A Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) le habría parecido una ironía que el dato más relevante de su genealogía personal no se encontrara en el pasado sino en el futuro y que lord Acton (1834-1902) formara parte, aunque de la manera más remota imaginable, de su legado. Al margen de todas las instituciones de su época, salvo la constituida por el mundo de lectores en el naciente mercado editorial, _La historia de la declinación y caída del imperio romano_ (1776-1788) es una obra (...) acabada que lord Acton no lograría emular con su proyecto de una _Historia moderna_. (shrink)

Provisto de procedimientos que proceden de la filosofía y de la poesía, la filología y el psicoanálisis, la religión, el cine o la antropología, Antonio Lastra inscribe su "ecología de la cultura" en una vertiente político ...

Edward Gibbon escribió en un inglés universal —un inglés lógico, pero no idiomático, como observó Jacob Bernays—, que estaba llamado a convertirse en el latín de nuestros días. Sin embargo, ni el latín ni el inglés han suplido nunca del todo la necesidad de una auténtica lengua franca como la que la traducción puede proporcionar y, en muchos aspectos, _La historia de la declinación y caída del Imperio romano_ es una obra de traducción, una vasta traslación de la que probablemente (...) seamos más conscientes ahora de lo que podía serlo el mundo de lectores de Gibbon a finales del siglo XVIII, entre la Declaración de Independencia de los Estados Unidos en 1776 —cuando se publicó el primer volumen— y la decisión del Consejo de Estado de Francia de doblar el número de representantes del Tercer Estado y convocar los Estados Generales en 1788, el año de publicación de los tres últimos volúmenes. En el capítulo LXX, tal vez con un sentido menos retrospectivo que prospectivo, Gibbon describiría los concilios de Pisa y Constanza como si “constituyeran los estados generales de Europa”. (shrink)

Solo con el mayor de los escrúpulos podría señalarse una extraña omisión en el planteamiento del problema central de la relación de la filosofía con la historia, una omisión que se reflejaría en ‘History as a System’ (Historia como sistema) del filósofo español José Ortega y Gasset, un texto que se había publicado antes en alemán con el título ‘Die Lage der Wissenschaft und die historische Vernunft’ (El lugar de la ciencia y la razón histórica’) y que, al publicarse por (...) primera vez en la versión original, en 1941, formaría un libro junto con otro capítulo —evidentemente inacabado— dedicado al Imperio romano. En la relación de la historia como sistema con el Imperio romano, de dos “totalizaciones” —el término de Ortega en _España invertebrada_ para referirse a la agencia romana en la historia— o dos aspiraciones a la totalidad de la vida civilizada, la omisión de Edward Gibbon resulta aún más extraña. (shrink)

European scholars discuss Leo Strauss as a major figure in the history of philosophy. This volume presents, for the first time in English, the approaches to Leo Strauss being pursued by European scholars in Spain, Italy, and Germany. Whereas the traditions of Strauss interpretation have, until recently, focused on issues of interest to political science and, to a lesser extent, religious studies, this collection makes a powerful contribution to the recent philosophical consideration of Strauss. Each essay treats a unique thread (...) emerging from the tapestry of Straussian thought, illustrating Strauss’s thinking on the reading of ancient texts and on the relationship between philosophy and politics. In doing so, Strauss is placed squarely and uncompromisingly within the history of philosophy, in conversation with a large range of philosophical figures. “This is a really wonderful volume, a compelling narrative of Strauss as a reader of philosophical texts who both originated a new way of philosophical exploration as well as freely responded to philosophical and historical circumstances of his time.” — Jeffrey A. Bernstein, College of Holy Cross. (shrink)

En varios pasajes de sus _Memorias_, Gibbon explicaría las razones de la publicación de estas _Critical Observations on the Design of the Sixth Book of the Aeneid_, surgidas, como anotó escrupulosamente en sus _Memorias_, de la decimotercera lectura de la _Eneida_ y de la recuperación del inglés como lengua de escritura. “El sexto libro de la _Eneida_ —escribe en la Memoria C— es la composición más grata y perfecta de la poesía latina.” “A principios del año 1770 —sigue diciendo— mis (...) _Observaciones críticas sobre el sexto libro de la Eneida_ fueron enviadas a la imprenta sin mi nombre. En ese breve ensayo, mi primera publicación en inglés, dirigí mis golpes contra la persona y las hipótesis del obispo Warburton. (shrink)

Lausana no fue seguramente “el epicentro geográfico del universo histórico de Gibbon”, como los editores reconocen con franqueza en la Introducción a esta última entrada de la bibliografía gibboniana, pero _Edward Gibbon et Lausanne_ tiene todo el derecho a ocupar un lugar eminente en el panorama de los lectores de _La historia de la declinación y caída del Imperio romano_. Se trata de un libro materialmente sólido, de muy hermosa factura, que tienta por igual al anticuario y al filósofo, que (...) conserva la preferencia por la transmisión escrita, combinada sabiamente con la cultura visual, y cuyos autores no ocultan su admiración por el asunto que tienen entre manos —_Le Pays de Vaud à la rencontre des Lumières européennes _es una variación significativa del encuentro de la ciudad con la filosofía, de las _mores _con la reflexión— al ejercer la crítica ni al ponderar sus conocimientos en campos de investigación muy distintos. (shrink)

The publication of this book is an event in the making. All over the world scientists, psychologists, and philosophers are waiting to read Antonio Damasio's new theory of the nature of consciousness and the construction of the self. A renowned and revered scientist and clinician, Damasio has spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and devising ingenious research using PET scans to piece together the great puzzle of consciousness. In his bestselling Descartes' Error, (...) Damasio revealed the critical importance of emotion in the making of reason. Building on this foundation, he now shows how consciousness is created. Consciousness is the feeling of what happens-our mind noticing the body's reaction to the world and responding to that experience. Without our bodies there can be no consciousness, which is at heart a mechanism for survival that engages body, emotion, and mind in the glorious spiral of human life. A hymn to the possibilities of human existence, a magnificent work of ingenious science, a gorgeously written book, The Feeling of What Happens is already being hailed as a classic. (shrink)

Richard Taylor apresenta abordagens interessantes de quatro tópicos importantes da metafísica, entre outros; a saber: o problema da mente-corpo, a relação entre determinismo e liberdade, a natureza do tempo e a existência de Deus. Taylor defende teses com relação a esses tópicos e, ao argumentar a favor delas, mostra-nos também as teorias tradicionais concorrentes. Isso faz desse livro uma ótima introdução argumentativa a alguns dos grandes problemas da metafísica. Exporei a seguir, resumidamente, o que se encontra nessa obra, fazendo-o a (...) partir da tradução brasileira de Álvaro Cabral, há muito esgotada. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to present a philosophical worldview, specifically metaphysical. This is important precisely to obtain a generalist view of reality, at a time when philosophical discussions are becoming increasingly specialized. The metaphysical worldview presented here is a general perspective on time, space, matter, laws of nature, the mind and the normativity. In order to achieve such goal, (1) we will talk about the nature of philosophy and its relation to the construction of a worldview, (2) we (...) will discuss some arguments to talk about the nature of the aforementioned entities, and (3) we will conclude by presenting a unified metaphysical worldview that takes these arguments into account. (shrink)

Scientists are rapidly mapping the chemical and physical pathways that constitute biological systems, making the complexity of processes such as inheritance, development, evolution, and even the origin of life increasingly tractable. Through genetics and neuroscience, biological understanding is now being extended deeply into the human sciences and has begun to transform our understanding of behavior, mind, culture, and values. The idea of a science-driven unity of knowledge has reemerged in several forms in both reductionist and nonreductionist frameworks. This volume examines (...) some of the extraordinary empirical discoveries that have caused a revival of this idea and presents theories from thinkers in a variety of disciplines, including E. O. Wilson, Eric Kandel, and Elaine Scarry. (shrink)

Columbia University Press's multivolume _Prison Notebooks_ is the only complete critical edition of Antonio Gramsci's seminal writings in English. Based on the authoritative Italian edition of Gramsci's work, _Quaderni del Carcere_, this comprehensive translation presents the intellectual as he ought to be read and understood, with critical notes that clarify Gramsci's history, culture, and sources; an index of names; and a contextualization of the thinker's ideas against his earlier writings and letters. This set includes notebooks 1 through 8 with (...) all attendant notes and materials and is an indispensible resource for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)

The theory of the social responsibility of the firm oscillates between two extremes: one that reduces the firm's responsibility to the obtainment of (the greatest possible) profit for its shareholders, and another that extends the firm's responsibility to include a wide range of actors with an interest or "stake" in the firm. The stakeholder theory of the social responsibility of business is more appealing from an ethical point of view, and yet it lacks a solid foundation that would be acceptable (...) to a variety of schools of thought.In this paper I argue that the stakeholder theory could be founded on the concept of the common good. First, I explain the foundations of the theory of the common good, the concept itself, how it relates to the individual good, and its role in the firm. Following that, I explain how the theory of the common good could be applied to the stakeholder theory. Finally, I draw some conclusions. (shrink)

Controversies around large-scale development projects offer many cases and insights which may be analyzed through the lenses of corporate social (_ir_)responsibility (CS_I_R) and business ethics studies. In this paper, we confront the CSR narratives and strategies of _WeBuild_ (formerly known as _Salini Impregilo_), an Italian transnational construction company. Starting from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), we collect evidence from NGOs, environmental justice organizations, journalists, scholars, and community leaders on socio-environmental injustices and controversies surrounding 38 large hydropower schemes built (...) by the corporation throughout the last century. As a counter-reporting exercise, we code (un)sustainability discourses from a plurality of sources, looking at their discrepancy under the critical lenses of post-normal science and political ecology, with environmental justice as a normative framework. Our results show how the mismatch of narratives can be interpreted by considering the voluntary, self-reporting, non-binding nature of CSR accounting performed by a corporation wishing to grow in a global competitive market. Contributing to critical perspectives on political CS(I)R, we question the reliability of current CSR mechanisms and instruments, calling for the inclusion of complexity dimensions in and a re-politicization of CS(I)R accounting and ethics. We argue that the fields of post-normal science and political ecology can contribute to these goals. (shrink)