O autor faz uma breve introdução à Filosofia, essa importante fonte de compreensão do mundo. Num primeiro momento é feita uma breve lembrança da Idade Média, centrada em Deus, para passar em seguida à revolução copernicana no campo do conhecimento humano. O homem passa a ser o centro de explicação do mundo. O eu individual, de caráter racional, ganha grandes proporções em René Descartes, enquanto o mesmo eu é enfocado como o eu que experimenta em Bacon, Galileu, Hobbes, Locke, etc. (...) A nova visão do mundo, da sociedade e do homem é justificada. As relações sociais têm novos fundamentos, o Estado Moderno ganha corpo e se diviniza. [...] Palavras-chave: Deus; Eu individual; Estado moderno; Filósofos; Idade média; Ocidente. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende apresentar uma discussão sobre a possibilidade de identificarmos as possíveis contribuições das viagens de descobrimento, enfatizando as navegações portuguesas, para a construção do pensamento científico moderno. Por um lado, é analisado o valor da experiência direta valorizada pelos portugueses como critério de certeza acerca das afirmações sobre o mundo geográfico que acabaram por colocar em questão a concepção de mundo difundida a partir dos clássicos antigos – os gregos – e, por outro lado, é apresentado uma concepção (...) de ciência moderna que comporta as contribuições dos chamados homens práticos, como os navegadores, cuja atividade marítima promove um debate, no campo da geografia e cartografia sobre a própria constituição do mundo, sem, contudo, romper definitivamente com a tradição cosmológica. A nossa análise é realizada por meio de uma discussão crítica com a historiografia existente. (shrink)

Com o desenvolvimento robusto da física, as fronteiras das interpretações dos fenômenos naturais foram empurradas até limites antes bem delimitados. O professor dr. Eduardo Simões explora como as intepretações da ciência física, de uma forma geral, e da mecânica quântica, em especial, está suportada sobre uma metafísica que pressupõe a criação da realidade a partir da própria teoria elaborada inicialmente para explicá-la. Abordando desde os primórdios da física, ainda na filosofia natural atomista grega, até a física moderna, Simões demonstra que (...) o pensamento metafísico sempre esteve subjacente ao pensamento físico ora enfrentado oposição, ora recebendo apoio entre diversos pensadores. O rico levantamento feito pelo autor permite uma visão abrangente das mudanças históricas na física, com destaque para as ideias atomistas gregas que permeia todo o desenvolvimento da física, chegando à atualidade com os desafios próprios a cultura popular de incorporar uma mística quântica alicerçada em um pensamento que cruza a fronteira turva entre a teoria científica quântica e o mundo cotidiano. (shrink)

Book reviews: VAUCHEZ, André. Francisco de Assis, Entre História e Memória. Tradução de José David Antunes e Noémia Lopes. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget, 2013. 431 p.

Lara Buchak sets out a new account of rational decision-making in the face of risk. She argues that the orthodox view is too narrow, and suggests an alternative, more permissive theory: one that allows individuals to pay attention to the worst-case or best-case scenario, and vindicates the ordinary decision-maker.

Starting from the hunting treatise Cynegeticus, assigned to Xenophon, this article seeks to reflect on the way in which the construction of the ideal hunter of the polis described by the Attic author. This aim will aboard both practical terms - equipment, prey, methods of hunting conducting etc - and moral terms, taking in account the numerous attacks made against the sophists throughout the booklet. To accomplish this aim, the present text includes a brief recapitulation of Xenophon's life, the most (...) important historiographical interpretations on the Cynegeticus and its dating, and, finally, the way in which the Attic author describes his ideal Greek hunter. (shrink)

This paper deals with the transnationalism of racial anthropological frameworks and its role in the understanding of human difference during India’s decolonization and nation-building. With attention to the circulation of scientific objects, I focus on the practices and articulations of Irawati Karve, an Indian anthropologist with a transnational scientific trajectory and nationalistic political engagements. I argue that Karve’s adaptation of an internationally validated German racial approach to study caste, ethnic and religious groups contributed to the further racialization of these categories (...) as well as to the racialization of nationalistic projects in Maharashtra and India. I conclude with a reflection on the transnationalization of the coloniality of racialization. (shrink)

There are currently two robust traditions in philosophy dealing with doxastic attitudes: the tradition that is concerned primarily with all-or-nothing belief, and the tradition that is concerned primarily with degree of belief or credence. This paper concerns the relationship between belief and credence for a rational agent, and is directed at those who may have hoped that the notion of belief can either be reduced to credence or eliminated altogether when characterizing the norms governing ideally rational agents. It presents a (...) puzzle which lends support to two theses. First, that there is no formal reduction of a rational agent’s beliefs to her credences, because belief and credence are each responsive to different features of a body of evidence. Second, that if our traditional understanding of our practices of holding each other responsible is correct, then belief has a distinctive role to play, even for ideally rational agents, that cannot be played by credence. The question of which avenues remain for the credence-only theorist is considered. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por finalidade demonstrar que, apesar de não estar expresso no rol das cláusulas pétreas, o macroprincípio da fraternidade jurídica não é passível de ser suprimido do texto constitucional. Ainda que não esteja presente expressamente na parte dogmática da Constituição Federal de 1988, a fraternidade se apresenta de forma implícita em diversos dispositivos normativos fundamentais e expressamente no preâmbulo, trecho inaugural da Lei Fundamental. Desse modo, a pesquisa que ora se apresenta parte do seguinte questionamento: O princípio (...) jurídico da fraternidade pode ser considerado uma cláusula pétrea constitucional? Decisões judiciais recentes e estudos doutrinários contemporâneos no campo das ciências jurídicas evidenciam que, além de estar presente na parte introdutória da Constituição brasileira, também se encontra consubstanciada em diversos dispositivos fundamentais do corpo normativo constitucional. Pretende-se aqui identificar como o princípio da fraternidade jurídica se entrelaça com outros princípios fundamentais presentes no texto dogmático da Constituição da República. A metodologia aplicada a esta pesquisa é qualitativa e bibliográfica ao buscar fontes na doutrina jurídica relacionadas com a fraternidade e os direitos humanos fundamentais. (shrink)

O objetivo da pesquisa é demonstrar a importância da fraternidade na democracia brasileira, caracterizada como representativa, ao menos em tese, visto que a vontade do povo não tem sido considera nas decisões que promovem mudanças legislativas substanciais. Diante disto surge a indagação central do presente estudo: Qual a contribuição da categoria da fraternidade em uma democracia? A metodologia aplicada a pesquisa é qualitativa e bibliográfica ao buscar fontes na doutrina jurídica relacionada com o tema e também quantitativa ao trazer dados (...) como forma de argumentação. Justifica-se o estudo pela relevância da fraternidade na construção da democracia no Brasil. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta duas teses sobre as vantagens do uso de obras de arte para o ensino de Filosofia no Ensino Médio: a primeira é a de que obras de arte podem servir de introdução ao filosofar na escola - indo além das questões estéticas e chegando a interrogações da filosofia política, metafísica, moral e epistemológica. Num primeiro momento, apresenta-se exemplos de obras e casos ricos para esse intuito. Num segundo momento, parte desses particulares para uma compreensão mais ampla, explicando, (...) a partir das teses de Arthur Danto, Ronald Moore e Ronai Rocha, o valor didático e filosófico daquelas no Ensino Médio. Ainda quanto à primeira tese, sustenta-se que a arte também serve ao exercício de uma das principais competências filosóficas: a argumentação. A segunda tese é a de que as artes podem servir de ponto de partida para uma proposta curricular interdisciplinar: no presente caso, entre a Filosofia e as demais disciplinas escolares. Apresenta-se possíveis cruzamentos conceituais e temáticos entre as disciplinas em questão, fornecidos por obras de arte e outros fenômenos estéticos. Nossa conclusão é a de que abordar a arte no Ensino Médio, sob o ponto de vista filosófico, é uma oportunidade didática e cognitiva que não deve ser menosprezada. (shrink)

Em trabalhos anteriores, analisamos as formas pelas quais a sociologia vem sendo cobrada nos vestibulares de algumas universidades em diferentes regiões brasileiras e no ENEM. Além do entendimento de que formas são essas, uma das conclusões a que chegamos foi a de que, no ENEM, dificilmente há o acionamento de conhecimento sociológico prévio para a resolução da prova. Entendemos que, por mais que a cobrança na redação e de modo interdisciplinar traga algum reconhecimento ao saber sociológico, a construção de questões (...) que possam ir além da interpretação de texto é fundamental para a consolidação da sociologia no exame. Sendo assim, como continuidade de nossa reflexão, objetivamos, no presente trabalho, discutir, afinal, o que é esse conhecimento prévio, que pode ser entendido como conceitos, temas e teorias sociológicos. Mas quais são eles e como são cobrados na prática? Como sabemos, não há uma definição nacional dos conteúdos da sociologia, mas algumas propostas estaduais. Analisaremos quais são, segundo os editais das universidades, as matérias de sociologia presentes em alguns vestibulares, se é possível chegar a um mapa comum e se esse mapa é compatível ou não com os currículos mínimos estaduais. Para isso, analisaremos editais dos vestibulares em que a sociologia está presente e do ENEM. (shrink)

Many people think that the capacity for criticism and reflection, as well as the attitude of welcoming contingency, the other, and debate, is some internal and well-intentioned energy of open-minded people, as advocated by liberals, whether from the right or the left. What they don’t realize is how much the capacity for reflection and dialogue is an external phenomenon, present in the world itself, produced only thanks to a space of resistances, encounters, and even frustrations, as in the academic and (...) scientific sphere. It prevents my cogito and my precious epistemic schemes from getting out of control, in a dangerous transcendentalist delirium, and taking over the world and the circumstances themselves. The aim of this essay is precisely to understand this aesthetic dimension of science, this ontological feature that crosses its contours, taking as a starting point the concepts of “importance” in Whitehead and “matters of concern” in Bruno Latour. (shrink)

This brief essay unpretentiously seeks to highlight the relevance of some of the central questions in Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, thus aiming to contribute to broadening the scope of the French philosopher's ideas. Without fearing controversy, it presents the correlation between the concept of freedom and the responsibility necessarily implied. Such concepts remind us that this work is current, for it demands to assume its political and ethical unfoldings as unavoidable demands. The debate is built, then, through Sartre's encounters (...) with his peers, highlighting the interlocutions and controversial divergences that mark his itinerary. Finally, the timeliness of the work seems to reside in the historical failure of the humanist project, that is, Being and Nothingness continues to be current, because we are still incapable of promoting a historical situation in which the human being is free. (shrink)

Parte das concepções pseudocientíficas propagadas pela comunidade científica em seus principais periódicos, especialmente no início do século XX, tomaram alcance com os conceitos de Eugenia e Darwinismo Social, em que o cerne das discussões considerava as distinções de raça enquanto fenômeno biológico. O presente ensaio expõe a contribuição nefasta promovida pela renomada revista Nature, que, há até pouco tempo, indiretamente acabou por reforçar crenças e culturas racistas, como o apartheid, a colonização, o trabalho forçado e a escravidão, deixando uma marca (...) indelével em sua trajetória histórica. As discussões sobre a inferioridade de raças, povos e indivíduos não somente fomentaram o negacionismo, uma vez que careciam de evidências, de consenso e de ceticismo científico adequados, como foram utilizadas como uma camada de verniz científico para legitimar projetos colonialistas e expandir os interesses do grande capital à época. Esse texto assinala ainda que as estratégias adotadas pelo capitalismo para alcançar seu patamar atual de forma hegemônica de sociabilidade somente tiveram êxito devido à apropriação do conhecimento científico que forneceu os aperfeiçoamentos tecnológicos para a conquista de novas terras e povos e, por fim, o acúmulo de capitais. Em conclusão, destacam-se autores que defendem uma perspectiva do negacionismo atual enquanto fenômeno social, o qual mais se liga às consequências da negação do fato do que propriamente ao fato em si. Essa perspectiva amplia o debate em torno do negacionismo para além das ideias difundidas nas mídias sociais, situando-o numa dimensão em que é necessário discutir o impacto das mudanças propostas pela ciência na hegemonia de determinados setores e de países dominantes da economia global. (shrink)

This paper provides an account of what it is to have faith in a proposition p, in both religious and mundane contexts. It is argued that faith in p doesn’t require adopting a degree of belief that isn’t supported by one’s evidence but rather it requires terminating one’s search for further evidence and acting on the supposition that p. It is then shown, by responding to a formal result due to I.J. Good, that doing so can be rational in a (...) number of circumstances. If expected utility theory is the correct account of practical rationality, then having faith can be both epistemically and practically rational if the costs associated with gathering further evidence or postponing the decision are high. If a more permissive framework is adopted, then having faith can be rational even when there are no costs associated with gathering further evidence. (shrink)

In the peer disagreement debate, three intuitively attractive claims seem to conflict: there is disagreement among peers on many important matters; peer disagreement is a serious challenge to one’s own opinion; and yet one should be able to maintain one’s opinion on important matters. I show that contrary to initial appearances, we can accept all three of these claims. Disagreement significantly shifts the balance of the evidence; but with respect to certain kinds of claims, one should nonetheless retain one’s beliefs. (...) And one should retain them even though these beliefs would not be supported by the new total evidence if one didn’t already hold them. (shrink)

Many view cancellation as a method for holding influential personalities accountable for bad behavior, while others think cancelling amounts to censorship and bullying. I hold that neither of these accounts are worth pursuing, especially if the aim is social progress. In this paper, I offer a situated account of cancellation and cancel culture, locating the phenomenon in our exclusionary history while examining the social dynamics of belief. When we situate cancel culture, we can see how problematic instances of cancelling are (...) embedded in ignorance. While combatting ignorance appears to call for a remedy rooted in feminist standpoint epistemology, there are risks in adopting naive practices of deference. Applying criticisms of epistemic injustice and adopting Táíwò’s elite capture framework, I explain how well-intentioned cancelling can work against social movements. Since epistemic trust mechanisms discourage self-reflection and belief revision, the relevant tactics for enacting social change—coalition politics and education—seem out of reach. I conclude by sketching cancel culture as a diagnostic tool: cancellation can be used appropriately in marginalized communities, but when it comes to combatting ignorance among privileged folks, we should view cancel culture as a method for determining where our social institutions are failing us. (shrink)

Individual differences in convergent and divergent thinking may uniquely explain variation in analogical reasoning ability. Across two studies we investigated the relative influences of divergent and convergent thinking as predictors of verbal analogy performance. Performance on both convergent thinking and divergent thinking uniquely predicted performance on both analogy selection and analogical generation tasks. Moreover, convergent and divergent thinking were predictive above and beyond creative behaviours in Study 1 and a composite measure of crystallised intelligence in Study 2. Verbal analogies in (...) Study 2 also varied in semantic distance, with results demonstrating divergent thinking as a stronger predictor of analogy generation for semantically far than for semantically near analogies. Results thus further illuminate the link between analogical reasoning and creative cognition by demonstrating convergent and di.. (shrink)

The article is a summary of the paper presented at the VI Congress of Theology in St. Paul with the theme "Times urban: the challenges of ministry in the big city." The text deals with the relationship between modernity and postmodernity, revealing the challenges which are imposed on faith and reason in contemporary urban space. The ideological challenges based on the fundamental characteristics of this moment in history touching human relationships and pastoral practice because they relate primarily to the truth, (...) values, ethics and life. This complexity also reverberates in the recent speeches of the Magisterial of the Church showing the concern and attention to the whole man who is facing these provocations. (shrink)

Resenha do Livro "O ofício do filósofo estóico", de Rachel Gazolla.

The ‘rollback argument,’ pioneered by Peter van Inwagen, purports to show that indeterminism in any form is incompatible with free will. The argument has two major premises: the first claims that certain facts about chances obtain in a certain kind of hypothetical situation, and the second that these facts entail that some actual act is not free. Since the publication of the rollback argument, the second claim has been vehemently debated, but everyone seems to have taken the first claim for (...) granted. Nevertheless, the first claim is totally unjustified. Even if we accept the second claim, therefore, the argument gives us no reason to think that free will and indeterminism are incompatible. Furthermore, seeing where the rollback argument goes wrong illuminates how a certain kind of incompatibilist, the ‘chance-incompatibilist,’ ought to think about free will and chance, and points to a possibility for free will that has remained largely unexplored. (shrink)

One phenomenon arising in epistemic life is allegiance to, and break from, a tradition. This phenomenon has three central features. First, individuals who adhere to a tradition seem to respond dogmatically to evidence against their tradition. Second, individuals from different traditions appear to see the same evidence differently. And third, conversion from one tradition to another appears to be different in kind from ordinary belief shift. This paper uses recent work on the nature and rationality of faith to show that (...) these features can all emerge from individuals acting rationally—in particular, from individuals rationally having faith in the core assumptions of their traditions. One upshot is that we don't need to employ the idea of incommensurability to explain these features. (shrink)

It is sometimes said that faith is recalcitrant in the face of new evidence, but it is puzzling how such recalcitrance could be rational or laudable. I explain this aspect of faith and why faith is not only rational, but in addition serves an important purpose in human life. Because faith requires maintaining a commitment to act on the claim one has faith in, even in the face of counter-evidence, faith allows us to carry out long-term, risky projects that we (...) might otherwise abandon. Thus, faith allows us to maintain integrity over time. (shrink)

It is essential to engage the public in conservation measures to conserve insects. We investigate the Protection Motivation Theory, as well as knowledge, attitudes, and sociodemographic variables as predictors of willingness to donate and actual donations to insect conservation for a representative German sample. The PMT subcomponents severity, self-efficacy, and response efficacy, as well as attitudes toward insects, income, and education level, significantly predicted WTD. In contrast, severity, response barriers, age, gender, and the WTD significantly influenced actual donations. Overall, components (...) of the PMT have high predictive power for both dependent variables. Our results suggest that an intention-behavior gap exists between the intention to donate and the actual donation toward insect conservation. Measures to increase WTD and actual donations for insect conservation are discussed. (shrink)

Este artigo apresentará a noção de “individual” de acordo com a filosofia de Tomás de Aquino buscando identificar os problemas que envolvem esta noção. Primeiro, como uma introdução, observamos esta noção de modo geral em algumas teorias filosóficas, mas depois adentramos propriamente na filosofia de Tomás de Aquino. Apenas a individuação da substância corpórea será apresentada, pois Tomás tem uma teoria diferente para a substância incorpórea, tal como os anjos, Deus e as almas separadas. Assim, a teoria de Tomás afirma (...) que o princípio de individuação é a matéria assinalada, mas tal matéria assinalada é aquela que é considerada como tendo dimensões determinadas. Nossa principal preocupação será identificar o que significa a expressão “dimensões determinadas”. Usaremos uma explicação pouco habitual para esclarecer este problema. Uma vez que Tomás afirma que, no hilemorfismo, a matéria recebe o ser da forma, defenderemos que existe um conjunto de propriedades da matéria que recebe o ser a partir da forma. (shrink)

Na Idade Média, havia um problema conhecido como “Querela dos Universais”, com a discordância entre o realismo, conceitualismo e nominalismo sobre estatuto ontológico e epistemológico dos universais. Tomás de Aquino é um realista moderado porque admite que o universal tem um ser nos indivíduos, na realidade e fora da mente. Quando falamos de um “universal na realidade”, nós nos referimos a aquilo que é comum a mais de um indivíduo. Depois, os modos de ser do conceito universal do intelecto e (...) do aspecto comum na realidade precisarão ser distinguidos, pois temos que esclarecer que o universal no intelecto não é exatamente igual ao comum na realidade, embora o primeiro seja tomado deste último. Uma vez que o aspecto comum não existe por si, mas apenas nos indivíduos, faremos uma breve análise acerca da individuação também. (shrink)

Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 291-300, September 2022.

Faith is a central attitude in Christian religious practice. The problem of faith and reason is the problem of reconciling religious faith with the standards for our belief-forming practices in general (‘ordinary epistemic standards’). In order to see whether and when faith can be reconciled with ordinary epistemic standards, we first need to know what faith is. This chapter examines and catalogues views of propositional faith: faith that p. It is concerned with the epistemology of such faith: what cognitive attitudes (...) does such faith require, what epistemic norms govern these attitudes, and whether Christian faith can ever adhere to them. (shrink)

Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 291-300, September 2022.

ABSTRACT This article proposes to discuss the aesthetic and poetic praxis in the performance art Corda de Nó(s),1 based on theatrical and visual narratives directed towards intellectual emancipation and the expansion of the sensibility from the teaching experience within a municipal public school unit, in the city of Palmas (TO). This study focuses on a qualitative methodology of oral and exploratory narrative as well as the researchers’ field notebooks, prepared during the activities referred to in this text, in conjunction with (...) bibliographic studies, on the concepts of preparation, development and conclusion of the lesson plan of Arts discipline, based on universal education, as proposed by Jacques Rancière. (shrink)

In “Can it be rational to have faith?”, it was argued that to have faith in some proposition consists, roughly speaking, in stopping one’s search for evidence and committing to act on that proposition without further evidence. That paper also outlined when and why stopping the search for evidence and acting is rationally required. Because the framework of that paper was that of formal decision theory, it primarily considered the relationship between faith and degrees of belief, rather than between faith (...) and belief full stop. This paper explores the relationship between rational faith and justified belief, by considering four prominent proposals about the relationship between belief and degrees of belief, and by examining what follows about faith and belief according to each of these proposals. It is argued that we cannot reach consensus concerning the relationship between faith and belief at present because of the more general epistemological lack of consensus over how belief relates to rationality: in particular, over how belief relates to the degrees of belief it is rational to have given one’s evidence. (shrink)

Decision theory has at its core a set of mathematical theorems that connect rational preferences to functions with certain structural properties. The components of these theorems, as well as their bearing on questions surrounding rationality, can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Philosophy’s current interest in decision theory represents a convergence of two very different lines of thought, one concerned with the question of how one ought to act, and the other concerned with the question of what action consists (...) in and what it reveals about the actor’s mental states. As a result, the theory has come to have two different uses in philosophy, which we might call the normative use and the interpretive use. It also has a related use that is largely within the domain of psychology, the descriptive use. This essay examines the historical development of decision theory and its uses; the relationship between the norm of decision theory and the notion of rationality; and the interdependence of the uses of decision theory. (shrink)

This paper examines medical scientists’ accounts of their rediscoveries and reassessments of old materials. It looks at how historical patient files and brain samples of the first cases of Alzheimer’s disease became reused as scientific objects of inquiry in the 1990s, when a genetic neuropathologist from Munich and a psychiatrist from Frankfurt lead searches for left-overs of Alzheimer’s ‘founder cases’ from the 1900s. How and why did these researchers use historical methods, materials and narratives, and why did the biomedical community (...) cherish their findings as valuable scientific facts about Alzheimer’s disease? The paper approaches these questions by analysing how researchers conceptualised ‘history’ while backtracking and reassessing clinical and histological materials from the past. It elucidates six ways of conceptualising history as a biomedical matter: scientific assessments of the past, i.e. natural scientific understandings of ‘historical facts’; history in biomedicine, e.g. uses of old histological collections in present day brain banks; provenance research, e.g. applying historical methods to ensure the authenticity of brain samples; technical biomedical history, e.g. reproducing original staining techniques to identify how old histological slides were made; founding traditions, i.e. references to historical objects and persons within founding stories of scientific communities; and priority debates, e.g. evaluating the role particular persons played in the discovery of a disease such as Alzheimer’s. Against this background, the paper concludes with how the various ways of using and understanding ‘history’ were put forward to re-present historic cases as ‘proto-types’ for studying Alzheimer’s disease in the present. (shrink)

A partir da perspectiva intelectualista grega, na qual o dualismo entre corpo e alma requer o primado do discurso racional [lógos] em detrimento do páthos filosófico, busca-se com este artigo associar a noção de "desmedida" [hybris] com a noção de melancolia. Essa associação ganha ainda mais relevo, quando a aproximamos da interpretação de Simone Weil para o poema épico de Homero, a Ilíada. Se essa aproximação se justifica, então é patente a aproximação entre o caráter trágico que o destino adquire, (...) na perspectiva clássica, e a noção de contingência enquanto fundamento do absurdo existencial, no pensamento existencialista. We seek to associate the notion of "excess" [hubris] with the notion of melancholy from the intellectualist Greek perspective, in which the dualism between body and soul requires the rule of rational discourse [logos] at the expense of philosophical pathos. This association becomes more relevant when understood in light of Simone Weil's interpretation of Homer's epic poem, the Iliad. If this approach is justified, then a rapprochement becomes evident between the tragic character takes on destiny in the classical view, and the notion of contingency as the basis of existential absurdity in existentialist thought. (shrink)

The objective with this study is highlight the thesis of organic and dynamic continuity of the intellectual production of Jean-Paul Sartre from the conception of history and the ethical implications that flow from it. This work will look on the fictional production of philosopher, particularly his novels, for the purpose of evidencing such thesis.

This essay aims to explore the impact of Object-Oriented Ontology (O.O.O) within the realm of pedagogy, critically examining its departure from humanistic and traditional paradigms. Simultaneously, it presents an alternative perspective on education that decenters the human as an inevitable ground. In a contrasting move, attention is directed towards Bruno Latour and Graham Harman, elucidating key facets of their ideas. This shift also signifies a departure from the conventional realm of “critical pedagogy”, as championed by Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire. However, (...) it is crucial to acknowledge and appreciate the contributions and significance of Freire’s work. This essay adopts a left-wing stance, with no intention of launching moral attacks on Paulo Freire, as is sometimes witnessed when reactionaries and conservatives enter the academic arena. Criticisms within these pages focus on the content of Freire’s writings, tracing the trajectory from his seminal work, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, published in 1968, to his final piece, “Pedagogy of Autonomy” written in 1996. The aim is not to exhaust all arguments put forth by Freire but to engage with select ideas, since his oeuvre is extremely complex and full of different layers. It is essential to clarify that the critique presented here does not target the character of Paulo Freire but rather delves into some of the theoretical references behind the scenes, particularly the anthropocentrism associated with his ideas. Consequently, this essay emerges as an interdisciplinary endeavor, a conjunction between philosophy and social theory. What doors will this discussion open? What new field of possibilities awaits us? I invite you to dive into this debate, exploring the potential for an Object-Oriented Pedagogy (O.O.P) on the horizon. (shrink)

The good of those who are worse off matters more to the overall good than the good of those who are better off does. But being worse off than one’s fellows is not itself bad; nor is inequality itself bad; nor do differences in well-being matter more when well-being is lower in an absolute sense. Instead, the good of the relatively worse-off weighs more heavily in the overall good than the good of the relatively better-off does, in virtue of the (...) fact that the former are relatively worse off. This paper articulates and defends the view just described. (shrink)

This paper examines medical scientists’ accounts of their rediscoveries and reassessments of old materials. It looks at how historical patient files and brain samples of the first cases of Alzheimer’s disease became reused as scientific objects of inquiry in the 1990s, when a genetic neuropathologist from Munich and a psychiatrist from Frankfurt lead searches for left-overs of Alzheimer’s ‘founder cases’ from the 1900s. How and why did these researchers use historical methods, materials and narratives, and why did the biomedical community (...) cherish their findings as valuable scientific facts about Alzheimer’s disease? The paper approaches these questions by analysing how researchers conceptualised ‘history’ while backtracking and reassessing clinical and histological materials from the past. It elucidates six ways of conceptualising history as a biomedical matter: (1) scientific assessments of the past, i.e. natural scientific understandings of ‘historical facts’; (2) history in biomedicine, e.g. uses of old histological collections in present day brain banks; (3) provenance research, e.g. applying historical methods to ensure the authenticity of brain samples; (4) technical biomedical history, e.g. reproducing original staining techniques to identify how old histological slides were made; (5) founding traditions, i.e. references to historical objects and persons within founding stories of scientific communities; and (6) priority debates, e.g. evaluating the role particular persons played in the discovery of a disease such as Alzheimer’s. Against this background, the paper concludes with how the various ways of using and understanding ‘history’ were put forward to re-present historic cases as ‘proto-types’ for studying Alzheimer’s disease in the present. (shrink)

Advancements in technology are shifting the ways that biomedical data are collected, managed, and used. The pervasiveness of connected devices is expanding the types of information that are defined as ‘health data.’ Additionally, cloud-based mechanisms for data collection and distribution are shifting biomedical research away from traditional infrastructure towards a more distributed and interconnected ecosystem. This shift provides an opportunity for us to reimagine the roles of scientists and participants in health research, with the potential to more meaningfully engage in (...) partnership across the research process. At the same time, these emerging practices present a potential to expose research participants to unanticipated and unintended consequences. Social norms and policy can help to mitigate these risks, but their development is often slow relative to the pace of technological advances and, as such, they can become reactive rather than prospective. As an alternative, the integrated development of data governance structures within technological advancements, supports their effective implementation, evaluation and evolution in a manner that can balance the benefits and risks of biomedical researcher in a decentralized ecosystem. (shrink)