This paper develops a critic on International Human Rights departing from the criticism directed to utopian discourses of political organization of society, as both of them share an evolutionist and ethnocentric foundation, namely, the universal and unconditionally valid reason. The idea is to undertake a serious criticism on reason, always potentially dystopian, in order to unravel the colonialist ethos and the civilizing character of current Public International Law leading discourse of Human Rights.

This paper develops a critic on International Human Rights departing from the criticism directed to utopian discourses of political organization of society, as both of them share an evolutionist and ethnocentric foundation, namely, the universal and unconditionally valid reason. The idea is to undertake a serious criticism on reason, always potentially dystopian, in order to unravel the colonialist ethos and the civilizing character of current Public International Law leading discourse of Human Rights.

A partir da análise do fundamento do Político proposto em algumas obras do Barão de HOLBACH, este artigo visa a examinar a possibilidade de o modo como o materialismo ateu do século XVIII compreende o fundamento da Lei e do Político pode apontar para uma organização social de caráter político ou teológico-político, conforme a chave de leitura fornecida por C. LEFORT. Após a exposição da diferença entre o Político e o Teológico-Político e da breve análise da concepção de Política Natural (...) do Barão de HOLBACH, é possível constatar a persistência do teológico-político também na concepção materialista do século XVIII. Essa condição deriva da singela substituição de Deus pela Natureza no exercício da função simbólica de preencher intemporalmente o lugar do Poder político. (shrink)

The persistent educational challenges that fractions pose call for developing novel instructional methods to better prepare students for fraction learning. Here, we examined the effects of a 24-session, Cuisenaire rod intervention on a building block for symbolic fraction knowledge, continuous and discrete non-symbolic proportional reasoning, in children who have yet to receive fraction instruction. Participants were 34 second-graders who attended the intervention (intervention group) and 15 children who did not participate in any sessions (control group). As attendance at the intervention (...) sessions was irregular (median = 15.6 sessions, range = 1–24), we specifically examined the effect of the number of sessions completed on their non-symbolic proportional reasoning. Our results showed that children who attended a larger number of sessions increased their ability to compare non-symbolic continuous proportions. However, contrary to our expectations, they also decreased their ability to compare misleading discretized proportions. In contrast, children in the Control group did not show any change in their performance. These results provide further evidence on the malleability of non-symbolic continuous proportional reasoning and highlight the rigidity of counting knowledge interference on discrete proportional reasoning. (shrink)

Embora influente na recepção de Heidegger nos Estados Unidos da América, o trabalho de Dreyfus foi repetidas vezes criticado por desenvolver uma leitura distorcida e seletiva da fenomenologia de Heidegger. Nesse artigo, mostramos que, independentemente de seus desenvolvimentos posteriores em ciência cognitiva, sua crítica inicial à IA simbólica se apoia em duas teses que podem ser localizadas em Ser e Tempo, a saber, de que nosso senso de situação é pragmático-holístico, e intrinsecamente relevante. Após uma introdução geral, reconstruímos, numa primeira (...) seção, em linhas gerais o projeto da IA simbólica e o tom geral da crítica de Dreyfus; numa segunda seção, reconstruímos a crítica de Dreyfus a SAM, de R. Schank; na terceira seção, indicamos como as duas teses podem ser localizadas em Ser e Tempo; concluímos apontando questões pendentes. (shrink)

This intervention concerns the different statute of abstraction in Marx's work. By means of a critical confrontation with Chris Arthur's work, Finelli presents his thesis of the presence of a double theory and fuction of abstraction in Marx's work. In the early Marx, until the German Ideology, abstraction is, in accordance with the traditional meaning of this term, a product of the mind, an unreal spectre. More exactly, it consists in negating the common essence belonging to labouring humanity and (...) projecting it, as alienated universal, into the idea of philosophy, into the state of politics and into the money of the market. In the later Marx, the nature of abstraction is, rather than mental, practical. It is directly related to the quantity without quality of capitalist labour, and it is the product of the systemic connection of machines to labour-power. In contrast to Arthur, Finelli maintains that practical abstraction in the Marx of Capital is not located in the zone of exchange and the market, where there is the mediation of money. On the contrary, it is located in the zone of production, which, for Marx, is a social ensemble not mediated by money but by relations of technological domination. (shrink)

A publicação de Signos (1897), de Nestor Victor, é um marco na expansão conceitual do Simbolismo no Brasil e nas reflexões acerca dos problemas da civilização no fim de século. Verifica-se nos seus contos a presença do heterodiscurso, sendo fundamental a voz de Arthur Schopenhauer, tendo como referência a sua obra Metafísica do Amor. Por outro lado, o narrador desenvolverá uma voz que se oporá ao maquinismo do amor, a essa determinação dos sentimentos pelo dever biológico. No universo de (...) Signos, levando-se em conta a grande verdade sobre a natureza, revelada pelo filósofo, os casais não mais se encontrarão, uma vez que a paixão se esgota no tédio por causa da violência do instinto. (shrink)

Following the publication of my book The New Dialectic and Marx's 'Capital', and the symposium on it in Historical Materialism 13.2, a critique by Roberto Finelli recently appeared: 'Abstraction versus Contradiction: Observations on Chris Arthur's The New Dialectic and Marx's “Capital”' in Historical Materialism 15.2. Finelli argues that my systematic dialectic is not taken sufficiently far, in that I retain presuppositions not posited by the capitalist totality. Here, I argue against Finelli's closed totality of wholly abstract forms, not (...) least because it affords no realistic exit strategy. I reaffirm that the logic of contradiction is required to conceptualise the capital relation. (shrink)

Tomás de Aquino ou Roberto Grossetestenão podiam prever a importância que aciência matematizada da natureza assumiria apartir do século XVII. Eles, no entanto, nãocontestam a possibilidade de um conhecimentoda natureza baseado em seus aspectos quantitativose não na essência das substâncias naturais.Eles reservam um lugar para este tipo de ciênciae o justificam. Quanto a Tomás, é preciso aindalembrar que, embora para ele o objeto próprioproporcionado de nosso intelecto seja a essênciadas coisas materiais, não conhecemos as diferençasespecíficas nem das substâncias materiaisnem (...) das espirituais. Donde termos de nos contentarcom descrições no que se refere às substânciasmateriais e só podermos conhecer asespirituais por causalidade, ultrapassamento eremoção. (shrink)

Twentieth-century developments in quantum physics, together with an emerging science of consciousness, have created the need for a new cosmology, or model of the universe. The theory of process contained in THE REFLEXIVE UNIVERSE places consciousness within the context of contemporary science. One of the central themes of this extraordinary work is that each successive organization of matter, from fundamental particles in physics to living organisms, expresses a particular stage in the evolution of mind. Starting with the photon, the basic (...) unit of light, and moving through atomic physics, molecular chemistry, the morphology of plants and animals and finally to levels of human evolution, Young develops his theory in vivid step-by-step detail. Consciousness, in his point of view, is not isolated from the material universe. It exists in a continuum, one in which physical and nonphysical realms can be linked and the teachings of mythology and religion can be integrated. To order: FAX: 415-883-9280; e-mail: [email protected]; or write: Anodos Foundation, c/o Publishers Services, P.O. Box 2510, Novato, CA 94948. Visa and MasterCard only. Trade STOP orders 40% plus postage. (shrink)

Husserl proceeds to show how a world-representation emerges from our world-experience, and how an idea of the world plays a role in the expansion of world-representations. He also draws our attention to the appropriation of other world-representations in a process of adjustment and compensation leading to intersubjective world-representations, and offers an analysis of the status of world-representations within transcendental phenomenology. In this article I will underline the relevance of Husserl’s concept of horizonedness to the characterization of the three levels of (...) world-experience, worldrepresentation, and the world as an idea. In getting clear on this relevance several points must be emphasized. (shrink)

According to a leading view, emotions such as admiration, contempt, pride, and shame are important vehicles of agential development. Through admiration and contempt, we establish models and countermodels against which to shape our character; through pride and shame, we get a sense of how we measure up to them. Critics of this view object that these emotions always deliver uncompromising evaluations: admiration casts people in a completely positive light, while contempt casts aspersion on them. Therefore, insofar as they lack the (...) capacity for nuance, these emotions are systematically unfitting and misleading. This paper discusses this objection as originally formulated by John Doris as well as Macalester Bell’s response. Drawing from research on emotional intentionality, it will be argued that Doris’ and Bell’s accounts are respectively misguided criticisms and inadequate defences of these emotions. Their mistake lies in an invalid transition from the claim that these emotions are intentionally directed towards persons to the claim that they deliver global evaluations of those towards whom they are directed. By rejecting this inference, it will be shown that these emotions can deliver nuanced and fitting evaluations in a way Doris’ objection overlooks and Bell’s response precludes us from articulating. (shrink)

Este trabajo se plantea tres cuestiones dirigidas a mejorar las propuestas sobre la gobernanza y regulación de la biología sintética. En primer lugar, se refieren algunos de los hitos científicos que han jalonado su desarrollo y el modo en que han influido en los debates ciudadanos sobre ella. En segundo lugar, se trata del marco jurídico internacional, con el fin de indagar en los principios sobre los que se sustenta y debería sustentarse. Por último, se revisan críticamente los informes acerca (...) de los aspectos éticos y sociales de la BIOSIN, publicados por organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales en los últimos diez años. (shrink)

That emotions are especially valuable for our well-being has become a widely agreed upon claim. In this article, we argue that many of the ways in which the emotions are commonly considered to be prudentially valuable – hedonically, experientially, and adaptively – are not specific to the emotions: they are in fact shared by other affective reactions such as drives and sensory affects. This may suggest that emotions are not prudentially valuable in any distinctive manner. We challenge this suggestion by (...) arguing that, unlike other affective reactions, emotions provide unique contexts in which to refine our general sensibility to a wide variety of evaluative properties – and that in this sense they are prudentially valuable in a distinctive way. (shrink)

Roberto Esposito is one of the most prolific and important exponents of contemporary Italian political theory.

La fenomenología muestra desde su comienzo mismo una tendencia teológica. Mientras que Husserl desarrolló una teología filosófica vinculada a la teleología infinita de la comunidad trascendental, Scheler elaboró un saber de salvación como participación en el ens a se. A su vez, Heidegger se refirió al último Dios como el comienzo de las inconmensurables posibilidades de nuestra historia. Sobre este trasfondo, que realza la excedencia de posibilidades, el giro teológico en la fenomenología reciente puede ser entendido como un intento de (...) centrar la demasía en reinos particulares como la intersubjetividad, la interioridad y el mundo, o bien en la condición de los fenómenos refiriéndolos a una lógica de la sobreabundancia o a una máxima saturación. (shrink)

As the worlds of economics, politics, culture, and communications face a growing wave of globalization that will likely continue, ethical challenges for journalists have also gone global. I propose a clear division between ethics codes for media owners, the public, and professional journalists and present a set of considerations and specific rules applicable only to the last group. In this article I advocate a universal code of journalistic ethics but point out problems and warn against dangers that have made the (...) application of such codes difficult in the past. A universal code should consider the voluntary nature of such an endeavor, the cultural and economic differences in various journalistic traditions, and the problem of producing solutions acceptable to all involved. (shrink)

This book by Roberto Esposito - a leading Italian political philosopher - is a highly original exploration of the relationship between human bodies and societies. The original function of law, even before it was codified, was to preserve peaceful cohabitation between people who were exposed to the risk of destructive conflict. Just as the human body's immune system protects the organism from deadly incursions by viruses and other threats, law also ensures the survival of the community in a life-threatening (...) situation. It protects and prolongs life. But the function of law as a form of immunization points to a more disturbing consideration. Like the individual body, the collective body can be immunized from the perceived danger only by allowing a little of what threatens it to enter its protective boundaries. This means that in order to escape the clutches of death, life is forced to incorporate within itself the lethal principle. Starting from this reflection on the nature of immunization, Esposito offers a wide-ranging analysis of contemporary biopolitics. Never more than at present has the demand for immunization come to characterize all aspects of our existence. The more we feel at risk of being infiltrated and infected by foreign elements, the more the life of the individual and society closes off within its protective boundaries, forcing us to choose between a self-destructive outcome and a more radical alternative based on a new conception of community. (shrink)

Se intentan poner de manifiesto isomorfismos estructurales en las teorías de Heidegger y Husserl sobre tiempo e historia. En relación con Ser y tiempo, la atención está puesta en la tesis compartida de que la historiografía está arraigada en la historicidad y esta en la temporeidad. Con referencia al curso de 1934 se pone de relieve la convergencia heideggeriana de misión, encargo y trabajo, que remiten al futuro, al pasado y al presente. Se muestran nociones equivalentes en los niveles que (...) Husserl distingue en la historia: protohistoria, historia efectiva e historia racional. Finalmente, en lo que atañe al viraje, se trazan paralelos entre el Ereignis y el presente viviente como instancias últimas de una indagación restrospectiva, entre la temporeidad del Dasein y al tiempo inmanente como resonancias de una dimensión profunda, y en torno de una conexión mutua en el análisis de la historia en términos de desviación, reposición, incorporación y superación, esto es, los momentos que componen la noción de Gewind. (shrink)

Reasons-first theorists claim that facts about reasons for attitudes are normatively primitive, and that all other normative facts ultimately reduce to facts about reasons. According to their view, for example, the fact that something is good ultimately reduces to facts about reasons to favour it. I argue that these theories face a challenging dilemma due to the normativity of arational lifeforms, for instance the fact that water is good for plants. If all normative facts are, ultimately, facts about reasons for (...) attitudes, then reasons-first theorists must either (a) show that these facts do reduce to facts about reasons, or (b) concede that they do not and, instead, show that this is not a problem for their view. Both options, however, are riddled with difficulties—or so I will try to argue. (shrink)

Arthur Waley's brilliant and definitive translation of one of the foremost of all mystical books, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, has become a modern classic in its own right. Unlike previous translations, it is founded not on the medieval commentaries but on a close study of all the early Chinese literature, and it provides a singular example of authoritative scholarship skillfully blended with brilliant, precise writing. In his introduction, Dr. Waley gives an extensive scholarly account of Chinese thought down (...) to the end of the third century B.C. Here, the author presents a full picture of Chinese prehistory, early philosophy, and literature, showing the original, lofty conception of Taoism before the gradual corruption through the course of centuries, tracing this conflict of philosophies and its background of politics. (shrink)

Introduction : nothing in common -- Fear -- Guilt -- Law -- Ecstasy -- Experience -- Appendix : nihilism and community.

. . . The book is enhanced by the polished and lucid style of Mr. Waley's translations.

Vivimos en una sociedad en la que lo digital lo ha invadido todo. Han se ha ocupado de analizar este cambio desde la perspectiva antropológica y social, con una posición radicalmente crítica. Para Han el medio digital es un medio que nos re-programa. El cambio principal consiste en que desaparece lo que Han llama la “negatividad”. La negatividad aparece como aquello que no es positivo, que no es puesto (positum) por el individuo, sino que le viene dado y se percibe (...) inicialmente como límite. Esa negatividad de lo dado tiene múltiples manifestaciones: es lo no-inmediato, lo extraño, lo otro, lo que produce pesar y resistencia. Esta transformación hacia la transparencia “es una coacción sistémica que se apodera de todos los sucesos sociales y los somete a un profundo cambio”. Esto afecta incluso al hombre mismo, que es convertido también en un elemento funcional del sistema. Han analiza esa coacción violenta de la transparencia digital, y su omnipresencia, desde distintos enfoques a lo largo de sus libros. De ellos hemos seleccionado cinco: las relaciones personales (respeto y confianza), las relaciones comerciales (el mercado), las relaciones políticas y las relaciones con la realidad, mediadas por nuestro entendimiento del espacio y el tiempo. (shrink)

In the industrial context, steel is a broadly-used raw material with applications in many different fields. Due to its high impact in the activity of many industries all over the world, forecasting its price is of utmost importance for a huge amount of companies. In this work, non-linear neural models are applied for the first time to different datasets in order to validate their suitability when predicting the price of this commodity. In particular, the NAR, NIO and NARX neural network (...) models are innovatively applied for the first time to forecast the price of hot rolled steel in Spain. Besides these variety of models, different datasets consisting of a set of heterogenous variables from the last seven years and related to the price of this commodity are benchmarked and analyzed. The results showed that NARX is the best performing model when the price of raw materials used to produce steel and the stock market prices of three major global steel producing companies are employed as input to this predictive model. Consequently, this result may boost the application of Machine Learning in companies, in order to schedule the supplying operations according to the price forecasting. (shrink)

Forest resources are important economic assets to Mississippi. Therefore, the forestry community needs to maintain viable relationships with key constituency groups such as teachers. The study’s objectives were to use focus groups and mail questionnaires to determine values, attitudes, and educational needs of Mississippi’s public school teachers toward forestry and forest industry. Most teachers had positive or somewhat positive attitudes (70%) toward forest industry. No significant differences were found between prekindergarten through 3rd- and 4th- through 8th-grade teachers (t =0.308, p (...) =0.758), prekindergarten through 3rd- and 9th- through 12th-grade teachers (t = –0.667, p = 0.506), or 4th- through 8th- and 9th-through 12th-grade teachers (t = 0.246, p = 0.806). Preferred communication methods for teachers in general were school visits, educational materials, and partnerships. Preferred topics of interest were the environment, wildlife habitat, and wildlife. This study stresses the importance of tailoring communication and educational activities to address state-specific social and cultural needs of teachers. (shrink)

Uncertainty about the acceptability of the forest industry and its practices to the citizens of Mississippi provided the impetus for a study of the attitudes and perceptions of eight constituency groups toward the forest industry in the state. This study examines attitudes and perceptions of two of those groups, loggers and two environmentalists/conservationists, and finds similarities and differences. Survey data analysis finds that all groups hold similar perceptions of themes defining the forest industry and forest industry occupations but differ concerning (...) activities the industry does or does not perform well and environmental problems associated with the forest industry. Mississippi Loggers Association members hold more positive attitudes/perceptions, similar to those of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation. Attitudes/perceptions of Mississippi 2020, a small grassroots organization, differ from Mississippi Loggers Association members in all instances and from Mississippi Wildlife Federation members on some issues. (shrink)

Existen dos grandes visiones acerca del contenido del derecho humano al ambiente: una tiene un carácter más político y aspira a la transformación social y otra es pragmática y atiende más a los aspectos técnico-jurídicos. El artículo trata de perfilar cuál sería el contenido del derecho al ambiente desde cada una de estas visiones, para concluir que ambas posiciones no son disyuntivas sino complementarias, necesitando cada una de la otra. En la primera parte se trata del derecho humano al medio (...) ambiente en los textos legales, principalmente en la Constitución española. Este derecho está integrado por tres aspectos: la información, la participación y la educación. El derecho al medio ambiente como objetivo político es estudiado en la segunda parte del artículo, subrayando los diferentes perfiles del mismo en los países desarrollados y en los países en vías de desarrollo. (shrink)

Los Anales de la Cátedra Francisco Suárez se han ganado a pulso, a lo largo de los años, sobre todo gracias a la tenacidad de Nicolás López Calera y al equipo formado en torno a él en la Facultad de Derecho de Granada, el mérito de ser la principal referencia bibliográfica de la Filosofía del Derecho en España junto al Anuario de Filosofía del Derecho en la etapa en que J. J. Gil Cremades fue su director. Otras revistas se han (...) ocupado menos del filosofar jurídico que, fundamentalmente, de lo que podríamos llamar problemas de teoría general y de interpretación del derecho. Y ahora, por la amistosa pero tenaz compulsión de M. Saavedra, me veo en la obligación de contribuir a esta entrega de una revista prestigiosa, con no poca vergüenza, con la descripción de mi más que modesta aportación a la reflexión jurídico-política en los últimos casi cincuenta años. Las páginas que siguen expresarán pues una autopercepción, que sin duda deberá ser corregida por el lector. No obstante, trataré de introducir datos que puedan rectificar lo que me parecen errores de algunas publicaciones sobre la filosofía del derecho española en general y sobre mi propio trabajo en particular. (shrink)