ABSTRACTResearch Objective: This study focuses on ADs in the Netherlands and introduces a cross‐cultural perspective by comparing it with other countries.Methods: A questionnaire was sent to a panel comprising 1621 people representative of the Dutch population. The response was 86%.Results: 95% of the respondents didn't have an AD, and 24% of these were not familiar with the idea of drawing up an AD. Most of those familiar with ADs knew about the Advanced Euthanasia Directive . Both low education and the (...) presence of a religious conviction that plays an important role in one's life increase the chance of not wanting to draw up an AD. Also not having experienced a request for euthanasia from someone else, and the inconceivability of asking for euthanasia yourself, increase the chance of not wanting to draw up an AD.Discussion: This study shows that the subjects of palliative care and end‐of‐life‐decision‐making were very much dominated by the issue of euthanasia in the Netherlands. The AED was the best known AD; and factors that can be linked to euthanasia play an important role in whether or not people choose to draw up an AD. This differentiates the Netherlands from other countries and, when it comes to ADs, the global differences between countries and cultures are still so large that the highest possible goals, at this moment in time, are observing and possibly learning from other cultural settings. (shrink)

Research Objective: This study focuses on ADs in the Netherlands and introduces a cross-cultural perspective by comparing it with other countries. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to a panel comprising 1621 people representative of the Dutch population. The response was 86%. Results: 95% of the respondents didn't have an AD, and 24% of these were not familiar with the idea of drawing up an AD. Most of those familiar with ADs knew about the Advanced Euthanasia Directive (AED, 64%). Both low (...) education and the presence of a religious conviction that plays an important role in one's life increase the chance of not wanting to draw up an AD. Also not having experienced a request for euthanasia from someone else, and the inconceivability of asking for euthanasia yourself, increase the chance of not wanting to draw up an AD. Discussion: This study shows that the subjects of palliative care and end-of-life-decision-making were very much dominated by the issue of euthanasia in the Netherlands. The AED was the best known AD; and factors that can be linked to euthanasia play an important role in whether or not people choose to draw up an AD. This differentiates the Netherlands from other countries and, when it comes to ADs, the global differences between countries and cultures are still so large that the highest possible goals, at this moment in time, are observing and possibly learning from other cultural settings. (shrink)

BackgroundAn important principle underlying the Dutch Euthanasia Act is physicians' responsibility to alleviate patients' suffering. The Dutch Act states that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not punishable if the attending physician acts in accordance with criteria of due care. These criteria concern the patient's request, the patient's suffering (unbearable and hopeless), the information provided to the patient, the presence of reasonable alternatives, consultation of another physician and the applied method of ending life. To demonstrate their compliance, the Act requires physicians (...) to report euthanasia to a review committee. We studied which arguments Dutch physicians use to substantiate their adherence to the criteria and which aspects attract review committees' attention.MethodsWe examined 158 files of reported euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide cases that were approved by the review committees. We studied the physicians' reports and the verdicts of the review committees by using a checklist.ResultsPhysicians reported that the patient's request had been well-considered because the patient was clear-headed (65%) and/or had repeated the request several times (23%). Unbearable suffering was often substantiated with physical symptoms (62%), function loss (33%), dependency (28%) or deterioration (15%). In 35%, physicians reported that there had been alternatives to relieve patients' suffering which were refused by the majority. The nature of the relationship with the consultant was sometimes unclear: the consultant was reported to have been an unknown colleague (39%), a known colleague (21%), otherwise (25%), or not clearly specified in the report (24%). Review committees relatively often scrutinized the consultation (41%) and the patient's (unbearable) suffering (32%); they had few questions about possible alternatives (1%).ConclusionDutch physicians substantiate their adherence to the criteria in a variable way with an emphasis on physical symptoms. The information they provide is in most cases sufficient to enable adequate review. Review committees' control seems to focus on (unbearable) suffering and on procedural issues. (shrink)

continent. 2.1 (2012): 29–35. Translated by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei from Jeroen Mettes. "Politieke Poëzie: Enige aantekeningen, Poëtica bij N30 (versie 2006)." In Weerstandbeleid: Nieuwe kritiek . Amsterdam: De wereldbibliotheek, 2011. Published with permission of Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam. L’égalité veut d’autres lois . —Eugène Pottier The modern poem does not have form but consistency (that is sensed), no content but a problem (that is developed). Consistency + problem = composition. The problem of modern poetry is capitalism. Capitalism—which has no (...) image: the unrepresentable Idea of “everything.” The problem is that a poem cannot be justified. There is no excuse for it. Political poetry— pure poetry—has to be problematic, though not in a mannerist way. Yes, its problem is first its own problem—poetry’s existence in the same world as the newspaper—but therefore also always everybody’s problem (the problem of any world at all). The cult of the sublime points at a suspect desire for transcendence, nostalgia for paradise lost (the womb?). Melancholia of the post-. But a problem neither sorrows nor mourns, it is alive, and the fact that it is alive is the problem—the problem for death (rigidity, the status quo). Our symbols and ideologies do not hide any god: symbolic = state; imaginary = human; real = money. Problem: the possibility of communal speech (poetry) in the absence of a “we.” Or: what is a “we” that is not a collective subject (or in any case is not a volonté générale )? What is a universal history that is not a History? This work was started in the shade of the anti-globalization protests at the end of November 1999. I considered N30 to be the closure of the nineties, of my adolescence, and of the a seemingly total extinction of social desire. From the beginning I was skeptical about the alterglobalization movement as the avant-garde of a new politics, but something was happening . Maybe this event did not show that, as the slogan would have it, “another world” is possible, but for me it indicated that such possibility was at least still possible. That naked possibility is carrying forward. And if the fundamental tone of this work sounds more desperate than utopian, this is not caused by the catastrophic sequence that since 1999 has plunged us ever deeper into the right-wing nightmare—a nightmare that this work also gives an account for—but because my hope as yet remains empty. Composition . Composition is no design, but the production of an autonomous block of affects (i.e. a POEM), rhythmically subtracted from the language of a community. A poem does something. Is something. New Sentence . Choosing the non sequitur as compositional unit has the advantage that an abstract composition is subjected to the stress of concrete, social references. Where there is a sentence, there is always a world. (This does not hold necessarily for words on their own.) And where sentences collide, something akin to a textual civil war takes place. It is not about “undermining” whatever, or de-scribing the raging global civil war, but about writing social (or even: ontological) antagonism -- including all its catastrophic and utopian possibilities. Minor resistance. Why would poetry be the no protest zone par excellence? It is nothing but protest, not simply qua “content,” but in its most fundamental essence: rhythm. Rhythm is resistance against language, time, and space, and the basis of (what we will continue to call) autonomy. Rhythm starts with the anti-rhythmic caesura as Hölderlin remarked about Sophocles, a disruption of the quotidian drone. The destruction of everything that is dead inside of us. The noise of the avant-garde has never been the representation of the noise of (post)modernity (from the television or shopping mall), but the sober noise of the systematic exchange of an unbearable worldview. The poet does not describe, but looks for a way out: There is a Grain of Sand in Lambeth that Satan cannot find Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, tis translucent & has many Angles But he who finds it will find Oothoons palace, for within Opening into Beulah every angle is a lovely heaven William Blake was not mad. And there has always been only one poetry: the poetry of paradise. The principle is that there is something in art (the essentially creative element) that is disgusted by that which, unlike art, does not aim for the supreme. Wonder is not supreme, tranquility is not supreme, beauty is not supreme. Even amusement is not supreme! The supreme is supremely open, “das Einfache,/ Das Schwer zu machen ist” 1 : paradise. That is abstract. Literally. For me it is not about a concrete imagination, an idyll or utopia. There is no doubt a need for that, but it is not so much the supposed lack of imagination or ideals (human rights are ideals), but a fundamental lack of desire (human rights are no desires) that we suffer from, and from which we do not need to remove Nietzsche’s label of “nihilism.” “We.” George Oppen: “ Of Being Numerous asks the question whether or not we can deal with humanity as something which actually exists.” What is less actual than humanity? Nowadays it appears as a lifeless ideology of cynical power politics. Or as what makes one think. It is a shame to be human. The event is the caesura that defines rhythm. Writing toward the event is not the description of the event, but marking an abstract and intense space in which the event may unfold and keep itself. It is a task. “Remember that thou blesseth the day on which I seized thee, because such is thy obligation.” The event is a contraction (or a series of contractions) with its own rhythm and unique qualities. It is more than an explosion or demonstration. But at the same time less. The endless repetition of images and stories in the media points to a fear for the indeterminate and indeterminable void of the event. In the end there is nothing to see. We do not live in disaster’s shade or miracle’s light, but rather in the rhythm, which is contracted time, having little to do with omnipresent representations. For this book I did not intend a rhythm of evental representations (a narrative rhythm), but a rhythm which would be an event itself , because it draws the border between artwork and history. My desire for a direct engagement with the “extra-textual reality” has nothing to do with the representation of “rumor in the streets.” (What has less street cred than representation?) Naturally, a poem is no historical event and does not change anything. But a poem is a part of history that wants to be repeated forever, constructed in such a way that it is worthy of repetition. It is a part of desire (composition) made consistent (durable). The “historical event” flares up and burns down, and has to burn down to be effective. The leftovers are images and stories (representations), History—no event. The artwork—that is the ambition— remains event (though monumental and inefficient/inoperable). (No wonder that a historical singularity, a revolution, reminds us of a work of art; the resurrection yearns for a judgment, an affirmation; everything depends on it.) Hence the title does not summarize the book, let alone contract its “content” into a quasi-transcendental signifier. The title is juxtaposed to the book, like everything else inside the book, and in that relation it precisely forms a part of it. The ideal work is an open whole, lacking nothing but to which everything may be added. I have been interested in this “everything,” the world, or as I said above: capitalism. “Everything” is not the space for “wonder”—a code word, a shibboleth for petty bourgeois imagination (I recognize myself in the strangest things, a speaking dog, a canal, a pond standing straight—oh my god). No. The world is a social world, not YOUR world, poet. Power is number one. I will call “Dutch,” or “shitty,” whatever denies this power. That hurts, but this pain is an expression of the desire in the world to write another world, or as Blanchot says, “the other of all worlds” 2 : the world. Not as what “is there,” but rather as that which urges for an escape from what “is.” This is a testament of how radical reality has become, for me—or rather, a writing body—in a having-been-written. I am not interested in the problem of “meaning” as misunderstood by literary scholarsi: “order” in “chaos,” “symbolization.” Bullshit. What is there, hop, hope, now: the meaning of the taste in my mouth. Bullshit. I am not interested in the frustration of interpretation; I am writing for readers who do not want to interpret. I do not know how many “professional readers” will hear the music of a paragraph like: Sun. Sushi. Volvo. I hope more than I would think. There is a suggestion (or rather, an actual production) of speed and infinitive owing to the absence of plosives, i.e. articulations such as /k/, /t/, or /p/. Can you hear the slick suaveness? Driving car dark, vocal chiaroscuro of the word “sushi.” The unstressed /i/ stands in the middle of dark vowels and thus acquires its own special out of focus , like a momentary flash or brilliance—an obscure light. It is not about recognizing a story, but about avoiding any story whatsoever: the car disappears in the glow, cars and raw fish have nothing in common except their articulation in a language that brings them together, blurring them. A world appears in its disappearance. For a moment, light is a metaphor for language, though it cannot be reduced to tenor. It is not necessary to be a linguist or philosopher to hear this—a “difficult” poem all too often becomes an allegory of its own impenetrable being-language. The only demand: leave your hermeneutical fetish at home. This was no interpretation. Most shit has been stolen etcetera. That is no longer interesting. You cannot shoot the body with information and let your lawyers reclaim the bullets. So every sentence has been stolen. Also the ones “out” “of” “my” “head.” Why would I be allowed to steal from myself and not from others? Man takes what he needs to move forward. Whatever he encounters, finds in front of him, “occurs” to him. The writer as text editor, or singing pirate. Nothing new here. Important difference with for example Sybren Polet’s 4 montage technique: anti-thematicism. Most of the time ferocious citation from whatever I was reading, listening to, ended up in, and so on. I wrote chapter 12 on my laptop while watching CNN. On the air instead of en plein air . I often employed search engines to generate material. Chapter 20 offers the purest example of this. Often I stop recognizing a particular citation after some time. It is not uncommon for a stolen sentence to conform itself to the paragraph in which it finds itself. Sometimes I nearly arbitrarily replace words. Arbitrariness as a guarantee for absolute democracy. It is a poetics of the non sequitur : a conclusion that does not follow from the premises, the strange element in the discourse. A discourse of strangers. No logical, narrative, thematic unity. There is unity in speed/flight. It has to be read linearly, but not necessarily (not preferably) from beginning to end. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but this line precedes every point. The middle, the acceleration, comes first. A point occurs where two lines cross. It has been written from up close, at the level of the tension between sentences. Nothing to be seen from a distance: no form except the exchange of form, no geometrical or mythical meaning. You have to get in, “groping toward a continuous present, a using everything a beginning again and again” (Stein). 5 In Dutch, experimental poetry has been mainly dense: a small rectangular form filled with a maximum amount of poetic possibility. But at the moment the poem starts to relax, the anecdotical content seems to increase. This is what is called “epic”: long, narrative. I believe that an epic is more than that, in fact something completely different. An epic is “a poem including history,” 6 a long poem tied up with the life of community, that as a whole does not need to be narrative. The American poets of the twentieth century (Pound, Williams, Zukofsky, Oppen, Olson, Silliman) have put the epic back on the map by interpreting the poem itself as a map, and writing it as navigation. They have invented the experimental epic, a genre that has generated little original following in “our” poetry. N30 is the middle part—“always start in the middle”—of a trilogy, the contours of which remain as of yet unclear, although each episode investigates one of the three “ecstasies of time”—past, present, future—concerning society X. N30 concerns itself with the PRESENT: not with the description of actual facts but of the rhythm and the intense depth in which facts appear to us. Where are we? We are camping in the desert. Sometimes we are looking at the stars. As opposed to maximum density and minimal tension (a characteristic of most (post-)experimental lyricism), I have sought a minimal density and maximum tension in this book, considered as a long non-narrative prose poem. On the one hand, the minimal density is obtained by the inherent formlessness of prose, on the other hand by the conscious refusal of any active (formal, non-rhythmic) synthesis: the poem tells nothing, shows nothing, has no theme. I did not seek maximum tension either by loading the quotidian with epiphanic radioactivity (“wonder,” confirmation from above), or by means of the intensity of the linguistic structure. I want an abstract tension, but social in its abstraction, in other words, not neutralized by and subjected to Form. Instead of form (transcendent): composition (immanent). The concept is series. Ideal: every unit is necessary for the efficacy of the others and the whole, their relation is purely linear, i.e. non-hierarchic, non-syllogistic, non-discursive, non-narrative. Sentence related to sentence like paragraph to paragraph and chapter to chapter; the whole means nothing and represents nothing. Inside the sentence: syntax (Chomsky’s tree, a type of parallel circuit), outside: parataxis (coordination, an asyntactic line through language and world). I consider duration—the energy of duration (rhythm)—to be the fundament of a poem, the temporal inclination to delimit a “space.” Being as consistency, its consistency. A spatial part of time is not merely a metaphor for an inevitable trajectory, an inescapable time, something like “our time.” Not merely—because rhythm comes from language and is not projected onto it; the poem derives from the world like a scent and a color and a life from a flower. A series, a sequence: nothing potential, but truly infinite—the movement of an infinitude. The infinite series = everything minus totality. That means that there is no container—no Form, no Self, no Image, no Structure, not even a Fragment—just “the prose of the world.” No representation, but also no staging of the impossibility of representation (the postmodern sublime). These are no fragments, no image of a fragmented world or personality, no cautious incantations around the Void. It does not exist. It is a movement. Buying bread, a flock of birds, a bomb falling—they do not depict or represent anything, not literally, not metaphorically. There is an Idea, which is however nothing more than a rhythm, in the same way that capitalism is nothing more than a pure function. Parataxis: the white space between two sentences stresses, which is nevertheless always there, also between words, even between letters: the out of focus of idle talk, the gutter, the irreducible Mallarméan mist which renders even the seemingly most transparent text legible. The white space suggests a neutral medium for free signification, a substance of language. A non sequitur is an element from a foreign discourse, which stresses the white space as space, and problematizes freedom for supra-sentential signification. I start by withdrawing material, leaving the initiative to the sentences. In general a word presupposes less often a discourse than a sentence. What discourse is presupposed by “dog”? We could think of several, but why would we? It is more probable that, when faced with the naked word, we think of its naked (dictionary) meaning, of its denotative signified. By means of two simple interventions we may also write the word as sentence: Dog. In no way this suggests the discourse from which this sentence originates, but in any case we’re presupposing one. This is shown by questions like: “Whose dog? Who’s a dog? What kind of dog?” Etc. (Sentences are question marks.) A sentence implies/is a microcosm—a subject, a verb, an object, and so on. Even an incomplete or ungrammatical sentence does so. My main fascination while writing this book is the worldly and social aspect of language, an aspect that often becomes invisible, or rather, transparent in narrativity—the stretching of sentences into stories. Narrativity organizes a new discourse and a new world, and places a sometimes all too dispersing relation of transparence in between. The conventional novel is the brothel of being. I do not intend to prohibit brothels, and I have certainly not intended to write an anti-novel (THIS IS A POEM), but I do consider narrativity (in general, in poetry, in the news, in daily life) to be ontologically secondary with regard to an immediate being in the world through sentences, also if the latter have been withdrawn from a narrative or otherwise externally structured discourse (which in that case would therefore be chronologically primary ). Naturally, two or more sentences are always in danger of telling stories or arguing, just like the world is always in danger of becoming an objective representation, facing us, strangers. That is why need to wage war—against representation and against the interface, against interaction. AGAINST THE “READER.” To the extent that a sentence is worldly, writing is a condensed global war, and in so far as there is ultimately only one world and one open continuum of languages, it is a global civil war. Nice subject for an epic. The elaboration of a singular problem—prose as the outside of poetry, the form of the novel as purely prosodic composition scheme—“expresses” the universal problem: capitalism as Idea of the world vs. poetry as language of an (im)possible community. The paragraphs are blocks of rhythmically contracted social material. By choosing the sentence as the basic compositional component, an abstract whole may contain social sounds, without telling a story or showing an image. Composition is subrepresentative —a rhythmic, passive synthesis, or rather: a synthesis of syntheses. I never write large blocks of prose in one sitting, because there is no obvious organizational vector —plot, theme, conscience—outside the inherent qualities of the material itself. Usually I write down one sentence, sometimes two, but rarely more than three. Those sentences are usually placed in the text which I am editing at the time. In fact, there is no original composition, new chapters split off from chapters which became too long during the editing process. (Revision mainly consists of adding and inserting, displacing and dividing; only during the last phase, when the text has gained enough consistency, there may be subtraction to tighten the composition; each chapter requires a season of daily revision). This constant revision, accompanied by a continuous influx of collective background noise (to speak with Van Bastelaere), 7 makes every chapter a block condensed (“historical” and “personal”) time. The block itself is a-personal and a-historic; it is ontologically autonomous. If there is such a thing as a spirit of the times, I do not try to offer an image of it, but rather to cancel something of it by erecting a monument of its own excrement within its own boundaries. Tuning and dis-tuning , “in de taal der neerslachtigen een eigen geluid doen klinken,” 8 in other words, desiring in an Elysian way. In this sense I have intended to be able to write a political poetry. The ultimate political poem is the epic, “the tale of the tribe.” I consider N30 to be a prolegomenon to a future epic (of which it in the end will form a part a structural moment, as introduction-in-the-middle), an extended pile on top of an epic as narrative, a question of the tribe and question of its history. I was burdened by too much satire, too much bullshit. But: satire willy-nilly = the only justifiable satire. Against the abstract universalism of the market (“globalism”): concrete disgust, a positive way of saying “No.” Moreover, disgust is a specifically total attitude, which ultimately concerns the world as a whole. I hate this or that, but I am disgusted by EVERYTHING (when I am disgusted), and so it appears that satire is in fact related to the epic, in so far as it concerns society, the cosmos, history. Maybe it is no coincidence that the Dutch literary canon knows no great poet of disgust; what could be more fearful to us than society, the cosmos, and history? The T-tendency (T from Tollens 9 ) clearly points into the direction of the small, friendly, ironic, melancholic, acquiescent, wondrous, and so on. The anti-political, anti-cosmic, anti-historical. (Why am I so philosophical? To scare away the Dutchies.) And most of all: the “poetical” (the pseudo-mysticism from the backyard). Yes, the N in N30 also stands for the Netherlands (just like 30 indicates the number of chapters). I was not in Seattle, I do not live in Iraq. But is not the whole world bleeding to death on Dutch paving stones? Let’s hope that we mowed away something with this total satire, also “in myself.” The arrogant stupidity that definitely thinks to know the essence of freedom (the free development of esthetic needs inside the void), that cannot take anything serious, only believes in the disciplined bestiality of the individual (“norms and values”) and the mere functioning of a social factory which finds no justification whatsoever outside its functioning (“get to work”)… Who knows. A certain aimed destruction leaves grooves and craters, mapping out a next adventure. Pound’s periplum : sailing while mapping the coasts. Immanent orientation. The terrain changes with the map, history changes with the poem. Maps never merely organize the chaos, transcendent schemes imposed on a formless Ding-an-sich . They organize from within, surfing. But they are most of all routes back into the chaos or forward to paradise (final identity of chaos and paradise; Schlegel: “ Nur diejenige Verworrenheit ist ein Chaos aus der eine Welt entspringen kann ”10). A poem is not only a piece of history, it is also a flight from history. Maps give chaos to the form of reality , open escape routes, break through representations, make us shivery and dazed. Paradise is immanent to a fleeting desire. History is the history of labor—this is Adam’s curse—and the poet works too: For to articulate sweet sounds together Is to work harder than all these, and yet Be thought an idler by the noisy set Of bankers, school masters, and clergymen The martyrs call the world 11 But: the poet works in paradise. The paradox of the artwork, the work that is no work, the piece of history that cannot be reduced to History—this is explained by The Space of Literature , a virtual space, an autonomous rhythm, not outside, but in the midst of the noise, a piece of paradise in hell, a postcard from the vale of tears addressed to paradise, to X. Political poetry means: a poetry that dares to think about itself, about its language and about its world and about the problematic relation between both, which is this relation as problem. A poetry that thinks at all, articulates its problem. It has nothing to do with journalism or morality or debate, let alone the law or the state. It has nothing to do with “criticism” if this means the replacement of incorrect representations by other, more correct representations. It has something to do with ethics in the sense of learning to live. It has something to do with the community and the language of the community (whichever that may be) and the role of the poet regarding the community. It concerns justice without judgement or measure. In the end the just word is just a word , to paraphrase Godard: it is from a future that is unimaginable. It Is no rational engagement, but an aversion against everything that obstructs life, and love for everything what is worthy of having been loved. The world is engaged with me, not the other way round. First Exodus, then Sinai. A desire does not start with an agenda. To answer the question whether I am really so naive as to want to change the world: “We only want the world.” Justice is the world appealing to us to liberate it from all possible chains, from each organization and inequality, to be it, smooth, equal, under a clear sky—a desert and a people in a desert. That moment between Egypt and the Law. It is not a revolution, but the sky above the revolution. Poetry = the science of escape. There is no art that we already know. The weakness of modernistic epic poetry seems to me to be the unwillingness to completely abandon narrative as a structural principle, in favor of a composition “around” or from an event. The China Cantos and Adams Cantos are the low point, and the Pisan Cantos the high point of Pound’s poetry. Two types of research: archival representation of the past vs. ontology of the present (which virtually presupposes the entire history). Presupposing an event means that it is impossible for the poet to stage his own absence, but in no way makes the work personal. An event is the unknown, the new invading into the business as usual, so also the personal. The question heading this research is not: “Who am I?” but “What is happening?” The book is as little illegible as Mondrian’s work is invisible. Form is of interest only to the extent that it empowers liberation. Ron Silliman So no formalism, but what it means to live in this world and to have a future in it. I want something that holds together that’s not smooth. Bruce Andrews The past above, the future below and the present pouring down: the roar, the roar of the present, a speech— William Carlos Williams If my confreres wanted to write a work with all history in its maw, I wished, from the beginning to start all over again, attempting to know nothing but a will to create, and matter at hand. Ronald Johnson NOTES 1) “The easy thing/ that is difficult to make.” Bertold Brecht, Lob des Kommunismus . (All footnotes are the translator’s) 2) Maurice Blanchot, The Space of Literature , trans. Ann Smock. Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press (1989), 75. 3) Mettes uses the word “Neerlandicus,” which refers to scholars of Dutch language and literature. 4) Dutch poet. 5) Gertrude Stein. “Composition as Explanation.” A Stein Reader . Ed. Ulla E. Dydo. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press (1993), 495-503. 6) Ezra Pound. 7) Flemish poet. 8) “Resounding an original sound in the language of the despondent.” A. Roland Holst, De afspraak . 9) Dutch poet. 10) “Only such a confusion is a chaos which can give rise to a world.” 11) W.B. Yeats, “Adam’s Curse.&rdquo. (shrink)

BackgroundThis study presents an empirical investigation of the ethical reasoning and ethical issues at stake in the daily work of physicians and molecular biologists in Denmark. The aim of this study was to test empirically whether there is a difference in ethical considerations and principles between Danish physicians and Danish molecular biologists, and whether the bioethical principles of the American bioethicists Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress are applicable to these groups.MethodThis study is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with (...) three groups of respondents: a group of oncology physicians working in a clinic at a public hospital and two groups of molecular biologists conducting basic research, one group employed at a public university and the other in a private biopharmaceutical company.ResultsIn this sample, the authors found that oncology physicians and molecular biologists employed in a private biopharmaceutical company have the specific principle of beneficence in mind in their daily work. Both groups are motivated to help sick patients. According to the study, molecular biologists explicitly consider nonmaleficence in relation to the environment, the researchers' own health, and animal models; and only implicitly in relation to patients or human subjects. In contrast, considerations of nonmaleficence by oncology physicians relate to patients or human subjects. Physicians and molecular biologists both consider the principle of respect for autonomy as a negative obligation in the sense that informed consent of patients should be respected. However, in contrast to molecular biologists, physicians experience the principle of respect for autonomy as a positive obligation as the physician, in dialogue with the patient, offers a medical prognosis based upon the patients wishes and ideas, mutual understanding, and respect. Finally, this study discloses utilitarian characteristics in the overall conception of justice as conceived by oncology physicians and molecular biologists from the private biopharmaceutical company. Molecular biologists employed at a public university are, in this study, concerned with allocation, however, they do not propose a specific theory of justice.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that each of the four bioethical principles of the American bioethicists Tom L. Beauchamp & James F. Childress – respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice – are reflected in the daily work of physicians and molecular biologists in Denmark. Consequently, these principles are applicable in the Danish biomedical setting. (shrink)

Les théories post-colonialistes nous ont montré à quel point l'absence d'une reconnaissance de la valeur de certaines formes culturelles produit des effets nuisibles. Ces théories ignorent pourtant la nature asymétrique des relations régissant l'interaction entre des cultures mineures et des cultures majeures, c'est-à-dire entre les grandes et les petites nations. Par conséquent, la nécessité d'une politique de la reconnaissance spécifique aux petites nations privilégiées n'est pas reconnue. Afin d'établir ce point, j'examine quelques aspects de la production cinématographique danoise. J'essaie aussi (...) de montrer que les cinéastes appartenant à des petites nations privilégiées doivent adopter une stratégie précise de la reconnaissance.Influential postcolonial theories have successfully shown that the failure to recognize the value of certain cultural forms inflicts a form of harm. What these theories fail to note is that small, prosperous nations also require a politics of recognition as a result of the asymmetrical nature of relations governing major and minor cultures. To prove this point I consider aspects of contemporary Danish cinematic production. I attempt to identify the strategy for recognition that is best suited to filmmakers belonging to small, but prosperous nations. (shrink)

Il libro, diviso in quattro sezioni, mette in luce un'indagine storica del tutto originale di documenti noti e meno noti sulla figura di Gesù in fonti non cristiane del I secolo; su come il cristianesimo fu conosciuto a Roma già nel I secolo; sulle allusioni al cristianesimo nei romanzi e nelle satire pagane del I-II secolo; su alcuni esempi della prima diffusione del cristianesimo dal Vicino Oriente all'India.

continent. 2.1 (2012): 22–28. Jeroen Mettes burst onto the Dutch poetry scene twice. First, in 2005, when he became a strong presence on the nascent Dutch poetry blogosphere overnight as he embarked on his critical project Dichtersalfabet (Poet’s Alphabet). And again in 2011, when to great critical acclaim (and some bafflement) his complete writings were published – almost five years after his far too early death. 2005 was the year in which Dutch poetry blogging exploded. That year saw the foundation (...) of the influential, polemical, and populistically inclined weblog De Contrabas (The Double Bass), which became a strong force for internet poetry in Dutch in the years to follow. In the summer of that year, a lively debate raged in the aftermath of Bas Belleman’s article “ Doet poëzie er nu eindelijk toe ?” (“Does poetry finally matter now?”), on a blog specifically devoted to this question. Up to that point, the poetical debate in the Netherlands had largely been confined to literary reviews (which were often subsidized), having become mostly marginalized in more mainstream media, where poetry could be covered by only a small number of so-called authorities. As a result, literary debate had acquired a rather placid quality. Though a variety of camps with different aesthetics could be discerned, most poetical positions shared a general acceptance of poetry as a form of art somewhat apart from fundamental political concerns. Late modernists would pursue subtlety and density of reference. Others would insist poetry was best understood as a form of entertainment that should ideally be accessible and work well on the stage. Still others would insist that poetry is mostly a play with forms. Linguistically disruptive strategies were valued highly by some, but mostly for their aesthetic effect. Values of disinterested playfulness reigned supreme everywhere. Any idea that poetry could be a field in which one confronts politics and the world was decidedly marginal. This led to a climate in which most attempts at polemics were DOA, often based on far too superficial positioning and analysis. The greatest polemical debates were revolving around the question of whether poetry should be difficult or easy, with both camps defining their ideas of difficulty and accessibility in ways that were so utterly shallow as to make the entire point moot. Debates were performed, rather than engaged with. It was a postmodern hell of underarticulated poetics. Half-consciously, people were yearning for new forms of criticism that could put the oomph back into poetry. Weblogs provided for ways to explore debate directly outside of the clotted older channels of the reviews and the newspapers. Belleman’s essay and the resulting online activity had shown that there was a widespread eagerness to take poetry more seriously as a social art form. It was in this environment that Mettes started his remarkable project Dichtersalfabet . At that moment, Mettes was active mostly in academic circles, having become noted at Leiden University as a particularly gifted student of literary theory. Within the Netherlands, the field of literary theory has a very odd relationship to literature as it is practiced in the country. Academic theory tends to have a mostly international view and engage with international debates of cultural criticism, literary theory, and philosophy, with academics often publishing in English and attending conferences around the world. Literature itself however is much more concerned with domestic traditions. Consequently, in the Netherlands, there exists a language gap between academic theoretical practice (as it is studied in the literary theory departments) and literary practice (which, academically, gets studied in specialized departments of Dutch literature). The Dichtersalfabet can be seen as Mettes’s attempt to close this gap. It is also an attempt to bridge the divide between theory and practice, in which he could apply his theoretical knowledge in a very unorthodox and unacademic critical mode that moreover could reach far beyond the domain of conventional criticism. Mettes’s goal was to trace a diagonal through Dutch poetic culture, to “strangle” what he perceived to be its dominant oppressive traditions of agreeable irrelevance, in order to see whatever might be able to survive his critical assaults. But he could only do so by means of a very serious engagement with poetry itself. To this end, he would go systematically through the poetry bookshelf of the Verwijs bookshop (part of a mainstream chain of booksellers) in The Hague, buying one publication per blog item, starting from A and working his way through the alphabet, reading whatever he might encounter that way in the restaurant of the HEMA store (another big commercial chain in the country). He would subsequently write down his reading experiences, refraining however from trying to write a nuanced book review. Rather, he would write about anything that caught his attention and sparked his critical interest. This way of working would yield vast, at times somewhat rambling, dense, lively, and generally brilliant essays, in which he held no punches. He never hesitated to pull out his entire arsenal of concepts from the international theory traditions, while never degenerating into mere academic exercise and pointless intertextualities. The attempt was rather to live the poetry that he read, and to engage it with the full range of political, academic, cultural, and personal references that he had at his disposal—all that composed the individual named Jeroen Mettes as a reader. Often what he wrote would not be according to the standards of what we usually think of as a critical review of a book of poetry. Sometimes he would even be a little sloppy in his judgments of poets or representations of the books he read, for example by basing an entire essay on the blurb of a book rather than its poetry content. But what he did was always brilliant writing nonetheless—virtuoso riffs on poetic fragments randomly found within capitalist society, exposing an incisive and insistent poetical sensibility. Mettes read poetry for political reasons, to see whether poetry could offer him a way to deal with a political world he detested. The right-wing horrors of the Bush years, the Iraq war, and the turn of Dutch public opinion towards ever more conservative, narrow-minded, and xenophobic views alongside a complete failure of the political left to present any credible alternative, were weighing heavily on the times in which Mettes reported on his reading. Poetry was to measure this world, diagram it, to lay bare its inconsistencies and faults, to indicate where lines of flight might be found. Amid the ruins of a world wrecked by imperialist policies, corporate capitalism, and doctrinal neoliberalism it would have to show the possibility of a new community. And it was, through its rhythmical workings, to release the reading subject from his confinement to ideologically conditioned individuality and lead him into the immanent paradise of reading. The stakes were high. Much higher than anything Dutch poetry had seen for many years. Mettes’s blog was widely read from the start. His posts sparked lively debates. Some of these subsequently led to the publication of extensive essays on a few key poets in some literary journals, particularly Parmentier and the Flemish journal yang , for which Mettes would become a member of the editorial board, a few months after starting the Dichtersalfabet . This could have been the start of a brilliant career, but this was not to be. The initial manic energy that fueled the blog gradually subsided. The Alfabet was updated less and less regularly. Mettes sometimes just disappeared for many weeks, then suddenly returning with a brilliant essay. Until, on September 21, 2006, he posted his final blogpost, consisting of no text whatsoever. That night I learned from his mentor at Leiden University that he had committed suicide. Mettes and I had had some fruitful exchanges on poetry, rhythm, music, and form, mostly on the blogs, but also by email. Three weeks before his death was the last time I heard from him: a very sudden, uncharacteristically curt note saying “My old new sentence epic.” Attached to that message I found a DOC-file of a work so major that I felt intimidated. This was N30 , a text he had been working on for over five years. After his death, it took me a long time before I dared to read it in its entirety. In the meantime, the work of preparing the manuscript for publication was entrusted by his relatives to his colleagues at yang magazine. It took them a few years to brush up the text and to edit the Dichtersalfabet -blog (which, apart from the Alphabet project itself, incorporated many other fragments of political, polemical, and theoretical writing) into book form along with the essays. The result of this labor was finally published in 2011 as a two-book set, and Mettes burst onto the Dutch poetry scene for the second time. The work was widely reviewed, on blogs, in journals, magazines, and newspapers. Many critics who had not followed the blogs in 2005 showed themselves surprised, baffled even, by the intensity of Mettes’s critical writing. But for those who had read the blog, the main surprise was in the poetry. During Mettes’s lifetime, some of his poems had already been published in Parmentier . Although these were strong texts by themselves, in no way did they prepare readers for N30 . Nothing like it had been written in Dutch before. Instead, N30 explicitly follows the American tradition of Language Writing, directly referencing Ron Silliman and his concept of The New Sentence. However, it would seem that much of the poetical thinking around his use of this technique puts him closer to a writer such as Bruce Andrews. For Mettes, using non sequiturs as a unit of poetic construction was not only a way of reinventing formal textual construction, but it was another way of finding the fault lines in the social fabric. From the perspective of the Language tradition, one may put N30 somewhere between Silliman and Andrews. N30 shares an autobiographical element with Silliman’s New Sentence projects, and as in Andrews, there is a concern for mapping out social totality within text—what Mettes refers to as a “textual world civil war.” Again this shows a formal textual strategy for allowing the person “Jeroen Mettes” to be absorbed by the world, which here appears as a whirlwind of demotic and demonic chatter, full of violence, humor, intensity, beauty, disgust, sex, commerce, and strife. Influenced as it may by American precursors, Mettes’s tone and form end up quite different from his American counterparts, consistently referencing a world that is Dutch, all too Dutch, taking on the oppressive orderliness of Dutch society with its endemic penchant for consensus by introducing chaos into its daily life and laying bare its implicit aggressions. The work’s 31 chapters each have a different feel and rhythmical outline, but none of them follow a predetermined pattern. Rather, Mettes would consistently edit and reedit the text, randomly rewriting parts of it, as he explains in his poetical creed Politieke Poëzie (Political Poetry). N30 – referring to the 1999 antiglobalist protest in Seattle – was to be the first text of a trilogy. The work itself was written “in the mode of the present.” A second text was to be written in the mode of the future, and a third one, in the mode of the past, was going to be an epic poem about the Paris Commune, and to form an alternative poetic constitution for the European project. I still deeply regret that Jeroen Mettes never got to complete those projects, just as I would be very keen on knowing what he might have had to say about more recent political developments. Instead, in 2006, he remained stuck in the horrors of the present, that ended up consuming him completely. He left Dutch literature with some of its most piercing criticism and its most profoundly moving, exciting and powerful poetry. Excerpts from N30 Translated by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei from Jeroen Mettes. "N30." In N30+ . Amsterdam: De wereldbibliotheek, 2011. Published with permission of Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam. Chapter 1 1999. A day is a space too. And another man, who had chained himself, had his ribs crushed, and a motor has driven over somebody’s legs. Dutch health care system spends ±145 million guilders per year on worriers. A spiderweb vibrates as I pass by. Randstad renovating. She slaps her bag against her ass: “Hurry up!” OPINION IS TRUE FRIENDSHIP Your skin. It doesn’t express anything. “But the use of the sword, that’s what I learned, and you’ll need nothing more for the moment.” Just try to interrogate a guy like that. Gullit in Sierra Leone. Codes silently lying all around. But that’s simply what belongs to “that it’s just allowed”: that sigh of “world” (a word expressing that the trees are now standing along the water like black men with white bags in their hair); that’s nothing else right? And you see how everything has to move, and first of all what cannot do so. Without Elysium and without savings, barbarians lashing out, horny for an enemy, staring across the water, staring into the air—staring to get out of it. “You’ve never showed me more than the mall,” she said. All those “dreams” in the end—and now? It was lying on the stairway, so I picked it up and took it upstairs. Chapter 3 “You know what?” Telecommunication. For love… I don’t really like that cheap cultural pessimism, but… The holy city is on pilgrimage in the earthly bodies of the faithful until the time of the heavenly kingdom has come. The end of an exhausting autumn day behind the computer, my eyes filled with tears of fatigue. KITCHEN / INSTALLATION / SPECIALIST. Network integration. In the sun, stretched out on a sheet. (…) I don’t believe what I’m reading, because I want to believe something else. An illusion? Suits me. There’s a variety of shapes and tastes… “So what?” you may think. 102 dalmatians can’t be wrong. But I want more, dear… A feel good movie. I’m smashing the burned body. So what? We continue to save the European civilization. What’s there to win? Plato with poets = Stalin without gulag? Ball against the crossbar. No wonder. She comes straight to her point. She’s standing in the kitchen eating an apple. (…) The godless Napoleon had used her as a stable and wanted to have her taken down. “Our” Rutger Hauer. Ready or not here I come. Psst… are you also wearing a string? Nobody understands our desire. Cliffs breaking the waves and shattering the sunset. I used to be a real romantic (as a poet). A typical fantasy used to be the one in which I brutally raped mother and daughter Seaver from the sitcom Growing Pains . Nevertheless you only contain bad words. Eyelashes. Automatic or manual? That your skin always in the afternoon. Integration. The air is empty. Too bad! Hand in hand on their lonely way. Alaska! Chapter 12 May 5, 2001 [10:00-10:30] A dust cloud on a hill. Globe. Indian (British) (tie) / pope. Damascus. Rape. We’re carrying the ayatollah’s portrait through the streets. At the moment the girl is mostly suede jacket with white ribbons on her sleeves. A small explosion flares up/impact. Camouflage. Close up. We’re analyzing the situation. He’s dead right? Dead dead. Dead. Everything without, these, and only with the body. Indices signal death. Dollar bills are printed in factories. Holes. Light patch. Globe in a box. Microphone. What’s the situation? Grey impact on a green hill (field?). The water is blue. He has no lips. Interns on the background with skirts that are too long. This is an example of a sonnet. An Islamic woman pushes against the door of an electronics shop. Arrows (percentages (prices)). Is this what awaits the American? Touch screen interface. The word, an island, can only be a sign in that situation. We pull up a chair, join in on the fun. On the shelves only books about computers. One glance in the distance is enough to lighten up a luna park in the distance. She’s really desperate, especially when she laughs. Click. Ah. Next. And now it’s raining, but that’s ok. Yellow stains sliding over the south. Shallow caves light: clothes, boots, electrical equipment. 45. 22:10. Nothing gives you the right to eat more than people starving to death. The Hague. Slam dunk. Traffic light. Two H’s, one L (standing for the L (little prick)). We’re happy to say something. Clouds, small suns, temperatures, cities. The truth is never an excuse. Yellow. Yellow. Green. Yellow. Yellow. Yellow. Yellow. Green. Green. Yellow. Will you email me? Skeleton: “No.” Ex-nerds in brand-new and brightly red sport cars. $$$. I love. Shihab. Hooves in the sand. Skinny senior with over-sized sunglasses; old jockey (cap, trophy) smiling in slow motion. And there I am again, flashback, crying with my head in between my hands. Sometimes I’ve got the feeling that cannibals. Eyes: blue. Cancer. Why would I wait until tomorrow? Golden beams protruding from the lifted/lit earth. May 5, 2001 [11:30-12:45] You’ll remember this for the rest of your life. Graphs, diagrams. Bu$ine$$. Blue shirt, white collar, no neck (porn star). A name lights up. I’m hysteric. Will you join us? Letters falling in their words. Fingers set up a tent and start to dance. Young entrepreneurs from poor neighborhoods (read: black) guided by Microsoft. Kinda makes me happy, that sort of kitsch. A sense of exhaustion/impotence to see anything but the present. (…) Wouldn’t you like to? Orange explosion in an industrial zone. YOU’RE DOING THIS FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL. Would you. A familiar face. Clouds and blossom. Sunflowers. Supermodels. Mountainous area in a rectangle: shades of brown, from dark to beige, more green toward the south. Tents and next to them (it’s all a blur) people. Plane. Stadium. Geometrical block of people. No, I ain’t crying. I don’t speak no more. I just want. Quote + photo. (Positive:) screaming crowd. Three-piece suit, seen from the back, before entering the arena. On the back: “Daddy abused me.” Oh, bummer. State of emergency has been declared and everyone has to cooperate. She’s cut her wrists. What we do know (…) is that there’s never been a unique word, an imperative name, nor will there ever be. [Click here for work that suits you.] Barefooted children are watching it (coherent pieces revelation of what’s lying below). Who knows how she’s changed during those two years. “Everything used to be better” + sigh. And here we are. An empty field of parquet. A city lying behind it. Explosion. Blue. A rain drop falling in my coffee. May 5, 2001 [14:30-15:30] A young Arafat on video speaking with raised finger. “I’m calling from my convertible.” Names on walls, victims, numbers… Tourists. Yellow. Yellow. “Your own child! Really, what kind of human are you?” I don’t want to hear it no more. A woman jumping out of the water in a yellow bikini against a background of fireworks and the Cheops pyramid. Thy sorrow shall become good fortune, thy complaints laudation. All planets will float and wander. Wo die Welt zum Bild wird, kommt das System (…) zur Herrschaft. It is something, but is it? May 5, 2001 [18:30-19:00] Iris. Leaves. NASDAQ. Open / and white and. For the one who’s doing nothing, just waiting. (…) NO DEFEAT is made entirely up of defeat -- since / the world it opens is always a place / formerly / unsuspected. October 2002. “Jeroen, I’m leaving for the cemetery, byeeee.” The rise of the middle class. My entire oeuvre is an ode to the. My entire head is a fight against the. God always demands what you cannot sacrifice. You may take that the easy way, but… “The state hasn’t made us, but we make the state” (Hitler). A stork exits the elevator. Skeletons of. Moscow. Helsinki. Palermo. Paris. Chapter 30 Like your paradises: nothing. United Desire, as only remaining superpower. And even though the sea is now calmer and the wind is blowing pleasantly in my face… Heart! Who determines whether a tradition is “alive”? The yellow leaf or the white branch? Mars. This sentence is a typical example. Most Dutch people are happy. No consolation. When I see a girl sitting at a table with a book, a notepad, a pen, a bottle of mineral water, her hand writing in the light—then I consider that one thing. “Presents,” “poetry,” “classics.” We are what we cannot make from ourselves. “Left”: mendicant orders, missionaries. Saint-Just: “A republic is founded on the destruction of its enemies.” She crosses the street with a banana peel between her fingers. (…) We chose our own wardens, torturers, it was us who called all this insanity upon ourselves, we created this nightmare… But “no”? Girl (just like a beach ball) talking rapid Spanish (Portuguese?) in a mobile phone. Do I have a chance now that her boyfriend is getting bold? CLIO, horny bitch. What else do you want? An old woman, between the doors of the C1000, is suddenly unable to go on; her husband stretches out his hand, speaking a few encouraging words. Selection from. Der Führer schenkt den Jüden ein Stadt. How can it reach us if we haven’t been already reached somehow? It doesn’t “speak.” No problem. Each word she uses is a small miracle, as if she doesn’t belong to it, to language, but wanders around with a pocket light looking for the exit; she’s never desperate (maybe a little nervous), lighting up heavy words from the inside. But indeed, we’re free. But the predicate is not an attribute, but an event, and the subject is not a subject, but a shell. That’s why also samurai, knights, and warriors raised the blossom as emblem: they knew how to die. Locked up in a baby carriage with a McDonald’s balloon. Blue helicopter, the blue sky. Whether you want to refer? The point is. How / Motherfucker can I sing a sad song / When I remember Zion? You’ll feel so miserable and worthless that you think: “If only I were dead!,” or: “Just put an end to it!” “So you’re an economist?” Her card—two little birds building a nest, her handwriting shaking—is still on the mantelpiece. Guevara: “No, a communist.” A straw fire, such was our life: rapidly it flared up, rapidly it passed. I’m fleeing, coming from nowhere. (…) Eazy-E drinking coffee with the American president. If I’d scream, would that be an event? Drown it: the cleaner it will rise up from the depths. No! The night, so fast… As if there’s something opened up in that face. Come on, we may not curse life. He shows me his methadone: “If you drink that all at once, you’ll die instantly.” The last one dictates how we should behave to deserve happiness. One shine / above the earth. “I want to go to Bosnia,” I said bluntly. I don’t even know the name of the current mayor. Let’s despise our success! “There is no future; this is the future. Hope is a weakness that we've overcome. We have found happiness!” Sun. Sushi. Volvo. I feel like a bomb about to explode at any moment. Makes a difference for the reconstruction right? The decor moves forward. Daughter of Nereus, you nymphs of the sea, and you Thetis, you should have kept his tired head above the waves! Alas! This sentence has been written wearing a green cap. I receive my orders from the future. A frog jumps into it. Her husband has turned the Intifada, which he follows daily on CCN, into his hobby, “to forget that he doesn’t have his driver’s license yet." Suddenly the sun slides over the crosswalk. Her (his?) foot is playing with the slipper under the table. Is this how I’m writing this book now? I’m not a fellow man. I hate you and I want to hurt you. These are my people. Their screaming doesn’t rise above the constantly wailing sirens which we've learned to ignore. My whole body became warm and suddenly started to tremble. Unfortunate is he who is standing on the threshold of the most beautiful time, but awaits a better one. Arafat’s “removal” is contrary to American interests. Jeep drives into boy. What you can do alone, you should do alone. A food gift from the people of the United States of America. Two seagulls. [...]. (shrink)

Riassunto Un’attenta analisi comparata della testimonianza di Ammiano Marcellino con le altre fonti letterarie, e le probabili epigrafiche, mette in nuova luce l’usurpazione di Silvano (355 d. C.). Prima di dare il via alla rivolta, il generale valutò con attenzione l’esistenza di gruppi sociali ostili a Constanzo II: innanzitutto la popolazione delle Gallie, vessata dall’ingordigia degli emissari imperiali, ma c’erano eminenti figure pro Silvano anche alla corte di Milano e tra i senatori di Roma. Le manovre ordite contro di (...) lui da alti funzionari furono solo l’occasione perché Silvano sciogliesse le titubanze e desse il via alla sollevazione, comunque a lungo meditata. Egli era convinto non solo del sostegno dei suoi soldati, ma anche dei civili, avversi all’imperatore per ragioni politiche, economiche e forse religiose. In conclusione l’usurpazione, più che dovuta agli intrighi di corte, come è stato spesso sostenuto, appare attentamente pianificata dallo stesso Silvano, forte dell’appoggio trasversale delle truppe, dei provinciali, ma anche di influenti personaggi italici. (shrink)

Se demander si un système scolaire s’est démocratisé exige qu’on se mette au clair sur ce qu’on entend par « démocratie ». L’évolution du système scolaire français est une belle illustration des écueils auxquels on s’expose en cultivant l’ambiguïté sur cette ambition légitime de démocratisation. Contrairement à ce que laisse parfois entendre un discours à coloration nostalgique, ce système ne s’est véritablement ouvert à tous les élèves, du moins pour ce qui concerne les études longues, que de façon relativement (...) récente : longtemps, sauf pour quelques exceptions, la naissance a décidé de façon explicite et assumée des destins scolaires, distribuant dès le début de la scolarité obligatoire les élèves entre deux filières relativement étanches. On en conclurait alors trop rapidement que l’unification du parcours scolaire obligatoire et la démocratisation de l’accès aux études longues ont contribué à mettre fin à cette ségrégation selon l’origine sociale. Les lignes qui suivent s’efforcent de montrer, sans nier certains de leurs effets positifs, comment ces politiques d’ouverture ont plutôt transformé la nature des inégalités devant l’École qu’elles ne les ont effacées et, qu’on s’en réjouisse ou qu’on le déplore, ont imposé aux enseignants des contextes d’enseignement totalement nouveaux. (shrink)

The Political Imaginary.Reflections on Merleau-Ponty’s reading of MachiavelliThis essay attempts to set in relief an aspect of Merleau-Ponty’s political thought that has still received little study: his conception of the political imaginary. This fertile aspect of his political thought appears explicitly in his reading of Machiavelli as it is developed in “Note on Machiavelli”, which appeared for the first time in 1949. In this note, Merleau-Ponty treats the specific problem of power. In trying to characterize this, Merleau-Ponty comes to discover (...) the inevitably imaginary dimension of the political space.To begin, this essay retraces the aim and scope of Machiavelli’s thought, while bringing to the fore those aspects in his political reflections that are properly imaginary. Next, the essay compares these reflections to those Merleau-Ponty had on the political imaginary in the same period as his courses on childpsychology at the Sorbonne (held between 1949 and 1952). Following the descriptions of the phenomenon of the imaginary, this time from the phenomenological point of view, the third and final section of this essay will articulate the analyses of the “Note on Machiavelli” together with the theoreticaljustification of the political imaginary and will show how these analyses are inscribed in the heart of Merleau-Ponty’s path. We will then discover how thephenomenon of the imaginary is intimately linked to the constitution of the self and the other, the body and the intersubjective world, and how this problematicobliges us to pose the question of the symbolic.Across this path, the essay will aim to show how Merleau-Ponty’s reading of Machiavelli allows us to think in a new way about diverse ideas and traditionsand to articulate afresh the meaning and scope of the properly political dimension of human praxis.L’immaginario politico.Riflessioni sulla lettura merleau-pontyana di MachiavelliQuesto saggio intende mettere in rilievo un aspetto ancora poco studiato del pensiero politico di Merleau-Ponty, la sua concezione dell’immaginario politico. Tale fecondo aspetto della riflessione merleau-pontiana sul politico appare esplicitamente nella lettura di Machiavelli svolta nella «Nota su Machiavelli» (1949). In questo testo Merleau-Ponty affronta il problema specifico del potere, ed è nel tentativo di caratterizzare il potere stesso che Merleau-Ponty scopre la dimensione inevitabilmente immaginaria dello spazio politico.In un primo momento, il saggio ricostruisce l’intenzione e la portata del pensiero di Machiavelli mettendo in luce gli aspetti legati all’immaginario presenti nella sua riflessione politica. In un secondo momento, il saggio mette a confronto tali riflessioni con quelle svolte da Merleau-Ponty sul medesimo tema dell’immaginario nei corsi dedicati alla psicologia dell’età evolutiva, tenuti alla Sorbona tra il 1949 e il 1952. In un terzo momento, ripercorrendo le descrizioni del fenomeno immaginario, questa volta dal punto di vista fenomenologico, il saggio articola le analisi svolte nella «Nota su Machiavelli» con la giustificazione teorica di questa stessa nozione di immaginario del politico ; ricolloca tali analisi all’interno del complessivo percorso merleaupontyano; mostra come il fenomeno dell’immaginario sia intimamente legato alla costituzione stessa dell’io e dell’altro, del corpo e del mondo intersoggettivo; come tale problematica renda infine necessario porre il problema del simbolico.L’insieme del percorso svolto nel presente saggio mostra quindi come la lettura merleau-pontyana di Machiavelli consenta di pensare in modo inedito nozioni e tradizioni differenti, nonché di articolare in maniera rinnovata il senso e la portata della dimensione propriamente politica della praxis umana. (shrink)

La querelle sugli universali si presenta come un dibattito prevalentemente ontologico che rimette in gioco l'idea stessa di sostanza ed è un realismo ontologico che non mette per forza in discussione ogni cosa, ma contempla tutta la realtà delle specie e dei generi naturali della sostanza. Gli uomini sono legati tra di loro per convenientia e questo come una semplice similitudine essenziale tra di loro e le loro essenze individuali, secondo la linea espressa da Giovanni di Pietro Olivi , (...) Riccardo di Mediavilla , Vitale di Four , o come parte di una realtà comune, come espresso dall'altra linea rappresentata da Matteo d'Acquasparta . Anche se la loro posizione può essere definita concettualista, la loro teoria della conoscenza è ontologicamente neutra, dal momento che la ragione non consente di stabilire precisamente la natura dell'universale. (shrink)

On range généralement la pensée de Malebranche parmi celles qui incarnent ce moment de l'histoire de la philosophie qu'on nomme "rationalisme". En prenant son départ dans l'interprétation que Schelling a produite de la "Vision en Dieu", cet ouvrage se propose de l'aborder plutôt comme un idéalisme issu du dogmatisme et enclin à suspendre l'existence des corps : pour avoir élargi le cercle de la pensée humaine aux dimensions du cercle de l'idée divine, Malebranche ferait dépendre la perception sensible de l'action (...) de Dieu seul, anticipant par-là la pensée de Berkeley. Sans doute une telle lecture dépend-elle de la manière dont Schelling a lui-même renouvelé l'idéalisme ; sans doute est-elle aussi tributaire d'une certaine réception de Malebranche. Pour autant, du point de vue qui fut celui de Malebranche, elle mérite qu'on la mette à l'épreuve de ses textes et de ses intentions. Aussi, après avoir montré comment Schelling se place devant Malebranche, on le fait comparaître devant ce que Malebranche pourrait lui opposer. Il apparaît alors que ce dernier s'attache à desserrer l'étreinte que le cercle de l'idée exerce sur son système : en faisant le pari de prouver l'existence d'un monde résolument distinct du monde intelligible, Malebranche oeuvre en effet pour un idéalisme ouvert au réalisme sans jamais renoncer à la "Vision en Dieu"."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Il arrive qu’une complexité extrême mette le modèle de la sélection naturelle au défi d’expliquer quoi que ce soit. Depuis Darwin, l’aptitude humaine au langage est incessamment citée en exemple-type de ce cas de figure. Et ceux qui ont souligné les problèmes posés par cette faculté si spécifiquement humaine n’étaient pas tous des critiques du darwinisme. On sait l’argument avancé par Alfred Russel Wallace, co-instigateur de la théorie de la sélection naturelle, et réputé plus darwiniste que ..

Avec son livre La machine sensible, Stefan Kristensen réalise, de façon magistrale, deux objectifs. D’abord, il met en lien la pensée de deux philosophes qui sont à première vue très éloignés l’un de l’autre. Il s’agit de Félix Guattari et de Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Traditionnellement, Merleau-Ponty est considéré comme le philosophe du corps, tandis que Guattari est connu comme le philosophe du corps sans organes. Merleau-Ponty est un phénoménologue, tandis que Guattari prétend abandonner le point de vue du sujet. Kristensen démontre (...) avec succès quel est le terrain commun des deux auteurs : la critique de la conception psychanalytique du sujet.Le deuxième objectif du livre découle directement du premier : présenter au lecteur une alternative à la conception intimiste de la subjectivité, soit comprendre la subjectivité comme fondamentalement parcourue par une altérité. Merleau-Ponty a été l’un des premiers, à l’instar de Paul Schilder, à mettre l’accent sur le caractère collectif et intersubjectif de cette altérité. Guattari a compris que cette altérité possède des sédiments politiques et historiques.With his book La machine sensible, Stefan Kristensen accomplishes two goals in a masterly way. First, he links the works of two philosophers who are very different at first sight: Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Félix Guattari. Traditionally, Merleau-Ponty is considered the philosopher of the body, whereas Guattari is known as the philosopher of the body without organs. Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist, whereas Guattari pretends to abandon the point of view of the subject. Kristensen identifies the common ground of the two authors: the criticism of the psychoanalytical conception of the subject.The second goal of the book derives directly from the first: present the reader with an alternative for the intimate conception of subjectivity, that is, present him or her with the idea that subjectivity is always characterized by an alterity. Merleau-Ponty, following the example of Paul Schilder, has been one of the first to stress the collective and intersubjective nature of this alterity. Guattari has understood that this alterity has political and historical sediments.Con il suo libro La machine sensible, Stefan Kristensen realizza magistralmente due obiettivi. Innanzitutto, egli mette in relazione il pensiero di due filosofi a prima vista molto distanti tra loro: Félix Guattari e Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Se tradizionalmente Merleau-Ponty è considerato il filosofo del corpo, Guattari è invece noto come il filosofo del corpo senza organi. Merleau-Ponty è un fenomenologo, mentre il pensiero di Guattari intende abbandonare il punto di vista del soggetto. Kristensen propone allora di leggere la critica della concezione psicoanalitica del soggetto come terreno comune tra i due autori. Il secondo obiettivo del libro discende direttamente dal primo: presentare al lettore un’alternativa alla concezione intimista della soggettività, ovvero concepire la soggettività come fondamentalmente percorsa da un’alterità. Merleau-Ponty è tra i primi, sulla scorta di Paul Schilder, a porre l’accento sul carattere collettivo e intersoggettivo di questa alterità. Dal canto suo, Guattari ha compreso che questa alterità possiede dei sedimenti politici e storici. (shrink)

La tesi che si intende discutere è che il progetto sia l’intima essenza dell’uomo. I primi argomenti a suo favore non vanno tuttavia ricercati nella riflessione antropologica, in quanto il “discorso dell’uomo sull’uomo” presume il suo stesso oggetto di ricerca, rischiando di “avvitarsi” in un circolo vizioso senza uscita. Non è casuale che, in tal senso, le intuizioni più illuminanti siano state espresse attraverso il linguaggio mito-poietico. Già nel Protagora Platone, con le figure di Prometeo e di Epimeteo, mette (...) in scena il dramma di una condizione umana che si presenta quale strutturale privazione di qualità specifiche, che la sola “capacità anticipante” del Titano può risarcire, facendosi portatrice della tecnica come istanza di sopravvivenza in ambiente ostile. Da questo momento in avanti, l’avventura del progetto diventa metonimica protensione verso le cose a venire (ad-ventura); condizione necessaria, ancorché non sufficiente, per orientarsi in un mondo inteso come stato di indeterminazione dal quale emanciparsi. Tali premesse paiono oggi indicare una possibile via di uscita alla crisi di valori generata dal capitalismo finanziariario, che ci costringe a vivere in un rinnovato stato di incertezza, all’interno di un desolante paesaggio di rovine. La rigenerazione della città, in tale scenario, costituisce pertanto la ripresa di un cammino, destinato a incontrare difficoltà e resistenze, anche politiche. Un viatico necessario alla riproposizione tentativa di futuri possibili: nella consapevolezza che essi si fondino sulla capacità di formulare ipotesi sul passato – divenuto “criticamente” il nuovo ambiente in cui operare – sempre sospesi tra il “non più” del mondo alle nostre spalle e il “non ancora” di quello che auspichiamo a venire. A partire dalla fondamentale distinzione tra Umwelt e Welt, introdotta dall’etologo Jakob von Uexküll, i percorsi della filosofia fenomenologico-esistenziale si intrecciano con quelli dell’Antropologia filosofica, confermando il senso dell’avventura del progetto e il suo problematico intrecciarsi con i destini dell’uomo. Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, Martin Heidegger, Gunter Anders, e Hannah Arendt, nutrono la consapevolezza che il carattere aporeticamente sfuggente dell’essenza umana derivi dalla costante riformulazione del rapporto “uomo”/“mondo”, di cui il progetto risulta il paradossale fondamento “effimero”. Ciò impone che la cultura del progetto sia la prima a doversi mettere in gioco, ponendosi come continua interrogazione sui propri principi, metodi, regole ed esiti, da sottoporre a un incessante processo di verifica e confutazione. L’avventura del progetto diventa pertanto espressione architettonica dell’esistenza – intesa come fuoriuscita dal ciclico riproporsi di uno stato di incertezza – che nel suo divenire costruisce la realtà sociale quale unico mondo abitabile dall’uomo, sempre uguale per quanto mai identico. (shrink)

The Political Imaginary.Reflections on Merleau-Ponty’s reading of MachiavelliThis essay attempts to set in relief an aspect of Merleau-Ponty’s political thought that has still received little study: his conception of the political imaginary. This fertile aspect of his political thought appears explicitly in his reading of Machiavelli as it is developed in “Note on Machiavelli”, which appeared for the first time in 1949. In this note, Merleau-Ponty treats the specific problem of power. In trying to characterize this, Merleau-Ponty comes to discover (...) the inevitably imaginary dimension of the political space.To begin, this essay retraces the aim and scope of Machiavelli’s thought, while bringing to the fore those aspects in his political reflections that are properly imaginary. Next, the essay compares these reflections to those Merleau-Ponty had on the political imaginary in the same period as his courses on childpsychology at the Sorbonne (held between 1949 and 1952). Following the descriptions of the phenomenon of the imaginary, this time from the phenomenological point of view, the third and final section of this essay will articulate the analyses of the “Note on Machiavelli” together with the theoreticaljustification of the political imaginary and will show how these analyses are inscribed in the heart of Merleau-Ponty’s path. We will then discover how thephenomenon of the imaginary is intimately linked to the constitution of the self and the other, the body and the intersubjective world, and how this problematicobliges us to pose the question of the symbolic.Across this path, the essay will aim to show how Merleau-Ponty’s reading of Machiavelli allows us to think in a new way about diverse ideas and traditionsand to articulate afresh the meaning and scope of the properly political dimension of human praxis.L’immaginario politico.Riflessioni sulla lettura merleau-pontyana di MachiavelliQuesto saggio intende mettere in rilievo un aspetto ancora poco studiato del pensiero politico di Merleau-Ponty, la sua concezione dell’immaginario politico. Tale fecondo aspetto della riflessione merleau-pontiana sul politico appare esplicitamente nella lettura di Machiavelli svolta nella «Nota su Machiavelli» (1949). In questo testo Merleau-Ponty affronta il problema specifico del potere, ed è nel tentativo di caratterizzare il potere stesso che Merleau-Ponty scopre la dimensione inevitabilmente immaginaria dello spazio politico.In un primo momento, il saggio ricostruisce l’intenzione e la portata del pensiero di Machiavelli mettendo in luce gli aspetti legati all’immaginario presenti nella sua riflessione politica. In un secondo momento, il saggio mette a confronto tali riflessioni con quelle svolte da Merleau-Ponty sul medesimo tema dell’immaginario nei corsi dedicati alla psicologia dell’età evolutiva, tenuti alla Sorbona tra il 1949 e il 1952. In un terzo momento, ripercorrendo le descrizioni del fenomeno immaginario, questa volta dal punto di vista fenomenologico, il saggio articola le analisi svolte nella «Nota su Machiavelli» con la giustificazione teorica di questa stessa nozione di immaginario del politico ; ricolloca tali analisi all’interno del complessivo percorso merleaupontyano; mostra come il fenomeno dell’immaginario sia intimamente legato alla costituzione stessa dell’io e dell’altro, del corpo e del mondo intersoggettivo; come tale problematica renda infine necessario porre il problema del simbolico.L’insieme del percorso svolto nel presente saggio mostra quindi come la lettura merleau-pontyana di Machiavelli consenta di pensare in modo inedito nozioni e tradizioni differenti, nonché di articolare in maniera rinnovata il senso e la portata della dimensione propriamente politica della praxis umana. (shrink)

The article, after providing a general survey of prescriptive theories (or theories on rules) in Hellenistic philosophy, tries to offer a detailed analysis of the moral doxography of Philo of Larissa conserved in Stobaeus' Anthology (Stob. Ecl. II 7, 2, pp. 39-40 W.-H. = 25 Wiśniewski, 2 Mette, 32 Brittain). According to this evidence, Philo divided moral philosophy in three parts : hortatory, or protreptic, topos, therapeutic topos, prescriptive topos –; besides, he parted the prescriptive topos into general and (...) particular logos. This doctrine is contextualised in rhetoric reflection of Hermagorean school and also considered in the light of Academic probabilism. In particular, Carneades' theory of the representations attested by Sextus, M VII 184 is the background against which to evaluate Philo's position. (shrink)

Les enfants atteints d’une aplasie d’oreille congénitale peuvent, en préadolescence, recourir à une chirurgie plastique reconstructrice, organisée en deux temps opératoires (technique de Nagata). Si l’aplasie est constitutive de l’image du visage dans le miroir, le self de l’enfant peut en être affecté, voire altéré. L’article souligne ainsi l’intérêt que constitue l’entretien clinique en amont d’une éventuelle chirurgie. La perspective de l’intervention en elle-même ne garantit pas la satisfaction du désir de réparation ; il semble nécessaire qu’un travail de conflictualisation (...) se mette en place du côté du préadolescent comme de ses parents. (shrink)

La méfiance à l'égard de l'écriture traverse l'histoire de la philosophie grecque. Comment éviter que l'usage de l'écrit ne mette à mal le partage des savoirs essentiel à toute pratique philosophique? À travers une étude des pratiques orales et écrites d'élaboration et de transmission des savoirs philosophiques dans l'Antiquité, cet ouvrage révèle une philosophie qui, pour être mieux partagée, préfère prendre naissance et se développer dans le corps même de ceux qui la pratiquent, dans la matérialité des livres et (...) des lettres qu'ils lisent, écrivent et s'échangent avec générosité, dans des pratiques savantes amicales et des activités conviviales"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Nel 1856 Madame Bovary esce a puntate sulla «Revue de Paris» (1° ottobre - 15 dicembre), per comparire poi in versione integrale un anno dopo – in seguito all’assoluzione di Gustave Flaubert, avvenuta il 7 febbraio – presso l’editore Lévy. Il titolo dell’opera, molto semplice, è decisamente in linea con il realismo: l’autore si mette da parte, rinunciando alla propria voce e alla propria opinione, per fare parlare direttamente i personaggi e gli eventi che li riguardano. Infatti il titolo (...) non... (shrink)

Ce livre présente la théorie anthropologique que Pierre Bourdieu a dû construire pour fonder sa recherche scientifique. Qu'il prenne à revers, pour mieux les résoudre ou les dissoudre, les problèmes que les philosophes " structuralistes " se sont posés, comme celui du " sujet " de l'action, ou qu'il mette à l'épreuve les analyses de Strawson, Austin, Wittgenstein, Kripke - ou des philosophes, classiques, délibérément convoqués à contre-emploi -, le sociologue, bien qu'il se défende de " faire le philosophe (...) ", traite de manière tout à fait nouvelle un certain nombre de questions philosophiques essentielles. (shrink)

In una fase della teoria del cinema e dei media, come quella attuale, che appare segnata da un dibattito sempre più intenso sul significato e sulla portata di nozioni come quelle di medium e dispositivo, riprendere l’opera di autori come Dziga Vertov e Sergei M. Ejzenštejn, Siegfried Kracauer e Walter Benjamin, può risultare una via produttiva non solo nel tentativo di situare in una prospettiva storica il dibattito contemporaneo, ma anche di trovare nuove modi di pensare le nozioni citate di (...) medium e di dispositivo. Nel presente studio, l’autore esamina la riflessione di Ejzenštejn riguardo al dispositivo cinematografico come assemblage – flessibile, dinamico e in evoluzione – di tecniche, spazi e operazioni, concentrandosi su due momenti cruciali della sua lunga e complessa carriera: la conferenza The Dynamic Square tenuta a Hollywood nel 1930, e il progetto per film rimasto incompiuto e intitolato Glass House, presentato quello stesso anno alla Paramount. In entrambi i casi, Ejzenštejn considera lo schermo – una delle componenti cruciali del dispositivo cinematografico – come allo stesso tempo condizione senza la quale le immagini proiettate non possono essere visualizzate, come superfice di dimensioni e forme variabili, e come luogo di una serie di sperimentazioni sul montaggio e sullo spazio cinematografico, che in Glass House mette in luce le implicazioni estetiche e sociali di uno spazio completamente trasparente. (shrink)

Dans son livre Le corps, c’est l’écran. La philosophie du visuel de Merleau-Ponty, Anna Caterina Dalmasso met en évidence la présence de la pensée merleau-pontienne dans les réflexions contemporaines relevant des visual studies, de la médiologie et des études cinématographiques. Les analyses menées révèlent un Merleau-Ponty à l’origine d’un certain nombre de « tournants » majeurs dans le questionnement, touchant notamment à la conception de l’image et du médium. Enfin, l’une des ambitions – et l’une des réussites – de l’ouvrage (...) est de restituer l’apport significatif de Merleau-Ponty pour les film studies. A.C. Dalmasso jette des lumières nouvelles sur une interrogation en constante évolution, en s’appuyant à la fois sur les textes bien connus et les « inédits ».In her book Le corps, c’est l’écran. La philosophie du visuel de Merleau-Ponty, Anna Caterina Dalmasso brings to light the presence of Merleau-pontian thought in contemporary reflections relevant to visual studies, as well as film and media studies. The analyses she carried out reveal a Merleau-Ponty at the origin of a certain number of major “turns” in the inquiry, touching notably on the conception of the image and of the medium. Besides, one of the ambitions – and one of the successes – of the work is to demonstrate the significant contribution of Merleau-Ponty for film studies. A.C. Dalmasso throws new light on an interrogation in constant evolution, stressing both well-known texts and unpublished manuscripts.Nel volume Le corps, c’est l’écran. La philosophie du visuel de Merleau-Ponty, Anna Caterina Dalmasso mette in evidenza la presenza del pensiero merleau-pontyano nelle riflessioni contemporanee dei visual studies, della teoria del cinema e dei media. Le analisi che vi sono condotte rivelano un Merleau-Ponty all’origine di alcune importanti “svolte”, che riguardano in particolare la concezione dell’immagine e del medium. Inoltre, una delle ambizioni – e uno degli aspetti più originali – dell’opera è quella di restituire il significativo apporto di Merleau-Ponty per l’ambito dei film studies. A.C. Dalmasso fa luce in modo innovativo su un tema di ricerca in costante evoluzione, appoggiandosi ad un tempo su scritti più noti e su alcuni testi “inediti”. (shrink)

L’articolo discute il modo in cui la distinzione di Rudolf Carnap tra questioni interne ed esterne possa essere estesa e applicata alla teoria sociale. Seguendo Carnap si sostiene come, dato un sistema di riferimento, una questione è interna se valutata e risolta all’interno del sistema in questione, mentre è esterna se mette in discussione il sistema di riferimento dato e lo stato di cose che presuppone. Quindi, attraverso un’analisi incentrata principalmente sul sistema di riferimento ‘la Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana’ (...) e sul tema della giustizia, si discutono la rilevanza e le conseguenze di tale distinzione per la teoria sociale.The article discusses how Rudolf Carnap’s distinction between internal and external questions can be extended and applied to social theory. In accordance with Carnap, I maintain that a question is internal to a framework if the question is solved within the given framework. On the contrary, a question is external to a framework, if the question discusses the given framework. So, through an analysis centralised on the framework ‘The Constitution of Italian Republic’ and on the theme of ‘justice’, I discuss the importance and the consequences of this distinction for social theory. (shrink)

L'usage du terme «événement» recouvre plusieurs réalités. L'objectif de cet article est de confronter l'usage que les médias en font, avec ce que les chercheurs en sciences sociales en retiennent. Pour les journalistes, l'événement c'est un fait remarquable méritant un traitement spécial qui le mette en valeur. Pour les sciences sociales, il s'agit d'un phénomène qui est vécu comme rupture, par une société ou un collectif, et qui enclenche donc une recherche d'intelligibilité. Les deux logiques sont-elles amenées à se (...) rencontrer? Tout événement est-il reconnu et traité comme événement médiatique ou pas? Et inversement? Pour répondre à ces questions, cet article cerne les conditions d'émergence médiatique d'un événement à l'échelle internationale, ce que nous appelons la lecture événementielle des faits. Quatre conditions sont retenues: les critères d'intensité émotionnelle; l'accès au terrain et l'existence d'acteurs sociaux à même de fournir une interprétation événementielle; la possibilité de réencodage culturel des faits; le degré de concurrence avec d'autres faits éligibles au rang d'événement. Des schémas tentent de fournir une synthèse des cas de figure rencontrés.The use of the term "event" covers several realities. The objective of this paper is to compare the use that the media are, with what social scientists hold. For journalists, the event is a remarkable fact deserving special treatment that emphasizes it. In the social sciences, it is a phenomenon that is experienced as a rupture, a company or a group, and then clicks a search for intelligibility. The two logics are brought to meet them? Any event it is recognized and treated as a media event or not? And vice versa? To answer these questions, this article identifies the conditions for the emergence of a media event at the international level, what we call the event reading of the facts. Four conditions were used: the criteria of emotional intensity, access to land and the existence of social actors able to provide an interpretation event, the possibility of re-encoding cultural facts, the degree of competition with other facts eligible for ranking event. Schemes attempt to provide an overview of the situations encountered. (shrink)

L’articolo sostiene che la presunta opposizione tra la “genealogia delle norme” di Foucault e la “critica dell’ideologia” marxista è per molti versi infondata. Analizzando alcuni suoi scritti, si argomenta che le obiezioni rivolte da Foucault alla critica marxista dell’ideologia nascondono in realtà un uso creativo di alcune tesi elaborate da Karl Marx e Friedrich Engels nel 1845. Nella prima parte, si individuano alcune “eco marxiste” nel lavoro di Foucault. Nella seconda, si mostra che queste eco conducono a delle originali riformulazioni (...) della critica dell’ideologia, che Foucault declina come un’“analisi del discorso” irriducibile alla teoria degli “apparati ideologici” di Louis Althusser. In questo modo, l’articolo mette in luce che la “genealogia delle norme” di Foucault risulta sorprendentemente connessa all’approccio proposto da Marx ed Engels nei manoscritti pubblicati sotto il titolo di _Ideologia tedesca_. (shrink)

L'articolo mette in evidenza le convergenze e differenze tra religione, pensiero moderno e postmoderno. Tutti i tre appartengono alle culture e le loro storie sociali, però questa convergenza non garantisce l'indentificazione delle loro prospettive. La religione si consente di fare affermazioni di relazione non razionabile, al di là delle condizioni sociali e culturali. Il pensiero, lo stesso se postmoderno, è invece d'ordine ideologico e autoreferenziale, inseparabile di concetti organizzati in una cultura particolare. La postmodernità, che intende liberarsi della prepotenza (...) della razionalità moderna, potrebbe fornire un orizzonte di pensiero la cui appertura sembra stabilire un'alleanza con la religione. Ma alla fine si mostra insufficiente. Il postmoderno rimane ancora in una concezione sull'individuo nell'ambito dell'emozione di un esse in, un piano radicalmente distinto dell'esperienza religiosa autentica che ha la sua origine nell'interiorità personale, nell'affettività di un esse ad. Palavras-chave: Religione, ragione, pensiero postmoderno, modernità, cultura Resumo O artigo coloca em evidência as convergências e diferenças entre religião, pensamento moderno e pós-moderno. Todos eles pertencem às culturas e suas histórias sociais, porém tal convergência não garante a identificação de suas perspectivas. A religião se consente em fazer afirmações de relação não racional, para além das condições sociais e culturais. O pensamento, mesmo o pós-moderno, é, por sua vez, de ordem ideológica e autoreferencial, inseparável de conceitos organizados numa cultura particular. A pós-modernidade, que tem a intenção de se libertar da prepotência da racionalidade moderna, poderia oferecer um horizonte de pensamento cuja abertura parece estabelecer uma aliança com a religião. Mas, afinal de contas, se mostra insuficiente. O pós-moderno permanece ainda em uma concepção sobre o indivíduo no âmbito da emoção de um esse in, em um plano radicalmente distinto da experiência religiosa autêntica, que tem sua origem na interioridade pessoal, na afetividade de um esse ad. Palavras-chave: Religião, razão, pensamento pós-moderno, modernidade, culturaThe present article highlights the similarities and differences among religion, modern and postmodern thought. They all belong to cultures and their social histories, but such convergence does not guarantee the identification of their perspectives. Religion has consented in making irrational statements, beyond social and cultural conditions. The thought, even the postmodern one should be comprehended in its ideological and self-referential bias, and not separated from the concepts organized in a particular culture. Post-modernity, which has the intention to release itself from the tyranny of modern rationality, could offer an open horizon of though in order to establish an alliance with religion. But, after all, it has not worked. Postmodernism is still based in a conception of the individual under the emotion of the so called esse in, within a plan which is totally distinct of genuine religious experience, which has its origin in the inner personal emotion of the so called esse ad. Key words: Religion, reason, postmodern thought, modernity, culture. (shrink)

L'A. mette in parallelo quattro fonti interrelate della tradizione narrativa relativa al passaggio delle conoscenze filosofiche e mediche da Alessandria a Baghdad. I testi esaminati, presentati in traduzione inglese, sono di Alfarabi , dello storico al-Masudi , del medico ibn-Ridwan del Cairo e del medico ibn-Gumay . Le origini della tradizione testuale sono individuate in un canone di insegnamenti ippocratici e galenici originatosi ad Alessandria poco prima della conquista araba, e comprendente i cosiddetti Summaria alexandrinorum. L'A. si sofferma inoltre (...) sulla propaganda anticristiana connessa a tali testi e sugli insegnamenti di logica e filosofia aristotelica, con particolare riferimento alla redazione di Alfarabi. Una bibliografia chiude il saggio. (shrink)

L'A. esamina la teoria egidiana delle passioni, sviluppata in quattro declarationes in apertura del suo commento al II libro della Retorica. I temi analizzati sono la definizione di passio animae, la distinzione tra la facoltà irascibile e la concupiscibile, le passioni della facoltà concupiscibile e dell'irascibile. Fonte principale e punto costante di riferimento nella trattazione egidiana è la dottrina dell'Aquinate. L'A. mette costantemente a confronto le posizioni dei due filosofi evidenziando i tentativi di Egidio di staccarsi da Tommaso e (...) criticarne la dottrina, in particolare rispetto alla trattazione dell'ira. (shrink)

L’approccio analitico alla letteratura è stato spesso «strumentale». Di frequente, è stata solo un pretesto per riflettere su questioni filosofiche che la trascendono: i filosofi del linguaggio, ad esempio, l’hanno utilizzata per indagare le differenze tra il linguaggio scientifico (dotato di valore di verità) e quello finalizzato al godimento estetico; gli esperti di ontologia si sono interrogati sulla natura delle entità finzionali. Nel suo libro, Carola Barbero mette in discussione questo...

L’articolo mette in luce due paradossi, il primo dei quali è dato dal fatto che proprio in quelle terre dove si affermò la radicale impostazione anti-umanistica del protestantesimo ebbe a scaturire una straordinaria fioritura dell’umano fino alla consacrazione della libertà come principio della ricerca scientifica e del vivere civile. Il secondo paradosso è dato dalla manifestazione in quelle stesse terre meno di un secolo fa dell’ideologia nazista. La tesi sostenuta è che il principio protestante di fatto affermatosi nella coscienza (...) europea consiste non tanto nella teoria teologica della giustificazione (sola Gratia, sola Fide, sola Scriptura) quanto nella affermazione filosofica e politica della libera coscienza personale, il cui evento decisivo fu la dichiarazione di Lutero alla Dieta di Worms. Ma proprio il carattere abissale della libertà e il destino di interpretazione infinita cui la consegnò Lutero sono anche all’origine di quel disagio della coscienza e dell’esistenza da cui sorse il malessere che portò al totalitarismo.Nel sostenere la tesi enunciata l’articolo si struttura secondo quattro movimenti: 1) argomentazione sul carattere radicalmente anti-umanistico del protestantesimo; 2) argomentazione sui notevoli effetti umanistici storicamente prodotti dalla Riforma protestante; 3) argomentazione sulle possibili connessioni tra il terreno preparato dalla Riforma nella società tedesca e il sorgere in essa dell’ideologia nazionalsocialista; 4) considerazioni finali sulla dialettica della libertà umana. (shrink)

Evoquant au passage l'axolotl, ce poisson mexicain qui nous ressemble, comme le jaguar de la brousse brésilienne ou le loup des contes enfantins, discutant avec Platon, Albert Einstein ou... Michael Jackson, se prenant à l'occasion pour Sherlock Holmes, le narrateur écrit dix lettres à sa " belle amie". Qui correspondent à autant de moments clés du " voyage" à travers le temps accompli par cette étrange espèce animale qu'on appelle les hommes. Contrairement à l'idée reçue, notre espèce se caractérise non (...) pas par sa supériorité sur le reste de la création mais par sa forme inachevée, sa faiblesse "naturelle" constitutive. Un "manque de nature ", donc, que seule peut compenser la culture, autrement dit les discours et récits comme les sciences et techniques qui permettent à l'être humain d'agir sur le monde pour mieux l'habiter. A moins qu'en voulant construire une " surhumanité " réservée à quelques-uns l'on ne mette en jeu la survie même de l'espèce... Peut-être n'est-il pas trop tard pour non seulement s'indigner mais aussi résister, nous dit Dany-Robert Dufour en conclusion de ce beau texte lisible par tout le monde. A travers lequel il poursuit en philosophe son travail de critique radicale mais constructive du monde contemporain. (shrink)

Il saggio mette a confronto tre fra le traduzioni più importanti della Commedia curate da poeti americani negli anni 2000, prendendo in analisi le loro strategie e tecniche traduttive e i conseguenti risultati estetici. La base del confronto sono le intenzioni traduttive dichiarate dai poeti-traduttori, il modo in cui hanno cercato di porle in pratica, e l’interpretazione dei loro risultati alla luce della teoria dei translation studies recente. Le idee di Lawrence Venuti sulle «versioni dei poeti» e su come (...) leggere una traduzione, specialmente in un contesto di world literature, sono risultate particolarmente utili nel caso dei tentativi di questi poeti-traduttori di riscrivere un testo poetico autonomo, e di trasportare la complessità della poesia di Dante, potentemente padroneggiata, attraverso due tradizioni letterarie diverse. (shrink)

Questo contributo mette in luce la molteplice funzione politica di uno schema agiografico centrale nella rappresentazione della giovinezza di Bernardino da Siena: il suo servizio durante la peste del 1400 presso l’Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala di Siena. La memoria di questo episodio si prestava ad essere utilizzata tanto dall’Osservanza minoritica quanto in diversi contesti locali. In questo racconto Bernardino è presentato come capace di rispondere ai bisogni della città non solo attraverso le proprie virtù, ma radunando altre (...) persone e convincendole a impegnarsi per il bene comune, anche a rischio della propria vita. L’episodio, così come è raccontato dagli agiografi, incorpora la prima predica fatta dal giovane Bernardino ai membri della confraternita dell’Ospedale. Il testo indica programmaticamente la necessità per i laici di anteporre il bonum commune al bonum proprium e delinea un ruolo di leadership dei frati dell’Osservanza nel cuore delle città. Inoltre, se a Siena la memoria della peste del 1400 serviva a sottolineare il rapporto tra il santo e le istituzioni della città, la raffigurazione di tale episodio in alcuni affreschi dipinti a Lodi nel 1476 non soltanto veicolava un modello di spiritualità laicale ma serviva a promuovere e legittimare la riforma ospedaliera in corso a Lodi. (shrink)

Che cos'è l'amicizia? Un legame più o meno intenso dell'amore passionale? È solo una questione privata o, come pensavano i greci, mi mette in gioco totalmente e racchiude la mia natura di animale politico? Come può aiutarci a definirla il dialogo con Socrate, Aristotele, Platone e Montaigne? E in che cosa consiste "l'amicizia stellare" di cui parla il Nietzsche? Un nuovo appassionante viaggio della felicità--Back cover.

Nel presente scritto, l’attività di insegnamento filosofico viene sottoposta ad interrogativi riguardanti gli elementi che la caratterizzano, ovvero ciò che viene insegnato, chi insegna e a chi si insegna. Nasce così una riflessione teoretica su tre concetti basilari, ovvero la filosofia, il soggetto e l’altro. Attraverso le suggestioni di grandi pensatori, in primis l’Heidegger di Essere e Tempo, ma anche Platone, Aristotele, Cartesio, Deleuze e Levinas, vengono proposte possibili definizioni dei concetti suddetti. La filosofia viene così considerata in senso statico, (...) come sentiero diretto al sapere, e dinamico, come prassi sempre rinnovantesi. Per quanto riguarda il “chi”, una volta stabilito che, per natura o necessità ontica, ogni uomo tende al sapere, viene definito il soggetto in grado di insegnare la filosofia ad altri. Questi può essere sia il semplice studioso di filosofia, che il filosofo vero e proprio. La differenza tra i due si configura come segue: il primo si occupa solo della conoscenza di sentieri già tracciati, il secondo ne traccia anche di nuovi. Il destinatario dell’insegnamento filosofico si configura, invece, come alterità a cui la soggettività docente deve relazionarsi. Si giunge pure qui ad una definizione duplice, ovvero dell’allievo come semplice conoscente, la cui componente attiva è limitata alla ricezione dei contenuti, e dell’allievo come praticante, che sperimenta vari metodi e si mette in gioco nella teoresi. Vengono infine delineate possibili configurazioni in base a queste tre coppie di concetti, configurazioni che, a propria volta, diventano molteplici nelle realtà singolari. (shrink)

Le « Canon de la raison pure » développe, pour la première fois dans un cadre critique, les idées morales de Kant. Ce texte pose donc aux commentateurs la question du rapport de la Critique de la raison pure et de la Critique de la raison pratique. Un article célèbre de Martial Guéroult, datant de 1954, a proposé de ce chapitre de la Critique de la raison pure une interprétation qui insiste sur la discontinuité et l’hétérogénéité des deux premières Critique. (...) Notre propos est de tenter, à rebours de cette interprétation, une lecture du Canon qui mette en évidence le fait que ce texte ne conduit nullement à l’hétéronomie, et rend donc possible la conciliation de la première et de la seconde Critique. (shrink)

Selon Thomas d’Aquin, l’obéissance consiste à suivre les ordres d’un supérieur. La personne obéissante agit donc selon la raison d’un autre. Cet article étudie les fondements et les conditions d’une obéissance raisonnable. Il est montré que, pour Thomas, le caractère raisonnable de l’obéissance se fonde d’un côté sur un ordre objectif entre les personnes qui sont investies d’une autorité légitime et leurs subordonnés. À cet égard, il sera éclairci par rapport à qui et sous quelles conditions l’obéissance est soit nécessaire, (...) soit non nécessaire, soit illégitime, d’après Thomas. D’un autre côté, l’obéissance raisonnable exige que la personne obéissante discerne la légitimité de l’autorité du supérieur et de l’ordre donné et qu’il le mette en pratique en utilisant sa propre prudence, plutôt que de s’appuyer entièrement sur la prudence du supérieur. Selon Thomas, cela est nécessaire aussi pour les religieux qui font un vœu d’obéissance. Ils renoncent à leur propre volonté en suivant les ordres des supérieurs, mais ils ne renoncent pas à leur intelligence par laquelle ils les évaluent et les mettent en pratique. (shrink)

Nella nuova Italia gli interpreti e i difensori delle civili libertà (l'espressione è di Romagnosi) furono pochi e poco considerati. Tra essi, gli amici e i seguaci radicali e federalisti di Carlo Cattaneo, ma anche un moderato come Pasquale Villari, il maestro di Gaetano Salvemini. Tutti ebbero in comune la condivisione del pensiero filosofico e politico di John Stuart Mill e il proposito di favorirne la diffusione nella cultura del loro tempo. Mill fu uno degli autori più tradotti nell'Italia dell'Ottocento. (...) Se la sua filosofia ebbe pochissima fortuna, il suo liberalismo attraversò invece tutta la classe politica ed intellettuale italiana: fu come un crocevia di strade diverse per provenienza e destinazione. Ciò vale per Francesco Ferrara e per Vilfredo Pareto, per Marco Minghetti e per Luigi Luzzatti, per i liberisti della Società Adamo Smíth e per i vincolisti del Giornale degli economisti. Il confronto con Mill permette di individuare i caratteri della filosofia civile del liberalismo post-unitario, le sue aspirazioni di buon governo e di giustizia, la sua fiducia nella cultura della modernità. La ricostruzione dei dibattiti e delle polemiche che si susseguirono tra gli anni sessanta e settanta sul decentramento, sulla rappresentanza proporzionale, sul suffragio femminile, sui rapporti fra stato e società civile, sul metodo dell'economia politica, sul socialismo e sull'utilitarismo i temi essenziali del liberalismo milliano aiuta a cogliere il significato storico del complesso rapporto tra liberalismo e positivismo in Italia. Ne viene fuori, come mette in rilievo Norberto Bobbio nella prefazione al volume, il carattere tortuoso e difficile del liberalismo italiano; la sua difficoltà a divenire una base effettiva di riferimento del nuovo stato, dei suoi ceti dirigenti, delle sue elite intellettuali. (shrink)

Cet article décrit le processus de création des archives publiques locales en France et surtout en Angleterre où il a fallu attendre la seconde moitié du xxe siècle pour qu'un réseau cohérent de dépôts se mette en place dans les comtés. Il suggère ensuite que la manière dont les collections ont été constituées a influencé directement la fabrique de l'histoire sociale et qu'elle explique, en particulier, les fortes divergences entre les historiographies anglaise et française dans les années 1960 et (...) 1970. Il avance enfin que l'intérêt actuel pour une histoire des individus, auxquelles se prêtent mieux les sources anglaises et françaises, permet un rapprochement inattendu des historiographies. (shrink)

FILOSOFIA DA PRÁXIS E AS PRÁTICAS POLÍTICO-PEDAGÓGICAS POPULARES RESUMO: O artigo resgata o sentido “revolucionário” da filosofia da práxis inaugurada por K. Marx e aprofundada por A. Gramsci e aponta conexões com as atuais práticas político-pedagógicas populares. Mostra como Marx revoluciona a concepção de filosofia não apenas porque unifica inseparavelmente pensamento e atividade material, teoria e prática, mas, principalmente pelo fato inaudito de reconhecer o protagonismo histórico do proletariado. É Gramsci, no entanto, quem explicita, amplia e atualiza de maneira original (...) as virtualidades da filosofia da práxis mostrando os aspectos que a projetam como a mais avançada visão de mundo e como expressão revolucionária das classes subalternas que se organizam politicamente para romper com a submissão e se tornar dirigentes. Sendo uma construção histórica que assume diferentes configurações em diversas situações e lugares, o artigo traça uma análise das novas formas que hoje a filosofia da práxis apresenta nas insurgências populares que vêm ocorrendo no Brasil e no mundo. Palavras-chave: Filosofia. Política. Educação. RIASSUNTO: L’articolo riscatta la dimensione “rivoluzionaria” della filosofia della prassi inaugurata da K. Marx e approfondita da A. Gramsci e segnala punti di contatto con le attuali pratiche politico-pedagogiche popolari. Mette in evidenza come Marx rivoluziona la concezione di filosofia non solo perché unifica inseparabilmente pensiero e attività materiale, teoria e pratica, ma principalmente per il fatto inaudito di riconoscere il protagonismo storico del proletariato. È Gramsci, però, l’autore che esplicita, allarga e attualizza in modo originale le virtualità della filosofia della prassi mostrando gli aspetti che la proiettano come la più avanzata visione di mondo e come espressione rivoluzionaria delle classi subalterne che si organizzano politicamente per vincere la sottomissione e diventare dirigenti. Essendo una costruzione storica che assume differenti configurazioni in diversi luoghi e situazioni, l’articolo traccia un’analisi delle forme che oggi la filosofia della prassi presenta nelle insorgenze popolari che avvengono in Brasile e nel mondo. Parole chiave: Filosofia. Politica. Educazione. Data de registro: 10/03/2014 Data de aceite:23/04/2014. (shrink)

Le site d'éditeur indique : "Se il reale fosse semplice, non avremmo molto da pensare, saremmo di fronte alle parti ultime, agli elementi fondanti dell'essere; la complessità è dunque la vera causa, e il vero oggetto, del pensiero umano, sfida indefinitamente aperta per ricondurre il caos amorfo ad una máthesis universale. Non si può dunque fare la storia della complessità, si dovrebbe ripensare tutto il pensiero. Il non potere dire tutto non ci esime, tuttavia, dal dire qualcosa. Il tema della (...) complessità è attualmente oggetto di molte riflessioni da parte di studiosi di discipline tanto scientifiche quanto umanistiche. Il termine è utilizzato con sempre maggiore frequenza e di-mestichezza in diversi contesti di discussione e in numerose pubblicazioni, scientifiche e non, che negli ultimi decenni hanno trattato il tema, rischiando anche, talvolta, di contribuire a generare incertezza sulla corretta accezione. Sebbene l'uso 'popolare' del termine, riferito a situazioni di vita quotidiana, sia normalmente associato a problematiche di difficile se non di impossibile soluzione, l'accezione tecnica, propria degli studiosi di questa o quella disciplina, realizza invece un gradiente ampio di significati, non sempre sovrapponibili, e difficilmente riconducibili ad un comune denominatore. L'opera, nell'auspicio di offrire uno stimolo al lettore, sollecitandolo soprattutto a lasciarsi coinvolgere nell'appassionante dibattito che mette a confronto matrici culturali diverse, intende, innanzitutto, riconoscere la rilevanza del contributo di ogni singola prospettiva disciplinare, la cui capacità di andare in profondità e di cogliere aspetti particolari rimane insostituibile; d'altra parte, intende intercettare elementi di comunanza e di convergenza che consentono il recupero di una unitarietà dei fenomeni che sempre più spesso si vede frammentata nella separazione disciplinare, ma che rimane una realtà e forse soprattutto un valore.". (shrink)