In our world, removed from all transcendence, the “freedom of the modern” triumphs. The criticism of a certain modernity in Simone Weil’s work does not imply the return to a praise of the value of citizenship as a virtue of the citizen who has the sense of his “duties towards society”. True, she never advocated “incivism”, which is an expression of individualism. However, she professed a form of “anticivism”, which implies a very different axiology from that of civism defined (...) by society, which belongs to the “middle region of values”. That is why Antigone is the Weilian model of “anticivism”. (shrink)

Plusieurs commentateurs – incluant certains théoriciens des droits des animaux – ont soutenu que les animaux non humains ne peuvent pas être considérés comme des membres du dèmos parce qu’il leur manque les capacités critiques d’autonomie et d’agentivité morale qui seraient essentielles à la citoyenneté. Nous soutenons que cette inquiétude est fondée sur des idées erronées à propos de la citoyenneté, d’une part, et à propos des animaux, d’autre part. La citoyenneté requiert la maîtrise de soi et la sensibilité aux (...) normes partagées, mais ces capacités ne devraient pas être comprises en un sens indûment intellectualisé ou idéalisé. Des études récentes sur l’agentivité morale montrent que les relations civilisées entre les citoyens sont largement fondées, non pas dans la réflexion rationnelle et l’assentiment à des propositions morales, mais dans des comportements intuitifs, irréfléchis et habituels qui s’enracinent dans une gamme d’émotions prosociales (l’empathie, l’amour) et de dispositions prosociales (coopération, altruisme, réciprocité, résolution de conflits). Cinquante ans de recherches éthologiques ont démontré que plusieurs animaux sociaux – particulièrement les animaux domestiques – partagent le type de dispositions et de capacités rendant possible le civisme quotidien. Une fois que nous élargissons notre conception de la citoyenneté pour inclure une compréhension plus riche des bases des relations civiques, il devient évident que les animaux domestiques et les humains peuvent être les co-créateurs d’un monde moral et politique commun. Nous n’avons rien à craindre, et beaucoup à gagner, à les accueillir comme membres du dèmos. (shrink)

The idea of a current universal crisis of the humanities belongs to Notforprofit, a recent book written by Martha Nussbaum, the wellknown American essayist. We describe some features of this crisis and comment on its influence on the school curricula in Chile.

La genealogia de la moral de Nietzsche, resulta extremadament pertinent per una epistemologia del bé relativa a les incisions institucionals sobre part de la població del Raval. Primer, sobre Raval s�haurien dut a terme tot tipus d�abusos, com destruccions d�habitatges i de trama urbana, així com persecucions o expulsions de població, pel bé del barri o de la ciutat. Si això és així, es pot afirmar que les convergències institucionals en aquest punt es sustenten en una epistemologia interessada. Segon, el (...) pathos de la distància definit per Nietzsche, així com l�assumpció per part de les noves ideologies urbanístiques del primitiu paper de la �casta sacerdotal�, permetrien actualitzar la crítica envers �el civisme�, entès aquest, com l�expressió més recent i efectiva de les cultures de control. I tercer, aquesta epistemologia interessada, permetria reclamar la noció marxiana de lluita de classes per interpretar un crònic i generalitzat menyspreu sobre una part important de la població més irredempta d�un dels barris més convulsos d�Europa. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 61.2 (2000) 203-221 [Access article in PDF] Taste and "the Conversible World" in the Eighteenth Century Rochelle Gurstein In the middle of the nineteenth century a series entitled "Afoot" appeared in the literary magazine Blackwood's (1857), describing an Englishman's travels through Europe. In one installment the narrator tells of meeting a Yankee, who had just come from Florence the beautiful. Our friend approached (...) him warily, and began to ask him what he had seen, what admired. Then, after a little circumlocution, he dashed at once, in medias res, by saying, "Of course, you were in raptures with the Venus de Medici?"--expecting an answer such as he would himself have given. "Well, sir, to tell you the truth, I don't care much about those stone gals," was the answer he received. Our friend collapsed. Had anyone in his presence denied the orthodoxy of St. Augustine, or abjured the Thirty-Nine Articles, there would have been more sorrow in his anger, but scarcely more indignation. The Venus de Medici--a classic chef d'oeuvre--a thing which Praxiteles might have touched with his chisel, or Pericles have looked upon, to be called a "stone gal"! Had he doubted its genuineness, or spoken of it as a specimen of secondary art, he might have been deemed critical, hypercritical; but this was a classic impiety, an irreverence, a profanity. As if that were not enough, the Yankee's words betrayed "uncivism" and "egoism." He was undoubtedly among that type who "under their home influences, and the shadow of their own nationalities... have no aptitude for general civism." 1There is of course much that is familiar in this vignette, especially the contrast between Old World sophistication and American naivete. The unflappable Yankee who is irremediably unaware and proud of it and the overly fastidious, overly aestheticized Englishman were both destined to become stock characters in novels depicting Americans abroad, and here we see an early confrontation [End Page 203] between their rival sensibilities. Even though the Venus de Medici has now completely vanished from the modern imaginary museum of masterpieces, it was once among the most beloved, celebrated, and reproduced statues of antiquity; its repute was far beyond that of the Mona Lisa today, and from the time it was unearthed at the end of sixteenth century through the nineteenth century it was the indisputable exemplar of beauty. So it is no surprise that the Englishman, who, like all cultivated people of his day, was well versed in the world of classical antiquity, was mortified by the American's obliviousness before this "classic chef d'oeuvre"; for it revealed a man so utterly lacking in taste and sensibility that he did not have the wherewithal to know that he had been "irreverent" when he called the Venus de Medici "a stone gal."Where this anecdote moves into less familiar territory, however, is the Englishman's characterization of the Yankee's taste as uncivic and egoistic, as provincial and narrow. His willingness to judge a total stranger, to hold him accountable to a single standard of judgment, could not be in sharper contrast to our contemporary attitudes. Today subjectivity is celebrated in the common saying that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and taste; what is more, diversity of tastes is regarded as a measure of personal freedom and democracy. Thus, the Englishman's quickness to judge would be evidence of elitism, oppression, even cultural imperialism, and this response no longer belongs to naifs who cannot tell the difference between the most revered sculpture and stone gals; it now belongs to the sophisticated, educated, modern (and postmodern) person. Today the very idea of drawing distinctions--not only between practiced taste and first impressions but also between art and commercial entertainment, art and obscenity, high and popular culture, scholarship and propaganda, let alone between beauty and ugliness, right and wrong, excellence and mediocrity--is suspect. And since the capacity to make precisely these kinds of distinctions was once understood as the essence of... (shrink)

The central thesis of my article is that people live a life worthy of a human being only as self-ruling members of some autarchic (or self-governing) communities. On the one hand, nobody is born as a self-ruling individual, and on the other hand, everybody can become such a person by observing progressively the non-aggression principle and, ipso facto, by behaving as a moral being. A self-ruling person has no interest in controlling her neighbors, but in mastering his own impulses, needs, (...) wishes, desires, behaviors, etc. Inasmuch as he is an imperfect being who lives in an imperfect world, he needs to share certain interests, beliefs, values, customs and other characteristics with other people, i.e. to be involved in some communities. Depending on the following four criteria – the regulatory principle, the essential resources, the specific feedback and the fundamental values –, the countless and manifold human communities can be grouped in three categories: (1) affinity communities, (2) economic communities, and (3) civic communities. In other words, every community or human behavior has an affinity, an economic, and a civic dimension. If a civic community is merely a state shaped society, it can be called a political community. All communities are intrinsically variable. Throughout time, they ceaselessly change their composition, values, interpersonal processes and relations, territory, etc. Interestingly enough, the variability is unanimously recognized and accepted in affinity and communities economic, but is denied or abusively interpreted in the case of state shaped societies. If we confuse two types of order − cosmos and taxis – and two types of rule – nomos and thesis –, as well as we exaggerate the importance of certain type of community we bring some social maladies, namely the traditionalism, the commercialism and the civism, (with the worst form of it – the politicality). Whatever the communities they are involved in, all persons relate (implicitly or explicitly) to the libertarian non-aggression principle, living their life in strict accordance with the logical implications of the position they adopt. People who respect the non-aggression axiom necessarily manifest self-control, consideration for the life and property of the others, commitment to offer value for value, love of freedom and a high level of individual responsibility. By contrast, people who violate this axiom – the villains and the statists – invariably strive to control their neighbors, behave as parasites or predators, prefer forced exchanges, reject the personal responsibility (at most accepting the idea of social responsibility), and apply double moral standards. The first category of people generates a libertarian civic discourse as a spontaneous order, and the second creates a political/ statist civic discourse as a result of the human design and will to power. As a spontaneous order, the libertarian civic discourse implies free involvement, peaceful coordination, free expression, free reproduction of ideas and the power of one. Every communication performance in the frame of the libertarian civic discourse is important and has relevant results. All participants to the libertarian civic discourse are automatically members of some self-governing communities (at least members of the general libertarian community). The most important thing for these communities is to be connected to a communicational infrastructure which would make possible free involvement, free expression and the free reproduction of ideas. Inasmuch as today democracy means the tyranny of majority and participatory democracy the tyranny of majority plus the power of vested (and illegitimate) interests, only the emergence of self-governing communities by libertarian discourse offers us a little hope. It’s high time to fall in love (again) with liberty and to embrace the non-aggression principle. We don’t have to create a perfect world, but we can strive to develop our human nature. (shrink)

La genealogia de la moral de Nietzsche, resulta extremadament pertinent per una epistemologia del bé relativa a les incisions institucionals sobre part de la població del Raval. Primer, sobre Raval s’haurien dut a terme tot tipus d’abusos, com destruccions d’habitatges i de trama urbana, així com persecucions o expulsions de població, pel bé del barri o de la ciutat. Si això és així, es pot afirmar que les convergències institucionals en aquest punt es sustenten en una epistemologia interessada. Segon, el (...) pathos de la distància definit per Nietzsche, així com l’assumpció per part de les noves ideologies urbanístiques del primitiu paper de la “casta sacerdotal”, permetrien actualitzar la crítica envers “el civisme”, entès aquest, com l’expressió més recent i efectiva de les cultures de control. I tercer, aquesta epistemologia interessada, permetria reclamar la noció marxiana de lluita de classes per interpretar un crònic i generalitzat menyspreu sobre una part important de la població més irredempta d’un dels barris més convulsos d’Europa. (shrink)

v. 1. La pensée et l'être. Vérité et activité de juger. Philosophie et religion. Philosophie et sciences. Questions historiques.--v. 2. Instruction et éducation. Le civisme suisse, sa nature et son idéal. Philosophie chrétienne.

El objeto de este trabajo es abordar la idea de nación cívica, un concepto político clave en la producción discursiva de la Generación de 1837, cuyo poder de interpelación ha persistido en momentos más recientes de la historia Argentina. Para ello, se analizarán con las herramientas heurísticas de la historia conceptual los usos de ‘civilidad', ‘civismo', ‘civilización', ‘patria' y ‘nación' en un corpus específico de la producción de Juan Bautista Alberdi y Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Nuestra hipótesis de lectura es que, (...) para comprender las diferencias entre estos dos planteos y las tensiones internas de cada uno de ellos, hay que problematizar sus representaciones discursivas, a partir del carácter polisémico y polémico de la nación cívica, donde conviven formas de la politicidad muchas veces contrapuestas, como el republicanismo cívico y la dominación civilizatoria. En ese marco, adquiere mayor relevancia una pregunta filosófico-política cuyo sentido se reafirma en el contexto del Bicentenario: ¿cuáles son las implicancias contemporáneas de un discurso político-generacional que pretendió crear una nación para el desierto Argentina? The main object of this paper is analyze to the notion of civic nation, a concept and a politic representation which is fundamental in the production of the Generation of 1837 in Argentina The interpellation power of this concept still persists in recent moments of argentine history. To this end, we shall study, with the heuristic tools of Conceptual and Intellectual History, the uses of ‘civility', civism', ‘civilization', ‘patria' and ‘nation' in an specific corpus of Juan Bautista Alberdi and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's production. Our reading hypothesis is that for understanding the differences between these two interpretations of the civic nation and the internal tensions that each proposition has is necessary to question their discursive representations. Because it is inside these representations of civic nation we can identify oppositional conceptions of politics such as the civic republicanism and the domination of the civilization. (shrink)

Este artículo distingue e interrelaciona dos concepciones de ciudadanía en relación con las colectividades soberanas o países: la jurídico-política y la ético-política. Para delimitar al ciudadano según la primera concepción, se divide a los habitantes en inmigrantes y nacionales, y a éstos en ciudadanos en sentido restringido y súbditos o nacionales sin derechos políticos (integrados por menores de edad y ciudadanos con los derechos políticos suspendidos). Respecto a la concepción ético-política, los habitantes son divididos en niños o inmaduros psicológicamente para (...) la participación política y ciudadanos en sentido amplio, los cuales se dividen en pasivos y activos. Estos últimos se dividen a su vez en gremiales e ideológicos, los cuales pueden ser autoritarios y democráticos. Estas clasificaciones, con las definiciones correspondientes, se elaboran a partir de comparar lo dicho sobre los conceptos de ciudadano, ciudadanía y civismo en tres diccionarios de la lengua y en ocho obras lexicográficas especializadas. (shrink)

Gilberto Monteiro foi médico municipal da freguesia de Carnaxide de 1921 a 1961, Chefe dos Serviços Clínicos da extinta fábrica dos Fermentos Holandeses (F.P.F.H.), sediada na Cruz Quebrada, de 1934 a 1962 e, durante a II Guerrra Mundial, exerceu no Hospital Militar de Belém, na qualidade de tenente médico miliciano. Amante do desporto e desportista, G. Monteiro foi um dos fundadores do Sport Algés e Dafundo (SAD), instituição onde, enquanto membro da sua primeira Comissão Cultural, criou a Biblioteca, organizou conferências, (...) exposições e concertos e outras actividades culturais que ali atrairam figuras de relevo como Aquilino Ribeiro, Viana da Mota, Hernâni Cidade e Norton de Matos, entre outros. Se nas suas crónicas escritas para “O Fermento” deparamos com o G. Monteiro, historiador inconformado, que denuncia os constantes atentados à integridade histórica e patrimonial, no Esboço Histórico do Hospital Militar (1945) convivemos com um testemunho de vertical e desassombrada coragem cívica, denunciadora dos males de que padecia a medicina contemporânea. Finalmente, acompanhamos o esforço e as diligências que, numa linha de justiça, educação e melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas, G. Monteiro desenvolveu, em pleno Estado Novo, a fim de instituir na fábrica (FPFH) uma assistência médico-social moderna. (shrink)

L’annonce à Rome de la défaite de l’armée romaine face à Hannibal au lac Trasimène (217 av. J.-C.) déclenche une forte émotion collective. Un passage de l’épopée des Punica de Silius Italicus, un auteur de la fin du ier siècle, rapporte notamment cet épisode. Le personnage de Marcia, incarnation de l’idéal de la matrone romaine, évoque la mémoire de son défunt époux, le héros de la première guerre punique, Régulus. Elle tient un rôle de médiatrice et permet, par son deuil, (...) de transformer la « mort tragique » de Régulus en souvenir apaisé. Par le deuil collectif des soldats morts sur le champ de bataille, la société romaine reconnaît aux matrones une fonction « politique » : celle d’expulser, par leurs pleurs et leurs lamentations, la mort et l’émotion de la cité et d’assurer la transmission du souvenir des disparus, gage de la pérennité de la cité. (shrink)