While the agricultural knowledges and practices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and women have shaped agriculture in the US, these knowledges have been colonized, exploited, and appropriated, cleaving space for the presently dominant white male agricultural narrative. Simultaneously, these knowledges and practices have been transformed to fit within a society that values individualism, production, efficiency, and profit. The authors use a decolonial Feminist Political Ecology framework to highlight the ways in which the knowledges of Indigenous, Black, and women (...) farmers have been and are being colonized; a tradition that makes alternative agriculture a predominantly white space. The authors interviewed 10 BIPOC and women farmers in Colorado to understand what values and knowledges were shaping their often-appropriated agricultural practices. Three themes emerged: people, place, and patterns. By centering these values, farmers create relational agricultural practices that support the well-being of human and more-than-human beings. To support the widespread implementation of these practices, food systems practitioners must elevate the voices and knowledges of historically excluded farmers. Only then can truly just and equitable alternative agricultural practices be realized in the US. (shrink)

Can we assume, then, that more than the doctrine of faith, it was this lived experience which placed the Christians ever anew before this difficult question: Of what use are history and politics to Christianity? Can we not make do without them? Tertullian’s famous question – “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?” – began a centuries-old dispute about the relation between theology and philosophy, between faith and reason, which (...) became a principle axis of tension between Christianity and the Hellenistic legacy. But Tertullian’s question can also be understood as pertaining to the problem of Christianity’s relation to history and politics: What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem, the Agora with the Temple, the polis with the Church? Thus the tension between Christianity and the classical world takes on yet another dimension. It is the conflict of faith and eternity with history and politics, of the faithful pilgrim member of the People of God with the loyal citizen of a political community. Christianity attempted to resolve this conflict by reformulating the fundamental concepts of classical politics and philosophy, but the main doubts still remained, and led to new tensions and currents within Christianity itself. (shrink)

The placing of the concept citizen in the context of globalisation makes it possible to approach it using the category of cosmopolitism and the related dispute between the advocates of pluralism and those of hegemony. In the debates on cosmopolitism, the transition from the classic concept of ‘citizen’ to that of ‘citizen of the world’, or cosmopolite, is generally regarded as something obvious, just as is its territorial extension. The concept of the citizen thus becomes transcendental and virtual. Usually its (...) Greek roots are pointed to, as cosmo-polites is derived from the word cosmos, an ordered world, the universe and polites, a citizen. The historians of concepts are, however, right to point out that in its original form, that is, among the cynics and the stoics, the word cosmopolites was understood in a philosophical and moral rather than in a political sense. It was a deliberate rejection of polis as a specific place and a specific political order, in favour of a universal space and natural law. Humans, as inhabitants of the universe, are subject only to the authority of the world-penetrating logos, the principles and laws with which they were able to become acquainted by applying their own rationality; this very capability was an obligation to observe those principles and laws and to comply with them. Because of its very nature, the concept of a cosmopolite is thus apolitical, or, in other word, not uncitizen-like. (shrink)

In Defensor Pacis Marsilius of Padua grounds the legitimacy of the kingdom, or the state, on the peace that rule provides the citizens. Looking at Aristotle’s claim that the civitas strives to be like an animal in which all parts in the right proportion for the sake of health, Marsilius argues that ‘the parts of the kingdom or state will be well disposed for the sake of peace [tranquilitas].’ Marsilius goes on to define peace as the agreeable ‘belonging together’ of (...) all members of the kingdom or the state. In this way, Marsilius moves away from a theological ground of the legitimacy of the state towards one that is entirely secular. However, the ground is an unstable one in that it acknowledges the fact that the ‘members’ of the body politic are characterised by difference. As such, the ground of legitimate authority will be characterised as much by force as by peace or by the relation of force to peace. (shrink)

The concept of civilization in the West recognizes the origins of the term in civitas and civilité as the development of civil society and, in particular, the expression of the history of sympathy,...

The main aim of this paper is to present the issues concerning local elections in Norway. The following timeframe was adopted: from the date of passing the first bill on local government, to the comprehensive description of the municipal and provincial elections held in 2011, 2015, 2019. The electoral system for Norwegian local government allows all social groups and local electoral committees to be represented in local government. This is proved by: the ability to ‘create’ their own electoral registers by (...) adding new names on ballots, a large number of political entities seeking mandates, the way of counting votes and the distribution of seats in councils. The proportional system of counting votes in Norway is connected with the opportunity to cast an individual vote. This solution enables numerous political groups and local committees to stand for election. Moreover, women have a sufficient representation in local governments to exert a real impact on the decision-making process. Such an electoral system is open to foreigners who, after fulfilling specific requirements, have the right to vote and be elected. (shrink)

As a starting point for considerations the author accepts that the concept of revolution has changed historically in a similar way as the concept of democracy. Initially democracy was limited to a certain reality and political system, but over time the concept has become synonymous with common good. It can be claimed that similar changes in meaning can be observed in the concept of revolution. However, as the trouble with its use in the media shows, the universal dimension of the (...) concept of revolution does not apply to axiological and ideological layers. Therefore, it should be sought for elsewhere. The author suggests focusing on the technical side of the revolution rather than political ideas and values, as every revolution makes use of a specific technique for taking over power and establishing its own new form. (shrink)

Migration and refugeeism have become widespread phenomena in the contemporary world. They affect both the migrants’ countries of origin, as well as transit and target countries. The contemporary migrant crisis is becoming a challenge not only for politicians, diplomats and economists, but also for sociologists, demographers and philosophers. It is also a challenge for the Catholic Church because it affects millions of Christians to whose countries migrants and refugees are coming. The purpose of this article is to explain the social (...) teaching of the Church in this regard. It contains examples of statements made by the Second Vatican Council and the Popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. (shrink)

What is the political meaning of justice combined with aletheia, that is, the truth understood as revealing, disclosing, and unconcealment? On the basis of an immanent analysis of certain excerpts from Plato’s work we could find the answer. First of all, in Plato the question of justice is not a technical issue, a question of good or bad ruling over the polis, a good or bad law. It concerns matters of much greater significance: existential issues. That is why justice is (...) more important than wealth, both to a man and to a political community. Only through other people, in a political community, is man capable of acquiring an identity, a unity between what he is by nature and what he becomes through education, during the process of adapting to a community to which he belongs. If we succeed in creating such a structure of a political community in which people recognize their proper place and can identify with it, then they will be able to identify with the whole political community. Only a political community thus united can be true, that is, just. Internal unity, which is an expression of justice, is the source of a political community’s power, it is the basis for coexistence and cooperation. When there is no justice, bonds among people die out. Through injustice they become above all incapable of cooperating. (shrink)

In this paper, the concept of political culture is considered in reference to the notions of G.A. Almond, S. Verba and J. Rawls. It is defined as a specific educational project, which is linked to the idea of a fair, democratic and constitutional system. The author also points to potential contemporary obstacles to implementation of this project. Deepening inequalities arising from personal culture are the first threat to liberal civic education. The second threat is associated with the development of new (...) media and the related changes in the public sphere, including various forms of political and civic activity. (shrink)

What is the philosophy of politics in contemporary times and how can the need for its presence be justified? The philosophy of politics is no longer needed by politicians themselves, primarily because it cannot be applied to an electoral campaign and will thus not ensure them an electoral victory. Public opinion probably feels no such a need either, bearing in mind that what it expects is more along the lines of new episodes of a political serial rather than a holistic (...) philosophical interpretation of political reality. Public opinion might begin to feel such a need if it were to prove possible to restore, partly at least, its civic awareness, which is to say, the awareness that emerges on becoming conscious of the necessity for political freedom, for there is no politics without citizens; there is, at most, social policy and its clientele. Without a community of the free and equal, which may consist of citizens alone, there will be no philosophy itself, including that of politics. Philosophy should not treat politics as a certain, particular field or a distinct area of study, It has to learn to recognise in it the basis of this particular form of being, a community of ‘good life’ which is also its own fount. (shrink)

In line with the concept of politics developed by ancient Greeks, the political sphere is identified with transparency and overtness. However, it has always been hiding secret actions, conspiracies and collusions. The emergence of the modern model of the state, along with the rationalisation of its structures, enabled the secret equivalents of authority to transform into organisations, i.e. institutions alternative to official organisations, established by law and having specific powers. Rather than talking about actual organisations, the author discusses the process (...) whereby these secret, underground structures turn into organisations that influence the sphere of overt politics. She tries to show that this is a specific kind of game between what is explicit and public and what is concealed and secret. This game is constantly present in political activities, although we seldom realise it. (shrink)

Baseado no princípio ontológico da vera justitia, ou da “divina ordem”, segundo a qual é justo que se “subordinem as coisas somente às dignas, as corporais às espirituais, as inferiores às superiores, as temporais às sempiternas” (Ep., 140), o que resulta, na prática, na subordinação dos governados aos governantes, Agostinho introduz em sua doutrina ético-política o conceito de força coercitiva, como instrumento prático garantidor da ordinata concordia ou pax temporalis, na civitas, de forma que, punido pelo reto castigo, o pecador (...) possa retornar à ordem e assim alcançar a vida eterna. Em Agostinho, todas as formas de castigos por ele admitidos não têm um caráter de perseguição, vingança ou sadismo, mas de correção e reintegração do pecador na ordem, por isso devem ser guiados pela caridade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Força coercitiva. Castigo. Justiça. Ordem. Paz. Caridade. ABSTRACT With basis on the ontological principle of Vera justitia, or of “divine order”, according to which it is fair to “subordinate things only to the worthy ones, the corporal to the spiritual, the inferior to the superior, the temporal to the sempiternal” (Ep. 140), this results, in practice, in the subordination of the governees to the governators, Augustine introduces in his ethical-political doctrine the concept of coercitive force, as the practical instrument that warrants the ordinata concordia or pax temporalis, in civitas, in such a manner, that punished by the straight punishment, the sinner may return to order and so reach eternal life. In Augustine, all forms of punishment by him admitted do not take a character of persecution, revenge or sadism, but of correction and reintegration of the sinner in the order, and, for this reason, punishment must be guided by charity. KEY WORDS – Coercitive force. Punishment. Justice. Peace. Charity. (shrink)

The paper focuses on the philosophical challenges of governance over trustless ledgers, namely Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions in El Salvador. Blockchain adoption in El Salvador is an example of policy based on a ‘frontier epistemology’ (Nickles 2009 ), creating a situation where “facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, stakes are high, and decisions are urgent” (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1993 ). Trustless ledgers play a role of such ‘frontiers’ of knowledge and governance that support a variety of technocratic, heuristic, and (...) experimental policy approaches. They challenge the traditional knowledge frameworks and governance processes responsible for attempts to embed (align) predetermined ideologies (values and stakes) into the technology over standards. Instead, as amalgams of social, political, legal, and economic interventions, ledgers function simultaneously as a contract, a monetary system, a political value commitment, and a governance structure. By integrating facts, values, and stakes into algorithms, they define the frontiers of epistemology and governance in two opposing ways. On the one hand, trustless ledgers embody Augustine’s Civitas Dei (the City of God) as a new design (novum consilium) that promises a future world (futurum saeculum) (Augustine 1968 ). With a promise of a system, where everyone is ‘free’ to not being able to ‘sin’ (non posse peccare - delet the res non peccare), social agency is reduced to a code of a trustless infrastructure. On the other hand, ledgers support experimental (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012 ) and heuristic policymaking (Nickles 2009 ) that saves social agency and cuts ‘through traditional discovery/justification and descriptive/ normative distinctions’ (Nickles 2009 ). The distributed ledgers as governance experiments then redefine Civitas Terrena’s governance as a challenge of ‘heuristic appraisal’ (Nickles 2009 ), ‘directly deliberative polyarchy’ (Cohen and Sabel 1997 ), and ‘experimentalist governance’ (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012 ). To elaborate on the blockchain governance experiments, we will use two Bitcoin initiatives in El Salvador (Bitcoin City and Bitcoin Beach) and discuss them in the context of a broader adoption of blockchain in South America. (shrink)

Comment la cité grecque s'installe-t-elle dans le rôle du berceau de la civilisation européenne? Cela devient possible dès lors que la civilisation se définit comme un processus historique homogène et irréversible, autrement dit, dès lors qu'elle est appelée à illustrer historiquement le progrès de l'Europe. Telle est la tâche du XIXe siècle. Or, à l'époque prérévolutionnaire, l'idée de civilisation renvoie plutôt à une multitude de processus historiques, pour autant qu'elle permet d'observer le cheminement vers l'état policé des divers peuples de (...) l'Antiquité et de l'époque moderne. La civilisation opère ici comme un concept de différenciation: elle permet de distinguer les Anciens d'avec les Anciens, les Modernes d'avec les Modernes et, dans leur ensemble, l'Antiquité de la modernité. Il s'agit d'analyser les enjeux de cette intégration en deux temps de la Grèce dans l'histoire de la civilisation européenne. (shrink)

This paper concerns late 1920 s attempts to construct unitary theories of gravity and electromagnetism. A first attempt using a non-standard connection—with torsion and zero-curvature—was carried out by Albert Einstein in a number of publications that appeared between 1928 and 1931. In 1929, Tullio Levi-Civita discussed Einstein’s geometric structure and deduced a new system of differential equations in a Riemannian manifold endowed with what is nowadays known as Levi-Civita connection. He attained an important result: Maxwell’s electromagnetic equations and (...) the gravitational equations were obtained exactly, while Einstein had deduced them only as a first order approximation. A main feature of Levi-Civita’s theory is the essential use of the Ricci’s rotation coefficients, introduced by Gregorio Ricci Curbastro many years before. We trace the history of Ricci’s coefficients that are still used today, and highlight their geometric and mechanical meaning. (shrink)

Este artigo tratará da natureza da associação política tal como concebida por Tomás de Aquino. Duas características serão analisadas: primeiramente a noção de cooperação social e sua necessária relação com a figura da autoridade em segundo lugar, os limites da autoridade e a noção de um fim último do homem.

An attempt to discover a guiding principle in public affairs.--An attempt to show how the past has led to the present position in world affairs.--An attempt to apply the guiding principle suggested in book I to the world position as stated in book II.

In this paper, the theories of the civitas maxima (universal state) in the work of Christian Wolff (1679–1754) and Michael Christoph Hanov (1695–1773) are investigated. Topics are the layers of international law, the concept and constitution of the universal state, utopian elements, the ontological status of the universal state, conversion of other states, and migration. As a critical counterpart, the idea of nation is explored in these authors as well as in the political theories of romanticism, namely in Adam Müller (...) (1779–1829) and Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834). (shrink)

This article studies the reception of Christian Wolff's theory of the civitas maxima by Hermann Friedrich Kahrel (1719-1787) and Michael Hanov (1695-1773). According to his previous work mentioned in the article (n. 2), the author considers the concept of civitas maxima as a methodological innovation. It is the normative fiction of a presumed rational consensus of mankind and of the states. As the article tries to show, this concept was misunderstood, not only by the enemies of Wolff but also by (...) his followers. Kahrel considered the consensus of mankind and of the states a tacit factual consensus. The innovative idea of a presumed normative consensus was thereby lost. Hanov interpreted the civitas maxima as a civitas dei in the sense of Leibniz. He transformed the normative idea of a presumed consensus into a fact of metaphysics and natural theology. Nevertheless, he introduced a diachrone dimension into the concept of civitas maxima which he sees as an infinite sequence of all generations of mankind. This anticipates Kant's integration of cosmopolitanism in a certain concept of history. Kahrel and Hanov however misconceived Wolff's idea of a normative fiction of reason by its reduction to a factual reality, be it natural or metaphysical. They thereby are representative for a common misunderstanding of Wolff's theory that also leads to an inadequate critique. (shrink)

The assimilation of the architectural sign to the linguistic one, is the way that allow us to analyze the architectural element of the city, according to the symbolic and conventional way, but giving to the architectural sign an iconic value that we could read through reconstruction of city in films. It is possible if we consider city as artwork seen according to the definition of Lynch. There is a temporal and special dimension, the urban dimension, which would otherwise not be (...) ‘visible’ to the naked eye or perceivable with hearing. City as an artwork can be read for more reasons, through the cinema in the translation of an architectural semiotics that finds a double correspondence of Urbs and Civitas, in the real building of the city and in its re-construction. In this contest, some Italian movies of Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, for example, beyond the traditional interpretations, can give us indications about the moments and ‘points’ of collapse that we can find in ‘signs’ and ‘singular points’. It’s in these points that we found the signs of evolution, breakdown and collapse of relationship between Urbs and Civitas. (shrink)

Article aims to explore Augustine's "two cities" theory. First, a brief discussion of the "City of God" writing background and the main structure; Secondly, in both religious and secular aspects of life on the analysis of the "City of God" on the "two cities" of the main points; again, three perspectives of the "two cities" theory of history and ideological background. Although the "two cities" doctrine embodies a form with two points tend to think, but both different from the ontological (...) dualism and the dualism of body and soul, but also avoids the complex social reality for too absolute two points. The focus of this study is Augustine's doctrine of the "Two Cities." The first part treats the background and the structure of the City of God. In the second and the third part, the essay examines both the religious and the temporal aspect of this doctrine. Finally, the historical and intellectual background of the doctrine is discussed. The author argues that even though the doctrine of the "Two Cities" manifests a dualistic tendency in the thought of Augustine, it can hardly be labeled as a dualism. (shrink)

Los esfuerzos por demostrar la influencia de la filosofía nominalista en la teoría política de Marsího de Padua no han tenido éxito. Otras corrientes de pensamiento y escuelas filosóficas, como el aristotelismo heterodoxo, el corporativismo medieval e incluso la concepción orgánica de la sociedad tienen más influencia en el Defensor pacis, concebido y escrito varios años antes de ser compañero de Ockham en la Corte imperial de Luis de Baviera. El artículo examina los textos en los que se ha basado (...) la interpretación nominalista del pensamiento de Marsilio. La conclusión es que la teoría de la civitas que expone Marsilio no está basada en la concepción nominalista de la sociedad. En su lucha contra la plenitud o potestatis del Papado, Marsihio construye una civitas, en la que no cabe el poder eclesiástico diferente del secular. El resultado son dos modelos de sociedad distintos: dualista el de Ockham; mucho más monolítico el de Marsilio, que no reconoce a los ciudadanos individuales ni a las partes de la civitas capacidad para actuar autónomamente. (shrink)

The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a city or what is meant by urban are differently understood in different parts of the world and by different scholars. Thus, I first address the problematic of incommensurability. I argue that this key issue in the philosophy of science is central to how the debate on urban anthropology has developed. Then I ask whether this problematic extends to cross-disciplinary debate among the contemporary social sciences and what (...) relevance the resulting understanding of the city has outside the academic world. I maintain that social analysis should endeavour to bring out the political, economic, and socio-cultural complexity of urban life. Having carried out research in urban Europe, I offer an analysis of the city that encompasses the meaning of urbs, polis, and civitas. Finally, I discuss the epistemological significance of urban ethnography, drawing on my field research in Brindisi, a South-Italian city. (shrink)

The current literature on history of science reports that Levi-Civita’s parallel transport was motivated by his attempt to provide the covariant derivative of the absolute differential calculus with a geometrical interpretation (For instance, see Scholz in ''The intersection of history and mathematics'', Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 203-230, 1994, Sect. 4). Levi-Civita’s memoir on the subject was explicitly aimed at simplifying the geometrical computation of the curvature of a Riemannian manifold. In the present paper, we wish to point out the (...) possible role implicitly played by the principle of virtual work in Levi-Civita’s conceptual reasoning to formulate parallel transport. (shrink)