SARS-CoV-2, more than a host, is an intruder, an intruder with unimaginable power: it enters our tissues, weakens our immune system and damages our lungs and respiration. But it is a creature that has entered our social imagination before: our fears, reflections, information and speculations. Its "ghostly" character is now inserted not only as a form of threat to life itself, but as a poison that seeks to undermine the Aristotelian zoon politikón. The intruder lurks both in the biological dimension (...) of our body and in the social dimension of our life together. There is something symptomatic about the virus, which has revealed a problem in the circuits of Western thought: mistrust of objectivity protocols, the rise of Salvationist interpretations and conspiracy theories, suspicion of all scientific data and interpretation, and the disdain for the dialogical rhetoric of the argument. (shrink)

The turbulent times we live in, product of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an ideal breeding ground for the proliferation of myths and conspiracy theories. These myths and theories are often popular on social media, defended by irresponsible politicians and published by the media in search of ratings or likes. But none of these meet the theoretical virtues that a good scientific theory should enjoy, in particular, none of these conspiracy theories about the disease caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus has (...) the attribute of being simple. Our purpose in this article is to illuminate how it is possible that simplicity, within the framework of theoretical virtues, can function as an epistemic criterion to reveal the irrational and, consequently, unscientific nature of myths and conspiracy theories. (shrink)

The article presents a reflection on the notion of art as an expression of emotions. The aesthetic theory of Nietzsche and Collingwood explores how art transforms the artist as the work is created. Notions that are in line with the art therapy, method proposed by twentieth century psychology, where art becomes a mechanism for transforming and healing the individual by exploring emotions and raising awareness of the internal world. Self-exploration through art allows the development of artistic creativity and self-reflection in (...) relation the internal world that is often ignored. (shrink)

This essay studies the COVID‑19 pandemic as an instance of the concept of the event used by post-Marxist thought. Due to this premise, the article presents three sections: 1) the event concept in the post-Marxist thinking, 2) the COVID‑19 pandemic as a post-Marxist event, and 3) the pandemic as a virtual event. Such an essay requires a concept of the event. It is defined in this context as a phenomenon without causal explanation but with the capacity to explain, at least (...) partially, the future it creates. For a while after the end of the Cold War, it was thought that the event would be the result of capitalism's prevalent crisis. The 2008 financial crisis meant to be its point of no return. But this crisis did not reach the event condition. The COVID‑19 pandemic shares some features of the event framed into the biopolitics. (shrink)

Is it possible that fear becomes a habit? A habit thought from two points of view: that of a particular person who gets used to living in fear and processes everything through it, or that of a social group that is, because of fear, subject to a government, which it would lead entire populations to a state of docility or domestication. In this essay, I will explain Aquinate’s position on the subject, and specifically on Summa Theologica. To do this, I (...) will start with a very brief reference to the Greek and Latin mythological origin of the term, then I will briefly analyze what passions are, how they originate, their relationship with appetites, desires, emotions, affections, feelings, etc. Next I will consider the nature of habits and then mention, briefly, the particular case of virtue strength, as a good habit. And finally I’ll conclude whether or not fear can become a habit, according to Thomas Aquinas. (shrink)

In the present essay we want to clarify through philosophical hermeneutics the relationship that can exist between hermeneutics and nature, to answer the question: is it possible to interpret nature hermeneutically? Man's relationship with nature has been one of chaos and harmony, of dominance and submission. It is evident that nature does not need us, but we do need it. Consequently, the present essay will be broken down into four parts: In the first section, we will address the Gadamerian proposal (...) of awareness of effective history, in the second section, the relationship between the art of asking and the art of understanding that Gadamer called hermeneutical experience will be exposed, in the third section, he will develop the Gadamerian proposal of a dialectical logic, to finish in the last section, I will try to connect Gadamerian understanding with nature and its ecological importance. (shrink)

This statement was disclosed to set forth the 2019 Philosophy Week celebrated at the Universidad Central de Venezuela’s Library and also at the Philosophy Faculty’s rooms. Considering that the Public University has undergone great calamities and wickedness, the paper views men’s Promethean capabilities that embody everlasting boldness which represents tradition’s foundations. It also discusses the courage and significance of assembling to celebrate a Philosophical gathering during spiritual barbarism and crude poverty.

Epidemic diseases —such as smallpox, influenza, measles, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, and cholera—originated as a result of the agricultural revolution. We know that a large population is a condition for its appearance, but it is not its primary cause. That cause is the close coexistence of humans with domestic animals. To the extent that man altered the ecological order, nature's response was novel and extremely dangerous microorganisms. The SARS-CoV-2 virus could be a consequence of our interference in the ecosystem, and it (...) could be the first pandemic of many others, even more deadly. Certain philosophical principles are very dangerous in a world at risk, since they prevent finding a way out of problems: being, in reality, part of their determining causes. No philosophy of the past has faced the possibility of planetary survival and, therefore, of our species. We must try to find ends that collectively guide our species: that is the goal of the philosophy of nature that must be elaborated. (shrink)

The Aristophanes comedy is one of the most important Greek literary legacies, for that reason we propose study two of his most importance plays: Gentlemen and The peace. The analyze of this two plays have the intention of determinate it relevance in modern world; in particular case, from Latin-American reality: where, the actual comedy recoveries it ancient force for put in interrogation signals the forms to make politics – and the democratic system itself —for the governments in this part of (...) the world. Aristophanes, from comedy reflection, permits us approximate to the contradictions in the Classic Athens politic scene and this essay pretends use him— with the respect of historical moments – for a intent of closer to the contradictions in the actual democracy scene in our nations. (shrink)

This study presents a contrast between the pessimistic view of the quarantined society, led by thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Paul B. Preciado and Byung-Chul Han, among others, against the model of interpersonal communication of Manuel Martín Algarrar, communicologist and communication theorist of the University of Navarra. This confrontation seeks to evaluate the reasons that support the first position, deepening in its premises and the relations that these maintain with the conclusions reached by these philosophers. For this purpose, the essential (...) characteristics that make up the pessimistic vision of the global quarantine will be defined, and the social challenge that this implies will be presented, characterized by the idea of a subject radically incommunicado and separated from society. The drama of this perspective consists in the fact that, for it, forced isolation responds to vicious objectives and has as a tragic consequence the total dissolution of the social fabric. Martin Algarra's communicative model will be reconstructed, to give an account of the intimate relationship between the interpersonal communicative act and the shaping of society. (shrink)

The traditional enemies of Philosophy are religious dogmatism, political demagogy, poetic-literary relativism, theoretical syncretism and scientific reductionism. The tension between Philosophy and other forms of knowledge —real or pretended— is not new, but Philosophy today faces new "endogenous" threats. Contemporary philosophy has the task of thinking about the issues that deeply concern the men and women of our time: what should we do about climate change? How should we deal with the technological mechanisms of social control? What conception of humanity (...) should we have in a world where cloning and genetic editing exist? How should we deal with the global weakening of the notion of Truth, both in the political world and in the mass media? This conference characterizes both the external challenges facing Philosophy and the internal vices that corrode it from within. (shrink)

Even though the image tends to be referred to the dimension of the visual, and it is as a function of this that its relations with thought are settled ‒in some moments in the cultural history of the West as opposition, and in others as a foundation–, I am interested in exploring to what extent the image anticipates a listening to come in the culture, capable of removing its deepest resistance and pressing for the incorporation of what has been displaced, (...) submerged or unknown. In this order of ideas, at first, I focus on the discussion proposed by authors such as Georges Didi-Huberman, Roland Barthes and Jacques Lacan. Later, I stop to read two possible examples: an image by the Venezuelan artist Iván Candeo from 2018, which explains the resonances between a certain photograph taken by Spencer Tunick in Caracas in 2006 and Pier Paolo Pasolini's classic on fascism, Saló or the 120 days of Sodom ; and the audiovisual installation Superblock by the also Venezuelan Mariana Rondón. (shrink)

In this article we review the Platonic conception of image as mimesis from the type of technical image that is photography. The classical conception of the image as a copy of the real appears as a topic for the first time in Plato, by way of falsehood or degradation of Good, in the sense that it is “distant” from the Idea. We are throwing into question the relationship between falsehood, truth and distance and we wonder to what extent photography is, (...) hence, an image. (shrink)

The following essay aims to show some aspects of the persistence of dualism within contemporary philosophy as a critical perspective of modernity and the difficulties that this represents for an investigation of the image beyond the iconoclastic positions. For this, we will connect with the influence that certain extra philosophical disciplines are having within the most recent interest on the part of some philosophical research centers towards the problematization of the image. We will focus this review on a specific theory (...) developed by a recognized member of the Bildwissenschaft such as Horst Bredekamp, stopping, before, in the radicals questions of W. J. T. Mitchell. (shrink)

Here, I ask whether is there something that we can point out as an image of forgiveness attributable exclusively to Derrida, or if his is, on the contrary, a kind of reformulation of some other notion of forgiveness that we can find in some other text or tradition. Since, after the horrors of the twentieth century, forgiveness cannot be but presented as an impossibility, our mission is both more difficult and compelling, while we can now only conceive forgiveness, responsibly, as (...) an “abnormality” that should not be used for the restoration of any normality, be this political, social, national, psychological. (shrink)

This article explores the fate in Wittgenstein's mature work, of the issue of the unsayable, heart of the Tractatus project. According to the traditional interpretation of his work, he left behind that concern as a product of his early mistakes, later refuted in the Investigations. This article attempts to show that, in a certain sense, it is obvious that the problem of ineffability is still behind all his efforts. That it is constitutive not only of Wittgenstein's conception of language, but (...) is also the point of what he calls the vision of aspects, on which his latest writings focus. (shrink)

The following essay aims to show how the image-record, the image produced by mechanical or technical means, seems to constitute a particular way of being-language, a kind of “animal limit” of being-language, that is, a “device ” which is intended to enroll and operate in the world in radically different ways than verbal and logical language. In this sense, we will deepen into the idea of “animal limit” reading some texts from Agamben and Levinas.

This essay´s purpose is to study formation´s constituent elements, according to Gadamer‟s interpretation, understanding formation as the model for the hermeneutic experience that stands on the Ontology‟s historical and spiritual tradition as it is develoved by the german philosopher.

Había tiempos en los que como fenomenólogo uno era visto de forma muy crítica y también compasiva cuando le atribuía a imágenes y signos algo así como una presencia encarnada. Ahora nos encontramos más bien con un exceso de oferta de presencia, inmediatez, contacto y cercanía. Sin embargo, algo de esto parece ser una reversión con la que se intenta sobrecompensar deficiencias anteriores. También en la filosofía, de cuando en cuando, se da un afán excesivo, como se encuentra en los (...) recién convertidos. Pero dejemos hablar a las cosas mismas. Con este fin me limito a señalar en forma de resumen algunos puntos tanto relevantes como controvertidos que conciernen en su conjunto al lugar de las imágenes en la experiencia y que adquieren un tono particular a través del contraste entre eidos y pathos2. (shrink)