We present in this paper an abstract categorical logic based on an abstraction of quantifier. More precisely, the proposed logic is abstract because no structural constraints are imposed on models (semantics free). By contrast, formulas are inductively defined from an abstraction both of atomic formulas and of quantifiers. In this sense, the proposed approach differs from other works interested in formalizing the notion of abstract logic and of which the closest to our approach are the institutions, which in addition to (...) be semantics free do not also impose any syntactic contingencies on the structure of formulas. To define the semantical framework in which formulas will be interpreted, we propose to follow the idea from categorical logic which defines the semantical interpretation of formulas from context and as subobjects of an object of a given category. In the spirit of Lawvere’s hyperdoctrines, we use a more abstract notion which generalizes the notion of subobject, standard in category theory: Pitt’s prop-categories. Always in the spirit of categorical logic, we propose a sequent calculus of which we show correctness and completeness for all semantical frameworks defined over any prop-categories. We then study some conditions which allow us to get this completeness result for particular classes of prop-categories. (shrink)

Both individually and as a collection, these essays will promote understanding and provoke further debate amongst students and established scholars alike.

Several logical operators are defined as dual pairs, in different types of logics. Such dual pairs of operators also occur in other algebraic theories, such as mathematical morphology. Based on this observation, this paper proposes to define, at the abstract level of institutions, a pair of abstract dual and logical operators as morphological erosion and dilation. Standard quantifiers and modalities are then derived from these two abstract logical operators. These operators are studied both on sets of states and sets of (...) models. To cope with the lack of explicit set of states in institutions, the proposed abstract logical dual operators are defined in an extension of institutions, the stratified institutions, which take into account the notion of open sentences, whose satisfaction is parametrised by sets of states. A hint on the potential interest of the proposed framework for spatial reasoning is also provided. (shrink)

Building on earlier work on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and a firm’s financial performance, this integrative empirical study supports the theoretical argument that the higher a firm’s CSP the lower its financial risk. Specifically, the relationship between CSP and risk appears to be one of reciprocal causality, because prior CSP is negatively related to subsequent financial risk, and prior financial risk is negatively related to subsequent CSP. Additionally, CSP is more strongly correlated with measures of market risk (...) than measures of accounting risk. Of all CSP measures, reputation for social responsibility appears to be the most important one in terms of its risk implications. (shrink)

Die Frage nach der Quelle von Freiheit ist, angesichts einer wesentlich durch neoliberalistische Lebens- und Wirtschaftsmodelle ausgelösten planetarischen Krise, zu einer Herausforderung der vorwiegend individualistischen Grundlage pädagogischer Theorie geworden. Wir stellen dieser unter dem Titel der „kulturellen Resilienz“ einen relational-transformatorischen bildungstheoretischen Ansatz gegenüber, in dessen Zentrum eine relationale Freiheitstheorie steht. Im Rahmen einer agentiell-realistischen (Barad 2012) Reinterpretation soziologischer Resilienztheorie (Brown 2015) verorten wir Freiheit im Spannungsfeld aufeinander bezogener Momente der Rootedness als Praxis eines sinnlich-leiblichen und zugleich kritisch-ästhetischen Gewahrwerdens von Entanglement (...) (versus desengagierte Rationalität), Resourcefulness als diffraktionale (versus reflexive) umgestaltende Praxis der Hervorbringung von Welt, sowie „Resistance“ als performative und strukturbildende intra-aktionale, d.h. aus Relationierungen (versus abstrahierende Distanz) hervorgehende Praxis der Kritik. „Freiheit“ wird demnach bildungstheoretisch wie pädagogisch nicht durch eine Position außerhalb von Bindungen verwirklicht, sondern durch die Möglichkeit, bindende Strukturen innerhalb materieller Kollektive und kultureller Apparate neu zu konfigurieren. (shrink)

This book seeks to address the relation of political philosophy and Donald Trump as a political phenomenon through the notions of patriotism, cosmopolitanism, and civic virtue. Political philosophers have been prescient in explaining trends that may explain our political misgivings. Madison warned during the debates on the Constitution that democracies are vulnerable to factions based on passion for personalities and beliefs; various continental thinkers have addressed the problem of nihilism—the modern loss of faith in objective standards of truth and morality—that (...) in Max Weber’s analysis pointed to the importance of charisma, in Carl Schmitt’s to the idea that politics is essentially rooted in the definition of friends and enemies, and in early Heidegger resulted in the emphasis on the enduring significance of local, rather than cosmopolitan values. The former concerns—regarding demagoguery, charisma and nihilism—will enable an evaluation of Trump as a political character, while the latter concerns—regarding the status of universal versus local values—will enable us to evaluate the content of “Trumpism.” Taken together, these essays seek to advance the public conversation about the relationship between the rise of Trump and the ideological forces that seek to justify that rise. (shrink)

Daylight is the primary cue used by circadian clocks to entrain to the day/night cycle so as to synchronize physiological processes with periodic environmental changes induced by Earth rotation.However, the temporal daylight pattern is not the same every day due to erratic weather fluctuations or regular seasonal changes. Then, how do circadian clocks operate properly in varying weather and seasons? In this paper, we discuss the strategy unveiled by recent studies of the circadian clock of Ostreococcus tauri, the smallest free‐living (...) eukaryotic organism. It combines mechanisms controlling light inputs and clock sensitivity, shaping both the dynamics of the core circadian oscillator and its forcing by light so as to ensure stable and precise synchronization in all weather and seasons.Editor's suggested further reading in BioEssays: Another place, another timer: Marine species and the rhythms of life Abstract. (shrink)

Cognitive reserve postulates that individual differences in task performance can be attributed to differences in the brain’s ability to recruit additional networks or adopt alternative cognitive strategies. Variables that are descriptive of lifetime experience such as socioeconomic status, educational attainment, and leisure activity are common proxies of CR. CR is mostly studied using neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI in which case individuals with a higher CR were observed to activate a smaller brain network compared to individuals with a lower (...) CR, when performing a task equally effectively, and electroencephalography where a particular EEG component that reflects the attention and working memory load, has been targeted. Despite the contribution of multiple factors such as age, education, working, leisure, and household activities in CR formation, most neuroimaging studies, and those using EEG in particular, focus on formal education level only. The aim of the current EEG study is to investigate how the P300 component, evoked in response to an oddball paradigm, is associated with other components of CR besides education, such as working and leisure activity in older adults. We have used hereto a recently introduced CR index questionnaire that quantifies both professional and leisure activities in terms of their cognitive demand and number of years practiced, as well as a data-driven approach for EEG analysis. We observed complex relationships between CRIq subcomponents and P300 characteristics. These results are especially important given that, unlike previous studies, our measurements do not require active use of the same executive function and, thus, render our results free of a collinearity bias. (shrink)

This article addresses rabbi and philosopher of religion Jacob Taubes’s claim that he had “presented the apocalypse of the revolution, although free from the illusions of messianic Marxists like Ernst Bloch and Walter Benjamin.” Detailing the shape of Taubes’s thought in relation to Bloch and Benjamin, it explores the manner in which Taubes embraces their respective messianisms while also charting an interiorized departure predicated upon a history of messianic crisis in Sabbateanism and early Christianity. Further, it (...) frames this in terms of their respective historical contexts. Contrary to the Weimar-era messianism of Bloch and Benjamin inflected by an open futurity despite catastrophe, Taubes's messianism takes shape in response to a foreclosed future brought on by the events of the postwar era. (shrink)

Bloch, E. Discussing expressionism.--Lukács, G. Realism in the balance.--Brecht, B. Against Georg Lukács.--Benjamin, W. Conversations with Brecht.--Adorno, T. Letters to Walter Benjamin.--Benjamin, W. Reply.--Adorno, T. Reconciliation under duress.--Adorno, T. Commitment.--Jameson, F. Reflections in conclusion.

In The Ethics of Food, Gregory E. Pence brings together a collection of voices who share the view that the ethics of genetically modified food is among the most pressing societal questions of our time. This comprehensive collection addresses a broad range of subjects, including the meaning of food, moral analyses of vegetarianism and starvation, the safety and environmental risks of genetically modified food, issues of global food politics and the food industry, and the relationships among food, evolution, and human (...) history. (shrink)

La langue dans laquelle ils ecrivent n'est-elle pour les philosophes que l'instrument indispensable, mais indifferent, de la communication de leurs pensees? Ce pourrait etre le cas, s'ils n'etaient exposes, a chaque pas, au caractere particulier de cette langue, et s'ils ne devaient inventer des stategies diverses pour l'affronter, comme, par exemple, leur enracinement avere et declare dans une culture, voire dans un sol determine, devenu patrie de la philosophie - mais tout aussi bien le parti-pris de la traduction, de la (...) desappropriation de la langue, et meme de la culture, dans ce qu'elles ont de national. Or quelles que soient ces strategies opposees, elles investissent toutes le rapport a la langue, aux langues ou au langage d'une promesse eschatologique. C'est de la langue que vient le malheur, mais c'est aussi un autre rapport au langage qui est source de salut, ou de redemption, voire de revolution. C'est donc une autre philosophie du langage, qui se decouvre a travers les oeuvres de Nieztsche, Kraus, Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Heidegger ou Derrida, une philosophie qui n'est exempte de considerations theologiques et politiques. Qu'attend-on des langues? Au fil conducteur de la promesse, c'est a cette question que les etudes qui composent le present volume entendent reconduire. (shrink)

La langue dans laquelle ils ecrivent n'est-elle pour les philosophes que l'instrument indispensable, mais indifferent, de la communication de leurs pensees? Ce pourrait etre le cas, s'ils n'etaient exposes, a chaque pas, au caractere particulier de cette langue, et s'ils ne devaient inventer des stategies diverses pour l'affronter, comme, par exemple, leur enracinement avere et declare dans une culture, voire dans un sol determine, devenu patrie de la philosophie - mais tout aussi bien le parti-pris de la traduction, de la (...) desappropriation de la langue, et meme de la culture, dans ce qu'elles ont de national. Or quelles que soient ces strategies opposees, elles investissent toutes le rapport a la langue, aux langues ou au langage d'une promesse eschatologique. C'est de la langue que vient le malheur, mais c'est aussi un autre rapport au langage qui est source de salut, ou de redemption, voire de revolution. C'est donc une autre philosophie du langage, qui se decouvre a travers les oeuvres de Nieztsche, Kraus, Benjamin, Rosenzweig, Heidegger ou Derrida, une philosophie qui n'est exempte de considerations theologiques et politiques. Qu'attend-on des langues? Au fil conducteur de la promesse, c'est a cette question que les etudes qui composent le present volume entendent reconduire. (shrink)

En dehors de Pascal en France, c'est surtout en Allemagne que tragique et tristesse ont été mis en rapport avant que leur distinction soit largement développée par Walter Benjamin dans son livre sur le drame baroque. L'opposition faite par Benjamin entre le Trauerspiel et la tragédie peut être interprétée comme l'aboutissement et l'achèvement d'une distinction courante dans la philosophie allemande depuis Hegel entre le " tragique " (antique) et le " triste " de la modernité (romantique). Si ces (...) deux termes ne sont pas ressentis en français comme formant un couple de concepts, il n'en va pas de même dans la philosophie et l'esthétique allemandes, où ils apparaissent régulièrement ensemble, exprimant soit une différence de degré (Hegel, Simmel), soit de nature (Nietzsche, Ziegler), soit enfin un rapport de polarité (Benjamin) et où se jouent des rapports différents avec le mythe et l'histoire. C'est un des grands mérites de Benjamin que d'avoir saisi cette polarité entre le tragique et le triste, qui n'avait jamais été formulée explicitement avant lui, et de l'avoir élevée au rang de théorie dans son opposition entre Trauerspiel et tragédie. Pour comprendre en profondeur les implications du concept de Trauerspiel introduit par Benjamin, et du concept de tristesse qui lui est lié, il est nécessaire de se replonger dans la tradition allemande, de connaître le milieu philosophique dans lequel Benjamin a fait ses études, en particulier les discussions autour de la philosophie de l'histoire et de la structure du temps au début du XXe siècle. Toute la pensée de Benjamin s'éclaire alors sous un jour nouveau qui permet de mieux saisir le lien entre ses écrits de jeunesse et sa pensée ultérieure. (shrink)

Bloch's Teppich : an initial approach -- On the genealogy of the Teppich metaphor before Bloch -- The conceptual constellation of Bloch's musical philosophy -- Entering Bloch's musical system -- Wagner's animal lyricism -- Bloch's vision of the armored men, or the limits of enlightenment -- The achievement of symphonic authenticity -- Epilogue : an atheism of presence and absence.

Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left is the first English rendition of Ernst Bloch's thought-provoking monograph dedicated to the thought of Ibn Sīnā, the prominent eleventh-century Persian polymath. Published in 2019 by Columbia University Press as part of the New Directions in Critical Theory series, it joins a growing list of translations that goes back to the 1966 Spanish version by Jorge Deike Robles and, more recently, to Claude Maillard's and Nicola Allesandrini's French and Italian renditions, respectively. This new English (...) edition is based on Bloch's final version of the essay--a revised version of the original 1952 text, later incorporated as an... (shrink)

Charles Taylor has recently stated his religious leanings as being at the core of his philosophical vision for a better society. At the heart of this vision is his emphasis on transcendence: that there is something beyond life as we know it. Some years earlier, Taylor had explicitly endorsed the work of Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch for the way he wanted to talk about the issue of transcendence; however, neither figures prominently in his recent writings. While there (...) may be differing reasons for this omission, my main concern in this article is to show how the issue of transcendence in Benjamin's and Bloch's writings offers an interesting comparison with Taylor's work on this issue. Moreover, Benjamin and Bloch will be shown to offer ways in which Taylor can more fully express his own undeveloped articulation of transcendence through a consideration of the themes of religion, God, time and death. (shrink)

This article aims at presenting the concept of “phantasmagorical interpellation”. This theoretical effort is inspired by Walter Benjamin’s concept of “phantasmagoria” and Louis Althusser’s concept of “ideological interpellation”. The proposal is to ally their respective philosophical work-in-progress in their “anthropological” and “aleatory” materialisms in order to provide a socio-political analysis of today’s capitalist aesthetics as displayed in postmodern architecture or the design of everyday life. The aim is also to open new perspectives of resistance to the normativity of the (...) consumer imaginary using a critical interpretation of cultural creations which, following the inspiration of both authors, could reveal a new subject history capable of burst onto the scene of history. (shrink)

Resumé: Walter Benjamin est de plus en plus présent dans les départements de communication aujourd'hui, et parfois même utilisé dans le discours des communicants eux-mêmes. Pourtant, quelque chose en lui résiste à cette instrumentalisation: c'est que, dans son œuvre, le langage ne sert pas à communiquer un sens prédéfini, mais à exprimer cela même qui est refusé au mot. Le philosophe allemand va jusqu'à liquider la posture révolutionnaire de l'artiste encore pris dans l'idéologie de la communication: il ne s'agit (...) ni de remplacer le contenu, ni de rénover la forme, mais, objectif apparemment modeste mais radicalement plus ambitieux, de changer la technique.: Walter Benjamin is ever more present in today's departments of communication studies, and sometimes even used in the communicants' discourses themselves. But there is something in him which resists this instrumentalization. Indeed, in his work, language does not offer itself to the communication of a predefined sense, but instead expresses what remains inaccessible to the word. The German philosopher succeed in liquidating the revolutionary posture of the artist still caught in the ideology of communication. This is neither a matter of substituting the content, nor of renovating the form, but - an apparently modest but radically more ambitious objective - of changing the technique. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo pretende introduzir o conceito de “interpelação fantasmagórica”. O esforço teórico se inspira nos conceitos de “fantasmagoria”, de Walter Benjamin, e de “interpelação ideológica”, de Louis Althusser. A proposta é aliar suas respectivas filosofias em processo a seus materialismos “antropológico” e “aleatório”, a fim de fazer uma análise sociopolítica da estética capitalista de hoje, tal como ela aparece na arquitetura pós-moderna e no design da vida cotidiana. Trata-se também de abrir novas perspectivas de resistências a normatividade do (...) imaginário consumista com uma interpretação crítica das criações culturais que, conforme a inspiração dos autores, pode desvelar um novo sujeito capaz de surgir na cena da história. ABSTRACT This article aims at presenting the concept of “phantasmagorical interpellation”. This theoretical effort is inspired from Walter Benjamin’s concept of “phantasmagoria” and Louis Althusser’s concept of “ideological interpellation”. The proposal is to connect their respective philosophical work-in-progress in their “anthropological” and “aleatory” materialisms for a socio-political analysis of today’s capitalist aesthetic as displayed in postmodern architecture and the design of everyday life. It is also to open new perspectives of resistance to the normativity of the consumer imaginary with a critical interpretation of cultural creations that, following the inspiration of both authors, could reveal a new subject of history able to suddenly appear on the scene of history. (shrink)

Siguiendo su idea de la tarea del crítico, Walter Benjamin hace surgir imágenes de felicidad de Calderón en el paisaje “originario” en ruinas de Gryphius: la estrella fugaz del barroco español brilla, intermitente, en las tinieblas demoníacas del barroco silesio. El barroco no encuentra así su verdad sino en la inversión dialéctica de su melancolía alegórica en el momento simbólico de la redención. Intento demostrar cómo se manifiesta, en Origen del drama barroco alemán, una dialéctica figurativa suspendida entre símbolo (...) y alegoría, melancolía y redención, precursora das “imágenes dialécticas” que van a polarizar las fantasmagorías capitalistas entre alegoría y utopía. (shrink)

SummaryMarc'antonio de Dominis is well known to historians as a figure in the political and religious culture of early modern Britain and Europe. This article contends that he was also a major theorist of civil power: his critique of Catholic scholastic political thought is compelling and his account of divine right kingship sheds light on conceptual problems that troubled a range of early modern thinkers. De Dominis dismantled the scholastic theory of political power on its own terms, insisting that Almain, (...) Bellarmine, Suárez and others could not distinguish, as they sought to, between the potestas politica in general and the rule of particular princes. By this insight de Dominis could vindicate royal authority against the deposing pretensions of the Pope, the main objective of James I's supporters during the Allegiance Controversy, but his own positive account of how to think about power ran into theoretical trouble which he evidently perceived himself. If the potestas politica cannot be abstracted from a specific regime, and if the prince's absolute sovereignty depends on this fact, can politics be understood only at the level of the particular and contingent? The article closes by setting Thomas Hobbes—well versed in Jacobean polemic—in the context of this question. (shrink)

Le présent livre part d'une idée polémique et critique : la philosophie est encore aujourd'hui dominée et commandée par la théologie et la religion. Cette domination prend la vie pour sujet et la mort comme alliée et s'appuie sur une transcendance, une instance qui vient à la verticale de la vie. Cette domination structure la philosophie politique et donne forme à l'idéologie des Partis et des États qui mettent la vie et la mort en jeu et qui subordonnent la vie (...) démocratique à une politique religieuse ou à une religion politique. Il faut alors relire les philosophes de la modernité, ceux qui s'inscrivent dans l'horizon de la fin de la religion et cherchent à interrompre l'absolu théologique - Nietzsche, Benjamin, Freud, Heidegger, et au-delà de la modernité Derrida et Ameisen - pour analyser comment ceux-ci résistent au pouvoir théologique et religieux à travers leur écriture : s'inspirer de leur résistance d'écriture pour inventer une tout autre pensée de la vie. La tâche qui se dessine ici est la suivante : revenir aux philosophes et aux penseurs qui se sont exposés de manière critique à la limite de la théologie et de la religion, dénouer le lien du théologique et du politique sans faire de la politique la religion du présent, autrement dit libérer la pensée et la possibilité d'une vie démocratique à venir, chercher dans les textes de la modernité et dans certaines strates imaginaires de la Bible la possibilité d'une vie sans appui : sans fondement théologico-religieux, suspendue à elle-même comme à sa propre liberté"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

In de vroege jaren tachtig van de vorige eeuw publiceerde Benjamin Libet de resultaten van experimenten waarmee hij volgens velen de illusie van een vrije wil aantoonde. Wat Libet liet zien, was dat hersenactiviteit te meten is die indicatief is voor een aankomende handeling kort voordat iemand de bewuste intentie vormt die handeling uit te voeren. Op het moment dat we bewust de ‘beslissing’ nemen een handeling uit te voeren, zijn onze hersenen al bezig geweest die handeling voor te (...) bereiden; de bewuste beslissing komt als mosterd na de maaltijd. (shrink)

First published in Switzerland in 1935 and now available for the first time in English translation, _Heritage of Our Times_ is a bold work of cultural criticism by a major twentieth-century German philosopher. Recalling work by Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School, Ernst Bloch's study of everyday life and politics during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany is a brilliant historical analysis of the cultural conditions leading to German fascism. A half-century later, Bloch's prescient meditations on culture (...) and politics still retain their explosive power and are certain to provoke controversy and discussion among cultural critics, philosophers, social theorists, and historians. In their Introduction, the translators contextualize the book within the political and intellectual tendencies of the period and Bloch's other work. (shrink)

These essays in aesthetics by the philosopher Ernst Bloch belong to the tradition ofcultural criticism represented by Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin.

On 9 December 1930, Walter Benjamin sent a copy of his book The Origin of German Tragic Drama to Carl Schmitt, accompanied by a letter in which he expressed his indebtedness to Schmitt: "You will very quickly recognize how much my book is indebted to you for its presentation of the doctrine of sovereignty in the seventeenth century. Perhaps I may say, in addition, that I have also derived from your later works, especially Die Diktatur, a confirmation of my (...) modes of research in the philosophy of art from yours in the philosophy of the state. If the reading of my book allows this feeling to emerge in an intelligible fashion, then the purpose of my sending it to you will be achieved" (qtd. in Weber 1992, 5). As .. (shrink)

Dans cet article, nous reconstruisons le dernier travail de Walter Benjamin, le Livre des passages, comme celui d’un « chiffonnier ». Nous allons ainsi contre le courant qui consiste à considérer cette somme comme un livre achevé, écrit par un « flâneur » ambigu, et l’appréhendons au contraire comme une collecte systématique de rebuts de l’histoire, habituellement ignorés par les historiens, et qui attendent leur classement. La forme définitive doit venir d’une nouvelle dialectique du passé et du présent, qui (...) part de la position historique et politique de Benjamin. Le Livre des passages documente une méthode et une technique d’écriture que nous pouvons reprendre aujourd’hui. (shrink)

Le caractère destructif ne voit rien de durable. Mais pour cette raison précisément il voit partout des chemins. Là où d’autres butent sur des murs ou sur des montagnes, il voit également un chemin. Mais parce qu’il voit partout un chemin, il doit également partout déblayer le chemin. Pas toujours par la force brutale, parfois avec une force raffinée. Parce qu’il voit partout des chemins, il est lui-même à la croisée des chemins. Aucun instant n’est en mesure de préjuger du (...) suivant.Il transfo... (shrink)