Nos societes ont evolue au cours du XXe siecle selon un mode de developpement qui n'est tout simplement pas viable a long terme et qui provoquera de graves crises environnementales. Nous faisons presentement face au defi crucial de la survie de l'humanite, nous en sommes de plus en plus conscients. Aussi, mon propos ne consistera pas a enumerer toutes les catastrophes ecologiques qui nous menacent si nous persistons dans la voie du developpement non durable. Je veux plutot soulever une serie (...) de reflexions et suggerer quelques principes qui peuvent guider nos efforts pour amorcer les necessaires changements. J'expose donc dans cet ouvrage les elements de politique que j'estime souhaitables et realisables pour prendre le virage vers ce que j'appelle le Quebec vert et bleu. Scott McKay. (shrink)

Le développement de la recherche et de l'expérimentation médicales à imposé l'idée d'un contrôle éthique de ces activités, confié aux soins de comités indépendants.De professions et d'origines diverses (médecin, infirmier, juriste, philosophe), les auteurs proposent ici leur réflexion et leurs témoignages sur ces comités : leur rôle, leurs règles de fonctionnement et leur composition.

Thoreau voyage au Bas-Canada en 1850 et laisse un récit traduit de son passage, Un Yankee au Canada. Il est frappé par les fortifications réelles et symboliques de Québec, par le militaire et la soutane noire. Sur la côte de Beaupré, au pays des chutes, il couche chez l'habitant et fait un voyage dans le temps. Lui, l'ermite de Walden et de Concord, vient en train avec un groupe organisé au moment où des centaines de Montréalais font le voyage en (...) sens inverse pour aller voir un spectacle de panorama à Boston! Emerson et Brownson donnent des conférences à Montréal et à Québec devant des publics anglophones irlandais et protestants. Les francophones s'intéressent à Brownson, le protestant converti au catholicisme qui a le verbe haut et polémique. Les hommes, les trains, les vapeurs, le spectacle et les idées circulent entre Boston et Montréal en 1850.--Publisher's description. (shrink)

On a peine à imaginer la secousse qu'a du provoquer la parution de ce premier livre de Claude Lévesque, en 1976, dans le milieu philosophique et littéraire au Québec, car toucher à l'écriture et à la lecture, c'est ébranler tout ce qui sert de socle à notre culture. Titre inaugural des éditions VLB, réédité deux ans plus tard dans la collection 10/18, cet ouvrage où nous interpellent Nietzsche, Freud, Blanchot et Derrida -- pour ne nommer que ceux-là -- libère, comme (...) dans un feu d'artifice, ce qui était en excès et en souffrance dans la conceptualité traditionnelle. En déposant un élément de rupture ou d'indécision dans tout ce qui cherche à se refermer sur soi, il veut susciter un nouveau désir, plus périlleux -- une nouvelle espérance, plus souveraine."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

Vilém Flusser was born in Prague. He emigrated to Brazil, where he taught philosophy and wrote a daily newspaper column in Sao Paulo, then later moved to France. He wrote several books in Portuguese and German. Writings, Into the Universe of Technical Images, and Does Writing Have a Future? have been published by the University of Minnesota Press, and the Shape of Things, Towards a Philosophy of Photography, and The Freedom of the Migrant have also been translated into English.

Bec explores the significance of gestures in Flusser’s work, linking them to Flusser’s writing activity as well as to Flusser himself. Through his gestures, his gesticulating, he moved to move others. The world manifests itself in gestures. New gestures may appear, influencing and changing how we relate to reality. The new gestures of photographing, filming, and videotaping will alter our ways of existence in that they anticipate a new cybernetic form of life.

Vampyroteuthis infernalis is perhaps the most important, certainly the most public, result of Bec’s and Flusser’s collaboration that lasted for more than fifteen years. Bec here presents the starting points of the publication and what the different zoosystemic plates included were supposed to signal. Each one of the abysmal creatures invented by Bec is supposed to mirror a different aspect of Flusser’s thinking.

This theory accords to volitions the status of basic mental actions, maintaining that these are spontaneous exercises of the will--a "two-way" power which ...

Resumo Apresentaremos neste artigo uma breve discussão acerca das influências do comunitarismo cristão na vida social e política brasileira. Trata-se de um ensaio exploratório. O objetivo é uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema. A partir daquilo que foi possível selecionar, tentamos elaborar algumas ideias, no sentido de apresentar, mesmo que sucintamente, tópicos que podem indicar a importância do comunitarismo cristão, tradição forte e influente não somente nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas que, sobretudo no atual contexto político, ainda desempenha (...) um papel central na sociedade brasileira. Recorte especial é a análise sobre as influências do comunitarismo nas ações da Igreja Católica, no Brasil. Assim, a Teologia da Libertação e as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (CEBs) derivariam do pensamento comunitarista. Por fim, o comunitarismo cristão é apresentado como uma reação ao neoliberalismo, por priorizar "o valor inelutável da dignidade e da transcendência humana e uma resistência insuperável a deixar engolfar o destino humano em uma lógica mercantil, de individualismo possessivo. Essa tradição, em grande medida identificada com as posições hoje encarnadas pela CNBB, é responsável por vastas experiências de solidariedade entre os pobres e oprimidos brasileiros". Palavras-chave: Comunitarismo cristão; Igreja Católica; Ação social; Política; Movimentos sociais.This article discusses briefly the influences of Christian Communitarianism on Brazilian social and political life. It is an exploratory essay aimed at a bibliographical review of the subject. Based on what was possible to select, we tried to elaborate some ideas to present topics that may indicate the importance of Christian Communitarianism, a strong and influent tradition, not only in the 1960s and 1970s, but especially in the current political context, still playing a central role in Brazilian society. A special point is the analysis of the influences of Communitarianism on actions of the Catholic Church in Brazil. Thus, the Theology of Liberation and the Base Ecclesial Communities (BECs) could have derived from the communitarian thought. Finally, Christian Communitarianism is presented as a reaction against neoliberalism, as it gives priority to "the inestimable value of human dignity and transcendence and an insuperable resistance to let human destiny be engulfed by a mercantile logic of possessive individualism. This tradition, largely identified with the positions assumed by CNBB, is responsible for vast experiences of solidarity between the Brazilian poor and oppressed". Key words: Christian Communitarianism; Catholic Church; Social action; Politics; Social movements. (shrink)

Resumo A entrada dos cristãos e cristãs na luta política de libertação dos pobres e excluídos é a grande novidade da(s) Igreja(s) na América Latina e no Caribe. Com base em Medellín (1968), por meio de uma recepção criativa do Concílio Vaticano II, a vivência e a compreensão da fé cristã têm experimentado uma nova dinâmica. As comunidades eclesiais de base (CEBs) e a Teologia da Libertação favorecem um novo modo de se assumir o compromisso social visando à construção de (...) uma sociedade diferente, pautada na justiça e na solidariedade. Compreende-se que entre evangelização e libertação há laços muito fortes. A obra de evangelização não pode negligenciar os graves problemas que afetam a vida das pessoas e da natureza: desemprego, exclusão social, violência, devastação da natureza. Os cristãos e cristãs são chamados para contribuir na transformação da sociedade, a partir de sua fé e de sua prática pastoral. Essa contribuição visa colaborar na construção de um projeto de nação que se aproxime dos valores explicitados nas lutas populares. Isso requer o uso de instrumentos capazes de proporcionar a participação cidadã na busca de uma sociedade justa, fraterna, solidária e respeitadora da vida das pessoas e da natureza. Palavras-chave: Evangelização; Libertação; Democracia; Movimentos populares; Prática social; Projeto de nação.The participation of Christian men and women in the political fight to free the poor and excluded is the great news in the Church(es) in Latin America and the Caribbean. After Medellín (1968), with a creative reception from Vatican Council II, the experience and understanding of Christian faith has acquired a new dynamics. Basic ecclesial communities (BECs) and the Theology of Liberation favor a new way of being socially committed to the construction of a different society, inspired by justice and solidarity. It is clear that solid bonds connect evangelization and liberation. The work of evangelization cannot neglect serious problems that affect people's life and nature: unemployment, social exclusion, violence, devastation of the environment. Christian men and women are invited to offer their contribution to the transformation of society based on faith and pastoral practice. It will contribute to the construction of a nation project in harmony with the values of popular fights, which requires the use of instruments capable of fostering the citizens' participation in search of a just and fraternal society that respects people's life and nature. Key words: Evangelization; Liberation; Democracy; Popular movements; Social practice; Project of a nation. (shrink)

We argue that the trend toward providing users with feasible and actionable explanations of AI decisions—known as recourse explanations—comes with ethical downsides. Specifically, we argue that recourse explanations face several conceptual pitfalls and can lead to problematic explanation hacking, which undermines their ethical status. As an alternative, we advocate that explanations of AI decisions should aim at understanding.

When we perceive an object, we perceive the object from a perspective. As a consequence of the perspectival nature of perception, when we perceive, say, a circular coin from different angles, there is a respect in which the coin looks circular throughout, but also a respect in which the coin's appearance changes. More generally, perception of shape and size properties has both a constant aspect—an aspect that remains stable across changes in perspective—and a perspectival aspect—an aspect that changes depending on (...) one's perspective on the object. How should we account for the perspectival aspect of spatial perception? We present a framework within which to discuss the perspectival aspect of perception and put forward three desiderata that any account of the perspectival aspect of perception should satisfy. We discuss views on which the perspectival aspect of perception is analyzed in terms of constitutively mind-dependent appearance properties as well as views on which the perspectival aspect of perception is analyzed in terms of representations of mind-independent perspectival properties. (shrink)

With special emphasis on Foucault's many recently published lecture series this book provides an updated, comprehensive presentation of his most important diagnoses, his many ground-breaking analytical concepts as well as a systematic account of his unique conception of philosophy.

First published in 1818, The World as Will and Representation contains Schopenhauer's entire philosophy, ranging through epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, aesthetics and philosophy of art, to ethics, the meaning of life and the philosophy of religion, in an attempt to account for the world in all its significant aspects. It gives a unique and influential account of what is and is not of value in existence, the striving and pain of the human condition and the possibility of (...) deliverance from it. This new translation of the first volume of what later became a two-volume work reflects the eloquence and power of Schopenhauer's prose and renders philosophical terms accurately and consistently. It offers an introduction, glossary of names and bibliography, and succinct editorial notes, including notes on the revisions of the text which Schopenhauer made in 1844 and 1859. (shrink)

Criticism on Bhagavadgītā, Hindu sacred work.

The Anthropocene is heralded as a new epoch distinguishing itself from all foregoing eons in the history of the Earth. It is characterized by the overarching importance of the human species in a number of respects, but also by the recognition of human dependence and precariousness. A critical human turn affecting the human condition is still in the process of arriving in the wake of an initial Copernican Revolution and Kant's ensuing second Copernican Counter-revolution. Within this landscape, issues concerning the (...) human - its finitude, responsiveness, responsibility, maturity, auto-affection and relationship to itself - appear rephrased and re-accentuated as decisive probing questions. In this book Sverre Raffnsøe explores how the change has ramifications for the kinds of knowledge that can be acquired concerning human beings and for the human sciences as a study of human existential beings in the world. (shrink)

Etienne Gilson Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages, first delivered as the Richard Lectures in 1937, was published in 1938 and became an immediate success. Not only does it contribute to a major question of debate in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic philosophy and religion in the medieval period but it also insists on the validity of truth obtainable through reason as well as revelation, on rational argument alongside religious faith. This message is as important in the twenty-first century as (...) it was in the fourth century of the young Augustine, the thirteenth of St Thomas Aquinas, and the twentieth of the mature Gilson. (shrink)

Neste livro Gombrich discute as idéias e as posturas específicas que tiveram influência decisiva na prática da arte renascentista. Todos os estudos aqui reunidos tratam de algo a que se pode chamar clima renascentista de opiniões sobre a arte, além da influência desse clima sobre a prática e a crítica da arte.

A dialogue between a foreign philosopher and a powerful statesman outline Plato's reflections on the family, the status of women, property rights, and criminal law.

L'art, loin des habitudes qui figent tout réel élan créateur, est la jeunesse du monde. Il a tout à créer. Tout à construire, tout à proposer. Les temps de l'art mimétique comme ceux de l'art visionnaire sont révolus, pour laisser place à ceux de l'intuition. Cet ouvrage revendique ainsi la liberté de s'imposer des règles, de nouvelles règles et préconise un art de l'intuition, un art de la sensibilité, qui puisse s'exprimer avec spontanéité, une spontanéité qu'il n'est possible d'obtenir qu'après (...) un long travail. L'art ne doit plus être pensé comme une intention. Suivant ce principe, le scénario dans le récit doit être abandonné. Du point de vue de la forme, la poésie doit pouvoir mélanger dans le même poème vers libres. vers en prose, versets et alexandrins, selon le souhait du poète. De même, il faut oser une autre forme de peinture, qui ne soit ni figurative, ni abstraite, mais intuitive, née du flou ou de l'éblouissement, de la fulgurance intuitive! Franchir les frontières, à commencer par celles de l'intolérance, en faisant dialoguer et se croiser différentes disciplines artistiques, pour aller vers un espace pluriartistique, ouvre ainsi de nouvelles perspectives de création."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)