Believing Philosophy introduces Christians to philosophy and the tools it offers believers, helping them understand, articulate, and defend their faith in an age of unbelief.

Erik Wielenberg recently invoked the parent-child analogy in an argument against Christian theism. The argument relies on the claim that a loving parent would never allow her child to feel abandoned in the midst of what feels like gratuitous suffering. In this paper, I offer three clear counterexamples to Wielenberg’s central premise. At the same time, a successful counterexample does not a robust theology of suffering make. To that end, and with a careful eye towards anti-theodical concerns, I defend the (...) need for a more proactive Christian philosophical examination of the role of suffering in a meaningful life. (shrink)

This paper reflects on the notion and structural components of two concepts: the human condition and human nature. Likewise, it is proposed that both concepts should be included in the basic themes not only in the field of Educational Philosophy, but also in all disciplines where the human being occupies a privileged place. Human condition is understood as a state of subjection to everything with which human beings interact and represents the starting point to ascend to three natures that correspond (...) to human beings. Hegel emphasizes two natures of man. The first is characterized by having a biological structure governed by instincts. The second is culture and to ascend to it requires processes of intellection that can be objectified through consciousness. The third human nature proposed in this paper is rooted in Ernst Bloch’s principle of hope. It is materialized by human actions tending to the construction of the future from the discovery of what is not-yet-conscious that, when identified, is achieved through actions. (shrink)

This article discusses the Australian government’s immigration policies in the context of the global refugee crisis in the years 2015–2016, as reflected and dramatised through the polemical novel b...

Mathematics educators suggest that students of all ages need to participate in productive forms of mathematical argument (NCTM, 2000). Accordingly, we developed two complementary frameworks for analyzing the emergence of mathematical argumentation in one second‐grade classroom. Children attempted to resolve contesting claims about the “space covered” by three different‐looking rectangles of equal area measure. Our first analysis renders the topology of the semantic structure of the classroom conversation as a directed graph. The graph affords clear “at a glance” visualization of (...) how various senses of mathematics—as imagined, as performed, and as historically rooted—were interrelated. The graph represents the emergence and intercoordination between conceptual and procedural knowledge in the ebb and flow of classroom conversation. The graph has not just descriptive, but also predictive power: Interconnectedness among the nodes of the graph representing the first 40 min of conversation predicted the structure of recall in the final ten minutes by children who had played little overt role in the conversation up to that point. The second, complementary framework draws upon Goffman's expanded repertoire of roles in speech to demonstrate how the teacher orchestrated this classroom conversation to establish coherent argument. In this second analysis, we establish how the teacher mediated between the everyday talk of her students and the discourse of mathematics. Her revoicing of student talk created interstices for identity and participation in the formation of the argument. Together, the two forms of analysis illuminate the emergence of mathematical argument at two levels: as collective structure and concurrently, as individual activity. (shrink)

A translation of a dialogue between Evelyne Grossman and Jacob Rogozinski on Artaud, Deleuze, and the status of the ego.

Jean-Luc Nancy est reconnu aujourd’hui comme l’un des plus importants philosophes français contemporains. Ces dernières années, son œuvre a fait l’objet, en France et dans plusieurs pays étrangers, de rencontres suivies de publications. Il était temps qu’un colloque international consacré à son travail ait lieu à l’Université de Strasbourg, où il a enseigné pendant plus de trente ans. Ce colloque s’est tenu en novembre 2015 avec la participation de Jean-Luc Nancy qui l’a accompagné de sa prés...

Women's equality claims have occupied the forefront of the European debate on face-veil bans; most claims have been denounced as mere manipulation for anti-Islamic and/or anti-immigrant political agendas, and the dilemma between anti-sexist and anti-racist struggles has been argued to be false. This article examines how opportunistic manipulation of gender equality claims and the ‘ethnicisation’ of sexism have been assessed and confronted in the scholarly debate opposing the bans, as well as the impact that this debate has had on women's (...) equality claims and the intersectionality issue. I argue that the women's oppression argument has not been fully considered, because it would have disrupted the anti-racist struggle due to unresolved problems with understanding intersectionality. (shrink)

O artigo ten como obxectivo facer un percorrido por tres momentos da escritura filosófica no que o fenómeno do límite ou fronteira do pensamento se pon claramente de manifesto no discurso. En primeiro lugar, Kant, como artífice da produtiva noción dunha “fronteira [Grenze]” da razón como condición e límite do pensamento; en segundo lugar, Hegel, como o seu máximo crítico na “asunción [Aufhebung]” da negación da fronteira kantiana; e, finalmente, Kierkegaard, cuxa contribución á discusión dos seus predecesores consiste no “pathos (...) [Lidenskab]” do límite que Kant demarca e Hegel supera, pois no caso do pensador dinamarqués o límite da filosofía é ao mesmo tempo paradoxo, é dicir, algo que non pode ser coñecido senón tan só re-coñecido pola razón e que pon xustamente a razón no seu límite. (shrink)

Research traditions on cognition and depression focus on relatively unconnected aspects of cognitive functioning. On one hand, the neuropsychological perspective has concentrated on cognitive control difficulties as a prominent feature of this condition. On the other hand, the clinical psychology perspective has focused on cognitive biases and repetitive negative patterns of thinking for emotional information. A review of the literature from both fields reveals that difficulties are more evident for mood-congruent materials, suggesting that cognitive control difficulties interact with cognitive biases (...) to hinder cognitive switching, working memory updating, and inhibition of irrelevant information. Connecting research from these two traditions, we propose a novel integrative cognitive model of depression in which the interplay between mood-congruent cognitive control difficulties, cognitive biases, and rumination may ultimately lead to ineffective emotion-regulation strategies to downregulate negative mood and upregulate positive mood. (shrink)

In the present interview, Jacob Rogozinski elucidates the main concepts and theses he developed in his latest book dedicated to the issue of modern jihadism. On this occasion, he explains his disagreements with other philosophical (Badiou, Baudrillard, Žižek) and anthropological (Girard) accounts of Islamic terrorism. Rogozinski also explains that although jihadism betrays Islam, it nonetheless has everything to do with Islam. Eventually, he describes his own philosophical journey which led him from a phenomenological study of the ego and (...) the flesh to the study of past (witch-hunts, French Reign of Terror) and contemporary (jihadism) terror apparatuses. (shrink)

Adolescent-to-Parent Violence or Child-to-Parent Violence is a specific form of violence that has remained inconspicuous until recently, but is becoming a mounting social issue and is increasingly the focus of scientific research. Of the variables related to APV, the study assessed the characteristics of the family system and its relationship to the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents, an aspect scarcely examined in the literature. Thus, a field study was performed on a community sample of 210 adolescents aged 12–17 years who were (...) assessed on measurements of APV, parenting, victimization, and psychological adjustment. The results revealed higher rates of psychological APV, and no gender effects in violence exercised against either parent. The adolescents involved in APV exhibited a greater psychological maladjustment in the different areas under analysis. Moreover, adolescents engaging in psychological APV reported a parental socialization style characterized by severe strictness and supervision in comparison to non-aggressors not implicated in psychological APV. Finally, adolescents exercising APV who were victimized by their parents showed more psychological, personal, and school maladjustment. These results have implications for needs analysis and the planning of community prevention strategies. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objectivo fazer uma reflexão sobre o motto, o prólogo e a introdução a O conceito de Angústia (1844) de Søren Kierkegaard. Longe de serem meros preâmbulos, estes textos constituent importantes chaves de leitura para a obra que encabeçam. Na verdade, a distinção socrática entre o que se sabe e o que não se sabe do motto de O conceito de angústia transforma-se no argumento propriamente dito da obra. A partir desta distinção, Kierkegaard desenvolve a sua (...) crítica contra a confusão moderna das ciências, ao mesmo tempo que propõe uma nova divisão em ordem a poder situar legitimamente a questão do pecado. Em vez de conceber o pecado de maneira especulativa, a psicologia da angústia é apresentada como a única disciplina em que propriamente se pode tratar o problema do pecado e, ao mesmo tempo, ser consciente da sua incompreensibilidade. /// The objective of this article is to think about the motto, preface and introduction to Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety (1844). Far from being mere preambles, these texts constitute the reading key for the book they lead. As a matter of fact, the Socratic distinction between what we understand and what we do not understand from The concept of Anxiety's motto becomes the philosophical argument of the work. From this distinction, Kierkegaard carries out a critique against the modern confusion of sciences and at the same time proposes a new arrangement in which to place legitimately the problem of sin. Instead of conceiving sin in a speculative way, the psychology of anxiety shows itself to be the only discipline able to deal properly with the question of sin and to be conscious of its mysterious dimension. (shrink)

Ego sum moribundus, or Heidegger's call -- I am the dead person I see in the mirror, or Lacan's subject -- Return to Descartes -- the equivocations of phenomenology -- The field of immanence -- The carnal synthesis, the chiasm -- How touching touches itself touching : the (im)possibility of the chiasm -- In contact with the untouchable : the remainder -- This is (not) my body : the remainder of incorporation -- Beyond the other -- The crisis of the (...) chiasm -- From hatred to love -- From archi-agony to resurrection -- Toward deliverance (instasy). (shrink)

Among the most enduring taboos, those related to the human body are the most enduring, throughout history. Be it its re/presentation of exploration, it constituted for most cultures and epochs a very sensitive subject, ever evolving and changing, but perennially raw and open to debate and discussion. With the advent of new technologies sustaining and infiltrating society, the body is seen, explored and represented in new ways that can be, simultaneously, interpreted either as transgressive or respectful of taboos, depending on (...) the point of view or the current social norms. The question is: are we able to transcend transgression of taboos through our work or are we still far from achieving it? Our tools are computer-generated simulations based on patient-collected data. Building our arguments on Foucault’s Birth of the Clinic (1973) analysis, we approach the evolution of our own research as a ‘case study’. In the age of the life-support, stem-cell therapy and 3D organ printing, is computer simulation mimicking or mirroring organic life and phenomena, or is it creating a debatable simulacrum? From reducing the human body to a series of equations that lead to depersonalization and loss of self, to tailored modelling based on patient-collected biological data, the computer simulations took a variety of guises. At each point of the way, confronting the taboos, conventions and through controlled transgressions of established rules, we strived to transcend all historic limitations and update, adjust and fine-tune the technology and its uses to better suit the clinicians’ pursuits. (shrink)

Biobanking in Europe has made major steps towards harmonization and shared standards for the collection and processing of data and samples stored in biobanks. Still, biobanks and researchers face substantial legal difficulties in the field of data protection and sample management. Data protection law was harmonized almost 15 years ago while rights in samples fall under the competence of the Member States of the EU. Despite the Data Protection Directive the field of data protection shows a substantial degree of deviation (...) as public health was excluded from the harmonization. Biobanks seem to have substantially fewer difficulties to cope with in terms of the legal requirements in the field of sample management. This paper discusses the legal framework, experiences of different biobanks in Europe and potential ways forward. It also highlights the need for a health economic analysis of the costs and benefits of privacy protection in Europe. At the moment, policymakers seem to build their decisions on an insufficient evidence base which underestimates the potential value of biobanks for European public health. Within the past few years little progress has been achieved with regards to the development of a unified legal framework in Europe, The diversity in the legal system is also reflected in the different approaches of ethics committees towards biobanking. To secure the responsible and effective use of data and samples, more efforts are needed to come up with pathways for a solution. (shrink)

Son diversos los motivos que justifican analizar, de forma separada, la depresión y los trastornos de ansiedad en personas mayores con respecto a adultos más jóvenes. Podemos enumerar, entre los más relevantes, los siguientes: (1) sintomatología diferencial que puede dificultar el diagnóstico en la vejez; (2) infradeclaración clínica, consecuencia del efecto negativo de los estereotipos de la edad sobre la población mayor y los profesionales que los tratan; (3) mayor cronificación de los síntomas, debido a un posible diagnóstico tardío; (4) (...) mayor impacto funcional, ya que ambos trastornos se pueden asociar a diversas patologías, como anemia o diabetes (en la depresión) o presión arterial, úlcera o problemas cardiovasculares ( en la ansiedad), produciéndose una interacción recíproca entre la sintomatología psicológica y física que exacerba ambos tipos de problemáticas. (shrink)

Que la población mayor está bien ajustada emocionalmente es algo bien constatado en la investigación gerontológico. Este dato, puesto en relación con otros, genera una curiosa consecuencia: la denominada "Paradoja del bienestar en la vejez". Con la edad, junto al aumento de circunstancias relativas a pérdidas (de parientes, amigos, funcionamiento físico y roles sociales) se da una estabilidad en las puntuaciones de diversos indicadores de bienestar psicológico (expresión de emociones positivas, prevalencia de trastornos depresivos o ansiedad). Los aspectos explicativos que (...) se esgrimen para despejar esta paradoja son, entre otros, la mejora de mecanismos de autorregulación emocional y el carácter gradual y normativo de dichas pérdidas (Márquez-González, 2008 y Fernández-Ballesteros, 2009). (shrink)

En este trabajo, se analizan los modos en que se define, vivencia y valoriza el trabajo en experiencias de organización colectiva de la economía popular. Partimos de poner en diálogo resultados de dos investigaciones etnográficas desarrolladas junto a dos organizaciones nucleadas en la Confederación/Unión de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular. Mientras que los estudios sobre estas experiencias señalaron que la apelación a un sujeto trabajador constituyó la base del proceso de formulación de demandas por derechos hacia el Estado, aquí buscaremos (...) dar cuenta del modo en que la construcción de una definición ampliada del trabajo permea las prácticas cotidianas de quienes integran las organizaciones. Recuperando perspectivas antropológicas que propusieron repensar el trabajo más allá de modelos económicos hegemónicos y aportes de la economía feminista, buscaremos mostrar que tanto las prácticas desarrolladas en las unidades productivas como sus modos de interactuar con el Estado evidencian la imbricación de lo que habitualmente se conceptualiza como productivo y reproductivo, laboral y comunitario, y dan lugar a una reinvención de aquello que se entiende como “trabajo” y en particular como trabajos que valen o son considerados “productivos”. Sostenemos que estas formas de valorizar, jerarquizar y disputar qué es trabajo y qué trabajos son socialmente relevantes constituye la base de la reivindicación del valor de quienes los llevan adelante en su lucha por el reconocimiento de sus derechos. (shrink)

In Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God, Harold Netland advances a critical-trust approach to religious experience. This approach raises important questions about what Michael Martin has called “negative religious experiences.” Netland responds by attacking Martin’s “negative principle of credulity,” but I argue that Netland’s response can be undermined if we take negative religious experiences not as experiences of God as absent, but as experiences of the world as godless. On this understanding, there is no need for a negative principle (...) of credulity; the ordinary principle still applies and puts pressure on Netland’s response. I then raise concerns with Netland’s “argument from fulfilled expectations,” even as part of a cumulative case argument. Ultimately, I propose that careful attention to the impact of Christ on our Western moral framework might help to resolve both concerns. (shrink)

This article explores André-Marie Ampère's autobiography in order to analyse the dynamics of science in early 19th century French institutions. According to recent works that have emphasised the value of biographies in the history of science, this study examines Ampère's public self-representation to show the cultural transformations of a life dedicated to science in post-revolutionary French society. With this aim, I have interpreted this manuscript as an outstanding example of the scientific rhetoric flourishing in early 19th century French Romanticism, which (...) celebrated the life and works of men of science by means of biographies. Following this approach, Ampère's account has been analysed in relation to certain commonplaces shared with other autobiographies of that time, such as his traumatic experience linked to the French Revolution. Finally, this article discusses Ampère's autobiography as revealing an emerging model of scientific personae, i.e. a new collective way of thinking, feeling and perceiving, which announced the category of the modern scientist. (shrink)

The anthropological and religious interest for the raven is present in Buddhism, in biblical stories, in North and Greek mythologies, in Arthurian legend and in Spanish epic. The occultism attributed to the raven the mission of guidance of dead human souls after death. This article tracks how the raven transfers its occult connotations to the poetic symbol analyzing the poem«The Raven» by EdgarAlan Poe in its cultural and aesthetic context. Charles Baudelaire and the French symbolists dignified the intertextual evolution of (...) Poe’s symbol and transferred it to LatinAmerican and Spanish modernists. These poets used the raven not only as a symbol but mainly as a recurrent motif or poetic topos. Even though the occultist influence appears ‘scattered’ in the process of the creative experience of this symbol, it does not take away its existence. The occultist influence of the raven explains the ultimatemeaning of some verses and clarifies the exceptions and contradictions that appear in many poems. (shrink)

This article provides a discussion of the concepts of politics, sovereignty and man in the thinking of CARL SCHMITT and THOMAS HOBBES, clarifying certain similarities and differences between the two authors. It attempts to understand the well-known theory of the German author concerning that which is political, as drawn from the struggle and distinction between friend/foe in light of the threat posed by the Hobbesian state of nature and the meaning of war. These ideas call for a State that does (...) not arise as the result of a contract, but from unity based on exclusions, according to SCHMITT. The Acerca de los conceptos de política Dolores Marcos y soberanía en Carl Schmitt y Thomas Hobbes need for an absolute power that can protect and coerce connects with certain features of HOBBES´ Leviathan. Finally, the conflictive dimension of man is understood as essential for the political realm, which is based, precisely, on egotistical and dange rous features in human beings. Understanding this sphere turns out to be essential for developing an approach to the resolution of conflicts. (shrink)

I draw a phenomenological approach to religious violence by using as an example the terror apparatus called Daesh. After a brief reminder of my method, I analyze the schemas that underlie this apparatus, especially the schemas of the messiah and the Apocalypse, and the affects that the apparatus manages to capture. I show that messianic hope can be associated with hate through the figure of the anti-messiah—Christian Antichrist, the Dajjal of Muslims—which allows messianism to be tied to the schema of (...) the “evil conspiracy.” I finally suggest that it is possible to understand messianism differently by dissociating it from these other schemas. (shrink)

Believing Philosophy Video Lectures introduces Christians to the tools and resources of philosophy, helping them understand, articulate, and defend their faith in an age of unbelief. Dolores G. Morris first explains why Christians should read and study philosophy. She begins by introducing learners to the long tradition of Christian philosophy and then explains the basic resources of philosophical reasoning: the role and aim of reason; distinctions between truth, reason, and provability; learning to read like a philosopher; and the fundamentals of (...) philosophical arguments. In the remaining sessions, Morris explores a sampling of philosophical topics relevant to the Christian faith. These lessons focus on the problem of evil and the moral argument for the existence of God. The problem of evil is often invoked as an argument for atheism. In response, the moral argument considers the reality not only of evil but also of moral values in general as evidence for the existence of God. In evaluating these arguments, Morris introduces students to a variety of Christian philosophical positions, including skeptical theism, the free will defense, Reformed epistemology, Christian ethical theories, and a number of theodicies and defenses of the faith. (shrink)

I trace the principles known as the indiscernibility of identicals, "Leibniz's Law", and the principle of substitutivity, beginning with Aristotle, through Leibniz, Frege, and Russell, and culminating in Quine. I argue that the indiscernibility of identicals is an ontological principle and the principle of substitutivity is a linguistic principle. I discuss the relations and conflations of the principles and various attempts to defend the principle of substitutivity from apparent counter-examples, focussing on Quine's attempt to use the principle as a criterion (...) for referential and non-referential occurrences of singular terms. I find Quine's acount ambivalent and counter-intuitive, yet I think his insight that pronouns or variables are paradigmatic of reference is significant. With that as a cue, I suggest an analysis of all singular terms into a counting device and an identifying component. I argue, finally, that the principle of substitutivity holds fundamentally for the counting element, and only "by courtesy" for unanalyzed singular terms. (shrink)

Frente a la violencia contra las mujeres se han generado,gracias al feminismo, una infinidad de normas que tratan de ponerle límite. No obstante esta violencia no cesa. Para el feminismo la violencia contra las mujeres no es otra cosa que la consecuencia de la dominación del macho impuesta por la cultura patriarcal. Pero hoy, en las democracias occidentales, es imposible seguir sosteniendo el mito del macho dominador propio de la era patriarcal. Hoy asistimos a un declive de lo viril concomitante (...) a la caída del Padre. La actual violencia contra las mujeres no puede explicarse por el régimen patriarcal, pero tampoco por la caída del padre, porque esta violencia ha existido en todas las épocas. La verdadera cuestión no es el Padre sino el malentendido entre los goces. Mientras que el goce todo fálico se centra en la apropiación del objeto, en lo que puede ser localizado, nombrado, medido, el goce no- todo fálico, que Lacan llama femenino, pero que también pueden experimentar algunos hombres, se presenta como sin medida, irreductible, no solo a un órgano, sino a la palabra misma. Ante la angustia suscitada frente a lo real de este goce Otro imposible de ser simbolizado, la violencia masculina es un intento ferozmente patológico de colonizar este goce innombrable. El pasaje al acto violento viene en el lugar de una palabra imposible de decir. Frente al recurso al acto violento que cortocircuita la palabra, el psicoanálisis es una invitación a poner en palabras este goce que perturba a cada ser hablante. No para decirlo todo, lo cual es imposible, sino para hacer con este imposible de decir otra cosa que la destrucción del otro y/ o la autodestrucción. (shrink)