Bloch, E. Discussing expressionism.--Lukács, G. Realism in the balance.--Brecht, B. Against Georg Lukács.--Benjamin, W. Conversations with Brecht.--Adorno, T. Letters to Walter Benjamin.--Benjamin, W. Reply.--Adorno, T. Reconciliation under duress.--Adorno, T. Commitment.--Jameson, F. Reflections in conclusion.

Published in Niort in 1714 by Doctor Abraham Gaultier, the Réponse en forme de dissertation ŕ un théologien, shows, in the form of an explication of the Sceptics' doctrine, a sort of materialism inspired by the doctrines of vitalism. In spite of claimed forms of allegiance to religious orthodoxy, the Réponse puts men and animals on the same level of materiality and mortality.

Reinicke, H. Einleitung, abenteuerliches Philosophieren für die Revolution.--Bloch, E. Vom Anbruch gemeinsamer Meinungen.--Bloch, E. Briefe an Joachim Schumacher.--Adorno, T. W. Für Ernst Bloch.--Bloch, E. Friedrich Engels als Polyhistor.--Bloch, E., Reinicke, H. Gespräch, Sokratisches zu Berufsverbot und Studentenbewegung.--Bloch, E. Offener Brief.--Schumacher, J. Erlebtes, Gespräche, das Unvergessliche (1932-77).--Schmidt, B. Über die Grundfrage Blochschen Philosophierens.

The partisan and ideological polarization of American politics since the 1970s appears to have affected pubic opinion in striking ways. The American public has become increasingly partisan and ideological along liberal-conservative lines on a wide range of issues, including even foreign policy. This has raised questions about how rational the public is, in the broad sense of the public's responsiveness to objective conditions. Widespread partisan disagreements over what those conditions arei.e., disagreements about the factssuggest that large proportions of the public (...) may be perceiving the facts incorrectly. The facts in question are important enough that these partisan disagreements may translate into sub-optimal policy preferences and electoral decisions. (shrink)

A recently reconstructed text written by Rousseau is obviously the first part of a broader work he had intended to write on the Principles of War. Although the opus remained incomplete, Rousseau integrated most of the insights he had gained from this early analysis on war into his later political thought. The two main premisses of Rousseau′s analysis are that war does not exist between human beings in the state of nature, but only between artificial bodies, i. e. societies consolidated (...) into states, and that therefore war must be regarded as being solely the consequence of the social state. On the international level, the competition between the already constituted wills of the states, who strive to weaken and eventually annihilate each of the other state′s general will, leads to the sheer impossibility of construing a permanent international order based either on force or on law. However, as war has this aporetic nature, for it threatens and at the same time consolidates the constituted civil order, Rousseau will henceforth concentrate on how to strenghten the general will against private interests while, by the same token, enabling it to curb the ambitions of the sovereign. (shrink)

Pubblicato agli inizi degli anni Cinquanta del Novecento da Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), Gli strati della categoria della possibilità diventò in seguito il diciottesimo capitolo del suo Principio speranza. Vi è presentata un’indagine teorica e storica su che cosa sia la possibilità. Da Aristotele a Marx, passando per Averroè, Giordano Bruno e Hegel, lettrici e lettori ripercorreranno le proposte avanzate nella storia della filosofia per affrontare la questione del possibile, fino a scoprire la teoria della possibilità reale. Grazie alla sua (...) particolare struttura, che sviluppa l’argomentazione facendo emergere in ordine di complessità crescente i principali elementi dell’ontologia del non essere ancora, questo testo è una preziosa chiave per orientarsi nella lettura della filosofia di Bloch. (shrink)

Dynamics of perceiving oneself on femininity and masculinity dimensions in diverse contexts The article is about issues related to gender perceived as a result of social context and thus fits in the current, processual gender paradigm. Two studies have been conducted verifying hypotheses about perceiving oneself on the femininity and masculinity dimensions in various types of contexts. Expectations were that generic contexts would make perceiving oneself within the psychological gender dimensions more dynamic. Women were expected to perceive themselves as more (...) feminine and less masculine in contexts matching their gender, i.e. "feminine", comparing to "masculine", and men were expected to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine in "masculine" contexts comparing to "feminine" contexts. Research results do not confirm the above hypotheses and indicate dynamism in perceiving oneself on femininity and masculinity dimensions. However, the dynamism is perceived only on dimensions inconsistent with biological gender - situation affects women's perceiving of themselves on the masculinity dimension and men's - on femininity dimensions. (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)

première partie. Le maître et son disciple : une amité improbable -- deuxième partie. Deux acteurs de la vie publique -- troisième partie. Un renouvellement de la pensée philosophique.

The fundamental topic of the farticle is to present the role of feelings in the process of assessment. The major point of reference is Max Scheler’s phenomenology of feelings together with his comprehension of love as the basis of the Christian morality. I start my analysis with the short presentation of a system of values, which is formulated by Scheler from the point of axiological absolutism, and proceed to the influence of emotional functions onto our perceiving values, which the philosopher (...) considers to be the intentional feelings of values. Together with the consideration of human emotional life, Scheler’s conception of a human being as a spiritual centre that is the background for developing a particular bond between the man and the God should be paid attention to. The objective of the article is to present the outline of Scheler’s conception of love as a cornerstone for getting to know the absolute, i.e. the experience of love as the essence of Christian faith. (shrink)

La categoría "potencia" va unida, en principio, a las ideas de posibilidad e idealidad. Esto puede llevar a pensar que la concepción spinoziana del derecho como potencia abre paso a una utopía jurídica y a la atribución al derecho de un significado axiológico. En este artículo se muestra que, sin embargo, en la filosofía del derecho de Spinoza encontramos elementos que favorecen más bien un positivismo jurídico: una teoría que reduce el derecho natural y el derecho positivo a facticidad privándolos (...) de toda dimensión utópica y normativa. Es la razón por la que Bloch identifica como positivismo jurídico la concepción spinoziana del derecho como potencia. Pero se muestra asimismo en el artículo que es posible encontrar también en esta concepción otros elementos, a los que Bloch no presta la debida atención, que permiten atribuir un significado ideal y un papel normativo a la spinoziana vinculación del derecho a potencia. En la conclusión se indica la gran dificultad con la que se topa esta interpretación: el determinismo spinoziano. (shrink)

In this paper, I will try to establish a parallel between Charles S. Peirce’s and Ernst Bloch’s theory of categories. Both the authors hypothesise a phenomenological foundation for their theory of categories: categories are elements of Experience and products of Praxis. Nevertheless, Bloch’s phenomenology is characterised by a peculiar aspect: according to Bloch, the gestural dimension plays a fundamental role in the Knowledge Process, positing the category of ‘Possibility’. In line with Maddalena’s analyses on the relation between (...) ‘Complete Gesture’ and ‘Work’, I will try to illustrate that the parallel between Bloch and Peirce can be extended, by including the semiotic dimension of gesture. (shrink)

RESUMENEl artículo analiza la concepción de la esperanza de Welte y la contrapone al "principio esperanza" de Bloch. Primeramente el análisis distingue la esperanza ontológica de la religiosa y determina ambos conceptos. Luego expone la relación dinámica entre las dos formas de esperanza. Finalmente muestra cómo el paso de la esperanza ontológica a la religiosa supone una reversión temporal. La contraposición explicita, por un lado, el carácter parcial del análisis de Bloch frente al de Welte, pero, por otro (...) lado, muestra que ambos análisis no son contradictorios, sino complementarios.PALABRAS CLAVEESPERANZA-SENTIDO-RELIGIÓN-TEMPORALIDADABSTRACTThe article examines Welte´s notion of hope and sets it off against Bloch´s "hope principle". First, the difference between ontological hope and relgious hope is outlined, and the distinctive characters of both notions are described. Secondly, the dynamic relationship holding between both types of hope is developed. Finally, it is shown how the passage from ontological hope to religious hope entails a temporal reversion. The comparison attempts to show, on the one had, the one-sidedness of Bloch´s analysis, and, on the other, that both standpoints are not contradictory but rather complementary.KEYWORDSHOPE-MEANING-RELIGION-TEMPORALITY. (shrink)

Ernst Bloch desenvolveu uma teoria na qual a dualidade entre a história humana e natureza pode ser superada e compreendida desde sua unidade originária. Bloch insere o ser humano na natureza de tal modo que, simultaneamente, se torna possível conceber a história humana como constitutiva do devir processual da mesma. Com isto, na medida em que o devir da natureza é concebido numa perspectiva aberta, constitui-se a possibilidade de entendimento da ação humana enquanto produção da própria natureza. As (...) possibilidades da práxis humana ampliam-se, assim, tanto qualitativa quanto quantitativamente. O confronto com a compreensão da relação entre natureza e história em Hegel e Heidegger é um recurso usado para explicitar a especificidade da posição de Ernst Bloch.. (shrink)

Neste livro, Ernst Bloch, o pensador de 'O espírito da utopia', é examinado desde a sua formação, fortemente marcada pelo neokantismo e pelo pessimismo do final do século XIX, até a afirmação de suas próprias teses, inspiradas em Hegel, Marx e Nietzsche.

James offers ways for escaping pessimism: i) leaving "the bare facts by themselves" - in construing the scientific order of nature - or permitting ii) a "religious reading to go on" by postulating "supplementary facts which may be discovered" or iii) "believed in". Adopting ii), we can trust the idea that "a still wider world may be there" as a "maybe" and then act as if the invisible world thereby suggested was real, enabling us "to live in the light of (...) " our "religious demands". One way of approaching Bloch's philosophy is to see him as dealing with James's three ways. A case can be made for Bloch's naturalism, phenomenologically understood, akin to James's second way. Yet, Bloch could also be regarded as adopting something like James's third way in terms of a teleologism messianically understood needed to ground the idea of Hope. But can Bloch's reconcile these two conceptions successfully? (shrink)

Aos quarenta anos de O Princípio Responsabilidade, de Hans Jonas, o ensaio1 procede à sondagem exploratória e à análise da tensão ético-política acerca das concepções de utopia e de antiutopia, dispostas e posicionadas pelas filosofias blochiana e jonasiana. Se para Bloch o que tem movido — e, por certo, seguirá movendo — a humanidade recebe sua identidade da docta spes, sob a forma utopia concreta, fundada na ontologia do "ainda-não consciente"; para Jonas, ao contrário, é necessário suplantar a mentalidade (...) utópica, sobremaneira a tecnológica, derivada e executora do projeto baconiano, de modo a facilitar a consolidação da ética da responsabilidade destinada à civilização tecnológica. Se uma posição ético-política finda por interrogar a outra, intenciona-se a explicitação crítica de ambas argumentações, que poderá fornecer alguns elementos de compreensão do problema. A hipótese subjacente aponta para a parte mais vulnerável de O Princípio Responsabilidade, os capítulos V e VI, em que ocorrem a crítica jonasiana à utopia de pressupostos derivados da filosofia marxista, sintetizados e atualizados em O Princípio Esperança, de Ernst Bloch. (shrink)

Virtually all activities of health care are motivated at some level by hope. Patients hope for a cure; for relief from pain; for a return home. Physicians hope to prevent illness in their patients; to make the correct diagnosis when illness presents itself; that their prescribed treatments will be effective. Researchers hope to learn more about the causes of illness; to discover new and more effective treatments; to understand how treatments work. Ultimately, all who work in health care hope to (...) offer their patients hope. In this paper, I offer a brief analysis of hope, considering the definitions of Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Thomas Aquinas. I then differentiate shallow and deep hope and show how hope in health care can remain shallow. Next, I explore what a philosophy of deep hope in health care might look like, drawing important points from Ernst Bloch and Gabriel Marcel. Finally, I suggest some implications of this philosophy of hope for patients, physicians, and researchers. (shrink)