship was not simply a matter of fornication portrayed by Abelard in the Historia calamitatum. Drawing on the Epistolae duorum amantium, which I argue is a record of an early exchange between Abelard and Heloise, I explain that Heloise wanted to apply Ciceronian ideals of friendship to love between a man and a woman. At her request, Abelard (...) did endeavor to define friendship in terms based on Cicero, but he never developed her interest in true friendship as not seeking any personal reward. His love letters are more strongly influenced by a passionate ideal of love, inspired by the poetry of Ovid. (shrink)

Faith, Sacraments and Charity. This chapter considers Abelard’s lectures or sententie on faith, sacraments and charity in which he formulated a synthetic vision of theology, recorded by students. It also reviews Abelard’s theology through the perspective of one of his foremost critics, Hugh of St. Victor, in the De sacramentis. While Abelard was always known as a logician, he emerged in the 1130s as one of the most original theologians and theorist of ethics of his generation. The chapter considers the (...) evolution of the Theologia ‘Scholarium’ in the context of his teaching in the schools. It concludes by looking at the evolution of his thinking about the distinction between vice and sin in his Ethics or Scito teipsum, arguing that here he is responding to a longstanding concern of Heloise. (shrink)

Cognitive niche construction is the process whereby organisms create and maintain cause–effect models of their niche as guides for fitness influencing behavior. Extended mind theory claims that cognitive processes extend beyond the brain to include predictable states of the world. Active inference and predictive processing in cognitive science assume that organisms embody predictive (i.e., generative) models of the world optimized by standard cognitive functions (e.g., perception, action, learning). This paper presents an active inference formulation that views cognitive niche construction as (...) a cognitive function aimed at optimizing organisms' generative models. We call that process of optimization extended active inference. (shrink)

Heloise and the Paraclete. This chapter considers Abelard’s decision to entrust his foundation of the Paraclete to Heloise and his writing of the Historia calamitatum in 1132–33, as well as Heloise’s reaction to this autobiographical narrative. It examines the impact of Heloise’s arguments about their past relationship and about the religious life for women on Abelard’s writings for the Paraclete. It also considers Abelard’s poetic laments in the light of Heloise’s interest in the human side of the Bible.

El 3 de enero de 1889, en Turín, se produjo la primera crisis que callaría a aquel que se llamaba a sí mismo Dionisos o el Crucificado, o ambos a la vez. Ya en Basilea, a Nietzsche se le había diagnosticado "parálisis progresiva". En Jena, los médicos supusieron una infección sifilítica que se remontaba hacia 1866. Paradójicamente, a fines del mismo mes de enero se publicaba El ocaso de los ídolos y en la primavera de ese mismo año, cuando Nietzsche (...) parecía haberse olvidado de todo lo referente a su obra y de sí mismo, se publicaba Nietzsche contra Wagner. (shrink)

For María Zambrano all forms of knowledge are articulated from tradition, because what is essential is located in the past, as if it were a question of a substratum per se which is always known and transmitted. Wisdom increases by accumulation: knowledges add up, they become part of a ..

This paper examines the thinking of Bernard of Clairvaux about love in relationship to the ideas of his two famous contemporaries, Peter Abelard and Héloise. It looks at Bernard's intellectual debt to William of Champeaux on issues of sin and grace, and to William of Saint-Thierry for ideas about how amor evolves into caritas. Bernard makes a stronger link between amor and dilectio, and introduces use of the Song of Songs, to explain how worldly love can develop into spiritual love. (...) The author also considers the evolution of the ideas about love of Peter Abelard, observing that he draws on the same definition of Cicero in the Sic et Non and Theologia as underpins a rather crude attempt to define love in the Epistolae duorum amantium, which the author of the article thinks to be a record of the early letters of Abelard and Héloise. Whereas Abelard always contrasts worldly and spiritual love, the effort of Heloise to connect amor and dilectio parallels that of Bernard. /// O presente artigo debruça-se sobre o pensamento de S. Bernardo de Claraval acerca do amor em relação com as ideias desenvolvidas pelos seus dois famosos contemporâneos, Pedro Abelardo e Heloísa. Além disso, o artigo toma também em consideração a dívida intelectual de S. Bernardo em relação a Guilherme de Champeaux a propósito de temas como o pecado e a graça, bem como a Guilherme de Saint-Thierry relativamente a ideias acerca de como amor se transforma em caritas. Bernardo estabelece um vínculo forte entre amor e dilectio, e introduz o uso do Cântico dos Cânticos para explicar de que modo o amor mundano se pode transformar em amor espiritual. O artigo toma também em considerçãdo a evolução das ideias acerca do amor de Pedro Abelardo, referindo o facto de que ele se inspira na definição do Cicero no Sic et Non e Theologia, sublinhando a sua tentativa de definição do amor nas Epistolae duorum amantium, as quais são aqui consideradas como um arquivo das primeiras cartas entre Abelardo e Heloísa. Finalmente, o artigo chama também a atenção para o facto de que Abelardo tende a contrasrar o amor mundano e o amor espiritual, ao passo que o esforço de Heloísa em conectar amor e dilectio paralela o próprio esforço de S. Bernardo. (shrink)

Sin duda, una de las más grandes obras del maestro de Heidegger es la dedicada a Nietzsche. Se trata de dos volúmenes que recogen las lecciones de 1936 a 1940 en Friburgo y otras disertaciones de 1940 a 1946. Heidegger, explica en el prólogo que esta obra representa su trayectoria menta..

The first English translation of the major political works of Benjamin Constant (1767-1830), one of the most important of the French political figures in the aftermath of the revolution of 1789, and a leading member of the liberal opposition to Napoleon and later to the restored Bourbon monarchy. The texts included in this volume are widely regarded as one of the classic formulations of modern liberal doctrine.

We argue that political propaganda is a negative phenomenon, against a recent strain of philosophical theorizing that argues that political propaganda can sometimes be neutral or even positive. After an exploration of the sense and connotation of the word ‘propaganda’ in ordinary use and in the scholarly literature, we discuss Ross’s (2002) account of propaganda as an epistemically defective form of political communication. We claim that, with some refinements, it is an explanatorily useful analysis. We then assess two prominent attempts (...) that aim at classifying legitimate cases of public communication as cases of propaganda, namely Ross’s (2013) revision of her previous model, and Stanley’s (2015) influential account. We show that some of the cases in contention are problematic and that the arguments the authors offer for classifying other non-problematic cases as propaganda are inconclusive. We also argue that the idea of considering legitimate public communication as propaganda is unmotivated. (shrink)

In evolutionary biology, niche construction is sometimes described as a genuine evolutionary process whereby organisms, through their activities and regulatory mechanisms, modify their environment such as to steer their own evolutionary trajectory, and that of other species. There is ongoing debate, however, on the extent to which niche construction ought to be considered a bona fide evolutionary force, on a par with natural selection. Recent formulations of the variational free-energy principle as applied to the life sciences describe the properties of (...) living systems, and their selection in evolution, in terms of variational inference. We argue that niche construction can be described using a variational approach. We propose new arguments to support the niche construction perspective, and to extend the variational approach to niche construction to current perspectives in various scientific fields. (shrink)

Over the last 30 years, representationalist and dynamicist positions in the philosophy of cognitive science have argued over whether neurocognitive processes should be viewed as representational or not. Major scientific and technological developments over the years have furnished both parties with ever more sophisticated conceptual weaponry. In recent years, an enactive generalization of predictive processing – known as active inference – has been proposed as a unifying theory of brain functions. Since then, active inference has fueled both representationalist and dynamicist (...) campaigns. However, we believe that when diving into the formal details of active inference, one should be able to find a solution to the war; if not a peace treaty, surely an armistice of a sort. Based on an analysis of these formal details, this paper shows how both representationalist and dynamicist sensibilities can peacefully coexist within the new territory of active inference. (shrink)

Ethics, Sin, and Redemption. This chapter considers Abelard’s reflection on ethical issues in his Collationes, couched in the form of a debate among a philosopher and a Jew and a Christian about the relationship between pagan ethics and Christian faith. It argues that arguments put by the philosopher reflect many of the concerns put by Heloise, to which Abelard sought to find a Christian response. It then looks at Abelard’s commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and Expositio in (...) Hexameron, written at the request of Heloise, in terms of Abelard’s evolving interest in the work of both creation and redemption. (shrink)

La morale pratique dans les lettres de Sénèque.--Un poëte stoĩcien. Perse.--La vertu stoĩque. Epictète.--L'examen de conscience d'un empereur romain. Marc-Aurèle.--La prédication morale populaire. Dion Chrysostome.--La société remaine. Juvénal.--Le scepticisme religieux et philosophique. Lucien.

Together, the code and inferential models of communication are often thought to range over all cases of communication. However, their prevailing versions seem unable to fully explain what I call underdeterminacy without ostension. The latter is constituted by communication where stimuli that are not (nor appear to be) produced with communicative or informative intentions nevertheless communicate information underdetermined by the relevant codes. Though the prevailing accounts of communication cannot fully explain how communication works in such cases, I suggest that some (...) version of the inferential model can—if we allow it to extend to non‐ostensive, non‐intentional behaviors. (shrink)

Autism Spectrum Condition presents a challenge to social and relational accounts of the self, precisely because it is broadly seen as a disorder impacting social relationships. Many influential theories argue that social deficits and impairments of the self are the core problems in ASC. Predictive processing approaches address these based on general purpose neurocognitive mechanisms that are expressed atypically. Here we use the High, Inflexible Precision of Prediction Errors in Autism approach in the context of cultural niche construction to explain (...) atypicalities of the relational self, specifically its minimal, extended, and intersubjective aspects. We contend that the social self in ASC should not be seen as impaired, but rather as an outcome of atypical niche construction. We unpack the scientific, ethical, and practical consequences of this view, and discuss implications for how the challenges that autistic persons face should be approached. (shrink)

Résumé L’article propose un aperçu des relations entre le droit et les sciences dans la Chine des Qing (1644-1911), mises en perceptive avec la façon dont ces liens ont été décrits par les historiens de l’Europe moderne. Savoirs scientifiques et savoir juridique découlaient en Chine d’une matrice commune déterminant les conditions d’accès au savoir. Cette théorie de la connaissance, fixée dans les Classiques confucéens, somme d’ouvrages au cœur du curriculum des lettrés et au fondement de l’organisation bureaucratique, était commune à (...) l’ensemble des champs disciplinaires. Se dégageaient ainsi une heuristique ou encore des formes communes de structuration du raisonnement semblables quelles que soient les sciences considérées. Nous illustrons ces points à travers l’étude de plusieurs facettes de l’organisation du savoir juridique, mis au regard des principes structurant le savoir mathématique. (shrink)

The Definition of Art A definition of art attempts to spell out what the word “art” means. In everyday life, we sometimes debate whether something qualifies as art: Can video games be considered artworks? Should my 6-year-old painting belong to the same category as Wallis’ Hold House Port Mear Square Island (see picture)? Is the … Continue reading Definition of Art →.