O presente estudo teve por objetivo avaliar a autoeficácia e a qualidade de vida de jovens adultos com doenças crônicas, examinando possíveis diferenças entre homens e mulheres. Participaram 20 pacientes com diversos tipos de doenças crônicas, com idade média de 31,5 anos (DP 3,6) e que estavam inte..

No mais profundo centro: João da Cruz e o Sufismo Sadili cantam a união transformante Carlos Frederico Barboza de Souza O camelô em Belo Horizonte: aspectos da informalidade e da identidade Maria Aparecida Carvalho de Castro Igreja, povo de Deus, sujeito da comunhão e da missão Cleto Caliman A literatura como questionamento do sujeito da modernidade: Memórias do cárcere, de Graciliano Ramos, e A peste, de Albert Camus João Pereira Pinto O ensino religioso na rede pública estadual de (...) Belo Horizonte -MG: história, modelos e percepções de professores sobre formação e docência Douglas Cabral Dantas. (shrink)

8 March, now known as International Women’s Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal (...) well-being and collective well-being, collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women’s rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people from countries in Latin America and Europe, with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks. Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals. (shrink)

Ciencias sociales : saberes coloniales y eurocéntricos / Edgardo Lander / - Europa modernidad y eurocentrismo / Enrique Dussel / - La colonialidad a lo largo y a lo ancho : el hemisferio occidental en el horizonte colonial de la modernidad / Walter D. Mignolo / - Naturaleza del poscolonialismo : del eurocentrismo al globocentrismo / Fernando Coronil / - El lugar de la naturaleza y la naturaleza del lugar : ¿globalización o postdesarrollo? / Arturo Escobar / - Ciencias sociales, (...) violencia epistémica y el problema de la invención del otro / Santiago Castro-Gómez / - Superar la exclusión, conquistar la equidad : reformas, políticas y capacidades en el ámbito social / Alejandro Moreno / - Abrir, impensar, y redimesionar las ciencias sociales en América Latina y el Caribe. ¿Es posible una ciencia social no eurocéntrica en nuestra región? / Francisco López Segrera / - Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina / Aníbal Quijano. (shrink)

O texto investiga os “indesconstruíveis” na filosofia de Jacques Derrida e sua relação com espectrologia, fé e messianidade. Partindo de uma imagem de ziguezague, ela própria presente em diversos ensaios derridianos, aproxima e desaproxima os indesconstruíveis (justiça, perdão, promessa, dom etc.) das ideias de indecidível e decisão, místico e espectral e, finalmente, imanente e transcendente. A partir do debate sobre a Era Axial, pergunta-se, então, se os indesconstruíveis derridianos podem mesmo postular a universalidade, apresentando como contraponto o tratamento da fé (...) secular em Hägglund e da espectralidade nas metafísicas ameríndias tal como descritas por Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. (shrink)

The contribution of Jesuits to the different fields of knowledge, including philosophy, is historically well known. In fact, since the foundation of the Society of Jesus, in the 16th century, Jesuits from different generations and cultures have taken part in the philosophical debates of their time and their different contexts. Since the foundation of the Society of Jesus, in 1540, the Jesuits, individually and as a body, have engaged in a fruitful dialogue between the Christian tradition and different dimensions of (...) human culture. During almost five centuries, numerous Jesuits taught philosophy in academic institutions all over the world. Some of them have their names recorded in the history of philosophy. Of course, the majority of them is not anymore remembered, despite their valuable contribution to the development of the Jesuit intellectual tradition up to our times. In fact, as an heir of the Roman College, the first academic institution founded by the Society of Jesus, in 1551, the Pontifical Gregorian University, in Rome, is a witness to this tradition, which has been kept alive thanks to the discrete work of both Jesuits and lay intellectuals. Known as the University of the Nations, this institution corroborates not only the capacity of the Jesuit tradition to put faith in dialogue with reason, but also the option to take the concrete reality of each human culture and its historical context as its point of departure. The Jesuits’ willingness to engage in dialogue with different intellectual perspectives is underpinned by one of the most defining traits of the Jesuit charism, namely, the conviction that God can be found and served in all things. Accordingly, Jesuits have adopted, from the beginning, an amenable stance towards the world with its different cultures and intellectual trends. As such, Jesuits have, since the beginning, inhabited the frontiers of human thought. According to the contemporary philosopher Paul Gilbert, SJ, within the institutions under the leadership of the Society of Jesus, it was always possible to maintain an equilibrium between two principles: “intellectual unity” and “openness to the world.” Without detriment to the Jesuit identity, the companions of Ignatius have been willing to dwell in the various dimensions of human reality, in their multiplicity and plurality. Either in the renewal of Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ metaphysics, or in the dialogue with modern philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, or Hegel, and even in the inculturation in non-European contexts, the Jesuits have been able to preserve the Christian tradition through an original development of human culture in all its richness and diversity. With respect to the last century, it has to be acknowledged that a significant number of Jesuits made significant contributions, with recognized competence, to philosophy. Certainly, the 20th century was particularly complex in many respects. It would be enough to recall that this period, which brought with it unprecedented social, scientific, and technological developments, was also the stage for the two World Wars. With the emergence or consolidation of philosophical currents such as Marxism, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Structuralism, and Post-Modernism, the past century was, without any doubt, fascinating from the intellectual point of view. Jesuits such as Karl Rahner, Frederick Copleston, Bernard Lonergan, William Norris Clarke, John F. Kavanaugh, Teilhard de Chardin, Gaston Fessard, Jean Daniélou, Henri de Lubac, Michel de Certeau, Xavier Tilliette, Paul Valadier, Paweł Siwek, Ignacio Ellacuría, Francisco Taborda, Henrique de Lima Vaz and, in the Portuguese context, Diamantino Martins or Júlio Fragata, among many others, were able to engage different philosophical currents, problems and controversies of their times. Faithful to their long tradition of being present in the frontiers of thought, those Jesuits have engaged in a fruitful dialogue with these intellectual trends, offering relevant contributions to different ongoing debates. Within this context, the present volume recalls and discusses the philosophical contribution of some of the most prominent Jesuit protagonists of the intellectual interchange that took place in the 20th century. This volume also intends to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, which happens just before the inauguration of the Ignatian Year. Decreed by Father Arturo Sosa, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, this celebratory Year will start on May 20, 2021, precisely 500 years after Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, was wounded at the battle of Pamplona. We are happy that this volume could bring together outstanding specialists in the thought of some of the most prominent Jesuits philosophers of the last century, namely Paul Valadier, Paul Gilbert, Józef Bremer, Jacek Poznański, Alexander Maar, Patrick H. Byrne, M. Ross Romero, Carlos Alvarez, Hélio Pereira Lima, José Gama, Domingos Terra, Gabriel Flynn, Marie-Gabrielle Lemaire, José Sols Lucia, Lorena Zuchel Lovera, Pedro Pablo Achondo Moya, Enzo Solari, Massimo Borghesi, Mendo Castro Henriques, João Barbosa, and Dominique Lambert. In addition, in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Júlio Fragata’s birth, Maria Teresa Fragata presents a memory of his life and thought. We hope that this volume may be useful to all those interested in the Jesuit philosophical tradition. Hopefully, it will stimulate scholars to pursue a fruitful and creative dialogue with contemporary philosophy, in the footsteps of the Jesuit philosophers featured here. We would like to thank all the authors and all those who, in different ways, made this volume possible. (shrink)

The iconoclastic Brazilian anthropologist and theoretician Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, well known in his discipline for helping initiate its “ontological turn,” offers a vision of anthropology as “the practice of the permanent decolonization of thought.” After showing that Amazonian and other Amerindian groups inhabit a radically different conceptual universe than ours—in which nature and culture, human and nonhuman, subject and object are conceived in terms that reverse our own—he presents the case for anthropology as the study of such “other” (...) metaphysical schemes, and as the corresponding critique of the concepts imposed on them by the human sciences. Along the way, he spells out the consequences of this anthropology for thinking in general via a major reassessment of the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, arguments for the continued relevance of Deleuze and Guattari, dialogues with the work of Philippe Descola, Bruno Latour, and Marilyn Strathern, and inventive treatments of problems of ontology, translation, and transformation. Bold, unexpected, and profound, Cannibal Metaphysics is one of the chief works marking anthropology's current return to the theoretical center stage. (shrink)

In this dialogue with Yuk Hui, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro discusses his work on the Amerindian perspectivism, multinaturalism; the relation between nature, culture and technics in his ethnographic studies; as well as the necessity of a non-anthropocentric definition of technology. He also discusses a haunting futurism of ecological crisis and automation of the Anthropocene, and explores a “strategic primitivism” as survival tool.

This paper takes the view that compensated donation and altruism are not incompatible. In particular, it holds that the arguments against giving compensation stand on weak rational grounds: the charge that compensation fosters “commodification” has neither been specific enough to account for different types of monetary transactions nor sufficiently grounded in reality to be rationally convincing; although altruism is commendable, organ donors should not be compelled to act purely on the basis of altruistic motivations, especially if there are good reasons (...) to believe that significantly more lives can be saved and enhanced if incentives are put in place, and offering compensation for organs does not necessarily lead to exploitation—on the contrary, it may be regarded as a necessity in efforts to minimise the level of exploitation that already exists in current organ procurement systems. (shrink)

In his 1982 book Wittgenstein On Rules and Private Language, Saul Kripke maintains that Wittgenstein´s rule following considerations land us with a skeptical argument about meaning. This essay contains a short exposition of Kripke´s argument. In addition, I hold, both on textual grounds and by an appeal to some select secondary literature, that Wittgenstein offered no such skeptical argument in the Philosophical Investigations . Although Wittgenstein certainly repudiates a view of meaning based on temporally located mental states, it does not (...) follow that there can be no meaning-grounding facts of other sorts. Although it is true that mental states, viewed atomistically, offer no sure foundation for meaning, I argue that it need not follow, pace Kripke, that no facts about an individual´s past mental life can ever make it clear that he meant ‘plus’ rather than ‘quus’ while performing any addition. For the individual´s past mental life is indeed relevant to meaning when considered in its unfolding in time. The essay further contains explorations on the very nature of the practice of following a rule and ends with a discussion of the solitary rule follower. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo analiza si en la teoría de los cuatro ethe de la modernidad capitalista, desarrollada por Bolívar Echeverría, no está contenida una debilidad de principio. Se trata de saber si para arribar a sus más altas aportaciones, esta teoría no termina pagando un precio que debiera dar que pensar. ¿Acaso renuncia a la crítica de la ideología, por lo menos en la radicalidad realizada por los autores de la Teoría crítica, inspirados en este punto originalmente por Georg Lukács?This (...) article is analyzing if in the theory of the four ethe of capitalist modernity, developed by Bolívar Echeverría, isn’t included a basic weakness. It is about understanding if for to arrive to its highest contributions, this theory is not paying a too high prize. Does it possibly renounce to the critique of ideology, at least in the radicality fulfilled by the authors of Critical theory, inspired in this point originally by Georg Lukács? (shrink)

Apoio: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) – Brasil – Código de Financiamento 001 Filosofia, educação a descolonização epistêmica do saber Resumo: O artigo pretende abordar as possíveis contribuições da filosofia latino-americana e das filosofias e pedagogias indígenas na descolonização epistêmica do saber. Para tanto, investiga o trabalho de libertação da filosofia proposto Enrique Dussel e Raúl Fornet-Bettancourt, bem como a noção de colonialidade do saber, pensada por diferentes teóricos da concepção decolonial. Identifica-se a necessidade de compreender (...) o Outro a partir dele mesmo como matriz de um processo decolonizador, e por isso propomos a leitura do trabalho do autor, filósofo e educador indígena Daniel Munduruku, a fim de identificar aspectos que nos ajudem a empreender um trabalho de reconfiguração e descolonização epistemológica. Palavras chave: Filosofia indígena, Pedagogias decoloniais, Colonialidade do saber. Philosophy, education and the epistemic decolonization of knowledge Abstract: The article intends to approach the possible contributions of Latin American philosophy and indigenous philosophies and pedagogies for the epistemic decolonization of knowledge. To this end, we investigates the work of liberating philosophy proposed by Enrique Dussel and Raúl Fornet-Bettancourt, as well as the notion of coloniality of knowledge, thought by different theorists of the decolonial conception. The need to understand the other from himself is identified as the matrix of a decolonizing process, and for this reason we propose the reading of the work of the author, philosopher and indigenous educator Daniel Munduruku, in order to identify aspects that help us to undertake a work of epistemological reconfiguration and decolonization. Key-words: Indigenous philosophy, Decolonial pedagogies, Cooloniality of knowledge. Filosofía, educación y descolonización epistémica del conocimiento Resumen: El artículo pretende abordar los posibles aportes de la filosofía latinoamericana y las filosofías y pedagogías indígenas en la descolonización epistémica del conocimiento. Para ello, investiga el trabajo de filosofía liberadora propuesto por Enrique Dussel y Raúl Fornet-Bettancourt, así como la noción de colonialidad del conocimiento, pensada por diferentes teóricos de la concepción descolonial. La necesidad de comprender al otro desde sí mismo se identifica como la matriz de un proceso descolonizador, por lo que proponemos la lectura de la obra del autor, filósofo y educador indígena Daniel Munduruku, a fin de identificar aspectos que nos ayuden a emprender un trabajo. de reconfiguración y descolonización epistemológica. Palabras clave: Filosofía indígena, Pedagogías decoloniales, Colonialidad del saber. Data de registro: 08/01/2021 Data de aceite: 28/04/2021. (shrink)

A proposal to allow prisoners to save their lives or to be eligible for commutation of sentence by donating kidneys for transplantation has been a subject of controversy in the Philippines. Notwithstanding the vulnerabilities associated with imprisonment, there are good reasons for allowing organ donations by prisoners. Under certain conditions, such donations can be very beneficial not only to the recipients but to the prisoners themselves. While protection needs to be given to avoid coercion and exploitation, overprotection has to be (...) avoided. The prohibition on the involvement of prisoners in organ transplantation constitutes unjustified overprotection. Under certain conditions, prisoners can make genuinely independent decisions. When it can be reasonably ascertained that they are able to decide freely, society should recognise an obligation to help them implement their decisions, such as when they intend to donate an organ as a way of asserting their religious faith and performing a sacrifice in atonement for their sins. (shrink)

En este artículo me gustaría concentrarme en al forma de tratar el problema de Benacerraf respecto de la inaccesibilidad de los objetos abstractos. Este es el principio (llamado FBP por Balaguer) que caracteriza a los objetos por axiomas de una teoría de la existencia consistente. Analizo los argume..

Economic and social activities are undergoing radical changes, which can be labelled as ‘knowledge economy and/or society’. In this sense, intellectual capital, or knowledge assets, as the fourth factor of production, is replacing the other ones – job, land and capital. This article tries to offer the origins and nature of the firm’s IC that can be labelled as ‘An Intellectual Capital-Based View of the Firm Competition’. This framework tries to highlight the strategic role of different intangible assets like talented (...) and committed workers, cultural values, or long-term relationships among the firm and its stakeholders – customers, allies, suppliers and society in general – in gaining and sustaining competitive advantages, being the management of IC a key issue in the management agenda. (shrink)

Careful reading of John Dewey’s The Public and its Problems reveals a weak point at the stage when a given public became self-aware and proceeded to seek representation in the institutions of the state. Aside from a general emphasis on art and science, Dewey’s political theory offered no concrete discussion of the means suitable for this phase of the democratic process. Furthermore, the dichotomy between violence and the peaceful means of art and science left no space for the affirmation of (...) nonviolence – the method most capable of amplifying democracy during the decade following Dewey’s death. Accordingly, the article hypothesizes a novel rendition of nonviolence from the standpoint of Dewey’s understanding of art as social inquiry, compares it with Martin Luther King Jr.’s theory and practice of nonviolent dramatization, and ends by presenting a Deweyan reading of the civil rights movement in terms of the framework contained in The Public and its Problems. (shrink)

O embate do encontro: o currículo cultural da educação física como lugar de conflitos Resumo: Neste artigo, tenciona-se aproximar, problematizar e refletir sobre a relação entre duas divindades gregas: Dionísio e Apolo - e o Currículo Cultural da Educação Física. Buscamos amparo metodológico na criação filosófico conceitual, pois sua utilização pode redesenhar relações estabelecidas e permitir jogar com elementos distintos e, inicialmente, não aproximáveis. Influenciados por Dionísio, ao final, trazemos duas criações pedagógicas a fim de transgredir os limites dados pelo (...) "excesso de Apolo" na escrita acadêmica.Palavras-chave: Educação Física; Currículo Cultural; Filosofia. The fight of the meeting: the curriculum of physical education as a place of conflicts: In this article, we intend to approximate the relationship between two Greek deities: Dionysus and Apollo - and the Cultural Curriculum of Physical Education. We seek methodological support in the conceptual philosophical creation, as its use can redesign established relationships and allow us to play with different and, initially, not approximable elements. Influenced by Dionísio, at the end, we bring two pedagogical creations in order to transgress the limits given by the "excess of Apollo" in academic writing.Keywords: Physical Education; Cultural Curriculum; Philosophy. La lucha de la reunión: el currículo cultural de la educación física como lugar de conflictos Resumén: En este artículo, tenemos la intención de aproximar la relación entre dos deidades griegas: Dioniso y Apolo, y el Currículo Cultural de Educación Física. Buscamos apoyo metodológico en la creación filosófica conceptual, ya que su uso puede rediseñar las relaciones establecidas y nos permite jugar con elementos diferentes e, inicialmente, no aproximables. Influenciado por Dionísio, al final, traemos dos creaciones pedagógicas para transgredir los límites dados por el "exceso de Apolo" en la escritura académica.Palabras clave: Educación Física; Curriculum Cultural; Filosofia Data de registro: 02/03/2020Data de aceite: 05/08/2020. (shrink)

Le statut théorique du rapport cognitif entre sujet et objet a été refusé par Sartre depuis ses premiers textes phénoménologiques et surtout dans L?Être et le Néant . C?est justement le rapport existentiel et immédiat de la conscience au monde, c?est-à-dire la conscience (de) soi, qui nous donne le point le plus substantiel dans la description phénoménologique sartrienne de la liberté. La conscience est plongée dans le monde et elle ne peut jamais lui échapper. Toutefois, elle peut quand même essayer (...) de se cacher à elle-même dans une conduite de mauvaise foi, bien que dans ce cas elle soit vouée à l?échec. C?est à partir du concept de mauvaise foi que la morale même devient possible dans la pensée du Sartre phénoménologue. La possibilité de conversion est ce qui permet de la préciser et de la définir ; autrement dit, d?envisager l?authenticité de la conscience dans sa relation à autrui. La description de la conversion, c?est ce qui nous renvoie au sens moral de la liberté à travers son rapport pratique dans le monde. Nous essayerons de reconstituer brièvement le parcours qui a amené Sartre à cette idée fonda­mentale. 1. Le refus du théorétisme dans la philosophie existentielle sartrienne La phénoménologie sartrienne des années 1930 et même celle de L?Être et le Néant s?est développée dans un dialogue constant avec Husserl. Bien qu?une influence plus nette de Heidegger soit apparue plus tôt à partir. (shrink)

Dans une lettre à son épouse, Sade fait l'éloge de la bizarrerie et l’élève au rang de catégorie esthétique sous le nom de « principe de délicatesse ». Cela peut sembler paradoxal, comme l'a bien remarqué Michel Delon, que celui qui énonce le devoir de délicatesse est celui-là même dont le nom est devenu synonyme de brutalité. Le terme est en effet ambigu et possède dans l'oeuvre du marquis plusieurs sens: de l'échange de soins entre Juliette et sa maîtresse préférée (...) La Durand, en passant par une simple manie sexuelle, jusqu'à la fantaisie « la plus bizarre et la plus singulière de toutes », celle qui dépend d'une richesse fastueuse et qui ne s'achève que sur un tas de corps baignés de sang. Il s'agit d'abord d'examiner les différents sens du terme chez Sade ; puis d'analyser les interprétations que Roland Barthes, Annie Le Brun et Michel Delon donnent de la délicatesse scélérate ; enfin de mettre en évidence sa spécificité par rapport à la prodigalité luxurieuse. (shrink)

This work pres ents Ian Hack ing as a pi o neer of the shift to wards prac tice in the phi los o phy of sci ence. His think ing is marked by di verse net - works of con nec tions. Three as pects are em pha - sized: i) his con cept of lan guage, his tory and knowledge; ii) his position on experi..

Este trabajo explora en algunas obras de Maurice Merleau-Ponty la posibilidad de considerar el cuerpo como una máquina nerviosa, tomando como marco su crítica a la mentalidad cientificista y positivista. Para cumplir con este propósito se estudia la relación entre el cuerpo y el mundo, dando particular atención a las reflexiones vinculadas a la ciencia y la técnica. Las obras que serán protagonistas en esta exploración son La fenomenología de la percepción (1945), El mundo de la percepción (conjunto de conferencias (...) publicado en 1948 bajo el título Causeries ) y El ojo y el espíritu (último artículo publicado en su vida, en 1961). (shrink)

Résumé Comment peut-on être occidental? Les Amérindiens ne connaissent pas notre dualisme nature-culture, et ils s’en passent fort bien. Ils pensent et vivent la continuité.

The objective of this work is to set out three semantic methods for the analysis of ordinary discourse. These methods arose historically as a solution to certain problems such as those presented by Russell in “On denoting” and which, according to him, all semantic theory should be able to.solve...

RESUMEN La mecánica de Newton fue considerada durante siglos y de manera virtualmente universal como el modelo absoluto del conocimiento científico. Sin embargo, durante el siglo XX, los desarrollos en física suscitaron la necesidad de ampliar el marco conceptual y teórico en torno a aspectos fundamentales como el poder predictivo de los modelos científicos o el rol del observador en la descripción de los fenómenos físicos; esto, a su vez, revitalizó el antiguo debate entre el determinismo y el indeterminismo. En (...) la actualidad, la discusión disciplinaria, lejos de alcanzar un consenso, ha dado lugar a nuevos tipos de preguntas que reflejan un cambio en lo que Cassirer llama el ideal de conocimiento. A partir de una síntesis histórica del debate de las últimas décadas, el presente artículo busca señalar algunas perspectivas contemporáneas del indeterminismo en ciencia. ABSTRACT Newtonian mechanics was for centuries virtually universally regarded as the absolute model of scientific knowledge. However, during the 20th century, developments in physics prompted the need to broaden the conceptual and theoretical framework around fundamental issues such as the predictive power of scientific models or the role of the observer in the description of physical phenomena; this in turn revitalised the long-standing debate between determinism and indeterminism. Today, the disciplinary discussion, far from reaching a consensus, has given rise to new kinds of questions that reflect a change in what Cassirer calls the ideal of knowledge. From a historical synthesis of the debate of the last decades, the present article seeks to point out some contemporary perspectives on indeterminism in science. (shrink)

Originally published in 2004 in the Common Knowledge symposium “Talking Peace with Gods,” this article elaborates the nature and consequences of the perspectivist cosmologies of Amerindian societies. Contemporary Western cosmologies regard humans as ex-animals who became differentiated from other nonhuman species through the acquisition of advanced cognitive capacities. Amerindian cultures, by contrast, regard animals as ex-humans who became differentiated from both modern humans and other animal species via a series of physical adaptations. Underneath these physical differences, both humans and nonhumans (...) retain a shared human soul; what is more, each species perceives its own kind as human and all other kinds—including humans—as animals. Viveiros de Castro distinguishes this “perspectivism” from relativism: whereas Western relativism assumes multiple valid cultural models, Amerindian perspectivism holds that human and nonhuman species possess a common values system and cultural framework. While this commonality is ordinarily obscured by biologically grounded, perceptual differences, the gap in perspective may be bridged by shamans, whose gift of adopting nonhuman subjectivities enables them to see other species as they see themselves—namely, as humans partaking in human culture. Perspectivism influences both the practices that Amerindian peoples adopt toward nonhuman species and their attitudes toward other human groups, especially in the context of warfare. The Amerindian warrior’s capacity to overcome an enemy ultimately depends on a shaman-like entry into the subjectivity of another: rather than denying the personhood of his enemy, the Amerindian warrior must acknowledge the affinity between them. (shrink)

Despite the unquestionable importance of technological progress in twenty-first-century society, the decision by many political leaders worldwide to treat natural sciences as an almost exclusive priority betrays a terrible misconception of the complexity of the contemporary world. As the Renaissance cannot be reduced to Copernicus’s or Galileo’s brilliant contributions, or Enlightenment to the works of such giants as Newton and Cavendish, contemporary society will hardly be remembered as just a series of amazing software and gadget updates. There are three categories (...) of questions today that only humanities are prone to answer. The first one, exploring the relations between subject and object mediated by the meaning of “property”, ultimately concerns the discussion between legality and legitimacy. Not long ago, teenagers were still being sued by the giants of the Entertainment Industry for downloading songs, and the practice of mash-ups or remixing even now arouses huge polemics. The second one, focused on the self-representations of the subject, concerns the changing meanings (and representations) of identity and cultural borders in a globalizing world. Finally, the inter-subjective interactions are the centre of the political tensions between democracy and demagogy, two opposed categories that have often been presented as hardly distinguishable from each other. (shrink)