This paper aims to clarify and defend the distinction by Isaiah Berlin between “negative liberty” on the one hand, and “positive” and “communal liberty” on the other. This distinction has been attacked by those who believe it breaks the necessary harmony with equality or fraternity, virtues that many progressive authors place on the same plane as freedom. Instead of speaking of “negative liberty,” as proposed by Berlin, we propose to call it “classical” or “formal” liberty. In turn, rather than speaking (...) of “positive” liberty, we propose to say “possessive liberty” and “communal liberty.” Thus, Isaiah Berlin should have spoken of three concepts of liberty and have stressed that the latter two may be destructive of the first. Possessive and communal liberty can be significant aspects of a society, but should not be confused with personal liberty. The promotion of possessive and comunal liberty is often accompanied by invasions of formal liberty. (shrink)

In 1821, John Bowring published, probably with only his own additions, a manuscript of Bentham's under the title of Observations on the restrictive and prohibitory commercial system: especially with a reference to the Decree of the Spanish Cortes of July 1820. It seems likely that Bentham's text was originally conceived as an appendix to a work that Bentham never published, ‘Rid Yourselves of Ultramaria’, a commentary on Spanish colonization.

https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v11-schwartz.

La correspondencia bolivariana de Jeremías Bentham revela las razones del interés del filósofo inglés por la lucha emancipadora en la América hispana, así como alguna de las reacciones de los hispanoamericanos ante las ideas utilitaristas.

The first part of this study offers a synoptic overview of Alfonso de la Torre’s selective engagement with Maimonidean philosophy in the first part of his Visión Deleitable. Our analysis is complemented with some comparative notes on the reception of Maimonides’s thought in late medieval Spain. Visión Deleitabl e’s fate will be examined in comparison to two other 15th century works of Jewish or converso authorship that also broached the Guide for the Perplexed for the benefit of Christian readers: the (...) Old Spanish translation of Maimonides’s Guide by Pedro de Toledo and Moshe Arragel’s commentary on his Bible translation for the Christian Master of Calatrava, don Luis de Guzmán. (shrink)

L'histoire du sublime, presque aussi ancienne que la philosophie, concerne, de nos jours, la plupart des disciplines qui la constituent esthétique, politique, éthique, anthropologie. Les philosophes ont d'abord pensé le sublime dans la sphère du discours. Ils ont étendu ensuite son domaine aux différents arts et aux grands phénomènes de la nature,- pour étudier, enfin, son apparition dans diverses formes d'activité humaine, comme les sciences et les techniques. Le sublime confronte la philosophie aux limites de son pouvoir, en vue de (...) la mettre en échec ou de lui permettre d'aller plus loin. Il opère à la fois comme principe de connaissance et comme principe de métamorphose. D'une part, il subvertit les valeurs du beau, du vrai et du bon, d'autre part, il me transcende ou me sublime, au sens très général où la sublimation est dépassement de soi. Le présent livre vise à redonner au sublime la place qu'il mérite dans notre système éducatif et dans nos vies : celle d'une épreuve initiatrice, susceptible d'insuffler la vie à des connaissances qui resteraient sinon formelles et tronquées. Il cherche également à nous orienter vers une science possible du sujet qui prenne en compte la vocation de l'homme à se transcender lui-même. (shrink)

Despite its appeal and popularity, the view that membership in a natural kind is essential to an individual is unsupported by the logic of essences and has no compelling reflective support. While the view has strong intuitive and empirical support this is insufficient to establish it. There are advantages to abandoning the view that kind membership is essential to individuals. One of these advantages is that it allows for a reconfiguring of the problem of material constitution in a way that (...) removes much of the paradox. (shrink)

Baldine Saint Girons s’efforce de montrer comment l’interrogation de Pierre Kaufmann oblige à décloisonner l’esthétique et examine le cas particulier de l’architecture. À la différence des autres arts plastiques, l’architecture oblige à penser de façon drastique ce qu’il en est du réel de l’espace et à assumer, d’une manière ou d’une autre, la peur suscitée par un espace qui se dérobe et qui se disloque.

Basing ourselves on the writings of Hans Jonas, we offer to psychosomatic medicine a philosophy of life that surmounts the mind-body dualism which has plagued Western thought since the origins of modern science in seventeenth century Europe. Any present-day account of reality must draw upon everything we know about the living and the non-living. Since we are living beings ourselves, we know what it means to be alive from our own first-hand experience. Therefore, our philosophy of life, in addition to (...) starting with what empirical science tells us about inorganic and organic reality, must also begin from our own direct experience of life in ourselves and in others; it can then show how the two meet in the living being. Since life is ultimately one reality, our theory must reintegrate psyche with soma such that no component of the whole is short-changed, neither the objective nor the subjective. In this essay, we lay out the foundational components of such a theory by clarifying the defining features of living beings as polarities . We describe three such polarities: 1) Being vs. non-being: Always threatened by non-being, the organism must constantly re-assert its being through its own activity. 2) World-relatedness vs. self-enclosure: Living beings are both enclosed with themselves, defined by the boundaries that separate them from their environment, while they are also ceaselessly reaching out to their environment and engaging in transactions with it. 3) Dependence vs. independence: Living beings are both dependent on the material components that constitute them at any given moment and independent of any particular groupings of these components over time. We then discuss important features of the polarities of life: Metabolism; organic structure; enclosure by a semi-permeable membrane; distinction between "self" and "other"; autonomy; neediness; teleology; sensitivity; values. Moral needs and values already arise at the most basic levels of life, even if only human beings can recognize such values as moral requirements and develop responses to them. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo principal analisar o pensamento desenvolvido por Georges Canguilhem e Gilbert Simondon sobre dois conceitos principais: o conceito de organismo e de máquina. A intenção é de reconstruir, a partir das continuidades e descontinuidades entre os dois conceitos, o raciocínio desenvolvido pelos dois autores sobre esses temas na história da filosofia francesa do século passado. Assim, tomamos como escopo as obras La connaissance de la vie, publicada por Canguilhem em 1952 e a tese complementar de doutoramento (...) de Simondon, orientada por Canguilhem, Du mode d’existence des objets techniques, de 1958. A partir disso, o texto se divide em seis partes: uma introdução, onde damos as especificações de escopo e de análise, seguida pela primeira parte, onde analisamos os conceitos de pensamento, conhecimento, sujeito e objeto. Em seguida, na parte dois, analisamos os conceitos de máquina, mecanismo e motor, como utilizadas em Canguilhem, e os conceitos de indivíduo, elemento e conjunto técnico desenvolvidas por Simondon. A terceira parte se dedica a analisar a questão do autômato, bem como os conceitos de mecanismo e finalismo. A quarta parte desenvolve o conceito de organismo-máquina e os conceitos de potencialidade e de teleologia desenvolvidos principalmente em Canguilhem. Por fim, na conclusão, analisamos as aproximações e distâncias entre os dois autores, bem como a imagem do monstro e do robô. (shrink)

Il saggio mira a superare l’antinomia tra la teoria di Wölfflin e quella di D’Ors, cercando una conciliazione tra storia dell’arte ed estetica. La contrapposizione tra il rigore di un principio formale e la sensibilità di un principio materiale viene superata grazie a un principio specificamente marino e alla sua ambivalenza (fonte di vita e di morte, strumento di legame e di dissociazione, principio di dolcezza e di aggressione). Infine, viene richiamata l’arte del modellare, in cui l’argilla trova la forma (...) attraverso la deformazione e in cui dall’amorfo si sviluppa una ricca vegetazione, e, attraverso Bachelard, viene sviluppata una paradossale analogia con l’arte del fabbro che però trova inaspettata conferma nelle curve carezzevoli degli esuberanti decori di ferro tipici del barocco siciliano. (shrink)

The present article examines the contemporary stakes and “application” of The Differend with particular attention to neo-fascist denialism, trolling, and alt-right “free speech” discourse. This entails investigating the text’s own rhetorical performance as well as the shifting attitudes towards the sophistic tradition in The Differend and its precursor text, “On the Force of the Weak.” The article thus also takes up in detail three examples of the characteristic sophistic form of the dilemma or double-bind, two of which are drawn from (...) Lyotard: the Holocaust denialist Robert Faurisson’s infamous dilemma of “the witness to the gas-chambers”; the canonical ancient dilemma through which Protagoras wins his fee from his student Euathlus despite seemingly never having helped him win a dispute; and “if you can speak, you can breathe,” the contemporary denialist’s rejoinder to “I can’t breathe.” Lyotard’s arguments are briefly compared to those of other thinkers. (shrink)

APPENDIX: The data emerging from the clinical and brain studies described above suggest that, in the case of OCD, there are two pertinent brain mechanisms that are distinguishable both in terms of neuro-dynamics and in terms of the conscious experiences that accompany them. These mechanisms can be characterized, on anatomical and perhaps evolutionary grounds, as a lower-level and a higher-level mechanism. The clinical treatment has, when successful, an activating effect on the higher-level mechanism, and a suppressive effect on the lower-level (...) one. (shrink)

L'expérience émotionnelle de l'espace de Pierre Kaufmann peut se lire comme une tentative de refondation de l' esthétique à partir d'une anthropologie centrée sur la scission subjective. Une esthétique dans laquelle ni le beau, ni le plaisir, ni la contemplation ne jouent un rôle central, mais qui tente de comprendre les conditions d'émergence de l'œuvre, ainsi que les modalités d'insertion du sujet dans son espace. L' architecture y joue un rôle primordial comme mode de défense contre la peur grâce à (...) la singularisation d'espaces habitables. Pierre Kaufmann 's Emotional Experience of Space may be read as an attempt at refounding aesthetics from the point of view of an anthropology centered on the sub-ject's splitting : i.e. an aesthetics in which neither the beautiful, nor pleasure, nor contemplation play a central part but attempting to understand the conditions through which the work of art may surge and the modalities through which the subject becomes part and parcel of its own space. Therein architecture plays a primai part as defence mechanism against fear through the singularity of liveable spaces. (shrink)

Resenha de: CHAMAYOU, Grégoire. Teoria do drone. Tradução de Célia Euvaldo. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2015.

Although molecular systematists may use the terminology of cladism, claiming that the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships is based on shared derived states , the latter is not the case. Rather, molecular systematics is based on the assumption, first clearly articulated by Zuckerkandl and Pauling , that degree of overall similarity reflects degree of relatedness. This assumption derives from interpreting molecular similarity between taxa in the context of a Darwinian model of continual and gradual change. Review of the history of molecular (...) systematics and its claims in the context of molecular biology reveals that there is no basis for the “molecular assumption.”. (shrink)

An implicit association test (IAT) measures differential association of 2 target concepts with an attribute. The 2 concepts appear in a 2-choice task (e.g., flower vs. insect names), and the attribute in a 2nd task (e.g., pleasant vs. unpleasant words for an evaluation attribute). When instructions oblige highly associated categories (e.g., flower + pleasant) to share a response key, performance is faster than when less associated categories (e.g., insect + pleasant) share a key. This performance difference implicitly measures differential association (...) of the 2 concepts with the attribute. In 3 experiments, the IAT was sensitive to (a) near-universal evaluative differences (e.g., flower vs. insect), (b) expected individual differences in evaluative associations (Japanese + pleasant vs. Korean + pleasant for Japanese vs. Korean subjects), and (c) consciously disavowed evaluative differences (Black + pleasant vs. White + pleasant for self-described unprejudiced White subjects). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

In spite of the considerable development of research in the fields of business ethics and family business, a comprehensive review and integration of the area where both disciplines intersect has not been undertaken so far. This paper aims at contributing to the call for more research on family business ethics by answering the following research questions: What is the status of the current research at the intersection of business ethics and family business? Why and how do family firms differ from (...) non-family firms regarding business ethics? And, what are the key directions for further research? To answer these questions, this study combines a systematic approach for the selection of articles, resulting in a sample of 31 articles over 35 years, with a narrative review to analyze the literature. This paper finds that research on family business ethics is scarce but increasing and that family firms are considerably different from non-family firms regarding ethical issues. Particular stakeholders, goals, relationships, and practices are found to be the forces behind the peculiarity of family business ethics. Ultimately, research development on family business ethics is encouraged and future research directions flowing from the key findings and reflections of this review are provided. (shrink)

1. Ish ha-halakhah : dat o halakhah? -- Me-ḥeḳer ha-todaʻah le-teʼur ishiyot ha-ḳiyum.

The Gathas, a corpus of seventeen poems in Old Avestan composed by the ancient Iranian poet-priest Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) ca. 1200 B.C.E., is the foundation document of Zoroastrian religion. Even though the dualistic axiology of the Gathas has been widely noted, it has proved very difficult to understand the meaning and genre of the corpus or the position of Zarathushtra’s ideas with regard to other religious philosophies. Relying on recent advances in translation and decryptions of Gathic poetry, I shall here develop (...) a philosophical interpretation of the Gathas, including, as shall be discussed here in detail, explication of the revelation he reports in the poem known as Yasna 30. I argue that, similarly to Marx, Henry, and Schutz, Zarathushtra connects social criticism with an original philosophy of (inter)subjectivity and existential reflection, placing his account in the context of a fully developed metaphysics which includes the human-divine sharing of mental properties. I show that in order to accommodate this complicated problematic, Zarathushtra uses the vehicle of multiple realities. Reflecting the spontaneity of life, the dynamics of various ontological modes in the text create a reference to subjectivity. A description of the dream in Yasna 30 is sufficiently within the limits of possibility for a dream experience, and thereby delivers three original phenomenological reductions. The reductions initiate a genetic account of the phenomenalization of invisible impulses which give rise to moral choices, and define the human-divine relationship. The opposing moral choices open into a reverse axiological intentionality in the sphere of intersubjectivity, and are said to plot life for the rightful and lifelessness for the wrongful. It can be concluded that Zarathushtra’s theism and views of the social world are “the first philosophy”, with a unique and original phenomenological ontology of intersubjectivity at its core. (shrink)

This book aims to enrich our understanding of the role the environment plays in processes of life and cognition, from the perspective of enactive cognitive science. Miguel A. Sepúlveda-Pedro offers an unprecedented interpretation of the central claims of the enactive approach to cognition, supported by contemporary works of ecological psychology and phenomenology. The enactive approach conceives cognition as sense-making, a phenomenon emerging from the organizational nature of the living body that evolves in human beings through sensorimotor, intercorporeal, and linguistic (...) interactions with the environment. From this standpoint, Sepúlveda-Pedro suggests incorporating three new theses into the theoretical body of the enactive approach: sense-making and cognition fundamentally consist of processes of norm development; the environment, cognitive agents actually interact with, is an active ecological field enacted in their historical past; and sense-making occurs in a domain consisting of multiple normative dimensions that the author names enactive place. (shrink)

Explores the philosophical dimensions and implications of integral theory. Dancing with Sophia is the first book of essays to focus on the philosophical dimensions and implications of integral theory. A metatheory that organizes first order theories and disciplines into higher order modes of knowing and insight needed to address the complexity of today’s world, integral theory has already impacted a wide range of disciplines, from psychology to business to religious studies to art. Included here are perspectives by scholars in the (...) continental, comparativist, and process traditions who dive into integral theory’s postmetaphysical claims in order to mine, extend, and critique its philosophical merits. On the verge of its own emergence, integral philosophy promotes modes of creative critical thought oriented toward the multidimensional flourishing of planetary well-being, and Dancing with Sophia will be of interest to scholars in philosophy; religious studies; transpersonal, developmental, and humanist psychology; and more. “Integral theory is a bold and provocative endeavor. It challenges one to think past the norm, to sail beyond the horizon and risk encountering the Scylla and Charybdis of what is academically acceptable—or at least familiar—and what is possible, in ways that only are now beginning to dawn on both thinking and dwelling. If it is nothing else, integral theory is the movement beyond the purely intellectual into the lived experience. This is its ‘meta-’ dimension properly understood.” — from the Foreword by Brian Schroeder. (shrink)

Thomas More’s Utopia is made up of two books. Book One, quickly skimmed over by those who dream of the future and are bored by history, tells us about Europe in 1515 at the dawn of a revolution in every field of knowledge dominated by a political power that uses religion, fear and ignorance to satisfy an insatiable appetite for hegemony, infinitely corrupt but in public promoting moral, family values. Book Two gives us a glimpse of a future on a (...) human scale using new techniques, reason and good management of its resources to reconcile the common good with the pleasure of the individual. That book is the founding text for our modernity. It is the pagan bible adopted by the Enlightenment, which we have inscribed in the charter of our epoch’s institutions. Five hundred years later the books are being rewritten in reverse: the great human dream set in train by Book Two in 1516 is bogged down in the reality of 2005. The new promises of free-choice economism in 2005 are just a nightmare journey back in time to the postulates of Book One. (shrink)

It remains unclear what patient advocacy actually entails and what values it ought to embody. It will be useful to ascertain whether advocacy means supporting any decision the patient makes, or if the advocate can claim to represent the patient by asserting well-intentioned paternalistic claims on the patient's behalf. This is especially significant because the position of advocate brings with it certain privileges on the basis of of presumed insight into patient-perceived interests, namely, entitlement to take part in clinical decision (...) making and increased professional standing. Three issues related to patient advocacy will be explored: are patient advocates necessary; what does advocacy entail, and who ought to represent patients in this way—arguments for and against prospective candidates will also be covered. The paper considers whether advocates are necessary since not only can they be dangerously paternalistic, but the salutary values advocacy embodies are already part of good professional health care. (shrink)