A pesquisa pretende fazer uma narrativa, à luz da teoria de Jacques-Alain Miller, sobre o sujeito em dialética com as formas jurídicas do trabalho. Considerando a dinâmica social transpassada pela mercantilização, buscou-se uma elucidação sobre a formação e relação do sujeito com a linguagem e o ’Outro’, não concebida no entendimento do sujeito de direito tradicional. Como resultado, notou-se que a desconsideração da subjetivação do trabalhador é uma lacuna no mundo jurídico, que viabiliza sua reiterada sujeição e descaracteriza a proteção (...) ao seu trabalho. (shrink)

Several countries maintain universal health coverage, which implies responsibility to organize delivery formats of healthcare services and products for citizens. In Brazil, the health system has a principle of universal access for more than 30 years, but many deficiencies remain and the country observes a day practice for those seeking judicial decisions to determine provision of healthcare.

Bernard Mandeville's poem "The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves turn'd Honest" explores the subtle interplay between morality and business practices, particularly through the lens of the term "knave". This article examines Mandeville's use of "knave" in juxtaposition with the value of honesty portrayed in the poem's title. In contrast to the spiritual transformation depicted in the poem, in which all the bees in the hive become honest through divine intervention, Mandeville suggests a different kind of change in moral practice, one that (...) incorporates previously unacceptable behavior into the social fabric. Through a varied historical reconstruction of the uses and understandings of the term in question, the study explores Mandeville's concerns about the acceptance and normalization of dishonesty in various segments of society, as illustrated by the anecdote in Observation B, which shows how dishonesty permeates all aspects of commerce, involving buyers, sellers, merchants, traders, and dealers. By analyzing Mandeville's portrayal of dishonesty and its integration into social dynamics, this study aims to elucidate the underlying tensions between ethical standards and the pursuit of self-interest. (shrink)

O filósofo sul coreano Byung-Chul Han em seu ensaio Agonia do Eros, procura compreender como as relações advindas do mundo digital impedem o erotismo de se desenvolver e quais são as consequências nefastas nas relações afetivas em que o ego narcísico sobressai no lugar do amor.

Este trabalho constitui um recorte de um projeto de Iniciação Científica do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Sudeste de Minas Gerais, Campus Santos Dumont (IF Sudeste MG-Santos Dumont), realizado por alunos do curso de graduação em Licenciatura em Matemática. Por meio do levantamento bibliográfico, buscou-se responder à pergunta: quais os caminhos percorridos pelas pesquisas em educação matemática crítica no Brasil nos últimos 22 anos? Para tal, consideramos exclusivamente artigos, publicados em periódicos da área de Educação Matemática de (...) circulação nacional e internacional, complementando a busca com o acesso ao Portal de Periódicos CAPES. Com isso, realizamos a revisão sistemática da literatura, classificando os trabalhos em categorias temáticas que, além de organizá-los, serve de base para a síntese crítica dos trabalhos. Além disso, apontam como resultados não só as tendências em certos temas de pesquisa, mas também lacunas. (shrink)

Este trabalho tem por objetivo discutir o processo de cooptação ideológica em Antonio Gramsci e Paulo Freire. Procuraremos ver nas ponderações sobre a contradição Estado/Sociedade civil e sua relevância na disputa da hegemonia de classe em Gramsci e contradição entre teorias de ação dialógica e anti-dialógica em Freire, a possível associação entre suas perspectivas pedagógicas e ideológicas. Para tanto, abordaremos a questão da educação em Freire e Gramsci no intuito de ver nas concepções de intelectual orgânico e do educador-educando dialógico (...) aproximações entre os contrapontos desses autores à referidas contradições. (shrink)

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour have been linked to the mental health of children and adolescents, yet the timing of behaviours may play a role in this relationship and clarifying this could inform interventions. We explored cross-sectional associations of PA and SED in varying time segments throughout the school day with the mental health of school-aged children and adolescents from rural Northeastern Ontario, Canada. A total of 161 students wore accelerometers for 8 days and completed a self-report survey. Mental health (...) was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Accelerometer-measured SED, light PA, and moderate and vigorous PA were estimated in the time-segments before school, school time, after school, and evenings. Associations were tested with multilevel linear regressions while adjusting for confounding factors. Students spent 72.6 min in MVPA, 209.0 min in LPA, and 621.0 min in SED per day. Daily SED was associated with less conduct problems. Evening LPA was inversely associated with hyperactivity, while SED was associated with hyperactivity and with peer problems before school, and during school. No associations were observed for MVPA, emotional symptoms, or prosocial behaviour. In conclusion, displacing SED with LPA in some specific periods of the day may benefit the mental health of students; taking this into account could strengthen interventions. (shrink)

A diversidade do pensamento filosófico sobre as transformações modernas e contemporâneas que cercam a produção artística desdobra-se nos quinze textos que compõem o livro, os quais abordam os mais variados gêneros: cinema, poesia, escultura, pintura e fotografia. Além disso, os textos dialogam ora com autores consagrados - de Winckelmann e Schelling a Benjamin e Rancière -, ora com os próprios artistas - de Glauber Rocha a Joseph Kosuth - e ora com contextos socioculturais mais amplos - desde o capitalismo estético (...) até a estética dos gêneros. Os principais problemas filosóficos que balizam a história da estética e se mantém no cerne dos debates modernos e contemporâneos atravessam esta coletânea: temas tradicionais como a educação do gosto, o conceito de beleza, o princípio da imitação da natureza e a relação entre aparência e verdade são atualizados com acuidade. Temas fundamentais do século XX como a autonomia da arte, o papel da arte na invenção de um povo, a liberdade e a experiência estética, a perda da materialidade das obras de arte e a função da crítica de arte também recebem atenção cuidadosa. Temas que dialogam diretamente com a situação atual das artes são igualmente contemplados, como a subsunção da arte pelo consumo, o possível caráter transgressor e revolucionário do gesto artístico e o papel das imagens na contemporaneidade. (shrink)

Em Agonia do Eros, o filósofo sul coreano, Byung Chul-Han, autor dos ensaios: sociedade do cansaço, sociedade da transparência, topologia da violência, no enxame, busca analisar as relações afetivas na contemporaneidade. A erotização desfalece frente ao igual, sendo que Eros procura aquele que difere do que somos, porém na atualidade, afirma o autor, o diferente perde para o inferno do igual. Para explicar sua tese o autor faz sua análise no rastro de pensadores como: Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Emmanuel Levinas, (...) George Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, dentre outros. (shrink)

The class of recursive functions over the reals, denoted by , was introduced by Cristopher Moore in his seminal paper written in 1995. Since then many subsequent investigations brought new results: the class was put in relation with the class of functions generated by the General Purpose Analogue Computer of Claude Shannon; classical digital computation was embedded in several ways into the new model of computation; restrictions of were proved to represent different classes of recursive functions, e.g., recursive, primitive recursive (...) and elementary functions, and structures such as the Ritchie and the Grzergorczyk hierarchies.The class of real recursive functions was then stratified in a natural way, and and the analytic hierarchy were recently recognised as two faces of the same mathematical concept.In this new article, we bring a strong foundational support to the Real Recursive Function Theory, rooted in Mathematical Analysis, in a way that the reader can easily recognise both its intrinsic mathematical beauty and its extreme simplicity. The new paradigm is now robust and smooth enough to be taught. To achieve such a result some concepts had to change and some new results were added. (shrink)

This exploratory study is focused on the perceptions of science communication practitioners about the activities of scientists and the audiences of the marine sciences outreach in Portugal. Using the qualitative method of thematic analysis and collecting data through semistructured interviews of 14 practitioners of diverse professions, backgrounds, ages, and stages of career, it was found that the role of marine scientists in this area is traditionally viewed as reduced, but with a slight improvement in the past 5 to 10 years. (...) Despite having a historical connection with and curiosity about the sea, audiences were considered to have a mostly utilitarian interest in the marine sciences. Most practitioners had a view of science communication connected to the knowledge deficit model, with a minority articulating a more dialogical model. Although there are signs of conflict between science communicators and scientists, the proliferation of training opportunities in science communication at the national level, the perceived increase of interest and participation of marine scientists in public communication in the past years, and the consolidation of science communicators as part of the scientific community offer positive prospects for the future of outreach of marine sciences in Portugal. (shrink)

The majority of antimicrobials that are produced are administered to animals, particularly food animals. While the overall impact of antimicrobial use in animals on antimicrobial resistance in humans and the environment is unclear, it undeniably has a role. Yet, some degree of antimicrobial use in animals is necessary for animal health and welfare purposes. Balancing the benefits and risks of antimicrobial use in animals is challenging because of the complexity of the problem and limitations in available data. However, a range (...) of measures can be implemented to reduce, refine and optimize antimicrobial use in animals, with a goal of minimizing the impact on human and environmental health while maintaining necessary therapeutic use in animals. A pandemic instrument can provide the necessary foundation for the whole-of-society and whole-of government One Health approach that is required to strengthen surveillance, communication, collaboration, and action. (shrink)

Research involving transgender and gender diverse people (TGD) increased in the last years, mostly concerning healthcare associated to this population. Few studies dedicated their analysis to the impact of parental support on transgender people, even though this is an important aspect in creating a safe environment on which these individuals can build their identity. In addition, the link between family support, TGD identity and homelessness is not completely established. Thus, due to the specificities of the family context of TGD individuals, (...) the aim of this study is to investigate the association between family support and TGD in different moments of the process of gender affirmation. In addition, this study also aims to explore the relationship between a lack of social support and low self-esteem, home abandonment, and dwelling in the street. The survey was designed based on the TransPULSE project and was made available in electronic format. The sample was constituted of 423 TGD residents in two Brazilian states. A Structural Equation Model analysis suggested that the impact of gender affirmation status on homelessness was mediated by parental support, through self-esteem, and the need to move from home. The association between the status of the gender affirmation procedures, family support and self-esteem was significant and indicated that the further TGD individuals advanced in gender affirmation, the more self-esteem and family support they would have. The association between family support and self-esteem indicated that family support was associated with higher self-esteem. Low family support was associated with the willingness to move from home due to one’s TGD status and there was also a significant correlation between low self-esteem and the willingness to move from home due to one’s TGD status. Finally, homelessness was associated with the willingness to move with a large effect size. Limitations include the sample that was constituted by individuals with Internet access and who had more contact with TGD communities. The findings indicate directions for interventions involving TGD people and their families, considering the parental relationship as a critical variable to improve TGD quality of life in the process of gender affirmation. (shrink)

Schools have been the main context for physical activity and sedentary behavior interventions among adolescents, but there is inconsistent evidence on whether they also improve dimensions of the health−related quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a school-based active lifestyle intervention on dimensions of HRQoL. A secondary aim was to verify whether sex, age, and HRQoL at baseline were moderators of the intervention effect. A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted at three control and (...) three intervention schools in Florianopolis, Brazil. All students from 7th to 9th grade were invited to participate. A school year intervention, designed primarily to increase PA and reduce SB, included strategies focused on teacher training on PA, SB, and nutrition, and availability of teaching materials related to these contents; environmental improvements ; and education strategies, with the availability of folders and posters regarding PA, SB, and nutrition. Participants and the research staffs were not blinded to group assignment, but a standardized evaluation protocol was applied at baseline and after the intervention using the KIDSCREEN−27 to assess HRQoL across five dimensions. Mixed linear models were performed to evaluate the effect of the Movimente intervention on the five HRQoL dimensions. Of the 921 students who answered the questionnaire at baseline, 300 and 434 completed the study in control and intervention groups, respectively. The results revealed no significant effects of the intervention on any HRQoL dimensions. A reduction of the school environment dimension was observed in both the control and intervention groups. Sensitivity analyses showed that students in the highest baseline tertiles of HRQoL in any dimension had a reduction in their respective scores from pre- to post-intervention in both school groups. In conclusion, our results demonstrated no intervention effect on HRQoL dimensions and those students with the highest levels of HRQoL at baseline on all dimensions reduced from pre to post-intervention.Clinical Trial RegistrationThe trial is registered at the Clinical Trial Registry. (shrink)

Automatized scalable healthcare support solutions allow real-time 24/7 health monitoring of patients, prioritizing medical treatment according to health conditions, reducing medical appointments in clinics and hospitals, and enabling easy exchange of information among healthcare professionals. With recent health safety guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the elderly has become imperative. However, state-of-the-art health wearable device platforms present limitations in hardware, parameter estimation algorithms, and software architecture. This paper proposes a complete framework for health systems composed of multi-sensor wearable health (...) devices, high-resolution parameter estimation, and real-time monitoring applications. The framework is appropriate for real-time monitoring of elderly patients' health without physical contact with healthcare professionals, maintaining safety standards. The hardware includes sensors for monitoring steps, pulse oximetry, heart rate, and temperature using low-power wireless communication. In terms of parameter estimation, the embedded circuit uses high-resolution signal processing algorithms that result in an improved measure of the HR. The proposed high-resolution signal processing-based approach outperforms state-of-the-art HR estimation measurements using the photoplethysmography sensor. (shrink)

Following the pioneer work of Bruno De Finetti [12], conditional probability spaces (allowing for conditioning with events of measure zero) have been studied since (at least) the 1950's. Perhaps the most salient axiomatizations are Karl Popper's in [31], and Alfred Renyi's in [33]. Nonstandard probability spaces [34] are a well know alternative to this approach. Vann McGee proposed in [30] a result relating both approaches by showing that the standard values of infinitesimal probability functions are representable as Popper functions, (...) and that every Popper function is representable in terms of the standard real values of some infinitesimal measure. Our main goal in this article is to study the constraints on (qualitative and probabilistic) change imposed by an extended version of McGee's result. We focus on an extension capable of allowing for iterated changes of view. Such extension, we argue, seems to be needed in almost all considered applications. Since most of the available axiomatizations stipulate (definitionally) important constraints on iterated change, we propose a non-questionbegging framework, Iterative Probability Systems (IPS) and we show that every Popper function can be regarded as a Bayesian IPS. A generalized version of McGee's result is then proved and several of its consequences considered. In particular we note that our proof requires the imposition of Cumulativity, i.e. the principle that a proposition that is accepted at any stage of an iterative process of acceptance will continue to be accepted at any later stage. The plausibility and range of applicability of Cumulativity is then studied. In particular we appeal to a method for defining belief from conditional probability (first proposed in [42] and then slightly modified in [6] and [3]) in order to characterize the notion of qualitative change induced by Cumulative models of probability kinematics. The resulting cumulative notion is then compared with existing axiomatizations of belief change and probabilistic supposition. We also consider applications in the probabilistic accounts of conditionals [1] and [30]. (shrink)

We can construct a typology of rumours - defined broadly as unverified news - according to their relation to reality after their degree of veracity has been established, at least in the current state of knowledge, by experts (historians, scientists, police officers, journalists, and so on). If a rumour turns out to be correct it becomes an item of information. If a rumour is untrue it comes into the categories of affirming or denying rumours. Affirming rumours, which are the most (...) common type, state the reality of imaginary facts, for instance the rumour claiming that bananas from Costa Rica pass on to people flesh-eating bacteria that cause general necrosis. Denying rumours, which are rarer, deny the reality of established facts, for example rumours claiming that Elvis Presley is not dead or that Americans have never walked on the moon.It seems useful to distinguish various terms indicating negation. Rumours will be termed negative when they state facts associated with fear or hostility, whereas positive rumours evoke happy, welcome events. French researchers, who assign colours to rumours, talk about ‘black’ rumours or ‘rose-tinted’ ones. Specialists agree that there are around nine black rumours for every rose-tinted one. Rouquette (1975, 1990) has thoroughly studied this ‘bias towards negativity’, which is one of the main features of rumours. I shall talk about denying rumours and ideas when they deny commonly accepted events. These rumours are not necessarily negative: for instance survival legends often express the wish that a loved person were not dead. Finally, among denying rumours and ideas, we shall reserve the word negationist for revisionist claims that the gas chambers did not exist, or that a Nazi did not plan to exterminate the Jews during the Second World War. (shrink)

Esse artigo tem como objetivo investigar o ensino de filosofia e sua inserção e retirada do currículo da educação ao longo da história da educação no Brasil. A pesquisa é documental e bibliográfica e tem como referência teórica o método materialista histórico e dialético. Para a discussão a história da educação utilizamos as obras de Saviani (2007), para a discussão sobre ensino de filosofia no Brasil, utilizamos as obras de Ceppas (2010), Fávero (2004), Jaime (1997), Belieri e Sforni (2012/2013). A (...) discussão sobre o Estado e as questões ligadas à educação no contexto econômico e político, foram embasadas em Marx e Engels (2001), Carnoy (1984), Deitos (2008), Bruno (2001), Prado Jr (1998) e Tonet (2005). O Ensino de Filosofia esteve presente na educação brasileira, desde a chegada dos jesuítas, voltado à formação da elite. Ao longo da história da educação no Brasil, o ensino de filosofia não se consolidou no currículo, sendo até mesmo proibido na ditadura militar. Seu retorno, pós ditadura militar, aconteceu em 2008, garantido por lei. Em 2016, com a MP 746 (Lei 13.415/2017) a obrigatoriedade foi revogada. Conclui-se, dentre outras questões, que a entrada e saída do ensino de filosofia do currículo, está ligada aos interesses governamentais, às questões econômicas e políticas, bem como às contribuições da filosofia para a formação de estudantes críticos e pensantes, e para a compreensão da realidade e da inserção em sua transformação. (shrink)

Kant’s critique/doctrine distinction tracks the difference between a canon for the understanding’s proper use and an organon for its dialectical misuse. The latter reflects the dogmatic use of reason to attain a doctrine of knowledge with no antecedent critique. In the 1790s, Fichte collapses Kant’s distinction and redefines dogmatism. He argues that deriving a canon is essentially dialectical and thus yields an organon: critical idealism is properly a doctrine of science or Wissenschaftslehre. Criticism is furthermore said to refute dogmatism, by (...) which Fichte means Spinozism. Schelling repudiates Fichte’s position in his Philosophical Letters by reviving Kant’s distinction. First, ‘critique’ for Schelling names a canon that is valid for all systems—including Spinozism—and thus favours none—not even the Wissenschaftslehre. Second, Schelling coins ‘dogmaticism’ to refer to what Kant calls ‘dogmatism’: reason’s uncritical claim to doctrine. Hence, he says all systems—even Fichte’s—are susceptible to the ‘enthusiasm’ of mistaking themselves for doctrines or ‘objects of knowledge’, instead of subjectively valid ‘objects of freedom’. I reconstruct Schelling’s argument for reviving Kant’s distinction, while noting two consequences for German idealism. First, if criticism favours no system, a system’s origin cannot be an act of knowledge, e.g., intellectual intuition, but only an act of endorsement. Second, if dogmaticism entails enthusiasm, a system’s goal cannot be absolute knowledge, but only infinite striving. Hence, by retrieving Schelling’s notion of dogmaticism, we can both gain a better understanding of the Letters and register the impact of a core Kantian distinction on the German idealist project. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to argue that all—or almost all—logical rules have exceptions. In particular, it is argued that this is a moral that we should draw from the semantic paradoxes. The idea that we should respond to the paradoxes by revising logic in some way is familiar. But previous proposals advocate the replacement of classical logic with some alternative logic. That is, some alternative system of rules, where it is taken for granted that these hold without exception. (...) The present proposal is quite different. According to this, there is no such alternative logic. Rather, classical logic retains the status of the ‘one true logic’, but this status must be reconceived so as to be compatible with (almost) all of its rules admitting of exceptions. This would seem to have significant repercussions for a range of widely held views about logic: e.g. that it is a priori, or that it is necessary. Indeed, if the arguments of the paper succeed, then such views must be given up. (shrink)

European thought begins with the Greeks. Scientific and philosophic thinking--the pursuit of truth and the grasping of unchanging principles of life--is a historical development, an achievement; and, as Bruno Snell writes in The Discovery of the Mind, nothing less than a revolution. The Greeks did not take mental resources already at their disposal and merely map out new subjects for discussion and investigation. In poetry, drama, and philosophy they in fact discovered the human mind. The stages in man's gradual (...) understanding of himself are revealed in the course of ancient literature from Homer to Virgil. A rational view of the nature of man slowly established itself in the creations of epic and lyric poetry, tragedy and literary criticism, pre-Socratic thought, and early Greek ethics all the way to the discovery of humanitas and the spiritual landscape of Virgil's Arcadia. The Discovery of the Mind is a landmark work in tracing this evolution of consciousness--one of the distinguishing characteristics of the history of man. (shrink)

In the present work we propose to present the way in which Heidegger treats the concept of anguish in his inaugural class What is Metaphysics?, emphasizing the relation between the awakening of anguish and the revelation of being. At the same time, we propose to confront the treatment of the concept of anguish in the lecture and the one that Heidegger gives to the concept in Being and Time. Indeed, in his lecture Heidegger presents anguish as a manifestation of nothingness, (...) in which the revelation of the being as such to the Dasein occurs. On the other hand, in § 40 of Being and Time Heidegger presents anguish as the disposition that removes Dasein from de-cadence and singularizes it, that is, places it before itself. With this, we will show the unfolding of the concept of anguish, from the most existential approach of the major treatise to the more ontological perspective of the lecture. (shrink)

Meillassoux seeks knowledge of transcendental reality, blaming Kant for the ‘correlationist’ proscription of independent access to either thought or being. For Meillassoux, correlationism blocks an account of the meaning of ‘ancestral statements’ regarding reality prior to humans. I examine three charges on which Meillassoux’s argument depends: (1) Kant distorts ancestral statements’ meaning; (2) Kant fallaciously infers causality’s necessity; (3) Kant’s transcendental idealism cannot grasp ‘the great outdoors’. I reject these charges: (1) imposes a Cartesian misreading, hence Meillassoux’s false assumption that, (...) for Kant, objects don’t exist without subjects; (2) misreads Kant, who infers causality’s necessity from the possibility of experience; (3) casts Kant’s idealism as subjective, ignoring his perspectival portrayal of it. (shrink)

L’article examine la question des racines pulsionnelles du narratif en analysant le statut et la fonction du concept métapyschologique de pulsion dans les thèses sémiotiques de Jean Petitot. Cette question est d’ordre épistémologique et concerne la présence de thèses lacaniennes dans une théorie sémiotique qui affirme la morphogenèse du sens à partir d’un substrat naturel. L’article explique comment les critiques que Petitot adresse au structuralisme lacanien en 1981 s’insèrent dans une réinterprétation bioanthropologique et naturaliste de la métapsychologie freudienne et comment (...) cette réinterprétation précède et prépare la refondation morphodynamique de la sémiotique greimassienne. Après avoir discuté les arguments que Petitot présente pour faire de Lacan un précurseur du ‘tournant morphodynamique,’ l’article se centre sur la redéfinition de pulsion comme prégnance sémique. Il expose les avantages théoriques de cette notion, mais aborde également l’antinomie qu’elle contient. La conclusion en est que la redéfinition de la pulsion comme prégnance sémique escamote la nature sexuelle de la libido et projette sur la sémiotique morphodynamique l’ombre de ‘l’illusion archaïque.’. (shrink)

RésuméNotre propos est de réunir quelques réflexions de Pascal Quignard sur le récit afin d’en dégager les coordonnées ou les prémisses d’une théorie narrative chez cet écrivain qui, n’étant pas un théoricien, est sans doute quelqu’un qui fait œuvre de pensée. Notre hypothèse est que, situées dans le cadre d’une épistémologie naturaliste et d’un récit anthropogénétique au sein duquel la prédation joue un rôle majeur, en particulier celui de condition de possibilité de la narration, les spéculations de Quignard s’élaborent sur (...) fond de la théorie sémio-narrative laquelle subit ainsi une reformulation. Nous soutenons que la réinterprétation quignardienne fait partie des théories, comme celles de Petitot et de Thom, qui proposent une solution morphogénétique au problème de la conversion (de la substance sémique en forme narrative) tel qu’il se présente chez Greimas. Au sein de cette convergence avec le structuralisme naturaliste et morphodynamique, la spécificité de Quignard réside dans la configuration de la conversion comme capture. Cette figure dynamique devient alors un opérateur de narrativité différent des modèles logiques (carré sémiotique) ou topologiques (catastrophes) qui formalisent rationnellement la conversion. Elle est au cœur de la pensée de l’écrivain sur le phénomène narratif. (shrink)

In an age of postmodern suspicion of master narratives, the egalitarianism and universality inherent in a normative system of rights defended by liberalism is countered by disbelief in the idealized conceptions of a ‘public subject’, divorced from the particularity of both individual and historical communal narratives, as well as an impartial collective good. Simultaneously, the excessive fragmentation of opposed and contradictory aspirations of counterpublics, privileged by a communitarian approach, runs the risk of giving priority to individual rights over social well-being. (...) This article explores the liberal and communitarian approaches to rights, inquiring into whether freedom or equality offer the best criteria of judgement to preserve the space of cultural plurality within the public sphere. While Habermasian discourse ethics subordinates the particularistic to the general will, the communitarian perspective on justice, represented by Paul Piccone and Charles Taylor, argues that the law is not universal in scope and cannot be separated from particularistic conceptions of the ‘good life’. The article ultimately claims that freedom is the criterion that allows cultural pluralities to both stand on their own, resisting assimilation within any master discourse, and establish dialogue among themselves. In this perspective, the public sphere promotes complex modes of interaction, among modernity’s differentiated spheres. This view of the public sphere is in tune with Jencks’ description of postmodernism as preserving the ‘fragmental holism’ (1996: 478) of plural lifeworlds. (shrink)

Human rights have become an important ideal in current times, yet our age has witnessed more violations of human rights than any previous less enlightened one. This book explores the historical and theoretical dimensions of this paradox. Divided into two parts, the first section offers an alternative history of natural law, in which natural rights are represented as the eternal human struggle to resist opression and to fight for a society in which people are no longer degraded or despised. At (...) the time of their birth in the 18th Century and again in the popular uprisings of the last decade, human rights became the dominant critique of law and society. The radical rhetoric of rights and its apparently endless expansive potential has led to its adoption by governments and individuals alike seeking to justify their actions on moral grounds and has undermined its radical edge. Part Two examines the philosophical logic of rights. The classical critiques of Kant, Burke, Hegel and Marx illuminate traditional aproaches to the concept of human rights. The work of Heidegger, Sartre and psychoanalysis is used to deconstruct the metaphisical essentialism of bothe universalists and cultural relativists. Finally, through a consideration of the ethics of otherness, and with reference to recent human rights violations, it is argued that the end of human rights is to judge law and politics from a moral stand point which both transcends the present and is historically relevant. (shrink)

A la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Emmanuel Kant pouvait encore voir dans les mathématiques le modèle même des jugements synthétiques a priori, c'est-à-dire dotés d'un contenu intuitif propre quoique non dérivé de l'expérience sensible. Des géométries non-euclidiennes à la théorie des transfinis de Cantor, les mathématiques du XIXe siècle vont cependant faire triompher des systèmes mathématiques résolument déductifs et non plus intuitifs. Sur fond d'interrogations quant à la légitimité de ces développements récents, interrogations renforcées par la découverte de paradoxes, d'âpres (...) débats vont alors opposer différentes écoles quant aux méthodes de preuve acceptables ainsi que quant à ce qui constitue le fondement même du savoir mathématique. Logicisme, formalisme et intuitionnisme ; ce sont, à l'époque, pas moins de trois conceptions des mathématiques (et trois programmes pour les mathématiques) qui s'affrontent, conceptions auxquelles il faut ajouter le psychologisme, qui se nourrit de l'essor des sciences humaines et de leurs prétentions épistémologiques. En collant au plus près des textes des principaux protagonistes, l'ouvrage présente de manière tout à la fois synthétique et précise les différentes positions en présence, en soulignant autant que possible leurs divergences, mais en montrant aussi les variations et inflexions qui ont marqué leur développement durant la période 1870-1930. (shrink)

Drawing on his investigation of over one hundred mid-Victorian British newspapers and periodicals, Alvar Ellegård describes and analyzes the impact of Darwin's theory of evolution during the first dozen years after the publication of the Origin of Species . Although Darwin's book caused an immediate stir in literary and scientific periodicals, the popular press largely ignored it. Only after the work's implications for theology and the nature of man became evident did general publications feel compelled to react; each social group (...) responded according to his own political and religious prejudices. Ellegård charts the impact of this revolution in science, maintaining that although the idea of evolution was generally accepted, Darwin's primary contribution, the theory of natural selection, was either ignored or rejected among the public. (shrink)

Erudite and timely, this book is a key contribution to the renewal of radical theory and politics.

Jurisprudence is the prudence of jus, law's consciousness and conscience. Throughout history, when thinkers wanted to contemplate the organisation of society or the relationship between authority and the subject, they turned to law. All great philosophers, from Plato to Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, Marx and Weber had either studied the law or had a deep understanding of legal operations. But jurisprudence is also the conscience of law, the exploration of law's justice and of an ideal law or equity at the bar (...) of which state law is always judged. Jurisprudence brings together 'is' and 'ought', the positive and the normative, law and justice. But after a long process of decay, legal theory is today characterised by cognitive and moral poverty. Jurisprudence has become restricted and academically peripheral, a guidebook to technocratic legalism and a legitimation of the existent. Critical jurisprudence returns to the classical tradition of a general philosophy of law and adopts a much wider concept of legality. It is concerned both with posited law and with the law of the law. All legal aspects of the economic, political, emotional and physical modes of production and reproduction of society are part of critical jurisprudence. This widening of scope allows a radical rethinking of the nature of rights, justice, sovereignty and judgement. A political philosophy of justice today must examine the political economy of law; transitions from Empire to nation; ideological and imaginary constructions through which we understand ourselves and relate to others; ways in which gender, race or sexuality create forms of identity that both discipline bodies and offer sites of resistance. Law's complicity with political oppression, violence and racism has to be faced before it is possible to speak of a new beginning for legal thought, which in turn is the necessary precondition for a theory of justice. Critical Jurisprudence offers an ethics of law against the nihilism of power and an aesthetics of existence for the melancholic lawyer. (shrink)

The concept of fitness, central to population genetics and to the synthetic theory of evolution, is discussed. After a historical introduction on the origin of this concept, the current meaning of it in population genetics is examined: a cause of the selective process and its quantification. Several difficulties arise for its exact definition. Three adequacy criteria for such a definition are formulated. It is shown that it is impossible to formulate an adequate definition of fitness respecting these criteria. The propensity (...) definition of fitness is presented and rejected. Finally it is argued that fitness is a conceptual device, a useful tool, only for descriptive purposes of selective processes, changing from case to case, and thus devoid of any substantial physical counterpart. Any attempt to its reification is an apport to the metaphysical load evolutionary theory has inherited from Natural Theology. (shrink)

German classicist's monumental study of the origins of European thought in Greek literature and philosophy.