When Anquetil-Duperron landed at Pondicherry in 1755, in search of the sacred books of the “Indous et des Parses” (“Hindus and Parsees”), he surely had no idea that he was inaugurating a new discipline, Indianism. He returned to France in 1761, laden with a whole library of Indian texts which he was to spend the rest of his life deciphering. That year was a turning point in Indian history: the Marathes, on the verge of becoming the dominant power of the (...) entire Indian continent, were crushed in Panipat, north of Delhi, by the armies of an Afhgan invasion, and this catastrophe halted their advance for a while. During the same year, in the south of India, Lally-Tollendal was beaten and taken prisoner by the English, thereby destroying the French dream, shared by Dupleix and Bussy, of creating an Indian empire for themselves. (shrink)

O artigo busca refletir sobre a trajetória do filósofo francês Jean-Paul Sartre e sobre os elementos encontrados em suas reflexões que podem inspirar um fazer para a psicologia clínica no contemporâneo. Neste esforço, partiremos de um olhar para a biografia de Sartre desde seus primeiros anos até a compreensão da inexorável conexão entre existente e mundo. Olhando para a noção de engajamento defendida por Sartre, apontaremos para algumas questões políticas e sociais as quais ele correspondeu em seu tempo. Em seguida, (...) olharemos para questões contemporâneas que suas proposições nos auxiliam a pensar e em como sua filosofia nos acena para caminhos possíveis para um fazer clínico que seja engajado no horizonte histórico que é o nosso. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, argumentamos ser a proposta historiográfica de Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (1932-2021), presente em seu Programa Etnomatemática, capaz de nos apoiar nos processos de valorização da historicidade e da diversidade cultural brasileiras. Partindo de uma pesquisa teórica, de abordagem qualitativa e bibliográfica, utilizamos alguns aspectos da perspectiva de D’Ambrosio para fazer o estudo de um episódio histórico do século XVII, baseado na tradução de um livro publicado em 1614 por um missionário francês, que participou do projeto de colonização do Brasil no (...) que ficou conhecido como França Equinocial. Nesse sentido, ao final, apresentamos uma discussão de três trechos dessa tradução que evidenciam conhecimentos astronômicos de um grupo Tupinambá que vivia no Maranhão nessa época. Com isso, buscamos oferecer subsídios para que docentes de Ciências e Física implementem propostas na Educação Básica na perspectiva das Histórias das Ciências especializadas, buscando evitar estereótipos e abordagens ingênuas, de modo a ir ao encontro, por exemplo, da Lei 11.645/2008, a qual exige a inclusão de estudos sobre história e cultura afro-brasileira e indígena em todo o currículo escolar do Brasil. (shrink)

RESUME Dans cet article, j’aborde la perspective idéaliste de la « Phénoménologie de la perception » pour montrer que, dans cet ouvrage, l’expérience du corps propre est décrite à partir de la vision du cogito. Pour expliciter cet idéalisme, j’analyse la principale voix donnée au corps au début de la pensée de Merleau-Ponty: la voix pathologique. Les troubles de Schneider rendent explicite son impuissance symbolique, et cette impuissance est vraiment l’impuissance du corps. Le sujet malade est un être soumis à (...) la normativité immédiate de la vie, raison par laquelle il peut découvrir à chaque moment la finitude et la fragilité de l’existence. J’évoque par contre les notes du cours au Collège de France, de 1954-1955, sur la passivité et les cours sur la Nature, de 1957-1958, lorsque Merleau-Ponty examine la vie et la naissance du sens à partir d’une perspective tout à fait différente. J’analyse aussi la lecture qu’il a faite du « cas Dora » pour montrer que le philosophe trouve dans l’hystérie une expérience symbolique très particulière. Cette expérience exige la compréhension de la puissance symbolique du corps propre, l’abandon de la position idéaliste et la découverte du pouvoir de l’hystérique de narrer l’expérience de l’être. ABSTRACT In this article, I approach the idealistic perspective of the “Phenomenology of Perception” to show that in that work the experience of the body is described from a vision of the cogito. To explain this idealism, I asses the main voice given to the body in the beginning of the thought of Merleau-Ponty: the pathological voice. Schneider’s disturbances make explicit its symbolic powerlessness, and that powerlessness is in fact the body’s powerlessness. The sick is a being submitted to the immediate normativity of life, reason by which he can find out at every moment the finitude and fragility of existence. On the other hand, I evoke the course notes from Collège de France, of 1954-1955, about passivity, and the courses about Nature, of 1957-1958, when Merleau-Ponty analyses life and the birth in the sense from an entirely different perspective. Also, I analyze the reading of what he to “case Dora” to show that the philosopher finds in hysteria a very particular symbolic experience. This experience requires understanding the symbolic power of the body itself, the abandonment of the idealist position and the discovery of the power of the hysteric of narrating the experience of being. (shrink)

This paper examines one of the central objections levied against neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics: the self-absorption objection. Proponents of this objection state that the main problem with neo-Aristotelian accounts of moral motivation is that they prescribe that our ultimate reason for acting virtuously is that doing so is for the sake of and/or is constitutive of our own eudaimonia. In this paper, I provide an overview of the various attempts made by neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists to address the self-absorption objection and argue (...) that they all fall short for one reason or another. I contend that the way forward for neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists is to reject the view that the virtuous agent ought to organize her life in a way that is ultimately good for her, and instead adopt a more expansive conception of her ultimate end, one in which no special preference is given to her own good. (shrink)

The renewed engagement with Aristotle’s concept of practical wisdom in management and organization studies is reflective of the wider turn towards practice sweeping across many disciplines. In this sense, it constitutes a welcome move away from the traditional rationalist, abstract, and mechanistic modes of approaching ethical decision-making. Within the current engagement, practical wisdom is generally conceptualized, interpreted or read as a form of deliberation or deliberative judgement that is also cognizant of context, situatedness, particularity, lived experience, and so on. We (...) argue that while this way of conceptualizing practical wisdom moves closer to practice in accounting for the concrete and particular reality within which individuals enact ethics, it does not adequately account for practice in the ontological and relational sense posited in practice theories. Practical wisdom conceptualized on the _deliberative_ dimension still retains a higher emphasis on distinct entities (individuals/institutions), reflexive agency, conscious mental states, goal-directed action, and intentionality. In other words, it puts a higher stress on individual _wisdom_, as opposed to _practice_ or the relational interaction of the individual and social inhering in practice. We offer an alternative conceptualization of practical wisdom based on the _dispositional_ mode of being in the world which is rarely deliberate, intentional, or reflective. Our conceptualization integrates Aristotle’s original ethical framework, which is already embedded in a practice-based ontology, with insights from practice theories to show how practical wisdom is intuitively channelled in the _dispositional_ mode in a given social configuration of virtues/ends. (shrink)

Altruism is generally accepted to be the practice of unselfish concern for the well-being of others coupled with an associated measure of personal cost. Altruism as an actionable treatise for living aims to benefit society. While altruistic acts have traditionally been viewed as virtuous, in some cases, positive outcomes might not be forthcoming if the actor is not enlightened about the consequences of specific courses of action. While this precept has been argued extensively in historical commentary, no formal definition exists (...) for it. This article terms this concept as ‘unenlightened altruism’. The article reviews the scant extant discourse on ‘unenlightened altruism’ in scholarly literature, provides a formal definition for the ideology, opines consequentialist implications and correlates it to related ethical constructs. From the consequentialist standpoint, it is argued that it might be more ethical not to act than to act out of unenlightened altruism. (shrink)

Today’s pluralist and multicultural society raises questions about how to teach religiously and ethnically diverse students in Catholic schools. A Catholic Philosophy of Education addresses these challenges by examining the documents from the Roman Congregation for Catholic Education alongside the writings of Jacques Maritain and Bernard Lonergan. Mario D’Souza proposes a contemporary formulation for a Catholic philosophy of education in which the ideals of Catholicism form the basis for the mission of the Catholic school. Drawing on the Church’s educational documents, (...) and informed by Maritain and Lonergan, D’Souza explains how the unifying anthropology of Catholic education enables Catholic schools to serve amidst diversity by avoiding the extremes of religious exclusivism and fundamentalism, on the one hand, and relativism and individualism, on the other. He explores the aims of Catholic schools in relation to students, teachers, and society, and the relationship between goodness, discipline, and knowledge. He argues that students must be educated for personal and communal freedom and authenticity, and to strive for the common good, suggesting how a Catholic philosophy of education can provide the framework for such personal and communal transformation. Essential reading for new and experienced Catholic educators, A Catholic Philosophy of Education demonstrates that Maritain and Lonergan have much to offer in service of an education that is liberating, instructive, illuminating, and integrative. (shrink)

The work of the lay Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain continues to provoke and inspire readers to engage in a Thomistic approach to many of the questions facing the world today. Maritain’s wide-ranging thought touched on many fields, including aesthetics, anthropology, educational theory, moral philosophy, and ethics, as well as Thomism and its relationship to other philosophical stances._ In _Being in the World: A Quotable Maritain Reader_, Mario O. D’Souza, C.S.B., has selected seven hundred and fifty of the most salient quotations (...) found in the English translations of fifty-four works by Jacques Maritain. Organized into forty thematic chapters, ordered alphabetically, the book serves as an overview of the areas that Maritain's writings addressed. By referring to entries in _Being in the World_, readers can quickly locate key passages in Maritain’s writing on a given topic and then turn elsewhere to the full texts for more in-depth study. Complete with a detailed index of key terms, the _Reader _will be an essential reference tool for the study of Maritain in English. "Fr. Mario O. D'Souza's careful selection from the works of Jacques Maritain provides the reader with an invaluable sampling of Maritain's extensive philosophical work. In it, we find examples of Maritain's almost lyrical gift of expression as well as of his trenchant wit. More than a scholarly contribution, the volume also ably serves as an introduction and entrance into Maritain's corpus." — William Sweet, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada_. (shrink)

Die indische Philosophin und Aktivistin Radha d’Souza begegnet dem Begriff Weltzivilgesellschaft mit größter Vorsicht und Skepsis. Selbst jahrelang in existenzielle Auseinandersetzungen um Grundrechte auf natürliche Ressourcen wie Wasser und Ackerland und höchstgerichtliche Entscheidungen verwickelt, sieht d’Souza im Begriff der Weltzivilgesellschaft in der Hauptsache den Versuch, einer neuerlichen Bemäntelung imperialistischer, westlicher Interessen, die sich nun nicht nur durch Entscheidungen von Regierungen legitimieren, sondern gar durch den Willen ihrer zivilen Bevölkerung.

Contributed research papers presented at a seminar organized by Dept. of Post-graduate Studies and Research in Christianity, University of Mysore, India in collaboration with the Society of Intercultural Philosophy, Koeln, Germany in Oct. 1994.

Prior research has shown that human trafficking has multiple facets and is deeply enmeshed in societies around the world. Two central challenges for anti-trafficking organizations pertain to confronting systemic injustices and establishing caring organizations for survivors to start the process of healing and restoration. Analyzing the work of an anti-trafficking organization, International Sanctuary in Mumbai, we seek to elucidate how a space for caring for trafficking survivors is constructed in a largely non-egalitarian and unjust context. We contribute to discussions on (...) how caring infrastructures are possibly developed so that they do not write off existing gendered and in-egalitarian social structures and how they shape individual biographies. We also highlight how the specific, situated context—defined by those very structures—shapes and influences the transformative potential of care interventions. (shrink)

This review essay takes three very different types of books, one on new social movements, the second on global governance and the third on dystopia, to reflect on methodological questions in knowledge production for social change which is the professed aim of critical and radical scholarship. The essay reflects on the methodological problems of making connections between philosophical, sociological and empirical analyses in ways that can guide action. The treatment of facts and events, omission to consider gaps and absences in (...) accounts of experiences, the obfuscation of the desirable and the possible in legal liberalism, problems of connecting everyday life to ontological questions of being and reality, perspectives and unity of micro and macrocosms, are some of the themes considered. The essay engages the methodological strategies that are needed to make the moves from space/time in philosophy to spatio-temporality in sociological analysis to here and now in empirical studies. It argues that all levels are interpenetrated in manifest experiences and that it is important to grasp the institutional constraints on knowledge production if knowledge is to provide guidance for transformative action. (shrink)

Background Despite recent developments aimed at creating international guidelines for ethical global health research, critical disconnections remain between how global health research is conducted in the field and the institutional ethics frameworks intended to guide research practice. Discussion In this paper we attempt to map out the ethical tensions likely to arise in global health fieldwork as researchers negotiate the challenges of balancing ethics committees’ rules and bureaucracies with actual fieldwork processes in local contexts. Drawing from our research experiences with (...) an implementation and evaluation project in Jamaica, we argue that ethical research is produced through negotiated spaces and reflexivity practices that are centred on relationships between researchers and study participants and which critically examine issues of positionality and power that emerge at multiple levels. In doing so, we position ethical research practice in global health as a dialectical movement between the spoken and unspoken, or, more generally, between operationalized rules and the embodied relational understanding of persons. Summary Global health research ethics should be premised not upon passive accordance with existing guidelines on ethical conduct, but on tactile modes of knowing that rely upon being engaged with, and responsive to, research participants. Rather than focusing on the operationalization of ethical practice through forms and procedures, it is crucial that researchers recognize that each ethical dilemma encountered during fieldwork is unique and rooted in social contexts, interpersonal relationships, and personal narratives. (shrink)

The paschal mystery holds a place of prominence in the lives of Catholics, both theologically and pastorally. Given its prominent theological and ecclesial place since the Second Vatican Council, this article examines the place and role of the paschal mystery for Catholic education. With the move from a ‘classicist world view to historical mindedness,’ the thought of Bernard Lonergan is employed – particularly his understanding of the person as subject and his law of the cross – as a means to (...) frame the relationship between the paschal mystery and Catholic education. (shrink)

One of the longest standing objections levied against virtue ethics is the Self-Absorption Objection. Proponents of this objection state that the main problem with neo-Aristotelian accounts is that the virtuous agent’s motive is to promote her own eudaimonia. In this paper, I examine Christopher Toner’s attempt to address this objection by arguing that we should understand the virtuous agent as acting virtuously because doing so is what it means to live well qua human. I then go on to defend Toner’s (...) view from two of Anne Baril’s criticisms: that his account is un-Aristotelian, and that his account does not take seriously the importance of the virtuous agent organizing her life in a way that is good for her. In doing so, I pave the way for neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists to develop an adequate response to the self-absorption objection along Toner’s lines. (shrink)

One of the longest standing objections levied against virtue ethics is the Self-Absorption Objection. Proponents of this objection state that the main problem with neo-Aristotelian accounts is that the virtuous agent’s motive is to promote her own eudaimonia. In this paper, I examine Christopher Toner’s attempt to address this objection by arguing that we should understand the virtuous agent as acting virtuously because doing so is what it means to live well qua human. I then go on to defend Toner’s (...) view from two of Anne Baril’s criticisms: that his account is un-Aristotelian, and that his account does not take seriously the importance of the virtuous agent organizing her life in a way that is good for her. In doing so, I pave the way for neo-Aristotelian virtue ethicists to develop an adequate response to the self-absorption objection along Toner’s lines. (shrink)

The National Medical Commission of India introduced the Competency Based Curriculum in Medical Education for undergraduate medical students in 2019 with a new module named Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) across the country. There was a consensus for teaching medical ethics in an integrated way, suggesting dedicated hours in each phase of undergraduate training. The AETCOM module was prepared and circulated as a guide to acquire necessary competency in attitudinal, ethical and communication domains. This study was aimed to explore the (...) perceptions of students and medical teachers and identify the challenges in teaching and learning process of the newly implemented AETCOM module. It was a mixed method designed study with structured questionnaires for students and teachers at various medical schools in India. Based on the quantitative data, in-depth interviews with medical teachers were undertaken. Challenges were perceived by both students and teachers. The students had a mixed perception, facing difficulties in passive learning with scarce resource materials. Challenges identified by teachers were a lack of knowledge and skills required for teaching bioethics, the logistics of managing large numbers of students in the stipulated time frame, interdisciplinary integration—both horizontal and vertical, and assessment program in terms competency-based education. The study draws the attention of all stakeholders for a revision and efforts for further improvement in the teaching and assessment process, and setting a standard model in medical education in India. (shrink)